Since I’m feeling too lazy today to write several small posts, you’re getting one giant one.
Twitter
There’s a nifty new web2.0 thingy called Twitter. I’ve spent the better part of a week (maybe longer, I can’t remember) playing with it and, more importantly, trying to figure out how to describe it to people. Here’s what the folks who built it say: “A global community of of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing?” I like to think of it as single-line blogging. Or (mostly) publicly-broadcast IM. Anyway, it’s kind of neat. Go check out my twitter page , sign up, add me as a contact and we’ll all have heaps of fun. Now if I could just get the stupid Twitterific app to stop giving me XML errors every 84 seconds, life would be grand.
Litterbugs
I don’t know what things are like where you work, but there’s a constant litter problem here. People seem to be incapable of finding (let alone using) trash cans. I don’t know what it is, I can find them (and I’m legally blind!). Is it that they’re only visible to people with visual impairments? I don’t get it. Apparently I’m not the only one, either. The following appeared in a recent edition of the student newspaper:
This is directed to the Western students whose parents either neglected to teach them what humans do with their garbage or have simply forgotten how NOT to act like slobs.
I walk into Centrespot at any given time of day and I’m disgusted at the random litter people leave everywhere despite the abundance of garbage cans. As I sit here today, there is a Manchu Wok container and a smoothie cup not even two feet from a garbage can! How hard is it to walk to the garbage and put your waste in?
Also, I’m sick of having to play waitress and clean off a table for myself because the lazy bastards who drop food everywhere feel that, since food missed their mouths and landed on the table, chair, or floor, it should stay there.
It’s not only a matter of personal pride, but campus pride. Campus tour are going on and prospective students come to eat in the University Community Centre. How gross is it that they have to sit in filth? How unimpressed are parents when garbage is strewn across Centrespot because Western’s esteemed student body doesn’t have the sense or manners to clean up after itself?
And one last point. Again, while sitting here angrily scribbling my thoughts, a woman did a marginally good thing and put her Evian bottle into the garbage. Why couldn’t she walk the extra 10 feet and put it in the recycling bin?EVEN EASIER than walking 10 feet and putting the bottle in the recycling would have been stowing the bottle in her giant Lululemon bag and recycling it when she arrived to any campus classroom or her Blue Box at home.
Are we THAT lazy? Seeing as most of us come from the GTA and we’ve recycled since we were little, how could we have FORGOTTEN what it means to recycle? Are our brains being stuffed too fully of wordly, scholarly knowledge? I doubt it.
It’s unfair to our peers, our university, Centrespot staff, and most importantly, ourselves to leave the UCC so messy every day.
I am absolutely appalled. Apparently, higher education does nothing to help us act like decent human beings.
Jenny Locke
Biology III
Sadly, Ms. Locke, it’s not just a Western thing. I see this just about everywhere I go and it never ceases to bother me (sometimes I get angry, sometimes I get sad, sometimes I just sigh). I don’t know what the solution is. Maybe camera, face recognition software, and stiff fines (or academic penalties)? I know if I ran things, that’s exactly what I’d do. Then again, I’ve often said that if I were a police officer, I’d enforce every violation I possibly could (for example, people who fail to clear the snow completely off their car, leaving the licence plate obscured).
From the “Oh, for crying out loud” file(courtesy UNEASYsilence)
Neiman Marcus is now offering a ‘premium’ cell phone service. Who in the world needs ‘premium’ cell phone service (except perhaps for the ridiculously self-important)? What passes for ‘premium’ cell phone service? A $500 startup fee gets you a ‘premium’ handset, insurance for said handset, a bluetooth headset, an extra battery, 3 (count ‘em – THREE!) chargers, and sync software. Then, you get to pay $200/month for unlimited domestic calling (including roaming), unlimited messaging, live directory assistant and (get THIS) a ‘voice personal mobile assistant’ who’ll provide ‘everything from technical support to driving directions.’
Sign me up.
