Move-In Day, RA Training and Ultimate Frisbee
Last week was the first week of training, but so far every week has been so jam-packed with meetings, events, retreats, and discussions, and my nights are filled with either group activities or floor planning, but I’ve had such an incredible experience the past several days working with and getting to know so many different people. I’m excited for this year to really get under way.
Inapproprietary
The phrase “FML,” or “F my life,” has rapidly caught on and been coined by my generation. That’s right – we own it. All you other people born before 1988 who I’m sure have said similar or exact phrases: posers. Every one of you.
The “FML” phenomenon started with a website I won’t post here for ethical reasons. I don’t want to suck hours out of your day combing through the thousands of situations ending in “FML.” You deserve better than that, and I am not a time sucker.
Here’s my issue with the phrase: people don’t use it in appropriate situations. Standing in line waiting for your sandwich and saying “FML” because it’s taking too long is not disastrous enough a situation to use the term. If the most f-your-life-worthy moment of the day is that you had too many packages from your family to pick up at the mailroom in one trip then no, I don’t feel sorry for you. I’d love to be able to say, “Crap, I forgot to put my refilled water bottles in the fridge when I went to class. Now they’re all lukewarm! FML,” but that’s just not as severe as something like, “Our eighth round of in vitro fertilization didn’t take. Now we’re broke from spending so much money on the same procedure. FML.”
However, I understand not everyone is undergoing in vitro fertilization and subsequently can’t write an F my life moment involving that. I also get that sometimes college students just need to vent – probably moreso than others. Alright? I “get it.” But quit masking the “FML” phenomenon as “venting.” Some of you: fine, I’m sure you use it to vent, but I really think that several people actually believe their life is F’ed when they complain about their daily annoyances. It’s not that bad. I promise. You don’t have to run to the “fmylife” website every time your hair curler stops working or a Red Sox player gets injured in the WBC.
I find it unusual on the “fmylife” website that their tag line is: “My life sucks but I don’t give a f***.” Really? For a site where thousands of people care enough to post their crappy, made-up stories in hopes that their FML moment will be validated by the number of “I agree, you’re life is f***ed” clicks, it seems to me people are desperate for someone else to give a “f***” even if the original poster claims not to care.
So if the only people who care are the ones posting their FML moments for everyone who doesn’t care to not care about, then everyone only cares about themselves and the site’s tag line should be: “My life sucks, but I give a f*** because I want you to think it sucks too, even though I know you won’t because I could post that my astronaut monkey got lost in space two weeks ago and we haven’t had any contact with the ship since, FML, and you would still agree that my life is f***ed. That’s how deperate you are to prove to yourself that your life isn’t as f***ed as it was five minutes ago, even though it wasn’t all that bad to begin with.” But aesthetically speaking, their current tag line looks better.
On another note, I just tried throwing away my nutri-grain bar wrapper from across the room only for it to land in my shoe instead of in the trash can. I wonder if some higher power is trying to make a comparison between nutri-grain bars and feet and trying to get me to stop eating them (I won’t, they’re delicious) or if I’m just pitiful at aiming and should get my lazy ass up and walk to the trash can next time. Probably the latter. FML.
The Vinyl Meltdown: Turning Down the LP Boom
I’ve long since abandoned my black and grey Sony Discman, its flimsy cover, broken volume knob and worn down seek buttons sitting decomposed in a trash pile somewhere on an ocean rig. A click of a button and the cover shot up, waiting for me to toss it its melodic victuals. I’d snap the CD in place, gently shut the cover and lean back, closing my eyes and taking in each measure of music, each phrase, calmly, tranquilly…
Until I failed to hold it perfectly flat, in which case it would throw a fit and make skipping noises that sounded like a croup-ridden child. All I had to do was yank its bulky, obtrusive figure from the depths of my suitcase, clamor through my backpack for my equally awkward CD case and sit still like a statue or risk listening to Hanson in half-second segments.
I can proudly say two things: I don’t miss that contraption at all and thank God for MP3 players.
I love convenience, and for that reason I doubt I’ll ever fully grasp the recent vinyl craze sweeping angst-ridden, hipster college students. I hated my Discman, so I’m surprised that listening devices decades older are making such a comeback.
According to an article in TIME Magazine, “Vinyl Gets Its Groove Back,” vinyl sales comprised roughly 0.2% of total album sales in 2007 – that’s almost 990,000 records and LPs. In Boston, at a Berklee School of Music panel discussion in March 2008, Newbury Comics CEO Mike Dreese told students his vinyl sales were up almost 100% in the last year.
Several artists are capitalizing on the recent vinyl surge. Bands like The Killers, Radiohead and The Mars Volta began to make their albums available on all three formats: digital download, compact disc, and vinyl.
I’m still stumped. A million records are sold and all of a sudden bands rush to release their albums in a third format to appease the “masses?” A million anything is a lot, but in the context of total album sales it seems like a paltry sum. I get that within the flagging record industry, bands are going to try to appeal to every niche possible, but with a new era of digital downloading looming on the horizon it feels like vinyl lovers’ special treatment will go to waste. Right now vinyl appears to be a trend that people are treating like a movement.
Berklee junior Gray Bashew, 20, is able to shed a little light on the subject for me. “I really like the records themselves,” Bashew says. “The cases they come in, the big graphics. I like being able to open it up and look at the pictures on the back.”
Bashew’s assertion seems to be in line with the TIME article’s assessment: “Vinyl’s different shapes (hearts, triangles) and eye-catching designs (bright colors, sparkles) are created to appeal to a young audience.”
Neat shapes and pretty colors? Seriously? Are people bought so easily? But there may be a bit more to vinyl’s allure than just its aesthetic quality.
“In terms of sound quality, it does have a softer sound,” Bashew says. “Plus, when you put a record on, I think you listen to it more than if you put a CD on. When I put on a vinyl and sit with my friends, we listen to it. We don’t really do that with CDs.”
Maybe I value my time too much. When I listen to music, it’s always accompanied by something else. I carry my iPod with me when I go running or when I go on errands. I can’t strap a turntable to my back and go run a 5K – that’s just not convenient.
I’m not saying people can’t own an iPod and a record player at the same time – I just have a problem with the largely superficial attraction people have for vinyl. Then again, I have a favorite shape and color, too: white and rectangular.
With the exception of DJs and hip-hop artists, hardly anyone seems to value vinyl for its breakthrough in the music industry as the first widely distributed recordable format. It’s not cool because it was innovative; it’s cool because it’s shaped differently.
Nostalgia is overrated. I’m perfectly content having my entire music library easily accessible with the click of a scroll wheel, and with a half-decent pair of headphones I can enjoy the sound quality my iPod delivers.
But you audiophiles have fun. I’ll enjoy my portability.