Chatter in the Booths

[Bethany Shepard]

Dang it... Sorry. Here:

Cisco is probably my favorite character in The Flash, so this song brought me a lot of joy!

[Helios]

Have you seen the original Vibe costume, Bethy? From the comics? Did you know he died and came back to life as a Black Lantern so that he could rip people's hearts out and eat them?

[Tea Ess]

It needs to stop raining. I want it to be sunny and warm, not freezing cold and wet.

[Doll]

I am drowning in homework. Figuratively of course, but I am swamped. Some of my teachers think that their class is the only one I have or something, because I get hours and hours and hours of it every night.

[TigerShadow]

That's the worst, Belle. =/ I'm right with you; I have tons of work to do, and most of the time it's a lot of hands-on stuff. People who think being an art major is really relaxing and easy have no clue what they're talking about. What kinds of classes are you taking? I know you said you're in Accounting; wasn't that the one where you got the wrong book and couldn't get a refund because the bookstore screwed up?

[Doll]

That's the worst, Belle. =/ I'm right with you; I have tons of work to do, and most of the time it's a lot of hands-on stuff. People who think being an art major is really relaxing and easy have no clue what they're talking about. What kinds of classes are you taking? I know you said you're in Accounting; wasn't that the one where you got the wrong book and couldn't get a refund because the bookstore screwed up?

Yeup. My two hardest classes are intermediate accounting and taxation accounting. Its the same teacher, and I have so much homework from both of them.

[TigerShadow]

Well, talking of college woes: Florida apparently has a statute requiring that students be charged for excess credit hours (i.e. more than fifteen credit hours, which is essentially five classes per semester), in order to "provide incentives for efficient baccalaureate degree completion".

These are the categories for the surcharge:

1. Failed courses.
2. Courses that are dropped after the university’s advertised last day of the drop and add period.
3. Courses from which a student withdraws, except as provided in subsection (4).
4. Repeated courses, except repeated courses for which the student has paid the full cost of instruction as provided in s. 1009.285.
(b) All credit hours earned at another institution and accepted for transfer by the state university and applied toward the student’s baccalaureate degree program.

...Except exactly none of the classes I'm taking right now are failed, nor have I dropped any after the deadline, nor have I withdrawn from any of them, nor am I repeating any of them, nor were any of those credits earned at another institution. All of the classes I'm taking at present are required for my degree, and I'm taking all of them for the first time. I'll be taking this many credit hours next semester, too, because this degree program just has that many prerequisite courses required before the last two years. (Sixteen classes, in total, not counting gen eds.) I'm going to be appealing it; my case doesn't technically fall under one of the exceptions, but it also doesn't fall under one of the explicit categories, either. I'm just really irritated that this was applied to me apparently without thinking, and I will raise an absolute firestorm if it turns out I still get charged on some nonsense technicality. I should not be penalized for trying to complete my degree in an efficient amount of time—in other words, exactly what this law was designed to do in the first place. >_>

[HomeschoolCowgirl]

Yuck, Tiger. That sounds awful. Is the charge an exorbitant amount?

[TigerShadow]

I'm not entirely sure how much it is; my fee invoice doesn't parse out what's tuition cost and what's the surcharge. But even if it's not a huge amount, it's the principle of the thing, y'know? I can afford to have more of a bite taken out of my savings, but a lot of other people can't.

[Tea Ess]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but how does charging for more credit hours help students be more efficient in getting their degree? That's literally punishing you for working harder.

[TigerShadow]

I think it's basically meant to act as a deterrent to slacking off and not doing things like dropping or adding classes on time—if you're going to be monetarily penalized for it, you're generally less likely to do it. But yeah, it ends up punishing people who are just trying to complete their degree in a semi-reasonable amount of time because they enforce it indiscriminately and then tell you to appeal after the fact.

[Tea Ess]

Yeah, I guess I can see the methodology now, but it definitely sounds frustrating to work with. Hopefully the appeal process goes smoothly for you.

I had a test in my most difficult class today, and I don't think I screwed myself over as much I as had predicted!

[TigerShadow]

Hey, there's a silver lining!

[Didi]

I got a shot yesterday!! xD I know I'm 15 but I haven't had a shot in years. I was SO scared...I freaked out like a little kid, I'm like "nonono I don't want a shot nono please no". The needle itself didn't even hurt that bad but I almost died when the stuff was injected and the needle came out. Ok, a bit dramatic there but the whole thing was dramatic. A few of you already know needles are one of my greatest fears....I felt so proud of myself like a 6 year old

[Blitz]

Uh... needles are like common for me.. unfortunately, I haven't gone a year without blood tests and shots.

[Pound Foolish]

Trump really astonished me in the debates tonight. I knew he'd be bad of course, but he was pacing, scowling, pointing at Hillary, whining about how the (more than flexible) moderators treated him, making absolutely nonsensical arguments, bringing up things that had no place in a presidential debate, scowling, filibustering, red herring-ing, geez.

Hillary's composure under Donald Trump's horrific behavior was admirable. I didn't really learn anything much new about her policy but I'm even more confident in her ability to be presidential after this. If she can take this she can sure as heck work with Putin and company.

[Tarol]

*eats an entire apple and waits to see if Bethy is right that it's not poisonous...* if not... Well, bye guys. *waves*

[Tea Ess]

Trump really astonished me in the debates tonight. I knew he'd be bad of course, but he was pacing, scowling, pointing at Hillary, whining about how the (more than flexible) moderators treated him, making absolutely nonsensical arguments, bringing up things that had no place in a presidential debate, scowling, filibustering, red herring-ing, geez.

Hillary's composure under Donald Trump's horrific behavior was admirable. I didn't really learn anything much new about her policy but I'm even more confident in her ability to be presidential after this. If she can take this she can sure as heck work with Putin and company.

I agree that we didn't hear anything new about policy, especially during the first half of the debate. In my opinion, both candidates had non sequitur responses, but Trump was worse in that regard. His complaints about the moderators were just pathetic. Both candidates went over the 2 minute mark, and the moderators called them out for it. Trump gave several non-answers, so asking follow up questions seems completely reasonable.

I wasn't blown away by Clinton's performance, but I think that she did well enough (or Trump did poorly enough) such that we won't see him gain anything in the polls.

[Stella C.]

I transferred to an online teacher's college for my Sophmore year, and just finished my second class (one of the more difficult classes) with an A!

[Bethany Shepard]

So, Monday I'm going to the eye doctor with a high chance of getting glasses. I've struggled with getting headaches and eye strain everyday for a couple years. Now it's starting to effect my driving. So, I possibly will be joining you glasses nerds. Updates at a later date.