I'm desperate! I need the help of SJ.com!!!!

Actually, fuck the Habs and their wussified way of winning Stanley Cups.

 

But this wasn't JUST a research paper. This was a paper that would help determine whether he would get into Temple or not (as XXXX said a few pages back).

A paper that could make or break his grade in a class that would determine if he could take the next step in his education probably should be taken a little more seriously than this kid took it.

 

Well, no shit.

I'm not excusing the guy. He screwed up. He knows. We all know it.

I'm merely pointing out the hypocrisy that's overflowing here. I don't know if we've got a whole bunch of people here who are so unbelievably insecure that they feel the need to pounce on and ridicule everyone who comes here and admits or mistake or what. But what I do know is that this shit happens every single time anybody either asks for help or admits to screwing up.

There have been a hundred threads about finances on here. On damn near every one of them, some poor young guy admits to bouncing a check or screwing up his account in some way, and every time, a group of assholes jump on the poor guy and act as if managing money has been a breeze for them their entire lives. Same thing's happening here.

If you didn't do this stuff in college, congratulations. You've achieved 1% status. But I find it unbelievably hard to imagine that every single person who has popped on here and spouted some nonsense about "the real world" or "when I was in school" never did something similar.

And the people who have taken the opportunity to rant about how this kid, should he decide to join the noble ranks of sport writing, would be lowering our status, please, spare us. While what we do serves a purpose and has some meaning, we're not exactly curing cancer or saving the planet here.

For all the bitching that goes on about the vitriol on the political threads, nothing that's said on those things compares to this sort of shit. On those threads, you at least expect a level of disagreement and overall assholness from some. But the stuff on this thread, it seriously makes wonder about the people here.

 

Sure, lots of people party in college. A lot of people also take six years to get a degree or drop out after one year because the parents aren't willing to foot the bill for a flunking student who was arrested in a bar fight.

Dog, you apparently don't realize that drinking isn't what all of the kids did in college. While I was barely staying afloat and pulling all-nighters during my first two years of college, I met lots of people who rolled their eyes at my antics. Sure, they were somewhat boring, nerd-like people. But I'd rather hire the nerd who earned a 3.5 than the fun-loving party animal who got an unearned 2.3.

As for college being a pre-adulthood phase, nothing could be further from the truth. This is the start of adulthood. That some people prefer to put it off a few extra years causes them a lot of grief in the long run. In fact, lots of people party and such and still balance that with hitting the books. It's called self-control and responsibility. If you can go to war to die for your country and 18 and drink liquor at 21, you most certainly should be able to handle adulthood at this stage.

Of course, the reality is that some kids don't learn these lessons from their families. And that's why we're here. It's fine to say that we understand. Nobody is calling XXXX a worthless bastard. We're just pointing out that he's headed in that direction.

 

A good portion of the benefit of college is learning how to build adult relationships and how to balance a social life with a professional life without the limits set by mom and dad. That's what's happening here. XXXX screwed it up this time. BFD. It happened to most of us. And we ended up OK.

No, the guy's not a worthless bastard. And I don't think it's fair to say, after just this one instance, that he's headed in that direction. He's made it through two years of college, he's into his third, he's got a job and seems semi-literate. I'd say he's headed more towards being a productive piece of society.

Look, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who worked harder than I did in college, especially near the end. But I also recall several occasions in which I chose to do something that cost me later or had something slip my mind that nearly screwed me. And I don't believe for a second that no one else on this thread had similar experiences.

 

So now we have someone lecturing about the folks that stole the pulpit and were lecturing to begin with.

Dog, you're becoming one of them.

 

You're much closer to being off-base on that one than you realize.

 

Only because GPA means jack shit post school.

 

Exactamundo.

 

In this industry, experience is given far too much weight. Sure, there is something to be said for it, but there's also something to be said for brain power, self-discipline, strong character and initiative.

Think of a digital photo. You might have the best photo in the world, but if it's only 1-by-1, then you're shit out of luck. I'd rather have a photo that isn't quite as great if I can run it six columns wide and eight inches deep.

I firmly believe that the best candidate is always the one who is better over the long haul, but it's definitely a cup half full, cup half empty issue. I know of at least one paper that consistently opens eyes with its hires. But the people who get the job, while being somewhat unheralded, usually show why they were picked in short order. That paper, though, is not the norm. Most editors don't make those hires because it bucks traditional logic, which dictates that you must hire the guy who has been doing it the longest. Quite frankly, I think a lot of you can take a look around the office and pick out a few people who have almost nothing going for them other than longevity.

 

Experience is overrated? By whom? The people hiring youger and yonger newsrooms because it's cheaper that way?

No denying there's a lot of dead weight in newsrooms. But experience is too often underrated, or just completely ignored.

 

XXXX, well pallister has a good point here, there is an important lesson to learn from his post.

Notice that he has misspelled "younger" two different ways. That takes special talent, so study hard, particularly if you're studying nude magazine photos.