youth
Jon Stewart, Cynical Youth and Voting
A Washington Post columnist posted an article last Friday covering a bit of research claiming that Jon Stewart's popular comedy/news show on the Comedy Channel may cause people to stop voting. The report's title was not given, nor was there any link to the results. So we have no way to read the report for ourselves to judge the accuracy of the columnist's claims and have to rely on the quotes from the report he gave us. Quotes like this one:
"Ultimately, negative perceptions of candidates could have participation implications by keeping more youth from the polls," they wrote.
Maybe I'm just a bit cynical myself but I'd think there's also the possibility these youth will start working the political scene to replace the loser candidates we have now with somebody who might actually represent their interests.
Trying to lose my business?
Back in April, we bought a new car from Carousel Motors. And until yesterday, it's been great. I let me explain...
Yesterday, I went home for my lunch hour. When my time was up, I went down to the car to get back to work. The car unlocked and started up without any problems. What was a problem is the ASL light turned on and stayed on. Normally, this light turns off once you press down on the brake pedal. It's there to prevent you from shifting into gear without having the brake pressed to avoid accidents. Except now, my foot was on the brake and I was still stuck in park. I fiddled around with it for a bit, but couldn't get aything to happen1. I rushed back inside, called by boss and worked the rest of the from home via the corporate VPN.
After work, I called the dealership but found out the service department closed an hour before I called. I talked to the salesman who sold us the car and he suggested calling the VW roadside assistance 800# to have them tow the car out. I called them up, waiting on hold for several minutes and then got to talk to *mumble, mumble #1*. He had me go out ot my car and try several things to get the car out of park. I was just nearing the end of his instructions when the battery in my phone died. *grumpf*
I tromped back up into the apartment and called back on a wired phone. Again I had to wait several minutes and then I got to talk to *mumble, mumble #2*. I explained what was wrong and what I'd done so far. He gave me the complete instructions and I wrote them down. Then I set down my phone and ran outside to try them. Success! I could now get my car out of park! Before I ran back inside to relate my success, I turned off the car and tried starting/shifting normally. No luck, that was still screwy. I went back inside, picked up the phone and... And nothing, all I got was dead air. *double grumf*
I called the roadside assistance a third time and once again had to wait several minutes for the privilege of talking to *unidentified pissy man*. This guy never gave me his name. I told him everything that I'd been through and the resuylts of their procedure for getting the car out of park. I asked if I was supposed to be ok now, or if I still needed to get it to the dealership? He grumpily answered that "of course I needed to get it to the dealership." All this around, though not entirely their fault, was not exactly making my evening any better.
Today, I called the dealership and their receptionist was waaaaaaay to gorram happy for 7:45 AM. Fortunately, she quickly transfered me to their service department. And they answered the phone with a "Good Afternoon". While time is relative and there was a period in my youth where I always used "Good Morning" as a greeting that was high school for crying out loud. Still, she could have just been tired by the early hour of the day, so I didn't go off on her. I explained my problem and that the roadside assistance people had given me a procedure to get the car out of park. She said since I could technically drive it; their first opening to have somebody look at the car is next Monday. I made the appointment, but it left me feeling very disappointed. I think if this is the average level of customer service I get from them then when we replace our other car, it's not going to be another Volkswagen. As much as I like driving the car and as good as their sales department is; if the rest of their team is lacking in customer service then it's not worth it.
Or I could just be grumpy from having to handle all this so flippin' early in the morning.
1 Actually, that's not entirely accurate. All I did appeared to make things worse. After my fiddling with it, the EPC light came on. Though after following the instructions from roadside assistance that light went back out.
Public Library
When I was in elementary school; I used to get in trouble for talking to the other kids during class. Eventually, this got bad enough that the teacher called my Mom in for a parent-teacher conference to discuss the problem...
Teacher: Mark keeps talking during class and it's very disruptive.
Mom: When is he doing all this talking?
Teacher: After he finishes his assignment.
Mom: Did you give him something to read?
Teacher: Yes, but he finished that book.
Mom: Did you try giving him another one?
Teacher: Yes, but he finished that one too.
Mom: *glare*
Teacher: In fact, he's already read all the books in the room.
Mom: Why don't you get him another one from the library then?
Teacher: I did but he finished it already.
Mom: *glare* Then why don't you let him go to the library and get another one?
Teacher: Wha.... I can't do that!?! He could get into all sorts of trouble walking down the hallway.
Mom: *glare* If you let him go to the library; he'll stop talking in class.
Eventually, I was allowed to walk those halls, wander the shelves of the library and seek out new books to read. As Mom predicted, once I had something to read; I was quiet in class. This is a habit that has stuck with me over the years and I ended up spending much of my youth in school & public libraries. I bring this up today because for the first time in a long time; I went down to CPL and checked out some books. This sudden trip to my local public library was prompted by their advertising of an adult summer reading program. The basic idea is you have to read 6 books, turn in a log and then you'll be entered to win a gift certificate to a book store. I never could turn down free books; so I decided to go sign up2.
As I wandered around the library looking for some books to read; I felt a sense of nostalgia and loss. There were entire summers in my youth were I barely went anywhere else besides the library. These days, the rarity is when I do go. I miss those fabled days of yesteryear when life was simple and I could relax with a book in my hand all summer long. *sigh*
So why haven't I been going? Partly because I'm an ornery cuss who doesn't like having to wait and if the library doesn't have the next book in a series I'm reading; it irks me. Partly because I can afford to buy more books for myself than I could when I was younger. Having my own copy of a book means I can read it whenever I like 24/7/3653 and the copy of the book I'm reading is likely to be in better condition (plus it'll stay that way). *shrug* Not sure what else I have to say, except that I hope to be making visits to my public library more often. It'll let me relive parts of my past (and beat some of this summer heat).
1 For some reason, employers don't like it when you read books all day instead of testing their software.
2 Besides, money has been a bit tighter of late and borrowing books from the library is cheap entertainment. 
3 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (366 in a leap year).
Survey Meme
I saw this meme over on Tamara Siler Jones's blog. Rules of the game:
- Copy the whole list into your blog.
- Bold the things that are true about you.
- Add something that is true about you.
- Optional: Add a comment after answer in italics
Kids Today
Pukka forwarded me this link today and killed any hope of me being productive. How's that work? Well the link ends up leading you to this article over at 1UP. The article takes a couple of today's youth and exposes them to some of the classic games of my own youth to get their reactions. Here's a quick snip to give you an idea of how well the games went over.
EGM: What do you think this character's name is?
Parker: Dot. Or Adventure? That's what this game is, isn't it? Go up, go up, go up.
Bobby: Stupid duck. I hate the duck. The duck is evil.
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