General Discussion Thread

[Eich]

I just finished reading through all the current comic pages with my mom! The only characters she can so far consistently recognize are Emil and Tuuri but it think there's a good chance I've gotten her semi-hooked. (She's pretty skilled at ignoring obsessions, however, so we'll have to see if it sticks.)

And yaaay, PSAT tomorrow at 8:00 am. Totally isn't a problem I've stayed up to nearly 11 reading the comic... (For those who are unfamiliar, the PSAT is a practice, but big-deal, test. I can't remember what the acronym stands for at the moment.) I'm sure I'll be fine, I took it last year and did pretty well for my grade level - plus my mom told me some interesting stories from when she took the SAT.

Yeah, um... I wasn't even aware she had one until I heard the recording. Not that I've ever heard a velociraptor, but the second I heard it, before I was even informed it was my sister pretending to be a dinosaur, I thought, "velociraptor... What is she doing that for?"

I took the SAT 7 or 8 times. I reaaaally wanted the good scholarships.  The last time I took it was right after I finished high school, the day my family was leaving for a vacation.  My car was getting loaded with groceries, so I took my sister's car. Unfortunately, I left her car's lights on the night before, so the battery was dead when I tried to leave after the test.  The whole day sucked, but then I got to go to the beach, and I finally got my good enough score for the good scholarship.  That said, some people will say it's a good measure of how smart you actually are. That is a lie. It does not have anything to do with how intelligent you are.The only thing that stupid test is good for is saving money in college because people think it means anything.

[OrigamiOwl]

Aww man, I typed a kinda long post and then my phone crashed aaaggh
The gist of it was:

• 1. Sorry for being a hogger, I get too excited and chatty because this is my only link to a world off the property and island, so sorry if I'm a nuisance guys :/
• 2. There was a related point about voodoo dolls I think ;P
• 3. Glad you liked the flowers they are cherries. We have a crabapple too but it blooms late
• 4. The shaped trees sound so pretty!
• 5. What are these SAT exams? I wish I could've tried one to maybe get a scholarship! They sound cool!

[kjeks]

I took the SAT 7 or 8 times. I reaaaally wanted the good scholarships.  The last time I took it was right after I finished high school, the day my family was leaving for a vacation.  My car was getting loaded with groceries, so I took my sister's car. Unfortunately, I left her car's lights on the night before, so the battery was dead when I tried to leave after the test.  The whole day sucked, but then I got to go to the beach, and I finally got my good enough score for the good scholarship.  That said, some people will say it's a good measure of how smart you actually are. That is a lie. It does not have anything to do with how intelligent you are.The only thing that stupid test is good for is saving money in college because people think it means anything.

Hmmm before I ask google, could you guys explain to me, please, what this PSAT does and what chances it opens for you?

Anyways I hope the PSAT will go/went well. Gosh all this different timezones are hard to grab still. I think, when work starts on monday again I will be at breakfast while some of you guys are far away from going to bed .

[Lenny]

SAT exams are a good way to have an entry to practically any university on Earth - I've yet to hear of one that won't accept SAT scores (this is particularly useful if you come from a patchy educational background). Eich or someone based in the USA can fill you in better than I can on how they work. From memory, they test you on all the basic areas of education (maths, science, history, language etc. etc. etc.). Seperate scores for seperate sections. Like Eich says, it's like any other test in the world. A way to measure you. Not accurately, not properly... just a way to measure you. I believe, depending on your SAT scores, certain scholarships are opened up to you in the USA. I haven't heard of another country where this is done, though.

You probably won't get a scholarship out of doing the SAT if you're wanting to study in Tasmania (probably not even in the rest of AU, though I'm not too sure). Unlike the USA and South Africa, AU does not have a scholarship-based system. So, no matter how good you are (unless the university itself takes a personal interest in you), if you don't have money, you don't get to go to uni without a whopping big debt. I can also testify that unlike the uni fees, the scholarships for uni students here in TAS have NOT gone up over the years. The highest available ones not given by the university itself are $5 000 a year, which isn't enough to cover the fees of even the lowest tier of the lowliest bachelor student >.> And even those are very very few. Have to have a brilliant ATAR score (as in, above 90 - and that's only for a chance at it) or be able to sell yourself very well. (Here speaks the frustrated high school student with next to no income who was desperate to get to university somehow. Long story short: I ended up deciding to emigrate. It works out cheaper and within my budget.)

[OrigamiOwl]

SAT exams are a good way to have an entry to practically any university on Earth - I've yet to hear of one that won't accept SAT scores (this is particularly useful if you come from a patchy educational background). Eich or someone based in the USA can fill you in better than I can on how they work. From memory, they test you on all the basic areas of education (maths, science, history, language etc. etc. etc.). Seperate scores for seperate sections. Like Eich says, it's like any other test in the world. A way to measure you. Not accurately, not properly... just a way to measure you. I believe, depending on your SAT scores, certain scholarships are opened up to you in the USA. I haven't heard of another country where this is done, though.

You probably won't get a scholarship out of doing the SAT if you're wanting to study in Tasmania (probably not even in the rest of AU, though I'm not too sure). Unlike the USA and South Africa, AU does not have a scholarship-based system. So, no matter how good you are (unless the university itself takes a personal interest in you), if you don't have money, you don't get to go to uni without a whopping big debt. I can also testify that unlike the uni fees, the scholarships for uni students here in TAS have NOT gone up over the years. The highest available ones not given by the university itself are $5 000 a year, which isn't enough to cover the fees of even the lowest tier of the lowliest bachelor student >.> And even those are very very few. Have to have a brilliant ATAR score (as in, above 90 - and that's only for a chance at it) or be able to sell yourself very well. (Here speaks the frustrated high school student with next to no income who was desperate to get to university somehow. Long story short: I ended up deciding to emigrate. It works out cheaper and within my budget.)

Yeah, the whole money and HECS fees (it sounds like "Hex Fee"!! It HAS to be evil!") thing really does suck at Utas :/ I don't have a real job, and therefore no money, but I'm still doing my degrees anyway in the hope that I might get a job that will pay off the eventual debt :/ if I graduate... O__O two more years to go and I feel broken already ;__;

The only test things I've ever seen were these tests from the Uni of NSW which high school students could pay to do and just be nationally ranked and get a certificate; I used to do those because I liked tests XP my highest was 9% and my lowest was 11% so I got some nice certificates but I don't think they could be used for anything :/
The other test was a career-suitability thing we did in college where you had to pay some ridiculous amount of money, spend 4 hours doing multiple tests which got shipped to the UK to be analysed by someone who wrote a looooong report about what sort of careers you'd be suited for. I think they suggested visual design, engineering and landscape design (lol weird)
But I don't think that could be used for anything either :/

You can get scholarships here depending on your family history and lineage, or if you send them a fancy resume folio thing maybe. A test would be so convenient and accessible though!
Other than that, it's your ATAR score or nothing

[Lenny]

You can get scholarships here depending on your family history and lineage, or if you send them a fancy resume folio thing maybe. A test would be so convenient and accessible though!
Other than that, it's your ATAR score or nothing

Thiiiiis. This is what I hate about Tasmania (mainly because I'm a foreigner, but hey). It's like a gigantic village, and if you aren't related to anyone, aren't in with the right crowd, or don't know the right people, everything is x10 harder. I mean, stuff like that is everywhere, but it seems especially concentrated here -.-

*sigh*

Yeah, I can't even get the HECS debt thing (permanent resident). I still pay domestic fees, but I have to pay them all up front and I just can't. Like I said, it's cheaper for me to emigrate and study in the Netherlands than to study here, haaah. Which is beyond stupid.

Different topic, different topic. Suffering students is not a nice thing to talk about.

Hmm. I actually did nearly nothing at all today. That is a rare occurence. Went swimming, might have caught a cold, but other than that, nothing of any note happened at all. Which is nice.

[OrigamiOwl]

Heh, tell me about it ;___; I'm in one of those families, but the riff-raff middle class section I think or the snooty class. Depending who you ask. It's terrible. As soon as I'm independent and have my own funds, it's au revoir to the island!!
Living somewhere with a cool climate would be nice, (I'm not good with heat and sun) so I've always been keen on the UK, Scandinavia, Northern France and maybe Canada. So your plan to move to the Netherlands sound so fantastic! ;3

you went swimming?!!!! So jealous!! ;u; I remember staying at some hotel place up north called Grindalwald or something...it was the name of that wizard who did...something...to do with the Elder...Wand...I don't know, but they had the same name and there was a heated pool but 7-year-old-me wasn't allowed to go in it ;___; you're not at the same hotel place are you? :O

[Sunflower]

Aww man, I typed a kinda long post and then my phone crashed aaaggh
The gist of it was:

• 1. Sorry for being a hogger, I get too excited and chatty because this is my only link to a world off the property and island, so sorry if I'm a nuisance guys :/
• 2. There was a related point about voodoo dolls I think ;P
• 3. Glad you liked the flowers they are cherries. We have a crabapple too but it blooms late
• 4. The shaped trees sound so pretty!

Hey everybody, I think I pulled a Sigrun -- said something loudly and cheerfully that came out totally wrong and may have (unintentionally) come across like a criticism of people in the room. 

When I was ranting about my dislike of "bandwidth hoggers," I don't think I made it clear enough that I was talking about OTHER comment sites -- NOT this forum, and NOT the SSSS comic page. 

I love the comments on the main SSSS comic page!  They do sometimes venture OT, but generally in interesting or funny ways that anyone can appreciate, not just members of the "kaffee klatsch."  And those end up being the conversations I swoop down onto with delight and copy into this Forum!   (Besides, I'm as big an "offender" as any in going OT on the comics page, as readers of my commentary on German Romanticism may remember...)

No, what I was talking about is something you can see in a mild form here, in comments to a Washington Post advice columnist named Carolyn Hax.  Every day Carolyn deals with some person's problem -- and then the "peanut gallery" (her commentariat) goes nuts in the comments section. 

By and large, her fanbase is pretty nice to one another -- no trolling, spammers, or obsessive wingnuts.  My only objection was day after day, seeing the same 8-10 names taking up space in the only channel anyone had to discuss that day's column. "So? How was your day?" or "I'm thinking of taking a summer vacation on the Delaware Shore -- can you recommend any rentals?"  (And to be honest, some of my resentment was just that *I* wasn't one of those 8 to 10.  I can be kind of petty, and I always need to work on not dominating the conversation.)


By contrast, we have lots of wonderful elbow room here on the Forum for exactly those kinds of personal conversations.  On the comics page, we get hundreds and hundreds of commentators, many of them newcomers, and I think we do a good job of making them feel welcome (even if they are the 900th person to say "I thought Tuuri was a boy!!!").  Over here we're in smaller numbers, but have more chance to get to know one another and build relationships. 


tl;dr: I shot my big mouth off and suspect I accidentally hurt some feelings; I'm sorry; I trust in your collective kindness to overlook my misstep.

So carry on!  I look forward to hearing more in this thread about Eich's guitar-playing and baby niece; how StellerJayC's PSAT went; kex's teaching exam; OrigamiOwl's Tasmanian orchard (though maybe not the state of the ex-parrot she disposed of); and everything else everyone is up to.

Signing off...

[OrigamiOwl]

Wah! No! Sunflower! I wasn't offended at all!! You're not pulling a Sigrun! You're nnnnnnooooootttttttt!!

I'd actually had that thought nagging me in the back of my mind for, like, I guess a year? And it bugged some people IRL conversations recently so I was just worried I was doing it online too ;P
The awkward conversation went like this:
*rainy monday morning, doing extra work after class*
Art student: Hmm what were we talking about again? Oh, we're usually talking about the farm aren't we?
Me: Heh, yeah I guess, but that's the only thing that happens on my weekends! Want a new topic?
Art student: Hmmm actually I'm honestly pretty bored, I might drive home. See ya!
Me: (whoah wait wat huh? Oh god: am I annoying?!) *identity crisis*

So not your fault at all Sunflower! Don't be gloomy!

[Sunflower]

Wah! No! Sunflower! I wasn't offended at all!! You're not pulling a Sigrun! You're nnnnnnooooootttttttt!!

I'd actually had that thought nagging me in the back of my mind for, like, I guess a year? And it bugged some people IRL conversations recently so I was just worried I was doing it online too ;P
The awkward conversation went like this:
*rainy monday morning, doing extra work after class*
Art student: Hmm what were we talking about again? Oh, we're usually talking about the farm aren't we?
Me: Heh, yeah I guess, but that's the only thing that happens on my weekends! Want a new topic?
Art student: Hmmm actually I'm honestly pretty bored, I might drive home. See ya!
Me: (whoah wait wat huh? Oh god: am I annoying?!) *identity crisis*

So not your fault at all Sunflower! Don't be gloomy!

Pffft, that art student sounds dopey.  You get out of a topic what you put into it.  Thoreau got a whole book out of three years hanging around his shack at Walden Pond.  William Blake famously saw Eternity in a grain of sand.  Robert Frost specifically wrote *about* farming.  You just rock on with your bad self.

[ThisCat]

I'd actually had that thought nagging me in the back of my mind for, like, I guess a year? And it bugged some people IRL conversations recently so I was just worried I was doing it online too ;P
The awkward conversation went like this:
*rainy monday morning, doing extra work after class*
Art student: Hmm what were we talking about again? Oh, we're usually talking about the farm aren't we?
Me: Heh, yeah I guess, but that's the only thing that happens on my weekends! Want a new topic?
Art student: Hmmm actually I'm honestly pretty bored, I might drive home. See ya!
Me: (whoah wait wat huh? Oh god: am I annoying?!) *identity crisis*

Don't say that Owl, we love youuu! You are not annoying, I love reading your posts.

[OrigamiOwl]

Pffft, that art student sounds dopey.  You get out of a topic what you put into it.  Thoreau got a whole book out of three years hanging around his shack at Walden Pond.  William Blake famously saw Eternity in a grain of sand.  Robert Frost specifically wrote *about* farming.  You just rock on with your bad self.

Hmmm, they're from the melodramatic part of California. ;P

Wow, that second Frost poem was exactly what happens O___O I've never seen any poems about apples, they're usually all about how much farming sucks, which is very encouraging ;P
https://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~tf/poem10.html
And of course this one, which isn't really my trade or area, but I really like it:
http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/paterson-a-b-banjo/the-man-from-snowy-river-0001004
I'm usually a fan of Romantic poetry like Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Ozymandias and Kubla Khan, or ones with similar imagery and atmosphere because my favorite art, music and drawing style is kind of similar

[kjeks]

Don't say that Owl, we love youuu! You are not annoying, I love reading your posts.

I agree. Especially since it is three years past since I was able to work on a farm. But next summer I will try to put one week or two on some farm with either cows, pigs or sheep.

[mithrysc]

And yaaay, PSAT tomorrow at 8:00 am. Totally isn't a problem I've stayed up to nearly 11 reading the comic... (For those who are unfamiliar, the PSAT is a practice, but big-deal, test. I can't remember what the acronym stands for at the moment.) I'm sure I'll be fine, I took it last year and did pretty well for my grade level - plus my mom told me some interesting stories from when she took the SAT.

Oh heeey...just took the PSAT on Wednesday. It would've been a lot more convenient though if the school had held it on a Saturday, though.

I'm usually a fan of Romantic poetry like Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Ozymandias and Kubla Khan, or ones with similar imagery and atmosphere because my favorite art, music and drawing style is kind of similar

Yessss. I really like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in particular. ("Haunted Houses," "Hymn to the Night," and practically all his poems about the sea that aren't on that particular site)

Random aside: poets.org has really nice typography.

[potatobunny]

When I was ranting about my dislike of "bandwidth hoggers," I don't think I made it clear enough that I was talking about OTHER comment sites -- NOT this forum, and NOT the SSSS comic page. 

That's kind of a relief, because I'd been feeling twitchy about my ability to kill coversation topics on the forums. It's probably mostly in my head, and of course everyone seems to know everyone because I'm still relatively new here, and I probably don't notice when it happens to other people, etc etc, so I'll try and be less socially awkward about everything. *twitch*