Things That Annoy You

[dpareja]

That my tuition is more expensive because schools give people full scholarships for being sufficiently talented at fucking football. Other sports, too, but mainly football, around here. And then the same people who were arbitrarily passed through middle/high school and got those free college educations that they'll never use get paid millions/year and are adored by tens of millions of people. For being good at any one of tackling people, running, and passing or catching a ball. Fucking deification of athletes...

And meanwhile, basically can't take any jobs, have their scholarship completely subject to the whim of their coach (unlike those who receive awards based on academic merit), really don't have that great a chance at going professional, especially for any decent length of time, and are usually pushed into easy degrees so that their coursework doesn't distract from playing their sport that will be more or less useless after they graduate, not to mention the risk of injury that would end whatever career they might have had in their sport before it even really began.

And for that matter, consider this: Nick Saban, football coach at Alabama, receives a salary of $7,300,000. (Source.) By contrast, the 85 scholarships the University of Alabama can award its football players total, at most, probably $2,000,000. You want to get mad about money being dumped on sports? Don't look at the athletes.

I know. I just find it annoying that this one specific asshole I know who can't spell squirrel or basket, and once asked me if Windows '95 or '98 came out first without a hint of irony (I was talking computers while he was in the room and he overheard). And he gets a full ride through college.

Sure.

But think about this: if he's really that dumb, his only real hope for a career is a position on a professional team. If he doesn't get signed there, he's boned. If he does, he'll probably squander his money. Then when he retires or just can't get signed again, he's boned.

And besides, depending on his age and position, he may already have taken quite a few hard hits. Concussions do bad things to the brain, and it's just about the only organ in the body we don't have any idea how to fix.

[Svata]

Yeah. I know...

[niam2023]

That my tuition is more expensive because schools give people full scholarships for being sufficiently talented at fucking football. Other sports, too, but mainly football, around here. And then the same people who were arbitrarily passed through middle/high school and got those free college educations that they'll never use get paid millions/year and are adored by tens of millions of people. For being good at any one of tackling people, running, and passing or catching a ball. Fucking deification of athletes...

And meanwhile, basically can't take any jobs, have their scholarship completely subject to the whim of their coach (unlike those who receive awards based on academic merit), really don't have that great a chance at going professional, especially for any decent length of time, and are usually pushed into easy degrees so that their coursework doesn't distract from playing their sport that will be more or less useless after they graduate, not to mention the risk of injury that would end whatever career they might have had in their sport before it even really began.

And for that matter, consider this: Nick Saban, football coach at Alabama, receives a salary of $7,300,000. (Source.) By contrast, the 85 scholarships the University of Alabama can award its football players total, at most, probably $2,000,000. You want to get mad about money being dumped on sports? Don't look at the athletes.

I know. I just find it annoying that this one specific asshole I know who can't spell squirrel or basket, and once asked me if Windows '95 or '98 came out first without a hint of irony (I was talking computers while he was in the room and he overheard). And he gets a full ride through college.

Sure.

But think about this: if he's really that dumb, his only real hope for a career is a position on a professional team. If he doesn't get signed there, he's boned. If he does, he'll probably squander his money. Then when he retires or just can't get signed again, he's boned.

And besides, depending on his age and position, he may already have taken quite a few hard hits. Concussions do bad things to the brain, and it's just about the only organ in the body we don't have any idea how to fix.

Look at it this way - remember all the high school jocks in football that always got their way, that got away with things, who could be downright mean bastards? Perhaps this reality of college sports could be their karmic restitution - a slowly dying brain, injury after brutal injury, little to no time to get any real job...

And mind, alcohol in excess does no favours to brain cells, and the proclivities of athletes in college, once they hit 21...

I would want to inform them of this truth.

[Kat S.]

That my tuition is more expensive because schools give people full scholarships for being sufficiently talented at fucking football. Other sports, too, but mainly football, around here. And then the same people who were arbitrarily passed through middle/high school and got those free college educations that they'll never use get paid millions/year and are adored by tens of millions of people. For being good at any one of tackling people, running, and passing or catching a ball. Fucking deification of athletes...

And meanwhile, basically can't take any jobs, have their scholarship completely subject to the whim of their coach (unlike those who receive awards based on academic merit), really don't have that great a chance at going professional, especially for any decent length of time, and are usually pushed into easy degrees so that their coursework doesn't distract from playing their sport that will be more or less useless after they graduate, not to mention the risk of injury that would end whatever career they might have had in their sport before it even really began.

And for that matter, consider this: Nick Saban, football coach at Alabama, receives a salary of $7,300,000. (Source.) By contrast, the 85 scholarships the University of Alabama can award its football players total, at most, probably $2,000,000. You want to get mad about money being dumped on sports? Don't look at the athletes.

I know. I just find it annoying that this one specific asshole I know who can't spell squirrel or basket, and once asked me if Windows '95 or '98 came out first without a hint of irony (I was talking computers while he was in the room and he overheard). And he gets a full ride through college.

Sure.

But think about this: if he's really that dumb, his only real hope for a career is a position on a professional team. If he doesn't get signed there, he's boned. If he does, he'll probably squander his money. Then when he retires or just can't get signed again, he's boned.

And besides, depending on his age and position, he may already have taken quite a few hard hits. Concussions do bad things to the brain, and it's just about the only organ in the body we don't have any idea how to fix.

Look at it this way - remember all the high school jocks in football that always got their way, that got away with things, who could be downright mean bastards? Perhaps this reality of college sports could be their karmic restitution - a slowly dying brain, injury after brutal injury, little to no time to get any real job...

And mind, alcohol in excess does no favours to brain cells, and the proclivities of athletes in college, once they hit 21...

I would want to inform them of this truth.

I would like to add my two cents into what I've seen when I went through in high school in Texas and now 11 years later after graduation.

The players that would play football, were egotistical a**holes, and also cut or sleep through classes did not fair very well after they got out of high school.  Some of those people are now serving anywhere from 10 years probation to 25 years to life for various crimes, usually of a violent nature.  I'm sure a lot of them thought that they would get picked up to play football by a school because they were on a state champion winning football team or were selected as all-district or even all-state team, but for most of them that didn't happen.  Then after graduation from high school, a lot of them went to various community colleges only to flunk out or quit, or just took on a minimum wage job.

Only one guy I went to high school with got a full ride scholarship to a Division I school, and got to play in the NFL for a few years before he was released due to a knee injury.  The NFL guy was the same guy that took his academics seriously, was on the honor roll, the National Honor Society, and was actually a good, kind-hearted guy who treated everyone with respect.  The good, non-egotistical guys on the football team when I went through high school with are now functional, positively contributing members of society.

[rageaholic]

You know what I find annoying?  FUCKING MOUTH SORES!!!  I can't even talk right because of them. 

[RavynousHunter]

Not sure if my body's just purging the irritants in my throat or what, but two weeks later and I'm still coughing, and rather forcefully at that.  This is beginning to annoy me.

[ETA]

My school is also requiring that I take an Introduction to Computer Applications and Concepts course.  I can't test out of it, I can't skip it and tell them to fuck themselves.  I have to sit thru this insult of a class as I read (since its online) a teacher lecturing us on such complicated topics as god damned Microsoft Word.  I'm planning to become a computer fucking science major.  I've been using computers since I could read, and I've been writing code for nearly half my damned life.  I understand that there are some folks out there who really just plain old don't get computers, and that's fine.  But, seriously?  There's no way to test out of it?  No way to prove to these people that I can likely use a computer better than my fucking instructor?  I could be a bloody sysadmin, and yet I have to sit the same class as Grandpa Joe who's never handled anything more complicated than a digital watch.

At least it'll be easy.  Fucking Pulaski Tech didn't require this shit.

[TheUnknown]

Not sure if my body's just purging the irritants in my throat or what, but two weeks later and I'm still coughing, and rather forcefully at that.  This is beginning to annoy me.

[ETA]

My school is also requiring that I take an Introduction to Computer Applications and Concepts course.  I can't test out of it, I can't skip it and tell them to fuck themselves.  I have to sit thru this insult of a class as I read (since its online) a teacher lecturing us on such complicated topics as god damned Microsoft Word.  I'm planning to become a computer fucking science major.  I've been using computers since I could read, and I've been writing code for nearly half my damned life.  I understand that there are some folks out there who really just plain old don't get computers, and that's fine.  But, seriously?  There's no way to test out of it?  No way to prove to these people that I can likely use a computer better than my fucking instructor?  I could be a bloody sysadmin, and yet I have to sit the same class as Grandpa Joe who's never handled anything more complicated than a digital watch.

At least it'll be easy.  Fucking Pulaski Tech didn't require this shit.

Hell, I went to DeVry University and even they let you test out of that shit.

Anyway:

Had to shut off the breaker to my room because one of my outlets is melting.  I went upstairs to go to bed, and when I entered my room, I was greeted by an awful burny-smoky smell.  I thought there was something wrong with my air conditioner at first, but it wasn't even warm.  When I went to plug in the vacuum to clean its vents out to see if it would help, I noticed the outlet I use for it was a burnt brown color.  The outlet itself was hot.  None of the other outlets, which all had something plugged into them, were hot.  Just the one that had nothing in it.

Fuck fuck shit fuck fuck.

[SpaceProg]

That happened to me before too.  It's lucky you caught it before more damage could be done.  Nowadays when I smell burning wires, the outlets are one of the first things I check; whether they have anything in them or not.

[niam2023]

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-reasons-sports-are-worst-thing-ever-unbiased-opinion/

Someone sounds bitter.

[dpareja]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-teachers-strike-leaves-september-school-start-date-in-question-1.2740796

When the BC teachers went on strike (sort of) when I was in grade 10, other students also walked out in support of the teachers. I did not because as far as I was concerned, neither the teachers nor the government had the students' best interests at heart, only their own. If students' interests happened to coincide with what either side wanted, that wasn't intentional at all, merely coincidental.

I am now laughing very, very hard.

[Art Vandelay]

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-reasons-sports-are-worst-thing-ever-unbiased-opinion/

Someone sounds bitter.

Some of his points are stupid, but he's completely correct when it comes to the cost to taxpayers and the absolute ass raping of the education system.

[niam2023]

I suppose you are right on this one.

On the note of college sports it irks me that regardless what I do, I feel like an outsider - that no matter how I act, it always seems I am looked at as a dorky, nerdy kid.

I have tried everything, including cutting all ties to my old nerdy friends.

All I want is the same respect college jocks get.

[Ultimate Paragon]

I suppose you are right on this one.

On the note of college sports it irks me that regardless what I do, I feel like an outsider - that no matter how I act, it always seems I am looked at as a dorky, nerdy kid.

I have tried everything, including cutting all ties to my old nerdy friends.

All I want is the same respect college jocks get.

Let me tell you: that "respect" is fleeting.

[chitoryu12]

I suppose you are right on this one.

On the note of college sports it irks me that regardless what I do, I feel like an outsider - that no matter how I act, it always seems I am looked at as a dorky, nerdy kid.

I have tried everything, including cutting all ties to my old nerdy friends.

All I want is the same respect college jocks get.

Let me tell you: that "respect" is fleeting.

It's really true. All of the stuff you get in school ends up rapidly disappearing after you leave unless you've got what it takes to keep it going. High school football and basketball players often fail to make it to the college level, and college players often fail to make it any higher. The only ones who survive afterward are the ones who have other marketable skills or a good personality.

Honestly niam, after all of your posts on it, it seems like you have a sort of stereotypical view of how respect and school hierarchies work.

[Sleepy]

I agree, Niam, you seem to have a highly idealized view of what it would mean for you to have the equivalent of "jock respect." I don't think you're ever going to reach that level because, frankly, that's not how it actually works. Sure, they may seem popular during high school and college, but very few college players actually have a career in sports. You have to be the best of the best of the best to join the NFL, or NBA, or any other professional league, and most people aren't cut out for that. To earn people's respect, you actually need to be a decent human being and have a personality beyond stereotypical dumb jock. You also need to have some sort of marketable skills so you can enter a useful career, like Chit said. Any respect you see for jocks because of the sports they play will almost always fade unless they can make up for it in some other way (personality, skills, etc).