I F***ING GRADUATED!!!!!

[pieman3141]

Today (June 1st in Canada) I had my graduation ceremony. Boringest thing humans have ever thought up of. Speeches by top brass --> Everybody gets to walk across the stage (500 kids in my class of 2002) --> more speeches --> valedictorian --> choir + recessional. 3 hours of sitting on your arse listening to the kids go across one by one. Only exciting part was when I went across (no, i did NOT trip and fall).

[Arctic]

I'm not offended by usage of the new vocabulary. I work in a company which has its headquarters in this country where I live, but nevertheless the official company language is English. The result is that 99% of the people are not using their mother tongue in communication. I can recall several occations where our VP used terms that would be politically incorrect for native English speakers, eg. "competitor x is going to be a pain in the *ss in next half". And this is about events with "mass" audiences. Also in our management team meetings colourful expressions are used like: "no sh*t", "that f*cking subcontractor", "your business plan is crap", "you're screwing our schedules" etc. They are just part of normal communication and due to the influence of the media etc. we consider these as mainstream english. Nobody blinks an eye if one of the forbidden words is used. They are not emotionally charged for us, as they might be to natives. They are even very useful to put accents to your message. I tend to use "pain in the lower back" instead of "*ss" because I can't help visualising that expression every time I use it, but I have been interrupted several times by someone asking what I mean with "lower back". We ain't using Oxford English in business here Bert

[IHeels]

Notice that most of the words are greater than five letters. Get the impression someone's trying to play down the event and at the same time show how pleased they are. I

[terayon]

cool pieman, i gotta prv message you about something though...expect message soon

[hoverfly]

So this is what the educational system is pumping out to day. There goes my Social Security...

[pieman3141]

Sorry about the four-letter word. Moment of excitement. For those graduating, do try to be conservative, k? Terayon: do u use any IM programs (ie. ICQ, MSN, etc.)? gimme your icq # or msn name if so.

[Laurieheels]

Pieman, way to go! Annonymous, hey, lighten up already, or at least get some courage to sign a name. Opinions are fine, but they're worth a grain of sand from a polluted beach if you don't bother to stand up to make it. Why hide? Again, Pieman, very good on you, congratulations.

[ShockQueen]

*sigh*....I think all this is doing is making a stronger case for the board admins to disallow anonymous posters here. I've seen it happen all too often where anonymous people just hover around and attack people, so my feeling is that they should have to register in order to post. After all....even in courts, one has the right to know their accuser.

[Francis]

You can register a name and still disallow any user to view your email address. The system is designed to take this into account. Simply register a name and then check the box at the bottom of your profile to stop anyone seeing your email address

[azraelle]

Agree with you SQ, kind of.

[Laurieheels]

On 2002-06-03 18:43, Anonymous wrote:

LAURIE

Sometimes I don't use my USERNAME as I

Don't like the E.Mail I get when I

disagree with the young ones.

SEASON your Words Well Laurie

BECAUSE

You may have to Eat them one Day.

See? Now you're just plain rude. I don't feel you should be out to lecture anyone, least alone myself. Eat my words? So? I speak my mind, and least I admit to who I am when I say it. That makes all of the difference, doesn't it.

I tire of your fickle games. Let's just be happy for the boy who graduated. We all remember how to be happy, don't we?

[Yamyam]

Congratulations on graduating. I seem to remember having done that years ago, although there was some mention of a UK BSc certificate at the time. Clearly, in view of my advanced years, my memory of the day may have failed me somewhat And yeah, I agree that perhaps we should rethink the anonymous posters thing. I seem to recall being abused by an anonymous poster a little while ago.

[Charlie]

Congrats pieman3141!!!!! Time to enter a totally new and exiting phase of life! Best of luck to you!! Shockqueen and Laurie: You're right! Anonymous: Threatening Laurie directly is not wise on your part. Charlie

[pieman3141]

Thank you all. Sorry I don't hang around here much, as I usually frequent to other boards. Anyways, I am proud to stand by my opinions, and I welcome any criticism. Anon, please don't abuse your rights to free speech. To all you old folks: beware, because when I rule the world... hehheheh... enough fantasizing. I haven't technically graduated yet, as I still have 5 final exams to do in order to pass the courses I'm taking (Physics, Math, Chemistry, English, and History).

[Laurieheels]

English and history? Hrm. Need any help? Advice? What kind of history?

[xaphod]

Hi, Pieman, Been reading your story on the board. It's a pity about the CP (cerebal palsy ?), but if you managed to overcome THAT disability to graduate, then all I can say is 'absolutely f***ing brilliant'. To anonymous, yes there is a time when four-letter words are OK ! I've been meaning to ask you this for a while .... have a play with the number 3217. In base 10 this is pretty boring (except for the fact it's prime), but convert it to binary and shift the binary point around a bit. I suspect that you will find out pretty quickly why I think this number is magic. Yamyam's response prompts me to tell a story:- Back in '77 when yours truly graduated, I rode back up North on a new Triumph T160 (lots of despatch riding in London paid for it). When I arrived, I was soon put in my place by my brother who was laying the foundations for a new shed and was getting late with his job. (The concrete mixer had to be returned to the hire company in the evening). No sooner had I rolled up, than my brother exclaimed, " ah Xaphod Beeblebrox, BSc ...... brother's special concrete ! "

[Yamyam]

When I lived in Oxford, BSc = "Beer-Swilling Certificate"

[Firefox]

I don't see anything wrong with four letter words. So long as it is not every other word. If there is a point to be made, then why not? If it is every other word, then four letter or not, such repetition makes the language boring.

[pieman3141]

yes, CP = Cerebral Palsy. A rare kind in North America/Western Europe nowadays with better hospital management, but was more common here 25 years ago. However, in China (where I was born), they just received there first CT scanner a year before I was born, and they had poor management (a blood transfusion would've cured me.) My CP is caused by extremely high jaundice, which caused damage to the base of the brain, but left the upper areas intact. The damaged part controls fine & gross motor skills and such. It sucks, especially when you see other people do things that seem easy (tying shoelaces, crimping ethernet cables, etc.) and knowing you'll never do them. Adaptability is key here. Ah well, I don't like wallowing in self-pity and I generally am indifferent towards pity, so... Goals for future: Try to get into university directly (requires 78% to get admission) but my marks (around 75%, and falling) are barely below the cutoff mark. BAH!!! Guess i'll have to go to college first and work my butt off to get transferred to university. I hate marks. No Laurie, I do not need help in English or History (20th century), but if anyone's good at Math, Physics, or Chem, you're welcome to offer any advice I'll post what we're learning in these courses later, as I need to get studying for two tests tomorrow (ugh).

[azraelle]

I'm not bad in math or chem, suck at physics.

[Dr. Shoe]

I can help with math up to HND level (Binomials, partial fractions, calculus etc) and Physics up to A level standard. I like to think that my English isn't to bad either. If anything I cann sbell kwite wel to and my punc.tuation, is: O,K,

[azraelle]

Actually I suck at classical physics (vectors, moments, arrgh), but at radiation and particle physics, nuclear chemistry, stuff like that, nooo problem, but I didn't find this out until I got out of college (the first time) and found myself in the Army involved with that sort of thing, and I was GOOD at it, surprise, surprise!!

[Dr. Shoe]

Actually, it makes a BIG difference if you're in a position to apply knowledge such as physics and chemistry or even maths, you enjoy it more when you can see your calculations or decisions being put to practical use. It's only theory that sucks, not the subject itself.

[pieman3141]

As promised, here is what I'm learning in the courses: History: 20th Century, which goes from the 1917 Russian Revolution to the Gulf War in 1991. NOTE: For Chem, Math, and Physics, all units are in SI/Metric units. No Imperial units (I can't figure them out anyhow). Chemistry: 1. Reaction Kinetics (Rate, KE, PE) 2. Equilibrium (Keq, Le Chatelier's) 3. Solubility (Ksp, Solubility, solutions, titrations.) 4. Acids & Bases (hardest): Ka, Kb, Kw, titrations, pH, pOH, etc.) 5. Electrochem: Redox equations, Balancing, titrating, and applications. Also with Electrochem and electrolysis cells. Physics: 1. Classical physics (momentum, kinematics, gravitation, circular motion, torque, rotational/translational equilibrium) 2. Electricity (charges, fields, forces, voltages, current) 3. Circuitry (Parallel vs. series, Kirchoff's Laws, resistors, but NO capacitors) 4. Electromagnetism and Induction (Mag fields, direction, force, etc. with induced fields/currents, eddy currents, generators and motors, and solenoids) Math: 1. Conics 2. Stats (Bell curves, mean, standard deviation) 3. Probability (nCr, nPr, trees, venn diagrams) 4. Trig identities 5. Logs, series, half-lives, etc. English: 1. Poetry 2. Prose 3. Grammar 4. Essay writing That's a rough sketch of our curriculum here in BC.