Always looking at the world through rose colored glasses , denounce your privilege , get a new PHOOONEE , and come to the progressive side of life . LOL
The good news thread
- Thread starter Westtown Willy
- Start date
Always looking at the world through rose colored glasses , denounce your privilege , get a new PHOOONEE , and come to the progressive side of life . LOL
Always looking at the world through rose colored glasses , denounce your privilege , get a new PHOOONEE , and come to the progressive side of life . LOL
That's what he was doing "part-time". He was one of my SCUBA instructors, and worked something like 3-4 months per year on offshore East coast platforms. $1,500/hr was in water, he made something like $30 above water doing standard labor stuff, or sitting, and that was 15 or so years ago.
Last edited:
nothing odd about that at all, that way it maximizes their profits at your expense, I'd expect nothing less from a business in the business of making money.
Which is fine up until you specify what you want and they do what they want anyway at which time all bets are off.
I once had a mortgage I was trying to beat to death as soon as possible with overpayments. For whatever reason one month they applied my overpayment to 'future monthly payments (with interest) and escrowed funds' despite my clear directions to the contrary. I contacted them and requested they reverse that & honor my election to have the overpayment applied 100% to principal. They told me in so many words to go fuck myself.
I sued them pro se, forced them to reverse their fuck up (or intentional act), credit me for the extra interest charged, and pay me attorney's fees & costs. Funny how they didn't make that mistake again following that debacle.
Yes, Pro Se is self-representing, and my claim qualified for attorney's fees being one. It was actually kind of funny how the attorney on the other side was tripping all over her dick to resolve it when we met in court. My best guess is they figured I was just some blowhard screaming about suing them that wouldn't follow through because no lawyer would ever take such a small matter. That was a miscalculation.
I don't look for opportunities to force proper behavior in the personal life, I've got enough bullshit to deal with on the actual job, but when I'm given no choice I don't shy away from them either.
Oops, I skimmed right past the Pro Se part. Well done. And normally I'd question the her dick comment but it's normal now so makes sense either literally or figuratively.
Depending on the field, a degree is required to even be considered for the job…that’s just how it is. We know a degree doesn’t 100% mean you are competent, and not all degrees are worth much in the work force.
Institutions are in the business of making money. They market to the poor and ignorant a dream that they know may not come true. These institutions need to be held accountable (in many ways).
Housing was a bigger problem for me than the cost of tuition (between CC and the university). But it all adds up.
What day was that 1912
Seriously though I started in 84, worked my ass off every summer & saved & the most I could muster was covering my spending money for the year, I still had to borrow for tuition/room/board.
I know multiple older folks who did that…one is a close friend. A local couple laughed about the cost of my law degree and was happy to tell me their same law degrees cost them about 12x less than mine.
The other is a retired engineer who had zero debt from U of A (graduated in ‘77).
He just said he paid $248 for 18 units as an out of state student. He said the costs jumped to $650 for 18 units the next semester and they stayed that way until he graduated. He said he worked a labor job in the summer that paid for tuition and books. He said the books were usually about $5 to $10 but one book was super expensive at $27.
- -
You aren’t wrong about students needing to be more responsible. But the money grab associated with leaching on students who are trying to better themselves is a cancer that goes far beyond idiots spending loan money on TVs and beer.
Here's an interesting data point along that line, when I entered my current career field 10 years ago, a bachelors or higher was required, no exceptions for newbies, old guys were grandfathered as long as their certs remained current. They also raised state board specified edu and training requirements. Since then, speaking state wide, our new entrance volume has tanked while the average age of licensed individuals has gone up each year, pretty much indicating the old guys are riding it out and no one is coming in to take their place when they're done. Those in charge of licensing/certification at the state and fed level thought it'd be great to raise the bar high, but 15ish years later they're finding out they went too high and numbers are continually dropping, so they've been walking back edu requirements and are currently looking for ways around standards they created. I just find that interesting.
Last edited:
Getting hard to find the "good news" in the last two and a half pages. I'm ready for another one of @Cheesy's "Eli" stories. 
Getting hard to find the "good news" in the last two and a half pages. I'm ready for another one of @Cheesy's "Eli" stories.
While typing I was thinking…am I still in the positive thread (bc this isn’t helping).
Last edited:
In the decade that passed a lot changed, you couldn't go to community college for those numbers when I started only 7 years after he graduated. My first year in college was $5,000 for tuition/room & board, a steal by today's standards but remember that's now 41 years ago & even then nothing was measured in the hundreds, except books which were not included in the 5k & they measured in the $300+/- range per semester... So the rapid rise in all this bullshit was already underway in the 80s.
I'll give you one story that suggests this isn't really all that new, and idiots spending loan money on TVs & beer & a whole host of other things that aren't necessary is a very significant, age old, self-inflicted part of the problem.
I was at a crossroads when it came to law school, could have stayed away & continued as-was, or, move back into my parent's basement, commute, & leach off of them for food, laundry & the 100 other things that'll cost you when away from home.
I opted for plan-B which was painful as hell given that I had become quite accustomed to living like a dirty naked freak in what looked like Animal House for the years preceding that. But the math made me swallow that bit of agony notwithstanding the banks lined up begging to throw money at me. Most of my homies lived in off-campus housing near the school in a beautiful townhouse development which was party central during those years.
Fast forward 3 years I'm at graduation & talking with one of my buddies, he was telling me he was a little freaked out about his job prospects given the size of his loans, & the market back then for lawyers was in the tank. I asked him what he owed & it was somewhere around 120k for law school alone, that gave me chest pains, & here I thought mine at a hair under 30k was bad enough. Remember this is 35 years ago, those numbers were scary as hell back then, particularly his.
That guy didn't have to live there, or buy stereos & tvs & host parties, or know the Dominos pizza delivery guy on a first name basis, he chose to, and that choice put him 90 grand deeper in the hole than me. I never saw him again after that day, but knowing the kind of student he was I'd wager he would have been lucky to find a job making 30k within a year or two after graduation.
Getting hard to find the "good news" in the last two and a half pages. I'm ready for another one of @Cheesy's "Eli" stories.
To get us back on track, I too paid off my student loans (in 1997)
Getting hard to find the "good news" in the last two and a half pages. I'm ready for another one of @Cheesy's "Eli" stories.
Not a hell of a lot to tell about Owen and Eli lately. Their last day of school for the year was yesterday. We will be having the boys over for the summer.
Owen and I went skating last night and yes, I learned nothing. Owen spotted four mid teen guys that were very noob skaters and appointed himself as their coach. They were pretty patient with him and his stutter. O and I each have a pre paid skating pass for the summer, so we'll see a lot of each other.
Eli finished his soccer season on a somewhat positive note. He played goalie but did suffer from "Hands of Clod" quite a bit. He is now 5'6", 140 lbs, wears a size 11 shoe. He's 12.
I will be taking both boys to a pancake breakfast at the local American Legion on Memorial Day which is a free will donation. So, twenty bucks, because E can eat Owen and I under the table when it comes to pancakes.
I didn't go to college.
I didn't go to college.
Now there's the real good news, but I'll assume you still have student loans to pay off.
College is just one pathway to follow. The key is to gain marketable skills that allow you to make a decent living and then leverage that money. For me college allowed me to get Federal and State licenses that lead to well paying jobs. Instead of living an expensive lifestyle I reinvested my money and was able to retire early. I played the long game, worked hard and now live a very comfortable life with many options.
Too many people want it all fast without putting in the effort that success requires.
Too many people want it all fast without putting in the effort that success requires.
That's exactly right. Plus I was always pissed off about having to take a bunch of crap that has nothing whatsoever to do with the degree sought. Academia is based on a 10th century (or earlier) monastic model, it exists only to propagate itself.
Back to good news. First summer fishing & they are with the grandparents which means wife and I have a weekend alone for the first time in forever
KennethS
TJ Addict
Well, I was able to take advantage of those non-degree oriented requirements and substitute ROTC classes in orienteering, land navigation, survival, and rifle/pistol marksmanship. Those classes taught me skills that are 100% unrelated to my degree fieId, but I have applied throughout my life, and really came into use when Jeeping through the Arizona back country. FYI, I was not enrolled in the ROTC program, I just substituted the classes as required electives.
Similar threads
