Monday, September 25, 2006

Deaf Time...

At last, P.O.'d Cast number 2:


Download the P.O.'d Cast Here!



I somewhat regret my first P.O.’d Cast. Not that I wasn’t pleased with it. But rather, I wasn’t kidding when I said that I was P.O.’d that I’d used a dozen good ideas in one shot. That part was true. Regardless, I feel that some things mentioned deserved to be re-visited in more detail.

For instance, the other day, I was with a friend who works with deaf children. Somehow, during the course of our conversation, she told me that when deaf people are late, they just brush it away by saying it was “Deaf Time.”

I have heard the same thing about Guamanians. They supposedly are famous for being late to everything, thus they run on “Guam Time.”

In Hawaii, I had the pleasure of being accustomed to “Hawaiian Time” AKA “Aloha Time.”

And, if you are a member of the LDS Church, such as I, then you are more than familiar with the term “Mormon Time.”

What’s even better is that people who tend to be even later than the usual stragglers can combine two or more. In Hawaii, every ward activity that didn’t start on time claimed the combination of Hawaiian and Mormon time. I don’t have the exact numbers, but I believe this to be about 10 minutes late for “Hawaiian” and another 10 for “Mormon.”

When I heard about “Deaf Time” I became P.O.’d. I am so darn tired of everybody using the same worn-out excuse for being late to everything. It’s as if people find some sort of ethnic or cultural group to identify with and then use that as some sort of justification for tardiness.

Why don’t people just admit the situation as it is. Everybody is always late, all the time! Let’s not blame this on culture, people.

I find it interesting that being tardy is the one negative stereotype that people wish to be associated with. I’m pretty sure that most Asians would like to shed the image of being bad drivers (not that I don’t subscribe to that stereotype). Do Mexicans like the image of being lazy? No way. I bet Black people don’t like being known as the ones causing all of America’s crime. And Mormons defiantly don’t like the outdated notion that we are all polygamists. Yet, for some reason, we all seem to desire the label of being persistently late.

I suppose there are limited exceptions to this rule. For instance - the Germans. Have you ever heard of someone showing up late and blaming it on “German Time”? Not me.

I suppose the Swiss wouldn’t be able to get away with either; what with those great watches of theirs, and all.

As a side note, I am sure many of you or wondering why it has been so long in between my first and second P.O.’d cast. Well, you will be pleased to know, that I won’t blame it on the fact that I am Mormon. Nor the fact that I have lived for a long time in Hawaii. I won’t brush it aside because I’m living in Guam now and that my sister will likely be def one day. No, I have no excuse…besides, it’s not my fault I was late on doing this P.O.’d cast. It’s the way my parents raised me.

I’m Jared Bodine, and I’m P.O.’d.

Download the P.O.'d Cast Here!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just in case a "def" person reads this, you may want to spell it "deaf."

Rossie said...

Being from a tiny branch in the middle of nowhere with very little contact from the great mormon machine, I was rather befuddled the first time I heard of the concept of 'mormon standard time'. I think it was some missionary from Utah who enlighted us with the idea. At the time, everyone in the room just sort of looked at him strangely.

I used to be rather chuffed at being on time or early for everything. Then I met Roy, who is the world's greatest procrastinator. (No, seriously; it took him three years to decide on a broadband carrier.) Now I'll never be on time for anything again. Blame marriage. It trumps 'Mormon' as an excuse for weirdness any day.