Current Mood:  hopeful
Current Music: Prozzak - Introduction to a Broken Heart
 Eric the .5b pointed me to an odd little meme on a website:
OK, since the prev post was a bit sourpussy, let me try to be more constructive. So just what kind of meme would I like to see spread? How about this: If you could give the commencement address at a graduation ceremony, what would you say? See, I’ve always been a sucker for commencement speeches. You get something special from that ripe moment when someone gets to impart what they feel is crucial wisdom to less experienced folks at a criticial juncture in their lives (ones delivered by Steve Jobs, Conan O’Brien, and Guy Kawasaki come to mind — Yahoo has a collection of commencement speeches). It’s the sort of “what really matters” stuff that, unfortunately, is usually glazed over in our day to day lives. So, Mr./Ms. Commencement Speaker, what would you say? Um, tag or something.
"Thank you Mister Reichart. Its a pleasure to be invited here to MIT to speak before this graduating class of future engineers, xenobiologists, and artificial intelligence psychoceramicists. When the letter arrived in my mailbox, inviting me here, I was shocked. I mean, its sort of de rigeur for mad scientists to be able to scream "They laughed at me at university!" accompanied by lightning, thunder, and a buzzing Jacob's Ladder, but since I'd never attended MIT, I figured I'd never get that particular notch on my bedpost. I thank you for the opportunity. Many of you here today will be looking into the future starry-eyed and lustfully, looking toward a time when you can pull down a hundred-grand a year for a think-tank, puttering around with projects you know won't pan out at all. And to you I say, bravo. Good thinking. Some of you are imagining work on the next antiviral drug or the next Mars rover that'll run for three-hundred years on a thimble-full of warm cat-piss, and to you likewise I say, bravo. A lucky few of you are sitting there wondering if you can jack-off under those robes or whether the chick in front of you is wearing underwear -- or are the chick in front of them feeling loose, silky satin on your bare ass -- and to you I say, you are the destined and chosen ones, for you will accomplish mighty works. See, really, the folks who accomplish things are living in the here-and-now. They're not lost in dreams of the future-yet-to-be, and they know what's important: money, getting ass, good food, getting ass, power, and ... er, did I mention ass? These are important things. Saving the world? Please, the world looks after itself; if it matters to someone that it get saved so they get a nice steak, can command an army, or get laid, it'll happen, it'll get saved. Maybe you'll do it, maybe you won't. The future is made by people with wants, with desires, and with hungers. They want things right now. I want things right now. The cute chick in row three'll do nicely. I leave you with a thought to keep you warm tonight: All you dreamers, you futurists, you think-tank wanks ... everything worth having in your life was made by someone who scratched their balls or needed a better fitting bra at some point. Everything you love and treasure in society and in the world was thought up by some guy who was thinking of what they were going to do for dinner, or after. Everything good came from folks who needed some good ol' oral sex. Try to be those people. Good night, and good luck." | 
