f13.net

This guy is clearly insane (http://datemenatalie.com/), but who knows. Maybe he won't receive a cease and desist.

(http://datemenatalie.com/physical/andy03.jpg)

(http://datemenatalie.com/includes/images/disclaimer-full.gif)

Hopefully Natalie is into goofy looking dweebs.

He is buying an assload of sharpies at a nightclub?  What the fuck is up with that?

I think we found where P$Money went.

The funniest (saddest?) part is that he's as serious as a fucking heart attack!

I am guessing Natalie Merchant shouldn't log into the site.

What's the deal with Natalie Portman anyways? She's not hot. She's not even interesting.

But they're COUSINS!  Have you no shame?

I heartily beg to differ. She is a very pretty girl, and she is quite well educated. Her acting skills could be called into question (although most of that has been due to George Lucas's horrible writing and direction), but not hot or interesting? I would hardly call her that.

Pretty maybe, but I can honestly say I've only dated a few women who I would call less attractive than her. That's subjective, of course, and probably besides the point....But what I mean is that there's hot chicks to be found in our vicinity everyday. If we were talking about Rita Hayworth, I'd probably see the point, but she's just a fairly normal looking girl to me. Definitely not "drool-worthy", if anything.

Her acting is why I call her uninteresting.

Well-educated doesn't mean anything. Go watch some of her interviews. She's a bubble. A well-spoken bubble, but a bubble nonetheless. Many MANY actors go to incredible schools. But guess what they major in - things like drama and english. I'm sorry but that can be done in your sleep. Even moreso when you've been an actor since you were a wee tot.

Actually, most actors are dropouts. At least the interesting ones are.

Yea, that's validation.

Hey, you're the Johnny Depp fanatic, not me  :-D

Perhaps instead we should just discuss Kiera Knightly and Johny Depp.

See, Keira I could understand.

And yes, a fellow dropout.

Dude, I gotta say it. There is no "dropout" club. Celebrities make millions of dollars, they could fund their own little school and get their own little degrees printed. It is not comparable. Stop wearing it as a badge.

I know some people in LS that knew her as a Harvard ugrad, and they said she actually seemed pretty bright.  And what's with the dislike of liberal arts majors?  I have many law school polysci/English/philosophy etc. major classmates (Rhodes Scholars, etc.) that could blow your average engineer out of the water in terms of sheer brainpower.  Stop the hatin...   

I didn't say celebrities. I just said actors.....Which is pretty much a drop club (musicians and painters too). It's been that way for hundreds of years. Artists are lucky losers. Good ones even lucklier losers. Actors are a little more educated than other artists, seeing that they continue a private education that takes the same amount of time to get a Master's or Phd (of which I've done myself....So I'm not, in fact, wearing a badge......It's also not "easy" like you say. Fuck that shit), but you still never take the misfit/loser mentality out of them.

Anyways, this is all beside the point. My comments on Natalie's education were a joke and nothing more. She's uninteresting for entirely different reasons.

I wasn't hating. I was just stating the obvious. If you forget, I'm a liberal arts major. I've got a degree in Art Studio/Digital Media. Do you know why famous people get into amazing schools? I'd say 4 out of 5 times it's because they're famous.

Famous ones are lucky. Most of the good ones are unknown or working commercially. I've probably met hundreds of artists churning out better shit than you can see at the Hirshorn or any other American museum of art on a daily basis. Art hasn't been about skill for about 75 years. It's been about a chummy circlejerk.

I'm not claiming she got into Harvard on merit- I'm sure she was in the ballpark intellectually and at least able to tread water, but your point about famous people is probably correct.  I was just contesting the notion that an English major is "easy". 

Closer, anyone?

*retch* :dead_horse:

Had I been willing to take some of the required bullshit courses, English probably would have been easier and less time-consuming than Art. Also, probably cheaper. On top of that, from all I've heard, in most Liberal Arts cases, the more famous schools are easier Once You're In. I've a good feeling the film program at U Penn is easier than the one they're implementing at University of Maryland.

I wasn't aware UPenn was a big film school.

A "big" film school is: Saving the money you would have spent on tuition to finance a film instead.

That works with one out of every 2,000 students. Fuzzy math there, but probably accurate.

At least "film" wise. I don't know the stats though, so I'm not going to guess.

Seems like many graduates go on to respectable careers (that is, if they pursue it) in commercials, videos, and television though. Everything but films.

Either way, whether you blow your cash on financing a film, or blow it on tuition, you're probably going to get a decent education out of it.  :-)

I'd say she is beautiful but not hot.  I think she'd make a great painting but horrible porn.

At my college, all students pursuing a BS were required to complete at least 12 credits of social sciences, but acquiring a BA required no math or (regular) sciences. So liberal arts majors actually end up less educated than science majors (at PSU). Granted, I found a way around most of the requirement by taking GIS courses while I was a forestry major (which qualified as geography), but I still ended up having to take extra Russian and had to petition to have the last 4 credits waived from my graduation application.

Natalie Portman is beautiful, but hasn't dazzled me as an actress. Liked her okay in Garden State, though.

Go to Scottsdale Community College for film courses.  It's like $20 a semester and it's nationally renowned.  Then spend the rest of the fund on the movie.

Compromise, people.  Compromise.

Holy crap I like that.  Very nice El Gallo.

I'm pretty sure that's how it is at almost every college.  Because MATH IS HARD or something.

UMD CP required a math. But I was exempt because of SATs. Luckily I'd taken Math in 10th grade, so I'm prepared for life.

Shit, my BA still required a few courses outside of my realm of expertise. included some sciences (inc. one lab science), and a math course.

I made the mistake of taking Calc 1 when I was still pre-med. I bombed it and had to take it again. My advisors always give my transcript odd looks when they see a History major taking Calc instead of Stat.

For biological sciences, it makes way more sense to take stats instead of calc. And even though everyone seems to complain about it, I liked it a lot more than calc and it was a lot more intuitive to me. But physics was the bane of my existence (and wrecked my GPA) because of my lack of calc. Unfortunately, I'd fallen under the impression that I needed a year of physics, when it was in fact only one term. I coulda taken a bunch of geology instead, but oops!

The things that killed pre-med for me, and made me realise I don't want to be a MD That bad are:

Calc 1 and 2
Physics 1 and 2
Chem 1 and 2
Orgo Chem 1 and 2
Embryology
Bio 1 and 2 (After I had taken AP Bio as a HS Senior and wanting to shoot myself. I perferred to play the newly (to me)-discovered EverQuest)


Arrg, fuck that noise. Then to go on to Med School, than umpteen years of residency, then more years until I'm in a position where my job doesn't Suck Ass?

Can I have a Major I like please? Kthx

Pssch.  You didn't even have to take any electrical engineering.  Count yourself lucky.

75 years?  Since like basically forever actually.  It was always about latching on to some pretentious insecure patron.

Well, at least old art looks like, you know....art, instead of random abstract shit-on-a-stick.


EDIT: I'll take Caravaggio over pretty much anything from the last 100 years or so.

Amen.

Hmm.. guess my tastes in art (http://www.bnr-art.com/doolitt/doolitt2.htm) are a little different than most.

Course, I also like Dali (http://www.dali-gallery.com/), but what do I know.

They had a huge Dali display near the London Eye...I just didn't have time.


Such time was spent in the Namco Zone.  :lol:

Also for sculpture, Eckman (http://www.eckmanfineart.com/large_works.html) is just fucking amazing.  Caught a show of his at the Praire Edge in Rapid City a few years ago.

I like much of his work.  But I viscerally dislike provocateurs.


Ugh.

They intro it in Physics II w/calc - at least the basics of RLC circuit analysis and electromagnetic fields, or they did at my school.  Nothing like what you get in say Signals and Systems but it was a beginning.

A second order ODE in the morning sure makes working at McDonalds seem attractive.

It reminded me of Bernini for a moment, before I realised it wasn't marble.

Still nice stuff though.

Signals and Systems was exactly what I was thinking of.  I liked Physics 2 (probably because I also liked multivariable calc).  Signals and Systems made my head hurt, though.  Dammit Jim, I'm a coder, not a ham radio operator!

Art hasn't been about skill because it isn't the be all, end all. Emphasis on technique shouldn't have been the primary focus of art anyhow (at least not for as long as the thousand years that it did). It's not a science. Art is a world of expression first. Skill optional. A lack of ideals is much worst than anything. Which is where the circle jerk comes in.

The assertion that art is expression opened up the doors for every Tom, Dick, and Joe to take up painting in the 20th century.... And that's all well and good --- But for the most part, Tom, Dick, and Joe do not have ideals.

For every one of them though, there's a genius who comes up with something spectacular. A genius who would have never survived in the art world of the past. So for those guys (and gals), you've got to keep the door open and just *try* to ignore the circle jerk at the other end of the gallery.

I count myself lucky that British Universities don't require anything outside of what your degree's in. For me that means I don't have to do anything but philosophy. Sure I'll be screwed as far as wide range of qualifications go but I enjoy it and I'm going to get a good degree because I don't have to do crap I wouldn't like, wouldn't be good at and so wouldn't work at.

I'll give you two!  Math/Philosophy.  Best double major ever.

That would make me cry tears of blood, for all the pain such a program would bring upon my mortal soul.

Not all of them.

The physics courses I took were very basic and only involved DC circuits.  However, the required Intro to Circuits course made me want to claw my eyes out.  Somehow I made it thru with an A, but I will never take AC power for granted again.  I do feel used though, as all the EE majors I spoke with never had to take any CE courses.  Although, CE majors in both schools I went to, were required to take Thermo and Intro to Circuits.  About $2.5k of wasted money IMO.  :P

I love Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers. Kudos, Yeg.

Well, I had to go to medical school to realize what a shitty job being a physician is.  I think about 80% of my colleagues that are MD's are just biding their time until they can retire early and do what it is in life that the genuinely enjoy.  Consider yourself lucky that you realized it much sooner.

As for major, just study what you enjoy.  You'll perform better and be happier getting out of bed in the morning. 

After she retired from teaching my mom joined her friend's physician headhunting firm.  She quite after three weeks.  She said without exception everyone she called was miserable and a few even broke down in tears saying medicine was not really their chosen career but was pressured into it by their family.

That said I also have family in the field and they love their work.  But they're all either in R&D or administration so they travel a lot.

Well, the thing that Truely made me look at my motivation to go to med school involves a short story.

When I applied to my school, I put "pre-med" as my desired major. I easily met the req's, so there shouldn't have been a problem with me getting into the program. Somehow, I was instead put into Pre-Major. I only learned this when I went to register for my second semester and found a flag on my account, blocking me from registering until I go to some kind of meeting to help me "find" a major.

Seeing as freshmen get shitty registration choices as it is, being delayed a week more just made it worse. Basically, I was registering dead last, even after the incoming freshmen and non-matriculated students.

I get into my major, and pick whatever classes are available. This included Calculus 1.

I proceed to bomb Calc 1.

I register to repeat the course in the fall, in addition to whatever I can find that will fit in my program. In the fall, I finally figure out who my advisor is, and go over to see him. He was very suprised that I hadn't yet taken Bio 1 or 2 (I couldn't register for them; they were always filled). So, I would have to take Bio 2 in the Spring, Bio 1 the next fall....I would also have to stack up a lot of other courses at the same time, because I was effectively a year and a half behind (the program at my school was practically on a set track of courses).

I say fuck that, and change majors before the week is out.

I will only regret my new choice of major if I have to end up teaching.

If you want to go into medicine, do it.  Don't let one bad grade disuade you.  As I was a division I athlete, I had pretty marginal grades my freshman and sophomore years.  A strong finish coupled to volunteer experience and high MCAT scores can overcome that.  Particularly if you apply to a state school as a resident.

<sorry for the derail Natalie!>

I have to admit that I thought of it because of Bowie's cover on Reality.

Where have you been?  No one else laughs at my jokes.

No, it wasn't the grade that disuaded me...it was the hell I would have had to go through to "catch up."

That, in turn, made me think about the hell I would have to go through in the form of med school and residency.

It made me realize I didn't didn't want to be a doctor for the right reasons. I just wanted the money (which is overrated once you account for NJ malpractice insurance) and I had a sick fasination with surgury and cutting things up (My AP Bio dissection of a cat was....over-done).

Actually every book I've ever read on the subject of "Why should I become a doctor?" has said money is really the only reason you should consider it.  Wanting to help people will lead to the drinking and drug abuse.

Eh, the money isn't worth it at 80 - 90 hours a week. Or is it? I'd think that the only thing that could possess someone to do that is the desire to help people.

However, do let the fact that your license to operate can be revoked, rendering your expensive and long education nearly worthless, disuade you.

As a computer scientist, there is no "revocation" of my right to write code. Yay for us!

(Caveat: My brother is a doctor, and he's not entirely happy about choosing that carreer.)

You can get trapped into an oppressive non-compete though.  From what I understand if you do somehow manage to get an employer thats looking to destroy you in that way you can fight it pretty easily because you have a right to work in most states.  I really don't know much about this just hearsay.  Maybe one of the lawyers would care to enlighten us coders?

Anyway a good programmer/engineer can make as much as most doctors or lawyers.  Especially if your willing to take some risks with startups or are good enough (read: know people) for top tier positions at the big boys (Microsoft, Google, etc...)

I am glad I am not a programmer.  I'm a support specialist that happens to specialize in something most people don't know dick about.  Being a programmer must be like rowing a slave ship.  At least I get to do different things most of the time.  The other interesting thing about my job is that any sort of degree program is useless in practice.  I have taken exactly one computer course in fourteen years of dabbling at getting a degree, and yet I support a load of expensive computers.  Wacky.

I really wanted to be an aerospace engineer, but the Cold War ended.  And, uh, bad grades.

*checks Norwegian employment laws*

Then you live in the wrong country. The closest you get here is that your employer can keep paying you but keep you out of the loop (no work tasks or projects, no customer contact, maybe not even let you into the workplace) until a couple of years of surfing the web has passed.

I'll happily move to Norway if you've got work for me.

Or anyone working in finance who wants to make lots of money and works that kind of insane week.

Probably depends on what area of medicine you go into. I imagine some people do it for money, some because they love the job, some because the love the power of saving lives, some because they feel they have some family obligation to be a doctor. My sister is an ob/gyn and loves the work she does. She makes good money but she just loves her work. She works most weekdays in her office and then spends 1-2 24-hour on-call shifts a week at the hospital taking care of patients. She loves it even though she's had to deal with some horrible crappy situations:

• parents who don't want the child
• fat ladies who don't realize their pregnant
• botched abortions
• 22 year old grandmothers
• miscarriage aftermath
• fat ladies who need to have 2 male interns hold her legs apart so she can get in there
• women who have strange hygine issues

TMI!

Having gone through the system, here are my observations. 

1. People that genuinely want to help others through medicine are by far the minority.  I'd say they comprised 5-10% of my med school class and even fewer among my colleagues. These are the people that continued to do volunteer work after they got accepted into med school.  These are some of the best people I've known in my life.

2. Most people go into medicine not for the money, but for the prestige/power.  Being a physician in this society brings with it a certain amount of clout and people really feed off of that.  I laughed my ass off at all the people that had Dr. or MD stamped all over their shit after they graduated. 

3. Money.  Medicine (in most cases) is a golden cage.  In some areas you make very good money but sacrifice your life to have it.  In other areas, such as family practice, starting salaries of $130-150k are common.  Yes, this is a solid salary, but you could make close to it going through a lot less hell. 

As for the time commitment, it varies with choices.  An emergency room doc or an anaesthetist can make a very good salary working 3-4 10 h shifts a week.  Not having to manage any beds frees up a lot of time.  Technicians like surgeons can also do very well once established.

how is it possible to be a grandparent at 22? That doesn't seem mathematically possible.

Maybe it's just a joke. Or maybe he meant 32 year old grandmothers. That's plausible.

I pondered that too.  Second/trophy wife?

The lady had a girl when she was 11. Her daughter then followed in her mom's footsteps and had her own kid at 11.

Ah I was correct then.

Yeah trophy wife.

Did they try to blame GTA? Wouldn't suprise me.

Seriously though, that sucks.

NOW do you guys see why I'm always waxing Orwellian about state-mandated birth control? People should be put on contraceptives when they hit puberty and then have to apply to get off them.

#1 Reason I left Pediatrics: Parents

Don't you mean Stupid Parents?

Probably not.  Smart parents with one or two 'little darlings' can probably be an even bigger pain in the ass than the ones that just go along with what you say bu have 8 kids because they don't understand what the fuck a condom or even pulling out is.

Even us smart parents don't know what the hell we are doing.  Zee books, zey explain not-zing!

I'll clarify.

a) There are parents that abuse or neglect their kids causing them to require medical care/intervention.  I refer to these as stupid parents.  I have to try hard to overcome the things I learned playing football when around these people. I saw far more cases of this than any person should and am nearly convinced that the people who really shouldn't be having children are the ones responsible for the largest portion of the birth rate.

b) There are the "smart" parents.  I'll give these parents a tip: if you take your child to a physician, you're doing it to get the physician's medical advice or opinion.  Don't come to me and tell me what the correct solution is, it defeats the purpose of the visit.  I'm not here to validate your medical knowledge, I'm here to help your kid feel better.  Tell me what the child has been "feeling" or experiencing.  Tell me the facts associated with the case to the best of your ability.  Also, if you don't like my solution feel free to get a second opinion.  I'm not perfect nor do I profess to be.  By the way, it's ok to leave the doctors office without a prescription.  Not everything demands it.

Edit: fwiw I am a researcher now and do not practice.  Probably for good reason.

I fucking hate that shit. In my opinion, taking some kind of drugs for every little thing just leaves a person worse off.

I cannot remember the last time I took anything, besides ibuprofin for a headache now and then, and some over the counter antihistamine to help me adapt to the crap in Rome and a food allergy I discovered the hard way one night.

I haven't been truely sick in awhile, while I know some people that take meds for almost everything when they catch something, and continue to become sick on an almost regular basis.

Fuck the meds, give your immune system something to do.

I, on the other hand, want to gobble down anything and everything that will make me feel better. Better living through pharmaceuticals!

I have one better. The local MEA clinics are awful. If you go in complaining of any kind of sinus or cold-type symptoms (congestion, fever, aches), they will almost always ask if you'd like a Decodron (sic) shot before even really looking at you. I had a doctor walk into the examining room, after only having been seen by the nurse for a minute or two, and the doctor not having seen me at all, and the first words out of his mouth are "Would you like a shot?"

I had a doctor do that to me in college. I asked him if he had any good bourbon.

He just stared at me.

Of course he stared at you. Anyone who drinks good bourbon as a shot needs to be slapped.

I'd still whack off to it though.