Originality is dead?

So Camp Hollywood – the annual swing dance camp I journey to every year for 3 non-stop days/nights of dancing – has come and gone….and there’s not much to say other than MAN, WHAT A GREAT TIME I HAD! 

Pretty sure I lost a couple pounds due to all the sweating (I sweated through 12 T-shirts) and a lot of people have said my form has improved since last weekend.  

Other than that, not much to say – but here’s a performance from the Showcase competition that I think you should all watch: 

Hard to believe they only placed 4^th in the contest (I guess it didn’t have as much actual ‘dancing’ as the other showcase performances did); but anyway…..! 

I hung out with my friend (and fellow ECLS major), Susan, the other day to catch up on what’s been going on in our lives.  I told her about Camp Hollywood & my trip to New York last month and she told me she was traveling to Italy soon for a friend’s wedding.  (Rich friends, amIrite?)  And while we initially planned to see a movie as our scheduled “friend activity” (aka ‘excuse to hang out’), we couldn’t decide on what to watch. 

(See, Susan was also a film major and has a huge pet peeve about movies being original – everything in the theatres was either a remake, a sequel, or based on some book / graphic novel franchise and she wasn’t about to pay good money to see those) 

So we ended up going to Barnes & Nobles and browsed their “summer & back to school reading” sections to see how many we’ve read /what we *really* thought of them.  It’s actually a pretty fun way for English Majors to pass the time! 

But getting back to Susan’s pet peeve:  I’ve heard this gripe before from a lot of other film buffs and I got to wondering when this started.  I mean, aren’t all stories derived from previous ones that came out before them?  And those that aren’t based on stories are based on real life experiences instead, so they’re not truly original either.  So were there ever any original ideas? 

If not, where did the idea of “there were original ideas before” come from? 

Maybe *that’s* the only true original idea……..! 

Or not.   

Sorry - it’s late and I’m rambling, trying to get ‘inspired’ to write a blog post. 

What's it good for?

I meant to post this yesterday, on the simultaneous “Earth Day” & “Take your Daughter to Work Day” (which inspired this post), but missing a day of work (Wednesday) to go get the bottom set of my braces put in really piled up all the work I have to do.

When I chose to be an English Major, I would get asked (as I’m sure all English Majors / English Degree holders do) “what are you going to do with that?”


I think people used to ask that because it is a well-known fact that “English Degrees are worthless.” (i.e. “they won’t make you any money”)

This “fact” is well-known because, let’s face it: everybody can write (so there’s no real demand) and even if you are exceptionally talented, there’s not much of a chance that anyone will realize it, much less pay you money do it. So spending a college tuition pursuing an English Degree is, in the long run, considered a big waste of time.

Can you tell I still have kind of a chip on my shoulder about this? Maybe?

The only degree considered more worthless than the English Degree is “the Philosophy degree.” But I don’t really know anything about that.

ANYWAY, I would usually answer people who asked this question (“what’s an English degree good for?” in case you forgot) that it’s actually pretty useful in becoming a Lawyer – because Lawyers spend a lot of time examining text to determine the intent behind the person who wrote it….much like English majors do.

And at one point, I did want to be a lawyer. (I don’t anymore). I spent several summer vacations during my high school / college years working for an Attorney as his assistant filing papers, etc. etc.

This would usually shut them up because another well-known fact is that “lawyers are successful & make lots of money.” But then I came across this (old) blogpost the other day and it appears I have lost one of the best retorts I had to that age old question.

But if you think about it, what good does any College Degree do you these days? Having one doesn’t automatically guarantee you a job because there are quite literally hundreds of other people with the same degree applying for the same position you are. What’s going to separate you from everyone else is what you do on top of having that degree.

So I guess my answer to that question now is “the same you can do with any degree – nothing.” Not to badmouth college degrees—they’re valuable proof that you’re educated and well-read—but I’m of the opinion that, these days, this is all they’re good for.

Keep in mind that I'm just ranting, and please feel free to argue with me otherwise.