f13.net

Well, we're really just looking for what you do. You can Private message me or email me (schild@f13.net) if you don't want to post here or are a lurker. Yes, we're getting some demographics. No, we won't sell your information. Thanks.

Also, if you really want to, you can include your age.

P.S. Any message in this thread that is an attempt at derailing or discussion will get deleted and may or may not include a ban.

I am a "Development Manager/Software Architect" at a software (non-gaming) company. (I think that is my job title, I forget). Basically I am the lead programmer of a team at my company and I also manage my little department and participate in "product management" meetings.

I work at an antique mall/store managing the computer systems, developing the web site (always ongoing), unclogging toilets and anything else that needs to be done.

21 - Student

Currently a task monkey for VP/Provost of my school.

Fav drink: Bawls, with optional Penguin Mint (yeah, I ripped the idea offa someone with this part, heh).

Age: 33
Profession: Part-time attorney/full time PhD student
Location: Salt Lake City Utah
Current Favorite Drink: Blanton's Single Barrel Bourbon

20 - Student
Also working part time as a printer slave.

Age: 32

Attorney

Information designer/planner in Tucson, AZ.  Currently on loan to a department as a GUI test monkey.

Ohh, and I'm 26.

27
Austin, TX
Proud of my G.E.D.

Multimedia/Sound Designer, and all around assistant to someone more busy than I am. Currently considering...Something else (I'll tell you if and when I get there).

45.
Executive Chef.

34
MMOG Analyst
San Jose, CA

Bruce

30
Regional IT Manager/Network Engineer.
Grumpy.
Glasgow, Scotland.

Like sailing and men with hands that can be both gentle and strong.

Or something.

Financial Accountant/ Excel wizard
on the job 16 months
23
Atlanta, GA
University of Georgia Bulldog

35
Mechanical Design Engineer
Iowa

age: 25
degree: BA Telecommunications (Baylor Univ)
job: I work at a scheduling desk for a 3rd party service provider for dell.  I'm mircomanaged and the pay is complete fucking shit.  I could have done this job when I was 12.

Job-wise, this past year has been a sick joke on me.  I was about to be hired by Origin as a GM when EA Satan moved the studio to California.  I'd basically gone through the interview, been assured I would be hired, then picked up the newspaper one shitty morning and saw that my company was gone.

I'm the wife of my house.  I used to work in artist management but it gave me the shakes.  I've mostly worked in techy jobs, such as systems administration, database admin, networky stuff, etc.  All crap jobs.  It took me years but I finally figured out that most work is not beneficial to my mental health.  

PS  I knew Paelos was an accountant!  He has that air of quiet perviness about him. ;p (Poor Paelos, why do I taunt him so?)

36
Attorney
Project Manager in Social Services (Child Support)
Tennessee

drinks:  Dt Coke and cranberry/orange juice with Grey Goose Vodka

Age: 36
Profession: CTO for a title agency in NY
Also do some catering on the side.
Degree: Culinary Arts
             Restaurant Management

Occ : Mechanic
Age:  27

Lurker for years. Will continue to be. Just can't resist a quiz.

34- Help Desk Monkey for a variety of web-based portals and solutions in Bellevue, WA (just across Lake Washington from Seattle, or just down the road from Microsoft).

Age: 33
Vancouver, BC
Computer software sales / trade show setup coordinator for a Real Estate contact management company.
Two years in CORE electronics at BCIT I never used
A horribly out of date MCSE

Age: 33
Location: Jackson, MS
Occupation: Well, they pay me to design web sites and interactive presentations at an ad agency. But I'm really a writer with a day job.

/unlurk

Age: 35
Profession: software developer/data analyst for a government lab
Degree:  BA English, LSU
Location: Atlanta, GA  

/lurk

Age: 23
Location: Alameda, California (across the bay from San Francisco, for those unfamiliar with the area... it's where they keep the nuclear wessels)
Degree: BS in EECS (elec. engin. / comp. sci.) from UC Berkeley
Occupation: Tech Support/Developer/jack-of-all-trades for a medium-sized software company.

Location: Lund, Sweden.
Occupation: Student ( archeology & ethnology ) / techhead for Lunds Cathedral.

I work at Dell
I am in pre-sales support, which basically means I am a tech head with no official hands on experience.  Had a lot before Dell though.
BA in Sociology
Meandering through life as a single parent now.  Austin is good to be single in...

Age: 35

Location: Boise, ID

Occupation: Chef/Kitchen Monkey/Underachiever

26

I talk for a living. A lot. Basically I get paid for being a smartass.

And I live in MS.

30.
Callcentre ISP helpdesk.

21 - Government Intern / College Student.

38, database/server programmer for some MMO or another.

Age 40

Location: Rocky Mountains

Occupation: Overeducated and underpaid academic.

30
Overqualified (As in "Could take the Architecture license exam, but doesn't want to bother with the insurance") Residential Designer/ IT Support Guy/ Standards Administrator for a Centex division in Cincinnati.

But on my Business Cards it says - Draftsperson.

Fuckers.

At least I make more dough than the folks I graduated with who get to put "Architect" on their cards.

No, I can't give a simple answer.

36.

Attorney.  I am an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Texas, Child Support Division.

21

Currently interning in Bethesda as an accountant at Reznick Group
Usually a college student at West Virginia University.
Thinking about working on a forensic accounting degree.  
PM me if you think this is a good idea.

Newseditor/copyeditor for a general pc magazine with a circulation around 150.000/mo.

I also review gadgets and the occasional game.


I like long walks and kicking puppies.

Male, aged 38.

PhD (physiology - neuroscience) / MBA

I am a biotechnology / pharma stock analyst (investments doh).  "Buy side" but have some "sell side" contacts.   Some private equity contacts.  On the buy side I deal with portfolio managers from both mutual funds and hedge funds.  

Adjunct professorship at a local university.  I still have some involvement with brain research at our regional trauma centre (old habits...)

Toronto, Ontario Canada.

Age: 20
Job: Selling games at EB. Until I decide whether or not I want to become a cop or actually apply myself to something safe.
Location: Toronto, Ontario Canada.

Male, 33.  Information Technology project leader at a major pharma company.

Retired/independently wealthy/too lazy to work.

Older than you.

Used to do an odd variety of techy and non-techy things for money, like programming, hardware repair, consulting, fine woodworking.  I made ~800 ukuleles by hand in two years, my head exploded from the tedium, and I 'retired' to the country, where I play computer games, manage a small website for a non-profit, and complain about the weather.

27, Male, Pennsylvania

Anti-Virus Administration/Tech Support for the IT department of a private university

33, Male, Oklahoma

BS in Computer Science

Working tech support for Cox Communications. A mind-numbingly boring job that pays the bills while I follow leads on "real" IT jobs. Sadly for me those are hard to come by in Oklahoma.

23, Male, Public School Teacher in South Korea.

Graduated from a US university with a degree in English Lit, which means I'm more qualified to be teaching than most of the native speakers over here, but still not exactly trained.  I came here to travel the world a bit and see how much I like teaching.  Traveling the world = double plus good. Teaching = usually rewarding, occasionally tediuos, very well paying (here), but in the long run, not for me.  Which means I'll be leaving Korea once my contract is up, and then continue to wander the globe.

Formerly a heavy gamer.  Now only play when the rest of my life slows down. 

28
Attorney
Also back in school pursuing an LL.M. degree in IT Law & Privacy Policy...because you can never have enough loan debt.

Data warehousing analyst for an oil company in Houston, TX
30

32
Senior Developer (ie fancy name for a codemonkey with a few years experience) for one of the larger Telcos here in Australia.
Not particularly educated.  Ayuh.

31 years old, office manager of a heating & air conditioning company in San Diego.

Age: 30
Occupation: Field Applications Engineer (I help people design in semiconductor devices into their systems)
Location: Bay Area, CA

I also write and perform music on the side.  Hopefully I'll get back to the F13 parody album sometime soon.  :evil:

...long time lurker, first time poster.

Male, 35 -- Occupation: Systems Engineer  (Hardware/software infrastructure design and implementation, or Unix Systems Admin for short  :wink: )

Also a part-time student completing my Bachelors in CompSci.  I love programming, but will not fool myself into thinking I can make more money by becoming a programmer!  I appreciate you programmers out there who deliver these games...wel, many of these games anyways. hehe

Ahh..it feels good to post!   :-D

32

Code monkey for a not for profit publicly funded research/community support project.

Working on make a lat move over to an ultra low power CMOS research project starting up in a few months (Mmm, post grad work in a commercially relevant engineering subject, how rare is that?).

23, half arab male living in Denver.

Graduated last year with a BS in Electrical Engineering.  Worked since then in business selling various things.  Discovered secret to my life is contract jobs with big gaming binges between them.  The benefits suck, but the pay is good.  Currently enganged to an extremely intelligent lady who will make the phat lewtz.

Will you be my friend?

Macallan 18 2 rocks.

Male, 37
System Administrator & all-around IT Guru   :roll:
San Diego

26
Italy
Time waster
Awake from 8PM till 12AM

22, Male, Michigan
Circuit City lackey
Going to college for BS in Electrical Engineering

Male, 22
I play games.

Male, 31, married

Attorney (lot of us around here it seems)

Washington DC

Sapphire & tonic.

36

Finance guy.

NY suburbs.

37
Fulltime mother of two.

Editor, Warcry.

System Admin, aged 34 years, no degrees/certs; experience, baby!

Just my day job until I save enough to buy a ranch and build a music studio, which, at my salary, should be sometime in early 2143. Retired professional musician.

Edit: Forgot to mention: favorite drink: ice cold beer.

38. Computer security administrator somewhere shite, near Princeton, NJ.

36
Independent Consultant (Healthcare IT, Integration Engineering) by day, Independent Game Developer by night/weekends.
Social Life: Non-existant.

Counterintelligence Agent, US Army
currently stationed in Seoul, Republic of Korea

30 years old

screwdriver, preferably with Tropicana (no pulp) and Smirnoff Blue Label

40, Male

Senior System administrator/Database Administrator/Network Administrator/Satelite office PC support
      For a large software firm in Southern California.

Favorite drink: Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee with 2% milk added.

Female, 37
Chicagoland, IL
Project Management Assistant for HP (and to think I spent 7.5 years in college getting a degree in art!)
Malibu Rum and pineapple juice (although orange juice works in a pinch)

I've been alive for 33 years, but maturity-wise, I'm an infant.

For money I write technical documents for a software company in Irvine, California. Yes, I'm the guy who writes the help files you people never read.

In my spare time, I game (online and PnP) and write novels that will never get published.

Sorry, I didn't realize we were supposed to include favorite drink or whatnot...  My favorite adult beverage is single malt scotch whiskey.  My fiancee got me a bottle of Glenlivet for Valentine's Day (we opened our gifts early :-D)

As long as you don't write the help files for Microsoft products we're cool.  I have a whole list of painful atrocities I'm going visit on the first one of them fuckers I come across.  Like we'll sit down at a computer and look for help on X and everywhere in that help file it says to see Y and then in the Y help file says to see X I'm going to stick a rusty pin in thier eye.  I'm going to need a lot of pins.

       WA State|35|male -- Professional lurker by day...Surgical Tech whenever
          Doing the back to school thing. Is it me or is it easier the older you get? 
     
         Chinese Green Tea

           Well back to lurking.....

             
           

I wholeheartedly disagree.
If it wasn't for badly written documentation, I would be out of a job. We can sell 150.000+ issues 17 times a year teaching people how to do stuff in Windows, Word and a number of other supposedly welldocumented applications.
And we make a lot of money doing it.

Spanish, 30
Unix Admin, programmer, BOFH and general crisis solver for university IT services. (That would account for 10% of my 35 hrs/week, rest is board lurking)

20 year old male.

software engineering student in Atlanta, GA.

dilettante and general indie rock kid.

any of you other Atlanta peoples capable of hooking me up with an internship this summer? :p

24, male, Denver.
Senior Enterprise Systems Integration Engineer

Also, E-4 Aircraft Armament Systems Specialist in the Air National Guard.

Drink? Cherry Coke.

Does this mean we'll get cooler ads? It's interesting to see all the walks of life that come to these forums. Heck, who knew lawyers (let alone teachers) played games?!

32 Male  Glorified Admin Assistant at ISP.

Long time lurker..first time posting.

Favorite Drink: Good Coffee in the morning, non-domestic beer in the evening

35

Producer/Director at a University video production center.  (Also IT/maintenance/training/design/chief bottle washer/etc for my wife's business)

Favorite drink: Diet Coke (with or without Bacardi 151 fortification)

Didn't you hear? Bacardi and Cola, they get the job done. Also, with Diet Cola, you get 0 sugar and 0 carbs....now who wants to party?

Geez this is gonna look bad.

I drink Pepsi One and Fiji Water.  I didn't know water could taste that good.    I use alcohol to disinfect personal hygiene products such as nail clippers and tweezers. 

38, Male
Systems Administrator / Digital Imaging Analyst of Failure Lab at Robins AFB in Ga.
Water baby. I looove me some high quality H₂0

Adding my drink.

Because I gave up all soda, and it dyes your liver and kills you DEAD. I drink Clear American from Walmart. Hate Walmart, and I most of the time refuse to step foot in there, but the Clear American water tastes exactly like soda. Exactly. Very very little difference.


Oatmeal Cookie, alcohol wise, are my favourites:

Ingredients
1-ounce Jagermeister
1-ounce Irish Cream Liqueur
1-ounce Butterscotch Schnapps
1/2-ounce Cinnamon Schnapps
Raisins, for garnish, optional

Instructions
Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a
chilled cocktail glass over ice.

Yum.

Knobb Creek Bourbon, on the rocks, with a small piece of lime zest.

My roommate just out of college and myself tried to kill ourselves with this drink a few to many years ago.. though it was Jager, Baily's and Gold for our mix.  Tasted the same.  Had a cute bartender hook us up one night down on Dauphin Street in Mobile, Al.. she was the devil but damn she looked good.  So, we decided the next party we would set up everyone with Oatmeal cookies.. well, we bought a bottle of each and between the fifteen of us polished it all off.. Don't remember that night much, still like the drink though.

Current favorite drink, Shot of Grande Marnier followed up with Mich Ultra.  Not the best beer, but a good combo.

My personal favorite alcoholic beverage is a Midori Sour, but there are a variety of different ways to make it so you can never be sure what you're getting when you order one.  Generally it's 1 part Midori, 1 part Sweet-and-Sour, and sometimes you find a shot of Vodka mixed in as well.  I prefer to top mine off with Sprite.

Bruce

I think you can actually deviate from this recipe and build your own as long as it includes the Jager and Bailey's. I had one bartender use Red Hot instead of the cinnamon schnapps, he added some sprinkled cinnamon and it tasted the exact same a way. A friend had them add Kahlua instead of Bailey's and again, no difference. I remember about ten years ago sitting with friends in a pool hall drinking shots of kamikazes and shots of oatmeal cookies. Then trying to walk.

I haven't taken much to the drink since then.

32-male

Geographer/Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Specialist
http://www.usgs.gov/
California

Male 22, yung 'un. Subcontractor. Primarily drywall work. Photographer, occasional newspaper commentator, sociology major, bowhunter. Can and will drink anything not made with plastic bottle swill.

You are about as cute as can be, Sam!

Why not...

28
Male
Salt Lake City, Utah
Systems Analyst/MVS Systems programmer

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

Are we still caring about this?

33, Male, Columbus OH, IT Consultant (programmer/analyst/developer/what have you)

Currently, Honey Brown lager.

28/F
Wetland Biologist/Plant ecologist
Portland, OR

I know, nothing to do with gaming or software, which explains why half the time my posts are either extremely dated or otherwise reek of someone who has no idea what the hell she's talking about. But I've been geeking out for about 15 years, if that's good for anything!

My favorite drink is my own invention (and copy if you wish, but give credit where it's due):

Ginger saketini

1 oz. vodka
2 oz. pear-flavored sake
fat splash of ginger syrup (recipe follows)

Serve straight up in a martini glass (shaken with ice), or on the rocks if you like your drinks watered-down and nasty.

Especially nice in the summer, this drink makes you feel cool, yet warm and fuzzy at the same time. I tried garnishing with a piece of gari once, with mixed results.

Ginger syrup:
3 cups cold water
1 cup sugar
1 fat hand of ginger, peeled, sliced into coins
optional: coupla cloves and star anise pods

Put all that shit in a pot and bring to a simmer. Let it do its thang for about half an hour. Strain and chill. Nummers! This syrup is also good with soy sauce and sesame oil on some sticky rice.

21 year old male.
Residing in St. Louis, MO.
In college studying english lit and linguistics.
I also work at the hall desk for one of the dorms on campus, performing arduous tasks like handing out vacuum cleaners.  Sometimes I have to sort mail too.  It's rough.


Fav. Drink: Um, cheap beer if I'm buying. If any of you would like to make a new friend, though, a bottle of Crown Royal would go a long way.

42 years old, male and a network admin her in Canada for an agriculture services company.

(Btw Xerapis wins for coolest job title)

28
Internal Wholesaler, small financial company
Massachusetts

Any decent bourbon.

Age: 28
Loc: Austin, Tx
Job:
Finance analyst for a big computer company.

Favorite Drink:
A rich red Italian wine variety, Amarone

Age: 28
Location: North Carolina
Job: DNA Geneticist - yes it's interesting, no I don't want to talk to you about it

Fav Drink: green label

Age: 29
Location: Cleveland, OH
Occ: Developer II, Risk Management segment for a large regional bank. Basically I design, develop, architect, implement, test etc... any system that the FED/OCC says our bank needs to have due to Sarbanes Oxley, Basel II, and/or the Patriot Act.

Drink: Guinness

M/26
Location: Alameda, CA
Job: I'm a QA monkey/would be developer/booth babe for a small software company.

Drink: Spaten Octoberfest

Isn't 'DNA Geneticist' kinda redundant? Isn't it like saying I'm a 'Plant Botanist'?

Shh, he doesn't want to talk about it.

Oh dear Lord, you're a Sox compliance guy.  I feel for you man, really I do.

I think that's what the husboyfriend used to do, too. Always sounded to me like soul-killing but worth the fat paycheck.

husboyfriend?  :-o

Bruce

Like a pool boy who fathered your children and lives in your backhouse.

Ok, ok, enough chatter in this thread. Back to letting people share their public lives.

41 / Male / Married with 3 kids
North Texas
Gentleman rancher, and Systems Integration Architect for a certain retail company based in Ft Worth

When relaxing at home it's a bottle of Louis Martini Cab, preferably '98 though the 2001 has been pretty good so far.  Outside working around the farm means two 4-packs of Boddington's Ale to cut the heat.  Camping or scuba diving it's Wild Turkey Rare Breed or the Macallen Fine Oak 18.

Might as well...

24 yo
Data Analyst / Network Security guy / Programmer for the Mining Bureau of Hungary / Obsessive CRPGamer
Budapest, Hungary
Drink: Water (h8 alcohol, ohnoes!)


-- Z.
3rd world reprezent, yo~

I thought Hungary was part of the EU now? That doesn't say 3rd World to me, really.

Now if you had said Bangladesh, well...

Is there a minimum postcount required to participate in this thread? ;P

Age: 24
Occupation: Unemployed, but I bughunt UOX3 for free! Oh, and I guess I'm a student, or something.

Holy... trust me to miss this thread. Even though it's, like, stickied.

22 year old Russian/Austraaaalian (male) accountant, based in Sydney. On the verge of commencing a contract with Citibank.

Favourite drink would have to be good coffee. Also, caviar and pancakes (not liquid though).

I play the counter-strike.

 - meg

Male, 27.

Software Developer (mobile games).

Los Angeles, CA.

Favorite drink is a Kölsch or Bock.  Favorite mixed drink is just a Gin'nTonic or a Gin Fizz.

Gabe.

No wonder you have retarded ideas about game design.

Derail elsewhere please. It's worth the effort to try...

Peer pressure? I'm in!

Age = 32.
Job = AIX Support Specialist for a company listed in the DOW 30.
Location = The ATL.
Drink = I only drink rainwater.

21, unemployed with a BS in General Biology from UC San Diego.

Give me a six pack of Rolling Rock or a straight shot of Stoli anyday.

35
Sr. Dev Mgr
Large Disliked US Consumer SW Company and Online Service (meh  /wave)
vodak tonic and quite into Sapporo these days (the Japanese beer)

41
Senior Network Engineer for a midsized Telco, I troubleshoot our VoIP Network.
Colorado
Captain Morgan Rum and Coke

29 male

Programmer/Analyst (jack-of-all-trades computer guy) for a department at a state university.

Taking graduate classes in GIS programming.

preferred poison:

Highland Brewery Ales (Asheville, NC) or Budweiser

and a healthy dose of Weed

Are you related to Leroy Jenkins?

/gump_voice_on

We are of no relation. (http://www.leroyjenkins.com/home.html)

/gump_voice_off

27, Male
Lincoln, NE
Web Development(official title but wear a lot of hats around here) for a software developer in the steel industry, jack-of-all-trades
Game development in my spare time, proficiency in tool development
Drink: Diet Coke

Quick update.

I now work for a financial institution as a computer consultant (IE more money less benefits), began a month ago. Civilian life pwns.

Also update, I'm now a freelancing writer working in the Fantasy genre.

Writing what?  Stories?  Screen plays?  Games?  Football pools?

Stories. I work monkey characters in where I can.

Well,  I'm a freelance writer living in a fantasy land.

I have an update, too! I'm losing my job. I'm staying long enough to finish my current projects, which might be a week or two. My boss cited "too much internet" as one of the reasons why I'm not working out. Ooops!

I'm trying to look at this as a blessing in disguise, though. This was my first real job out of college, and I'm not sure if I even like consulting. When my friend/coworker found out, she begged me: "Get out while you can!"

I'm thinking of becoming a high school science teacher, or maybe I'll actually try being a botanist, since that's what I'm actually talented at and have my degree in.

If F13.net was a bulleted reason for your dismissal, than you win.

Funny, I have an immediate opening for a low-wage house cleaner/entertainer .. interested?

Find another thread to talk in, asscrackers.

33, Anti Money Laundering Analyst for a top 20 bank, based in the City, London.

31, Melbourne, Straya

Degree in TV/Video/etc production, so naturally my job is something completely different: Student Services Oficer, though I finish in a week and go start my postgrad finally.

I like the orange juice, mandarin juice, pr0n and the Kokomo-cola. No alchomohol.

36

Live in Paris, IL but work across the boarder at a medium sized hospital as an Emergency Department RN.

Education: 3 associate degree's--
Dental Assisting from Community College of the Air Force
Associate Degree in Nursing from ISU (fuck you! you bitches that run the school of nursing! I'm never getting my BS from them)
Associate Degree in Paramedical Science from Ivy Tech -
Have been a first responder since 1990
EMT-B since 94
EMT-A since 2000
NREMT-P this summer :)

I love working as an Emergency Department Nurse, the place I work for has some good and bad in it (seems like as soon as people become management they forget what it is like in the trenches actually doing the patient care).

48 in August.  I cling to 47 with my fingernails.

I reside in Chicago.

I have a BA in Geology from the U of Montana, Missoula, and most of an MS in Paleontology from U of I at Chicago, which I will never complete.

I am a geologist, an environmental tech, a BASIC programer, a PICK database programmer, an IT manager, a warehouser, a PC hardware tech, a builder of paintball fields, a construction worker, I can write a little, and I've done quite a few other things, some for love, some for money, a couple for both.

With a lack of focus like that, I am of course unemployed, and getting a mite desperate.

What about the US Army Corps of Engineers?

Currently jobless.  Downside of consulting is that job can go poof without any warning.  Pondering going back to school full time.  Stay tuned!

I work as a Project Engineer for an Environmental Counsulting firm in Houston, TX.   I design water treatment systems.  I have a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M and I am 35 years old.  When I am not working or playing games I lurk..

A little unsolicited advice about enivronmental consulting, its not a good career for tree-hugger types.  Environmental consultants by and large help industry push the enivronental regulations as far as they will go.  Lucky for me though since I design water treatment systems I usually get to work on clean ups of superfund or leaking underground storage tank sites.

Same age as Evangolis - 48 in August.

Fulltime mother of two in Santa Cruz, CA.

Prior to my retirement - just before the dotcom boom - I worked as a software engineer for 6 months, deciding that, although I love programming, I hate software engineering as a, you know, job.  It was much more fun as a hobby.  (Too bad I spent 4 years in CIS as a 30something student working toward that degree.  I'm sure all those people I went to school with are now dotcom millionaires.)

Prior to returning to school, I was a legal assistant (chiefly worked in bankruptcy) for several years.  Figured what with all the lawyers in the thread, it was worth mentioning.

When I do come out of retirement, I will likely go back to legal assisting, not software development.  (Kind of tough to get back into software after a 10 year break.)

I work for an answering service.  Very boring job, but it pays the bills. 

I'm a single mother, with a brainchild who outwits me every so often.

I love playing games, as does my child (one of the things he beats me at sometimes).

I'm very sarcastic by nature, so I hope I don't offend anyone here at F13, but from what I've seen so far, I probably won't.  :)

Welcome home.

Apologies for accusing you of being a shill. So sorry.  :-(

  Err, I'm kind of slow, so I never noticed this up top, nor the other sub-forums until like a month ago.

  Anyways,
 
  32/Male
  Connecticut, the Tax U 2 Death state
  CGO(Computer Generated Ordering) Coordinator for a large New England grocery store chain.
 
  And 7&7 or Guinness make me happy.

  Oh, and I'm a migratory lurker from Ltm -> P2P -> SND -> WT -> F13

LoL, that's ok Stray.  Apology accepted.  :) 

Update I guess

Living in White Marsh, MD. now with my brainiac fiancee who works for the Gov'n blowing stuff up or something.

Unemployed and seeking an engineering job (since I'm an EE) instead of a damn sales job.

Age: 29
Location: Orsay, France (a bit south of Paris - you can search that on Google Earth ;) )
Job: Software Enginer & Project Manager on Software project specialized in Identity Management at a large French telecom equipment maker company.

Family: First child (it's going to be a little boy) expected end of November */e crosses fingers IRL*

Bit late to the party I suppose...

Male, 25
Ph.D. student in Mathematics so I study a lot and teach math at the university
Degrees in math and psychology
Worked during my undergrad in the network operations center at the university doing everything from basic support to hostmaster stuff and writing code for utilities.

Favorite drink is some sort of wheaty ale.

22, law student, penn state dickinson, gin and tonic

Female, 33
Assistant Community Manager for Shadowbane working remotely from Los Angeles hoping to make the transition to Austin more permanently sooner or later.  (Sorry but I hate LA.)

Mom of a one year old and three year old with three MMO guides under my belt with Brady games among various other articles blurbs rants and general babbling.

Um,  turnoffs Smoking (and yet married to a smoker)
Turn ons- Long walks on the beach and then pking the people there.  errr  Wait that only happens in game right? 

Soon 36 year old (male) Java developer, server through client, generally administrative systems for larger customers. Work for Arrive AS in Oslo, Norway.
More addicted to MMORPGs than I like.
Listen to everything except house/trance and western, but in particular hard-ish rock and metal. Try to get all the albums of the following: Clutch, Kaizer's Orchestra, Queens of the Stone Age, Chris De Burgh, Dimmu Borgir, Thin Lizzy, and the symphonies of Gustav Mahler and Antonin Dvôrak.
Used to play pen and paper RPGs and board games, but currently they just collect dust.
Stick to beer and whiskey (single-malt islay preferred) if it has alcohol in it.

Oh hey. Look at this new thread. erm... ah... nevermind.

Age: 35
Location: Peoples Republic of Boulder, Colorado
Occupation: Sr. Software Engineer / EAI Architect. Translation: mostly javaish projects with lots of n-tier MVC2 apps, webservices, asynchronous processing, and all sorts of new widgets. In a previous career, I got to play with toxins, Multiple Myleoma cell cultures, and in general be poorly payed to play with radioactive materials. Hense the current  programming gig.
Educaiton: Bsci Microbiology, Barts History
Drinks: Guiness of Boulder Porter/Stout in a pinch.

26, Herndon VA
Systems Engineer/Architect (currently W2K/linux//SAN) doing govt' contracting work.

Big fan of absynthe

Is that a band or something?  Or did you mean absinthe, the refreshing wormwood drink? 

I drink too much and then I can no longer spell correctly.

28 year old critical care nurse.  I'm about to enlist in the Army Nurse Corp.  Single with no kids.  My favorite drink is Guiness and I like everything from Jonny Cash to Rotting Christ to Benny Benassi (Fuck Burger King in their fat bloated asses).

Me too.

26 years old.
Programmer for a web-based company.

And by my avatar, you can probably guess my taste in music.

I take it you like country and western?

hmm.  Hi all!  I am a 35 year old divorced father of two.  Profession?  hmm... Wholesale Mortgage Aggregator Website Admin.  Does that help?  Didnt think so.  :)  I am an avid MMORPGer and internet DJ as well for dndradio.com.  I have been warned that there are evil people here so thought i would come play >:)

These people are evil. Welcome evil Fenom.

That is one of the coolest avatars ever.

Yes, I'm mesmerized almost as much as if it was an Alizee avatar.

Were any babies hurt during that avatar? 

Yes, 3. There were 4 at the audition but the last one used her tits to get a better job.

LOL..well I was told that I HAD to have a funny Avatar...so I after camping the local playground for a few hours I seized the prime opportunity and my vicious mouse skills to perform that maneuver while panning the camera at the same time.. Thank god that devs have implemented the use of the mouse wheel  :evil:

No, you're allowed to use serious avatars.  I always do.

Looks funny to me.

That's not funny, it's FESTIVE!  I'm having Christmas Spirit, dammit!  Don't get me started on YOUR avatar, you nearly married pervy man, you!   :-)

SANTA!![/color]

You can't spell "Santa" without T & A.

SATAN!![/color]

(http://www.la.ngb.army.mil/205th/ChurchChatLady.jpg)

(I love where that pic is hosted, heh)

36 years old MWC. SE Pa. Tech assistant at a vo-tech school. Looking for better work eventually but taking my time learning what I can. I build and fix comps on the side and dabble with art and music. And watch anime and old tv and movies. And drink copious amount of bourbon. Old Crow to be exact.

Time for my update I guess.

Still a prof at a local university and just finished full time teaching 10 days ago - now joined a big pharmaceutical company acting as their "medical liaison" for their major product in the treatment a variety of diseases, namely, rheumatoid arthritis.  There are several of us in this role in North America - it  is a hybrid position of drug development and medical marketing.  The marketing side comes in from working with key opinion leaders among specialists - the development side comes in from designing small clinical trials to further explore the drug's properties in humans.

Took awhile for me to notice this thread.  Stickied items are cloaked to my vision, for some reason (yes, that reason might be me being a moron).

Age: 41
Sex: Male
Profession:
Last year, Portal Architect working on the corporate portal for a large(ly souless) corporate bank.
This year, Technical Strategist for the same large(ly souless) corporate bank.

What that means is that I used to do design, review code and bitch at developers and PMs.  Now I think big thoughts and make Visio/Powerpoint documents with lots of arrows.  I play with Ajax when folks aren't looking.

Where: Northeast USA (live/telecommute in Jersey, commute to DE)

35
male
married, no kids, 3 cats 2 dogs
assistant special ed teacher/musician (both are more fun than profitable)

edit: Los Angeles, CA

We've got both kinds of music.  Country AND Western.

That was on the other night, still one of the funniest, wittiest movies ever.

I was happy my girlfriend hadn't seen it, great excuse to pick up the 25th anniversary edition. So many great musicians in that movie, from Duck to Hooker. Oh, and some funny stuff happens.

Any of you guys on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/)? Might be useful for folks looking for jobs if we linked up some.

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=36859&fromSearch=7&sik=1138842496944

 Co-write songs with my sister ( That pays the bills)  Gaming Journalist in Tenn. ( My 1st love)  Currently contracted with Warner'Bros in Nashville.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=31696140

Your profile is under construction!  How inconvenient.   :x

(by  :x, I really mean  :-P and  :-) but mostly  :-))

Your css has issues with firefox.

Ah what the hell - just noticed this thread. I'm a senior manager (ack!) of marketing infrastructure for a company called Business Objects. I started at a company called Crystal Decisions - we made Crystal reports if you've heard of it.

Am on linked in - search on

Pen Clark
Senior Manager, Marketing Infrastructure, Marketing Operations at Business Objects

EDIT: 37 years of youth, located in Vancouver, BC.

Issele's profile works!   I don't know what the heck was wrong before.  YOU ARE ADORABLE!  Talented too, even.  And smart.  How does that happen all in one person?

Music's pretty good, too.

Computers and country music?  Is that allowed? (The few minutes listened to were good, just don't tell my friends I said that.  They cannot comprehend that I grew up listening to country.)

As for myself I am a staff member in a university chemistry department.  My technical title is LAN Administrator but I deal with anything from web pages to hand-holding.  If it involves computers, people call me about it.  Occassionally I get to put my chemsitry knowledge to work, which is nice seeing as that was the field of my first degree.  Being able to blend the two (Computers and chemistry, is that allowed!?  :-P) is enjoyable for me.

I just turned 33 and am in a relationship, but never married and without kids.  We are both heavy gamers, so we have our own gamer-widow support group.  We meet whenever the internet connection goes down and no good single-player games are out.

I have blended computers and chemistry together for years.  This is why my posts sometimes make little sense to normal people. (http://smiley.onegreatguy.net/joint.gif)

Thanks....

Import / Export.

SE United States.

Drug Runner, Miami? I kid, I kid.

Not directly, but it has happened!

I'm a producer in a glass fishbowl called the Seven News Centre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_News) in downtown Sydney. We're Australia's biggest TV network, our programming is similar to ABC in the US but we use the NBC News theme music, and we have just married Yahoo: http://www.yahoo7.com.au

In my holidays I usually travel overland in other countries, mostly by bicycle (about 13,000km of it so far). It's freedom, it's slow enough to smell the roses/roadkill, but fast enough to see plenty.

At 35 I am old enough to have also had a career in IT journalism. In the 1990s I was geek.famous as features editor of the biggest computer magazine in Australia, but the whole time I was wishing for a job in mainstream journalism. Nowadays I am mainlining mainstream.

You stay classy, Sydney!

Heh, yeah.  We use that... for something.

Not Business Objects of BusinessObjects^tm 6.1a fame?  Your product and its dependence on a particularly nasty Oracle installation has been the bane of my existance for the past several weeks.  I should like to challenge you to a duel.   :-P

Hey!

I'm pretty much a lurker around here, but I'll give some output;

I'm twentythree, residing in Iceland. I moved here because I was bored with Oslo (Norway). And, it's been semi successfull. Horrible to start with (had to work in a storage with some Vietnamese), I was working three jobs at the same time in the middle of my WOW addiction. Well, now I work as an commercial editor/web maintainance guy for a film company here. I'm not learning alot about drama, but more on how to sell a product and make people laugh. It's pretty neat, since I'm in <<The Comfort Zone>>, in six months I'll be living in London and study, and in twenty years I'll still be sitting in a caravan somwhere in Colombia, making artzy games for my five man fan-club.

Ten thumbs up!

Iceland? Go apply at CCP! We could use an inside mole for EVE  :-D

I met with EVEs Technical Art Director (I think it was), and had a chat with him. But I've never been into EVE so he sounded pretty; "Meeeeeh...". I wouldn't have minded, but tthey had just recruited alot of new QA's, and since I'm moving away this autumn they weren't really that keen on hiring me.

Thinking back, I still have the 50day promo card he gave me... Maybe it's time to check it out?

I'm a just turned 21 male.

Droped out of college fairly recently, had the luck of geting headhunted shortly afterwards. Now working as a Programmer / SEO for a company delivering complete internet sollutions for small -> average sized companies. The pay is fairly good but I'm planning on picking up college studies once again but at a diffrent location.

I currently live in Växjö, Sweden.

I love pho bo with extra nuoc mam. What are you have against Vietnamese? You are talking about food, right?

Of course he's talking about food.  After living in Iceland on cod for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, all you want to talk about is other peoples food.  Hell, if I lived in Iceland, I'd be tempted to eat an entire Vietnamese family!

What does that have to do with iceland ?

I don't know.  Cod or something.  I posted that AGES ago.  What?  I'm supposed to remember stuff now???

Now 34 and as of May 15th will have finished a major portion of my lat move and be working doing CMOS VLSI design for #71 on the Fortune 500.  I think this will be MUCH more interesting than web forms and database apps.  There is a bottle of Glenlivet at home that keeps calling my cell phone, wants me to come over and drink it.  I think I will have to oblige.

I'm glad I don't have two birthdays each year.  Not that I even bother counting them all anyway, but still....

Just sayin'.

The date of my birthday is between the day of the original post date on the first post and today...

Let me just say, it's been a long year.

I work at :nda: making  :nda:

What the hell, might as well get in the dogpile.

24. I work at a very large software company writing consumer-targeted PC security software. They call me a software engineer, although I prefer to state that I'm in the "puppy kicking" department.

Well hell

I work in a manufacturing plant.  My job is to oversee people we pull in off the street to do one of the easiest jobs ever concived.

Despite the fact we hire temps on a daliy basis to work on our products, I can't really say what we build because of our  :nda:; how lame is that?

Not much more lame than being asked to be a "corporate advocate" in everything I do.  For no extra pay, I'm supposed to pimp for a company that arguably has one of the most effective marketing departments in the world.  Bah.

Microsoft?

42
Systems Engineer

Accomplishes design tasks without being directed.  Reads multiple management minds and produces enough to survive.
Favorite Drink: Diet Coke since 1994, Whiskey Sours previous to that.

No, they are on NASDAQ, we are NYSE.  However, we are both in the Dow 30.

Update!  Since I left Korea a while ago...

I'm currently a sailing instructor for one of the largest collegiate sailing clubs in the country (U. of Wisconsin - Madison).  I'll be spending the summer and possibly the fall outside in gorgeous weather teaching college girls in swimsuits how to sail and windsurf, and since I'm only 24, this isn't creepy.  I've wanted this job for a while; I'm not sure there's anything I'd rather be doing in Madison for the summer.

I also recently spent about three weeks in Cambodia and Vietnam; if anyone is interested I can post some pics from that in a seperate thread. 

Drink of choice:  White Russian

Plskthx. I am a sucker for vacation photos. Odd, since I never take any when I go anywhere.

I agree. I've never seen real pictures from a Holiday in Cambodia. Hell, I've never even had the chance to say that. Also, good pick of drink.

It's definitely a young 'uns drink. 

It's tough kid, but it's life.

Fuck that had been bothering the shit out of me.  I finally remembered where that was from

Also, I leave my Jorb this week and start the new one at Honeywell on Monday.  I probably won't be around as much.

Good luck at the new job. MAKE TIME. Keke ^_^;

Three days in and I have yet to do anything remotely resembling work.  Well except for staying awake at a couple of the meetings.

The commute is wearing me out though, I think I'm going to have to move.

Commuting is the devil. I prefer walking to my office. Fortunately it's only about 2 miles away.

Yoru has no sense of walking distance. Never ever ever listen to him. EVER.

You're just bitter because we walked a mile through wackyland to get to EFocus.

Unstickied temporarily. I don't like lots of stickies at the tops of forums.

Then how will new people see it and give us the dirt on their private lives?   Or are we closed for new business?

Once we get the vast majority of the site bugs squashed and people know to change their passwords (hint hint) I'll resticky it.

It'll get buried and you'll forget and we'll end up having to start a whole new invasion of privacy thread.  God, the work involved.  I don't do anything at all and I'm already tired.

Sticky or no sticky, I'll unlurk and spill the beans on my personal life:

I'm a Public Safety Telecommunicator (911 Dispatcher) in a suburb of Dallas, TX.
My favorite drink is probably Coke Zero. If you're looking for one of the alcoholic variety, I tend to lean toward Amaretto Sour or some pussy domestic beer.

Exciting.  :-D

Miller light is not pussy. 

Maybe the beer isn't....  :wink:

Probably but that's why I have you to remind me.

Oh, the pressure(http://smiley.onegreatguy.net/exclaim.gif)

wtf happen to this thread?

I still love my job, if you haven't noticed my absence. I get to go out and play a lot, which affords me time to get a workout and a tan while getting paid. I've been losing weight without even trying, and aside from being away from home a lot (teh suxxors), it's been a fun adventure. And I do have my DS to keep me warm at night.

I didn't know they vibrate...

Crank up the sound.

That would wake up Sauced.

I imagine all the pink rhinestones she blinged her DS out with would make that awfully uncomfortable, but you never know I guess.

Hey, I never posted in this thread.

I'm 30 going on 31.  I'm a Senior Software Engineer (like the Janitor is the Senior Sanitation Engineer), currently working for a company that makes state healthcare software for medicaid eligibility processing.  Our integrated build system provides me with plenty of time to read this board and fantasize about the day a big game studio opens in Portland.

Favorite drink depends on if I'm driving.  If not, Manhattans.  If so, Vodka Tonics.

Texture improves the feel as long as the motion isn't too severe. :evil:

Um...Play Rez muted, with the...thing that comes with the game?

True enough, but I don't know about rhinestones.  They're rather sharp and maybe a bit too pointy, no?  I suppose rounded ones like this would be okay:

(http://shop.glasslust.com/Images/ProductPhotos/Thm2_bumpy.jpg)

Isn't that pretty?  Someone should write a review!  (NOT ME)

Looking again.  And the old mantra, "never get a job in Houston", has a new corolllary: "Don't hire on under young men you used to mentor".

There is an opening for a six-month contract at my corp in The ATL, if you are into that.  And know a lot about AIX.

I totally missed Raging Turtle's post above.

At what age does that start becoming creepy? Because I'm dying for that job.

College girls in swimsuits. Overweight 100% male engineering staff. Tough choice.

College girls are 18. That never gets creepy.

Certainly not if it puts the lotion on the skin like asked.

I lol'ed.

Hehe thanks.  I don't. :)  OTOH it's great sleeping in, annoying the wife by not shaving (no one else notices but her! :P ), and keeping up with my bee hives and grape arbor.

Work is overrated.  I'm so freaking ready for retirement.

(http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/3255/donttouchthegirl4hf6nm.gif)

You do know that will end up as someone's avatard, don't you?

Mobile, Alabama - 34

Network Administrator for a regional alcoholic beverage distributor.

A little late to the party...

I am nearly 40, and I work in IT for a very large automobile manufacturer located in Michigan, USA.

My brother attended two universities in Mobile before relocating to Brooklyn.  I was once asked to please get out of the Mardi Gras parade.  Nice town.

I came back to finish my studies here after UofA and Georgetown.

It's especially nice for  10 Weeks in Winter and Spring and 5 weeks in the Fall. Currently we are in the 95 degrees with max humidity season.

The locals don't cotton to outsiders entering their little societal cliques when it comes to Mardi Gras. I swear, some people around here. . .  if they devoted as much money to improving the community as they do in floats, throws, costumes and mardi gras balls, we'd be fucking Eden on earth.

Well, except for the whole hurricane thing.

Jeebus. I think I would be praying for non-stop hurricanes.

Bah, it's 90s and humid here in NY, too. OMG GLOBAL WARMING :-P

More beer for the robots! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BjrOi4vF24)

Yeah, I've linked it before. And I'll link it again too.

i played the entourage game with my dad yesterday, we watched as the temperature outside the car climbed to 106!

Might as well introduce myself, i'm 19 and a college student and i'm interning this summer for a hedge fund in new york city.

33, doing sales for Qwest in Omaha, NE while they pay for me to go back to school for a degree in 3d animation and design.
Favorite drinks: Beamish, Youngs Double Chocolate Stout and I'm working on developing a taste for Irish whiskey and/or Scotch whisky if anyone has some suggestions as to whats good

I suggest removing the "e" in "whiskey" when referring to the kind made in Scotland.  Other than that, I suggest Righ or Ironwood help you.  I'm sure they're both whisky lushes.

Glenlivet is a great great starter scotch. And a finisher scotch. Basically, to get a better scotch you have to spend twice as much, and even then you can end up with some funky-arsed thing with a 'nose' that's overhyped because some sauced up ponce said so at a tasting.

Glenfiddich is the Spice Girls of scotch.

Oh ya. 36, IT work for a non-profit transitional housing agency for homeless in Seattle WA. I'm regrettably a teetotaller now, for health reasons. Dang I miss scotch.

Aberlour, you right gits.

Amen Surlyboi. Balvenie 12 yr double wood is also quite tasty.

If Speyside is your thing. More of a highland guy myself.

From the Aberlour website's own description:

Nose
The dry, fresh, fruity aromas of early autumn apples and pears are subtly enhanced with sweet notes of vanilla and mint toffee.

See, right there, I know they're putting on airs.

that sounds lovely. Scotch is such a gentlemanly pursuit, innit?

Any scottsman who knows what the aroma of an early autumn apple smells like is wearing a kilt for fabulous fashion, is my guess. What hoary macho scottsman can tell the difference between the subtle scents of an early autumn apple, and a late autumn apple. or a mid february raisin. or last year's stale sheep's fart for that matter?

What is a Scottman?

It's like a robut, but hairier.

:P Fixed the typo.

Sooo... what is a Scottsman?   :-P :-P

REALLY late to the show but...

30, Calgary, Canada.

Doing network admin for a Foreign Currency Exchange while they pay for my CCNA. Once I get my experience, I go across the street to work in Oil and Gas.

Oil and Gas?  You mean like OGI?  Ooooh...  :evil:

Signe, what the hell do you do? Are you a Kept Woman? Ohmygod you are, aren't you?

I wish I were a kept man. I miss being in a band and just crashing at various beauty's houses.

Ok, maybe not so much.

I long to be a kept man. As long as it doesn't involve sweaty manbuttsex.

Anyone else ever done the "be careful what you wish for, you might get it" route where jobs are concerned?

Couple years ago I was heading for an inevitable layoff with an IT company working as internal support jack-of-all-trades systems admin guy for the corporate office; they were outsourcing.  So along comes a guy who I used to work with and he proposes we start up our own IT company.  We work things out and because he has significantly deeper pockets that I do, I agree to become his employee so I can be paid, but essentially we're partners.  He's the 'brains' and the marketing meet-and-greet guy and I'm the 'brawn' doing all the work for the clients.  There is a lot of trust between us, and I'm being quite well paid and in short, the job is almost everything I've ever wanted.  My partner is generating a lot of business for us; in fact we just hired another technician full time and are considering having to add another guy or two by the end of the year.  Next best thing to being my own boss, practically independent, and the hours aren't even bad.  And oh, the sweet irony... we went back to my former company and bid on the outsourced office support contract and won and they pay well.

So what do I have to complain about... I'm driving everywhere all the time.  And not even the cost of gas (though it's painful; believe me)... I'm just sick and tired of commuting and driving for hours and hours every day and hundreds of miles every week.  That and I get a little stressed with managing client expectations all the time.

So I'm strongly considering getting a 'real job' again where I'll be a little cog in the big machine working for 'the man'... if only so I can cut down on my commute time.

Will I ever find happiness as an IT professional?  Woe is me.

- - - - - -

Director of Technical Services for a start-up IT consulting and support business with a focus on small to medium sized business clients working all over San Diego county.

My suggestion is you start adopting an IT manager approach and start delegating. My boss used to be an IT tech, now she's so woefully out of the loop she has to delegate to me for 80 percent of the work. Guess who takes more vacations, doesn't have to travel and gets paid best? As long as you insist on personal supervision of all projects you're going to remain as overworked as a GeekSqad lackey.

I am a princess.

(http://www.larajanine.com/graphics/websiteanneliese.jpg)

You're looking a little thin.  Here, have something to eat.

(http://www.nyapplecountry.com/images/photosvarieties/braeburn72.jpg)

I work as Sys-admin for a Image Archive and Editorial Agency. In short we represent photographers all over the world. They send us their pictures, we put them in our database, and also send them to buyers all over the world. Our image selection runs the gambit from Celebs to hardcore War photos, and every thing in between.

We also publish a photography magazine www.doubletruck.com and we run serveral websites where you can get hardhitting picture stories www.zreportage.com

My job is to make sure all the computers in the officer and at the datacenter run the way they are supposed to. Which could be anything from reinstalling photoshop on a workstation to installing a new RAID at the colo. I also am in charge of our picture filtering system, which makes sure the correct images get sent to the correct sub agents around the world. Which is much tougher than it sounds, considering we have over 1000 different photographers and agents that we rep, and about 50% of those have restriction as to where they can be sent.

I am also majorly underpaid, but I am not quitting until I get at least 2 years experiance with servers and IT.

Yeah, today I had to hike 5.7 miles across beautiful canyons of manzanita, Oregon white oak and madrone looking for intermittent streams and wetlands. Actually, I paint a pretty picture but the hike was rugged and brutal. 45+% slopes, very rocky terrain with thickets of poison oak and buckbrush (a woody, spiny hellish shrub that scratches you deeply from the neck down). It was 85 degrees out and the dust sticks in clumps to your sweat and sunscreen. I ran out of water AND cigarettes. Today was an 11 hour day, 7.5 of which was spent hiking non-stop. I know, the grass is always greener on the other side, but I am exhausted. And I have to do it again tomorrow. And the next day. For the next 7 days.

The big problem with today is that I was in an area of ORegon that has amazing agates, geodes and some malachite-esque copper ore that I couldn't stop picking up and stuffing into my field vest. I added about ten pounds of weight onto my back because I'm a greedy rockhound.

Sounds like my security jobs. I do practically nothing when I go to work - I read books and play on my DS, or occasionally write. Heck, recently the sysadmin "goofed" and our workstation has internet access, so I use it occasionally.

That job is so fucking boring and pointless that it hurts. Talking to my "boss" (no one knows what she actually does) makes me physically ill.

Me too. The last time I was in Quechee Gorge in Vermont I weighed alot more coming out than I did going in. Gorges are great for seeing stages of development, so I was taking samples from all the different strata, plus a couple chunks of the cool quarzite. Good clay -> sedimentary -> metamorphic all folded up at the bottom. Cool place. Rocks, except some of the quartzite, weren't as cool as those you list, though there was some cool shiny layers in the schist.

Sometimes I wish I had stuck with science instead of chasing the music thing...

Currently going back to school for a CIS degree. 
Used to do work as a hotel representative working with corporate meeting planners.

I'm drinking Scapa (http://www.scapamalt.com).

Scotch whisky killed my Scottish uncle last year, after taking him from legendary lawyer to homeless man, so I don't drink a lot of it. Speyside is so 1996.

You do realise that it was the alcohol in the whiskey that killed your uncle, yes? Vodka does the same job, as does this Scapa.

It was whisky not whiskey, Scapa is a brand of single malt whisky I am drinking, all contain alcohol, so yes.

Well done!  Considering that single malt scotch whisky is so much better than any whiskey you can find, it's probably appropriate to blame his death on the whisky and not the alcohol. 

PS  I'm sorry about your uncle.    :-(

And you wished for this?!?

I'm sort of there. I get paid well to play with stuff. I travel a bit to exotic locations. I'm more or less my own boss and I have the ear of my real boss.
But... I don't really get to write a lot, so it's not exactly why I became a journalist. I also manage people and hardware much more than I create these days, and while I love my job, I fear I have to make a decision. A few more years and the only way up is to an even more managerial position - putting money over creative ambitions. Or I have to quit soon and go back to "proper" reporting or I'll probably be considered so much of a specialist I'll have a hard time landing another good job.
Yeah, yeah - stop fucking whining.

Whisky: Lagavulin or Bunnahabin.
Cigars: Cohibas.
Rocks... I don't know, but do any of you crazy rock people know where I can buy some good slightly bigger than fist sized geodes? I'm making my second aquarium for my oldest daughter and I want gems, 2-3 geodes and lasers (http://www.amazon.com/Aquarium-Laser/dp/B0002JEJRE?m=A9P1KZBSDQIPK).

No idea where you can get geodes, good question. I'd like some. They have a 3 or 4 foot high geode in the Northshire Bookstore in Vermont. It's in the hippy-dippy area, but what can you do.

Lasers for your fish tank!  That is too cool.  You can make a laser light show.  I'd even go for that if I had a chance in hell of remembering to feed the fish.  All the geodes, gems and lasers wouldn't make any fish tank of mine a happy place.   :oops:  I'd like to yours when it's finished so give us pics!   :-)

Hmm. Don't know if you're still looking, but -- Houston. Software analyst. Currently working on my Master's degree because of a generous employee education policy with my company.

The work's generally interesting, and I get to watch rocket scientists argue.

The guy in the cube behind me has a PhD in mechanical engineering and most of his conversations are about very interesting applications of physics to the problems of operating satellites in orbit.  The exception is his continuing daily argument with Verizon tech support (going on for months now) about his home broadband connection.

I'm not sure which conversations are more enjoyable to eaves drop on.

Why do they keep him in a cube?   :|

Spheres tend to roll about.

There's 900 engineers at this campus.  Quite a few of them have advanced degree's, it being space applications and all.  You have to be at the level of program manager or technical director before you get an office.

Also, rooms that are enclosed generally get turned into labs when no one is looking.

"Why are there urinals and stalls in this lab?"
"..."

The bathrooms are always occupied.  Were talking lots of overweight middle aged desk jockeys with big appetites who don't like to walk.

*goes off to teach another windsurfing lesson to college girls in skimpy bikinis* 

900 engineers, a thousand or so other workers of various types.

I can probably count the number of women on my fingers and toes.  The number of attractive women on the fingers of one hand and the number of unattached attractive women that are not interns on, hmm, 1 finger.

Of course there are trade-offs, I live in a 4800 sq ft house with a heated pool :) 

I started my Teaching Assistant position this week.

I felt like David Wooderson.  :|

You suck.  Then again...


Mine is only 4000 sq ft of finished space, but there is a full basement plus attic space, with a hot tub and various other amenities.  So I guess I'll keep my cubicle.

By the way, we recently posted two openings for AIX specialists, high-five to low-six range.

You guys are making me feel like I live in a dilapidated shack. 

Just don't be afraid to put yourself in horrible, horrible debt... and build one yourself.

Leaving stupid security job. Apparently, I'm not allowed to simply "use" the sick time I have accured, and it doesn't cash out when I leave. Fuck that noise. I'll be damned if I get penalized for Not being a sick diabetic fuck like some of my coworkers.

Also, might start working some internet sales nonsense for a car dealership. F13 might get camped 24/7...just because.



I hate bills.

Wait, have these girls not learned that they shouldn't be wearing bikinis while trying to learn how to windsurf cause they tend to come off when they fall in or are they doing it for the attention? And yes I taught windsurfing when I was in college.

I've never had a student pop out of her swimsuit.  Of course, we do require lifejackets be worn on the water at all times for windsurfing.  The girls are cute but you get used to the swimsuits and skin in a week or two.  Still love the job because they pay me to sail and windsurf.   :-)

The 'look at me' girls lay out by the boathouse instead of joining the sailing club and are generally ignored.   

Ah that's explains it. We didn't require lifejackets at my school so it would happen on a semi-regular basis until they learned they should be wearing one piece suits. It even happened to an instructor once, who should've known better, but I guess she didn't think she would fall in.

I don't think I can afford to build one myself. Apparently I have some hangup on "quality materials" that cost an assload. And I don't mean platinum fixtures and marble columns. Just not formaldehyde-laden pressboard and manufactured lumber garbage.

I actually entertained the idea of starting a structure reclamation business just to get some quality materials. As it is, I'm in the market for an old house, built at least 50 years ago. Good bones and whatnot. I can't believe most new houses I see with flimsy little doors, buttoned up tighter than a nun's snatch.

I looked at building a log house, but the fairly basic model I wanted was about $80k for the shell. I thought that was reasonable until the guy told me the one they just got done building was $200k all told, exluding excavation and plot costs. The construction industry is loaded with crooks, imo. On Ask This Old House, Roger put a piece of granite curb vertical for some guy's house numbers and estimated it would run $1k. !?! That's a piece of salvage and and afternoon of work, maybe a Bobcat rental. For crissake.

If you wanted to build your own house, or even do some major renovations, you should probably wait for the slowdown in housing to take hold.  Contractors can currently charge you whatever they want they are in such high demand, some materials are also in tight supply.

Wait eight months when things are lean for them and you should get a much better price.  Of course you will also have to worry about them going bankrupt in the middle of the project, I wouldn't pay them in advance.

God I'm fucking underpaid. Good benefits, fun job, decent security -- but I'm not sure it's worth the 20k to 30k difference I could be making elsewhere.

20 to 30k might only barely cover the cost of living difference though when moving from once place to another.

Not that you're not underpaid though. If you've spent more than 5 years at a single job you are most likely underpaid. I'm going on seven at the current place and I'm sure I'm now well behind the curve.

Oh and I've found a new favorite drink. I'm sure it will never fully replace Guinness but the Left Hand Brewing Companies' Milk Stout is a VERY tasty beverage.

You will grow a huge belly drinking such rich beers.  You'll probably get it pinched in your desk drawer (ooh ooh ow ow) and break your office chair.  I bet you get sacked then!

I'm underpaid, too, but it's worth it for the job security and low-stress enviornment of a university.

If you're getting that Master's at the main UH campus, we should do lunch or dinner some time.  I'm guessing you're at UH CL or Rice though.

UHCL -- I actually applied to Rice when I graduated from High School, got wait listed, went to A&M (got accepted to Rice right before school started, though), failed out of A&M, came back home, learned a bit of self-discipline and went to UHCL. On my own dime this time. I think paying for it made it a lot easier to study.

I'm looking at another Master's or a Doctorate after this -- still in the "mulling it over stage" (a Doctorate would play hell with my employability, though) -- and I'd have to go to UH main for any of the ones I'm considering. As for lunch -- I'm all up for meeting new people.

I make more than that. But I would have to live with a 2 hour commute to even come close to affording that kind of square footage.

Adventures in TA land are becoming pretty interesting.  One of the first readings was the U.S. Constitution.  I had a student come up to me after class today and ask if he really had to read "all the Amendments and stuff."

What courses are you teaching exactly? That doesn't even sound like the comments of an undergrad, let alone a law student.

Sorry. I should have specified. It is basically an Intro to American Government class at a large university. These are undergrads, many of them freshmen, so I can't hold it against them really. In talking to other TAs the general consensus is that the high school system has an incredibly high level of suckitude.  Still somewhat surprising though, although it is a large class (over 100) so you will have a large distribution.

Sounds about right. When I last took classes in the fall, I took a 100-level course to fill that last elective spot I had. My school is a fairly small University (sub-10k undergrad I believe)....

But all the damn freshman in the class...it made me cringe every day I was in the class. It was some kind of Intro to Logic class or something, which is painfully simple for a graduating History major.

Hell, the professor even decided to introduce a group paper into the curriculum more than halfway through the semester. It wasn't on the syllabus.

I was none too happy. I had more important things to do than do a stupid group paper with a bunch of freshmen. Luckily, I had a paper I had previously written that nicely satisfied the requirements of the paper. All I asked was for the other three kids to send me some material so I wouldn't be handing in the Exact same paper I had previously written.

Only 1 kid bothered to send anything, after I had pestered these guys, in person and via email, for about 3 weeks. I only put the one other kid's name on the paper.... :evil:

Yeah...freshmen...god damn...though I imagine it might be mildly amusing to grade their papers and essays.

No.

The one or two amusing papers and handful of well-written ones do NOT make up for the other hundred pieces of crap.  Grading papers was the thing I hated most about teaching.

Well, I get a small degree of sick satisfaction out of cutting up a paper giving constructive criticism.  :evil:

Don't luck at me. My papers don't suck anymore. :) Not that we get much feedback from TAs or professors, for the most part. I did have one prof hassling me to join his research project, but I'm chalking that up to "Desperate for warm and free bodies to man his project" rather than any positive evaluation of my skills.

I guess that's one thing I liked about my school; They really pushed the whole "small class size" thing. There's really only 1 good lecture hall on my campus that I know of. All the other classes are iin "normal" rooms that max at about 30-35 people.

This all means that professors actually had time to look over everyone's stuff. Though, I can only speak for the History dept at my school. They don't have any graduate studies programs, so no TAs for them. There were adjuncts, but I never took any history courses with them.

This may be a general statement, but is probably directed at Straz: sick time is not vacation time.  For example, I don't get sick time.  Good luck finding that fantasy job.

I sometimes forget that the cost for building materials are through the roof thanks to Katrina, not just the unabated building in my area.  I remembered quickly enough, thanks to my recent home improvement efforts.  Copper wire is pretty rough, as is plywood and such.

Still have those two openings, if anyone feels underpaid.  You'd come in at a grade above me, in fact.


Yeah, in 2002 the house ended up something like $450k total put into it, however the mortgage was only for $278k and that's the important bit.  This house would have cost quite a bit more in some other metro areas, and it would cost a lot more if built today due to material costs.

We have what they call an 'honesty policy' towards sick time.  If you're sick, go home, there is no designated sick time.  What the truth is though is that if you abuse it (more than a few days in a year, depends on your manager) you will not get a raise that year and could easily screw you for a promotion.  However, if you are actually sick/injured it's a great deal as it covers you for up to 26 weeks and there is an extended plan you can opt for but it costs extra.

So, it keeps you honest about abusing sick time as if it were extra vacation but it is more than generous if you really need it.

My company is much the same way. You're sick? Take the time off. I have something like, oh, 50+ days of sick time alloted a year before I have to do something like go on disability. However, if you miss more than three days of work in a row -- you have to produce medical documentation. They also have an automated process to look for patterns (people who frequently get sick on Fridays) and discuss the issue with them and their supervisor. The idea is that if you get cancer or something, they'd prefer you to work on "getting better" than worry about being sick. And HR supposedly will do the vast bulk of the work to transition you to disability if you are out for several months.

Since I routinely schedule my medical stuff for Friday afternoons, I make sure to note that to my manager so he knows I'm not just getting out early for the weekend. Then again, I end up only taking one to two weeks of sick time a year -- and that counts days where I'm not sick, but my kid is. So I'm not really abusing their policy.

22, US Marine. I'm an artillery scout based in 29 Palms, CA.

When are you going to Iran?

I wish I knew! I've got about 8 months left of active duty, but with these inactive reserves being called up, maybe I'll be coming back in. I plan to get out, obtain my degree, and return to the Corps as a pilot anyway, though.

Do it!  MGIB is the greatest thing ever!  Right up there with VA home loans.  30k+ tax free cash?  Its rad!

24, Icelandic. Lived most of my life in Norway (Signe is a norwegian name btw). Did some filmschool in Denmark, worked some in the norwegian film industry as a PA and decorator, edited some commercials and music videos during a brief stint in Iceland. Currently living in London, studying game design/killing time/pondering abstract concepts.

Finding it quite nice growing up, not thinking I am He-Man anymore.

Eric Clapton named me.

Cool - what did he name you?

Layla, obviously.

Update! I now write UNIX server software in San Francisco.

It's not sunny sunny SoCal, but the food is good.

Awsome man. SF beats SoCal anyways. Lucky man!

Update!  Unemployeed. 

A-fucking-men.

Mud.

Update: I now commute 2 1/2 hours on trains/subway to the USPTO(US Patent & Trademark Office) in Alexandria, VA.

So...you're looking to move, right? That's more than 20% of your day just spent on commuting?

Nope, just bought the house, and the wife loves her job.  5+hrs a day sitting on trains/waiting for trains.  Thank God for my Zen Vision M, and hopefully a DS in the near future.

I'm hoping that if I put in my time (2 years at this rate) I can work from home.

Alternative is to knock up the wife so she can't work, then move closer to my work! :evil:

I just bought a house and I thought MY commute time was bad! I would kill myself if I had to spend 25 hours a week commuting. That is cruel and unusual.

If I had to drive 5 hours a day, that would be terrible.  Riding a train while holding a DS Lite would be significantly more tolerable.

Isn't that just replacing one time sink with another?  At least you can sleep on the train.

Pull the brake thing and you can ding too!

Ya, I wouldn't even drive 2 hours to work.  But I sleep on the morning train for another hour or so, and watch tv/game on the evening train.  Really, it's when when we get out at work at 5pm and it only takes me a 1/2 hour to get to the train station (late train leaves at 610pm) so I have to sit around wasting time until the train leaves.  That should change when I'm allowed to have overtime.

If you really think about it, how much time do you waste just sitting around watching TV/reading?  I do that all on the train now.

Then do some more at home  :-P

Reading is almost never a waste of time.  Watching tv is almost always a waste of time.  Funny, that.

I moved halfway across the country to get away from a 1-1:30 commute!

And most of it was on a bus, wherein I could also read or sleep.  The days just get long when you have that commute.  8+1 (lunch) + 5 (commute) + about 1 to get ready in the morning... 15 hour day.  Wow.

And don't forget sleep.

Depends on what you read or watch. Reading Dawkins is great, reading People magazine is a waste (imo, of course). Watching Frontline is great, watching Deal or No Deal is a waste (again, entirely imo).

You should just agree with me.  It's easier for both of us.

Same job as previously mentioned, as of Sunday though it happens to be in Boston.  I guess that counts as moving up in the world... well, moving north in the world anyway.

I don't waste time doing either of those, but I'd be playing the DS on the train.

The infant thing might work, but not for the reasons you think.  You'd see the commute and workday as a soothing vacation.

New job!  I now work for the State doing child support field operations/administration.  I love Austin, but miss the snow and the 5 minute commute.

Looks like I will be gainfully employeed once more.  Job is not exactly what I want to do now, but at least its IT, is with a decent company, and comes with buckets of cash. 

AND AND! You won't have to re-enlist!

Drunken maudlin posting 4TW!  Heh.  I am still thinking about going active reserve but my main issue would be it conflicting with school.  A year in Iraq would put me waaay behind my master plan.

Obviously, master plans require at least four years in Iraq.

Being killed or maimed will throw a wrench into nearly any well-laid plan, methinks.

What's wrong with re-enlisting? At least you get a bonus.

Being in the military isn't a necessary and sufficient condition to death and maiming.

Auto Accident deaths in the US as a function of the population of the US:  14.66 per 100,000 (http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/)
Deaths due to Combat in Iraq as a function of the population of the US Military:  33.84 per 100,000 (http://www.icasualties.org/oif/)

So your chance of being killed in combat in Iraq as a member of the military is a little less than twice your chance of dying in a fatal car accident in the US.  Both of which numbers are under .0005%...

Just saying.

Yeah. Maimed.

Right now I am typing a message using my Shitberry while on a self-dictated long lunch.  And I am feeling a tad abusive, do naturally I turn to f13 dot net, my intertron family. Usually I would just offer a 'suck it, bitches', but right now I just want to mention that only two F13'ers have ever asked me where I work.  This may or may not include Senor Schild... What happens in AIM stays in AIM.
Of those two, one is poor, poor Toast, whose corp firewall prevents him from participating in the revelry.f13 for now.
I really thought the readership would have asked me by now, but as usual I am pleasantly surprised by this board.

I'm pretty sure I've asked, since it's obvious from some of your posts that you use IBM products or are very familiar with them.

I don't think you asked, and if you did, my apologies.  It's a bit of a game, you see.  Are you asking now?

(http://www.admit-one.net/webimages/8ball.jpg)

They don't ask you because they know you have a job.  If you didn't have a job, like me, people would ask you all the time. 

Hooray for Signe!

Blackberries might not totally suck hobo balls.

Would you like us to ask?

I normally find it rude to do so unless it is freely offered.  We have an entire thread dedicated to the subject and if you had not posted it by now, it kind of implies you do not want us to know.

I always thought Yegolev worked for a very large Porn Site company. I also thought that was common knowledge?!

I know you do...things...with weird systems that I have never heard of before you mentioning them.

The where of it just never mattered to me. I just assumed you worked for generic_company_20842.

Naked women? :rimshot:

Carnivore programmer!

Well, that post paid off far more than I thought it would.  I am thoroughly entertained, especially with the porn industry guess.

Also, since Rasix asked, I work for The Coca-Cola Company.  That is not Coca-Cola Enterprises.  The "The" is very important.  We just make syrup and commercials, we don't put things in bottles and cans.  I support the AIX infrastructure which runs SAP/Oracle and a goatload of other applications that are literally too numerous to mention; I don't know what most of them do.  I only support the AIX... mostly.

That still doesn't tell me much, but I'm glad you had fun.

:mob:

I assure you that my opinion was ignored on the Vanilla Coke issue.

I know at least 1 person around here deals with the pr0n industry, so that speculation is really not that far fetched :P

If you can get a caffeine free Cherry Coke on the market, I will give you my first born child. Just gotta give me about 9 months to finish the project...

Well, I can't, and the last thing I need is another baby.  Why do people want first-born children as payment?  I never got that.  Do they make good soup?  Is the second-born stringy?

They don't always take my opinions seriously when it comes to something that I am an expert in, nevermind product development.  Of course, I did miss three taste-tests this week, so I guess I can't complain if I don't vote.

If you come through, I get a delicious refreshing soft drink, sex, and someone to pay to raise my kid. Win/Win/Win!

Can you get me a good deal on a case of Coke with lime?

My demographics are all in my profile.  As for the rest, it'd take 100 ravenous psychoanalysts to pull it of me and subsequently misinterpret.

You're a serial killer, aren't you?  (but a nice one, like Dexter)   :-)

Just Diet Coke with Lime, as far as I know.  And no.  However, if you come visit me at the office you can drink as much as you like for free.

I balk at harming a fly.  However, as a computer game addict, I'm close enough in the public eye.  My pixel lust will cause the seas to boil red, or so CNN tells me, but for the time being the only person I harm is myself from lack of exercise or social contact.  I get out once in awhile as I am, after all, a full time college (soon to be university) student.

[edit: I edited to add further details and make this longer.]

Every time you edit a post, I get a stabbing pain in my skull.

Should at least include a reason as to why the edit was done.

There, I added a reason why I edited, happy?

That stabbing pain in your skull is the excellent vibes from my edits performing karmatic chemotherapy on malignant cells that might have otherwise caused issues 10 years down the line.

Cheddar's sigpic was the cause of those cells.

[edit: Edited to make fun of Cheddar's beefy Santa Claus, fully aware that a guy with a Psi-5 Trading Company sigpic is in no place to judge.]

Do not take your failed site out on us.  Shit, back on topic, people!  Save derails for the non stickied threads.



edit.  And thank you Geldon.  I like ya, but you do use lots of words sometimes.
edit 2.  In response to Geldons edit: I will fucking crush you.  Thanks for hopping back on the rail!

On Topic:

Windsurfing doesn't work so well in december here in cheeseheadland.  I need a freakin' job.

Almost on topic, I'll say you can mock my failed site (http://www.gamergod.com) all you like, but I was mocking it before I wrote my first article for it.  An in response to Cheddar's Edit2, what, is that guy family?  If it's Cheddar himself, I both confirm that he could indeed crush me but threaten that in doing so my transfats will infect his well defined abs.

putting the thread back on topic  :nda:

Hello, i'm Mark!

20
'Lurker Foozle' <- could this be a new forum title?
Final Year Computing Student @Aberdeen (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=aberdeen&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=4&ll=57.147497,-2.095383&spn=34.510238,100.458984).
Honours project is to make some sort of web service that runs on a mobile device (ie the mobile phone has a webserver running on it)

Schild is niggardly about titles.  FYI, Schild is pronounced shilled, though I still prefer to call him S - Child.  Signe is pronounced Sig knee, but I still call her Sign (she prefers the name "Feet"), and Triforcer is pronounced Cum Guzzling Know It All Future Ambulance Chaser.

I accepted an offer from a biiig company and will be officially enveloped into its giant maw in January.  My current plans are to enjoy the rest of my vacation and play games too much.  Oh, and drink.  A lot.

ah Danke for that info, I always picture Sean Connery saying the phrase 'a skilled worker' when i see his name (if you can do the accent, it makes sense). Will have to remember that silent c!  :-)

I'm making custom titles special again. See how I don't have one?

I thought you were just having an uncreative couple of months.

30.
Senior OS/Kernel/Embedded Engineer.
Mountain View, CA.

New job: Vonage. They need a new marketing department, I know. And yes, they really like orange at their NJ campus. I do, uh, computer stuff. Engineering/Dev on Unix variants and perl programming.

As a Vonage subscriber, does that make you beholden to me?

Only if you're a stockholder.

I feel special.

Mine shoudl be retired, btw. I lost badly this year in both FFL endeavors.

When I first saw the name "Schild", my brain decided that it needed to be pronounced phonetically.  Phonetically in my brain, that is, as I've not had reason to actually say it aloud.  I will do that right now.   Yup, it is definitely suh-child.  You have to say the "suh" part pretty quick, otherwise it just sounds stupid. 

And Signe, that must be "see-nuh".

I guess you don't sprechen the deutsch.

I tried to avoid it, generally.  Which name are you even referring to?

Schild, because Signe is so not German. 

By the way, the Norwegian pronunciation is Sig-nee.  Seen-ya is just how my mother (who was from Italy) and her side of our family pronounced it.  She thought the Norwegian sounded awful.  Everyone in my family says it different.  I don't even hear it anymore... I'll answer to mostly anything.   I rarely speak to anyone but my immediate family, anyway, and all my friends live in other countries.

Hardly anyone has really answered the questions in this thread for ages, so I have no idea how much detail is the norm.  I develop stuff.  I like computers, and despite various degrees in law, economics and international relations to try and deny my destiny, I am all about the code.  And I am in Edinburgh, Scotland, which used to mean more to more people when Trainspotting was big.

You should remind them about that totally awesome camera obscura.

Just don't remind them about all the English people who live there.

Ha, no need.  If you are touring Scotland, you'll find most of the B&B are owned by English, presumably rejected from their own society.  If I wanted to endure the unfathomable glares and sarcastic mumbling of an Englishman, I'd tour England instead.  Maybe those B&Bs are run by Scots?

I've often wondered what the effect would be of a well-aimed class 3B laser would be if aimed at the viewing mirror of that thing.  I mean in both directions.

And Signe, yes, we do have plenty of English here, but we treat them, in the main, with a sort of benign tolerance: all Jock Tamson's bairns, and all that.  I think that they hope that when they go abroad they can legitimately claim to be "from Scotland" and therefore avoid the worst of Continental Europe's loathing.  If they pick up an accent and a kilt then that helps even more when they go stateside.

Golly, I ignore the General Discussion forum so completely that I missed this thread.

I'm 30, and I keep the books circulating at busy public library in Santa Rosa, CA.

You push the carts, or you just check out a lot of books?

Two library people. Time to form the Library Mafia.

You're overdue, bitches!

I rather like some of the t-shirts here (http://www.overduemedia.com/store.aspx?cat=shirts): I got my mum - a librarian herself - a "What would Dewey do?" one.

Somehow I got on a list for nurses and the last two weeks I've been receiving a barrage of nursing type emails.  So now I'm a nurse.  Feel free to ask me any sort of medical advice. 

I am sure it is very much like your mailing-list-based MMO advice.

My wife aspires to be library people.  I'll tell her about the Mafia; it's sure to inspire her!

Yes and yes. I've joked that my title "Library Tech" is the ideal sort of answer to "So what do you do?" Everybody hears it and nods as if they understand, so nobody actually cares to ask what it involves. I sort, I check in books from other branches, I retrieve things from the closed stacks. I magically transform newspapers and magazines into Library newspapers and magazines. I check the shelves to make sure they're in order. I shelve books. I find piles of books that patrons have left under tables. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

I'm a college dropout and I've worked a series of government jobs because they're the best pay and benefits I could get without a degree. That said, I wanted to work at a library the way that Homer Simpson wanted to work at a bowling alley... I could win the lottery tomorrow and I wouldn't quit. 300,000 books at my fingertips. No pressure, no late fees.
We call them "union reps".

Sweet.  Do you have a uniform?

I like nursing.
We like the Unshelved strip around here. Apparently I'm the spikey-haired tech guy. I keep getting strips with him in it in my mailbox.
I guess I'm a repeat college dropout, been in three times (result of a gypsy life). I'd probably go into gov work if something happened here, but I feel the same way you do, I love my job, the worst part of it is that I have to get up in the morning. Posting here at f13 is just a bonus perk, working with folks without technology and having access to thousands of books, as well as people who can answer just about any question I can think of...it's a dream job. Pay could be better, but to me it's not as important as the rest of it, my dad spent his whole life making a lot of money (which he doesn't share with me, thinks I need to earn my own way and I agree), but he was never happy. I'll take happy over money any day.

If we should get a boo-boo will you take care of us?
I will, too.  It's why I work at a university instead of the corperate world.

Yes.  I will perform nursing type antics on all your boo-boos.

I like to nurse on boo-boobs.

- I helped prevent an unplanned pregnancy at work today.

= Cool, recommended some books on sex education and family planning?

- Nope.

= Uh... I don't want to know what happened?

- Yup.

You remembered to pull out?

I am whoring for a telecom now. 

I'm 23 and work as a programmer. It doesn't get too much more specific than that, though I've been doing more web development work than anything else recently. I do contract work with most of my work coming through development companies, so I rarely work with the end user and work on a large spectrum of projects.

Age: 29

Registered Nurse in Ann Arbor, MI

Since we have an official library mafia I'll derail with a story from my short spiel as a liobrarian.
I was young, dropped out of college and lived on welfare - I was then forced into accepting a job at the college library in order to keep my money. It was quickly discovered that I was way more skilled than some of the drones working there so I was given more responsibility than my lousy pay warranted and sent to the department in a cellar under the university hospital. Here I was to sit all alone and collect and organize all the medical journals and ship them of for binding. One day I found a porno mag on one of the shelves, better yet the magazine had the exact same dimensions as The New England Journal of Medicine.
I still smile, when I think of the look on the face of the professor/med. student opening the bound 1995 NMJ and finding that... Yes, it was a boring job.

Rerail:
Returned from CES only to tell my boss, that I quit. 1st of march I'll be covering gadgets, computers, games and related issue for the consumer section of my countrys largest tabloid - I'm looking forward to beeing a reporter again, but I'll miss all the hardware that used to pass by my desk.

I'm a server at Chili's.  It's every bit as glamourous as you've imagined.

Actually, I like the job.  Almost any social, active job is better than sitting in an office, imo.  I'll be doing this and teaching sailing (once it warms up a bit) until the fall, when I'm going abroad to teach again.

Do you have to wear flair? Or am I thinking of TGIFs?

TGIF.  I think we're lucky if the Chili's people wear a polo shirt.

I can tell you that working in an office may not be active, but it's frequently social.  Too social sometimes, as I like to get work done once in a while.

BTW, why do all you Euros (talking to Hanzii now) often say "my country" rather than the name of the country?  I'd have to dig for more examples but it seems like a trend to me. 

Just curious.  For some reason I think you're in Germany, though I might be wrong.

Denmark.

I'm back in school now. IN CANADA, EH! HOW ABOOT THAT?! ... Fuckers.

Social and active is my job nightmare.

Do we?
I wasn't aware. Either I did it because I'm vain enough to expect people around here to remember which country I'm from and that Europe isn't an unified nation. Or perhaps it's my natural disdain for the average Americans knowledge about the world outside the US, that just leads me to believe that should I say Denmark instead of 'my country' most would think "I kmow Denmark, it's the capitol of Germany and located somewhere northeast of Kiev...' :evil:

That one's a weak shot that us snobby Europeans play up a lot, but I'm not sure it's justified.  The huge majority of Europeans would get the locations of Montana or Utah wrong on a map, too, which are fair parallels (sovereignty aside) of Denmark.  Even if they did better, a lot of that would be because we all watch the (largely superior) US media exports.

I once saw Michael Moore giving a talk where he played that game too, by asking Americans in the audience to name the UK defence minister, and British people the American one.  Then he said "oh how great  you europeans are in comparison".  Bollocks.  Rumsfeld was barely out of the news and even a political junkie like me had difficulty keeping check of Blair's mediocre cabinet.  It was a cheap, lying trick (and not the only one that night: I went along eager and went away detesting him).

I have the impression that it's a trend, but I can't point you to any specific examples without a lot of searching (which I'm entirely too lazy to do). 

It is hard to keep track of everyone's nationality precisely BECAUSE Europe likes to cling to this "multi-country" model :) , but I know where a few of you are from.  If I see it 1-3 times I usually remember.  VIKLAS is Italian, Der Helm is (duh) German, Ironwood is Scottish, etc.

I never noticed this post.  For some reason I always show up late to the (!) threads.

I do worldbuilding/game design.  San Mateo, CA.

That's funny. Most Americans don't know where Montana or Utah are these days either (fully half of current 18-25 year olds can't even manage New York state, and a third can't find the pacific ocean). A great majority of a whole generation of Americans has grown up without taking a single geography class at high school or college. Surveys generally acknowledge that among first world nations, the United States has the highest incidence of geographic ignorance. And enjoying highbrow educational media from Hollywood is not reason enough to delude yourself into thinking otherwise.

That's because Montana and Utah keep moving due to plate techtonics.

I'm in a travelling freak show as the tamborine-tapping ape.  But some woman with PhD certificate on the wall and a sad smile keeps telling me I'm an IT tech in a university hospital.  She's crazy, I tell you.  Whoever heard of a monkey pushing buttons in a lab for a living?

Kinda a specialist area for me, here.  Which studies did you have in mind?  The most authoritative source I can cite offhand is the National Association of Educational Progress, which reviewed geography last in 2001 (http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/main2001/2002484.pdf).  Only 12 percent of students did not intend to take at least one course in geograph at 6th, 7th and/or 8th grade.  A long way from a great majority of a whole generation, and a 33% reduction (ie improvement) in the same figure from 1994.  In fact, almost half intended to take three courses in the subject.

In any case, while ignorance is never a good thing, if you have to be ignorant of a subject, geography is the one.  In the UK, higher education funding in geography has been falling for years, and many geography departments have been closing, while others have been aligning themselves to take advantage of the funding currently available to any subject so long as it can include "Global Warming" in the title (except those pesky astro-phycisists and their sceptical alternatives...).  It is unusual for Scottish or English/Welsh students to take geography past age 12 as well, although coverage is better than in the US.

ROFL.

Ok, put another way: I worked for the curriculum development body here for a few years, and would probably work in something related to this day except that my father pretty much won that field.  No point even trying to compete when the nearest country whose curriculum development efforts weren't in some way shaped by him probably speaks Arabic (mild, but only mild exaggeration), so I did my own thing.  Anyway, you were going to point me at all those studies.

The Scots fight too much.  Maybe it's because they know exactly where they are.

No I wasn't. Go Google them yourself, you obviously Googled the government one that didn't support your rebuttal (8th grade isn't high school) unless you know the URL of PDF files 'offhand'. Or claim victory in an Internet pissing contest if you want. I honestly don't care. The UK and Canada are close behind the US in terms of ignorance with respect to geography, but that's no reason to be proud of wanting to eliminate the subject from the curriculum or to think that TV and film will fill the gaps. High irony.

I submit that - despite winning Geography Bees in school - that geography just isn't important. Period. if it's part of what you do as a job, then sure. But like anything else, just trivia otherwise. Now, those kids who don't know their locale are just stupid and won't get anywhere in life. If kids in New Hampshire know nothing about Arizona though, who cares?

Sure, it could be called ignorant, I suppose. But knowing what I know about geography tends to be a waste of memory space imho.

No need for google there: that's basically the federal equivalent of the old HMI system over here, so it was just a case of going there and checking what their latest report on geography said.  You're right, though, that i didn't read your qualification about high school minimum.  In which case, although I don't know, I imagine that you'd be able to say the same thing about most of western Europe.

What is it you want taught to the majority of students - and to high school level - in geography, though?  The ability to point to the Belgium on a map?  What their primary exports are?  The difference between lateral and terminal moraines?  Which of the current compulsory curricular elements would you take the time from?  I'm really not trolling: I'm interested.


Not to mention the distance to the sun and the emptiness of youth.

Edit: fixed a terribly-placed comma.

Schild = George W Bush?

(http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/5179/georgebushmiddlefinger1ui9.jpg)

That all sounds good. Despite the fact that it will probably be used least in the future, basic knowledge of glaciation features, cloud formation, etc will serve people well. However, its absolutely vital that people know enough about the world they are living in to understand the meaning and reasons for what is happening in it. So that's where countries are, fun stuff about their economies and key differences in how people live. Obviously you can't study every country in the world at depth in high school, but you can study a couple in detail, and teach people how to find out that level of knowledge themselves. Because otherwise, they never will. The bulk of young adults in most of the countries fighting in Iraq can't place where it is on a map. If it were just that, it would be bad enough, but they know nothing about the country, and the pressures that made it what it is. That's despite it being on the news almost every day for four years. Some of these people are going to end up in jobs where they really ought to know enough to build a framework of understanding about how a country works.

What subjects do you prune to 'squeeze it in'? All of them. Its as important as anything else you are teaching people at high school age. Surely by high school, O Grade level or whatever, we have loftier goals in education than just teaching people reading, writing and arithmetic?

That's cool, though I'm not sure geography is really where I'd put it: you really can't teach every kid where every country is, down to Uzbekistan and Kirghizstan, but I agree that some degree of "look, lots of countries are different and here are some important and/or interesting examples.  And look at how different their economies and clutures are."  I'd skip the moraines bit and leave it for those that take geography proper.  It probably ends up getting called Foreign Studies or something.


Oh, you're preaching to the converted there, and the Scottish education system has for a long time had a generalist bias.  But reading, writing and arthmetic are important and core subjects because they provide people with the tools to learn other stuff.  If I was going to add to the core elements of the curriculum it would be by adding more "tools" like those.  Particularly analytical tools like philosophy and epistemology.  I think that learning about other cultures is a really important second-order subject.  However I also think that an awful lot of what is taught in technical, high-school physical geographical studies (ox-bow lakes, moraines, delta-formation etc) is ultimately important only in the way that knowledge is a good in itself.

You can at least teach them how to read a map.  I had a friend who, quite literally, was unable to use a map.  Forget finding a country, he couldn't find one street over.

update:  escaped from Army

Conversational English Instructor, Pagoda Direct English, Euljiro, Seoul.

Much happier now.  Job is easy and fun.

Conversational English?

So, you get to use the words 'Fuck' and 'Shit' a lot at work?

"Fuck, man, that shit sucked."

"Shit dude, did you see what that fucking guy did?"

Otherwise it's probably not conversational English so much as some hypothetical version of English our English teacher hoped we would speak in conversations.

Hagwon!  Kekekeke.

I've occasionally thought about going back to Korea to try to land a university position.

Age: 16

Location: Lyman, Washington (it is a town of like 250 people, if you count people a mile on each side of city limits. it is otherwise known as bumfuck, washington)

Occupation: High-School Student / Web Developer

Favorite Drink: Mountain Dew (me and one of my friends use to both drink a 24 pack to ourselves each weekend to get a buzz off of it, and now I drink a 1 to 2 liters a day :/)

Interesting - I used to live on Lake Samish. (16-20 miles away as the crow flies for those that don't care).

Ever go to the Alger Tavern? I used to love rib night there.

Nah, never been there. I'll have to see if a couple of my buddies wanna go for dinner sometime there. What night was rib night?

How long ago did you live there, I know a lot of people that live up that way, perhaps I've heard of you.

Was Monday nights. They have a nice section outside of the bar. And unlikely - was only a year.

I was just offered and accepted a job to be a Senior City Attorney in a large metro area. So I am now a lawyer again, although not one of those greedy private lawyer bastards.

Grats! I am assuming you are still mired in the Beehive State?

Ack... you were lured away from academia by the dark side?  Maybe I should start considering law school again.

Ya. Still here in Utah. I doubt I'll ever get out of here. But I am working for the good city.  :lol:

And yes, I was lured away from the hallowed halls of ivory towers and tweed jackets. Heading towards bankruptcy will do that to a guy.  Although this is more in line with what I have been wanting to do and it quite a bit different than my old job. It is doing transactional work for the Redevelopment Agency plus they may have me redo a bunch of the election regulations which is what I have been concentrating on in my research for the past year and a half. No more billing. No more fighting with clients over the bill. No more bitching with partners about A/Rs or billables. My really good friend that used to work at my firm and bailed several years even before I did works there, so all in all I'm hoping it will be a much better experience. I'm still going to try to do the dissertation as I finished up my coursework (yesterday in fact) and potentially adjunct in a couple of years after I get settled into this new job.

Grats!  Best of luck.  Do good stuff!

Well, you know I can't blame you.  It's more important to be doing what you enjoy than about anything else.  If your stint in grad school helped you find a position that will have you happy to go to work in the morning, then you win.  I can see how having interesting work without dealing with the whole "billable hours" crap would be a breath of fresh air.  So congrats on the position!

I'm personally torn between taking a moderately interesting job that pays ridiculously well (allowing me to retire in 10 years) or taking a low paying job that I enjoy.  I guess that I could always do the first for 10 years and then the second, but I'm still trying to get used to the whole delayed gratification thing.

I agree with your sentiment on that. I talked to the guy who I will be replacing (who actually used to work with my father in law and wife at different places, god this is a small town considering how many people are here) and he made the same transition from big-firm corporate stuff to municipal work about 10 years ago and really likes it.  Working for a city won't get you rich by any means, but it is a lot more than what I would have started out at if I had been lucky enough to scratch my way to a professor position. I also got a bit disillusioned with the academic world in my brief foray. The teaching stuff is good but the other attendant bullshit looked like the same kind of crap I tried to leave (i.e. office politics, hounding for publications, always hustling for grant money, etc.). Hopefully I can adjunct and only do the fun stuff.

As for your dilemma, I'd have a hard time turning down a job that would put me in a position to retire in 10 years, but that amount of time sounds a lot shorter than it would be actually having to do something your not into.

Hello everyone :) Zodiac from Turbine here. I am the Manager for the Application Development group that's responsible for customer facing applications that are out of the game (e.g. Account Management).

Brought to this site, interesting, by the news about Sigil. Still trying to get a grip on what this place is about ;) The About page on the main site is broken :D

We're mainly just a repository for the SWG NGE thread.

I got promoted.  For now.  Working for a telecom keeps me busy!

It's about insulting each other while talking about videogames.

I am an Italian living in Italy, but I don't like it. I am a secretary (http://images.contactmusic.com/images/reviews2/secretary.jpg)/writer.
I am 33 years old and since 1994 I am a single parent.

Gratz, Ched! You'll need it, what with all those mouths to feed.  :wink:

Working as intended.

To stay on track with the job info, I am still putting fizz in soda.

I still make sure kids can hook with each other up on myspace.

Delurking because I'm bored.

I have one of those dream jobs that people would kill for.  I work from home as a software packager.

You put DVDs into cases?

Um, yeah.. is there more to it than it sounds?

heh yea...


I do mainly corporate desktop refresh projects. 

Company A is upgrading from 2K to XP, we go in and test all their software for compability, Update their install procedures, catalog it, repackage it into MSI format and then hand it back to them so that they can distribute it via SMS or whatever.

My job TITLE is packager but i've been kind of promoted out of that recently.

My actual job lately is to solve problems that the packagers in India come up with by calling the client in the UK and scheduling meetings :P

That's more like it.  :-D

In the late 90's I had a work-from home contract as a follow-up to a software dev one I did for a UK public sector org.  They had timed a data conversion at about six hours and sent me through a bunch each week to do.  They'd done it manually with a loooong series of SQL statements constructed on the fly.

I scripted it and could run each in about 40 minutes, of which i only had to be there for about 5.  I only regret (I really do) that I wasted those 18 months or so smoking gear, watching Jerry Springer and going out with students (the only people equally time-rich outside the actual unemployed).

Boredom strikes!  I make lasers.  Really big powerful ones.  I am the one who gets to deal with the line voltage and make it nice and compact and accurate for the rest of the system.  I'm the youngest one in my department by over 10 years, so I catch alot of hell for being the young kid.  Sure beats the hell out of being a garbage collector.

What is smoking gear?

Just got a job offer that I'm going to accept doing back-end file management for a large east-coast bank; pretty much every piece of paperwork comes through the office I'll be working in. At least it'll let me do things, like maybe get a 360, or finally take up fencing.

This is just somewhat temporary until I get offered a USAF commission. Failing that, I'd look into become a Foreign Service Officer (Consul, specifically).

Failing that, well....career choices get a bit more "out there"....Maybe, somehow, find a way to teach in Asia? Teaching History would be a huge plus, but conversational English would work as well.


Early 20s SUCK.

(http://www.sccja.org/images/csid_marijpara.jpg)

Very VERY easy to get a job teaching english in Asia, even one that will pay decently.  Will it be a decent job and not make you go insane?  That takes more work.

Desktop Support tech at a large University / Hospital. I fix Brain Surgeon's computers. Well, nurses, doctors, admin assistants, researchers, and others as well. I get paid to forum whore basically.

I am now a project manager.

Same company, same pay, same department. Now equipped with MS Project and a call-in number.

Woop.

Grats. Now bust their balls for a salary bump. + responsibility should ALWAYS come with + pay.

Yeah.  It should.  But gratz anyway!

To be thorough I will now update this. I am no longer at Business Objects (as of Dec.06). I am now Director, Marketing at a company called FINCAD (http://www.fincad.com). We make incredibly niche software to do valuation and risk analysis on financial derivative instruments (FX Forwards and Swaps, Credit Derivatives, Fixed Income, Interest Rate Swaps, Option forwards, etc.). The website is undergoing a revolution - do not comment :P.

Oh and now 38 years young, still in Vancouver, BC.

And that's just what Signe just happened to have had in her pockets.

I am the CEO of Neogence Studios (mmorpg studio). I am the author of "MMO Evolution", and I blog over at killtenrats.com under the pseudonym of Nicodemus. I did some contract work for deviantart.com for a while as their Director of Prints, which ended recently so I can focus on Neogence.

I'm located in Raleigh North Carolina.

You can find me on linkedin at http://www.linkedin.com/in/robertrice feel free to add me.

Hmmm ... what to say .... I know ...

I'm a British ex-pat network code monkey at Day 1 Studios in MD, been there since September last year, before that way too many years to mention doing sims and datalinks for the military, and way back in the very dim past did a lot of contract work on C64 and Amiga games.

Drifted here from reading the news articles on the unfortunate folks who used to work at Sigil (avid MMO fanatic since Kunark days), and found what seems to be a very interesting collection of people and views.

Welcome, ShynDarkly!

Kissass.

schild, you are the most eloquent and funniest poster on this site. You make it worth reading every day.



See, THAT is how you kiss ass. N00b.

Too much time on his hands!

Schild, I imagine you've had a few sycophantic interactions lately, so I forgive your snipe.

There's only one reason I try to be welcoming to devs in this forum, and that's to see more of them post. I actually like to see devs at home in f13 instead of seeing them be shouted down and driven away, as has been wont to happen in the past. You have to admit, the hostility in f13 has pushed it to the brink of complete irrelevance more than a few times during its odd existence.

I have no social networking aspirations with developers. I'm a dime-a-dozen network/desktop support person, with absolutely no interest in working in the game industry. Aside from having absolutely no qualifications for any 'opportunities' (not like that's ever stopped people from being hired) I really don't like the idea of working where I usually play.

So updates... Now divorced (no kids).  Got promoted and now I schedule and forecast customer accounts and production requirements for about half the factory.  Like someone else mentioned earlier, more responsibility, same pay.  Meh... I've got better chances of upward movement in this position.

I saw what you did there and I've reported you. 

Pass me a magnifying glass someone

The quote button is handy in situations like this.

I usually copy and paste into the address bar.

Early...ish 30s.
Orlando, FL.
Desktop support at a game studio.

Age: 21
Occupation: Full Time Student, University of South Florida (English); Butcher (Publix)
Spare Time: Writing critical articles, trolling forums because I have been inundated with online personalities since I logged onto AVATAR MUD at age ten.
Drink: The Fabled 50/50 Gimlet from Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye. If you don't know who Raymond Chandler is, you have no business appreciating the noir. He freaking scored #3 out of the last century's most influential people. #3 for Christ's sake.

As I recall Marlow didn't care for Gimlet's he just drank them for that one guy's memory.  I can see why, with 50% Rose's Lime Juice they are sickeningly sweet.

He drank one at the end just for Lennox! I'd have to pull out the book to find the quote though... maybe I will :D

Age: 29
Location: Champaign, IL
Occupation: Unemployed currently, most recently spent a month scoring 8th grade math test responses. Took what little of my sanity was left.

Used to work as a scenic carpenter/welder building theatre/television sets and museum exhibits. Decided I was tired of freelancing and the entertainment industry as a whole,  looking to move into something more intellectually stimulating that does not require me to inhale welding fumes and sawdust 8 hours a day.

You should become a housewife.  I know I like it. 

So this is how many for the Monkey Brigade?  Five?  I think the top of the hierarchy is Paelos if you need help adjusting. 

I actually usually use MrSquirrel on boards, but I saw there is already a 'squirrel' on this board and I felt it would be rude to use that name as a noob.

Also I like the midnight spank logo for an avatar so I figured Chimpy was as good a name as any I could come up with at the time.

I'd love to, but I keep ending up being the bread-winner in relationships. :|

(And I can't even eat bread, dammit!)

Hey, I read some of your stuff over at ktr. I thought it was awesome, and you should post more :)

I'm taking a 3 week trial of that in 4 days.

How can you possibly fit 3 weeks of housework into 4 days!!!  I want answers!

He has testicles.

Testicles only make more work for women.

You are not disproving my statement.

I know but I can't figure out how. 

Well....

Most mammals have one pair of sex chromosomes in each cell. Males have one Y chromosome and one X chromosome, while females have two X chromosomes. In mammals, the Y chromosome contains the gene that triggers embryonic development as a male. This gene is SRY. Other genes (in addition to SRY) on the Y chromosomes of men and other mammals are needed for normal sperm production.

There are exceptions, however. Among humans, some men have two X's and a Y ("XXY", see Klinefelter's syndrome), or one X and two Y's (see XYY syndrome), and some women have three Xs or a single X (and no Y, "X0", see Turner syndrome). There are other exceptions in which SRY is damaged (leading to an XY female), or copied to the X (leading to an XX male). For related phenomena see Androgen insensitivity syndrome and Intersex.

Many groups of organisms in addition to mammals have Y chromosomes, but these Y chromosomes do not share common ancestry with mammalian Y chromosomes. Such groups include fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster and relatives), some other insects, some fish, some reptiles, and some plants. In fruit flies, the Y chromosome does not trigger male development. Instead, sex is determined by the number of X chromosomes. So XXY fruit flies are female, and fruit flies with a single X (X0), are male but sterile.

Other organisms have mirror image sex chromosomes: the female is "XY" and the male is "XX", but by convention biologists call a "female Y" a W chromosome and the other a Z chromosome. For example, female birds, snakes, and butterflies have ZW sex chromosomes, and males have ZZ sex chromosomes.

Does that help?

Yes.  Thank you.  I know what I have to do now.

Ok, now I am lost.

Clicking on "read unread posts" sometimes is not a good idea.

Oh snap I just figured out how to use our corporate employee/project tracking software Vision (the same software we use for timesheets) to look up my coworkers' employee ID numbers and how much they make. Keep in mind that I am not a haxx0r and do not have skillz. HR will be very interested to hear this, I'm sure.  :-o

Gonna use that info to bitch for a raise, right?

"Hey, BlardyBlar makes more than me, but I have more experience, and/or tenure, and or I actually do more work (or more difficult work). Pay raise plzkthx."

If you have been working there for more than 6 months, you cannot sue for sex descrimination in pay if you are underpaid vs men.

Thanks to the Supreme Courties the other day.

Not strictly true. The timer resets every time they talk about pay (such as yearly merit increases) -- You can sue any time, you just can't sue for more than 6 months of back pay.

The hilarious thing is that my boss only makes ~10K more than my coworker friend (on my team also) who has only been there 1.5 years. She's like 3 grades below him.

Better not tell him, he might sue!

You want hilarious, my sister makes more as a flight attendant for a major airlines than I do as a professor at a state university.  Nice to know how much education is valued, eh?

But she HELPS people to their seats and gives them snacks!  You make them learn stuff.  She is mini pretzels.  You are broccoli. 

A/S/L?

Formal education is valued most by academia.

I used to have the passwords for all the management when I was receiving manager at walmart. Changed our nationality to  african-american and made us all 90 years old +, hoped we'd get a visit from corporate for a photo op :P

The school superintendant in my ghetto city makes as much as the Secretary of State (like $160kish). Yes, Condi. School Supe in a ghetto. They just fired a bunch of janitors to cut costs. Life sucks.

If the private sector didn't care so much about formal education, there would be no need for 70-80% of community colleges and small 4-year schools.  The demand for degree granting institutions was created by the private sector, not the academicians.  Beleive me, the academics would prefer fewer schools with increased rigor. 

Yeah, true, there are certainly a lot of degree requirements in job profiles, but my take on it is that they want to find someone that has the ability to obtain a degree rather than the associated education.  Counterpoints to my comment would be jobs that require significant education to do such as chemistry and cutting open people for money.

The reason that so many places require a degree for a job is because there are so many people with degrees that they can get away with it.  If degrees were limited to those that really needed them, then everyone would win.  We'd have fewer people in college that shouldn't be there in the first place and talented people wouldn't have to waste 4 years of their live in school when they would be earning a salary and getting pertinent experience.

In most fields, a college degree is little more than a certificate that demonstrates the student is capable of learning in a structured environment.  Seems like 4 years is a big hoop to make people jump through to get a job that's ultimately just going to retrain them from scratch.  The whole process is pretty broken, even moreso at the PhD level.  There is such a glut of phds (http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north427.html) that you now see many of them in positions that were held by BS graduates 20 years ago. 

Holy shit, that was an awesome read. Kind of makes me glad that I am pursuing something else, instead going for my MA or higher.

That's why I'm back being a law talkin guy. Making more now in a lower-stress local government gig than many full professors in my field (as polisci is one of the lower paid disciplines).

If you guys knew what I got paid given my educational background and experience, you'd probably laugh.  Patent law is starting to look pretty good.

I totally agree with every bit of that.  If you knew what I got paid without having even an associate's degree, you'd likely punch me in the balls.

But Nebu is doing LOVE work.  He's making the world a bitter place.  We should stand in awe of him.  I'm being serial.

Fuck.  I meant better. 

Every piece of code I write teaches the world to sing.  In perfect harmony, no less.

I felt compelled to buy you something-

(http://www.bitlaw.com/images/coca-cola.jpg)

You're working on Rock Band?

He's got rithim.

Thanks, WAP, but I get that shit for free.

The SO and I don't talk salary. I'm 100% school of hard knocks experience, she's got a Master degree. She does a little better than me, but only a couple grand...so...we don't talk salary. That's gotta hurt (and she also has two Bachelor degrees!).

I hated school, except music school, that was teh pwn. Final exam: play a gig...rock on!

USPTO is always hiring.  It pays roughly 50% above standard GS levels, and is a very stress free job for a BS requirement.

Shitty part is living near DC.  So much monies.  Or living away from DC and TRAVELING to work.

/derail

Age: 38

Loc: North Pole, Alaska. Seriously.

Occ: I track maintenance records for a small airline. The planes are ancient WWII era prop-driven cargo planes that are in danger of falling out of the sky at any given moment and the engines explode with frightening regularity. I'm getting married in three weeks to a graphic artist and we plan on exploiting her talent to support me starting a design shop in the near future.

/derail off, please do continue.  :-D

Delta?


<ok, that was much funnier in the 80's>

Alas no, Delta has abandoned the lucrative Alaskan King Salmon air shipping market. My mother is flying Delta into Fairbanks for the wedding though, and I've bitten my tongue every time she asks about them. Not that it would matter too much since she will likely be heavily sedated the entire trip.

You didn't derail.  Everyone else did.  Congrats on marrying the woman in Alaska.  You will be the envy of everyone else.  Here is a picture of a wedding gift:

(http://www.bellalino.com/Gifts/Bella%20Gift%20Wrap.JPG)

Oh I want to give a gift, too!

(http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:lpnpA2IndY9rMM:http://yorkshiresoul.blogspot.com/SirRobin_scissors.jpg)

You're supposed to save that one for the baby shower!

Awwwww, guys you shouldn't have!



(http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/ec1016/FoockersCard.jpg)

I like this guy already!

With a Monarch avatar, how could you not like him?

Never noticed this thread before now...

Age: 30
 
Location: London, Ontario, Canada

Profession: Urban and Regional Planner ironically for a large Rural municipality. I hoped to play Sim City for a living, but  I basically throw up red tape instead.

Age: 31

Loc: Philadelphia, PA

I own a business that sells aviation equipment all up and down the East Coast and to the Military.

Funny I never noticed this either.

Age: 25

Location: Orlando, FL

Right now, I'm getting an associates degree in Recording Arts.

And, as it somehow relates to the previous topic, my lab this month involved learning how to make web pages in Adobe GoLive and basic shit with Photoshop.  I finish the assignment in 30 minutes and have to sit there for 2 hours while the rest of the class catches up.  Don't even bother asking why we're studying this at a recording school.  I can't quite grasp it myself.

It's still a business. They need to force you through classes that are simply a money grab. Much like most of the "core" courses you take to get a liberal arts degree. Diversity. Hah.

Full Sail?

Full Sail.  And all kidding aside, it's actually a requirement for their accredidation.

So, all kidding enabled, when will you be accredidated?

I graduated from Full Sail with a Computer Animation degree.  It was a pretty good program.  I remember the audio students having a rough time with the scheduling once we all got past the same generic classes.

I hope so.  Right now, I'm bored off my ass.  Maybe 24 hours of class per week and nothing to do in the meantime.  They keep dangling the threat of 1 AM labs over our heads, but I haven't seen any yet.

I live in Tampa and I almost went there after I struggled through USF for a few semesters in the business program. It was so over-hyped here that I was scared to go to the school; FMU had a bad rap around here for about the same thing.

I figured I'd do what I like (English) and I hope one day when I move out to California I can get my foot in the door as a good technical writer. I at least have a conference paper under my belt, but I hear it is stiff over there ><

You would be amazed how much you use little things that are not "core" to your course of study when you are working in the entertainment business. Believe me, I took classes I thought were absolutely worthless in college and I have used the knowledge I got from them a number of times, and they were no where near as practical as what you are describing.

Sure you may know all that stuff already, but a good number of people in your class may not. And in this age of digital portfolios, knowing a little bit about web design and graphics manipulation could mean the difference between getting a job and not for some of them.

As someone who has worked in the business and knows people in all areas of it, every little bit of technical knowledge helps :)

I agree with you completely.  My gripe is really that the test to get out of the class was ridiculously hard (i clearly failed it), and yet having to spend a month learning what I could've picked up in two or three days seems like a colossal waste of time/money.  And when it comes down to the photoshop and web building stuff, we had to follow a rigid list of directions so that everyone makes essentially the exact same page, and if we finish early, we have to sit there for the duration of the (4 hour) class.  Okay, so it might be good to know this stuff at some point, but how about having something for those of us that have already seen this stuff before?

(Incidentally, the hottest girl I've seen at this school was picking up a textbook on MySQL.  I think I'm missing out on something)

God damn I love teaching sailing (and windsurfing).

The only thing I could be possibly be accredited for is Awesome Time.  Schild, I'm bringing it back!

We have nothing but awesome time here at the house.

We've got surplus.

To derail to a previous point of conversation, in my field, computer science, I view PhDs as almost a negative. Given two equal resumes, I'd rather hire the one without the PhD.

Simply put, why? Is writing a dissertation that much of a colossal waste of time?

PhD's walk on water around here.  Especially those with algorithm focused specialties, they can do no wrong.

I work for a major multinational engineering firm but I am working out of a major educational center not-for-profit lab.  Not surprisingly, there is much more emphasis on Ph.D's at the educational lab then at the engineering firm.

There are Ph.D's at the engineering firm but they have their focus, they handle high level problems of a specific well defined type.  Either there is work for them to do in their area of expertise or there isn't.  When there is a lack of work then they have to make work by doing burden projects and research (which cost monies).  In contrast, an engineer with less 'qualifications' will be seen as an asset that can be used to a greater or lesser degree in various roles moving between the different elements of their discipline.

Someone with a BS or MS in a particular engineering discipline is seen as being a generic block to be inserted into the process that can be molded to specific purposes with a little specialized training.  A PhD on the other hand is seen as a very expensive custom tool that has to be used optimally to gain the most value from.

At the lab, on the other hand, you are just sort of seen as playing around and not worth actually giving a serious task unless you have a PhD.  You really aren't even considered to have a useful opinion regardless of your work history or expertise in any given field.

My wife is looking for a field sales job based in Colorado if anyone knows of any.  :-D

Yeah Murgos has it basically right. A lot of Ph.D's are either unwilling or unable to take on a range of jobs, and a lot of their "getting stuff done" skills have atrophied. Install some software? Actually program something? Solve a highly technical issue? No thanks.

Of course that is a broad generalization, but for the most part Ph.D's seem to do well on high-level algorithm/research stuff, which we don't have much of at my company.

Funny.  At my company (a private corporation) we have a ton of MS people (like me) who do a variety of jobs and end up making the modules and systems work.  We have nothing but PhDs for managers.  That is right.  The fucking management all have PhDs.  And their interpersonal skills are so lousy.  It's like their solution is to belittle people who disagree until they quit or follow in line.  Luckily my group doesn't have this issue - we're somewhat specialized and none of the upper management short of the CTO and one of the co-founders of the company really understand the part of the system we're responsible for (which makes it hard for the 5V signal and codewarrior groups to kick us around).  We're MSes with one PhD who has zero communication skills (so he doesn't get much too generic or program oriented) and two very experienced BSes.  And the ones with the BS degrees are MORE social and better communicators than the MS and PhD (excluding me, and I'm an anti-social bastard).  When I've worked with the big bosses who belittle, I just flat out roll my eyes and let them do the analyzing and make the decisions (then correct what is really the problem later).  I see everyone else do the same thing: not disagree but say "well so-and-so believes that is the problem so that's what it is."  Lots of bizarre sub-electron nano level hardware "causes" of "problems" when the reality is that the software just isn't doing what it is supposed to.  Hey, it makes them feel good and then they don't feel like firing me, so why rock the boat too badly?  Then when the problem isn't that, I can just point and say "hey, you said that's what it was."  Amazing how I went from rebel without a clue to corporate drone in less than 3 years.  I just can't take it too seriously.

This is so true it hurts.  You can actually get called\promoted to "an engineer" at a national lab if you have been at the place for 25-30 years with a VERY good track record for problem solving, and even still the 25 year old kid who just got his PhD in dicking around fresh out of school is going to be making as much if not more than you, even if all he does is sit around and play solitaire all day.  "But he has a PhD and we have to respect him."  Yeah fucking right.  My dad is angry that I didn't get my PhD, but he wasn't paying for college and I really didn't feel like spending more time in school for yet another piece of paper.  Sometimes I wish I had done it, but then I'd have to work at a national lab or research position (or be middle management at my company ;-) ) and I'm not sure I could stand not actually seeing the fruits of my labor delivered to customers.  It's kind of cool seeing a product you were intimately involved on and had a major hand in the design of get delivered to an end user and be used to generate millions of dollars of revenue (while you get none of it).  Or cynical, whatever!

Once I complete my PhD I'm going to do this to everyone regardless of situation. :evil:

Apropos of nothing, I have run into a well-entrenched bureaucrat in my new gig as a government attorney that treats me like a moron. We discuss simple amortization schedules and she feels the need to condescendingly explain how positive and negative numbers work on the balance sheet. I want to scream "I DO BINOMIAL LOGARITHMIC  LOGISTIC REGRESSION ANALYSIS ON A REGULAR BASIS THAT YOU WILL NEVER EVEN BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND," but I refrain.

That's like when study two logs falling uphill ya?

In order to determine if they make a sound ?

Hehe, thanks Wolf! Sometimes I wonder if anyone actually reads my rants outside of a few regulars. I posted something I thought was rather scandalous (http://www.killtenrats.com/?p=1094) and laced with subtle sarcasm. It barely managed 5 comments (one of them mine haha). Anyway, thanks for reading!

Robert / Nicodemus

I've read KTR a few times.

I just hate single-user blogs. Diaries belong on a desk, not on the internet.

Now tell him what you think about his mother.

Single user blog? What are you talking about?

Here, let me post the link again, just in case. www.killtenrats.com

I am one of several people that post there, so its not quite a single user blog. Unless you mean that each contributer is a single person instead of multiple people sharing the same login. Or perhaps you mean that only people with multiple personality schizophrenia should write blogs (which seems to be pretty common actually).

Whatever.

(http://zulfiqar.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/neo_whoa_1.jpg)

All this time I never noticed the users.

We're not schizophrenic! :x

(Too cliché?)

I graduated today so I am now an unemployed Scottish bum with a BSc Hons in Interwebz studies (internet information systems).

Wheres that pub!

If you are in the Hampton Roads, are familiar with computers, want earning potential of 60k+ per year, want full medical (paid for), and would like to work for a large telecom who may or may not take over the world a la Terminator style pm me.  We are about to hire some people and this may be your chance to get in the door!

Downside: job is in Newport News.

Eeeeeek. NN sucks.

Don't they build large boats there as well?

True that.  I live across the water in Chesapeake; I was tempted to move to Suffolk but we ended up finding a decent plot of land in an extremely nice neighborhood.  Until we moved into the neighborhood the "New" people had been here 7 years.  Hopefully by the time I retire we will be official :)



Extremely.  Northrop and Grumman do billions of dollars in business here.  The ships are almost unreal.

Hey, I like boats. 

True that.  Anyone who is in the Navy and wants to go to the top will spend alot of time in the Norfolk area.  Pretty much all of the Navy's major operations are based out of there.

That being said I'd hate having to live in some of the areas out there.  Last time I was there was almost 10 years ago and it was pretty miserable as far as traffic\population was concerned down in Va. Beach.

Its really not that bad.  Yeah, you have to deal with the bridge tunnels, but we are going to be building a new one in a couple years and fixing much of the traffic. 

Despite working in Newport News this job is a rare opportunity; you do not need a degree or any certs to get it.  Its a bit like getting into the military; you jump through some hoops ala tests and background checks.  60k in Hampton Roads is a fortune- and the 60k is base pay.  We had a few guys clear 6 figures last year!

Update on what I do and where:

My contract with the Marine Corps ended June 1st, 2007, and on July 5, 2007, I enlisted into the Army with a Special Forces contract and a $14,000 signing bonus. In a week, I'll go to Georgia to attend an airborne course and then on to North Carolina for the secret squirrel stuff.

Cool! Have fun with the parachuting, it's a blast!

Make sure you snicker at the Rangers when they go "Whoosh" and slap their thighs.  Oh, wait, you'll be one of the rangers, well, try not to get to pissed off at the Marines snickering at you then.

Whoa, whoa. I'll laugh at the Rangers, because I won't be one of them. They do fall under SOCOM, but are something seperate from Special Forces (Green Berets).

Nice going, Climb!

What::

Telecommunications, currently wireless.

Where::

North America

Nineteen Days and I will be a stay at home baby-raiser. I'm sure I will be posting a lot less.

Damn, how did you work that out?  Also, did you interview first?

My interview went horribly.

What he didn't say is that he's kidnapping the babies he's going to raise. And sell on the black market.

 :evil:

/don tinfoil hat

I wonder if companies are now studiously filtering all known f13ers from beta participation after the well-publicised Sigil expose.

/remove tinfoil hat

I just got into one a couple of weeks ago.  I wasn't in the sigil beta but I've been on well over a dozen others and as far as beta's go for the stage this one is in it's very playable other than very predictable stuck in geometry bugs.  Also, at the stage it's in, it's just not fun and needs a complete graphics and UI overhaul, but that's jut My Opinion.

Of course, it could just be that I don't rate highly enough as an f13'er to be on 'the black list'.

We looked at Mrs. Furiously having three months off in the summer and that we were both paid about the same. through careful negotiations, we came to this agreement. And why would I want to steal babies? I already made the perfect one.

We all know it's about quantity, not quality:

(http://static.flickr.com/102/289010948_5e3a5c6ca7.jpg)

4chan.

Got a new gig at Dept of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington, doin the usual one-man tech support stuff.

I wish to hell this had worked for me.  It would solve so many problems.

Foreign Market Advisor, J.P. Morgan and Chase. Indiana,  Age 32. MMO nerd who aspires to be the town drunk.

Don't worry.  You work in finance.  I'm sure you'll achieve your goal.  If you don't jump out of a skyscrapper window first, that is.

Professional Bum.  Used to work in Hotel Sales, recently went back to college for a Computer Science degree.

You used to sell hotels and now you're learning how to make back ups?  Wowsers.   :-o

Between Baltic and Mediterranean?

Haha, not as good as that :( 

I worked for contracted hotel chains (Hilton, Ritz-Carlton, Marriott, etc.) and corporate meeting planners to find them rooms and convention space.  Bascially as a go-between/3rd party rep.  I actually started there just doing telemarketing and raised up into sales and ended up spending more time then I would have liked there.

I just finished six years of active duty with the U.S. Army where I worked on CH-47 Chinooks. Now, I'm a full-time student, age 26. Word!

That's the way round to do it.  I'd have appreciated my first university course so much more if I'd not had to do it when 18-22.

I appreciated my first (and only) university course when I did it.  It's just that these days I can't helping thinking that it was a collosal waste of time. 

It's what I did.  Taking classes and being in an academic atmosphere after having dealt with life's BS for a while first put things into sharp perspective.

In a good way or a bad way Murgos? I hear people who do that fall on one extreme or the other.

I thought it was great.  I saw right away that I was going to get out of college what I put into it.  If I really wanted to learn something and move in a new direction than my life had been taking me it was there.  All I had to do was go get it.

I grew up working as a deck hand on fishing boats (Where everyones greatest ambition in life is to get drunk) and enlisted in the Marines when I was 18.  Now I'm a design engineer for aerospace avionics.  That transition would have been impossible without college.

I believe it is possible to make college a waste of time, I also believe that if you do so it was entirely your fault.

I did the opposite of Murgos, and I agree with him completely.

I'm desperately hoping that my degree will help me somewhat in my quest to find a job that I like. Many people I talk to say that it doesn't and I'm wasting my time.


Either that or I'm stuck in retail forever.

Absolutely right.  I was so pleased with myself that I got honours in my undergrad while quiter literally not turning up for a single class in second year, and doing 5 hours a week of classes in 3rd and 4th years.  Now I realise that I was tremendously stupid in wasting my time like that.  I'm doing a second masters now, and love the learning and stimulation of it, but can only imagine what it would be like if I could devote my days to it instead of just snatched evenings.

And cmlancas, on a purely functional, utilitarian level, having the degree might not get you a job, but not having it sure would shut you out of a lot of positions.  The stats for earnings figures, comparing earning levels for graduates and non-graduates, really back that up*, even when you adjust for the skewing of social class backgrounds involved.

*Does not apply for all degrees.  Peace or Gender Studies degree holders should ask other members of their commune for detailed advice.

Well, I am English Lit. At least people will know I'm somewhat literate.

If such things are important to you. ;)

I could have worked harder at my degree and got a better grade.  It wouldn't make fuck all difference in terms of my career as it wasn't a vocational degree.  Also, never been asked for the grade in any interview even though I tend not to put it on my CV (although have been asked on more than one occasion how I think my degree would help in my role).  After I graduated, I started working and within 6 months was in a permanent job.  However, there were people my age doing what I did who didn't bother going to college and went straight to work.  They had a car, a house, money in the bank and were advanced in their jobs and taking on senior roles.  I had student debt, lived in a bedsit and was just starting out.

These days, those same people are still not being hampered by skipping further education and have moved into management and even more senior roles. 

On the other hand, more junior jobs in my area (unsurprisingly IT related) are looking for more vocational degrees before getting into positions - computer science or whatever shit it's called these days.  Having had to train some of these graduates and having had to work with some, they seem to struggle more with grasping the difference between what they learned in theory and how it actually happens in practice.  Welcome to the real world of an IT professional, my friend - you should have chosen the blue pill.

Don't even get me started on the plumbers/builders/sparkies I know at home - our local builder (who is very good and works very hard) has three cars, two motorbikes, a nice house (well, he's a builder) and goes to the Maldives with his wife twice a year. 

Personally, I think I should have ignored my teachers and parents and gone to film school like I wanted to.  I'd probably still be doing what I'm doing now but at least I would have done something that was more vocational!

There are quite a few jobs that pay extremely well and simply require a degree in *anything*.  Hell, I'm cranking out a degree in marketing to be a catastrophe insurance adjuster.  My degree will have zero relevancy to the job, but it's a requirement for any of the large insurance companies.  So in 4 years, I'll get paid to tell people bad things just after horrible, catastrophic things happen to them.  That makes me the happy.

On starting college late - I wouldn't have learned a goddamn thing had I went when I was 18.  Learning how a system works before you start theorizing how to make it better is never a bad idea, the one thing I'm not looking forward to is the people.  I've found that college freshman generally have absolutely no idea how the world works, and are thusly qualified to tell you A) exactly what is wrong with it B) How to fix it C) How much of a better job they could do, as opposed to someone who's been doing it for 30 years.

Speaking as someone with a degree in English Literature, there are very few jobs you're going to be able to get on the strength of your degree alone (as opposed to something like accounting or mechanical engineering).  There are certainly companies that just want to know that you have a college degree and will then evaluate you on your other qualities during the hiring process, but no company ever says 'We absolutely need an English Lit major for this position'.

Since I graduated three years ago, I've taught English abroad for a year, and then spent two years teaching sailing, and now I'm a week or three away from going abroad again.  I've greatly enjoyed the last three years, but I honestly could have done the same thing with a degree in basket weaving and I can't see a long term career in either position. 

I enjoyed being in English major as an undergrad (it certainly wasn't all that hard and I can write far better than 95% of the people I know if I put some effort in), but if I had to do it all over again, I'd definitely major in something more, you know, useful.

If I could have done it all over again, I would have gone the GI Bill route. I wasted the first 2-3 years of college being drunk all the time.

The people that had had 5-10 years of experience in the world and knew what they wanted out of college were so much more successful and interesting in discussions it astounded me. I recall one class where one student verbally went off on the professor who attacked some idea of theirs. It was fascinating to see them present a logical argument, and the next day the prof apologized to the class and the student for being wrong.

GI Bill is good. Sucky that reservists don't get to use it once they get out though - I only have until spring to burn $30k!

Seems like everyone I meet at the competing cell companies is either an English Lit or Fine Arts major.

Do you want 1900 WCDMA service with those fries?

Military -> College is one of the bestest paths in life, IMO.  GI Bill + motivation 4tw.  Also, it is nice to know you have the military to fall back on is wonderful!

Also, I have found people tend to respect you more and give you opportunities you would not have without the military thing.  It definitely has given me an edge up, work/education wise.

You're a deckhand on a fishing boat?!  :-D

Long overdue, but I currently work at a movie theater in Redwood City (as I've mentioned elsewhere).  I'm trained in pretty much every aspect of the theater but I spend most of my time in the projection booth and the money room.  Before this, I was in charge of shipping and receiving at the local Toys R Us.

I did college right after school because it was what I was supposed to do.  The military didn't want me, so I went to school instead.  Working a full time job in the real world of programming and IT gave me such a disdain for the CS program that the only reason I graduated with a CS degree is because I already had 6 out of 10 classes done for it by the beginning of my 3rd year.  My electrical engineering degree was big on theory, but they forced you to actually do a semester long project for 5 semesters which was harder and more work than anything I have ever done in the real world regarding engineering.  Being in a room full of professors who actually know how the real world works and not just theory drilling you on your designs and over miniscule choices over why you chose that BJT vs another and what the math meant as to how it was biased and why your 1k resistor should have been a 2.2k... a very uncomfortable experience but one that really made me appreciate how to go in front of a room of people smarter than me and convince them I knew what I was doing.  It made me not worry a bit about going toe to toe with our CTO and VP of engineering over my designs at my current company.  Not all colleges are like that though, most are big on theory and poor on application.  I got lucky.  And I was lucky to be done with college by 24 rather than just starting it (as much as I enjoyed it at the time, I can't see going back any time soon).

Music theory probably would have been more fun, but I wouldn't have been able to do much of anything with it compared to what I get to do now.

For sure. I decided while I was sweating my balls off during two tours of Iraq that I was going to get out as soon as my contract was up and then go off to kick ass in college. College rocks.

Grats, and welcome home.

Almost.  I put fizz in soda.  If I wanted to get into management, the lack of a degree would be a roadblock.

Aww, no MBA for Da Da?

He's a wiseguy, fugeddaboudit? Oops, sorry, I may have my evil empires confused.

I have a major interview with my company tomorrow.  More details to follow.   :nda:

Nothing but lots and lots of college credit that somehow does not add up to a diploma.  I am pretty sure I could qualify for a Bachelor of General Shit.  Two good years of general engineering, one year of theatre, half year of mechanical engineering, one or two years of mathematics, and one year of aviation management.  That was also padded with some electives and things like Spanish, Bowling, Photography, and other forgotten arcana.

Good luck!  I'll root for you!  (http://www.desiproject.com/bbb/images/smilies/cheer.gif)

My friend, I believe you might qualify for the Van Wilder degree in Professional Studentry. Still, considering all I have to my name is two terms of Electronics CORE that I really never used, four photography classes taken in my thirties that have made me the "free wedding photographer" for my buddies, and a very exciting MCSE in NT4 - I envy you.

I have the second most useless college degree in the world.

It might as well not be a degree.

I did some drinking in college. Maybe some partying. Definitely a lot of cigarettes and alcohol.

I only took 1 English course.

I got a B because I pointed out an error of questionable grammar in the project sheet for the final. Whoops.

Interview went very well.  During interview I was e-mailed that I had received a promotion.  More of a title promotion, but hey.  It bolstered my spirits and I should know by end of next week if I got the biiiig promotion.

All this talk of school reminds me that my three year old asked me what "grade" I was in this week. I had to count it up and realized I was in 22nd grade.  :-o

That made me laugh unexpectedly which turned into a coughing fit while I was swallowing water.  If you weren't a lawyer, I'd sue you for something!   :lol:

Depending on what you end up doing, education can be pretty useless for your career. Most folks go to college before they know what they want to do. I think education is great for developing as a person, but you can also do that by self-tutelage, if you have the discipline. Look at Lum, he's edumacated up the wazoo, but no official education outside of highschool, if I remember his tale correctly. Then look at the boorish MBAs that stalk our world. All that college and all they do is bring misery through accounting.  :-)

I'm currently living in Barcelona for about a month, and then deciding if I want to stay here or move somewhere else, like Istanbul. 

Love the city and it's amazing how fast my Spanish is coming back.  Catalan is a bit harder.