OOC Thread and Chatroom

[Askthepizzaguy]

Yes, happy birthday, Tristan!!!

I wasn't going to do this, but the boys here talked me into it. So without further ado, here's your present, Tristan old buddy.

Efstratios begins to remove his clown outfit, while mouthing half-heartedly something which sounds like bad striptease music

Da na na na.... hum.... dana na na.... Da na na na... hum... dana na na...

He slips off his suspenders and unbuttons his big enormous buttons.

Da na, da na, da naaaaaa

His big floppy shoes are kicked into the corner, and he begins to remove his underwear while his pants are still on.... and he keeps pulling and pulling and it's just more underwear tied together, in a big long continuous stream of multicolored cotton.

Now tell me watcha want, whatcha really really want...

His pants drop to the floor, revealing big pink shorts with purple polka dots

If you wanna be my lover... you gotta get with my friends...

He grinds against a balloon animal while juggling

I'm going to continue dancing and stripping until someone pays for my college education to get me to stop.

He honks his big red nose and threatens to continue.

[Ignoramus]

Inbox has space now.

(Sorry, the thing I was most remember for in KotR was having a full inbox)

[_Tristan_]

I'm going to continue dancing and stripping until someone pays for my college education to get me to stop.

Takes his check-book out of his pocket, grabs a pen and begins writing... Then stops and pulls out his credit card... Then considers opening his Paypal account...

"How much would that be ?"


And thanks to all,

I wish we could all share a pint together...

[Askthepizzaguy]

Takes his check-book out of his pocket, grabs a pen and begins writing... Then stops and pulls out his credit card... Then considers opening his Paypal account...

"How much would that be ?"

Thank the Good Lord. That took 56 excruciating minutes.... I was getting worried you guys were calling my bluff and I'd have to come up with a much-less-funny and 10 times more frightening second post.




That'll be approximately $9,000 per year for the next 5 years for my remaining tuition please.

[_Tristan_]

Is it truly necessary ? You look pretty educated enough to me already

[Askthepizzaguy]

Not educated enough to be a teacher in these United States. You have to have a 6-year degree for what I'm going for.

And I seem educated because I'm a straight A student who has no life outside of this game.

[_Tristan_]

What do you hope to teach ?

Mayhem 101 ? Blitz 101 ?

[Zim]

Not educated enough to be a teacher in these United States. You have to have a 6-year degree for what I'm going for.

And I seem educated because I'm a straight A student who has no life outside of this game.

That sounds rather familiar...

Although after meeting my wife I screwed it up both by getting out of the House more and making a b or two.

[Askthepizzaguy]

What do you hope to teach ? Mayhem 101 ? Blitz 101 ?

I already teach that, plus sarcasm, randomness, and insanity, as a public service.

High school Social Studies/History or College Ethics, I'm torn between them. One is my passion, and the other is another one of my passions but it pays a whole hell of a lot more, but at the same time caters only to the already-successful student, and so therefore would it be ethical of me to waste my talents helping those who can help themselves, or helping those who require an excellent teacher?

You must answer in short essay form and you have 90 minutes to respond.





By the way, $9,000 per year is a lowball estimate. Some mainstream colleges are $30,000 a year.


sigh....

[_Tristan_]

Ah... The Luxury of living in the U.S of A....

[deguerra]

happy birthday Tristan!

[Askthepizzaguy]

Oh yes... where our government spends 3 trillion dollars a year, has a shortage of teachers, and a straight A student who wants to be a teacher can't get a loan because his credit rating is no good, and he doesnt qualify for grants because his parents make too much money. Which is interesting because I'm almost 25, and the only "parent" who earns any money is my stepdad who is a software engineer who is still in debt to the IRS because he lost his job on 9/11 and he's got his own family to support.


But of course, we have money in the state and federal budgets for such worthy projects as sex change operations for felons, and of course grasshopper research in Alaska. Totally worth it.


Restrains himself from going into an hour long tirade.... because it's your birthday, Tristan.

[Zim]

Meanwhile I spent $5,000 a year to go to a good school and found grants and loans insanely easy to get despite no real credit history and having applied myself poorly in High School. Perhaps it varies from state to state?

As far as wasteful spending, I've always been fond of the multimillion dollar Alaskan bridge to nowhere that nearly got built.

[Kagemusha]

Im leaving to an over weekend rock festival in about an hour and will be back on Monday if God wills and i dont get drowned in mud. Nice weekend to each and everyone!

[Rowan]

Have fun in Provinssi, Kagemusha!

[TinCow]

Oh yes... where our government spends 3 trillion dollars a year, has a shortage of teachers, and a straight A student who wants to be a teacher can't get a loan because his credit rating is no good, and he doesnt qualify for grants because his parents make too much money. Which is interesting because I'm almost 25, and the only "parent" who earns any money is my stepdad who is a software engineer who is still in debt to the IRS because he lost his job on 9/11 and he's got his own family to support.

Tell me about it. I've always wanted to be a teacher, but I've concluded that it's something that I'll do after I retire from law. I can only afford to do it after I don't need any more income. Great system.

[Privateerkev]

Rarzilla is a pretty simple program. Just download it and dump your rar files in there.

Happy B-day Tristan!

Ig, your full PM box is the most memorable thing about you period, not just in KotR.

As for teaching, I was in grad school to be a History Professor but I got very disillusioned with it so I'm taking a "break". Basically, you get enough time in the day to be a good teacher, or a good researcher. You don't have enough time to be good at both. But the "publish or perish" system forces you to research. You can get around this by teaching at a community college but most of them make you teach a 5/5 load. (5 classes per semester) And it is only the most basic general education courses. So, your whole career you would just teach American History 101 and 102.

[Smowz]

I teach maths in the UK, we likewise have huge teacher shortage problems as well as a lot of issues within the eductaion system itself.

Support for people doing their teacher training is non existent, our governement have experimented with different methods to get around this problem including a graduate teacher program which essentially throws people in at the deep end on a 75% full year timetable with 'training' done in the ither 25% and more.

Myself after teaching History, IT, PE and Maths at the secondary level (equivalent to 11 - 16 year olds) have since moved onto 'Sixth Form' (equivalent to 16 - 18 years old) where i teach Mathematics exclusively. I feel here i have found my niche and enjoy the job immensely...

However the first couple of years were very difficult both financially (starting salaries are low and set countrywide, the teacher training year i was more impoverished then when I was a student), emotionally (the kids give noob teachers hell), and physically (most weeks were 6am till 8pm full working days). It is difficult for me knowing this to recommend this career to anyone in the UK, it is a hard first three years. But then I guess that is true of any career.

[Andres]

Happy Birthday Tristan

9.000 $/year? How much is that? About 50 € nowadays? My goodness, that's cheap!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

That's indeed awfully expensive! In comparison, our universities are almost for free. It seems like we Belgians are a bunch of spoiled brats

[_Tristan_]

The advantages of leaving in good old enlightened Europe...

And thanks again for the B-day wishes

[Ferret]

(the kids give noob teachers hell)

Well yeah, I suppose we do...

I'll be taking A level maths next year, maybe you could get a transfer to my school or do my homework for me

[The Lemongate]

Happy Birthday Tristan



As for education...

I mock you all with my second B.A. which costs around 2600 CAN$ a year (compare CAN$ to Euros or pounds and weep).

That and I get grants and interest free loans with just a mouse click. And my parents happen to do quite well! And Montreal is one of the cities where housing happens to be the cheapest in North America.

The joys of living in Quebec

And the students here massively go on strike when the government simply mentions trying to raise education fees

[Ramses II CP]

Allah preserve us, ATPG an ethics professor? Maybe it's just my experience, but those guys were some of the most narrow minded, witless, slack jawed sub-specialists I encountered in my entire sorry college career. I don't see you fitting in.

Of course I often picked fights (err, debates) with sundry philosophy department yokels as a source of entertainment, so I might be suffering under a little bias.

Happy Birthday Tristan!

[BananaBob]

Happy b-day

Education in Canada seems amazingly cheap compared to the states. College costs me $3200 Canadian dollars per year, and the high level programming course my brother is going into at Queens University is 6000-8000. Winning the lottery some years back also helps.

Have you considered education abroad ATPG?

[Askthepizzaguy]

Allah preserve us, ATPG an ethics professor? Maybe it's just my experience, but those guys were some of the most narrow minded, witless, slack jawed sub-specialists I encountered in my entire sorry college career. I don't see you fitting in.

Of course I often picked fights (err, debates) with sundry philosophy department yokels as a source of entertainment, so I might be suffering under a little bias.

Honestly, my ethics professor was one of the best teachers ever! And the course itself was a dream come true for me... it's the rational, logical, almost scientific study of what right and wrong is, and what methods we use to determine right and wrong. In every single other classroom setting I've ever been in, the teachers seem as if they've been tortured to the point where they must refuse to admit there is such a thing as ethics, for fear of offending someone.

Good lord, WHY DONT THEY TEACH ETHICS from the first grade onward, every single year???

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Happy b-day

Education in Canada seems amazingly cheap compared to the states. College costs me $3200 Canadian dollars per year, and the high level programming course my brother is going into at Queens University is 6000-8000. Winning the lottery some years back also helps.

Have you considered education abroad ATPG?

I don't have the money to move. The only reason I can even afford to go to college with only one full time job is because I stay with relatives to save myself $500-$750/month on rent, and with $200/month on my car loan that I can't get out of, $280 per month on car insurance, $200 per month at least on gasoline just to get to work, and food prices increasing, my crappy job barely covers what bare minimum expenses I have, and it doesn't cover my tuition. That's right, I'm living almost expense-free, and I'm still losing money every year. I took a semester off so that I could restore my budget and try again later.

If I moved, I'd be away from my family, my only support network, and I'd still have all my expenses that I have now and thensome.

[Ferret]

I hate ethics...and I have a 2 hour exam in it next Monday.

But I suppose my ethics is actually a lot different as it is more to do with ethics in religion and I better not get started on that topic or I'll end up breaking a forum rule somewhere...

[TinCow]

Your schools are all cheap. My undergrad charged about $32,000 per year for tuition alone when I attended it (1996 to 2000), with about another $8,000 per year for room and board. According their website, the current tuition is $38,364 and room and board is $10,636 for the first two years and $12,088 for the last two years.

[Privateerkev]

When I started community college back in 96, it was only 29 dollars a credit hour. ^_^

[_Tristan_]

Your schools are all cheap. My undergrad charged about $32,000 per year for tuition alone when I attended it (1996 to 2000), with about another $8,000 per year for room and board. According their website, the current tuition is $38,364 and room and board is $10,636 for the first two years and $12,088 for the last two years.

I just can't believe it... That's over $150000 over your head before you even start making money... Man, that's tough...

My whole scholarship (five years in French universities studying law ) cost me less than 2000 € ($3000), living at my parents' place at the time...

[TinCow]

I know many people who graduated from law school with over $200k in debt. I know several federal judges who are still paying off their student loans.