stupid first world problems you're dealing with

zole

i wouldn't get too down on the uni system. yes the majority of american schools are degree mills now, but that doesn't mean you will be completely unable to extract some worth from them.

 

 

I hate to sound this way, but after busting my ass nonstop with no sleep and no money for three years to get where I am, we often lose sight of the fact that university by default is supposed to be considered an elitist institution. Does everyone have a right to free education? No doubt. But does everyone deserve a free education? That's the hard part. You have a flood of underqualified bachelor's watering down the job market..most of these students didn't give a shit about their studies and probably got by with C's or B minus averages. But we can't fault them for that because, hey, colleges want their money, or their parents' money.

 

If you want to get somewhere in academia, you have to work hard...there is no way around it. Make connections, be cordial, show your passion for your area of study, talk with colleagues, avoid gossip or confrontation. With a little luck you will have a few advisors appreciating your passion and contributions to the field, even if you are an undergraduate nobody. All it takes is one opportunity, you exploit the fuck out of it and go from there.

 

I mean, my new position is a bit of luck, but under no circumstances would I deny myself the fact that I earned it. I performed in the top of the class, actively participated in and out of discussion, and made myself available to help TA instead of going to my other job to earn money for gas. Believe it or not, the younger professors know the sacrifices you are putting up, and if they see some worth in you, they will help out in any way they can.

 

If you don't make it in academia, that by no means indicates you are of lesser intelligence. Some brilliant people leave and publish their own research as a bestselling book, or an academic watershed. You could teach highschool (which depending on where you go makes great money and benefits), you could participate in a think tank, you could start your own independent research business. Alternative academia is a growing market, especially for the humanities.

 

Its not all about the economy being fucked. There were professors in the Great Depression too. Its hard, but you can make it.

 

Dis, if you have any questions at all, I would be happy to help you out/try to answer them in a PM or two. Its a fantastic opportunity, and it not being a cakewalk makes it that much more fulfilling when it finally pays off.

Edited August 31, 2011 by Smettingham Rutherford IV

  On 8/31/2011 at 5:58 PM, luke viia said:

  On 8/31/2011 at 4:55 AM, modey said:

  On 8/31/2011 at 2:52 AM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

  On 8/30/2011 at 9:47 PM, disparaissant said:

  On 8/30/2011 at 7:04 PM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

  On 8/30/2011 at 6:40 AM, chenGOD said:

Fucking book prices for university are insane.

 

 

hahaha, tell me about it.

 

i don't even have enough money to afford the books I am using to teach my own class...that is fucking embarrassing...

 

I was told you can get books for free by faculty but these seem to be from very hungry publishing companies.

i dont have a single book that is less than 120 dollars new.

it's a fucking racket.

fucking basic math textbook - and i mean BASIC basic, i am terrible at math and thus have to take math 091 instead of 101 - is $170. the solutions manual is an extra 30.

 

It seems to be the consensus for any subject to have at least one mad expensive POS texctbook....I mean, Im looking through it and its alright I spose,

 

Though with math, biology, and sciences there doesn't seem to be any escape from the $300 book prices each semester.

I work for an education publishing company and I can safely say that those books are expensive because we work fucking hard to get them out on time. I've been working on a digital version of a primary school maths book series for over a month and I'm not even half finished. And that's just the digital component - 10% of the final product.

 

(this isn't a first world problem btw - I love my job, just thought I'd chime in with my two cents)

 

Why is your company rewriting basic maths textbooks so frequently? What has changed? Why reprint them all? They're gigantic books, it's a waste. I don't mean to attack you directly, but rewriting books on basic maths more than once every five to ten years seems nonsensical to me and I hope you can shed some light on this. I get the exact same info from maths texts writtin in the 60s that I find in the school library as I do in the brand new texts with cute "relevant" problems about iPods, Priuses and Beyonce.

I'm going to guess that it's because they're a business and if they don't generate $$$ regularly they um, won't be in business to make textbooks in the first place anymore.

i don't know how to get a moving gif working as my avatar

Flickers and other visible artefacting occurring in the music video I'm making, which I fear may be totally random (ie. nothing I can fix in the program I'm using). I think it's basically my computer saying fuck you to all the fast edits I made. It's super frustrating because i think the video's finished otherwise.

  On 8/31/2011 at 8:28 PM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

words!

oh yeah i dont doubt i will have a vast mountain of wealth by the time i'm through with school, it's just gonna cost a LOT.

 

but thanks for the advice! that's the plan so far, gonna finish up undergrad with either a history or art history degree, then do grad school for either art history or archaeology. so there are options. like yelling IT BELONGS IN A MUSEUM all the time. on the street. wearing plastic bags for shoes.

 

"she's got a phd in archaelogy" they'll say as they throw change in my cup.

 

i am not seriously this fatalistic im just tired and rambly.

  On 8/31/2011 at 6:39 PM, baph said:

If you make a new version, schools will buy the new version, so you make a new version every year. If you don't make a new version, the schools keep the old ones for years and you don't make money and the fancy private schools can't pretend they're giving students a cutting-edge education and distinguish themselves from dirty public schools, and then nobody goes to private schools and the private schools have no more students to bankrupt, and that's just fucking unamerican.

This, essentially. Plus, the one I'm mostly working on is a completely new series. The other books we're working on are being re-worked because the curriculum in Australia was previously state-based, now we're working towards making it the same all throughout the country. So there is a point to it, apart from sales!

 

(I am talking about primary/secondary school stuff here so it's a little different to university level textbooks, but similar)

Edited August 31, 2011 by modey

  On 8/31/2011 at 10:45 PM, disparaissant said:

  On 8/31/2011 at 8:28 PM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

words!

oh yeah i dont doubt i will have a vast mountain of wealth by the time i'm through with school, it's just gonna cost a LOT.

 

but thanks for the advice! that's the plan so far, gonna finish up undergrad with either a history or art history degree, then do grad school for either art history or archaeology. so there are options. like yelling IT BELONGS IN A MUSEUM all the time. on the street. wearing plastic bags for shoes.

 

"she's got a phd in archaelogy" they'll say as they throw change in my cup.

 

i am not seriously this fatalistic im just tired and rambly.

 

Seems like in your posts you can talk the talk when it comes to 3d graphics and programming, why would you ever waste years on a degree that will amount to nothing financially when you can do something like software and enjoy history in your spare time?

  On 8/31/2011 at 11:27 PM, acid1 said:

  On 8/31/2011 at 10:45 PM, disparaissant said:

  On 8/31/2011 at 8:28 PM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

words!

oh yeah i dont doubt i will have a vast mountain of wealth by the time i'm through with school, it's just gonna cost a LOT.

 

but thanks for the advice! that's the plan so far, gonna finish up undergrad with either a history or art history degree, then do grad school for either art history or archaeology. so there are options. like yelling IT BELONGS IN A MUSEUM all the time. on the street. wearing plastic bags for shoes.

 

"she's got a phd in archaelogy" they'll say as they throw change in my cup.

 

i am not seriously this fatalistic im just tired and rambly.

 

Seems like in your posts you can talk the talk when it comes to 3d graphics and programming, why would you ever waste years on a degree that will amount to nothing financially when you can do something like software and enjoy history in your spare time?

happiness!

seriously i can understand programming concepts but in practice i'm fucking horrible at it, and don't have enough interest in it to enjoy it on any level. i already gave something lucrative that i'm so-so on a go in college the first time around (design) and hated every second of my existence. i'd rather just do what i wanted to do all along but didn't for monetary reasons. because i'd rather be happy than rich.

just ate loads of crisps and my mouth feels a bit cut

My only advice, to anyone, ever, is just: don't go to law school. Let me be a lesson to you all.

An old flatmate did, he's minting it now. But it's different over here. Less of a class barrier. Somewhat less, at any rate.

new lady at work has a really loud annoying voice! the last one was annoying. why can't we employ someone that's not annoying?

  On 9/1/2011 at 2:39 PM, keltoi said:

new lady at work has a really loud annoying voice! the last one was annoying. why can't we employ someone that's not annoying?

 

since we are in the same boat obviously, i must warn you that maybe it is you. people here that i used to like i find incredibly grating now. their voice makes me want to jump out my window. and now the girl next to me says the word 'like' at least like 35 times like in like 1 like sentence. it is like an incredibily like amazing like talent she has to like drive me like off the fucking wall.

 

do not like.

  On 9/1/2011 at 2:54 PM, jules said:

  On 9/1/2011 at 2:39 PM, keltoi said:

new lady at work has a really loud annoying voice! the last one was annoying. why can't we employ someone that's not annoying?

 

since we are in the same boat obviously, i must warn you that maybe it is you. people here that i used to like i find incredibly grating now. their voice makes me want to jump out my window. and now the girl next to me says the word 'like' at least like 35 times like in like 1 like sentence. it is like an incredibily like amazing like talent she has to like drive me like off the fucking wall.

 

do not like.

 

lol it most likely is me... she has one of those horrible nasal faux-posh glasgow accents. but the worst thing is the volume she speaks at. i'm sitting 10ft away stop shouting at me ffs! maybe she's deaf.

I bought some breakfast this morning, the total was 3.09. In my wallet I had a 10 dollar bill, a 5 dollar bill, and 3 ones. Since I couldn't pay for it with my ones, I used a 5 dollar bill and I got 91 cents back in change.

 

I told the lady that she owed me another dollar, but insisted that I gave her all ones. I relooked at my wallet and had the 10 and the 3 ones. I asked her if she was sure, and she opened the cash register, pulled out 2 ones, and was like "Yes you gave me these"

 

By then a line was forming behind me giving me the dirty eye. So I left.

 

Basically I gave someone a dollar today for nothing :(

  On 9/1/2011 at 4:59 PM, acid1 said:

I bought some breakfast this morning, the total was 3.09. In my wallet I had a 10 dollar bill, a 5 dollar bill, and 3 ones. Since I couldn't pay for it with my ones, I used a 5 dollar bill and I got 91 cents back in change.

 

I told the lady that she owed me another dollar, but insisted that I gave her all ones. I relooked at my wallet and had the 10 and the 3 ones. I asked her if she was sure, and she opened the cash register, pulled out 2 ones, and was like "Yes you gave me these"

 

By then a line was forming behind me giving me the dirty eye. So I left.

 

Basically I gave someone a dollar today for nothing :(

you should have had nine cents' worth of asspennies—double whammy of a solution.

i woke up early to finish packing and it only took me 20 minutes. and now im not tired. so i have nothing to do. i guess i could have worse problems.

I've had to work 8am - 5.30pm for the last 2 weeks without a break. I worked last Saturday and have to work again this Saturday for no extra money. I've still got 40 minutes of the day left and I know tomorrow is gonna be worse than today.

 

I'm starting to almost hope for redundancy as I've been here for 8 years now so I get a tidy payout, but I don't reckon they'll get rid of me cause they can't afford the payout (not that it's fucking mahoosive, it's just how we are for money right now).

yea i had to be somewhere at 8 am. for some reason i thought the bus would take about an hour, so i was at the bus stop at 6:50, bus came at 7, arrived at 7:20... but it meant i had time to eat something. so that's alright.

 

and smoke some cigarettes. which are bad for my health...

  On 9/1/2011 at 5:18 PM, KY said:

you should have had nine cents' worth of asspennies—double whammy of a solution.

 

asspennies!! lol ucb was such an underrated show. nice reference ky.

Not being able to get spell checking to work on firefox with this new machine. Maybe i should spend more than five seconds on it.

i was supposed to edit a bunch of ringtones the other day but instead just sat at my desk the entire day covertly watching youtube videos. just means ill have to work a shitload more than usual at some point but im saying it was worth it.

Edited September 2, 2011 by Z_B_Z

lost my internet for 3 weeks or so because i was "borrowing" from the neighbors. using an internet usb thing right now, next week i am having highspeed installed

a big hey hey to wattem

  On 9/1/2011 at 3:39 PM, keltoi said:

  On 9/1/2011 at 2:54 PM, jules said:

  On 9/1/2011 at 2:39 PM, keltoi said:

new lady at work has a really loud annoying voice! the last one was annoying. why can't we employ someone that's not annoying?

 

since we are in the same boat obviously, i must warn you that maybe it is you. people here that i used to like i find incredibly grating now. their voice makes me want to jump out my window. and now the girl next to me says the word 'like' at least like 35 times like in like 1 like sentence. it is like an incredibily like amazing like talent she has to like drive me like off the fucking wall.

 

do not like.

 

lol it most likely is me... she has one of those horrible nasal faux-posh glasgow accents. but the worst thing is the volume she speaks at. i'm sitting 10ft away stop shouting at me ffs! maybe she's deaf.

 

I know a girl who is like both of these examples combined (without the glasgow accent). She always talks really loud and says inappropriate things when we're out somewhere. For example, one evening at a pancake place "HEY LISTEN TO THESE LYRICS I'VE BEEN WRITING: YOU'RE LIKE A TAMPON, YOU'RE LIKE A USED TAMPON! I WROTE THEM TO DESCRIBE A FRIEND BECAUSE HE'S LIKE A USED TAMPON! DON'T YOU THINK IT'S EDGY THAT I USED THE WORD TAMPON IN LYRICS?!", meanwhile a family were sitting at the table next to us. :wtf:

Sometimes I just want to shake her and say "Shh! Inside voice!!"..