The Syndicate

Wow, nice job, Quin! Congrats!!

Since I brought the subject up during Battlestar Galactica, I thought I'd share an update of a personal nature.

WARNING: The following contains personal information that may qualify as TMI for some people. Once seen, it cannot be unseen. You have been warned.

Earlier this month I had to take the test for full-time professional degree (this is probably the best translation I could find of what it's called here - "definitivat" - basically a higher teaching degree/certification required to achieve within 5 years of first entering the educational system as a teacher), with a minimum grade of 8 out of 10 set as the bar for a pass. This is usually a stressful exam, because of the passing requirements and the pedagogy / applied pedagogy material you have to bury your head into and learn - which I only managed to do with two weeks ahead, to the point of mental collapse and the feeling I will fail this exam tremendously.

Then I took the exam and felt that I did well, so I felt vaguely optimistic about the results. Found out after a week that I smashed it with a 9.8/10. Ok. Granted, the grades average was overall quite high, which prompts me to believe that the evaluation was sort of lax across the board. Still.

Wow that's fucking awesome.

I know how you feel though. Recently I got a 9/10 for an exam I did for a public job. Was feeling pretty happey bit then I saw a lot of people got high grades. One guy even got a ten. My 9 was still good enough for me to climb the rank a little though (this was the second exam of two), so I still have some hope of passing if the government decides to hire more people.

Yeah, I was also "bested" by a ten, which makes having the second grade in the whole county utterly insane.

I am finished with comprehensive exams!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I finished Thursday at 3:00PM. A moment I've been building up since before I even started the PhD program. Now I never have to study for and take another exam... ever!!! Assuming I pass, that is. And pending my successful completion of my second year paper presentation later this semester, I will officially no longer be a PhD student, but a PhD candidate and in the ABD (all but dissertation) stage. I'm so stoked, I've been dreading comps for years. They're finally over!

On another note, part of the reason you haven't heard that from me on Thursday afternoon (though you have if you have me added on Facebook since I popped on there briefly to post, and most of this is message is shamelessly stolen from my status updates there), I now finally I have a solid block of free time. I've been working non-stop even since comprehensive exams were over Thursday afternoon, and before that pretty much the last few weeks with occasional internet breaks to keep myself sane.

I think I've earned the rest of today and at least part of tomorrow off. I'm pretty sure the last "day off" I had was in July. I am so looking forward to spending time with the wife (shout out at Annie!), playing some video games, listening to some music, eating some awesome tacos (Torchy's!), and having some rum and coke (well, most likely rum and Dr. Pepper actually).

I really love teaching, but with everything else on top of it, my life has been such a chaotic emotional rollercoaster the past month and a half. From August 1st through just an hour or so ago qualifies as singlehandedly the busiest time of my life -- studying for comps and then taking them, working on research, teaching Principles I, moving to a new apartment, and planning this Excel training class and now teaching it. And I've had some incredibly busy times before, some real tough competition, but this wins the new award.

Especially with comps and the apartment move both now firmly over, and the first Excel session taught, it's so great to finally breathe and relax.

Congrats Sockface! Good luck on your final year.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:Congrats Sockface! Good luck on your final year.

I wish it was just 1. :P It'll be hopefully 2, maybe 3.

But thanks nonetheless.

Seems I'm getting my phd friends all confused.

Good luck on those 2-3 years mate.

I passed comps!!!!!!

MovingPictures07 wrote:I passed comps!!!!!!

Is that like...a kidney stone?

So... I feel like I'm getting pretty good at hunting baddies lately. The last 4 games I played there was one guy I was the first one to spot when no one else did.

I blame this site. I've lost every game I played here as a civ, but I've learned so much from that. It taught me every "do" and "don't" of baddie hunting, I feel. Now, instead of trying to hunt every baddie at once and going for the ones making noise, I'm specializing at finding that one guy nobody is paying attention to.

Now I only need to stop being terrible at playing as a baddie.

Dragon D. Luffy wrote:So... I feel like I'm getting pretty good at hunting baddies lately. The last 4 games I played there was one guy I was the first one to spot when no one else did.

I blame this site. I've lost every game I played here as a civ, but I've learned so much from that. It taught me every "do" and "don't" of baddie hunting, I feel. Now, instead of trying to hunt every baddie at once and going for the ones making noise, I'm specializing at finding that one guy nobody is paying attention to.

Now I only need to stop being terrible at playing as a baddie.

Dragon D. Luffy wrote:So... I feel like I'm getting pretty good at hunting baddies lately. The last 4 games I played there was one guy I was the first one to spot when no one else did.

I blame this site. I've lost every game I played here as a civ, but I've learned so much from that. It taught me every "do" and "don't" of baddie hunting, I feel. Now, instead of trying to hunt every baddie at once and going for the ones making noise, I'm specializing at finding that one guy nobody is paying attention to.

Now I only need to stop being terrible at playing as a baddie.

Practice makes perfect. Or in this case, practice makes evil.

Epignosis wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:I passed comps!!!!!!

Is that like...a kidney stone?

Something like that.

Dragon D. Luffy wrote:So... I feel like I'm getting pretty good at hunting baddies lately. The last 4 games I played there was one guy I was the first one to spot when no one else did.

I blame this site. I've lost every game I played here as a civ, but I've learned so much from that. It taught me every "do" and "don't" of baddie hunting, I feel. Now, instead of trying to hunt every baddie at once and going for the ones making noise, I'm specializing at finding that one guy nobody is paying attention to.

Now I only need to stop being terrible at playing as a baddie.

Freaking awesome.

So today I sat down and did my very last exam for my uni degree!

I only needed 2 percent to pass the course going in, so I knew I'd be fine and dandy. I'm just super excited because now I get to sit back and wait on my final results get released. It's only a matter of a month or two before that, but at that point I'll be able to confidently say that I've earned my Bachelor's degree in Business/Marketing

Quin wrote:So today I sat down and did my very last exam for my uni degree!

I only needed 2 percent to pass the course going in, so I knew I'd be fine and dandy. I'm just super excited because now I get to sit back and wait on my final results get released. It's only a matter of a month or two before that, but at that point I'll be able to confidently say that I've earned my Bachelor's degree in Business/Marketing

Congrats Quinn - now time to start that masters!

juliets wrote:

Quin wrote:So today I sat down and did my very last exam for my uni degree!

I only needed 2 percent to pass the course going in, so I knew I'd be fine and dandy. I'm just super excited because now I get to sit back and wait on my final results get released. It's only a matter of a month or two before that, but at that point I'll be able to confidently say that I've earned my Bachelor's degree in Business/Marketing

Congrats Quinn - now time to start that masters!

I've been tossing around the idea a lot, but I think that's something I might come back to later on.

Quin wrote:

juliets wrote:

Quin wrote:So today I sat down and did my very last exam for my uni degree!

I only needed 2 percent to pass the course going in, so I knew I'd be fine and dandy. I'm just super excited because now I get to sit back and wait on my final results get released. It's only a matter of a month or two before that, but at that point I'll be able to confidently say that I've earned my Bachelor's degree in Business/Marketing

Congrats Quinn - now time to start that masters!

I've been tossing around the idea a lot, but I think that's something I might come back to later on.

I waited until i had worked for awhile before I went back for my masters. On the plus side, I had lived through the things I was learning about (I got an MBA) which made school a little easier. On the negative side, getting a degree while working full time was exhausting. I remember parties I sent my husband to but didnt go myself because I needed to study, I remember listening to recordings of my investments class while washing dishes, I remember studying in a closet at work during my lunch hour. I think if I had it to do over I would go for the masters after I finished the undergraduate, then tackle the working world. Good luck to you regardless which road you take.

Last weekend my oldest daughter's preschool had a Fall Festival, which included a silent auction. I cleaned up like a pro.

I won the goodie basket that my daughter's class put together (movies, snacks, games, puzzles) because I'd have felt like a bad dad if I didn't vote on my kid's class's basket. I also scored:

-Two learn-to-ski packages for 1/3 the retail price (one for my wife and one for Chloe)
-Passes to an area wildlife park/zoo at just under retail
-Ice skating passes for half the retail price
-A pizza & bowling package for 2/3 the retail price

Christmas is going to be awesome. I love giving experiences rather than things.

I finished my second year presentation yesterday morning so I am now (unofficially, hopefully officially on Monday) done with everything but the dissertation! It has been a long road, but I'm finally here.

A Mafia of Unfortunate Events was the 100th game on The Syndicate!*

You could say we're now viable for... syndication. hyyyyyeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

*unless I forgot to add any other game. In which case ignore this post.

Great job, Rico! Kudos to you!

Ricochet wrote:A Mafia of Unfortunate Events was the 100th game on The Syndicate!*

You could say we're now viable for... syndication. hyyyyyeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

*unless I forgot to add any other game. In which case ignore this post.

There's still this whole sub-forum of games unaccounted for.

For anyone who's interested, I will be appearing on the NPR show "On Point" tomorrow from 11:00am - 12:00pm to discuss the film "The Founder" with the director.

thellama73 wrote:For anyone who's interested, I will be appearing on the NPR show "On Point" tomorrow from 11:00am - 12:00pm to discuss the film "The Founder" with the director.

Très cool... how do you prepare for such a discussion?

Long Con wrote:

thellama73 wrote:For anyone who's interested, I will be appearing on the NPR show "On Point" tomorrow from 11:00am - 12:00pm to discuss the film "The Founder" with the director.

Très cool... how do you prepare for such a discussion?

In this case, I don't really intend to prepare much. I will just respond to whatever questions they ask me honestly. In my previous radio hits where I've had to talk about policy, I do lots of homework to make sure I have all the facts and numbers ready and I don't misspeak or get ambushed, but since this is about a movie, there's not really anything I need to know.

Congratulations Spacedaisy on your promotion to admin!

Nepotism!

Eh, don't give me kudos for that, lol. Someone has to step up and help the other two admins carry the load while Alex is under the workload for his dissertation. It's proximity, I am in the same house, we already discuss all site issues as it is. I can carry the same vision for the site as he does since we are on the same page and have been since the beginning. Once he is back to 100% I will probably step back down unless they still need the help for whatever reason. We'll see how everything shakes out in the long run. In the meantime I'm always up for helping out however I can.

This will be a prime opportunity for Epignosis and I to catch him in post count.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:This will be a prime opportunity for Epignosis and I to catch him in post count.

I have no interest in that endeavor.

Seriously, no interest.

None whatsoever.

I mean, post count is really stupid.

Why bother?

"Woo! Look at me! I have the most posts on an Internet forum devoted to Mafia! Aren't I great?"

Stupid as hell, right?

Exactly.

Epignosis wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote:This will be a prime opportunity for Epignosis and I to catch him in post count.

I have no interest in that endeavor.

I mean, I don't either. I just like to play mafia.

And sometimes I like to talk about music.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:And sometimes I like to talk about music.

Who doesn't?

MovingPictures07 wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote:And sometimes I like to talk about music.

Who doesn't?

Stop making sense!

Can I talk about music with you guys? I love music.

thellama73 wrote:Can I talk about music with you guys? I love music.

Remember that time we talked about Mike Oldfield? I love music!

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

thellama73 wrote:Can I talk about music with you guys? I love music.

Remember that time we talked about Mike Oldfield? I love music!

Man, I haven't listened to Mike Oldfield in forever. I should do that.

MovingPictures07 wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

thellama73 wrote:Can I talk about music with you guys? I love music.

Remember that time we talked about Mike Oldfield? I love music!

Man, I haven't listened to Mike Oldfield in forever. I should do that.

He has a new release, Return to Ommadawn.

Epignosis wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

thellama73 wrote:Can I talk about music with you guys? I love music.

Remember that time we talked about Mike Oldfield? I love music!

Man, I haven't listened to Mike Oldfield in forever. I should do that.

He has a new release, Return to Ommadawn.

I am scared to listen because Ommadawn is a great album and I don't know how it compares.

Epignosis wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

thellama73 wrote:Can I talk about music with you guys? I love music.

Remember that time we talked about Mike Oldfield? I love music!

Man, I haven't listened to Mike Oldfield in forever. I should do that.

He has a new release, Return to Ommadawn.

Oh wow, somehow I wasn't aware of that yet. I should check it out.

A Person wrote:

Epignosis wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

thellama73 wrote:Can I talk about music with you guys? I love music.

Remember that time we talked about Mike Oldfield? I love music!

Man, I haven't listened to Mike Oldfield in forever. I should do that.

He has a new release, Return to Ommadawn.

I am scared to listen because Ommadawn is a great album and I don't know how it compares.

Pretend it's called something else then and has nothing to do with Ommadawn. Then listen.