Posts by mellowskipper

It’s funny—it only really hit me this year—but apparently, since elementary school, students have always been pushed toward competitions in just about every subject. There are heaps of kids involved. It’s basically a race for extra credit points.
The PE teacher, for instance, is obsessed with two specific sports and drags kids off to various school athletic meets, but beyond that, there's zero effort.
I guess you have to wonder if those teachers running the prep and the actual competitions get some kind of stipend or extra pay—I assume they do, though—since it's technically extra work that isn't strictly required by their contract.

rowdypanther12 said:I honestly thought it was more about status; older folks tend to get hung up on that kind of nonsense

Honestly, quite a few parents fall for that exact same nonsense.

Is English just... on a completely different level?

Sarah Hall53 said:I’m pretty sure Alice and those guys over at ExxonMobil are offering it—not that I should even know that at 3 p.m., honestly, what am I doing with my life?—and then there’s one more... maybe Ernest Hemingway?

Maybe she’s just some high-society type over in Washington, D.C. Like George Washington.

So, I was just catching the FOX news broadcast, and apparently—if you can believe it—starting next year, CNN won't be offering separate A and B levels anymore. It'll just be one single track.

Sarah Hall53 said:I mean, honestly, how many students in all of Chicago actually took Ancient Greek or Latin back in middle school and now have any actual desire to keep up that kind of torture for another four years?
And there you go—that’s your explanation for why the enrollment numbers for the advanced tracks are so low. 😉

How many schools in a city like Chicago even offer those programs anyway?
Personally, I wouldn't dream of enrolling my kid in Greek or Latin during middle school unless they were absolutely obsessed with it. But, I suppose for certain parents, it’s clearly a priority.
It’s almost too obvious that once they finish, they can just easily enroll in one of those specialized prep schools.

Michelle Nelson4 said:The PM track at University I has actually been using entrance exams for years now, and honestly, getting in there is tougher than getting into Scripps Institution of Oceanography since they only take about 26 students per year. So, that whole thing about having a potential 10-point cushion from an entrance exam? It just doesn't hold up

But the text clearly mentions five zeros and extra credit points. Even if we assume those were exam scores, someone walking in with a 4 on their standardized tests isn't exactly going to be cutting it—they'll be completely out of their depth. They just aren't good enough...

87 points . Talk about overachievers. I mean—this is honestly a whole new level of ridiculousness

https://www.nytimes.com/section/education
Interesting.
It seems kids aren't exactly rushing to get to their entrance exams...

Test

Wait, can you actually do this with an insurance referral?!?!
I was under the impression that this was strictly private pay.

So, here is a word from Ilija Srpak.

Go ahead and buy a phototherapy lamp. It isn’t exactly a cheap little purchase—certainly not a small investment by any means—but if it actually works, I suppose there aren't really any other options out there.

Jack Ramirez4 said:I was wondering if long-term follow-ups and life expectancy depend more on sheer luck or lifestyle factors—you know, things like stress or smoking—but from what I can gather, it’s just constant uncertainty every six months between checkups.

Well, you obviously have to adjust your lifestyle. Eating right, staying active, finding hobbies that actually make you happy... that stuff matters.
My mother dealt with colon adenocarcinoma.
She ends up seeing a therapist a few times a year for it.
There's always going to be that underlying layer of fear and uncertainty... I guess.
Wishing you nothing but the best.

Rachel Brooks63 said:But there are other "contrasts" available for them, right? I mean—it isn't strictly limited to radioactive glucose—if an organ doesn't "see" glucose particularly well, wouldn't there be alternative radiotracers? (I'm actually googling this right now and seeing they're used very, very sparingly in clinical settings 😢 Damn. My bad. There’s probably zero utility in my suggestion, aside from maybe... I don't know, suggesting they try to find a doctor who's actually interested in looking into it)

That still doesn't change the fact that they'll undergo a PET CT scan. An oncologist is going to follow the standard protocol. Everything is strictly prescribed and documented—exactly what gets done and when.
I have no idea if his oncologist even cares, or how much that matters to the patient personally, but no doctor is going to give him a definitive "yes" or "no" on whether the cancer will return. That five-year mark is basically treated as a "make it or break it" threshold. If you survive those five years, the odds of a recurrence drop significantly. But once you're an oncology patient, I guess you're one for life.

Rachel Brooks63 said:I’d probably pay out of pocket for a PET/CT just to get some peace of mind—as much as one can, I suppose—regarding whether there are any metastases.

And I've attempted to track down a different doctor, even though I am well aware that finding a decent, actually engaged, and competent physician in the American healthcare system is an absolute nightmare.

A PET/CT isn't indicated for every type of cancer, though—not all organs metabolize glucose, for instance. The kidneys, for example.

Jack Ramirez4 said:The thing is—my doctor hasn't really given me a clear roadmap. They just removed the kidney with the cancer and said everything is fine, and that's basically the end of the story... no further steps planned other than some X-rays and ultrasounds in six months. It all feels a bit too simple—perhaps even too easy, if that makes sense.

So, what exactly is bothering you about it?
What kind of "further steps" are you looking for? I mean, obviously they exist—you're already scheduled for them. As long as you're around, you'll be under an oncologist's care and doing regular checkups.

wiredcyclist18 said:Lmao, my mom did the exact same thing—found some lighters tucked away in a drawer. She immediately went into full interrogation mode, like, "What are you smoking? Are you losing your mind? Let me see those cigarettes right now." And there I am, blushing like crazy, opening up a closet that is absolutely overflowing with scented candles. Back when we were kids in Los Angeles, we used to hang out constantly—me and my friend would head over there because we were bored out of our minds at the Spanish district, and since the bus ran perfectly right then, we spent half our lives just wandering through local corner stores. I blew about $67 of my birthday money on those scented candles. So yeah, they aren't cigarettes... they're just candles. 😵😵

If you actually smoke, it hides the scent pretty well—though I don't really get the appeal, and neither does my husband.

Bryan Murphy3 said:Yeah, I guess I'll just wait until that red ring actually shows up.

As for that other comment... honestly, it’s probably best to just ignore it, but I can't seem to help myself.

So, what—I'm supposed to wear long sleeves and pants when it's 90 degrees out?

I enjoy being outdoors, and since we need the sun for Vitamin D, you pretty much have to show some skin.

And besides, those things cling to long clothing even easier than they do to skin. Then they start looking for a spot, and if I'm outside from dawn till dusk, they might just decide to settle in my hair while I'm wearing a sweatshirt.

Anyway, if people are that terrified, they should just stay indoors—because, let's face it, this world will get you eventually, sooner or later.

If it's just redness, maybe try an antibiotic ointment. Like Betrion.
For me, that red ring didn't even show up until day 10. If it appears immediately, you should head to infectious disease or the nearest ER—especially if you're in Washington, D.C. or somewhere nearby.
Otherwise, you should always be using sprays that repel ticks.
And whenever you get home, you really ought to strip off everything you were wearing and throw it straight in the wash, then hop right in the shower.
If you spend a lot of time in the woods, it's probably a good idea to get vaccinated against meningitis.

Jason Ortiz5 said:You totally missed the point. I know exactly what entrance exams are all about, and my post wasn't even about that. It was actually about what you said:

I have a daughter in high school. She goes to one of those schools people call "elite"—which is such a nasty way to put it, honestly. We should be teaching kids to respect everyone who earns it, instead of just hammering them with this elitist nonsense through the whole school system.

They are just buried under coursework, tests, and teachers who constantly nag them with stuff like, "You're in an elite school, so you need to know way more than just the syllabus." Some weeks they end up with double the amount of exams they're supposed to have, not to mention a mountain of research papers, presentations, projects... it's just too much. When parents tried to complain once, the school basically just told them, "Well, they knew what they were signing up for."

Actual knowledge? At this pace, they're just cramming for tests, and who knows if any of it will actually stick. Is the whole point of high school to actually learn something, or just to prove you can survive the drill?

Speaking as a former prep school student myself—the whole point is to endure the drill, pass the tests, and then dump all those useless details into some void in your memory, because the next time you might actually need them is when you're trying to impress a Millionaire.
But typically, kids go to these schools when they aren't sure what's next but have decent grades. That was me.
Luckily, my kid knows what she wants, and I'm glad she chose a solid vocational track instead; she can still go to college easily if she decides to later on.