Wait...so you CAN'T fix my computer? Hell of an engineer, my ass...

So I was supposed to write about this hate crime stuff we talked about my Cultural Geography class that really irritated me, but I'm not really irritated about it anymore, so I'm not in the mood to write about it. Suffice it to say that Hate Crime laws are stupid because you can't make the penalty for murder and worse than it is, unless you want to kill people slower and more painfully. At any rate, we'll probably end up talking about it tomorrow, or at least something similar, and I'll be irritated all over again and have plenty to blog about.

Instead, I'd rather talk about the humorous observation I just made. For those of you from Georgia, or at least familiar with Georgia, you know about the rivalry between the University of Georgia, and Georgia Tech (formally known as 'Georgia Institute of Technology', informally known as 'North Avenue Trade School', and personally known as 'Nerdonia of Middle Earth').

Those of us who have found the Promised Land (Athens) tend to look at those in Atlanta as a strange breed. Socially inept, Magic playing, Tolkien reading, computer hacking, electrical engineering, Microsoft hating, Linux using nerds who can't finish their beer (seriously, it's in the song).

Likewise, they look at US as a strange, if not inferior, breed. From what I understand, we're a bunch of redneck, truck driving, illiterate, don't-need-no-book-learnin', hunting, fishing, Nascar watching, Pap's Blue Ribbon drinking, poultry science majors from Podunksville, somewhere south of Macon.

Honestly I've got no problem with these stereotypes. Several of my high school friends decided to wade through the waters of physics classes, chemistry exams, and debates about how much better Dungeons and Dragons is than Lord of the Rings. I can say that for the most part, those stereotypes are at least...::ahem::...well, marginally based in truth. Much like there are indeed people at UGA that could classify as rednecks, we DO in fact have a poultry science department, and some people like Nascar, drinking beer and shooting things.

These stereotypes actually provide hours of entertainment, especially during the last week of football season - so much so that our annual game has earned the title of 'Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate'. However, something happened today that ruined the illusion for me.

I was having computer issues. Apparently, my new anti-virus software was blocking the port Outlook Express uses to send e-mail, forcing me to use webmail. So, there's a guy that works on the staff for the paper that is a recent Tech grad, so I figure he's a tech support gold mine. I send him an e-mail explaining the problem and asking for advice. He sends me an e-mail back saying 'I have no idea. Normally when I have computer problems I just restart and hope it goes away.' My world came crashing down around me. You mean I actually know more about computers than a Tech graduate?! I swear time stood still for a while afterwards.

But then I got to thinking...if he were to ask me something about Nascar or chicken farming, I'd be pretty useless too.

It's just not fair. If we can't make grandiose assumptions about an entire campus, what fun is that? Oh well...I still have Florida. Those jeans short-wearing, mullet-headed, trailer park-living, cousin-marrying, inbreds...