This sucks.

I busted my ass, did well in school, made smart choices. Now, I am graduating after four years of college that I paid for all myself – not through selling my “virginity” – but through loans. Now what? There are no jobs in the major markets that are even marginally appealing to anyone. I am not lucky enough to have parents who can float me for a year. My dad is a construction worker, but no offense, I am not graduating cum laude to do construction – sorry. I am just not sure I have a choice. But here are the few choices for graduating seniors I could scrounge together:

1. Everyone and their little cheerleader sister are heading to grad school. They don’t even know what for, but they took their GRE, MCAT, GMAT and every other test acronym I can think of. The upside is a delay for entering reality and you can push loan repayment for another 3 years or so, but F&*$ THAT! I need a break from school. I would love to actually get out of the academic world for at least a brief stint. Not writing off grad school totally, but I need about 2 years to figure out what I want to do. That degree in Finance, with a concentration in structured finance, that I am about to get isn’t worth the paper it is printed on. Thanks to my academic adviser! Way to steer me into a stable high growth industry.

2. A couple of my friends are determined to enter the military. Right now, there are serious incentives for entering the military. $10,000 in cash, money for grad school, and they will repay a portion of your school loans. Not too shabby, but we are talking about the military. Let us be straight, the US Military is not the beloved treasure it once was. My brother was in the Army and said he would help repay my loans for me before I join the military. Though tempting, I can’t take him up on it. Even though it will TOTALLY suck, it buys me 3 – 5 years, travel (to a desert somewhere in the Middle East), and serious help with school loans. The other upside is that as college graduates, we jump 5 pay-grades to an E-6 (Staff Sergeant) after training. Obviously I am trying to talk myself into this one – but it just seems drastic.

3. My girlfriend wants to join the Peace Corp, but with the way people LOVE Americans right now, I feel like that is joining the military without being given a gun. I hear stories about people who serve in the Peace Corp and attacked in foreign countries…not cool. Albeit, two of the people I know attacked in Africa were girls – I am just leery of that whole system. There are good stories too. People who get to travel the world, gain different perspectives, and learn different languages. Also, loan deferment is good – but they pay next to nothing, and my family doesn’t have money to spot me. I almost feel like the PC is more for rich kids who don’t want to go into the family business just yet. Either way, language experience in Swahili or something like that is not exactly going to a huge resume builder.

4. So many people are now running to get certified with education credits so they can teach. I am not one of those. I can’t teach. I would want to bang hot high school schools and 6-year-olds annoy the piss out of me. Noble profession, just not for me.

5. The Priesthood or some other religious vocation? I will pick up the Rosetta Stone – Swahili edition before I do that. Again, don’t like 6-year-olds.

6. There is always the option to just suck it up. Suck it up, and try my luck out in the job market. The problem is that there are tons of people in there late 20s through their 50s competing for the same jobs. People with ridiculous experience right now. I read in FORTUNE that GE right now has 50-year-old former executives with MBAs and law degrees, applying for the same jobs as college graduates. One thing is for sure – I wouldn’t pick me.

Seriously though – if I missed an option, please let me know. Yes, the idea of porn star and circus performer did cross my mind, but again – trying to not waste the $70,000 I just spent on school.

Fads In Football: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Football fans are a curious bunch. We are creatures of habit. We complain about concession prices, but shovel out eight dollars for a beer and six bucks for a dog the minute the second quarter ends. We are like sheep on an open range.

Our adherence to tradition and rituals, however, is something that makes us unique.

Most of our traditions, such as Army and Navy standing together, side-by-side after the game, are sacred. But this isn’t about traditions—it’s about fads, and while some of them need to be permanent traditions, others need to be dumped forever.

A look at some of the fads in football that have made “The good, the bad, and the ugly” list.

Charges Dropped Against Gator Bandits

Five students from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University who tried stealing a baby alligator from a miniature-golf course in Daytona Beach will get the charges dropped.

Prosecutors say as part of the plea agreement announced Monday, the students must do a year of community service. They will also have to do an anti-theft course, take random drug tests, pay fees to the city and they can’t visit the golf course.[Fort Mill Times]

Having grown up in a fairly ghetto part of Chicago and being a 6′3, 245 lb black guy, I always feel like I have the “intimidation factor” in a fight. I honestly and truly believed that, until I got my ass kicked today by a 5′6, 150 lb little white Israeli guy.

Yael, an officer in the Isaeli Army, beat me mercilessly using the technique of Krav Maga. In this part of my schooling at Anapolis we are learning different kinds of fighting techniques and styles, and I already have a strong history in Tae Kwon Do and Karate. A reasonable person would think that this knowledge would give me an advantage.

That reasonable person would actually be out of his motherfu**ing mind.

(more…)

Last May, new rules went into effect barring military personnel from accessing 13 popular websites via Department of Defense computers and networks. Included among the banned sites were YouTube and MySpace.

The primary (and somewhat bullsh*t) reason for barring the sites was the DOD’s quest for bandwidth reduction and preservation. This wasn’t horribly inconsistent with previous public messages, because many military personnel spoke of serious strains place on the network from daily communication schedules as well as large data and video transmissions necessary for modern day weapons.

The real reason is that soldiers, civilian contractors, and family members of Army personnel are required to clear any posts to blogs, forums, or message boards with a superior officer before posting the content online. The goal is to prevent content getting online about the Iraqi War, and/or other sensitive information. (more…)