The $%*! frustration thread

[alfadorredux]

In a fit of curiosity (because I'd never heard of them either), I plugged "SUM-3 batteries" into Google, and the results I got suggest they're either AAs or some weird size not used outside the Orient.

[chrono eric]

Ehrgeiz had a similar problem. When a character died, all the items and weapons they had just dropped on the level they were on, and the other character could collect them by reaching that far.

Ha, Ehrgeiz. I remember that shitstain of a game. I still have a copy of it stashed away someplace in my room. What's particularly annoying about the SO4 situation though, unique from Ehrgeiz (at least I don't remember Ehrgeiz being this bad) is that you can't casually play it to beat the last post-game dungeon. By casually play I mean you can't sit down for an hour, get a bit further, and then resume at some later time. No, you need at least 6 hours blocked off solely to play the game, and even then there is still the possibility that you could die and lose everything that you collected - effectively wasting those six hours.

This was no doubt intended to be a challenge and an extremely difficult one at that. But it seems unnecessarily so. SO3's final post-game dungeon, for example, had 211 floors filled with progressively stronger enemies/bosses culminating with an epic boss battle at the top. After you beat each floor you could access it from a central elevator. This was a huge challenge, but it was very well done. You could casually play the game, beat a couple of floors, and come back at a later time.

But right now I am about to hurl my 360 controller through my television screen.

[FaustWolf]

Frick, I bet this is frustrating someone out there. I get frustrated just reading it:
http://www1.fastweb.com/college-jobs-internships/articles/445-a-recent-grad-shares-her-job-search-nightmare

[Thought]

Aye, quite frustrating indeed, and it only seems to be getting worse. Things have been heading in that direction for quite some time; the current economic situation just seems to be making it worse. It used to be that a High School diploma was all you needed to get a livable job. Then, a Bachelor’s degree became the standard. Things have been shifting, unfortunately, over the last 5-10 years (or longer; being young skews my perspective) it is becoming that a Master’s degree is required, and seeing a Ph.D. working in a totally unrelated, non-academic field isn’t unheard of.

That article hinted at it, but individuals with postgraduate degrees have been having the same problem. If I am remembering my half-heard articles correctly, around 10% of individuals working towards a biomedical Ph.D. will actually become tenured faculty members, which means 90% of grad students in that field are being trained for something they'll never do.

Such a practice has been going on for years for a simple reason; most universities need under-paid grad students to function. The system is perpetuated for economic, not academic, reasons.

[FaustWolf]

Wow, the biomed PhD student example really puts things into perspective.

It's easy to say that higher education is worth it for the sheer technical and cultural learning opportunity (indeed, I think our society is better off for all the higher learning going on), but there's got to be huge economic inefficiencies at work here. People are taking out huge loans on false expectations future income will suffice to pay off that debt. A biomed degree would hopefully guarantee one a job as a grocery bagger, for example, but I doubt the resulting income is going to cover the loan. Why, I'm surprised financial institutions haven't begun trading student loans amongst themselves as high-risk assets (this is what happened in the subprime mortgage market).

What's really amazing though is all the nursing jobs that are around, at least in the midwest; not sure how that industry is faring elsewhere in the US or in other countries. If you're willing to be an in-home personal care assistant, you've got it made.

[Thought]

Unfortunately, to my understanding, such nurses tend to have a high burn out rate due to depression.

[KebreI]

Unfortunately, to my understanding, such nurses tend to have a high burn out rate due to depression.

That's just depressing...

[Thought]

That's just depressing...

It's an oppressive environment.

[ZeaLitY]

A far cry from the entry-level fashion marketing gig she’d dreamed of.

Keywords are marketing and fashion. Combine the shallowest, most bullshit-ridden field of business with one of the shallowest, most bullshit-ridden and corrupt "enterprises" in human history and the results can't be pretty.

[Daniel Krispin]

Of course, we must remember, the purpose of a university education is not to get a degree.

But yes, times are difficult. I've not yet managed to find a summer job, despite having a BSc Mech. Eng., and currently in Grad studies. But as I've said, it's hardly for the sake of a job or career that we get educated at a university level. If one wants a career, there are technical schools for that. And, I must add, that as far as I see it, despite having a degree in the field, I do not think engineering has much place at a university. It belongs at a technical school. University is about broadening one's intellectual scope, not about teaching a skill set.

Anyway, the frustration today... that Humanities, once the core of the University, has all but ceased to exist in favour of, in part, the Sciences and Engineering, and such things as make the universities a profit. English, Classics, History... these things which teach the very meaning of life are thrown by the wayside because of their marked lack of value in regards to future profits. But they were and will always be the true heart of the university. To speak the much spoken words of old Cicero: O Tempora, O Mores...

[KebreI]

The purpose of a university education was not to get a degree. All of my old highschool buddies or current students in my University are in for the degree. They know what they want to do and it doesn't require any additional knowledge just the degree to prove that they ready. Just as said jobs are getting higher and higher requirements. There are drop outs that are in school again not for learning but for jobs.

Now for grad schools students it maybe different, I imagine that there is a larger portion of people who are there too learn not to work. I still believe that just me romanticizing it though.

[nightmare975]

3D Realms closed down yesterday.

I could have had a job there about a year ago. Arg.

There goes Duke Nukem Forever.

[V_Translanka]

What about those Duke Nukem remakes for DS...?

[nightmare975]

What about those Duke Nukem remakes for DS...?

I'd say they were canceled as well, but I think they were being made by another company.

[Mr Bekkler]

Did anyone notice the site was down for a couple hours yesterday? At least it didn't work at my school or my apt till later at night. At first I thought the school had just blocked it within the five minutes it took me to check updated posts and X out of the window, then go back when the teacher left. But no, no magical site-blocking telepathy here, cause I tested it as soon as I got home. Curious. Very curious.