You know you’re hosed when…

I've been slowly gathering these thoughts over the course of a few years and thought it was amusing enough to post somewhere.  All of these things have been inspired by something I or one of my friends has done or experienced. Enjoy!

You know you're in trouble when...

…you hope that chewing mint gum and wearing your lucky socks were enough to tip the balance and get you a passing grade on your final.

…for a two-hour test, you decide to answer all the questions you know first, then go back and do the rest only to realize that you’ve answered all the questions you know the answers to in 15 minutes.

…the only job offer you get in six months of job hunting is an offer to have a special showcase once a week at a strip club.

…you look at your bank statement and realize that, thanks to the insane amount of student loan debt you have, you will probably be able to afford a down payment on a house at around age 50.

…you realize that your younger sibling has a significant other, a job, a good apartment with low rent, and a high school degree while you have no significant other, no job, a mediocre apartment with stupidly high rent, a Bachelor’s degree, and your student loan debt is more than the value of your parents house.

…the bank calls and the person on the other end laughs at you for applying for a credit card.

…the only food in your cupboard is mac and cheese, ramen, and pasta because you can’t afford to buy real food.

…you put “don’t fail out of grad school” at the top of your to-do list.

…going on dates is the only way you can think to meet new people.

…getting married becomes more a question of financial stability than love.

…the only thing your professor writes at the top of your paper is “WTF?”

…you realize that you have applied for nearly two hundred jobs and have only had three interviews.

…the biggest accomplishment of your day is doing a load of laundry.

…you take your computer into the store for repairs and the person helping you says, “I’ve never seen that before.”

…you get excited about getting a call from a fast food restaurant for a 10-hour a week, minimum wage job even though you have a college degree.

…the judge says, “I don’t like you,” in open court.

…the best part of your day is that it’s finally over.

…after ten weeks, you still don’t know what this stinkin’ class was about.

…you are less confident about your job prospects after getting a Master’s degree than when you got your BA.

…your roommates and friends take bets on how long it will be until you get blackmailed into proposing to your significant other.

…you made so little money last year that the state starts sending you notices about services that they strongly suggest you take advantage of (like low-cost phone service).

…the prospect of working in the adult entertainment industry looks more and more appealing with every passing day because none of the jobs you actually want will pay enough to cover your expenses.

…online dating becomes your go-to when you don’t have enough money for dinner.

…tearing apart your room for new or like-new items to give to friends for their birthday is a regular occurrence.

…you offer to be the designated driver when people go out because paying for gas is cheaper than paying for drinks all night.

…working on school assignments at the bar seems like a very good idea.

…guilt and relaxation are closely related activities in your head.

…you have to decide between filling up your car with gas, purchasing groceries, getting your prescription refilled, or paying your utility bill.

…student loan payments cost twice as much as your rent.

Fitting In

I had an interesting conversation with a friend the other day. We have opposing views on the show The Big Bang Theory.  She feels that the show pokes fun at geek culture from a position of power and privilege: the people who have always picked on the geeks of the world are continuing to pick on the geeks of the world.  I feel like it’s a sadly accurate portrayal of some aspects of geek culture: the characters are stereotypes (duh), but they are stereotypes for a reason (i.e. those guys exist within geek culture).

I believe that part of this difference in opinion comes from how both of us fit into and identify with geek culture.  We were both socially awkward growing up, and, truthfully, we are both still pretty awkward, but we’ve learned how to live with this affliction.  She works in community development and outreach for a tech company.  She also has an incredibly impressive creative streak that she puts to good use as an author, former HR person for a geek/nerd convention, and online video personality. She, at least compared to me, is a social media guru and has connections all over the geek/nerd community through her work and through personal networking. In fact, I’d guess that most, if not all, of her friends are somehow connected to geek or nerd culture in our area. From my personal perspective, she has managed to fit into the culture and I frequently hear from people in the community regarding her awesomeness. 

I am not like her when it comes to geek and nerd culture. I’m only marginally creative (and that isn’t a bad thing for someone who has little or no artistic ambitions) and my career goals are closely related to social policy, politics, and social justice.  While this ambition and geek culture is by no means mutually exclusive, sometimes they have strongly divergent tendencies.  For example, my focus on minorities and economic equity often means that I focus on issues that many of the often well-off software developers and engineers involved in geek and nerd culture has no interest in or have little empathy for.  This isn’t to say that they are bad people.  They are probably perfectly fine individuals, they just don’t have the same set of values that I do.  Unfortunately, that means that many of my perspectives and opinions are either about issues that these folks can’t relate to or concern to issues that they don’t care about.

So what does any of this have to do with the title of this post: Fitting In?  I mentioned to my friend that I like The Big Bang Theory because I feel like it’s, in many ways, an accurate portrayal of geek culture.  Of course, it’s also a very inaccurate portrayal in other respects, but the writers don’t claim that the show is the be-all end-all of geek culture (at least not that I’ve heard).  In her opinion, the writers are focusing on negative stereotypes about geeks and nerds: social awkwardness, inability to understand nonverbal communications or pick up on basic social cues, lack of physical fitness or attractiveness, childlike obsessions, and some twisted feeling of superiority to “normal” (which is really just a nice way of saying “stupid”) people.  I agree that these traits are certainly not exclusive to geeks or nerds.  I also agree that many nerds or geeks are completely different than the stereotypes in the show and would be just as annoyed with the behavior of the characters as anyone else.

My admittedly limited experience with self-proclaimed geeks and nerds has left me feeling like an outsider within the geek/nerd community. My favorite episode of BBT is the one where Penny introduces the guys to her latest boyfriend, Zack.  He isn’t particularly intelligent, but he is fairly genuine and seems to make an honest effort to get to know the guys.  During one of the initial interactions between Zack and the rest of the guys, the geeks make fun of Zack’s lack of scientific knowledge and eventually make fun of him to the point where he leaves the room.  Penny then points out that, “for guys who always got picked on growing up, you sure can be a bunch of bullies. Shame on all of you.” Call me crazy, but this line sums up geek culture to me.

I have literally been told that I shouldn’t be somewhere or participate in a particular discussion because I wasn’t enough of a geek or nerd.  A recent example was using a football analogy (American Football, not European Football) when explaining part of a Star Trek episode to a small group of people. Not thinking of the audience I was with, two of the guys looked at me with the blank, uncomprehending stares of people who have absolutely no reference point to draw a comparison to what I was talking about. I attempted to clarify my point by making a political analogy, but they also had no idea who and what I was talking about.  Frustrated, they ended up telling me that I shouldn’t even bother talking about Star Trek with people because I obviously wasn’t a real fan.  Apparently sports, politics, and science fiction are mutually exclusive topics.

If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you’ll know that I was frequently singled out or picked on growing up.  I developed a rather vicious strain of sarcasm and a mildly toxic distrust of others as emotional armor to combat my isolation and loneliness.  As I’ve grown up, I have attempted to mitigate my tendency to jump straight to sarcasm (with mixed results).  Now, I make an effort to include people and I find it outrageous that so many self-proclaimed geeks/nerds that I run into don’t feel the same way or even make a passing effort to include others. 

For those guys (and girls) that struggle with a history of bullying, verbal and emotional abuse from peers, and other kinds of isolation and exclusion due to their passions, activities, and knowledge of random and archaic topics, I get it.  You know what it’s like to be torn down for not being “good enough” or “smart enough” or “cool enough” to do something.  Sure, it might be satisfying initially to tell someone that they aren’t as “good/smart/cool” as you are, but doing so ultimately continues the terrible cycle of abuse and bullying that you experienced growing up.

My parents frequently told me to “be the bigger person” as I was growing up.  I try to keep that in mind every time I am tempted to act superior to other people.   Sometimes I fail miserably, but it’s a work in progress.  I ask you all to also try to expand your group of friends and make an honest effort to include people, regardless of their geekery or level of nerdiness, and stop the cycle of harassment and abuse.  Teach people to love science fiction rather than giving them more reasons to dislike those of us that are passionate about it.

Taxes and Tuition

For FY 2010, the amount for state and local taxes per capita for Washington State was $4,011.

This is where the taxes come from:
Retail Sales/Use Tax: 45.3%
Selective Sales Taxes: 7.1%
B&O Tax: 21.1%
Property: 12.5%
Real Estate: 2.7%
Utility Taxes: 2.5%
All other state taxes: 15.9%

This is the distribution of those taxes once the state receives them:
Human Services: 37%
Higher Education: 7.8%
Government Operations: 2.6%
Natural Resources: .9%
Debt Service/Other: 7.5%
Public Schools: 44.2%

That means that if you paid $4,011 in state taxes, this is where your money went:

My Point:
I have heard this too many times:
"I've been a taxpayer for 20 years. There's no reason for tuition to be that high when I've paid into the system!"

Let's assume that this person is an average tax payer and paid the $4,011 in taxes every single year for 20 years, with the same allocation of funding in the state budget. Squishy math and oversimplified logic notwithstanding, that still means that they would have only put $6,257.20 into public colleges and universities in this state. That's over the entire 20 years they claim to have paid taxes. Seriously. These people are just saying, "I've put in just over $6 grand into public education over the past twenty years/roughly $300 annually. Why do I have to pay such high tuition for my kid?"

I am SO over people claiming that they think that public universities are charging such high tuition rates when they don't stop to think about how little they actually pay towards keeping those same institutions of learning open and operational.

In the early 1990's, the state contributed more than $9,000 per student to public research institutions. By 2011, that number had dropped to less than $6,000 per student. During that same time period, the tuition revenue at public research institutions went from just under $2,000 to just over $5,000. Note that taxes that went towards benefitting college students dropped by roughly $3,000 and the cost of tuition went up...by roughly $3,000.

Conclusion:
There are a number of options that I suggest are worth pursuing:

1. Stop complaining about tuition and instead support an increase in state taxes
2. For those parents that are able, start setting money aside for college now because it's going to really suck when your kids finally reach college age
3. Stop blaming public colleges and universities and instead let the state legislature know that higher education funding needs to become a top priority for the state

Sources:

A Citizen's Guide to the Washington State Budget 2013

Current Higher EducationFunding Structure and State Funding Cycles