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[Tom]

So, I got a call from Apple today about my laptop. Apparently, the logic board, screen, etc has all been destroyed by excessive rusting and it'll cost upwards of $2k (the price I paid for it new) to fix the damned thing and that this is all accidental damage not covered by my warranty. Turns out when my little brother spilled a glass of water on my desk he had gotten water into the entire laptop frying it. He mops it up, adamant that it only wet the table around the laptop. I come around later try to watch a DVD and it starts to die.

I am now without a computer and have no immediate way to pay for a new one. My parents have already paid $7k for the same brother to go on a school trip to Europe and this is kind ofmy fault too so I can't expect them to replace it for me.
 
I guess, if I learned anything at all, that if you have a glass of water near your laptop you probably won't spill it but some other idiot sure will.

[Papersatan]

IT is 11:49.  3 of my Grad school applications are due in 11 minutes. I have done everything I need to, submitted and paid. There is one professor who has not uploaded her letters of recommendation yet.  I don't know what to do.  I am going to have a heart attack.  She knew they were due, I know she was working on them because she e-mailed me yesterday to ask a question about a paper I wrote for her.
why
WHY
WHY
has she not uploaded them yet?  What if I can't get into the school I want to because she didn't do this? Guys I am going to cry. 

[Elizzybeth]

Kat, I just had the same problem with one of my recommenders; she had some emergencies with her parents and got in, like, six of my letters almost a month late.

I was kind of freaking out, but the schools (the ones I applied to, at least) are evidently a lot less strict with recommender deadlines than with applicant deadlines.  It ended up working out.

So don't worry too much!  If all your other materials are submitted, I'm sure you'll be okay!  They know that you don't actually have any control over when your recommenders submit their letters!

[tania]

i had the same problem with a professor when i was applying for grad school as well and lots of similar heart attacks. i am fairly certain his letters arrived at the schools i applied to later than the deadline because he didn't even mail them out until about two days beforehand, but i still got into all my schools no problem. graduate committees tend to spend at least a few weeks just going through applications so it would be incredibly silly for them to dismiss all the work you have done because one letter arrived a bit late - in fact they probably see this pretty often in applications, being the one part of the application that is almost completely beyond the applicant's control. if you really feel like this is something you will lose a lot of sleep over (and it's understandable, grad school applications are expensive and a pretty big deal), you can email the graduate secretary for your program and give them a heads up about the delay which should be good enough to ensure your hard work won't go to waste. really though, if your other letters and materials are in i wouldn't sweat it.

[The Seldom Killer]

I am in Austria.

PRO - I am going skiing.

CON - Our room would appear to be the acoustic focal point for every noise made within three miles.

Nevermind, I can suffer earplugs for a week. Also, the Austrians use a qwertz kezboard if zou see what I mean.

[Tom]

So, now my parents are making me get a hold of dead mac. I tried to call the Apple store in Bondi only to get fed through to an automated thing directing my to AppleCare which isn't active on the weekend. I'm trying really hard to find a way to contact these guys so I can get it back and get a third party to take a look at it. My parents and sister are all like "you only have their word for it, they could be lying etc." It doesn't make any sense that they would be lying, what point would that serve? Does anyone know anything that could point me in the right direction?

[Rizzo]

Hardware manufacturers are vicious over-chargers though. You could probably take it to a regular computer repairer and get a significantly lower quote for it. Very possibly the hard drive is still ok and you can rip it out to transfer to your next PC/get data from.

[Tom]

Nah it's all backed up and I'm heading to the mac store tomorrow/driving myself crazy with customer support so I can get it back for a second opinion. I just feel like shit at the moment because of the circumstances surrounding it.

All my music/uni-stuff/.avi's are backed up anyway.

[E. Spaceman]

Personal high mark:

"You are a combination of the worst parts of all these people"

my friends, upon watching The Breakfast Club

[Patrick]

I still have a job after all of this. Fuuuuuuuuuuck yeah! It's not the best job ever but it feeds me. After the last year, it's something to be damn happy about.

[Papersatan]

My professor did my letters this morning, so she was only 12 hours late and I didn't even have to confront her about it, which I was not looking forward to.  So, based on your experiences I should have no problem.  Thanks guys for making me feel better about it.  I was seriously worried.

[Jimmy the Squid]

Things are so shit right now.

My rat Jekyll just died today. He's had a brain tumour for ages and has been getting progressively worse. I was going to take him to the vet on wednesday when I had the day off from work and have him put down because he hasn't been able to climb well or eat properly and he had even stopped cleaning himself but I'm still really broken up about this because I loved the little guy and I just feel awful.
This is not helped by the fact that I hate my job more and more every day and there doesn't seem to be a way out of this because I can't afford to quit, I need to pay rent and stuff but I'm so fucking miserable and I don't know how the fuck I can make this better.

I'm thinking of going back to uni. I still have time to re-apply for the Psychology course I got into (but didn't accept) last year. I could even work part-time and make enough to get by and study, though it would make things a little tighter. I just worry that I've been out of uni for so long that I'm not going to be very good at going back to studying.

Advise me!!

(On a more positive note I have a job interview on wednesday so maybe that will go well? I don't know. My confidence is so low right now I just want to curl into a ball and die).

[StaedlerMars]

Go back to study. If you're really into a course it's always a lot of fun, and I've always thought that there's a surprising amount of free time at Uni. I would genuinely continue studying if I wasn't running out of degrees. Working just means that your schedule is tighter, and that you'll be sacrificing a few more evenings a week.

[Graphite]

Do the degree! If you pick the right campus and it is the right subject for you, the annoyances of study will be more than compensated for by the knowledge that you give a shit about what you're doing every day, and you will be surrounded by heaps of people so if you go searching for the right uni clubs and groups you are nearly guaranteed a decent social group.

[David_Dovey]

Also maybe you can get the gubbermunt to pay you to study and sit around in yr underwear all day

[Barmymoo]

From my observations of the mature students at my uni compared to people my age, it seems that people who have been away from studying and come back are actually more likely to find it quite easy since they know they definitely want to be studying! I say go for it.

And I'm really sorry to hear about Jekyll, there is a big difference between preparing for a painless death and being suddenly hit by an unexpected one.

Guys, I know I've been here for less than two weeks but I'm concerned that actually this au pairing thing isn't going to work out. It could either get better or it could get worse and some things are threatening to tip it towards the latter - like the fact that basically once I finish working at 8.30pm I'm kind of expected to not be around the main part of the house, but since I don't finish until 8.30 (and start again at 7.30am the next morning) I can't really go out.

I really wanted to sing in the church choir which I somehow got into yesterday but it doesn't seem like I'll be able to because the woman I work for doesn't want to have to cope without me every Thursday (it does make me wonder how they coped without an au pair...). I tried to say that it was fine but I was gutted; it's the first thing I've really wanted to do since I got here and the choirmaster was really understanding, saying I could come every fortnight instead of every week and arrive half an hour late, but even then I don't think she's going to let me.

It's probably stupid to say that this is something that makes me want to go home but I haven't actually been out any evening yet - so I spend every night sitting in my room on my own. I dunnoo.

[Lines]

Do you have days off? And that's kind of yucky to work from 7:30am to 8:30pm, but it's Paris, I'm sure you could go wander around for an hour or two if you wanted to.

[snalin]

ACED PROGRAMMING EXAM YES!!!

[Barmymoo]

Linds, I do have Sunday off and I realise I didn't make it very clear - I only work around five hours a day, so I do visit Paris and also take language classes. I've met one person who I think might be a friend in the language class but otherwise I'm just on my own tonking round looking at things and saying "isn't it pretty?" before going home and sitting in my room again.

Today is a bit of a glum day; on other days I feel as if it is the best job I've ever had and I can't believe it's real. I can see the isolation becoming an increasing issue if I can't find ways to meet people (who speak English!) soon.

[valley_parade]

I forgot to mention this around Christmastime, but while visiting my sister I discovered that restaurants in Boston's Little Italy are the best restaurants in the entire world.

Jesus christ Joe, you're older than the city of Boston itself and didn't know that Italian restaurants in the North End were really good?

[vegkitkat]

I ran 5.2km today.  I am very proud of myself.  I think I'm going to soak in the bath today.

[Spluff]

If you second guess your second guessing, does that make it a fourth guess or does it make it a third guess?

[nufan]

Are you trying to second guess me - I am trying to second guess you

Anyway, I'd say third. It has to be addition rather than multiplication, otherwise you get exponentional guesses which means if you second guess yourself 15 times it makes it your 32,768 guess

[jhocking]

I forgot to mention this around Christmastime, but while visiting my sister I discovered that restaurants in Boston's Little Italy are the best restaurants in the entire world.

Jesus christ Joe, you're older than the city of Boston itself and didn't know that Italian restaurants in the North End were really good?

hey man I don't live there

[Jimmy the Squid]

Oh shit you guys I just put through my application for university/grad school/post grad studies/whatever. Fuck guys if I get in...I'm so nervous. Oh shit. Oh fuck.

[Johnny C]

grad school

hey tania/jimmy/other grads, i'm starting to freak out about grad school because my average is 78, 79.5 if you take out all the ed classes that don't transfer out, and 81 if you look at all my english classes only. i'm freaking out because i don't think that average is high enough. what was yr gpa when you applied to schools and do you think if my recommendation letters are strong enough that i can get through it anyways? i'm also going to be submitting a paper i wrote last term to a couple of conferences to try and present it. do you think that will help enough to like go up against my gpa which is like not as good as it ostensibly needs to be?

[tania]

are you talking about your cumulative average or just your average for your last couple of semesters? schools tend to place more importance on your final grades than your overall grades. my average when applied for my programs was only a 76 (difference provinces grade differently, at guelph this was just barely above a B). my GPA for my last semester was a 4.0 though. from talking to other students and professors here, i've gotten the impression that your letters of recommendation and your personal statements are immensely more important when it comes to getting into a grad program than your grades alone. you might still want to spin your grades to your advantage though, since you do really have to sell yourself. i think what helped me in my application was that in my cover letter i included a big bit on my grades and how the fact that they improved so drastically within 4 years was an obvious sign of my maturity and preparedness to be in graduate school, which was then further backed up by my letters of recommendation. bingo.

honestly though most good schools will sell themselves as way more competitive than they actually are mainly because they don't want people applying who don't take the application process seriously and are just going to waste everybody's time. i think you are on the right track. also definitely talk to an associate professor about how to write everything because all of the material you submit in a grad application package actually needs to be formatted in a REALLY rigid and specific way and i have also had profs tell me that one of the main reasons applications get rejected is cos students don't bother to consult anyone on how to actually put together a package properly. you probably already know how to do this but if not, i still have all the guides i used and i can probably send them to you.

good luck jc!!! where are you applying. are you going to go to chicago

[Lines]

I'd graduated with a 3.3/B+ overall and my senior year was a bit higher than that. But last quarter I got a 3.8 and I did pretty well on my GRE (don't know if those are required in Canada), so my chances are looking pretty good I'll be accepted. It depends on the school, I think. My mom complains all the time about how abysmal some test scores and gpa scores are of people who get accepted into the program she works in. (Basically I learned what not to do when applying to schools from her. It was nice.) If you're applying to really competitive schools, they will probably want better grades/scores.

Good luck to people applying!

[Zingoleb]

I talked to to my mother a couple days ago. First, I talked to my brother, and she told him about the whole trans bit, which is a bit of a betrayal because I explicitly asked her not to tell him so that I could tell himself. But, whatever. I ended up talking to her, explaining the job business, and she pretty much ran me down and, in not so many words, told me I shouldn't be around children ever because I'm trans.

I really can't wait for her to die. Well, that sounds mean. It IS mean, but it's true. I'll be upset when she's gone, but while she's still alive she'll be in my life somehow in some way telling me I am not worthy of the Glory of Heaven.

(She's also explained to me how Obama is the Antichrist and why everyone in the world should own a gun)

[valley_parade]

I find that I'm psyching myself up for what's going to be a shitty four hours of work by listening to pop-punk that's making me very bummed out about girls and stuff.

I think I'm doing it wrong, but..yeah. I just want to go home, curl up in bed and maybe die or something.

[Patrick]

But, whatever. I ended up talking to her, explaining the job business, and she pretty much ran me down and, in not so many words, told me I shouldn't be around children ever because I'm trans.

A lot of people still feel this way for some reason. My mom included, she's not exactly the most open-minded person ever.

[Johnny C]

good luck jc!!! where are you applying. are you going to go to chicago

american grad schools look... not great for english masters. all the american programs i looked at including the ones in chicago basically said "you are money grist for the phd mill." there's probably a ton i didn't look at but like as much as i might LIKE to go to amherst at a certain point the ones in canada just started looking way more appealing to me. so i'm looking at schools in vancouver (including sfu), i'm looking at york, i'm looking at queen's, i'm looking at wilfrid laurier (which specializes in gender & genre, which is like a Sell Point), i'm looking at mcgill & concordia, considering memorial in nfld. so far my RANK! is concordia, memorial, laurier, sfu, york, capilano, mcgill, queen's, "other"

i still have at least year before i even start applying, probably closer to a year and a half.

E: the reason concordia's at the top is because i also have the option to do creative writing work which is at least framed as being in addition to regular masters work. which is hugely important for reasons that someone other than me has done a much better job explicating.

[tania]

i don't actually know much at all about sfu's english program, is it better than ubc's? i always assumed ubc was the better vancouver university at basically everything except criminology (which it doesn't have a grad program for).

anyway obviously i hope you get in to your top choices BUT if for some reason you don't and you go to vancouver instead i think we should definitely be roommates because THINK OF THE ADVENTURES. think of all of the things we could eat together. there are so many things in this city i want to eat and no one will eat them with me. but really hopefully you will get into concordia or laurier because their english programs are really great.
i can think of a couple of other things that might help but honestly you already seem really on top of things considering you aren't even applying until next year so whatever! that's it. believe in your dreams. you are an eagle. don't let the man get you down

[Barmymoo]

So, after my rather misery-filled (slightly rageous) post of whenever it was, yesterday or whatever, I have now got an update. I still can't do the choir, and not even arrive late and go just some weeks because, and this is the main point, my hours have been finalised and rather radically altered.

I'm now working 31 hours a week (paid extra to the original rate by a very good percentage) which includes every weekday evening, two weekday mornings for 1.5 hours and some afternoons. Anything on the weekend will be paid extra. I am kind of hoping that I will be taking the eldest daughter to her piano lesson on Saturdays because I enjoyed it and it got me out of the house, plus I like Lily and I won't be taking her to school any more.

I've got mixed, but mostly positive, feelings about this - on the one hand I don't have to get up at 7am every day any more! And I know what my hours are for definite, rather than not really being sure. On the other it will only serve to exacerbate the problem of the fact that I live here but am an employee, which is a distinction hard to draw in the minds of four year olds and, it has to be said, of me. I enjoy talking to the children and that doesn't stop at 8.30pm on the dot! And if one of the little ones asks me to pour them some cereal in the morning, I am not going to say "sorry, I'm not working at the moment" but that is part of my job when I am working, so where is the line?

On the advice of a bunch of you, I mentioned the issue to my employer and she is going to think about it and we'll chat again tomorrow, because we ran out of time today. I think we cleared the air a lot today because there were some things she was a bit concerned about (which I sensed but didn't know what they were) and I was upset about some things she hadn't thought of.

So all in all I think things will work out well. Another reminder that the best thing to do with a problem is to wait until it resolves itself.

[valley_parade]

JC if you went to Amherst we'd be within about an hour of each other.

And Taylor wouldn't hang out with you, either.

[Slick]

Johnny Kitchener-Waterloo is a pretty OK town to be in, I can vouch for that. I found it very agreeable.

[Allybee]

amherst is also an hour away from me

[Allybee]

so coy

[Johnny C]

ubc's program looks cool; i have to investigate first if they'd let me like mix together their programs, since they have one in english literature and one in english language and i think it's weird that they've separated both and that both of them really feed into each other quite strongly so like why would i just take one.

[tania]

yeah i mean again i don't know much at all about the english programs at ubc or even sfu, i go to sfu cos their criminology program is basically their no. 1 thing but i have no idea how their other programs rank according to anything else. i've gone to a couple of lectures at ubc though and they definitely get way more finding than probably any other university in canada (except toronto maybe) and have a REALLY huge, really beautiful campus and lots of really fucking cool shit like museums and art galleries and stuff which students get free membership to. that and ubc is actually in vancouver so you really do get to live and spend time in real vancouver, unlike me who claims to live in vancouver but actually lives in fake vancouver.

actually okay here is the grad studies page and honestly it really does look like a pretty good program, probably a lot better than sfu's tbh. it is probably worth looking into.

[allison]

my friend went to memorial after having gone to ryerson, and said her grades went up so much without any effort at all.

york is a pretty good school, and they are pretty forward in terms of integrating technology and actually using those resources. also off-campus housing is super cheap there, and really close to campus despite not being part of the school.

[Jimmy the Squid]

Man I'm just super concerned that my being out of school for two years and not really having done anything relevant, job wise, in those two years is going to count against me. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.....

[Johnny C]

ryerson

[Johnny C]

my sworn enemies

[tania]

also yeah i mean going to the BEST SCHOOL is important too but if you're gonna be moving for your MA and if this is gonna be your First Big Move, it is pretty important to pick a city that you actually want to live in and can explore and enjoy and fall in love with. or at least i think so, my friends here don't actually give a shit about vancouver at all and still think i'm a huge weirdo for actually wanting to see the city and make the most of my time here. but really, in the end a master's degree is just a master's degree. if you're really smart and you can find someone you really want to work with and you work hard to turn out great work then like, in the end people are gonna know who you are so no one is really gonna care that much where you actually got your degree and it is okay to compromise a little bit to live in a beautiful and interesting city that you might not get the opportunity to live in again.
in which case though i would still probably nominate concordia cos man montreal is so nice, so nice.

[vegkitkat]

Johnny, I think you'd have a heck of a good time in Montreal. And I think Montreal would like you too.  I don't think my grad school experience is relevant as MSc seems to do shit differently. 

Speaking of grad school, today would not end.  I had to go for safety training.  I almost fell asleep.  They didn't even tell us any hilarious lab accident stories.  What's up with that.  Later I ran the weirdest column ever.  Who puts acetic acid in a column? Me, apparently. And I'll have to do another one tomorrow. This molecule better lead to a treatment for Alzheimer's or I'm gonna be pissed.

[Jace]

Sam, I can only read your posts in Jake's voice. I want to meet you, but I know when I do I will be a little disappointed that you aren't a magic dog.

[Johnny C]

he might as well be a magic dog

[jmrz]

I find out about getting in to the university I want to go to in Sydney in... 3 hours and 16 minutes.

FREAKING OUT.

CANNOT SIT STILL. AGH.

[Patrick]

You will be okay, I am sure you will get great news!

Dear blag,

I love Donut Wheel. It's the best thing about living in Livermore. It is a donut shop that is open 24 hours a day, every single day of the year. SINGLE GREATEST THING EVER.