Rant Thread II

[MissCheyenne]

Writing a personal statement is awful. It's hard to come across well without sounding egotistical. I'd offer advice but I'm awful at writing them, so it would be a little pointless. If you could get away with the above as written, I'd be very impressed.

[JCC]

How about if I end it with "I do, however, try to remain respectful and courteous wherever possible"? That way, I make it clear that I am a generally nice person that is willing to lay the smackdown when absolutely necessary.

[MissCheyenne]

Try it and see. I might, if I had any reason to write something like that.

[Solumina]

At the very least it would stand out from other application. I never thought that my JMU essay would get me in (I had my heart set elsewhere) and I wrote an exceptionally egotistical and absolutely ludicrous essay, which they apparently found endearing and they really didn't want to leave me alone after that.

[Still Jack]

Originally Posted by JCC

I'm writing to write a personal statement for my college application and I'm struggling to write it without seeming stuffy or smug, because those are my two main modes of existence. It's ridiculous, I spend all of my time talking about myself but when I am told to talk about myself, I struggle.

Yeah, I had trouble not trying to seem smug or pretentious while writing my letter of motivation. I'm really awful at selling myself, which is precisely the objective of said activity. So far as I've comprehended it, you're meant to blow yourself up to be awesome, without lying, which is actually not too difficult, and shouldn't be in your case.

Also, do you mean college in the British or in the American sense?

[honeythorn]

I'm annoyed to the point of going volcanic.

There's an event on in London that I want to go to in January, but it's on the 23rd. I do not get paid until the 30th so there is no chance in hell I can afford it :_( And there are people going who I've not seen for a while so I'm SEVERELY pissed off. Of all the stupid fucking dates to hold an event, considering many many people get paid monthly, why not hold it at the beginning/end of a month when people are more likely to have the cash to go???.

[Still Jack]

My father, backed out of the drive this morning, and into the front right hand corner of my car, taking out my indicator and right headlight, bending and scraping the right front quarter to bare metal, and messing up the nose.

Now isn't it fantastic he doesn't have to make an insurance claim because I have basic knowledge of panel beating and spraying cars. Handy I had a full fucking light set lying around too.

[Apathy's_Child]

JCC - try and show them you're a well-rounded motherfucker. Name some varied interests (the more pretentious the better), like movements or periods in film & lit, politics, art, and whatever the fuck else it is youngins are doing nowadays. Except chasing tail, ageing academics probably don't want to hear that shit.

What do you want to major in?

[Still Jack]

Originally Posted by Apathy's_Child

Whatever the fuck else it is youngins are doing nowadays.

Coke, X and speed. Glue sniffing is old, grandad.

[JCC]

Originally Posted by Apathy's_Child

JCC - try and show them you're a well-rounded motherfucker. Name some varied interests (the more pretentious the better), like movements or periods in film & lit, politics, art, and whatever the fuck else it is youngins are doing nowadays. Except chasing tail, ageing academics probably don't want to hear that shit.

What do you want to major in?

Well, I mean 'college' in the British sense rather than the American sense so it's not a degree yet, but when I do go to university (your college) I'm taking the Philosophy, Politics and Economics course.

[Apathy's_Child]

Originally Posted by Still Jack

Coke,

Well smack my ass, I must be getting old - I thought all the cool kids were over that 80s shit. ;]

[Still Jack]

Retro is in and stuff. Soon we'll all be sniffing benzedrine inhalers.

[Stormtrooper of Death]

Now I have a clunking in the front end of my truck, I'm going to have Trent look at it today at work, I hope it's nothing major.

[Still Jack]

Parking ticket.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

/rant

[Ben Lahnger]

Originally Posted by JCC

My eagerness for debate occasionally leads me to have heated disagreements, but I see even this as a chance to improve my rhetorical skills and it usually becomes like a public verbal joust where I have a horse and a spear and they're straddling their dying cat, timidly wielding a box of corn flakes and a shield fashioned out of glitter paper.

This is one of the reasons the relationship with my SO is deteriorating rapidly. I win most of these debates, even sometimes when it turns out I am wrong, because I really have honed the rhetorical skills so well. In fact, I have honed the rhetorical skills to a level that sometimes excludes perception of consequences.

That is all.

[MissCheyenne]

I have to go for blood tests and an MRI scan in the new year. What a way to start the year.

[JCC]

I am giving my secret santa gift tomorrow. There has been so much speculation that I feel like the surprise might not live up to expectation, even though it is a sick present.

[JCC]

Also, I bit off more than I could chew this year in terms of gift-giving and I'm broke for my third Secret Santa gift. Looks like my Richard Pryor DVDs will be given one last spin before I wave goodbye to them and hope that they are given the love and respect they deserve from their new owner.

[DRM]

Oh, I'm in about the same boat, I spent most of my money on my friend's baby shower so I'm not sure what to do about gifts this year.

[Ben Lahnger]

Ditto. Taking out a title loan on my car to afford presents.

Well, presents and booze. I can at least drink till I feel good about putting my pink slip on the line!

[Saya]

Yeah, we wanted to get my mom a bracelet but I just couldn't afford it, even with my siblings pitching in (we wanted to get her a really nice medical alert bracelet, she doesn't like the one she has and so doesn't wear it.) We're getting her Art Garfunkle tickets instead, among a few others things that I can get at work thanks to my discount. I also haven't the slightest clue as to what to get for my dad, this is the first year I actually have to buy something for him (we were estranged for years). I'd love to get him a few books but he says he barely reads anymore. All he seems to do is go boating and watch Coronation Street.

I smacked my foot today at work, and was limping around for a while. Then my good foot started hurting even more badly, so I got sent home and must stay off my feet for the rest of the day.

[Still Jack]

These roads are fatal. It's like driving on a popsicle...

[Alan]

Our philosophy final consisted on coming up with a philosophical position and arguing for it. Very awesome final; complete freedom of topics, no minimum or maximum pages, a whole semester to work on it, and a very accessible professor to help us in the way. Thanks to him and my investigation Whitehead is becoming one of my favorite philosophers.

Anyhow, why am I writing this in the rant section?
Because most of the students in that class are idiots!!
I felt bad of my own paper, thinking it's so amateur and simple, but man, when I saw everyone else's papers... well, I actually didn't feel any better about mine, it just made me feel pissed off about them.

There are some friends that really had amazing ones, like this guys who argued that objectivity doesn't exist, or another one that talked of how we can't go back after postmodernism. Stuff like that.

But then you get the idiots. All of them make exactly the same mistakes. Sure, what they talk about is completely different, if you want to distinguish between bullshit and bullshit, but reading them through makes you realize they're all identical in their stupidity.
All of them - I'm not exaggerating, ALL OF THEM - used the same two out of the first three philosophers we read in the class. The obvious inference is that the other five months of the class went above their heads like calculus to a retarded four year-old. No intent in understanding Bergson, or Carnap, or Sartre, or Deleuze, or Derrida... I mention two out of the first three because the first one of all was Bertrand Russell and god forbid they should use a philosopher that requires some critical thinking!
I have to say, though, that I'm not dissing the two they actually used. Peirce and James founded Pragmatism and they should be respected for that, because Pragmatism was essentially dead-on. What happened is that they completely misunderstood the only two philosophers they all used on their papers.
Pragmatism to them is not the philosophical principle on how to approach metaphysics which dictate that if you have a proposition or idea and it does not have observable bases nor practical consequences, then it is useless to speak of it; so byebye Descartes and his Discourse on Method and so long to Kant's a priori principles.
No, Pragmatism was completely ***** here. These dipshits were stuck on the fucking word and didn't listen to one word the professor said. Pragmatism stops being an approach to metaphysics and becomes only a mundane synonym of 'practical.' I am amazed that they didn't praise Ayn Rand for being so 'objectivist.' Oh, how good that she was always objectivist and didn't let her feelings get in the way of talking about philosophy. We should all be objectivist when analyzing problems, we should never fall into subjectivism. Also, I never read this stuff, but it's philosophy, so can I get an A?

So you get idiotic theses such as "Is it Pragmatic to move out of Juarez?" and "It is Pragmatic for everyone to take dance lessons."
I didn't read one guy's paper, but it was titled 2012. I still want to perforate something when I remember that.
And here's the jewel of them:
"Should I Stay or Should I Go"
That's the name of her philosophy final! That's not a fucking philosophy paper! That's a fucking song by The Clash!!
I quote from this one paper:
"If breaking up and losing love can so adversely drive human behavior, why is it that once we've theatrically picked up the pieces of our lives and our hearts that we continue to pursuit these relationships?" [sic]
And read this following part.
"Throughout the duration of this philosophy course, I've had my heat broken a total of 3 times. (Yes, by the same guy.)"[sic]
We don't give a shit! This is a philosophy paper, not a blog.
Also
WHAT
THE
FUCK!!
She had her heart broken thrice in one fucking semester? She's not a martyr. She's a whiny bitch!




I'm sorry, but I had to vent that out.

[Alan]

I actually told my professor that I feel bad he has to read all these papers along with the good ones. But I have to say that you shouldn't think of me as pompous for complaining of these people. They really don't deserve anything less. The professor throughout the semester has had to vent off with the ones who talk with him outside of class, about those who obviously don't care inside it. Half of the class never showed up to deliver the final. It is crystal clear when the others paid lip service to their papers, and the professor tells us that more than once a student talked with him outside of class only to tell him how useless and complicated (oh how little I'm learning in this class, but oh how much it tries to teach me!) it is and that if he can just get a passing grade.

[Mr E Nigma]

Oh hey Alan.