Whose lamb?
Love the way the word “FUCK” is used in this thread!
Yer one funny fucker roger :D
Trying to stay a bit serious :)
I’ll just add that i agree with what everyone has said here above, things like ‘wherever you go, there you are’. I don’t know if going back to school would be a better deal in the long run or not; if your working minimum wage jobs, then yes, generally you’ll end up better off. If you’re pulling 25-35k a year, at this point, you might not be, depending on what degree.
Universities do a great disservice to their students in fostering this idea of “do whatever you want to do, be whoever you want to be”. Well fuck that. If you’re the creative type with a certain talent and focus, well great. But generally most people go to work to make money and live their life during the off hours, and “being whatever you want to be” ends up leaving you in a dead end degree.
I’d suggest looking into Petroleum Engineering. I hear that there are only ~120 graduates a year in the entire United States getting PE degrees. There is a lot of money in the oil business and those well paying lifestyle jobs like our grandparents had are still out there in industries like that. Geology isn’t as hard but isn’t much in demand because there are so many 50 something geologists and most of the geology has been figured out; but still viable. Geophysics is also a good degree, although it’s (probably) the hardest of the three. I met a woman who was a Resevoir Engineer and it was refreshing to see someone in her mid-late 20’s building her own house and already having years of facinating and rewarding work under her belt.
Financial Aid is out there regardless of gender/color/creed/etc. I was a bit shocked at how easy it is to obtain tuition for any kind of post high-school education.
Now I understand why there are tons of DeVry /ITT type schools popping up.
Bill, let’s start a school. 99% of the income can come from financial aid reimbursement.
Better like Texas. I went to the University of Houston, and most graduates there in well, most fields, ended up working for oil and oil services companies.
Not a bad life. My dad’s been in the oil business for years, and his current niche is doing translation of Russian oil documents – which most translators can’t do, because it’s all technical and crap.
It’s cyclical though, and that’s why a lot of the oil services companies like Halliburton have branched out. They’ve got lots of experience in making heavy things go up quickly.
Is getting into the oil business in what quite possibly will be the Hubbert’s Peak year such a good idea? :)
Ah the old standby. “I’m not a pessimist, I’m a REALIST.” I agree with much of your post, actually, but I can’t stand this part. It reminds of those people who are assholes but claim that they are just being “honest”. Being cynical doesn’t make you better than everyone else…it just makes you bitter.
Again, much of your analysis is correct, but not because of cynicism.
[quote=“Robert_Sharp”]
Ah the old standby. “I’m not a pessimist, I’m a REALIST.” I agree with much of your post, actually, but I can’t stand this part. It reminds of those people who are assholes but claim that they are just being “honest”. Being cynical doesn’t make you better than everyone else…it just makes you bitter.
Again, much of your analysis is correct, but not because of cynicism.[/quote]
I’ve actually been personally closer to tronnic’s situation than is comfortable, thus perhaps there is a bit of my own discomfort that is surfacing. That, and the fact i’m also a lifelong incorrigible self loathing asshole who thinks that there can’t be anyone as bad and unworthy himself; excepting, of course, everyone else alive. When i succeed where someone else has failed it’s not because i’m especially good but because everyone else is horrifying incompetent. :) Cyncism and bitterness go together like chocolate and peanut butter.
Anyway Peak Oil isn’t a reason not to get into the oil biz. It will only affect society on a macro level. If companies are only producing half the hydrocarbons that they are today it’s quite possible, even reasonable, to suspect that they could be making 2x-4x the profit due to supply and demand maintaining elevated prices; which gives enough largess to not only sustain but hire new employees. Most of the “Major majors” like Exxon have left the shores long ago and are virtually exclusively offshore (which in the glory days of the 70s could mean easy money even to physical laborers); but many of the “Minor Majors” still have a substantial continental as they’ve grown to fill the void. The woman whom i referred to in a post above related how she could get jobs for her fellow alumns simply by recommending them to her employer when they asked her for names; indicating a relative lack of competition compared to other industries, at least to me.
But yea, you’ll probably have to live in the god-foresaken wastelands of the world if you go that route. Which ironically seem populated by the most god-fearing people around.
I would say be careful with the whole wait a year thing to get residency. I tried that when I wanted a change of pace and moved to NJ planning on going to Rutgers. However, just to live around here is very expensive and after a year of making 30K, which is rather poor for this area and meant I lived in a seasonal boarding house, I was not eligible for anything but loans. When applying for financial aid, they seem to not take into account the cost of living when considering your expected contribution. Also since it is based on the previous years tax return, you will be screwed for at least a year if you chose to live on campus and go back to a minimum-wage job.
It took me about 5 years and a better job to finally be able to get back in school by paying half of the tuition myself and half thru loans. All in all I am glad that I ended up waiting and going to a different school, one that offers all of its Civil Engineering courses in the evening and is taught by people who actually work in the private sector during the day.
Bill your post was kickass and 100% true.
My girlfriend moved out here to CA to get her masters at a Cal State school, and after a year, got the in-state tuition.
My brother moved out here to go to Berkeley for his bachelor’s, and never got in-state tuition.
He probably never became a resident and paid taxes, whereas sister probably did. In NYC they wanted an address and proof you paid local taxes for a year.
That makes sense.
Get a drivers license and voting helps too.
I bet being a registered voter was probably one of the available proofs, but I don’t think it would be too hard to get a driver’s license and still be from out of state.
Thanks, guys. I’ll mention at this point that a lot of that post was semi-quasi-autobiographical. I was waiting for tronnc to like reply at least once but I guess he’s playing ExecutionerFive with us. I’ll just have to accept my award for Baddest Ass Qt3 Post without him on stage.
Actually, I’ve had a chat to some people higher up… and you’re getting your own talk show.
[size=6][color=yellow]GOLD! [/color][/size]
Just what people need, another gap-toothed smartass on late night. Or is it a (shudder) afternoon talk show?
As an aside, I remember watching Letterman when he was on in the morning.
Dear Bill: I’m in love.
Bill Letterman.
“Tell’n it like it is!”
give us your top ten list Bill!