What You've Just Bought!

[Joe C]

It is different from one state/even school district to the other so what ever your school board/state govt does is what it is. Teachers here in Mich no longer get pensions, they're just like everybody else and get a 401k option. This was sometime within the last 10 yrs, but I can't recall the exact date. Yes my wife gets a pension but she did put in 29yrs before she got it. Tenure? again it depends on your school district and union. Places like Texas and other southern states do not have unions or tenure. Yes you can teach with a bachelors degree but many in the education field have a masters because a teacher with a masters degree gets a better pay rate, at least they do in this school district.
Teachers today must re-test in order to keep their teaching degree so their education is always continuous
Teachers in our school must put in their own time to support the schools extra activities, like going to football or basketball games or attending track and field events
Teachers are graded today, if a kid fails, it is now the fault of the teacher. Too many failure's and that teacher is out of work.
The school admin does not always support the teacher, if a parent complains the teacher is usually wrong because the administration is in fear of parents.
Teachers can not touch students in anyway. The kids know this. When a kid is misbehaving the teacher can only ask the kid to behave. The kid may or may just tell the teacher to f**k off and leave the room. The teacher can only inform the office sectary.
Parents want the school to be their baby sitters because both are too busy working but the school can not touch the students to discipline. Is it any wonder we have a teacher shortage now and kids going crazy in schools with guns? The (school) system is designed to fail due to govt intervention today and we are now starting to see the results of this failure

 

[S0ULphIRE]

^I checked you don't qualify for the monthly pension payments in Pennsylvania until 65, OR at 57 if you worked for at least 35 years. If someone sticks it out in a teaching job for 35 years, I don't mind paying them 80% of their salary for the last 15 years of their life ditto for the 65 year-old set to die in 7 years.

PP, please try to understand that teachers have no control what so ever on costs and revenue. You need to look at the school administration and school board to blame. My wife's classes didn't get sh*t for supplies or much anything else but the sport coaches got everything they want without having to ask. The REASON for this is because sports makes $$$ for the school and the english class is just a financial loss. My wife taught special ed, and she was told that her kids don't even count as "real students"
The issue is not with teachers, look at the top because the feces always runs/goes down hill

Agreed. It's not like we don't know how to stop this **** happening either. We hit the same exact issue (i.e. greedy individuals in power) in sectors like banking, housing, commerce in general, etc. It's why hardly any place ever operates purely capitalistically. It opens the door to this exact kind of abuse. Lets not pretend, there's *plenty* of funds. It's just wholly mismanaged.
To take a 100% over the top analogy, the french revolution is the same idea. No power at the lowest level, all the money magically disappears before it reaches them, and everyone around them saying "well thats bad but ah well what can you do?". After a while, enough people decided that together they totally COULD do something, and that's when things changed.


Annnyway xD bought supplies to make Cannolis! Made em last night, and found out half way through that I don't have a mixer. Or a rolling pin. Or cannoli molds. Ah well they turned out...ok. The custard filling is GREAT, but man without a proper rolling pin (I was using a water bottle) it's impossible to get perfectly even 2mm thick sheets of dough :/ so the shells are huge and too thick. Better luck next toime

 

[kmanmx]

Big list incoming!. I literally have close to zero DIY tools in my house, and I want to learn woodworking. Sooo...

1x Milwaukee M18 4Ah Brushless Drill
1x Stanley Fibreglass Claw Hammer
1x Magnusson Beech Wood Mallet
1x Magnusson Combination Square Set
1x Magnusson Mitre Box & Saw 25½"
1x Irwin Marples Wood Chisel Set 3 Pieces
1x Goldscrew Plus PZ Double Self-Countersunk Woodscrew Case 1400 Pcs
1x Gorilla Glue Wood Glue
1x Mac Allister Folding Workstation
1x Stanley 0-10-810 Quickslide Pocket Utility Knife
1x Kreg Pocket Hole Jig
1x Kreg Pocket Hole Screw Set
1x Gyokucho 3 Set of Japanese Saws
1x 4 pieces Spring Clamp set
1x Right angle clamp
2x Irin QuickGrip Clamps
1x Band Clamps


Anyone who does woodworking DIY think I am missing anything major ? I have heard Titebond glue is better than Gorilla Wood glue so I will probably swap that out at some point. Also yes I am aware it would be epic to have things like a table saw and mitre saw, but I have no garage or shed and I live in a terraced house with neighbours eitherside so I can't go big on power tools.

 

[PP Mguire]

PP, please try to understand that teachers have no control what so ever on costs and revenue. You need to look at the school administration and school board to blame. My wife's classes didn't get sh*t for supplies or much anything else but the sport coaches got everything they want without having to ask. The REASON for this is because sports makes $$$ for the school and the english class is just a financial loss. My wife taught special ed, and she was told that her kids don't even count as "real students"
The issue is not with teachers, look at the top because the feces always runs/goes down hill

The parents can be pissed all they want, the system has been broke fundamentally to the core for decades. The teachers do this because they know nothing meaningful will change in any short amount of time no matter what happens. I'm with you in that it should, I pay 10k a year in property taxes and so does everybody else in my surrounding community, topped by the rest of the district with varying amounts of taxes. The schools get a **** ton of money, but from large 5a districts down to 2/3a districts (the country) things like sports get the majority of that budget and board member pockets. To deal with this is to deal with the core problem in this country, greed. Who can take a guess at when that will be solved? Probably never.

It's almost like you don't read my post fully or something, or there's a reading comprehension issue. You told me I need to understand basically exactly what I already said. I already understand this and we're pretty much all in agreement here.

I'm fully aware (as indicated) that most of the tax money goes to the sports programs because they get a kick back in various forms, as well as board member pockets. I'm also fully aware that the teachers aren't actually the ones who create the lists (at least for this district). I too am also fully aware exactly WHY these lists are constructed (again as indicated in my previous posts). That doesn't mean I won't have an issue exclaiming my problems with the system, and further it doesn't mean I'm not aware that there isn't a single thing we can do about the American public school system. As I mentioned before, private schools are just as bad here. It's all greed.

 

[Joe C]

I Agreed. I tend to get into a major rant too when it comes to education

But it is the parents that can make the decisions to turn the schools around... but they are too busy working and trying to pay off their college loans. School districts around here are in fear of parents, Mostly that they might get sued or end up in the news, so if a parent states they should have something for their little babies, often they might get that. But it also depends on the financial/social status of that kids parent.
Parents need to go to the school board meetings and tell the board what they expect from their school. Parents also need to be a major part of their kids education and some parents really are involved but many are not. The kids that have parents that are involved with their school and education often have the most successful kids in school.

 

[PopoChubbs]

I know not everyone loved this movie, and as big of a fan of the IP as I am I can see why, but I enjoyed it, and I love that they released a steelbook for it. Did any of you guys see it? What did you think?

*Potential spoilers from responses!*

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Also yes I am aware it would be epic to have things like a table saw and mitre saw, but I have no garage or shed and I live in a terraced house with neighbours eitherside so I can't go big on power tools.

A table saw is really nice to have, but not necessary. I'd say the mitre saw is 100% necessary though. When you have to do multiple cuts and they all need to be flush and even and identical, forget about doing it by hand. It's a huge waste of time and effort; what might take you 30 mins by hand and be ok at the end could be done in 2 mins with the mitre saw and be as close to perfect as you can be, and definitely impacts the end quality of what you're making.

I have this one - just store it under the stairs or wherever when not in use, it folds up more compact than you'd think. Bevel/mitre/compound cuts are a breeze, and the slide means easy handling of wide pieces with smooth cuts.
https://www.bunnings.com.au/ozito-254mm-10-2100w-double-bevel-sliding-compound-mitre-saw_p6290588

edit: and come on, just buy a tiny shed already even just a 1m x .8m one will give you a proper place to hang your tools; I find having everything properly laid out and ready makes me more likely to use them AND it's easier to think about what you can do with everything in front of you.

 

[kmanmx]

A table saw is really nice to have, but not necessary. I'd say the mitre saw is 100% necessary though. When you have to do multiple cuts and they all need to be flush and even and identical, forget about doing it by hand. It's a huge waste of time and effort; what might take you 30 mins by hand and be ok at the end could be done in 2 mins with the mitre saw and be as close to perfect as you can be, and definitely impacts the end quality of what you're making.

I have this one - just store it under the stairs or wherever when not in use, it folds up more compact than you'd think. Bevel/mitre/compound cuts are a breeze, and the slide means easy handling of wide pieces with smooth cuts.
https://www.bunnings.com.au/ozito-254mm-10-2100w-double-bevel-sliding-compound-mitre-saw_p6290588

edit: and come on, just buy a tiny shed already even just a 1m x .8m one will give you a proper place to hang your tools; I find having everything properly laid out and ready makes me more likely to use them AND it's easier to think about what you can do with everything in front of you.

Interesting as I spent the past few evenings on woodworking and most people said they used their table saw way more than their mitre saw. But my dad has a mitre saw and uses it all the time so I guess it just depends what people like.

It's more the noise than the space. My bedroom is pretty big, it's like 9m x 4m, so I could fit in a portable table saw or something. But it's just the noise... terraced house with single thickness brick walls between each house, and each neighbour has a baby or toddler under 3. I'm really conscious about it, probably more than I should and certainly more than I have to be legally - but I just feel really bad about making a lot of noise for more than 30 seconds.

The shed is a no go. My garden is tiny, it's like 3 or 4 meters wide and 6 meters long. There is already a small 1.5 x 1m type shed in it, but it's rammed full of ****. My mum cares about nothing other than aesthetics and she won't think a 2nd shed would look good I was going to build some units in my bedroom to hold all my tools as one of my first projects.

I know hand tools are less precise and definitely wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy slower, but I have still seen people build some impressive things online using only hand tools. After all, people have been building stuff with wood long before powertools came along!. It's crazy how much some of the hand tools are though, the nice Veritas and Lie Nielsen planes are £300 a pop :\

 

[S0ULphIRE]

If I *had* a table saw I'd use it way more than the mitre set the guide then grab piece after piece and just push through. Doing it on the mitre you need to set each individual piece and initiate the cut down and up each time, vs zip zip zip on the table. The table also excels at larger pieces of wood. You can't cut lines with a mitre in planks or longer lengths etc, something you might do for joinery e.g. making tongue and grooves. You'd have to use a circular saw, which is hard to keep running 100% straight along a long length, OR a table saw where it's set and push forward.

Only reason I don't have one is $$, over twice the price of my mitre. https://www.bunnings.com.au/ryobi-1800w-254mm-table-saw_p6210593

 

[kmanmx]

So annoying... I just need to earn 150k a year so I can both afford to pay my mum so she can afford to keep living in the same house, while also having enough money to buy my own place with a large area I can designate as a workshop.