Well, you could sure sucker me out of one huge bet if all of a sudden a truck driver started betting that he knew more about art than my wife...
< GRIN! >
Posted on 06/11/2003 11:23:53 AM PDT by Drew68
Wed Jun 11, 7:50 AM ET
Craig Wilson, USA TODAY
Years ago -- I don't need to say how many -- when I was a freshman in college, the first week on campus was filled with seminars and lectures and orientation meetings.
Upperclassmen set up tables on Syracuse's quad and dispensed the kind of knowledge only upperclassmen can dispense.
I remember chatting with one senior who proudly announced, ''I'm an anthro major myself.''
Maybe I didn't react fast enough, or act impressed enough, because she was quick with the follow-up.
''Anthropology?'' she asked as if introducing me to a brand-new world. ''Like Margaret Mead?''
''But doesn't Margaret Mead have the only job there is in anthropology?'' I naively asked.
She didn't like my question very much and didn't respond, turning instead to another freshman who had just strolled up to her table.
I often wonder whatever happened to her. What does happen to anthro majors? Or philosophy majors? Or art history majors, for that matter?
I came from a practical family. My parents were happy to send me to college, but they expected me to be employed in the end. A crazy notion, I know, but they were farmers, used to planting things in the spring and then getting a harvest in the fall. Even I thought it a fair exchange.
Kierkegaard and Caravaggio were all very well and good, but my dad had never heard of either, and he was damn well sure they weren't going to be very good references when the time came to hand over my résumé at a job interview.
I read the other day that this is the worst job market for recent college graduates in 40 years. The market for summer jobs is even worse, because the jobs usually taken by high school kids are now being taken by college grads who can't find jobs in, or out, of their fields.
So what's an art history major to do these days? Other than Prince William, an art history major with a somewhat secure job in sight, most everyone else will have to scramble.
The good news about a bad economy is that you have better-educated people working in the service industry. The bad news about a bad economy is that you have better-educated people working in the service industry.
I mean, do we need the woman at Home Depot telling us we're making a big mistake choosing the Ionic column over the Doric for the front porch?
There's a new radio commercial for Bud Light that salutes those out there working in the trenches, pursuing what seems to be the increasingly elusive American dream. The ad campaign is called Real Men of Genius, and it celebrates the common man, each with his own mini-bio, ending up with the not-too-surprising conclusion that we all need a cold beer at the end of a hard day.
The commercials celebrate everyone from the Mr. Wedding Band Guitar Player to Mr. Nudist Colony Activity Coordinator to Mr. Supermarket Free Sample Guy. All fictional, presumably.
Among the Real Men of Genius is Mr. Fancy Coffee Shop Coffee Pourer. And yes, you guessed it: He holds a degree in art history. A master's, in fact.
My dad would not have thought this fiction at all.
Not all of them. Probably not even most of them.
There are so many baby-boomers becoming senior citizens (and they all quit smoking so they are living longer) it is going to take an army of workers to meet their medical needs.
It was for me. Thanks in part to my studying philosophy as an undergrad, the first semester of law school didn't seem as difficult for me as it was for most of my peers. I'd also recommend majoring in classical languages and cultures.
Art history is fine, too, if you're certain you want to be a lawyer for the Metropolitan Museum.
Well, you could sure sucker me out of one huge bet if all of a sudden a truck driver started betting that he knew more about art than my wife...
< GRIN! >
You're in very good company.
In virtual reality? That makes sense.
Try eBaying it. My problem with eBay is that I got spoiled by it in '99 when I first started selling there. Back then I actually got $41 for Ren & Stimpy T-Shirts and made no less that $75 net profit from selling digital cameras. Then the prices plummeted and I got bummed out. However, my new psychology is that it is OK to make $3 to $5 net profit on low priced items as long as you have a lot of auctions going. My goal is to have a minimum of 100 auctions going per week by the end of September. Fortunately it is now MUCH EASIER to handle a lot of auctions than it was before. Paypal automatically contacts my winning bidders and the payments are collected much more quickly by that service. Also it is much quicker to set up your auctions and to relist them is incredibly fast.
It takes a different mental state to be satisfied with a small Net profit per auction. Hey, I once even made over $200 on eBay on the sale of just one book!
Most of my education was obtained reading books at random in the college library while procrastinating having to study my boring courses. I did an ENORMOUS amount of reading that way. I could (and can still) skim at least a dozen books per day that way.
Didn't Tony Curtis star in a movie bio about you?
By the way I was not an art history major, though as an art major I took my share of those classes. Coincidentally, I also now work part time at Home Depot, and find myself selling Ionic and Doric columns.
By the time I got to college I was registered in Radiologic & Nuclear Medicine Technology. Working a full 40 hour schedule I went to college for 2 years at night carrying a 12 hour load in pre-med, solid science plus the obligitory cirriculum. I was a subsitized student, VA, Vietnam vet. My last 2 years in my under grad I had to do working part time working and full time classes, it was the only way since the last 2 years are the toughest. No summers off, no downtime I had a serious deadline to apply to medical school because of my age and if I didn't make that deadline my grades wouldn't make a damn bit of difference. I also had to keep a GPA above 3.5 and I had that, always a 3.89 and above. I didn't have the luxury of getting a B in a science or mathmatics course. I had to work harder to average out a B I got in Physics 101.
When I did go to Indiana University at Bloomington (main campus) I was astounded. I ran into all the lefties in the world. I was older that the seniors, by quite a few years. Not to mention I was a combat vet and a serious student with a goal, and that I was a medical professional already. I was well liked by the other students that I came in contact with and as I listened to their stories I couldn't help but think: how can you waste your parent's money that way. My parents could never, in a million years, afford to send me to college, I had to get that education on my own. I got my education by going to war for my country and betting that I would make it back to collect on that bet. I figured, hey it's the best I can get, so I did it and I won the bet. I sure as hell wasn't going to squander it on an education that wouldn't help mankind, I owed them more than that and I owed myself more than that.
I just ignored the jr. lefties and socialist activists on campus and I stayed out of political activist crowd. In the 70s it wasn't that prevailent on the campus at Bloomington Indiana. I just worked my ass off to get the grades I needed to apply to medical school.
I had a wonderful time tutoring girls in Nursing undergrad in Algebra and Chem 101. Got a lot of dates that way too. They asked, not me.
Moral of the story: strive to the highest goal and you will be rewarded.
LOL At least professors don't want to teach undergraduates but to do research, and the Administration only cares for government grants and FTE's (Full Time Equalvalents) i.e. money.
Yeah... I live in my van. =]
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