Forget the red state/blue state connections that are based on political parties or ideals. Here is a map that shows us one of the greatest divisions within our country.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t think any of my crayon creations that hung on my mother’s refrigerator every looked like this.
I might have been wrong all those times I said “It can’t hurt to wait a few more years” as I took off on various activities to slow down my eventual graduation and moving on in the world. Exhibit A shows that in the past 3 years the price of new homes in the US has increased by the same amount as it did between the Great Depression and the Dot Com boom.
So it was decided by my employer that I had to take today off and instead I have to work this weekend to make up the time. What prompted this abnormal work schedule? Well in South Carolina you might call it a light rain, maybe even just a summer shower. This particular storm got its own name, so it must be big news. Despite the fact that I walk to class regularly in much worse weather during my college years, since this had a name, work was canceled, satelitte dishes taken down, schools closed, and we have new casters stationed all day on the coast reporting on its progress. During the “bad” part of the storm, I drove across town to get some Bar-B-Que and sweet tea. Sheesh, I expect more from Floridians.
I find myself strangly drawn to this. Its a visualization of airflights from, to, and within the US. Its amazing how clear Florida shows up during parts of the day. Everyone wants to visit FL.
Why is it that astronomers are suddenly so confused about how many planets we have? Two weeks ago they were saying we needed to add three more to the list. Now they say we need to take one away. Think of the children, people. Consider all of the mnemonic devices people are going to have to rewrite.
it looks like such a simple game, but it isn’t
So the other day I finally broke down and achieved another milestone in the transistion from nomatic college student to a fully realized adult. I bought a kitchen table. No longer will I be forced to eat with various portions of my meal scattered about on whatever surface is easiest to reach while still preventing coke flavored carpet. I can now have soup for dinner without worry that an ill-timed sneeze could send me to the emergency room. I have also doubled my total available seats in the apartment to 8. I could even conceiveable have people over for dinner. Speaking of which, anyone want to come over for dinner sometime?
So I guess I should add this to my list:
things to find
It should be noted that I learned a very important lesson while aquiring my table in chairs. That lesson was that I am, in fact, not an ant. While I was vaguely aware of this most of my life due to the two legs, height measured in feet, and the indoskeleton, this particular day I noticed that I don’t have the ant’s ability to single handedly lift several times their body weight. I don’t think anyone was watching, but if they had been, I would have been quite the spectical trying to lift a box containing my future 5-piece dining area out of my car and the slowly but surely waddle my way from the car to my front door. This took almost 10 minutes and I am proud to stay I only nearly cause permanent damage to myself 3 or 4 times. But now it sits in my eating nook, just waiting to collect piles of papers or some such clutter.
Someone mentioned something to me the other day, and I feel its worth commenting on. The statement was simply “Chiverly is dead today.” It should be mentioned that this person was female, and additionally that I don’t think it had anything to do with anything I did. This is actually a subject I have heard discussions/complaints about a lot recently. Usually the topic comes up in response to men not doing what women think they should, like holding a door open, or paying for meals, etc. The interesting thing about this is that these little acts that we collectively call “chiverly” today, I would suspect are rooted in a history that is more practical than polite. Today these practical needs have largely disappeared, leaving behind only the expectation of action for the sake of social grace.
Take for example the practice of opening doors for women. Door opening has never stuck me as being a particularly difficult task, nor does having a door held for me save me any significant effort or time. Add on to this the complications that arise with multiple doorways and such, and then everyone would get through the doors faster if they just held their own doors. Why then do we have this tradition of hold doors for women? My guess, which is backed up by none of that research people hold to, is that the practice game from the time when women had very large and somewhat rigid dresses. To open a door, you have to be reasonably close to the door, maybe even pushing on it with your body, however if your legs where surrounded by a 4 foot hoop, doing so would probably result in the embarassing display of a ladies ankles. To spare these ladies this public humilation, men would open their doors for them. Today, this couldn’t be farther from being an issue.
Now lets look at meal financing. In the not-so-distant past, the chances of a women having money of their own was pretty slim. Women didn’t hold paying jobs, they tended to live with their parents until they lived with a husband, and the only thing that made sense was for the man to pay for him and the woman. Women were basically cared for by the men around them, whether it be their father, husband, or courter. But the reason for this was that they didn’t have any money of their own. That was the system. In the more recent past, that changed. Women start working at the same time as men, and make roughly the same amount of money. Why then if they both have their own money, and the girl is just as likely to have initiated the meeting, should the guy be expected to foot the bill?
Basically, in all this I am not trying to say doing those things are bad. On the contrary, I practice a number of the “chiverlous”� manners, and other I see no problem with at least under certain conditions. What I am saying is that women today shouldn’t be too suprised to find the norms of 50 years ago practiced today. In fact if women, as a whole, have anyone to blame for the death calls of chiverly, it is themselves. The feminist movement has done a pretty good job of convincing us that the genders are equal and equalizing the opportunities and life situations of the both sides. Chiverly, by its definition, is the honoring of women. If everyone is equal, why should one group be expected to honor the other group?
Thoughts?
an article was released yesterday that, amount other things, mentions that typical people only call 4 people on their cellphones. I just looked through the call logs on my cellphone. As it turns out, in the past month or so that the log covers, I have called out to 8 people, but only 3 of those where more than 2 times. Incidently, I have now had this phone for just over a year, and it is my only phone so in the past year I have talked exactly 43 hours, 49 minutes, and 18 seconds on a phone. That averages 219 minutes a month. That, for those who have questioned me, is why I don’t need a plan with 1000 minutes a month.
