New year.. new what?

CAR! Wallet? ... cell phone? A new year just means that: a new calendar year. It should be a time for celebration; I mean its the last time we will celebrate anything until Valentine's Day**, and still some of us dislike that "holiday" anyway.

New year's eve always has its expectations: we want to go to the coolest party, be surrounded by everyone we know, watch every one get drunk and have a blast.

The list:

1) "Everyone" is throwing a party. That means that people will be scattered and it will be impossible to see them all in one place.

2) Poor cell phone companies. Texts start lagging worse than Windows 95. Bad news? Yes, you will be getting "happy new year!!" (or "hpapy wen yea!!!" from your drunkies) texts even at 2am. Oh and I feel bad for you with friends in different time zones.

3) People ask you about your new year resolutions. If you're a hardcore smoker, your answer is expected to be "quit smoking", so the other person has to pretend that "to find a girlfriend" is just as 'good' of an answer. Talk about an awkward moment..

4) You start hearing these same words everywhere:

• goodbye 2009
• be safe
• remember that *insert something cheesy here*
• let's make 2010 better

and from our emo friends,

• 2009 sucked

About that third bullet though.. I just realized that one of the things that always comes up is the reflections. The Rolling Stone magazine has lists of the top movies, music, and everything. We see those lists all over the place, all of the events (Obama, war, deaths) that happened are brought up. Then you have the astrologers predicting the future. Maybe that is what this is about: reflecting. And its like a reflex, after reflecting we make a vision: we set our goals, and plan on meeting them.

Lets stay motivated my friends,

Happy new year!

**With the exception of the birthdays in between: Jonathan, Kai, Mark, Ricky, Mariana, Daniel, Jamie, Geoffrey, Jesus, Ivan, Freddy, Mireya, Rachel aka Russell, Martiza, Shannon, Casey, Eunice, LeAndre, Lisa (it's your birthday.. happy birthday Lisa..), Savannah, Jason, Jose, Pat, Lizette, Andrea, Obi, Marques, Charlotte, and Tony.

-------- Noted comment "We must learn"-----------

Kaitlin:

"game boy/walkman/ play boy: all to do with the word play. boys like to play games. entice the "man"-who has more money than the boy) to go exercise with a walkMAN and playboy? what guy doesnt want to remember when he was in the prime of his youth and could play with the best of them?"

Thanks, it makes a ton of sense.. kudos!

We must learn

While I was growing up and learning about the world around me, the strangest thing I had to learn to understand had to do with my shoes. No, it wasn't how to tie them, or even understanding why certain people owned a ton of pairs; it was that there was one shoe specifically designed for one foot. Why didn't the left shoe fit well on the right foot? What if I wanted the design to be facing the other way? Nope, it wasn't going to happen. Eventually, I gave it up and started thinking about other things.. and later I realized that some of these are just wrong.

For one, beds are usually shaped like rectangles. Longer from one side and shorter on the other. Why must sheets and blankets be shaped this way too? I guess it looks better... But I really think that blanket designers have to think that the blanket should be made to benefit the person, not so much benefit the look of the bed. I'll tell you what I mean:

Suppose it is a cold winter night and you are woken up by your legs being cold. What do you do? You try to adjust the blanket over you in order to cover your whole body.. but it doesn't work! What the heck is going on? The blanket is turned on its side. Now you must do a weird kick-thing and get the blanket to turn to the "correct" way. You didn't only become more awake because of this, but also you must deal with the cold areas of the blanket. The point is that it would be less of a problem if the blankets were shaped like squares, or even circles (OK, maybe squares are better). Yeah, the bed would look a little different with a square blanket, but I think it would be worth it.

Other things took some time to get used to:

• Why was the Game Boy called that? It wasn't a boy. Walk Man? Same thing. Then again, Playboy.. hmm.. anyway, its just wrong.
• I always felt younger than I actually was. I thought of this: When I was a 3rd grader, the 5th graders seemed a lot bigger and older; but as soon as I got to be that age, I felt like I wasn't old enough to be a 5th grader. In high school, I saw college students as adults; now that I'm in college, I don't feel so old.
• Women. Well just interaction between genders in general. You probably know what I mean.

All I can say now is: Oh well. I wouldn't know what to answer if a child asked me why blankets are shaped that way, or even why the name "watermelon" fits the fruit so perfectly.

Can anybody think of any answers, or bring up other things that take time to get used to?

--From an idea brought up by Vienna, thanks!--

Levels of Awkwardness

Obviously, certain situations are more awkward than others. In reading this, you will notice that it includes different situations in which awkwardness is involved, which are ranked from least to most awkward.

There is a list being created, but here only the top three are listed for your entertainment.

1) Having someone hear you say "hi" to somebody that does not hear you no matter how many times, or how loud, you say it. However, if you give up, it will only seem worse. I'm not suggesting that you keep trying, though; I'm just saying that you're on your own on this one. After you realize that the person will not hear you no matter what, there's no real need to say "Yeah, he can't hear me". We know. Just leave it alone.

2) A certain type of hug or handshake. I am not speaking necessarily from personal experience, but you might be one of those people that lean to one side when you hug... now, what happens when you both lean toward the same side? Yeah, that. Oh and then you both decide to change sides at the same time it gets bad. I still don't get the handshake thing; for guys, there is a friendly handshake, a "what's up?" handshake, and a formal handshake (for further details, ask a guy). What is weird about this is that sometimes you mix 'em up and usually don't know what the heck kind of game the other person is playing with your hand.

3) Farts. (At the library)Some time ago, I posted something about a guy farting at the library, but the whole situation just added to the fun. The guy was falling asleep, he fell off his chair, and the fart (his own fart) woke him up. I couldn't help at laughing, but it was definitely awkward. It can get worse, though: Imagine you are in the car with someone else (just one other person) and a certain smell starts to rise from the seat toward the ceiling. There are only two of you, so whoever didn't cause the damage knows that it was the other person! But hey it might be unhealthy to hold it in anyway, right?

Restaurant

Sitting at a restaurant by yourself isn't awkward, it is actually fun. A lot of people make "people watching" a hobby and turns out to be one of those really cool timewasters (wait, what is another word for hobby?). Though I do enjoy being by myself, friends always make it funner.

At any rate, so you go go out with your friends to a restaurant and try to enjoy yourselves. In order of importance, when I am trying to "hang out" with my friends here is what matters the most: the conversation, the environment, the service, the food.

What!?

The food matters the least? How is that possible at a restaurant? C'mon, I came up with that list in like 2 seconds. I don't know if its entirely correct, but at the moment I believe it is. My rationale is: at any restaurant, there has to be one thing that you can eat on that menu that you can keep in your stomach for longer than an hour. Do you really think that your friends will drag you to a place that only serves live animals? No.

Restaurant visits tend to be the same for me all of the time. Except when I go with a lot of people (8 or more)... then everything is different. For instance:

1) We rarely just walk in and get a table right away.

2) "Water please.." Before you know it , everyone else begins ordering water as well. If you say that you want Coke, you will look unhealthy (c'mon, we're comparing it to water here!) and if you ask for a Diet Coke, you look like a fatty (also unhealthy). Eh, I usually go with the flow.. water all around!

3) "The" conversation turns into many conversations at the table, and you are forced to only converse with those directly next to you or across from you. Anything else is just strange. Can you imagine a cross (two diagonal) conversations? Confusing!

4) Paying is impossible. All the time. I mean you know its gonna happen, it's gonna be extremely disorganized, and you don't plan for it anyway. Somehow we always feel like we have to pay with cash in those occasions; the restaurant still accepts different forms of payment, people. We once had a problem at Hooters over paying.. but I don't remember it.

Going to a restaurant with a lot of people is fun though. I've always liked it. And yeah, most of the time I understand why that 15% tip is automatically included.

Facebook chat

So pretend its 5am. You are likely extremely bored, and cannot go to sleep. You end up on facebook (like I always do) and you notice that there is one other person on facebook chat; however, you don't really talk to this person that much.

Awkward.

It makes you wonder several things, you know? Like "Why are we even [facebook] friends?", "Should I talk to that person? Am I THAT bored?" Sometimes the idea of changing my settings so that facebook chat doesn't show me online crosses my mind just to avoid those moments. Just like I think of all those questions, they might wonder some things too. I say its safe to say that it matches the Level of Awkwardness* of that of making eye contact with a person that is leaving the restroom without washing their hands.

What the heck could that person be doing up at 5am?

He or she is wondering the same thing about you, man.

What's worse is when you have been online for a long time, and still haven't talked to each other. Here is your solution: make yourself think that the other person has not seen you online or, better yet, hasn't discovered the facebook chat feature on facebook. Another way is to assume that the person has more people online (with the green dot, unlike you with all your moon people**).

*A blog post later to come on edwincov.blogspot.com

**Refers to the "idle" status on facebook indicated by a little crescent moon icon, something that I still don't understand.

Finals week

Probably one of the most dangerous places to be in during these times of the academic year is a college campus. Just by walking around the usually crowded and noisy areas, you notice the huge difference. Theres a strange silence that you can't seem to ignore no matter how hard you try. People walk around with notebooks and sheets of paper in their hands. . . and refuse to smile. Don't worry too much though, the other students don't mean to be looking at you with a mean stare: its a normal illusion that comes from the bags under their eyes.

After going through several finals weeks the last couple of years, I have come up with certain important tips to survive this week.

Please remember: People are trying to prove to themselves that sleep isn't a factor for them. These students have probably deprived themselves from eating because the microwave takes too long, and you know, because their stomachs probably aren't feeling well due to the energy drink intake.

1) Avoid dark corners- Common sense, right? Don't avoid them only because you might get mugged but also because dark corners (along with a place to sit) are the most tempting places to fall asleep.

2) Energy drinks- Do not leave them unattended. Enough said.

O.K., but seriously now:

3) Don't stare- We all know we will probably look like crap. Even a simple "You look tired" might break up a friendship. Let's be be careful, friends.

4) Hang out?- Only invite those who are smiling (or logged into facebook) to eat or hang out. Establishing rules for hanging out will be particularly common during these times; You will have to agree on time limits, a maximum distance you can go (e.g. as a radius: "Alright, but we must stay within a 3-mile radius, I have a final in a couple of hours"), and maybe even a number of people limit.

5) Let it go- If someone takes too long to give you your coffee, let it go. I once saw a guy cuss out his shoe because he stepped on some gum during finals week; it wasn't his shoe's fault . . . (it was the gum's!)

Be very careful while driving, drowsy driving is unsafe. . remember to your best to finish strong.

Good luck!

P.S. Plan ahead! Make sure you have an arranged place to knock out after your last final, you wouldn't want to fight over a futon. Not this week, at least.

Cell phone

Who hasn't pretended to be on their cell phone before?

Isn't it the thing to do when you are in an awkward situation? Picture this, you are walking from your lecture classroom to the library and you see someone that you know approaching you from the other direction. Chances are one of you is either checking the time, texting, or pretending to be talking to somebody on the cell phone.

Or picture this one: you are waiting for someone to pick you up from a coffee shop. Instead of looking like a weirdo doing nothing but staring at people (which some people openly do and admit it), you pretend like you are doing something important on your cell phone. Isn't it awesome? I do it all the time. Maybe I just feel like I have to be doing something when I am in a crowded place. I can't just do nothing (like I do when I'm not around many people). And you gotta admit, if you are walking around and you see somebody just sitting there doing nothing, you might wonder what the heck is up.

Moments when I take out my cell phone without a need to do so:

• Walking from the student center back to the engineering building. (Hey, maybe someone texted me in those 3 minutes I didn't check my phone and I didn't feel the strong vibration from my pocket. Its possible.)
• When I make eye contact with somebody and it turns weird so we are forced to look away.

Next time you take out your cell phone, pay attention and notice if you are doing it because you want to, or if it was a reflex to one of the above situations.

Which reminds me . . I had to take out my cell phone at 7-Eleven today:

Like or dislike the coat? Comments welcome!

-Via edwincov.blogspot.com- have one? Share it!