Why Is This So Hard?
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Education
The first thing you do is fill out a form called a FAFSA, which stands for “For Always Forgetting Students, Always.” You give it some pretty basic information, including your Social Security number, your tax papers for the past year, your parents’ Social Security numbers, where they were born, every parking ticket you’ve ever received, number of times you have sneezed in the past three months, and so on. The whole process can take between two to four weeks, depending on how anal retentive. You then politely ask the Federal Government, who kindly provided you with this form to fill out (big surprise), to send it along to the schools you have applied for.
Well, a few weeks later, you’ve been excepted to a school and are attending there in the Fall. Good for you. But wait, you have to consult with Financial Aid advisors from that school because you don’t have $85,000 to spend on your education. So, you consult with Financial Aid only to discover that for some reason, they don’t have a record of your FAFSA which you kindly asked the Government to send along. You call the school and talk to everyone in the Student Services Department, including several Janitors, until someone finally informs you that the FAFSA they have received from you was not filled out correctly.
So, you have to go back to the FAFSA, and sort through the metric ton of information, and at some point you realize how most of the stuff you gave them are completely irrelevant to getting Financial help with school, nevertheless. You find the one little bit of the form that was wrong, fix it, and then kindly ask the Government (who you hate now) to send the updated form to the school of your choice. By the way, even though they can now do this electronically, it takes even longer then filling it out longhand, and mailing it, for them to process the whole darn thing.
Which brings me to my next point. The school will then take all the time they need to make you an offer. An offer that will be crap by the way. They will offer you a bunch of loans that will have interest applied to them shortly after you graduate. For some reason, it is in the best interest of the school to insure that you enter the workforce already in debt. You are already in debt even before you buy a house, a car, start a family. How does this make sense?
The way I see it, if the Government wants to get out of this economic crisis, then the Government needs to get rid of the FAFSA and Stafford, and the PLUS loans, because they do not work. Here’s an idea, how about putting more money into public Colleges and Universities so that they can lower tuitions? Oh wait, they’ve tried that, it didn’t work. So, here’s a real idea. Give anyone, and I mean anyone, who has been excepted into a College or University an interest free, Government guaranteed, loan. Let’s let everyone who wants to go to college, go to college, and to make the Financial situation a little easier. Hey, if they’re going to throw money at Chase and Citi, why not throw some money to the people who actually have to live with the choices being made today? If anyone deserves the money from TARP and the AIG bailout, it’s the people who are now screwed by the bankers and Insurance people who got us into this mess.
So long as the loan terms require you taking a class called “Ethics in Financial Services” or something to that effect.
Settling in the West
Posted by Andrew | Filed under General
I’ve been here since Tuesday, but not until today have I had the chance to actually sit down and do some writing. I’m nervous and have had to force myself to eat food the last 24 hours as I am now settled in my new house with my new roommates. I am the youngest in the house, and I am yet to officially move into my room as the previous occupant has not actually become previous yet. So, I am sleeping on a couch in the TV room. I don’t mind, but it will be nice when I finally get some privacy.
For the first time in my life, I am truly on my own. My parents aren’t here to help me. It’s kind of exciting in a sort of roller-coaster I can’t believe I am actually going to go through that cork screw and be upside down get me out of here kind of way. The last week has been a little off for me, I haven’t been sleeping much for many reasons, top of which is the fact that I have had to stay in some pretty lousy beds the last few days.
I never realized how truly boring trees can really be when compared to mountains. When I looked out my window in Maine, all I saw was trees, trees, and more trees. Here, I write to you with a view of about five different mountain peaks of the Wasatch mountain range. No forests disturbing my view, just the natural beauty of what some people consider to be a waste-land.
Yet, while I was in Salt Lake City last week with my dad, I saw a wonderful place. Salt Lake is very developed, nice modern buildings of various architecture, accompanied by classic historic buildings like the Temple and the Salt Lake City and County Building. It’s clean too, not something common in any city, you don’t see trash lining the streets or cigarette butts on the sidewalks. Some sidewalks near Temple Square are good enough to eat off of.
Many thoughts and ideas of subjects I want to write about in the coming days, hopefully I will be able too.
The Move to Utah, A New Life Awaits
Posted by Andrew | Filed under General
I have been very busy the last two weeks with my impending move to Utah. Unbelievably, I will be leaving New England on Saturday, for the moment of course, until the date changes again. It’s had a bad habit of changing. It has been an interesting few days, it’s hard to accept the fact that I won’t be seeing a lot of the people and places I’ve been seeing for months to come.
Right now, I am sitting in my room, my sanctuary for the past eleven years. It is a mess. Books are strewn about, the walls are blank, the shelves are empty, and their is trash and dust all over the carpet. Boxes are everywhere, and my biggest fear is that they won’t all fit into the back of my car. How is one person, even if they are as young as I am, fit their entire life into the back of a compact sedan?
The only comfort I have is that I know where I am going to be living when I get there. I will be living in the suburb of Sandy, south of Salt Lake City. I looked up the address of the place I will be living at, and I must admit I am excited. Not just for the new experiences and the new school, but for the chance to have an entirely new life.
For the first time in my life, I can start straight from scratch. Nobody I meet in Utah have to know anything about my life here in New England. It’s a chance to reinvent myself, to never have to worry about what other people really think of me. The people in Utah don’t know my past mistakes that have made people in New England look at me through biased eyes. People are what you make them, you control your relationships with others. My training phase is ending now, and the next phase is about to begin.
Wish me luck.
Smoking in Modern America
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Business
My father, brother and I took up an invitation to join some of our friends at their home for Independence Day this last weekend. It is a family of a man of Korean descent, his wife who is native born Scottish, and there twin girls and baby boy. The woman’s Scottish mother was also there from her home on the British Isles. I love nothing more than to celebrate our country’s founding than in such diversity. Of course, being all very social creatures, we discussed many different topics, one of which being Obama’s new anti-smoking legislation.
I mentioned that I thought it was an interesting move considering the current economic situation in out country. You see, part of the legislation bans flavored cigarettes, which apparently make smoking attractive to candy addicted youth. Granted, they will still allow Menthol cigarettes because big tobacco apparently begged them for leniency. However, clove cigarettes, or Kreteks are banned. Clove cigarettes are native to Indonesia, where they are made by a number of companies including the largest, a company called Djarum (pronounced De-Jar-Um).
As of right now, Djarum cigarettes are available in most of the United States, and are exclusively imported by a company called Kretek International based in Moorpark, California. It’s an entire company who’s business is buying and selling Djarum brand clove cigarettes in the United States, and they have just been told that their business is now illegal.
Now, it is now a fact that smoking is bad, we can all agree on that. But, isn’t one of the great things about this country is our ability to freely choose to destroy our lungs? It seems to be poor form for Obama, who is trying to get the economy to turn around and then shut a small company like this down? I would like to know how many people will be losing their jobs over this bill. I imagine their are other companies like this in the same situation and that Phillip Morris and ReynoldsAmerican are also looking at making some cut-backs.
Are people ever going to remember that Tobacco is one of the things that help put our country on top economically? That a large part of our economy and our government funding through taxes depends on people continuing to buy and smoke cigarettes?
Happy Birthday America
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Mainstream Media
You’re 233 years old today, but you don’t look a day past 176. Yes, when compared to the countries of Europe and Asia, you are but a young one, a teenager if you will, and an awfully noisy one at that. So, while I say Happy Birthday to the country of my birth, and the one that I have always called my home, I have one simple thing to say. Thanks.
Thanks for taking the Parliamentary system of our British parents and transforming it into a Democracy that allows us to choose our leaders. Thank you for guaranteeing the right to vote to all people and extending that right to African Americans, Women, and any citizen who wishes to vote. Thank you for being the model that would be the base for new Governments in France, Germany, and all around the world, even in Iran.
Yes, Iran, that backwards place with the crazy neo-Nazi looney tune as a President? I can pronounce his name, can you? You see, he was elected by a popular vote, and was unfortunately re-elected by a popular vote just recently. The re-election made quite a number of people in the cities of Tehran and Masshad quite upset, and caused riots and protests through out the country. Unfortunately, it would appear that the more conservative people in the rural farmlands are quite happy with the current government.
But, no one in America was paying attention, because apparently we are more concerned with the death of Michael Jackson. And, anyway you look at it, he was a child rapist, I don’t care what you think. Because, in America, we only care about things happening here, things that concern us. As far as we are concerned, Ahmadinejad is a tyrant equal to Kim Jong-Il and the now fallen Saddam Hussien. Because clearly, no country in the Middle East has democracy unless it is packaged and supplied by the United States.
That is a picture of the skyline of Tehran that I got from it’s Wikipedia article, it features high rises and modern buildings. Tehran is also home to the Milad Tower, which is like an Iranian Space Needle or CN Tower. They also have the Azadi Tower (Azadi means “Freedom” in Persian by the way), a number of Colleges and Universities, the world’s fourth largest Stadium, and they even have a ski resort. Think of it like a Middle Eastern Aspen if you will.
They are in almost every way just like us, and we don’t seem to care about them. They are a modern democracy and the most developed country in the region. And yet, people claim they are a part of the access of evil and to be in the same league as the North Koreans and al Quaeda. It is time to stop beating the war drum against these people, these human beings, who have rights, who are intelligent, and who are citizens of the world that we share.