From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V3 #310 Reply-To: alloy@smoe.org Sender: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "alloy-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. alloy-digest Wednesday, November 18 1998 Volume 03 : Number 310 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Alloy: Re Slarv's educational ramblings [Tim_Dunn.JBA_HEATHROW.SPL_EX] Alloy: Career opportunities the ones that never knock [John_Hanson_at_FRM] Alloy: My New Career ["Lem Bingley" ] Re: Alloy: Career opportunities the ones that never knock [ccannady@co.wa] Alloy: Dolby [Sir Moog ] RE: Alloy: My New Career ["Beth Meyer" ] RE: Alloy: My New Career ["I T Admin @ Govt Office North West" Subject: Alloy: My New Career I moaned about my careers adviser at school and Slarv said: > If this chap had said something like, "That's a good choice, but it requires > dedication and a lot of study. Here's some information about what's > involved. I'll find out which are the best Universities to apply to, and we > can discuss it again when you've had time to think about it," things might > have been completely different. Indeedy. Things would have been different. And we'd live on a different planet where it was always summer, and Oxford Street would be a pleasant leafy lane. Yes, careers advisor is probably one of those jobs that no-one actually chooses. Ours wasn't even a bored or bewildered teacher - he was a professional advisor employed by Hampshire County Council, so he probably managed to squash the dreams of literally thousands of children, perhaps tens of thousands. This is probably why Hampshire is almost entirely filled with estate agents, accountants and quantity surveyors. > This sounds like SUCESSSSSSSS to me. It depends on your definition of sucesssssss. Personally I'd like to be much richer. Sadly they made Ally McBeal about 15 years too late. I could have used Richard Fish's advice: "If you want to be rich, and you want to have scruples - better get the money first..." You really do keep everything don't you Slarv! I'm amazed. I forgot about that bio. You have to bear in mind, as well, that that bio was written with the express intention of making me sound like an authority. > It all depends on which leg of which pair of the trousers of time you get sucked down. Possibly the wisest words ever formulated on the subject of career development. Robin enquired: > Is it possible for you to go back to university & get this degree after all, I guess it's never too late to start over, but I think 8 years of University is enough for anyone. I couldn't suffer any more time spent with students, to be honest. Besides, then I wouldn't be able to carry this big chip around on my shoulder and I like being able to blame someone else for my lack of fame and fortune. As Slarv helpfully highlighted, I'm the last one that should be moaning. Given the nightmare career stories some Alloid have told (Melissa seems to have had a particular run of pointy-haird bosses from hell) I do count myself lucky to work for a relatively stable company with decent managment. Like Slarv, I seemed to have been sucked down a trouser leg that I can be comfortable in. Lem (Powered by me humming 'My New Career' by Japan in a way that is probably very annoying for my co-workers) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 08:55:09 -0500 From: ccannady@co.wake.nc.us Subject: Re: Alloy: Career opportunities the ones that never knock That's OK John... "I've got the brains, you got the looks... let's make lots O' moneeeeeeeeey !" Chris ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 19:59:05 +0500 From: Sir Moog Subject: Alloy: Dolby Just wanted to know how Dolby came to work with Sakamoto on the "Field Work" project and why the song appears on Sakamoto's album instead of Dolby's and so how come the song appears on Dolby's video collection. Sir Moog - -- - --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sir Mini "The Neuromantic" Moog: http://members.xoom.com/sirmoog Sir Moog's New Wave/New Romantic/Synthpop Page - --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E-mail: sir_moog@hotmail.com / neuromantic@hotmail.com / sirmoog@nexlinx.net.pk / sirmoog@mailexcite.com ICQ#: 14691166 AIM: sir_moog@hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 09:02:16 -0500 From: "Beth Meyer" Subject: RE: Alloy: My New Career Hi, folks; Another fascinating thread! A couple of comments: * While Lem has indeed forged himself a very cool career, I'd have to agree that that careers advisor was a whopping jerk. Sheesh... * I do see some common themes here. Certainly, one decision (which may seem trivial at the time) has a way of leading to another, and we can end up on a path that we never would have expected to be on. At the same time, it does seem to frequently happen that, after a certain number of years, we often find ourselves in something that is satisfying and fulfilling, even if it is not at all what we expected when we were 17. In fact, I've seen a lot of these career changes or decisions made for weird reasons, or reasons outside our control, lead to final outcomes that were far better than anything we could have expected from the way we were headed. For example, my path has been a fairly circuitous one. When I was 5 or so, and people would ask students in our kindergarten class what they wanted to be when they grew up, we'd get a bunch of the obligatory firemen and nurses and ballerinas -- then I would pipe up, "I want to be a famous scientist and solve all the world's problems." (And all the other kids would back away slowly.) Fast forward to my final year of high school, as I was deciding upon a university. We really didn't get any career advice at all -- it was assumed that the big decision at that point was which college or university, and we would make the career decisions there. But I already knew that I wanted to be a biochemist. What I aspired to was basically what our Europa actually did -- get a PhD in something like biochemistry and do genetic research at a university. But a couple of things happened. First of all, I tried to get a full scholarship at a prestigious and expensive university, and was a finalist, but didn't make it, and my parents couldn't afford that school. After that, I just got a bit lazy and tired of fighting with my parents over how they spent their money, and headed off to the same in-state liberal arts college that my sister attended (where I had a nice scholarship), assuming that I would take a couple of years of chemistry and then head off to a major research university farther away. This never happened. While I loved the theory of chemistry and did well on the tests, I was a complete disaster in the lab. Stuff didn't react for me. My suction filtration exploded, throwing my carefully measured quantitative sample all over the walls. I'm pretty sure that I accidentally created TNT once, except that I also accidentally dumped that chemical sample down the drain and kept the washing water. Same thing in biology -- I took genetics, and kept drowning my poor fruit flies in the growth medium. Just as I realized that the career in biochemistry was not such a good idea, I also fell in love with writing and computer programming, and ended up graduating from the same college with a dual degree in English and computer science, and heading off to be a technical writer. Tech writing led to work in user interface design, where I quickly realized that a) I loved the work, and b) I needed more training in psychology and human factors to be able to do it properly. So I went off to grad school, picking the Georgia Tech program solely because it was in the same city. I assumed I would just get a master's degree, which would be enough to do user interface design for companies. But along the way, I got in touch with my inner researcher, and found that the psychology lab was perfect for me -- I could write my own computer programs for people to use, and nobody ever exploded! So here I ended up with a Ph.D. after all, and in a researchy job that is far more interesting than anything I ever imagined when I decided to go back to school. In the meantime, the mere decision to move for the job has set my husband on an exciting new career track that he would have never considered had we stayed in Atlanta. So yeah, a lot does depend on "which leg of which pair of trousers of time you get sucked down." But eventually, you can end up with something that fits really well! Whew -- sorry for the ramble -- speaking of the job, must get to it -- Cheers, Beth (This message powered by visions of the video of actual births from the childbirth ed class last night, which was how we spent my birthday. Hard to work up much appetite for cake after that...) Beth Meyer bethmeyer@mindspring.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 00:56:46 +0000 From: "I T Admin @ Govt Office North West" Subject: RE: Alloy: My New Career At 09:02 17/11/98 -0500, Beth wrote: > >Hi, folks; > >But along the way, I got in touch with my >inner researcher, and found that the psychology lab was perfect for me -- I >could write my own computer programs for people to use, and nobody ever >exploded! LOL. So you never did any research on Blipverts then? I'm very glad to hear it. Slarvi-BANG!!-lhee ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 00:56:50 +0000 From: "I T Admin @ Govt Office North West" Subject: Re: Alloy: Career opportunities the ones that never knock At 11:52 17/11/98 -0600, John wrote: > > > "...every job they offer you is to keep you out the dock..." > > I wanted to be a journalist, but I'm illiterate, so I became a > computer programmer instead. Voilà. In fact I'm a bilingual illiterate > - I can't read or write in two languages (with apologies to Joss > Ackland & the Pet Shop Boys for that quote) > > John > Erm, is it difficulet living in a foreign country, particularly one with a different native language from your own, when you can't read or write it (presumably you can speak and understand the SPOKEN) word? Or do you simply adopt the usual British way of dealing with foreigners which is T O S P E A K V E R Y S L O W L Y A N D L O U D L Y T O E N A B L E T H E M T O U N D E R S T A N D Y O U ? S l a r v ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 00:56:48 +0000 From: "I T Admin @ Govt Office North West" Subject: Re: Alloy: Re Slarv's educational ramblings At 08:34 17/11/98 +0000, thhe_copse wrote: > >So does all this mean that I should still be a rock star after all? > Should/would/could, maybe still will. It can take years to become a star overnight. Provided you're not a talentless wazzock (which the recipients of 'Zal' know you're not) the only way is to keep at it until you are discovered, or manage to persuade a record company to publish some of your material. You just have to be in the right place at the right (i.e. correct, not necessarily 'right' as opposed to 'left') leg of the trousers. Slarv ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 00:56:53 +0000 From: "I T Admin @ Govt Office North West" Subject: Re: Alloy: My New Career At 13:43 17/11/98 +0000, Lem wrote: > > >Indeedy. Things would have been different. And we'd live on a different >planet where it was always summer, and Oxford Street would be a pleasant >leafy lane. You mean it isn't? Dog damnit, I must have been in the wrong place. > This is probably why Hampshire is almost entirely filled >with estate agents, accountants and quantity surveyors. > Aye lad, but I bet they don't keep their coal in the bath like wot they do up north, tha' knows. > >It depends on your definition of sucesssssss. Personally I'd like to be >much richer. Yes, right, this goes without saying, but you'll hanker back to your comparatively prosperous days if you ever start a family (with or without entering into wedlock first). >Sadly they made Ally McBeal about 15 years too late. I could >have used Richard Fish's advice: "If you want to be rich, and you want to >have scruples - better get the money first..." > Bygones. And Perkipsy. (Phoenetic spelling. Aplogies to any offended residents.) And BTW, I missed the first couple of episodes. Can anyone tell me why The Biscuit is so called? >You really do keep everything don't you Slarv! I'm amazed. I forgot about >that bio. You have to bear in mind, as well, that that bio was written with >the express intention of making me sound like an authority. > No, no, I've told you, I only keep stuff I might want to refer back to at a later date. >> It all depends on which leg of which pair of the trousers of time you get >sucked down. > >Possibly the wisest words ever formulated on the subject of career >development. > Partial credit due to Pterry Pratchett and The Goodies for earlier references to the trousers of time. >I guess it's never too late to start over, but I think 8 years of >University is enough for anyone. Oh, I think I could be an eternal student provided that :- 1) I had an ample private income. 2) Due to 1) success was not vital to my future prosperity. >As Slarv helpfully highlighted, I'm the last one that should be moaning. That's right, young man, pull yourself together. Why, you could have been born an Essex boy, then you WOULD have been justified in complaining about your lot in life (only kidding, if there are any natives of Essex on the list .... if not, I meant every word of it). Slarv ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 19:04:09 -0800 (PST) From: "Charles E. Kemp" Subject: Re: Alloy: Career opportunities the ones that never knock > Voilà. In fact I'm a bilingual illiterate > - I can't read or write in two languages (with apologies to Joss > Ackland & the Pet Shop Boys for that quote) > > John Never a need to apologize for a PSB reference in my presence... :) ****** Charles E. Kemp ****** cekemp@netcom.com ****** (812) 597-5950 ****** Just for the sake of it make sure you're always frowning, it shows the world that you've got substance and depth. - Neil Tennant ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V3 #310 ***************************