Is everyone as excited as I am? I have had waited a WEEK to get this out!!
But before I get started, has anyone heard about Rush Limbaugh's latest bit of political slander? Lady Obama, who is currently investing interest in childhood obesity, was caught on a recent vacation eating a meal consisting of greasy, fatty, ribs and other horrifyingly delicious foods, and then Rush Limbaugh has the nerve to comment on her very acceptable shape of frame saying that if she is going to be taking an active position in obesity issues, maybe she should practice what she preaches. Well, in case nobody knows, Rush Limbaugh is a fat, greasy obese slob of a man who has absolutely NO right to comment on the physical physique of a woman who at least appears to take quite good care of herself. I am pretty sure that even if you are fighting to solve obesity problems, you are allowed to eat a bit of fatty unhealthy food while you are on vacation, and it doesn't make you a hypocrite. Who is he to say that she doesn't eat healthy the rest of the time that she isn't being exposed by media? Just saying Rush maybe you should be concerned with your own fat fucking ass before you even dare attack someone else. Don't even think about dessert.
Anyways, as promised an entry about technology. As much as I hate to disappoint, its NOT about anti-lasers. If you were expecting anti-lasers, you might as well stop reading now.
Let me start off by saying I haven't been to a library in quite some time (I know shame on me!), so I am not 100% sure about this, but when was the last time you went to a library and saw a card catalog? Remember those big wooden shelves full of small drawers that you would open up according to letter and flip through a bunch of those cards until you found the book you were looking for? You would then have to write down the number, authors name, and whatever other information you were required to find it on the shelf. What I am getting at is I am not even sure if they exist anymore. I don't remember seeing them in the library the last time I was there, and why would there be? We have computers right?
Oh do we EVER have computers! We have phones that are computers, we have computers that are computers, we have TV's, and video games, and chip and pin credit cards. Its a wonderful time to be alive, with all these conveniences right at our fingertips. Think about the last time you wrote a hand written letter to someone and mailed it. I mean a REAL letter, not just a thank you or birthday card. You can even just text your regards these days. Email is also the new black. When was the last time you didn't use Facebook at ALL to get a hold of all your friends to go out for beers on a Saturday? Sure I get unlimited evening and weekend phone calls on my cellphone and I probably make 5 calls a month. Remember when you took a picture on a camera and you had to make it really count because you couldn't just pull it up on a screen and delete it if you didn't like it?
Where am I going with this, who cares right? Well, what I am finding funny is that the more I hear about my 6 year old niece going to school (Grade 1), the more I am hearing about her requirement to use computers to learn, be expected to do large math problems with little addition and subtraction background to follow her, and her dependence on technology to help her live her life. Computers are only a tool to help you do work more efficiently, and effectively. If you can't read and write, how can you type? If you don't know how to do math, how can you get by without a calculator? If you can't read a card catalog, how are you going to find a book in the library? This is the kind of emphasis we are putting on our children of today, to learn how to use technology, its the way of the future. You know what though, I don't have kids. If I got a girl pregnant tomorrow it would still be 9 months before I even HAD a kid and another few years before they went to school, so why should I care whats going on in our education systems right? My kids aren't there. No thats WRONG.
This new generation of kids are going to be OUR future when we get old, just like how we are our parents future now. What happens when you become the boss of some big company and you have to make a bunch of new hires and you have all these applicants that are too stupid to know shit because in elementary school they were taught how to use a computer instead of basic reading, writing, speaking, and math principles? This is EVERYONES problem.
I know this is a bit of an extreme view point and many people may say "Well Craig, you need to learn how to use computers to be successful, times are different than when we were growing up, look at how things have changed.." yadda yadda yadda. I went though school with very little computer use, and I know how to use them now! And I also know how to read, write, and speak! The point is, do we REALLY need to push technology on children at such a young age? What happens if the computers stop working and we have to resort to writing on paper again? Do we stop writing? What happens if our cellphones become obsolete? Do we stop talking to people that live further than a block away from us? And what happens if you are unable to go to the library one day and search for a book because computers are broken and there is no card catalog to point you in the direction of your literature.
Do we stop reading books? Something to think about.
Thanks for reading.
-Swanny
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Introduction / Walk a mile in my shoes
The moment that some of you have been waiting for, the first Sunday blog entry. So as many of my friends already know, just in the past few weeks I was diagnosed with Diabetes. It really came as a pretty big shock, considering there is no history in my family of Diabetics, and just the fact that I developed it at such a late age. It has taken some getting used to, but every day gets a little better, and a bit easier to handle.
So where does a blog emerge out of all of this? Well just last week, a few of my friends were telling me that I should start blogging about my experiences as a Diabetic, or just a view from a different lifestyle. I thought about it for a bit, and then upon mentioning it to a few other people they also said that I should start blogging as they would love to read what I have to write about, and thus Craig's Sunday Session was born. I will not however be outlining my life as a Diabetic in this blog, because it would get boring. Diabetes isn't that exciting of a disease. Today I took more insulin, and I am still healthy WOOO!!!! Yeah doesn't sound too exciting. I do however have a story about diabetes as my first Sunday post. I know what you're thinking.. fucking get on with it already so without any more delay..
DISCLAIMER As this blog is not intended to be full of sad, angsty, depressing shit, this first post is a bit along those lines. Its not ment to be a pity party for me, or a story to make people feel bad, its just a story.
Back when I was growing up, I had a "friend" who was Diabetic. Back then, (and before I was diagnosed with Diabetes myself) I didn't know much about it, other than he had to take needles every day and had to make sure that he ate regularly. I call him a friend in quotations as he wasn't really my friend. As a matter of fact, until I was in about grade 7 I really only had one person I could call my friend. He and everyone else wasn't my friend, because I was their scapegoat. The people I chose to hang around with picked on me daily. I was always smaller than everyone else, so I always got pushed around. The "cool" kids throughout grade 5-9 always wore Tommy Hilfiger, Mavi, Silver, and other expensive loose fit brand name jeans. Mine were always the wrong brand, too baggy, to tight. My shirts were always too "gay". The way that I styled my hair was stupid, and the brand of skateboard that I chose to ride was never good enough for these kids. They never beat me up (in the extreme sense of the word), but they always called me names, made fun of me, threw me in dirt, and alot of other really terrible things. This went on for many years of my childhood, and continued into Junior High school until about grade 9 when I finally started to think for myself, and take responsibility for the people I chose to associate myself with.
There is one day that sticks out in my mind very specifically. It must have been around the time I was in grade 7, and I remember being on my bike down by the Shawnessy barn with the diabetic one and the fucking loser of a ring leader. I don't remember exactly what caused the outburst in the first place but I remember getting extremely mad and breaking down, yelling at the top of my lungs at the both of them, screaming at them to "FUCK OFF AND LEAVE ME ALONE!" while they continued to make me more angry and upset. There was a woman who was also walking by at the time who intervened and told them to leave me alone and they proceeded to tell her that we were friends. She said "It doesn't seem like you're friends if he is telling you to leave him alone and if you are picking on him." The two boys told her to fuck off, in plain English, and while they were arguing with her I used the opportunity to ride my bike off and get away from the both of them. They eventually rode after me, caught up and got me to stop and get off my bike so we could sit down and talk.
By this point I had calmed down quite a bit, but still did not want to have anything to do with either of them, but I decided to stay and talk with them anyways. I told them "Do you really think its fair the way that you guys treat me? I haven't done ANYTHING to deserve any of this and you guys fuck with me all the time. Do you know what its like to have this happen to you on a daily basis? Maybe you should walk a mile in my shoes sometime." Well with that comment all hell broke loose, the Diabetic one freaked out and started yelling in my face saying "WALK A MILE IN YOUR SHOES? WHY DON'T YOU TRY WALKING A MILE IN MY FUCKING SHOES! DO YOU KNOW WHAT ITS LIKE TO HAVE A LIFE LONG CONDITION WHERE YOU HAVE TO TAKE NEEDLES EVERY DAY? I WOULD TRADE PLACES WITH YOU ANY DAY IF I COULD. MAYBE YOU SHOULD FUCK OFF AND THINK ABOUT WHAT ITS LIKE FOR ME!" The other boy agreed with him, saying to me that he had it was worse being a Diabetic and having to take needles every day.
I am 23 years old now, and now I AM a diabetic. I DO have to fill those shoes every god damn day of my life. I DO have to check my sugar, watch my diet, and take needles every day. And you want to know what I find really funny about all this? I still had a shitty time growing up, getting picked on, getting treated like shit, getting slapped around, getting made fun of constantly for everything I did. I had to walk in those shoes and now I also have to walk in yours, and because you can't change the past, I lived a shitty childhood, and am living with Diabetes now.
So FUCK you forever.
Thanks for reading. I know the first post was long, depressing, and sad. Like I said, its not intended to be like that. Its just my first post about my experience with Diabetes, which sparked this entire blog in the first place. Be sure to tune in next week when I voice some thoughts about technology. That will be one you won't want to miss.
-Swanny
So where does a blog emerge out of all of this? Well just last week, a few of my friends were telling me that I should start blogging about my experiences as a Diabetic, or just a view from a different lifestyle. I thought about it for a bit, and then upon mentioning it to a few other people they also said that I should start blogging as they would love to read what I have to write about, and thus Craig's Sunday Session was born. I will not however be outlining my life as a Diabetic in this blog, because it would get boring. Diabetes isn't that exciting of a disease. Today I took more insulin, and I am still healthy WOOO!!!! Yeah doesn't sound too exciting. I do however have a story about diabetes as my first Sunday post. I know what you're thinking.. fucking get on with it already so without any more delay..
DISCLAIMER As this blog is not intended to be full of sad, angsty, depressing shit, this first post is a bit along those lines. Its not ment to be a pity party for me, or a story to make people feel bad, its just a story.
Back when I was growing up, I had a "friend" who was Diabetic. Back then, (and before I was diagnosed with Diabetes myself) I didn't know much about it, other than he had to take needles every day and had to make sure that he ate regularly. I call him a friend in quotations as he wasn't really my friend. As a matter of fact, until I was in about grade 7 I really only had one person I could call my friend. He and everyone else wasn't my friend, because I was their scapegoat. The people I chose to hang around with picked on me daily. I was always smaller than everyone else, so I always got pushed around. The "cool" kids throughout grade 5-9 always wore Tommy Hilfiger, Mavi, Silver, and other expensive loose fit brand name jeans. Mine were always the wrong brand, too baggy, to tight. My shirts were always too "gay". The way that I styled my hair was stupid, and the brand of skateboard that I chose to ride was never good enough for these kids. They never beat me up (in the extreme sense of the word), but they always called me names, made fun of me, threw me in dirt, and alot of other really terrible things. This went on for many years of my childhood, and continued into Junior High school until about grade 9 when I finally started to think for myself, and take responsibility for the people I chose to associate myself with.
There is one day that sticks out in my mind very specifically. It must have been around the time I was in grade 7, and I remember being on my bike down by the Shawnessy barn with the diabetic one and the fucking loser of a ring leader. I don't remember exactly what caused the outburst in the first place but I remember getting extremely mad and breaking down, yelling at the top of my lungs at the both of them, screaming at them to "FUCK OFF AND LEAVE ME ALONE!" while they continued to make me more angry and upset. There was a woman who was also walking by at the time who intervened and told them to leave me alone and they proceeded to tell her that we were friends. She said "It doesn't seem like you're friends if he is telling you to leave him alone and if you are picking on him." The two boys told her to fuck off, in plain English, and while they were arguing with her I used the opportunity to ride my bike off and get away from the both of them. They eventually rode after me, caught up and got me to stop and get off my bike so we could sit down and talk.
By this point I had calmed down quite a bit, but still did not want to have anything to do with either of them, but I decided to stay and talk with them anyways. I told them "Do you really think its fair the way that you guys treat me? I haven't done ANYTHING to deserve any of this and you guys fuck with me all the time. Do you know what its like to have this happen to you on a daily basis? Maybe you should walk a mile in my shoes sometime." Well with that comment all hell broke loose, the Diabetic one freaked out and started yelling in my face saying "WALK A MILE IN YOUR SHOES? WHY DON'T YOU TRY WALKING A MILE IN MY FUCKING SHOES! DO YOU KNOW WHAT ITS LIKE TO HAVE A LIFE LONG CONDITION WHERE YOU HAVE TO TAKE NEEDLES EVERY DAY? I WOULD TRADE PLACES WITH YOU ANY DAY IF I COULD. MAYBE YOU SHOULD FUCK OFF AND THINK ABOUT WHAT ITS LIKE FOR ME!" The other boy agreed with him, saying to me that he had it was worse being a Diabetic and having to take needles every day.
I am 23 years old now, and now I AM a diabetic. I DO have to fill those shoes every god damn day of my life. I DO have to check my sugar, watch my diet, and take needles every day. And you want to know what I find really funny about all this? I still had a shitty time growing up, getting picked on, getting treated like shit, getting slapped around, getting made fun of constantly for everything I did. I had to walk in those shoes and now I also have to walk in yours, and because you can't change the past, I lived a shitty childhood, and am living with Diabetes now.
So FUCK you forever.
Thanks for reading. I know the first post was long, depressing, and sad. Like I said, its not intended to be like that. Its just my first post about my experience with Diabetes, which sparked this entire blog in the first place. Be sure to tune in next week when I voice some thoughts about technology. That will be one you won't want to miss.
-Swanny
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