Today...

[Randox]

I feel like Canadian Universities are substantially more subsidixed. My classes are about $3,500 a term (it's ~700 per course), and would be about that, maybe a bit more, for residence and meal plan (meal plans are not optional). I might also feel that way since I essentially board for free (housemates pay my mortgage and utilities).

[Estonian dude]

Estonian universities are free...

 

Right now wondering, whether to get a PS Vita. Brother will most likely get a PS4 in the autumn as well. But I already have an iPad and a PS3 and an android smartphone...

 

Oh and in Norway there sometimes even is swimming weather.

And wtf is up with the weather? The fields have dried up, grass is not growing, cattle is starving. Last 2 years grass didn't grow because it was flooded with rain all the time, this year I have had 3 days of rain in more than 2 weeks...

[stevepole]

I could have saved a lot of money on my education if it was subsidized, but at the end of the day it doesn't bother me. It is what it is.

[purpieman2]

I learned of the card game "Bang!", which is fun. Too many people makes it slow and kind of boring though. Also getting back into board games. Some zombie ones are actually really fun

[constrictor]

Took apart my entire Precision Bass, and decided I am going to (over time) upgrade everything. Having a friend of mine paint the body Matte Black (flat black) with a non-scratch over-spray as well as getting a mirror-gold pickguard - in addition to the active pickups that I have ordered already. Future purchases will be a customized neck plate (sparrow engraving - black) and hopefully a new neck as well as black tuning pegs.

 

Hopefully will spend less than 500$ on the entire thing and will result in having a bass equally good to what you would buy for ~1300$ - and customized to my preference.

 

Bless fender for creating such interchangeable parts.

[jasignhagj]

They're not really "free", they're just paid for collectively. Unless the professors work for no pay and the buildings were constructed by slaves then you're paying for them in some way.

 

Similar to healthcare, the cost of education is a lot lower per capita when it's funded by the government instead of run by corporations.

[BobbieK]

I settled some more into my new house. My bathroom is all pink, like the princess I am. I'm finally back on the internet after much rigmarole, only to find the game has gone haywire, probably with the preparation for 3. We finally had a home cooked meal for dinner instead of take away we've been surviving on with everything packed .. it was the best spaghetti I ever ate.

It's very cold in Perth, Western Australia at the moment, surely not as cold as it gets in the US and Canada, but cold for us, and we're near the beach so the winds make it worse. While I'm holding onto a hot coffee having a smoke in the alfresco area, I'm thinking someone should invent a patio chair that follows the sun while you sit in it. LOL. You're sitting there in the morning sun and all of a sudden, the sun moves and you're cold.

This is a nice DISCUSSION isn't it? I say as I ..

[Randox]

Each approach to university funding has its ups and downs. It's an easy way to influence the proportion of various educations. You need other things, like the trades as well. We use it as an incentive to school in your own province, and it is substantially more expensive to coke to Canada from other countries, though we have no shortage of foreign students, even Americans coming north to save some money, or because they like our schools.

 

I think all huskys sound like they are being killed when they're upset. They aren't much for whining as a breed, prefering to sound like they're being attacked. I don't miss that.

 

Found out why our collie looks like a bear keg most of the year. He was originally shaved because his fur got super tangles from swimming, and it would take more than an hour just to comb a few square inches. As a result, they had to shave him all the way, was to tangled to cut, and as a result his guard hairs have never grown back. Guard hairs are the ones that lay down, and without them all his fur grows strait out. By the time he gets shaved for the summer again, it's adding nearly two inches width to each side of him. I didn't realize that's why his fur was like that, I just assumed he was naturally fluffy for some reason.

[Giordano]

They're not really "free", they're just paid for collectively. Unless the professors work for no pay and the buildings were constructed by slaves then you're paying for them in some way.

That was the case under the USSR. :razz:

[Kalphite]

Yeah... about $20000 a semester here, GOD BLESS AMERICA

 

Where do you go? I go to Tech; unless I'm mistaken if it's public, probably UofM? There are like three TIFers there I think.

 

Yeah, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. Though I just realized that I had a brainfart and that figure i gave is the tuition for two semesters. My cost per semester when housing is factored in is actually closer to $16000 - which still blows.

 

I haven't seen any other TIFers from there though lol.

[champion]

Approximately 27k a year here for a total cost (tuition, housing, food, etc). Fall, winter, and spring quarter make it about 9k per quarter (which I guess is really more like a trimester since there are three I attend, but whatever). Extremely glad that I've had parents and grandparents who have helped saved up, because there's no possible way I could "work my way" through college at this point. I'm sure I'll still end up with some sort of student loan debt though.

 

And that's on the average/slightly cheap side for a state school :/

[Nom]

Looks like I still have the highest tuition. Pyrric victory.

 

I'd never be able to afford full tuition though and a good 70% of the students here pay full or close, so, culture shock.

[Estonian dude]

Flat tax rates ftw.

 

Though, university is only free, IF you get in. AND you have to earn enough points each semester, or you will pay.

[Kaida23]

Yesterday I found out that my best friend might be getting kicked out of his house because his landlord is an idiot. He's been paying his rent every month (and has the cancelled cheques and bank statements to prove it), but the landlord hasn't been paying the mortgage so the bank's repossessed the house. He's really stressed about it, and spent yesterday drinking and worrying. :(

[obfuscator]

Made my 8,000th post. Imagine what I could have done with all that time had I used it productively.

 

TIF is productivity

 

(i'm in denial)

 

@Randox. Yeah, it's very heavily subsidized here. I paid $4k a year for school, I had an international student in my class (exact same program) who was paying 20.

[Estonian dude]

Finished Far Cry 3.

Great game.

I [bleep]ing spoiled the ending for myself accidentally yesterday, so that twist didn't catch me, but awesome still.

 

Next up: Batman: Arkham City.

And if it turns out that we are going to Sweden next week, I think I am gonna get a PS Vita. It is just 1700 SEK in there, which is about €190, which is cheap as [bleep].

And games are also surprisingly cheap.

[purpieman2]

Estonian universities are free...

 

 

Surprised. China's high schools cost money and College is even more.

[Tim]

Yesterday I found out that my best friend might be getting kicked out of his house because his landlord is an idiot. He's been paying his rent every month (and has the cancelled cheques and bank statements to prove it), but the landlord hasn't been paying the mortgage so the bank's repossessed the house. He's really stressed about it, and spent yesterday drinking and worrying. :(

 

Just...wow. That's an insane dick-move on the landlord's behalf. Your friend should get compensation or something because that's just wrong. :\

[purpieman2]

Seems awful. But maybe it's a money issue and not the internal aspect of the landlord? Stinks either way for the friend

[BobbieK]

Yesterday I found out that my best friend might be getting kicked out of his house because his landlord is an idiot. He's been paying his rent every month (and has the cancelled cheques and bank statements to prove it), but the landlord hasn't been paying the mortgage so the bank's repossessed the house. He's really stressed about it, and spent yesterday drinking and worrying. :(

 

***

I would offer a room in my new house but I'm on the other side of the planet.

 

Sometimes a long term good tenant is an asset when selling. So your friend should find out who the bank is and find out what the process is and whether or not he can stay.

My advice for looking for a new place, because rentals in my city are very very hard to get as we found last year or so when we were renting while this house was being built, driven by the mining boom - all the interstate and international employees monopolised the rental market, and the mining companies who reserved a bunch of them. ANYWAY. If going through a real estate, always offer more rent than what is being asked, and if there's a yard or even a courtyard, talk about and put on the application your masterful gardening skills, it matters, the front garden affects the value of the house as well as the whole street, if you have a fancy lawn mower etc, do mention that. If you're going private as in dealing directly with the owner/landlords turn up to the viewing with the money or your cheque book, dressed well, professionally, and if possible, accompanied by your mother, even when you're as old as me. Pull out your money or cheque book and say something like 'I/we'd like to settle this today'. With the actual moving, if you have an automatic driver's license you can hire a 3 tonne truck to drive yourself, they are made for a regular driver's license now and most have a tail lift. Young teenagers next door or whatever appreciate $20 to help with the loading. Local removalist companies often sell second-hand moving boxes/crates for $5 or $10 each, much easier than scouting the stores for their throwaways, sometimes people sell them in the newspaper for less. And then the masking tape is very cheap to buy.

Moving is a big headache, I've done it, I counted just the other day, 32 times in my adult life, sometimes that has been having to start all over again with nothing, which is why even though my mum has fancy new one's I have insisted on storing my old dining set, fridge, washer and double futon in the garage for the day anyone I know is going through such a move, because I know what it's like.

 

I hope any of that helps.

[Randox]

Had a thought over the weekend, and I have to credit cracked for getting me to take a look at this. I have thought in the past about getting a different style of keyboard, but I hadn't even considered that there are other layouts that use the same keys as a qwerty (just arranged differently). Given that I am planning to make a living programming (typing), and how much I do it anyway, it makes sense to get something better than a layout that was expressly designed to make typing slow and awkward. So, over the remainder of the summer I will be teaching myself the dvorak layout.

 

The trick will be that I can't look at the keyboard while learning it, since all my keys are obviously wrong. So that's going to be fun before my fingers learn where all the keys have gone. Should be fun, and ultimately well worth it.

[jasignhagj]

They're not really "free", they're just paid for collectively. Unless the professors work for no pay and the buildings were constructed by slaves then you're paying for them in some way.

 

Similar to healthcare, the cost of education is a lot lower per capita when it's funded by the government instead of run by corporations.

That statement is misleading. It's a lower price per capita because there are more people paying - everyone who pays taxes (in the "European" system or whatever you want to call it) vs. everyone who is enrolled (in the "American" system). The price is the same in either case, and the amount paid is the same. The thing people seem to forget is that in the European system you're paying for other people to go to university through some percentage of your taxes for the rest of your life. Theoretically that amount over the course of a lifetime is equivalent to the sticker price of a four year education under the American system (though of course it isn't for most people because of graduated income taxes and sales taxes affecting individuals of different socioeconomic statuses differently).

 

tl;dr you pay less while actually in college but that money comes from taxes which you will be paying yourself

 

The amount paid isn't the same though. Americans pay about 1.8x more per person for healthcare than Canadians, and after some brief research you also pay more per student for education.

[Tesset]

Had a thought over the weekend, and I have to credit cracked for getting me to take a look at this. I have thought in the past about getting a different style of keyboard, but I hadn't even considered that there are other layouts that use the same keys as a qwerty (just arranged differently). Given that I am planning to make a living programming (typing), and how much I do it anyway, it makes sense to get something better than a layout that was expressly designed to make typing slow and awkward. So, over the remainder of the summer I will be teaching myself the dvorak layout.

 

The trick will be that I can't look at the keyboard while learning it, since all my keys are obviously wrong. So that's going to be fun before my fingers learn where all the keys have gone. Should be fun, and ultimately well worth it.

Be warned, you'll forget qwerty, which will be a *huge* pain if you ever use someone else's computer. Other people will hate your keyboard too, so don't plan on lending out your computer ever. As far as I could tell from my roommate, it's also only marginally faster, especially if you're not a particularly fast typer (Which, okay, I assume you are, but still.) But really, most of the time you spend typing isn't spent actually typing, it's spent thinking about what to type, which is not sped or slowed by a dvorak keyboard.

[Furah]

They're not really "free", they're just paid for collectively. Unless the professors work for no pay and the buildings were constructed by slaves then you're paying for them in some way.

 

Similar to healthcare, the cost of education is a lot lower per capita when it's funded by the government instead of run by corporations.

That statement is misleading. It's a lower price per capita because there are more people paying - everyone who pays taxes (in the "European" system or whatever you want to call it) vs. everyone who is enrolled (in the "American" system). The price is the same in either case, and the amount paid is the same. The thing people seem to forget is that in the European system you're paying for other people to go to university through some percentage of your taxes for the rest of your life. Theoretically that amount over the course of a lifetime is equivalent to the sticker price of a four year education under the American system (though of course it isn't for most people because of graduated income taxes and sales taxes affecting individuals of different socioeconomic statuses differently).

 

With healthcare this isn't true, and presumably would be similar with education. I don't think it states it in that article, but with another one I've read, even in the same hospital the charges for each insurance company is different.

[Randox]

I'm more interested in potentially less arm strain and fewer typos, and perhaps just a more comfortable rhythm. As for forgetting qwerty, I have to assume it depends on how much you use it (and I do work on other computers). In the words of the guy who gave me the idea:

 

I learned Dvorak because if I'm going to be careless enough to be born before direct neural links are invented, I'm not going to accept artificial barriers built by people who thought fresh air was a good cure for syphilis. You never forget QWERTY, but switching back feels like signing your fingers up for a spin class instead of using a motorbike.

 

That said, while I type fairly fast, typos aside, I can't quite match the spoken word. Imagine your friend who talks pretty fast. I think about that speed, so it would be nice if my fingers would keep up. I also do not have a great typing style, I never learned properly, which makes it harder. I'm not sure if I'll ever unlearn that, but a new layout where I will go slow enough to watch what my hands do is my best chance, and if not, not having to move them as much will help.

 

And just because I really like the quote, and because I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment:

Slot machines are the most existentially obvious scam: The fact that they're there proves that they make money for the casino by taking it away from everyone else. Anything the player says after that point isn't an argument, it's an error report from their brain.