This is What I Heard in Class Tonight
We had a group discussion/activity tonight. We were grouped based on where we sat. As our discussion for the class activity waned, one of the girls in my group started talking to her friend about work, that it is a family business and how she has to be on call all the time, and she always is surrounded by work talk. To which, the other girls responded, "I don't know how you do it, I'm out of work by five o'clock and then I go home. I have tuberculosis."
WHAT?!
I'm sitting next to someone with a highly infectious disease who is symptomatic? FYI this is the one who was coughing in an earlier post. Now the truth has been revealed, it is not pig flu, it is tuberculosis.
Also, my teacher came into class with an In-N-Out cup, again. He also likes to go around to each group while we're working on our activity and snatch the paper off our desks, perusing them with a critical brow to check how we're doing.
20 May 2009
06 May 2009
What we did for lunch on Wednesday from the 6th floor
What we did for lunch on Wednesday from the 6th floor
Lunchtime at the office is usually boring. One day, a Wednesday in February, started off as a normal day, and the morning melted away in to lunch. At lunch that day, we had a new lunchtime entertainment that had only been a rumor of the last few weeks: jay-walking entrapment by the police! The last few weeks, the local police set up a trap to catch drivers who did not stop for jay-walkers. With our own eyes, we watched:
Our scene was a wide and busy avenue where drivers speed their cars to beat the pesky traffic lights. The set-up included at least four cops on motorcycles, two hiding behind a bank sign on one side of the street next to the McDonald’s, and across the avenue, the other two tucked into a smaller street beside the local Burger King. Wearing a red sweatshirt, the police-sanctioned jay-walker would poke his head out to glance at the oncoming traffic, and when enough traffic came within range, the Jaywalker would step off the sidewalk and proceed to walk across the street. When jay-walking occurs, and it’s arguable that this was just a pedestrian crossing legally even if it was not on a marked crosswalk, all vehicles from both directions of traffic must stop completely until the person has finished crossing. So many times the Jaywalker would just miss getting hit as the guilty car drove by leaving behind the red-sweatshirted Jaywalker, but not the police on their motorcycles making the big not-stopping-for-pedestrians bust. We saw that about 10 times during the lunch break from the window in the conference room. It was awesome. What is not awesome, but just a little funny: the conclusion that this was not a stand for pedestrian rights, but really a way for the cash-strapped city to raise some revenue.
Lunchtime at the office is usually boring. One day, a Wednesday in February, started off as a normal day, and the morning melted away in to lunch. At lunch that day, we had a new lunchtime entertainment that had only been a rumor of the last few weeks: jay-walking entrapment by the police! The last few weeks, the local police set up a trap to catch drivers who did not stop for jay-walkers. With our own eyes, we watched:
Our scene was a wide and busy avenue where drivers speed their cars to beat the pesky traffic lights. The set-up included at least four cops on motorcycles, two hiding behind a bank sign on one side of the street next to the McDonald’s, and across the avenue, the other two tucked into a smaller street beside the local Burger King. Wearing a red sweatshirt, the police-sanctioned jay-walker would poke his head out to glance at the oncoming traffic, and when enough traffic came within range, the Jaywalker would step off the sidewalk and proceed to walk across the street. When jay-walking occurs, and it’s arguable that this was just a pedestrian crossing legally even if it was not on a marked crosswalk, all vehicles from both directions of traffic must stop completely until the person has finished crossing. So many times the Jaywalker would just miss getting hit as the guilty car drove by leaving behind the red-sweatshirted Jaywalker, but not the police on their motorcycles making the big not-stopping-for-pedestrians bust. We saw that about 10 times during the lunch break from the window in the conference room. It was awesome. What is not awesome, but just a little funny: the conclusion that this was not a stand for pedestrian rights, but really a way for the cash-strapped city to raise some revenue.
05 May 2009
Logic Class
Logic Class
This semester I am taking two classes with teachers that have control of the class, and we don’t have any group work outside of class so I am not able to post about crazy things and people. But here are some tidbits from my current quarter.
Logic Teacher:
-our class meets one evening a week, and every week this guy brings in a paper cup of some liquid to drink in class. It would not be strange except that every week he has brought a cup from In-N-Out, the amazing local burger franchise. When someone asked him if he went to IN-N-Out every time before class he joked, “Or maybe I just bring the same cup to class every week.” And then last week he came to class with an IHOP cup. WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE WORLD?
-This guy likes to give sports anecdotes and sports analogies to everything. He seems to limit his sports to baseball and basketball. Come on, mix it up a bit, how about equestrian? Or squash? And every week, there always seems to be a basketball game on during class time and someone always asks if we can just skip the rest of class and go home early to watch the game.
-One day our teacher told us a story about twins: He knew these guys who are identical twins. One twin is smart; the other twin is dumb. The dumb twin always insisted on carrying with him a picture of his identical twin brother to remember what his brother looks like. When asked why he carries a picture of his brother and why he doesn’t just look in a mirror, dumb twin says, “He’s my brother, I want to know what he looks like.” When my teacher finally asked smart twin about his brother’s habits of carrying a picture of him around, smart twin said, “Yeah, he’s not too smart.”
Logic Students:
-I am pretty much a flunk in anything hinting of fashion. So imagine my surprise at seeing this:
One day a student came into class and she was holding a purse. This purse looks like something an older, fashionable lady would carry. It had a boxy but round body that was not too large, not too small, and small loopy handles large enough for someone to hold the handles with their hand or hook it at the bend of their arm but not at their shoulder. When the student sat down, I expected her to place her purse on the floor. What I did not expect was that her purse came with a hook, to hang one end onto her desk and to hang the purse on the other end. Wow! So during class, not only was her purse off the floor, it was dangling from the side of her desk within arms reach of goofing off! Is this a new trend in handbags? Have I been living under a rock?
-Another way that I am defunct in fashion: Last Tuesday there were two students, one was Purse girl, the other was the Cougher who came to class wearing very color-coordinated (not with themselves). Purse girl came in wearing in all red. Red shirt, red pants, red shoes. It was just so red. Is it still ok for women in their 20s to wear the same hue for all pieces of clothing? Especially if the event is a logic class at the community college on a Tuesday night? I really thought that wearing the same color head to toe was only ok until elementary school, tops. But really what do I know?
-The Cougher came in the other day wearing an ORANGE shirt. It’s hard for people of certain skin tones to wear orange, and I think she did an ok job. I am told that I look like I have jaundice when I wear yellow or orange, so maybe I am jealous. What I am not jealous about is that she seems to like orange so much that she also has an orange-colored binder and an orange-colored purse. I guess people still end up color coordinating their accessories and clothing, but with orange it’s just so much more noticeable. Is it still ok for women in their 20s to color-coordinate their school supplies and clothing, especially when the are bright colors?
Side note: When the teacher passed his handouts down every aisle, I was cringing every time the Cougher, who sat in front of me, passed the stack of papers to me. WHAT IF I CAUGHT SOMETHING AND BROUGHT IT HOME TO MY IMMUNO-COMPRISED FAMILY MEMBER? I took a glance at the Cougher’s work ID badge hanging from her neck: DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH.
Help! Save me from being a healthy fashion faux pas!
This semester I am taking two classes with teachers that have control of the class, and we don’t have any group work outside of class so I am not able to post about crazy things and people. But here are some tidbits from my current quarter.
Logic Teacher:
-our class meets one evening a week, and every week this guy brings in a paper cup of some liquid to drink in class. It would not be strange except that every week he has brought a cup from In-N-Out, the amazing local burger franchise. When someone asked him if he went to IN-N-Out every time before class he joked, “Or maybe I just bring the same cup to class every week.” And then last week he came to class with an IHOP cup. WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE WORLD?
-This guy likes to give sports anecdotes and sports analogies to everything. He seems to limit his sports to baseball and basketball. Come on, mix it up a bit, how about equestrian? Or squash? And every week, there always seems to be a basketball game on during class time and someone always asks if we can just skip the rest of class and go home early to watch the game.
-One day our teacher told us a story about twins: He knew these guys who are identical twins. One twin is smart; the other twin is dumb. The dumb twin always insisted on carrying with him a picture of his identical twin brother to remember what his brother looks like. When asked why he carries a picture of his brother and why he doesn’t just look in a mirror, dumb twin says, “He’s my brother, I want to know what he looks like.” When my teacher finally asked smart twin about his brother’s habits of carrying a picture of him around, smart twin said, “Yeah, he’s not too smart.”
Logic Students:
-I am pretty much a flunk in anything hinting of fashion. So imagine my surprise at seeing this:
One day a student came into class and she was holding a purse. This purse looks like something an older, fashionable lady would carry. It had a boxy but round body that was not too large, not too small, and small loopy handles large enough for someone to hold the handles with their hand or hook it at the bend of their arm but not at their shoulder. When the student sat down, I expected her to place her purse on the floor. What I did not expect was that her purse came with a hook, to hang one end onto her desk and to hang the purse on the other end. Wow! So during class, not only was her purse off the floor, it was dangling from the side of her desk within arms reach of goofing off! Is this a new trend in handbags? Have I been living under a rock?
-Another way that I am defunct in fashion: Last Tuesday there were two students, one was Purse girl, the other was the Cougher who came to class wearing very color-coordinated (not with themselves). Purse girl came in wearing in all red. Red shirt, red pants, red shoes. It was just so red. Is it still ok for women in their 20s to wear the same hue for all pieces of clothing? Especially if the event is a logic class at the community college on a Tuesday night? I really thought that wearing the same color head to toe was only ok until elementary school, tops. But really what do I know?
-The Cougher came in the other day wearing an ORANGE shirt. It’s hard for people of certain skin tones to wear orange, and I think she did an ok job. I am told that I look like I have jaundice when I wear yellow or orange, so maybe I am jealous. What I am not jealous about is that she seems to like orange so much that she also has an orange-colored binder and an orange-colored purse. I guess people still end up color coordinating their accessories and clothing, but with orange it’s just so much more noticeable. Is it still ok for women in their 20s to color-coordinate their school supplies and clothing, especially when the are bright colors?
Side note: When the teacher passed his handouts down every aisle, I was cringing every time the Cougher, who sat in front of me, passed the stack of papers to me. WHAT IF I CAUGHT SOMETHING AND BROUGHT IT HOME TO MY IMMUNO-COMPRISED FAMILY MEMBER? I took a glance at the Cougher’s work ID badge hanging from her neck: DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH.
Help! Save me from being a healthy fashion faux pas!
03 May 2009
Law, Lightbulbs, and the Princess
Law, Lightbulbs, and the Princess
We have a divorce client in the office whom we have dubbed “Princess.” Princess will always hold a special place in my heart as I learn and struggle to excel in the service sector. I just want so much to help her but I can’t help wanting to pull out every strand of hair on my head whenever she calls and wanting to blog about the experience. And then feeling guilty about her situation and my response, thereby restarting the entire cycle.
Princess is in her early 60s, just getting out of her third marriage, this time to a music scholar turned parks and recreation worker who is almost twenty years her junior. Her father who according to her was an excellent lawyer (say that with her distinctive Northeast Yankee accent) passed away last year, and that was the last straw of her staying in her unhappy marriage. Her father also left her a lot of money, and she wanted to finally ditch her spouse and enjoy her inheritance in peace. It is not for these reasons we call her “Princess.” True to form, let me list the incidents that have led to me to conclude that Princess is an (in)appropriate nickname for our client and a memorable lesson in my little life:
1. She is in her 60s with a seemingly minor but debilitating disease which enables her to collect Social Security Disability. Her parents, and since her father’s death, her mother paid for her rent, car payments, and car insurance during their entire marriage. That is right, she’s in her 60s, and mommy and deceased daddy still pay for her car insurance. And I think her mom just bought her a car because her old car was declared a total loss in an accident.
2. Whenever she calls, she repeats herself and the entire story of why she is calling at least three times. And each time she calls, it is usually in a succession of at least three calls. So, on any given day, we can hear the same thing up to nine times.
3. She always repeats the phrase, “Mr. [our attorney/boss] said that he would take care of me.” Always. But really, how much can an attorney do for someone who needs much more than legal help. He called our landlord who also rents out apartments to help her find an apartment to move into to leave her husband, our boss helped negotiate to get her a fridge. I think this really just irks me because it sounds like this is the story of her life: Someone else, most likely a male in a paternal role, said and will help her. Get over it.
4. One day she called the office to say that the lightbulbs went out in her kitchen and her bathroom and that it was dark, and that she could not climb up on a chair to change the bulbs. She called the apartment management office to see if they could send someone to change the bulb, but they don’t do that, and even though they would out of pity, the handyman had already left for the day. Then she continued to call our office to get our boss/attorney to do something about the lights being out in her kitchen and bathroom. But out boss was either already gone for the day or in court. Finally the next day he was able to return her call and told her that neither he nor the apartment management office could help, but gave her the number to a handyman he knew, and Princess was asking about whether or not the handyman was trustworthy (he is) and how much he would charge (not much), but she would not get off the phone and call herself and ask. A few days later she called again about her case, and our boss asked her if she had called the handyman yet, and she had not. After all the phone calls and complaining, she still did not call the handyman and was peeing in the dark.
5. It was in the course of the defcon one lightbulb problem that our boss told Princess that he’s only her attorney and can only help her on her legal stuff, and that she needs to get some help (implying the mental kind). A short while later, she calls back, our boss happens to pick up the phone, listens to what she says and then places the phone down, saying “She just told me she was going to do her laundry.”
6. One day she came into the office just to drop off some papers and engaged me in an awkward litany of advice wherein she advised me to be careful who I dated and married, lest I get stuck with someone like her (third) ex-husband. Princess said, When I first met him and he told me he loved me and that he would take care of me, and I believed him, and I married him. But after we got married, he was nothing like he was before we married. In almost twenty years together, not once did he help set the table for dinner or help clean up afterwards or help clean the house; if I had a headache, I had to open the aspirin myself; not once did he open the car door for me; I mean, I’m not asking a lot, what am I, a princess?
To which I could only jump with glee inside, it was such metaphysical moment. Of course, I am only choosing events that support by biased conclusion that “Princess” is an appropriate dub. Let me say that she is a sweet old lady when she’s not on one of her rants. And I want to help her but I just don’t know how.
We have a divorce client in the office whom we have dubbed “Princess.” Princess will always hold a special place in my heart as I learn and struggle to excel in the service sector. I just want so much to help her but I can’t help wanting to pull out every strand of hair on my head whenever she calls and wanting to blog about the experience. And then feeling guilty about her situation and my response, thereby restarting the entire cycle.
Princess is in her early 60s, just getting out of her third marriage, this time to a music scholar turned parks and recreation worker who is almost twenty years her junior. Her father who according to her was an excellent lawyer (say that with her distinctive Northeast Yankee accent) passed away last year, and that was the last straw of her staying in her unhappy marriage. Her father also left her a lot of money, and she wanted to finally ditch her spouse and enjoy her inheritance in peace. It is not for these reasons we call her “Princess.” True to form, let me list the incidents that have led to me to conclude that Princess is an (in)appropriate nickname for our client and a memorable lesson in my little life:
1. She is in her 60s with a seemingly minor but debilitating disease which enables her to collect Social Security Disability. Her parents, and since her father’s death, her mother paid for her rent, car payments, and car insurance during their entire marriage. That is right, she’s in her 60s, and mommy and deceased daddy still pay for her car insurance. And I think her mom just bought her a car because her old car was declared a total loss in an accident.
2. Whenever she calls, she repeats herself and the entire story of why she is calling at least three times. And each time she calls, it is usually in a succession of at least three calls. So, on any given day, we can hear the same thing up to nine times.
3. She always repeats the phrase, “Mr. [our attorney/boss] said that he would take care of me.” Always. But really, how much can an attorney do for someone who needs much more than legal help. He called our landlord who also rents out apartments to help her find an apartment to move into to leave her husband, our boss helped negotiate to get her a fridge. I think this really just irks me because it sounds like this is the story of her life: Someone else, most likely a male in a paternal role, said and will help her. Get over it.
4. One day she called the office to say that the lightbulbs went out in her kitchen and her bathroom and that it was dark, and that she could not climb up on a chair to change the bulbs. She called the apartment management office to see if they could send someone to change the bulb, but they don’t do that, and even though they would out of pity, the handyman had already left for the day. Then she continued to call our office to get our boss/attorney to do something about the lights being out in her kitchen and bathroom. But out boss was either already gone for the day or in court. Finally the next day he was able to return her call and told her that neither he nor the apartment management office could help, but gave her the number to a handyman he knew, and Princess was asking about whether or not the handyman was trustworthy (he is) and how much he would charge (not much), but she would not get off the phone and call herself and ask. A few days later she called again about her case, and our boss asked her if she had called the handyman yet, and she had not. After all the phone calls and complaining, she still did not call the handyman and was peeing in the dark.
5. It was in the course of the defcon one lightbulb problem that our boss told Princess that he’s only her attorney and can only help her on her legal stuff, and that she needs to get some help (implying the mental kind). A short while later, she calls back, our boss happens to pick up the phone, listens to what she says and then places the phone down, saying “She just told me she was going to do her laundry.”
6. One day she came into the office just to drop off some papers and engaged me in an awkward litany of advice wherein she advised me to be careful who I dated and married, lest I get stuck with someone like her (third) ex-husband. Princess said, When I first met him and he told me he loved me and that he would take care of me, and I believed him, and I married him. But after we got married, he was nothing like he was before we married. In almost twenty years together, not once did he help set the table for dinner or help clean up afterwards or help clean the house; if I had a headache, I had to open the aspirin myself; not once did he open the car door for me; I mean, I’m not asking a lot, what am I, a princess?
To which I could only jump with glee inside, it was such metaphysical moment. Of course, I am only choosing events that support by biased conclusion that “Princess” is an appropriate dub. Let me say that she is a sweet old lady when she’s not on one of her rants. And I want to help her but I just don’t know how.
02 May 2009
Credit Report!
It's May!
It's time to get your second of three credit reports of the year.
Remember that there are three credit report bureaus, and by law each bureau is required to give you one copy of your credit report (without credit score) each year. If you requested a copy from one bureau in January to kick off the year, request a copy from another bureau to continue monitoring your credit. Don't remember which bureau you requested from in January? I don't either. I'll have to dig up the copy I may have printed out.
To recap:
Three Credit Report Bureaus:
-TransUnion
-Experian
-Equifax
One Site to Request your Free Credit Report:
- www[dot]annualcreditreport[dot]com
*this is the official site.
Schedule to request Reports (suggested)
-January (to review the previous year's Sept, Oct, Nov, & Dec)
-May (to review current year's Jan, Feb, March, April)
-Sept (to review current year's May, June, July, August)
What to do if there is a mistake?
-Contact the reporting bureau to let them know there is a mistake. Don't let it sit there on your report, it won't just disappear.
THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO TO HAVE A GOOD RECORD IS TO PAY YOUR BILLS ON TIME, EVERY TIME.
P.S. I am told that the site may not work for our international readers. Please accept my apologies for tempting you with this post. Constant vigilance!
It's time to get your second of three credit reports of the year.
Remember that there are three credit report bureaus, and by law each bureau is required to give you one copy of your credit report (without credit score) each year. If you requested a copy from one bureau in January to kick off the year, request a copy from another bureau to continue monitoring your credit. Don't remember which bureau you requested from in January? I don't either. I'll have to dig up the copy I may have printed out.
To recap:
Three Credit Report Bureaus:
-TransUnion
-Experian
-Equifax
One Site to Request your Free Credit Report:
- www[dot]annualcreditreport[dot]com
*this is the official site.
Schedule to request Reports (suggested)
-January (to review the previous year's Sept, Oct, Nov, & Dec)
-May (to review current year's Jan, Feb, March, April)
-Sept (to review current year's May, June, July, August)
What to do if there is a mistake?
-Contact the reporting bureau to let them know there is a mistake. Don't let it sit there on your report, it won't just disappear.
THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO TO HAVE A GOOD RECORD IS TO PAY YOUR BILLS ON TIME, EVERY TIME.
P.S. I am told that the site may not work for our international readers. Please accept my apologies for tempting you with this post. Constant vigilance!
29 April 2009
Phone
Phone
In my days answering phones and making phone calls, more often than not I don't reach the person that I am calling and am thus forced to leave a message in their voicemailbox. I have hated leaving messages all my life because I sound so dumb with my "um"s. That specifically, however, is not the topic today. I would like to share some voicemailbox greetings that I have come across recently.
One: The MusiCall:
At least two people I have called have recorded an entire song (or what feeeeeels like an entire song) as their greeting without indicating who they are or what number has been dialed to reach such sickly ear candy. One was a rhythmic poppy song that intended to give the listener an upbeat outlook on life; the other was another rhythmic poppy song intended to celebrate an ethnicity and give the listener an upbeat and not-at-all stereotypical impression of the ethnicity. Was my day brightened by listening to these greetings? Am I not blogging about this now?
But seriously, I called you to tell you something, I don't reach you, I have to listen to an entire song [I am understanding when only a short clippet is recorded, share the joy], clearly the entire song will not fit in the time allotted for the recording of the greeting and abruptly cuts off and "beeeep" it's time for me to perform my message-leaving-skills-magic. As if I don't sound like enough of a dork already talking into a recording, I get to talk without warning while my mind was bopping along to your awesome tunes.
Two: The Fake Intense Situation:
Another day I made a call to someone and did not reach them. Their voicemailbox greeting said, in a film noir voice with a suspenseful horror music lingering in the background, " The person you are trying to reach is not available right now because they are being hunted by vampires. Please leave your name, number, and a brief message and hopefully they can get back to you. Ahhhh!" I have met this person that I was trying to reach and in no way did I get the impression that she was a fan of quirky voicemailbox greetings that implied that the person is fond of simulating some sort of Da Vinci Code meets Twilight situation in a recorded message. What impression I get was that she's a bit uptight and maybe dorky. She was coming in for a meeting and called because she couldn't remember which office suite we were in, and started gathering steam for a mini ramble of thoughts along the lines of I don't understand, you're office suite isn't here, am I in the wrong building, blah blah, and it was hard to interrupt her so as to figure out what was going on. It turns out she mixed up the number of the office building with the office suite, and was looking for us on the wrong floor. Which happens, numbers can be confusing. When she arrived, two floors higher, she rushed in carrying a venti Starbucks hot beverage and announced to me, "It's been a long morning." It was only 9 o'clock. Maybe she is a vampire?
Three: Themes:
This happened today and is my personal favorite. Let me just transcribe it without further commentary:
"Hi, you've reached the Crows. We're all away from our perch right now, so please leave your name, number, and a brief messages, and we'll "caw" you back as soon as we can..."
WOW. END OF STORY.
In my days answering phones and making phone calls, more often than not I don't reach the person that I am calling and am thus forced to leave a message in their voicemailbox. I have hated leaving messages all my life because I sound so dumb with my "um"s. That specifically, however, is not the topic today. I would like to share some voicemailbox greetings that I have come across recently.
One: The MusiCall:
At least two people I have called have recorded an entire song (or what feeeeeels like an entire song) as their greeting without indicating who they are or what number has been dialed to reach such sickly ear candy. One was a rhythmic poppy song that intended to give the listener an upbeat outlook on life; the other was another rhythmic poppy song intended to celebrate an ethnicity and give the listener an upbeat and not-at-all stereotypical impression of the ethnicity. Was my day brightened by listening to these greetings? Am I not blogging about this now?
But seriously, I called you to tell you something, I don't reach you, I have to listen to an entire song [I am understanding when only a short clippet is recorded, share the joy], clearly the entire song will not fit in the time allotted for the recording of the greeting and abruptly cuts off and "beeeep" it's time for me to perform my message-leaving-skills-magic. As if I don't sound like enough of a dork already talking into a recording, I get to talk without warning while my mind was bopping along to your awesome tunes.
Two: The Fake Intense Situation:
Another day I made a call to someone and did not reach them. Their voicemailbox greeting said, in a film noir voice with a suspenseful horror music lingering in the background, " The person you are trying to reach is not available right now because they are being hunted by vampires. Please leave your name, number, and a brief message and hopefully they can get back to you. Ahhhh!" I have met this person that I was trying to reach and in no way did I get the impression that she was a fan of quirky voicemailbox greetings that implied that the person is fond of simulating some sort of Da Vinci Code meets Twilight situation in a recorded message. What impression I get was that she's a bit uptight and maybe dorky. She was coming in for a meeting and called because she couldn't remember which office suite we were in, and started gathering steam for a mini ramble of thoughts along the lines of I don't understand, you're office suite isn't here, am I in the wrong building, blah blah, and it was hard to interrupt her so as to figure out what was going on. It turns out she mixed up the number of the office building with the office suite, and was looking for us on the wrong floor. Which happens, numbers can be confusing. When she arrived, two floors higher, she rushed in carrying a venti Starbucks hot beverage and announced to me, "It's been a long morning." It was only 9 o'clock. Maybe she is a vampire?
Three: Themes:
This happened today and is my personal favorite. Let me just transcribe it without further commentary:
"Hi, you've reached the Crows. We're all away from our perch right now, so please leave your name, number, and a brief messages, and we'll "caw" you back as soon as we can..."
WOW. END OF STORY.
Paranoia
Is it so wrong that I spent my entire evening of class paranoid about a coughing classmate seated in front of me?
24 April 2009
What is my dad doing right now?
What is my dad doing right now?
My dad is using the computer to watch a YouTube video of a young Asian guy giving a "rant" inspired by a white guy being cast for the lead role in the DragonBall movie, comparing it to the likes of having his own Asian father being cast for the role of the Bob Saget character on Full House.
Things that I learned:
1. My dad knows about YouTube.
2. My dad likes watching funny things on YouTube.
3. Was the DragonBall series that influential on Asian boys so as to cause outrage when a non-Asian is cast for the lead role?
4. Wait, there's a live-action DragonBall movie in production?
5. In 2009?
My dad is using the computer to watch a YouTube video of a young Asian guy giving a "rant" inspired by a white guy being cast for the lead role in the DragonBall movie, comparing it to the likes of having his own Asian father being cast for the role of the Bob Saget character on Full House.
Things that I learned:
1. My dad knows about YouTube.
2. My dad likes watching funny things on YouTube.
3. Was the DragonBall series that influential on Asian boys so as to cause outrage when a non-Asian is cast for the lead role?
4. Wait, there's a live-action DragonBall movie in production?
5. In 2009?
31 March 2009
Cheater, cheater
Cheater, cheater
During my final in business class, we had an exam made up of multiple choice questions on a Scantron and short answer questions asking for the definition of a phrase or concept. The final was not hard. The teacher was in front of the class, proctoring. Then, he left the classroom. For at least twenty minutes. What transpired during those twenty minutes: chaos. People consulted their notes and books (the exam was closed book, closed notes); call and responses on multiple choice answers; and one guy even walked up to the front of the classroom, and glanced at the exams that were already completed. It was a sad moment in academia. After those twenty minutes, I turned in my exam and left.
Lesson:
1. Don’t cheat; that’s just scummy. I wonder, however, if cheating was the supplemental to the intro to business course, and if I demonstrated my lack of qualifications even to be successful in business. Ouch. Honest business, an oxymoron?
2. Don’t listen to anyone who is helping you cheat. Why would you trust anyone who is helping you cheat?
Thus ends my serial ranting about my intro to business class. I miss it! My classes this quarter, Logic and Business Law, are not as amusing, mostly because the teachers are actually in control of their classes. There are some gems that I have scribbled in the margins of my notebooks, so I will dig those out and extrapolate.
During my final in business class, we had an exam made up of multiple choice questions on a Scantron and short answer questions asking for the definition of a phrase or concept. The final was not hard. The teacher was in front of the class, proctoring. Then, he left the classroom. For at least twenty minutes. What transpired during those twenty minutes: chaos. People consulted their notes and books (the exam was closed book, closed notes); call and responses on multiple choice answers; and one guy even walked up to the front of the classroom, and glanced at the exams that were already completed. It was a sad moment in academia. After those twenty minutes, I turned in my exam and left.
Lesson:
1. Don’t cheat; that’s just scummy. I wonder, however, if cheating was the supplemental to the intro to business course, and if I demonstrated my lack of qualifications even to be successful in business. Ouch. Honest business, an oxymoron?
2. Don’t listen to anyone who is helping you cheat. Why would you trust anyone who is helping you cheat?
Thus ends my serial ranting about my intro to business class. I miss it! My classes this quarter, Logic and Business Law, are not as amusing, mostly because the teachers are actually in control of their classes. There are some gems that I have scribbled in the margins of my notebooks, so I will dig those out and extrapolate.
29 March 2009
On Language, Bagels, and Exercise
On Language, Bagels, and Exercise
The Youth in my previous post is a seemingly well-intentioned young guy, maybe just started college, trying to find his way around in the world, may not have learned all the social cues involved in an academic setting. Common courtesies include not incessantly asking off-topic questions in an evening lecture class, not incessantly blurting out “smart-alecky” but un-funny comments in an evening lecture class, walking in and out of class during lecture (actually, so many people did that, it was awful), and not interrupting a presentation with personal questions.
A funny thing he said while presenting his group project, he was listed with the credentials of being bilingual:
The Youth: As you can see here, it says that I can speak English and Spanish, but that’s not true. I actually speak English and Armenian. I am bilangual.
The Class: You mean “bilingual.”
The Youth: That’s right, bilangual.
The Class: You mean to say “bilingual.”
The Youth: Yeah, I said “bilangual.” Oh, it’s “bilingual.” Ok, bi-ling-gual.
During our presentation of O-Go Café, we emphasized healthy eating, and one member presented one healthy sized portions and types of food. The Youth interrupted, when we were in the middle of presenting and not offering a Q&A period, asking a questions about bagels on our menu. You serve bagels? Aren’t bagels unhealthy? I thought you were serving healthy foods? I thought that bagels were unhealthy. And on and on. You want a healthy bagel? I promise you that the bruise on your head from our ice-pick glares will be shaped like a healthy looking bagel.
And finally, when we presented on obesity, I talked about sleep apnea, mentioning sleep habits and how exercise too close to bedtime may affect sleep, and The Youth interrupts with questions about his own personal regimen. But I exercise right before I go to bed. Should I stop? Is it really bad? Does it affect everyone? But I don’t have trouble falling asleep. How soon before bedtime should you not exercise? Like a hour? Two hours?
Dude, do you think we really can answer that? Anyways, it doesn’t help that Al, who showed up for one presentation, started engaging The Youth in a comparison of their respective exercise habits (“Oh, you know I don’t know about that because I only focus on upper body”) before I rudely interrupt my interrupters and continue to bore the class to tears about sleep apnea.
The End.
The Youth in my previous post is a seemingly well-intentioned young guy, maybe just started college, trying to find his way around in the world, may not have learned all the social cues involved in an academic setting. Common courtesies include not incessantly asking off-topic questions in an evening lecture class, not incessantly blurting out “smart-alecky” but un-funny comments in an evening lecture class, walking in and out of class during lecture (actually, so many people did that, it was awful), and not interrupting a presentation with personal questions.
A funny thing he said while presenting his group project, he was listed with the credentials of being bilingual:
The Youth: As you can see here, it says that I can speak English and Spanish, but that’s not true. I actually speak English and Armenian. I am bilangual.
The Class: You mean “bilingual.”
The Youth: That’s right, bilangual.
The Class: You mean to say “bilingual.”
The Youth: Yeah, I said “bilangual.” Oh, it’s “bilingual.” Ok, bi-ling-gual.
During our presentation of O-Go Café, we emphasized healthy eating, and one member presented one healthy sized portions and types of food. The Youth interrupted, when we were in the middle of presenting and not offering a Q&A period, asking a questions about bagels on our menu. You serve bagels? Aren’t bagels unhealthy? I thought you were serving healthy foods? I thought that bagels were unhealthy. And on and on. You want a healthy bagel? I promise you that the bruise on your head from our ice-pick glares will be shaped like a healthy looking bagel.
And finally, when we presented on obesity, I talked about sleep apnea, mentioning sleep habits and how exercise too close to bedtime may affect sleep, and The Youth interrupts with questions about his own personal regimen. But I exercise right before I go to bed. Should I stop? Is it really bad? Does it affect everyone? But I don’t have trouble falling asleep. How soon before bedtime should you not exercise? Like a hour? Two hours?
Dude, do you think we really can answer that? Anyways, it doesn’t help that Al, who showed up for one presentation, started engaging The Youth in a comparison of their respective exercise habits (“Oh, you know I don’t know about that because I only focus on upper body”) before I rudely interrupt my interrupters and continue to bore the class to tears about sleep apnea.
The End.
23 February 2009
My last few weeks, Part I
-Prelude
-Health Confessions
-An Explanation of my last post
-Following up on the group projects
-Oh and we hate that guy in my group
Prelude:
This is the first post that I have submitted wherein I will type a rough draft in a word processing program so that my final posted entry will make sense. Lots of things have happened since the last post so I will try to highlight the more interesting things. The winter term has ended at the school and I started classes for the spring term this week. This term I am taking two classes: Logic and Business Law. I look forward to some great stories, although I’ve only started the Logic class. I was late to class the first day (mortal sin) because I could not find parking! I looped an outdoor parking lot one time, and an indoor five-story parking lot three times before I found a space. And I only found that space because I saw someone trying to back out, and I let them. I expect this to be a long entry, so I may break it up into multiple posts and/or shorten each section and pimp it with pictures and links for the fullest multi-sensory blog sensation ever[Note, I have decided to break my super long semi-ambitious entry into multiple entries but I don't have time to pimp it up/out!].
Health Confession:
I have not taken my multivitamins since I don’t know when. It turns out that multivitamins may not have additional health benefits, according to a NY Times article about a study on the benefits (or non-benefits) of multivitamins. So ha.
An Explanation of my last post:
I wrote that post in the middle of the night just before the early morning of the day our final group project was due. I was sleepy. My group, except that crazy guy, is pretty awesome. Sorry for the deafening post.
Following up on the group projects:
The last week of classes we had three class meetings. On the first day we all presented our Group Project A. On the second day we took a final. On the last day we all presented Group Project B. Our Group Project A was about Obesity as a problem in the US that President Obama and his administration ought to address. Please insert appropriate Tom Daschle or Kathleen Sebelius joke. Anyways, we were the only group to focus on a topic that was not business or economy related. Most groups presented on the national deficit, the state budget crisis, or the auto industry. Our group went over the time limit, and I think the teacher was getting really bored. I will say that in the middle of ours, when the crazy guy presented about Exercise & Obesity, we had the class stand up and perform so exercise to encourage the fight against Obesity, the 9-headed Hydra of our times. We also had a mini-quiz complete with pictures of delicious food for our portion on Childhood Obesity.
For Project B, we had to create a business plan for our made-up business. That was really fun, but I think we overdid the project. That was the project that made me lose it and make an angry post. Apologies again. We decided to open an organic café, named O-go, in a local community (a “census-designated place” aka not a city). The idea took a while to grow on me, but once we were able to pull data and do research, I had lots of fun. I learned much about the demographics of that community and organic foods. It’s not really the best climate to open a café serving only organic foods now, but it was hard to argue since everyone thought opening a café would be really simple and fun. I did, however, try to convince the group that establishing our legal form as a SEVEN person partnership would be a bad idea (partnerships do not protect the partners from unlimited liability of the business or the bad things that the other partners may do) and that the better idea would be to incorporate (the business becomes a corporation, which is a separate entity, almost like a human [corporation from corpus, Latin for body]). But the corporation idea was eventually turned down because we “all” decided that we would work for free for the first year for our café, and that calculating wages or 1099s for the corporation would be too complicated. It is make-believe, but I can’t even suspend my disbelief for that.
Our presentation time for the second project was much shorter, which is awesome. All the groups had great ideas, and one other group, whose business was a Mexican restaurant named Macho Taco, brought food to class. We really could not compete with that. To be fair, the other groups’ ideas: Fast & Fresh (fresh and healthy fast food); Dog care-taking (grooming, walking, poop-scooping); Book-busters (renting textbooks to students); Frozen yogurt (with a bunny as a mascot); and a pharmacy. All ideas had some online presence, and many dealt with food. Suprisingly, many groups chose to be a partnership. Maybe corporations just have too negative a connotation for people?
Oh and we hate that guy in my group:
That guy, we’ll call him Al, because that is a shortened version of his name. Hell hath now fury like a woman scorned. That guy, Al, managed to piss off 6 women by not working on the projects, not showing up when we presented our second project, and begging/asking/compelling us to stay after class to join him in solidarity as he begged the teacher not to fail him but to give him a second chance after missing almost all classes, missing the group presentation, and missing the FINAL. I wish I kid.
It’s not like we set out to hate the guy, but he was so irresponsible and such a liar that we really had no choice but to hate him. Let me try to recall the premises to support the conclusion that we are justified in hating him.
1. He rarely (using “rarely” to mean to the point closest to “never” without being “never”) showed up to class, and when he did, I think he came in late and left at the break, which was probably for a duration of half an hour to 45 minutes. And while he was in class, he just sat there and played and texted with his phone. Now, that would be a fine of his time, but what really irked us was that we had no idea if he’d ever show for our group projects.
2. When we met outside of class for our projects, we clearly planned a time and place that we can all meet. First meeting was in the public library; the guy didn’t show. He came up to us in class the next day and said that he was there and that we weren’t there. And we said, no we were waiting outside for half an hour before going inside (some other people were also running late), and he said, Oh, I was sitting in my white Mustang in the parking lot, didn’t you see me. NO, YOU IDIOT, we didn’t think to look in the parking lot when we specifically said, Let’s meet in front of the library. I guess we forgot that the parking lot located to the side of the building was part of the front of the library.
3. We also met in the café area of a major chain bookstore. The guy shows up, late, brings his girlfriend, who is clearly too good for him, offers us energy drink samples which he won at a push up contest at a fitness convention, leaves for a while during the meeting, comes back and write his part of the memo on Obesity, including such gems as “Men are more likely to be obese due to eating too much fast food. The reason they eat so much fast food is because they don’t know how to cook and may not have a girlfriend or a wife to cook for them” (which was thankfully, not included in our fake memo to the President), and then leaves early before we work on the second project.
4. We met at least three other times. No show, late and left early, late because he overslept and then upon arrival randomly started to expound on great perfumes for women. What?
5. He has great excuses as to why he does what he does: He’s late and busy because he and his father are opening a school for automotive field inspectors, the people who inspect your car after an accident and give an estimate of the damage. He has to leave early because he’s going hiking with his girlfriend; at the same time, he has to leave early because his friend’s car broke down and he has AAA and has to bail out his friend. He’s late but he’s thinking of a good excuse to give us when he arrives.
6. All of these sound normal, but aren’t we all normal people with things happening in our lives that require special attention?
7. His girlfriend has accompanied him to class (she’s not a student of the class) and has taken notes for him. According to Al, she’s really smart, is going to the best school, and can speak seven languages. Maybe she’s not fluent in reality because clearly she’s too good for you and yet doesn't seem to realize it.
8. These incidents happened before our last week, in which his behavior was appalling.
9. Our first presentation went well. Then after the break, Al returns to class with a girl who is not his girlfriend and who is not in the class, and begins to talk to her while other groups are presenting; he’s sitting in the front row. During other groups’ presentations, he starts counting something with his fingers; I wondered what he’s counting; I figured it out: he’s counting the number of times a certain girl is saying “like” while presenting. You jerk! And about the girl who came to class with him, my group mates said that she was really dirty, like with soil, and had dirty fingernails, and was smelly; and had thus concluded that she was a hooker. I don’t really understand the logic, but ok.
10. He missed the final exam! Apparently, he ran into the classroom, told the teacher something, and then ran out. I was not there to witness this. I’ll have more to say about the final.
11. He did not show up for our last meeting for the second presentation. We were trying to get things done for the project, and he didn’t show up.
12. The day of the second project, also the last day of class, he didn’t show up by the time class started, and we wrote him off as not coming. We signed up to present third, to get it over early and “enjoy” the other group presentations. Our presentation went well. During class we hear these random shouts in the hall way. When the dog care-taking business group presented, they improvised awkwardly the shouts into their presentation as dog sounds. Anyways, just before the break, half way through class, the door opens, and Al walks in with his sketchy friend/cousin. He sits next to some of our group members and begins asking them if/why we presented without him, while other groups are presenting. He said to one of the girls, why didn’t you guys go last? And she answered, we didn’t think you were coming, we tried calling you but you didn't answer; to which he answered, well i dropped my phone, couldn’t you have at least gone last in case I showed up?
13. Then during class, while others were presenting, he asks us to stay afterwards to stand with him as he talks to the teacher and asks for a second chance at the final. He said it would mean more if the whole group stands with/behind him in this matter, and tells the teacher that he worked really hard and deserves another chance. The group didn’t want to be there, and half the group was scared of what he would do if we didn’t stay. You really couldn’t say with sketchy guys like that. And he looks thuggish, tall, always wearing sunglasses, even at night or indoors, has physical strength, probably has ethnic gang connections. So we decided that the teacher knew what was up with that guy, and that we didn’t want trouble, so we stayed but didn’t say anything in support of or against him, although we did imply that the teacher ought to decide what is fair as the final judge.
a. Oh, weirdness: I think I was hit on by some guy in the class at this point. Or at any rate, I received a compliment on my section of the presentation, and I am reading too much into it as a being-hit-on-moment by a guy in class. Sorry you older guy with a small business, who hates labor laws and workers’ rights, and sports golden locks longer than Rapunzel, I’m not interested.
14. After the “meeting” with the teacher, in which Al completely sucks up to the teacher, saying I love your class, I tried really hard, I worked hard, I learned so much, etc, three of us left the class together to walk to the parking lot, it was me, one of the other girls, and the mom in the group. As we walk towards the bridge, we hear feet pounding behind us, it’s Al, his sketchy looking cousin/friend, and one other guy from class (we’ll call him The Youth). He asks us, hey did you hear the shouting in the hallway during class? We say, Yeah. He says, That was me, ha ha ha! It was so funny. We were in the hall way, shouting, and this guy here says oh look they’re doing presentations, and then we kept running and shouting, and then I remembered that that was my class and our presentations were tonight! And then the mom started shouting at him like he was her kid, you know in that mom way, but he thought she was kidding, and was laughing. It doesn’t help that she sounds like she’s joking when she’s mad. Anyways, the other girl is really shaken, she looks scared, so I asked her and the mom if they want something to drink, we’re about the pass a coffeeshop, and they say yes, so we go inside. Fortunately, the guys just started smoking, and in their chivalry, even offered us some cigarettes, and since they didn’t put out their cigarettes, they couldn’t go inside, so we, thankfully, escaped from them at the door of a coffee shop chain. We waited a few minutes, ordered some drinks, and left. The mom and I were mad but not scared, but the other girl was mad and scared; scared that the guy might do something to her, or follow her to her car or something crazy. So the mom and I walked her to my car, then the mom walked me to my car, and then we all drove off safely without another sight of Al and lies. I think the mom and the other girl and I are going out to dinner, so yay, I made friends at school! Situations like that makes me wish I were back at the alma mater, with those stairsteps specifically engineered to help women escape faster. I am also proud to say that I was carrying my Whistle that evening. I also miss alma mater because we didn’t have idiots like that running around, and if they did, they’d get beat up. The end.
Lessons to learn:
1. Don’t lie.
2. Don’t lie to women.
3. Don’t lie to six women.
4. Keep your appointments; if you’re late, you call; don’t lie when you call; if you can’t show, you call; don’t lie when you next see the people you stood up.
5. Don’t sit in your car in the parking lot when you’re supposed to meet at the front entrance.
6. Pull your weight. Or at least “delegate” so it looks like you’re doing work.
7. Don’t follow women-who-hate-you to their cars. They will hate you even more, if that’s a possible quantity.
8. Dude, how are you still alive?
-Health Confessions
-An Explanation of my last post
-Following up on the group projects
-Oh and we hate that guy in my group
Prelude:
This is the first post that I have submitted wherein I will type a rough draft in a word processing program so that my final posted entry will make sense. Lots of things have happened since the last post so I will try to highlight the more interesting things. The winter term has ended at the school and I started classes for the spring term this week. This term I am taking two classes: Logic and Business Law. I look forward to some great stories, although I’ve only started the Logic class. I was late to class the first day (mortal sin) because I could not find parking! I looped an outdoor parking lot one time, and an indoor five-story parking lot three times before I found a space. And I only found that space because I saw someone trying to back out, and I let them. I expect this to be a long entry, so I may break it up into multiple posts and/or shorten each section and pimp it with pictures and links for the fullest multi-sensory blog sensation ever[Note, I have decided to break my super long semi-ambitious entry into multiple entries but I don't have time to pimp it up/out!].
Health Confession:
I have not taken my multivitamins since I don’t know when. It turns out that multivitamins may not have additional health benefits, according to a NY Times article about a study on the benefits (or non-benefits) of multivitamins. So ha.
An Explanation of my last post:
I wrote that post in the middle of the night just before the early morning of the day our final group project was due. I was sleepy. My group, except that crazy guy, is pretty awesome. Sorry for the deafening post.
Following up on the group projects:
The last week of classes we had three class meetings. On the first day we all presented our Group Project A. On the second day we took a final. On the last day we all presented Group Project B. Our Group Project A was about Obesity as a problem in the US that President Obama and his administration ought to address. Please insert appropriate Tom Daschle or Kathleen Sebelius joke. Anyways, we were the only group to focus on a topic that was not business or economy related. Most groups presented on the national deficit, the state budget crisis, or the auto industry. Our group went over the time limit, and I think the teacher was getting really bored. I will say that in the middle of ours, when the crazy guy presented about Exercise & Obesity, we had the class stand up and perform so exercise to encourage the fight against Obesity, the 9-headed Hydra of our times. We also had a mini-quiz complete with pictures of delicious food for our portion on Childhood Obesity.
For Project B, we had to create a business plan for our made-up business. That was really fun, but I think we overdid the project. That was the project that made me lose it and make an angry post. Apologies again. We decided to open an organic café, named O-go, in a local community (a “census-designated place” aka not a city). The idea took a while to grow on me, but once we were able to pull data and do research, I had lots of fun. I learned much about the demographics of that community and organic foods. It’s not really the best climate to open a café serving only organic foods now, but it was hard to argue since everyone thought opening a café would be really simple and fun. I did, however, try to convince the group that establishing our legal form as a SEVEN person partnership would be a bad idea (partnerships do not protect the partners from unlimited liability of the business or the bad things that the other partners may do) and that the better idea would be to incorporate (the business becomes a corporation, which is a separate entity, almost like a human [corporation from corpus, Latin for body]). But the corporation idea was eventually turned down because we “all” decided that we would work for free for the first year for our café, and that calculating wages or 1099s for the corporation would be too complicated. It is make-believe, but I can’t even suspend my disbelief for that.
Our presentation time for the second project was much shorter, which is awesome. All the groups had great ideas, and one other group, whose business was a Mexican restaurant named Macho Taco, brought food to class. We really could not compete with that. To be fair, the other groups’ ideas: Fast & Fresh (fresh and healthy fast food); Dog care-taking (grooming, walking, poop-scooping); Book-busters (renting textbooks to students); Frozen yogurt (with a bunny as a mascot); and a pharmacy. All ideas had some online presence, and many dealt with food. Suprisingly, many groups chose to be a partnership. Maybe corporations just have too negative a connotation for people?
Oh and we hate that guy in my group:
That guy, we’ll call him Al, because that is a shortened version of his name. Hell hath now fury like a woman scorned. That guy, Al, managed to piss off 6 women by not working on the projects, not showing up when we presented our second project, and begging/asking/compelling us to stay after class to join him in solidarity as he begged the teacher not to fail him but to give him a second chance after missing almost all classes, missing the group presentation, and missing the FINAL. I wish I kid.
It’s not like we set out to hate the guy, but he was so irresponsible and such a liar that we really had no choice but to hate him. Let me try to recall the premises to support the conclusion that we are justified in hating him.
1. He rarely (using “rarely” to mean to the point closest to “never” without being “never”) showed up to class, and when he did, I think he came in late and left at the break, which was probably for a duration of half an hour to 45 minutes. And while he was in class, he just sat there and played and texted with his phone. Now, that would be a fine of his time, but what really irked us was that we had no idea if he’d ever show for our group projects.
2. When we met outside of class for our projects, we clearly planned a time and place that we can all meet. First meeting was in the public library; the guy didn’t show. He came up to us in class the next day and said that he was there and that we weren’t there. And we said, no we were waiting outside for half an hour before going inside (some other people were also running late), and he said, Oh, I was sitting in my white Mustang in the parking lot, didn’t you see me. NO, YOU IDIOT, we didn’t think to look in the parking lot when we specifically said, Let’s meet in front of the library. I guess we forgot that the parking lot located to the side of the building was part of the front of the library.
3. We also met in the café area of a major chain bookstore. The guy shows up, late, brings his girlfriend, who is clearly too good for him, offers us energy drink samples which he won at a push up contest at a fitness convention, leaves for a while during the meeting, comes back and write his part of the memo on Obesity, including such gems as “Men are more likely to be obese due to eating too much fast food. The reason they eat so much fast food is because they don’t know how to cook and may not have a girlfriend or a wife to cook for them” (which was thankfully, not included in our fake memo to the President), and then leaves early before we work on the second project.
4. We met at least three other times. No show, late and left early, late because he overslept and then upon arrival randomly started to expound on great perfumes for women. What?
5. He has great excuses as to why he does what he does: He’s late and busy because he and his father are opening a school for automotive field inspectors, the people who inspect your car after an accident and give an estimate of the damage. He has to leave early because he’s going hiking with his girlfriend; at the same time, he has to leave early because his friend’s car broke down and he has AAA and has to bail out his friend. He’s late but he’s thinking of a good excuse to give us when he arrives.
6. All of these sound normal, but aren’t we all normal people with things happening in our lives that require special attention?
7. His girlfriend has accompanied him to class (she’s not a student of the class) and has taken notes for him. According to Al, she’s really smart, is going to the best school, and can speak seven languages. Maybe she’s not fluent in reality because clearly she’s too good for you and yet doesn't seem to realize it.
8. These incidents happened before our last week, in which his behavior was appalling.
9. Our first presentation went well. Then after the break, Al returns to class with a girl who is not his girlfriend and who is not in the class, and begins to talk to her while other groups are presenting; he’s sitting in the front row. During other groups’ presentations, he starts counting something with his fingers; I wondered what he’s counting; I figured it out: he’s counting the number of times a certain girl is saying “like” while presenting. You jerk! And about the girl who came to class with him, my group mates said that she was really dirty, like with soil, and had dirty fingernails, and was smelly; and had thus concluded that she was a hooker. I don’t really understand the logic, but ok.
10. He missed the final exam! Apparently, he ran into the classroom, told the teacher something, and then ran out. I was not there to witness this. I’ll have more to say about the final.
11. He did not show up for our last meeting for the second presentation. We were trying to get things done for the project, and he didn’t show up.
12. The day of the second project, also the last day of class, he didn’t show up by the time class started, and we wrote him off as not coming. We signed up to present third, to get it over early and “enjoy” the other group presentations. Our presentation went well. During class we hear these random shouts in the hall way. When the dog care-taking business group presented, they improvised awkwardly the shouts into their presentation as dog sounds. Anyways, just before the break, half way through class, the door opens, and Al walks in with his sketchy friend/cousin. He sits next to some of our group members and begins asking them if/why we presented without him, while other groups are presenting. He said to one of the girls, why didn’t you guys go last? And she answered, we didn’t think you were coming, we tried calling you but you didn't answer; to which he answered, well i dropped my phone, couldn’t you have at least gone last in case I showed up?
13. Then during class, while others were presenting, he asks us to stay afterwards to stand with him as he talks to the teacher and asks for a second chance at the final. He said it would mean more if the whole group stands with/behind him in this matter, and tells the teacher that he worked really hard and deserves another chance. The group didn’t want to be there, and half the group was scared of what he would do if we didn’t stay. You really couldn’t say with sketchy guys like that. And he looks thuggish, tall, always wearing sunglasses, even at night or indoors, has physical strength, probably has ethnic gang connections. So we decided that the teacher knew what was up with that guy, and that we didn’t want trouble, so we stayed but didn’t say anything in support of or against him, although we did imply that the teacher ought to decide what is fair as the final judge.
a. Oh, weirdness: I think I was hit on by some guy in the class at this point. Or at any rate, I received a compliment on my section of the presentation, and I am reading too much into it as a being-hit-on-moment by a guy in class. Sorry you older guy with a small business, who hates labor laws and workers’ rights, and sports golden locks longer than Rapunzel, I’m not interested.
14. After the “meeting” with the teacher, in which Al completely sucks up to the teacher, saying I love your class, I tried really hard, I worked hard, I learned so much, etc, three of us left the class together to walk to the parking lot, it was me, one of the other girls, and the mom in the group. As we walk towards the bridge, we hear feet pounding behind us, it’s Al, his sketchy looking cousin/friend, and one other guy from class (we’ll call him The Youth). He asks us, hey did you hear the shouting in the hallway during class? We say, Yeah. He says, That was me, ha ha ha! It was so funny. We were in the hall way, shouting, and this guy here says oh look they’re doing presentations, and then we kept running and shouting, and then I remembered that that was my class and our presentations were tonight! And then the mom started shouting at him like he was her kid, you know in that mom way, but he thought she was kidding, and was laughing. It doesn’t help that she sounds like she’s joking when she’s mad. Anyways, the other girl is really shaken, she looks scared, so I asked her and the mom if they want something to drink, we’re about the pass a coffeeshop, and they say yes, so we go inside. Fortunately, the guys just started smoking, and in their chivalry, even offered us some cigarettes, and since they didn’t put out their cigarettes, they couldn’t go inside, so we, thankfully, escaped from them at the door of a coffee shop chain. We waited a few minutes, ordered some drinks, and left. The mom and I were mad but not scared, but the other girl was mad and scared; scared that the guy might do something to her, or follow her to her car or something crazy. So the mom and I walked her to my car, then the mom walked me to my car, and then we all drove off safely without another sight of Al and lies. I think the mom and the other girl and I are going out to dinner, so yay, I made friends at school! Situations like that makes me wish I were back at the alma mater, with those stairsteps specifically engineered to help women escape faster. I am also proud to say that I was carrying my Whistle that evening. I also miss alma mater because we didn’t have idiots like that running around, and if they did, they’d get beat up. The end.
Lessons to learn:
1. Don’t lie.
2. Don’t lie to women.
3. Don’t lie to six women.
4. Keep your appointments; if you’re late, you call; don’t lie when you call; if you can’t show, you call; don’t lie when you next see the people you stood up.
5. Don’t sit in your car in the parking lot when you’re supposed to meet at the front entrance.
6. Pull your weight. Or at least “delegate” so it looks like you’re doing work.
7. Don’t follow women-who-hate-you to their cars. They will hate you even more, if that’s a possible quantity.
8. Dude, how are you still alive?
05 February 2009
Ranting
Re: Rant about Second Final Group Project in the middle of the night
WHAT KIND OF PERSON IS SHE WHO WORKS IN A CORPORATION AND OWNS PROPERTY WHO DOES NOT TYPE BALANCE SHEETS AND INCOME STATEMENTS IN A SPREADSHEET FORMAT?
ONE OF MY GROUP MEMBERS, THAT IS WHO.
WHAT KIND OF A PERSON IS HE WHO DOES NOT SHOW UP TO CLASS, STANDS UP THE GROUP FOR THREE GROUP MEETINGS, COMES LATE TO THE OTHER TWO, DOES NOT SHOW UP TO THE FINAL, BRINGS HIS GIRLFRIEND TO TAKE HIS NOTES, BRINGS A SMELLY HOOKER WITH DIRTY NAILS TO CLASS ON ANOTHER DAY, IS WORKING WITH HIS FATHER TO OPEN AN AUTO DETAILING CERTIFICATION SCHOOL, WHO WEARS SUNGLASSES INDOORS, AND WHO WORE A GLOW IN THE DARK SKULL-PATTERNED SHIRT FOR OUR PRESENTATION?
ONE OF MY GROUP MEMBERS, THAT IS WHO.
WHAT KIND OF PERSONS ARE THEY WHO ARE ABOUT TO TURN TWENTY, ATTEND COMMUNITY COLLEGE, AND SEEM TO RECREATE EVERY SINGLE MOMENT OF WHAT I IMAGINE THE HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL TRILOGY TO BE, READ BOOKS ABOUT ABSTINENT VAMPIRES, WEAR SUNGLASSES INDOORS, SEEM TO BE LIKE ROBOTS, WORK IN TEENAGE ACCESSORY STORES, AND WEAR BLACK TUNIC DRESSES?
TWO OF MY GROUPMATES, THAT IS WHO.
WHAT KIND OF TEACHER IS HE WHO LEAVES HIS CLASS IN THE MIDDLE OF A FINAL FOR TWENTY MINUTES WITH NO ONE PROCTORING THE CLASS WHERE THE MAJORITY HAVE NO SENSE OF INTEGRITY AND WOULD AND DID JUMP AT ANY CHANCE TO EXCHANGE ANSWERS, CHECK NOTES, CRACK OPEN THE BOOK, AND EVEN WALK UP TO THE FINISHED EXAMS TO TAKE A PEAK AT THE ANSWERS SUBMITTED BY OTHERS?
THE TEACHER OF MY CLASS, THAT IS WHO.
WHAT KIND OF PERSON IS SHE WHO IS CRANKY DUE TO LACK OF SLEEP, WITH A PROJECT TO COMPLETE, AND HUNGRY FOR IN-N-OUT?
ME, THAT IS WHO.
IT HAS COME TO THE POINT WHERE "UP TOO LATE" BLURS INTO "UP TOO EARLY."
ARRRRRRGH.
WHAT KIND OF PERSON IS SHE WHO WORKS IN A CORPORATION AND OWNS PROPERTY WHO DOES NOT TYPE BALANCE SHEETS AND INCOME STATEMENTS IN A SPREADSHEET FORMAT?
ONE OF MY GROUP MEMBERS, THAT IS WHO.
WHAT KIND OF A PERSON IS HE WHO DOES NOT SHOW UP TO CLASS, STANDS UP THE GROUP FOR THREE GROUP MEETINGS, COMES LATE TO THE OTHER TWO, DOES NOT SHOW UP TO THE FINAL, BRINGS HIS GIRLFRIEND TO TAKE HIS NOTES, BRINGS A SMELLY HOOKER WITH DIRTY NAILS TO CLASS ON ANOTHER DAY, IS WORKING WITH HIS FATHER TO OPEN AN AUTO DETAILING CERTIFICATION SCHOOL, WHO WEARS SUNGLASSES INDOORS, AND WHO WORE A GLOW IN THE DARK SKULL-PATTERNED SHIRT FOR OUR PRESENTATION?
ONE OF MY GROUP MEMBERS, THAT IS WHO.
WHAT KIND OF PERSONS ARE THEY WHO ARE ABOUT TO TURN TWENTY, ATTEND COMMUNITY COLLEGE, AND SEEM TO RECREATE EVERY SINGLE MOMENT OF WHAT I IMAGINE THE HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL TRILOGY TO BE, READ BOOKS ABOUT ABSTINENT VAMPIRES, WEAR SUNGLASSES INDOORS, SEEM TO BE LIKE ROBOTS, WORK IN TEENAGE ACCESSORY STORES, AND WEAR BLACK TUNIC DRESSES?
TWO OF MY GROUPMATES, THAT IS WHO.
WHAT KIND OF TEACHER IS HE WHO LEAVES HIS CLASS IN THE MIDDLE OF A FINAL FOR TWENTY MINUTES WITH NO ONE PROCTORING THE CLASS WHERE THE MAJORITY HAVE NO SENSE OF INTEGRITY AND WOULD AND DID JUMP AT ANY CHANCE TO EXCHANGE ANSWERS, CHECK NOTES, CRACK OPEN THE BOOK, AND EVEN WALK UP TO THE FINISHED EXAMS TO TAKE A PEAK AT THE ANSWERS SUBMITTED BY OTHERS?
THE TEACHER OF MY CLASS, THAT IS WHO.
WHAT KIND OF PERSON IS SHE WHO IS CRANKY DUE TO LACK OF SLEEP, WITH A PROJECT TO COMPLETE, AND HUNGRY FOR IN-N-OUT?
ME, THAT IS WHO.
IT HAS COME TO THE POINT WHERE "UP TOO LATE" BLURS INTO "UP TOO EARLY."
ARRRRRRGH.
25 January 2009
Group Projects
It's a sad, gloomy, rainy Saturday night. I could be out frequenting nightclubs as I am apt to do, but why do that when I can write about the vagaries of group projects.
Let me be honest, I don't hate group projects. But I don't like them either.
We have to complete and present two group projects in a five-week introductory business class that meets three nights a week at the community college for a teacher who tells stories and reads definitions from the textbook in class but grades with a fine-toothed comb on the one practice exam, the midterm, and the final.
Our first project is to write a memo about an issue that our group feels is important, and to offer solutions. It can be any topic we deem important. My group chose obesity as an issue. Our first choice was businesses closing. I've heard other groups mention the health-care system, the auto industry, the California budget. Personally, I wanted to write about the parking situation at the school, since it's something we'll be familiar with and we can offer concrete solutions. Oh, and by the way, the teacher wants us to email it to President Obama because apparently President Obama and his administration are soliciting input from ordinary Americans like community college students on important matters like how to fight obesity. Was Sanjay Gupta unavailable?
We had group meeting tonight and we discussed obesity. Our main means of "research" was half the Wikipedia entry on obesity and the knowledge some girl had because she works in a doctor's office. I admit that I don't know much about obesity. I do know that a high calorie, high fat, and basically unhealthy diet can be a major cause of obesity (another is a sedentary lifestyle), and that fast food is pretty unhealthy. What I did not know was that men were more likely to be susceptible to obesity because they have to eat out more. Why do they have to eat out more? Well, according to the one guy in our group, the guy who doesn't show up to class, and seems stoned half the time, and who went to an exercise expo today and placed in a push up contest and won a three month supply of an energy drink, the reason that men are more likely to have obesity due to increased frequency of eating out is because they don't have cooking skills and may not have a wife or girlfriend to cook for them. Wow. Beat that Dr. Gupta.
Another thing I learned about obesity is that it can be caused by genetic makeup. Naive that I am, I asked how can we offer a solution to that cause of obesity--I really wanted to see how we would approach that. The mom of the group (the lady with kids) said that we have to change our habits to break the cycle. Examples of habits to change is not to revolve so many major traditions around eating. We have to stop having parties with lots of food to break the genetic cycle of obesity. Isn't that cultural and environmental rather than genetic? No. Apparently, I can change my Genetic Makeup by changing my habits and Breaking the Cycle. Please let the fictional X-men know that they can change their fictional genetic mutations simply by breaking the cycle. While I do understand her point and agree that genes should not prevent a healthy lifestyle, I was expecting an answer related to science. At least offer up something Frankenstien like stem cells and mutating genes (it can be possible, right?) before segueing into culture.
We had this group meeting at a Borders, in the cafe area. Apparently, that is the place to be on a Saturday night because all the tables were full of people studying. And here we are working on a group project, a bit loudly, about obesity. Wonderful. Some girls at the next table stared at us for a really long time incredulously. Thanks for the vote of confidence. You'll thank us when we've cured obesity.
By the way, all that work, it's for 10 points. The midterm was 30 points. Argh!
Let me be honest, I don't hate group projects. But I don't like them either.
We have to complete and present two group projects in a five-week introductory business class that meets three nights a week at the community college for a teacher who tells stories and reads definitions from the textbook in class but grades with a fine-toothed comb on the one practice exam, the midterm, and the final.
Our first project is to write a memo about an issue that our group feels is important, and to offer solutions. It can be any topic we deem important. My group chose obesity as an issue. Our first choice was businesses closing. I've heard other groups mention the health-care system, the auto industry, the California budget. Personally, I wanted to write about the parking situation at the school, since it's something we'll be familiar with and we can offer concrete solutions. Oh, and by the way, the teacher wants us to email it to President Obama because apparently President Obama and his administration are soliciting input from ordinary Americans like community college students on important matters like how to fight obesity. Was Sanjay Gupta unavailable?
We had group meeting tonight and we discussed obesity. Our main means of "research" was half the Wikipedia entry on obesity and the knowledge some girl had because she works in a doctor's office. I admit that I don't know much about obesity. I do know that a high calorie, high fat, and basically unhealthy diet can be a major cause of obesity (another is a sedentary lifestyle), and that fast food is pretty unhealthy. What I did not know was that men were more likely to be susceptible to obesity because they have to eat out more. Why do they have to eat out more? Well, according to the one guy in our group, the guy who doesn't show up to class, and seems stoned half the time, and who went to an exercise expo today and placed in a push up contest and won a three month supply of an energy drink, the reason that men are more likely to have obesity due to increased frequency of eating out is because they don't have cooking skills and may not have a wife or girlfriend to cook for them. Wow. Beat that Dr. Gupta.
Another thing I learned about obesity is that it can be caused by genetic makeup. Naive that I am, I asked how can we offer a solution to that cause of obesity--I really wanted to see how we would approach that. The mom of the group (the lady with kids) said that we have to change our habits to break the cycle. Examples of habits to change is not to revolve so many major traditions around eating. We have to stop having parties with lots of food to break the genetic cycle of obesity. Isn't that cultural and environmental rather than genetic? No. Apparently, I can change my Genetic Makeup by changing my habits and Breaking the Cycle. Please let the fictional X-men know that they can change their fictional genetic mutations simply by breaking the cycle. While I do understand her point and agree that genes should not prevent a healthy lifestyle, I was expecting an answer related to science. At least offer up something Frankenstien like stem cells and mutating genes (it can be possible, right?) before segueing into culture.
We had this group meeting at a Borders, in the cafe area. Apparently, that is the place to be on a Saturday night because all the tables were full of people studying. And here we are working on a group project, a bit loudly, about obesity. Wonderful. Some girls at the next table stared at us for a really long time incredulously. Thanks for the vote of confidence. You'll thank us when we've cured obesity.
By the way, all that work, it's for 10 points. The midterm was 30 points. Argh!
Multi-Vita Watch, thru 24 January 2009
1/5 check
1/6 check
1/7 check; I swallowed it whole, with water!
1/8 check, ibid
1/9 check
1/10 check
1/11 check
1/12 No record found
1/13 No record found
1/14 No record found
1/15 check
1/16 check
1/17 check
1/18 No record found
1/19 No record found
1/20 No record found
1/21 No record found
1/22 check
1/23 None
1/24 None
Ok, that's my life, vitamin-wise. I fell off the wagon, but I'll hop back on.
1/6 check
1/7 check; I swallowed it whole, with water!
1/8 check, ibid
1/9 check
1/10 check
1/11 check
1/12 No record found
1/13 No record found
1/14 No record found
1/15 check
1/16 check
1/17 check
1/18 No record found
1/19 No record found
1/20 No record found
1/21 No record found
1/22 check
1/23 None
1/24 None
Ok, that's my life, vitamin-wise. I fell off the wagon, but I'll hop back on.
03 January 2009
Multivitamins
Wow, two blog posts in the first week of January 2009 alone. That's a huge increase in productivity.
The subject today is the Multivitamin.
I had been long skeptical of the Multivitamin. I had the occasional orange-flavored cartoon character children's vitamin growing up, but I did not keep the habit of supplementing my diet with them. I was also skeptical of Health Trends despite being steeped in even stranger Health Trends in my home.
In college, I had a serious talk with my health guru and fashion co-adviser who is now a Chemist in Germany. She reckoned that I needed multivitamins just to cover my nutritious bases. Too true. She also said that women begin to lose their capacity to absorb calcium as they age. Seeing as I am especially prone to slouching and interested in attempts to abate osteoporosis in addition to wanting good health, I concluded that she gave sound advice and promised that I would include in my diet a multivitamin. That was two years ago.
I failed in that respect.
This summer, I have a friend I'll dub Stine who also was interested in getting some kind of nutritional supplement. A great idea, I said, I've been meaning to do that, too! Let's go vitamin shopping together! I further suggested. That never materialized and every time we saw each other, we engaged in the determinedly-wistful-but-non-committal banter of Let's go get vitamins. It was laziness on my part, not hers.
Anyways, come 2009. The year of the Multivitamin. After being prodded by The Chemist and Stine, today I finally purchased a bottle of One A Day Women's (with more calcium and vitamin D). Yeah, it's not super exciting or on the cutting edge of Health Trends, but these pills are like magic. Let me highlight some percentages that will blow your mind:
Vitamin A......50%
Vitamin C......100%
Vitamin D......200% (TWO HUNDRED PERCENT--I'll probably OD on sunshine)
Calcium.........45%
Iron...............100%
Copper..........100%
And so much more in each pill!
I'll try out these magic pills for a while, but after researching (Wikipedia), I think these might be too nutritious for me.
I also promised Stine that I would blog (daily?) about whether or not I took my vitamin.
Day 1: I took my first Multivitamin with my lunch. The instructions/directions read: "Adults: One tablet daily, with food." When I opened the cap and removed the ever vigilant safety seal, I was surprised to see how large the vitamins are. They are Huge. Initially, I was unsure as to how I am supposed to consume the pill. Do I swallow the entire thing whole? Grind it up and mix it into my drink? Break it in half and chew each part? Would I be losing any nutrients if I pursued these methods? So many questions unanswered by the directions! I finally settled on popping the pill into my mouth and chewing it after eating my meal.
Multivitamins for adults taste disgusting. I think I will purchase the children's version next time.
Summary: Day 1 Multivitamin, check.
I may start a MultiVita Watch, a la the various "Storm Watch" modes that spring into effect when our region experiences its annual inch of rain (that's roughly 2.54 centimeters for you folks measuring in the rest of the world).
Lesson learned: Research your health needs on the internet, consult trusted gurus who did not attend med school, make pacts with friends, wait two years and a summer, and purchase your wonder vitamins out of health guilt.
Thus, another goal for 2009 started!
(I have a whole list of things to write about, but who knew that vitamins can take up so much cyberspace?)
The subject today is the Multivitamin.
I had been long skeptical of the Multivitamin. I had the occasional orange-flavored cartoon character children's vitamin growing up, but I did not keep the habit of supplementing my diet with them. I was also skeptical of Health Trends despite being steeped in even stranger Health Trends in my home.
In college, I had a serious talk with my health guru and fashion co-adviser who is now a Chemist in Germany. She reckoned that I needed multivitamins just to cover my nutritious bases. Too true. She also said that women begin to lose their capacity to absorb calcium as they age. Seeing as I am especially prone to slouching and interested in attempts to abate osteoporosis in addition to wanting good health, I concluded that she gave sound advice and promised that I would include in my diet a multivitamin. That was two years ago.
I failed in that respect.
This summer, I have a friend I'll dub Stine who also was interested in getting some kind of nutritional supplement. A great idea, I said, I've been meaning to do that, too! Let's go vitamin shopping together! I further suggested. That never materialized and every time we saw each other, we engaged in the determinedly-wistful-but-non-committal banter of Let's go get vitamins. It was laziness on my part, not hers.
Anyways, come 2009. The year of the Multivitamin. After being prodded by The Chemist and Stine, today I finally purchased a bottle of One A Day Women's (with more calcium and vitamin D). Yeah, it's not super exciting or on the cutting edge of Health Trends, but these pills are like magic. Let me highlight some percentages that will blow your mind:
Vitamin A......50%
Vitamin C......100%
Vitamin D......200% (TWO HUNDRED PERCENT--I'll probably OD on sunshine)
Calcium.........45%
Iron...............100%
Copper..........100%
And so much more in each pill!
I'll try out these magic pills for a while, but after researching (Wikipedia), I think these might be too nutritious for me.
I also promised Stine that I would blog (daily?) about whether or not I took my vitamin.
Day 1: I took my first Multivitamin with my lunch. The instructions/directions read: "Adults: One tablet daily, with food." When I opened the cap and removed the ever vigilant safety seal, I was surprised to see how large the vitamins are. They are Huge. Initially, I was unsure as to how I am supposed to consume the pill. Do I swallow the entire thing whole? Grind it up and mix it into my drink? Break it in half and chew each part? Would I be losing any nutrients if I pursued these methods? So many questions unanswered by the directions! I finally settled on popping the pill into my mouth and chewing it after eating my meal.
Multivitamins for adults taste disgusting. I think I will purchase the children's version next time.
Summary: Day 1 Multivitamin, check.
I may start a MultiVita Watch, a la the various "Storm Watch" modes that spring into effect when our region experiences its annual inch of rain (that's roughly 2.54 centimeters for you folks measuring in the rest of the world).
Lesson learned: Research your health needs on the internet, consult trusted gurus who did not attend med school, make pacts with friends, wait two years and a summer, and purchase your wonder vitamins out of health guilt.
Thus, another goal for 2009 started!
(I have a whole list of things to write about, but who knew that vitamins can take up so much cyberspace?)
02 January 2009
Hello, 2009!
It's been a loooong times since I last blogged. I didn't think that would be true of me, but I learned much about my personality this year, that I'm actually very lazy and that there is no use for me to be in denial about it anymore.
So, this is the inaugural post of 2009, the spark of...something that will alight a heretofore untold blogging frenzy by yours very truly. Actually, I just promise to blog regularly for 2009. So keep your expectations low and you won't be disappointed.
A word about how I ended my 2008.
We were eating dinner; we ate tiny lobsters. It was pretty delicious. After dinner, I thought it would be honorable to collect the lobster shells now hollowed of their flesh and bury them in the yard. Wouldn't that have been a nice gesture? A full lobster funeral, maybe a pyre for one of those crustaceans would have been nice. My bro was all for the idea. I even suggested that we start a lobster graveyard. And then my bro wisely foresaw the problem with a lobster graveyard: lobster zombies. Good call, Cardinal. So, the plan for a lobster graveyard has been shelved. That is one thing that will not be happening in 2009.
Later that evening, we watched Toy Story 1 and 2 on VHS. Wow, VHS, VCR, have not used one of those machines in a while. As for the movies, still great, heartwarming, funny/witty movies even though they were made over a decade ago (OVER A DECADE AGO!). Take this moment to reflect on the greatness of that movie series and the lessons you learned.
The first thing I did in 2009: exercised my right and obtained a copy of my FREE credit report from a credit bureau. Go to the website, www.annualcreditreport.com, pick an agency, fill in your info, and find out your debt to credit ratio and see how many companies took a peek into your credit history recently. A valuable tip: There are three credit reporting bureaus, TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. They should all have the same information since they're supposed to report things to each other. Each company is required (by law, right?) to give you a free copy of your credit report once annually if you request it. You can get all three at once, making sure that all show no discrepancies in your record. Or, you can try this: Get your report from one agency today (TODAY!); wait 4 months and request your report from a second agency; wait another four months, and request your report from the third and final agency. You can spread out your requests during a year amongst the three agencies and you'll be able to monitor your credit reports for any wonky things happening, should that happen.
Getting your credit report is different from getting your credit score. You have to pay to get your credit score, which is a numerical value ranging from I don't know how low to the 800s ( I think). That score is some kind of calculation that determines how risky of a borrower you are based on your debt to credit ratio, timeliness of payments, length of credit history, etc. That score also affects how much interest financial/lending institutions charge you when you borrow money, for things like a mortgage or financing a car.
So, happy 2009! Check your credit reports!
So, this is the inaugural post of 2009, the spark of...something that will alight a heretofore untold blogging frenzy by yours very truly. Actually, I just promise to blog regularly for 2009. So keep your expectations low and you won't be disappointed.
A word about how I ended my 2008.
We were eating dinner; we ate tiny lobsters. It was pretty delicious. After dinner, I thought it would be honorable to collect the lobster shells now hollowed of their flesh and bury them in the yard. Wouldn't that have been a nice gesture? A full lobster funeral, maybe a pyre for one of those crustaceans would have been nice. My bro was all for the idea. I even suggested that we start a lobster graveyard. And then my bro wisely foresaw the problem with a lobster graveyard: lobster zombies. Good call, Cardinal. So, the plan for a lobster graveyard has been shelved. That is one thing that will not be happening in 2009.
Later that evening, we watched Toy Story 1 and 2 on VHS. Wow, VHS, VCR, have not used one of those machines in a while. As for the movies, still great, heartwarming, funny/witty movies even though they were made over a decade ago (OVER A DECADE AGO!). Take this moment to reflect on the greatness of that movie series and the lessons you learned.
The first thing I did in 2009: exercised my right and obtained a copy of my FREE credit report from a credit bureau. Go to the website, www.annualcreditreport.com, pick an agency, fill in your info, and find out your debt to credit ratio and see how many companies took a peek into your credit history recently. A valuable tip: There are three credit reporting bureaus, TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. They should all have the same information since they're supposed to report things to each other. Each company is required (by law, right?) to give you a free copy of your credit report once annually if you request it. You can get all three at once, making sure that all show no discrepancies in your record. Or, you can try this: Get your report from one agency today (TODAY!); wait 4 months and request your report from a second agency; wait another four months, and request your report from the third and final agency. You can spread out your requests during a year amongst the three agencies and you'll be able to monitor your credit reports for any wonky things happening, should that happen.
Getting your credit report is different from getting your credit score. You have to pay to get your credit score, which is a numerical value ranging from I don't know how low to the 800s ( I think). That score is some kind of calculation that determines how risky of a borrower you are based on your debt to credit ratio, timeliness of payments, length of credit history, etc. That score also affects how much interest financial/lending institutions charge you when you borrow money, for things like a mortgage or financing a car.
So, happy 2009! Check your credit reports!
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