It's Personal...

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:38 pm

Maj wrote:
Robby Pants wrote:I can't imagine 12 hour shifts help anything either.
I can see how 12 hour shifts promote greater continuity for patients. Shorter shifts would require better communication, and the only place I saw good communication was with the staff in the ER.

That makes sense. I figured there had to be a reason they did it.

tzor · Post by **tzor** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 2:17 pm

Neeeek wrote:There aren't any secret handshakes or anything like that. You talk to a degree counselor, apply for graduation, complete your classes and suddenly you have a degree.

It also helps when your college has a "No student left behind if we can help it" policy of pro-active help for students as opposed to the old fashioned "look to your right; look to your left; one of you ain't graduating" attitude they had in my day.

Count Arioch the 28th · Fri Mar 25, 2011 4:32 pm

Neeeek wrote:
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:Although to be perfectly honest, I don't think I'll succeed because I still don't know what the fuck I'm actually doing. Do not get me wrong, I don't intend to quit until they escort me from the premises, but I just can't see how I'm going to pay for it (they have threatened to take away my financial aid twice this semester alone). Also, I don't know the forms, appointments, and secret handshakes it takes to get a degree, this is all so confusing and alien to me.
There aren't any secret handshakes or anything like that. You talk to a degree counselor, apply for graduation, complete your classes and suddenly you have a degree.

See, that's what I assumed when I started. I can do the classroom stuff alright (I am not exceptional, but I am a solid B student. Granted, these days a B doesn't actually mean anything, anything less than a 3.5 is unoteworthy), but it seems to be some major stumbling blocks between me and the actual classes. I tend to hold my own in classes, I just am having trouble fighting with the financial aid office, with scheduling, and so forth.

Count Arioch the 28th · Fri Mar 25, 2011 6:14 pm

According to the stupid survey the college makes everyone take or not graduate, I test well above average for sexual mental health.

My hypothesis is that the survey was a load of crap. However, there is only a matter of elementary stats before I graduate with my prestigious Associate's degree in Arts and Sciences!

EDIT: Monday, I sign up for my lit courses to retake, with any luck I'll get funding. then we'll see if the lady from JMU was telling me the truth about me getting in if I retake the lit courses and get a C.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 10:05 pm

This is mostly proud-father boasting but it is personal.

So my daughter is in pre-k and she usually has two homework assignments a week. One of her assignments this week was to practice both capital and lower case M.

The second part was to draw two things/people/etc... that start with M.

She originally wanted to draw the planet Mercury as I had just taught her the names of all 8 planets. We google imaged the picture so she could color it nicely. But when we googled mercury, this was one of the results.

I explained who this was and she decided that she wanted to draw him instead of the planet. At this point, my nerdy-self was over-ecstatic with her wanting to draw Mercury/Hermes. After she drew her version of it, she asked me if there was a Moon God. I was blanking on the name of the Roman Goddess (Diana) and just did a search for Moon Goddess. We found a generic picture of a Moon goddess.

She decided to draw that instead of her original idea of drawing a monkey.

Obviously this is awesome enough. But then, as I watched, her picture formed and she finished coloring it in.

I now have an idea of a story of Mercury the Matador fighting the Minotaur as his new lady love Diana watches. Yes, this sounds so much like a bad fanfic, that I am very tempted to write it up.

Edit: fixed tags.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sat Mar 26, 2011 3:01 am

Someone set a 30-40-foot-long dumpster on fire at work today.

Well, I think it's arson. It ran the length of the dumpster a little too quickly and burned a little too high to look quite natural. Or maybe there was insulation in there.

And we didn't even get to go home. So I still had to work with the smell of smoke everywhere.

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Sat Mar 26, 2011 3:54 am

That's awesome, Cynic.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:42 am

Fuckers, pay your god damn taxes.

So, we are about to rent a house from a friend of ours. Our friend had found a place about a mile away and they were going to close on the house tomorrow.

But just a few hours ago, our friends found out that the sellers of their new house owed 90,000$ in back taxes and there is a bank lien on the house. THe house does not have enough equity to cover all of the 90k. The sellers still need to find $30k to finish the closing.

So this basically puts us, and our friends both SOL. If things don't improve in a week, I'll have to get my deposit back. Our friends has pretty much packed everything and were going to be moving out this saturday. So this entire thing just crashed into limbo.

How the fuck can you forget to mention that, oh yeah, the closing might be impacted by the fact that we owe the govt $90k.

Count Arioch the 28th · Wed Mar 30, 2011 6:52 pm

Probably because Teabaggers think they shouldn't have to pay taxes.

But more on point, that truly sucks.

I'm signed up for the lit courses that JMU wants me to take before I transfer there. I'm still only 15% sure that they'll honor said requirement, but I'm still going for it. Now, all that needs to happen is to find some funding, and I'll be both graduated this May and be on the way to an actual 4 year degree.

Still, realistically I've gotten much farther than I technically should have. Most of the college grads I am in contact with (i.e., not on the internet) were carried through (either they didn't have to work, or they came from wealthy stock, or they flat out mooched off their significant others). Considering that I've had to shoulder this myself while working minimum wage crap jobs, all told I don't think I'm doing too bad.

Don't get me wrong, there are many things that I can (and will!) bitch about that really piss me off in life. Realistically, considering what the first 26 years of my life were like I've accomplished an awful lot in the previous 5. I've conquered alcoholism, made strides with my weight problem (I'm still obese, but I still am 20-30 pounds lighter than I was at 26), fought a winning battle against mental illness (that will never be truly won, but I'm doing better than in the past), and finally learned to just cut the people out of my life that are dragging me down.

And a very special message to the haters:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i6OrOZwtmA

Seriously, you're lecturing me because someone with mental problems is less balanced emotionally than you are. What do you want, a Less Mentally Imbalanced than the Mentally Ill award? Because that doesn't sound like a very good award to be honest.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 12:41 am

The teacher of the Human Sexuality class I'm in does three panels in his class each semester, where students can volunteer to sit up front on the lecture stage and answer whatever questions the class feels like asking them (and individuals can pass if they so choose).

Today we did the gay(/bisexual/lesbian/trans) panel that my friend and I have been looking forward to since we wanted to be on it, and it was a lot of fun. I just wish it'd gone longer, or that people hadn't answered with such lengthy questions because we only got through four maybe. But I'm going to do tomorrows for one of his other classes since I can use the extra credit and am not doing anything after my Journalism class anyway, and because it was fun.

tzor · Post by **tzor** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 1:11 am

Prak_Anima wrote:The teacher of the Human Sexuality class I'm in does three panels in his class each semester, where students can volunteer to sit up front on the lecture stage and answer whatever questions the class feels like asking them (and individuals can pass if they so choose).

Now that's very interesting. It sounds like an interesting class.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 2:51 am

tzor wrote:
Prak_Anima wrote:The teacher of the Human Sexuality class I'm in does three panels in his class each semester, where students can volunteer to sit up front on the lecture stage and answer whatever questions the class feels like asking them (and individuals can pass if they so choose).
Now that's very interesting. It sounds like an interesting class.

Yeah, it's a fun one. The teacher is much better, to me, than the one I had for the first HS class I took (didn't get credit for some reason) who was some kind of aging hippy, skinny doctor phil type...

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 5:51 am

I need to do something nice for the bookstore I frequent.

I like the Nightside series, by Simon Green. I found out there's a short story named "Razor Eddie's Big Night Out". Eddie is one of more entertaining characters in the series, so I was interested in seeing what he would do for fun. I found out the story was only ever published in one issue of an obscure magazine, copies of which are now going for eighty bucks online.

I mentioned this to the bookstore owners--who I'd also turned onto the series--and they tracked it down for me on their own initiative, for twenty bucks--and sold it to me at cost. I even offered to pay more, because they can GET more online. It's a lot for really just one short story, but it's that they went to the effort.

And they wouldn't let me pay thirty. I offered to arm-wrestle the owner for the privilege of pay them something close to fair value, and he said "Don't bother, you'd lose." Probably right too, dammit.

So, uh, yeah. That was really awesome of them. The copy of the magazine is what appears to be mint condition, with a protective cardboard case and plastic sleeve and stuff. I read it, then typed it out on this computer, because I've got some family and friends who read the series and they'd be interested in it. and I'd rather not take many chances with it.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 12:05 pm

That's very cool.

For some of our bookish friends who did some cool stuff for us, we took one of their favorite books and found out how to get it autographed.

For one of our favorite restaurants notorious for going above and beyond, we started a thank you wall by writing a nice letter thanking them for what they'd done. They posted it and now they have letters from a large number of customers on their wall.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 4:04 pm

So, my Internet's out.

I'm on at a friend's house for a few minutes. I wouldn't normally bother notifying here, except I'm lined up for that PbP game. So I'll be back on when I'm back on.

Doom · Post by **Doom** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 5:17 pm

Cracked a crown last night on sausage, or, more accurately, a tiny piece of bone. $1500, more if I'm unlucky.

For the last 25 years, the only dental work I've ever needed has been to repair dental work done over 25 years ago (that I probably didn't even need then)...definitely wondering at the legitimacy of modern dentistry.

sabs · Post by **sabs** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 5:20 pm

It's been 21 years since I've gone to a dentist and counting. I'll let you know in 20 years if that was a mistake or not:)

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Sat Apr 09, 2011 8:45 pm

I broke a tooth in January and still haven't gone to a dentist. It aches and I can't sleep.
I nearly fell unconscious at the gym today, a combination of low atmospheric pressure + poor ventilation + exercise fail.
It has snowed today, the sludgy shitty type. Ewwww.
The rumors that a sudden decrease in salary was seasonal were wrong. This will be a month of pizza and noodles.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Sat Apr 23, 2011 3:09 am

So we're officially back from California where Ess and I catered my sister's wedding and rocked it. My sister is now a 100% certified Mrs.

But while we were gone my step-brother died from a heart attack.

Psychic Robot · Post by **Psychic Robot** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 2:34 am

I cheated. I lost 3 pounds last week and decided i would celebrate. I went to KFC and got a 6 bucket meal with sides Extra crispy. Told the lady at counter to dip it 5 times in the batter and i tipped her good. Anyway i wanted to go back and get the 10 extra dollars i gave her cause it was clear it was just extra crispy and NOT what i like my crispy to be. Anyway I stayedup last night watching the twilight zone marathon gorging myself. I woke up this morning with a big headache wieghing 7 pounds more than before. Back to square one i guess : (.i guess 4th of july is a bad time for this dont know what took over me

I don't know where to post this, so I'm posting it here.

Count Arioch the 28th · Wed May 04, 2011 2:25 pm

An update since I took my gaming den break:

I was dealing with heavy issues and I was starting to take it out on the internet, which is lame. So I took a break. Since then:

-broke up with my GF. After a couple days reflection, I considered that a good thing. I'll miss the giant boobs though, I won't lie

. Everything else? Yeah....

-I have managed to get some summer aid to re-take my lit courses. Those 2 D's are what's keeping me out of a four year. This week I show the recruitment rep that I'm enrolled, and see if I can get into a 4-year college and get my degree in Chemistry. That being said, if I have to borrow any more money I'm not doing it right now (while keeping the option open for going back later). Not that it's my decision anyway, I somehow defaulted on my student loans before finishing college and they aren't in the least interested in granting me any type of forbearance. However, if I cut them a check every month they are limited to being annoying and ruining my (already ruined) credit, so whatevs

. If I decide to not get my bachelor's yet, an associate's will qualify me for an assistant lab tech job which pays $25k a year or so. Still not great, but twice my income now. I just have to relocate which now that my GF isn't in the picture is an easy decision to make.

-I have gotten back into my workout routine. I can no longer afford the $60 a year for gym membership, but my father (who is a certified personal trainer) has helped me design a workout where I don't need any equipment. I've dropped 5 pounds relatively quickly without changing my diet too radically.

-I have been promoted at work. It's still not "great" money, but I certainly won't sneeze at the extra $200 a month I will be getting. Things are still really tight but nowhere near as desperate as before, and I'll be able to start paying more to my various creditors.

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Wed May 04, 2011 3:16 pm

Great! Glad you're moving on and things are getting better. Good luck!

Count Arioch the 28th · Mon May 30, 2011 8:27 pm

IT IS 40 FUCKING DEGREES WHERE I FUCKING LIVE!!!!!!11!1!11 (105 if you're American and fat).

Ever try running when it's that fucking hot? I feel like I shrunk to half size out there.

However, I have noticed that driving your frustrations into the pavement is more therapeutic than any shrink I've ever been to. And I have mostly conquered my sensitivity to heat (although I still don't like heat...)

EDIT: Also, Tzor posting his MPG from his prius has made me decide to not get one, because by my records I sit about 2-5 mpg below him... with a 2000 Dodge Neon with a quarter of a million miles on it.

tzor · Post by **tzor** » Mon May 30, 2011 9:58 pm

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:EDIT: Also, Tzor posting his MPG from his prius has made me decide to not get one, because by my records I sit about 2-5 mpg below him... with a 2000 Dodge Neon with a quarter of a million miles on it.

Sure, but that's a DODGE NEON, you take your life in your hands every time you get behind the wheel.

Count Arioch the 28th · Tue May 31, 2011 2:03 pm

I can't afford rent and medical insurance at the same time; my life, frankly, is cheap and meaningless. Not a shit will be given the day I die, only the rich need fear death. I'm quite looking forward to an end of all existence, there is no aspect of my life that really needs to be immortalized.

Anyway, I'm annoyed that the Virginia Employment Commission website seems to be down and won't load from any computer I try. I was hoping to find leads to a slightly more lucrative shitty job until I can find a lab tech position somewhere.