Passed Me By
Here’s another example of how the world has passed me by.
I’m sitting in my office yesterday and my phone rings. I answer it and the barely audible cell phone voice on the other ends says something like, “Scracha cracha schaow-schaow-schaow brzzzpt,” which eventually I translate into “This is Simon (not his real name) from your Philosophy class.”
I tell him that the connection is too lousy and to call back later when he has better service. “Zkrptzip,” he replies and hangs up.
A few minutes later, another student from the same class drops by—it is my office hours, after all—and asks if students have a homework due today. “No” I remind him, thinking that if only he spent more time paying attention in class and less time chatting with his friends about videogames, he’d know this, “I cancelled that so you guys could concentrate on your finals.”
“Oh, good,” he replies, “because I just saw Simon in the hallway and he said he was trying to get in touch with you about today’s assignment.”
What the fuck? The kid was in the building when he phoned? He couldn’t walk twenty yards down the hallway to ask me in person?
So, yesterday evening when I see Simon before class—he’s deigned to drop by to tell me he’s not going to make it; he’s got to attend his high school graduation instead—I ask him why he didn’t just come to my office instead of phoning.
His reply: “I didn’t know where it is.”
He knows my office phone number but not its location?
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised; the cell phone is the baby blanket, snuggle-bunny, pacifier for kids today. I shoulda realized this almost a decade ago when our nephew, Codi, was staying with us and one evening when the front door was locked, instead of knocking on it, he stood outside and called us to come answer it.
*Waves as the world goes by.*
I’m sitting in my office yesterday and my phone rings. I answer it and the barely audible cell phone voice on the other ends says something like, “Scracha cracha schaow-schaow-schaow brzzzpt,” which eventually I translate into “This is Simon (not his real name) from your Philosophy class.”
I tell him that the connection is too lousy and to call back later when he has better service. “Zkrptzip,” he replies and hangs up.
A few minutes later, another student from the same class drops by—it is my office hours, after all—and asks if students have a homework due today. “No” I remind him, thinking that if only he spent more time paying attention in class and less time chatting with his friends about videogames, he’d know this, “I cancelled that so you guys could concentrate on your finals.”
“Oh, good,” he replies, “because I just saw Simon in the hallway and he said he was trying to get in touch with you about today’s assignment.”
What the fuck? The kid was in the building when he phoned? He couldn’t walk twenty yards down the hallway to ask me in person?
So, yesterday evening when I see Simon before class—he’s deigned to drop by to tell me he’s not going to make it; he’s got to attend his high school graduation instead—I ask him why he didn’t just come to my office instead of phoning.
His reply: “I didn’t know where it is.”
He knows my office phone number but not its location?
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised; the cell phone is the baby blanket, snuggle-bunny, pacifier for kids today. I shoulda realized this almost a decade ago when our nephew, Codi, was staying with us and one evening when the front door was locked, instead of knocking on it, he stood outside and called us to come answer it.
*Waves as the world goes by.*
posted by Professor Dave at 8:49 AM
2 Comments:
Yep, the world has definitely passed you by. I recognized this as apodictic truth when I saw you spelled out what NO one under 40 and writing on the Web would ever spell out: wtf.
So, like, wtf, dude?
I only did that to get up to 327!kthnx! g2g!
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