Thanks Spexx, old buddy old pal. I needed a chuckle.

:)

As long as we're talking aid money.

Dear Colleges,

Athletic scholarships go to rich and poor alike. Academic scholarships (if you even have any) only go to low income families. Why is that? Meanwhile, I have to borrow against my retirement in order to send my kids to college.

Thanks a lot, colleges. :mad2:

Disrespectfully,
Pissed Dad

Yo, Dad--

Market based economics, baby. It pays (us) to recruit athletes because their ROI is better than nerds. Besides, if you're smart and rich, you'll find a way.

See?

I knew it. See you at orientation.

Monopolistically,

Higher Education

Funny thing is the first thing I do is bring up the file, to do the request, you know? Get it out of the way, a simple thing. I still wasn't going to call her back.

I read, through my own comments in the file (because we document everything in one way or another) she'd asked the question in August and I had the documentation. The procedure was completed on the day of the request. In August. Clown College doesn't know how to use the database and doesn't understand why we got rid of paper FA transcripts a hundred thousand years ago, or so.

All well and good. Compliances were met, in a timely manner. No number of calls from this student can make it any more true.

Clown College, don't let your kids do it.

Unless you don't want your kids to go to school, start saving NOW.

Dear Infi, I hate you.

I know you do. You and everyone's dog. :D

(disclaimer: the following are the opinions, sprinkled with fact, of a 10 year veteran of the FA world, and are not necessarily the views or opinions of management. Also, it's not directed AT anyone in particular...)

Who knows what sorts of aid will be available in the future? We've had programs teaching youngsters about saving for college. That 5 bucks from baby sitting? Put it in your college fund. Every dollar you cover is probably saving you future debt (loans) or your parents 'dipping into their retirement fund.'

Also, you can't possibly say that all colleges give scholarships to rich or poor athletes, but only to poor academics. Well for one thing scholarships vary as much as types of rice. For another, footwork...yes work goes into a real hunt for scholarships.

The governments current position is that a parent is responsible for their childrens education (to the best of their ability) until the child is 24 (of course, your kid could always get knocked up or married or be a veteran or orphan before then) but when it comes time for college it seems parents are mad because it 'neaked up on them.

Any and all of that could change, as FA changes with the wind.

And I've had parents who are mad because they make 100 grand a year but can't seem to afford the lowest tuition in the state.

[rant]Sell your fucking third Lexus. Or perhaps forgo the McMansion, sacrifice a bit...like my not well-off parents did. Or consider that since you HAD them that you are responsible for their education, and save for it.[/rant]

*shrug*

Dear Infi,

Too late.

XOXOXOXO,
Living paycheck to paycheck

Dear parents,

There are cheaper schools out there. They give full academic scholarships to even the richest kids. The quality of one's education is what one makes of it, and working to pay off your own college costs makes one party less and appreciate the classes more. You shouldn't drop your life savings on their "dream school" any more than you should buy them their brand-new "dream car" the day they turn 16. In-residence state schools FTW. IMHO. YMMV.

Love and Kisses,
Only Got A Few Hundred Bucks a Month To Help With Rent

:applause:

Dear Parents,

The rule about how if you go to college you automatically get a life has been repealed. Too many are going, and there aren't enough lives to go around. At this time only a few majors grant an automatic life upon 4-year graduation. They are: Nursing, Finance, Accounting, Pharmacy, and many (but not all) classifications of Engineering.

If you are pressing your child to go to college because you want them to have a life, and they are interested in a B.A. degree of any form, we urge you instead to send them to learn a trade, or to enter a profession with a decent ladder. As a bonus, instead of being a money drain, they will start earning at an earlier age.

Also, we have noticed that most colleges are just places where kids go to root for a corrupt football program, drink enormous amounts of beer, and smoke enormous amounts of weed. Although we are in favor of these things, we do not believe they should be automatically endowed to do so, by you or by society.

Thank You

But let them learn a trade at a school whose credits will actually TRANSFER to a real institution, in case they someday decide to get a master's in that trade or that trade goes belly up and they find themselves back in school years later.

What do you mean I have to retake EVERY SINGLE CLASS I TOOK AT CLOWN COLLEGE? They SAID they were accredited. What did I spend all that money on? When I could've gone to Community for like ten times cheaper? D'OH!

Always ask the question: accredited by WHOM?

Dear Corporate America,

Colleges are just places where kids go to root for a corrupt football program, drink enormous amounts of beer, and smoke enormous amounts of weed. Please discontinue making a bachelor's degree a minimum requirement for any career that has a earning cap of more than $100,000.

Thank you,

Black lunged arthritist father who wants better for his kids.

Dear kids,

Follow your bliss. Be happy. Find a way.

Love,

A cock-eyed optimist who never figured all that out

PS. I will not be supporting you when you're 25.

My mom: so, what are you going to do after you graduate?

Me: You know, a lot of young people are opting to live with their parents for a while after graduation.

My mom: A lot of parents aren't giving that option.

They used to be a bargain around here, but not so much any more. Now the only inexpensive schools are community colleges. Seriously considering community colleges for our kids though.

Our policy is to pay the first year family contribution for each kid. The rest is on them, except that we'll buy the books. They'll have some "skin in the game", not waste their time in college, and choose a school more wisely.

Dear Parents,

Please stop thinking that a lot of money will make your children happy. We thought that, but it turns out to have made us miserable SOBs.

yours, Baby Boomers

Dear UT

You said it!

Respectfully (a guy at work answers his email like that. I want to reply with the sign off: I can't stand your face),

Boomer2

Dear husband,

I don't really care how big the fish were that you caught when you get home at 11.30pm. I especially don't want to know about them when I'm trying to sleep while you're dripping on the bedroom floor because you insisted on going fishing even though it's pouring rain outside.

inconsiderately,

Your Wife!

Been there, done that ... same reception.
(scribbles notes of reminder, again)

But but but he caught Fish !!! BIG FISH !!!!! ;)

Dear Ali,

Me Og. Og get food. Og bring food. Og feed tribe. Og good. Why wife no happy? Should sexitime.

Love,

Og

Yeah that !

I've never met anyone less caveman like than my husband. lol But yeah, that's his mindset when he catches fish.

He told me about them again this morning. When he started telling me for the third time I had to remind him I'm not hard of hearing.

Insight into the mind of a man. We be simple.

I'd bet a dollar to a donut he's particularly proud of those fish. They were hard to catch or extra fine fish or something. He's telling you again, because you don't seem sufficiently impressed.

I do the same thing with Mrs. Z when explaining the software bug I fixed or new feature I implemented. If she doesn't seem sufficiently impressed, I tell her again - while elaborating on why she should be impressed.

Next time, pretend to be impressed. He'll really appreciate it.

He'd know I was just taking the piss Pete. lol He goes fishing quite often, and usually does ok, so it's not like it's anything new. He doesn't give a shit about the awesome cakes I make and I don't go on about the meals I cook constantly.

Works both ways you know fellas.

Lols, fair point.

options:

Make the fish into a cake. Then you can both be proud of it.

If he tells you about it a fourth time, fake orgasm. He'll either be satisfied or suitably chastened. Then give him a make-up cuddle so it isn't passive-aggressive. Much.

I do make fish cakes sometimes. ;)

Usually thai flavours, but sometimes british style. Just depends what I've got in the cupboard or garden flavour wise. :)

He wont tell me again, but I'm sure he'll have to discuss it with the big boys again tonight when he cleans them.

True. And I make sure Mrs. Z knows how proud I am of her accomplishments.

Ok, it's true that Mrs. Z is an excellent baker and sometimes acknowledging her accomplishments means making yummy noises whilst shoveling in her made-from-scratch cinnamon rolls. :D

But I also listen and comment when she's telling me about what she learned in her ESL courses.

Some of them are really very good. (Of course some aren't, too, gotta do the research...) I have had more than one professional in the field say that they prefer nursing majors that come out of Austin Community College over the ones that come out of the University of Texas. The UT students are all book-learning, and sometimes their knowledge is even out of date by the time they graduate. The ACC students get hands-on experience starting in the second year, and are ready to jump right in.

Ding ding ding.

My school of employment was recognized as an example to CCs everywhere in the NYT.

They do amazing things these days, the CCs.

Dear Tiger Parents,

your honor roll kids told you Facebook was a networking site for prestigious college scholarships, didn't they?

A great bumper sticker:

"My kids sold your Tiger Parents to the Zoo."

Dear husband,

I want you to try and remember realistically, the reasons why we decided to sell Wynnum Road, and I mean really put yourself back there and remember honestly rather than with your hindsight view of what might have been better if we’d known what was about to happen.

Then I’d like you to remember that in the end we moved from Gatling Rd because I told you I couldn’t stand to be there anymore, and even you admitted that you realised why I felt that way after you had a week at home with the problems (I can’t remember how that came about, but it did). Do you recall saying that or have you forgotten? Do you remember me saying to you that I don’t care where we go, but we just need to go somewhere. Do you remember that you were the one that chose Jacobs Well? Do you remember having the final say on this house? Do you remember me consulting with you through the whole process? Yes I know I wanted this house, but I didn’t force you to agree to it, and I asked you if you were happy with the choice and you said yes. I didn’t ask you to lift a finger except for your personal belongings with regard to the move. I managed it completely without any help from you. All you had to do was go to work from one house and come home to another and if you remember correctly, I had the house looking very much like a home by the time you got there.

Do I sometimes think about the choices we’ve made and think we could have done better? Yes I do, but I’m sensible enough to realise that we made the best decision we could at the time with the knowledge and resources we had at hand. Do you think I don’t wish we didn’t have this mortgage over our heads? Do you think I don’t want it gone? Do you think I sit here all day in fucking la la land thinking everything is perfect? If you do, you mustn’t think very much of my intelligence at all, and that’s a big problem.

I want you to remember that at no time did I hold a gun to your head about any of these decisions. I’ve always consulted fully with you on all of them. I want you to also think about the fact that your hatred of my brother was a big part of the reason we needed to leave Wynnum Rd. I don’t blame you for that. I understand why you felt or feel the way you do and I don’t hold it over your head do I? What would be the point of it if I did? Would it make anything better? I doubt it. I think it would only make things worse.

I think you need to wake up to the fact that I am not the problem here, but if you still want to consider me as one, then the solution to that is very clear to me, but I’m not going to live the rest of my life with you blaming me for stress that you insist on carrying around.

If you want to sell this house and go elsewhere fine. I will do it, but I think it will be a mistake and will end up costing us more. That much I have learned from the last time we moved house. Still I will do the best I can if that’s what you want to do.

The doctor has already warned me that I need to be subjected to as little stress and anxiety as possible during this pregnancy or I’m likely to end up in hospital for the whole of the third trimester. If you think that’s an objectionable outcome, then I suggest you find a way to get rid of these issues post haste. Make a decision and then accept the consequences, but don’t dare blame me for the outcome if it happens to be one you don’t like.

Just so we’re clear, if you can’t get over issues from the past, whether they’re real or imagined, we have a huge problem. I can not live my life with someone who constantly carries around resentment over things that happened years ago and that I cannot change now even if I wanted to. I can only say how I feel about those things in hindsight and explain why I felt the way I did at the time. I CAN’T CHANGE WHAT HAPPENED IN THE PAST AND NOR CAN YOU NO MATTER HOW MUCH IT GIVES YOU THE SHITS, so if you can’t reconcile all of that, then there are not too many choices left.

Your loving wife.
xxx

PS. In case you’re wondering why I don’t constantly worry about the debt we have, I can only say that I accept the debt as part of our reality and think the solution is to work towards lowering it. I don’t believe that choosing to worry about it during every waking moment is likely to change that reality. There are better things in life to spend my time thinking about.

Dear Mr. Aliantha

Srsly?

srsly is that how I feel or? Not sure what you're srsly asking there.

I was kinda thinking Mr. Aliantha needs not to be pulling this shit right now

Dear Aliantha,

You are completely right. I'm very sorry. Here, I made you some tea, and I want you to put your feet up while I put Max to bed. Later, I will massage your feet.

Love, Dazza.

Right. Yes that's what I was thinking.

Oh only in my dreams. lol


BTW, I did actually send that as an email to him at work. I think it needs to be out there.

No response as yet, but we'll see how it goes.

I know why he's doing it. He's just having a panic attack about the baby and the changes we have to make to the house etc, but he needs to stop being such a prick about it.

Give him time...

give him some slack.... ;)

I'll give him plenty of time if he doesn't get it together. I can't take this shit right now.

eta: I'll just take Max and spend my time at Dad's place. the only issue with that is the big boys might feel abandoned, so it's not the best option, but if I have to do it for the sake of my health I will.

Dear Catz,

Plz uz dickshonry

OHHHH, so now it's the prick's fault.

Wait, it *was* caused by the prick. Oops.

Damn.