Enviroman

It's not taxable income, it is a gift award. The current gift tax is 48% (it'll drop to 45% in 2009). That means the winner of 1 million would cough up $480,000!

I was thoroughly dissapointed with this flick. I'm not a diehard SW fan, but I am a fan nonetheless. The acting was wooden and the plot was shoddy. Some of the fight scenes were decent but with that kind of budget, Lucas could have put together a much better film.

Sorry for the delay! Here are some Wisconsin opportunities (run them through google and you'll get all of the info you need): Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOG) Wisconsin Higher Education Grants (WHEG) Talent Incentive Program (TIP) Plus your standard federal loans... I checked out the grant programs and they seem to require a pretty low income-level. If you didn't qualify for a Pell you might not qualify for any of these, but try and apply! NYU has absurdly bad finaid. Have you considered transferring? I'm not sure how you feel about UW-Madison, but UW will have as good, if not better programs in nearly every area (save Tisch Fine Arts and Stern's Finance) for way, way, way less money. Many other schools have very good aid programs with as good, if not better, academic reputations. But, on the other hand, if you absolutely love NYU you can just ignore that advice!

JuJutsu or Ju-Jitsu tends to refer to japanese-style jujustsu. Jiu-Jitsu is almost always the spelling for Brazillian (or Gracie) JuJutsu. Danzan-Ryu is just a style of jujutsu, as is Aiki JuJutsu. They are both JuJutsu but just different in style (similar overarching theme, but probably different techniques, lesson plans, etc...just like the Okinowan Karates). Edit: Actually, aikijujitsu is apparently closer to Aikido plus JuJitsu plu ssome striking from what I can tell.

Well, I visited the $35/month TSD school. The instructor was very nice but I'm fairly sure this style isn't for me. They did roughly 15-20 minutes of calisthenics, 40 minutes of kicking drills, 5 minutes of blocking drills, one set of punching drills that lasted all of 1-2 minutes, and another 10 minutes of calisthenics at the end. I asked about the kicking and the instructor told me that it was pretty much a standard class. I'll just keep looking until I find the class that is right for me!

While I'm certainly not religious by any means, I certainly grieve for the losses the people of the UK had to endure.

NYU actually has a pretty poor endowment. It is about 1.2 billion...not great for such a huge school. For example, my school (Penn) has an endowment of about 4.4 billion and they have roughly 1/3 of the students that NYU has. And my aid still is pretty bad! You have a few options for grant monies. Realize that most state grants are income-based. Are you from NY state? If so, here are a few grants to look into: New York State Tuition Assistance Program Grant (TAP) - it offers $100 to $5000 in grants for people making less than $80,000/year. Pell Grant (I have one of these!) - Offers up to $4,050/year. Call 1.800.4.Fed.Aid to see if you are eligible for a Pell Grant (you usually have to be pretty poor to get one, unfortunately). Do you do a federal work study? If so, that can offset some cost...even though, knowing NYU's FinAid practices, you're probably already entrenched in the library or something.

I've noticed a lot of high school students frequent this forum. I do a lot of college admissions counseling for high school kids and I'd be more than happy to answer any/all questions about college admissions (particularly the "top" schools that are extremely selective...i.e. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.). For many students, especially public school students, guidance counselors tend to be extremely busy, not-too-well versed in the policies of many schools, and those students don't get into the schools they could otherwise get into. I'm not sure if anyone will actually want my help, but I figured I'd throw it out there!

i was pretty into chess (USCF 1850 for anyone that cares) in middle/high school. I am pretty active in my local environmental scene. I enjoy conservation and educating people about it. I started competitive handgunning a few years ago but I eventually stopped because it got too costly to practice. I do college admissions counseling (pro bono) and I counsel people majoring in geology and environmental studies at my school. So if anyone has college admissions questions, ask away. In fact, I'm going to start a thread just for this purpose!

I am (was) a pretty avid fisherman. I haven't fished at all this year, but when I lived in Lancaster I fighed the Susquehanna for Smallmouth Bass on a weekly basis. My biggest smallie was probably 15-16". My biggest fish overall was a Wahoo at 47" and 68 lbs off of the shores of Bermuda.

I tend to listen to a lot of Indie music, in general. Some stuff I dig for general practice: Anything by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists Hot Hot Heat's new album Anything by Patrick Wolf (pretty much techo/folk) Of course we cannot forget the pinnacle of martial arts rock: mid-to-late 80s Peter Cetera solo-wuss rock.

there's a pressure point on the sternum that, when struck with force, can seriously sting for quite a long time. If it doesn't go away for a while, I'd have my doc check it out...

tkdBill: Thanks for the great advice. I actually started looking at TKD dojangs a few days ago as I didn't want to prejudice my thinking. So far I'm not impressed with their quality, but I'll keep checking them out!

my best non-guess was a .16 after practice. it just said "Nice!" I did get a .0 once by accident. it said "well done!"

HAHAHAHAHA. I KNEW IT. I lived in Lancaster for about 3 years (attended F&M for a year before transferring) and I can root you guys out. edit: And the "glockmeister" handle clinched it. I did a lot of PPC/IPSC while in Lancaster. Out of curiosity, where do you do Krav Maga out there?

"zero societal protection" How's that? Tons of schools (especially post-Columbine) have zero tolerance policies concerning bullying/harrassment.

Very cool. I had a professor that did his undergrad at Imperial.

Like I said, if you kill or maim the person badly enough that they don't fight back, then yes it can solve something. But doing that can almost never be construed as the correct option, can it?

They are pretty different. UFC draws a lot of grapplers/submission fighters because it's essentially no holds barred. K-1 draws less of the submission crowd and more of the kickboxing crowd. I wouldn't want to fight Bob Sapp, that's for sure...

This is an offshoot of the "what do you do for a living thread." Where did you/do you attend post-secondary school? Did you partake in any MA while at school? I go to the University of Pennsylvania double majoring in Geology and Environmental Studies. We don't have much in the way of martial arts here. We have a competitive TKD program (which is mainly for team practice, not for beginners) and a Kempo/Arnis club that focuses mainly on Arnis (also not too much in the way of practice for newbies).

At UM-Twin Cities? Are you a primary researcher/publisher?

I'm definitely not all that into TKD. I'm not sure if any of the TKD places here teach it as anything but a sport (McDojo comes to mind as most of their students tend to be 10 and under). And I still feel that I'd never be comfortable in a high kicking, aerial maneuver style. It's the main reason i'm leery of TSD.

There's a whole lot of bad advice in this thread. Violence never "solves" anything. It may "settle" something for the time being, but it surely won't solve a problem unless you kill the other person or cripple him (mentally/physically or both). At best, you'll "win" a battle that'll resume later on...probably at your disadvantage. My advice is to try and talk your way out of it. If you can't, just try and walk away. If the other person is hell bent on beating you, then you have no choice but to defend yourself. My advice is to keep as much distance between you (them if he's packing buddies) and attempt to leave. Being thought of as a "coward" is a hell of a lot better than getting suspended, having something on your permanent record, dealing with parents, having a potential mar on future college applications, etc. Any friends you might lose for this show of "cowardice" were not friends anyway.

Eh, I can't afford cable let alone PPV. What part of PA are you from? Based on your name and your penchant for girls with guns, I'd say Central PA (no offense meant).

I'm a college junior. Right now I'm working two summer internships.