Things in the news

Had to share this, since I'm a comic fan. (but not a fanboy....there's a diff)

Justice Elena Kagan drops Spider-Man references throughout Kimble v. Marvel opinion

Just too cool

It's like the world is catching up with me...makes me want to cry.

 

Do you have a flag??? (thanks Eddie Izzard )

Every state flag is wrong, and here is why

 

Funny in places, but in its effort to satisfy the "every flag" premise, that article just tries way too hard. Some of her comments are as stupid as some of the flags.

 

I did it in the nineties, although it took me six years. With four brothers and sisters, I got very little financial help from Mom and Dad. I did get a reliable hand-me-down car from a great uncle, I paid for my car expenses and insurance. I won a Regents Scholarship, so my tuition and some of the student fees were paid by the state of Kansas. Working my way through school helped establish the frugal (some would say cheap) habits that I still have today.



Later when I went to grad school I had shoeboxes full of cash from three years working as a dancer. A good stripper can save a lot of dough if she doesn't spend it all on booze, drugs, and parasitic boyfriends.

I remember the similar bear that used to sit outside their (also now closed) store at corner of Boylston at Berkeley in Boston.

 

The economy has changed, plain and simple. Part-time work doesn't pay what it once did, and hours aren't in favor of people working their way through school. Scheduling is unpredictable at best. I held a few simple part-time jobs during school. One of the major problems was that I never knew from week to week what my schedule would be. This is a common occurrence in both retail and food service at all levels now. Plus, since 2008, the underemployed are competition for those looking to work part-time, which makes it even more difficult to acquire favorable part-time work.

I face a similar issue now. My regular job pays well, upwards of $20/hr. My MIL doesn't understand why I'm unwilling to work for $9.25/hr (most part-time jobs don't pay more than minimum wage these days). I'm also not willing to find out my next week's schedule on Thursday anymore. I have a Master's degree and shouldn't have to put up with that shit. As it is, I did find a part-time job tangentially in my field that pays more than minimum wage and has a flexible and fun schedule. I start next week, and it will continue on until my regular job picks up again!

As I've illustrated in the past, tuition costs and unfavorable working conditions make the whole "working your way through college" thing impossible. Most part-time jobs are capped at 20 hours a week; you might get 32 if you're lucky. Consider that 1 credit at my alma mater costs $283. At my state's minimum wage, which is one of the highest in the nation, it would take 30.6 hours of work to make enough money to pay for 1 credit. Of course, few people take just 1 credit, and the standard load is from 12-16. Let's say someone takes the "typical" load of 15 credits: 307.6 hours of work for a term's worth of classes. That's just tuition, and doesn't include fees, books, food, rent, or utilities. In a 10-week term, that's over 30 hours of work a week, which is really difficult to secure with the typical part-time job.

Certainly, there is some leeway gained by working in the summer, but again, the same scenario plays itself out: wages are flat and hours are limited.