Update Season X - "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas Vol. I."

[LastVoter]

A big life insurance is a good strat move for Bushie's parents, considering his condition.

[LastVoter]

Great point Memphis. The opportunity cost to his parents of diverting money from paying off the credit cards to premiums for useless life insurance, or whatever, is probably horrific, like some usurious but legal rate of 21% per annum or something. But the "real" America does not think that way. They just don't understand, and have no interest in doing so.

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[LastVoter]

The credit limit was $9,000 initially and then increased to 11,500.  It's just shy of maxed.  One card was a stupid move (the one that's being paid off next month) and the one already paid off was a retail card.

Tweed, last I checked $11k is in the tens of thousands!

And your parents are paying your credit card debt off?  Do they just pay the minimum payments for you or more?

Why are you asking rhetorical questions? It makes this thread less enjoyable for everyone else.

[LastVoter]

Bushie have you considered undergoing a plastic surgery?

[LastVoter]

bushie file for bankruptcy instead of deciding how much of papa bushie's pay check you are going to take every month to service your debts.

your credit is in the toilet anyway.

My credit will resurface in a couple years.  It's not completely in the toilet.  Bankruptcy is a stain on your credit the rest of your life.

Shouldn't be a problem for you, considering your life expectancy.

[LastVoter]

bushie file for bankruptcy instead of deciding how much of papa bushie's pay check you are going to take every month to service your debts.

your credit is in the toilet anyway.

...  Bankruptcy is a stain on your credit the rest of your life.

No matter how many times I tell you that's wrong (and I know, and you don't), you keep repeating that Bushie (a typical pattern of course, because facts rarely get in the way of your feelings, and what you want to do, so thus the process of creating fantasy facts to rationalize it all). Actually a BK can improve your credit rating sometimes, and you find that you get offers for new credit cards. Why? Because you are debt free. What a concept!

You should extend the advice to maxing out the other 2 credit cards instead of mooching off his parents.

[LastVoter]

Taxes and benefits in Oklahoma are between 25-30% total.  I should still get $28,000-$30,000.  By the time I get an apartment, I will only have two bills left to pay off, my student loan and one credit card.  Let's assume I bring home $27,000.  That is still $2250 a month.  My rent shouldn't be any higher than $700 for a one bedroom apartment.  Utilities and cable should take that up to $1000.  Gas for the car should be $125 and food maybe $125.  I won't eat out all the time when I have my own apartment.  That is $1250 so far.  That still gives me room to put down $750 a month on my bills and still have $200-$250 left over each month.  I'll find a way.  It may be 2016 when I get it paid off, but it will be paid off.

2 cheezburger meals a day($5) + some snacks ($2-3) * 30 = $360 a month. You are also forgetting your car insurance bill.

[LastVoter]

Great news Bushie, now try to get acquainted with her younger and hotter sister. If you keep working on yourself, you can do it too playa!

[LastVoter]

I assume she means legally adopt because she used the qualifier "If I can't have children."  Plus, combine that with the phrase "sponsor a kid from Ethiopia", Its safe to assume she means legally adopt.  I'm curious how she plans on doing that.  She would likely need a husband, like I need a wife for my two Kenya kids.  We'll see.

Bushie + Allison get married, and they have a blended family with adopted Kenyan kids and an adopted Thai baby.  I see a great premise for a sitcom.

[LastVoter]

The asking permission to get serious is weird as heck, but I think everyone's overreacting to the whole asking fathers' permission for hands in marriage.  A lot of girls think it's "cute" to have the guy do that out of tradition, and nobody expects a boyfriend to ask the mother for permission.  I think you guys are being overly critical on Bushie for that aspect of it.

I actually agree with Inks here, this asking for permission talk is derailing the update right now.

[LastVoter]

One interesting gem from our conversation the other day, I asked her if things were to develop between us would she have any qualms about moving out of state.  She answered with an emphatic "not at all!".  I told her I was considering Fort Worth or Kansas City and the town she mentioned was a suburb of Kansas City (Blue Springs, MO).  She has some connections up there.  She also said that she is tired of living in a college town.  She likes Oklahoma, but is ready to leave the college town life.

Well of course she wants to leave a college town, look at her and then everyone else in a college town... Probably the last refuges of healthy looking people in USA.

[LastVoter]

She said keep the mustache!

But seriously, 50% of interviewing well is visual presentation, so if you want this $40k/year job that the school has promised you, shave your mustache.

He doesn't live on the east coast full of serious people...

[LastVoter]

If this inevitable engagement actually makes it to wedding day,we all need to go.

A wedding with no birds... No thanks.

[LastVoter]

I'm about 2 1/2 days or so from the first date.  I've got my haircut, mustache trimmed, car washed inside and out, so Saturday morning I will leave here at 10:15 to get gas and head on up there.  It should take me about 75 minutes to get up there.  I'll stay with her until about 18:00 and should be home by 19:30.

You're not sleeping with her?

Oh heck no!!

The tone is very unusual for someone making such an assertion.

[LastVoter]

What is Allison enjoys being a fat? Not all fats are self-hating hats.

The most interesting part about it is her photos of her as a child with her family compared to her as an adult with her family.  Neither her nor her parents/relatives were even fat much less obese in those 1980s snapshots.  Now they're all morbid.  Clearly an indictment of the last three decades wrath against our nation's poor and middle working class.

[LastVoter]

If bushie keeps dropping the weight, he may start pulling some thinner girls. I smell an affair in future seasons. This is brilliant.

I already covered this earlier in the Update.

[LastVoter]

Remember when inks said he preferred to spend his saturdays working doubles?  Proof he is just as sick as bushie, just in a different way.

Ideally, I'd spend my Saturdays storm chasing, posting on the forum, editing Wikipedia, going bowling, visiting different microbreweries across the country, looking through my telescope, watching The West Wing, playing Halo or Call of Duty (even though I suck), making dinner with my girlfriend, and I could go on and on.

But I don't have money to not work and do all of those things.  When I have boatloads of money, sure, I'll relax!  Until then, I prefer the doubles.

And that's how we drive down the price of labor boys!

[LastVoter]

I see nothing wrong with working doubles on the weekends because I like money.  There's nothing wrong with not working doubles on the weekends if you can afford it.  But why I don find "wrong" is to not work at all and mooch off of someone because you know that they can't say "No" to you.

Your bosses are mooching off you Inks, because you and your entire class cannot say 'no' to them.

How does that relate to anything that I said?  Can't you go do your anti-capitalism trolling somewhere that it's at least relevant?

You don't like stringent labor laws that allow higher wages?

[LastVoter]

I see nothing wrong with working doubles on the weekends because I like money.  There's nothing wrong with not working doubles on the weekends if you can afford it.  But why I don find "wrong" is to not work at all and mooch off of someone because you know that they can't say "No" to you.

Your bosses are mooching off you Inks, because you and your entire class cannot say 'no' to them.

How does that relate to anything that I said?  Can't you go do your anti-capitalism trolling somewhere that it's at least relevant?

You don't like stringent labor laws that allow higher wages?

What does that have to do with working doubles on the weekend?

Do we need to spell everything out for you?

[LastVoter]

Inks, I'm 31 years old.  I know what I'm doing.  It's time you cease your haughty, prideful, arrogant, and condescending demeanor to someone who is older and wiser than you.

You're a 31-year-old who's living with his parents, who doesn't have enough money to pay for his dates, food, porn, or anything.  You don't know what you're doing.  If you did know what you were doing, you wouldn't be in the position you're in.

And wiser than me?  No, Jeff... you are not wiser than me.  If you honestly think that, then no wonder you're in the state that you're in.

As for respecting my elders, I have no respect for you.  You are not deserving of my respect.  You are not deserving of respect from anyone.  You steal money from your parents and take advantage of them because you are a lazy, arrogant, prideful, entitled bum.  You seem to think your parents have some kind of duty to help you.  You should be homeless and bankrupt by now.  The only reason that you're not is because your parents are too naïve to see how disastrous your life is.  Furthermore, you couch all of this around God and Jesus, a truly despicable action that makes me have even less respect for you than the no respect I already had (yes I realize that's not logical, but that's some hyperbole to get the point across).

What good is thinking about marriage?  You are in the "honeymoon phase" (ironic, I know), and now that you're talking about marriage, you're setting this idea in your mind, and we know how your mind works.  When you think about something, it's pretty much all you think about.  Like the little monkey.

Jeff, this is your brain:



Yes, sometimes you do some backflips when you get distracted, but the rest of the time, you're just focused on banging the cymbals.  And those cymbals are symbols (you like what I did there) for whatever goal you have at the moment.  One day, they may be silver, the next day gold, the next day brass, but the end is all the same.  Look at how much you've talked about "your kids" or CADD or Blondie since Allison came along.  Allison is the newest cymbal of the month.

The problem is that this cymbal can be worse than the others, because engagement and marriage are a lot more serious than CADD or sponsor kids.

You went from not rushing things to talking about marriage.  If I was dating someone and they started talking about marriage within the first 6 months, let alone week, I'd be like... "OK... STAGE 4 CLINGER ALERT!"

Get your freaking life together man, before you really frak it up!

I thought you supported (straight) marriage?

[LastVoter]

Do we need to spell everything out for you?

Don't tell me you've turned into a troll like opebo too...

Where have you been for the past year or two...

[LastVoter]

The point is not so much the amount in the paycheck, but rather that I should have a good, steady job after completion of this.  It should be around $40, but I'll admit it could be as low at $35K, but I can work around the exact amount.  I'll be happy just to have a good career type job.

You can't afford to be making $400 less a month.  You'd barely be getting by as is if your budget numbers are correct.  Don't get me wrong, I hope you get a job that makes $100K, but your argument that there's precedent for making $40K doesn't really work, because those are people who, no offense, are probably smarter than you, more personable than you, and have better résumés than you.  When schools advertise what their past students do, they usually pick out the best ones.  Not the super-best, because then it's obvious that they're just trying to sell to you (which is what every school does; they just try to do it without people realizing it).  What percentage of non-traditional students who graduate from CAD get a job within a year in the field of CAD?  And what percent are making at least $40K a year?

I don't have the best resume, but when employers see my bad resume and then see I did something to correct it, they might take another look.  Plus, my resume will only be a small part of my interview process.  The biggest portion will be my portfolio, that is drawings from the course.  I know it will be a little more difficult with my background, but that's why I will be jumping on these resume boosting opportunities that will be happening in the next few months.  The first one coming on Sunday, November 17.  In that opportunity, I, along with a team of current students, will be designing something for the Oklahoma City Civic Center (not to be confused with the Chesapeake Energy Arena or the Cox Convention Center) for their exhibition on Monday and Tuesday, November 18 and 19.  This is a big time project that I have the opportunity to participate in and really boost my resume.  Other opportunities will happen in January and February.  Also, I will have a chance to take a licensing test upon or near the conclusion of my CADD schooling that is not a make or break for employment, but would add money to the paycheck.  I know my resume needs help, so don't think for a second that I'm going to sit on my rear end and let these opportunities pass me by.  Whatever amount my paycheck is I will have to adjust.  As long as I do my part by studying hard and working, God will allow me to live within whatever salary I am given.  Of course, I need to rely on God's strength to study hard and to work hard, but with His help and a little hard work, there is no limit to what I can do.  As far as the percentages of people who get a job within the first year after CAD completion?  It is in the low 90's.  In fact, looking through the history of these firms, the likes of companies I mentioned earlier hire more from Metro Tech than they do from traditional colleges and universities because Metro Tech students are focused in that one area, as opposed to given a broader education at a traditional higher-education institution.  The percentages of $40K a year is probably in the 60-70% range, but that could be shooting low.

Your optimism is ... I don't know ... heartening? But don't be so sure that your resume won't play a big role. Human Resource and recruiting processes often weed out initial candidates based on resume alone, narrowing down their first round of interviews to those that appear qualified. That depends on how many people apply for an individual job, but don't discount the importance of a good-looking resume. Remember the tips I gave you.

Don't encourage Bushie to drop out.

[LastVoter]

Did ya get to second at least this time?

Just first base.   It will stay at first base for a while.

Perhaps we should get a pinch runner in for you.

The working conditions... are subpar, I don't think you could find a man who would want that job.