The Useless Critic 2.0

Over the weekend, I went out to eat with my family. as happens, one of my family members had a bit of a reaction to the food he was eating. not to go into details, but it was visible he was not doing well and needed to step away from the table. this isn't the first time this has happened in public, and he was okay, but it was upsetting when witnessing people's reactions to the said event. nobody offered to help, nobody wanted to see if he was okay. in fact, a couple sitting across the aisle from us proceeded to make jokes about it (I left a wad of chewed gum on their table as payback, fyi). this kind of makes me worry about society as a whole, even if it was just a microcosm there in that restaurant. are we THAT self-absorbed? I don't doubt it. this year has made me very, very aware of how that. not saying I'm above it- but it's troubling how many people just aren't willing to look outside themselves, at really, anything. - Brittany

YOU GUYS I am back from S.D- albeit a few pounds heavier (UGH you know what I have to do the rest of this stupid break that's flying by my head right now), tanner (a killer farmer's tan....right?) and with no viable new contacts to speak of (:( sorry). I did go to a few interesting seminars and got some inspiration of things to do in the future.....at the music criticism one (which made the whole conference more worthwhile for me than ever) I spoke to the creator of this website http://www.sddialedin.com/ and she was all kinds of cool/helpful. there was also a photographer from Pitchfork there but I could not speak to her for the life of me, half of it being that stupid shyness and the other half being the girl that would not step away from her for a second. That being said, I have no inclination to staying in the Erie-Edinboro-Hell region after graduation. For having spent the entirety of my life in this damp corner of the universe, I think it's time I go elsewhere. And l...