Charles Sykes Rules

A good friend sent me a list of rules supposedly from a speech by Bill Gates. They are good rules, but Bill didn't say them. Charles Sykes did in a book about the dumbing down of American kids.


Rule No. 1: Life is not fair. Get used to it. The average teen-ager uses the phrase "It's not fair" 8.6 times a day. You got it from your parents, who said it so often you decided they must be the most idealistic generation ever. When they started hearing it from their own kids, they realized Rule No. 1.

Rule No. 2: The real world won't care as much about your self-esteem as much as your school does. It'll expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself. This may come as a shock. Usually, when inflated self-esteem meets reality, kids complain that it's not fair. (See Rule No. 1)

Rule No. 3: Sorry, you won't make $40,000 a year right out of high school. And you won't be a vice president or have a car phone either. You may even have to wear a uniform that doesn't have a Gap label.

Rule No. 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait 'til you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure, so he tends to be a bit edgier. When you screw up, he's not going to ask you how you feel about it.

Rule No. 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping. They called it opportunity. They weren't embarrassed making minimum wage either. They would have been embarrassed to sit around talking about Kurt Cobain all weekend.

Rule No. 6: It's not your parents' fault. If you screw up, you are responsible. This is the flip side of "It's my life," and "You're not the boss of me," and other eloquent proclamations of your generation. When you turn 18, it's on your dime. Don't whine about it, or you'll sound like a baby boomer.

Rule No. 7: Before you were born your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way paying your bills, cleaning up your room and listening to you tell them how idealistic you are. And by the way, before you save the rain forest from the blood-sucking parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your bedroom.

Rule No. 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers. Life hasn't. In some schools, they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. Failing grades have been abolished and class valedictorians scrapped, lest anyone's feelings be hurt. Effort is as important as results. This, of course, bears not the slightest resemblance to anything in real life. (See Rule No. 1, Rule No. 2 and Rule No. 4.)

Rule No. 9: Life is not divided into semesters, and you don't get summers off. Not even Easter break. They expect you to show up every day. For eight hours. And you don't get a new life every 10 weeks. It just goes on and on. While we're at it, very few jobs are interested in fostering your self-expression or helping you find yourself. Fewer still lead to self-realization. (See Rules No. 1 and No. 2.)

Rule No. 10: Television is not real life. Your life is not a sitcom. Your problems will not all be solved in 30 minutes, minus time for commercials. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop to go to jobs. Your friends will not be as perky or pliable as Jennifer Aniston.

Rule No. 11: Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them. We all could.

Rule No. 12: Smoking (or drug use) does not make you look cool. It makes you look moronic. Next time you're out cruising, watch an 11-year-old with a butt in his mouth. That's what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for "expressing yourself" with purple hair and/or pierced body parts.

Rule No. 13: You are not immortal. (See Rule No. 12.) If you are under the impression that living fast, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic, you obviously haven't seen one of your peers at room temperature lately.

Rule No. 14: Enjoy this while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school's a bother, and life is depressing. But someday you'll realize how wonderful it was to be a kid. Maybe you should start now. You're welcome.

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around this

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2008/11/6/84858/3741

Umm...Wow!!

I don't know if I should laugh or cry. Maybe a little of both. The depths of stupidity in this country know no limits.

Wow, I didn't know

I was unaware until today that the election actually cancelled out any powers that Congress might have. Apparently from now on all of the power will be held by one man. One great man or one evil man depending on which side of the vote you were on.

Is Obama really going to do all the things I'm hearing about? Is Congress truly unable to stop him? Come on people, get real. he can't raise taxes, start war (only works for Bush), implement new laws or redistribute any one's wealth WITHOUT THE SENATE AND HOUSE SAYING HE CAN. Not just the Senate OR the House, but the Senate AND the House. Obama will have great power to lead, to inspire and to some extent to influence, but he can't change everything all at once just by himself.

To all the rednecks who are in a panic - Obama can't force you to listen to rap and not country. He can't make a law that your daughters can only date black men and he won't make you get gold teeth. Your life is pretty much unchanged. On that note - cut the mullet. It was ugly in the 80s, it's still ugly.

To all the ultra ghettos - you're still going to have to work even if there is a brother in the White House. Lots of hard working black men and women will benefit from having a person of color at the highest seat in the government. Lots of lazy, not working people (of all colors from very white to very dark) will not see the instant benefits they are banking on.

I have heard so many stupid comments today from both sides of the voting lines. Obama has quite a bit of work ahead of him. I hope he does what's best for the country, 'cause he isn't going to be able to please everyone.

Bladder control training - the scary way

see more pwn and owned pictures

Voting

Ok, I finally went and voted.

Decided to test the waters and vote without a photo id. Went fine. Of course I only tried this because I live across the street and would be able to come right back. I would have to wait in the line again, but I could still vote. I wanted to see what would happen after that guy in August got denied the right to vote. No problems at all. :-)

Voters

There seem to be a lot more voters this year than in 2000 or 2004. I live across the street from a polling station, so I see the traffic. I usually would support lots of voters, but they have put me in a bad mood today. The polls open at 6. At 5 I could hear lots of traffic, so I went to investigate. The right to vote does NOT give people the right to block driveways. I got to mine in time, but two of my neighbor's didn't and were late for work as a result. On our street parking is allowed on one side only. People were on both sides leaving one narrow lane down the middle. So far today I have seen 9 standoffs where people going either direction were determined that they and they alone had the right of way. That was all before 7. After Dan finally made it out of the driveway I went back to bed. I'll vote later this morning after some of the people have made it into work.

It's only once every 4 years, so I could just suck it up and complain less. That won't happen because it's not only once every 4 years. yeah, big votes are, but rudeness seems to happen every day. Have some courtesy folks. Our street didn't close down for voting. A lot of people actually live near the schools and churches you are voting at. Don't park in their driveways, don't throw your cigarette in their yard and don't blast your radio or having screaming fights about who is supposed to pick up the kids in front of their houses. Behave nicely and I won't be tempted to cut off the valves to your tires while you are waiting in line. :-)

Evil

Hey AssHats uses the phrase Evil Republican Overlords. I like that phrase. I've been using it a lot since I read it on his blog. Politics is one thing my daughter and I do NOT have in common. She's a libertarian and since they won't win she's probably going to vote for the Evil Republican Overlords. Except of course that I have her voter card. Just kidding, she can vote for evil if she wants to. But I am going to say I told you so about a million times if McCain wins, dies and the most evil one becomes president.

This lady is voting for the Evil Republican Overlords too. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27488353/

So are the people who made up these flyers http://hamptonroads.com/2008/10/phony-flier-says-virginians-vote-different-days


I'm so sad, both for my daughter's choice, but also for the basic behavior of my fellow human beings. Geeze, people should know better than that by now.