Ahhhhhh Spring. Millions of students are in the process of finishing up the year with finals. Those stress-filled tests that are designed to hold students accountable and to sort them from smart to not as smart. This is human nature folks. Let’s see how we measure up against one another.
Another way we judge people is by the TV shows they watch. My inspiration for this post came from the show Greek. Judge me if you will, but I like it. One of the characters, Dale, is a science genius and a conservative Christian. So he is your basic geek (yes, that’s a judgment). When the show started, he was against the Greek system and had pretty strong views about homosexuality. Over the course of two seasons, he hasn’t compromised his beliefs but he hasn’t turned away from or unfairly judged people who are in the Greek system or who are gay. Two of his best friends fall into those categories. So it is possible to keep your principles without judging others too harshly.
In the last episode Dale was upset that his art history teacher was going to have essay questions on the midterm exam. When Dale heard this his response was, “Essays? No, no. That leaves way too much room for teacher interpretation and frankly this guy’s kind of a nut bag.” That’s right Dale. Teacher gets to subjectively judge you. And to all you students out there—that’s life. Sometimes you get nut bags and sometimes you get lifelong mentors.
But hey, it’s good practice. Because for the rest of your life you’ll be judged on all sorts of things. For example, what you find funny, what you like to watch on TV, what you do for a living, what kind of car you drive, your opinions, and very relevant to my current life—your resume. You really shouldn’t worry about any of that though. What you should focus on is how you treat others. Do you judge people unfairly? While you are pondering that thought, take a look at this picture of me in third grade. If I was judged harshly based on my clothes, I would not have made many friends. (By the way Mom, thanks for letting me out of the house looking like this.) The girl next to me happens to be one of my friends, even after all these years. I’m taller than her now but she always had better fashion sense and never cared if I wore ugly shoes. Show the love people and good luck on those exams, applications, interviews, and first dates.
Do you ever have those days when you feel blah? You don’t know why but you just can’t seem to pick yourself up? Sometimes I blame the rain or the economy or the sun or whatever. Yeah, that’s not too productive. Well as the proverbial saying goes, “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
So let’s talk about what to do to get ourselves out of the slump. Today as I was scanning through my “favorites” to find all the various job sites I’ve bookmarked, I saw this video that I had saved just for laughs. I used to love hearing this song and now whenever I need to smile, I just play the video. Don’t let the rain, your job, your significant other, or anything else get you down—at least not for the next two and a half minutes. Seriously, how can you be down and say mahnahmahnah at the same time?
So as I was playing that video I saw another one that also made me giggle. One way to get out of a slump is to exercise. In this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E8xMcXmI9E, the dog puts on some pretty cool moves. Not sure he’d make it onto dancing with the stars though. Try it out. I did. And then I closed my curtains and danced around some more. My neighbors already think I’m weird enough. Enjoy!
Since I’ve started writing this blog I’ve tried to really take in what’s going on around me—looking for topics to write about—observing things. And because my background is in marketing, I tend to look at various signs and billboards. Recently I’ve seen a few signs and ads that have made me giggle a bit. Here are a few. I know some are hard to see—I guess I’ll have to actually stop the car instead of doing the drive-by photography.
I love this McDonald’s billboard ad. Clean, easy to read, and funny.
This church in Dagsboro, DE had the following message on their marquee. It says, “Guess who is coming back.”
For anyone who may not know, the message above is referring to the second coming of Christ. The second coming will mark the end of the world as we know it and will start a new beginning. At first there will be devastation but then literally—heaven on earth. So I thought it was funny that just a bit further up the road was a sign for Coffin St.
Then there was this restaurant. It’s sign out front says, “Come on in and EAT. We can seat 144 people, 16 at a time.” I love it—witty and good marketing.
I’ve mentioned Bridgeville, DE in a previous post but wanted to save the message on the fire house marquee for this post. The sign changes each trip but on this one it said, “It’s not hard to meet expenses, they’re everywhere.”
And finally there is a hilarious sign outside the Baptist church in old town Alexandria, VA. This is the same church that rings its afternoon church bells to songs like Kum Ba Yah.
From the Observation Deck 