Jeremy's World
Do what you like because you like it. Be who you are with no apologies.
4
A friend of mine recently posted on his blog that he and his wife just got a minivan. In writing about it, Fred points out how "conforming" (buying a minivan) actually is rebellion since today is the day of SUV’s for soccer mom’s. Minivans are so 1998 and therefore, cool again in a non-conforming, rage against the machine kind of way. Ok, Fred was kidding (sort of) with the post. But it got me thinking…
Is "conforming" really an uncool, bad thing?
I’m not convinced it is, ’cause, well, if it is, then I’m way not cool. I am proud to state the following about this average guy:
- I enjoy reality TV, particularly "American Idol."
- I don’t get the infatuation with bands like the Mildewed Oranges (or whatever they are called). It’s acoustic guitar with a melody that is hardly impressive. What’s the appeal?
- I love NFL football. Not college, not European Football (soccer), not rugby…the regular old NFL.
- I watch and enjoy mainstream television. "24" is pretty cool and "King of Queens" reruns can keep me entertained for hours.
- I watch and laugh my ass off at comedians like Larry the Cable Guy.
- I don’t like wine. I guess I’m unsophisticated.
- I can spend the better part of the day watching VH-1 "Behind the Music" marathons on TV and not feel badly about it.
- Movies like "Vantage Point" (which my wife and I recently saw) entertain me. Movies don’t have to be all deep and moving to be good. See most any Sandra Bullock movie, which I usually also find entertaining.
- I like some contemporary country/rock music. I’m a rocker, but I like me some non-twangy country (I’m looking at you Keith Urban and Little Big Town).
- I don’t get Twitter. (Note: It’s the rage right now at work…maybe I’ll understand why someday). Same goes for Second Life.
- I’ll read David Baldacci before poetry of any kind.
- Microsoft is not evil.
- I’m going to see Bon Jovi next month (that’s 2008, not 1988) and I can’t freakin’ wait.
- I prefer pleats in the front of my pants.
- King of the Hill > Family Guy.
- I prefer Leno to Letterman.
I’m sure there are a thousand more examples. I guess what I’m saying is, I can like the same mainstream things that the majority of people like and not be a dork. "Conforming" does not mean uncool. If it does then, well, I’m proudly uncool.
I came across this blog post recently and, well, I kinda laughed out loud. I wasn’t interested in the whole post so much as the first few paragraphs that so accurately describe the "Apple Elitist" (Sorry, Fred, LCB, JT and Alex…It is what it is!). The whole post goes on about a web comic review, but here is the part that cracked me up:
There is no person in the world more obnoxious than an Apple elitist. Boston sports fans come pretty damn close, but typically those are somewhat pudgy guys with hilarious accents and not nerdy hipsters with smug faces you are sorely tempted to slap or punch.
It’s always, “Why would you waste your money on a PC when you can get a Mac?” Or “Macs are way more reliable than PC. Have you ever seen a Mac get a computer virus?” Or “Look at that god-awful Zune. Why would anyone ever pick that over the graceful simplicity of an iPod?” Or “Microsoft totally stole their Windows interface from Mac. God I hate Microsoft.” Or, if you ask them to help you out with a computer, they snicker and shake their heads with mock sadness and say things like, “Well, if you’d gotten a Mac, none of this would’ve happened.”
It’s like some sort of inferiority complex, bourne by the ubiquity of Microsoft PCs. They’re the sorts who laugh and nod at those “Mac and PC” commercials, which every normal-brained person finds obnoxious. Dave Barry was right when he said, “To this very day, Apple is not considered by us cyberwonks as a truly serious computer. It is viewed as a computer that is popular mainly with your flaky or artsy-fartsy type of individual.”
This post proudly written on a PC running Windows XP (’cause I can’t afford a Mac!).
I had a meeting today with Susan at Peace Montessori to discuss the technology venture I am kicking off at Calvert. We didn’t meet at my office…Nope…We met at the school. This is a school of very little people. So, our meeting was happily conducted at a very tiny table and chairs that fit my 5 year old just fine. Yep, all 6’2″ and too many pounds of me.
Thank god there aren’t pictures! And no, the chair didn’t break so shaddup.
This is an old friend of mine, Kevin Johnson We met when he became an associate pastor at our church in Redding, California. Sadly, I haven’t seen him in YEARS…check out his appearance on Letterman a couple years back. Kevin is the most talented artist in his field, don’t you agree? And for me, it’s one of those "I knew him when" things.
[youtube DnNBgIKOvr4]
Kevin’s Website (www.laffalot.com)
Another One (www.kevinjohnson.tv)
Obligatory MySpace
I was reading up on Wikipedia about one of the candidates for the upcoming presidential election. In the “Presidential Campaign” section, I found this inserted disclaimer rather interesting:
So basically, this says that “we expect that this person will waffle and change their position as the election approaches.” Niiiice. 
Jenn had some friends over last week and we had an interesting conversation. All of her girlfriends who get together one night a week to do girlfriend things have pre-school aged kids. One mom stated, “[Fill in the name] is ready to move past where she is in her class. But, I asked the teacher about it who said, ‘We can’t go past where the whole class is because everyone need to be at the same place going into kindergarten. They’ll teach her that stuff in kindergarten.’”
So, kiddo is ready to be challenged more than she currently is, but the pre-school (which is something we pay for by the way) can’t (or won’t) challenge the kids ready to take it up a notch for fear of them being ahead of their peers come kindergarten next year. Wow. Just…wow.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for (the theory of, not our implementation of) “No Child Left Behind.” But “No Child Allowed Forward” doesn’t seem like a logical extension of that to me.
Some of us here at work have been charged with delving into the world of social media and how it relates and can be used in a business setting. I don’t know what the impact of this is, but we gotta start somewhere. I’m now "Linked In" here. The case is being made that this is the future of marketing and PR and that more intimate relationship building is the key to business more so than traditional marketing & PR avenues. I guess I’m still a skeptic…I fail to see how writing on my blog or re-connecting with a former co-worker to say, "hey" can be considered "work." I’m not producing anything, I’m not selling anything, I’m not providing any services to generate revenue. Obviously networking is a key business skill. But where does it fit in the grand scheme of doing business?
I guess we’ll see where this leads!
For the most part, our cable-based Internet access has been pretty darn good for a few years. Yeah, we had some outages when we had ice storms a couple years back. But overall, it’s been good…until yesterday. It is SLOOOOOW IF we can get a connection at all. And to top it off, we use Vonage, so our home phone service is basically out of commission as well. Neat. Here’s the speed test showing or BLAZING speed. And this was one of the better ones!
Back to top