Some unsolicited advice

For stupid people: People do not think. Or they are inconsiderate on purpose. If you are the first person into a lecture theatre, do not sit on the end of the row. Because then, either people have to climb over you, or you have to get up. So much effort. Just walk a few extra steps to the middle of the row of seats to avoid all that hassle.

Because, really? It's not a plane. There are no 'good seats'. You're here to learn. Just do it.

For disinterested people:
The girl sitting next to me (but one seat away, you know how it is, god forbid you actually sit next to someone) spent the who lecture reading. Not lecture notes, not research, but a novel. Now for all I know, it was a compulsory text for another class. However, the fact remains that she did not take one single note from the lecture, and I doubt her powers of concentration are good enough to enable her to take in what she was reading and the lecture at the same time.

Do you not think we pay enough to be going here, that's it's a school it's even a little bit hard to get into and therefore people who would actually work hard would love to trade places with you, enough that you could actually spend 50 minutes to listen to the person you're paying to hear?

For bus driver people:
So you're at the bus-stop on campus, you're wearing a backpack, your arms are full of folders and textbooks, and what does the driver say? "I need to see a student ID." WFT?! Like I would seriously impersonate a student to get a cheaper bus ride. If I was going to impersonate someone, it for sure wouldn't be someone who has to take the bus.

Blurb.com

For anyone who's ever thought, "I could write a book," this site is perfect.

It's kinda the next step for bloggers and whatever you call people who have lots of photo albums on the web: you design/write your book on the web - you can upload words and pictures, and there's different layouts to choose from - for free, then if you want a hard-cover of the book, you pay, they send.

I would imagine there's lots of people who would never actually see their book in hard cover, but it's another internet toy to play with.

Blurb.com

Tips for Doing Presentations

Make sure you know how to operate things: overheads, powerpoints, whiteboard markers.

Make sure you know how to pronounce words. For example: nuances is not nuisances.

If you don't know how to pronounce something, ask.
If you do ask, for godsake, listen to the answer and pronounce the word correctly from then on.

Reading straight from a piece of paper, not terribly inspiring. Reading from notecards is just stupid. The point of them is so you don't have to read word for word.

If you are going to read a passage from a book, make sure you know which page, which passage, which book.
Even better, just include the passage, yes word for word, on your speech or notecards. Then you don't have to go searching while the audience stares off into space for so long that by the time you finally find it, they have no idea what relevence the passage has to whatever the hell you were going on about three hours before when the search began.

At least pretend to be interested in what you're saying. If you're not, why the hell should we be?

I am a little annoyed

Bloggy things that are annoying me right now:

The word blog. This is not a nice word. I do not like it. It sounds so . . . bloggy. Ick.

People who post nothing but movie clips. Some of these are very funny. Some are very boring. Some would only be of interest to the person who posted them, hence, why bother posting at all. (Ok, let's not go there.) How am I supposed to be able to tell the difference? Also, some of us have limited download. We can't spend all day checking out your little video thingys. Be a little selective is all I'm asking.

People who post nothing but links. If it was interesting enough for you to post about, then how about you actually post it??? Or at least, your opinions, thoughts, random musing. This is what the blogosphere is for.

To sum up:
I like reading your interesting comments about funny/meaningful things you may have seen elsewhere.
Also, I am very lazy.

Sshhh

So I was at the library, looking for something to read that wouldn't tax my brain too much. A mother was looking in the aisle behind me, with a kid kinda sooking in a pram and another she sent off to return some books. So the younger one is not too happy, she's doing her best to calm him down with lots of pleading "shh"s and all. I glance over, I don't even know why, and she fully starts apologising.

Ok lady, you have two (at least) young kids with you at a public library. We're standing right on the edges of the kids' section which was constructed specifically so that kids could be noisy there. Do not apologise for a baby doing what comes naturally.

Read him a book maybe though.