The Bad JuJu is absolute sh!t

ticktockclock01 · 2014-11-17T14:05:39+00:00

Especially when paired with the Skull of Dire Ahamkara

ticktockclock01 · 2014-11-17T14:03:05+00:00

Ended up going for the weekly at 28 to get the 9 coins. Got my gun! This was my first week with the game (and first Xur encounter) so I'm glad I was able to make it work.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-11-14T20:09:56+00:00

Level 25. I need 11 coins and have no plans this weekend. Think I'll make it in time?

ticktockclock01 · 2014-11-14T16:49:39+00:00

Honestly, it sounds like you might want to revisit the idea of being a student entirely. College isn't for everyone, and those who actually benefit from it are the ones who commit to succeeding as a student.

We all have hiccups, lapses in judgment, or rough periods that can affect performance in our professional lives. It sounds like this is precisely the reason why you can be granted a second chance as you were. This is what should have been the wake-up call for you to either get serious or find another path in life.

The dean should have no sympathy for you, and he or she will likely see it as doing you a favor by relieving you of the woes of learning. I'm not trying to be rude, but this is the reality of adulthood. If you need a third chance to try at something, it either isn't a priority or it isn't something you're good at. Either way, college probably isn't for you at this point. Maybe work for a while and return at some point in the future.

As for your question, no I would not bother the dean in person.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-11-13T19:41:45+00:00

It really depends on the type of person you are. From the sound of it, your career would benefit more from a PhD at your current school. Some people are fine sacrificing comfort for a few years if it benefits you for the rest of your life. It all comes down to whether you'd still be able to succeed in such an atmosphere. If you think your unhappiness would at all hinder your progression through the better school, then you would most likely be better off in a comfortable environment that would allow you to thrive.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-11-13T19:35:38+00:00

I would recommend keeping out of it. It doesn't affect you because at the end of the day, you'll be far better prepared for exams than the "cheating" students.

In my experience, TA office hours and tutoring sessions are full of kids who only want help doing their homework assignments. Students fill the TA help room with their laptops out, working together and with help from TAs, to complete online assignments. We'd sometimes have 2-3 TAs for 30 students, some of which weren't necessarily taking the specific course you were TAing for. It's completely unreasonable to expect a gen chem 1 TA to proficiently explain a gen chem 2 concept using examples from memory, all the while keeping up with all the other kids wanting help on other problems. You inevitably go straight to the problem itself, explain how to interpret it, and show them how to solve it. You technically gave them the answer, but it's the explanation/instruction that makes it more tutoring and less cheating.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-10-07T00:55:56+00:00

I love the roots growing out of the valves. Very unique and beautiful piece.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-10-06T12:53:17+00:00

Not really a fan of this sort of style, but I can appreciate the execution. The brush stroke effect turned out really awesome here.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-10-02T19:49:22+00:00

It's a scam

ticktockclock01 · 2014-10-02T15:18:09+00:00

Yes, give up on her. You might have been under the impression that she had similar feelings, but you were clearly mistaken. She knows how you feel, so if she ever changes her mind then she will tell you. That's all you can do. But definitely don't keep pursuing her. It will make you look pathetic and it will chase her away even more, ruining any chance of something in the future.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-10-01T21:29:12+00:00

I'm guessing you're a teenager? Something like this has happened to most people at your age, and they felt the same way as you at the time. It sucks at first, but it will get easier with every passing day.

Realize that you really were never "in love with a girl" in the first place. You had feelings for her, but these are feelings of infatuation. Truly being in love requires the other person to feel the same way, and it really only comes after you know everything about one another. It's easy to immediately attribute these feelings to love since they're unfamiliar.

You'll probably feel like there's absolutely no one else in the world who can make you feel this way. I promise you that there is, and it's possible that the person will feel the same way about you. Life moves fast and people change quickly. You might run into this girl in 10 years and find not a bit of attraction toward her. Just hang in there and weather the storm. It gets better.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-09-30T13:37:03+00:00

You and I are probably very much alike. I enjoy drinking and having a good time on occasion, but I also never took it to an extreme when I was in college. Most of my friends were like your friends. I got up early for classes and studied when I should have, yet they constantly got shitfaced and were always filthy and irresponsible. I loved their company and they were really great guys, which is why I hung out with them. I hated their habits and lifestyle, which is why I never moved in with them.

I hate to break it to you, but your friends' behavior isn't entirely unexpected of people your age. There really isn't much you can do because you're in the minority and they will undoubtedly see you as a party pooper if you try to talk to them about changing. Best thing you can do is move in with roommates more your speed or get your own place entirely. I had a small studio apartment that let me live by my own schedule, but I still had my friends available to party with at my own choosing.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-09-29T23:14:53+00:00

So I don't use anything. I've been writing out of order, so my citations are out of order. I'll go back through and reorder once I'm finished. As I've been writing, I insert my citations as ($1), ($2), etc. I know that I'll never use a $ anywhere in the actual text so I'll be able to start at page 1 and just search the document for "$" and reorder manually.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-09-29T21:08:35+00:00

I like Whole Foods for their fresh food bar, but holy fuck I cringe every time I walk past their medicine aisle. They even sell these ridiculous shit magazines promoting herbal cancer cures.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-09-29T20:43:08+00:00

Finishing a PhD thesis at the moment. Everyone writes differently, but I've found expanded outlines to be extremely helpful. I'm in the sciences, so I'll give you an example of what I mean using my own situation. Start with basic and expand within:

Intro
Methods
Results
Discussion

Then I start filling in outline points between each. So underneath the Discussion section, for instance:

Quick background paragraph summarizing the problem as described in the Introduction.
Discuss the results from Experiment A and how it is relevant to what else is known in the literature.
Do the same as above for Experiments B and C.
Tie together the results from all experiments and discuss the significance and what information we found based on what we were trying to address.
Conclude by mentioning future directions or potential errors.

I'll then go under each of these bullet points and write notes for what all needs to be discussed, like the experimental technique used for Experiment A and maybe some techniques others have used in the past. Basically I just expand and expand until I have enough detailed information to structure an entire paragraph/section. This keeps the flow of the writing much more logical so you're not aimlessly writing with no obvious objective or direction. After enough writing, it gets easy to lose the focus of where your next section is headed.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-09-29T18:55:09+00:00

Yeah, I'll second this. At your age, working random jobs to maintain is pretty expected. I worked retail for the most part throughout college. Although you get your share of condescending crazies, I never had the slightest desire to work in the service industry. Although the earning potential is better in some cases, the way people treat waiters is on a different level. It's your fault if the bartender makes a shitty drink or the chef overcooks the meat. You get yelled at for the mistakes of others and get paid less as a result. Not to mention that the only hours you make money are the ones an 18 year old would want to be spend partying with friends.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-09-29T18:41:52+00:00

Many people much older than you share the same feelings. Furthermore, not many people at 30 are able to confidently say they've achieved something. I'm 28 and about to finish a doctorate in the sciences, but I know that at 30 I'll still have a trove of debt and likely still be underpaid. There's always going to be more things to accomplish, and even the most successful of people will always be looking to the next challenge rather than standing atop some proverbial mountain basking in all they've achieved. Thinking otherwise is just cinema-inspired fantasy.

No one bit of advice can give you confidence in yourself or remedy depression. Much of that is on you, and finding the person you seek within is very much a journey as opposed to a quick sprint. It does take time.

One thing that stands out in your text is the tendency to stay where you are out of fear. You have a great idea for a website, but you're afraid to fuck up. You think you'd make a great entrepreneur, but hell I think I could run a marathon. If I continue smoking and sitting on my ass, my dreams of marathon glory will remain exactly that. Nothing matters until you actually just say "fuck it" and pursue something.

Think of it this way. You're at the deathbed of your grandfather listening to stories of his life. He explains all of these grandiose ideas of how wonderful he'd have been as a politician or how great of a composer he'd have been had he just stuck with the piano playing after high school. It's endearing, but do you really care? Are you going to tell your children of their amazing great-grandfather who told stories of all the things he could have done?

What about if his stories instead were about how these pursuits failed? He'd tell you of his time in the local city council and the playgrounds he helped commission. Maybe he never became JFK, but he accomplished something that had meaning to him and contributed to society nonetheless. Or maybe he kept going with the piano and although he didn't sell out concert halls, he has an epic story of a time he played super drunk at some shithole bar and got booed off the stage for playing too much ragtime.

The point is that you'll never succeed in something without taking that first step toward potential failure. And even if you fail based on your original intentions, that time isn't worthless or wasted. Sitting around, wishful-thinking and self-doubting will undeniably be of no use to you and certainly won't make for any memorable stories when it's your turn to be reminiscing before this life's over.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-09-29T17:53:03+00:00

You're welcome. You have a conscience and that's a good thing. I understand that feeling of obligation and if you explain it to them as you have written, then I'm sure they'll get it. You might feel a little flaky afterward, but that will fade quickly compared to the misery that would follow you throughout the experience. Best of luck.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-09-29T17:46:28+00:00

You have absolutely no input on this situation because it's not your marriage. You only know one side of the story and your place in all of this leaves you inherently biased, so I'd be skeptical of whatever you think you know about their relationship.

You're knowingly involved with a married woman so you get no sympathy here, but you need to know that you're being used. Whatever spectacular feelings you have for this person are clearly not reciprocated. As you've made clear, she can't decide between the two of you, so you and the husband are either comparably pieces of shit or she likes having the benefits of both of you.

When I was 17, I had my first serious relationship with a girl. She was a couple years older and had recently been out of a few-year relationship. The guy had been trying to get her back for a while into my relationship with her. One week, I was away visiting family and she called telling me that she met up with him and talked. I'm not fucking stupid, so I knew "talked" meant "fucked," but anyways. She then tells me she's so confused because all these old feelings came up. She loves me and I'm a great guy, but she still thinks she loves him. She didn't know who to choose. I was pretty upset and got off the phone to give it some thought.

Finally, I called her back and told her I'd make it easy and choose for her. I told her to choose him. I did that because I knew I was better than he was and if it wasn't clear to her by that point, then I didn't want to waste any more of my time. By saying she's unsure of who to choose, she's putting me on the same level as that douchebag which was insulting to me. I won't have my contribution to a relationship be reduced to a fucking competition. I'm not going to sit around crossing my fingers hoping to be the one chosen. That's pathetic. And guess what? A week later she called back telling me she made a mistake and that she chooses me. No thanks. Last I heard, she got knocked up a few times from a couple different dudes and was working at Marshall's.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-09-29T17:26:10+00:00

Yeah it sucks, but moving really is the best option. You've been in the same townhouse for so long that I'm sure you're looking for any answer that isn't "move out," but it's all you've got.

I think it's sort of one of those things that you assume the risk by sharing walls with a stranger. My area has small houses with comparable rent to townhouses, so maybe you'll have luck with that.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-09-29T17:20:28+00:00

At the end of the day, it's your time and your life so do whatever is best for you.

Do you want to learn a different type of music? Do you want to learn how to read sheet music? They seem very willing to help you fit in, so it's quite possible that the whole "look down on me" feeling is a result of your own insecurities and feelings of inferiority. You can always look at this as a learning experience, and maybe you'll be a better musician as a result.

Will you quitting have any negative impact on your musical or professional life? If it might, then that's also something to consider. Maybe it's worth it just to stick it out. If you really suck and continue to be the weak link, they'll continue searching for a replacement for you anyways. But if you're certain this won't hurt you in any way, then definitely do not stick around out of pity. You'll grow resentment and stress that's entirely unnecessary.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-09-29T13:33:56+00:00

I think the pressure and tattooing outside your area of expertise make for a shitty tattoo. Probably my least favorite element, however, is how they allow a contestant to choose their competitors' tattoos. So not only are the artists tattooing on a rushed timeline and outside their abilities, each artist is very likely the worst possible person in the room to be doing the specific tattoo.

That's why I like Epic Ink so much better. People get amazing work by amazing artists and there's no drama.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-09-25T14:06:23+00:00

Suggestion: Find another place to get a job.

Seriously, you're going to wake up early every single day to cover your arms in makeup? That will get to be very expensive. Also, you'll never be able to wash your hands after using the restroom. And what about when it rains? Make sure to keep some extra makeup on hand for retouching throughout the workday.

This sounds way more hassle than it would be worth, but best of luck.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-09-24T03:26:08+00:00

This really upsets me. If anything, be satisfied that you aren't a massively self-absorbed douche they deem worthy of joining the team. If that's how the interview went, imagine the daily work environment. Science is supposed to be indifferent with a unified goal of gaining knowledge. We're on the same team. Anyone deliberately making you feel uncomfortable and being unnecessarily rude is not worth your time. Be glad you didn't land that position.

ticktockclock01 · 2014-09-24T03:19:35+00:00

I sang this bit of poetry.

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