The Smiley Tyranny

I've been thinking about this a lot actually, and today on the bus back from work was one of these days when I had the chance to contemplate what I like to call the Smiley Tyranny. When did it start? I don't know, but it must be several years ago, that's for sure, and it is getting worse by the day. I am also a victim to this tyranny, I think many of my generation are. I try not to give in, but I don't always dare.

What am I talking about? The perceptive reader must know by now: I am of course talking about the trend, the tendency, the habit of putting smileys or winks or whatever you like to call them in all kinds of writings. We, the people, have become so stupid, or we think that others are so stupid, or easily offended, that ;-) or :-) or ;-P or ;-S or whatnot must be put in at the end of all kinds of sentences. If irony is used, be sure to place a ;-) after it, so that the recipient will not think you are being serious and thus be offended. And if you are wishing somebody a great day, make sure that you don't forget the :-) or the :-D at the end, since if you do forget, the recipient will surely not understand that this is a sincere wish on your part. And just to make sure that you don't come off as mad or angry or generally depressed, sprinkle your text with smiles and winks. That way you don't get the reaction that I got on MSN messenger once. I hijacked my (younger) brother's conversation with a girlfriend, pretending that I was my brother. Keeping up what I thought was a nice and friendly conversation, I got the following message: "Why are you so pissed?" Ouch - I had forgotten the smileys!

So be it with text messages and Internet chats, but must this Smiley Tyranny enter all kinds of spheres? My students surely believe that smileys can be a natural part of otherwise formal texts, but when the bank-person who signed for my mortgage starts using smileys in her correspondence with me, that is borderline weird, if you ask me. For goodness sake: I owe that bank more than 2 million NOK, and a ":-)" is not going to make me happier about that!

So, fellow bloggers (who am I kidding, this blog only has three readers, and one of them is me, but anyway): join me in resisting this tyranny! Let our words be enough! Let written texts be written texts, not emoticons with a few words in between. Let irony be left up to those reading our words to understand, and if they don't, let them just be left alone with their stupidity. Let us rise above the smiley tyranny, and let us not, ever again, give in to the temptation of modifying or fortifying our sentences by adding these pathetic symbols.

Summer's almost here

The school year is coming to an end, and as always my feelings regarding that are mixed. Since Christmas I have been looking forward to the well-earned weeks of not worrying about students, preparing for lessons, correcting endless piles of English and Norwegian essays and so forth. But when summer is almost here, I get kind of nostalgic. My seniors are not coming back after the summer, so there are another 55 young men and women, embarking on a journey into the wild, wild world, and who knows if I'll ever see them again. That makes me kind of sad. But of course: many of my students will return in the fall, and there will of course be the new ones, the cute, innocent juniors. That's the spiral of a teacher's life, I guess.

About the strike: It ended after pathetic one and a half weeks. And what did we achieve? Close to nothing. Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic. I'm thinking about leaving the Union, but then again; what is the alternative? And also, I have all of my insurances through my union, and I don't see me getting equally good deals elsewhere. So I guess I'll stay, but only for purely selfish reasons, not because I think they're doing a particularly good job for me or my fellow academics. And of course: who would turn down the opportunity to one day perhaps be able to wear this oh-so-fitting striking t-shirt once again?

EURO 2008

It's soccer time again, and I'm enjoying it. Norway is, as usual, not qualified for the championship, but I don't really care. The soccer of the Norwegian national team the last few years has not been something to write home about, so as long as that is the case, it is just as well that they stay at home and do not compete against the better nations of Europe.

I try to watch matches every night, but with kids that should be put to bed at a certain time and so on and so forth, it is not always easy. I have had a weak spot for Portugal since EURO 2000, when they lost on golden goal against France in the semi finals. In 2004 they came all the way to the finals, losing against Greece. This time I hope they will make it all the way, and become the new European champions. Being married to a Dutchman, I do however also feel obliged to cheer for the Netherlands, and truth be told, I don't find that hard at all, especially not after their convincing victory against Italy (3-0) in their first match. If one of these two teams will go all the way to the top, I will certainly be a happy camper.

Names interest me, and as a fun fact I can announce that Gomes (in some form) occurs on no less than three national teams. Nuno Gomes on Portugal (which I see as the original Gomes, since he is after all the oldest one, and also, of course, the only Gomes I knew about before this championship), Mario Gomez on Germany and Bafetimbi Gomis on France. And with that I end this update from EURO 2008. However, should there be more Gomeses out there in the EURO 2008, I would be very grateful to hear about it.