I don't understand . . .

Ok, I have been trying to get this written and posted for a few days now but every time I try, I end up getting super angry and it becomes a rambling mess. I leave for awhile and then think of something else and have to come back and add that too. So that being said, I apologize for anything that seems completely random within this rant. I will try and tie it all together as best I can.

I know I promised a rant on writing (or maybe I didn't specify, but it was going to be on useless essays) But I need to do this one first. This is another rant about higher education. Here we go!

When I talk about college here, I mean mostly the process of getting your bachelor's degree through a four-year program from a state university. I can't speak for the private universities that perhaps I should have gone to . . .

College has essentially defeated its own purpose. I was looking at scholarships today trying to find some money for study abroad next semester and I came across one that had an essay and the prompt was, "Explain your main purpose for attending college". I had to skip this one because it immediately lead me into this rant and the essay had a 250 word max. My answer was "to get a better job". Essentially, to help me prepare for life beyond school. However, when I thought about how that goal was going . . . well, it's not.

First major problem: College costs too much to be of any immediate benefit for most people. The vast majority of graduates that I know are still at home with their parents working jobs that don't require college degrees trying to pay off their loans. Their loans that were to pay for the schooling that was supposed to help them get a nice job that pays better than it would for someone without a college degree. Tens of thousands of dollars that are now preventing these people from being able to go out and start their lives. . .I do not understand. College is supposed to help you get a job and live your life, but it seems to just hold people back.

Second major problem: At large universities at least, no one is interested in helping you get a job. There are certain majors, like the business school here I know has its own career department that really helps their students, but for the most part its useless. I met with my adviser, who is typically pretty useful, and when I brought up not knowing what to do once I got out of school his response was "you have time." I do not see this as necessarily true. I will be gone next semester and then I will be a senior, that is not a lot of time. I had a discussion with a professor of mine who basically explained it as "you get a job and that leads you to another job and that happens until you find what you like." . . . this just sounds silly to me . . . more wasting time. I know a girl who is a senior and attempted to use career services. They told her that she had no chance of getting a decent job without going to grad school. This is not true. Grad school is typically another big waste of time and money. Grad school is only good if you know exactly what you want out of it. Otherwise you are just putting off life even more and wasting some more money. And for some people, that's good, they want to stay in school forever. For those who want to just live their life and not be stuck in this collegiate limbo anymore, it is just another annoyance.

~A day passes~

I just found myself worrying about my grades for this semester. I feel that I have not been doing my best in all of my classes because I do not care about them at all for the exception of a few of them on certain days. I'm doing really well in my sociology class but even that I don't give 100%. Then I thought to myself, what do these grades mean anyway? What good is an A if I didn't learn anything? I'm not saying I want to do poorly in my classes or that I want to fail, but I don't know what that A gets me. I'm not in elementary school anymore. I don't get a fun prize for doing well on my report card. Throughout grade school, your grades got you somewhere. Good grades in high school helped you get into college and get scholarships. Since these grades meant something, it was justifiable to take classes that had no meaning for you. But what are college grades good for? If you audit a class about something that you are truly interested in and you learn a whole bunch from that class but you get no grade because you only audited it, then you gained so much more than had you taken a class that you didn't care about and got an A in it. You learned nothing of value in that class you didn't care about but you got your precious A. Where does that A get you? That A doesn't get you a job because you don't care about that subject and you likely didn't learn anything that you will retain anyway. I already proved in high school that I can go to class and get good grades. I have the ability to suck it up and make it work. This is college, why is it seemingly the same deal as high school? I should be able to take classes that I care about and want to learn. Instead, I am taking classes for credits. In reality, I could easily finish my degree this year. However, even if I weren't going to Germany, I would not be able to graduate because I have not taken 120 credits or whatever the silly required amount is. My senior year will consist of 1 German class, my capstone project and 7 or 8 other courses. Those courses will have nothing to do with my major, they will just be empty credits. It is true that I could find some interesting courses that really give me some useful knowledge, but the university makes that so difficult. So many courses are for majors only or they have prerequisites. Most of the classes you can take are basic, may as well be high school, courses. It drives me insane.

When it comes down to it, my biggest problem is that I do not want to spend my life wasting my time. I have heard the argument that this setup of college is helping me because in the "real world" I will have to do things that I have no interest in and I will have to just go with it. Obviously this is partially true, I will always end up having to do some things that I don't want to do but I do not want to make a career out of it. I don't want a job that I hate going to every day. I don't want to feel upset all the time because I am wasting my time at a job I hate and have no interest in. If my job is going to be like my college "career", then I am going to be a very very unhappy person. I have no desire to live this way once I get out of college. I have never been so unhappy in my life and I refuse to continue this once I am done with college.

This comic from Amazingsuperpowers.com pretty much sums this all up.



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Back For Now . . .

ok, I'm back!

First of all, I apologize for being a terrible blogger lately. I have had a ton of stuff to do at school and nothing truly worthy blogging about but I will fill you in for the most part. I finally finished applying to study abroad, that was a ridiculous process. A ton of stuff to fill out, but it's done and I am basically accepted. I had an awesome midterm for my comic class. The class before the midterm, we got into six groups and each group wrote a question. Then we went over the questions and were told to pick two to prepare for the midterm. We could use prepared notes and our notes from class so it was much less stressful than most midterms. I have two food science tests coming up next Thursday, but they are conventional 50 or 100 multiple choice question tests.

To follow up on my last post, the Yankees are in the World Series and tied at a game a piece. I am very excited even though the Phillies scare me a bit, hopefully we can pull it off. GO YANKEES!!!




A few days ago I got an email regarding the pre-sale of the "Love Never Dies" soundtrack. I had yet to hear about this show but apparently, Andrew Lloyd Webber decided to write a sequel to the Phantom of the Opera. What I've gathered so far is that 10 years after the original takes place, the Phantom goes to Coney Island to become a freak show and eventually ends up owning the place. He invites Christine to visit without her knowing that it is him and she shows up with Raoul and their son and from there craziness ensues, i am sure. Check it out. I do not think that it will be as good as the original but I'm not going to pretend that I don't want to see it.


I stared a rant on academic writing but I'm too tired so it was just a big run-on sentence. I will make that into a separate blog post hopefully soon. I'll give you a short preview. Most of the work I do here at UMass is pretty much a waste of time involving minimal thinking and it's really frustrating. I feel like the college degree is basically a membership card that enables you to earn more money. You have to pay four years worth of dues in money and time and then you get a magical piece of paper and supposedly means something.

I have to sleep. Goodnight and GO YANKEES!!!!!

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GO YANKEES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So if you don't already know, I am a huge Yankees fan! I am thrilled at the moment because I just watched the Red Sox lose to the Angels with the help of former Yankee, Bobby Abreu. The Yankees play tonight against the Twins and if they win, then they move on to face the Angels. So naturally, as happy as I am with the Angels at the moment, they are going to need to tone it down a bit because the Yankees are going to have to beat them. The Yankees have not won the World Series in quite awhile, so this is very important. I apologize if this makes no sense and is just a long ramble but I am super super excited right now that the Sox just lost!!!! My boy Andy Pettitte is pitching tonight for the Yankees so I have high hopes!!!!!!! Ohhh man, I love post season baseball! After all if said and done, I will construct a well written blog about the post season. For now . . . GO YANKEES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rant Tuesday

As I promised, being back at UMass has lead me into many a recent rant. On my walk back from class today, I decided that a few of them should be shared with you as well. You may agree with some of them, you may disagree, you may think I'm an even bigger jerk than you previously thought. I'm over it.

First, my most recent rant. I know there are some of you who will disagree with this one. However . . . milk, vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup is NOT a chocolate milkshake. That is a vanilla milkshake with some chocolate syrup. That shit still tastes like vanilla and is not the least big enjoyable for me. Milk, CHOCOLATE ice cream and perhaps some chocolate syrup is a chocolate milkshake which is delicious. Today, between my classes I decided to go get a chocolate milk shake at the campus center. I waited 20 minutes because it was prime feeding hours but the picture lead me to believe that this milkshake would be delicious. (and yes, for those of you at UMass ready to tell me, I know it is frozen yogurt, not ice cream. still delicious.) However, I get up there and watch the girl make it and die a little inside when I see her use the vanilla ice cream. If it were less busy, I probably would have said something but the place was packed and I didn't feel like making this girl's day any worse. I still drank it because I was hungry but it was for sure a vanilla milk shake.
This is a severe problem that I have. I really do not enjoy vanilla ice cream but it is soooo popular around here. I HATE going to a restaurant and every dessert comes with vanilla ice cream and they don't even offer chocolate. If I were ever to open a restaurant I would only serve chocolate and every time someone asked for vanilla I would instruct the servers to come tell me so I could run out yelling "HOW DOES IT FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL!?!?!?!?" yes, it's a little extreme, but I am tired of the injustice.
Moral of the story is, if you ever offer someone a milkshake and they ask for chocolate; do the right thing and use chocolate ice cream.

Another issue that I am having daily here at UMass, specifically in my dorm, is that someone keeps propping the bathroom door open. First of all it's super awkward to just keep it wide open so everyone walking by can check it out. But the real problem is that I live right next to the bathroom. When the door is shut, it's not too much of a problem, but when the door is open I can hear everything. When the hand dryer goes on, I can hear nothing but the obnoxious sound of the epic UMass hand dryers. Everyone time I walk by, I shut the door but there is clearly someone doing the opposite. Perhaps someday we shall meet and battle it out. (as I proof read this, someone has propped it open)

Yesterday's rant is a mix of dumb people and useless people. I went down to the kitchen to wash some dishes and quickly realized that the drank was clogged because someone had put a ton of food down the drain without using the garbage disposal which was now not working at all. I mean, really regardless of the garbage disposal you shouldn't put that much food down the drain, that's just stupid. So, I did the right thing and went to tell an RA. Naturally, my RA is no where to be found, I haven't seen her since the first week of school but I was able to find the 3rd floor RA who basically told me there was nothing she could do about.

This leads me into another rant about the kitchen here. It is DISGUSTING. I don't know where these people are from but they clearly have MUCH lower standards of food preparation sanitation than I do. The counters constantly have huge puddles of water and other spilled liquids and the stove is always crusted over with food and sauce. Some how these girls think that they can just use the kitchen and leave it like that and the kitchen fairy will come and clean it for them. We do have a cleaning guy, but he doesn't sit outside the kitchen and clean it after every use. I have no meal plan, 80% of my food is made in that kitchen and it's disgusting. I'm not the most cleanly person, but I can barely tolerate it.

Another extreme inconvenience is that my mailbox combination is wrong. There are quite a few people here who can not get into their mailboxes. I spoke to an RA who was with another girl having the same problem. She told me to talk to the cluster office. They had had several other people with the same complaint. They took my info and I have not heard back. I don't even know how this is possible. How do you suddenly give out the wrong combination when you had the right ones last semester. The best part is, they have no idea how to fix this problem. AHHH, these people kill me. I have no idea how this university runs.

I think that's enough ranting for now.


Today's recipe is the chocolate milk shake

milk
chocolate ice cream
chocolate syrup
blend into creamy chocolaty deliciousness.



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Back to School Edition

Alrighty, so I've been at UMass for a little over a week now and I am finally getting around to writing about it. It's been a semi-eventful week I guess.

First off, I was pleasantly surprised when I got to my room. It was much bigger than I expected it to be. I have plenty of room for all of my stuff and a massive closet which is very helpful. I will post some pictures at the end.

It took me until Thursday to figure out my schedule. I had to drop my women's studies class because I definitely did not fit in. Everyone was a feminist vegetarian (it was a class on women and food) and most were women's studies majors. Also, the professor felt the need to bash Thanksgiving on her syllabus which I found completely unnecessary. She went on about how its a day of mourning for the genocide of the indigenous people. Pleeeeeeeeease. I HATE how many pretentious hippy professors there are here at UMass. If their beliefs and ideas have something to do with the subject they are teaching, then I can bear to listen to them. But to just randomly share your hippy ideals with us is not helpful, it just makes me angry.
Also I had a teacher who (not his fault) made us get our books at a certain downtown Amherst bookstore (Not Amherst Books). I HATE this bookstore but apparently everyone in the sociology department uses it and this professor is new so I can't blame him. But anyway, my reasoning for disliking this bookstore is that last year, Jon had to buy a book there for one of his classes and the book was about capitalism. The woman at the register looks at the book and says something like "ugh! Capitalism! Why would you even buy this book!?" and Jon was like "Um, it's for a class, calm down" That is so unnecessary. Obviously its the beginning of the semester and he got it from the text book section, he's not just picking it up for a nice read. Ugh, I hate hippies like that! If they would just keep their hippiness to themselves, then I would have no problem with them but they insist on trying to get everyone around them to become hippies too. I don't go around trying to get them to use the text book annex (although life would be much easier if they would!) or make them shop at macy's or something. Hippies that just live their lives and let other be are perfectly fine with me, but some of these professors are ridiculous.

I also dropped my anthro class because it was terribly boring. I picked up two food science classes in place of the two dropped classes. They're both really big just get the notes and take the test classes. Those are the best.

My favorite class is "Comic Art in North America" because I'm a huge nerd. The professor is super cool and used to work for Kitchen Sink Press. He worked with Will Eisner and wrote a few books about him.

Last night I saw Bo Burnham with Jess, Craig and Kenny, that was exciting! He was funny as always. Amy Anderson was with him as well, I had never heard of her, but she is real funny as well. Afterwards (apparently that's not a word?) I hung out with Craig and Kenny for the rest of the night which was exciting because I'm pretty sure it was the first time I'd been out of my dorm passed 10 o'clock (I'm a terribly boring college student)

Today Umass Laundry struck again!! We have brand new washer and dryers BUT the card reader doesn't work so you have to use quarters. I had to go to the snack machine, put in a few dollars and press the coin return to get enough to do the laundry. Nothing kills me more than the incompetancy of UMass.

Today's recipe is a snow pea salad

1 lb fresh snow peas
1 T olive oil
1 orange pepper (or red, yellow or green) julienned or chopped
1 clove minced garlic
3 T honey

In a skillet, saute the snow peas in olive oil for 3 minutes. Add pepper and garlic and saute for another minute or two. Add the honey and season with salt and pepper.

pics of the new room!

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ACH NEIN! DAS SCHMUTZIGE WASSER!!!!!

Alright, once again, i apologize for not posting. Not being at work gave me less time to sit around and think about stuff to write about. However, I think today I've got some good stories.

First of all, I've been packing to head back to school. By packing, its more like I decide what to bring and what I don't need to bring and my mom magically fits it all into boxes. She's like the Michael Phelps of packing minus the pot. Regardless of her packing abilities, I still have like 7 boxes to bring, most of which is filled with cooking stuff. My Dad says that him and my mom didn't have that much crap in their first apartment, he's probably right. Every time I look at it all I'm like, "I need help."
I've also received like 12 e-mails already from school which is a little annoying. However, one was the list of first week activities going on and I learned that Bo Burnham is the comedian this year!!!! I was super excited until I realized I have about 2 friends left on campus. Hopefully I will find some more friends and someone to go with. All the other events also made me a little sad thinking of how many people have either dropped out, transferred, graduated or moved off campus. Then again, I won't be on campus next semester either . . .


Now for the highlight of today's Blog . . . dun dun dunnnn

THE GLOUCESTER WATER CRISIS OF 2009!

As some of you surely know, Gloucester has been under a boil order for about 12 days now. It's a long story but levels of coliform bacteria are much too high for the state's approval. For those of you who do not know: coliform bacteria are harmless bacteria that naturally show up in water. However, too much of it can be an indicator that e-coli could also be in the water. Therefore, when coliform bacteria levels are high, precautionary boiling needs to be mandated in case e-coli does show up and people get POed that they weren't warned. However, even after intense chlorination the levels of coliform bacteria are not going down. In fact, they have gone up recently. People in Gloucester are super POed because they are terrified to go near the water. There were problems with the way the city handled this issue but I won't go there for now. This blog is about how the wonderful people of Gloucester are responding.

I get these awesome Gloucester opinions from my daily perusal of the Gloucester Daily Times online.
A popular opinion seems to be that people are under the impression that stomach problems did not exist before the water problems. People are posting about how they got sick from the water . . . to which I typically can't stop myself from replying and reminding them that the water can't get them sick right now and that other things in the world can create stomach problems. My favorite variation of this is the claim that they had heartburn once the boil order began. For any of you who may have ever experienced e-coli, you can probably vouch that heart burn is wonderful in comparison. I promptly reminded these folks that it could also have been their dinner that caused their heartburn. I tried not to get involved in posting, but I just can't help it.

Perhaps my favorite and least favorite is a person who comments on every article having to do with the water problem and always mentions how the water made their dog sick and they had to put it down. Sounds like a victim . . . until you find out this dog was 13 years old with cancer OH and then you remember that dogs have way better immune systems when it comes to these types of bacteria. Of course the cancer that was killing this poor dog probably destroyed its immune system . . . still it's EXTREMELY unlikely that the water had anything to do with the death of this poor dog. I try and keep my mouth shut with this person because loosing your dog suck and I'm not a very sensitive person when it comes to these types of people. I didn't want to offend them and make them even more upset, but really. I lost it today and responded something along the lines of "I'm sorry about your dog, but the water didn't kill your dog. Dogs naturally have better systems to deal with these bacteria and they are meant to eat raw foods that can expose them to these bacteria anyway." Some one agreed with me and mentioned that their dog eats poop. That person is rawrsome.

Most people rant about how terrible the mayor is for this whole thing. They have a point, it wasn't really handled correctly but they make it seem like no one is trying to fix the problem. The water is currently chlorinated more than a pool and still the bacteria count is growing. They shut down the Babson reservoir to clean the entire thing. You can't say they aren't trying.
We still wash our dishes in it and no one here has gotten sick. Sassy drinks out of the sink and she hasn't gotten sick. I understand the importance of the boil order and think it is the right thing to do. E-coli can be quick to follow in these numbers of coliform bacteria. However, I'm not freaking out right now. There was an article today that said most other people aren't really freaking out right now either. Luckily, for our enjoyment, those who are freaking out are posting it on the GDT's website.
Oh Gloucester . . .


Today's recipe!

This is getting a little difficult because i keep forgetting which recipes I've posted . . .OH Schnitzel!

Schnitzel is one of my favvvvvorite foods!

Basic schnitzel is quite easy!

4 thinly sliced veal or pork cutlets
flour
2 eggs
breadcrumbs

Season the cutlets with garlic powder. Dredge the cutlets by putting them into the flour, then the eggs, then the breadcrumbs. Place them into a frying pan with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and cook about 2 to 3 minutes on each side.

mmmmmmm


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* update! I received a ridiculous response to my post and I just need to share . . .


Me: we are required to boil the water as a precaution in case e-coli gets into the water, which it hasn't. I'm sorry to hear about your dog, but the water didn't kill your dog. Dogs naturally have much better immune systems than we do when it comes to such bacteria. Remember that dogs are naturally meant to eat raw foods that would expose them to these types and more serious bacteria.
I've been washing my dishes in the water since the boil order started and no one in my house has gotten sick. My cat drinks from the sink everyday and she is fine. My dog drinks out of the toilet sometimes, he's fine.

Rawrsome Person: I agree. I grew up w/a dog that loved to eat 'actual poop' from the yard, and she lived to the ripe old age of 14, which is 98 in human years 4 those counting. I loved that dog (I didnt' "love it" when she licked me tho...)

Annoying Person: that is ridiculous to say we are boiling water as a "precaution to e-coli". In every water-related news article, they have always stated that we are boiling water due to the "coliform contamination". There has never been any positive test for e-coli, so why then the boil water order ??? I'm sorry...that doesn't make any sense.

Me: the coliform contamination is an indicator that e-coli can also easily infect the water. The coliform itself can't cause that much of a problem. Therefore, we are boiling the water because there is high chance that e-coli can also infect the water right now.

Me getting more annoyed looks up total coliform: "Total coliform bacteria are commonly found in the environment (e.g., soil or vegetation) and are generally harmless. If only total coliform bacteria are detected in drinking water, the source is probably environmental. Fecal contamination is not likely. However, if environmental contamination can enter the system, there may also be a way for pathogens to enter the system. Therefore, it is important to find the source and resolve the problem."

-http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/dw/programs/coliform.htm (my source)



*Another classic convo!

Person who boggles my mind: "the type of coliform bacteria we're dealing with won't get you sick like that."

Really? And what about people who have low immune systems, people who are HIV, people on chemo? Like Grimmy stated, the powers-that-be have known about this since Aug. 4, and let's remember that the public wasn't notified until Aug. 21. Knowing that, do you really think they're going to admit to illness stemming from this "problem"?

"If the water were to get you sick, it would likely be from e-coli which we don't have."

After all that's gone on in the last month, how can you be so positive about that?
I've lived in this city for 55 years....I wish I could be so optimistic.

Me: Because there are worse things that can happen.

Person who boggles my mind: Such as?

Me losing my mind: seriously!? What's worse than having to boil your water for a few weeks!?

How about a hurricane wiping out your entire city, you probably have pretty bad water and OH you probably don't have a house either!

Maybe a wildfire destroying your entire city, again, no house!

How about finding our your 20 year old daughter was killed in a car crash. I don't have kids, but I'd rather have e-coli. And NO, this can not be compared to losing your dog. I have lost dogs before and I know people that have lost children, it is NOT the same!

Those are just a few things that are worse than having to boil your water.

Suggestions and Stories

Today I have another random post. I have collected some stuff over the weekend and beginning of the week to share with you. Luckily, most of them are leads to help continue to treat your boredom.

First off, I saw Inglorious Basterds on Friday. Good movie, go see it. However, be warned that there is not as much action as you may think from the previews. Brad Pitt is hysterical in it and Eli Roth is a major BA. There is a kind of long stretch of not-so-exciting in the middle, but the end is worth it.

On Sunday I watched the first episode of "What Would Brian Boitano Make?" on the Food Network. EXCELLENT show. Brian Boitano is so fabulous!!! He was super entertaining. The intro was of course the infamous "What Would Brian Boitano Do?" song from South Park which is part of what makes this show so awesome! The show airs on Sundays at 1, I insist that you all must watch it!
After I watched his show, I became a fan of his on facebook and left him a comment telling him how awesome the show was. Today I looked on his official website and he had a section for the show. On that page, he had displayed some comments that he had received about the show and one of them was mine!!!!!!! It was sooooooo exciting I didn't even know what to do!!! He is just as awesome as South Park promised he would be.

Another source of infinite entertainment is gloucestertimes.com. This is the website for the Gloucester daily times. You can read the articles if you want, but I just like the read the comments on the articles. Most of them are so typically Gloucester its almost disgusting. Once in awhile someone makes a good point too. Usually they're just great for a rofl or an lol.

Today at work I took a trip across the street to the hospital to pick up something for the office over inRadiology and it reminded me of some other trips that I have taken over there. Every time it amazes me how far you can get into a hospital without anyone questioning you. Today, I went into radiology and asked about the package and they gave it to me, that was normal. However, I then proceeded, in normal clothing, to walk right out of the main entrance with a cart and two boxes from radiology and no one questioned me. I then walked across the street and dropped them off and went back into the hospital with the cart and brought it back. The people in radiology knew what I was doing but you would think maybe someone would wonder why some random girl is leaving with a cart of boxes marked "Radiology". Another time I went in a back entrance, again in normal clothing. First of all, no one stopped me from going in that random back entrance that went into the labs. Then I couldn't find where I was going nor could I find someone to ask. Therefore, my plan was to stand around until someone came out. For about 5 minutes I looked at a rather strange picture in the hallway. There were people in the labs that could clearly see me, but I could not get to them to ask them for help. If I were one of those people, I would have thought that I had escaped from the psych ward. I just stood there looking at this picture, but no one came out and questioned it. I began to feel really awkward so I left that hallway, again no questions. I then walked down another hallway all the way until I got to a loading dock. Even on the loading dock, I had to ask the two people out there, they really didn't seem to bothered that I was there. . . wtf?? Another time, Jon and I went to go see my grandmother in the hospital. We walked in the main entrance and all the way up into her room and no one seemed to mind. This is very concerning for me. I guess today's PSA is "Watch out for random people in the hospital"

Here is a recipe from Brian Boitano's new show!!!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/brian-boitano/cappuccino-panna-cotta-recipe/index.html