The Beast

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Feb 4, 2010 -> 04:11 PM) Ross is younger than that. And you weren't around during the glory threads from him (alot about subjects like this years ago). I still love ya Ross. Got to hate those posts. I remember those..."fart thread" to say one of them. I'm 21. And I don't know everything. Some days I feel like I know nothing.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 4, 2010 -> 02:07 PM) When you get out into the full time working world, you will find why this is done. A lot of people end up going into a job that is not exactly what they thought they'd do while an undergrad. Its just what ends up happening. And a field like journalism, where the job market is so bad, that will be amplified. So, its important to get some diverse background while in school. In my view, it makes a ton of sense. If people are too specialized, they play themselves out of too many jobs, and it makes people less able to do something different. QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 4, 2010 -> 02:42 PM) Being a journalism major i was already incredibly well rounded. No need to say the difference between me and a college grad was psych 1110 child behavior As someone who once was curious about the field of journalism, and believe in what NorthSideSox72 has said, what are you intending to do with your journalism degree? I found out that I hated reporting, designing, taking pictures, deadline pressure among other things. This is why I'm completing a degree in another field.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 4, 2010 -> 03:36 PM) I always thought one of my better qualities was knowing that I didn't know everything, even when I felt strongly about something. Seeing how much you have changed as a person over the past year or so, I think you might benefit from realizing you don't know everything as well. The fact of the matter is that I don't know everything. I don't know what I want to do in life, I just am trying to obtain skills for the workplace and studying a more challenging major. I don't know if I'll go into a corporate job or a human services job. I know what kind of woman I'd like, but I don't know where to find her. I want to have a wife and family someday, I just don't know how to support it. I have a lot to say to people in conversation but I don't know how to say it because of where I'm at (what's appropriate at a music blasting bar?). Generally speaking, I don't know anything but what I do know is that I'll walk away from everything trying my best and giving anything I do my best effort with the circumstances and conditions that I'm working under. As a man, at least I have or am learning what my terms are: that I'm hardworking, trying to be a better person (currently reading How to Win Friends and Influence People), and trying to live a more "full" lifestyle than I had been. It may not seem as though that is the case with how I post, but after every single mistake I make or source of failure I have done, I learn something and continue to work toward a common goal of succeeding.

QUOTE (chwhtsox @ Feb 4, 2010 -> 10:36 AM) News Flash Buddy, for the most part, all fathers refer to their daughters as princess. Not all of those same girls are spoiled. It's a term of endearment. Treating her with respect and loving her is exactly what a father does for his daughter and what a father EXPECTS of any man that's serious about being with his daughter. Material things have nothing to do with this at all, that's a different girl you're referring to. The type of woman that I am referring to is a manipulative and materialistic person. I am going out on a limb here to say that many of the girls I have met share the same characteristics. And you know, that's a shame. Because I agree with you in regards to what a father expects of any man that's serious about being with his daughter. In my past experiences, I have been respectful and loving of my girlfriends. In my only serious relationship, I hope that her father noted all that I did and would speak fondly of me. I know her mother did. The problem that I have right now is that I am having a hard time meeting women who actually know what they want or even have an interest in me. I know what kind of women I like and don't like and what I'm attracted to. Unfortunately I can't seem to find a medium to go meet those kind of women or even people to have as friends in general. I'll admit, I have few friends, but the ones that I do have, I value them a lot. It's just tough when you constantly try to go to bars or parties and still don't feel comfortable in those settings. To summarize, it's a frustrating time trying to get to know yourself when you are trying to meet new people and even find someone to get to know further. Nobody likes being alone, it's a fact of life.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Feb 4, 2010 -> 10:26 AM) I am just hoping that one day you look at one of these threads and realize how much you pigeonhole people and judge people by what you see Perhaps you are right. This article makes a lot of sense, I believe. What are your thoughts?

There's nothing wrong with the well-rounded individual, but some of those general education requirements are ridiculous. For some general education classes, they are a waste of time. Why should I be writing English papers when I could test out of that class and work on the deficiency that I have in math? Why do I bother going to a 4-year university to start out with when I could get the same education at a community college and work to learn some responsibility? Not to mention, a lot of people don't even take those classes seriously and don't get anything out of say, a speech class. I don't believe the general education requirements last for 2 years as some schools try to force you into a major after 1 year of college. At least that is how it was in my initial experience. Just because you are good at something doesn't mean you're interested in it. I'm good at writing but it doesn't mean I want to be a journalist or English professor. For all I know I'll be back in school after my BA in Business to be an educator. You just never know.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Feb 4, 2010 -> 09:36 AM) Wow Beast, you have a lot of things yet to experience and learn. No s***. If you told me two years ago that I was going to be at a different college studying a different subject and trying to complete my degree ASAP, I would have said you're f***ing crazy. Maybe I'll look up this thread in two years and say KyYlE23 was right, and that I'm going out with one of those ugg-booted, spray tanning, daddy's daughter "princesses" that I despised so much when I made this post. Seriously, that fashion trend is disgusting. What happened to the days of women who were naturally beautiful and didn't need all of the bulls*** that some of these clowns wear today at college?

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 4, 2010 -> 01:11 AM) I forget which comedian it was, but he had a routine on something that applies here. He talked about how girls are taught when they're younger how special they are. It was mostly about p****, and how they're taught that it's special and that you can't let anybody touch it. Girls also get treated like daddy's little princess so much that they really do seem to think of themselves as better than others. Of course this isn't true of all women, but I've seen quite a few that would fall into that category. Some more advice for wite, don't talk about your ex with new girls you meet. I've seen people do that a lot, and it only hurts your chances. I've always thought that if her dad called her princess as a child, that I would never date a girl like that. Because while I will treat a woman with respect and love her, I will not treat her like a princess. I run from girls like that. And I purposely talk about my ex to get rid of the women that I meet that are initially into me but that I find that I'm not fond of.

I've got to agree with Milkman here Wite, I think it's time to move on and find another girl. We are outnumbered on this planet and hopefully there's someone out there better than her. Unless god is a cruel little kid dicking around with people's lives.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Feb 3, 2010 -> 03:43 PM) College grads are not entitled to anything. No one is. But the system is supposed to be designed where higher education = more spending power. In today's economy, with jobs being so hard to obtain, with the recession going on, and with student loans up the wazoo, that system is not working as designed. You're right, I'm not entitled to s***. Had I gone to school to be a journalist, I would not be entitled to work in the region that NU grads do (the jobs that people want as opposed to the crap others do) and there are far more qualified people out there than me. I have always thought that the college system is a mess - people go because if you don't, you're a loser. To be honest, I wish I would have gone to the community college for a year to get rid of the extra high school courses and take the remedial math course so I wouldn't get screwed in taking a liberal arts math course. It should be set up like, take your college algebra and then decide. Unfortunately, schools offer different math courses and it really screws you over when you switch your major. As long as I obtain my degree and get a decent job, I'll feel like I got a good return on my investment. QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Feb 3, 2010 -> 03:56 PM) If you work to put yourself through school this argument is not true. I worked making $12/hour as a licensed forklift driver to put myself through UIC, got an accounting degree and doubled my pay upon graduation. As a CPA I make a much nicer living than a forklift driver. I think making the right choices are important. My goal was 2 years of UIC and then transfer to U of I. I liked UIC and elected not to transfer. Saved a ton of dough. And I think for some people it is beneficial to go to a local college for two years and work to get some responsibility before heading off to college. I see too many kids who are well off just treat college like a huge joke and then graduate. What about the rest of us who actually worked and struggled a bit along the way? Don't mind my posts, I'm just a bitter college student who is frustrated with the system.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Feb 3, 2010 -> 03:36 PM) Women outnumber us like 8 to 1. Factor in all the gay guys and momma's boys, and the odds get even better. Which is exactly why I don't give women time to think. The ex that I thought was worth it had her chance to think and said forget it. So that's kind of why I've been going casual until someone worth my time comes along. But yes, being in college is nice as a result of more women going and less men being there. Score one more for men in college.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 2, 2010 -> 08:50 PM) It depends on the schooling each person wants as well as their career aspirations. Men working in the trades get married earlier than men that get extensive schooling, simply because they can afford to. Couples that wish to go to college and have a career afterwards often wait until they reach 30 or later. Then of course, you have your grad students and professional degree students who often don't finish school until their mid-to-late twenties and don't get married until their mid-thirties, if at all. A large part of it depends on your schooling, career choice, and then the job you end up settling into. I can tell you, when I was in law school and working full-time, I didn't have time for a relationship. So obviously I wasn't getting married until well after I graduated. For a 21 year old guy who really want to finish his bachelor's degree and get a job to see what he "likes to do," I wouldn't mind getting married when I'm 25. But I'm not just going to settle for the first girl that comes my why who isn't utterly insane. Who the hell knows where I'll be in 5 years. All I know is that I don't think people get married straight out college. Too many people trying to figure s*** out before taking responsibility for the real world.

Okay, laying this one out there. In today's current environment, when is the appropriate age to get married? Should people get married or serious when they can support themselves? When should anyone have a "serious relationship" and when shouldn't they? It almost seems like in college it's too much to have one.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Feb 2, 2010 -> 02:32 PM) Perhaps you haven't noticed but there are tens of thousands of students, if not more, that graduated in the last 2 years with absolutely no hope to land a decent paying job any time soon. Is this because they picked a bulls*** degree? Or are you saying that generally speaking they haven't found a decent paying job because of the economy? QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Feb 2, 2010 -> 02:04 PM) Can't get to the site but my thoughts are the same as the mortgage forgiveness, why should they benefit? I worked to put myself through school in a major I was not really fond of but it got me a good paying job and a nice career. Before I started taking college seriously, I was debating what to study and spent more money than I needed to on classes that I won't need in the end. Had I been a bit more responsible I would have worked and gone to the community college first. I too am now putting myself through a major that I'm not entirely fond of but I am enjoying the challenge of it all in business management. I think it makes a lot of sense to go to school in order to get a good return on your investment. QUOTE (vandy125 @ Feb 2, 2010 -> 02:46 PM) Yes, I have noticed. There has been a switch recently. When my parents were growing up, it was all about graduating from high school. Then, it turned into you have to graduate from college to get a decent job (my age group). Now, it has switched to you need even higher education than that or you need to make sure you choose the correct area to go into. I think that we are now going to the days where you can't just go into anything that you want, or what you like. You may have to go into an area that you are not crazy about to land a good job. That seems to be what my grandparents grew up with. They didn't pick and choose where they went for a job, they were happy to have a job that paid the bills. Now, honestly, I am a bit removed from the college grads these days. So, I don't know if they are choosing their majors based upon what is out there or if they are just following their interests. I'm not in that position, so I don't know. I could be completely off-base and would apologize if so. However, IMO, the answer should be a combination of letting people know that they can't just go into whatever they decide on a whim as well as finding ways to lower the cost of education. How does this in any way lower the cost of education? I especially agree on the bolded part of your post. I can't just waste my time chasing a dream that's a long shot when there are more qualified graduates out there than me. I'm doing a mix of both at the moment as I'm trying to complete a marketable degree in business while looking out for opportunities in the sports industry. If that doesn't work out, at the very least my degree is from a liberal arts college. What I was told is that if you go into the liberal arts you could go into anything, hence my career ideas as a cop, fireman, PR manager (for the White Sox and Bears of course), something in insurance or a high school guidance counselor.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 2, 2010 -> 03:33 PM) I think that all depends on the guy. If you have the charisma, you can keep hitting on a girl until she goes for it. If you don't, you might just come off like a huge creep. To clarify, I was trying to apply the example to my situation. I would not go back after seeing her and try continue to hit on her so long after the breakup. Immediately after, I tried to convince her that it'd work out and when she scoffed at me, then I developed the desensitized "f*** her" attitude. Needless to say I'm still a bit cynical about love and relationships. It feels like college is the place to experiment and to get a real job before you find the girl, unless of course there's a girl in college that you absolutely positively must have in your life no matter what. Good luck finding that at bars and clubs...

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 2, 2010 -> 03:17 PM) Well, the key is to be reasonable enough to stop before you get the cease and desist order put on you... My point is that the statement about being persistent until the woman decides she wants to marry you doesn't exactly fit for every single couple out there. I don't think there's convincing needed, you are either meant to be or you aren't.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 2, 2010 -> 01:19 PM) But if you talk to married couples, much like some people have already said here, the stories are quite often about a guy who kept pursuing a woman until he ultimately convinced her to marry him. And those are some of the strongest couples around. And then there were the guys that had to stop because the woman that they love or used to love wants a restraining order or calls him a stalker all of the time...

Just give it a few days. 3 at the most. Ask her what she's feeling and then either move on or be with her. It's that simple.

QUOTE (Brian @ Feb 1, 2010 -> 09:35 PM) I would post my big heartbreak story but you would all blame me and call me girly part names, and you'd be right. Ha Post it, we've all been there and are bound to be there again. I'll admit to being a p**** back then.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 29, 2010 -> 04:29 PM) Ha I wish. The relationship I've been in with a girl for just under 2 years has essentially come to an end. It's been hot and cold for about the past 6 months, but we've never really fought. It was mainly a matter of me being a huge POS for pretty much the entirety of the 2009 calendar year while she was actually being productive and becoming a legitimate member of society. So I had a bit of a revelation that I needed to step up and make changes, and thus far it's been great for 2010 - joined two very good business oriented organizations on campus, I'm looking for a job, and scouting out some internships. She told me last night that she wants to pursue another guy before she takes off to see if anything can bloom and the only reason she's really been hanging out with me is because she does still have feelings, but she wants to see me get on my feet more than anything, and she didn't want to hurt me. I told her that you have to hurt people as it's an inevitability in life, and I gave her the go ahead to try and get with this other guy. I don't know if he has feelings like that for her, but he may. Needless to say, I hope he doesn't, but it's out of my hands now. First true love too. Ouchers. Wite, While I know that you and other posters on this board probably don't want to hear me give any sort of relationship advice, I do want to at least assure you that I have gone through some of the same things that you have when it comes to relationships ending and the complications that follow. So hear me out - Your situation is comparable to mine (I dated my ex/first love for 3 1/2 years), though you are going about it a bit more mature than I did (initially) and the reasons that she gave you were more legit than what was given to me. I guess the red flag that comes up with me right away is that she seeks another guy before she heads out into the real world. Tell me, were you her only serious boyfriend? I have always thought that first loves really don't work out but if they do it is meant to be. What you are doing right now is absolutely the right thing to do. You are going out, not abusing alcohol over the breakup, joining organizations and bettering yourself. When the ex got rid of me in December of '09, the first thing I did was go to the gym and seek out my options as my life really wasn't full then. I was just about to embark on a new major (big mistake), try new things and stop being the little b**** that I was. The biggest thing for you right now is to not be a wuss and to channel your emotions into something different. For me, that was running the Chicago Marathon. I discovered what drove me again and I got focused on what I really wanted out of college. To get over my ex I worked, traveled to different colleges (UIC, ISU, NIU, Western Michigan University and St. Ambrose University), made some new friends, transferred schools and started over again. Maybe it was a bit extreme, but I had originally set out to attend a school to be a member of the media/teach English and to be close to the then high school girlfriend. I found out rather quickly that I didn't want to devote my life to the world of sports media and have to travel to UI-UC every two weeks to see her. (Though she was the one who broke up with me.) I found out that Eastern really wasn't for me and that I needed to find some place to succeed at. St. Ambrose seems to be where I can learn about business in a stimulating and encouraging atmosphere. They also took all of my credits, gave me scholarship money and told me that I can graduate on time! Sure it's catholic, but that doesn't mean s***, the women are hot and are definitely more approachable here. Basically all I want to say is that I can relate to you, Wite. And that I think you are making all of the right moves. However, I would say that you should keep reporting to the site. It comes to a point where you need to let go and just start dating someone else. I put everything I owned of her in a box (threw that s*** out when I moved to SAU), unfriended all of her and her contacts from facebook, deleted old emails and started fresh. For some, it is hard to do that. The whole breakup process took 1 year to complete before I officially could start living my life to the fullest again. My approach to women now is to not be a nice wussy guy but rather, to be myself with a backbone...I wish you luck with whatever you decide to do. Best, Ross P.S. Consider this - in the real world, can you have a job, be independent and stand up on your own without any dependence on parents or anyone else for support? Sometimes I think that only then a relationship is truly possible. As in, both people have to be mutually happy on their own to bring something to the table as far as a relationship goes. Just an abstract thought.

I didn't realize that this was somewhere else. If anyone feels the need to delete or merge it, go ahead - my apologies. As for Kruetz, I always thought he was one of the great leaders of the team. The fact that he had a closed door meeting with Angelo spoke volumes to me about him actually giving a s*** and standing up for either him or some personnel. Maybe I'm looking too far into it, I'm not exactly sure. All I know is that there is a void at one of the tackle positions and at left guard and it needs to be fixed. Is Omiyale a bust? Can Beekman step up and help anchor a weak Bears o-line? Should the Bears trade Hester? I'm sure that I'm just speculating and analyzing here.

Ready to take the dive with Smith after '10 campaign. I like the hire, but I still see the deficiency of the offensive line being a problem. The fact that Cutler doesn't have all of the time in the world doesn't bode well for this team. I'm curious to see what personnel changes occur on offense as a result of Martz's presence. Does it mean that Kruetz is gone (because Angelo is a b****)? Do the Bears make a move to up the offense again? The hiring of Martz is interesting although I don't think that he alone can save this team. What do you all think? (And who will be their defensive coordinator?!)

QUOTE (quickman @ Jan 25, 2010 -> 11:34 AM) Not sure what your argument is with me on this. Is it that I don't want thome back? or that KW put himself in this situation? TQ - Who do you think should DH, Kotsay, Vizquel or Jones? Do you think the platoon is going to be effective or is something up KW's sleeve here? Just curious now that Thome is out of consideration. (I hope he joins the Twins and rapes our pitching staff.)

Good work, Pratt. What are you trying to do with your degree? Do people actually do design work for the publication there? Is it weekly? Monthly? It's definitely one of the more tough fields to get into, especially if you haven't worked in an official j-school setting before.

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ Jan 21, 2010 -> 10:29 AM) I'm honestly not sure. I'm getting my B.S. so I've taken Calc and all kinds of Stats classes. I'm a math guy so I didn't really look into that. Well I was lucky to swing out a deal to take College Algebra instead of Applied Calc and finish off my senior year with Statistics. Thank the good dude upstairs.