I happily described a nice coffee shop as "kitschy" to the guy behind the counter and quickly learned from his reaction that it isn't the synonym for "artsy" that I thought it was.

I had this exact thought back in high school, and for some reason I still remember it every so often and just sit there, thankful I can breathe so well in that moment.

I feel like the high-end buyer's don't care about how much they like their possessions, they care about how expensive their possessions sound when described to others. They couldn't tell that the SI was less pure, but they knew they couldn't describe it to their friends as the purest, so they didn't care.

Eh, it certainly can be, but many of us could barely afford it, so we had to spend all our free time working. I woke up at 2am Tuesday through Saturday to work at FedEx before class, and would often have lectures until 8pm, since I was double majoring to get everything I could out of the 4 years of tuition payments. Any time I had between classes was spent studying, doing homework, or trying to catch a nap so I didn't fall asleep in class. I barely even had acquaintances when I graduated, much less friends. I managed to graduate without loans, though! Too bad I still didn't end up using either of my bachelors degrees, or the masters I got afterward...

They lost my wife just a few months ago. It wasn't even the pay - her new job pays a little less - it's the fact that so much is expected of teachers and so little appreciation is given. She loved children when she started 6 years ago, and now she doesn't even know if she wants one of her own anymore.

It's sad how the profession sucks every ounce of enthusiasm out of a person, and the longer they try to stick it out for the greater good, the worse it gets. I'm just glad she doesn't come home crying anymore.

Yeah, I figured they're aware I'm not using the laptop - I'm not on the VPN most of the time as a result. I'm still able to do all my work in my own copy of excel, though, so I'm hoping I can continue pretending I'm unaware that I'm not following the correct avenues to get my work done, at least until they force me to use the laptop.

Yeah, they're pretty behind the times, and I'm happy for that. They gave me a work laptop, but since they didn't block me from just using my home computer instead, I just do that so that I've got an excuse if they ever bring up any strange data they might be skimming from the laptop. It's been a couple years now without any word from them about it, though, so I think I'm in the clear.

Efficient workers get more work if you're in the office. I work from home, and that allows me to work efficiently until my work is done, set up scheduled emails to go out at the time I would've otherwise been done, then do what I want until then.