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[allison]

Blog thread,
Why does the University of Toronto hate the internets? They have this system called ROSI that allows me to manage my courses and whatnot...but ROSI won't let me enroll in a mandatory tutorial, but I already have the lecture...I am so not pleased.
I have essays to do but instead I am inviting a boy over for dinner.

[Metope]

Dear Bloggles, I'm so ANNOYED with the retired people who are taking the same classes as me. Whenever the professor mentions someone important who has influenced the western culture (philosopher, politician or whatever), they make these stupid noises:

Prof: blah blah blah...NIETZSCHE
Old people: OH HM!

Prof: yadayada...KANT
Whitehair brigade: AH!

Prof: zzzzzzzz...FREUD
Retirezes: MHM!

Why can't they shut up and listen like the rest of us? Is it because the great thinkers of the western world were their childhood friends, or is it because they want to show us youngsters that they already knew what the professor just told us and then gloat about it?

[redglasscurls]

Mostly it is because they want to gloat. Adult students are horrid.

Blog thread-
How independent can I logically call myself? I've moved out of my parents house, and they do not pay for any of my university tuition/fees (it's covered by my scholarships and student loans I've taken). BUT they've decided that they want to help me out with 200 a month towards living expenses, since I can only work part time while I'm in school. Does that make me still a dependent? I could get along without the money they send, I just wouldn't have much left over for fun stuff.
Basically I want to know if I'm still a kid at 20 or not.

[benji]

I think the real question is, what's the problem with being a dependent while you're still in university? Getting some money from your parents so you can concentrate more on your school work and also enjoy your life is a good thing.

[Hat]

Yeah I basically decided it was easier to borrow money from my parents than it would be to convince my real estate company to defer part of my rent payment while I'm in financial trouble.

[Ladybug]

I'm sort of in the same situation, with my dad paying my telephone bill and some of my travel expenses (like if they want me home a weekend during the semester, they'll pay, and sometimes they'll pay for me to go home for summer/Christmas, but if I have to go back to school early because of, say, failing an exam, I have to pay for it), and they've always said that if I have financial problems, to let them know, and they'll help me out. I could get by without their help, but I would've had to be veery careful about spending money, had less money for things other than food and rent and maybe found somewhere else to live - or gotten a job (but my studies require a lot of time and effort). It would work, but not be very enjoyable.. So I don't know if I would call myself independent, but I honestly don't mind being a little dependent while I'm still in school and in a somewhat difficult financial situation (meaning living off of a student loan + summer job money, as most students do). It's not a bad thing!

I've started thinking about maybe studying a year abroad, because I definitely need to get out of my comfort zone a little, and it sounds very exciting and rewarding (but also like a LOT of hard work and somewhat scary), but there are so many things to consider and things to plan and worry about that I have a feeling it'll never happen. I have this year and the next two years left before getting my MSc, in theory, and if I wanted to go next year, I should've already started planning...which I haven't. I also sort of want to take an "extra year", because honestly, the fact that I'm already half way through my education scares the crap out of me, and I have a couple of subjects where I've failed, plus there are a few subjects where I want to improve my grade, and I really like being a student and the somewhat relaxed schedule that comes with it. Bah, decisions and worries!

Also! For some reason unknown to me, my grade in Algorithms and Data Structures was raised! Like, with no warning, no info and no change in overall statistics for the course. I discovered it by pure accident, and was totally ecstatic.. It's an important subject, and while a D isn't good, it's so much better than an E, because at least I know that I've done a little more than just barely pass it.

[Jace]

Hey there blog thread,

I am getting really tired of people smoking outside of the hotel. I don't much care that people smoke, I just really mind when you stand outside of the door and smoke, do you know where all that smoke goes? Right to the person at the front desk, and it's quite annoying. Also, if you're going to stand outside and smoke, don't freaking keep coughing like you're gonna die. That should be an indicator for you to stop.

Also, I'm so super glad that I don't have to clock out for lunch anymore, it's so nice that I get 30 minutes taken out of my shift whether I go to lunch or not because there is no one to cover for me to take a damn 30 minute break. This will be the second day in a row that I will have to stand for eight and a half hours. That is terrible for your legs and back.

[valley_parade]

Mostly it is because they want to gloat. Adult students are horrid.

We had this older guy when I took English 101 who thought he knew everything. One day the Domincan Republic came up in class and he turned to the two Hispanic kids in class, asking them "You guys are from the islands, right?"

We absolutely lost it when they replied that they were Ecuadoran.

[Ladybug]

My cell phone drowned the other day, and the screen stopped working, so I've bought a new one. But right now, when I tried turning it on (without a SIM or memory card) after leaving it to dry for a couple of days, the most amazing thing happened. The screen is still black, but the buttons light up and it starts playing a weird, somewhat distorted polyphonic ringtone-version of the intro to Jackson Five's I Want You Back on repeat (a song I, by the way, have never transferred to my cell phone). That is all it does! I can pause and start it again (not even with the button that used to mean "Play"), but that's it.

[öde]

That's a miracle!

[negative creep]

Adult students are horrid.

In my experience they are way nicer than people my age. They sometimes talk to my before and after lectures.

[David_Dovey]

BARONESS

HEAVY FUCKING METAL

Fuckkkk yoouuuuuuuu.

On the other hand:

SOULWAX

THE BEST BAND ON THE PLANET

I can't say much more because there are certain interested parties who read this thread and I don't wanna spoil it for them, but my fucking god.

So yeah, today I went to my first dance music festival. Alone.

But don't worry people, because it was totally the raddest! Honestly, I was there because I wanted to listen to music and watch that music be played, and that is what I did. There was never a point where it mattered that I was there by myself because the entire day was wall to wall stuff I wanted to see. Also, most of the people there were pretty nice and it was just such an easy-going day! I mean, I don't know if it is always like this at these types of festivals, but I am a veteran of metal shows and humongous rock festivals like the big day out, so it was pretty nice to have a festival where I could stand in the crowd without being pushed around, where I actually had a bit of room to myself, and where I could stand at the front barrier without getting my chest crushed by gigantic pushes and obnoxious assholes putting their elbows into my head trying to steal my spot.

[McTaggart]

Adult students are sometimes ok, but mostly I find that they just aren't smart. Sorry adult students, but I have not had a good run with any of you being the slightest bit brilliant.

[Metope]

Yeah, there are nice adult students too. Some are smart, some are not (just like us young students), but most of them just don't know when too be quiet. I don't know how classes/lectures work everywhere else, but in the classes I attend we are supposed to listen, take notes and shut up. At some point you are bound to hear something you already knew, something you strongly agree or disagree with, or something that really surprises you. The difference between most adult students and the younger ones is that the adults just don't know that their excited (sometimes almost uncomfortably orgasmic) cheers are not appreciated at all. I beg you, adult students: If something excites you this much, please talk to someone about it after class!

[Jace]

I once had a kid keep saying "Not true" when the teacher was teaching evolution. She prefaced by going "listen, I don't care what you believe, this is in the book, so we're going to go over it, there'll be a test and then we'll move on." And this little fucker just kept saying "not true, not true, bullshit" over and over when she mentioned evolution. I was laughing, because I was already pretty much failing and it was fun to watch the teacher get all flustered. But at the same time, I was looking at the kid like really, you're gonna be that guy?

[octodexy]

I had a kid like that in my English class, as well as Science. He taught his own lesson on Creationism, because he wouldn't shut up during class. He then further proved how intelligent he was by declaring that "It doesn't matter where Iraq is, I don't care, because I'm not a terrorist."

They always want to be that guy, despite not knowing who that guy is.

[benji]

The thing about adult learners is that they are different from young learners. They usually have more experience and they usually want to bring the new information in to context of their own experiences. Thus, they usually perform slightly better in seminar type setting then in lecture courses. They also tend to have more trouble with ideas that contradict experiences they've had (because, again, they've had more experiences to contradict).

[0bsessions]

They also tend to, more often than not, be there to learn. A lot of college aged kids are there (Not most, but a pretty sizable amount) because that's where all the other college aged kids are, not because they actually want an education. Adult students tend to be there because they realize they need the education and are also, more often than not, paying their own way compared to the higher amount of youths going on their parents', the government's or a combination of the two's dime.

This may sound lopsided, but how many of you have ever met a college Freshman/Sophomore over the age of 25 who's undeclared or "figuring shit out?" There's nothing wrong with being unsure of your existence when you're nineteen, but once you get to the age where you're working for a living, $15,000 to $20,000 a year suddenly is a lot of money to be blowing when you're not sure what the fuck you're going to be doing once you graduate. That's pretty much the biggest reason I dropped out.

Then again, I've been of the mind for years that college shouldn't be a straight out of High School thing. I feel people should be required to take a one to two year internship in the field they're interested in before going to school. Suddenly having a wakeup call of learning the shit you spent $100,000 on is not the shit you want to do AFTER spending the $100,000 is not what I'd call appealing.

[Jace]

Suddenly having a wakeup call of learning the shit you spent $100,000 on is not the shit you want to do AFTER spending the $100,000 is not what I'd call appealing.

This is why I didn't look at going straight into collegel after high school, I was totally undecided on what I wanted to do. Now, if I were to go to college, it'd be for a 2 or 4 year business degree because that'd help me get a loan to open a Kung Fu school. But really, that'd be the only reason I'd go to college, and that won't be for at least another 2 years.

[McTaggart]

I guess the problem with that is that I had absolutely no idea what field I wanted to end up in before I started uni. I still don't really know, but I didn't know that the fields that I think I'm interested in even existed before being exposed to the structure and the culture of science research at a university. Most importantly though, straight out of highschool I had absolutely nothing to bring to any internship aside from my photocopying talents.

[Metope]

This is where Norway is different from the USA, UK and a lot of other places. The biggest and best universities are free, and most young students are not fresh out of high school. In fact, people are almost surprised when I tell them I went straight from high school to uni, and most of my friends there are 22-23 (I'm 20 in a couple of weeks, and in my second year. High School in Norway ends a year later than in USA and UK). Most people take a one or two year break from studies to work, join the military, travel or whatever they want. And the majority never actually attend uni at all, they go though other learning processes that are more work related. I graduated high school in 07, and of the 70-80ish kids who graduated with me I'm one out of two who are in uni now, and I know about three others who are considering studying next year.

So my point is, where I live, most kids in uni actually wants to learn something. I mean, I study art history, which will get me nowhere careerwise. I do it because I'm genuinely interested in art, same goes for my fellow students. I'm sure the adult students are just as eager to learn as the rest of us, but I don't think they are more eager.

[Metope]

Wow that's heavy, Tommy. If I knew you I'd give you a hug.

[Storm Rider]

There's the Tommy we all know and tolerate.

[Barmymoo]

I know it's a page back now, but I think most people rely on some parental support for university, especially in the US where it's so darn expensive. I'm intending to put myself through uni here in the UK, and I've done the maths and should be fine. Thanks to parental saving back when I was a very small child, and the odd addition since then, I have a good hefty chunk gaining interest in the bank and also due to our household income and my grades I get quite a lot in grants and scholarships. The rest will be made up of standard student loans and what I'm earning at the moment, which should hopefully mean I can manage quite happily. It probably helps that I don't drink and am not a big party animal so my living costs will be lower.

Today I had the day off college to do some training at work. I wasn't too chuffed when they sprang this on us on Saturday, especially considering the 19 hours we'd already done, but it was actually fantastic fun. I never imagined there would be so much to learn about working on the checkouts, but we had seven hours of training today and I'm still nothing like ready to be let loose on real money and real people. However, we had a great time and it was hilarious going round the supermarket collecting items to practise scanning. The girl I was with and I decided to go for a miniature theme, so we had miniature champagne and baked beans, Marmite, candles, all kinds of things. We keep forgetting to switch the conveyor belt on, which is rather a bad thing.

Well. I am miles behind with college work because I left most of it in my locker, intending to do it in my free periods today and bring anything home that I hadn't finished. Of course I wasn't there, so it's still there, unfinished. Ah well.

[BrittanyMarie]

Last night I went to High on Fire, which was the sausage-est sausage fest ever. It was kind of awesome! The turnout wasn't as high as it has been for them in the past though, which was good for me since being wedged in between tall hairy dudes is not really fun. They were very good though, and I was very intoxicated.

I can sum up the night in one picture though, and here it is.

[Liz]

Man. Where is the warning on that. I am in class right now. IN CLASS.

[Verergoca]

Right, so... It seems i am not single anymore!  (for those of you who want to know, the girl i went to the zoo with )

[Liz]

Lucky!

[jodizzle]

My cell phone drowned the other day, and the screen stopped working, so I've bought a new one. But right now, when I tried turning it on (without a SIM or memory card) after leaving it to dry for a couple of days, the most amazing thing happened. The screen is still black, but the buttons light up and it starts playing a weird, somewhat distorted polyphonic ringtone-version of the intro to Jackson Five's I Want You Back on repeat (a song I, by the way, have never transferred to my cell phone). That is all it does! I can pause and start it again (not even with the button that used to mean "Play"), but that's it.

A similar thing happened to my brother's phone!  if he tried to turn it on all that would happen was a little plane animation would come up and 'Losing My Religion'  would play.  He was very drunk, had fallen asleep on the train, missed his stop and gotten off like 5 stops later and was very disorientated at the time.

[negative creep]

That would be the best phone ever. I would buy it.

[jhocking]

This weekend my fiancee's phone went belly up where it would automatically speed dial her old doctor in Pittsburgh whenever she opened it, and all of the buttons were mixed up (eg. she'd hit the 6 button and the phone would register 4.) Fortunately there was a Verizon store on the way back home from our camping trip (pictures to come I suppose) although suspiciously the phone started working normally inside the store.

We're thinking maybe Verizon sends a signal to phones to stop working, and this "stop working" signal has no effect inside Verizon stores so that their employees can transfer the phone numbers from the old phone to the new one.

[Hat]

Adult students are sometimes ok, but mostly I find that they just aren't smart. Sorry adult students, but I have not had a good run with any of you being the slightest bit brilliant.

HEY, YOU FRIGGIN JERK

Honestly apart from one incredibly argumentative middle aged idiot in a logic class I had once, I've never really noticed any particularly stupid mature age students but maybe I am just lucky and they don't like literature or words.

[Inlander]

Fortunately there was a Verizon store on the way back home from our camping trip (pictures to come I suppose)

Eagerly awaiting pictures of the Verizon store.

[RedLion]

Guys I haven't slept in 2 days.

I've had to write a 15 page paper on Turkish nationalism, which I was up doing last night; the night before I was just out with friends. But Im' not sure if I'm going to get much sleep tonight either. I have to write a paper, due tomorrow, on specific ways in which European colonialists "dominated" African natives, making particular mention of the Native Land Husbandry Act and, and other boring shit like that. I'm honestly beginning to hallucinate. I haven't even had a cat-nap, nothing, in nearly 48 hours.

[Scandanavian War Machine]

take it from someone with insomnia: the first night is the hardest. it only gets easier after that.

[Emaline]

So, Life and I were not such great of friends yesterday. I guess we sort of broke up. And now I am with New Life. New Life is great. Together, we ride bikes, and argue with people at wal mart for said bike, and are cocky as fuck, and just motherfucking awesome.


Also, I am going to train every day and then eventually ride my bike to Portland. God damnit. It will happen.

[öde]

Shit yes, Emaline.

[squawk]

I am so sick. It is really lame. I got to lie down on the floor in my English class!, but seriously it is not fun at all. I am just worried that I won't recover by Wednesday--Wednesday is Sloan Day. And I have a lot of work to do that I haven't bothered with because I keep falling asleep. It is almost 11 PM and I will probably be awake till like 4. Fantastic!

In other news, my brother's laptop has serious issues that I can't identify. It's very freezey and the keyboard responsiveness is all wonky and delayed. However, my brother and I noticed that it always works perfectly on Sundays, without fail. Right now I am using it and it is fully functional with no problems at all, because I haven't turned it off since yesterday. Man, if this is a virus, what kind of virus takes the Sabbath off. Who makes a virus like that.

Basically I cannot wait til Sloan Day so I can forget about a lot of shit for at least a few hours.

[Emaline]

Guys I haven't slept in 2 days.

I've had to write a 15 page paper on Turkish nationalism, which I was up doing last night; the night before I was just out with friends. But Im' not sure if I'm going to get much sleep tonight either. I have to write a paper, due tomorrow, on specific ways in which European colonialists "dominated" African natives, making particular mention of the Native Land Husbandry Act and, and other boring shit like that. I'm honestly beginning to hallucinate. I haven't even had a cat-nap, nothing, in nearly 48 hours.

Dude, why don't you just do your homework on time? That way you could sleep when you are supposed to.


And, öde, I am so doing it. I fucking love my bike. And New Life. New Life makes me want to go vandalize things, and write anti war messages on the sides of buildings, and then hopefully not really get arrested.

[David_Dovey]

FUCK YES EMALINE

I think the main point of difference between the straight-out-of HS students and mature-age students that people are commenting here is that, as Jon said before, a lot of college kids in America are simply there because going to college is just the "done thing," and that's where all the other kids their age are, so that's where they are going. So you get a lot of kids who aren't at college to learn, and are kind of just coasting dickshits.

It's completely different in Australia, as university is not just the default option for anybody leaving high school. So, you find that a much larger percentage of students of all ages are actually there because they sincerely want to be in university and learning.

[Jimmy the Squid]

The mature-age students at my uni are absolute dicks. They seem to assume that because they are the same age as the lecturers that they are somehow best friends. Also, I understand that a lot of them are parents but they only seem to be able to talk about their kids. I don't mean conversationally, I mean in class when it isn't even slightly relevent.

Fucking old people man.

[Hat]

Honestly squiddy I haven't really noticed what you are talking about at my uni. It must vary pretty widely across degrees though because apparently in sociology and psychology subjects mature age students are unbearable, but in the subjects I do most mature agers are pretty rad for a bunch of old people.

PS

DOVEY

HOW WAS IT.

TELL ME IMMEDIATELY

[David_Dovey]

Brett:

You have no idea what you are in for man, seriously. (this is a good thing)

(it is the best thing)

[öde]

And, öde, I am so doing it. I fucking love my bike. And New Life. New Life makes me want to go vandalize things, and write anti war messages on the sides of buildings, and then hopefully not really get arrested.

I am going to get New Life back and have rad adventures with you.

[Hat]

What I really need to know is are there any bands on before 3.30 on the Brisbane lineup that it is worth quitting my job over.

But seriously. At least name a song 2manyDJs dropped

Just one song.

[David_Dovey]

I didn't want to do this because I thought it'd be better to be surprised but that is it you forced my hand.

LOVE

TO

EDIT.

Also, go see Ajax, he was on at 3.45 or something in Perth, and he is bangin'. He basically does the work of a 2-man DJ team, all on his lonesome.

[fatty]

Nearly all the mature age students I know are nice and fun. We hang around in the pub and talk shit, if we have opportunity to. A few of them are never around though, and yes they definitely approach things differently to fresh-out-of-school students.

[negative creep]

To clarify: I was not talking about students who are a bit older than the average. I was talking about retired people in their late 60s who go to university for fun and because they have nothing better to do.

[valley_parade]

They can be pretty annoying, but I'd probably end up going back to school when I retire. Just for the nollijs.

[0bsessions]

Fucking old people man.

I am going to make your time in Boston a living Hell, Jimmy. I will put all my Metamucil in your food and tell you long, boring stories about my youthful days in the old country.