chemistry: neat, monochromatic notes, late night cups of tea, staying after class to ask the professor questions
mathematics: the sound of pencils scratching on paper, perfectionism at its peak, empty library halls with filtered light
physics: the buzz of excitement before the first lecture of the semester, messy handwriting on chalkboards, the relieved exhaustion after an exam is finished
psychology: flashcards and textbooks strewn across a desk, group study sessions with great music, reading scientific journals to learn more about what’s discussed in lecture
engineering: early morning study sessions with really good coffee, whispered jokes during lecture, putting homework off until the last minute but still managing to do okay
biology: notes full of color and highlights, spending hours watching videos on KhanAcademy but not really getting any work done, great study snacks
neuroscience: whiteboards full of terms and labelled diagrams, messy hair and tired smiles, a to-do list five miles long
astronomy: late nights with windows thrown open, daydreaming in class, doodles in the margins of textbooks
computer science: study sessions fueled by pizza and coffee, late nights with laptop screens as the only source of light, the feeling of pure joy when a program runs right
geology: dirty boots in the corner of the room, longing for wide open skies, late-night map coloring sessions to hand in assignments due before dawn
are you saying that engagement rings aren’t just cool rocks
They sloth is my favorite
STORY TIME!
Ok so when I was doing a security job on a college campus, the geology club on said campus was having their mineral and fossil sale (which is where the club gets the vast majority of its funds for the year). They had some really cool shit but their sales techniques were… uh, they were bad, just really terrible. They set up the tables, put all their stuff out, hung a sign up… and then sat there, occasionally mentioning quietly to one or two passersby “Hey we’re having our mineral and fossil sale if you want any.” Very boring, overly factual, not very attention grabbing.
Now I’m a fuckin nerd so I’m all over this shit (the sale was literally a foot away from my security post so I wasn’t even getting in trouble for spending literal hours ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the really cool stuff they had). And me being the type of nerd who must SHARE ALL THE THINGS when I find cool stuff (and who also has 18 years of customer service/retail experience to draw on), I start trying to get some of the literal hundreds of students walking by to get some of the cool things. The club only needed a couple hundred bucks and we were on the largest campus in the state so they should have been making their goal easy but almost no one was biting. So my “must share the thing” nerdiness teamed up with my “must help all the people”-ness and I did my best to pitch in and get them more sales.
Now, it was two days before valentines and a lot of the people walking by were dudes. So I start trying to get them interested with comments like “hey come check out the cool stuff you could get for your bae!”
One group of dudes paused but it didn’t seem like they were gonna stop and get any of the cool things, so I go “No, seriously, chicks dig this shit, you literally cannot go wrong here. There’s fossils and cute little carvings of manta rays and kitties, and literal gemstones here; that box is full of fucking EMERALDS that are 3 for $5. GET. SOME.”
They didn’t believe me that the ladies would go nuts for “a bunch of shiny rocks.” So I decide to prove it to them. And in the most booming voice I can muster (and I can muster quite a bit after a decade of choir classes) and yell “THEY HAVE SHINY ROCKS OVER HERE AND THEY’RE REALLY COOL!”
Literally instantly, three separate groups of ladies look straight at the tables and make a beeline for them, all of them saying some variation of “Wait, did you say shiny rocks? WHERE?! WHAT KIND?! OMG!” Suddenly a dozen or so different gals (and several dudes), who seconds ago were only thinking about getting to class, stopped in their tracks to detour to the table full of shiny rocks. Only two left without buying at least one thing.
The dudes I’d been talking to before were bewildered but convinced, so they start looking for the best shiny rocks they can get to give their SOs. Several of them came back a few days later to inform me that my seemingly ludicrous advice of “get them shiny rocks” had gotten them laid or scored them a date.
So, remember kids, GET THE BAE A SHINY ROCK. That shit WORKS.
theproblemwithstardust 