Ridiculousness

....or as my friend T likes to refer to it - utter ridiculousness...

I went on a run with Obi this morning and for some reason started thinking about all the things that undergrads do that make me chuckle. Here they are in no particular order:

1. Ugg boots appropriately worn in the rain and cold are still UGGly. They make people look like they have Transformers feet. I hear people say that they're comfortable and whatnot but they just don't make anything look even remotely "cute." Paris Hilton was never cute when she first wore them (actually I've never considered her "cute" at all so I guess that example wasn't a good one).

2. Biking with heels on. I saw the funniest thing yesterday. An Asian student was wearing patent leather pumps with maybe 2 inch heels and she was trying to retract the kickstand and she couldn't do it because she was telling her friend (see #3) that she didn't want to ruin her shoes.

3. Black tights worn inside short, cuffed shorts. I never thought I would see the day that this trend would return. I did it in the early 80s so I understand the uncomfortable feeling of wearing tights under short shorts. Standing next to Asian student (see #2) was another Asian student who was wearing black tights under short shorts. She was at least wearing some sensible flat boots, but then again... they had little tassels hanging off the zipper. I still can't decide if the boots are cute though.

4. Students who show up to an 80 minute lecture to do Sudoku or play with their cell phone. I say, why bother showing up at all? It's not as if they have enough brain bandwidth to soak anything up through osmosis. I have a student who shows up to lecture all the time and all he does is play with his iPhone. He doesn't even bother taking out a notebook or a piece of paper to make it look like he cares. Then there are two student who show up and at the start of lecture, they race to see who can finish the daily Sudoku. (Once they figured out I was one of the TAs, they immediately moved across the room.) Why don't they just stay at home or at least go out into the sunshine to waste time??

5. Why is it that when it’s cold and freezing that I always see a guy wearing shorts? And why is the guy always white??

6. Flipflops in the rain. This is particularly gross in Davis because much of campus is unpaved. What's worse are students who wear ugly flipflops, like the generic ones that you wear when you need to run out to get the mail or the paper.

7. Talking on the cell phone (without a hands free set) and biking at the same time. I personally think this practice should be banned because I've seen so many people (including myself) almost get hit by someone yapping away and screwing up the bike circle turn. And why the hell do they always look pissed off at you when you stop to get out their way when they're biking all crazy???

8. Listening to an iPod (or anything other kind of MP3 device) and biking at the same time. Again, another practice I think should be banned for really basic safety reasons. How the hell are you supposed to hear anything with music blasting in your ears? My fave is when students are biking through downtown Davis. They're not stopping for traffic at the stop signs and they're always listening to their iPod! They end up screwing up the four-way stops as well as other people biking and driving around them who actually obey the traffic laws.

9. Taking pictures of the powerpoint lecture slides with a cell phone instead of taking notes. This isn't a recent one, but it's worth throwing onto this list because of the utter ridiculousness (thanks again to T for coining this most appropriate phrase) of it. This happened last year in a class I was TAing. The prof noticed some flashes coming from the back row (of a 250 person class) and stopped her lecture to ask what was going on. After some confusion, the student admitted that she was taking pictures on her cell phone of the powerpoint notes because the prof refused to post her slides online or give out copies. Um... whatever happened to note-taking?

10. Feeding the permit machine with one dollar bills and change while ten other cars are waiting in line. (Maybe this annoys me more than makes me chuckle.) So why is it that every time there is a car in front of me buying a $6 day permit at the parking structure that the person is trying to feed the machine with crinkled bills and coins??? Then the person always, always, always looks back at me like, sorry- I don't know why this machine isn't taking my money! Why don't people just use their credit cards??? I see students use their credit cards for a bag of chips in the coffee house all the time. This is so ironic because credit/ATM purchases take TWICE as long to process as cash transactions. So wwwwhhhhhyyyyyyy??????

Ok, I think I'm done venting...