I have two cousins graduating from MIT this June and one more going in this fall. Yeah, they’re all pretty much going to eclipse me in the business world within six months out of school. That’s okay. I’m the funny cousin. Anyway, one thing I learned recently about MIT is that all of the students have to pass a swim test in order to graduate. They require two full laps around the perimeter of an Olympic-sized swimming pool without touching the bottom or the sides. I can think of a few of my friend that would not have degrees if they had to pass a swim test.
Still, I think it’s odd that a school that prides itself on its brain power would require a swim test to graduate. Pasty nerds don’t even like to get near the water whether it’s the beach or neighborhood pool. Computers don’t survive wet conditions. This makes me wonder how many MIT alumni are involved in drowning deaths each year.
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Scientists have come up with a nasal spray containing a hormone that relieves the effects of sleep deprivation in monkeys. No sleep? Just spray?
If it were a drug store shelf product, it would probably be expensive, so I would want to save it for only the most important times. No, I wouldn’t waste it on all those nights I stayed up writing lines of code until the sun came up. If I had this while at college, I would definitely have more stories about weekend trips to Vegas and Tijuana.
I guess I didn’t need a blog post to make this point. I’m not trying to disprove the fact that pretty much everyone in my family is more accomplished than I am and a lot of them at a younger age, nor make excuses about how being street smart makes up for it.
I have two cousins that are seniors in high school. Both have early acceptance, one to Stanford and one to MIT. The rest of the schools’ replies are still coming in, but it looks bright for them. The one that got into Stanford is top ranked in club soccer, but she chose not to use soccer to get into school. Her grades and SAT scores are good enough to get her into a lot of schools. My cousin that has early acceptance to MIT fences. It sounds kind of nerdy. It gets nerdier, but that’s the way I like it. He is also a Junior Magician at The Magic Castle. That is a pretty impressive accomplishment.
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Today started off like any other day. I was running late to work but not caring. I was stopped at the stoplight on the offramp, blasting my radio and singing. As I turned to my left to see who was stopped next to me, I noticed it was a grown man with tears running down his face. His face wasn’t contorted in anguish, but he definitely had tear trails on his cheeks. I began pondering what could possess a man to cry on his drive to work.
The only thing I could come up with was that he was a USC fan. Those poor bastards. It’s beating a dead, Trojan horse, but I have been saying all along that you would have to be an idiot to wait for a chance to play behind so many great starters. Mark Sanchez was one of the more notable idiots in the coveted quarterback position, but Booty’s horrible game may just be his chance. Even Carroll noted, “We could have made a change but we went with our guy. I don’t know about next week.” You can defend Booty and the Trojans, saying he hurt his hand during the game, but the end result is what matters.
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I called it. It’s currently happening to USC. They’re slowly losing their ability to recruit the best players. It is not because of a lack of a good football program. Simply put, they have more good players than they know what to do with on their team. The kids are finally realizing that when they sit behind half a dozen running backs, they are not going to get to play. They are slowly transferring to other school’s in spite of having to lose a year of eligibility.
This is not USC’s fault. They accept players not knowing who will decide to attend their school. It’s the players’ faults for being stupid. It doesn’t matter how good the program is if you don’t get to play.
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