Sidewalk Hazard

This week's sidewalk hazard: Construction.

What a double edged sword, and a real pain in the ass. Because the campus has decided to do some kind of reconstruction to the gym, they've redirected foot traffic to add an extra 5-10 minutes to the paths to class, depending on how fast you walk, or - in my case - an extra 2 minutes as I circumscribe the parking lot on my longboard.

It's almost kind of insulting really, that the campus has decided to continue with this reconstruction despite our current economic state. Several monetary choices that they've made have recently been brought into question (such as the several thousand dollars spent on the shrub imitation of a bull in front of the Marshall Center, Tim Gunn's tens of thousands for visiting campus in one afternoon, and USF handing out free laptops to its athletes - don't even get me started on the ethics behind this one) while they continue to raise tuition and fees throughout campus. I can't afford a new gym, but the school is somewhat adamant in my paying part for one.

But on the flip side, Theodore Roosevelt was so popular as a president because of his reforms during the depression that created jobs for the masses. When you work in construction, and there's nothing being built, then you have no job to speak of at all, and that is a very dangerous thing in this day and age. So perhaps this is my school's way of bolstering the economy and the job market? Of feeding mouths in my community? That would be an excellent thing to consider, if that was somewhat core to their decision to gut yet another part of the school to build something new.

A double edged sword. How can they ask me to add 2 extra minutes to my morning routine (when I'm almost always running late already) in a culture where you could call your mom, download dirty pictures, and check on the status of the pizza you ordered all from your iPad at the same time? This is an instant gratification nation, and I'm not feeling very instantly gratified by this inconvenience. Construction, you have made the list and this week's pick of Andy's Sidewalk Hazards.

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Since I was already taking pictures of stuff near the gym, I couldn't help but get a shot of this.

Like, what the french toast? I'm the first to admit that I don't recycle as much as I ought to, but at least I don't litter. What goes through a person's mind when they toss their trash on the ground? "Don't worry, plastic composts super quick"? "Check me flex my muscles while I spike my empty water bottle"? When it comes to athletics, there are two stereotypes that are often perpetuated: one is the health conscious, yoga doing, organic eating hippie who may not be able to throw a football to save their life but can bend over backwards in ways that are abnormally adroit to the point of being...freaky, and the other is the over muscled, sports playing, protein shake inhaling jock who might think that a chakra is an inappropriate hand gesture but can shoot a perfect three pointer from clear across the court without a moment's hesitation. It could be people from either stereotype that's leaving a mess like this, but guess which one bears the brunt of the blame and therefore should become more sensitive to socially environmental no-no's such as this?

But bottom line, whoever you are, don't litter. It's bad enough you're taking up the good parking.

-Andy