The youth of a nation

Remember P.O.D.?

I started my new job yesterday, and so far it's pretty incredible. I can see how it will get monotonous after a while, but for now it's awesome. My job primarily consists of me sitting at a computer and scoring young children's essays. These kids are in the 11-12 year old range. Sometimes I start reading one, and I can hardly believe my luck because it's written in complete sentences and makes good points. Then again, those take more time to grade. It's easier when the essay is two sentences of BS that have nothing to do with the prompt, then you give it an F and move on.

It's a little more complicated than that, but I'm not really supposed to discuss the details. Every essay has something fun in it though. A mention of how a kid's dad farts in his brother's face, a discussion of hip-hop abs (totally unrelated to the prompt), sentences like "The different makes different and normal people and that makes the difference.", I just can't get enough. I would probably never get tired of giving these kids bad marks.

The person who checks the grades had to message me 3 times today for giving a number that was way lower than the other person who graded it, LOLs. It's my first day though, so I'll get better. Also I think the other graders try to find ways to give the kids better scores cause they're thinking of the children. I just think about their bad grammar and try to give them a dose of reality.

My absolute favorite are the ones where the kids talk about how great their teachers are... how they are so smart and teach them so well. Then the essay is full of misspellings, bad grammar, and has no structure. Your teacher obviously isn't that great, or your essay would be a lot better, pipsqueak! Haha.

I shrugged

I started re-reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand this January. I tried to read it circa 2002, but gave up about 1/3 of the way in. Ryan and I decided that we would try to read it at the same time, in a kind of "Finer Things" book club. Members of this club include Ryan and myself. I wouldn't try to subject anyone else to a book of this length.

In all fairness, I'd have to say I've skipped at least 50 pages of this book. It's extremely repetitive. If someone is giving a long talk, I read the first sentence of each paragraph, skim, and see if they are actually revealing new plot, if not, I skip it. It's the same old shit in each diatribe. If she would have just said "Dagny is not a whore by any means, she only slept with Rearden because he was the culmination of her awesomeness and the answer to her incredible potential and you are never allowed to forget that in this entire story." she could have saved herself 50-70 pages of writing.

Some people say that Atlas Shrugged was one of the most important books they ever read, and made them look at life differently, etc. Others claim it was the biggest waste of time they ever tried to read. I wouldn't put it in either category. Yeah, it's incredibly long, but there are some good parts. It would have been a lot better if there was ANY humor in it. It's definitely the most pages I've ever read without smiling or being emotionally moved in any way. Even the descriptions of sex are dull. Rand tried to make Dagny this woman who was completely unable to do anything illogical. Every bit of lust she felt had an entirely logical motivation, which makes no sense. Attraction between two people and sex especially, is probably the least logical part of human life. Why do you think there's so many unplanned pregnancies?

Anyway, I don't think I'll be reading anymore Rand. I find the way she writes to be a bit pretentious and dull. I think trying to argue a political philosophy through a novel is a waste of a novel. As you're writing it, you become too focused on the politics and ideas you're trying to drive home, and you forget that you have to write an interesting story with characters that the reader might care about. You'd be better off writing a political treatise.

I could write a lot more, but in a non-Randian fashion, I'll end it here.

King of Kong: Billy Mitchell is a total asshole

WARNING: SPOILERS


Wow, this movie was so exacting in its portrayal of good and evil. I really wanted Steve Wiebe to annihilate Billy Mitchell's high score. I wanted him to score like 2 million points and then piss on Billy Mitchell's wife's fake titties while all the major news stations reported on it, and Mitchell sat in a corner and cried. This movie made me want to learn how to play Donkey Kong so that I could beat Mitchell's score.

Any person who's ever gotten caught up playing video games for hours, can know exactly what Wiebe must have felt when his son needed his ass wiped. He was about to get a very important high score. If that kid has to walk around with a poopy butt for a half hour more, so be it.

My favorite quote of the movie came at the beginning, from the "umpire" Walter Day. He said, in regards to why he got into video games:

"I wanted to be a hero. I wanted to be the center of attention. I wanted the glory, I wanted the fame. I wanted the pretty girls to come up and say, 'Hi, I see that you're good at Centipede.' "

I say that to dudes all the time. I'll see a guy tearing it up at Halo and it just turns me on. Then I walk over and say, "Hi, I see that you're good at Halo, want to fuck?" and he says, "Hold on, I'm about to activate the ring" or something. Then I go and fuck his friend who is hanging out, looking cool, not playing video games, able to carry on a conversation with a girl.

I loved the ending, not just because Wiebe was able to pass a million points on video, but because they did a great job of showing that he was a good person. Despite not surpassing Mitchell's high score in Florida, making crappy Christian music, not being a good pitcher, and getting laid off at Boeing, he had a pretty good life. He has a tolerant wife who didn't divorce him for playing video games endlessly, two cute kids, a decent job, and he wasn't a hatefully arrogant prick. Mitchell runs some restaurant chain and hot sauce company, bangs his silicone-enhanced fake Louis Vuitton purse carrying bimbo wife, and rocks a mullet and a USA tie. At least his parents love him. He's probably one of the most douchy real people I've ever experienced.

For example, during the Florida event, Mitchell avoids showing up except for about 10 minutes in which he does not play at all. He walks by Wiebe playing Donkey Kong and Wiebe says, "Hi Billy". Mitchell ignores him, walks about two steps away, and says to his wife, "There are some people I don't want to associate with too much." Yeah. You wouldn't want to interact with any normal clean people, some of your sleaziness might wash off.

I give this movie an A. Too bad Doris Self died, it would have been an A+

Balls

I was just reading this website/blog I've never read before. It's got a feminist jaunt. This girl went to a wedding show and had the balls to post this picture of something she found in the bathroom.

http://jezebel.com/375812/single-slut-crashes-new-york-weddings-showcase

That made me laugh. Also the last paragraph of the article.

Westside gangs

I didn't know that we moved into a gang neighborhood. This is what I saw on our street corner today. I took some covert pictures so they wouldn't get violent.

Their main functions seem to be: playing basketball in the street,


trying to get run over by cars,



pimpin out hos and recruiting younger members.



Once of them is even wearing Ecko jeans, and that girl is barefoot. Where are the parents of these children? Ick. Kids.