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OPEN BAR: 50 Shades of Chronic Liver Disease

Started by East Coast Hustle, March 13, 2014, 10:34:09 PM

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The Good Reverend Roger

#915
April 10, 2014, 03:55:17 PM
Quote from: Nigel on April 10, 2014, 03:39:20 PM
I went out for a drink with three of my friends last night, at a bar of their choosing, where well pours are $6. During the evening, my lab buddy calls to make plans to get together today for brunch to discuss our term project. Not having gone out for brunch since approximately 2003, I ask my friends for a suggestion. "Tasty & Sons!" they cheerfully chorus, "or Equinox!"

I stare at them for a moment. Then, I say "How about a place with student-friendly prices?"

They look blank. "Tasty is pretty student-friendly" says one.

They are completely out of touch. $14 plates is not student-friendly. I feel strangely disconnected from them, and their financial worries are completely foreign to me. Having to dip into savings for a vacation? What's that? "Savings"? "Vacation"?

My financial aid disbursed yesterday. $2900. Most of it goes into my bank account, because my scholarship covered my tuition. I have $1200 in the bank, and another $1000 coming from my tax refund. I owe PSU $800 for my geology class. I owe my mortgage company $4500, but if I jump on it before the 15th, I can pay them $3000 and roll the other $1500 into what I'll owe when summer term comes. My tags have been expired for almost a year, but my car needs work I can't afford, so I just don't drive anymore. I'm thinking about selling it to cover the mortgage. My friend's boyfriend just bought her a new car. $45,000.

I don't tell them any of this, while they go on to talk about how they can only afford to spend $350k on a house, TOPS, because they qualify for more but they only have $35k to put down.

When my folks were grad students, my mother was out with some of her friends that weren't trying to support 4 people on a stipend.  They all stopped for an ice cream cone.  My mother didn't get one, and her friends were puzzled.  After all, it was only a dime.

This was at a time when Rice-A-Roni was a luxury.

She didn't tell them, either.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

The Good Reverend Roger

#916
April 10, 2014, 04:04:21 PM
Also, http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=36411.msg1338592#new

So every bastard in Oro Valley can SHUT UP NOW or I will FUCK YOUR ASS UP WITH SHITTY STICKS and GOD PROBABLY WON'T INTERVENE.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

#917
April 10, 2014, 04:23:05 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on April 10, 2014, 03:55:17 PM
Quote from: Nigel on April 10, 2014, 03:39:20 PM
I went out for a drink with three of my friends last night, at a bar of their choosing, where well pours are $6. During the evening, my lab buddy calls to make plans to get together today for brunch to discuss our term project. Not having gone out for brunch since approximately 2003, I ask my friends for a suggestion. "Tasty & Sons!" they cheerfully chorus, "or Equinox!"

I stare at them for a moment. Then, I say "How about a place with student-friendly prices?"

They look blank. "Tasty is pretty student-friendly" says one.

They are completely out of touch. $14 plates is not student-friendly. I feel strangely disconnected from them, and their financial worries are completely foreign to me. Having to dip into savings for a vacation? What's that? "Savings"? "Vacation"?

My financial aid disbursed yesterday. $2900. Most of it goes into my bank account, because my scholarship covered my tuition. I have $1200 in the bank, and another $1000 coming from my tax refund. I owe PSU $800 for my geology class. I owe my mortgage company $4500, but if I jump on it before the 15th, I can pay them $3000 and roll the other $1500 into what I'll owe when summer term comes. My tags have been expired for almost a year, but my car needs work I can't afford, so I just don't drive anymore. I'm thinking about selling it to cover the mortgage. My friend's boyfriend just bought her a new car. $45,000.

I don't tell them any of this, while they go on to talk about how they can only afford to spend $350k on a house, TOPS, because they qualify for more but they only have $35k to put down.

When my folks were grad students, my mother was out with some of her friends that weren't trying to support 4 people on a stipend.  They all stopped for an ice cream cone.  My mother didn't get one, and her friends were puzzled.  After all, it was only a dime.

This was at a time when Rice-A-Roni was a luxury.

She didn't tell them, either.

It's weird. I've never felt so disconnected from my friends, ever.

And the one with two Masters degrees is a prime example of working hard in school so that you never have to work again; she basically just fucks off on the internet all day and gets flown to conferences, and occasionally publishes an article. She's also constantly texting me in the middle of the day to see if I want to go for a walk or get coffee, because she's bored, and I'm like ???

Oh, Academia!
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."

The Good Reverend Roger

#918
April 10, 2014, 04:26:34 PM
Quote from: Nigel on April 10, 2014, 04:23:05 PM
It's weird. I've never felt so disconnected from my friends, ever.

Are they our age?  Because 30s-40s people are often so comfortable (or at least accustomed to) where they landed in life that they assume everyone's in the same boat they are.  This can be a problem, as in your case and also in the different case of EVERYONE I KNOW in Tucson that's my age.  They drink non-stop and jabber about Alex Jones.  And they assume YOU want to, as well.

And yet flamethrowers are still for some reason illegal.  It's simply not fair.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

#919
April 10, 2014, 04:30:25 PM
Basically, hanging out with your incredibly successful friends is fun when you're a successful artist with too much money, but kind of fucking depressing when you're a broke-ass student. :lol:
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."

The Good Reverend Roger

#920
April 10, 2014, 04:31:42 PM
Quote from: Nigel on April 10, 2014, 04:30:25 PM
Basically, hanging out with your incredibly successful friends is fun when you're a successful artist with too much money, but kind of fucking depressing when you're a broke-ass student. :lol:

Have any of them told you to count your blessings?  Because you can legally kill them if they do that.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

#921
April 10, 2014, 04:35:22 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on April 10, 2014, 04:26:34 PM
Quote from: Nigel on April 10, 2014, 04:23:05 PM
It's weird. I've never felt so disconnected from my friends, ever.

Are they our age?  Because 30s-40s people are often so comfortable (or at least accustomed to) where they landed in life that they assume everyone's in the same boat they are.  This can be a problem, as in your case and also in the different case of EVERYONE I KNOW in Tucson that's my age.  They drink non-stop and jabber about Alex Jones.  And they assume YOU want to, as well.

And yet flamethrowers are still for some reason illegal.  It's simply not fair.

Yeah, I'm the oldest and they're all mid-thirties to early forties. Funny thing is, it doesn't seem that long ago that I was buying THEM drinks and food while they finished grad school.

"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

#922
April 10, 2014, 04:37:57 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on April 10, 2014, 04:31:42 PM
Quote from: Nigel on April 10, 2014, 04:30:25 PM
Basically, hanging out with your incredibly successful friends is fun when you're a successful artist with too much money, but kind of fucking depressing when you're a broke-ass student. :lol:

Have any of them told you to count your blessings?  Because you can legally kill them if they do that.

Not YET.

Also, weirdly, only one of them has kids. I'm for the most part the only person in my social circle, other than Cordelia The Enucleator, who has reproduced. A couple of my other friends have kids, but I never see them anymore (well, one of them was always kind of a hermit, one of them is an MD and doesn't have time to socialize, and one of them moved to Bainbridge Island to start a bakery, so there are good reasons).
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

#923
April 10, 2014, 04:40:50 PM
It's so weird because I was wildly successful and the first to own a house and have kids and all the other trappings of adulthood in my 20's and 30's, and now it's like I've regressed and am doing the poor broke student shit that they did while I was doing the glass artist thing. Probably some kind of poetic justice in there.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

#924
April 10, 2014, 04:43:29 PM
I am certainly complainy today.

In happy news, I got into the geology field research class I wanted, and I might be able to do my 20 hours of biology field studies in the medical lab at Outside In, thanks to one of the friends I was just complaining about who is a higher-up there and can probably work something out for me.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."

The Good Reverend Roger

#925
April 10, 2014, 04:43:56 PM
Quote from: Nigel on April 10, 2014, 04:40:50 PM
It's so weird because I was wildly successful and the first to own a house and have kids and all the other trappings of adulthood in my 20's and 30's, and now it's like I've regressed and am doing the poor broke shit that they did while I was doing the glass artist thing. Probably some kind of poetic justice in there.

Dunno.  You're rebooting, which I find interesting as all hell (though I am not suggesting that it is easy, fun, or designed to interest me or anyone else).  I've done that before, but never in such an all-encompassing way...And certainly never with a raft of dependents.

You won't be sitting around at age 80, cursing yourself for having wasted your life.  That might not be important to you, but to me, it's my greatest fear.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Cain

#926
April 10, 2014, 04:51:50 PM
That's my plan for post grad school - fly to conferences, write occasional articles, fuck around on the internet all day and get coffee otherwise.

However, at the moment, I'm looking at an internship with a magazine.  I'm probably going to be 10 years older than everyone else applying, but it's at least a paid position, and it's better work than guarding empty buildings late at night.

Reginald Ret

#927
April 10, 2014, 05:03:08 PM
Nigel, that sounds like it sucks.
Roger, I fear the same thing.
Cain, that sounds like an improvement.

I'll be going offline now because apparently i cannot form an actual thought at the moment.
Lord Byron: "Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves."

Nigel saying the wisest words ever uttered: "It's just a suffix."

"The worst forum ever" "The most mediocre forum on the internet" "The dumbest forum on the internet" "The most retarded forum on the internet" "The lamest forum on the internet" "The coolest forum on the internet"

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

#928
April 10, 2014, 05:04:52 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on April 10, 2014, 04:43:56 PM
Quote from: Nigel on April 10, 2014, 04:40:50 PM
It's so weird because I was wildly successful and the first to own a house and have kids and all the other trappings of adulthood in my 20's and 30's, and now it's like I've regressed and am doing the poor broke shit that they did while I was doing the glass artist thing. Probably some kind of poetic justice in there.

Dunno.  You're rebooting, which I find interesting as all hell (though I am not suggesting that it is easy, fun, or designed to interest me or anyone else).  I've done that before, but never in such an all-encompassing way...And certainly never with a raft of dependents.

You won't be sitting around at age 80, cursing yourself for having wasted your life.  That might not be important to you, but to me, it's my greatest fear.

I hope to still be working at 80, doing research and giving interviews. That's my American dream.  :lol:

I want to someday be a line of trivia; "Did you know that Dr. Nigel didn't start college until she was 40 years old?"
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."

Suu

#929
April 10, 2014, 05:11:01 PM
I'd just like to be employed after grad school. Thinking short-term goals, here.
Sovereign Episkopos-Princess Kaousuu; Esq., Battle Nun, Bene Gesserit.
Our Lady of Perpetual Confusion; 1st Church of Discordia

"Add a dab of lavender to milk, leave town with an orange, and pretend you're laughing at it."
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