Someone who went to my high school has gotten a bit of notoriety on the Internet yet. It’s probably not big enough that you’ve heard of him - I’m not sure I would have if it weren’t making the rounds with alums. The dude basically ran a somewhat coordinated scam or a practical joke (probably the former) of sorts and got caught. He basically gamed social media and celebrity gossip into the illusion of celebrity. He’s not commenting, so I’m not sure if it was all to get laid (”Yeah, I’m kind of a big deal. Google me, baby.”) or to actually become the actor he wants to be. (If you know who I am talking about, congratulations on knowing where I am from, please don’t spill.)
One of the downsides to going to a school of 4,000 is that as far as I know, I don’t know him. This happens whenever someone from my school makes it big. Sometimes I will randomly run into someone who went to my school and we will have existed in such different orbits that they might as well have gone to school half a country away. The picture actually does look a big familiar, but in a pretty generic sort of way. So I’m pretty sure our paths never crossed.
One guy I went to school with, but didn’t meet until significantly later, went on to become a conservative activist for prison reform (the idea being that the fiscally prudent thing to do is not to house and feed people in prison we don’t have to). I knew some jocks, but not the one who had the NFL career who graduated with my class. My brothers knew his brother, who also played in the NFL.
There is also Congressman Murali, whose campaign is the only one I have donated to up to now. I didn’t support him because he went to my school (well before I did), though his being a product in the community played a bit of a role because a lot of people smoke very highly of him. Mostly, though, I wanted to see his opponent go down.
Heh. “Smoke very highly.”
Comment by Brandon Berg — August 29, 2012 @ 7:39 pm
I rock.
Comment by trumwill — August 30, 2012 @ 1:25 am
please don’t spill
I haven’t so far.
I will only say that I was shocked, SHOCKED when I found out what Southern Tech is in real life.
Comment by Scarlet Knight — August 30, 2012 @ 5:26 pm
Shocked in the Renaultian sense, or that you actually expected a school of considerably higher or lower profile?
Comment by trumwill — August 30, 2012 @ 6:39 pm
I don’t know what Renaultian means.
I had a specific school in mind for you, specifically the one that on the tshirt that we talked about a few weeks ago.
I know you could have gone to a better-name school, but you have mentioned that there were specific reasons you chose the school you did. Since you mentioned that you lived in the dorms, I assumed that you went away to school.
The only question I really have is that did you consider going to another school in the same city as your alma mater, specifically the school with the sterling reputation?
Comment by Scarlet Knight — August 30, 2012 @ 8:49 pm
When Inspector Renault was shocked, SHOCKED, about gambling in this establishment, he was not shocked at all that there was gambling in this establishment.
The school you are thinking of was #2 or #3 on my list.
I never considered Sterling. Private schools were off the table, though in that case it didn’t matter because I wouldn’t have gotten in.
Comment by trumwill — August 31, 2012 @ 12:31 am
LOL no, I was legitimately shocked. I have used the Casablanca version a few times on this site, most recently in March. By coincidence I also used shocked in its traditional way as well. I guess the difference is that when it is used twice in a row and in all caps the second time, it is a Casablanca reference.
The funny thing with top of the line schools is that they have no real incentive or need to draw locally for students, so they don’t. It’s not like Princeton has a bunch of New Jersey kids. New Jersey kids are famous for going to the various Boston colleges and Duke.
I think Sterling University is a good Trumanverse name for your cross-city rival, if you ever need to refer to it in the future.
Comment by Scarlet Knight — August 31, 2012 @ 8:40 am
The funny thing with top of the line schools is that they have no real incentive or need to draw locally for students, so they don’t.
Neither do state schools, apparently. I forgot to mention on that Linkluster that I know more than a couple Californians for whom “state school” meant “The University of Nevada.”
I think Sterling University is a good Trumanverse name for your cross-city rival, if you ever need to refer to it in the future.
I totally would. I looked to see and, alas, Sterling College and Sterling University are both taken. (So is “Southern Tech”, but not Southern Tech University.) I thought about Sterling University College or Sterling Union College, but those have an acronym.
Comment by trumwill — September 3, 2012 @ 12:08 am
I forgot to mention that another popular place for NJ graduates is the University of Delaware.
Also, I just noticed that in post 3 I used the Casablanca version of Shocked when I didn’t mean to. Scarlet Knight regrets the error.
Comment by Scarlet Knight — September 4, 2012 @ 6:39 pm
I forgot to mention that another popular place for NJ graduates is the University of Delaware.
Someone pointed out that Delaware has abnormally high out-of-state enrollment for a state flagship. That makes sense. It’s also not uncommon out here in the west. Wyoming, North Dakota, and NDSU recruit heavily from out-of-state. UND has a tuition break if you are from a neighboring state, maybe NDSU as well. The difference in enrollment between the North Dakota schools and South Dakota schools can almost be pinpointed to the fact that the North Dakota schools recruit from OOS.
This is near unheard of in the south. The only exception being a couple of the states trying to pick off grads from Texas and Florida. I got an offer for waived OOS tuition to another state flagship, though that had more to do with legacy than any outreach program.
Comment by trumwill — September 5, 2012 @ 1:11 pm
Someone pointed out that Delaware has abnormally high out-of-state enrollment for a state flagship.
LOL That would be me, on this blog.
Comment by Scarlet Knight — September 6, 2012 @ 9:06 pm
I wasn’t sure if it was you, Peter, or Hackensack. It’s odd how many northeastern commenters I have. The Half Sigma Effect, I guess.
Comment by trumwill — September 7, 2012 @ 11:40 am