Anecdotal story time here: I first went to Rutgers because of cultural expectation and family pressure. I had no idea what I wanted to do at the time other than get away from my overbearing parents. Apparently, I could be anything I wanted, as long as it was a college graduate. Funny, I wanted to be happy and enjoy my youth. After wasting three years of collegiate partying, I dropped out, did retail. Three years later, I realized that was a quick path to nowhere while living in the Manahattan suburb known as New Jersey. Fuck it, the Army's hiring, it's the middle of the war, let's do that. Six years of a shitty lifestyle and I realize, academics is actually fun. I just need to be motivated to do it. So I went back. Did community college to adjust to being a civilian. Took Calc 1 there, and learning as a 30 something isn't as easy as a 20 something, but I learned how to put effort in. Ended up going to the state engineering college, where I did Calc 2 and Linear Algebra. It was there that I saw the true sham of academics, mainly in the math department. There was a massive disconnect between teaching the practical application and testing the math theory. Holy fuck, you shit-tastic academic. Good for you for ploughing through 8 straight years of college to go from nothing to a PhD in mathematics. We're glad you masturbate wildly to the obtuse theorems and proofs of yesteryear. How about testing us, the undergrads, on Intergration-by-parts by using a concrete example instead of writing a word problem from the graduate textbook you wrote? Anyways, my point is, college isn't for everyone. You have to have the proper mindset to be there, either as a student or a teacher.

1: White 2: Straight 3: Cisgender 4: Male

There's also the people who belong to the "not-alt-right-but-hates-the-cringe-inducing-left-members" camp that do the ok hand sign just to watch the ADL froth at the mouth. Of course, these people go into hysterics over the weirdest shit themselves, which the left do on purpose.

I was offered the chance to test out. Unfortunately the summer class I was taking had a test that night I couldn't miss and college said it was a make-it-or-miss-it test-out. So now I'm stuck finishing up an agonizing intro to CS class that's made for students who have never touched a programming language before. If a school is going to do a test out option, offer it more than once and do it in a way that's not simply checking the box so they can say the offered it.

Well, since you mentioned it, those would be nice. Thanks, guys.

Dinosaur's on a Spaceship..... Lemme guess, you were the one person who enjoyed Snakes on a Plane. ;)

Amused by the scenario of what would happen if the Vatican gave him asylum then? Not that I know of it being possible, feasible or remotely likely, but still, I chuckled.

If /. had a "Sad but true" mod point, you'd be the first one I'd give it to.

Hmmmm, kinda sounds what Congress has been doing since forever. But they're the top fraction so I guess it's ok, even with this supposed fiscal cliff.

Which thus prompts me to wonder if a 5 star review is an actual 5 star review or some shill astroturfing. Then again, the same goes for the one star reviews and the product's competitor's.

Budgeting is done Hollywood-style. Creative writing is done to justify the bullshit which everyone can enjoy. But the people at the top enjoy it the most because they have everyone running around doing bullshit invented by said people.

Being vitriolic and jaded comes with the job. I almost consider them benefits. But hey, thanks for your service.

What drugs are you taking? I was discharged (honorably, mind you) recently and I was getting paid shit. Let me preemptively negate the mitigating arguements to justify the green weenie argument of the pay issue: ~ Free housing: I lived in on-base housing that were either condemned and then re-fitted to shove extra soldiers in, or barracks that when reviewed, the base was allocated several million dollars to build new barracks.There's a reason some of us preferred the field. ~ Free healthcare: Performed by people who are fresh out of school and aren't experienced enough to be jaded. Or performed by people who have the mentality that once they put in their eight hours, their day was over. Their day started with PT, one of the few things that movies get right by showing it before dawn. So, yes, they're out of the office by 2 in the afternoon. Oh yeah, unless there is seriously something out of the norm with you, here's some Advil. Walk it off. Knew a guy that seriously injured his spine. Was back at work about a month later. Almost forgot, he deployed 4 or 5 months later. ~ Free food: Bought at a cost ration of greatest weight per dollar, which translated into cheapest food medically allowed. Joke I heard was: Grade E Beef-substitute, suitable for Americans worst and finest, served to our military and death-row inmates. With the way the Army operates, I was lucky to get two meals a day from cooks. Breakfast usually consisted of coffee and cigarettes, a bagel if I was lucky. Lunch and dinner was at the dining facilities where everything was rationed out using grade school sized portions. I ate the best when I was in the field or on vacation. I knew guys that were in that had a wife and children that qualified for food stamps. ~ Free training, vocational/technical style: They teach the bare minimum and expect the units the service member to go to teach the rest. So yeah, it's awesome if you go into the combat arms jobs because they don't want to write any "Dear Mr. & Mrs. Snuffy" letters. Last I check, the only people hiring these guys are the mafia and possibly law enforcement. The vo-tech jobs are slightly different. They promote and train the people who kiss ass, suck dick, stroke the shaft, gurgle the gravy and ask for seconds. (Looking back at my previous point, at least they were getting additional protein.) Everyone else got ignored unless the spotlight was on the person in charge.

It's a privilege? The first two ideas which came to mind for that statement are either: A) you're former military who got so high up that you assume everyone has catered food, weekly manicures after golf, and heard that soldiers these days don't know how to dig a trench; or B) you're a civilian and thought Stripes was an actual account of all things military. Let me guess, you'll let us all have tea and crumpets for a mid afternoon snack. And if we retire by age 38, huh? How about if we make to age 38? That's assuming we all enter at age 18. (We don't. One is allowed in the military well into their 30's. Knew those guys to.) And on the topic of retiring, how about the guys who get medically retired because the Advil and water didn't heal running over an bomb? Yeah, it's a real privilege to be a poor, ahem, well payed member of the military. Please keep paying your taxes so elected officials can decide where to send us minions.

Yes, it's the American dream. Why? Because it was stated (apparently by George Carlin), you'd have to be asleep to believe in it.