Coffee Rush

It's the perfect place to go on midnight whim. Coffee cravers, conversation lovers and intellectuals alike gather to sip coffee and hot tea.

Warm mocha in my hand, I find an empty table near a brick wall and a broken water fountain. By this, I mean there's a tiny broken hose that's spurting water into a shallow concrete basin of snapdragons. It looks like cupid is peeing on mother natures children.

This is the perfect place to people watch. Sitting at the table to my left, a man and a woman are smoking Menthols. The man is wearing a forest green plaid shirt, sleeves rolled up to his elbows revealing a snake tattoo running down his forearm. The woman sits with her knees pulled up to her chest, slowly exhaling the smoke of her cigarette and smiling with her ruby stained lips.

It is a dark and chilly night, illuminated by the glow of 1950s styled lampposts and trees wrapped in out-of-date Christmas lights.

As for me, I breathe in secondhand smoke and sip my mocha.

Someone has to say it: The smell of books is overrated

I like the way worn-out pages feel under my fingers. I like the musty smell of paper and binding. I like dog-eared corners in well-loved books.

And yet, every time anyone waxes poetic about the smell of old books during tirades against digital media, I get this urge to roll my eyes so far back that you can hear them getting stuck in the back of my head.

Follow the Money

The internet has grown at a rate far exceeding the development of programming education. As a result, wherever I look, it is clear that there is a low supply of software talent, relative to demand. Everybody needs a good programmer.

One of the main components of business is the concept of supply and demand. As supply exceeds demand, prices will drop. As demand exceeds supply, prices will rise.

Because everybody needs a programmer and they are so hard to find, freelance programmers are able to charge some of the highest per hour rates around. As I walked through the University of Arizona's Career Fair, I couldn't help but notice that every company needed a tech/computer science or MIS major.

Now to shift to a macro-perspective...

Unemployment is one of our country's biggest problems, but the reality is that there is a shortage of skilled labor. Ironically, there is far less competition for skilled positions than unskilled positions. Microsoft, having trouble finding "techies", has gone as far as to call the situation a crisis, lobbying the government to increase emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math teaching at schools.

As our technology continues to grow exponentially, our education system is quickly becoming archaic. We must do a better job of adapting to the new realities within our schools, before the U.S. loses it's competitive edge.

Tell me the right way to take a testttt!!!!

Wow everyone,

   Sorry I haven't contributed to this , these stories are awesome. I have a little story about today that I would like to share because I'm pissed off at myself.

Today I had two midterms both of which I should have got an A on , but unfortunately I didn't and this blog is about test taking. A few pointers would be appreciated.

 I was the first person out of 150 students to finish my test and walk out of the class.
 This test was given on a scratcher scan-tron, if you haven't seen one of those this is how it works:

- You are given a penny to scratch off what you think the answer might be (A-E).
- If you get the answer right you'll see a star after it's scratched and you receive the full 3 points that the question is worth.
- If you answer the question wrong you get another chance to get it right, for 1 point.

This sounds good because you get another chance but it's kind of like a real gambling scratcher. I get super worked up to see that star as if it's worth some sort of cash prize and this deters me from concentrating on the actual test.

Also, I had 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete the exam and I did it in 25 minutes on a 41 question test. Why the hell did I spaz through that test?

Anyway, I got an 80% on it. Not cool. Oh one of the only cool things about the scratcher is that you get to know your score before you leave the class.

Someclassmates want to give me some test taking pointers?

Dirty Little Secrets

Occasionally when I get on facebook I’m not sure if I’m looking at my newsfeed or the U of A Confessions page.  If you have yet to visit this disgustingly fascinating chronicle of UA student blather, let me tell you, it is quite a treat!  It’s a personalized reality TV show that can be absorbed in blurbs averaging about 10 to 50 words apiece.  People anonymously submit their confessions to the page via SurveyMonkey and after about a day or so for the moderators to sort and post, voila, instant gossipy-goodness.  As well as entertainment value, there is the added benefit of a new sort of therapy for our generation. Due to the comment feature, an abundance of advice and ridicule is provided, free of charge.  The confessions are added to the page at times in a steady trickle and other times in rapid spurts.  Personally, upon noticing a varied bouquet of new posts, a solid 10-minute break from whatever I’m doing is required in which to stop and read until I’ve caught up.  They are about sex, drugs, and loneliness. Loved ones and hated ones.  Judgments about whole groups of people based on race, gender, Greek-life status, body types, and belief systems.  They are about really weird things you never wanted to know anyone has ever done.  They’re about Tucson lunacy and berating non-Wildcats.  Missed-connection dwellers and sappy do-gooders have a place to tell the world of their plights and awesomeness and high school clowns have an audience once more.  

Here are a few goodies:

Enjoy;)

“sometimes the campus wide broadcast of "bear down, Arizona" makes me feel like im in a 1984ish police state.”

"I can't stand people who think that being high automatically qualifies them to talk about theories of space, time, the universe etc. No, I will not listen to your theory that the whole universe is suspended on a giant taco, you uneducated fuck."

“If I live in the dorms is it safe to get a bottle of alcohol mailed to me in a package?”

(comments include: “Bar none the dumbest thing i have heard all day.”, “Can’t see any flaws here” and “Absolutely!”)

“If I get one more notification from DJ cypress posting about the aussie party I will fucking strangle someone!”

"My boyfriend won't stop playing online Yu-gi-oh.  Even for sex."

"I saw brother Jed at the grocery store and threw a cabbage at him. I'm not kidding."

For the Love of Cats

After being ridiculed for too long I have to come out now with a question I ponder for at least a short amount of time a day.

Why is it weirder to love cats than it is to love dogs?

Let me clear up that I am not a crazy cat lady.  I am a college student, living in an apartment, and do not have the finances or time to own a cat, or let alone 4, which is the number of cats I believe is required to be a cat lady.  I do however, love cats. 

I never had much of an affection for cats, I never imagined myself even owning a cat in my lifetime.  Until one day in seventh grade my sister’s friend brought a little mewing Albert Einstein furball with eyes into my house and I fell in love immediately.  I named him Gizmo and he is my pride and joy. 

Gizmo now weighs about 20 pounds.  He is a regal, black and grey striped long-haired beast with a white chest, white paws, and a white tip of the tail.  He is the king of the house and everybody knows it, especially himself.  His personality is unbeatable and the thought of him makes me smile. 

When I left for college I had to leave behind Gizmo and move onto a cat-less life.  I come across cats on a rare occasion, but when I do, it warms my heart and I get excited.  If I see a cat I will attempt to pet it, and Youtube videos of cats doing funny things makes my day significantly better. 

The reality is, plenty of people love dogs the same way I love cats.  People love their own dogs as much as I love my cat.  But I’m the weird cat lover.

My friends know me for a lot of things, but loving cats is one of them.  My friend loves puppies even more than I love cats, but she doesn’t get judged for it, even if she hyperventilates when a dog enters her line of sight.  Instead, I’m told I’ll be a cat lady for the rest of my life.  I reach out to pet a cat, and I get laughed at.  I reach out to pet a dog, and everyone else does too.  I don’t get it.

If cats are not your thing then that’s fine, but don’t judge people who love cats.  And if you still decide to, look at this face and tell me it’s unlovable:

Love Poem

Love Poem

Nicole Walker

"In Persian, there are 89 words for love. I would be happy just to remember one. Keeps me up at night, memorizing your name."

I stumbled across this while walking to class today. It was so lovely I had to take a picture and share it with all of you. 

My real post will come later!