(no subject)

[sathor]

Show me a capitalist that has toiled in the pits of slavery, and I'll show you a being without a soul.

There is one other thing to add before I quit writing for tonight, likely.

Confucius also said that a superior man only surrounds himself with his equals (and superiors.)

I think, this has been a fact nearly my entire life, and likely a great reason why my circle has shrunken so much over the years. It may seem heartless, but one must be in control of their influences, lest they be taken down the wrong path. And I think, maybe, this has had something to do with whatever minute success I have had. That is to say, for someone without any friends left and living in rural pennsylvania, I've done pretty well. Of course, that will all change pretty directly.

I imagine going back to college quite a bit like getting smashed to bits. Wish I could find a different way to fund my life's purpose, but there doesn't appear to be any other. I don't mean getting smashed to bits because it will be above me...but because I won't be in control of what I'm being influenced by for a good long while.

Comments

[minxyminou.livejournal.com]

"I think, this has been a fact nearly my entire life, and likely a great reason why my circle has shrunken so much over the years. It may seem heartless, but one must be in control of their influences, lest they be taken down the wrong path."

I can so relate.

[sathor.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised anyone does.

Thanks for making me feel not so alone :)

[sathor.livejournal.com]

Yeah, in CCs the PhD holders are usually teaching, not TAs

[noximist.livejournal.com]

In the CS department at my university, some courses are taught by TAs; however, all of the TAs at UoT are MA or PhD students, so they generally still fit the profile sydneyrodriguez describes. I've never had a problem with them, either - the school has incredibly high standards, and most of the instructors are teaching subjects that fit into their areas of expertise.

Actually, now that I think about it, some of the best lecturers I've ever had have been faculty who stopped at the MSc/MASc level, rather than getting their PhDs. The ability to do research is not equivalent to the ability to teach effectively. And man, by the time you finish your Masters project/thesis/whatever in almost any discipline, you should be more than capable of answering undergraduates' questions.

To get back to the original point of this post, I've always tried to surround myself with people who inspire and challenge me; I don't know if that makes them my equals or superiors, because that's pretty hard to quantify, but maybe it does. It's a good thing to do, because you tend to compare yourself to the people around you; they are the yardstick by which you measure your accomplishments, whether you do so consciously or not. I like being around people who kick my ass from time to time, be it intellectually or in terms of how much time they're putting into their passions - it keeps me honest. :D

Unless you live by yourself in a hut (without Internet access), there will always be outside influences in your life. The trick is to filter the barrage of information in a way that suits you, and to continue doing what you enjoy as much as you can. University doesn't have to get in the way of your independent research or your art, and if you spin your education to your advantage, it can augment both.

In the past week, I've met three people at UoT who are doing joint Specialist degrees in Music, Computer Science, and (in one case) Math. One of them's specializing in electronic music and cognitive science; somehow, both of those subjects seem like they'd be up your alley...

[sathor.livejournal.com]

Considering I'm so far outside of what constitutes the academic world anymore, except maybe in the depths of humanities, I'm not really sure I'm going to fit too well in any discipline. I don't take anything I read at face value and thinking back to the two years I did spend in college, that's probably not going to go over to well.

Scientific disciplines are worse because there always has to be the assumption of empirical proof, i.e. that whatever it is I am reading is true, and if I don't save it in my memory I'm going to flunk tests.

Dunno what I'm going to do. Maybe I'll just start walking this spring and see where I end up. Or maybe I'll try to enroll in a private school. Not going to a public.

[noximist.livejournal.com]

The thing is, if you want to learn, you'll do fine in basically any discipline. If you don't, then you may get by, but it won't be a worthwhile venture. Every class I've ever been in has rewarded independent thought, so long as that thought is well-composed and thoroughly defended. I'm sorry you have the impression that post-secondary education is all about memorization and mindless regurgitation, because that has coloured your expectations in a really negative way. I've only attended two universities so my experience is pretty limited, but I've found them to be such mind-expanding places. :/

I don't know if it's the difference between colleges and universities or what, but maybe you should talk to some like-minded people who are in various programs and see how they feel about them? Research never hurts, especially since it's such a huge commitment.

I'm curious, though, about why you'd insist on a private university. I know that Canada's different in that regard since basically everything's public, but some of the best schools in the US are public, aren't they? Berkeley springs to mind...

[sathor.livejournal.com]

Private universities have more funding, attract better professors and from the research I've done, students who graduate from private universities have much better chances at -getting- into the positions they want.

Having grown up blue collar, having seen a lot of people with broken dreams, not really interested in having society put me where it deems fit - I need to be in control, private university looks better and will give me a step up on the shitloads of people that go for public school because it's a cheap "alternative"

[noximist.livejournal.com]

That's totally fair. A big name has more cachet than a school nobody's heard of, and networking's invaluable - if you're known to important people in your chosen industry before you even graduate, that's obviously a huge advantage. Just make sure the projected return on investment is reasonable for what you want to do, eh? That is, if you're going to take a philosophy degree, find out whether or not people with BAs in Philosophy from Harvard or the other private schools on your list are actually more likely to get employed than people from other schools, and if so, how much more money they make. Those stats are out there, and they're important. It's certainly true that people who're graduating from business programs and the like get better jobs faster, but you'll want to confirm that it holds for liberal arts, as well.

If you're talking about a difference in tuition of an order of magnitude, you're risking serious debt if you don't get a fairly high salary quickly after graduation. That's how our entire generation's getting fucked over: people who aren't from rich families and who aren't on scholarship go to the best school they can get into regardless of cost, take non-professional degrees, and end up underemployed and in big financial trouble. I have friends who owe $80,000+ in student loans, and they're making $25k/yr. I don't know how they'll ever pay them off. :/

As a silly aside, it's cheaper to come to UoT as an international student (which is relatively very expensive, since our taxes aren't covering you) than it is to attend Harvard as a local. Come get a world-class education for pennies a day! ;)

[sathor.livejournal.com]

Every single person who graduated from MIT with a PhD in philosophy has a professorship. One example.

You think any public ones can say that?

[noximist.livejournal.com]

Quite possibly; I don't know. Everyone I know with a PhD who wanted a professorship has one, and I wasn't talking about people at that level when I asked that question. Generally, by the time you finish that degree, you're guaranteed a position -somewhere-.

Schools don't care so much about where you did your undergrad, though. The emphasis is on where you complete your post-graduate degree(s). I got into every grad school I was interested in even though I was coming from UNB, a university nobody cares about, because my marks were high, I had a bang-on research topic for my MA, and I'd distinguished myself with a couple of small publications. Of course, if you can get into MIT right now and can cover the tuition, I'd sure as hell do that. If I could get into MIT right now, I would!

[sathor.livejournal.com]

Ah, and I should note that I shouldn't have to do this. I shouldn't. It should be based on my merits as an individual, my intelligence, my capabilities. It shouldn't be based on the name or on who I fucking know, but it is, because our society is rotten to its fucking core.

You know, you suggested I may be depressed - things are not so peachy for a great many of people in this world, and the world itself is completely insane if you ask me.

Our country is going to lose its health care bill - I might add if my parents hadn't footed the bill for my medication, I'd likely be dead because I had a -blood infection-

We're going to lose it because people in this country believe in capitalism and its false virtues, because they are too stupid to read anything of substance, and because they glue themselves to television sets and media without message as opposed to learning what's really going on around them.

Sorry to get angry, but I'm in a pretty volatile mood.

[noximist.livejournal.com]

How does anyone hiring you know if you're a dud or a superstar without seeing what you've accomplished and hearing from the people who actually know you and who they trust? That's the core of networking, at least in principle. Yeah, it gets fucked up by nepotism and privilege, I agree. Stupid, lazy people end up in good jobs because they know the right people and pull the right strings. But that having been said, as someone who worked at a company that specialized in doing background checks on final job applicants: it's really, really hard to tell who is and isn't good from a resume and a job interview. Networking allows you to put yourself in the position where you look good on paper because of your merits as an individual, plus you have the backing of someone who's already known to be trustworthy.

I don't think that's bad. We're a social species, after all. The trick is that merit should matter most, but it's hard to measure up-front... so we have to rely on pieces of paper and other people's word. Once you're in, your merit will conduct you upward.

There are a lot of fucked up things in the world. I'm aware that I lead an exceptionally lucky life, even compared to other people in my incredibly lucky country, and I'm quite insulated from a lot of problems as a result. The reason I suggested you might be depressed, though, is because almost everything you talk about is negative: home life, personal life, social life, academic life, etc. It's one thing to see terrible things in the world and want to fix them, but another to think that there's no good anywhere. There's a lot of good -everywhere-, and despite its generally FUBAR health care system, you're still in a generally fantastic country.

One of my very good friends is from Iraq, and midway through a conversation we were having a few months ago, he stopped and stared at me for a while. "You don't know anything about how hard life can be," he told me, and I think that goes for damned near all of us who have homes, some money, and lives that don't involve knowing how to tell how far away the bomb that just hit was. Compared to almost everyone else on Earth, we have all the luck in the world, and yet so many people are still angry so much of the time...

Know what the weirdest thing is? Despite his general hatred of his home country, that friend still insists that Baghdad's air is full of magic. He sees good in a place where I can't imagine there being any good at all, and it still confuses me.

[sathor.livejournal.com]

Well noxi, I probably am a dud.

You see, I'm completely and utterly worthless. What I do, nobody is interested in. Philosophy won't pay back the cost. Theology is dying to be replaced by atheism. I have to tell you, I'm not happy with the death of God. People are so stupid, violent and easily manipulated, without a divine standard they are ultimately doomed. I'll be doomed to living the life of a squatter if I choose either or both, likely. So why bother? Maybe I should just suck it up, and like the vast majority of human beings on the planet, get a stupid, worthless, way underneath the vast computational power of the human brain job and do that for 40 years to feed the endless consumptive nature of humanity brainwashed by advertising for more than a generation now.

Why bother in a capitalist society, because even if I do succeed a great deal, I'm stealing from the rest of the world, from people who need it more than me.

You know, there just isn't a point. I don't expect you to understand. Psychological claims can be thrown all about as much as people desire them to be, but psychology hasn't come any closer to explaining a single whit of reality, just the subjective perception of it with the label of empiricism because once you have one person's idea that appears to be right, others start agreeing and it snowballs into one gigantic piece of shit. Gives a reason to medicate people who have perceptions that are outside of what the middle of the sine wave of reality are sensing. I'm not the only person that believes everything is suffering, in fact, there's numerous Buddhists all over the planet. Funny that here in the west we have a term for those who perceive it - depressed. I wonder if they would've said that to Buddha? I wonder if they would've handed him anti-psychotics? Would anyone have even listened to him if he came to the world today?

I think it's safe to say that the battle has been won, that the senses of the people have been so overstimulated by this modern existence that the only thing that matters is getting -more-. More sex, more media, more money, more power, more objects, more of everything but love, more of everything but unity, because it is in our desires we have been divided as a people.

[sathor.livejournal.com]

Too bad I don't take drugs that modify my brain chemistry permanently. Not interested.

As for your assumptions, hey, you're welcome to make them. The thing is, they would've put Buddha on anti-psychotics.

[sathor.livejournal.com]

Not a good idea to post a .gov link on drugs in my direction. Do outside research first, please, I have spent years doing research on it and I really don't feel like getting into a pointless argument on it, because the fact is, it is mostly harmless, far less harmless than alcohol with certainty.

LSD and Mushrooms? Done them both. Point being? They aren't known to cause any long term effects, most of the -few- studies done designate them as being very valuable in certain forms of therapy before they were outlawed. Peyote is still legal for those of certain native american bloodlines. They result in a different state of consciousness and I'm pretty much of the opinion that if I don't know how many lives I get, I better experience what I can.

Therapy? Over what? "Oh, can you please fix the world for me, I think it's broken, I think capitalism forces the vast majority of people to not reach their fullest genetic potential so as to continue to perpetuate a small minority of elites, and I think it's fucked up that people still have this warped perception that it actually does anything positive for the world whatsoever."

I don't -believe in psychology- the only psychology i -do- believe in is Jungian and personally I don't feel like it's really a therapeutic one at all, besides the inherent understanding that comes from reading his works.

No, I don't really care to read anything with regards to businesses abusing psychology to obtain greater profits. Governments are quite capable of creating weakness through social conditioning and that is exploited. Until capitalism ceases to exist it is never going to be about what is good for people, it's going to be about what is good for the bottom line. If at this moment in history that involves things good for people, that's at this moment of history, and it is quite unlikely that trend will continue indefinitely.

[sathor.livejournal.com]

That may be true in some cases but I hardly think a blanket generalization really holds true. I do agree I should learn more about capitalism but it's kindof hard to do that when you're already a voracious socialist. I know the nature of capitalism and it has always been the same, will always be the same, i know this because I've seen the same thing many writers long before me have. You know maybe -someday- it will change, but it's never going to be -more equal- which is what needs to happen if every single child on this planet is going to have equal opportunity. It's only fair that they do, because otherwise you end up with rich kids (and very poor people as well) who can spend their lives in college and do anything they want, and people like me (a significant portion) who are struggling just to decide if the -investment- is going to end up -leaving me penniless and squatting- or -actually give me a shot at something worthwhile in this world other than packing shit into boxes or chatting up people at a cash register-

To be honest, I don't really -feel- like I need therapy. My journal is my journal. It's never really been a place of good things, and it probably never will be - it's more a place for philosophy, a rather neutral thing, and getting things out. This post originally was just some musings on Confucius, you'll see Minx totally got the idea, and totally saw it in a completely different way than you and noxi did, in fact, she made me feel very -loved- with what she said. Just because I don't have a lot of friends does not mean I'm depressed. A lot of things -are- bad in my life right now Shauna, if that's really surprising I'm sorry, but trust me - it's not like my family doesn't know it too. The thing is, what I really need is -empathy- I don't need people telling me I have more problems than I alread have, or how to fix them. I used to do this to Cookie and I regret it severely. What she needed -was empathy- and not me trying to help her grow up and out of it.

I'm sorry this got so ridiculously out of control, but last night was just a bad night, all I've had lately are people tearing into me at all sides, and I really can't put it up with it anymore. I had a good number of people tear into my music admittedly -just because they knew it'd get under my skin- and that really put me in a bad place.

[sathor.livejournal.com]

If you want to believe in the nonexistent virtues of capitalism, the economic style that has raped so very many people for generations now, that's your choice. It's a popular one and I'm not going to bother trying to defend a system which is inherently better for the whole of humanity, because that's the -direct aim- of it. Capitalism does not have a direct aim of helping the whole of humanity, and these companies succeeding (minding correlation does not mean causation) is not indicative of capitalism itself becoming better for the world than it ever was. Capitalism has the direct aim of allowing a few to succeed very incredibly, a larger portion to succeed, a much larger portion to be exploited for the very reason of allowing the smaller portions to succeed - just like slavery. The changes in our quality of life in this generation are not due to a success in capitalism but a success in technology, and capitalism is still acting as a glass ceiling for most people. In fact, capitalism -is- slavery, it's -wage slavery-.

I've read my journals from when I started this many times. I am not that much worse off, besides, you know, that I had someone of your relation give me HPV, cheat on me numerous times, and emotionally and sexually abuse me. Prior to that I had someone else completely destroy my ego. Maybe if you were faced with similar issues, namely, worrying that no one is ever going to give you a chance in a relationship because you have an incurable STD, you wouldn't feel so good about your future. Or, maybe if your job history was as shitty as mine, or maybe if you weren't sure your choice of profession was going to lead to the ability to even -survive- you would feel like I do. I have not done a 180, and I am not destroying myself. I am rather dissatisfied with my self, and I do figure that if I -was- worth something, by now, I would've managed something more than I have. I am -concerned- that I'm not going to -get- the opportunities I need to succeed. I am -worried-. I am not depressed.

Maybe the key is that I'd like to believe that society determines what it wants and doesn't want for itself, and it would appear that, so far, society wants absolutely -nothing- to do with someone like me. Hey, it's not like history hasn't set the precedent with various socially isolated philosophers and with the killing of socialists and whatnot.

[sathor.livejournal.com]

When they mix the systems, what happens is you have minorities granted free rides religiously, and those that come out of povertous households The "working class" get pinched, because, in my opinion, the system -wants working class children to become working class- and obviously, those coming from white collar families are going to have it much easier to begin with.

I looked at the cost for Oxford for one year, 6,000 Euros last year. That's a college you can actually transfer from princeton to. What's princeton? Like 40,000US. Problem is that you can't get FAFSA aid for out of country unless it -is- a "foreign transfer" for a year from a US college.

This country -is fucking ridiculous- and I don't see how more people aren't raising flags about it! We have the most atrocious higher education of any developed country in the fucking world! Higher education needs to be subsidized -at least- to the bachelors level, 100% as far as I'm concerned, shouldn't cost you a penny since you're going to be hard pressed to do much of anything beyond factory and service without a tech degree or a bachelors.

I have to get my fucking diploma first, my tax return is going to be half of it, my sister owes me $300 and hopefully my parents will pick up the change -just so I can get out of here and not have wasted 2.5 years of my life-

Your job history sounds similar to mine, I just worry that no one will take me because I'm a 22 year old with 6 months unemployed after college prior to his first "real" job and 6 months after quitting so far. I'm completely checked out with regards to working here, I don't have a car, and I don't want to work in the shitholes in this area anymore.

She lied to her whole family? Honestly, wouldn't know. Wouldn't know what she told anyone. All I do know is that most of my ex-friends won't talk to me and are buddy buddy with her. She still says she doesn't have HPV, and I'm sure her sexual tendencies haven't changed. Hopefully someday it comes back to bite her, because I don't feel it's very fair I'm dealing with visible symptoms and she's gotten off scott free so far. Maybe the current love of her life will end up with the symptoms too and then she'll get it through her thick, dumbass skull.

And uhh, it's not a matter of not being able to have a relationship without sex - it's a matter of getting to that point in a relationship and not wanting to have to deal with someone I've already become attached to saying, "sorry, this can't go on because you have HPV" and I think if you went around and asked people who are STD free if they got into a situation like that, you'd find unanimously that they -would leave-. -hopefully- there's a person with enough love out there willing to accept the possibility of contracting it, meaning they actually -desire to be in a monogamous relationship for life with me-

On the other hand, maybe it's a -good- thing, because it'll make me more likely to put off sex and it'll screen for someone who really loves me. Time will tell.

Cookie is a liar, yes, the problem is you can't get her to admit to it and personally I never understood that. She's emotionally abusive, controlling and if she were a male I'm pretty sure she'd be physically abusive. I remember the tantrums she would throw. I remember a lot more than I used to.

Unfortunately, that experience has left me very suspicious of women with any degree of beauty.

[sathor.livejournal.com]

Reading "If you're willing to pay that in return for the benefits provided, then that's what immigration is for, since it'd be nearly impossible to convince enough of the US to go to that system and have the lawmakers actually do it right." put this in perspective actually. What we have now are a lot of near-retirement and middle aged folks who didn't -have- to have a college education to get to their income level, but -anyone replacing them- will probably need it. -THEY- don't want to pay a tax increase like that, but I bet you money anyone burdened with huge college loans -would have- ... I -know- I would. It's for the better of society, that is a burden worth carrying! That is my problem with society mainly, individuals are hardly willing to carry burdens for others, and this is caused partially by our systems of media and social conditioning, the capitalist mentality which I'm not really sure we can ever be rid of without a system to replace it.

Oxford would have cost $6,000 euros last year. I don't know why it increased this year suddenly (I noticed that as well.) Likely because they were getting a lot of US applicants who wanted to escape the US costs, and they had to compensate for that. And yeah, it is interesting that Devry roughly compares to Oxford cost-wise - Oxford is an incredibly brand name school. Not saying Devry isn't, but I'd say Oxford is an ivy-league of the world.

Cookie left me claiming she had "become a result of her upbringing" - that was the only excuse she ever really had, everything else were cop-outs and finger pointing at me (and I'm a good person, I have my moments where I doubt it because I haven't had any relationships since, but I think that's honestly a result of my circumstances and not me as a human being.) If she really believes she can't control who she is, then that's even worse. Fundamentally, that shouldn't be an issue and you shouldn't be using it as an excuse for atrocious behavior. Being a "slut" or a poly -openly- is one thing, claiming to be monogamous, staying in those relationships and having fun on the outside all the while lying about it is a breach of trust, and poly's don't even agree with that sort of shit. They have -rules- too.

[sathor.livejournal.com]

Ah, one other thing. Buddha didn't leave the city until the age of 29.

Just for frame of reference. You are turning this into a much bigger deal than it actually is, and you, having no knowledge really of hardly any of the circumstances at work right now, really have no place to be giving me advice. Your life is entirely different than mine.

I am expressing my feelings and you ARE TELLING ME I AM WRONG. THAT is unacceptable, and you can take your psychological bullshit and find someone else to throw it at.

If you can diagnose an individual -over the internet- maybe you should make a living doing that.

[sathor.livejournal.com]

Or, you know, maybe I'm genuinely defensive because I'm sick and tired of having this or that labeled by the fucking collaborative nitwits subjective perception of what constitutes a healthy and unhealthy being with no fucking absolute standard whatsoever.

[sathor.livejournal.com]

I didn't say -you- were part of the collaborative nitwits, I am speaking strictly of psychological terms used to define subjective analysis of perceptions without absolute empirical standards.

Please, do not take it that way, I would never personally attack someone over something like this.

[sathor.livejournal.com]

Well, I feel like it was a justified ad hominem attack in this case, but I suppose the statement would've held it's weight without it. I did warn I was in a volatile mood somewhere in this giant snowball.

[sathor.livejournal.com]

But deal - forgot to add that.

[sathor.livejournal.com]

Speaking strictly of those who have -developed- said terms. That needed to be clarified.

[sathor.livejournal.com]

And maybe the problem is that any attempt made by people in this society TO FUCKING EXPRESS THEMSELVES HONESTLY is met WITH VEHEMENT RESISTANCE and an ATTEMPT TO DIAGNOSE THEM WITH SOME KIND OF FUCKING PROBLEM, BECAUSE CERTAINLY, IT'S NOT POSSIBLE THAT THEY CAN FEEL THIS WAY BECAUSE OF THE WORLD THEY SEE, IT MUST BE A BRAIN CHEMICAL IMBALANCE! IT MUST BE SOMETHING -WRONG- WITH THEM, OH NO, IT COULD NEVER BE SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE WORLD, SOMETHING FUCKED UP IN THEIR LIFE, CIRCUMSTANCES OUTSIDE OF THEIR CONTROL AT THE MOMENT, LACK OF RESOURCES, OH NO, NEVER THAT! IT MUST BE THE INDIVIDUAL'S PROBLEM, NOT A PROBLEM OF THE WORLD, BECAUSE THIS WORLD IS JUST GODS DAMNED -PERFECT- ISN'T IT?

[sathor.livejournal.com]

I know you offered me a place to stay, and I thank you for that, and some day I might take you up on that offer, but right now I'm still working on details for college, and until I have that worked out, I'm not going anywhere.

[sendao.livejournal.com]

Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right.

Nah, he can whether he thinks he can or not. A lot of people are confused about this, but your ability to do something like create music is limited by your willingness to do it, not your impression of your ability. If you still continue to do the thing, but decide you suck, that's probably a good thing, because it means you will be improving by removing the parts that suck. Sathor's satisfied in other ways, I believe, so it's not like he's clinically depressed. This seems quite healthy, really, disbelief in your own abilities. It makes you question them, break apart the parts that don't work. You must also succeed and enjoy things, and I can tell you he loves his own music and other musics, so, there's definitely elements of that too. It's pretty cool, really.

If any being exists, it exists regardless of anyone's belief in it.

Ability is. Thus, it is a being, which exists. However, belief is indeed connected to reality. That which we believe in which does not exist, has ways of coming to exist, through our creativeness. Additionally, if you stop believing in it, stop using it, stop making it part of your life, what meaning does it have anymore? What existence, even, except perhaps in a landfill somewhere - whether it be a real landfill or the necromantic graveyards of the mind.

Saying that it exists regardless of anyone's belief is such a chaotic interpretation! And it leads to dangerous thinking. Do you know what too much thinking will cause?

We all disagree too much.
You say, disagreeing heavily with Sathor. I disagree with you. Personally I don't agree or disagree nearly enough, as there are quite a few wrong people on the Internet that I need to correct, and quite a few right people who I probably also should be contacting. Oh well, I rather like letting my neurons stretch in vague doomed quadrants of thought. You see, it's my choice how much I expose myself, so if you want to disagree with anything that I do expose, well, haven't I only given you that ability by exposing it in the first place?

But the fact is, theism IS dying. How much do YOU believe? And as a world we should probably mourn it, as a great many morons are going to realize they don't have to behave anymore. But we'll see how things go. I have a feeling they won't turn out as gloomy as Sathor may express. We may have a new era and a noosphere upon our conscience, as well as the love of each other, that agreeing with each other bit that we don't do enough of, which may turn things around. Here's to hoping.

[noximist.livejournal.com]

Cooool, I just made myself curious, so I was poking around in search of Ivy League tuition costs, and discovered this: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/education/25brown.html. Apparently a bunch of the Ivies have started waiving tuition fees for students whose families have a low combined income, which is awesome! If your parents make less than $60k, you should definitely look into it. Getting into Brown is no easy task, of course, but the price is right. ;)

[sathor.livejournal.com]

At this point, I'd fight for my parents having no fucking role whatsoever with regards to that. Because they don't. And if the system wants to tell me otherwise, I'll wait until I'm fucking 25.

They are blue collar, have no comprehension of this, live paycheck to paycheck and I was lucky that they helped pay for half of my community college. They make over 60k together. Don't ask me about anything with regards to their finances - my mother got so far into debt credit card companies were calling daily for a year until they consolidated. Neither my father nor the rest of the family had any idea what it really all came from.

I made $1,000 at the first job I ever had, never saw any of it. There's other things that don't add up, but I don't trust my parents to be helpful in any of this anymore, because they aren't.

No, I don't pay rent. But I'll probably be getting kicked out soon enough anyway.

[sathor.livejournal.com]

Actually, I wouldn't call that as much of a problem as I would a necessity.

1 hour of work at minimum wage in 1977 could have bought you 12 loaves of bread. Today it will buy you three.

[sathor.livejournal.com]

Additionally, I remember hearing about this on national news.

The thing is, Harvard costs 50,000+ a year, so expecting that parents making 60,000 or greater to pay is absurd. The cutoff should've been more like $100,000, which is far more reasonable, and is also under what miss Hillary Clinton thought middle class was ($140k/y)

[noximist.livejournal.com]

Most of the schools are offering partial or full grants for students whose families earn between $60-$100k, so you're correct. When I was looking, I saw offers like that for Yale, Stanford, Brown, and Harvard, and I'm sure there are more, as well.

Ivy League tuition prices in the States are mind-boggling to me, but at least the schools are starting to realize that they can profitably use their endowments to bring in brilliant students who can't fork out $150k for a degree. There was a recent study that suggested most students who go to those schools never really recoup that cost (compared to students who completed similar programs at cheaper institutions)...