Pointless Study

I was reading on-line somewhere that they did this study on texting. Personally, I despise anything having to do with texting. As a matter of fact, that goes for using a cell phone for anything other than talking. Call me old fashioned, but a phone should be used as a phone, not a mini-computer Do we really need all these gadgets and gizmos and other pointless apps?

Anyway, on to the point of this post, this study really let us all in on something we didn't know *not the sarcasm*. Teen girls text more than boys. Raise your hand if you didn't already know that.

Can you believe that money was actually spent studying this? I mean, this is what we spend our hard earned tax dollars on, to find out that girls text more than boys. Do we really need to know that?

And we wonder why we don't live in a future like we expected because of The Jetsons and Back to the future II, its because of these stupid studies!

Movie etiquette

It seems like every week I'm complaining about people's behavior in some form or another. Well, this week is no exception.

So, the little woman and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I haven't put up a review on my movie blog, yet, but I will before I go to bed tonight.

Maybe it's just me, but I seem to remember the days when it was just common courtesy to sit down during a movie and be courteous to your fellow movie patrons. Apparently, those days are gone, though.

Today, I think I had to endure some of the rudest people to ever sit in a theater. First they kept crawling over me to go the concession stand or bathroom or something. If they had some kind of medical issue, such as diarrhea or something, then I retract this statement, but otherwise, folks need to learn to take care of their business before they come into the theater.

Once those trailers start, people should be seated. If it was up to me, the doors would be locked and ushers would be guarding the doors, similar to the way they do if you go to a play or musical.

I despise texting. Aside from texting while driving, texting during the movies is about as bad as it can get. As you can guess, aside from getting up and down crawling over people the entire movie, I could swear just about everyone in the place was texting. These people sitting in front of me, and I kid you not on this, were texting each other. They were sitting next to each other and texting! WTF?!? I maintain my stance that if you can't wait the length of a movie to talk to someone, then you have some serious issues. Maybe the overreactive people that run airport security should start inspecting folks at the movies and confiscating cell phones.

No, I take that back. The minute they do that is when an emergency happens and they get sued, but something needs to be done.

Finally, these tween girls that I decided to sit near me would not stop talking throughout the entire movie. It is one thing to make clever quips here and there, but to sit there and talk about useless gossip (yes, i heard the entire conversation) just isn't right. Why pay the outrageous ticket (and food since they bought what appeared to be everything at the concession stand) prices if all you're gonna do is sit there and talk, y'know?

I guess the days of politeness are numbered. *SIGH* Not much that can be done, I guess, except lead by example. Maybe it'll catch on.

What happened to respect?

As a kid in junior high and high school, I was never a troublemaker, by any stretch of the imagination, but I was one to play pranks with my friends during class. Now that I'm a teacher, I see the other side of things. One person once said that as bad as you are, your kids/students will be worse. After what I've seen today, I have to wonder if that is true.

The choir director has been having some issues with a couple of her students, so she finally sent them to the office. I happened to be headed up there to make some copies, and the conversation I heard and what she told me later dumbfounded me.

Apparently, these kids think she's prejudice against white people. Problem with that is that she's white.

She took away one kid's cell phone because he was texting. Now, I'm no dummy. I know that some of my students text during class, but they at least have the courtesy to keep it hidden. This kid sits in the front row and was just blatantly texting right there in front of her, and after she repeatedly told him to put it up, he didn't stop. As she was sending him out, he grabbed his crotch and spat on the floor. From what I hear, the assumption is that he was aiming for her, and just didn't make it. WTF?!?

The other student took offense to his friend being sent out, so he got up, and tried to get the phone from her. As he was doing this, he was calling her all sorts of names.

I don't know what's going to happen to these boys, but I hope they get some severe punishment. A slap on the wrist will not bode well for the rest of us. This was some brash tactics employed here, and if nothing is done, then it could be the start of something.

Unfortunately, it is part of the culture these days. Students don't respect their teachers anymore (except for the fear of coaches). A friend of mine that teaches band across town literally flunks her kids for not showing up, and they don't seem to care. I don't know about you, but an F in band is one of the worst grades I could possibly imagine, but apparently, they don't care about any of their classes and will just bitch and moan to their parents to get it changed, and somehow it gets changed. That never would have happened in my day.

*SIGH* I guess the good old days of respect are all but numbered. What do you think?