financial aid and rants and raves

First, let's begin this post by stating my political affiliation: I'm a conservative pro-life Catholic. That being said, I am utterly appalled by what the Republicans are doing with this poor woman. In a persistent vegetative state, she has no chance of recovery. Despite this medical certainty, the government of Florida has been using her as a political football, scoring with their political base. I can only imagine I'm supposed to fall in with this group, but these dipshits need to re-examine their polling. First, they are tampering with the right of one's spouse to make health decisions in cases of emergency. If marriage is the ultimate partnership our society possesses, then Michael Schiavo has the right to withhold the feeding tube that has sustained TS all these 15 years. Second, the Congress and President are tampering with the separation of powers inherent in our Constitution. They attempted to subvert the Judicial branch by creating a law specific for this situation to run an end-around the Florida and national Supreme Court. Nobody bought it, and now we have only to wait for Terri Schiavo's final, tragic end. The Republicans know they have overstepped their bounds, at least on the national level. President Bush said as much when he stated that all federal options were exhausted. They were exhausted 3 years ago when the Supreme Court knocked down the law written by the Florida legislature. If one reads the Miami Herald at herald.com you would learn that the Pinellas Sheriff's office almost had a war with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) who were attempting to take physical possession of TS and ferret her to another care center. We literally almost had a war on our hands live on CNN. Finally, as much as on feels for TS's parents, they are the most deluded of all the parties. They have superimposed a vegetative woman's instinctive, primitive actions as proof she is awake when she is not. It is the saddest part of this story. May you rest in peace Terri Schiavo; you've earned it.

I spoke too soon about the winter. We're getting another storm today and tonight with potential accumulation for 3 - 5 inches. In other news, I'm trying to flesh out the blog a bit, and I'm not even sure if anyone is reading any of this. Still, I'm happy to have this space to capture my thoughts and record events in my life. When I create entries or write in a journal, etc. the pressure between my ears is released. People who laugh at blogging and bloggers are sorry assed bastards who truly miss the point. I don't do this for attention; I just like the idea of storing my observations and maintaining a creative outlet. To those who scoff, I challenge you to create your own blog about your favorite topic, be it your job, school, family, hell.. even bestialty; I don't care, just add something to the Internet and see where it takes you.

Vacations can be a wonderful thing, or they can be hellish nightmares, or simply boring exercises in pointless consumerism and consumption. My recent trip to Daytona was mostly good, as I hung out with a true CWPF and drank coffee while looking at coeds on Spring Break. I even dyed my silver-white hair for the occasion. However, I was forced to go Greyhound from NYC to Daytona. Not the best way to travel, my clock was fucked for almost all of the trip, and then I took the bus home. It was cheap (189.00 RT), as a train ticket would have been $495.00. All of this was done at the literally the last minute, so saving money while staying comfy would have been hard. Anyway, I'm back to bore the Internet with more tales of financial aid woe. I haven't done much ranting despite my blog's title, so I may concentrate more on that.

Time is just dripping away right now; further proving that time passes relative to one's perception. Anyway, I am a scant 1 hour and 43 minutes from my vacation. As I post under the cloak of anonimity, I freely admit I' m a little stressed right now. I really haven't touched on myself on this blog, and I believe the time is coming to explain a little more about myself and my world. Now is not the time for such exposition, however, so I must content myself to bitching about the weather. More later.

Another day, another snow storm. Westchester has taken a beating lately, and we're getting snow as I type. It's just flurries, and it looks like the major storm we were supposed to get over the weekend will pass us by. With spring around the proverbial bend, winter is enjoying it's last vicious gasp, and I will be equally happy to see the season expire. Anyway, we have Spring Break 2005 next week and I'm outta dodge. One of my friends owns several places in the Daytona Beach area, and I will be lounging on the beach come Monday. There's no snow in NY's forcast for next week, but it will be cold and windy. It's the perfect time to get away and I hope to hit 4 places in 6 days: Daytona, Ft. Pierce, Miami, and Key West. The most dangerous words you can tell me are "unlimited milage." Dipshits like me are the reason one should NEVER buy a used rental car. Sometimes when I'm driving 70 I like to drop into second just to hear the engine red line; it's fun and I'm easily amused. Spring Break is also when college students decide to blow their financial aid on alcohol and other unsavory activites, and I will be videotaping the festivites....maybe. I'm more than a little old for this stuff, but that hasn't stopped me so far. Anyway, we should have a financial aid lesson, so here goes: students are getting their student loan proceeds this week, and not all who were supposed to get money will be receiving loot. Why? They never signed their loan checks, Ergo, the $$ was never depostited and another check cut for the student. When a paper student loan check is printed and sent to a school, it is double endorsed, so the student MUST sign the check over to the school. Eventually an unsigned check goes stale and must be sent back. When the student runs into my office begging for her money, we have to call the bank and have the check reissued. Occasionally the bank cannot do this, and the student gets stuck with the bill. Lesson? Pay attention to the mail.

Greetings from suburbia. Snow days may be fine, but I am sick of winter already. We've had it pretty easy until very recently, and we have half of the expression "in like a lion" locked down. Today was nice, with temps hitting the mid-fifties and plenty of sun. It was the perfect excuse to sit on a bench for a few minutes and chat with a bud on my cell phone. As I sit at my desk and stare out my window, I'm watching the snow retreat and the brown grass peek through. It's a comforting if deceptive vista; the weather will be taking a turn for the very serious worse for the next ten days or so. I'll be in Florida for at least some of it. Taking a vacation to the Sunshine state while NYC is nice kind of defeats the purpose, and you're robbed of prime gloating opportunity to boot. Anyway, I have no real fin aid lesson for this post, just that if you are looking at one of the REALLY pricey schools, you should have you financial aid application done 2 weeks ago. Oh well.