Wow, 80...I'll take my 76 during the day and 72 at night any day of the week. Just walk around in your tidy whities for a few days, maybe he'll take the hint.
Yeah, the thermostats at work are locked and we have the same problem. The thermostat is located by me, the other end of the building boils and I wear a jacket during the summer when I am at my desk. The temperature usually hovers around 66-68F by me. Although, that is a very comfortable 75F over at the other end of the building.

I'm watching a soccer game.

Did you lose the remote control?

No, Cardinal game isn't on until tonight and it IS the U.S. National Team so it's not as bad as it seems.

Ah, thought you would be a Brewers or Tigers Fan...I'd still rather watch just about anything else than soccer.

Sorry european futbol fans...most of us in the United States still don't like your sport.

At least we have a sport that is truely global and the term "World Champions" doesn't refer to "North American only".

Yeah, you got us there. That always bothered me too.

To be honest I was kind of being a smart ass. Under the right circumstances I can enjoy soccer and I certainly don't harbor any bias against it. To be honest, and I think this has to do with my having zero athletic ability, I dig watching all sports because I'm so in awe of people who can do it.

You're just trying to get down repped again - It's FOOTBALL :)

Touche, the arrogant nature of our country. Although, technically when the term World Series was coined, we were the only country playing the sport. Now there are a lot of countries playing the sport, although the World Series is still just the North American Baseball championship being played by players from around the world...well not many europeans. Mostly just players from South & north America and the asian countries with a few Aussies and very limited number of europeans.

That's right - I happen to live in a country where politicians and bankers have true values and morals, so am in a position to lecture (do I need to highlight sarcasm?)

...and while I'm at it; pants are worn under your trousers and a fanny refers to a vagina, not an arse...which I believe you butchered with the word "ass"....metaphorically speaking

(insert the worst possible curse word imaginable) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For non-Finns, I should probably explain the context of what follows. The Finnish government pays a subsidy to students in universities, polytechnics and such; it's not a lot of money, but covers very basic expenses so that you don't have to rely too much on outside sources (working, parents, spouse or what have you). However, to receive said subsidy you have to receive a set average amount of study credits (ECTS) in a given time, otherwise they'll refuse payment until the problem has been tended to. As you may guess already, my situation regarding this isn't brilliant, and I'll probably have to study extra hard next semester to improve my average, just to cover myself with a kind of safe zone; I'm alright for the time being, but the situation is such that a sufficiently high-credit course could swing it either way.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that our faculty offers relatively few courses in autumn, which means that I'll probably have to resort to self-studying, something that I'm rather bad at. At least I'm no longer in a relationship, which frees up a fuck of a lot of time. For once I'm hoping that no girl will take an interest on me in the near future.

You get money from your government for free and are bitching? :) Isn't university also free?

[/socialism problems]

I had to have a set amount of credits each semester AND have to pay back the money I got from my government with interest.

I forgot to bitch. Well, I guess the above sentence is one so here is a bonus: College is bullshit. You (well, at least in the US) pay a shitload of money to get this useless piece of paper in order for a company to hire you and give you tedious, mundane, grunt work that in no way requires a college education yet they won't hire you without it.

Nevermind.

I rely on the subsidy pretty heavily. I don't work during study months, for instance, because I kind of want to get my degree done on time. University is practically free, yes, but this causes the institutions themselves all manners of financial difficulties as well. I'm probably not the right person to discuss the details of the situation, but from what I've gathered, most of our universities have financial problems of some degree.

Student (low-interest) loan is also available to us, but I really don't fancy living on borrowed money if I can possibly help it because my field of study has relatively poor employment rates after graduation, and I've heard that the wages aren't much cop either for a novice.

By the way, our government is always trying to reduce the subsidy, either directly or indirectly. We've had a few right-wing governments recently so it kind of makes sense in that respect, but apparently our MP's suffer from ADD because they also want students to graduate earlier. Yeah, sure, of course I'll study more intensively if I have to work simultaneously as well.