We can commiserate on medical issues. I just had a CT scan on my noggin to check for a cause for memory loss and some other issues. Concern is trauma from multiple concussions. Hope you're ok.

So many medical issues around me - I don't post about it. But I am sorry for the hearing loss and the memory.
On memory, I wanted to remind you - Syracuse is playing Clemson in football right now.

:) with a son in music school the sports thing kinda of sails past me. I did get into the basketball tournament stuff, but it's odd since my son is completely removed from it. Has no interest or idea that sports are even going on. I'm like "dude, your team beat _______, it must be party central," and he's like "dunno, I'm in Setnor rehearsing."

I want to go back to college

I thought you did this month.

well, sort of. But I want to be a student. I think most kids don't realize what an incredible opportunity it is.

Me too. And I hope things work out OK with your memory.

My MRI and follow up appointment for a hearing aid fitting are scheduled. From what I understand, the tumor is pretty rare, so not a likely concern. The hearing loss was more likely caused by a virus, trauma, or a tiny little stroke in my ear, which I'm told sounds a lot worse than it is. I can't really recall when the hearing started to go, so it makes it kind of hard to figure out the exact cause. For example, I hit the left side of my head when I crashed last year, but I think I was having hearing issues before then. Regardless, the doctor said the damage is permanent. I'm not excited about needing a hearing aid, but it will be nice to be able to hear clearly again. I know my wife would appreciate it.

On the flip side, it has been nice knowing that when my wife snores, I can just turn over and not hear her.

A lot of people would say being married and having hearing loss would be a plus

<rim shot>

Mrs. John wants me to look into a hearing aid. Decades of working with machines and power tools has taken a toll. I think I'll wait.

Sorry to hear (pun actually wasn't intended) about everyone's medical stuff. Hopefully it all turns out as well as possible.

I find my hearing gets much worse when my depression gets really bad. Obviously a neurological and not physical hearing issue. My memory gets bad too.

From our house window we just watched someone die on the sidewalk while getting chest compressions for like 20 minutes.

A friend of a wife said someone on the web asked someone IRL who said heart attack.

I wanna stay in my lower 30s forever.

Edit: Bob Marley suddenly came on telling me every little thing gonna be alright.

Hell yeah. I've been visiting colleges with my HS senior and often my reaction is "I wish I could go to school here." But really what I mean is, I wish I could be 20 years old and going to school here.

Last night during dinner water started coming through the ceiling. One of my kids had taken a shower and it turns out the overflow drain was cracked so water ran down behind it. While checking that out I noticed the shower head was still dripping so I turned the handle to shut it off all the way but instead the drip increased to a steady stream -- OK, that's busted too. I opened the panel behind the shower to get at the cutoff valve, and the valve handle snapped off in my hand. Trifecta!

This was big: Clemson vs Syracuse - FBS Football | NCAA.com

We just had "college week" at my school. Reminded me of how much I despised college and what a waste of time and money it was save for the actual necessity of having a degree to do my job.

My wife is in the midst of doing an online undergrad degree and the random stuff she's having to learn (Western Civ. at the moment) is just infuriating. I guess being exposed to something may help develop an interest in it, but that's a hard justification to swallow with the internet everywhere always.

I feel that everything I needed to learn academics wise I learned by the sixth grade (except for typing in the ninth). Every other significant thing I've learned or had to learn was by virtue of personal study on the subject (physiology and training methodologies, for example) or practical experience (teaching). I remember almost nothing about business, despite having a degree in it, and all the things I learned in my post bacc. teaching certification I've forgotten because it was either irrelevant or impractical in an actual classroom or it's been replaced 3-4x over with new policy/methodology.

College is a frustrating phenomenon, especially considering the inane prices of an American education versus some other places in the world.

Not a chance on Earth I'd want to go back to a traditional college institution.

For me, college was less about learning xyz, but learning how to learn something. In high school I just kind of coasted through, never really needed to study hard.

But doing computer engineering in college, I had to actually sit down and study - a lot. Mostly math & physics, which was annoying but what I had to do.

So it was a turning point for me, learning to buckle down and focus on something to learn it. That is invaluable in professional life.

Sure, you can make it through life and be happy without discipline, or without college or even high school, but I'm glad I went through it. It got me to where I'm at today.

Sounds good.

Obviously there are fields where a lot of specific academic knowledge is necessary and vital to being successful, too.

I was always envious (sort of) of people who knew what they wanted to do and laid out a plan to do it. I went to college hoping to be a pro bike racer. Even after graduating I didn't know what I wanted to do, except I knew I definitely didn't want to do what I had a degree in.

I think a gap year approach would have been extremely useful for me, personally. Being 18-22 with two parents who didn't go to college, no real-world practical experience outside of stocking shelves, running a broom and fixing a bike, and no real ideas about what to do was pretty wasteful. After college I started traveling across various continents and really gained a more useful perspective.

Maybe a trade/apprenticeship high school program would be pretty useful. I didn't do anything useful in high school, either, and I don't feel it prepared me for college or life one way or another. Looking back from a practical standpoint, I probably should have joined the military or something and learned some practical work and life skills through that, but I was a bit too anti-nationalistic to consider it.

It took me 12 years to get through college, I remember working graves and sleeping on the bus going to class. It wasn't fun, but towards the end I was basically a TA. It was a CS / Business hybrid so doing that for 10 years many of the classes were a refresher. I would always chuckle seeing people struggling to write code, even just opening a project in Visual Studio was an adventure for some.

I just graduated college last June and my brother graduated high school at the same time. He and I took very different paths through our schooling.

I was pretty much college bound from Elementary school on. Being pushed that way by parents, teachers and coaches. Got through high school (lots of AP / college level courses) pretty easily and into college where I definitely struggled for a few years. Wake up call came when I never got admitted into the major that I "wanted." Noodled around too much, too much time on bikes and not a dedicated study methodology. After 2.5 years of that I figured it was time to get my **** together. Figured out how to study better and I wouldn't say I got great grades, but i did well enough compared to my peers after I turned it around. And I got to spend more time on the bike.

Now I work in a field completly unrelated to my major, more or less what I actually wanted to study in college. What it says on a degree means very little anymore. What matters more is solely HAVING a degree and knowing the right people to talk to and right connections to make.


My brother on the other hand was never one for school. He kinda struggled from the get go due to some dyslexia-type (kinda, not really) issues. He has, however, always been good at picking up certains skills very quickly. He is not what our current schooling in the US would call a high achiever, but hand him an instrument or a tool and he can learn and apply those skills faster than anyone I know.

I quite often remember hearing him complain school when I was younger and not getting it. After my experience in the early years of college it began to make a lot more sense to me. Everyone hits a point where they want to be done with their education or just get fed up with the education system. For my brother it was around 8/9th grade. For me it was 1 year into college. I have friends that are phd bound that will never stop their education.

He got a job in the trades(cabinet makers) and he tells me he loves what he's doing. I'm working in software and [at times] I love what I do. I look at the work he does and get jealous of how much more interactive his work day is than mine. I'm sure he looks at my work and wishes he made as much money as people in my industry. But alas, we've both picked our directions and are happy for now. And no matter what schooling or work each of us do, or how different we are from an education standpoint, we get along pretty much flawlessly.

Saw my daughter last week in Dallas (who graduated in spring) at work. One of the principles came over and said hi and and mentioned the learning just starts and you/she really don't learn anything in college. But, of course they only hire from these top schools. I made some crack about could we have just given them $300K to give my daughter a job 5 years ago. Ha Ha...

I learned more about my job in the three day training I took in LA 2 weeks ago than I did through my whole college career. My job title is not something that is taught in school. It's a learn as you go type of field.

Now I wouldn't be able to do my job without the work ethic I developed in college as you mention though, @Doge.

Watching a bit of the Ironman world cahmpionships right now (as I do every year). The pro athletes are just on such a high level. Talking about ~310W for ~4 hours in aero. Then get off and run ~2:40 marathon.

Talansky has his work cut out for him next year.

I feel like the hardest part about doing something like this would be how alone you would be. I don't always get bored on the bike, but if I was sitting there, just churning out 85% of threshold for 4.5 hours, it would be difficult. All there is to think about is not going into drafting zone and then spending time thinking about something in between eating and drinking.

And my career is basically the opposite of college major not mattering. If you don't go to the right schools (ABET) and get an engineering degree it's basically impossible to get a job as an engineer. And it's basically impossible to get your professional engineers license unless you work 20 something years first, and even that is getting phased out some. You can't even get a job outside your specialty. Nobody would hire me as a mechanical or civil engineer with my EE degree.

I'm lucky that I knew what I wanted to do soon into college, stuck with it and still enjoy it. And I'm marketable enough that if I get tired of one particular company I can go elsewhere easily.

My major still didn't teach me everything I needed to know, but it certainly teaches the necessary basics and lays the groundwork of being successful later. And some of it's definitely useful. One of my coworkers has a textbook on their desk they use all the time, written by one of my professors and used in his class I took. My copy got loaned and lost I think.

All fixed now. The best part was having to drive 20 minutes each way to lowes to get the tool to pull out the valve cartridge so I could drive 20 minutes each way back to lowes and get a replacement.

I buy houses based on proximity to a Lowe's or Home Depot.

I can walk to Lowes from my house. And AutoZone.