I don't always quite get it why people are so addicted to the various forms of the hottest topic nowadays, the social media. Yeah, I am grateful to the inventor of Facebook, there's no denying that it has more benefits than disadvantages for a socially active person. Everybody can tell why it is so good so I am not going to get into that. However, I can live without it. Still living here in the countryside I find it extremely useful in order to talk to people that live further, but if I am not feeling especially lonely, I survive without it. It is more like a tool to entertain yourself or to decrease your phone bill when you have an option to communicate for free.
My sister made me install the application Foursquare on my phone a while ago and I was really excited about it since it was something new and I got to do check-ins and I became the mayor in some places. Then, after a while I realised that I am unemployed and live in the countryside, which means I go somewhere max once a week so that I can even use that application. The glory of it kind of faded, checking in became annoying and felt a little obligatory. On top of that, my little sister discovered Foursquare and stole my mayorships. Settings, delete application.
I haven't created Instagram or Twitter accounts, nor have I ever bothered to go through them enough to even know how they actually work. I don't have a need to let everyone know what I am doing or thinking constantly, I'll tell it when I want to and I'll do it here. Or directly to the person I want to share it with. Besides, I am actually quite a bad photographer and my phone's camera isn't even so goodto publish pictures taken with it.
I guess I am a private kind of a social media user, I prefer reading others' posts and status updates and only posting when I really have something to say. Okay, my last Facebook status was about tequila, but that was simply because it was the first time in a long time that I was out with my friends so the situation required a Facebook status update. But like my title very frankly puts it, in my opinion the so-called social media is in some dimensions highly unsocial. Could someone please tell me which part of it all is social? Since, basically, even when you're chatting with someone in Facebook, you are alone in your chair staring at a machine. I admit that it makes you feel less lonely even writing to someone and them writing back but there's no warmth, there's no body language, no facial expressions and no real chemistry that makes you feel good when interacting with people.
Finally. I have suffered my punishment of not being able to plan my future so now I get back on it with more enthusiasm than ever. Apartment searching online, filling forms to verify that I'll be attending in January, trying to figure out the student allowance systems... It is kind of annoying actually, as a process, to do those things but the reason why I can do it is good enough a reason to even enjoy it. It feels incredible that for months I've been staring blankly in my future which didn't seem to include anything but now I have everything to expect. And that everything will start in two months! My studies start with orientation days from 16th to 17th of January and on 20th I'll become a full-time student once again.
I found out about this already on Friday but I needed a while to completely realise that I am going, especially since I've been distracted with other stuff. It was such a relief to find out that I got in. I was really nervous about it, I knew the day when the results would come and I was dreading the moment when I'd see a letter in a mailbox or go to the website to read the list of the accepted students. I am glad that my friend texted me in the morning saying congratulations on getting in, saving me from the nerve-wracking part.
I can't wait to find an apartment. Well, since I am moving to the capital where the rents are insane, I'll most likely get a shared apartment, we call it "a cell apartment" where there usually are about 2-4 people living there, each person has their own bedroom and the kitchen, the living room and the bathroom are shared. Not so nice, since you never know what kind of people you end up living with but that's just student life. Speaking of which, I can't wait to make new friends and to start learning French and to personally experience that famous student life. I guess I am out of practise with partying but on the other hand I've been saving my powers for the student parties, right? Oh and yeah, for studying of course.
So next up would be probably a trip to IKEA to find plates and glasses etc. cheap enough that it wouldn't matter if crazy and careless roommates smashed them. Also, I was a little too excited at the end of the summer when I packed all my kitchen stuff into boxes believing I'd be moving away and starting working. Now that I'll have only a few square meters to use I have to unpack it all and take only those things that won't break so easily and are really needed. Sounds maybe boring but I actually can't wait 'cause my inner organizer is so excited about it. This song isn't at all related to the theme but I just like it so much that I want to share it.
Again, it's been a while. However, this time I make my comeback having conquered some new territory. I have been substituing teachers in my former primary school and junior high and I am so excited to have gained these new experiences. The best way to desrcribe the job of a substitute is challenging, yet rewarding.
Yesterday was my very first day as a teacher, the very first time in a loooong time that I had to get up and go to work and though I needed coffee really badly so early in the morning, it was very refreshing to actually do something for a change. The tricky thing with substituing teachers is that you don't really have that much time to prepare. Yeah I knew about it a few days before, but I didn't get the instructions until in the morning. And well, luckily I adapt pretty easily since though I had been informed about the arts and handicraft lessons, I had a nice surprise of having to be a math teacher for one lesson. When I read it on the board for the first time, all I thought was "oh shit!" But as it turned out, it was a piece of cake. It was so much easier now than when I was a 9th-grader... Now I thank god that I chose advanced math in high school. They always said I'd need it in life and now I am happy about those countless hours calculating and calculating. The challenging part also included being unfamiliar to the students and what they are like. I am really glad I have had to boss people around in the past, since that was pretty much what I did on those more artistic lessons.
Today and tomorrow I am at primary school teaching the second grade. And I love it! Yeah there is noise around me all the time and kids won't shut up or stay still but what makes a difference is that in their eyes they still have the sparkle of enjoying carefree life. And they liked me, I even got a few pictures saying I am the best teacher ever. Funny that high school seems to be enough of an education for the kids but all the employees I have contacted this fall don't always agree... It is also nicer to have the same class the whole day so I get to know the kids better. It felt like I was a real teacher! I even got to use my skills in playing the piano since we started practising a Christmas song performance. I have always had the job of a teacher in the back of my mind but I haven't had a realization of wanting to start studying it yet. I can't deny that it sounds nice when a kid calls me the teacher, though. And really, nothing compares to the feeling when you explain something to a child or a youngster and they have that moment of understanding.
I listen to a lot of music in YouTube. At times I follow the video or the lyrics, but sometimes I just scroll down the page and read some of the comments people have left. I guess my taste in music has a direct connection to the kind of comments left there but it could also be because of the common age group that take the time to write a comment. I have observed the commenting patterns for a while now and here I give you a summary of what I've noticed.
This is purely based on my experiences and focuses mainly on popular pop songs that usually tell about love. Yeah, that describes probably every other hit song in the history of music. No, I haven't listened to all of them. The easiest to recognise are these four following groups. Not all of them can be seen in every video, they are just something I have gathered along the way.
First, not as common but still qualified as a group of mine, are the foreign commenters. They might have some grammar mistakes in their comments and they usually praise the song itself. These are not annoying or disturbing, they don't get disliked but they don't start a conversation either. They are cute and honest and they often mention the country that the writer is from.
The next group is the type of comment that can usually be found in very emotional songs, most likely when the subject is breaking up, loosing someone or missing someone. It describes a real-life lovestory and how badly it ended and how much it hurts. Written by both girls and boys, usually they point out the direct connection between some part of the lyrics and their own story. Almost every other of them expresses the desire to get back together with the loved one and nearly each of them is extremely desperate. I get that it can do good to write about your problems, but seriously guys, is the comment section of a YouTube video the best place to heal your broken soul? I am just asking. Creates a certain peer group for those who love the song, not necessarily irritating, sometimes even touching.
The third type is definitely annoying. These people take minutes of their precious time and type a comment, their sole purpose to whine about the quality of the video/ the quality of the sound/ the spelling mistakes in the lyrics. If it really bothers you so much, why can't you click on another video of the same song and move on with your life? These complaints gain answers from the person who uploaded the video apologising for it, which is like speaking to a deaf person apparently since people just keep complaining and finally, the video itself has a million of those annoying comments that pop up and where the maker verbally screams at people to shut up 'cause there's nothing they can do about the mistakes anymore. If it isn't good enough for you, make your own videos, damn it. The last type is just ridiculous but purely caused by the previous comment group. These comments complain about others' complaints. Do I really need to say more? If there's one comment that says for example: "The quality sucks, so does the tv-show the soudtrack of which this is, I am here for the song only", the following comments most likely are: "I am sorry for the quality" from the one who made it, followed by a minimum of ten comments like this: "How dare you say this show is bad?? It is my life, my everything and I love it with all my heart:" Right.
I am not trying to make fun of people who like commenting on YouTube videos or undermine the meaning of what matters to other people. A little sanity would be nice, though, and a common sense of what is appropriate to write and where.
I chose to link this song now simply because it is beautiful. I have to add to my theme that very often reading the comments ruins the mood you get from the song, so I'd advice everyone to read them at their own risk.
