Where Have You Been?

I've been living life, peeps.

Yeah, I've just been a tad busy...and tired, I won't lie, I had a crazy schedule this past week. Except I have assessed three things:

People need to follow the news more;
Basketball referees for high school basketball camps need to learn that there's a reason they're alone;
I love the Kinect.

Each shall be explained in full. Just because I understand what I'm saying,  it doesn't mean the rest of you do. Aren't I nice?

So, recently I've noticed that the news just keeps getting more and more morbid. You have a wildfire threatening Los Alamos Labratory, so there may be some sort of release of radioactive material. A similar situation is happening with the nuclear plants in Nebraska that are being flooded. Then there's Greece's economic debacle, which if you don't know about it, read up on it. Potentially, that situation could be a harbinger of things to come for the rest of us. Meanwhile, the U.S. Government is in denial about the debt ceiling. Seriously, people, Medicare and Medicaid were developed when the tax rate was higher. We have since dropped the tax rate, but it's like a phone bill. Why do we think we can afford a fancy smartphone with all sorts of features when you can realistically only afford a basic phone? Without a raise in taxes, we can't afford ourselves, spending cuts won't do jack diddly squat shit in the long run.

What are we concerned about? The Casey Anthony Trial. While it's definitely a tragic story, the world has bigger issues.

Please people, do yourself a favor, get caught up on the news. Now on to basketball referees.

Last weekend, there was a basketball camp taking place, and I happened to be working during it. I had absolutely no issues with the kids and their coaches, they were actually nice. But why do basketball officials seem to think they are God's gift? Let me give a few examples. While this basketball camp was going on upstairs, Alumni Weekend was taking place on the lower level of the HUB. The alumni wanted the kids to stay upstairs while they had the downstairs. I took this to be a reasonable deal. So, I set up signs to urge the officials to use the back entrance. While setting these signs up, I had one official try to enter anyway. When I asked him politely to use the back entrance, he asked me why he had to use the back way. I then explained the situation to him. His comment:

"They're just a bunch of old farts anyway, why should I care?"

It took everything in my power to not say "One day, you will be an old fart." But after some convincing, he went in the back way. Now, I had another gentleman who thought it was my job to tell him where his personal locker was. Yeah, we don't have those in the HUB. He didn't respond well to the idea of changing in front of other guys. Actually, when I think about that man, I feel my blood pressure rise. Seriously buddy, you're reffing a team sport. That means most likely you played the sport some point in your life. Most likely, you were shirtless at some point. Come on, just because you're over the hill doesn't mean that you're automatically entitled to a personal locker room. At least the refs were not as bad as the actual host team, who did not do what they promised and where quite unprofessional. But I won't even go there.

On a better note: Microsoft, I love your Kinect.

Yes, I got a Kinect. For all of you who think that I'm some sort of tool, I don't care. I've had it for less than 24 hours, and I'm in love. I was a child that played Dance Dance Revolution when I was younger. So, the Kinect was the toy from my childhood, adapted for the changed world. The best part? While definitely there are a lot of family games, there are enough "adult" games being developed with the Kinect in mind. Not only does it play games, it does video chat and can control the Xbox with audio commands. Take that, Nintendo, it does more than your Wii. So yeah, kids with a Xbox 360, get a Kinect. It's totally worth it. And don't worry, pictures will be coming soon. Muhahaha.

But yeah, that's what I've been up to. Next time, I promise to be more entertaining. Or more sane. Probably the latter.