Welcome to The Hairy Bear: The Witcher Off-Topic [Archived]

[TC_Coyote]

I finally have some good news:1) While I still have to go through the interview and whatnot, it appears the college has located an (unpaid) internship for me at Forest City Enterprises for the next four months or so.2) We've _finally_ sold grandma's old house and the sale _should_ close within the week. ...which means my sister won't run out of money a month or two before her USAF JAG training starts....oh, and if I didn't already mention it: Summer semester grades came in. 4.0 (perfect score) in Alternative Dispute Resolution, Immigration Law, Intellectual Property Law, and Computer Assisted Legal Research. All that's left other than the capstone course and the aforementioned internship is Torts and Business Organizations (50-60% of which I already had previously during one of my undergrad degrees)

 

[Corylea.723]

I finally have some good news:1) While I still have to go through the interview and whatnot, it appears the college has located an (unpaid) internship for me at Forest City Enterprises for the next four months or so.2) We've _finally_ sold grandma's old house and the sale _should_ close within the week. ...which means my sister won't run out of money a month or two before her USAF JAG training starts....oh, and if I didn't already mention it: Summer semester grades came in. 4.0 (perfect score)

Excellent! What are you doing to celebrate?

 

[TC_Coyote]

Excellent! What are you doing to celebrate?

Not much, really. Fall semester starts this Saturday already. Still, the past couple weeks since summer classes ended, dad and I managed to get most of the house repainted when the weather was cooperating, and I managed to get a submission together for a writing contest.Depending on what days of the week my internship's on (since I already know what days my classes are on), I may go up to Michigan for a few days sometime in September with my sister to visit relatives....oh, and of course Labor Day Weekend's coming up, and with it the local Oktoberfest at the county fairgrounds

 

[TheSilver]

Fall semester starts this Saturday already.

*shudders*No, it doesn't!*starts chanting it*Good job, Quixote!Have a

 

[Corylea.723]

My husband had fiber-optic Internet service installed in our house a week ago -- the local phone company was having a special sale on it -- so of course it went down today and didn't come back up until 11 p.m.I am not an Internet addict.I am not an Internet addict.I am not an Internet addict.Are we convinced yet?

 

[TheSilver]

@Whisperwind, sounds like some vampire-ry fun!

My husband had fiber-optic Internet service installed in our house a week ago -- the local phone company was having a special sale on it -- so of course it went down today and didn't come back up until 11 p.m.

*gets jealous*My internet is supposed to be DSL, around 100 kbps and used to be that way. When I got lucky I could even reach 150!For some odd reason my average speed now is between 10kbps, with a high of 40 and a low of 0.4...

 

[Gamewidow]

time to change service provider, methinks! ... only money talks in such circumstances eace:

 

[petra_silie]

....fiber-optic Internet service... I even don't know what it is ;D I have an ADSL connection though I really don't know either what's the difference between DSL but it runs stainless. We have rural areas here where is no Inet yet :whatthe:

 

[TheSilver]

time to change service provider, methinks! ... only money talks in such circumstances eace:

Good idea, unfortuneatly, there is a about 87 year old problem with that living with us that likes her telephone company which also supplies us our internet...@Petra, the main difference is within the cabel.Fiber-optic has a core of glass, making the cable itself rather not good to bend and the speeds rather high.Edit:Just received notification that I passed all my big IA Tests in highschool! Math with a C (wow, didn't expect that!), English with a E (that was the day I got swineflu, I'm surprised I didn't flunk it) and History with a D (Yay for Linoleum Blownapart!).

 

[petra_silie]

Can you tell those non-Americans (like me

)what the rating system C, E, D means... sounds like vitamins to me

@Petra, the main difference is within the cabel.Fiber-optic has a core of glass, making the cable itself rather not good to bend and the speeds rather high.

As long as everything works I'm thoroughly happy ;D

 

[TheSilver]

As long as everything works I'm thoroughly happy ;D

Ahh, yes, if it were always that easy. ;DThe traditional grading system here is A/B/C/D/E/F with A being the best and F a "no pass", so the lowest passing grade is E.It's almost exactly like the 1/2/3/4/5/6 system in Germany, however, the last time I checked 6 was still a passing grade. :teeth:

 

[Vattier]

We have it similar as in Germany, just upside down 1/2/3/4/5/6 - where 1 is as You said "no pass" and 6 is highest mark.

 

[TC_Coyote]

Can you tell those non-Americans (like me

)what the rating system C, E, D means... sounds like vitamins to me

Most of the US doesn't use the letter 'E' in its grading scheme, so I don't know how schools that use that fit it in. Roughly, the grades in most US schools equate to:A: 90-100%B: 80-89%C: 70-79%D: 60-69%F (Failing): Below 60%Colleges tend to use a 4-point system: A: 4.0 B: 3.0 C: 2.0 D: 1.0 F: 0Some schools and colleges/universities also use +/- modifiers to subdivide the A-D catagories further (there is no F+ or F- since F is a failing grade no matter what)

 

[TheSilver]

Most of the US doesn't use the letter 'E' in its grading scheme, so I don't know how schools that use that fit it in.

Right, right, sorry about that. I messed it up with the British system (of which I got the grades from).@Whisperwind,well, one has to be really, really bad. :teeth:

 

[Gamewidow]

From what i can tell these days, it is flatly impossible not to pass in the US (and sadly, Canada is not far behind) ... after all, we wouldn't want to hurt the precious snowflakes' self esteem personally i find this reprehensible :dead:

 

[Corylea.723]

What's an IA test? "Independent achievement"? "Idiocy acquired"? Quixote's system is accurate for flat grades in the US, but many places grade "on a curve," meaning that either the best student's performance is taken as the test or assignment's maximum, and all the other grades are adjusted from there, or the median student's performance is taken as the the test or assignment's median, and all other grades are adjusted from that.One of the legacies of the desire to have state -- as opposed to federal -- control over things is that all education in the US is local. One school system can be having a "back to basics" movement while the school in the next state is having an "out with the old and in with the new" movement. Most students who stay put do get some sort of education, but students who move from one place to another may find that geometry is taught in 9th grade in one place and 10th grade in another place, and if they move from one to another, they may get double algebra but no geometry or the other way 'round.Standards are usually state-wide but funding and curricula are at the local level. Education below the university level is free to the student and usually supported by local property taxes, which means that students in rich areas tend to get the best education that money can buy, whereas students in poor areas may get very little. Schools in rural areas may need to spend a lot on transportation while not having much funding from property taxes.But most Americans are suspicious of governements in general and the federal governement in particular, so education has never been moved to the national level, and education continues to be a hodgepodge of small, local systems, each of which has their own way of doing things. Parents who care about the education of their children continue to try to buy or rent a house in the good school districts, and parents who either don't care or who aren't sophisticated enough to realize how vast the differences are continue to buy houses in bad school districts.It's a shockingly horrible system. Parents who understand education and who can afford it send their children to private schools, where the school is supported by the tuition of its students. My father thought the raising of children was "the woman's" job, so he knew nothing about my schools. My mother is the classic authoritarian personality -- obsequious to those higher in authority and crushing to those lower -- so she believed that if someone was a teacher, of course they were doing a good job -- they were teachers, weren't they?I survived a truly horrible education, but it wasn't pretty.

 

[TC_Coyote]

From what i can tell these days, it is flatly impossible not to pass in the US (and sadly, Canada is not far behind)

Tell that to one of my classmates who discovered a week before the end of summer semester that she was failing Immigration Law because the prof had never gotten back to us with our grades prior to that point, and had been rather vague on the instructions for the project that made up a large chunk of the class grade (including being rather vague on the due date...and not realizing the video rental stores no longer carry the movie he assigned for everyone to watch). Her comment: "Well, I _used_ to like that professor."In fairness to the student, it was a half-semester online course so we didn't exactly have the opportunity to discuss things with the prof if he didn't respond to e-mails promptly.[quote author=Corylea]Standards are usually state-wide but funding and curricula are at the local level. Education below the university level is free to the student and usually supported by local property taxes, which means that students in rich areas tend to get the best education that money can buy, whereas students in poor areas may get very little. Schools in rural areas may need to spend a lot on transportation while not having much funding from property taxes.[/QUOTE]A qualifier on this: More funding does _not_ necessarily equal better education. Unless the figures've changed in the past couple years, the Washington D.C. school district has the highest funding per student in the country.....and also one of the highest highschool dropout rates. Because, as with so many other things in D.C., rather than actually trying to fix the structural problems in the system, they'd rather "throw more money at it" in the hopes that'll fix it.Meanwhile in Cleveland, the taxpayers haven't passed a major school funding levy since the 1980s... Reason why: Some of the school board back then got ahold of the money, and ran with it. Literally. Last I heard, the cops still hadn't found two of the members or recovered the stolen funds.[quote author=Corylea]Parents who care about the education of their children continue to try to buy or rent a house in the good school districts, and parents who either don't care or who aren't sophisticated enough to realize how vast the differences are continue to buy houses in bad school districts.[/QUOTE]Part of this, particularly in major cities, is also a result of failed attempts at social engineering. Basically, a few decades back, it was decided that there would be "forced desegregation" in schools via bussing. What this meant in practice was white kids, usually from parts of the city that were better off economically, got shipped to black neighborhoods which were usually poorer and, as a result of poverty, had higher crime rates. Meanwhile the black kids from those neighborhoods got bussed into the wealthier white neighborhoods. Result: What's been dubbed "white flight". In large numbers, white families fled to the suburbs -- where they'd be outside the reach of the bussing program that'd send their kids to the other side of the city to worse off schools -- and took their income with them. This, in turn, led to collapsing tax bases within the cities, meaning reduced services (including education) for those remaining, plus adding to suburban sprawl, increased travel distances to/from work, urban blight, etc.And the overall end result of this little attempt at social engineering: Urban school districts are now _more_ segregated than they were before the programs started due to the population migration. Once again proving the old saying that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

 

[TheSilver]

What's an IA test? "Independent achievement"? "Idiocy acquired"?

The latter probaly would be appropriate. It stand for "International Advanced", a program from the university of Cambridge in good, old Limeyland. :teeth:It's a bit above the American "AP" (Advanced Placement).

Standards are usually state-wide but funding and curricula are at the local level.

And then the state decides to have a few cuts in funding here and there....

It's a shockingly horrible system.

It is. Some people, like me can get lucky ( I had a wonderful experience in a public charterschool with great people and teachers) but often it seems just a bad mix of people thinking it should be better (with nothing happening) and people opposing any change since from the dark ages... Especially in conservative areas.

Part of this, particularly in major cities, is also a result of failed attempts at social engineering. Basically, a few decades back, it was decided that there would be "forced desegregation" in schools via bussing. What this meant in practice was white kids, usually from parts of the city that were better off economically, got shipped to black neighborhoods which were usually poorer and, as a result of poverty, had higher crime rates. Meanwhile the black kids from those neighborhoods got bussed into the wealthier white neighborhoods. Result: What's been dubbed "white flight". In large numbers, white families fled to the suburbs -- where they'd be outside the reach of the bussing program that'd send their kids to the other side of the city to worse off schools -- and took their income with them. This, in turn, led to collapsing tax bases within the cities, meaning reduced services (including education) for those remaining, plus adding to suburban sprawl, increased travel distances to/from work, urban blight, etc.

You know your stuff, Quixote, I'm really glad about this! I coverd a bit of the White Flight in IA American History (we mainly did Polictics, with a focus on the International Policies) with the best teacher I've ever had - a bald Brit! Great person.

 

[TC_Coyote]

You know your stuff, Quixote, I'm really glad about this! I coverd a bit of the White Flight in IA American History (we mainly did Polictics, with a focus on the International Policies) with the best teacher I've ever had - a bald Brit! Great person.

I have eclectic reading habits in general and a tendency to study politics/current events in my spare time As to international studies: My graduate degree was in International Business. ....on a typical day, I browse through sites from the UK (BBC, primarily), Australia (The Age and related papers), occasionally Canada (CBC) and Germany (Der Spiegel) for my international news.EDIT to add:

It's a shockingly horrible system.

It is. Some people, like me can get lucky ( I had a wonderful experience in a public charterschool with great people and teachers) but often it seems just a bad mix of people thinking it should be better (with nothing happening) and people opposing any change since from the dark ages... Especially in conservative areas.

I would dispute the 'especially in conservative areas' bit. My area's pretty much a Democrat stronghold (we've got that lunatic Kucinich for our local congresscritter...). A year or so into high school, the school started cutting Honors science classes. The reason was, quote, "We don't want to make students feel dumb if they take the non-lab versions of the courses." One computer programming class (BASIC, taught on an Apple IIe) was taught by a business teacher because, quote, "Computers are used in business, you're a business teacher, so that means you can teach programming." At least that teacher started off the course by admitting his limits and noting, "Most of you probably know more about computers than I do." The Pascal class was taught by an Algebra teacher -- who had no clue what she was doing, wouldn't admit it, and would throw tantrums when it was pointed out she was doing something wrong -- on the basis that "Programming is based on math, so math teachers can teach programming." Likewise, our 10th grade English class was basically ruined because of a new "pilot program" that threw out the usual lesson plan completely in favor of a "new multicultural plan" that had different parts of the class working on completely different assignments -- the program was so unsuccessful in actually teaching anything that it was cancelled after that single year.My pre-college background, btw: I went to a private Catholic school for Kindergarten through 8th grades, and then public high school for 9th-12th grades. Biggest issues with the latter:1) Less discipline, since the public schools don't usually have the option of expelling problem students. Like the one kid in my shop class who tried using a lathe to propel a chunk of wood at me at high speed after an entire semester of goofing around with dangerous machinery and being a general pain in the ass.2) Retention of incompetent teachers due to the teacher's union. One of the algebra teachers had been at the school for decades -- students' parents had him -- and he was a sadistic b*st*rd. On one occasion, his verbal abuse was bad enough a girl went running, crying from the classroom. And he then made fun of her for that afterwards. An exchange he had with another girl who he gave nearly daily detentions to: "I can't come to morning detentions." "That's the only time you can serve it." "I take the bus to school, the busses don't run that early." "Have your parents drive you." "My parents both work and leave before I do." "THEN WALK!" "I live on the other side of the city!" "Fine, you now have TWO detentions then!" I'm told that about 2 or 3 years after I graduated, they finally fired him after he'd physically assaulted a kid in class.

 

[Corylea.723]

(we've got that lunatic Kucinich for our local congresscritter...).

*sits on hands* Please don't discuss politics here.