Random Rants XLVII: I don't like food anymore!

[Phrossack]

I feel good for my friend's successes, but they leave me a bit jealous all the same. And a little too aware of my failures.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I feel good for my friend's successes, but they leave me a bit jealous all the same. And a little too aware of my failures.

I've got the opposite complaint actually. A very good friend of mine is almost certainly going to be kicked out of the school at the end of this semester and everyone sees it but him. They tried to kick him out once but due to a technicality (they forgot to mail the paperwork to him until 2 days before the beginning of the semester) were only able to remove him from the Aerospace Department and not the whole school.

So now he's in a special people department all by himself and he has a special people advisor to bust his balls. He has to get special permission to take most of his courses, he was removed from his executive position in a design team and is on academic probation, subject to removal pretty much at any time.

Instead of buckling down and trying something new (i.e. doing homework) he just keeps doing what got him in this mess, namely copying files he finds through friends instead of working through stuff on his own. He's already dropped one easy-A class and is now part time. Plus he'll be lucky to get a B in an absurdly easy circuit class and is fighting for C's and B's in his other courses. He thinks he'll be fine with C's and B's but when you're rocking a 1.7GPA only A's will do and you can't drop any classes when they're trying to kick you out of the school.

He thinks that because his old advisor went to bat for him all the other semesters he failed that he will still go to bat for him next semester. Maybe he will, but I think that now that's he's no longer his advisor he'll be less inclined to spend additional effort and favors for him. Plus, even if he goes to bat it may not be enough because goddamn he just can't get his stuff together.

I don't have the heart to tell him he's an effup and just nod and go along with his reality-distorting fantasies about how he'll get back in the program next semester.

 

[Phrossack]

Well, gee. Now my problems seem minor. Thanks, hobbs!

You may just have to tell him point-blank about his problems and offer to help (though I know you're a busy guy). If he fails and gets kicked out, it'll probably put a serious strain on your friendship; you might see each other less, and you'll be separated by your levels of education, jealousy, and so on. He'll feel pretty lousy and probably will do poorly in life while you work your way through school towards a career.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Well, gee. Now my problems seem minor. Thanks, hobbs!

You may just have to tell him point-blank about his problems and offer to help (though I know you're a busy guy). If he fails and gets kicked out, it'll probably put a serious strain on your friendship; you might see each other less, and you'll be separated by your levels of education, jealousy, and so on. He'll feel pretty lousy and probably will do poorly in life while you work your way through school towards a career.

Don't feel bad, it's not like it's my problem either. I just don't want to lose a friend.

At this point the goose is already cooked and nothing can get him the A's he needs back. He could still manage some C's and B's but that's the best he can do, which again isn't enough when they want to kick you out and you rock a 1.7 GPA.

I've tried to help him by inviting him to study groups and all we end up doing is BSing. We're both really talkative, social people but he lacks any sort of discipline and will waste 2 hours every week that we've set aside for studying just to gossip. Also, as you noted it's not worth the stress on the friendship at this point to be straight with him and tell him he's a screw up.

No matter what happens though, he'll be fine. He's a personable guy and that alone will take him far. Plus his parents are loaded (he's been living in a nice apartment, has a nice truck, nice stuff and doesn't work or pay for any of it) so there's that, you know? I just hate potentially losing a friend on campus...


Another great thing about him is he's uber conservative but because he's not a dick (and I'm much less of a dick IRL than I am here) we can have hours long conversations about politics and not hate each other.

 

[NickyJ]

The cat has me worried sick.

Yesterday morning, he threw up his dry food. He hasn't done that in years. Bad sign. But he made it through most of the day without much trouble. Then, in the evening, he starts going into his box and peeing only tiny little drops, which make it hard to clean out of the box because they're so small. Fast forward to today:

This morning, he messed up his box: He got into it too many times, and started breaking up the litter, basically making it so that we needed to get an another, clean box. (We're really careful about keeping the floor clean, so him stepping in his litter and then tracking it across the floor is not good.) After getting the fresh box, he has begun using his box every fifteen minutes, doing so for the entire morning and half the afternoon. His largest time away from the box has been one hour. On top of all that, he hasn't been acting normally anyway. (He isn't running around a lot like he always did. He's also a lot more quiet now.) All of those box visits have been just those tiny little drops that I mentioned before.

All of this has been going on since yesterday, which happens to be the same time as some major tests that I've been taking, which will end tomorrow. This has prevented me from being home all the time, which would allow to help take care of him.

He's never had this kind of trouble before since he came here, which pretty much covers his entire life. The only change for him in the past month has been changing from one brand of canned cat food to another. (Iams to Purina Fancy Feast.) That change took place about a month ago, and his trouble began just yesterday, so I don't know if the brand really makes that sort of difference or not.

What makes this all even worse is that it dredges up memories of what happened to our last pet, a dog, who died a few days before Christmas six years ago from some sort of poisoning. My family has always suspected that it was a poison in the food we gave the dog, because that was around the time of other dog poisonings being linked to Chinese pet food poisoning. Now we're worried that maybe the same thing is happening now. In case it is just the brand, we've switched back to Iams. Still, I'm worried that he really has been poisoned. My parents have decided to give him one week to make sure it isn't just the brand. After that, we'll take him to the vet.

My biggest fear is that he might take a turn for the worse between then and now. If something happened to him, I don't know what I'd do.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

It almost sounds like he's got bladder stones. My older dog gets them and they make her feel like she has to pee every 15 minutes but only in tiny amounts. Take your cat to the vet dude.

 

[bhsup]

I just had to take my younger cat to the vet for a kidney infection and a blocked penis. He wasn't able to properly urinate and his bladder was firm from being almost full. Get your cat to vet as soon as you can.

 

[Phrossack]

Suitemate is being noisy. His alarm wakes me up an hour too early every other day to the sound of godawful rap music, and his sex is interrupting my homework.

Also, said homework is parts of a Bertold Brecht play, but it's out of order, the print is very small, and the scanned pages are sideways. I can't easily print them, either.

 

[AlpsStranger]

Dear lord, please fix whatever is wrong with my Xbox 360. I really want to play Call of Duty to night but I keep getting those red rings. Amen!

 

[Arakhor]

Dear lord, please fix whatever is wrong with my Xbox 360. I really want to play Call of Duty to night but I keep getting those red rings. Amen!

If it's only quarter of a circle, you can perhaps let it cool off, try dusting it and so on. The writing is very likely on the wall though.

If it's a full red circle, that's known as a Red Ring of Death for a reason.


Edit: And I've just noticed that both these posts should probably be in the Rants thread. Mea culpa!

 

[hobbsyoyo]

As of this moment I'm giving up my hopes of landing my dream summer job. I'm still listed as 'under consideration', but I no longer think that the listing is current. Most firms do that - they will still list you as 'under consideration' for years after the job is filled because they are too lazy to change the listing. The things that kept me hoping is that Boeing has been exceptionally good about de-listing filled jobs and informing candidates they were not selected. I had one friend who was 'under consideration' for 3 months before he got the call for the job and he didn't hear anything back in the mean time.

But at this point I'm letting my hopes deflate. It's getting really late for them to hire me on if they want me to start in mid-May and given the coveted nature of my dream summer jobs I'm sure they long ago filled them and forgot to de-list them.

Oh well summer unemployment will have it's upsides I suppose. This will be my first time out of work since I was 17.


Minor rant: My puppy has developed enough bite force to puncture flesh with his needle-like milk teeth. I bled all over one of my favorite shirts when he ripped my ear open yesterday and my hands are torn to shreds.

 

[The_J]

I waited for longer than 2 months after the deadline til a got a call, so I'd not be too worried, if I were you.


Rant myself: One of my floormates has his farewell, he'll go back soon to his home country.
Since we're in the Netherlands, this means going to a coffee shop. Some of my other friends are with him, want to get high the first time.
Since I disapprove drugs, and look down on people who take them (as well as people who regularly get drunk), I'm feeling to quite some extend pissed off right now .

 

[azzaman333]

Gotta stop staying up til the early hours of the morning.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I accidentally the map

Spoiler :

I dont know what happened

 

[Phrossack]

Minor rant: My puppy has developed enough bite force to puncture flesh with his needle-like milk teeth. I bled all over one of my favorite shirts when he ripped my ear open yesterday and my hands are torn to shreds.

Yow! Wear gloves when playing with him. Maybe yelp or give him a weak slap when he hurts you; puppies have to be taught what's acceptable tussling and what's too rough.

 

[classical_hero]

Don't feel bad, it's not like it's my problem either. I just don't want to lose a friend.

At this point the goose is already cooked and nothing can get him the A's he needs back. He could still manage some C's and B's but that's the best he can do, which again isn't enough when they want to kick you out and you rock a 1.7 GPA.

I've tried to help him by inviting him to study groups and all we end up doing is BSing. We're both really talkative, social people but he lacks any sort of discipline and will waste 2 hours every week that we've set aside for studying just to gossip. Also, as you noted it's not worth the stress on the friendship at this point to be straight with him and tell him he's a screw up.

No matter what happens though, he'll be fine. He's a personable guy and that alone will take him far. Plus his parents are loaded (he's been living in a nice apartment, has a nice truck, nice stuff and doesn't work or pay for any of it) so there's that, you know? I just hate potentially losing a friend on campus...


Another great thing about him is he's uber conservative but because he's not a dick (and I'm much less of a dick IRL than I am here) we can have hours long conversations about politics and not hate each other.

If you can't be honest with friends, who can you be honest with?

 

[NickyJ]

It almost sounds like he's got bladder stones. My older dog gets them and they make her feel like she has to pee every 15 minutes but only in tiny amounts. Take your cat to the vet dude.

I just had to take my younger cat to the vet for a kidney infection and a blocked penis. He wasn't able to properly urinate and his bladder was firm from being almost full. Get your cat to vet as soon as you can.

Luckily, we were planning on going to a pet store today for fish, so I made sure to ask an employee about it, and we were told to take him to the vet. So, we just got back from the pet clinic, and the vet thinks it's a urinary tract infection. She isn't sure about the details, since he didn't have anything in his bladder to analyze at the time. She gave us some pills that we're supposed to give to the cat twice a day for two weeks and should take effect in three days. Hopefully, that will cover everything. Worst case scenario is that we'll have put him on special expensive food for the rest of his life, but that's not very likely. Thanks for the suggestions everyone! It definitely strengthened the urgency to get him checked out.

Unrelated rant: Today was the final day of the major tests, this one focused mainly on algebra. All the previous days, I felt pretty good, but this last one has me shaken. So now I get to spend the whole month in dread waiting for the scores to come, even though I'm fairly certain that I passed.

 

[Takhisis]

I waited for longer than 2 months after the deadline til a got a call, so I'd not be too worried, if I were you.


Rant myself: One of my floormates has his farewell, he'll go back soon to his home country.
Since we're in the Netherlands, this means going to a coffee shop. Some of my other friends are with him, want to get high the first time.
Since I disapprove drugs, and look down on people who take them (as well as people who regularly get drunk), I'm feeling to quite some extend pissed off right now .

Doesn't the superiority of German and Bavarian football cheer you up?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I am not a fan of paper cuts.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I haven't been able to eat very well the last while so I'm kinda sick again. It's not too nice.