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I'm a recent first-time homeowner and have a couple random questions about neighborhood life. We've rented a house before for a couple of years, but we don't have any experience with these sorts of things. This past April we bought a house in a nice, quiet suburban neighborhood where kids actually play in the street and people are generally fairly friendly (as far as we can tell.. we haven't actually met anyone, just waved as we drive by or shout a quick hello when we get the mail). We even have a little duck pond by the entrance with about 20 or so ducks that hang out and get fed by old ladies walking tiny dogs. It's quaint. So, two things- First, the people directly across the street from us just flat-out vanished about 2-3 months ago. We never saw a moving truck, we just realized their cars weren't there anymore and their grass was getting a bit overgrown. We never met them, but from what I gather there was at least a man and a kid living there. Someone eventually came and mowed their yard while we were at work, but it is starting to get overgrown again. This past weekend, my wife noticed that there was a letter taped to their front door. Are we right to want to know what it is, or are we just being nosy? Because I REALLY want to go over and read it. Do we have any way to find out? Secondly, about a week and a half ago, I was keeping an eye out for the pizza guy so I could meet him halfway and he wouldn't have to ring the bell and make the dogs go temporarily insane. While I was watching, a cop went by. Then another. When the pizza guy showed, he lingered in the driveway for a minute looking down the road as a police SUV rolled by with it's lights on (no siren). Apparently they were all just two doors down behind the treeline where I couldn't see them. Then this past weekend, there were a cop car with it's lights on at a totally different house on our street, then a second one there the next morning. We're starting to get concerned that there were break-ins or something, but we have no idea how to find this out. The only resource I know of that has information about police activity is Life360, but all the info it has on the neighborhood is about 6 months old. I feel like if there are break-ins we have a right to know as home owners, but there is no HOA so I don't know who to talk to. What are my options here?
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Nov 11, 2013 16:26
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Go to your town's police website. There should be a blotter/duty log. Search for your street name. Or go down to the station and ask. AND call your realtor and ask them about the house. They tend to have knowledge of foreclosure and also gossip from colleagues.
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Nov 11, 2013 16:45
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If it was me I'd walk over to the house and read the letter. If someone comes over, just say you noticed that the neighbors were gone and wanted to check in and make sure everything is okay. I mean really, what if it's not okay over there? What if it was an older person who hurt themselves or died and has no family? It does happen. My dad mows some older peoples' lawns in town for free, I don't think he checks up on them he just takes his mower over there and does it. About the cops thing, if there was a break-in, it would appear in the police blotter in the local newspaper and the online version of said newspaper. There is some merit to paying 50 cents for the local newspaper. Cops just like to cruise areas from time to time. It doesn't mean anything shady is up but I guess you can't really know. You could always flag down one of the officers and politely ask why they've been driving around your block so much. If you live in a decent area it's probably pretty likely that the local cops are nice and it's always good to know the name of the officer that patrols your are and for him/her to know your face and where you live.
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Nov 11, 2013 16:47
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Thanks guys. I checked the online police blotter and came up empty, but I don't know how current it is. I'll give it a week or so. I also emailed my realtor to see about the house across the street. I needed to contact her anyway because a letter came for the previous owners from Sri Lanka for some goddamn reason.
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Nov 11, 2013 17:46
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Baron Bifford posted:Is there any sort of cosmetic treatment I can undergo so that I would never have to shave my face again? Maybe some chemical that can kill my beard follicles? In the long run, this could save me a ton on razor blades. If you've got dark beard hair against pale skin, laser hair removal, else electrolysis. You can expect it to take a good 100 hours total of treatment for the first or 200 hours for the latter, and sessions have to be scheduled several weeks apart, repeatedly, over a good year or two, in order to catch all the follicles. Depending on where you live the price for treatment can go as low as $5 an hour with a groupon or similar deal or as high as $100 an hour.
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Nov 11, 2013 18:37
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New Leaf posted:Thanks guys. I checked the online police blotter and came up empty, but I don't know how current it is. I'll give it a week or so. I also emailed my realtor to see about the house across the street. I needed to contact her anyway because a letter came for the previous owners from Sri Lanka for some goddamn reason. Why are you so scared to go read a public notice posted on someone's door? It's most likely a notice to vacate and your neighbors were foreclosed on. There's about 4 or 5 in my neighborhood right now if I walk around the block.
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Nov 11, 2013 18:41
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razz posted:See, I guess I just never saw it like that. I liked the Critterquest thread and the Youtube videos thread (which somehow seem to have survived), and the photoshop threads, and breaking news stories with intelligent discussions and stuff like that. I never got the feeling that it was a bunch of high-and-mighty sperglords bitching about stuff. But like I said I haven't checked out GBS regularly in 2-3 years.
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Nov 11, 2013 19:04
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FCKGW posted:Why are you so scared to go read a public notice posted on someone's door? It's most likely a notice to vacate and your neighbors were foreclosed on. There's about 4 or 5 in my neighborhood right now if I walk around the block. It's not my land, I don't know protocol in this situation. I generally wouldn't cross onto someone else's property to read what I assumed was a private correspondence of some sort. It feels like reading their mail or something. I didn't know if it was meant for the public or the former homeowners (if they ever come back). That's why I asked. 
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Nov 11, 2013 19:34
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New Leaf posted:It's not my land, I don't know protocol in this situation. I generally wouldn't cross onto someone else's property to read what I assumed was a private correspondence of some sort. It feels like reading their mail or something. I didn't know if it was meant for the public or the former homeowners (if they ever come back). That's why I asked. If it was private correspondence it would have been sent in the mail. You're well within your rights to go up to someone's front door and read a notice tacked to it.
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Nov 11, 2013 19:49
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New Leaf posted:It's not my land, I don't know protocol in this situation. I generally wouldn't cross onto someone else's property to read what I assumed was a private correspondence of some sort. It feels like reading their mail or something. I didn't know if it was meant for the public or the former homeowners (if they ever come back). That's why I asked. Since you used the phrase "land" I'm assuming you're from a part of the country where maybe homes are set back pretty far from the curb and wandering on someone's lawn would look odd. Where I'm from the front door is maybe 20-30 feet from the curb so taking a quick peek wouldn't look odd.
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Nov 11, 2013 19:57
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New Leaf posted:It's not my land, I don't know protocol in this situation. I generally wouldn't cross onto someone else's property to read what I assumed was a private correspondence of some sort. It feels like reading their mail or something. I didn't know if it was meant for the public or the former homeowners (if they ever come back). That's why I asked. It's always within etiquette to "check up on the neighbors" in this situation as long as it doesn't mean something like scaling a fence or opening a closed gate.
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Nov 11, 2013 20:09
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FCKGW posted:Since you used the phrase "land" I'm assuming you're from a part of the country where maybe homes are set back pretty far from the curb and wandering on someone's lawn would look odd. Where I'm from the front door is maybe 20-30 feet from the curb so taking a quick peek wouldn't look odd. Yeah, central North Carolina. We actually qualified for a USDA loan, which was super lucky. (http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/finance/mortgage/mortgage-abcs/usda-loan/) We got a great rate, closing costs were completely covered, and the house appraised for more than the purchase price so I got a nice little cash kickback from the loan. All that and we're just 20-25 minutes from Raleigh. So I'm close enough that I can tell there's a thing on the door, just can't tell what. My realtor got back with me though, she said it was likely a letter from the sheriff's dept. about the eviction and she suspects the house will be on the market soon. So mystery solved.
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Nov 11, 2013 20:12
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Baron Bifford posted:Is there any sort of cosmetic treatment I can undergo so that I would never have to shave my face again? Maybe some chemical that can kill my beard follicles? In the long run, this could save me a ton on razor blades. Combo of laser hair removal and electrolysis. It will probably cost $5,000 -$10,000.
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Nov 11, 2013 22:24
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regulargonzalez posted:Just to clarify -- you didn't hang out in GBS but all the same you hate the change and want it changed back immediately, so you can continue not to hang out in it. Is that an accurate summary of your views? I never said I hate the change. I said I think it's lovely that it changed because it is no longer entertaining to me personally (and probably to a lot of people who registered in the past 6 years or so). If it brings more people to the site being like it is now then I don't blame SA for changing it. I also never said I wanted it changed back immediately. I said I don't care because, as you noticed me saying, I don't go to that forum regularly and haven't for some time. I think lots of the subforums offer better discussion/more entertainment than GBS has lately. I might click on GBS once a month, now it's never. Basically, it's the internet. I have ten thousand other things to do, being online is just a filler between doing things I have to do/ want to do instead. It's not like someone bought my favorite bar and turned it into a comic book store. I don't "hang out" in an internet forum. I just read poo poo there. It's not a real place, I'm not going to get too upset about it being moderated a specific way. I realize the irony of me telling you that I don't care about the internet by spending a decent chunk of time typing this post on the internet.
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Nov 11, 2013 22:37
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So a few friends and I have been having an on going argument lately, or whether a man could punch out an average sized horse. Animal cruelty aside, it's just kind of a discussion of if it's possible or not! I think it was brought on by that scene in Blazing Saddles. According to internet rumors, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter did it. Roberto Duran punched out a donkey, and George Foreman maybe punched or murdered a horse. I feel that a man, maybe a professional boxer could definitely punch out a horse, what do you guys think?
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Nov 12, 2013 00:06
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JD posted:So a few friends and I have been having an on going argument lately, or whether a man could punch out an average sized horse. Animal cruelty aside, it's just kind of a discussion of if it's possible or not! I think it was brought on by that scene in Blazing Saddles. Well infamous UK prisoner Charles Bronson once wrote that knocking out a cow with a solitary punch was possible. He's not a scientist, and he's pretty mental, so I don't know if he knows what he's on about. I used to box, and I reckon that if you (or even I) punched a horse or cow once, very hard, even with good gloves on, we'd be in much more pain than the animal and the animal would just be pissed off. If the man throwing the punch was a trained fighter (boxer, really), had a very powerful punch, gets the animal to stand very still, and hits the animal in just the right spot, it might be possible. Horses have a huge skull though so I have no idea where that spot would be, and I doubt I'd want to find out.
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Nov 12, 2013 00:20
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JD posted:So a few friends and I have been having an on going argument lately, or whether a man could punch out an average sized horse. Animal cruelty aside, it's just kind of a discussion of if it's possible or not! I think it was brought on by that scene in Blazing Saddles. Horses have a huge bundle of nerves by their nostrils. We use this to "twitch" them (a rope loop on a stick to compress their upper lip). If you do it right you don't hurt them at all and they just kinda go all dopey and passive. It's sometimes unfortunately necessary for loading misbehaving horses on a trailer and such (which is usually because the last time they were in a trailer someone was driving like an rear end in a top hat) or for veterinary procedures. So......it would seem that "punching them in the nose" would be a good spot for making something like that happen, although I can't say I've got any practical experience.
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Nov 12, 2013 01:13
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I'm ready to legally change my surname as a male but I have a few questions on a couple of details of it. I'm ready to tick off my family and change my name surname legally but I have concerns about how it will effect my professional life. I'm kind of in a spot where I move employers often enough, and need to use a reference 2-3 times a year, so how do I put on a resume what my name is? Put the new name and when asked for references then disclose the name change? That seems somewhat deceitful. Also perhaps some of you have thoughts to the line of thinking that as a male I'll likely be questioned for changing my surname. I worry that people won't try to understand the rationale and just think perhaps I'm shameful to my family; on the other hand, if a fellow I knew changed his name I'm pretty sure I could very easily wrap my head around it and get on with things and it would have no effect on my life. Also did I use that semicolon properly?
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Nov 12, 2013 05:30
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Are you changing it to something like Razor or Laserburns?
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Nov 12, 2013 05:32
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muike posted:Are you changing it to something like Razor or Laserburns? I was going to go with something very normal but now you've got me thinking...
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Nov 12, 2013 05:37
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SmokeyXIII posted:I worry that people won't try to understand the rationale and just think perhaps I'm shameful to my family; on the other hand, if a fellow I knew changed his name I'm pretty sure I could very easily wrap my head around it and get on with things and it would have no effect on my life. Yes. A separate sentence is also acceptable but I hate sentences that begin with transitional phrases.
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Nov 12, 2013 06:00
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SmokeyXIII posted:I'm ready to legally change my surname as a male but I have a few questions on a couple of details of it. It's not deceitful at all. You put Bob Jones on your resume, and then on your references, you write "(This person knew me as Bob Smith, my legal name until November 2013)". Similarly, if/when you attach transcripts, you include a copy of your "Bob Jones" signed letter to the registrar that says "I'm looking for my transcripts; when I attended your university, my legal name was Bob Smith." As you might expect, there is a fairly straightforward protocol in place to address this in the English-speaking world because so many women choose to change their name after marriage; people changing their names for other reasons just trail along behind the herd.
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Nov 12, 2013 06:04
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SmokeyXIII posted:I'm ready to legally change my surname as a male but I have a few questions on a couple of details of it. You don't need to put it on a resume; they're not judging you based on what your name USED to be. If you list any references, you might want to let them know that you've changed your name, in case the new company checks in on you. If you fill out a form to authorize a background check, you'll be required to list any former aliases on that. Personally, I know someone who had a strained relationship with his family and a difficult-to-pronounce Chinese name who went ahead and changed his last name to "Smith." Nobody thought anything of it; nobody really knew unless he told them. Your family might be upset, but (unless you do it every few years), no one will give much thought to you changing your name. I would have used a period instead of a semicolon.
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Nov 12, 2013 06:06
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I notice the expression "be they" often sounds lofty. For example: Other nations, be they rich or poor, often have the same problems. Is there a better way to express the same meaning without being overly wordy? "whether they are rich or poor" is a real mouthful to say.
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Nov 12, 2013 06:13
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Vegetable posted:I notice the expression "be they" often sounds lofty. For example: Other nations, be they rich or poor, often have the same problems. You could say "whether rich or poor" if that sounds better to you.
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Nov 12, 2013 06:24
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So I'm going to be taking the GRE sometime at the beginning of next year and was trying to find the best prep book for it. Did I just completely miss a GRE thread somewhere in SAL, or another forum here? Any advice on what prep book is much appreciated, as is linking to somewhere where there's as discussion of them.
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Nov 12, 2013 06:56
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Has anyone applied for a certificate of eligibility for a VA loan recently? I submitted my application last week and they said it takes a couple weeks depending on load, so I'm hoping someone can tell me how long theirs took to go through in the not too distant past.
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Nov 12, 2013 07:31
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Vegetable posted:I notice the expression "be they" often sounds lofty. For example: Other nations, be they rich or poor, often have the same problems. Without adding more words? I don't think so. "Regardless of wealth" is maybe the shortest I can think of and that's also pretty pompous. Sometimes, when you need to be eloquent, you just gotta bust out that loftiness.
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Nov 12, 2013 07:31
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Is there something I can do to get Gamespot working? I know it's a lovely site but I like to check it out sometimes and it's been completely broken for me since they changed it. I just get a big circle and it freezes the tab I have open in Chrome.
veni veni veni fucked around with this message at 08:32 on Nov 12, 2013 |
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Nov 12, 2013 08:28
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I'm hearing a lot of complaints about the new comment system on YouTube (eg. Vi Hart), and I'm having some difficulty understanding what the issue was. Now, I thought the YouTube comments were terrible before (and I thought that was pretty much a universal opinion) and not much actually seems to have changed, functionally. So what's the big deal? Why are people bothered by this?
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Nov 12, 2013 10:42
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Tiggum posted:I'm hearing a lot of complaints about the new comment system on YouTube (eg. Vi Hart), and I'm having some difficulty understanding what the issue was. Now, I thought the YouTube comments were terrible before (and I thought that was pretty much a universal opinion) and not much actually seems to have changed, functionally. So what's the big deal? Why are people bothered by this?
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Nov 12, 2013 10:51
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I've also heard that like 50% of comments are automatically marked as spam, and don't show up after you post them and you are never notified about why. Of the 50% that get through, most are spam anyway 
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Nov 12, 2013 11:16
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Pyromancer posted:Youtube comments were terrible because of content, now they're terrible in usability as well: stupid tree structure, linking to google+, default to top rated comment first instead of chronologically(top rated comment is usually spam, a meme or years old), also now you get e-mails about replies to comment you replied to, and not just replies to you. The emails thing sounds annoying, but the G+ linking seems completely harmless since no one uses G+ anyway. As for the other two, I must be missing something because I thought that's how it was before as well.
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Nov 12, 2013 11:27
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Vegetable posted:I notice the expression "be they" often sounds lofty. For example: Other nations, be they rich or poor, often have the same problems. "Rich or poor, nations often have similar problems."
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Nov 12, 2013 11:52
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Tiggum posted:The emails thing sounds annoying, but the G+ linking seems completely harmless since no one uses G+ anyway. As for the other two, I must be missing something because I thought that's how it was before as well. I know for me, when I click on the link "in response to JoeBlow123" to see JoeBlow123's comment, it now refreshes the entire page. Makes following a conversation intolerable and I've quit even looking at comments now.
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Nov 12, 2013 12:09
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My girlfriend is renting a student bedroom from a private landlord. One of the corners is starting to grow mould all over it. The landlord has been around and said that he will get the drain looked at as that may be what's causing damp, and thus the mould. He said however that there was nothing he could do about the current mould though, which is growing by the day. This is a couple of weeks ago now and there's been no further communication from him. My girlfriend is really afraid of confrontation, to the point where she upsets herself rather than tell people no to anything, so she hasn't chased him up about it and I don't think she'd get very far even if she did. What are my options here for helping her out or advising her? I've already told her she should call him and hassle him, and that she should've pushed the matter on the day he came around, but it doesn't get through to her - shed rather be miserable in a mouldy, damp room, than confront someone. Legally is there anything she can do, or can I ring him on her behalf? I'm in the UK if that makes a difference.
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Nov 12, 2013 12:38
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AlbieQuirky posted:
The way we figure it, it's easy if you have few/no assets, and/or a lot of time to deal with bureaucracy (e.g. No job), but the less you are like a "traditional housewife", the more of a hassle it can be.
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Nov 12, 2013 12:54
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PriorMarcus posted:My girlfriend is renting a student bedroom from a private landlord. One of the corners is starting to grow mould all over it. She's at college/uni? Talk to the Housing Officer at the Student's Union. They deal with crap like this all the time.
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Nov 12, 2013 13:25
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Johnny Truant posted:So I'm going to be taking the GRE sometime at the beginning of next year and was trying to find the best prep book for it. Did I just completely miss a GRE thread somewhere in SAL, or another forum here? I would like to know about this as well. My sister took it last year, and I have her Princeton Review book, but I haven't cracked it open yet. I also downloaded the Powerprep II software from their website and ran through the preview.
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Nov 12, 2013 13:30
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spog posted:She's at college/uni? Yeah, but it's a private landlord. We will have to see if the uni will help. I'm really trying to get her to start standing up for herself, but it just feels like I'm pushing her to do things she doesn't like, even though I know it's better for her Is it wrong of me to keep telling her she needs to start doing so? I guess that's a little too EN really.
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Nov 12, 2013 13:36
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