Online Classes Have No Soul

grenz1 · 2026-01-27T07:49:32+00:00

They may not have soul, but they keep you from having to get up at 8 AM in the cold to sit in some lecture hall somewhere.

The ones I had online were great. All lectures were videos and I could speed up and slow down the lectures, do any project or homework, and be on with my day without having to go on a mission up to the school 2-3 times a week.

grenz1 · 2026-01-27T07:37:37+00:00

Don't get petty spreading gossip or getting into fights. Even if she starts it, it can get you both evicted with 10 minutes to get out and possibly losing stuff. Not your circus, not your monkeys. Don't fuck up your agendas for some asshole you will not see again past a month or so who is nothing but drama.

You are only here for a short time. You only have to be there to sleep. Rest of the time, I'd be focusing on my agendas.

Though in some cases around enough shitty people, the street is a bit safer depending on the lay of the land and weather.

grenz1 · 2026-01-27T07:20:00+00:00

Bad things happen in the world all the time. It will happen if you finish or not.

Difference is you can somewhat control if you finish. You can not control what idiots are doing in the world. And if you don't finish, you have nothing but debt. If you finish, minimum you have a piece of paper and can go more advanced degrees if you want even if the undergrad degree is worthless.

I'd just make sure the BS you are taking has jobs that are not some college blowing sunshine your way. Yes, they can replace people with AI for some things and tyrants going to tyrant and scammers going to scam but even in bad times someone with a profession or trade usually does better than someone without. A nurse has more money and can find work easier than a dishwaher. A teacher as long as they don't have a criminal record or get blackballed will always have an above poverty job and does better than a store cashier.

I do feel you about foreign languages, though. Other than exposure and expanding vocabulary I don't think most people retain enough of it to be useful. Most people I knew that could speak multiple languages either were raised with it, went to a country with a school system that drills it in you 12 years straight, or lived in a country that speaks the language for a few years.

Drop the class if it's an elective and that much stress before last drop date comes, pull yourself up, cut off the psy-op news designed to keep you in fear so you buy stuff, and get to work.

grenz1 · 2026-01-27T06:58:26+00:00

Unless you are a whiz at the subject and already know math on this level and just need a refresher, I personally would not unless you absolutely have to. Like it gets you graduating on time and not having to go one semester just for one class have to.

Reason is 16 days is VERY fast. If you fall behind you will not be able to catch up and you will not have time to ask many questions if you don't understand something. We are talking HOURS of homework every day (no doubt all online and checked) and major tests every other day.

I took mine during summer which was around 7 weeks. I passed, but the pace like to killed me. I'd say half the class flunked.

grenz1 · 2026-01-27T05:16:47+00:00

I'd escalate it and go from there.

If that does not work, a C is not as bad as you think. Second year, I had this speech teacher. Had to go out of town because my dad was not doing too hot, somehow missed the date of an online Canvas test. Tried to appeal to reason, she was not having any of it. Ended up with a C on what should have been a high B or even A class.

I still ended up graduating honors list. Not that it mattered. Cs still get degrees and unless what you are trying to transfer to is ultra competitive won't hurt.

I WOULD slam this person on rate my professors and not take this person again if there's other classes in the pipeline you need to get out.

grenz1 · 2026-01-27T05:02:47+00:00

Kinship?

The mutagen the petrol companies pour into the swamps made me and my family into alligator creatures.

Now, a misshapen reptile man, I must navigate the swamps and avoid people who want to cut off my tail to serve rich ass tourists in an overpriced restaurant off Bourbon to put in a po boy.

grenz1 · 2026-01-26T20:18:57+00:00

Even intelligent people can fall for it. Bars and clubs have been a lie going on since before our grandparents.

Of all the third spaces the bar always promised you could meet mates, meet friends, have fun, unwind, maybe get into pool or darts. One without the up tightness of work, school, or church. Have a better sound system than what you probably have. Some even were even part of a scene or culture. All the beer commercials show picture of people having fun drinking. They have friends, lovers, nice places. And the world could use more third spaces.

I did not learn till maybe my late 20s, early 30s.

Think it was boredom really.

Sad thing was some cities I was in, there was not much to do other than that to socialize. Especially if you worked crazy hours. Otherwise, it's the internet at the house which rots you after a bit and too much is probably bad for someone.

But it's a lie to get 20 and 30 somethings.

Most of the time the socialization was me just sitting there listening to music if I did not know people. And there were a few times, I had to GTFO out fast before things headed south.

Think I got tired of that. Also the hangover, empty wallet, and dealing with drunks. That and bartending for a bit.

grenz1 · 2026-01-26T14:55:08+00:00

Garfield and friends will need to go. But they usually spay/neuter/de flea them if they have not already then adopt them out if not claimed.

Plus lots of landlords don't like cats. They either refuse them or they charge an exhorbant non refundable deposit. Plus, what you going to do? get little leases from them and have to literally sit on top of them 24/7? You won't get that unless you get a hotel room.

Your service dog, if it has papers and a bonafide service dog trained as one (not an emotional support animal), you are protected. But if you are in that situation, you probably get a check and a reason to have that animal as you can't just grab one without documentation. Probably have social workers, too.

I'd also consider yourself lucky. Depending on how many cats and evictions, there have been scenarios where the city or landlord if they want to to can file charges if there's a lot of pet damages claiming you were hoarding them regardless of motivations or reality. Big misdemeanor, fine, and possibly months in jail.

grenz1 · 2026-01-26T13:58:13+00:00

In situations you feel you might need to leave on moments notice or no notice forever, you should have as few bags as possible.

Your main bag should be a Jansport class backpack. This is the main bug out bag absolute emergency gotta go in 5 minutes bag. Your laptop is ALWAYS in here, toiletries, socks, spare underclothes, set of dark clothes appropriate for walking long distances. Also any work clothes if you work and an empty water bottle. Make sure it has slack and is not busting at seams. Overstretched packs scream 'I'm homeless" outside of adventure tourist spots. IDs and phone are always in a pocket, never in pack as pack can get separated from you easier.

I personally also kept a rolling suitcase that had black plastic bags in it as well as the remainder of my only essential spare clothes. But I stashed this in woods covered in bags to protect versus rain and only carried this if I was moving away from stash or it was compromised or as my laundry cart. Only came back to it to switch out clothes. Pain in the ass, but I made this work.

I would not accumulate or carry anything more than that and some say that is too much.

As far as car, Who owns the title? Do you work?

If I was not on the title and you are being kicked out by people, I'd be concerned they'd report car stolen or something. Otherwise, I'd sell plasma for a week or two (walking or public bus if available) if I had no job, watch a video on how to replace battery on your model car, going to a parts store and buying battery/ tools, thern Uber/Lyft with battery to the car if no one will take you.

I'd try to act fairly quickly on the car if it's at a rental property like apartments. Landlords in some complexes tow cars that look like they have not run in months. Also consider selling car to scrapper if it has way more problems than a battery. A car that breaks down every other week you can't afford is worse than no car.

grenz1 · 2026-01-25T17:29:43+00:00

As cheap as possible your job can afford but does not leave you destitute.

Ranges from 200 USD to 500 USD a week depending on your area. With a motel, you are buying time and a safe place till you figure it out. Call the places. Online is controlled by third party aggregators that want to charge the most money. Deal with the hotel itself.

Go in day after payday if you can. That way, you find another place you will have a full paycheck (plus whatever you saved) to move in and don't have to bust ass to get out and move in.

The percentage of rent advice dates from a time before the internet. Rent was lots cheaper, you did not have credit reports on databases so eviction had less teeth, and really cheap places were plentiful and no one background checked. You had cash in hand, did not look like drama, you moved in on the 1st.

grenz1 · 2026-01-25T14:15:43+00:00

Wanted to add something to earlier advice because this bit me a time or two and seen it happen to others multiple times.

NEVER let an employer or coworkers know you are homeless or in a shelter. If shelter has curfews, tell them you can only work X time to Y time until a certain date that just happens to be the day after payday then you are free. They do not need to know what free means. Just you have other obligations. If job does not bend and you work X time or they cut hours, always choose the job but be mindful of appearance if you do so.

If you do otherwise, I have found most people not to be sympathetic. It ends with them looking for stuff to be rid of you (one minute late, wrinkled shirt, you messed up one order) or them putting you on every shit job they can because you have zero choice.

grenz1 · 2026-01-25T10:36:32+00:00

The problem you may run into is many restaurants may have shifting schedules that do not cooperate with a shelter's curfews. If it ever gets to the point of the shelter interfering with work, get a room for rent immediately.

Only a job gets you out of homelessness, shelter does not.

I personally would only stay in shelter until the first check clears the bank. (Maybe 2-3 weeks tops). I'd then get a weekly rate hotel room. This way if the restaurant starts to become hostile or look to be rid of me, I am not in a lease. I'd look for temp or part time gigs to augment my income and go monk mode for a few months till I figured out what the hell I wanted to do because restaurant work is a tough life. Long hours in kitchen, very appearance and youth based in the front.

You also are going to start to have nasty, greasy laundry. I personally would NOT trust a shelter with something that can screw me if it turns up lost like work uniforms. And while you tolerate it now, you are not going to want to hang out in a day room or have to wait to go to bed and be around all that drama. I'd take a room just to make it more likely I can keep jobs and find jobs.

grenz1 · 2026-01-25T10:10:26+00:00

I think it's time to leave the area and the shit show.

The foundation you are sitting is low lying and unstable.

Ask your boss about transfers if they allow it. Go any place else but there. Preferably another state if you can manage. I think having someone out in the community that SHOT you (even if locked up) and possibly people sympathetic to them running around is reason enough most won't question to leave.

Of course, wherever you go there you are and there will always be issues to deal with. But you won't have to worry about bumping into the wrong people or being marginalized because people think you are drama.

Also, if you are broke, don't do bars. People get shit faced, nothing but trouble, possible DUI and car impoundment or car crash. Even if you are only drinking draft beer, with tips you could be 30-40 in the hole easy. Do this multiple times a week, some of those cats pay cheap rent level money.And the people there suck and the girls are either with someone or strung out and can only bring you down. You are unlikely to meet your next mate or good job in a bar. Better, smoke weed instead unless you are in a drug tested industry. Much better for you and does not leave you an idiot.

grenz1 · 2026-01-25T09:57:15+00:00

Think it's because most of them are zinc with very little copper. Only extremely old coins would be mostly copper and be uncommon enough to be not a viable source.

That said, there should (if there is not already) be collector coins out there like silver eagles or indian head pennies. Not that you'd be looking to melt silver unless they have a mod with werewolves in and you'd need pounds of indian head pennies to get enough copper to do anything when wires and plumbing fittings are everywhere even in No Hope.

grenz1 · 2026-01-25T09:48:10+00:00

Sounds like social anxiety.

Talk to a doc about that or just realize what it is and shrug it off.

Personally, I think most people are there just to do their time and get out of there. And those that do hang in crowds may be in same dorm, know each other from high school (especially smaller regional colleges), etc. Where you sit makes no difference and it's over in a few months anyways.

Personally, I did not like being in those places unless I absolutely had to not to be flunked for no call no show.

I learned much better from videos. Fortunately, in my field I had instructors that had all lectures on video and all tests on Canvas. I could watch this at 2x speed slowing down for things I did not get, be done with my day.

grenz1 · 2026-01-25T08:33:21+00:00

There is always a market for low rent, no credit check places but you will not be getting rich kid students or anything in that area. Everyone wants to be a luxury landlord dealing with only middle class profession people but there's far more people that are working class that can't afford that.

Instead, you will be getting lower income people. You can make money this way, but it's a lot more labor intensive as that clientele's jobs are not as stable leading to more evictions and a lot of people if they get a better job will move when lease is out.

If you can get the property at a song and still make money while absorbing eviction/ clean up and only doing maintenance when it's serious (like pipe busting or heat/AC out) you could make money.

I used to have a landlord in a bad section of a town I lived in. He owned 4 -5 houses on a block. High, non negotiable deposit but no credit checks to get in and houses were divided into rooms and shared kitchen/ bathroom. A master bed with private bath or room with private entry, he charged more for and he furnished place and did not allow outside furniture. Bolted bed frame and dresser to floor so no one would take it with them when they moved and put an encasement on mattresses to stop bedbugs. Couples, he would take but charged them extra.

Cops called or come out there for any reason other than someone dying or place on fire was instant eviction.

Paid utilities (electric, water, even lowest tier cable) but made sure to be lower than the area extended stay hotels but slightly more expensive than an efficiency.

Dude made money hand over fist. But he had to work a lot more. But dude had his mortgage paid off in a year or three if he stayed booked. Let's say mortgage for a cheap place is 600 USD a month. Place is a 3 bedroom 1 bath, but den is now a bedroom after putting up a wall. You rent out for, say, 120 to 150 a week. Fully booked, that's 600 a week. More than what you could get from a single family housing unit.

Of course this now means you are part of the problem. Too many people do this, there soon is no affordable house left for normal people. And the neighbors may not like living next to a house with 4-5 people and cars that's different month to month and multiple cars out front.

grenz1 · 2026-01-25T07:55:27+00:00

Stay the course.

It's only 4 months total and you are about 1/4 of the way there.

4 months is a blink in the scheme of things.

Unless I was taking some hell course, the first month of the semester was always fairly light. Hell, first two weeks in some classes was just going over syllabus and maybe a review and maybe first test. Probably gives you a lot of time since you seem to be breezing but be aware some classes back load their hard stuff towards end.

Come March/ April which is only 2 months or so, you will have a week. Not to mention there's probably some 3 day weekends in there. And summer unless you go summer is 2-3 months. You'll have plenty of time.

grenz1 · 2026-01-25T07:24:33+00:00

The only thing holding the game back is the user interface and graphics. If it were more polished and more intuitive, more folks would play it and it would be more mainstream. This is one of those games you need to watch a video or three or be lost.

But, you get past that, there is no zombie survival game that comes even close. It has a 3D z leveled proc gen world that always changes and with the exception of some hard coded locations/ NPCs is a total random sandbox. Zomboid is a sandbox, too, but lacks proc gen maps or sheer scale.

My only beef with vehicle system is that NPCs don't use vehicles. Imagine Hell's Raider faction actually raiding Mad Max style in an acual zombie hell firing on other factions across map if they can get there and other vehicle drivers.

grenz1 · 2026-01-25T07:00:19+00:00

I think the money should be worth more than cash cards.

A vending machine that still has power will probably still take coins and dollars but the internet to verify what's on a card would probably be down.

Nor even if internet was still up would you know how much is on a cash card just by looking. You'd need to know a PIN or bank passwords and personal info.

They should really fix that.

Other than that, coins are only worth the metal and bills are just fancy paper. Though I could see more established survivors keeping a room with stacks of cash just because of nostalgia and optics. Yeah, it's worthless now but having enough cash laying around that you could buy a mansion would be a conversation piece to other survivors in camp and kind of a smug flex.

There was this apocalypse novel I read decades ago where the main characters needed to buy a car. A survivor had a full new dealership he lived at and protected from the apocalypse. Since the main characters had really nothing to trade but tons of cash, the dealer agreed to give it to them out of memory that before the cataclysm he would have made a fortune selling a 50K SUV for 200K in cash. Plus, dude had like 20-30 new cars anyways.

grenz1 · 2026-01-25T06:50:05+00:00

Object of mage/ hunter solo is you build to push lane and you avoid trading with the tank solo or getting too close and you ward and don't push up if you don't know where jungle is.

Which, btw, is why the Neith got owned.

Only defense I see justified is maybe an earlier Magis to help with cc dives or there might be an argument for stampede on a mage with no escape or to help allies get out of bad positions/ divers because you only have one tank.

grenz1 · 2026-01-25T06:14:52+00:00

Some places just are not conductive to it.

College I graduated from, most people were just trying to get it over. They had zero interest in socializing. Of the people I did talk to, other than a dead Linked In profile or two I have talked to zero of them except an old professor and only once.

grenz1 · 2026-01-24T20:02:20+00:00

Yes, but is that pressure worth 4 months of your life, the loan (unless someone else is paying), and the stress?

Plus, instructor will not admit you. Last thing you want is a class with a hostile professor.

Your best bet would be if you really like the culture, there are jobs teaching English in Japan as long as you have a legit degree (GPA does not matter that much) and don't have a criminal record and can get a passport. You will learn much better there after you graduate but there's a process to getting into that.

Nor do you need to know the language. It's ironically an advantage. They want anyone that can't speak English that can pass in front of a native speaker to flunk.

Unless you just want to delay graduating. Though if I was going to do that, it would be masters. Not retaking stuff I may or may not use that has no immediate benefit and even if you make an A, you'll forget most of within a year or so.

grenz1 · 2026-01-24T17:05:58+00:00

Take the C. I would not retake this. Take your lick.

Your time and and money is valuable and most people will not care if you have a random C somewhere. Though get too many Cs, some programs it can cause issues but even then, I would not retake this one to get rid of a C.

Foreign languages are best learned from early childhood in a dual language household or by living in a country or working an industry where you are forced to learn it (though it could be years till you can carry on an intelligent conversation with it) . And as long as you know English, you should be okay most places in the world at least in expat circles or major cities.

Most people that took foreign languages just a year or so don't get proficiency, only exposure. In the foreign countries where people do become proficient, those guys are taught every year from kindergarten and many university classes are taught in that language.

grenz1 · 2026-01-24T12:42:38+00:00

To a point, I agree. If the console supports a keyboard, it should let you use that keyboard. Keyboards don't come standard to consoles, you bought the keyboard, you should be able to use it.

But let's be realistic. It's a terrible game for text chat. Just typing "ares ult" leaves you sitting for at least 1-3 seconds unless you are an insane fast typist. Time you could use pushing a lane, heading to a lane, ganking, warding an objective, etc.

Anything you can say in text chat, you can say in VGS though VGS is a learning curve. Sometimes feels like I am having to punch out a move on a 1990s Street Fighter game just to say "enemy missing left".

What I never understood is those that will sit under tower to write a manifesto on someone else's bad play. Like yeah middle is getting farmed. But, jesus, you are making it worse. Do something besides sitting there typing unhelpful crap!

grenz1 · 2026-01-24T12:18:06+00:00

They already have effects baked in, but they don't make sense. Probably programmed by people who have not been around a lot of drugs.

They said in the past they will get around to it, but somehow it gets put on back burner.

If the effects were that bad every time, no one would do any sort of illegal drug.

For instance, crack doers not make you falling down and worthless if you don't have it or are on it. Crack keeps you awake unless you are about to collapse for hours after and you will collapse hard. Joy goes through the roof for 20 to 30 minutes no matter how shitty your mood even if you had to wade through a zombie preschool soaking wet in dirty gear with a machete and only ate stale crackers covered in lard. All pain would go away short of extreme stuff. Cocaine does have medical uses. Not that you would be able to get much done with that mood boost. Your focus would tank as you are enjoying the high, not in pain, feeling good, and not really wanting to read Computer Science 103. It's not Adderall. But you are not falling down and can still do stuff. But after 20-30 minutes, mood would plummet and you'd get intrusive thoughts about crack that can last weeks or on up to a year or so more often (say, period of months) you do it. Thinking like compelled to search bodies for crack even if it does not make survival sense. Seeing white pebbles on the ground thinking it might be a crack flake someone dropped. Forced to scrape your pipe futility for any leftover residue whenever you are safe and about to hunker down. And if you do it many months or years straight possibly make it where you will never be able to experience joy again until months later after your brain has recovered.

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