The SGA is Worthless

I’m a little behind here. It looks like the Demosthenian’s beat me to the punch.

Nevertheless, I still feel inclined to ask”Why, exactly, does the SGA exist?”

It must not be much. I mean, no one seems to actually care that only one party even ran for the SGA’s last election. If you happened to log onto OASIS to vote, you would have discovered that your choices were: The Link, The Link, The Link, or The Link. Kind of reminds me of Henry Ford’s infamous quote, “You can have any color you want, as long as it’s black.”

The Link’s response to this awkward situation is hilarious. Mallory Davis says, “If people didn’t have faith in us and thought that we were going to run the organization into the ground, they would have run against us,” she said. “If we are unopposed, it is not going to take away any of our drive.”

Gee Mallory, do you really think that’s true? To no one’s surprise, only 4% of the student population voted. This is down from a whopping 15% who decided to log-on for the last election.

Face it. The SGA is completely worthless. It exist only to pad resumes of those who care enough to actually run. I’m with the Demosthenians on this one, give us a reason to care. Because frankly, I don’t think you guys have one, with the exception of your own sense of entitlement combined with selfishness.

Off Campus? Sucks to be you.

There are times where I seriously regret living off campus. 99% of the regret generally stems from missing an important bus.

For instance: this morning, I decided not to go to my film class. It was just one of those mornings where you blearily glance at the alarm clock, then turn over and say “No Way!” But all hope was not lost. I still had an 11:15 Spanish class to go to. I would just start my day then!

I changed the alarm and crawled back into bed. I snoozed until about 1o:30, which was a little later than I wanted to wake up. I get up, shower, walk out to the bus at 11:00–and watch as it pulls away from the last stop.

The. Bus. Was. Early. Granted, I should have walked out 5 minutes earlier like I normally do. But I was eating a pop-tart. I didn’t think it would matter.

It’s ok though. This is the first time I’ve missed Spanish. I’ll just make Meghan tell me everything that went on in my absence.

No more petitions!

Today while I was in the SLC studying sleeping I noticed the whispers of two girls, making their rounds through the long tables and soft chairs that litter the building’s fourth floor. The girls were earnestly clinging to their clipboards as they interrupted students who were clearly working by asking them, “Could you please sign our petition?”

They were advertising “No Meat Mondays.” Personally, I could care less about the vegetarian cause. I know, I know, we could save tons of energy and probably solve global warming if we stopped eating meat (no sarcasm here), but when I’m in the SLC trying to get things done, the last thing I want is someone attempting to recruit me for there cause.

Remember how annoying it is to try and walk through Tate without someone shoving a handout in your face? Imagine that, but in the SLC. Walking billboards, Chess clubs petitioning for mandatory chess breaks in between classes and preachers throwing hell-fire and brimstone at passing students.

I’m hoping the SLC thing is just a fluke. Only time with tell.

Studying New Media (And Myself)

I’m in NMIX 2020, and my group presented our project today for the class.

I love the idea of studying new media and I would really like to enter the New Media Certificate Program, but I’m afraid my poor group work skills may be holding me back.

The thing is, I’m a little shy. And I’m not very assertive. Sometimes I will have a really good idea that I just keep to myself because I’m not sure how to appropriately break into a conversation. I’m very much a written language kind of guy. I communicate far better in forums and blogospheres than I ever have in real life. I guess you could say this is why I chose to study communication via the internet.

Going back to my new media class–my group is floundering. There are a lot of holes in their project idea, but whenever I make suggestions as to how to fix them I’m either ignored or told there isn’t a problem. Part of this is my fault. But I’m not the only one to blame; I feel as though my group members aren’t interested so much in worrying about how to put our idea into practice as they are in making it look good on paper.

At any rate, I know I need to be more assertive. I need to speak up more so people don’t mistakenly think I don’t care about what’s going on. Even if it is difficult to do sometimes.

Decision Paralysis: Why I Never Get Things Done

I think I’ve discovered my problem. At the moment I have 3 midterms next week, 10 pages of my play due Monday, and my Remediation project due Tuesday. I also have a strong desire to learn how to use Dreamweaver and Photoshop, an even stronger desire to finish reading American Gods, and the strongest desire of all, to sit on my couch and play Gamecube while the government sends me weekly checks so I never have to do anything with my life.

It’s important to keep in mind that I don’t actually have anything that needs to be turned in until next week. So the devil on my shoulder called procrastination (who isn’t really there because he’s too busy staring off into space or aimlessly checking Facebook even though there are no updates) is having a field day. Part of the reason for this is decision paralysis. I have several different projects I could be working on that one might consider productive. But instead of picking one of them and being productive, I can’t decide what I want to work on. This leads to impromptu blog posts which attempt to justify why I’m staring at my computer screen, doing nothing. What’s worse is I’m not even watching a movie or playing a game. If I were to do that I’d feel guilty about not getting my work done. This is incredibly frustrating!

I wish I could set fake deadlines for myself. That way I could get things done under the sheer pressure of knowing it must be done, and then take an extra day to fix all the minor mistakes. But can I do that? No. C’est la vie.

Cell Phone Hate

You know what I hate? People who talk on their cellphones, loudly, in public places. One specific example that comes to mind is the SLC.

Here I am, sitting at one of the public computer terminals and the girl sitting next to me is selfish enough to think that it’s OK to talk on her phone.

I’m not the only one who is peeved by this. A new study shows that overheard cellphone conversation is the most annoying, because there is something inherently unsettling about hearing only one side of a conversation.

So please, if you have a call, take it away from the people who are trying to get work done (AKA, reading XKCD.