JBSilBlog

Life, the Universe, and Everything

First Session Paper

Posted by JBSil on 12th June 2007

Turned in my first session paper last night. Got feedback by this morning, which is cool. But the feedback … left much to be desired.

Feedback:
Jesse,

Your SP1 is a solid opener in Senior Seminar.

Grade: 93

Jim Troisi

Um, thanks? How about telling me how I can get to 100 in the future? What were the 7 points docked for? Or did you just arbitrarily pick a number? What did I do correctly that I should continue in the future?

This vague and unfulfilling response comes after the assignment of, “write it as a think piece, or a response piece.” Great, thanks so much.

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Phase 2

Posted by JBSil on 12th March 2007

Class starts tomorrow. Phase 2 begins. I guess that means it’s show time. Whether or not I’m ready, I have to be ready. I don’t get another chance after this.

If you’re reading this, you have a right to nag me about whether or not I’m attending class, for the next 10 weeks. 10-noon, Tuesday and Thursday. If for some reason you think I might not have gone, yell at me =D But, check how long I’ve been online during those times, because there’s wireless internet in class, and I’ll be taking notes on my laptop.

In other news, I have a hard set goal on another front. I’m hoping to exceed it. We’ll know on May 18th. Hopefully I’ll post then saying I’ve far exceeded it. Wish me luck.

And on yet another subject, I’m ready for the possibility of Phase 4; right on time since class will hopefully move me in that direction.

Yea, I know I’m being somewhat cryptic, but most of you got all of that, I’m sure. The rest of you can ask me in private =P

Now, an attempt to sleep to drown out the stress, and hopefully get up in time to get everything accomplished before class.

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Planning 101: It’s not worth your time

Posted by JBSil on 7th February 2007

So much to say, so little energy after this past week of hell. But, a lot of you don’t know about a lot of this, so it all needs to be said. Here goes…

Friday was supposed to be a good day. My boss was out of town, which is usually a good thing. It was Ryan’s birthday, and we were going to the hockey game, and then probably out drinking (and looking for chicks, of course). I had the whole day and evening planned out. That was mistake #1. My boss was in and out of meetings all day. For some reason, not only did this mean that he needed to talk to me repeatedly, but also that he was incapable of calling the office phone. He must have called my cell phone a dozen times, in a single day, even though I kept asking him to call the office phone instead. Blarg #1. Right before I was going to leave I was informed that … well I can’t go into details, but basically I got a huge project dumped on me that needed to be done for Monday. Blarg #2, but not the end of the world. It’s not like I have a life, so working over the weekend isn’t all that bad (or out of the ordinary).

Went to the RIT Hockey game with Ryan. Wow did they suck. It looked like we were an intramural team, not Division 1. RIT played like absolute crap, AND the Refs called the entire game in favor of the other team. Oh, and my favorite part was the goalie constantly kicking the net off as soon as we got in a position to score. He most have kicked it off a dozen times, and never got called for it. Blarg. Luckily, I decided to go home and get some work done while Ryan hit his first bar (or 2). Got home, already pissed about working, and hockey, and needing to miss Ryan’s birthday, only to get a call from my mother to tell me that my Grandfather had died. Perfect timing.

Now, not only did I have to finish a huge project by Monday, but I had to be in Birmingham, AL on Monday, and I had to figure out how to get there and back. The only plausible tickets I could find were $1300, so I ended up burning 37,500 Frequent Flyer miles instead. I wont even get into traveling, except to say that of my 4 flights, 1 of them left on time. Blarg some more. I was in Birmingham for about 2 blinks of an eye. The funeral was sad, as expected. Worse when we all realized we were literally standing on, or next to, my grandmother Evelyn’s grave, who I never met, and my Uncle Rick’s gave, who we just buried last December. Mindblowingly depressing.

Almost everyone in my family told me how much they liked me with hair. Oh, for those of you who don’t know, I’m growing my hair out. I don’t know how long yet, and I don’t know if I’ll keep it long, or if it’s just an experiment. Right now I’m hating every minute of it. Getting to the point, one of my cousins, instead of keeping quiet or lying to me and telling me he liked it, decided to say, “You couldn’t get a haircut?” At the funeral. Right before we were about to carry my grandfather out of the hearse.

Although Papa’spassing was sad, I think we all knew it was beyond his time. He’d been suffering for months, and in the hospital on life support for weeks. It wasn’t a surprise to anyone. I won’t speak for the rest of the family, but I personally am happy that he’s not suffering any more. Again, speaking only for myself, I was lead to believe that Papa was broke, since he hadn’t worked in years, and was simply living off of his second wife’s fortune. Essie owns Dale’s stake sauce. For those of you don’t know what Dale’s is, it’s basically more popular than A-1, everywhere except the northeast. Apparently I was wrong, because Papa left behind a pretty big estate. Big by my standards, not by most peoples. But, a hell of a lot more than I was expecting (nothing).

His will dictated how the money be split up, but my father (clearly) doesn’t need his portion, so he’s splitting it between my sister and myself. So, I’m getting a pretty decent amount of money, out of the blue. Thank you Papa. It’s basically going to put me through school, clear all my debt, and uh .. a bunch more. I’m still trying to wrap my head around this. Found out just before I left to come back to 7 degree Rochester.

Tammy

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Posted by JBSil on 31st January 2007

first class registered @ 6:53
second class registered @ 7:02
good thing i got up at 5:55

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Financial Aid

Posted by JBSil on 30th January 2007

Just found out that my Financial Aid came through for this coming quarter. Good news is I’ll be able to take classes and not take money out of the savings account my parents gave me (that I haven’t touched in years), or worse, borrow money from my parents directly. Bad news is that I didn’t qualify based on need (go figure), so I got an unsubsidized loan, as opposed to a subsidized one. Which means, while it is a student loan, it will accrue interest from the moment I borrow the money until the moment it’s paid off in full. Hooray for interest!

But, the good news to follow that is that although I was told that the Education Assistance program had ended when my parent company was bought out by my parent-parent company, I was apparently misinformed. The program works slightly differently now, but as long as I can prove that the degree that I’m working towards is related to my job, or a future job in the company, and that the classes I’m taking are required for that degree, I’m eligible for $5000 per calendar year from my job for tuition. Which is awesome because it means I’ll basically take out the loan for this quarter only (with interest) and completely pay it off this summer, and only accrue a couple month’s worth of interest. And hopefully next year’s loan will be subsidized (since I filed without my parents’ $$$).

Sooooooooo, I’m going back to school. Starting May 12th. Registration is tomorrow morning, 6 am. Here’s hoping I get the classes that fit into my schedule!

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Private: What a day

Posted by JBSil on 9th December 2006

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Private: [R] The Ugly, cont.

Posted by JBSil on 8th December 2006

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Private: [R] The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Posted by JBSil on 6th December 2006

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shoot me

Posted by JBSil on 20th September 2005

I’m sick and tired of this crap

I can’t handle being in classes any more. They’re pointless, I don’t learn anything, they’re way too expensive, and they take up too much friggin’ time and energy.
My job is so boring and mundane and mindbogglingly annoying that I just want to quit and go broke and become homeless.

But I cant afford to not be here because I make a decent wage, I make my own hours and I might still be able to get the $5000 tuition reimbursement to pay down my loan.
And I can’t afford to not go to classes because it’s too late to drop them so even if I wanted out, I wouldn’t get reimbursed and theres no more money to pay tuition with and theres no chance I could (or would want to) get another loan if I wanted to take them later.

I’m stuck and I hate it.

I just want to crawl into a corner and not come out until I can have a real life in a place where it doesn’t snow for eight months and a job that doesn’t make me want to commit suicide.

And if I can manage to stick it out and actually go to classes and do the work, I’ll have a god damn degree in March. Finally. But, it will mean keeping up this routine that I’ve so far tried for 2 weeks and not been able to handle, for another 8 weeks, plus finals …. Followed by an even more stressful schedule involving two classes on top of a 40 hour work week, for another 10 weeks, and then another round of finals. I honestly don’t think I have it in me.

And I know if I can’t pull it off I’ll never come back and finish my degree. No one will respect me, especially the people that I’m closest too. I’ll never get the salary that I deserve, and I’ll probably never be able to speak to my parents again (although that last part has it’s perks).

~This post transplanted from a misguided rant

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Posted by JBSil on 12th July 2005

I’ve tricked myself into being interested in Juvenile Justice for this class (at least for the moment). Shhhh, don’t tell it.

Warning: Interest in this topic may spontaneously combust at any moment.

But the class seems alright, over all. 10 am to 2 pm 2 days a week can only be so positive.
10 minute breaks every hour instead of half an hour for lunch (grr).
But! No homework, no papers or essays. 3 multiple choice tests and 1 group presentation.
Attendance is optional, and treated as extra credit as opposed to being mandatory.
All lecture PowerPoints are posted online, so attendance really is optional. :-P
And the things we discuss are actually kind of interesting.

Why is the legal age of sexual consent (in NY) 17, but you legally cant get married without parental consent until 18? What sense does that make?

Why can a child drop out of school after 16, but isn’t allowed to work a full time job until 18? What is s/he supposed to do for 2 years except cause trouble? Seems self-defeating.

Just some of what we touched on today. Kind of interesting to look at the system, but kind of pointless because we could never change the system even though we know it’s busted.
Anyway, more to come on this over the next 5 weeks of the class.

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