PHP

May 11, 2001

These past two days I have spent time teaching myself PHP. It took me a while to get some of the software setup to test it on my machine, but once I got it ready it was pretty much smooth sailing. I'm excited to be learning this because it is a great database scripting language and it is free. ASP is good, from what I know, but it costs money to use. Anyway, I am going to be using PHP in the site I am creating for the Music Committee. The one you will see there is not my site, it is the one that is up right now. My site is located here.

Earlier this evening I had a discussion with Jenny about how conformity is more rampant than ever, or maybe I have just been noticing it more. It began today when I went to get a sandwich at this new place that opened today in Madison called "Bialy Brown's." It is modeled after a Jewish deli, but I am 99% sure no one involved in the restaurant's development is Jewish. Anyway, the place is located between the two biggest private dorms on campus, The Statesider and The Towers. These two dorms are notorious for having bratty, rich kids and a high greek population (frats/sororities, not the ethnicity). So there were a group of guys there and I couldn't help but listen to them talk since I was there alone. I was listening to one of the kids talk about his life in the Statesider for a while, and then him talking to the female at the register. Everything he said sounded like it was scripted. I had heard the same exact conversation a few hundred times when I lived in the Statesider my freshman year. It was somewhat painful to listen to.

Then this evening I was watching the end of "Surprise Weddings 2" and listening to one of the women profess her love to her boyfriend. Again, scripted. I could easily have been watching a Dawson's Creek or One Life to Live. She said things like, "I have loved you every day these last three years, and I want to love you every day as your wife." Many of you probably just said, "Awwwwww." Yes, this "Awwww" is somewhat warranted, but this is the end of Sleepless in Seatle not the beginning of this couple's life together.

This all brings me to my main point, which is that there are so few people who think independently. Yeah, it's easier to fall into a stereotype because you can more easily find friends and partners, but aren't you cheating yourself? I think it just gets back to one of this country's worst problems: self-identity. There are tons of people that think so little of themselves. I wish I had some answer for the problem, but instead all I can do is just rant. I really think that most of our problems come out of inflated or poor self-identity. Well, I have gone on and on long enough and have given little to no resolution, so I will cut my loses and go to bed now.

Advertisement