That whole figuring out what you are going to do with your life thing....

[apotheosis]

So, I haven't been posting much... because I've hit a point where I realize I don't want to drift about aimlessly in liberal arts academia forever... so I need a plan.

I now have a plan... so I might possibly return to a state of being slightly more active in the Infinite-Story community. Don't count on it though, because this plan requires a lot of work. Just know that I am still lurking, and watching over you all.

[Ryan_DuBois]

I have a plan, too, that kinda goes something like this...

Step 1: Get Software Engineering degree

Step 2: Get job

Step 3: Live happily ever after!

Are you still a biology major or whatever it was?

[apotheosis]

Software Engineering is a pretty recession-proof path. I'm sure you can accomplish your goal.

PS: I apologize for the vagueness of my last post, but unlike other people *COUGH* Ves *COUGH* I don't delete or edit posts I regret. I own them, even if I was drunk when I typed them.


Anyway, Psychology seems to be my path, PhD of course. I will probably do research, practice, and then when I get old, tired and gray, lecture and teach.

[End Master]

Lol. I remember when I mentioned on here that I majored in psych and Apoth said it was a pointless path. (Though I more or less agreed and didn't continue with it after I got my Bach of Science in it)

Well anyway the main thing with psych is make sure you're REALLY into the field otherwise you'll have a lot of soul crushing experiences later on, if some of the professors/researchers that were lecturing me were any indication. A lot of them were really miserable bastards that seemed to barely like their jobs. In fact most of them basically gave doom and gloom warnings of not going into the field unless you were certain.

The I/O psychology field from what I last heard pays the best, so if you're in it for the money go with that one. (Might've changed though) I would imagine something like forensic psychology would be among the more interesting of the fields.

A PhD is really the only way to go with it if you want to maintain some independence. Psych with only a Masters degree always tend to have a sense of dissatisfaction with their jobs, like they should've "went on further".

My advice?

The mafia is right, the working man is a sucker. Pursue the life of crime if you have any aptitude for it. Of course if you don't, then you probably shouldn't, as it'll lead to a bad end for you.

[Ryan_DuBois]

Yes. The reason I picked Softare Engineering is almost exactly that -- it's got a good outlook (hopefully Dragavan and Chubby won't read this ). I like the math, of course, but I'm not crazy about programming nor Computer Science. They're alright.

Necessary evils.

A career doing research in Psychology would be awesome. Especially like Evolutionary Psychology. I love reading about that stuff.

Plus having a PhD would be pretty damned awesome.

Why?

Just to have it.

[EDIT]

Haha, I had no idea, End. Wow. That is a perfect degree for you to get.

[Hi! My name is: Katie]

You could probably get the military to pay for your education if you indentured yourself to serve the country. The longer there are men and women under ridiculous amounts of stress and constantly in extreme danger, the more crazy people there will be. I read somewhere that they were looking for people. Might not be bad gig.

Or do you want to just sit and listen to people complain about bad nose jobs?

My mom thinks psychologists are creepy. She says whenever she meets one they have a look in their eye as if they are trying to diagnose you no matter what you say. They call that paranoia right?

Anyway, glad you settled on a career path. Sounds like a good one. May you encounter many statistics along your way.

[Dragavan]

Wow, my life plan has three parts too.

Phase 1: Steal Underpants

Phase 2: ? (still in planning)

Phase 3: Profit

Pretty simple... (and stolen from South Park.)

[The_Writer]

1. Have baby (done)

2. Raise baby to be ridiculously good at a single thing (work in progress)

3. Profit (It worked for Tiger Woods' daddy)

[Usoki]

I'm on track for an English/Math double major. Damned if I know what I'm doing with it, but at least I'll be able to graduate. That definitely wasn't happening way back when I was a Chemical Engineer.

[Ryan_DuBois]

I know with Math you have to get the PhD before you can do much aside from teaching it, and I'd assume the same is true with English. So you'll probably wind up being a professor or else stealing underpants with Dragavan.



Both of which would be pretty cool.

[End Master]

Well here's what a lot of people did with their lives recently...

1: Get way too emotionally attached to some program about people on a magical island for 6 years and then become so personally offended and outraged when the last episode doesn't match your overly high expectations that you bitch about it on the internet, screaming for the real deaths of everyone involved in the show.

2: ?????

3: PROFIT!

The nerd rage and arguing over the Lost ending is even greater (and funnier) than that of the Sopranos.

"I SPENT SIX YEARS OF MY LIFE FOR THAT? WORST ENDING EVER! FUCK YOU LOST! RAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

[apotheosis]

I've heard about Lost, but when I tried watching clips it seemed to be about some fat guy who looks vaguely like the lead singer of counting crows, a bunch of homo-erotica on an island, and something about a smoke monster and a dark man. Oh and can't forget alternate time-lines.

Suffice to say, I decided not to pursue it. I figure I'll watch 24 this summer when I want to turn my brain off, but I think I've burned through all the good TV Series.

Except Carnivale looks sort of promising.

Anyway, back to the earlier discussion, I realized when I applied to a liberal arts college I would be getting a PhD in something.

And yes, I realize both of my majors (Psychology and Sociology) are absolutely useless unless you want to go to school until you are almost 30 (or make under 50k a year).

[Usoki]

An English Major has a wide variety of applications if you pretend it's more of a communications degree. I've briefly considered something like publishing- or any media mogul, really. The math half of my double major is particially because I've got a lot of otherwise wasted credits, but mostly because it shuts up my parents. I don't see it doing much, other than setting me apart from other people.

[Dragavan]

Except Carnivale looks sort of promising.

Carnivāle was great. I was so sad it was canceled when it still had so much room to tell story... at least it was able to pull out at an ending of sorts, as opposed to leaving everything dangling.

Also, I really liked the end of Lost (and the whole series for that matter). I do not think I wasted six years of my life on it and all those idiots who are bitching about that obviously never really watched the show, because they are mostly all bitching about not getting answers and the whole fraking show has been about NOT giving answers that don't lead to bigger questions. If they expected that premise of the show to change in the last episode, they deserve to be disappointed. Hell, every time they DID answer one of these long lasting questions, these same idiots bitched because they did it a way they didn't like. I got exactly what I wanted in the end, a beautiful ending to the story they were telling about these characters we've grown to care about through the seasons, and not a bunch of pointless answers to things that really don't matter in the end.

Anyway, being more serious about the actual subject of this thread.

None of my plans actually involve profit. I would not mind being wealthy, but it's not my goal in life. The things I enjoy and want to pursue are not generally things that make a lot of money. I accept this and deal. I have my job to pay rent and food and what not, but it's not actually important to me and what it is really doesn't matter to me that much in the end. Office work, computer repair, printing, assembly line work, powdercoating, night stocking, and more have all been things I've filled this necessary spot with, but none of them are really more important than the others. They are all just a means to an ends, in order to keep a roof over my head, gas in my car, and food in my belly.

[Ryan_DuBois]

If the first couple season of 24 are what I remember them to be, then I think you'll like them. The past couple seasons really haven't been up to par with the earlier stuff, so if you do like them I'd recommend stopping with seasons 3 or 5, lest you suffer some let-downs. In particular, season 6 was the lamest crap I've seen in a long time. I'm going to finish the final of the series here in a couple days.

I'm not much of a TV-watcher, but I'm considering "True Blood", "Dexter", or (drum's roll) "Daria" after I finish this stuff up. I might try "Lost", but I doubt it.

For the Math major, every couple of years I either run across or hear about an article with fives "m"s in it, called something like "More Math Means More Money" (the name varies from year-to-year). Basically, in every article someone tries to show that there's a correlation between the amount of Math classes taken and the amount of money you earn... Or maybe even that taking more math classes causes people to earn more money.

Can't remember.

I definitely believe that there's a correlation, but it could just be because almost all engineers have to take about three Calculus courses, plus a couple more Math subjects on the side.

Anyway, I think having a solid knowledge of Math is good simply because, like you said, it sets you apart from other people; most people hate Math. If you excel in an area where most people fail, it can only help out.