99 thoughts on “Ain’t Right”

  1. Mostly, I'm just excited I was able to not screw up posting somehow. I tend to make mistakes.

    1. This entry was posted by Philosofer on Tuesday, January 8th, 2013, at 8:58 am and is filed under Cup of Coffee categories. It is one of 1 entries by the author.

      Congratulations! Welcome to the club basement!

      1. Aye, being able to celebrate our failures is one of the great things about this place.

        ...I just scheduled the next five CoCs thanks to my annoyance today. I'll still be worrying tomorrow that they won't show up. I still had the browser open that said today's was "scheduled," but when I went to the dashboard it classified it as a draft. I have a sneaking suspicion that Philosofer is sandbagging me for some reason...

          1. That would probably happen if I ever had to change the year in these.

            Although, so far, so good on making the year 2013 in the CoCs. Fingers crossed...

    1. I look forward to the development of clandestine youth football leagues, where parents can sneak their little boys onto fields to have their bells rung, then flee from the po-lice.

  2. Hey, cheaptoy. Did you see that Anthrax is going to be performing Among the Living on the Metal Alliance tour this spring? Given how much I love that album, I think I might have to try to get to the Minneapolis show.

    1. I don't know anything about Municipal Waste or Holy Grail, but that looks like it'd be a pretty sweet show. Plus yeah, Among the Living is great stuff.

      Looks like they won't be coming my way during that tour, though. No way in hell am I going to Chicago for a show.

      1. I'm not so sure about them either, but I know Municipal Waste has played with Converge before so that's probably a decent sign.

  3. Anyone have any experience rendering fat for cooking? I'm making duck tonight, and plan to keep the fat so just wondering if any of the chef's around have any advice/tricks.

    1. You'll definitely want to use your heaviest pot - keep the heat low and let it soak into the pan, then adjust to get the fat simmering slowly. Probably will take about an hour to render out, depending on what you have. Strain it well (cheesecloth is your friend) and you're good to go. Keep the extra in a jar in the fridge.

      Keep the skin, which you can season and crisp up, then serve atop a simple salad of greens and cherry tomatoes. In this format, the pieces of skin are called fritons.

      1. So something like a cast iron pot? Do you use the water method or just low heat and the fat?

        1. also, I found it interesting that the current Twins franchise was a recent expansion franchise.

          Minnesota, subject of contraction less than a decade earlier

      1. I'm really curious about that. I get with attendance being down, payroll will decrease. However, the Twins went from $113 million (which was admitted to be a bit high) to now $80 million. Last year was $100 million, so that's a massive drop. Prior to this CBA, you could guess that much of it would go to amateur signings, but that's been curtailed.

      2. So I get pretty torn on this. As much as I would've liked Greinke, a $25 million pitcher isn't a terribly wise investment period. Sanchez would've been nice but $90 million is absurd. I think Edwin Jackson got a pretty good deal, and I'm kind of sad they're not chasing Marcum. But there aren't a lot of players out there that it's worth investing in. I think if they have the opportunity to sign a long-term building block would be good (like the Willingham signing, or going over budget to keep JJ Hardy two years ago) it's worth spending a bit more money. But I'd rather they keep the books relatively clean in the future so they don't have to make decisions like "should we keep a declining pitcher, or a top five shortstop in the prime of his career."

        1. Agreed about Greinke. If they weren't going to go all in and trade Willingham and Morneau I had hoped they might attempt to sign Anibal Sanchez now instead of a roughly equivalent pitcher a season or two of salary increases down the road.

    1. As team summaries go, this seems a pretty fair assessment...discouraging, but not unexpected. Minor quibble is that he mentioned Perkins but skipped Burton out of the pen. Thanks for the link socal.

      1. No problem. I think he's completely off on the bullpen. I think it will be pretty good. Perkins and Burton are a terrific back end and Casey Fien was pretty good. As long as Duensing is in the bullpen, he has been good against lefties and keeps the Twins from relying on Tyler Robertson. That's four deep, two right and two left, before getting to Robertson, who is nasty and just needs to get the ball over the plate enough to keep batters swinging at his slider. And I think Swarzak is as good as you could hope for in a long reliever because he is durable and effective. He's not dominant, but if he was, he would be in the rotation. The Twins also have added some pretty good arms to fight for the middle relief spots and Gardy has traditionally handled bullpens very well. I think the Twins' best chance at contending in a weak division (if any), is to have a strong, deep bullpen to go to early after a strong offense has given them the lead or at least kept them in the game. It's called going all Storm Davis on the AL.

        1. 19 wins with a WHIP over 1.5? The A's didn't even have that dominant of an offense that year.

          1. The bullpen was deep and dominant and the offense was consistent with Rickey leading off.

            1. the starting rotation was also deep and dominant, Davis notwithstanding, so not sure the analogy really works

      1. Doesn't bother me at all. It can be done well or poorly. In that case it's lame.
        /makes notes in personal style guide regarding when CH is around

  4. So today is the start of a new semester for me at school. I thought it was strange that I wasn't seeing any classes in Blackboard this morning, so I logged in to check my student account. Where it shows I am not registered for any classes this term. Fantastic!

    See, back on 12/28, in one of the busiest days of the work year, I got an email saying "you're on academic suspension, you can reapply in 2 semesters, thanks!" As I was able to pull off a 3.75 GPA in fall semester (sure, I'm taking low level classes, but I've been out of school for 8 years and I'm working 40+ hours a week, so I was proud of it) I figured this had to be some sort of mistake. I called the registration & records office, who passed me off to the Advising Center, who said to go talk to the Registrar on the 31st. So, I got up early on the 31st and went in there to resolve the issue.

    Apparently, it was correct. When I was in college right after high school, my GPA upon leaving was a ghastly 1.3 something. I guess despite being away for the school from 9 years, because my cumulative was below 2.0 (my last term brought it up to like 1.65), I was out of luck. I was able to apply for academic forgiveness for two semesters (one where I took WFs in every class, and another where I stopped showing up to school). This brought my GPA back to 2.3 something, the holds were removed, and I was no longer on suspension or probation. I figured everything was fine.

    Yeah, until today I guess. My account is back on suspension, I've been taken out of all my classes, and I have some sort of financial aid warning on my account. Stellar. It shouldn't take too much to fix, but the person I worked with is out on lunch, and I felt like I needed to vent. This is incredibly frustrating. I worked my ass off last semester to pull good grades. I work full time in a job that can often be extremely stressful, I travel bi-weekly (at a minimum) to see my partner J, and I am taking a full course load at thirty to try to maybe do something else in life. And to have to jump through extra hoops to do that makes my eye twitch.

    Alright, I'm glad that's off my chest.

    1. Ugh, sorry to hear that. I worked at two different higher ed facilities and was amazed at the incompetence and red tape involved in the different agencies. One time, I remember getting a paycheck for about $0.97. As a recent grad with no money, I obviously was freaking out. It turns out that one of the departments "lost" the form in which my division was covering most of my graduate tuition and decided to just start pulling it from my paycheck.

      Good luck!

      1. After trying several times to try and get the veteran services person at my uni to properly administer my ed benefits I finally gave up. VA red tape, plus this particular administrator's incompetence made it a semesterly headache that I finally got tired of dealing with, so I just let the benefits run out and put the money into a savings account I practically never touch.

        1. VA red tape? who knew?

          In the fiscal year that ended in September, the agency paid $437 million in retroactive benefits to the survivors of nearly 19,500 veterans who died waiting. The figures represent a dramatic increase from three years earlier, when the widows, parents and children of fewer than 6,400 veterans were paid $7.9 million on claims filed before their loved one’s death.

          These veterans range from World War II veterans who die of natural causes without their pensions to Iraq War veterans who commit suicide after their disability claims for post-traumatic stress disorder are denied.

          The ranks of survivors waiting for these benefits also have surged, from fewer than 3,000 in December 2009 to nearly 13,000 this month.

          1. The best part was when I called the VA and found out that instead of owing them money because the university administrator had oversubscribed me, the VA owed me a sum in excess of twenty grand.

    2. My wife used to work part-time in the registration office at South Dakota State when we were going to school there. That kind of crap happens way, way too often- too many different forms to fill out, not enough trained workers to keep everything moving smoothly. I hope you get it straightened out quick.
      Congrats on the 3.75 GPA fall semester, too! That's pretty impressive when you're working full time, no matter what level classes they are.

    3. Reading about your situation was an exercise in containing vicarious frustration, and based on my own interaction with higher ed bureaucracy I'm heartily empathetic. Seems to me there ought to be a statute of limitations on transcripts. I couldn't tell if this was the same institution or not as your previous college, but regardless it seems like there should be a way of letting people (I believe they call students like us "adult students," which tells you something) start with a clean slate.

      Hope it's sorted out ASAP, Zack.

      1. I completely agree with there being some sort of statute of limitations. The closest they offer is the ability to wipe out full semesters, one time only. I had semesters where I had two good grades and two Fs for various reasons, but I have no way of erasing a lot of those Fs. You know, short of paying to take those courses again.

        I left my current school in 2003, transferred to another school in town for 3 semesters, and dropped out three semesters after that. The classes I retook for credit at the other school, which I had Fs in at my current school don't apply, apparently. I know I'm looking forward to retaking a Study Skills course and Freshman Composition yet again at the age of 31.

        I guess I understand some of it from their perspective, but there are a ton of factors that make me a completely different person now than I was at 21. I'm going to have to fight and scratch and claw to get my GPA up to around a 3.5 where I want it, since I'd like to go to grad school after I finish my bachelors degree. Twelve years of working in a cubicle is great plenty.

        1. retaking a Study Skills course and Freshman Composition yet again at the age of 31

          You'd think somebody would perceive a need for a course more tailored to returning students' academic situations/needs.

          1. Ha.

            My wife is returning to get a masters in education/teaching license after some many years away. Her program is a disaster of exactly this sort, with duplicate courses and things that were obviously completed long ago being required because of small differences in course titles and the like. Irrelevant classes seem to be the norm for returning students from what I can see.

            Sorry to hear you've got to deal with it Zack.

            1. My friend is having the same issue getting a second bachelors in an unrelated field to his previous major. It absolutely seems like the norm. It's almost as if it's a cash grab.

              1. I can't find any other possible reason, save sheer stupidity. My wife took drama (in London, with much-respected professors) and is being told she needs to take "performance of literature" because it is hugely different from "drama." Maybe there are some who would feel differently, but for the purpose of getting a teaching license, I'm fairly confident they're meaningfully the same thing.

                1. thankfully, i had a very kind advisor/head of department that took a lot of random old classes i'd accumulated and plugged them into my major's required courses (there was a lot of, "meh, that's close enough"). bless him, as he saved me a semester or two, and i graduated with 60-70 extra credits instead of 80-90.

                  1. I think all this stuff is done at the registrar's office at my school. My advisor was less than helpful in my one meeting with her thusfar. I'm hoping to find one who is... less... crappy soon.

                    1. well, yeah, i had to run everything through the registar's office, but my advisor/head of dept. set up all the paperwork (and thank goodness he was one in the same as that cut through all sorts of tape right there). it helped that he was a pretty awesome guy and i'd worked with his partner at the co-op.

                    2. Ahh, okay. Yeah, they weren't a lot of help with my transfer credits when I came in either. Though I think I have an okay idea of where I stand now, and I should be able to get done in another two and a half years or so. I hope.

                  2. My wife was told to talk to the department chair about this sort of thing. The department chair is the one who's the stickler.

                    1. she needs(needed?) an advocate in the department to work with/on the department chair. Chairs typically are firsts-among-equals, as opposed to department heads, who are appointed dictators.

                    2. Yeah... For her program, the department chair is her advisor. So the person who would normally be her advocate is not. She's going to consider trying to work around it, but talking to other students in her program has given her the strong sense that it never actually works out for people trying to get out of classes.

                    3. depends on the definition of is, doc. Sometimes a chair is the dictator, and sometimes the head is the equal.

        2. Grad school admittance isn't totally cut-and-dried, so I would not be surprised if a program that is made aware of your situation would take into account only your more recent grades. If you've proved your competence, they're usually happy to take your money. Unless there's snafus in the paperwork, of course, which never happens.

    4. Okay, they've re-registered me for my classes, but they say there's a "glitch" in my GPA calculation. I don't understand how that can be, but they are working on it. My classes still aren't listed in Blackboard, but if that doesn't happen overnight I'll email the profs tomorrow. Blah. I'm glad it's getting resolved but it is a bunch of added stress and frustration I do not want or need in my life.

  5. @BiertempfelTrib

    LHP Francisco Liriano injured right arm in Dec. #Pirates continue to talk to agent, but no deal imminent

      1. Sadly, they're backlogged on Netflix because Sheenie and I have had it sitting at the top of our queue without any luck.

        1. I was going to buy it last week but did not have the funds. It's "on sale" again this week... but at a price of $50.

                1. I'm about 5 episodes into season 5, and it has been about the funniest five episodes of tv I can remember ever seeing. (DAY-man. Ohhhh-ahhh-ahhhhhh.)

    1. lots of tv tonight. Gophers hockey, TWolves, (the soon to be cancelled but still brilliant) Happy Endings, and Justified. And I also see Chris Kluwe will be on The Colbert Report.

  6. According to the 4ltr, the student section at the hockey game tonight was chanting "Ala-bama!"

    That is hilarious.

  7. Gophers with the win over the Irish, so they have beaten the (then) top-ranked and defending national champs of BC and the No. 2-ranked Irish in about a week. I think they deserve their No. 1 ranking.

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