Food

So, since I'm hungry and I want breakfast, I'm going to rant about food for a little bit.

As our culture has progressed to the point where food is constantly available, it has not adapted its traditions and perspective of food. Food is everywhere, literally. If food hasn't managed to make it somewhere, some girl scouts or other students will find a way to sell it there. People need to eat, and each company wants to be the one that you buy from.

However, this leads into the glorification of food. Drugs have to have warnings in their ads, tobacco companies can't even make it on the airwaves. And yet, McDonalds fills our screens with Triple Greaseburgers, a medium Stroke (I mean coke), and a shorter lifespan with a multimillion dollar marketing budget.

How is this fair to kids? How is this fair to anyone who wants to lose weight? We are constantly bombarded with images of the least healthy food, telling us how good it is, how much we want it. And despite this, we are supposed to be watching our calories and fat intake?

Layer this on top of a generation of Thanksgivings. The family tradition (mine has it too) where success is awarded with... guess what... food! Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Passover all have gratuitous amounts of food, where the main event starts when someone calls out "Dinner's ready!" Where graduation and prom are all marked by formal dinners. A safe date might be a dinner out.

About one-third of U.S. adults (33.8%) are obese. Approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged 2—19 years are obese." (Data from NHANES)

This is wrong. This is so wrong. I'm not sure how to stop it... maybe we could start by requiring food marketers to place the calorie and fat intake clearly on all advertising? Have insurance companies pay for gym memberships for overweight and obese individuals? Maybe offer discounts on insurance with proof of exercise? Something? Although I don't believe it's the govenment's job to get any more involved than they already are, they are often the only thing protecting us from ourselves.

Medical costs around the country are already sky-high. We will bankrupt our country even more if we can't shape up... literally and figuratively.

Procrastination

Why do people procrastinate?

There's several levels of procrastination.

1) Meh, I'll do it tomorrow.

2) Meh, I'll do it the day before it's due.

3) Meh, I'll end up staying up all night and stumbling to class in a daze because I put it off to the very last second.

Granted, I've been guilty of the first, and sometimes even second levels, but I don't get the third level at all... especially when it comes to my thesis. The first due date was January 12th... when i found that out in August, I cried because I felt overwhelmed and it was too close (I thought I would have until March). The second due date is in a month. I'll be out of town the week before the official due date, so I turn it in then. In the meantime, I've let my first draft sit, fiddling here and there, waiting to get my comments back.

The thing is, that MBC said it will not anyone go to the third year if they do not turn in their thesis by this time. I'm sorry, there are going to be some crappy theses. Will their advisers even get a chance to look at the first drafts? Will they get any input at all? Most of their theses do not have a first draft done... A MONTH after the first due date. Just... huh? I don't get it. I put in 125 hours on my first draft. Even if its half done, they will need to work 2 hours a day at least to get it done in time, and that's without any editing (I did the math).

I'm glad I listened to the older students who warned me about this. I took it to heart, and, true to form, panicked waaaay before something was due. I've just trained myself to panic early and panic well.

It's served me pretty well.

Spelling Errors

Spelling errors.

Ok, I get that not everyone is a perfect speller. I know I'm not. Typos are my bane. My grammar isn't perfect, either. But there is a difference between a text message, a facebook post, and a company's advertisement. I ran across an ad from FTD today that said "Suprise your loved ones with roses this Valentine's Day!"

Suprise? Really?

At what point was it acceptable for folks to misspell things when it's their JOB (they are PAID) not to screw shit up?

This isn't the first time I've seen things misspelled on official products. The instructions on how to dye my hair, for example, had some egregious error (although I cannot remember what it was). I'm ok with the English language changing, but I'm not ok with errors that could be easily caught by spellcheck. Check your work. Stop being lazy.

So, my suggestions for companies that let stuff like this slide are as follows:

1) Use spellcheck.

2) http://theoatmeal.com/tag/grammar. It's fun, colorful, and reminds your employees that grammar matters, too!

Thank you.