Life

[pabosher]

Finally got my essay about the importance of ethnographies in relation to understanding Soviet Russia and present-day Russia... It's my first 1st! Woo! 70/100 so only /just/, but a first is a first is a first!

[Thyroid]

Speedy, that's great. But what's a first?

Ugh, so life has been pretty stressful lately. School, friends, general immaturity and cultural, ah, difficulties (I had a fight on Thursday because I refused to say that Anti-Semitism was not wrong), two people now quite seriously want me dead. One for a really stupid story I don't feel like getting into (summary: I saw him yelling at his girlfriend and yanking her arm around as she screamed at him to let her go, so I went over and told him to buzz off; he later tried to stab me ) and now my girlfriend's psychotic ex has gone stalker-ish and made her cry last night, emailing me, calling her "bitch", making threats to me and telling me to just "die" so he can "get [his] life back". The problem is we can't tell police because of cultural stupidity (what are we doing dating in the first place?, etc).

That helped me feel a little bit better. Sorry for the random cart rattle, speedy.

Edited April 22, 2012 by Kroms

[Thyroid]

Great, no. He's passing by her house in the car now screaming "Bitch".

What's the right thing here? Beat him up? Let police know about this, screw the dating thing and the trouble it'll cause me and her?

I mean this is psycho-level behavior, right?

[Roderick]

Sucks to hear, Kroms. Speedy, what's a 1st?

[Nachimir]

Kroms: Gather people. Break his legs. Then, one year later on the same date, break them again. On the second anniversary, gather and wait for him, and when he looks most scared, present him with a cake and candles and song and laughter. Then break his legs.

Don't do that. Seriously, sorry to hear that, it sucks. Short of threats and humiliation, the only way I've known people to deal well with psychopathic exes is to ignore them until they get bored and stop it. You could video him being an ass maybe, but it's hard to do anything other than ignore without it escalating.

[Gwardinen]

Yeah, Kroms, if you don't want to go to the police immediately I'd suggest at least beginning to document his behaviour so that if and when you feel it becomes necessary, you can have that evidence to hand. Even something as simple as noting down when and where and what he did each time can be helpful to refer back to later, but keeping emails or recording him in one way or another is probably even better.

Sorry to hear about this stuff, particularly the idea that you're uncomfortable going to the police due to cultural issues, that really sucks.

[pabosher]

Speedy, that's great. But what's a first?

[horrendous story that I feel horrible for deleting]

That helped me feel a little bit better. Sorry for the random cart rattle, speedy.

Sucks to hear, Kroms. Speedy, what's a 1st?

A first is the highest grade you can get for a University essay.

40/100 = Pass (Third class)

50/100 = 2:2 (Lower second class)

60/100 = 2:1 (Upper second class)

70/100 = First (class)

Basically it's a measurement of the quality of your work, like grades A,B,C,D,E,F and U.

When the degree is finished overall, most people aspire to a 2:1 (it's a pretty freaking good mark, will get you into postgraduate courses at the best universities alongside a good candidate for the course) and a first is pretty great.

I'm not saying that I'm amazing or anything - this is my only first class essay this year - but I put an awful lot of work into the essay and I'm glad to see it paid off.

[Thyroid]

That's awesome, Speedy. That cheered me up considerably. A first is a first is a first!

Everyone else, thanks for the advice. I'm actually documenting everything he's doing and am now trying to figure out how to make sure my girlfriend is surrounded by friends at all times when we're at university just because that's when she's most vulnerable.

Yay life, though.

[pabosher]

That's awesome, Speedy. That cheered me up considerably. A first is a first is a first!

Thanks, man. That means a lot

[ThunderPeel2001]

Congratubobulations, subbes!

[subbes]

Thubbubbanks!

[SometingStupid]

This thread reminds me that all the people on this thread are like, actual people.

I don't really have anything to talk about at the minute, but congratulations subbes, that's bloody great speedy, and sorry to hear that Kroms.

[miffy495]

I just finished three weeks of teaching the fifth grade as part of the first year of my education degree. It was fucking awesome and I can't wait to go back. I miss the kids already, but happily I was invited back as they're always short of volunteers for field trips. I get to take a bunch of 10 year olds to a weather monitoring station next week! Finishing those weeks means that I have completed my school year with great marks and am now halfway to being an honest-to-god teacher. Only one more year of uni (my seventh. Really ready to be done) and I can spend the rest of my life in elementary school. Whoo!

[subbes]

Turns out that not only did I finish my graduate degree, I finished it with straight As. 4.0, summa cum laude, motherfuckers!

[Irishjohn]

Turns out that not only did I finish my graduate degree, I finished it with straight As. 4.0, summa cum laude, motherfuckers!

Whoah! Congratulations man! That is no mean feat. Go out and celebrate!

[Erkki]

Turns out that not only did I finish my graduate degree, I finished it with straight As. 4.0, summa cum laude, motherfuckers!

parrrrty time! congrats!

I finished painting my new apartment's living room. Well, not compeletely finished as it was the first time ever I painted a room and I botched up a couple of small spots that now need fixing. Still needs furniture and a kitchen and curtains, but it's coming and I will hopefully move in in 3-4 weeks.

[Nappi]

Turns out that not only did I finish my graduate degree, I finished it with straight As. 4.0, summa cum laude, motherfuckers!

:tup::tup:.0

[Nachimir]

Fuck yes subbes! Prolific congratulations.

[subbes]

Thanks, peeps!

But scratch the summa: it turns out that my institution doesn't give out the latin honours for graduate degrees, only undergraduate degrees. The 4.0 and straight As still stand.

(I know - such talent, such ability, and I waste it making irritating snarky one-liner comments on an internet forum. Tch, eh?)

[Nachimir]

I meant to post this in the birthday thread but it seems a bit late. At the weekend I had a dumb, fun, fancy dress party where everyone came as a robot. People put tremendous effort into silly costumes, and at a point in the night where they were getting really annoying to wear, those of us who didn't want to keep them had a pillow fight tournament in the back yard and smashed them off each other.

There was blood (nothing serious) and much laughter. I found out that an extremely clever and erudite AI programmer I know is also an animal of a man when put into a pillow fight, and has sound strategy for those occasions. The next day we took all the cardboard to a recycling centre

[Ben X]

Were you allowed cyborgs etc?

[Nachimir]

This was my initial position in the invite:

On entry, those not dressed as robots may hear an alarm repeating "SMART ARSE DETECTED" just before vapourisation. Robot related entities that might not make it through the cleansing fire include terminators, androids, holograms, replicants, cyborgs, and those pesky squishy infiltrating Cylons.

I wanted cardboard and tinfoil robots rather than amazing movie reproductions, or people saying "I'm a cyborg" instead of "I couldn't be bothered to make a costume".

The day before though, I told people who'd not made a costume yet to not stress, so there were a few.

[syntheticgerbil]

Got a raise for working on Facebook games, I like the extra money but I still hate working the "crack dealing" market of games. Seriously, director of design made the distinction in a meeting that we are smart like crack dealers where we don't consume our own product, only peddle it. The weed dealers are the lower rung.

Guf.

[Patters]

I meant to post this in the birthday thread but it seems a bit late. At the weekend I had a dumb, fun, fancy dress party where everyone came as a robot. People put tremendous effort into silly costumes, and at a point in the night where they were getting really annoying to wear, those of us who didn't want to keep them had a pillow fight tournament in the back yard and smashed them off each other.

There was blood (nothing serious) and much laughter. I found out that an extremely clever and erudite AI programmer I know is also an animal of a man when put into a pillow fight, and has sound strategy for those occasions. The next day we took all the cardboard to a recycling centre

I HATE WET CARDBOARD!!!!

[SometingStupid]

Got a raise for working on Facebook games, I like the extra money but I still hate working the "crack dealing" market of games. Seriously, director of design made the distinction in a meeting that we are smart like crack dealers where we don't consume our own product, only peddle it. The weed dealers are the lower rung.

Guf.

Man, that pretty much sucks to be on that side. I've always wondered about the potential of making FaceBook games, but slightly put off by my own distinct hatred for them.