This, That, and the Other
October 13, 2008
Who was the first person to ever get bored? I find myself pondering this as I am, as you would expect after such a question, bored out of my skull (which is an odd phrase anyway). But really, when you take a look at the big picture, modern technologies have made life so much easier in so many ways that we’ve managed to under-use ourselves. Hence boredom. Perhaps it is my own lack of historical knowledge, but it seems as though there was so much physical effort put into every day tasks, that rest and “free time” was really a luxury to be fully taken advantage of.
Boredom takes effort, that’s my opinion on it. It’s an effort to not find anything to do. We all have things to do, but it’s in avoiding them that we drone ourselves out. Currently, I’m at work (don’t worry, it’s my lunch hour). I’ve got things to do, but none of them are pressing or due for a long while, and as such I am avoiding them. Sure, I could finish these things off, but then I’d have nothing to do, and that’s a concept that many of us can’t seem to handle, myself included. So at least it’s there. But what to do in the meantime? These are the difficult questions I face each day.
Interestingly enough (in my view anyway), the weather played a substantial role in the quietness of my life over the last three or so weeks. My phone went with me to the Michigan State v. Florida Atlantic football game, that was played in what was basically a continuous downpour. Despite not getting water damaged (which is probably a cell-phone miracle) my phone managed to cease any and all functioning after the game. This didn’t really upset me. I don’t like the phone. It’s generally awkward and tends to end up bothering me when I’d rather that it not. Anyway, my replacement phone came and so did the intrusions that come along with it. Funny how having a phone and an e-mail address is what constitutes being in contact with the world nowadays.
Speaking of Michigan State Football (that would make more sense if you knew how my brain functioned, or didn’t), I was excited to see them beat Northwestern pretty convincingly on Saturday. Javon Ringer did his thing again, which is becoming a nice little expectation to have. But it was at the beginning of the 4th Quarter when I realized how conditioned I was when it came to MSU football games. MSU was ahead 17 points going into the 4th quarter. Most fans would be excited (as I was) and relaxed (as I was not) with that kind of lead. It’s getting better, but when you’ve grown up with it you take those extra precautions not to get burned.
And as much as I love Ringer (not that I know him personally) and as great as he is on the football field, Sam Bradford has to be the front-runner for the Heisman Trophy right now. Yes, Oklahoma lost to Texas, but Bradford had a great game throwing for 5 touchdowns. McCoy’s team won, but Bradford played better. It turns out, 22 players are on a football field at a time. It wasn’t Bradford vs. McCoy. I was impressed with Texas. That’s a great team. Bradford’s a great quarterback.
And as for the Heisman Trophy, the voting process bothers me. It bothers a lot of people. It has basically turned into an award for the starting QB on the best team in the country. The trophy is supposed to go to the Most Outstanding Player, not the most valuable. Somewhere along the way, that got completely thrown to the side. If there’s a great player who plays for a bad team, they should absolutely be considered for the award. In fact, it truly is more impressive for a player to put up great numbers on a bad team than it is on a great team. But through a cruel twist of fate it ends up working against them. Just another example of how mass groups of people are generally stupid.
