S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G

Yesterday I went to see the Broadway tour of the musical named "Spelling Bee" (perks of having the Man of Mine work in the box office). It is a very well put together show. I enjoyed a lot of it very much. One of the reasons that I think this production is so successful is that it focuses on the fact that at the basest of human needs is the need to be loved and affirmed by your parents.

That one theme that stood out so strongly through out the entire production. The intense pressure that these kids (though the characters themselves were all rather comical) put upon themselves to not fail because they don't want to disappoint their parents. It was a very poignant idea and brought back a lot of childhood memories. How often had I spent my time as a child trying so hard to perfect a piano piece for a recital that my parents were attending so that they wouldn't be disappointed in me? It was odd to watch these adults (pretending to be children) on stage portraying something that I think everyone experiences throughout their whole life in varying degrees.

I don't think you ever really out grow that.

A Little Manners, Please?

There are few things in this precious world that honestly irk me. One of those things are rude people who ignore the common courtesies (which apparently aren't being taught anymore). I'm not even talking about above and beyond the call of duty stuff like holding open the door for people walking in behind you, or standing to greet someone as they come into the room. I'm referring to things such as saying "please", "thank you", and "you're welcome", saying "excuse me" when you bump into people, and throwing away your own trash.

The top offenders I have noticed in the three courtesy crimes I have noted are typically:
1.) Cell phone users.
2.) iPod listeners.

Half of the customers (give or take a few) that come into Backyard Burger or go through the drive through are on their cell phone. They don't put the person on hold while they give an order and they don't have any patience for the order taker. They don't make eye contact, they don't say "thank you" or "please". They normally have walked/driven away before you can say "thank you". These people are double rude because they are rude to their server AND to the person with whom they are conversing.

iPod listeners are common culprits on campus. They go around with their tunes blaring so loudly that everyone in a ten foot radius is subjected to their (typically terrible) taste in music. As if that isn't bad enough, because of their overloaded ear drums and the fact that they are bobbing their head to the music, they often collide with passers by on their way. Do they ever stop? Do they ever say "excuse me" or "sorry"? No. They go along grooving to their beat. Heaven forbid they remove one precious ear bud for one milisecond to make sure that they haven't caused any damage.

My older brother, Russell, once proposed that their should be a "no-cell-phone" section in restaraunts similarly to how there are "no-smoking-sections". With every passing day I think that is a better and better idea.

We Go Looking For Trouble

Today at work, I had the opportunity to use the phrase: "You shall rue the day". This teleported me back to my childhood where I was a child and heard that phrase for the first time that I remember. I believe my mother was saying it and I had no idea what it meant. The only "rue" that with which I was familiar was the Roo from Winnie the Pooh. I was very confused at that young age because I thought that Roo was being given his own day and how that was completely unfair to the other residents of the 100 Acre Woods.

On that note, however, this confusion is something that children of the future may not have to deal with. According to this study, exposing Winnie the Pooh to children is a bad idea because of all of the mental disorders that are (appararently) so obvious and rampant among the characters.

For those that don't have time to read the lengthy article: I'll give you the jist.

Pooh: Has OCD, ADHD, "shaken bear" syndrome, and an eating disorder
Owl: Is dyslexic.
Eeyore: Chronic depression due to tail amputation.
Christopher Robin: Talks to animals and has no parental supervision.
Piglet: a general anxiety disorder.
Roo: Single parent household, negative peer influence from Tigger.
Tigger: risk-taking behavior could lead to substance abuse.
Kanga: No strong female role models, single parent who apparently has an illegitimate child.
Rabbit: an old senile rabbit who belongs in senior-level hospital.

Un-resolved

I am really not a New Year resolution type of person. I'm more of a try-to-stay-aware-of-all-of-my-short-comings-and-work-on-them-as-they-come-along type of person. This isn't to say that the New Year doesn't offer a convenient time of reflection and lend it self to awareness of areas needing self-improvement. All I'm saying is that I guess I'm better at tackling one small-er-ish thing at a time instead of the 500,000 billion things that I always find a need to improve at one time.

Now all that being said - I have made some goals that I would like to achieve. One of which is my 1K a day objective. I would like to write creatively 1000 words every day (give or take a day) just to get myself thinking in a free realm instead of the constant logical rigors which is accounting. Who knows? Maybe then I can tell people at all those cocktail parties I don't go to that I am writing book (just like everyone else)?

If nothing else I will be able to look back at this post in a few months and laugh at my noble endeavor.

2008, Retrospective

Here are a few brief lists of the best and the worst of 2008 according to me:

WORST:

• Absolutely anything having to do with Twilight.
  
• Katy Perry's ongoing discussion of which girl she'd kiss.
• The exploitation of the Brad/Angelina/Jennifer triangle.
• Britney Spears' come back.
• High School Musical 3.
• The fiasco that was moving into my apartment.
• Heath Ledger dying.
• That American Idol/America's Next Top Model is still running.
• The number of people who don't understand basic economics.
• The Chiefs had, literally, the worst season of their life.
• Cat and Guinea Pig dying.
  

BEST:

• Dark Knight/WALL-E.
• We Sing We Dance We Steal Things
• Starting to play at The Skinny
• Craig Furgeson's voting monologue.
• Another year with that Man of Mine.
• Successfully passing two more semesters.
• Watching six seasons of Smallville in one month.
  
• Seeing Wicked live.
• That America finally took interest in the election process again.
• Hilary Clinton isn't president.
  
• New cat! Jazoo Sasafrass (Sass)