Parents of the HS Class of 2009

[TheAnalyst]

oregon, sorry to hear about your FIL. I'm glad he was able to come home.

Moda, can't help, unfortunately. Perhaps similar to kmc, the division of labor in this house is that I am responsible for fixing software problems and H fixes hardware problems. We only use our wifi when the boys come home and I'm not sure how well it works--probably poorly. I am strictly a desktop user, which I realize is antediluvian. We won a free Android tablet but neither H nor I like the electronic keyboard so don't use it.

S2 calls and chats for about an hour every day. He says he is "gauging tanks" this week. He also mentioned that he will be getting an official performance evaluation. He continues to love his job and seems to get on well with everybody, other than some disagreements over LeBron, so I assume the evaluation will be favorable. S doesn't think the evaluation matters, which is consistent with his dislike of other people judging him. His motto is to live life to his own standards rather than the standards of others. I will be interested, however, to see what boxes get checked. If he scores high on leadership, you can bet I will make him add that to his resume.

[FallGirl]

Sorry to hear about your FIL, oregon. I'm glad that he was able to see his final sunset on the lake.



Congrats to your S, kleibo. Wow, the GRE/GMAT thing hasn't even hit my radar yet.

[NorthMinnesota]

oregon...so sorry to hear about your father-in-law. Hoping you find comfort in your memories of him.

[missypie]

My H's Father died today. They managed to move him from the hospital to the lake cottage and he watched the sunset last night. He was in a coma today and then died.
He was a lovely man (though for me far to passive). He had an amazing life. Born in China as his own father was a surgeon missionary and then he was the same in Pakastan and my h lived there for years.

So nice that he had a last thing to see and so nice that he had someone to take him to see it.

Did he know Billy Graham's wife's family? They grew up in China as kids of medical missionaries. (I know, huge country, but maybe they ran into each other at school or something,)

I think older D is somewhat disappointed in her social life this summer. It seems like every party to which she has been invited is one of the "parents are out of town let's all drink" type. I know that she drinks, but she finds those kinds of parties dull. And the boy that she dated last summer (the one after Mr. 4 am) (we liked him)....the only two times he's wanted to see her is when his parents have been out of town and he's wanted her to come over to his house. I think it's pretty awesome that she's insulted by this.

[NorthMinnesota]

D2's social life is also very different. She is getting up at 6:00AM for work, gets home at 5:00, runs, showers, eats dinner and is in bed by 10:00. She always seems to be tired. BF lives close by but they rarely see each other during the work week. I actually wish she would socialize more.

[woody]

Re: social life. I reallt thought that d would socialize a lot with other interns at work this summer but that hasn't happened at all.
On the other hand, she has reconnected with a lot of her HS friends while at trivia/karaoke nights at local hangouts. It's kind of interesting...people she would not arrange anything with otherwise happen to be at the bar and it's like old friends.
Last night, she got together with everyone from her old GS troop. Home at 12, up at 5:30 to catch the train. UGH!!

She also wants to start reviewing for the GREs. I know next to nothing about that...scoring, dates????

[kmcmom13]

Missy, I agree that it's awesome she's insulted by that Sometimes it's lonely to be self-possessed, but in time, she'll get the last laugh I suspect!

Moda, here is a message for you from McH. It may or may not answer whatever questions you have:

She can daisy chain the expresses (ie via wifi or ethernet cable from the 1st to the 2nd express) and extend the coverage. Some people do this for situations like our house where the cable drop is in the south end and the north end can't get signal OR they get a newer dual channel higher powered wifi router w/ greater coverage.

Normally you would come into the house/condo via the cable router which would connect to the airport base station (extreme or express) and then plug in the airport express in a nearby room extending the coverage to a third nearby room. They (expresses) can connect via wifi or via cable, but it takes some additional setup (airport setup assistant).

The downside to daisy chaining is that they work like christmas tree lights... if the 1st one goes out, the 2nd one won't work.

You can also hook two airports to the same head end (if it has more than one port) and run one to one end and the 2nd to the other end of the house to provide both extended coverage AND redundancy.

You can run CAT5e ethernet cable about 300' w/o signal loss.

So, his reference to the "higher powered dual channel router" is in fact what we did, and what you *might* wish to consider. Hope this gives you a few ideas about how to set it up at least.

[Zetesis]

oregon101, I join with others in offering condolences on the death of your father-in-law. Peace to you all.

woody -- Like SATs, etc., GREs used to be scored on the 800 scale (except for some subject tests which were scored -- for some reason -- on a 900 point scale), but have recently gone to scoring on a 170 point scale. No doubt there's an excellent reason for this change ........

Test dates: the general "revised" GRE is now given only on computer (some exceptions), and students schedule individual appointments at any number of authorized test centers around the country.

The subject tests are still paper based, so far as I know. They are given in October, November and April, mostly at colleges and universities -- a more traditional pattern of testing.

[missypie]

Like SATs, etc., GREs used to be scored on the 800 scale (except for some subject tests which were scored -- for some reason -- on a 900 point scale), but have recently gone to scoring on a 170 point scale.

At some point after I took them, the scoring changed on the LSAT. I kind of like it that I can't remember my LSAT score and even if I did, it would be irrelevant.

[woody]

Why, thank you Zetesis! Asked and answered!!

[kleibo]

Another thing to note for the Computerized General GRE - you get your Verbal and Math scores immediately. Then AFTER you see your scores you can send to 4 universities as part of the fee. I always hated that with the SAT, that you had to decide during registration if you wanted to send to the four "free" schools.

So he had a game plan for certain scenarios and score levels on which schools he would send to for free after he saw the scores that night. If he totally bombed it - he'd send to no one. And the GRE has score choice now, so that bad score would never be seen. Then of course if he rocked it, he would send to all his reaches. He, in the end, sent to four match schools.

Unfortunately for the subject tests - they are paper based and the same as the SAT. You have to pick during registering for test where to send the four "free" scores if you choose to use them.

And just so you don't have sticker shock GRE $160, Subject $150

[college_query]

oregon101, so sorry about your FIL. downtoearth and I both lived in Pakistan. My best friend was the daughter of a missionary doctor and I have many happy memories of running around the hospital compound with her.

My college roommate is a missionary doctor. Spent 17 years in Uganda, and then the last two in Kenya. She just took her 2nd child to begin at the Air Force Academy, and is taking a brief writing sabbatical.

I had a very unpleasant experience yesterday. I was heading to a work-related symposium two hours south of here, when I suddenly experienced the symptoms of food poisoning. Don't know what's more fun than being ill at a rest stop! Thankfully another female co-worker who was driving separately had also stopped at the rest stop on the way down, and offered to drive me back home. I was riding with my relatively-new boss (he's been there 6 months). Feeling MUCH better today.

Thanks for all the information on the GRE. Will pass it along to D, who is probably already aware of it.

S is awaiting his roommate assignment for college - should arrive today or tomorrow. We were taking the dogs for a walk the other day, and I asked him if there was any kind of person he didn't think he wanted as a roommate. He paused and then said "A drug dealer?" Hopefully not!

[FallGirl]

Oh my, c_q that is awful. So glad that woman stopped and was able to get you home.

The summer social life of college students has changed so much since I was in school. Back in the day everyone came home in the summer and we were "legal" and so everyone hung out at certain bars/disco's and I saw pretty much everyone I knew. When D came home after freshman year it was all about parties ( with alcohol) but it was only with their group of friends. Last year fewer people bothered to come home in the summer what with having apartments at school, interships, travel abroad, etc. This summer only one of her friends is at home, that girl works full time but she is very bored.

[NorthMinnesota]

Today is D2's 21st birthday. Can hardly believe it. I had H get up early and pick up her favorite chocolate covered croissants for breakfast. Her coworkers are taking her out to lunch and then H and I will take her and BF to dinner this evening. Her big present is a trip to NYC next week where we will shop, eat and watch some shows. We also got her a birthstone ring. It is too large so it has to be re-sized. I am missing my little girl but proud of this beautiful young woman who has taken her place. sigh....

[FallGirl]

NM- Happy Birthday to your D! (it's also my Mom's birthday). Enjoy your NYC trip.