What's everyone up to?
 

I thought we could use this as a bit of a "status update" thread for all of our current members. What is everyone up to in education / job / hobby / etc. wise?

Personally, I just graduated university in May with a BBA in Finance. I'm leaving for Austin, Texas in just under two weeks to attend law school at UT. That leaves three more years of formal education for me, after which I will hopefully find some kind of position in the corporate law field.

This summer, I took up playing golf, and greatly improved my abilities at chess and scrabble.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

I've been looking for a job in this rough market...I feel that my previous work experience and education gives me a leg-up, so it has been a battle of patience and applying. I need to get a job soon.

I will be seeking out graduate school eventually, right now I need to recover from undergrad burnout and support my GF who is doing grad school herself.

I'll be prepping for the GRE...and I would like to get a blog off the ground just to prove to myself that I can sustain a long term writing project. It just sucks living day-by-day with a future that is up in the air.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

Pro-tip: make sure to take the GRE asap before calculus is added.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

I'm still going towards my bachelor's in IT (starting my sixth year this Fall, I hate my life), and probably gonna start pooling around for a new IT job because my job really just threw another nail in the coffin for me today and I'm really not too pleased about it. This is also considering that I have no clue as to how the IT job market is looking, especially for someone without a degree, even though I have 4+ years of experience in a professional IT environment.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

I'd take Calculus over the ridiculous list of words I will never use in real life that I will have to memorize. Bleh.

The best part is these tests don't gauge work ethic, determination, or knowledge across under-privileged groups of people. So at best the GRE is probably moderately correlated with success during the first year or two of grad school. It's a big money racket.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

Haha, fair enough. I do think these graduate tests gauge work ethic and determination, as they are all very learnable through study and repetition, although I'm sure you could argue that under-privileged groups don't have the necessary time and/or resources to do this (I was able to increase my LSAT score from around the 80th percentile to the 96th percentile through a fair amount of study and practice test taking).


What was that additional nail in the coffin?

The future of IT looks quite promising according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos258.htm

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

I never thought about your first point. I guess taking the time to learn the GRE/LSAT/GMAT/Whatever so you score high enough on it shows determination or the ability to work hard towards a goal. It's a big game though...people spend hundreds of dollars on books and practice tests and Kaplan classes. And someone who isn't that bright could theoretically score high enough on many of these tests with enough practice and memorization.

There's been some interesting studies regarding scores on IQ tests and standardized tests...but I digress. :p

I think we can both agree that you scoring in the 96th percentile on the LSAT is pretty sick. So good job.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

I agree -- it's all just a big game. For me, the most unfair part of the admissions game is comparing GPA across different universities (level of difficulty) and different grading scales. At UW, we only have A's, A/B's, B's, etc, equating to 4.0, 3.5, 3.0, etc. We don't have the opportunity to earn A+'s, which are the equivalent of 4.33s, or anything like an A- or B+. Incredibly unfair.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

The IT market is great...but IT jobs have pretty firm ceilings in terms of pay and mobility. You really need to mingle with business if you want to move up in the IT world. The problem with IT sectors in companies is that you don't net any money for the company. I mean you do, but it isn't tangible and accounting and HR execs could give a shit less about what you do. I've been there, btw, so I know how the money tug-of-war for better computers goes and how it is ALL. ABOUT. CUTTING. COSTS. Having the IT knowledge and then going into business should give you a big leg up and let you expand your salary. If that's your bag.

I realize I am being highly presumptuous that you want to expand your salary. IT positions can probably net you a comfy 45k-80k salary depending on location and experience.


If I may ask though, what has brought you to your 6th year of school?

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

The GPA thing is bullshit. I agree. They even pulled that crap out of high school...my high school valedictorian had a 4.7 or something because honor classes were weighted so an A = 5.0.

I know at U of I they have different GPAs for A+ / A / A- so the breakdown is like 4.0 / 3.8 / 3.2 or some crap like that. I would be pissed if I got a 92% in a class and my GPA was 3.2. At my school a 91% was a 4.0 because it is an A.

That stuff drives me nuts too.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

Taking time off of school to work full time hours, class availability, not passing all of my classes like a good student should.

Note that I say full time hours by the way. I'm a part time employee on my campus. They have horrible means of handing their money through budgeting and after starting at 8 dollars an hour four years ago, to then take two and a half years to give me a raise up to 9, they tell me that they need two people to come in an hour earlier because the CIO thinks it's useful to have someone that early to respond and answer phone calls (which it isn't. I have yet to receive a phone call for something urgent earlier than 8:45, maybe 8:30 the earliest and this was before they asked me to adjust my hours). The best they can offer me as incentive for doing this is that I can stay an additional half hour (since I'd need to be leaving at 4:30 to have an 8 hour day) and get paid time and a half for overtime (which would be a grand total of 5 hours per pay period). I say yes because I'd like to try and get SOME more money from working here because when I had gotten that raise they told me to not see a raise in the foreseeable future since they're so tight with the money from the budget, so it's the best I can do; I'm also the only part time employee staying extra hours by the way).

So today I find out that two of my co-workers got raises recently, one of whom started a few months after me and was already getting paid more than I did when he was hired (the only thing he had over me was A+ and N+ certification that he got in high school and it wasn't even valid anymore anyway, those have to be renewed; we both had no professional work experience in IT), and another who started a year ago (possibly even less), and he started like me, with no certs, and no work experience. The newer guy was also getting paid more than me from the start because now his raise actually brought him up to 10 bucks an hour, which means he was getting paid the same as I have been after my raise for the last year and a half. It's not a cost of living or minimum wage thing either, too. Minimum wage is still 7.75 here in Florida, which I was already getting paid more than that when I started, so he was given that money from the start willingly.

So the best I get is overtime which isn't guaranteed always because I have to take time off for class during the day and I have frequent doctor visits thanks to having Cystic Fibrosis and diabetes that I have to take unpaid days off for (since obviously no benefits), while two other people get raises and one of them has a third of the amount of professional experience than I do?

I'm sorry but if that isn't ridiculous, I don't know what is.

yeah yeah tl;dr

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

If I were you, I would quit the job, take classes full-time, max out your subsidized student loans (if needed), and look for full-time employment after you graduate. Your salary will probably be twice as much, and you'll have benefits. There is most likely little-to-no incremental benefit in continuing at your current job; however, the work experience you've gained there will be very helpful in seeking a full-time job after you've graduated.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

I finally graduated about a month ago. However, for the last 5 years, I've always felt that I didn't want to practice medicine. I found a job at Pfizer as a medical manager, and I'm moving to Istanbul in a few days to start the job.

Other than that, I've started writing songs.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

I spoke to my mom, who's a school teacher and forwarded my resume to her, so she's gonna be passing that over to people she knows, parents of her old students and whatnot. My resume was updated about two months ago so I should be all set.

So I'm getting some things moving at least.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

Just found out apparently that the other two new hires that started about a month ago also started at higher than I did, and they're currently making my same pay grade.

It's like they're trying to give me a hint.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

I'm still working as a software developer at Dell Services. I graduated with a BS in Computer Science and a minor in Mathematics at the University of Kentucky last May (Summa Cum Laude :) ), and immediately got hired at Dell, where I had been interning since 2008.

I mainly work with a team of developers to write the Java codes for a web application that Triton Container uses to manage their fleet of containers and do invoicing/billing and other analytics.

I live in an apartment with my girlfriend of 6 years, we've lived together for the past 3.

I'm mainly just trying to get some enjoyment out of life that I feel like I missed during college. Playing video games, reading books, doing CrossFit at the local Lexington affiliate, and trying to find time to work on my side programming projects.

CrossFit has probably been the biggest "hobby" in my life for the last year, as well as a focus on eating healthy. I'm down 45 pounds since this time last year (220lbs to 175lbs and I'm 6'1"). It feels awesome to have shed all that weight I gained in college. I weigh less than I did in high school and I'm much stronger.

Long term goals are set on saving up enough for a house and getting married, as well as helping my girlfriend through her student loans.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

(didnt I make a drunk thread asking the exact same thing a couple weeks ago and you shunned it Bond?)
Im living with my girlfriend and got a kitten not too long ago.
Ill going to get a gym membership fairly soon and start doing that a few times a week and im looking into becoming a bartender because my current job sucks.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

I work as the Media Editor at Capcom Vancouver now. It was a long, hard road to get where I am but it was very much worth it because now I have some wicked pay, job security, and the ability to decide myself if I want to work overtime or not. I'm also part of a small clique of video game cinematic artists and we all communicate often about what we're up to. We've all met up at EA twice now to work on the NFS: Shift series but I doubt I'll be back for the next one. My friend Randy just got hired at Ubisoft Toronto working on the new Splinter Cell which is wicked. He did all the cinematics for Fight Night Champion and is finishing off NFS: The Run with some of my other friends before he leaves.

I'm engaged, with the wedding next May! Woop.

And finally, I'm burning through my video game, movie and book backlogs like crazy. I love not having homework. I just finished a ton of books on Kindle, and Ninja Gaiden II last night.

Bond, I also love Golf. I got a new set of Dunlop Locos and a Taylormade Burner Superfast. (Dumb names, amazing clubs.) I go every weekend nowadays. Thank god for summer.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

Any plans on visiting Dell's HQ in Austin, TX?

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

Nope. :)

I'm not sure about everyone else that works for Dell Services, but I barely feel like I work for a large corporation. We have our own small account here (15 people on the team), and we really don't deal with corporate much other than entering time and dealing with insurance and benefits.

I honestly feel more like I work for Triton than I do Dell, and I do go out to San Francisco (Triton's HQ is there) on business occasionally.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

I graduated from DigiPen this spring, so nice to have some free time again. Stayed on with Airtight Games, the studio behind Yahtzee's most disappointing game of all time, where I had been working for the last year while in school. I work as an engine programmer and do a lot of graphics work these days, but you guys don't care about that crap.

Other than that, trying to lose the weight I put on sitting behind a desk coding away, and trying to get my soccer skills back but my body insists on reminding me I'm not 16. Every once in a while I play a game.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

You should see if there's a crossfit in your area - most of them offer a free intro class to see if you want to join.

It's the only workout program that hasn't been extremely boring to me. It's a different workout every day, except for every now and then you do one of the "named" workouts, that act as benchmarks.

But weight loss is honestly like 90% diet. I did crossfit for about 6 months and lost very little weight (though I did get stronger), and it wasn't until I started eating paleo that I started really losing weight, and then I lost 45 lbs in 6 months.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

I am:

An Assistant manager at gamestop, and in my final semester of school for my bachelor's degree.

It has been a long road to get here, that I had to walk on my own, but the best part is when I finish I will be debt free after taking so much time off and doing things to pay my loans off.

The best part is, my last semester is:

My Capstone (Basically a big project which is supposed to showcase what I learned in my major.)
Beginner's Swim (A Phys. Ed Gen ed I've been putting off, and something I figure I can pretty much breeze through, and have an excuse to swim 3 days a week for an hour)
And Discrete Mathematics, which is basically logic.

I also scheduled all my classes for Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 2. What a glorious semester to goof off with :D

I do believe I forgot to mention that after I graduate my plan is to not do anything with my degree and actually go to culinary school. In my time off, I realized that I love to cook, and I would love nothing more than to own my own restaurant someday.

However I might end up a code monkey sometime soon anyway.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

I just killed and flayed my first hobo. On the next full moon I shall wear the dried skin and hopefully gain mystical hobo powers. *fingers crossed*

That and I'm still drawing a series of comics with half naked busty ladies beating the crap out of each other to be published whenever I finish the damn thing.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

Spent the summer teaching sailing, kayaking, surfing, windsurfing, and stand up paddle boarding at the Marina, spent a week volunteering at a summer camp, and start UCLA Law next week. My gf is also starting law school this fall, so our relationship will probably be limited for the first semester (to say the least), but we both understand where our priorities are.

I will be living in the basement of a UCLA chemistry Professor's house, with a PhD Chem Student as a roomie. Gonna be a snug studio, but its a five minute walk to campus and all I need.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

Drunk. Venture Bros. is awesome! Still love Video Games. Precisely valvE games. I still frequently check up on Danny's site and I love his artwork. Draw a picture of me (you've done one before) fighting a giant Robot Cyclops Squidtopus! Me, Swan and BaBs need to hang out again sometime soonish... potentially in New York. I have a tiny kitten! She's fucking insane... especially between 2A.M.-5A.M.
PST. Yeah... She's insane...
And I hate the U.S. Duty Free store. The liquor bottles in that store are so much bigger than regular Canadian bottles, and I really wanted a few. But I had to be within the U.S. borders for 48 hours. :( I learn just now (1:31 A.M. pst!) that there will be a, Dr. Horribles Sing-along Blog 2!!! (according to Swan[so says Swan]!).
That is all!

9+4-7x3÷0=?

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

Glad you're enjoying it. And I do sort of owe you for not doing one of your ideas for Scheme and Sketch, so...

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

Love the kitten in that drawing hehe

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

Haha, thats awesome, I loves it.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

WTF is this about?

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

I was in the States yesterday for a bit and on the way back we stopped at the duty free store cause booze is super cheap there. $13 for a 40 (1.75L) of whiskey.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

I just got back from a Tofino surf trip with a couple friends from my university.
This summer I have been working at my usuall job, as a grounds keeper for a family that owns one of the professional sports franchises in Vancouver. It's a sweet job because I'm mostly working by myself, in the outdoors, doing things that basically constitute a daily 8 hour workout. I work in an organic hobbyist orchard that offers me a ton of 'bug fruit' and 'falls' that feed me through the school year. Frozen fruit and dried fruit!

I got way too drunk for the last week so I woke up this morning with a bit of a sore throat. Sucks, but I can already feel getting better.

Come september I will be returning to central Alberta for my schooling. I have two years left in my Bachelor's of English program. I plan on double majoring in an international studies program, if all things work together. I have so many prereq's for the degree that it almost seems stupid not to go for it. I plan on getting my minor in education once I have worked a season or two overseas as an ESL teacher.

This school year I will be playing hockey with the team and hopefully start a yoga club if there's enough interest for two mornings a week. I will probably keep with the morning badminton program, not for credit but as a club member.
The crossfit program sounds good. I've been half-into the P90x program since I've found it to be quite adequate in offering a fully diverse fitness program.
My biggest dilemma at the moment is figuring out how to make the best deal with my current vehicles. I have an 88 bmw 325ix that could work as my school vehicle in snowblown alberta, but it's leaking a bit of oil and the cold weather causes a blue cloud of smoke everytime I start it up. My other vehicle is an 87 fiero that runs great. Only problem is that there's some waffle-sun fade that reduces the market value. I'm tempted to either buy a body kit, or repaint from a primed base. I have been hoping to buy a 250$ spray kit. I just sold a 4wd ea82 subaru, to a guy who can't pay me until the end of summer. I'm counting on this money so I can buy a snowboard pass either for Whitewater in Nelson, or Revelstoke Mountain......or possibly for Big White near Kelowna. But most likely whitewater since I have friends in vancouver who are planning on getting passes for that hill. I looooove snowboarding, reason why I'm still in my BA program at age 25.

I am currently looking at a garage queen '85 nissan 4x4 single cab truck. It's burnt orange with a camper. Low km's. Or, possibly a 90,000km subaru Justy 4x4 that is owned by a really cute chick who I still have to phone for a 'I want to check out your ride' date. ;0 There is also a right-hand drive Toyota hilux (think 4runner) with a 2.4 turbo diesel. It's listed for cheap, but needs some work so I want to get the specifics on it before I make a purchase for the coming school year.
btw, alberta roads are the worst. Pretty much need something that you don't mind rusting away and replacing suspensions.

I'm considering a naturalpathic health career. I've been reluctant to admit just how big and lucrative a market there is for health related advice consulting. I have a strong background in dietary and lifestyle based healing, and have already recieved unsolicited interest in this field. Literally, it's like a 60$/hour type of gig.
I'm moving more and more towards a completely vegan diet. It has been my own experience in the past few years, as well as the advice from top athletes like Steve Nash and long distance runners which have guided me towards the performance advantages of a vegan diet. Also, there's too much concentrated radiation in the northern hemisphere post-fukushima in the dairy products. Even organic, grass-fed sources are bad. European health authorities have recommended that pregnant mothers and children avoid all dairy.

Near the end of the last school semester I did a liver stone flush cleanse that I plan on continuing until I don't have anymore cholesterol deposits. It has really changed my life, and I recommend it to pretty much anyone who feels they could benefit from a non obtrusive cleanse, free from serious fasting.

I got a bunch of rock climbing gear and have been having fun. I plan on doing another Squamish trip before the summer ends. My buddy who is currently working as a rope technician on the BC Place roof redo is a serious climber who spent 2 years in China as a guide. It's nice having his technical experience which has allowed me to jump into trad climbing without feeling totally overwhelmed. Can't wait to start lead climbing and placing gear on some multi-pitch pants pissers.

This school year I plan on doing some longer marathons. My friend and I did a charity 10km in April, and I placed 4th without having really trained for it. It has motivated me to get in shape, completely quit smoking, and find that running happy place.
Barefoot running is the shit! Don't even have to purchase those funny looking shoes. Just hit the ground with your ball directly below your knee, and feel the therapy after a few runs. It's like massage for my abused knees. I got some kungfu shoes in China town that work wonderfully has barefoot running shoes.
I'm totally convinced that the Phil Knight heal-strike form of running isn't for me.

This coming summer I will hopefully be able to do an archeological dig in Jordan, which will give me 6 required credits, for only a thousand bucks more. I love the idea of sweating my ass off in some desert, looking for jars of sacrificed baby remains, before it gets glaze-nuked by NATO airstrikes or by Syrian cruise missiles.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

You've never been to a duty free store at an airport?

I was allowed to bring back 6 bottles of booze when i went to St. Thomas. My god the quality booze I picked up.

Huge bottle of Patron, Grey Goose, a local rum, kahlua, A huge bottle of maker's mark and a big bottle of Jager for a friend. Our cabinet was stocked for a few months for like 75 dollars.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

Still managing a movie theatre. Wife's learning to be a nurse. Baby's coming in December. Pretty exciting.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

Is she going to birth herself?

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

:O

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

Finished film school last year, getting married next year. Working for the Canadian census but that job is ending soon.

I might go back to working television in the locations department but I end up hating my life after enough 15 hour days stacked back to back to back to back to back and onwards to infinity.

However, I might have a shot to work on Alcatraz which is JJ Abrams new show so maybe that would be cool.

Writing a short film that I'm really excited about with one writing partner and slowly working through a feature film script and TV pilot with my other writing partner.

All I need is to magically get the money to fund such projects.

Oh and moved into an apartment with my fiance two weeks ago. Which is rad.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

!!!

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She can't be her own mother, that would just be silly.


Anyways, in the grand scheme of things other people probably wouldn't say I'm up to much because I'm not working and I'm not trying to find a wife or anything. But considering my dad's health is visibly declining month-to-month, I take care of the house as best I can, garden the veggies etc. It's actually fulfilling to spend time with my dad now, because now I actually know him. Other than my glorious sports abilities and insatiable lust for knowledge, we never had much in common growing up, mixed in with teen angst we ended up wasting a good 15 years just having power struggles and arguing with eachother just for the sake of it, seemingly. But in the last few months I've come to realize that he actually is a ridiculously nice, caring parent. I advise all of you to generally spend time with your fathers, like you would a buddy. Smoke a joint, have a beer, talk about life in general, tell some racist/sexist jokes, talk about naked ladies (To be fair I also do all of those with my mom, be friends with your moms, too). You never really realize how fast time moves until you look back and realize how old everyone around you has gotten. Call your parents, you ingrates - they want to get to know you as an adult. Let them.

Aside from that I spend most of my time watching discovery/history/geographic, learning various things via the interbucket, watching sports and exercising when I can.

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. I've sort of carved myself into this shitty little hole based on the type of humour I present (most of the time for my own amusement). I over-play stupid/weird, and I deadpan it, and stick with it like a bit that only I'm in on (Think Norm McDonald/Kaufman and Carlin for the arguing)- because the verbal or visual reactions people give to awkward or stupid remarks can be quiiiite hilarious - but this has caused some of (even my actual friends) to just assume I'm stupid and that the things I say magically have no basis or merit, which is infinitely frustrating to me. Maybe it's my fault for being in a situation where I'm so under-stimulated that I need to create a comedy routine in my head on the spot and then watch my friends struggle with the awkwardness that arises from it. Maybe it's my fault for thinking about entertaining myself above others in times of extreme boredom. However, I have a firm belief that one of the keys to comedy is silence. And it's very tough to give up awkward humor when you really enjoy watching people attempt to properly react some dumb comments/actions. So I have to figure a way to mesh my actual self, with the part of me that enjoys controlling awkward/annoying scenarios. Maybe I should just stop getting really bored. Maybe less, or more drugs is the answer. Less or more drugs usually is the answer, actually.

But now I'm just stoned. So who am I.

My cousin's kids [age 9/7] (long story short, he lost custody) are living at my uncles down the road now, so im going to be chipping in to raise them as much/best I can. Even just the thought of helping those kids makes me happy. Plus they're 100% past the shitting and pissing themselves stage, and completely into the "help me with schoolwork/teach me how to play hockey" stage. Hopefully this will also help me out for when I have my own kids, I mean - I won't learn anything about the first 7 to 9 years of how to raise a child, but fuck it. They barely remember those years anyhow, right.

Plus this morning I just found out my dad's dad has under 3 months to live. So I guess I'll be up to that for a while. If one can be up for preparing for a-whole-lotta death.

Say hi to your mother for me.

Re: What's everyone up to?
 

Sean, want to have a sleepover?

Smoking less pot has been a good thing for me I've found. Especially since I haven't been enjoying it as much lately since it seems to make me feel stressed out and stand-offish because I'm not making the sort of progress I want to make with my own projects and shit which makes me feel guilty about even smoking pot and therefore leads to those other feelings.