I had a surprisingly good day at work today, which happens infrequently enough that I thought I should mark the occasion with a post!
Part of my job involves talking to high-school kids about uni, about what it is and why you should apply and, most importantly, why you should come to my uni in particular. Today it was a group of 14 and 15 year-olds, who I usually dread. But this group turned out to be kinda fantastic: polite and engaged and actually interested in what we all had to say. The two things that seemed to really resonate the most was that, firstly, it's ok if you don't know what you want to do when you leave school, and secondly, it's ok to change your mind. I occasionally get asked what my best piece of advice is for new university students, and those two things are what I say every time. Plus, high-school is just something to endure before you get to uni, but the teachers don't often like that one.
I didn't really know what I wanted to do once I finished school, apart from go to uni to do... something. I still don't really know what I want to do once I (finally) finish my degree, but increasingly I'm getting to be ok with that. I see so many high-school students who are freaking out because people keep on asking them what they want to do with their lives. If I can't work it out at the age of 22, how on earth are they supposed to at the age of 16 or 17?
Most of the high-school students I talk to seem to view picking a uni degree as some enormous, unchangeable decision, when in reality I think it's one of the most flexible, changeable decisions that you can ever make. It'd be interesting to do some kind of study of how people's career plans and their major interests change over the course of their time at uni. I unexpectedly discovered a passion for American history; others decide administrative law is the greatest thing since sliced bread, or that being an actuary is indescribably (and inexplicably!) sexy. I don't think it's made clear enough to students that the preferences that you put down on your uni application form do not have to dictate how the rest of your life pans out, and more often than not, they don't. And it's this omission which often makes my job equally frustrating and fabulous, like today.
I have heaps more to say on this subject, but this is all starting to sound a little like a careers advice talk, so I'll stop. Also, it's 5pm, so I get to leave my boring, 9 to 5 job!
Showing posts with label Rants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rants. Show all posts
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Abortion ban
The US Supreme Court has voted to uphold the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. The decision is "the first in which the court has upheld a ban on a specific method of abortion".
The decision is pretty, well, stupid for many different reasons, not least of which is that Justice Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion, "said that pregnant women or their doctors could assert an individual need for a health exception by going to court to challenge the law as it applied to them." Because when you're gravely ill and need a termination, you definitely time to wait around for the Supreme Court to make up its mind. Norma Leah McCorvey, more famously known as the 'Roe' in Roe v. Wade, waited three years for her case to go before the Court. In the meantime, she of course had given birth - bit hard to get access to an abortion when your daughter is 3 years old. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsurg quite rightly points out, this is unrealistic and "gravely mistaken".
Ruth Bader Ginsburg's dissenting opinion is incredible (and yes, I have enough time on my hands now to read dissenting Supreme Court opinions - you too can experience the fun here; the dissenting opinion starts on page 49 of the pdf). She methodically goes through all of her objections to the Court's ruling, labelling the justifications used to avoid including any exception to protect a woman's health "flimsy and transparent". As she so rightly points out,
The decision is pretty, well, stupid for many different reasons, not least of which is that Justice Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion, "said that pregnant women or their doctors could assert an individual need for a health exception by going to court to challenge the law as it applied to them." Because when you're gravely ill and need a termination, you definitely time to wait around for the Supreme Court to make up its mind. Norma Leah McCorvey, more famously known as the 'Roe' in Roe v. Wade, waited three years for her case to go before the Court. In the meantime, she of course had given birth - bit hard to get access to an abortion when your daughter is 3 years old. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsurg quite rightly points out, this is unrealistic and "gravely mistaken".
Ruth Bader Ginsburg's dissenting opinion is incredible (and yes, I have enough time on my hands now to read dissenting Supreme Court opinions - you too can experience the fun here; the dissenting opinion starts on page 49 of the pdf). She methodically goes through all of her objections to the Court's ruling, labelling the justifications used to avoid including any exception to protect a woman's health "flimsy and transparent". As she so rightly points out,
The law saves not a single fetus from destruction, for it targets only a method of performing abortion...the procedures deemed acceptable might put a woman's health at greater risk.She goes on to say that
Eliminating or reducing women's reproductive choices is manifestly not a means of protecting them. When safe abortion procedures cease to be an option, many women seek other means to end unwanted or coerced pregnancies.She's particularly hard on the sections of the majority opinion that seek to 'protect' women and their 'fragile states' from any emotional pain because of the "bond of love the mother has for her child." As she says,
This way of thinking reflects ancient notions about women's place in the family and under the Constitution - ideas that have long since been discredited.She quotes some past Supreme Court decisions that make this evolution in beliefs clear. I particularly liked this one, from the 1873 decision Bradwell v. State:
Man is, or should be, woman's protector and defender. The natural and proper timidity and delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many of the occupations of civil life...The paramount destiny and mission of woman are to fulfil[l] the noble and benign offices of wife and mother.I could go on quoting her opinion for a very long time, but instead I'll just leave you with this, her final paragraph:
In sum, the notion that the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act furthers any legitimate governmental interest is, quite simply, irrational. The Court's defense of the statute provides no saving explanation. In candor, the Act, and the Court's defense of it, cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this Court - and with increasing comprehension of its centrality to women's lives.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Just tell me what's going on!
Interesting article in the Washington Post about how universities are struggling to keep in contact with their students. Even though they all have mobile phones and laptops, and obsessively check their email, getting important messages out there to all students (the example given is one from Virginia Tech, where there was a gunman loose on campus and they wanted to tell students to keep inside!) is incredibly difficult. When you've got to filter through crap emails from everyone from the careers centre to student admin on a regular basis, it's pretty easy for actually important information to slip through unnoticed.
My uni had an emergency of its own last week, and I must say was absolutely woeful in keeping everyone updated. Because I'm on the staff list I got an email telling me the campus was closed at 10.45am, but they didn't send out a similar one to students until 4.28pm! Information was posted throughout the day on the billboard, but it was pretty fragmentary and useless. Announcements went out on local radio, but how many uni students actually listen to local commercial radio every morning? If your house wasn't really affected by the storm (like ours) you wouldn't think to listen obsessively to see whether uni was open or not; just wouldn't cross your mind. The only reason that we listened was that one of our housemates had tried to go to the gym early in the morning and had run into just a few problems (i.e. flooding and ice!).
I get that it was a pretty unique situation, and understandably there were some computing issues on campus at the time that made getting in contact with people a bit difficult. But really, these are the kinds of situations where you need procedures like that to work the best.
My uni had an emergency of its own last week, and I must say was absolutely woeful in keeping everyone updated. Because I'm on the staff list I got an email telling me the campus was closed at 10.45am, but they didn't send out a similar one to students until 4.28pm! Information was posted throughout the day on the billboard, but it was pretty fragmentary and useless. Announcements went out on local radio, but how many uni students actually listen to local commercial radio every morning? If your house wasn't really affected by the storm (like ours) you wouldn't think to listen obsessively to see whether uni was open or not; just wouldn't cross your mind. The only reason that we listened was that one of our housemates had tried to go to the gym early in the morning and had run into just a few problems (i.e. flooding and ice!).
I get that it was a pretty unique situation, and understandably there were some computing issues on campus at the time that made getting in contact with people a bit difficult. But really, these are the kinds of situations where you need procedures like that to work the best.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Just some things
Random thoughts and happenings from this week:
I've somehow managed to 'do my back in' again, which, as you may be able to appreciate, is terribly exciting for me. Sitting is the biggest issue, which is a bit of a problem considering that uni started this week and I have several 3 hour blocks of classes. Bleurgh.
I had three meetings on Wednesday, and I got stood up for all three of them. What ever happened to common courtesy?! To the "sorry, I can't make the meeting this afternoon, can we do it another time?" phone call. Double bleurgh.
As mentioned above, uni started back this week. Two of my subjects look fantastic, but the other two are so excruciatingly boring that they effectively cancel out any enjoyment I may derive from this semester. Triple bleurgh. Also bleurgh to my IT subject, which can't seem to organise seemingly important things like timetables and lab registrations with any level of adequacy.
Bleurgh. Some good news is needed... hooray for finally having net access at home! Very very exciting. I was getting a little tired of structuring my life around only being able to read my email between the hours of 9am and 5pm on weekdays. And yes, my life does depend, to a large amount, on when I can read my email :)
Random fact: did you know that there used to be a bar in the Pauline Griffin Building? The Union used to be in there, as well as the staff lounge. Strange but true. Well maybe not that strange, but still vaguely interesting. Well, maybe not vaguely interesting...
I've had the song 'This Land is Mine' by Dido in my head all week. Yeah, I have no idea why, either.
Also hooray for finally getting a dining table in our house. Literally eating off the floor gets a little boring after the first two months or so.
Hooray for still getting birthday presents over a week after my birthday. I absolutely love birthdays that are spread out over weeks (or even months, like my 21st). Although I'm not entirely sure about this whole 'being 22' thing; I feel really rather old, especially considering (1) there are far too many 17 year olds running around the campus, and (2) I now have to tick the 'fourth year' box when I fill in forms for the university, which makes me feel like I've been around forever. The gap between being 20 and being 21 didn't feel like much at all. The gap between 21 and 22, however... chasm.
And to end on an amusing note... a McSweeney's List: Mildly Disturbing Greeting-Card Messages. "Happy Easter! May the blood of Jesus, spilled for you, splatter your holiday with warm crimson cheer."
I've somehow managed to 'do my back in' again, which, as you may be able to appreciate, is terribly exciting for me. Sitting is the biggest issue, which is a bit of a problem considering that uni started this week and I have several 3 hour blocks of classes. Bleurgh.
I had three meetings on Wednesday, and I got stood up for all three of them. What ever happened to common courtesy?! To the "sorry, I can't make the meeting this afternoon, can we do it another time?" phone call. Double bleurgh.
As mentioned above, uni started back this week. Two of my subjects look fantastic, but the other two are so excruciatingly boring that they effectively cancel out any enjoyment I may derive from this semester. Triple bleurgh. Also bleurgh to my IT subject, which can't seem to organise seemingly important things like timetables and lab registrations with any level of adequacy.
Bleurgh. Some good news is needed... hooray for finally having net access at home! Very very exciting. I was getting a little tired of structuring my life around only being able to read my email between the hours of 9am and 5pm on weekdays. And yes, my life does depend, to a large amount, on when I can read my email :)
Random fact: did you know that there used to be a bar in the Pauline Griffin Building? The Union used to be in there, as well as the staff lounge. Strange but true. Well maybe not that strange, but still vaguely interesting. Well, maybe not vaguely interesting...
I've had the song 'This Land is Mine' by Dido in my head all week. Yeah, I have no idea why, either.
Also hooray for finally getting a dining table in our house. Literally eating off the floor gets a little boring after the first two months or so.
Hooray for still getting birthday presents over a week after my birthday. I absolutely love birthdays that are spread out over weeks (or even months, like my 21st). Although I'm not entirely sure about this whole 'being 22' thing; I feel really rather old, especially considering (1) there are far too many 17 year olds running around the campus, and (2) I now have to tick the 'fourth year' box when I fill in forms for the university, which makes me feel like I've been around forever. The gap between being 20 and being 21 didn't feel like much at all. The gap between 21 and 22, however... chasm.
And to end on an amusing note... a McSweeney's List: Mildly Disturbing Greeting-Card Messages. "Happy Easter! May the blood of Jesus, spilled for you, splatter your holiday with warm crimson cheer."
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Damn kids!
Meh. It's only the second day of uni and I'm already over it. When did university students get so bloody young?! The campus has been wonderfully quiet all summer, and then BAM! yesterday it was invaded by 17 year olds, wandering around looking lost and confused. I know I should feel sympathy or empathy or something like that, but mostly I just want them to go away. Bah.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Don't you know who I am?!
Yesterday was one of those infinitely frustrating days, where you set out with a list of seemingly simple tasks to complete, that quickly turn into a never-ending nightmare. Simple things like getting a prescription filled turned into day-long dramas: the chemist had run out of the (very common) medication on my prescription, I had to go to two banks in order to retrieve my bank card which was eaten by an ATM on Saturday, the ACT government office seemingly disappeared from Civic, the Motor Registry would only accept a complete lease agreement as proof of residency, not the bond lodgment form I had with me... what should have taken a couple of hours all up took the entire day, and I had to go back to the Motor Registry this morning, this time with enough forms of identification to sink a ship. But! The day was saved from being a complete bust by lunch and dinner, which were shared with fabulous company. So that was good.
On a slightly related matter: the reason I had to go to the Motor Registry (twice) was to get a proof of age card. I haven't had any 'official' forms of photo ID for the last two months, because both my Tasmanian Learner's Driver Licence and my passport both expired in December. Do you know how hard it is to live without that kind of stuff?! I couldn't even join the video store on the weekend. And yet my bank let me withdraw money from my account yesterday with only my crummy student card. Which does worry me slightly...
On a slightly related matter: the reason I had to go to the Motor Registry (twice) was to get a proof of age card. I haven't had any 'official' forms of photo ID for the last two months, because both my Tasmanian Learner's Driver Licence and my passport both expired in December. Do you know how hard it is to live without that kind of stuff?! I couldn't even join the video store on the weekend. And yet my bank let me withdraw money from my account yesterday with only my crummy student card. Which does worry me slightly...
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Life-y kind of things
Some random thoughts:
I am completely (embarrassingly?) obsessed with the song 'I wish I was a punkrocker' by Sandi Thom. The lyrics don't actually make much sense, but I can't stop listening to the thing (you can watch the film clip yourself here). And yes, I know I'm about a zillion years behind the times when it comes to this song.
For some reason the sound on the computer that I'm using at the moment just drops out every 15 minutes or so, and doesn't start working until I log out and log back in. This is immensely annoying, and is severely interfering with my ability to watch Sandi Thom music clips.
Pandora is still one of the greatest things ever invented, but only when the sound on the computer you're using works consistently!
Mini-rant about university bureaucracy: for the last three years I have had to go through an incredible rigmarole just to enrol in courses that I need for my degree. This year is different only in the fact that the difficulty has actually increased. The last two days I've spent my lunch break trudging between faculty offices, as various people try to work out who needs to sign what and when. It's incredibly frustrating and just plain stupid - why oh why do I have to go through all this shit to do a course that I need?! A 2-second glance at my transcript would show these people that I have every right to do the course in question, but instead I have to have a form signed by three separate offices, before it is sent to a fourth for processing. Argh!
And the sound's gone on my computer again. Curses!
Some McSweeney's Lists:
Things That Get Way More Fun When You Add a "G" to Them: "ceiling fang".
Things an Overbearing Mother Might Say to a Son Just Waking From a Coma: "Meanwhile, I haven't even had a chance to sit down."
I got two lovely emails today from separate people who I helped through my job last year, saying thank you etc. So that was nice. I rarely get any kind of sense as to how what I do (and no, I'm not going to go into any more detail about what my job is!) actually impacts upon people in the long-run, so once in a while it's nice to get these kinds of emails.
Sound still not there. Stupid computer. I want punkrocker goodness!
I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I've recently become ever so addicted to threadless t-shirts, and my collection now numbers 5. So that's exciting. I tried to find links on the website to the ones I've got, but no luck. Sufficed to say that I've got 'The Communist Party' and 'The Loch Ness Imposter', and you probably don't. So there.
Hmmm. Ok, enough now.
I am completely (embarrassingly?) obsessed with the song 'I wish I was a punkrocker' by Sandi Thom. The lyrics don't actually make much sense, but I can't stop listening to the thing (you can watch the film clip yourself here). And yes, I know I'm about a zillion years behind the times when it comes to this song.
For some reason the sound on the computer that I'm using at the moment just drops out every 15 minutes or so, and doesn't start working until I log out and log back in. This is immensely annoying, and is severely interfering with my ability to watch Sandi Thom music clips.
Pandora is still one of the greatest things ever invented, but only when the sound on the computer you're using works consistently!
Mini-rant about university bureaucracy: for the last three years I have had to go through an incredible rigmarole just to enrol in courses that I need for my degree. This year is different only in the fact that the difficulty has actually increased. The last two days I've spent my lunch break trudging between faculty offices, as various people try to work out who needs to sign what and when. It's incredibly frustrating and just plain stupid - why oh why do I have to go through all this shit to do a course that I need?! A 2-second glance at my transcript would show these people that I have every right to do the course in question, but instead I have to have a form signed by three separate offices, before it is sent to a fourth for processing. Argh!
And the sound's gone on my computer again. Curses!
Some McSweeney's Lists:
Things That Get Way More Fun When You Add a "G" to Them: "ceiling fang".
Things an Overbearing Mother Might Say to a Son Just Waking From a Coma: "Meanwhile, I haven't even had a chance to sit down."
I got two lovely emails today from separate people who I helped through my job last year, saying thank you etc. So that was nice. I rarely get any kind of sense as to how what I do (and no, I'm not going to go into any more detail about what my job is!) actually impacts upon people in the long-run, so once in a while it's nice to get these kinds of emails.
Sound still not there. Stupid computer. I want punkrocker goodness!
I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I've recently become ever so addicted to threadless t-shirts, and my collection now numbers 5. So that's exciting. I tried to find links on the website to the ones I've got, but no luck. Sufficed to say that I've got 'The Communist Party' and 'The Loch Ness Imposter', and you probably don't. So there.
Hmmm. Ok, enough now.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Underpaid Americans and over-drugged Irish
There's an article over at the BBC about the American minimum wage that's equally fascinating and horrific. Right now in the US the minimum wage is a US$5.15 an hour ($6.58 in Australian dollars). Right now I'm getting paid almost 4 times that, and while I realise I'm horrendously overpaid for what I do, I got far more than that when I was 16 and working in retail. The figure hasn't gone up in ten years in the States; the Democrats want to raise it up US$7.25 by 2009, but this will only make it $9.27 in Australian dollars, still far below what I was making in grade 10. The woman featured in the article, Gina Walter, does a job very similar to the one I had back then, but she has to eat off paper plates because she can't afford the water bill if she washed her dishes every night. I know there's a "working poor" in Australia as well, and that trying to live off our minimum wage is not exactly easy either, but I'm sure to women like Gina Walter what we get paid in this country would seem enormous.
Urgh. Enough of that depressing topic. Here's a weird story for you: apparently 100% of banknotes in Ireland have traces of cocaine on them. Make of that what you will!
Urgh. Enough of that depressing topic. Here's a weird story for you: apparently 100% of banknotes in Ireland have traces of cocaine on them. Make of that what you will!
Friday, November 24, 2006
The real world is... hot?
Hmmm, so it's been a while since my last update. Many many things have happened since then, including two exams, one change of address, and three afternoons spent waiting at new home for furniture deliveries! Yes, that's right, I have finally thrown off the security blanket that is residential college life, and have moved out into the real world. So far so good, although I'm quickly discovering that the real world is expensive, particularly when you're setting up a house for the first time. Who knew, for example, that beds cost so much?! I certainly didn't.
In other news, Canberra is hot, but then I think most people knew that. I'm staying up here for the whole summer (I'll only be in Tasmania over Christmas/New Year), and I'm not sure how I'm going to survive. At least the office where I'll be working has air-conditioning, as does the new house. So yay for climate-change-causing air-conditioning!
I'm still having trouble adjusting to the fact that the academic year is over; this year has simultaneously seemed to go forever, and for no time at all. Similarly, this semester has been both fantastic as well as absolutely hideous in places, mostly when my neck was being a bitch. But I did some fantastic courses this year (even my IT ones weren't that painful this semester!), and to say that I'm now rather passionate about studying American history is probably putting it rather mildly. I'm not sure what I'm going to do next year; I've still got another year of coursework to do before honours, but on a point related to my new-found passion for American history, there are very few courses I'm actually interested in studying on offer next year. I have vague thoughts about possibly applying for an internship at the Smithsonian in the second half of next year, but we will see. I have to survive the deadly Canberra summer first!
In other news, Canberra is hot, but then I think most people knew that. I'm staying up here for the whole summer (I'll only be in Tasmania over Christmas/New Year), and I'm not sure how I'm going to survive. At least the office where I'll be working has air-conditioning, as does the new house. So yay for climate-change-causing air-conditioning!
I'm still having trouble adjusting to the fact that the academic year is over; this year has simultaneously seemed to go forever, and for no time at all. Similarly, this semester has been both fantastic as well as absolutely hideous in places, mostly when my neck was being a bitch. But I did some fantastic courses this year (even my IT ones weren't that painful this semester!), and to say that I'm now rather passionate about studying American history is probably putting it rather mildly. I'm not sure what I'm going to do next year; I've still got another year of coursework to do before honours, but on a point related to my new-found passion for American history, there are very few courses I'm actually interested in studying on offer next year. I have vague thoughts about possibly applying for an internship at the Smithsonian in the second half of next year, but we will see. I have to survive the deadly Canberra summer first!
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Experts and idiots
Stephen Colbert, of Daily Show fame, has a hilarious article in this month's Wired magazine, entitled Be an Expert on Anything. With tips such as "Use the word zeitgeist as often as possible" and "Get an honorary PhD", there's something for everyone.
I've got a post floating around in the back of my brain on (not) hating America, inspired in part by this, but mostly by my continual frustration by the blind anti-Americanism I continually encounter in the course of my American Studies major... but I'm off to Melbourne in an hour or so to see Bron do her thing in a play (hooray!), so it'll have to wait.
Sufficed to say that I'm so utterly sick of this automatic, reflexive hatred of the US that seems so 'hip' with so many Australians. It even comes up in my history class this semester, which is fucking ludicrous, seeing as we're studying the American Revolution. I mean, can you separate out your dislike for George W. Bush for one hour while we have a look at the Declaration of Independence? I mean, I know you can't compartmentalise history, but I think it's far more important to look at how the development of the US has meant that the current situation in the US is possible, rather than going the other way and imposing your narrow-minded opinions on the Founding Fathers.
Huh. That went a little longer than I intended. I guess I'm more pissed off about the subject than I thought! More coherent thoughts to (possibly) follow...
I've got a post floating around in the back of my brain on (not) hating America, inspired in part by this, but mostly by my continual frustration by the blind anti-Americanism I continually encounter in the course of my American Studies major... but I'm off to Melbourne in an hour or so to see Bron do her thing in a play (hooray!), so it'll have to wait.
Sufficed to say that I'm so utterly sick of this automatic, reflexive hatred of the US that seems so 'hip' with so many Australians. It even comes up in my history class this semester, which is fucking ludicrous, seeing as we're studying the American Revolution. I mean, can you separate out your dislike for George W. Bush for one hour while we have a look at the Declaration of Independence? I mean, I know you can't compartmentalise history, but I think it's far more important to look at how the development of the US has meant that the current situation in the US is possible, rather than going the other way and imposing your narrow-minded opinions on the Founding Fathers.
Huh. That went a little longer than I intended. I guess I'm more pissed off about the subject than I thought! More coherent thoughts to (possibly) follow...
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
An open letter
Dear Person who thinks it's acceptable to write in library books,
Guess what? It's not acceptable to write in library books! Ever! Please, explain the thought processes that went through your obviously miniscule-brain when you decided that using a highlighter and a blue pen in The Antifederalist Papers was a good idea. Because you know what? It wasn't. I agree with the person who wrote the following on the front page: "To the 'thing' that has underlined their relevant lines in blue pen - you are truely a real jerk." (I'll even forgive this person his atrocious spelling, simply because he wrote the message - and it was in pencil)
And to the person who has so generously covered chapter 1 of The Unraveling of America by Matusow with their insightful thoughts on Kennedy's form of liberalism: your thoughts? Not all that insightful. Actually, they're pretty dumb, and are distracting me from the actually insightful stuff in the text.
Say it with me, people: it's called a photocopier. You take the library book, you put it on the glass bit, and press the big green button. Then, like magic, you get a copy of the book all to yourself! You can cover that copy with your inane green-highlighter shit all you want, and (here's hoping!) leave the book itself the fuck alone. Because even after you're long gone from this university, flipping burgers at McDonald's because, well, you're stupid, people like me still have to use that book that you defaced, and we don't like it.
Kind regards,
Mads
Guess what? It's not acceptable to write in library books! Ever! Please, explain the thought processes that went through your obviously miniscule-brain when you decided that using a highlighter and a blue pen in The Antifederalist Papers was a good idea. Because you know what? It wasn't. I agree with the person who wrote the following on the front page: "To the 'thing' that has underlined their relevant lines in blue pen - you are truely a real jerk." (I'll even forgive this person his atrocious spelling, simply because he wrote the message - and it was in pencil)
And to the person who has so generously covered chapter 1 of The Unraveling of America by Matusow with their insightful thoughts on Kennedy's form of liberalism: your thoughts? Not all that insightful. Actually, they're pretty dumb, and are distracting me from the actually insightful stuff in the text.
Say it with me, people: it's called a photocopier. You take the library book, you put it on the glass bit, and press the big green button. Then, like magic, you get a copy of the book all to yourself! You can cover that copy with your inane green-highlighter shit all you want, and (here's hoping!) leave the book itself the fuck alone. Because even after you're long gone from this university, flipping burgers at McDonald's because, well, you're stupid, people like me still have to use that book that you defaced, and we don't like it.
Kind regards,
Mads
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