Sorry for the wait folks, if, indeed there are any folks reading this. But things have been happening. There was going to be a post before this, but it got lost due to my computatorial ineptitude. Lets see... after the last post, I have had a friend coming down from up north, where I attend university, for the weekend. Luckily for me, he has a car. Unluckily for him, I'm more used to giving directions at push pedal pace. but we got around in one piece, and he got home in one piece so, there is no harm done. I think he even enjoyed it.
I also got very daring and ordered some more RAM for my slowly dying computer. I even installed it myself, and noting blew up. This pleased me, and did something for my burgeoning liking of computers and confidence in my skills. The day I got the RAM in place and it worked, I don't mind telling you, I preened. I also moved back up to university. " What?!" I hear people cry. And I do. "That's early!" They say. Well yes it is. But I moved up here for the same reason that people moved out of the dust bowl. Well, ok maybe not because my family couldn't grow any food and we would all have died. But I did go looking for a job. And I have one. A temporary job but a job none the less. So that is good. And I get to meet friends and such I have left behind up here. (it would be typical that I make friends from the extreme north in most cases, when I live in the extreme south.) According to some of the said northerners, so extremely south, I live in France.
France. Now, living on the channel I have been there a few times, and it is a nice place. In some places very nice. In others, a tip. Much like any other country. I can't usually understand all the jokes about the french until I bump into the odd, very odd usually, I might add, french tourist. Suffice to say, those few people would, until the next extremely polite and friendly tourist came along, make me inclined to agree with all of the stereotypes in spades.
Stereotypes are an interesting thing. they give you an image, an idea of a race, a place, a thing. Before you even go there or experience it for yourself. For example. The French. Rude, surly, onions, cheese, bad driving. The English. Tea, bad teeth, imperialistic (ok, not anymore.) Posh, stiff upper lip, rubbish at tennis. (come on Tim!) The thing is, maybe once these things were true. Maybe in some places they still are. Maybe they were true, but not as definite as stereotypes indicate. I mean, Oh the English, well, a few of them have very bad teeth you know. And some are even stoic in that quaint English fashion. It just doesn't come across nearly as well as the English. Oh. Those tea drinking, upper class toffs in their homosexual boarding schools. Now, which one is more likely to stick in your head if, on the spur of the moment, you thought of the English and didn't know anything about them?
Stereotypes serve their place. They give you a preconceived idea that is sometimes pretty good, always providing that you take them with a LARGE pinch of salt. A lot of them are even funny. So, have a laugh, believe them up to a limit, but don't hold to them so tightly that death-grip doesn't even come into it. And don't let it hurt other people whilst you laugh. Send it with them, not at them.
Now, reading this, it has turned out a LOT more serious that I originally anticipated, but that's the fun of writing. Find a start, and see where is takes you. If you feel that I have been giving you a sermon you don't need, then I apologise.
So, this is me, the mad, absentminded scientist signing off. Just think of the stereotypes and grin. You'll know what I'm like then.
I also got very daring and ordered some more RAM for my slowly dying computer. I even installed it myself, and noting blew up. This pleased me, and did something for my burgeoning liking of computers and confidence in my skills. The day I got the RAM in place and it worked, I don't mind telling you, I preened. I also moved back up to university. " What?!" I hear people cry. And I do. "That's early!" They say. Well yes it is. But I moved up here for the same reason that people moved out of the dust bowl. Well, ok maybe not because my family couldn't grow any food and we would all have died. But I did go looking for a job. And I have one. A temporary job but a job none the less. So that is good. And I get to meet friends and such I have left behind up here. (it would be typical that I make friends from the extreme north in most cases, when I live in the extreme south.) According to some of the said northerners, so extremely south, I live in France.
France. Now, living on the channel I have been there a few times, and it is a nice place. In some places very nice. In others, a tip. Much like any other country. I can't usually understand all the jokes about the french until I bump into the odd, very odd usually, I might add, french tourist. Suffice to say, those few people would, until the next extremely polite and friendly tourist came along, make me inclined to agree with all of the stereotypes in spades.
Stereotypes are an interesting thing. they give you an image, an idea of a race, a place, a thing. Before you even go there or experience it for yourself. For example. The French. Rude, surly, onions, cheese, bad driving. The English. Tea, bad teeth, imperialistic (ok, not anymore.) Posh, stiff upper lip, rubbish at tennis. (come on Tim!) The thing is, maybe once these things were true. Maybe in some places they still are. Maybe they were true, but not as definite as stereotypes indicate. I mean, Oh the English, well, a few of them have very bad teeth you know. And some are even stoic in that quaint English fashion. It just doesn't come across nearly as well as the English. Oh. Those tea drinking, upper class toffs in their homosexual boarding schools. Now, which one is more likely to stick in your head if, on the spur of the moment, you thought of the English and didn't know anything about them?
Stereotypes serve their place. They give you a preconceived idea that is sometimes pretty good, always providing that you take them with a LARGE pinch of salt. A lot of them are even funny. So, have a laugh, believe them up to a limit, but don't hold to them so tightly that death-grip doesn't even come into it. And don't let it hurt other people whilst you laugh. Send it with them, not at them.
Now, reading this, it has turned out a LOT more serious that I originally anticipated, but that's the fun of writing. Find a start, and see where is takes you. If you feel that I have been giving you a sermon you don't need, then I apologise.
So, this is me, the mad, absentminded scientist signing off. Just think of the stereotypes and grin. You'll know what I'm like then.
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