Wait, did I say that? Too soon?
Anyway, life has been moving along for yours truly, sister is still preggers though her due date is closing in (I'm ready to meet my new niece, Kajagoogoo Wham! Stewart; she doesn't know it yet, but my sister is naming her child after an Eighties pop music princess of the mall circuit so, to protect her identity, I'll refer to her as such here, varying the one-hit wonder or established Eighties act with each update until I become sick of such shenanigans).
Just now, I took the online Jeopardy test, nailing a few ("Camus," "McCall Smith" for the "author of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency") and whiffing on a few ("raining cats and dogs?" Gotta hate the slap-to-the-forehead-after-the-fact realization). This is the fourth year in a row I've taken the test, and I'm missing Glee for this (though to be fair, the recent season arc has been "you gotta be fucking kidding me" in terms of plot consistancy and/or development).
Things are certainly different from the first few times I took it; gone is the arrogant, "I totally got this" of my callow youth, though the rib-kicking I took emotionally and financially last year might have more to do with that than any general lack of information retrieval on my part. I gotta be honest, "Jeopardy" money is and always has been my "realistic plan to pay off student loans" since I started taking this test. Cats and Dogs will be haunting me in my sleep, even if somehow I manage to get through the gauntlet.
But that's the perks of being a smart guy, book-wise; you can't always apply that to the real world. In fact, it's safe to say that, in many ways, an education can be more of a hinderance than a help, considering what kind of education you're talking about. I know all about the French New Wave, the Beatles, the presidents of this here United States (like the author of "Decision Points," George W. Bush...the one and only time I'm glad I know that, thanks again Jeopardy), but applying that to the real world seems harder than I thought. In preperation for the Jeopardy test, I read the Ken Jennings book about his time on the show, and he made some very observant points while also writing a very entertaining book: knowing trivia doesn't necessarily translate as intelligence, though it can.
But hey, I tried, and that's more than I can say for a lot of people. Whether I get anywhere with it this year or the next (because, oh yes, I will try again next year), the fact is I took a chance on something that I might be good at. I'm gonna have to keep that in mind if a job opens up for which I am somehow qualified via my degree, because it's awfully easy to say "nah, they wouldn't give me the job anyway."
Okay, back to home and to catch the last little bit of Glee...though I predict that it will suck.
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