So You Say

“What would McGuiver do?” Brian

*warning, spoilers*

Last night I accidentally ended up watching the pilot of ‘Glory Daze’ on E4. Happening to wander in I laughed and then I was stuck to my seat. There were many elements which made this show memorable. Firstly the characters are likable and stick with you. Secondly it was just one laugh after another. Thirdly it was set in the 80s so I was a big fan of the soundtrack. Given that I’ve only seen it once and it’s now been twelve hours since, a lot of the quotes are me paraphrasing what I remember.

The protagonist is Joel Harrington. He’s an all around nice guy who wants to make his dad proud by sticking to his studies. However events and his new group of friends all conspire to get him to try join a fraternity, in particular Omega Sigma, the party fraternity. One of his most memorable moments was when he met future love interest Christie. Having never spent much time around girls after going to an all boys school he’s quick to offer pens, pencils or anything she may need. When she calls him a lone wolf for deciding not to join a fraternity he responds by howling like a wolf. And embarrassedly trying to change the subject thereafter. Joel befriends Eli, Brian, Jason and Alex on the first day.

Eli’s opening scene sees him gyrating in his eighties style briefs in front of the mirror. He later admits that despite talking about sex all the time he’s actually a virgin. The boys fake shocked expressions. Brian is cast as the jock, getting into college on a baseball scholarship but he is eager to make friends with people who are not baseball players. “My roommate has posters of players all over the wall. Do you know how hard it is to have sex with *baseball player’s name I can’t remember* staring down at you?” “Yeah totally” say the other guys staring down at their food.

Jason is a politician in the making with cookie cutter girlfriend and a room filled with posters of Reagan. However things end with the girlfriend when he is rushed by Omega Sigma and he experiences ‘The Beast’, an industrialized beer bong. “But I still love Bob Dole!” he proclaims, trying to get her to stay. Alex Chang disappears for most of the show after he goes to the Asian Fraternity. From the outside it looks quiet and boring but once  inside he is taken to a basement filled with half naked girls and robots.

Joel arrives at college and while his dad talks about keeping his eye on the prize Joel’s eyes fill with wonder as he sees girls hanging around in bikinis and fun being had. He meets the other guys who warn him that if he doesn’t join a fraternity he’ll end up like his roommate Zack who sprays fungicide everywhere and makes a volcano from his mashed potatoes. They go around campus looking at the different fraternities eventually settling on Omega Sigma. Joel talks to Christie who convinces him to try and join by saying they’ll see a lot more of each other. Jason gets wasted from the Beast and Eli gets baked upstairs.

Eli, after hearing about the history behind the poster sitting in the main room of the fraternity house, decides to steal it and place it in the hall of fame. After hearing the worrying messages left by Eli, Joel and the others go and try to rescue their friend. They get sighted by security and quickly come up with a plan to escape by tying their clothes together and making them into rope. At which point you see all the main characters in their underwear. But of course a security guard was standing outside the whole time and they go to jail, later being bailed out by Brian’s coach.

Omega Sigma don’t want them to join after stealing their poster but are eventually won over by one of the upper class-men Mike, who convinces them that they should instead be honoured as legends for their amazing prank. The four are allowed to join but Joel is disappointed when he discovers that Christie is going out with Damon, one of the leaders of the fraternity.

The best way to describe the humour would be to say that one of the professors is played by the principal from Mean Girls, Tim Meadows. Similarly to Mean Girls the laughs come from one-liners, unexpected scenes and physical humour. For example at the Zheta Rho house one of the main guys introduces Jason to the fraternity by saying that they’re dedicated to affirmative action and that they had their first African member. He introduces a white guy who turns out to be from South Africa and laughs stating “That always makes me laugh. You were expecting a black guy weren’t you?”

A lot of it has been done before; the archetypal characters, wild college partying, the girl who is dating someone else. You might be forgiven for mistaking the show as a series stemming from Van Wilder or American Pie. But the show is atmospheric, funny and just fun to watch. The next episode airs at 9 on E4 next Thursday.

Adult: n. Fully developed and mature – Webster

I suppose the question is really, do you ever become adults? According to the definition above you are supposed to be fully developed and mature. I know of nobody who fits this description or at least both parts of it and if I did I’d feel sorry for them.

It doesn’t matter what age you are, you will always act immature in some way or another whether it’s with drink, not paying your bills on time or putting off your responsibilities. As for fully developed? When do we ever get to the stage where we decide we no longer need to soul search and decide that you have no more developing to do. Put a fork in me, I’m done.

The thing that set me off was a little bit of contemplation I had while on the swing. The swing itself was enough to set my mind worrying whether I could no longer act like a kid. I was, after all, eighteen years old. I was about to enter university and even though I was going likely going to Trinity or UCD if I had wanted to go to Galway or Cork then I’d have to figure out how to take care of myself. This thought scared me. How could I possibly do that? I can’t sleep in an empty house or think of anything to feed myself other than pasta and bagels. That’s not even taking into account the more complicated things like cleaning a bathroom and washing your clothes!

I’m just beginning to do things that most people would qualify as being adult related. When I was seventeen I had to leave town before it got dark. Now, as long as I have a way of getting home or a place to crash I’m allowed to stay out late. I began drinking after my eighteenth birthday. My education has become my responsibility and I’ll have to start earning my own money. After all, what self-respecting nineteen year old still expects their mum to give them pocket money?

So what now? Credit cards, moving away from home, doing my own laundry? There are certain expectations for adults yet you can still get away with drinking until you black out, playing your X-Box and sleeping with inappropriate people. It may be adult (or teenagers pretending) but it’s still just another form of immaturity. I also think that we never stop searching for identity or changing as people. I doubt anyone ever fully develops.

We get older. Sometimes we get wiser. But I’m still not sure we are ever anything more than big kids. And if that’s the case then I’m happy. Nobody really wants to grow all the way up.

So, if God has existed forever…you know, what did he do in his spare time, like, before he made the Earth and everything? - Father Dougal

People shuffled in quietly to the Church finding a free pew to sit on. Light pours in from the stained glass windows. Everybody is serene as the wait for the bell to ring and the priest to appear. I sit staring at the Apostles’ Creed and thinking is it really a profession of faith or a way of indoctrination?

The problem with being a teenager is that you start to question everything that you were raised to believe is true. I believed that if I stole sweets from my sister then God would be watching me and he wouldn’t be happy. I believed that when somebody died then they looked down on you from heaven.  Now I’ve become philosophical and I ask myself whether or not God really exists.

On the one hand religion has been a part of everyday life for at least 4000 years. Maybe people had the same ideas at the same time but there is some kind of collective experience there. There are miracles every day that can’t be explained by science. I don’t want to believe we’re alone in the universe and when you die that’s it, you fade into nothing. For me it doesn’t make any sense that one moment someone could be alive and experience the world and then just disappear.

On the other hand, it’s very easy to see how as a race we would have begun by attributing the unexplainable to a more powerful force. Before science if a volcano erupted it was because a god was angry, but now we know better. It’s easy to see how we would give this force attributes and make it look like us because we don’t have the imagination to think of anything else. Logically, even if the world was created by intelligent design what are the chances that there is a God that cares about each one of us and cares about whether we sin or not? In reality we’re a speck in a great expanse.

The thing is, I really want to believe. I was talking to a friend about this and he told me a heartbreaking story about his friend’s family and the different sorts of illnesses and accidents that have been thrown at them. It made me think, isn’t it easier to be angry at God for neglecting us rather than face being alone in the middle of nothing? I want to have the conviction that some of the people I know have because they are honestly content. I used to have it. My mum described faith and just knowing deep down that there is something more. There’s no logic to explain it, it’s just there.

Does God exist? He may, or he may not. If he/she/it does we have no idea what form God will take or whether it is loving, vengeful or indifferent. In all honesty we know nothing. Yet some people know that something exists beyond our understanding and I wish I was one of them.

Everybody in the Church stands and there is a rustle of paper. The priest clears his throat and the silence is broke with a chorus of “We believe in one God, father the almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth, of all that is seen and unseen…”

Yes, despite the fact that this is a shocking statement it is also true. It all came to me in a startling moment of clarity. The truth is I’m more than ten chapters behind in maths homework, missed something like two chapters in physics and my hatred for German makes it hard to get more than a C in it. Of course every leaving cert student knows  that the points for all the courses are going up next year because of the increase in admissions. My course is high enough as it is, 555 points. Point being, I REALLY need to study.

Suddenly I looked over at my laptop and the light went off in my head. It was all the internet’s fault! Well, not all. But it certainly hasn’t helped. I tend to procrastinate and it’s a lot easier to do that when you have Facebook and FML and icanhazcheezburger.com all at the touch of your fingertips. I considered giving up Facebook but I don’t want to delete my profile altogether and lose all the pictures I put up, the comments and the friends I’ve added and accepted over the years. I’ve managed to stop obsessively checking the Home page on Facebook but really it’s not enough. Even if I gave up Facebook I’d just go on to something else. So I came to a startling conclusion – no more internet.

Now obviously I can’t give up the internet altogether. I might need it to look up DART times or check something for school. I’ll also be checking my e-mail once a week. But I won’t be checking it in the morning instead of having a proper breakfast or writing another blog instead of that essay I’m supposed to be doing for history. However I will be breaking my radio silence if say for instance my novel gets published or something equally insane/awesome happens. So from tomorrow:

- I’ve deleted my bebo and hotmail accounts

- I’m uninstalling Tweetdeck

- My MSN is apparently going to delete itself within thirty days

- Any other ideas you guys suggest

Sure, I’m a little worried about losing contact with friends and completely falling out of the loop but I really need to study. *Sigh* I hope this helps. If not you might be seeing me quite soon. In the meantime if you need to contact me you can text me or e-mail and lizzie.omally@gmail.com.

Signing off til the LC,

Liz

My cousin started a blog recently and I think it’s quite good. The only thing was that she was very, very honest. I was reading things that I never knew about her, very personal things about friendship histories and feelings and things like that. Alarm bells went off in my head. I’m not sure if this was because I felt like I’d stumbled onto something that was intensely personal or because all of a sudden I had an image of some stranger knowing all of this information about my cousin. I have no idea how or why they’d use it but quite frankly there are some nutters out there.

The format of my blog is generally ranting about a topic, not that personal. Even still I wrote an anecdote about my old school (which I have yet to name) in a post about drinking (http://www.liz.viewfromthequad.com/?p=177) and I got a comment sometime later calling me a bitch for posting that story. I didn’t mention any names or specifics and yet I still managed to offend. Most of the spam comments I get are people from my old year which I just delete because they don’t add anything to topic I write about and also they can be quite hurtful. (By the way if you’re reading this, why don’t you say something like that to my face rather than hiding behind an anonymous comment? It’s a lot easier to be mean to someone online). Even a small bit of information can be manipulated.

In thinking about this post I looked at my ‘about’ section. Suddenly I realised what an idiot I had been. A complete stranger would know what I looked like, where I lived, where I go to school and even the name of my dog.  I have changed it to one sentence “18 year old blogger living in Ireland”. Of course it was concrete information I had posted before. What do you give away when talking about your feelings? I’d say a lot. When I sent out a general question asking what people thought of those emotionally out there online many said they thought it might be a cry for attention or perhaps they were looking for someone to relate to them. All it would take is for someone to take advantage of a vulnerable person by leaving a few supportive comments and then they will have developed an online relationship with that person. Who knows what could happen then.

This kind of information isn’t just fodder to the maniacs and psychos out there. According to the survey of 1039 employees and 647 employers, which was undertaken by the employment law consultancy Peninsula Ireland, companies are using social networking sites to check the validity of staff out sick.The survey indicates that 83 per cent of employers have monitored individual’s Facebook statuses to check whether an employee was truly ill. So if you thought you were just taking a relaxing day off and then post pictures of you going out with your friends later that night when you supposedly had the flu, you could be out of a job. In fact in Clacton, England a 16-year-old girl said she was fired from her office job after managers saw that she had branded her position “boring” on Facebook. Someone I know who was holding interviews for her organisation recently said “[it was] amazing how much of their personal info was available online (including comments about how they felt the interviews had gone).” It is very easy for an employer or interviewer to find out about you just by searching you on Facebook or twitter.

When I first started writing my blog I was pretty sure that it wouldn’t be a big deal. Who was going to read it apart from a few people I was friends with on Facebook? Yet I still manage to get spam comments from people advertising cheap Viagra and Russian whore services. If people from Russia can find my page you can be pretty sure it’s not as private and cosy as I thought.

Not to mention that many people I knew who had public profiles on Bebo and Facebook had pictures of them drinking or smoking in them (obviously I’m talking about people who were underage). As a general rule, if you’re ever in doubt as to whether you should put up that raunchy picture of yourself or leave a bullying comment, wonder what your mum or boss would have to say about it. And then maybe just think again.

He’s John. He’s Edward. Together they are surprisingly one of the biggest success stories of the year.

I knew I had to write this post as soon as I saw that their debut single ‘Ice Ice Baby’ was No.1 on the Irish iTunes charts. It’s been a whirlwind for the two Dublin lads ever since they auditioned for X-Factor back in August. Even though they were in my school I thought they were gobshites in the beginning. Before you ask, I knew of them. Everyone knew of them. They were hardly inconspicuous with the hair, the suits and the fact that they were twins. I had comparative studies class with them. (Whenever I tell a noob that I let one of them borrow my pen one day they seem to think I had a serious brush with fame). Cheryl asks “Where do you see yourselves in fifteen years?”John replies “Well I see myself being older”. This is the incredible wit we would later come to love. Simon loathed them from the beginning but Louis spotted something, which I guess explains why he is worth millions.

Even though I didn’t think they were great I still wanted them to go through. They were quite amusing and although I knew they were going to get through to the live show I still cheered when Louis picked them to be one of his groups. Really started to like them after their performance of ‘Hit Me Baby’ at the live show. It was the combination of the red leather suits, the crazy dance moves and the absolute hilarity when they did the dialogue out in front of the stage. As my friend put it “They passed annoying, stopped off at bearable and ended up at amusing.” Every week people who weren’t even X Factor fans would tune in to see what kind of spectacle they would be putting on that show. They ranged from dancing in between girls legs, coming down from the ceiling and having giant John and Edwards dancing on the stage that week. And of course who can forget the Ghostbusters routine? Pure genius.

Even if Jedward didn’t win the show they were still the hottest thing to come off it in years. With brilliant quotes such as ‘We met Queen. As in the band, not the actual one”, they quickly garnered a lot of media attention. I can’t remember which company it was that ran a huge poster campaign with the slogan ‘In Jed We Trust’ after Simon Cowell pledged he’d leave the country if Jedward won the X-Factor. But even Simon himself even fell for the ‘gruesome twosome’ and saved them when they were voted into the bottom two with Lucie Jones. Of course the shock elimination ensured even more hate and abuse for the twins who were the only act ever to be booed upon gracing the stage. Ironically if Danni had chosen to save the twins in the deadlock with Olly Murs, it would have been Olly to go out as he had received less votes that week.

However even after their elimination John and Edward still popped up in the papers and have thousands of fans at this stage. Like them or hate them, they are an unstoppable force. In the first day of it’s release, ‘Ice Ice Baby’ shot to number one and there is more to come for the starstruck pair in the form of their own clothing ranges and hair products. As for me? I’ll be looking out to see what they do next.

You can view the song here - Ice Ice Baby – Jedward