Good Morning, 2010! The Princess' Diary Intarwebs Edition

[Lady Door]

My parents would kill me. And by "kill me" I mean be very disappointed, which for a recovering perfectionist is pretty much the same thing. (See: how I got into this mess in the first place.)

He can take the BART, but the *AirBART*, which is how he'd get from the BART to the airport, doesn't start until 8am. So no dice. I could make him take the city bus, but doing so for the first time in a sketchy part of Oakland seems cruel at best.

I'll consider it an early start to the BEST DAY EVER*.

*for values of EVER including the period between April 2010 and July 2010.

[Shale]

I could make him take the city bus, but doing so for the first time in a sketchy part of Oakland seems cruel at best.

At best it's murderous, but you could settle for cruel.

Or...wait, was that not a good thing?

[DjinnAndTonic]

That's very cute, Djinn! Well-written for a second-grader, too.

2nd year of Middle School, mind you. But yeah, Kengo is quite possibly my favorite student I've met in the two years that I've been here and I hope I have a kid as cool as him someday.

A couple days of freedom (!!!) -- and then Djinn plus one will be crashing with us. I am less concerned about the loss of space in this case because at least Djinn and company will be functioning human beings with interests and life experience and stories.

Aw man, you didn't tell us we needed -those-. >_<

I'm not sure I can still tell a story in English without typing emoticons. Man... how do people express emotion when they aren't chatting online again?

[Grefter]

You do that thing with your tongue.

[Idun]

Just discovered that Jack has a rodent ulcer on his top left lip. It wasn't there before I left for Egypt, which leads me to believe that my family's excessive "letting him outside" when he's an inside cat, which - I'm already fighting a battle for flea infestation in the living room with flea baths and sprays and fucking washing him too much - leads me to believe that my cat is allergic to their bites. He's already making himself look like a hairless cat on his stomach and legs. So. I need prednisone. I know what I need, I've had cats before who exhibited similar traits (HELLO I DONT HAVE $200 just to RUN TESTS). I dropped the loser-for-a-fuck vet who told me my cat had jaundice and gave me 15 dollar steroids and later claimed it might be blood parasites for a total of 60 fucking dollars. Hey, fuck you. Let's see what this Animal Hospital will do. I know they need to make money, but I hope the fucking sitting fee isn't an arm and a leg. I get paid this Thursday, I'll pay the car insurance late and the cell bill on the 30th, technically 5 days late, but really. . .  I'm so fucking tired of this capitalist advantage for veterinarians who make you pay out of the ass, even with fucking pet insurance. Fuck you asshole, jaundice? If I could make prednisone, I would. God, vets are such overpaid wastes of fucking research it's ridiculous. And the only reason I fear that they do this dumbass sitting fee + other fucking fees is because they don't want to get a law suit, which is understandable, but fuck that shit when it takes them 500 fucking dollars to send some fucking blood to get shit tested so they can have their asses protected. Fuck VETS. Independent vets.

[metroid composite]

You know, I had a cousin who worked as a vet for over a decade.  She left that job and became a teacher because the pay was a lot better (and teaching's not exactly known as a money job).

So...I'm not sure vets are overpaid.  The entire vet system is arguably broken, sure, but....

[Idun]

Yeah. I'm just angry. I set up an appointment for tomorrow. I just know that there's two independent vets with their own places here in Clay Co and they get away with murder. Jack's starting at a different clinic now.

[Idun]

$109. I just hope he gets better.


What's for dinner then? Noodles!!

[Ultradude]

God dammit Kotor what did you do to my Firefox now I have to use Chrome.

[Dunefar]

Random question: Anyone seen VSM lately?

[Cotigo]

Maybe he got a girlfriend, which caused a black hole to open up and swallow him into the deepest depths of the unknown before evaporating.

Ha, ha, no, I'm kidding.  That's just so implausible.  VSM getting a girlfriend.  HA.

[Magetastic]

Maybe he got a girlfriend, which caused a black hole to open up and swallow him into the deepest depths of the unknown before evaporating.

Ha, ha, no, I'm kidding.  That's just so implausible.  VSM getting a girlfriend.  HA.

That's like you showing up in chat (or anywhere) sober, Zenny! Funny stuff, that.

[Idun]

I don't know about you, but vote for your state when the time comes!

[SageAcrin]

Random question: Anyone seen VSM lately?

Steam shows he's been around in the last dozen hours or so, and I'm pretty sure I saw him playing TF2 then.

Hasn't been around in chat, but he's alive.

[Yakumo]

I've seen him on Something Awful and in a different IRC chat in the last few days too.

[metroid composite]

My parents would kill me. And by "kill me" I mean be very disappointed, which for a recovering perfectionist is pretty much the same thing. (See: how I got into this mess in the first place.)

He can take the BART, but the *AirBART*, which is how he'd get from the BART to the airport, doesn't start until 8am. So no dice. I could make him take the city bus, but doing so for the first time in a sketchy part of Oakland seems cruel at best.

I'll consider it an early start to the BEST DAY EVER*.

*for values of EVER including the period between April 2010 and July 2010.

Wait...can't he just take Supershuttle?  Or is $15 too expensive?

[superaielman]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/07/17/california.bart.shooting/index.html?hpt=T2

Was this near your part of town, Andrew/Ashley?

[Lady Door]

Wait...can't he just take Supershuttle?  Or is $15 too expensive?

$15 is more than the negligible amount of gas I'd spend going. The dog also chewed on his ID, so my parents want me to be there/nearby in case he can't get through security or something.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/07/17/california.bart.shooting/index.html?hpt=T2

Was this near your part of town, Andrew/Ashley?

Yus, but not too near. It's 1 BART stop away, a little less than 3 miles. It's a fun fun place -- especially for being the one stop in between where I am (Lake Merritt) and the airport I use (OAK). The Mehserle thing has been a huge issue, and apparently is going to continue to be an issue until at least November since that's when they've pushed the sentencing back to.

Fruitvale/International Ave. is a rather shady part of town near the BART tracks/east of the tracks. I believe I mentioned it before, but when I was on the bus to go to the animal shelter last year, my bus had to be diverted on International Ave. because there was a shooter who had killed someone on the block and then could not be found. <_<

[Idun]

Made quite a long list of my grad schools, broken up by date, and which university. I just want someone to accept me, and Pittsburgh's response makes me wanna die. I haven't even applied yet. Sadface. I mean, you get rejected and you try and try again, but I dunno if my brain can take the kicking. Yeah, sure, I should have paid more attention to my grades in school, but blegh. Even though the other aspects of the application can be weighed more heavily, don't tell me I already missed one benchmark ;_;. And it's a grade for a language class. Pah! WELL.


Yeah. Time to start studying for the GREs despite some of the schools not requiring it (but it can be used). Le sigh.

[OblivionKnight]

What did Pittsburgh say?

[Idun]

As I paste:

"We require competence (a level a little higher than B-) in two foreign
languages as these are essential for ongoing research as a professional
art historian. They are usually those you would intend to use in future
research and can be any language other than English.

If the other aspects of the application are strong we can admit those with
this level in one language in the expectation that they would take up
another during their first two years (the MA years). But you cannot go
further without completing this requirement.

So it is a good idea to upgrade your French."

Maybe I'm melodramatic? I can't upgrade my French without going back to school which I cannot afford! At least if they want university level French. There's plenty of French organizations around Atlanta.

[Lady Door]

Grad schools are bitchy about language requirements. You will need "competency" in at least 2 scholarly languages by the time you finish your first two years of coursework, generally speaking, and most of the "big name" schools (which is an odd list if you're used to undergrad hype) have enough clout and applications to force you to show a damn fine reason why you don't already have those two languages.

In short: I sympathize, and that sucks.

Maybe you could see if they will accept alternate ways of proving competency? None of them are very palatable, really. You could take the national exam for the language (a la the DILF/DELF/DALF for French, etc.), you could find a local university willing to let you sit one of their competency exams (the sort offered to grad students that are sit down translation exams with/without dictionary), or... I dunno. The rest do involve taking courses.

Maybe you could ask Pitt to offer suggestions on acceptable alternates?

[NotMiki]

RE: foursomes

me: if penises had bumper stickers, they'd read "does not play well with others."

alice:  I thought they'd read "don't rear end me."

[Idun]

Maybe you could see if they will accept alternate ways of proving competency? None of them are very palatable, really. You could take the national exam for the language (a la the DILF/DELF/DALF for French, etc.), you could find a local university willing to let you sit one of their competency exams (the sort offered to grad students that are sit down translation exams with/without dictionary), or... I dunno. The rest do involve taking courses.

Maybe you could ask Pitt to offer suggestions on acceptable alternates?

I suppose he just wasn't clear about the requirement for the language. Essentially I will need two languages, but not prior to acceptance. I can have one now, and do spectacular on the language translation part of the application, have a solid application package and get accepted. In order to stay in this specific program, I have to have two languages with reading/translation knowledge, a second translation exam for the second language before the conferral of a Master's degree which guarantees you tuition/funding wise into their Ph.D program.

I come from a state school with some lackluster grades. I am applying to more rigorous programs, but I believe Pitt is the only Ph.D program that I'm applying to. The others are Master's. Fingers and toes crossed, and if you're trying to get into grad schools too, fingers and toes crossed.

[Lady Door]

That's about in line with what I've come to expect from graduate programs in the U.S.

Best of luck to you!

And yes, I'm looking into applying for admission to next fall's programs programs starting Fall 2012. Fuuuuuun times.