Tag: random

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Of Cardinals and Random Ladies on the MetroLink…

Brooke and I went to a Cardinals game last night via the MetroLink (the above-ground “subway system” in St. Louis) since it’s way easier to right that into the downtown area rather than driving and parking down there… Brooke’s parents had 2 extra tickets to this game and decided to take us along (thanks!!). Anyway, we’re riding the thing and this lady gets on…maybe in her 40s, thin, brunette…and we’re in a huge crowd of people, most of which are heading to the game… Well, this random lady leans across 3 other people and says “you’re a very pretty girl.” Brooke, of course, replies, “thank you!”

So yeah, my wife was hit on by an older woman in a train car full of Cardinals fan…guess I should be flattered… 😛

The game itself was pretty good…hadn’t been to a game there since 1998 (maybe 2000…can’t remember), so it was good to go to “one of the last games at Busch Stadium” (even though this stadium is less than 40 years old and the new stadium will also be known as Busch Stadium…). The game went pretty well for the Cards throughout, since the Reds kept dropping the ball all over the place…literally… We left in the 8th inning after Pujols belted a grand slam out at the end of the 7th, so that was cool to see… That, and at the beginning of the game, they paraded around the 1985 Cardinals team in brand-new convertible Mustangs (w00t!)…so I got to see Ozzie Smith… They also had Mark McGuire stop by for another special appearance…

Regardless, it was a good time. I kinda wish I was more in to baseball as I used to be…not that I was ever really in to it, but I kinda kept track back when I collected baseball cards… Of course, I’m sure I would have been a bigger fan if my team, the Royals, ever WON A FRIGGIN’ GAME!!! 😛

That is all.

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Randomness, etc.

So yeah, a few random things:

1). Yesterday was the Biochemistry Dept. orientation for new graduate students. I’m not really considering them right now, but I am going to be rotating with a professor in that department beginning next week, so it was worth a listen, I guess… Regardless, we got free food, visited with some students in the department (I may be set up in a poker game in the next week or two as a result…heh…), and later in the day, we got to participate in a reception with more free food and about 9 varieties of beer. It is still rather odd to be on campus in a science building with free beer provided to the students. I think I could get used to this “private school” shenanigans…

2). I’m heading to Columbia this weekend briefly to visit with Jan Allmann, who was an exchange student from Germany my senior year of high school. He’s back this summer (though leaving shortly…) interning at MU for something business-related. Anyway, Brooke and I are going to Columbia Friday afternoon for some frolfing and dinner, then returning here on Saturday. My parents and Brooke’s parents are then coming into St. Louis on Monday (Labor Day) for some BBQ, so that should be fun…

3). My laptop has an obnoxious white line traveling horizontally across the entire LCD screen. I called Toshiba about it last night and they said to take it by Mobile Office Machines, here in St. Louis…who’s apparently a licensed Toshiba repair place. So I called them up this morning and I’m taking the laptop by them. They’ll need it for 24 hrs to properly diagnose the problem, then they’ll order the necessary part (while I hang on to the laptop) and they’ll call me when it arrives…and then they’ll fix it… Firstly, thank God I have that 3 year warranty on this toy…and secondly, thank God I live in a metropolitan area with a repair place close by so I don’t have to UPS this thing to China…

4). School is going alright…all still mostly review, but I’m sure it can only get harder from here. I’ve been very good about reading the material ahead of time before going to class so I know what’s going on before I get there…go me…

5). Mike Goodspeed had a very good posting on his blog a few days back…you should check it out… I still stand fast by my decision that George W. Bush is an idiot, for the record…and on a related note, the poverty rate in this country has risen to 12.7%…

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The Gap is stoopid

So yeah, I’m going to rant about the stupidity of the teeny-bopper generation… I was at the Columbia Mall three times today, for various reasons, but I only shopped for clothes the first time. I bought a pair of khaki pants at JC Penney for $15 (on sale…w00t…)…which was a great deal, of course…but they all had this rip along the left ankle cuff of the pant leg. Now…I looked at another of the same type of pants…had a rip in the same place… I tried another…same place… I even looked at American Eagle at similar pants…they all had a small rip right below the left-hand pocket. All of them.

Now, this brings up a few points… First of all, aren’t these pants supposed to be “cool” because they look more worn? Well…wouldn’t they look more authentic if the rips and tears were at more randomized locations? Is it really that difficult to accomplish? How is it a “style” thing if they’re all the same? Is anyone “cool” if everyone wears the same style? I thought the whole point of being “cool” was to be different, yet if you wear the same clothes as everyone else, then you are the same as everyone else, therefore, not allowing for the capacity to be “cool.” It all seems counter-productive.

The more important point, however, is how absolutely stupid the American consumer is. We, the consumers, listen to what we are told looks good. If someone told us 20 years ago that, “hey, wearing pants with holes all over them looks cool,” we’d say, “damn, you’re stupid.” Now, though, Tommy Hilfiger tells us it’s cool…so everyone should wear clothes that have holes. We, the American consumer, have been told by Cosmo and Seventeen and GQ what looks good…and we believed it…and now we buy our clothes, etc. based on their “recommendations”…when these “recommendations” are surely “suggested” by every name-brand retailer and clothing designer in the world. And how are we propagating this? By shopping at Abercrombie and Gap Kids. Let’s have our kids wear their clothes from Day One…then, when they’re old enough to complain about clothes from Target saying that they’re not “cool” enough…since “cool” can only be found at Gap and Abercrombie…

Our culture is entirely programmable by commercials, TV, and celebrity (and this all explains why the hell over 50% of our country voted for quite possibly the dumbest person ever to walk the earth in the last election). We have no minds of our own, no individuality, and cannot think for ourselves. We have to look to our neighbor to see what is acceptable in the eyes of everyone else. Those who get tattoos and piercings try to evade our consumer culture by going against the grain of everyone else, and yet they have even formed their own groups who shop at certain stores and buy certain things like everyone else they know… No one is safe.

Indeed, humans are social creatures who like to fit into the crowd…but that doesn’t mean we have to be lemmings…

P.S. Happy Birthday to me… 😛