anonemouse

That's what I really want to do, but I know I'll get a guilt trip if I do it. Of course, I'm getting a guilt trip now, too, so apparently I can't win. If they keep at me, I should just tell them, "Hey, you can either go to this one or none at all, 'cause if I have to go to the hassle of moving it, I'm just going to tell the graduation office that I'm not walking, period."

I'm kind of pissed at my family right now. I was supposed to graduate from my graduate school in May, but I won't have my thesis finished in time. I've talked to the graduate school, and they said I could go ahead and walk in the graduation ceremony since I'd applied for it a couple of semesters ago and have everything but my thesis finished, and they'll just have the diploma mailed to me when I DO get the thesis finished and turned in. My parents are turning up their noses at it, saying that there's no reason to walk in May or send announcements to my relatives, since I'm "not really graduating." Honestly, I just don't feel like going to the trouble of going to the registrar's office and the graduate school and filling out more paperwork just to move my graduation date (especially since I'm not sure when I'll be finished with my thesis), since the only reason I'm even walking in the ceremony in the first place is to make my family happy. If it were up to me, I wouldn't be going to a graduation ceremony, period. I had more than enough of standing for hours in uncomfortable shoes during my undergraduate graduation ceremony. It isn't like I'd get the actual diploma right then, anyway, even if I WAS finished with my thesis, since they mail them out 6-8 weeks after the ceremony. So instead of being happy about going to my graduation ceremony, even if it is in name only, they're being fucking killjoys about it. :smile:

I was just grading an assignment that I had my students do over Spring Break as part of a quiz grade. It wasn't hard, basically just giving the scientific definition of several words and then contrasting the usage of the words in science, compared with how they're used in every-day language. If they did it, I gave them credit. I was just reading what one guy handed in, and I think I could recognize maybe one out of every three words. Enough to know that he didn't do the whole assignment, but not enough to actually read what he wrote, you know? At the end, I was just thinking, "WTF did that say?" I think that in the three years I've been teaching this lab, that's the worst handwriting I've seen. I seriously just read it just long enough to realize that it wasn't all there, and then stopped because it was starting to give me a headache. :thumbup:

My surgeon's taken on several of Dr. Woodman's patients that have left him because of his attitude towards them after surgery. Apparently, he expects perfection (or at least, bypass-level weight-loss) from his banded patients, and it isn't unusual for him to drive some of them to tears. He's a great surgeon, but from everything I've heard about him, his aftercare sucks. In fact, one woman I talked to said that her husband came into the examining room with her and nearly got into a fight with Dr. Woodman over the way he was treating her. If you aren't a very sensitive person, he'd probably be fine (after all, he IS a very good surgeon), but just be aware that he tends to have an attitude and isn't very personable.

As far as I know, Dr. Madan isn't accepting any new patients, as he's moving soon. I go to Dr. McGrath-Weaver at St. Francis Hospital. She charges me $100 for a fill, but they're free for the first 6 months after surgery. She takes other surgeon's patients, too. I've met several of Dr. Woodman's former patients in her office.

I went on a class trip to the Chesapeake Bay area (studying the ecology of the Bay), and I absolutely loved it. The Maryland/Virginia area is so beautiful.

Yeah, learning town names was difficult when I was interning on Cape Cod. I always had to hear it pronounced by a local before I'd try to pronounce it in front of people, lol!

Over where?! I'm lost!

I honestly think a lot of it is because of parents. Sure, there are some crappy teachers out there, but there are a LOT of parents that don't seem to be instilling any sort of value system in their children, especially when it comes to academic honesty. How many parents out there "help" their children with class projects (for example, science fair projects) and wind up doing 90% of the work? All that teaches to a child, IMO, is that they can take other people's work, treat it as their own, and then get rewarded for it when it is compared to work that was done by other students that didn't have their parents' "help." I don't remember if it was here or on another site that I go to, but a parent posted a picture of a diorama that their child had turned in. The vast majority of it was completed by the parent and it was OBVIOUS. The parent excused it by saying that the child wasn't old enough to use a hot glue gun. In that case, change the design so that a hot glue gun isn't necessary. If a parent has to put together 90% of a diorama, it is no longer the child's diorama. And it sure as heck shouldn't be turned in as the child's work, when it's going to be compared to dioramas that weren't completed by other parents. Grr. As you can probably tell, this is a hot-button issue with me. :bolt:

I definitely don't think you should stop participating at LBT, BJean. You are always more than welcome in the debates here, and your point of view and opinion are well-thought and definitely add to to the discussion. That said, I think that maybe you've allowed past interaction with Gadget to color how you've responded to her posts in this thread. Nothing wrong with that, we all do it with people we've talked to before, but that one post did seem to come out of left field, to a certain extent.

If you are going to copy someone else's assignment because you did your own assignment incorrectly, at least do it so that the instructor/professor doesn't KNOW that you copied the other person's assignment. And if you're going to let someone cheat off of you, make sure that the person is smart enough not to get caught. Now you've BOTH failed the assignment, geniuses. :huh2:

I plan on it, along with a breast lift. I'm aiming for mid-August, but I'm starting to freak out about finances (In addition to teaching my classes, I just started another part time job last week and I've got an interview for a 3rd one on Saturday).

Yep. Not sure which is the lie, though, the fact that she supposedly carries her weight well or that she lost 20 pounds in a week. Probably both.

Is it especially mean to say that I hope a certain someone hits bandster hell very quickly?

Mmmm, Sonic. In my pre-band days, I'd go and get their mozzarella stick combo with sweet tea or root beer and a large order of extra-crispy tater tots. Grease on top of grease on top of sugar. No wonder I was fat.

You ask why they should be punished. Well, I think they should be punished because they stood by and did nothing while their child DIED. In this society, you get punished for causing injury or death to someone. Should a paramedic just decide to let a passenger die, if the paramedic's religion said that people of a certain race aren't worthy of being saved? No, they don't, because a paramedic has to put his patients before his own beliefs. Why shouldn't parents be forced to put their children before their own personal beliefs? You don't automatically get a free ride and an "I'm sorry, you must be so heart-broken by your daughter's death" just because you happen to believe in God. Yes, punishment in this case would be an incentive to give your child medical care, in the same way that fines and having your license suspended is an incentive to get car insurance. I firmly believe that parents who allow their child to die because they "left it in God's hands" should be charged with the same charge that is given to other parents that cause their children's injuries or deaths through gross neglect. And we reconcile it by stating that just like with every other right we have as American citizens, our rights become limited when they interfere with another person's rights.

The pannus is the skin that hangs on the lower abdomen, pretty much from the belly-button down. Belly skin, basically. When you've got a large pannus as a result of drastic weight loss, wearing clothing that otherwise fits compresses it into a large "camel toe" shape. In many cases, if you buy clothing to fit the pannus, it's way too big otherwise, especially in the hips and waist. Hence, shapewear to compress it and/or smooth it so that better-fitting clothing can be worn. Edited to add: The "camel toe" that we're talking about isn't really the type that Ice-T's wife Coco is famous for, where it looks like her pants are 3 sizes too small and riding up her hoo-ha. Our "camel toes" come from having a pannus that is much larger than our waist and hips, making even pants that truly do fit look awkward.

It's amazing how unappetizing something looks when you know it's going to hurt you. I used to be a MASSIVE carb addict. If it was warm and yeasty, I wanted it. Now, even the best yeast rolls don't look good to me 95% of the time.

But it STILL protects the other people in YOUR car. They aren't exempted just because they're in your car. If the parent forced the 15 year old to go through with the surgery when the child didn't want it? You bet they should be charged. The point is, the child with diabetes didn't have a choice about whether she could go to the doctor. People make bad choices all the time. Our society DOES differentiate bad choices from good ones. And if your child dies as a result of a choice you made, that's a pretty good indicator that you made a bad choice. It's not like choosing whether you want a red car or a blue one. Choosing whether or not your child lives or dies should not BE a choice. And to further complicate the issue (or maybe simplify it, I don't know), there are already exceptions to the "religious rights trump all" thing. People belonging to religions that mandate that they keep their face covered have to remove that covering to get driver's licenses. If they refuse, they are not allowed to get a license. Why? Because it's seen as protection for other people. Now, if the ability to easily identify someone is more important than their religious belief that they must remain covered, I don't see why the well-being of their children CAN'T trump a couple's religious belief that doctors are bad.

Bingo. I have to say I feel extreme empathy for the child that died. I feel absolutely nothing for the parents, though. People will say, "They've been punished enough, they have a dead child." Well, hell, they're the REASON their child died.

Now you've got it! The insurance law is there to protect OTHER PEOPLE. The medical intervention law is also there to protect OTHER PEOPLE. The only difference is that the insurance law protects your passengers and other drivers, while the medical intervention law would protect your children. Why should a child pay with his life because of a decision he wasn't allowed to make?

Except diabetes wouldn't have killed the girl if their beliefs hadn't interfered. It's like debating results of an autopsy. Yes, all people die because of coronary failure. Their hearts stop. Why did their hearts stop, though? Did they get shot or did they die of old age? Yes, diabetes was the tool that caused this girl's death. But her death could have been prevented if the parents had taken action. Their belief didn't kill the girl. Their LACK OF ACTION killed her.

I don't see how it fails. The insurance law is in place to protect other people, including the driver's passengers, as the driver is legally responsible for his passengers once they enter his car. The medical intervention law would not protect the parent, it would protect the other person in the situation, the child. That makes absolutely no sense at all. You can denigrate someone's beliefs, but it's okay because you aren't telling them what to do? By the simple fact that you called their beliefs "stupid," you are basically pressing your beliefs on them.

Hey, you yourself have called people's beliefs stupid in this thread. Kind of the pot calling the kettle black, isn't it?

I do kinda want to do both. I want a BIG tattoo, though, probably a side piece, and I'm afraid I'll get 5 minutes into it and freak.