r1cepurin wrote:Nuke. Stop. Fucking. Please stop.

Yeah, go celibate already!

Also, Squig did nothing wrong. Jew isn't a race, so calling it racism is illogical.

That's debatable, and the post in question certainly didn't refer to judaism as a religion but rather the jewish people themselves. You can call it discrimination if you want, and it is still wrong, at least in this forum.

Some idiot in a U-Haul broke the hanging water pipes under my building (where people park) and now I don't have water. The didn't realize the truck was too tall and now it's flooding.

So, it took 5 days for Durham University to cut me loose and reject my application. So I'm going to Reading.

Now I have to get a UK student visa, which is proving problematic because reading still hasn't sent me CAS number to use for the application, and it turns out I'm going to have to sit another IELTS language test again in a few days; even though all of my qualifications are from institutions which only use the English language and I already took the Academic version of this same test, it seems that it's not enough to satisfy the UK government. This is proving to be a problem because for some reason it seems to be impossible to register for the last 2 tests this month at the test centre in the city where I live; the only one I can apply for is almost 20km away.

It's infuriating that one can study in English and speak entirely in English for one's entire lifespan (I only speak English, I've never spoken any dialect of Chinese at home and I only learnt other languages for fun or for necessary qualifications) yet as far as the UK government is concerned I might as well be another of those braindead natives who can't even formulate a sentence that's not in their backwoods gibberish.

I mean, I don't recall the fucking A-Level exams being published in a language other than English. I doubt I would have gotten an A* in English Literature if I was writing in fucking Malay or Tagalog.

I won't comment on that further than to say institutional racism is alive and well in the UK government (as probably in most).

To be fair, I, who am as British as a person can be, had to do a special English-language test before I could go to university; it was called "Use of English" and at that time was mandatory for science courses (scientists were presumed to be heathens who had hardly progressed beyond grunting).

And I'll say that I approve of Reading, not least because I was brought up in the town, and my father was a Professor at the university there for more than half his life.

Geez. I took an AP English course in high school to place out of taking basic English in college, but I can't imagine having to, as a native speaker, take a course in my own language just to go to uni.

We took an ACT test in high school. Colleges usually went off those scores for math and english to determine if one qualifies for standard level classes at college.

Bloody oath, do I ever feel like an idiot. I should remember that, since I took the damn ACT in the first place! I guess I considered it less of a language-specific test and more of a general test, since it had the math and science sections as well.

I believe ACT was divided into 3 parts or something like that. You still needed each individual score to meet a certain level for the classes. Some people may have had to taken basic English due to the English part of ACT being to low while being able to take whatever Math class desired due to their Math score being high enough. ACT scores also had influence on whether you were actually accepted to a university. I was accepted but opted to go to a community college for the first 2 years worth of classes as it was much cheaper. I do not regret it either. All of my teachers had at least 20 years of experience in the field they taught whether it be prior to teaching or combined with teaching. One just transfers at the end of community college. The Community College also happened to have a decent rep with my intended university.

Wow, I actually am about to take the ACT and SAT soon. All this standardized testing sucks.

Also I stayed away from taking a higher English class, mainly one because you do way to much extra work just to do extra work. I don't see how British Lit helps once I get out of school, but hey it was THEIR idea.

^ Better sort out your "there" and "their" before doing that test!

When I say standard level I am referring to the class level where they actually count towards credits. If one did not pass they the proficiency exams or get decent ACT scores, they had to take the super simplified basic English or Math classes that meant nothing on your transcript before they can take classes that actually counted. Screw AP English. I only took AP Stats in high school. It was determined to be more relevant to my career choice than AP Calc. AP US History was the worst from what I heard. The teacher was hardcore on giving way too much work to do. Top of the class(grade) actually did NOT take that class because he knew it would lower his GPA.

I was required to take 3 "English" courses for my 2 year degree. There was the one focusing on how to write essays and such, the one on public speech, and one on interpreting the authors' books. I was rather displeased with the last one as I would much rather make arguments based on actual information directly from the author or via an autobiography.

As for an FML... My Wifi card in my laptop appears to have finally stopped working. It went a month where it would randomly lose connection every 30 seconds or so. Now it doesn't even try. Hmmm... Decisions decisions...

Haha, fixed Pwhodges.

I think I am good staying in just mostly honors classes right now. You have it right screw AP English. With all AP classes you do extra work just so you don't have much free time. But it looks good when you apply to College and even better if you past the class. I know kids that found Honors Alegbra II way to hard last year and they dropped down this (upcoming)school year. The pacing of those higher classes is something you need to get adjusted to quickly or else you will be failing.

My old laptop ran Windows 7 very nicely and played most of the games I liked on decent settings. It was a solid machine and everything about it worked nicely except for the microphone which would fail on occasion. After 4 years it got very slow (most likely due to HDD getting old) and I replaced it. That was a year old.

My new laptop, which I bought refurbished a year ago, has 8 gigs of ram, an i7 8-part processor, a much more powerful graphics card, over twice the storage capacity (also an HDD), runs Windows 10, and plays the games I like on high settings.

But all sorts of simple things are going wrong that shouldn't. The space bar, crtl. key, enter button, and "n" fail frequently if you aren't careful. The headphone jack broke after three months of use and I have to dedicate a USB port to an external one. The trackpad is annoying and jumps around if you aren't touching it at the right angles.

The computer is still okay (I'm mainly worried about the keyboard getting worse) and works well enough. But it's those small things that make me regret a) not buying a new machine or b) not spending some effort to fix my otherwise sturdy my old laptop by installing an SSD or new graphics card. Building desktop computers is difficult enough, I'm not sure I want to deal with finding the exact right parts to fix a mobile device.

Buying a new laptop is a huge process for me, and i start with the little things like what you're talking about, because I know what an impact they have. My current laptop, I bought new over a year ago after extensive research, and thanks to that research (and many failed attempts with lackluster 'tops) I got the one that was right for me, at least for the next few years until it will be time to upgrade again. I went with a Lenovo Y510P so as to have a gaming-capable machine, but more important than that were the keyboard (which is fantastic, and I often forget how good it is and only remember when I suddenly think back to how things used to be or have occasion to briefly use my previous laptop to get something off of it) and the quality of the display and speakers, because I knew how often I would use them and how important they are to me.

The fact that its graphical capabilities have already been outstripped by DX11 has me thinking I might upgrade again sooner than I did with the laptop before it, but I'll still be using this beaut for a while yet and I was very glad for all the effort I put into making sure I was getting the right one.

Gob Hobblin wrote:^

Very French.

...or German. I don't know, which country has a bigger subculture of world weariness?

Well the Germans have the term 'Weltschmerz' but the French have Sartre, so I figure it's about a draw. Neither of them can hold a candle to Ukraine or Russia, probably - I'm told that over there people will look at you funny for answering "how are you doing?" with "good" (source: coworker who emigrated in 1979).



To contribute to the thread, requiescat in pace, Jordy Nelson's anterior cruciate ligament.

^

This is true; I can assert from experience as well. The time I spent in Russia consisted largely of observing everyone in public places giving everyone else hostile looks.

Gob Hobblin wrote:^

This is true; I can assert from experience as well. The time I spent in Russia consisted largely of observing everyone in public places giving everyone else hostile looks.

They seemed okay to me, but damned if every last one of them isn't a chain smoker.

Russians are extremely friendly when you actually meet with them. If they don't know you, though, they'll treat you with everything from suspicion to hostility. I spent time in two cities (Lodonoye Pole and St. Petersburg); the more touristy parts of St. Petersburg (ie, the more foreign-exposed sections) tended to have a weird mix of less hostility and more (there was a lot of price hikes if they knew you were a foreigner).

Gob Hobblin wrote:Russians are extremely friendly when you actually meet with them. If they don't know you, though, they'll treat you with everything from suspicion to hostility. I spent time in two cities (Lodonoye Pole and St. Petersburg); the more touristy parts of St. Petersburg (ie, the more foreign-exposed sections) tended to have a weird mix of less hostility and more (there was a lot of price hikes if they knew you were a foreigner).

I can only blame the local socio-political environment in the current Putin regime for turning them into something else.

--
Seems that after a couple of days of using it, I think I developed an allergy to Tesco dishwashing liquid after doing the dishes, what with my hands feeling scratchy.

I had a package that was supposed to show up on Tuesday that arrived on Saturday. Normally this is not a big deal, but I was out of town until Tuesday (hence, why I specified that delivery date), so my package was sitting outside my door (instead of in the apartment office) for three and a half days during which time someone stole it. They're probably pretty disappointed though, all that was in there was a textbook.

It's just a monumental pain in the ass for me to replace it and try to get a refund out of the deal.