School stuff for Unseelie

Unseelie would like to get his AA through CCSF in order to transfer to the psychology program at UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, or UC Berkeley with a strong perference for UC Berkeley because then he could stay in the basic Bay Area.

In order to do that, he needs an excellent GPA... the only person we know who has done this and gotten into all three of those had a 3.95.

He has two options.
-transfer his credits from Mass Bay College, which may have low grades (he doesn't know/remember), and possibly graduate by the end of the summer while working full time
OR
-throw out the old transcript unless it turns out to have surprisingly good grades, and start from scratch... which suggests going to CCSF full time.

This brings up a number of questions.
(1) Anyone know how good the various psych departments are at UCSC, UC Davis, and UCB? How hard they are to get into?
(2) Anyone have any sample points of folks who transferred from a CC to one of those UCs with a lower GPA than 3.95?
(3) Anyone know of any other UCs or Cal States which are in this area?
(4) Anyone know what kind of financial aid he can get for a place that has tuition of ~$250/semester ($18/unit/semester), given his status as an independent with no savings virtually no possessions of value, and a debt or two to boot?

Anyone have any strong opinions about what the sensible course is here? I'm leaning towards saying fuck it and getting him financial aid so he can accelerate this process and still wind up at a good school. But if he could graduate next term and transfer to a less well known Cal State or UC, thus cutting 1-2 years off the schedule, should he? And are there such options that are conveniently located?

Good food day; good day

I was GOING to write about how this is a good food day...

I foolishly waited to eat breakfast until it was put away, which meant no fruit salad, but it also means free bagel for me.
Lunch was steelhead salmon with a red pepper sauce, accompanied by a tuscany toybox (kinda like heirloom but smaller) tomatoes and bread salad. Extremely tasty for $4.
And then I discover there's leftovers, and while same thing for lunch and dinner is vaguely monotonous, food of that quality for an average of $2 a meal is just not something I can refuse.
And then tonight, there will be chocolate fondue. I tell you, its a good food day.

But then I was thinking... a lot of other things are going my way today. Or at least, some. Let me think.

-Not one wink of drama.
-Before I had a chance to admit to nytemuse that she had bought me something as bday present I'd already bought myself, she volunteered that if I'd already bought it she could return it and get a gift certificate. Bonus!
-A few nifty conversations
-successful research for my beloved (so far)
-a ride to S&P from tgeller...

These are all good things. :)

I am however still having strange difficulties with typing and writing in english. hmph.

On the use of livejournals

A recent conversation in unseelie's journal made me want to say a few things about livejournal and discretion.

A lot of people seem to have the attitude, "It's my journal and I can do whatever I want with it." There is some truth in that. Certainly, when people get annoyed because someone whines too much or whatnot, they are, imo, out of line. If you don't want to read the whining... stop reading the journal!

However, for the most part, that attitude holds no water. Most of the people I know pride themselves in being socially conscious and caring people who aim to minimize the drama and pain in their friends' lives. If you use your journal with the attitude that its your journal and you can put whatever you want in it filtered as you please, then you will usually end up disregarding all of the above and inevitably cause drama and pain and unhappiness. Like it or not, all that badness will have been caused by your journalling without discretion.

I have, in my time, journalled a lot without discretion. It has always ended badly... either by damaging my own reputation or by hurting others or by creating drama (or all of the above, quite frankly). It's not a pretty thing.

Now my journal is heavily filtered to avoid just that very thing. I'm still not perfect, but I'm trying, and that is all I can ask of you.

So I beg you all, before you press that "Update Journal" button, ask yourself:

• What impression does this post give the world about myself? Is it accurate? When I've calmed down, will I care? Will those who can read it understand and forgive me for it?
  
• What impression does this post give the world about others? Is it accurate? Would those others care about it? Will I care once I've calmed down? Will those who can read it filter it appropriately?
  
• Who is reading this post and with what filters will they perceive it?
  
• Is this post passive aggressive? Should I be writing an email to someone to communicate about this issue privately instead? Or venting in a private post or to a small filtered group of trusted friends instead? Or both?
  
• Have I made it clear that this post is just venting or that certain statements are not really meant, were only said in heat?
  
• Will this post hurt someone's feelings?
  
• Will this post betray someone's confidence (or secrets of my own) directly or indirectly? Remember, people can put two and two together. Just because you aren't saying foobar doesn't mean that if you say bar, they will not figure out the rest.
  
• Does this post accurately portray my state of mind, such that I don't unreasonably frighten my loved ones?
  

There's probably other things that should be on that list. And this is as much for my own reference as for yours. YMMV.

I guess... sometimes we are so upset and fucked in the head that we can't think that clearly, or we don't have the willpower not to press submit. Having a lot of different filters has made that easier for me because selecting that friends group isn't that much harder. Obviously, not hurting anyone, not misleading anyone, etc. would be the ideal that we strive to, but few of us will reach it 100% of the time. We can try though.