NationStates Jolt Archive

Actually the 1st weeks and basically my entire uni career was the time of my life.

I'm driving myself insane and I will be in the hospital by the end of September, I swear it...

I'm now officially a freshmen. I moved into my new dorm for the year about two weeks ago, and since that time I've been having nothing but bad luck.

First my math teacher tells me that their department uses an online application that students MUST use in order to do their homework...that doesn't run on Macs...even though nothing on the school website said I needed a PC for ANYTHING when I first applied to this school. Okay...easy fix, I'll use the computers in the library...except none of them had the graphics application needed to run the online application which allows students to do their homework. So I go to the math department computer guy...and he starts installing them on the computers at his math lab. Problem #1 is now solved.

Problem #2 begins right afterwards when my brand new printer eats it. It still prints...but it doesn't print anything but a blank page. Fine...I'll just bring it back to the store and they can replace the bastard.

Problem #3 begins now before Problem #2 is solved. The ethernet port on my brand new Mac laptop (y'know, the one the school said I could get but neglected to tell me I needed a PC for some damn math application), gets busted. Now all I have is wireless internet which is spotty at best and sometimes slower than what I had back with dial-up. Okay...I'll bring the computer with me when I go to get my printer fixed/replaced.

...a day passes...

Problem #3 spontaneously fixes itself when the ethernet port once again takes the ethernet cable and connects to the internet. Great.

Problem #4 occurs immediately after problem #3 is resolved. The ethernet connection in my dorm, which a VERY SMART MAN in a suit said was floppy and was going to be replaced...falls out of its socket. So once again, even though I have a working ethernet port, I still can't connect to the internet. And it just so happens that this occurs on a Friday, just after the repair guys leave for the weekend.

Problem #2 is solved when the printer is brought in and replaced at a nearby Mac Store. Problem #4 is SCHEDULED to be solved on Monday.

Problem #5 occurs when all the peices seem to be in their places as they should. Student logs on to take an "online quiz" for his Biology Lab on "Blackboard" (These people LOVE to use the internet to teach FOR THEM). Student clicks to begin, not being notified beforehand that the quiz must be completed in one sitting. Student unknowingly closes the tab and returns later to find that his first quiz for the marking period has been "completed"...even though he has done nothing on it.

Concerned, he tries to email the Lab instructor...but the email is down because the campus website is a peice of shit which only allows 2,000 people access at any given time, and will not be back up until Monday...

...

My question to you folks is...are all first weeks at college like this...or is just part of the "life" that I'm now in?

Thank you for your time...and please check any and all "emo bitch"/"get a blog" comments at the door.

*dies*

Someone needs to get smashed and have unprotected sex with anonymous strangers.

its my first [blank] usually means something bad

its my first computer
its my first car
its my first singularity engine

its my first [blank] usually means something bad

its my first computer
its my first car
its my first singularity engine

But didn't that last one work?

...But then he was shot wasn't he...or was that the guy with the Flux Capacitor?

I forget...

Heh, seems like you took it for the team, about 5 separate people's problems all happening to the same guy :p It'll pass, just give things time, try to be sensible and not get too stressed out.

My first week was quite a smooth affair, really. Apart from the anxiety of suddenly being plunged into a mass of people I don't know, it all turned out fine. Only annoyance I had was the college network trying to install some software - 'for yours and others computer safety' - that took up a ridiculous amount of processor time, so I promptly deleted it and continued to maintain my own security software.

It's not bad luck. It's the fact that you bought a Mac and your school's technology sucks.

Individually these things would add up to being annoying in any case. Put together they are a recipe for disaster.

I'm driving myself insane and I will be in the hospital by the end of September, I swear it...

I'm now officially a freshmen. I moved into my new dorm for the year about two weeks ago, and since that time I've been having nothing but bad luck.

First my math teacher tells me that their department uses an online application that students MUST use in order to do their homework...that doesn't run on Macs...even though nothing on the school website said I needed a PC for ANYTHING when I first applied to this school. Okay...easy fix, I'll use the computers in the library...except none of them had the graphics application needed to run the online application which allows students to do their homework. So I go to the math department computer guy...and he starts installing them on the computers at his math lab. Problem #1 is now solved.

Problem #2 begins right afterwards when my brand new printer eats it. It still prints...but it doesn't print anything but a blank page. Fine...I'll just bring it back to the store and they can replace the bastard.

Problem #3 begins now before Problem #2 is solved. The ethernet port on my brand new Mac laptop (y'know, the one the school said I could get but neglected to tell me I needed a PC for some damn math application), gets busted. Now all I have is wireless internet which is spotty at best and sometimes slower than what I had back with dial-up. Okay...I'll bring the computer with me when I go to get my printer fixed/replaced.

...a day passes...

Problem #3 spontaneously fixes itself when the ethernet port once again takes the ethernet cable and connects to the internet. Great.

Problem #4 occurs immediately after problem #3 is resolved. The ethernet connection in my dorm, which a VERY SMART MAN in a suit said was floppy and was going to be replaced...falls out of its socket. So once again, even though I have a working ethernet port, I still can't connect to the internet. And it just so happens that this occurs on a Friday, just after the repair guys leave for the weekend.

Problem #2 is solved when the printer is brought in and replaced at a nearby Mac Store. Problem #4 is SCHEDULED to be solved on Monday.

Problem #5 occurs when all the peices seem to be in their places as they should. Student logs on to take an "online quiz" for his Biology Lab on "Blackboard" (These people LOVE to use the internet to teach FOR THEM). Student clicks to begin, not being notified beforehand that the quiz must be completed in one sitting. Student unknowingly closes the tab and returns later to find that his first quiz for the marking period has been "completed"...even though he has done nothing on it.

Concerned, he tries to email the Lab instructor...but the email is down because the campus website is a peice of shit which only allows 2,000 people access at any given time, and will not be back up until Monday...

...

My question to you folks is...are all first weeks at college like this...or is just part of the "life" that I'm now in?

Thank you for your time...and please check any and all "emo bitch"/"get a blog" comments at the door.

*dies*

Seriously dude (or dudette). As a recent graduate, I can tell you things will always go wrong through your entire college career! I can solve a lot of your problems pretty easily. Don't use a Mac where over 95% of the programs used by the university are used with Windows. Also, every department has department specific computer labs for students who do not have the right equipment to do homework. Don't use university email (but be sure to check it), get your own and use that. Read instructions carefully before you do any online quiz. And ALWAYS feel comfortable to talk to your professor if ANYTHING goes wrong. You (or your parents) are paying their salary, so they are there to work for YOU.

College is about new experiences and is your first step from being so reliant on your parents. Shit will ALWAYS happen, and you just have to work around it. You are going to sleep through tests, get woken up at 2am by a fire alarm set off by an idiot smoking in his room...etc etc....its just going to happen. To balance it, go out and have a good time! Go to parties, make some friends, go have some sex, get wasted, and your bad times won't seem so bad.

Adversity builds character and at a university, you are only one in thousands. You are going to have some pretty hard times (especially when exams start happening). One professor doesn't care if you failed because you had a hard exam in another class. Responsibility is all on you now, so find a way around all the problems and you will do great.

It's not bad luck. It's the fact that you bought a Mac and your school's technology sucks.

Individually these things would add up to being annoying in any case. Put together they are a recipe for disaster.

Murphy's Law in every concievable fashion.

At least you didn't have a gay roommate who superglued your stuff together.

I loved college for the knowledge I gained there, and I hated it for pretty much everything else (bad food, terrible clerks, puerile students, etc...) :rolleyes:

My first week of undergrad was pretty easy. My first week and a bit of my grad program hasn't been... but I think that has more to do with the lack of having settled into a routine, plus the fact that I have to do all this training for my duties as a teaching assistant, get some idea of what my research is going to entail et c.

At least you didn't have a gay roommate who superglued your stuff together.

Too bad your roommate had a bigot as a roommate. :(

That sounds quite a lot like my first week of college, actually.

I ended up not having internet access in my room all that year. It was annoying, but it really wasn't a terribly big deal - there were always available computers in the building next door to my dorm.

... get some idea of what my research is going to entail et c.

See if this helps: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd053106s.gif

;)

At least you didn't have a gay roommate who superglued your stuff together.Out of curiosity, what does his being gay have to do with his gluing your things together?

See if this helps: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd053106s.gif

;)
Haha...

Seriously though, I'm going to be doing a pile of quantum mechanics for the next two years.

Jeebus, British universities really suck. Semester doesn't even begin till October 1st.

Anyway, I'd say that is about par for the course.

Out of curiosity, what does his being gay have to do with his gluing your things together?Maybe it was euphemism.

Seriously dude (or dudette). As a recent graduate, I can tell you things will always go wrong through your entire college career! I can solve a lot of your problems pretty easily. Don't use a Mac where over 95% of the programs used by the university are used with Windows. Also, every department has department specific computer labs for students who do not have the right equipment to do homework. Don't use university email (but be sure to check it), get your own and use that. Read instructions carefully before you do any online quiz. And ALWAYS feel comfortable to talk to your professor if ANYTHING goes wrong. You (or your parents) are paying their salary, so they are there to work for YOU.

College is about new experiences and is your first step from being so reliant on your parents. Shit will ALWAYS happen, and you just have to work around it. You are going to sleep through tests, get woken up at 2am by a fire alarm set off by an idiot smoking in his room...etc etc....its just going to happen. To balance it, go out and have a good time! Go to parties, make some friends, go have some sex, get wasted, and your bad times won't seem so bad.

Adversity builds character and at a university, you are only one in thousands. You are going to have some pretty hard times (especially when exams start happening). One professor doesn't care if you failed because you had a hard exam in another class. Responsibility is all on you now, so find a way around all the problems and you will do great.

Dude, because you asked...but that is beside the point.

Believe me I was never suckered in to thinking that it would be a breeze by any stretch of the imagination...only that the occasional misfortunes would be more...y'know...evenly spaced out.

I should have known better! :rolleyes:

I've lived by the philosophy that Murphy's Law rules everything from conscious action down to natural phenomenon for nearly five years now, why I thought different for this I haven't a clue.

I seriously think that I would have felt better about everything though if I didn't have everything all at once. I'm certain that if I didn't have all these computer problems over the week I would have shrugged off the issue with the quiz, content in the knowledge that if it happened to me, then it was likely it happened to others, and that it would eventually work itself out (Like you say, I'm paying the professor's sallary). But in this case, it was the straw that broke the camel's back, resulting in sweating, facial tics and numerous obsenities about people's mothers.

I just need to remember how to put things into perspective again. I have Crohns...I keep this up I WILL end up in the hospital...then my current troubles will be over...because I have one giant ass one taking their places.

...And getting smashed/laid, while certainly a good option for many...isn't my style to be honest...I've got enough health issues without alcohol in my system, and I'm about as introverted as a sloth on a hot day...as in not so much...

...Bolol is feeling better now...and asks NSG to tickle him if he does this again (beating would only make it worse).

If college becomes to stressful, you can always do what I did in my Sophomore year and go slightly mad.
Nothing drastic or all that criminal, of course, just stalked a girl who was dating this guy I knew and wall papered my room with the NYTimes, being sure to circle every word that started with "K" (her name started with "K", you see). Then I taped my bed sheets over the windows, and started hiding my dirty underwear in odd places (like under my mattress or in this space I discovered under the bottom of my book case).

All this is true, by the way, but I'm pretty much over her now. Like 80%.
I still don't feel comfortable leaving my underwear where people can find it easily, though.

If college becomes to stressful, you can always do what I did in my Sophomore year and go slightly mad.
Nothing drastic or all that criminal, of course, just stalked a girl who was dating this guy I knew and wall papered my room with the NYTimes, being sure to circle every word that started with "K" (her name started with "K", you see). Then I taped my bed sheets over the windows, and started hiding my dirty underwear in odd places (like under my mattress or in this space I discovered under the bottom of my book case).

All this is true, by the way, but I'm pretty much over her now. Like 80%.
I still don't feel comfortable leaving my underwear where people can find it easily, though.

I hope to be institutionalized before I ever get to that point. Being a paranoid stalker is hard work.

Like all education specific software, all the crap that schools and teachers insist on using is half-assed workable, barely compatibly with anything, and barely does shit.

You can definitely go slightly mad in college and not become a stalker. I'm living proof.

I hope to be institutionalized before I ever get to that point. Being a paranoid stalker is hard work.
You think that now, but when the time came I suddenly found that I had both the time and the energy to spare.
You can definitely go slightly mad in college and not become a stalker. I'm living proof.
I never said it was the only way to do it, that's just the route I ended up on.

You can definitely go slightly mad in college and not become a stalker. I'm living proof.

I hope I get Multiple Personality Syndrome, oooo, or schizophrenia!

I never said it was the only way to do it, that's just the route I ended up on.

Yeah, I know. I'm just saying, if anyone out there doesn't want to become a stalker, they don't have to let that deter them from going slightly mad. :)

I hope I get Multiple Personality Syndrome, oooo, or schizophrenia!

I had a roommate with Tourette's when I was a sophomore. Not the fun kind though. :(

Like all education specific software, all the crap that schools and teachers insist on using is half-assed workable, barely compatibly with anything, and barely does shit.Yes, thankfully most of my profs have clued in and learned that trying to impose a single application on a class never works out.

My question to you folks is...are all first weeks at college like this...or is just part of the "life" that I'm now in"?

no, my first week was very enjoyable, just relax and get to know some new people, everybody is looking to make friends, you should make use of that. And explore the local nightlife and stuff.

i can't remember my first weeks at uni. that was ages ago, i do remember not getting nearly as drunk as i hoped, the first people i met were really fucking boring but i ended up sticking with them for a while til i met some more interesting people, then i spent the year stoned out of my mind.

meh, my first week at uni was spent getting drunk. the second week was spent getting high...

....as were the next 2 years.

*ahem* >.>



good luck getting stuff sorted!

You all could have it much worse.

The first three weeks of freshman year here in the PRC are spent in "military training," which basically means being marched around campus in the jungle heat in BDUs.

I'll take a picture of the dorms the poor bastards here live in... you'll consider whatever rat trap your American college put you up in a palace.

My first three weeks have been harsh, but I think Im setteling in now. I, too, have had computer problems, but I've got all of them except for wireless router stuff solved. My big problem was that I was lonely and bored. I have done my best to avoid compounding these problems by seeking out some fun stuff to do.

I just finished my first set as a DJ on our College Radio (Rated one of the top ten in the nation), and I've gotten involved in College Democrats, Anime Club, and a gaming group or five. I suggest going out and meeting people. School is stressful, but having people who you can be with when things are shitty is the best.

I loved college for the knowledge I gained there, and I hated it for pretty much everything else (bad food, terrible clerks, puerile students, etc...) :rolleyes:

Well you sound a hoot.:D


I'v got my freshers week (2 weeks, and who's got B*witched as a freshers act? moi:cool:) from the 7th October, and I can't really see much scope for being in a state not related to alcohol.

And, thanks to the marvel of Facebook, I've already done the whole introductions thingy.