Venting Thread- Vent about anything.

[FoggyAnhinga]

Don't get me wrong, I love dogs, but what I would like to vent about are irresponsible owners or owners in constant denial. I knew a colleague who didn't give her dog much attention as she should and her dog would go around chewing/destroying household items whenever her owner was absent (it's quite mind-blowing to see how your place looks after being gone for only a few hours). Sadly the owner was always sugarcoating it, saying that it's because she's only a puppy (she's 5 years old! Correct me if I'm wrong, but that is not a puppy) and she was always in denial (didn't want to admit her dog had problems nor admit her problems with not giving her dog enough attention). If I nor others were there to witness her dog doing the destruction (even though it was obvious it was her dog since other dogs were kept in their crates while the owners were out), she would stubbornly argue that we can't prove her dog did it... sigh...

[Cosmojo]

I had a take home test recently and I emailed my questions to the prof and he felt in necessary to copy and paste my email and send it to the rest of the class. k #1. Thank for giving everyone else hints on questions I worked so hard on #2. I'm a fairly private person and so I felt like an IDIOT, especially because he was critical of my questions.    Thanks prof. feels great. 

 

I emailed another prof recently who is helping out with a class while another prof was super busy with a deadline and I knew he wouldn't be able to respond to me. I asked simply about the expectations for an upcoming project- I wanted to know what they wanted so I knew how I would be graded because the assignment was vague. The first prof emails the really busy profs and they each proceed to tell me its to my benefit to put as much time into this project as possible. ...uh duh... I wasn't asking about how hard I should work I was asking how it should be graded, but thanks for implying I'm just looking for the easy way out. Thats why its spring break and I'm the only grad student in the lab. 

[shadowclaw]

In the past two days, I did my favorite thing ever... shelled out a ton of money to fix my car and due some routine maintenance. I've needed a new pair of front tires for a while, but I've been putting it off. I also bent a rim a while back and really needed to get a new one. So I went to the junkyard and spent $100 on a new rim, then spent $150 on two new tires. I would have liked to buy nicer ones, but my wheel bearings decided that now would be a good time to go bad, so that was $350 gone.

Driving home with everything fixed up, and my engine light came on. Sigh. I hope it's not too serious, or I'll have to dip into my moving fund.

Edited March 14, 2015 by shadowclaw

[DTY]

My doctor is the worst, and apparently unwilling to actually speak with me unless I make an appointment. When I was uninsured, my free clinic doctor used to personally call me with test results and follow-ups. If a free clinic physician can do it, why can't a well paid employee of a well known health clinic take the time?!?! This is why people trust the internet more than their own highly trained medical professionals.

[shadowclaw]

My doctor is the worst, and apparently unwilling to actually speak with me unless I make an appointment. When I was uninsured, my free clinic doctor used to personally call me with test results and follow-ups. If a free clinic physician can do it, why can't a well paid employee of a well known health clinic take the time?!?! This is why people trust the internet more than their own highly trained medical professionals.

One word: money. Unless it's just a quick follow up that couldn't be charged to your insurance. In that case, I have no idea. My family's doctor (or at least someone from the office) phones us with lab results. It seems a lot easier than taking up time slots at the office that could go to other patients.

[DerpTastic]

My mom unfriended me on Facebook and then sent me a message that included, "I always felt inside that you never really loved me or bonded with me. That you were angry at me for something. I expressed it to Dad and he dismissed it."

I always thought mom bonded more with my sister because they have so much in common (I'm way more like my dad). Turns out it's because she's thought I hated her and that my sister always loved her. Oh family drama.

[VulpesZerda]

A program invited me to their late February interview day back on Feb 7. I wasn't able to attend, but their initial email emphasised that it would not negatively impact my chances. I RSVPed within a few days requesting a phone interview, which was what they thought would be a good alternative. Well two weeks went by and I didn't hear from them. I sent a polite follow up and another few weeks went by! Now acceptances have been showing up in the Results so I called this week and left a voicemail but my call wasn't returned. Jeesh! This is frustrating. End of vent.

[TheMercySeat]

I have a friend with a BA in anthropology from a no name LAC who told me that he got into a top ten clinical psychology PhD. He has... No clinical experience, no research experience, and no psych coursework. He's career military, this was in 2004, and he ended up declining the acceptance to take on a lucrative fed job.

I finally squeezed out of him: his friend's dad is (was?) the president of a big name university, and he made a couple phone calls on my friend's behalf.

Do things like this happen a lot? It's really depressing to think about.

Edited March 14, 2015 by TheMercySeat

[sunscapee]

You know it's that time of the year again.... grad recruitment weekend..... I don't know how many people have done this but being the grad student to trying to recruit prospective students can be a big pain in the glutes maximus.  I was trying to tell/ reminded everyone that we have a Ph.D/MBA program at our institution and one girl was like "what the am I going to do with an MBA"?  Ahh like if u want to do administrative work in a company and not have to take bitch ass order from other people.  No one is trying to force you to be in a dual program......... you need to be smart do that anyway.  Seriously, if that's how you're going to behave, I don't want you to be a part of our program anyway.  Was such a waste of my time.........  Just fuck grad recruitment I'm so done with this.

[Marst]

My mom unfriended me on Facebook and then sent me a message that included, "I always felt inside that you never really loved me or bonded with me. That you were angry at me for something. I expressed it to Dad and he dismissed it."

I always thought mom bonded more with my sister because they have so much in common (I'm way more like my dad). Turns out it's because she's thought I hated her and that my sister always loved her. Oh family drama.

Wow, that's tough love without the love part. Great when adults star behaving like kids. I am sorry you had to go through that.

[ERR_Alpha]

My mom unfriended me on Facebook and then sent me a message that included, "I always felt inside that you never really loved me or bonded with me. That you were angry at me for something. I expressed it to Dad and he dismissed it."

I always thought mom bonded more with my sister because they have so much in common (I'm way more like my dad). Turns out it's because she's thought I hated her and that my sister always loved her. Oh family drama.

My mom and my sister have this exact same relationship... I don't get it. Parents can be baffling.

[FoggyAnhinga]

I had a take home test recently and I emailed my questions to the prof and he felt in necessary to copy and paste my email and send it to the rest of the class. k #1. Thank for giving everyone else hints on questions I worked so hard on #2. I'm a fairly private person and so I felt like an IDIOT, especially because he was critical of my questions.    Thanks prof. feels great. 

 

I emailed another prof recently who is helping out with a class while another prof was super busy with a deadline and I knew he wouldn't be able to respond to me. I asked simply about the expectations for an upcoming project- I wanted to know what they wanted so I knew how I would be graded because the assignment was vague. The first prof emails the really busy profs and they each proceed to tell me its to my benefit to put as much time into this project as possible. ...uh duh... I wasn't asking about how hard I should work I was asking how it should be graded, but thanks for implying I'm just looking for the easy way out. Thats why its spring break and I'm the only grad student in the lab. 

 

The prof sounds like an insensitive and an arrogant individual... sorry to hear about that I've had profs who forwarded my question to the rest of the class as well, but they always crossed out my names and never criticized my questions. 

 

And yeah, some profs get so sidetracked with their work that they completely forget what your question was and give you an irrelevant answer (happened to me quite a few times in the past during my meetings with other profs... really annoying). 

 

I also had a bad email exchange experience with a TA (he was a total d*****bag) a while ago, during my first couple days as a first year undergrad. I politely sent him an email asking him a simple question about the weekly assignment electronic submissions (it was explained vaguely in the syllabus so i just wanted to confirm). And guess what his response was? I can't believe I still have that guy's email from all the way back then. Copy and pasted, it was "THIS INFORMATION IS IN THE WEBSITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (yes, he put everything in caps and put that many exclamation marks). I mean, WTF seriously?? I was THIS CLOSE to emailing back to him "hey a**hole, no need to be such a dick about it, I'm new to college and just wanted to confirm since it was explained NOT CLEARLY AT ALL" but seeing how he was the head TA of the course, I didn't want to risk failing the class (if he decides to treat me as an enemy if I every replied in a such manner). So, as hard as it was, I restrained myself (didn't want to start off my college experience on a wrong foot either haha).

 

Ever since that happened I made a personal mission myself that if I was ever to become a TA I'll try my best to treat all the students fairly, no matter how repetitive or simple their questions may be (unless they try to cheat or plagiarize). Certainly I'll NEVER respond by starting with the line "THIS INFORMATION IS IN THE WEBSITE!!!!!!". 

Edited March 15, 2015 by FoggyAnhinga

[shadowclaw]

Speaking of Facebook and family relationships, my mother-in-law and husband are eternally getting into Facebook fights. Actually, she gets into Facebook fights with everyone because she forgets that everyone on her friend list can see her posts and she's always trash taking somebody.

She doesn't have a car anymore, refuses to shop at the grocery store that is three buildings away from her apartment, and instead prefers to shop at the grocery store in the next town that is part of the same chain and has the same food at the same prices. She also likes to buy certain things at Walmart (which is 20 minutes away by car) which she can get at the Dollar General in town (which is a 5 minute walk) for the same price. Nevertheless, my husband drives her both to the grocery store and to Walmart when she asks (but she won't go to both on the same day because of differences in when she gets her food stamps and social security). This time, however, he must have been in a bad mood, because he told her he wasn't going to drive her twice in one week and just wait the few days for her social security to come in so they could go to both stores.

Evidently it pissed her off, because she put a bunch of posts on Facebook about how her son doesn't love her, how she did everything for him all his life and now look at how he treats her, etc. So now there's a bunch of Facebook drama going on.

Could be worse. She used to be Facebook friends with my family, until she started posting a bunch of stuff about them as if they wouldn't see it, plus was spying on my brother and his girlfriend at family get-togethers and reporting back to his ex-wife through Facebook so she could try to use it against him. The drama got so bad that she was banned from my parents' home.

Then when we got married on a cruise (which he paid her way for by borrowing money from my parents), she flipped out because she had to wait a day for him to put money on her cruise account and couldn't buy any booze for one night. She was rooming with two of my friends and while unpacking, told them how mean and terrible he was and that he was going to abuse me after we were married. When we confronted her about it after the cruise, she insisted my friends were lying to us to turn us against her, because they were under the influence of Satan (one friend is pagan and the other isn't really religious).

So yeah. Drama. Never ending drama.

[mockturtle]

I have a friend with a BA in anthropology from a no name LAC who told me that he got into a top ten clinical psychology PhD. He has... No clinical experience, no research experience, and no psych coursework. He's career military, this was in 2004, and he ended up declining the acceptance to take on a lucrative fed job.

I finally squeezed out of him: his friend's dad is (was?) the president of a big name university, and he made a couple phone calls on my friend's behalf.

Do things like this happen a lot? It's really depressing to think about.

Oh god, I hate that. A little less extreme, but I was once talking to a fellow neuroscience major with just the most intimidating work-history-by-sophomore-year you'd ever heard of, doing research at this one hospital since 8th? 9th? grade.

 

Someone asked her how she was able to nab and keep such an amazing opportunity so early, and she reluctantly let it slip:

Her mother owns the place 

[Sword_Saint]

I have a friend with a BA in anthropology from a no name LAC who told me that he got into a top ten clinical psychology PhD. He has... No clinical experience, no research experience, and no psych coursework. He's career military, this was in 2004, and he ended up declining the acceptance to take on a lucrative fed job.

I finally squeezed out of him: his friend's dad is (was?) the president of a big name university, and he made a couple phone calls on my friend's behalf.

Do things like this happen a lot? It's really depressing to think about.

 

I [briefly] dated a girl whose father was the local 3 star general of all of the Air Force in the state. Nepotism is totally a thing. This stuff is totally real sometimes. When people say it isn't what you know but who you know, those people are right; this is why you try to never burn bridges.

 

 

1) Pissed at idiots in the gym. "Me and my 4 friends are going to use the bench press over here, and instead of using heavier weights, we are going to find all 12 of the 10lb weights everywhere on this side of the gym and use those. FYI, we'll be here a LONG while."

 

2) I was concerned about my car, took it to the mechanic and they ok'd everything after a long and presumably thorough inspection after changing the oil and replacing some minor components. Next morning car doesn't start.

 

3) The one school I'm most interested in hearing from in regards to acceptance/rejection is the one school to not indicate one way or the other by mid-march, three weeks after all of the other schools.

 

4) Went to academic conference and get in elevator:

Vocal Complainer: "Oh, you're from Alaska, I'm from the east coast and I bet it's colder at my house than in Alaska." [5 more minutes of complaints]

Myself: "....oh really?"

Vocal Complainer: "It's 0 degrees at my house, can you believe that? 0 degrees!" 

Myself: "As of tomorrow morning, the website says outside my house will feel like -41"

 

5) Mom: "Can you pay for your extended family member to fly up and see your graduation?"  

Me: "....[not a chance in hell]...."

Edited March 15, 2015 by Sword_Saint

[TheMercySeat]

Oh god, I hate that. A little less extreme, but I was once talking to a fellow neuroscience major with just the most intimidating work-history-by-sophomore-year you'd ever heard of, doing research at this one hospital since 8th? 9th? grade.

 

Someone asked her how she was able to nab and keep such an amazing opportunity so early, and she reluctantly let it slip:

Her mother owns the place 

Ha!

People spend years grooming to be a competitive PhD psych applicant, so it makes me sad to hear about these kind of things :x

[EdNeuroGrl]

I just want to know where I'll be in 6 months. I. Just. Want. To. Know.

That hit close to home! Though for me it is next year, but after 2 years rejection and 2 years working full time away from academia and now being back in the saddle doing a Master's *sigh* I am already terrified that everything is going to go belly up this time next year and I'm going to be SOL. I am literally all in at this point so if everything falls apart, I have no clue what I'm going to do.

 

Oh, and, I forgot to mention, I may or may not have MS... been having weird neurological symptoms but waiting on a neurologist consult (Friday)... I know what I want to do and I may very well only have another 20-ish years to be doing before I can't brain properly anymore... *sigh*

 

I am super sick of biding my time as this is a strategy that is becoming very costly, but on the other hand, I love research and there's nothing I'd rather do more... just got to get into a PhD program. *stressstressstress*

[RosyPosy68]

Honestly, I just need to vent about myself. I'm expecting a notification for Fulbright this week, and in my mind fog of anxiousness, I just went through a drive through and ordered coffee and snacks for a few people at my office--- and then realized I didn't have my purse as I went to pay. That was just beyond embarrassing.  You know what else I did this week? Forgot sunscreen and walked around on a beach for 5 hours.  I am a lobster.  Can I  just please start functioning again?

 

I also had to edit this post about 10 times because I wrote things that didn't makes sense.

Edited March 16, 2015 by RosyPosy68

[Amayan]

My mom unfriended me on Facebook and then sent me a message that included, "I always felt inside that you never really loved me or bonded with me. That you were angry at me for something. I expressed it to Dad and he dismissed it."

I always thought mom bonded more with my sister because they have so much in common (I'm way more like my dad). Turns out it's because she's thought I hated her and that my sister always loved her. Oh family drama.

 

For her to tell you that through text, and not even give you the courtesy of a face-to-face conversation, feels incredibly skeezy and passive aggressive.  I don't want to insult your mom, but I'm sorry you've been snared into such a childish predicament.

[TenaciousBushLeaper]

Balding seems to be more pronounced each passing day.....

[Shiji E. Moji]

Nothing burns me up more than, after getting accepted to a top-5 school, still being asked, "Oh, so you ARE going to go back to school for something useful after that, right?" Or even better, "So you'll, what, go work for Starbucks? Be a better international barista?" 

 

And then there's the ever useful, "What're you going to do with that, teach or something -- translate?" Like teaching or translating is bad or not worthwhile. Even though teaching isn't ultimately my goal, it's certainly going to be a huge part of my future career. So, like, BACK OFF.

 

And, for the record, Japanese and Linguistics either together or separate are valuable areas of study. If you don't get it, don't bash it, but at least respect a person's interest! I LOVE my area of research, and I wouldn't give it up for all the approval nods society could offer.

 

Good God, I need a G&T. Or maybe a violent video game.

[Sword_Saint]

Nothing burns me up more than, after getting accepted to a top-5 school, still being asked, "Oh, so you ARE going to go back to school for something useful after that, right?" Or even better, "So you'll, what, go work for Starbucks? Be a better international barista?" 

 

And then there's the ever useful, "What're you going to do with that, teach or something -- translate?" Like teaching or translating is bad or not worthwhile. Even though teaching isn't ultimately my goal, it's certainly going to be a huge part of my future career. So, like, BACK OFF.

 

And, for the record, Japanese and Linguistics either together or separate are valuable areas of study. If you don't get it, don't bash it, but at least respect a person's interest! I LOVE my area of research, and I wouldn't give it up for all the approval nods society could offer.

 

Good God, I need a G&T. Or maybe a violent video game.

 

 

You bring up a valid point about about the questioned legitimacy of certain disciplines. I brought this up in one of my SOP letters, that certain degrees are under valued for not teaching students immediately marketable job skills. Its a point of contention for me as people often question my decision to minor in philosophy or feel that criminal justice involves common sense knowledge.

 

One of the first books I read in an intro course as an undergrad the author described his frustration of how he would tell people he was a PhD in justice and the people would always give him their 2 cents about what was wrong with justice related topics or how the PhD could do his job better. The author contrasted his experience with his neighbors, his neighbor being an airline pilot. Invariably, when telling people he was a pilot, no one would question his ability to successfully land an airplane or what should be done to make it better.

 

There is a for sure issue with the melding of universities and trade schools in my opinion, and it meshes into this issue of people thinking if you can't perform a technical skill that a lay person can understand your degree was worthless.

 

Good post- also, my ramblings are somewhat due to exhaustion.

[Munashi]

My mom unfriended me on Facebook and then sent me a message that included, "I always felt inside that you never really loved me or bonded with me. That you were angry at me for something. I expressed it to Dad and he dismissed it."

I always thought mom bonded more with my sister because they have so much in common (I'm way more like my dad). Turns out it's because she's thought I hated her and that my sister always loved her. Oh family drama.

 

Dude, that's awful.  I'm sorry you're dealing with this.  As someone else said: the fact that this came through a text.. ? Erg.  Wishing you the best.

[grad_wannabe]

You bring up a valid point about about the questioned legitimacy of certain disciplines. I brought this up in one of my SOP letters, that certain degrees are under valued for not teaching students immediately marketable job skills. Its a point of contention for me as people often question my decision to minor in philosophy or feel that criminal justice involves common sense knowledge.

 

One of the first books I read in an intro course as an undergrad the author described his frustration of how he would tell people he was a PhD in justice and the people would always give him their 2 cents about what was wrong with justice related topics or how the PhD could do his job better. The author contrasted his experience with his neighbors, his neighbor being an airline pilot. Invariably, when telling people he was a pilot, no one would question his ability to successfully land an airplane or what should be done to make it better.

 

There is a for sure issue with the melding of universities and trade schools in my opinion, and it meshes into this issue of people thinking if you can't perform a technical skill that a lay person can understand your degree was worthless.

 

Good post- also, my ramblings are somewhat due to exhaustion.

 

I've been bowled over at the number of people telling me they "don't believe in school" and that "the school of life is enough!" and my favorite, "when are you going to stop stalling, and start growing up and having a family?" As though I'm moving to NYC to begin a doctorate at one of the best universities in the country just to get out of having babies. 

[.letmeinplz//]

Good God, I need a G&T. Or maybe a violent video game.

Hotline Miami 2 is out :-)