When did kids become grown ups so fast?

So, I was having lunch with a couple of summer interns this afternoon and when they asked what year we graduated and I said, '99, the girl had the nerve to say "wow, that's a while back!" On the inside, I was like, "WHAT?!?!? Say that to my face! Are you calling me old?!?" And of course, she did say it to my face and I could do nothing about it. Dang it! Dang my 25 years!

Were you bored because you knew the material already? Or was he just boring?

As smart as some of my coworkers are, they're pretty dumb. I mean, they're not dumb. They're just lazy. Does no one READ? I slave over these stupid documents only to have people NOT read them and ask me a ton of questions. But of course, I'm expected to wade through every single legal agreement and operational attachment to determine if it's passable. And of course, it's "my" product when I have to make decisions based on these readings, but they get to perpetuate misconceptions about its universal cost savings in newsletters. I'm not saying I want to write any damn articles, I just want them to take responsibilities for what they say by reading documents that outline why they are freakin' wrong whenever they open their big mouths.

I went to see my first Broadway play (versus musical) tonight: The Elephant Man with Billy Crudup. Saw Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins there too but that's beside the point. The point is that I realized that watching plays are hard! I mean, to really understand and appreciate plays requires paying close attention to words and actions and to think along with the characters in real time. So, I've concluded that I'm dumb because I can't do it. It was a good play. I enjoyed it. I didn't nod off or anything, despite (or probably because I was) sitting next to a woman who every 20 minutes gurgled like she was about to throw up (she relayed this piece of information to her companion at the end of the 1-hour-45-minute-no-intermission play). The acting was good. I guess. I've never been able to really discern. I have absolutely no sense of what's good or not. What I can tell you is that I like the set design and lighting. How horribly sad that I notice and appreciate only that. Does practice make perfect? Should I see more plays? Or is that a waste money? My first instinct is to go find a book that tells you how to appreicate plays. That's what I've always thought: that everything one needs to know is in books. And for the most part, the books are probably out there. But there's gotta be a time and place where one learns these things for himself. That's not to say he learns it by himself because it could be in a classroom with other students or a friend teaches him. I gotta figure this out.

The topic in this article is RIDICULOUS. What's "front piggy-backing"? That's what I'd like to know! Is it like "riding the pony"? And what's with all the farm animal references?

Line from book:
Character Will Freeman - "I used to think I was pretty cool. I didn't mean anything, about anything to anyone and I knew that guaranteed me a long, depression-free life."

Saw Joe Dirt last night on HBO. Joe Dirt - poor man's Forrest Gump.

Positional vertigo, the doctor said. I have it. I want to get rid of it.

"About A Boy" by Nick Hornby. Funny. Good. I like it a lot. Me, kinda now and kinda how I wanna be in 12 years.

My friend wrote:

May 9, 2002
I guess we should be glad the pipe bomber wasn't going for B^) or >P.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! I love it. OK. Maybe not that many HA's. But it's going to keep me smiling throughout the day.

Alright, perhaps a little harsh yesterday about people analyzing movies. I started "About A Boy" by Nick Hornby today. And in the first 13 pages, I already see a little bit of me in one of the characters. So, we see what we want to see, perhaps. And if I was any sort of writer, I'd expound on that. But I'm not. So, I won't.

Washington Post article:
The movie also set a single-day record on Saturday of $43.7 million, according to studio estimates, and became the first movie to hit $100 million in its first weekend. Clearly, there’s more at work here than superhero worship. The character underneath the mask "was really representative of a lot of us who did the right thing but were awkward — awkward about social interaction, awkward about being so smart, being awkward just dealing with the world,” says Avi Arad, executive producer of the “Spider-Man” film.

Uh, no! We're heading toward summer, it's a weekend, the movie got a lot of buzz so it did well. Why do people feel the need to analyze everything? I'm sure people feel what Arad expressed but that's certainly not why I went. I really doubt the 10 people I went with thought that either. So, is it just the 11 out of the 140 million people who saw it this weekend who feel this way? I doubt that.

This "owning" thing is a bunch of bull. First of all, remind me of your definition.

But I'm going to rant anyway:
You think you own me but you only own the part of me that isn't anymore. That part does not exist anymore. The part that S. owns is more there, but not too much more. You understand? And the owner didn't do anything to own more or less of the person. It's the object that has changed. Who I am, who I think I am, and who I want to be are different. They are constantly being reshuffled and changed. And no one has managed to keep up with all those changes. That is partly my fault, and partly yours (generic you, not you-you).

Asian Americans suck.

I just finished reading the Elizabeth Shin article from the New York Times Magazine. Asian-American parents put so much pressure on their kids. It's their fault. "We don't pry." Pry?! They don't even talk, I bet. Come on, as long as your kids are at MIT and Yale (and the youngest is probably going to Harvard), you're fine. You have defended your existence. Then again, if I could, I'd be sending my kids to Andover or Exeter and starting the torment earlier in their lives. I just don't them to miss any opportunity to do whatever it is they want to do with their future. But that's for later....much later.

This kid did school work, fenced for a team, played the clarinet with a symphony and had friends?! I did the first one half-assed and only have that last one because I got lucky.

The school's to blame too. Once you enter college, all bets are off? You're on your own? When did being legally able to smoke and vote mean you're an adult? The school had a responsibility to the parents who pay tuition not just for the education (that would be case if this was some sort of commuter-school) but for the well-being of the child invested full-time around the experience of being educated.

Ultimately, each person has to own up to what he/she does. Personal responsibility. No one in this world is going to take care of you. You feel like crap; get out of it. In your own time, in your own way, get out of it. Don't let people tell you when or how. It's none of their business.

IHTFP. I still feel that way about that school.