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[DrPhibes]

$331 for my own kitchen and shower. Bathroom and wasingmachine are shared with other people. I got about... 16m2 about 10m2 is usable and not kitchen/shower.

[Barmymoo]

That's what you get for living in Cambridge That's one of the cheapest I've found. At the moment I pay £108.67 per week, with electricity and internet on top of that. And that is for one room in a college, sharing a kitchen and bathroom with about twenty other people, and living on a licence not a lease (so the college staff can come into my room unannounced, require me to change rooms at a day's notice, force me to find somewhere else to sleep on the night of the college ball, and so forth).

[Welu]

Most places around here are around £400 - £500 a month. Hence why I'm so disappointed we didn't snag the £85weekly/£340monthly two bedroom flat. We would have if we could but when we really thought about it it wouldn't have been equal payments from each of us every month due to ways we get paid and that seemed too awkward and easy to lead to fights.

Although the trade-off might be my boyfriend's parents letting us buy a house from them for relatively cheapish off of them.

[lepetitfromage]

Jeez....this thread makes me want to move. New York is an asshole.

[Barmymoo]

A possibility has now surfaced of moving into a 3-bedroom house for £70 a week, to replace one of my friends who is moving out. Not met the two housemates yet so no idea if they'd want me but it's looking good in theory.

[schimmy]

My housemate is a Cambridge local, and I recall him telling me that because the university owns such huge amounts of land, it subsidises / drives down rent for student. I guess he lied to me!

[lepetitfromage]

Wow, that would save you a ton of money! Good luck, I'll cross my fingers for you 

[Barmymoo]

It is quite possible that the colleges do do that - land here is incredibly expensive. I imagine trying to rent a private house in the centre would cost thousands. But there aren't any private one-bedroom or two-bedroom places in the centre because the uni owns it all.

I reckon we're caught in a trap - because there are two universities here, and we all need to live within a few miles of the centre, landlords know they can get away with charging twice as much as they would somewhere else.

[pwhodges]

Oxford is making it much harder and more expensive for private landlords to provide housing for students (or for any other sharers, actually), and is blocking private new building aimed at students (they want colleges / the other university to provide adequate housing for all undergraduates, ultimately).

[DrPhibes]

I got school placement at a big schoolcomplex and with that comes the bonus of a employee-pass for own use! FREE COFFEE!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhdCslFcKFU

[Zingoleb]

Facebook keeps offering me the same two pages to like. I finally did.

[Carl-E]

Sounds like they'd go well together! 

[Welu]

This is what my friend saw when they looked at my page.

[Zingoleb]

My roommate sleeps with za eyes open and ze is staring at me with this half-lidded, glazed expression and it's creeping me right the fuck out

[schimmy]

Wasn't sure whether to put this in the relationship thread or here. Sided with here in the end because I don't really want advice, but just need to vent a bit.

Let me preface this by saying that I am currently trying to quit smoking, so I am incredibly crabby at the moment.

The ladyfriend was supposed to come over today to hang out with me and do some screen printing with my housemate. The plan was she'd come over early, then do some screenprinting. She arrived three hours late, and went promptly to do screenprinting. Which is fine! She needed it done, and that was the original reason she was coming over anyway. Plus, I figured we'd just hang out afterwards. Except, after she was done with the screenprinting, she said she needed to pop out for a minute. She left her stuff - including her phone - here, because she wouldn't be gone long. Three hours later, her friend knocks on the door asking for her stuff, with no explanation other than "She's going home now."

I am now feeling incredibly lonely, and would really like to know what's going on. Also, I fucking need to get some nicotine into my system.


[edit] Got an explanation about what happened. It's a pretty shit one, but extenuating circumstances make it good enough. More importantly, rum has eased my sadness.

[Carl-E]

My roommate sleeps with za eyes open and ze is staring at me with this half-lidded, glazed expression and it's creeping me right the fuck out

Don't look at zem

   But ze's staring at me

Turn out the lights

   No help, I know those eyes are still staring...

Put something over za face

   But ze'll wake up and think I was trying to kill zem or something...

Roll zem over.  When ze wakes, explain.  If ze sleeps like this all the time, it won't be news. 


Good luck.  Get some sleep, and remember that obsessing in a new environment is (relatively) normal.  It'll be comfortable soon enough. 

[Barmymoo]

Trying to do my speech therapy exercises. One of them involves whimpering like a puppy a few times and then sliding down the scale to the bottom of my range so my larynx loosens. Can't make the puppy noises. You know it's a bad day when you can't even squeak.

Also got to go to a networking lunch with a load of lawyers It'll be nice to see some of the recent graduates, a bunch of them are apparently coming back, but I don't really want to network with a load of lawyers I don't know. I'd rather practise for the concert tomorrow (but I doubt I can sing today - see above).

Stupid vocal cords

[Carl-E]

I'm a bass first thing in the morning (works for Sunday service). 

Second tenor (barbershop) by evening (terrible for the church choir's evening rehearsals).  I can't even find  half the range for the bass parts, and I'm the only bass...


Stress does wonderful things for the vocal chords. 





Get someone to tickle you for the puppy squeals.  Your voice should shoot right up there... good luck getting it back down after that! 

Although there are other activities that may work for that...

[Jace]

My roommate sleeps with za eyes open and ze is staring at me with this half-lidded, glazed expression and it's creeping me right the fuck out

Try shining a lantern on just the eyes and then suffocating with a pillow then cutting up the body parts and putting them under the floorboards.

[BeoPuppy]

Bought a new set of headphones which I YAY'd about in the Happy thread but now I'm wondering if they're too tight, which would be odd because usually over the ear headphones and headgear in general is way too big on me. I can't tell if they're too tight or this is what properly fitted headphones should feel like.

http://lifehacker.com/5886125/make-your-tight-brain+squeezing-headphones-more-comfortable-with-these-diy-tricks

[snalin]

This week in students trying to use metaphors and big words:

"With steam technology in the seat belt, you have something to work with"
"I can find many totalitarian uses from the computer in this period"

So cute.

[whom]

I wonder what some totalitarian uses of a computer would be.

[Carl-E]

My mother went home yesterday.  Still has a pretty good row to hoe, but she really sounds like herself, and seems to be all there. 

My daughter, on the other hand, seems to be getting worse.  Just mild exacerbations of the symptoms she already has, but that in itself is very  worrisome. 

[pwhodges]

I'm suffering from norovirus.   Meh.

[Dazed]

My roommate sleeps with za eyes open and ze is staring at me with this half-lidded, glazed expression and it's creeping me right the fuck out

Try shining a lantern on just the eyes and then suffocating with a pillow then cutting up the body parts and putting them under the floorboards.

Good idea, you should do this

[Zingoleb]

I've been in Seattle this weekend. I've been studying it, and here's what my findings are insofar:

1) There is a Starbucks on every corner. I'm pretty sure that they're actually starting to gain a hivemind-like intelligence and will soon spread to infect every building in the greater Seattle area.

2) I've never heard of phở before I came to Seattle, but it's everywhere. Also, it's pronounced funny and people will snicker derisively at you if you mispronounce it.

3) Based on apparent local dress codes, I've invented a game called Hipster or Homeless? It's probably already A Thing, though (no hobo).

[Jimor]

3) Based on apparent local dress codes, I've invented a game called Hipster or Homeless? It's probably already A Thing, though (no hobo).

Sounds like a variant of something I play on public transit: Bluetooth or Batshit Crazy? for when you find somebody talking to an invisible person.

[lepetitfromage]

You might enjoy Hipster Bingo-



There are updated versions out there, this one has been around forever (at least a few years anyway...I remember seeing it floating around when I lived in Brooklyn and you could drown in Hipsterland. Now the only ones I ever see are near the Vassar campus).

[Zingoleb]

Oh hahaha, gosh, those midgets, bein' all hipster 'cause they're short.

[lepetitfromage]

Don't forget the Hipster Giants. Everyone knows that no one of average height can be a hipster- you have to be "different" 

[Welu]

Sorry if this is too much of a downer for this thread but I want some feedback and don't know where to go at this time of night for me.

I'm going to class tomorrow to talk to my Head Of Year person to explain why I've been off so much. Short version: I think I'm depressed, which I've been dealing with on/off for over five years. I don't know what to say to her know though because she sort of knows my history even though she's so supportive, I'm really worried about giving off a danger-to-self vibe in which case, she'll need to report to someone and they'll have to report to parents because I still live at home. I really don't want that to happen because as much as I love them and as good as they have been in other areas, my Da just doesn't respond to me when I'm in this state and my Mammy feels like it's all her fault which does nothing to help me.
I do feel I need to talk to the Head though because even though it should be as simple as, "Go to class just to show your face, even if you do nothing." It is not being that simple at all for me right now.

[Carl-E]

Depression will do that to you.  Have you sought any treatment?  'cause it'd be great to be able to say, "I have this problem, but I'm getting better". 

Also, you may want to take a slightly longer route - talk to your instructors/professors/lecturers before going to the head.  If you can reach out to them directly, you'll have something to tell her. 


Unless, of course, she  called this meeting...




I'm sure she's seen this sort of thing before.  Good luck. 

[SilentJ]

As someone who's been in similar situations before, I echo the sentiments of good luck.  It's quite the uphill battle, but you can do it!



So, hey, blog thread.

A while back I met a girl on these here forums.  Becca (I is Grammar) is her name.  She and I started going out.

Six days ago marked two and a half years we've been together.  Things are going well.  Thought you'd enjoy hearing that.

We still make fun of ourselves for meeting, not just on the internet, but on the forums for a webcomic.  World's a pretty strange place sometimes.

[Barmymoo]

That's awesome, you kept that pretty quiet! Another forum couple

[DrPhibes]

thats nice indeed!

A big bus, for trips away and stuff just turned the corner where I now reside... and I was thinking... why does it even come here? There is nothing to do in this street... maybe he was taking a shortcut (also, i didn't see anyone in the passenger seats.)

[Welu]

Depression will do that to you.  Have you sought any treatment?  'cause it'd be great to be able to say, "I have this problem, but I'm getting better". 

Also, you may want to take a slightly longer route - talk to your instructors/professors/lecturers before going to the head.  If you can reach out to them directly, you'll have something to tell her. 


Unless, of course, she  called this meeting...


I'm sure she's seen this sort of thing before.  Good luck. 

I've got help before and it's mostly been a great help. Although right now unless I spend ages on a waiting list, which I have done before and by the time I was seen (over a year later), I didn't need a professional any more. Or I need a ton of money to just fall out of the sky.

She didn't call the meeting. I just think it would be good to say something to her because my class has had more than a few just stop showing without warning. She is my lecturer too, I have most classes with her and I wouldn't feel comfortable talking to other lecturers about this any way. It hasn't helped that all of them have the same thought and I know because they've all said some variant to my face. "Oh, it doesn't matter if Welu's off because she gets all her work in by the deadline. (Standards are very low in my class). She doesn't need any help."

Also I ended up just emailing her any way. Thanks though.

[Lupercal]

Oxford is making it much harder and more expensive for private landlords to provide housing for students (or for any other sharers, actually), and is blocking private new building aimed at students (they want colleges / the other university to provide adequate housing for all undergraduates, ultimately).

That sounds like a really good idea. The University of Kent keeps their housing crisis pretty quiet - five hundred students were out of housing coming here last year because of a lack of university accomodation and nothing to be found in the surrounding housing estates. Doesn't help that we have another University in the city. And there are way too many housing agents here (called "Campus Lets" or "Student Letting Agents" or something). Apparently, you can live in a total shit-hole as a student and it doesn't matter, you're young and you just spend all your time out drinking anyway, right? I mean a normal landlord would never go back on his contract with working civilians, but students...well, they're not even real people.

(Found out that one of the people that we were dealing with for our house has taken our rent and left the face of the planet - explains why the house ended up being nothing like promised)

This week in students trying to use metaphors and big words:

"With steam technology in the seat belt, you have something to work with"
"I can find many totalitarian uses from the computer in this period"

So cute.

Doesn't sound too bad. Re-read that I'd written "...the semicolon is the hinge upon which the poem swings.", after which I threw up and deleted this phrase.

Highlights also include: "The poem is on the edge of being Pound’s own verse-based Künstlerroman"

The perks of being an English lit student. Did I mention I severely dislike writing on Ezra Pound?

[schimmy]

I mean a normal landlord would never go back on his contract with working civilians

Good joke. Everybody laugh. Roll on snare drum. Curtains. Fade to black.

[pwhodges]

Oxford is making it much harder and more expensive for private landlords to provide housing for students (or for any other sharers, actually)...

That sounds like a really good idea.

Sure - if you don't mind making a housing crisis worse in the first instance, for graduates and young professionals as well as undergrads. 

We've considered withdrawing our rental house from that market, because it's close to being no longer worth the effort; we haven't yet, but others have.

[Lupercal]

I suppose I meant that more in line of a housing crisis that is in effect here in Kent. It seems more that private landlords make it worse and more expensive for students to live as opposed to an institution that can reduce the rent and ensure that undergraduates get housing.

[Carl-E]

Also I ended up just emailing her any way. Thanks though.

Excellent first step! 

But if she's also your instructor for several things, some face time might still be a good idea. 


Are you still gettig your work done, or is that getting affected too? 


Sorry if I'm prying - part of my natire, working with students...

[Lines]

Six days ago marked two and a half years we've been together.  Things are going well.  Thought you'd enjoy hearing that.

Glad you guys are doing well! It's been a while since we've heard from either of you. 

[lepetitfromage]

Welu- I can definitely sympathize with you on this one. One of the reasons it took an eternity for me to graduate was because I just couldn't pull myself together. I had to withdraw from a number of classes and it took all the energy I had just to pull myself out of bed in the morning and shower. There were times that my roommate would come home at 3pm and I'd still be in bed because all I enjoyed doing was sleeping. It happened mainly in the winter and eased up slightly in the summer, but was always lurking. I struggled with depression for years (and it's still an uphill battle- you never really get "cured") but after seeking therapy and taking meds that allowed me to actually think clearly, I came to realize that I wasn't exactly "depressed" but I was making myself depressed by worrying about things that were totally fine, but my excessive anxiety turned into life or death situations. I feel that I'm slowly coming around the bend towards being content, but it really is hard work (because leading a normal life isn't hard enough, this crap has to make it harder).

Anyway, what I'm trying to say through all this is that there are a number of ways to approach it- I know you are worried about school but it's important to care for your well-being in addition to that. It sounds simple, but try and surround yourself with positivity- I always lose touch with the things I love when I'm depressed and I find that simply rediscovering them makes me hate everything else a bit less. A hobby (even if you just do it 10 minutes a day), music, little treats here and there. Find joy in simple things- you sent an email to the Head person- accomplishment! It's so easy to shirk those responsibilities when you're feeling depressed so by taking actions now, you're really making your life a little easier. Y'know that saying "things could always be worse"? It may not be the healthiest way to deal with things, but I like to compare where I'm at now to a point in my life where I made a huge mistake that ended with me being miserable- then I evaluate just how far I've come and the fact that I actually pulled myself out of the mess I made.

Also...I don't know if it's possible there, but here you can see your primary physician about things like that and they can help you find resources that aren't insanely expensive or take a hundred years. If that's not available, it might be in your best interest to get on a waiting list and go when your time finally comes, even if you are felling better. I've noticed that when I'm in a better place mentally, the skills I learn in therapy tend to make more sense and seem more feasible as opposed to when I'm feeling low and everything seems totally helpless. Then, they are there when I need them, ready and waiting. Of course, you may be in a completely different place on the spectrum but I think that everyone facing the big black cloud tends to find solace in the fact that they are not alone. Maybe that's why I'm so drawn to others who deal with similar issues and/or want to help others....it makes me feel useful and brings me comfort that if I can help other people, i just might be able to help myself one of these days. Anyway, feel free to pull what works for you out of this long garbled mess and disregard everything else. I'm a bit of a rambler if you didn't notice.... 

[bainidhe_dub]

an institution that can reduce the rent

But why the hell would they do that? It's much more profitable to force out all the independent landlords and then make everyone pay outrageous rent to the school.

[Barmymoo]

Which is what they do here, although in fairness to my college they also give generous rent bursaries for those of us who need it. Part of the problem here and presumably Oxford too is that the colleges are ancient and need a lot of upkeep.

[schimmy]

If only Cambridge and Oxford were immensely wealthy institutions that could easily afford the upkeep of the colleges without resorting to high rents!

[Welu]

Excellent first step! 

But if she's also your instructor for several things, some face time might still be a good idea. 

Are you still gettig your work done, or is that getting affected too? 

Sorry if I'm prying - part of my natire, working with students...

I don't mind. I'm not able to talk to any one else about this really so I'm actually grateful to be asked.

I'm the type of person who works in huge bursts so other than the brand new stuff and things I physically can't do from home, which is two assignments, I'm actually far ahead on everything. Not just with bare passes either, mostly top marks, which adds to the, "Welu needs no help at all." attitude.
The last couple weeks I've not done anything though.

[help]

Thanks for the advice. In a way I've heard some things you said before but it always helps to hear from another person with experience in their way of saying it.
I really relate to this bit.

I came to realize that I wasn't exactly "depressed" but I was making myself depressed by worrying about things that were totally fine, but my excessive anxiety turned into life or death situations.

Going to my doctor would be the god-knows-how-long waiting list option. It couldn't hurt to talk to him though.
My first time in therapy was when I was pretty clear-headed after waiting on a list for ages but looking back it may have been more accustomed to my thoughts than clear.

[Patrick]

Oh hey guys, I disappeared for several months and then came back. Let me tell you what I've been up to!

So the last time I posted here, I was still living in some super nifty digs right in the center of downtown Livermore. I've since moved twice. First time, the place did not have internets and we were too poor to get them.

I started seeing a girl around Thanksgiving, and I met her family Christmas day. She and I quit seeing each other about halfway through January because she wasn't ready to commit and I was already too attached, so I nipped that shit in the bud. Since then, we've drifted apart and are only barely familiar anymore. It's sad, she was actually just about the neatest girl I've ever met. Oh well.

During the middle of that, two of my close friends broke up with each other, and a SHITLOAD of unnecessary drama blew up over it. They broke up, she found another, he found out about it and flipped a fucking shit, and the friends group divided pretty harshly for a while. Leaving me the only common denominator. He has been trying to make me choose sides ever since, whereas she hasn't, and as a result I've basically picked her side until he quits acting like a little drama queen over the TINEST FUCKING THINGS.

Since then, I lost my old apartment due to my roomie arbitrarily bumping my rent deadline earlier, which (he knew) made it impossible for me to make rent on time. I personally believe that it is because he is an insanely jealous person who was upset over the fact that his girlfriend and I are close friends. Which is fucking stupid. If there's anybody in our extended friendship circles who can be trusted with anybody or anything, it's me. That much has been proven. So why he's doing this is really beyond me, but he and I are done talking until his ass grows up too.

Sunday, however, was probably the best weekend of my life. Went to a friend's house in Albany (near Berkeley), and about 8 of us each did an 8th of shrooms and smoked hella weed and cigs. And we all shot the shit, and every one of us made sure to look out for one another and make sure everybody had a good trip. And it was a complete success, so we're doing it again, same group, 2 weeks.

I'm also in a new band. We're called Troubador! and we have ourselves a Facebook page that you should like. We've got a couple songs recorded but we're gonna hold off on posting them until we have a few to choose from. We have a show coming up somewhere on Monday, others in Newark on March 2 and on March 30, and Injun Magic's got one in Berkeley this Saturday.

I have been a busy little lad.

[Jimor]

Other than the drama-queen bullshit, sounds awesome!

There's been hella drama on the local music scene the past couple of months, with some band breakups, bigtime backstabs, and then a few other feuds popping up here and there, which I don't know if I was just oblivious to it all before, or if it really has gotten unusually weird lately. I'm mostly an outside observer, so it hasn't directly affected me, but has hit some of my good friends pretty hard. I just try to keep pumping positive vibes into the mix, though, and just keep doing what I'm doing.

Since you may have missed it, Patrick, here's my first "real" music video with a local artist. I'm about to do another music video contest shoot for a Ringo Starr song with some of the same folks as well, which should be fun. Then down the line I have another local artist lined up for music video, and scouting for many more!

[Barmymoo]

If only Cambridge and Oxford were immensely wealthy institutions that could easily afford the upkeep of the colleges without resorting to high rents!

The university may be wealthy, but the colleges are entirely separate. The only connection is that the college receives some funding from the university for teaching. For general maintenance and upkeep they're on their own.

My college is a women's college and relatively new (1871, so not new from American perspectives, but the university was founded in 1209 or something), and therefore basically penniless. We have a wonderful fundraising office who work very, very hard but even so, the college is constantly strapped for cash. Doesn't help that the entire building, including the wallpaper in some of it, is listed and therefore renovations and repairs are even more expensive.


(Can someone explain to me how to embed a link without using HTML?)