Boulder (CO) Daily Camera letter to the editor.

[Laseredge]

I think this is real. Growing up is hard, and painful at times, but it has to happen.


Brian Charles Welch: We were unprepared to feed ourselves at college
POSTED: 02/10/2019 07:13:23 PM MST

As a University of Colorado grad student, I want to highlight some of the reasons I often feel "food insecurity." It isn't just because of money.

• Cooking. In general, my generation was not taught how to prepare meals. I've taught myself fairly well, but usually, I sustain myself by eating at restaurants and eating cereal or microwave meals. When working late in the lab, I return hungry. I only packed one meal, so a 9:30 p.m. return means no dinner and no time to get food. Tough.

• Shopping. Even with money and the convenience of grocery stores, shopping for food is daunting. You must sort through an immense warehouse of goods and figure out which things to buy. Not familiar with the store? Good luck finding your one item. Did you find it? Now you must decide which of the eight brands you should buy. OK, done. Now repeat this for every single item on your list. Marketing shenanigans make this harder. Then consider the health, sustainability and ethics of the food you buy (a large concern in Boulder). Then make sure the food is vegetarian or vegan or kosher or halal. Do this all with broken English. Food shopping is surprisingly difficult.

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• Division of labor. Grad students are completely focused on research and education. There are no homemakers in the overcrowded, overpriced apartments of Boulder.

• Life experience. We have not built up the experiences required to consistently feed ourselves well. We don't have the time or resources to specialize in shopping and cooking. Being 22-25 years old is a rough transition. Moving to a new city is a tough transition. Moving to a new country and operating on a new language is a very hard transition. Undergrad didn't prepare us for this transition.

 

[Slash0311]

And just imagine what they'd do if the massive warehouses of food were empty... way too many assume they'll be able to just go buy food. Imagine the chaos if they didnt have that option...

 

[Sean the Nailer]

I find it so ironic, and even humorous.... that this topic is about individual human beings attending a "place of higher education."

Need I say more, REALLY?

 

[Gunfighter14e2]

I'll say it again,... food & med's,... are the next weapon's to make conformance happen,...

 

[Mike Casselton]

He already pointed out how overwhelming food shopping is. They will begin starving to death when restaurants close down.

Ethics in food shopping?

Maybe he needs to learn economics in food shopping.

If he finds all that difficult, imagine him working a job and running a household and budget.

 

[W54/XM-388]

So they come here from some foreign place and are whining about how hard it is to buy food?
Perhaps go back home & let your parents help.
Maybe come back when you have learned how to actually take care of yourself.

I have very little sympathy as I have shopped for food in a number of countries over the years many of which had different languages than I spoke & it wasn't really all that hard to be honest.

I've done the whole spending a long hard day making money in a foreign country, to get the money to shop for food at a store where everything is in a different language, then to go home and cook for a bunch of people and then go to bed and repeat. Lots of work, but not all that daunting.

It's way too easy today, just point your smartphone at the label and presto Google will translate for you.

Try what I used to have to do back in the day... Take a character to phonetic dictionary as well as a phonetic dictionary to English with you to read things on signs & labels till you got the hang of it.

But let me guess the Democrat/Communists think that we should pay even more of our tax dollars to help these "educated whiny idiots" feel all nice and smug.

 

[Gunfighter14e2]

Free Rat meat will smooth the hunger pains,... plenty of them in the bigger city's as they still come in two or four legged versions.

 

[Redmanss]

Geez...

 

[Spblademaker]

So the generation with the most advanced personal tech that gives them instant access to the entire knowledge of the world, were too stupid to actually use it??

 

[hankpac]

By the way, I don't feel the slightest bit sorry for this guy. He or she (or whatever) is a foreign student, probably here to overstay their student visa, or take all that American knowledge back to their third-world dump to work for a muslim or communist dictator. I hope he fucking starves in the midst of plenty. Drops dead at his lab while cooking up ricin.

 

[Blue Sky Country]

In general, my generation was not taught how to prepare meals.

If you stop being preoccupied with how many made-up genders a person can think up, maybe you would have learned some essential life skills.

Even with money and the convenience of grocery stores, shopping for food is daunting. You must sort through an immense warehouse of goods and figure out which things to buy.

There are no free rides in life. Don't expect rewards without making sacrifices.

Tough.

Life is tough. It is even tougher for those who are stupid.

Food shopping is surprisingly difficult.

Adulting is difficult. That is called life. Of course, you can always yell "Hi Jack!" at your regional airport and earn 3 free meals a day, a bunk and a room all for you without any expense.

There are no homemakers in the overcrowded, overpriced apartments of Boulder.

There is however, something called "Have a nice big cup of shut the fuck up". Millions of people your age have to work extended hours to feed their families, deal with illnesses, debt and deaths of loved ones, as well as grueling commutes, work hours and living conditions. You think you have it rough? Go talk to one of the folks who keep your lights and AC running, your water running, and your bus running on time.

Life experience. We have not built up the experiences required to consistently feed ourselves well. We don't have the time or resources to specialize in shopping and cooking.

Boohoo cry me a fucking river. If you had spent your growing years learning essential life skills and money management instead of being an SJW soyboy pussy on Twitter 24 hours a day, maybe you'd actually know how to live life now. I have processed my own game and slaughtered / prepared livestock since I was 7 years old. YOU wasted your own learning years. Don't expect the rest of us to help you or feel sorry for you.

Being 22-25 years old is a rough transition.

You are not special, snowflake. Every human being for the last 10 million years had been dealing with that.

Undergrad didn't prepare us for this transition.

Well, at the same age you were doing your "undergrad" stuff, I was driving 32 foot box trucks and 48-53 foot semitrailers with 6 and 10 speed manual transmissions, dodging city traffic as well as spending long hours on country roads getting freight on time to various facilities. YOU should have been more smarter in learning the necessary skills to make life better and much easier for yourself instead of wasting your undergrad years being a militant feminist crusader, which I BET is what you had been doing all along. AND with all that I am certain you STILL did not get a girl to sleep with you. So how does facing reality feel now?

 

[XLR308]

They will make good slaves for someone one day or die when things go south and the power goes out.

 

[RidiculousMetacarpus]

Lol

 

[LawnMM]

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Blue sky... I couldn’t have ripped him better myself...

Cheers, Sirhr

 

[JFComfort]

Brian, damn bruh... you retarded.

 

[Rthur]

Brian, being all techie and moderistic science has an answer.
Darwin explained it in his theory.
Survival of the fittest.
This isn't you...

R

 

[Ravenworks]

They will make good slaves for someone one day or die when things go south and the power goes out.

Slavery gets shit done.

 

[Gunfighter14e2]

Slavery gets shit done.

As does being a professional poverty whore.

 

[Spdy]

WTF. A grad student doesn’t know how to buy groceries or cook?!!! Apparently this high tech genius also doesn’t know how to use internet delivery sites like Amazon or Peapod or Hello Fresh or any of the other businesses catering to people too busy to shop. Working late - PB&J is your friend. This kid is wasting his time and his parents money going to grad school.

 

[Gunfighter14e2]

Just another indication Libtard colleges are just turning out large groups of People that are educated beyond their intelligence"

 

[Gunfighter14e2]

Must have been a lot of electronic baby setting going on or the parents never thought their kids would get old enough to get out on their own. Then again the parents could have believe they would always live in the basement. Regardless mother nature has here own way of cleaning up the weak/stupid be they a one off or the whole tribe.
I really do find it interesting, as the same logic that got him/them to this point abounds, everywhere. ie, no one every taught me life skill sets so it can't be my fault. Much like trying to learn to swim after falling out of the boat, that your ass rode in for years upon years. Take over Mother Nature, an do what you be best!

 

[Foul Mike]

You have to take into fact that this is coming out of Boulder, home of our Pole Smokin Governor.

The Land of Fruits and Nuts.

We are truly Fucked out here with all of the Libtards that have moved here and destroyed what they moved here for.

 

[RTH1800]

Wonder who wipes for him?

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Wonder who wipes for him?

His boyfriend, of course! Cheers, Sirhr

 

[Ravenworks]

As does being a professional poverty whore.

My post was a joke

 

[Gunfighter14e2]

My post was a joke

Know that,.... but I was referring to the likes of some states/fed gov leadership as well as the likes of the professional race baiting, poverty whores. Making millions by fucking people to stupid to know it.

 

[Ravenworks]

Know that,.... but I was referring to the likes of some states/fed gov leadership as well as the likes of the professional race baiting, poverty whores. Making millions by fucking people to stupid to know it.

I know exactly what your saying.
Sad thing about it is you,me and every swinging dick that do work are paying for it.

 

[Blue Sky Country]

Somebody should forward him a reply with this thread in a link, along with the message that if he is really finding it that tough out there, he can always put on make-up, dress in drag, and work the streetlights in the shady parts of town.

There is big money to be made in that. Behind every 24-hour gas station and McDonald's are unlimited pots of gold, if one knows how to look for it.

 

[Rthur]

Wonder who wipes for him?

His boyfriend likes butt gravy...

R

 

[Blue Sky Country]

Blue sky... I couldn’t have ripped him better myself...

Cheers, Sirhr

I have developed acute allergies to excuses and whining, and it comes directly from being in supervisory and management positions in various fields. When I was an ASM at 7-Eleven, holy shit you can imagine all of the excuses. People calling out because they "have a headache" and making the call 10 minutes before their shift is to start so it now disrupts the entire schedule for the next two to three shifts. The funniest shit is having multiple people all call out on Saturday and Sunday mornings because "they were sick". Yeah. Okay. After the second time I brought up the suggestion of mandatory doctor's notes in case of illness. The GM and the field consultant agreed and that was the end of that BS at least.

 

[MarinePMI]

As @Redmanss stated...geez....

Smh. I mean, how hard is it to make a grilled cheese sandwich FFS? And shop for one? Let's see...bread, cheese and butter.

Sounds like this guy would starve to death while sitting in a well stocked pantry....WTF?

When I was on hard times (post divorce, still active duty), guys would pass my barracks room and ask "Hey, what's that you're cooking? Smells good." I just look up at them in the door way and say "Rabbit. The original fast food."

I'd figured out that a Federal hunting license for Pendleton was $10. A box of 16ga #6 shells was $4.58. Rabbit season ran from July 1-January 31st and had a 5 bag limit/10 in possession. Guys in the barracks would pay $5 for a freshly killed and cleaned rabbit, and it took me a whopping hour or two to go clean out some rabbits around combat town or the rappelling tower. Ate a lot of rabbit, and paid for my beer and carbs/veg that way for about a year. Eventually, I upgraded to an (unheard of back then) "Howa" 1500 in .223, and reloaded shells in my barracks room. Brass was "free" back then for the taking, since the rifle ranges used to leave the brass in big dumpsters next to the armory (along with a big pile of empty ammo cans). All you'd have to do is swing by the range on the weekend, grab an empty ammo can and reach in the dumpster and scoop out a 1000 or so pieces of brass. Self sufficiency and using what is at hand to get by...

And then I see this article. Fuck. Really?

Edit: People sometimes give me shit because I am well paid these days for what I do. What they (and people like the one in this article) don't seem to realize is that hard times are what forges that determination to succeed. Hard times force us to recognize reality in it's cold hard uncaring manner. You can either buck the fuck up or continue to live in misery, pay check to pay check. The decision is yours, and ain't anyone going to make it easier for you. And when you see someone successful, there's likely a history that includes some pretty rough times and hardships that were necessary to get through, before success was achieved....there ain't no free lunch.

 

[RidiculousMetacarpus]

Has anyone considered.. that the vast majority of college students aren't actually like this, they are like most others and go with the flow, and therefore don't bother posting anything on Opeds.

But the crazies have salient shit to say (that is, things that are absurd to atleast one side, and appeasing to another), and thus they get the news despite being a minority of the population?

It applies to most other stories.

You don't see stories like "John and Jane got married and they had kids. They pay taxes. They are trying to get out of debt by doing what most Americans also do. Now they have a house and that's all that's in this entire story. Nothing else, nothing designed to change your views or anything"

(Mind you, John & Jane are still the typical, predominant kind of couple in America as per actual outcome: i.e. economy, who you most often run into in real life 9/10 times, who you interact with most often across the states).

Instead, you get stories like "Jaquisha and Jomanja bravely, in face of all odds, revolted against the patriarchy, adopted 17 children and raised them as vegans so they can make the world a better place by taking down the evil meat industry. They also successfully got the backing of <insert outrageous politician who everyone hates, and is only now relevant because of this news story> and are now going to change foreign policy, and have the backing of the UN".

(The ladder represents like 1% of the US. They're fucking anomalies in a Kuhnian sense)

Guess what folks, the ladder is what gets the clicks. It applies to the rest of all topics in existence. There is no such thing as "Itll be nice sunny days, have a good weekend!" on the weekly weather columns. Those don't exist. It's now "the world is going to be an ice age in 4 years unless we raise taxes". It's been going on since the late 80s.

What's most absurd is what gets the news. It's always some hero-story that invokes imaginary evil in another seemingly problem-free group. People who think whats on the TV is the same as reality are as delusional as the ladder. Sadly, our politicians belong to this camp: they think what's on TV is how the world actually is. And that's where your votes went.

Steven Pinker has some wise words to say on this...

https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_is_the_world_getting_better_or_worse_a_look_at_the_numbers

 

[JimLee]

Something tells me this kid has a very punchable face.

 

[Spdy]

Something tells me this kid has a very punchable face.

I’m thinking it’s the parent(s) fault more than the kids.

 

[MarinePMI]

I’m thinking it’s the parent(s) fault more than the kids.

No doubt, they carry some of the responsibility for this kids development. That being said, said kid is an adult now, and is responsible for himself, regardless of how shitty his parenting was as a child. At some point, you can't blame someone else for your short comings....