![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 14 of 14. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by beckett2 on March 27, 2019, at 23:27:25
Wondering how things are with you.
Posted by alexandra_k on April 15, 2019, at 20:12:17
In reply to Hi Alex, posted by beckett2 on March 27, 2019, at 23:27:25
Hi Beckett,
Thanks for wondering :-)
I am doing okay. I was homeless for a while which was pretty scary, actually, but I have a nice 1 bedroom apartment, now, which I love.
I am trying to finish up my thesis, which is scary. I think it is supposed to be scary. I mean to say I think people are pleased about the fact that it is scary because they feel that that is the way that that is supposed to be.
I am applying for Med again, next year. It is the last year I can apply, ever, so it will simply have to be a successful application.
I am feeling old and tired, sometimes. Sometimes I feel resentful that this country would not offer me a better life. That all this country has offered me so far is so very very very much less than 'average' even, for all the years I've laboured towards attaining knowledge to help make this place better for a greater proportion of us -- that simply is not valued, at all.
But thinking that way doesn't help me. Doesn't help people want to help me or whatever. So...
Perhaps it is... I forget what it is called... When you hospitalise someone and expect to see immediate improvement for having them someplace safe with sources of stress alleviated by way of respite but instead of they deteriorate... Rebound phenomenon or something. Because they finally have a place safe enough for them to collapse properly.
I feel a bit like that.
Indignation etc is really not what I can afford to be feeling right now...
Anyway...
Something went right for me to get this place, I guess. And I have some funds to get some new clothes, which will help really rather a lot, actually.
How are you Beckett?
Posted by beckett2 on April 24, 2019, at 19:12:24
In reply to Re: Hi Alex, posted by alexandra_k on April 15, 2019, at 20:12:17
> Hi Beckett,
>
> Thanks for wondering :-)
>
> I am doing okay. I was homeless for a while which was pretty scary, actually, but I have a nice 1 bedroom apartment, now, which I love.
>
> I am trying to finish up my thesis, which is scary. I think it is supposed to be scary. I mean to say I think people are pleased about the fact that it is scary because they feel that that is the way that that is supposed to be.
>
> I am applying for Med again, next year. It is the last year I can apply, ever, so it will simply have to be a successful application.
>
> I am feeling old and tired, sometimes. Sometimes I feel resentful that this country would not offer me a better life. That all this country has offered me so far is so very very very much less than 'average' even, for all the years I've laboured towards attaining knowledge to help make this place better for a greater proportion of us -- that simply is not valued, at all.
>
> But thinking that way doesn't help me. Doesn't help people want to help me or whatever. So...
>
> Perhaps it is... I forget what it is called... When you hospitalise someone and expect to see immediate improvement for having them someplace safe with sources of stress alleviated by way of respite but instead of they deteriorate... Rebound phenomenon or something. Because they finally have a place safe enough for them to collapse properly.
>
> I feel a bit like that.
>
> Indignation etc is really not what I can afford to be feeling right now...
>
> Anyway...
>
> Something went right for me to get this place, I guess. And I have some funds to get some new clothes, which will help really rather a lot, actually.
>
> How are you Beckett?
>
>Wow, Alex, a new nice one bedroom! Good news. I'm really glad because this has been a long term issue. Regarding collapse, I imagine you're tired by the last few years. Be kind to yourself and have some nice quiet time. Do you like walking in nature?
What area will your thesis addres? Thesis projects are stressful at the very least. They're kinda big deal. But try not to buy into the scariness. I used lots of encouraging self-talk to manage the anxiety.
Ah, we get old. But we still have value. Even more because we have (hopefully) accumulated wisdom. That's also cliche, but it's true. And relatively, you are not old--only 'old' by school standards. Maybe that's your tiredness talking.
Really glad to hear from you. I'm ok. Trucking along. Trying not to lose my mind over my national politics :) Also, hoping the summer is not blistering. We lost two oaks over the winter. Like a sudden death. We're currently figuring out what caused this. The drought and heat of the past years have stressed all the trees here-- the redwoods are frying :( I've heard that redwoods are being propagated in NZ because the climate is right in an effort to save the species because, long term, who knows how long they will survive on the west coast of the US. Argh, I think about this all the time. Doesn't help the depression!
Posted by alexandra_k on May 1, 2019, at 20:13:44
In reply to Re: Hi Alex » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on April 24, 2019, at 19:12:24
Hey,
Yes, I am very happy about my one bedroom. I really like old houses. Partly because construction has only gone downhill in this country. New builds are typically very cheaply and nastily constructed. People think 'wow it's new' but it turns out to be awful in ways they never imagined possible. Walls even flimsier and less soundproofed than ever before and so on and so forth...
I'm in a building that was constructed 1910. So it's an old building with the high stud. And it's been freshly painted white (to track whether I methamphetamine / mj / cigarette smoke / other substance smoke) contaminate it, no doubt)... But it's very fresh and white and... Stately. I really like it.
It's got that old glass that is... Textured. Bubbly. For privacy but to let the light in.
It's a second story with a balcony. A rather large balcony. I mean... Probably 1/2 the size of my last studio in the city sized balcony... I can sit on the balcony and read (and listen to the trafffic and the road rage) and it's got a half wall concrete partition so nobody can see me. I mean.... If I angle myself just right not even the people from surrounding tower blocks...
And its right across the road from the hospital. And one block from the med school. So I can be all 7th day adventist 'love ya all but I'm going off home for lunch'...
And there are decent coffee shops and so on literally just downstairs...
It is pretty great :)
Some of the downstairs tenants are a bit... Noisy. That is not ideal. Things are noisy... But I have noise cancelling headphones and there are some blissful times of quiet...
My thesis is on stuff to do with disability and equity. I am arguing for empowerment / increased representation through to the highest levels -- otherwise the thing isn't sustainable. Hierarchical people disable others around them to pursue their own advantage but the numbers of disabled people keep rising... Keep rising... Trying to make a case for inclusion to prevent WW3. hahaha. ahahaha. Yeah.
A sort of... Intellectual suicide bomb or something. I don't know.
I recently found Winston Peters (2nd in command / guy who has had balance of power since forever) got to be there because of starting up about genocide against his people... So they decided to include him, instead. Maybe there is a lesson in all that...
Thankyou for saying it is my tiredness talking. I believe you (really). It is tiring mostly feeling like nobody else believes that. Thankyou so very much. I genuinely do agree but it is just so very nice to hear :)
I don't know about the trees... I will look into that.
I am finding american oak in teh shops. Looking for a table...
I don't know what to do.
Acadia, maybe.
A large dining table for a couple place settings to eat, a couple place settings for computer stuff, a couple place settings for study /reading /writing...
Hang in there, you.
Posted by alexandra_k on May 2, 2019, at 0:18:44
In reply to Re: Hi Alex » beckett2, posted by alexandra_k on May 1, 2019, at 20:13:44
A hard thing in this country that I find is this attitude that 'everyone wants what you want -- but we cannot afford for everyone to have what it is that you want and therefore you miss out on what you want because not everybody can have it.'
So, this idea that everyone wants to live by themselves in something like a 1 bedroom apartment.
The thing is...
That not many people actually do.
People might 'think' that they do. But then their kids and husband or all their flatmates or whatever actually leave the house for a weekend... Or for a week... And after a couple weeks max... People feel lonely. Prefer for their family / their housemates to come back.
Not all the time, of course. But I think that really rather most of the time people basically would prefer to live with others.
I think it is more that people don't get sufficient alone time to realise how much they do miss others and realise that mostly they prefer to have them around.
I think mostly what people want is to be the head of their household hierarchy. People want others to be around -- but also want the power to make others be scarce when they would prefer that. The power to close doors when they want them closed and open them when they want them open. To have mess and noise when they want mess and noise and to have everything quiet and clean when they want it to be that way.
The idea of equality, then, or fairness, or whatever, comes from life stages.
You start out small and the bigger people boss you around and it is their house so you live under their rules or you leave.
Then you get bigger and it is your turn to be the boss.
So the idea of life-stages becomes important.
Trouble comes when people get to thinking that everyone wants their own 1 bedroom apartment and so you put people in them who want to live communally. Because then they decide it will become the ghetto pad... So people can come visit them and they can express their appreciation by yelling the F word at them lound as their lungs will project it because...
Hell, it's your neighbourhood, too, and everyone must know you are a part of it -- right?
Not sufficient communality or something.
I think the constant noise is sometimes a sign that people want to be packed tighter still.
Lonliness.
Or something.
Posted by alexandra_k on May 4, 2019, at 18:21:58
In reply to Re: Hi Alex, posted by alexandra_k on May 2, 2019, at 0:18:44
I resent the thesis, actually.
Undergraduates have a 120 point workload for 1 year of study. That involves 30 working weeks and 12 weeks grading. There are strict times that grades need to be finalised by so that the students can do other things. Enrol in other courses with the University or whatever.
I enroled in a 120 point research degree and I was clear that my intention was to complete it within 1 academic year. So, 30 working weeks and 12 weeks grading. I submitted it after around 20 working weeks (to allow up to 10 weeks to make changes with a 'accepted subject to significant revisions' outcome of examination) and I submitted it on time.
So then I was told that since the examiners required me to make significant revisions the graduate school of the university decided it would be appropriate for me to 'revise and resubmit' which means I cannot submit a thesis for examination for 6 months.
6 months.
But the entire degree was supposed to take less than 12 months.
An entire academic year is only around 9 months (including examination) you see.
Somehow the whole thing is going to take 2 years and I am required to pay 2 months additional fees. When I protested this treatment I was told that they wouldn't let me re-enrol (pay more fees) then, instead I just wouldn't get the qualification at all.
The Dean of the School of Graduate Research said 'since you wanted to do Medicine we thought you would be more compliant'
I said 'really... this is what you want from your doctor? compliance?'
My supervisor turned out to be a big f*ck*ng idiot. She has no f*ck*ng idea what she is doing. She says that work is 'rubbish' and 'crap' when it is... Stuff that was commissioned by international organisations and the like. I mean... THe best stuff in the field, basically. She genuinely seems incapable of telling the difference. She wants me to say the same thing over and over and over and over and I am not allowed to say anything that is complex enough that she might actually have to read it again or think about it a little bit. They want me to have a thesis statement that is so simple an idiot could understand it (without having expended any energy or effort at all in understanding it) and the like...
It's like this idea they have of giving the best marks to the most inept / most incompetent students who submit their work late and failing the students who demonstrate capacity or intelligence or ability or motivation or whatever.
This is genuinely what our 'Universities' have become.
It is genuinely unclear to me whether or not Auckland will say 'you aren't eligable to even apply to medicine / have your application to medicine considered since you were incapable of completing your 120 point qualification on time!'
The level of corruption here is too much.
I think.
I don't think people will let me through because I am not their kid / I can be differentiated from their kid therefore must be culled.
The English UCAT...
Seems about as bad as the UMAT, actually.
I see they do want me to believe it is about fast math. Only that's a mere section of the thing. My issue with the UMAT was the verbal stuff / interpersonal skills stuff.
The Australians didn't copyedit all the typographical errors out of their disability statement. Which kind of suggests they didn't take it seriously at all. The English didn't copyedit all the typographical errors out of their ethics statement. I won't let them know until after I have my score. I don't think I will score well.
They say it isn't about background knowledge -- but then they ask questions like 'what kind of argument is this'. They present the 'teleological argument for the existence of god' which is a paradigmatic example of 'argument from analogy' if you have ever studied critical reasoning, introduction to philosophy, philosophy of religion. Students studying English learn what an analogy is. But the information that it is an argument from analogy (or that a similie is an analogy) is not contained in the text.
So it is about background knowledge.
Then they appeal to information about Dawkins argument in their explanation as to why a certin answer is correct. But none of that information was contained in the text so couldn't be a reason for a student selecting that answer -- unless they were relying on knowledge gleaned from outside the text, again.
When faced with a decision on whether it is better to consider there are rules witthout a rulemaker or whether there are rules that include chance we are supposed to consider... That there are rules of probability, I guess.
God does not play dice... Playing dice violates rules??? There are rules of dice??? God would not make rules that governed the playing of dice???
The whole thing comes down to:
There isn't good reason to pick between two options so we have our 'high end distinguisher'.
Seems to me.
On the basis of their own explanations.
I mean I can try and engage in apologetics on their behalf...
But I suppose the only sensible thing to conclude is not to spend too much time studying for it. Brush up on basic maths because that is most likely to have pay-off and practice their strategies for the pattern stuff... But the only things it could possibly be getting at is years of dedication to curriculum... So certain features are salient only because they were the focus of geometry, or whatever...
It's a crap shoot.
To what advantage is conveying / projecting the idea that it is random?
I guess an alternative idea is that people are picked because they are the best.
My problem is that we aren't honest in what the job is / what the requirements for the job is so that people can make informed decisions about what it is that they want to pursue.
Then... If people were actually allowed / encouraged to pursue what it is that they wanted to pursue we would actually find (I would bet) that more people could do what they wanted to do in life.
People here seem determined for me to be all like 'oh wow, you fooled me! you tricked me into paying additional fees and taking longer than normal so you get more money for yourselves! you are so very very much cleverer than me! you got me! i got nothing! you have all the power and i have none!'
Being... Happy... About this situation is somehow something that makes them feel better.
See see see! Now you feel just like me!
And, uh, better medical treatment for us all?
It makes no sense.
That's what the ethics lady suggested in my interview.
People don't think.
I just think... It is strategic for people not to think, sometimes. Convenient.
But perhaps her way of viewing it is the way that enables you to keep on...
YOu aren't allowed to treat your 'friends' anyway.
I see why.
For the good of us all.
Access is limited. Something something about the things people could do to help themselves. And to help others help them.
The trouble is that people say these things.. Then they all get misinterpreted somehow.
Like it is fashionable for the managers to spout 'it's not sustainable!' while continuing to have endless meeting and conferences and hiring still more managers and so on and so on and so on... Instead of listening to (for example) what the royal training colleges say they must do in order to have accreditation to teach students in the specialist field (e.g., hire 3 specialists (we can't afford it!) maintain this and that equipment (we can't afford it!)... Why oh why don't we have doctors in our community?
Because nobody listens to them so they get the things they need in order to do what it is that the community would supposedly have them do.
There is this whole... Incomprehension of the way the world works. Of causal chains. Of pychologically realistic. Of plausibility. Etc.
WOrse over time.
You have people raised on photoshopped video and pictures so they don't know about reality.
You have people whizzing about on electrically powered bicycles so people don't know what people are capable of doing.
You have television shows that present things unrealistically oftentimes.
You can't have refrigerated medications if your staff cannot put things back in the fridge. It's unclear why you would need an autoclave if your staff cannot wash their hands. If you can't distinguish the staff who can wash tehir hands from the staff who can't adn understand that is a good reason to hire and fire then... We can't help you.
You don't need to be able to read. You need to be able to identify the others who can read to varying degrees. Then you can hire the people who can take them from not reading to reading. If the people in charge can't tell who can read and who can't then you can't help them help their people develop literacy.
There is an inability to focus...
Just a couple more months.
I am supposed to feel afraid that they won't give me my qualification that I earned by writing the thesis that I did. Because there doesn't seem to be any accountability for them doing their fuckign job if they think they can get away with not doing it.
There have been an endless succession of meetings already where they try and figure out how they can fail me and so on...
The only thing that stopped that was my turning up in person and showing everyone that I don't have 3 heads. I resent the fact that it is about that for them.
Just get it done and get out.
I don't know why they are so hell bent on ruining things for everybody.
Posted by alexandra_k on May 4, 2019, at 18:46:38
In reply to Re: Hi Alex, posted by alexandra_k on May 4, 2019, at 18:21:58
There are contradictory things.
There typically are.
For example, the form to apply for social housing will require you to say something false / something that is a lie or you will not be able to submit the application at all.
I mean, that will be built into the software. Only certain values will be allowable, or you cannot advance the form.
I do not mean that people who are ineligable cannot submit the form. I mean that there is an inherent contradicton actually built into the construction of the form such that it is impossible for anyone to complete the form without lying in part of it.
And then the idea is that lying voids your application, you see.
And then what you do (it's genius!) is you make all the applications like that.
The applications for housing and for jobs and for education that leads to jobs (law and engineering and medicine) and so on and so forth... Applications to be considered for jobs like teaching and police and nursing and all the jobs...
So... All the applications... All the applicants... Are ineligable. Technically. Strictly.
Then you can hire / give the places to whomever you antecedently want.
Strictly speaking they're ineligable too... But people don't typically query reasons. People are usually bullied if they do (the idea is that the 'losers' are losers because they are not as good, not as smart etc). You really want to teach a population to internalise the blame / responsibility as much as you can -- being mindful of those suicide rates, of course!!!!
I do wonder...
I guess that's what our Ombudsman's for. So we can take many many generations to sort this sh*t out. While keeping track of the ones who wonder.
Apparently we do have the right to ask for reason.
ANd they cannot appeal to reasons like 'we didn't like your race'. So they need to make up other reasons...
But then you need data...
On the people they pick / accept. Becuase the real issue is whether the reasons to exclude some apparently didn't apply to similarly excluding them.
So it is all about huddling with the herd of the kids of the people who were antecedently picked to do it.
Because of the whole hierarchy thing. And everyone aspires to the same thing: The top! And there is a list of positions in society... That are distributed to the people.
And that's what our government does with the money the world bank gives it.
Sigh.
Posted by alexandra_k on May 4, 2019, at 19:42:46
In reply to Re: Hi Alex, posted by alexandra_k on May 4, 2019, at 18:46:38
I am trying to think what you would have to do to complete a PhD / MPhil research qualification in the minimum enrolment time.
Apparently enrolment time works differently with research degrees, and the academic year does not apply.
So a 120 point undergraduate program of study is around 9 months from start to finish date. Then students have a 3 month summer holiday.
Whereas a 120 point graduate program of study is 1 calendar year.
Best I can figure to complete a qualification in the minimum enrolment time you would need to submit a 3 year (360 point) PhD or a 1 year (120 point) MPhil with 9 months of enrolment left to go.
So, after 27 months PhD enrolment or after 3 months MPhil enrolment.
This is because when you submit the examiners will take 3 months to examine it. You will then be required to spend 6 months making changes to it before submitting it for another round of examination. You are required to have your fees paid up for this. So, if you don't want to have to pay additional fees / don't want to have to extend your enrolment period then you will need to submit your thesis with 9 months of enrolment remaining.
But don't plan on having your thesis accepted by the University at that point. It is just that the University cannot require you to pay any more in fees at that point. But they can withhold your qualification. You can expect them to withhold your qualification as follows.
Firstly, they will take up to 3 months to examine it that second time around. You don't need to be enrolled for this, but they will take the time they will take.
Secondly, they can require you to make still more changes to it before the University will sign off on the hard-copy. Different Universities set different time-frames, here. Mine can get you f*ck*ng around with it for another 10 weeks. So, 2 1/2 months. Another in this country only requires 2 weeks or 1/2 a month of that.
So... When all is said and done...
It could take them... Unsure... How much time before they process your application to enrol. They will say when your enrolment date will start and there isn't anything you can do about that. THey will likely pick an awkward time that obscures the academic year. So... Not allowing you to start until a couple months later...
But from the start of your enrolment...
If I had have submitted my MPhil after 3 months work and they took 3 months to grade it, I make changes for 6 months, they take 3 months to re-grade it, they require 2 1/2 months of changes... That means the 1 year, 120 point program of study takes 17 1/2 months. Or... Very nearly 1 1/2 years. For what is effectively 9 months (1 academic years) work from me.
I submitted my MPhil after 4 months work and the people at the University (including my supervsior) had a screaming tantrum of a fit that I submitted my work 'early'.
Apparently I was actually meant to have worked on it for 12 months.
Then allow 3 months of grading (don't need to be enroled for that).
Then make 6 months of changes (do need to pay more fees for that).
Then allow 3 months of grading (don't need to be enroled for that).
Then up to 2 1/2 months of changes before hardcopy is accepted.
That't a total of 26 1/2 months. Or a couple months over 2 years!
Starting in May (part way through an academic year).
So... Taking up 3 academic years of my life!!!
In other words: The MPhil is the degree they give people when people insist: I'm done in 3 years. I enroled in a degree because you told me it was a 3 year degree and I allowed up to 3 years of my life for it.
But that's only going to happen if they submit after 12 months of enrolment.
___________________
There is no way to complete the MPhil in the minimum enrolment time.
It's a fools errand.
We do hear of these cases where people have their work accepted without them being required to make changes...
But you need to ask of those people how long they laboured before they submitted their work for examination.
The idea seems to be that the thing actually is time-dependent.
The rule seems to be that nobody completed in the minimum time.
At the very least the university will extract that 6 months additional payment of fees.
___________________
In these parts you can apply for 'limited full time status' it is called. This allows you to keep getting student allowance (a sort of living wage from the government) while you are part time. You can choose to apply for this while you are waiting for examiners, apparently.
It seems to me this 'choice' has the consequence of having students accept part time status.
__________________
Is everyone incapable of completing on time?
Do people actually complete on time?
Who completes on time?
Who did they allow through?
Apparently they couldnl't allow me through because it 'wouldn't be fair to other students'.
And I was supposed to be extra compliant because of my desire to do Medicine.
I don't see how this is for the good of us all / for more of us.
Stifling productivity...
Lying about the requirements of teh program of study...
Tricking people into it by lying about the requirements...That's why they ask you for your timeline early on. To see how they think you will do it...
SO they know better how to stabotage things.
The mistake I made was submitting after 4 months...
And not after 3.
I didn't know they were going to make me re-enrol after 6 months (didn't understandt that always was par for the course / the plan).
But there never was any way they were going to sign off on my completion after 1 academic year. IN time for me to do Med.
They always were planning on me taking more like 5.
Psychopaths.
Posted by alexandra_k on May 4, 2019, at 19:55:17
In reply to Re: Hi Alex, posted by alexandra_k on May 4, 2019, at 19:42:46
So Med has this requirement that you completed your degree within the last 5 years, normally within the minimum time.
I don't think the intention is to rule out PhD or MPhil students becuase they were tricked into doing a PhD...
But maybe it is.
Maybe they let PhD students through without requiring that additional payment of fees / 6 month extension... Maybe they sign off without taking 3 months (6 months total to examine)... Maybe they do in cases where people have things lined up.
Only... I had Med lined up.
That was going to happen...
Only: They lied to me and told me it was not. They said my GPA was too low. So I pointed out that they used years I was enroled part time to calcualte my GPA and they were supposed to use years I was enroled full time. My GPA was much higher from my full time years.
They say 105 points for A and B semester is minimum for full time status.
So... Graduate Research Degrees don't count?
The qualification must have been completed within the last 5 years...
Is the idea that sometime before year 4 of graduate study you realise graduate study in this country is a fools errand and you get the hell out / into Med on the basis of your prior degrees?
The whole thing doesn't make sense...
The whole thing feels f*ck*ng arbitrary.
The people in charge of such things never like me.
THemselves / their kids come first.
Posted by alexandra_k on May 4, 2019, at 20:19:42
In reply to Re: Hi Alex, posted by alexandra_k on May 4, 2019, at 19:55:17
apparently, again, it is that they do not think.
they calculated my GPA the way they calculated my GPA for the following reason: It was easier for them to do it the way they did it.
they did not have an eye to whether the graduate research degree was completed on a full time or a part time basis. they were going to count it.
they could say that me completing this degree doesn't count because it wasn't completed in the minimum time -- but I would appeal that with the Ombudsman and put in official request for information and the like and it it turned out that they had accepted students to study Medicine on the basis of graduate degrees where they were required to extend their enrolment... I would have a case.
have they done this?
I expect they likely would have... But I suppose I am not sure. Will they look into it? I don't expect they will.
people typically do not think...
I have my GPA calculation so I can ensure they do that properly this year. I don't expect I'll get much of a different score from the UCAT as I did from the UMAT. A slight negative in other words. So it will depend on the interview (again).
some people said they were asked questions that I thought were awful... I think my questions were pretty good / I was pretty lucky. But you get 2 whole minutes to sit with the question before going into the room and surprisingly much can be figured out in that time. And the focus needs to be on what attributes they are examining rather than your actual content, anyway. they don't actually expect you to think...
It's an edge... that people get. gritting their teeth and bearing it. they pin people down and enjoy in watching them squirm. the idea seems to be they won't see them again, anyway. may as well have a little sadistic fun with them on their way out...
i know the whole time line thing is meant to be hush-hush. top secret. you figured it out! you are part of the 'in group'! taking sadistic pleasure in a new batch of students not realising they need to factor in not just their work in their timeline but they need to factor in that everybody who they are required to pass the ball to will drop the ball for as long as they can get away with it...
the university cannot turn down the opportunity to obtain an additional 6 months fees for an additional 6 months enrolment.
it doesn't matter what you do... maximum enrolment time is inevitable.
so the loud myths and legends of people having things swiftly accepted through because they listened to their supervisor and kept post-poning their submission...
is convenient for who?
fear of being failed out is supposed to lead to silence.
would people similarly value these qualities in tehir doctor?
is this how they wish to be treated by those with power over them?people do not think...
they do not thnik...
htey cannot hear themselves think...
they do not think, at all...
Posted by alexandra_k on May 4, 2019, at 20:31:29
In reply to Re: Hi Alex, posted by alexandra_k on May 4, 2019, at 20:19:42
I guess they will calculate my GPA properly this year.
I will inquire to make sure that they do (remind them that they calculated it incorrectly last year).
I will also say that while I was required to extend my enrolment for 2 months I was assured I had not been failed for my work in 2018 and I did not seek or accept limited full time status.
It seems to be par for the course that the University will extract maximum fees payment (3 semesters for MPhil or 7 semesters for PhD). In order to allow for this / prevent this I would have needed to have submitted my thesis after 3 months (to allow for 3 months grading, 6 months revise and resubmit). I still wouldn't have been granted completion within 1 calendar year, even, because there would still be 3 months grading and up to 2 1/2 months of changes before the harcopy was accepted by the University.
Nobody completes graduate research degrees in the minimum time.
Posted by alexandra_k on May 4, 2019, at 20:34:58
In reply to Re: Hi Alex, posted by alexandra_k on May 4, 2019, at 20:31:29
They say 'if you do what we say we will get you through faster'
But I see no evidence of that.
I see people labouring for 10+ years and the myth is that they are stupid or they don't spend their time working appropriately...
If that is true it is only because they have learned that whether they spend their time working or not makes really no difference whatsoever for the progression of their completion...
The myth is that if you wait until they say you are ready to submit then they can sign you off super quick.
But they won't do that unless you are super late.
And certainly not before maximum fees have been extracted from you.
Posted by alexandra_k on May 4, 2019, at 21:35:53
In reply to Re: Hi Alex, posted by alexandra_k on May 4, 2019, at 20:34:58
That's just the way everything works here.
We want someone to build us a bridge.
Or to look after our prisons.
Or whatever.Then different firms put in bids for the contract. Saying they can do it for x or y or z amount of funds.
Then what seems to happen is that the contract goes to the cheapest bidder.
What doesn't seem to happen is that there is an investigation or inquiry into how it is that they think they can do it for x or y or z amount of funds.
So, how much they are going to pay their workers, for example. Or the quality of the building materials.
So...
The way to get a contract...
Probably the only way to get a contract...
Is to under-quote.
Then part way through the process...
Construction grinds to a halt.
Then more payment must be received for work to resume.
The problem is always deemed to be an 'act of god'. Something unforseeable, usually to do with an aspect of element of the weather.
But people who do think knew it was inevitable.
Not thinking on it was how they managed to get the costing so low.
So...
The really really important thing is you must always aspire to be part of the problem. Profiteering from it. Never this idea of facing up to the problem and working towards a solution...
I started working in March, you see. But the University refuses to acknolwedge that. They didn't start my enrolment until May.
It's like...
You have sprinters. You have middle distance runners. You have marathon runners. You can't expect a sprinter to keep up his pace over middle distance. You can't expect a middle distance runner to complete a middle distance race having done the first portion as a sprint. And the like...
They teach you to play stupid and to be lazy. To pretend to be sprinting because to be actually sprinting over that distance is not possible.
I went in saying 'I'm going to sprint because I am going to get this done'.
I do believe I was paying them because it was their job to teach / help me.
And instead of teaching / helping me. Instead of saying 'look, there's no way the University will let you through without your having handed over 3 semesters of fees' they exploited that.
Which is fine...
But I thought they wanted a med school.
Only, they didn't...
THey wanted students enroling in a 'long degree program' so they could collect many many many years of exhorbitant medical student fees... From graduate students... And instead of actually teaching them anything. Instead of having a developed curriculum for them.. Their idea was they would just call them 'dr' already and basically throw them into communities and say 'here, we have doctors for you! see!'.
And instead of paying the doctors a living wage...
The doctors would just keep throwing enrolment fees at the University, you see.
The government went... No. Even with a one billion dollar 'i'll match you' from private business... They said no. We will not support you having a graduate entry medical degree program.
Because there wasn't a program, you see.
There wasn't a plan.
There was just more money for university administration.
Posted by alexandra_k on May 4, 2019, at 21:55:07
In reply to Re: Hi Alex, posted by alexandra_k on May 4, 2019, at 21:35:53
and i don't know why they didn't think that working with me to get this done in time wouldn't be a better investment of their resources than intentionally working against me.
i don't know why they didn't think that they could help me out with scholarships so i could visit and give talks... i don't know why they didn't think that helping me through and into medicine...
might make it more likely that down the track...
i would want to help medicine develop for that university and for that region.
whereas instead they seem determined to show me that they are rather more interested in delaying me and holding me up and slowing me down. they are more interested in going 'nonno no no no no no' and 'you can't' and 'we won't let you' and throwing meeting after meeting after meeting to consider me for scholarships i didn't apply for, to deny me from having scholarships i did apply for, to try and find a way to refuse to accept a thesis i submitted, to try and find a way to prevent me re-enrolling in the program so as to fail me out...
really very determined hearts set against me from finishing at all...
so i turn up so they see i don't have 3 heads.
because i realise my supervisor has been telling them i'm arrogant and i'm an idiot and i'm inept and i have no social skills and i am not personable and all the f*ck*ng things she possibly can. every stereotype as to why we don't want surgeons or doctors or people with autism or people with disabilty or me.. all the things she can muster... talking to me like i'm a naughty toddler and so on. i mean really very genuinely i am not making up stories...
i don't understand why they don't get that if you want people to want to stay then you have to treat them better.
i guess probably because they don't want to stay themselves. they want to get out... but they can't figure a way... so they do what they can to cling to others who appear to be leaving...
i guess that's it.
i do hate this country.
i did say i wanted to come back here and help it develop.
i did not know that would involve people treating me like i was an incompetent illiterate idiot over the next 9 nears. having to beg for food... for shelter...
i did not know that the people in charge here cannot identify literacy when they see it. could not distinguish who is capable of looking after themsleves from who is not. i did not know that things were that f*ck*d up, here. where people would be more interested in having the world believe i was retarded in various ways so they could use that to collect up more funds for themselves...
i think the competition / hierarchy comes from people not having genuine needs met. it is easier to be egalitarian and accepting of difference and different interests and the like when you have yoru basic needs (including psychological) met. we just aren't there yet. people are not accepting of allowing others a way of life if it seems to them that that involves their giving up what they need to persist. and that is where we are. people will cling to me if they believe they need me in order for them to survive. at the most basic level my mother had me to try and keep my father to stay and support her and me. my mother kept me to try and get welfare such that she had a way of life. she genuinely thought that if i left (e.g., to go into a group home) she wouldn't have enough. once a social worker did a budget with her and told her she could have y benefit and afford to live without me in the house she didn't mind giving me up.
my supervisor got promoted to being a representative on the scholarships committee... i think that was after she put forward a case for me getting a scholarship i never applied for and not getting a scholarship i both applied for and was eligable for. i think maybe the scholarship they thought they were going to have to give to me to get me to enrol with the university they gave to her in teh form of a promotion instead.
because that's the way hierarchical people think and that's the kind of thing they congraduate themselves for.
all i wanted from it was to complete the degree in a timely fashion.
but that was the point they decided to take me for a chump / take me for everything they could get.
what kind of idiot enrols in a graduate research degree without the university having funded it??
then they thought they could treat me however crap they want and i'd just comply otherwise i would never get to do medicine at all.
i hope they get the doctors they deserve. the doctors who (when they see them) comply with what the district health board wants the doctors to do in the name of diverting medical funds / budget back to further the interests of mangers.
that wasn't very nice of me.
that's why you don't treat your 'friends'.
humanity in the ideal / abstract is so very much nicer than the reality.
in order to truly focus on the patient... to truly focus on helping the patient... i imagine it would be better to be far removed from the reality of the patient before you. how sh*t they treat their kids and how they kick their dog (if they think they can get away with it).
that's why you don't really want doctors in your communities.
most of you.
not if you actually want them to help you and to act in your interests.
beam me up.
they haven't managed to ruin me so far...
but it's not fair i'm still there.
time to let me go.
This is the end of the thread.
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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
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