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December 10, 2004
School and Next quarter
Well school is almost over. But it has been a great quarter. My friend Don just had his baby last week. Classes are really good. I think I will get an A in every class, I have really worked hard. I just finished my last paper for english. My math class is pretty much done because I don't have to take the next quiz because the teacher drops one quiz and this will be my one dropped quiz. Then the final is optional, you only take it if you need to get a better grade, but I am good. Then for biology I just finished my presentation on Melanoma cancer and it went really well. I had fun preparing. I had movies, pictures and good info on my power point. So all I got left is one more math assignment and a biology final and I am done!!!!
Well what am I going to do with my break??? Well I need to start packing because I found some GREAT Rommates. There will be 4 of us living in a house and I went and met them last weekend and we talked for ever and they are great. So I will be moving in in January. But they said I can start moving stuff in the basement when I need to so that the move will be more smooth. So I am really excited. They are about 3 blocks away from SPU!!!
For the next quarter I will be taking Christian Scriptures, Theology, and Global and Urban Development class. Sweet. Well I guess thats about all.
Posted by shannel at 11:31 AM
Emereld Queen
I went to the casino last weekend and won $493. I spent 120 so I actually only won $373. We also watched some boxing. Not the normal thing I would do but there were some girls fighting and that was fun. I didn't watch much more than that though. I went with my dad and Sherri and Uncle Robert was there too.
Posted by shannel at 11:20 AM
December 02, 2004
Ode to the Nice Guys
Written about all the nice guys in the world. I found it very interesting. I am not sure if I agree or what. But it was funny.
Ode to the Nice Guys
This rant was written for the Wharton Undergraduate Journal
This is a tribute to the nice guys. The nice guys that finish last, that never become more than friends, that endure hours of whining and bitching about what (edited due to my limited vocabulary) guys are, while disproving the very point. This is dedicated to those guys who always provide a shoulder to lean on but restrain themselves to tentative hugs, those guys who hold open doors and give reassuring pats on the back and sit patiently outside the changing room at department stores. This is in honor of the guys that obligingly reiterate how cute/beautiful/smart/funny/sexy their female friends are at the appropriate moment, because they know most girls need that litany of support. This is in honor of the guys with open minds, with laid-back attitudes, with honest concern. This is in honor of the guys who respect a girl’s every facet, from her privacy to her theology to her clothing style.
This is for the guys who escort their drunk, bewildered female friends back from parties and never take advantage once they’re at her door, for the guys who accompany girls to bars as buffers against the rest of the creepy male population, for the guys who know a girl is fishing for compliments but give them out anyway, for the guys who always play by the rules in a game where the rules favor cheaters, for the guys who are accredited as boyfriend material but somehow don’t end up being boyfriends, for all the nice guys who are overlooked, underestimated, and unappreciated, for all the nice guys who are manipulated, misled, and unjustly abandoned, this is for you.
This is for that time she left 40 urgent messages on your cell phone, and when you called her back, she spent three hours painstakingly dissecting two sentences her boyfriend said to her over dinner. And even though you thought her boyfriend was a chump and a jerk, you assured her that it was all ok and she shouldn’t worry about it. This is for that time she interrupted the best killing spree you’d ever orchestrated in GTA3 to rant about a rumor that romantically linked her and the guy she thinks is the most repulsive person in the world. And even though you thought it was immature and you had nothing against the guy, you paused the game for two hours and helped her concoct a counter-rumor to spread around the floor. This is also for that time she didn’t have a date, so after numerous vows that there was nothing “serious” between the two of you, she dragged you to a party where you knew nobody, the beer was awful, and she flirted shamelessly with you, justifying each fit of reckless teasing by announcing to everyone: “oh, but we’re just friends!” And even though you were invited purely as a symbolic warm body for her ego, you went anyways. Because you’re nice like that.
The nice guys don’t often get credit where credit is due. And perhaps more disturbing, the nice guys don’t seem to get laid as often as they should. And I wish I could logically explain this trend, but I can’t. From what I have observed on campus and what I have learned from talking to friends at other schools and in the workplace, the only conclusion I can form is that many girls are just illogical, manipulative (edited due to my limited vocabulary). Many of them claim they just want to date a nice guy, but when presented with such a specimen, they say irrational, confusing things such as “oh, he’s too nice to date” or “he would be a good boyfriend but he’s not for me” or “he already puts up with so much from me, I couldn’t possibly ask him out!” or the most frustrating of all: “no, it would ruin our friendship.” Yet, they continue to lament the lack of datable men in the world, and they expect their too-nice-to-date male friends to sympathize and apologize for the men that are jerks. Sorry, guys, girls like that are beyond my ability to fathom. I can’t figure out why the connection breaks down between what they say (I want a nice guy!) and what they do (I’m going to sleep with this complete ass now!). But one thing I can do, is say that the nice-guy-finishes-last phenomenon doesn’t last forever. There are definitely many girls who grow out of that train of thought and realize they should be dating the nice guys, not taking them for granted. The tricky part is finding those girls, and even trickier, finding the ones that are single.
So, until those girls are found, I propose a toast to all the nice guys. You know who you are, and I know you’re sick of hearing yourself described as ubiquitously nice. But the truth of the matter is, the world needs your patience in the department store, your holding open of doors, your party escorting services, your propensity to be a sucker for a pretty smile. For all the crazy, inane, absurd things you tolerate, for all the situations where you are the faceless, nameless hero, my accolades, my acknowledgement, and my gratitude go out to you. You do have credibility in this society, and your well deserved vindication is coming.
Posted by shannel at 10:04 PM
George
Story written by a friend of mine Andy in Georgia about the system and homeless people.
Been to the DMV lately?
Has anybody been to the Division of Motor Vehicles out in South DeKalb Mall lately? I have...3 TIMES this week with nothing to show after 15 hours of running around. It's insane how inefficient our government is. I wish Starbucks or WalMart would take over so that we could have one effecient system that can do everything and has an office every 3 blocks AND STILL MAKE MONEY so our taxes won't go up.
I'm trying to help a homeless friend, George, get his Georgia ID card and it is a nightmare. A Georgia ID card is indispensable to a homeless person. You can't even get money for returning cans without a Georgia ID! There is no way he could traverse the bureaucratic mess by himself. He can't read and nobody has the time to spend with him to get his paperwork right. He's tried for the past 5 years. Even I'm confused. Here's a short diary of our journey so far.
-Get George's Birth Certificate online from Alabama for $40. Find out he had wrong birthdate all these years which is why he couldn't get his birth certificate for the past 2 years. George is elated that he has some form of ID to prove who he is.
-Spend 4 weeks trying to figure out how to get a Georgia ID without a permanent address in Georgia. George finally hears about Crossroads Ministry which has aworked out a deal with the Georgia DMV to help the homeless get Georgia ID's.
-TUESDAY: Head to DMV with paperwork. Spend two hours in line only to THEN GET A TICKET with no guarantee you will be seen that day. Give up and decide to try on Wednseday.
-WEDNESDAY: Get at DMV office at 9:30 and realize line is already at least 4 hours long. Head home. Fortunately I have an abundance of patience and help George not to give up.
-THURSDAY: Get at DMV at 8:30 and wait 2 hours in line. Finally our number is called and we think we may finally get somewhere. Find out the birthdate on his birth certificate and Social Security are different. Told we have to go to the Soc.Sec. Office around the corner to get it fixed..
-Soc.Sec. office is just as busy as the DMV. Take ticket number and wait an hour only to find out they screwed up the ticket numbering and we have to take a new number. Wait another two hours in line.
-Soc.Sec. lady tells us she needs a form of ID in order to change his birthdate. CRAZINESS! We are trying to get an ID so that we can get his Soc.Sec. fixed and get a new Soc.Sec. card, but Soc.Sec. requires that you have a form of ID. It's one infinite cycle. It's no wonder homeless people get stuck where they are. After pleading with the lady to help with with the next step, she says that a GRADY Hospital ID card or medical records will suffice as ID. This is stupid to me. You need no form of ID except a birth certificate to get a Grady Card, and yet the Soc.Sec. office excepts it as valid ID. Why don't they just accept the birth certificate in the first place as valid ID since that is all the Grady Card needs? Our nation is built on sand...
-I have to mention I had Gideon with me the whole time and he has been a great boy, finally falling asleep in my arms.
-We drop Gideon off at home and head to Grady Hospital to get George's Grady ID card. Wait an hour before being helped. At this point George is very testy and almost blows our chances by getting offended at the lady who copped a slight attitude at George. I calm George down and explain to him that he has got to work with these people and be patient. They are his only chance of hope. He's tired of "being treated as a nigger by other niggers" who won't help him out. George has alot of issues with is own race. George behaves and we finally get his Grady ID card. George's spirits are returning as this is the first form of ID he has had in 5 years.
- Head back to the Soc.Sec. office just before it closes. We are able to avoid the line and go directly to Mrs.White who helped us before. At this point I expect something else to block our path. She accepts the Grady ID card and says she has to verify the birth certificate with Alabama before she can change the date. Of course this can't be done today. We thank her and tell her we will get back with her tomorrow. That is where we are at now...TOmorrow we will try to finish this mess.
Posted by shannel at 10:02 PM