[Heineken]

P.S. to Narz:

If you have a good eye for detail, and are good at remembering and applying a zillion rules, you might try getting a job as a proofreader. That's usually the ground floor for getting into the editing biz. Or if you're lucky you might land an entry-level copy-editing job.

Publishing (and editing) has become so computerized I hardly recognize it. I was lucky to be able to work from 1989 to 1996 for a pharmacy journal that used pencil editing throughout that period. Although parts of my job became computerized, the essential act of editing remained unchanged, which was a good thing from my point of view.

My computer skills are clunky, and I don't like staring at a screen all day, and I think better with a pencil in my hand, so things worked out miraculously well for me, but it was sheer luck because of the particular journal I got hooked up with. Nowadays there'd be little room for a walking anachronism like me.

But if you're really good with computers, so much the better.

[Bas]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'P').S. The high quality and general braininess of the members of this site make me especially fearful for the future, since most of us are doomerish.

[eastbay]

Well, although we may not quite be the smartest, at least most here understand the basics of peak oil. There are many really, really, smart and clever people out there including downright geniuses who have no clue as to what's coming.

[strider3700]

You have to remember that the more intelligent among us throughout history have regularly leaned towards the doomer/depressed/crazy side.

These days I'm of the opinion that being more intelligent doesn't help you in society. If anything the additional abuse you are likely to recieve in school stands a good chance of affecting your view of the world through the rest of society. I often wonder if my doomerish views stem from an honest view of the state of the world or a deep-seated desire to watch the world burn and finally see a lifetime of consequences catch up to decades of poor choices.

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')ell, although we may not quite be the smartest

[Heineken]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('strider3700', 'Y')ou have to remember that the more intelligent among us throughout history have regularly leaned towards the doomer/depressed/crazy side.

These days I'm of the opinion that being more intelligent doesn't help you in society. If anything the additional abuse you are likely to receive in school stands a good chance of affecting your view of the world through the rest of society. I often wonder if my doomerish views stem from an honest view of the state of the world or a deep-seated desire to watch the world burn and finally see a lifetime of consequences catch up to decades of poor choices.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
')So I guess--My greatest accomplishment?--I'm not a hooker! But how will that look on my obituary?

[Heineken]

I second those comments. Threadbear is class A.

At some point I will have to tell you guys about the delights of reflex sympathetic dystrophy (also known as chronic regional pain syndrome, with an emphasis on "pain"). But the experience was so terrible I can hardly bear to think about it, much less write about it in any great detail.

But what Threadbear went through was worse, and lasted far longer.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('uNkNowN ElEmEnt', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')ell, although we may not quite be the smartest

[threadbear]

Oh...and thanks Heineken and PMS. Your comments mean the world to me. The people who have it the very very worst are those who suffer from severe clinical depression, or the kind of intense physical pain of the sort you endured, Heineken. Thank God that's over. Being misunderstood in a big way though, certainly qualifies you for membership in Misery Anonymous though. Sigh... I'd be interested in how you were, are misunderstood PMS, if you feel like "sharing". That term kind of makes me cringe, but it's apt for this discussion.

[PenultimateManStanding]

I should state truly my best accomplishments. It wasn't that I beat my brother in ping pong. I won second place in the county finals (CIF) in butterfly swimming in high school. Then, after becoming a stoner, I gave that up and joined the local Community College swimming team and placed in the finals there too. It was UE and her figure skating that led me to rethink this and post true. The swimming for the local college was the hardest thing I've ever done as I was so pathetically out of shape and did it anyway. By the end of the season, I could swim ten hundred yard freestyles in a row, all under a minute.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', ' ')Being misunderstood in a big way though, certainly qualifies you for membership in Misery Anonymous though. Sigh... I'd be interested in how you were, are misunderstood PMS, if you feel like "sharing". That term kind of makes me cringe, but it's apt for this discussion.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', ' ')Being misunderstood in a big way though, certainly qualifies you for membership in Misery Anonymous though. Sigh... I'd be interested in how you were, are misunderstood PMS, if you feel like "sharing". That term kind of makes me cringe, but it's apt for this discussion.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Narz', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mmasters', 'I') suppose just the extreme range of experiences, I don't feel like I'm 27

Teenage years:

dropped out of high school
became a serious druggie for a few years
spent some of those years in mental hospitals

Early 20s to current:

did construction work
financed my own college education through market trading
went to community college then ended up getting a computer science degree from the U of Maryland
during college discovered myself, resolved my psychological issues and in part did it with the aid of experimental psychedelics
Decided on a whim after watching Donald Trump's "the Apprentice" to move to NYC and do corporate business projects. A couple months later I was sucessfully consulting on a project at Goldman Sachs (world's top investment bank)
Sucessfully transitioned from IT to the business side - currently a mid-level business analyst specializing in high net worth client data for a large international bank
Have managed to survive well and hold my own in NYC for about 3 years
In the past 2 years have traveled to Mexico, Brazil and Jamaica
Have no debt

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
')I love communicating through the written word. You too?

[PrairieMule]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
')
I just wanted to speak up for the homeless schizophrenics, drug addicts, hookers and others who might be considered life's losers. For people battling major demons of one kind or another, just being able to face the day after waking up in a psyche ward, under a bridge or in a hotel that rents room by the hour, is testament to profound courage. It all depends on your perspective. It's one thing to face the abyss and come through it, it's another to face it in perpetuity.

[PenultimateManStanding]

Another thing I'm proud of, I once subbed for a pre-calculus class for a week. When I told them it was my last day they gave me an ovation. I gave them impromptu lectures on math and they were very much into it. I'd give anything to have intelligent students to teach, but I can't handle the discipline side of it. I need good wills and shrug off the malcontents. If the malcontents rule the roost, I just shrug and say, "see ya later"

[Narz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Narz', 'H')einekan,

That ELS(D) sounds really interesting.
I'm on unemployment right now and am trying desperately to avoid returning to the "corporate cube!"

What kind of job did you get with that degree. I tried looking it up on google but did not come up with anything.

Can you please give me some info about the degree?

My college major was Lit. and I feel lost as to how to make money outside of the "cube."

[firestarter]

Narz, mmasters,

I spent years as a high school teacher and taught many students who experienced incredibly disadvantaged circumstances in their lives ( I taught In Chicago). I had much too much compassion for them and ultimately had to quit the profession because of the utter contempt the school establishment manifest toward them. The end game for me came when I read John Taylor Gatto's, Underground History which helped me realize I was doing more harm than good (in that canned setting), so I quit. I don't miss one bit of the bureaucratic, administrative and pseudo scientific nightmare that teaching entailed, but your words brought to mind what I did LOVE about the profession--the young adults, especially the outliers like yourselves (without going into detail I was an outlier also--big time!). Thanks for sharing. You made my day.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('firestarter', 'N')arz, mmasters,

I spent years as a high school teacher and taught many students who experienced incredibly disadvantaged circumstances in their lives ( I taught In Chicago). I had much too much compassion for them and ultimately had to quit the profession because of the utter contempt the school establishment manifest toward them. The end game for me came when I read John Taylor Gatto's, Underground History which helped me realize I was doing more harm than good (in that canned setting), so I quit. I don't miss one bit of the bureaucratic, administrative and pseudo scientific nightmare that teaching entailed, but your words brought to mind what I did LOVE about the profession--the young adults, especially the outliers like yourselves (without going into detail I was an outlier also--big time!). Thanks for sharing. You made my day.