Today...

[Solemn]

Had a run-in with a toxic fella, yet my passive aggression managed to avoid it completely. Getting there Solemn, getting there.

[The Observer]

@Randox, I've posted here quite a bit recently, although my activity has been rather sporadic.

 

And yeah @Dash et al, I get what you mean. It was just a thought I had earlier today now that school's starting again. I suppose it's just that time of year where everyone feels overwhelmed.

 

Anyone have experience learning how to drive without parent's help? My parents haven't driven since the 80s and I haven't really seen them except for casual visits other than 12th grade. I'm aiming to get my full licence so it gives me a lot of freedom in the future.

[obfuscator]

@Randox, I've posted here quite a bit recently, although my activity has been rather sporadic.

 

And yeah @Dash et al, I get what you mean. It was just a thought I had earlier today now that school's starting again. I suppose it's just that time of year where everyone feels overwhelmed.

 

Anyone have experience learning how to drive without parent's help? My parents haven't driven since the 80s and I haven't really seen them except for casual visits other than 12th grade. I'm aiming to get my full licence so it gives me a lot of freedom in the future.

take a driving course, you can get them as cheap as $300

[Bonez899]

 

@Randox, I've posted here quite a bit recently, although my activity has been rather sporadic.

 

And yeah @Dash et al, I get what you mean. It was just a thought I had earlier today now that school's starting again. I suppose it's just that time of year where everyone feels overwhelmed.

 

Anyone have experience learning how to drive without parent's help? My parents haven't driven since the 80s and I haven't really seen them except for casual visits other than 12th grade. I'm aiming to get my full licence so it gives me a lot of freedom in the future.

take a driving course, you can get them as cheap as $300

Seconded, my driving course more or less prepared me for the drivers test alone, along with allowing me to test in their car. Otherwise look for a friend that trusts you and is willing to give up some time to allow you to practice if needed.

[The Observer]

 

@Randox, I've posted here quite a bit recently, although my activity has been rather sporadic.

 

And yeah @Dash et al, I get what you mean. It was just a thought I had earlier today now that school's starting again. I suppose it's just that time of year where everyone feels overwhelmed.

 

Anyone have experience learning how to drive without parent's help? My parents haven't driven since the 80s and I haven't really seen them except for casual visits other than 12th grade. I'm aiming to get my full licence so it gives me a lot of freedom in the future.

take a driving course, you can get them as cheap as $300

 

I'm actually currently enrolled in one, but they suggest that you get training outside of the school because the Ministry of Transportation actually recommends that you get 80 hours before your driving test.

[Ammako]

[obfuscator]

 

 

@Randox, I've posted here quite a bit recently, although my activity has been rather sporadic.

 

And yeah @Dash et al, I get what you mean. It was just a thought I had earlier today now that school's starting again. I suppose it's just that time of year where everyone feels overwhelmed.

 

Anyone have experience learning how to drive without parent's help? My parents haven't driven since the 80s and I haven't really seen them except for casual visits other than 12th grade. I'm aiming to get my full licence so it gives me a lot of freedom in the future.

take a driving course, you can get them as cheap as $300

 

I'm actually currently enrolled in one, but they suggest that you get training outside of the school because the Ministry of Transportation actually recommends that you get 80 hours before your driving test.

 

You can probably pay for some extra hours. Other than that there's no option but borrowing a car.

[muggiwhplar]

I can confirm this as someone who works at Tim Hortons with bills hovering regularly around the $4 mark. It's something I have to explain regularly to customers.

 

In other news, does anyone else feel like they've fallen behind their peers their own age sometimes?

 

I've never really felt that way, but then again I'm a bit of a pariah among my friends and that's something I became used to long ago :) A lot of my friends changed (for the worse) after college graduation. They started working 9-5 in cubicles as "financial analysts" and they all got engaged to their significant others and gained a lot of weight :P For a while they gave me a few odd looks, wondering why I wasn't in a rush to settle down or why I didn't want the security of a 9-5 job (I went into 100% commission sales instead). But now I think they're gradually beginning to realize why I chose the path that I did :D

 

It's kind of sad and frustrating seeing them place such a low value on their major life decisions, and gradually become depressed as a result of it, but that's what happens when you don't have specific long-term goals...

 

There's the friend of mine who keeps dipping his toe into the online dating world but hasn't been on a date in 2 years and is still a virgin. Whenever he asks me for advice, his response to my advice is, "But I shouldn't have to do that!" So he will continue to remain a virgin w/o any dates.

 

There's the friend of mine who's been working 80 hours/week now for the past few years with no signs of letting up, constantly stressed out. I ask him what his career goal is-- why is he working so hard. He says his only goal right now is to "work less hours." I tell him that's not a goal. A goal is "to work 40 hours a week, while still making X money per year, by June 2016." I ask him what he'd be willing to sacrifice and prioritize in order to achieve a goal like that, he doesn't know. So he will continue to work 80 hours/week for the next several years until he sits down and makes up his mind about his future.

 

There's the friend of mine who's starting to get successful at dating, but he doesn't know what he wants as far as relationships go. He doesn't know if he just wants to mess around, or if he wants a serious non-exclusive relationship, or if he wants to get traditionally married. So he sleeps with a girl and the next day she calls him and demands to know "what are we?" He doesn't know, he hurts her feelings because he's been leading her on. He calls me and tells me about how bad he feels for hurting her feelings... because he has no goals and failed to set up the proper expectations with her upfront.

 

That's just a few of them, there's about a dozen more friends/stories like that haha. Oh well, they'll learn some day :P

[Ember]

.

[Arceus]

I luckily had the good fortune of my parents (meaning my father) teach me how to drive. Although he got me a few lessons with an instructor in a car with an extra brake on the passenger's side first because I guess he didn't quite trust me just in case.

[RpgGamer]

My dad took me driving for the first time in a blizzard. His logic is that if I could drive in a blizzard I could drive in just about anything. It certainly helped

[Arceus]

I sure hope that was legal lol. I guess the logic is probably sound <_>

[Randox]

Being able to drive the test with the car you practised in is a huge bonus. You'll be more comfortable, and most driving schools use pretty small cars which is also a bonus. If you will be using your own car on the test, you need to have practice in it before hand. 80 hours isn't a bad idea, though I would consider that excessive. I think where I am the standard is 40 hours, and that prepared me just fine I think.

 

Oh, and if at all possible, you want to do your practise in the same area where you will be tested (your instructor probably knows the route). My instructor was able to point out 'traps', like unintuitive intersections and a low speed limit on a steep downgrade that often caused people to fail their test in my area. The only place in my test I had never driven before was the parking lot where I started and ended.

 

As for driving in the snow, one good idea I picked up from my dad was after a snowfall, find an empty parking lot in the evening that hasn't been plowed, and spend some time pushing the car and practising how to recover once you lose control, the idea being you won't hit anything in a big empty parking lot if you need more practice. Plus, it's kinda fun.

 

 

I picked up my new monitor today. So far, so good. I do need to get another video cable adapter though (displayport to HDMI) so that I can plug my TV into this party.

[The Observer]

My instructor already told me the routes that they're going to pick. He will take me there, but only a few times. The idea is that if you learn how to drive a specific route, that's all you're going to learn. The only traps there involve the poorly designed intersection where the hardest thing you'll do is turning left in it (with a heavy blindspot/tricky right of way situation).

[Solemn]

I was put in a farm truck at 16 and told to go. I'm still alive at 23.

[Veiva]

Bernie Sanders is having a rally at most 2 hours away from me this Sunday.

 

Sadly, I don't have a car, so in reality, he might as well be having a rally in Hawaii, because I won't be able to go. My brother also has work Sunday, so it would be brutally unfair for me to go and not him.

 

Though once John McAfee officially runs, all the other candidates will be insignificant. The other candidates require people. Sadly for the Rederps and Libtards, McAfee only requires computers. He wiill simply win 99% of the vote. Everyone will be saying "I didn't vote for him, and no one I knew did!" but it won't matter, he'll be president because electronic ballets and voting machines are UNHACKABLE! so obviously 99% of the voters chose him.

 

(I have a fan theory that McAfee is my uncle from another timeline. I can't explain why McAfee is 15 years older, though... But they share a first name, and conveniently have the same initials... also, they're both exceedingly successful [and wealthy, though the alternate timeline one got into a more lucrative and profitable industry]. Too bad the uncle in my timeline isn't nearly as cool, though. Also, I should've mentioned it's a "joke fan theory" [well, about McAfee being my uncle from an alternate timeline], I'm not that crazy).

[jasignhagj]

.

[Veiva]

Bernie Sanders is this elections Ron Paul :lol:. Lots of hype from their communities but probably won't make the cut

Yeah, he won't. I don't doubt it. If he does, I'll be amazed. Even if he does, few citizens will do their part locally and Sanders will accomplish little (after all, Congress will be obstructionist at worst [in the event of Republicans winning a sizable number of seats], difficult at best [if Democrats hold a majority]).

 

But I'm not going to be complacent simply because the odds are adverse.

 

We're going to get a center-right politician at best, and then half the country will [bleep] about it, the other half will at best be content, but more likely disappointed. If a Democrat wins, they'll be painted by Republicans as a commie (see Obama, who is center-right). If a Republican wins, they'll be painted by the Democrats as the next authoritian warmonger (see Bush, who is center-right). At best, the choice of Supreme Court justices will have the largest impact on future progress (so I hope a Democrat wins, otherwise hello to more Citizens United rulings). The oligarchy will cement itself further in our political system, from legislation to executive to judicial.

 

On the surface, the status quo will essentially remain the same, but in truth, our freedoms and happiness will weaken. It doesn't matter if same-sex marriage is legal when our economic mobility comes to a halt and the general public are indentured servants to Corporate America in all but name. These small triumphs mean nothing in a larger context.

[obfuscator]

This Bernie Sanders thing is interesting. It seems like he has little chance now, but IIRC Obama started pretty slowly as well (with Clinton holding the lead initially), and look what happened.

 

Of course, Sanders is much more radical than Obama, so he runs less chance of converting voters in the center. He sure is appealing to the "Something is wrong with the system and he is going to radically overhaul it" crowd...and Obama appealed to that a fair bit as well.

[Major Dash]

You also have the whole "black vote" thing which also helped Obama.

[Arceus]

Don't blacks tend to vote Democrat anyway? Though you do have a point in that Obama probably drove them to the polls in much larger numbers than a watermelon Democratic candidate.

[Major Dash]

Historically yes, a majority do vote democrat, but there were much larger turnouts of (younger) blacks at polls that normally wouldn't have come to vote in a race between some old democratic white guy and some old republican white guy.

[Bonez899]

Hmm, so no I half want to study abroad. Except for the fact that doing so could be supper complicated as the program I am interested in would have me working a full-time job in addition to my schooling which could make visas a bit of a pain.

 

Along with the fact that it would cost me ~29k USD a year, or ~40k CAD a year not counting any income or scholarships. Also, having to write an SAT would be annoying alongside testing costs.

 

Also, this whole planning for universities thing is a bit of an annoyance when you are on the fence about things.

[Alg]

[Major Dash]

I just discovered the Gizoogle Tranzizzler..... 

 

http://www.gizoogle.net/tranzizzle.php