Addendumb

After all that positivity and optimism, I got a Notice of Academic Dismissal from Eastern today. It's not as bad as it sounds. It's all still because of my "freshman" year. It's not representative of my academic career before or since, but as long as I'm at this school, it's gonna weigh me down. I'll win the appeal easily, with my awesome grades that I've been getting as proof, but...

I should have a 3.0. That's what I've averaged over the two semesters back. And now that I'm starting classes that are relevant and exciting? I could be an honors student one day, maybe possibly! But not at Eastern, not if I have to keep dredging through this swamp of retarded policy. Not if I have to pass every class between now and graduation with a flawless A, just to pick up my GPA from 1.72. I'm thinking I might be better off at another school, which sounds ridiculous, since I've been through so many already. In my "appeal" letter, I'm going to make that known to them, and hopefully they'll start to work for my tuition, instead of treating me like some asshole who -doesn't- rack up tons of debt to be there.

If they keep my GPA at the same level, it may not matter if the appeal goes through or not. I want the option of grad school open to me. Largely because real Linguistics careers are at the masters degree-level and beyond. I am not aiming for beyond, and not even necessarily grad school, if computer stuff ends up being too good to drop, but I want the choice to be available.

I'ma start digging for potential new schools, just in case.

Sean

Posting this, f'realz

This has all sort of fallen apart, eh? I've actually got quite a few drafts back here, but they're not fit to print, in my opinion. I'm writing now by request, even though I should have been keeping up all along.

April 19th marked the end of my first year back at Eastern. Both semesters, I got A's, B's, and a C, and in another school, I'd have a 3.0 average. Because of my "freshman" year, I'm working with a 1.72. That sucks, but I'm convinced it won't/can't stay low forever. Each semester, I've retaken one class from when I was 18, so those new grades are replacing the old ones, and I'm gonna do that for as long as that's feasible. What's feasible, though, has changed.

My transcripts from OCC don't affect my GPA at Eastern. All 20 credits are just passing, essentially empty credit hours. It means I've passed whatever classes are equivalent between OCC and EMU, but that's it. That has hampered my retaking of failed credits a bit. They were all low level Gen Eds, and I did almost all of them at OCC. What's left to redo is minimal, unless I take certain classes a third time, which I won't do.

There's an upside, though. Because I have two minors, I have about 20 more credit hours than I would have had if I only declared one minor. More time sounds crappy to other people, but I like being in school, and besides that, the extra time means more classes I'll do well in, and a higher cumulative GPA. I have every confidence I'll graduate with something respectable.

More upside. Now that my stupid transcripts from OCC have finally gone through, I'm a couple of credits away from being a "junior", so I finally meet the requirements to take a 200-level course... like Intro to Linguistics. FINALLY, to be able to do something directly related to my major! My first semester back was all odds and ends. Although my Anthropology class had some stuff about linguistics, it wasn't the point of the course. Second semester, I did Intro to Programming, which was for my Computer Science minor, so I got a little closer to the point, but that was the only degree-related thing I've taken at Eastern so far. My Psych classes from OCC will count toward my Psych minor, though, so good new on that.

Intro to Linguistics is the only thing I've registered for right now, because of another upside. I got a job. I'm a security officer for William Davis Security. I've trained for about 8 hours already, and will do another shift tomorrow. I do rounds, which means I walk around for about 15 minutes, and go to different checkpoints in the building I'm at. It's closed off, not a public place. Automotive stuff, lots of computers and machinery around, hardly any people. When I'm not walking around, I sit at my station, redirect calls, sign for packages, or read. Mostly, it's been reading, but I think that's because there isn't enough work for two guys on the same shift (which will end when my training does). But the reason I haven't lined up more classes is because I wanna see if this position is as stable as I've been told it is. If I keep the schedule they've given me, I can work and go to school full time. I'd work Saturdays and Sundays, 8am-4pm, and then Mondays and Tuesdays, 4pm-midnight. The only conflict between that and going to school that I can see is sleeping. I'd probably have a wonky sleep schedule, but... honestly, it seems worthwhile. I don't want to end up graduating in 8 more years, or something comparable.

I need the money, too. I need to move out. I'll have the means, I just need to find a suitable place. After some odds and ends care for my computer, all of my money is going to be saved, because I'm good at that. In terms of cash priority, there's nothing I want to buy more than I want to get my own place.

I've thought this out, too. Even at a sizable tax rate (let's say 30%), and a potential retarded purchase (let's say $500), I'd have enough money by the last paycheck in August to pay for three months of rent and whatnot at Adam and Courtney's building across the street from campus. And that's only figuring in paychecks from June to August, because I'm not counting the money I may or may not spend on my computer (although it certainly wouldn't be all the money I'd earn in a month). And I don't have fly out for random vacations, so... >_> That's good.

I'd say things feel like they're happening, something that hasn't really occurred for a while. Good times.

Sean

Racism is not the only argument

I know I swore off politics, but that doesn't mean I've stopped being criticized for the few basic principles I still feel strongly about. I have been criticized/straw-manned by people who said in as many words that I was a good, faceless comrade, except... those are the same people who then sneer and take a shit on words like "diversity" and "multi-culture."

I hear a lot that the only argument the left has against the right is "racism." It is not. In fact, that's a good illustration of my first point-- selective hearing. I can try and share all the reasons and information in the world, or ask something I sincerely want an answer to, but whether or not anything gets through is not something I can affect, unless my aim is to piss everyone off, in which case the obscenities are loud and clear.

I think the problem there is "truthiness." A better term is "emotivism," but truthiness is more biting-- 'a "truth" that a person claims to know intuitively "from the gut" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts.' I feel like because people already "know," they don't need to listen. They CLEARLY have the answer. So what if dozens of reputable sources say something to contrary, personal experience makes you absolutely correct! Never mind that yours is an isolated case- it happened to YOU, and YOU KNOW everything there is to know on the subject because of this!

So discussion falls apart, because people feel their way through rather than reason it. Honest questions and argumentation become personal attacks, because I'm essentially telling them that they feel wrong, which isn't my aim, but I don't get to choose how people interpret things. If I wanted nothing more than to say "Fuck you," that's all I'd type, rather than take the time to weave it into a sociopolitical rant. It takes too much time, and I don't care enough to do that.

I'm gonna write what I believe, why, and then ask questions about differing points of view, ones that genuinely perplex me. Hopefully, by understanding where I'm coming from, and knowing that I'm not doing it to be a douche, I can get some honest, well thought out answers some day. I'm not gonna post them now, because it's 7:30 in the AM and I'm tired, but I'll get them out here one day. I'll write up a huge pre-rant thing before the questions so maybe you can get an idea of -why- I feel the way I do.

Sean