Pallida

Agreed! For any of them that run a small business - especially if it's mostly on them, I bet $25k doesn't even cover their lost labor and sales during their time on the show!

I was getting annoyed by the saguaro cacti on this because that’s not generally a Sedona thing. Sedona is a higher elevation and is not miserably hot dangit!

Gottmik’s runway had a tale. I don’t always love their offerings but I thought this was a smart and inspired runway.

I just wish the bakers had been given a realistic amount of time so they didn’t have to choose between a simplified inside vs a simplified outside. I’d rather they have another couple hours so we could truly be impressed.

I was trying to figure out if Gregory and Janine would have to report something as mandatory reporters for Alex. I also hope Janine sticks with the district so she can make PSE changes. I know it feels less personal but the reach and potential for impact is so much higher.

When I started my master’s program, I didn’t have guaranteed assistantship funding for the year and I was nervous about cost of living in a new state. I took out 4k in private loans “just in case” and it accrued 500 in interest between August and December. I paid that off in December and decided I didn’t need a buffer. Even though I knew interest would accrue immediately this was just way beyond my expectations.

Probably because it didn't produce enough drama? So silly.

This episode could have been so many episodes. As an anthropologist (with multiple graduate degrees - but I haven't slammed my car into any talking head neighbor's vehicles), I always take it personally when my field gets used to denigrate education. I'm pretty sure I understand how society shafts people better than FoxNews folks, and I can back it up with research. The public service loan forgiveness program is a shitshow. I'm holding out hope that it still exists when I have my 10 years done, but I'm still nervous. It took over a year for a loan servicer to respond to my inquiry about payments not counting, and it was some fluff non-response. I still have no clue why they weren't counting, but I'm fairly certain it's because things got murky when my loans got transferred around amongst loan servicers and because I was making income-based repayments when I was making very little money, so the payment amounts were very small when counted against each individual loan. Thankfully, the Biden administration implemented a waiver and payment count adjustment that fixed whatever issue I had that the loan servicer couldn't figure out: https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/education-department-announces-permanent-improvements-public-service-loan-forgiveness-program-and-one-time-payment-count-adjustment-bring-borrowers-closer-forgiveness?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term= I also wish more attention had been paid to the skyrocketing cost of housing, especially in college towns. I've lived in the same apartment since 2010 (ha, I thought I'd leave after finishing my program, oops?) and my rent has doubled in that timeframe. No improvements to my apartment at all, but ya know, an annual increase adds up. Around here, unless someone wants to live with too many bodies to a place, it's easily $700/month for one bedroom in shared housing. Folks need to stop thinking that loans are only going to tuition - trying to survive in college is way more than just tuition. The cheapest dorms are $7500/year for triple occupancy. I did that one year and it was absolutely horrible for my introverted mental health. This does not include the meal plan which is another couple thousand.

Kat is insufferable. The pond doesn’t work in annual cycles - if it wants her to go back to help Jacob recover, she could have still taken care of her current time responsibilities and gotten back in time. I wish the writers had made it more that she just couldn’t focus.

In this episode, I realized Q looks like Phil and Lil from Rugrats. I didn’t love her look as much as the judges - the ripped fishnet and shiny panty just didn’t work for me with the rest. It felt too cliche.

I bet Sheldon would even love making a spreadsheet of what trains/routes are safe at what time! Or how many routes he can take if he's only allowed 2 hours a day or 10 hours a week or something.

I agree with this but also want to add that Mary completely squashes Sheldon’s social intelligence development. Her “little boy” isn’t learning how to function in the non-academic world like his age peers because he is incredibly coddled. His time in the dorms was an important start, but a teenager not being allowed to take public transportation on his own is absurd. (Maybe the trains aren’t public? But same idea.)

Being the nerd I am, I found the final episode fascinating because of the consequences of an inherited topic. I am bad with names but the guy stuck with fashion icons had several people touching him who would be chosen by the randomizer if he went back to the floor, including one who could only challenge him. That had to affect the decision to keep dueling. I am going to agree with the statement above about handing the win over by picking fashion icons instead of international foods.

I wasn’t a huge fan of Morphine in the first episode, but when she looked ready to throw down for Amanda in Untucked, my opinion skyrocketed.

I don’t think there’s scoring exactly. It’s who runs out of time first is out. The loser most likely named fewer things but I can see it possibly being equal if someone has to pass and the other person is just slow to answer.