Just call this daylog
VT_hawkeye's Transportation and Life-Goals Rant.
Thought last night during CS Career Night: when I finally get through this whole job-hunt process and get a full-time job for after I graduate, I'm going to write a book and call it How To Become A Corporate Whore In 3 Easy Steps. If anyone out there is like me, this book will sell to college job-seekers so fast that I won't even need to take a job offer -- I'll be able to live on the royalties.
Every Tuesday morning, I drive the Oak Lane bus. The "Oak Lane Community" is Tech's area of campus where fraternity and sorority houses owned by the university are located. It's not really any further from the academic side of campus than regular dormitories, just in a different direction, and there is a dedicated bus for these people (actually, two of them -- they run on a fifteen-minute cycle). On the flipside, though, there aren't actually that many riders on the route, because of the prevalence of cars at Oak Lane.
At some schools, I understand it's practically necessary to join a Greek organization to have a social life. Not so at VT -- the last numbers I heard were that frat guys are about 15% of the male population, and sorority girls are about 25% of the females (which roughly equals out -- Tech was 58% male, last I heard). So, those of you who joined Greek organizations because that's what you had to do at your school to be involved (my Mom was one of those people), don't take the following insults at face value, they're not meant for you.
Except for the one Honors dorm, Oak Lane community is the only site on campus where on-campus residents can park in front of their house/dorm (instead of in the Cage, a monstrous lot on the southwestern edge of campus). As if that wasn't privilege enough, Oak Lane residents get commuter parking passes as well, meaning they can park closer in on campus if they so desire, taking a 3-minute drive over a 6-minute walk. Nobody else on campus gets that privilege -- and nobody else has a dedicated bus route going to their residence either. (I'm not quite sure why we run that route, though -- there's low ridership because if you're rich enough to buy your friends, you're rich enough to buy a car, and the commuter passes let them drive down the street to class.) Do frats and sororities get preferential treatment? Noooooooo...
And to top off my lovely Oak Lane shift, I made one critical mistake: I ate a Sbarro biscuit. Bacon and cheese, to be specific -- Squires Student Center's food court was the only place I could get to in my 7 minutes of 10-7 at the library timecheck, so I figured I'd try what they had. It nearly made me sick, and the nasty taste was barely washed away by the 32 oz. of Pepsi I also purchased. I didn't eat lunch, that biscuit messed me up so bad.
Fast-forward to 1357: I have a test at 1400, and was stuck in senior pictures until 1350. I knew parking would be difficult, but this was ridiculous -- it wound up taking me 30 minutes of circling to get a space, after being cut off twice by prissy sorority girls with their Oak Lane passes. I had to restrain myself from jumping out the window of my truck and shouting,
Ride the fucking bus, you over-privileged bitch -- I even fucking DRIVE a dedicated route just for you, and you still have to take my damned parking space!
(Not that it made that much difference on the test anyway... I still failed miserably... why the hell did I take Computer Graphics anyway? I live in text mode.)
What a damned day. At least my riders on Hethwood/Windsor Hills for the late shift are real people, though, without the attitude that belongs somewhere northeast of here.