Update for Everyone III - The Whinge Binge

[Antonio the Sixth]

Well, I got a job offer for 4 months in Manizales, Colombia at a university there. Really excited. Even more excited to be leaving Ottawa!

Yay, congrats!

What is the job about, exactly?

[Antonio the Sixth]

Observation: if someone likes me, or if I am admitted into something, or otherwise thinks highly of something I've done, I question their judgement and my opinion of them usually dims considerably. Sort of like Groucho Marx when he mentioned that he wouldn't join any club that would let him in.

"I did well? He must be a lax grader."

"I was accepted? They must let everyone in."

"Oh, she doesn't dislike me? Well then, she is too blasé."

Sounds like the recipe for eternal misery.

[Antonio the Sixth]

My visa for Colombia has just been approved, so everything is set. I'm leaving Ottawa's horrible winter weather in the wee hours of the morning, a week from today.

That's awesome, I'm so happy for you!

[Antonio the Sixth]

I've lost fifteen pounds in the past six weeks. I've done this almost entirely through portion control--for the most part I'm still eating the same things, and it's not really possible for me to get much exercise around here this time of year.

I saw a picture of you, roughly a couple years ago, and you seemed fit. Did you gain weight before losing it? Otherwise, don't be too hard on yourself.

[Antonio the Sixth]

My dreams of the past two years have just been shattered.

[Antonio the Sixth]

My dreams of the past two years have just been shattered.

A very dramatic entry. Could you elaborate a bit?

Stanford and Berkeley rejected my application.

To be honest, I'm taking it better than I thought I would. I don't really feel that sad, just weird.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Thanks guys, I know the words I used sound a bit grandiose and overblown in retrospect. Sorry about that.

And yeah, I have other applications for which I'm awaiting a decisions, so, fingers still crossed!

[Antonio the Sixth]

I'm sorry to hear that, Jerry.  Hope you get all the help and cure that you need.

[Antonio the Sixth]

My parents might be separating.

Ugh, that's sad. Sorry to hear that.

[Antonio the Sixth]

something real goddamn spooky happened to me today.

last night I fell asleep watching a show on youtube, so today I go back to youtube to finish watching the show (and this is where it gets spooky) and youtube knew to start the video like sixty seconds before I fell asleep somehow!!

Google knows everything about each of us. I've long learned to stop worrying and love it.

[Antonio the Sixth]

There's nothing wrong with showing off your knowledge a bit, as long as you don't act as a pretentious jerk in the process. It's all about the tone and attitude you take to discuss these topics.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Please stay safe, that's all that matters. If you ever want to talk, feel free to PM me. And please let me (and us) know as soon as things get better.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I cast the most unenthusiastic vote in my life (yet).

[Antonio the Sixth]

While I still very much consider myself a socialist, more political reading plus a general distrust of people  (though nowhere near as bad as the childish misanthropy that I've held before, and I still trust the average person more than anyone in the global ruling class) have somewhat blunted my revolutionary spirit. I strongly admire my comrade TNF's boundless optimism in contrast, though at this point I see it best to focus on college as well as my personal hobbies (mostly video games) for my own sake, with political reading on the side to refine the specifics of my worldview.

And the road to Rhodesia continues.

Comrades, video games are the way to Socialism!

[Antonio the Sixth]

Is anyone in NYC or nearby looking for a roommate? My cousin got a job offer there, but he hasn't been able to find affordable housing. He asked me to spread the word around, so any help is welcome.

So I managed to wade into campus politics, and will be on the Board of Resaerch Advisors for the UCLA External VP. Specifically I'll be Chief of Political Research,  I'm going to be advising the EVP on how to effectively lobby the State Legislature as well as the Board of Regents, in order to keep tuition rates from rising, and hopefully, to lower them.

This will be fun.

You're studying at UCLA? We'll have to meet next year!

[Antonio the Sixth]

Is anyone in NYC or nearby looking for a roommate? My cousin got a job offer there, but he hasn't been able to find affordable housing. He asked me to spread the word around, so any help is welcome.

So I managed to wade into campus politics, and will be on the Board of Resaerch Advisors for the UCLA External VP. Specifically I'll be Chief of Political Research,  I'm going to be advising the EVP on how to effectively lobby the State Legislature as well as the Board of Regents, in order to keep tuition rates from rising, and hopefully, to lower them.

This will be fun.

You're studying at UCLA? We'll have to meet next year!

Hey Tony, when will you be starting? And yes I would like to meet.

This September! I'll let you know when I'm in town.

[Antonio the Sixth]

So I have some cousins in Pennsylvania who are total f[Inks]s and caused a lot of emotional damage to me when they successfully convinced me that I was autistic a few years back. I worked for three years to erase those memories with my therapist and tonight, in one sentence, my mom accidentally brought back everything which has put me in a rather poisonous mood.

God, that's awful. What the hell was wrong with your cousins?

Wish you best.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I've been thinking of suicide recently.

Oh God, please don't! Talk with your friends, relatives, loved ones. See a psychologist or psychotherapist. They can all help out with whatever problems you have. Please stay strong.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Congrats and best wishes.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I'm coming in here with a big family problem I don't want to talk about. Don't know what I expect, but I needed to say something. Send warm feels. I need 'em.

Whatever the problem, wish you best.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I had to drop my first class of the semester because today I got an email making vague but ominous allusions to hundreds of pages' worth of reading that I'm expected to already have done that nobody told me about. I decided that playing catch-up was impossible.

Couldn't you have just explained your situation to the Professor? Or are teachers at your university unusually intransigent/uncaring?

[Antonio the Sixth]

I had to drop my first class of the semester because today I got an email making vague but ominous allusions to hundreds of pages' worth of reading that I'm expected to already have done that nobody told me about. I decided that playing catch-up was impossible.

Couldn't you have just explained your situation to the Professor? Or are teachers at your university unusually intransigent/uncaring?

I could have--I've heard he's a great guy--but I decided against it because the class:

1. Was seven hours a day for seven days, which I chickened out of committing to, and:
2. Also involved a field trip to  ing Andover. Andover is in the Merrimack Valley, up near the New Hampshire border, and I have a long commute already--Porter Square to Boston University is about an hour each way. It just wasn't worth it.

Besides, the class I added to replace this one, Buddhism in America, is a lot more in my wheelhouse anyway.

7 hours a day all week? I had no idea a class like that could even exist. That's just insane.

[Antonio the Sixth]

But then on other weeks you'd presumably have other classes?

Having 49 hours in a single week taken up by schoolwork is just wrong. Even in France that would never fly, and France usually has busier school weeks (35-40 hours in High School, around 20 in common universities, and up to 40-45 in specialized schools). In the US, College is 13 hours a week on average, right?

[Antonio the Sixth]

I also start class later today, but while looking at the syllabus for my online Intro to Us Goverment, I found this assignment. 

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Looking forward to this.

Personally, that's an assignment I'd love to write, but isn't it pretty intrusive? Not everyone wants to share their political views (event though I seem to gather that Americans do it more easily than Europeans).

[Antonio the Sixth]

My new Spanish teacher is a Bernie Sanders supporter

Siente el Bern?