So the education becomes more widely desired. Everyone wants that rubber stamp to riches. Public education accelerates the mythos that if everyone simply got more education then nobody would be poor. We would simply automate all the jobs we didn't want and the world would be populated by a bunch of highly intellectual engineers, doctors, and the like. Obviously utopia failed to emerge. What did emerge; however, by the 90s was a post-secondary system in high-gear flooding the job market with over-trained and under-evaluated individuals. There were not enough specialist jobs to give out and even if there were, nobody was going to hang the new bridge-building project over to an architect from DeVry who got his degree in a year over chatroom lecture.
It's hard to say exactly how this process will reverse itself or simply evolve the education and job training systems we now take for granted into something more efficient (or less, parish the thought), but I will re-iterate that it is of the utmost importance to like what you do for a living. Chances are it will not pay dividends. Chances are you will not become rich. Chances are you will be quite poverty stricken at some point in your life. These are not simply hand-waiving claims, they are statistical and economical realities. The more one is willing to either hang onto their beloved niche and make it into a steady living, the better off they are.
Never for a moment listen to the fatuous and self-serving employers who tell everyone going into college to become "flexible," and to attain all the wondrous serf-like traits that they so desire in a peasant employee. There is something to be said for a career change and there is certainly a comfortable safety in having a back-up plan or new experience, but simply chasing the almighty dollar from one hack job to the next is a means of gaining life-long depression, not wealth.
Oh, and to hit on the specific point of writing. If indeed that is your passion, I would recommend you subscribe and submit regularly to some form of periodical. Print media may be a dying breed, but it is certainly a more effective way of being discovered for a paying job than is plastering your work across the internet by way of blog (although this has been the success of some). As the late, great Christopher Hitches would say; however, a writer is not one who simply likes or loves to write. A writer is one who simply cannot imagine life without writing. I wish you the best of luck in that career path, for it is fraught with much more uncertainty than most. I won't be the first or last to admit that it was my dream too to become a writer and I ended up with a teaching job to keep a roof over my head.
1
1
1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzS5-AjJ71E&list=FLZqjmmUDRiTOERrQM8ArB3w&index=6&feature=plpp_video
1
Then I beat Belial nightmare without dying once. Shit was so cash.
1
I probably died at least 10 times cause of those fuckers.
1
2.) Love. That's also another cliche response, but I'm always comforted by the fact that, at this present moment, there are many people that I can call "family;" brothers, sisters, friends, mothers, fathers. This kind of familial warmth is something I anticipate in the morning and it always keeps me going no matter how sad I may get on a given day.
3.) The future. I am an optimist at heart and I always try to have a positive outlook on my life and who I may grow up to be, who's lives I can affect positively, and the family I hope the raise and be a part of when I'm older. I have hopes and ambitions and I know, in my heart, that I would give anything to accomplish them and looking forward to that, most of the time, makes me glad to be alive.
Also, I always find that I can't begin the day unless I can get out of bed. Every day is precious and laying around in bed (unless you're sick, of course) is a waste of a potentially great day.
1
I'm pretty stoked. This will be the only school function I actually went to.
1
I had originally written you a pretty lengthy response but my fucking browser backed out of my post.
I'll boil it down to a few points:
1) "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" by Green Day is the perfect beginner's song because it introduces you to many musical concepts and guitar techniques at the same time.
2) Don't attempt the Tristram theme until you think you're ready. If you find yourself becoming frustrated with a song, put the guitar down and take a few breaths. One of the biggest mistakes a beginner makes is assuming that they can't play something and, therefore, can't play guitar. Taking into perspective the amount of time that it takes for a guitarist to actually become good, it's absolutely okay to make mistakes. Nobody's grading you, don't take it too hard on yourself if you can't get something right the first time. Guitar requires a lot of patience but, in my experience, the reward is incredibly gratifying.
3) Don't be afraid of experimenting with chords and especially don't be afraid of chords themselves; chords will hurt. They'll hurt like hell. Suck it up, crybaby.
4) Don't pay for lessons unless you feel you absolutely need them. I've done fine without them (I've been playing for about four years).
5) Try writing songs every once in a while. That's another gift of music; aside from obtaining a skill, you're able to put that skill to use and making something special to you. Take advantage of your skill.
1
I think the reason why I don't necessarily like doing that is because I feel that, if they don't want to return to the discussion (because five pages have flown by), then replying is kind of pointless because they've probably already forgotten about it / don't care anymore. After enough time has elapsed, continuing the discussion is really arbitrary.
And there's certainly nothing wrong with wanting to have a laugh in the most popular thread on the forums. That's the reason why the URT was made, as Succubus said.
Edit: This is a really nice video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX9FSZJu448&feature=my_liked_videos&list=LLZqjmmUDRiTOERrQM8ArB3w
And sorry for the music; It's a crappy cover of Coldplay's "Fix You."
Only certain artists should cover certain songs.
1
I've never tried to force an idea. I've always tried to present one. There's an difference between giving the option to have spinach and commanding people to have spinach.
My desire to start another thread isn't because I think good discussions can't happen in the URT; they have in the past. A while ago, people were more engaging and more open to actually talking about stuff because, at the end of the day, exchanging ideas and having conversations about our passions was a good experience as opposed to a chore. We were able to grow stronger as a community because of the knowledge we shared. I can recall times when conversations on the same topic spanned, maybe, five pages or so.
I guess I just want that back. I want a lot of things back; some of the members I used to talk to on here had some brilliant ideas and had interesting things to say. Not to say that there isn't any of that now, but I feel that it's more of a rarity now.
There's simply not enough people who actively participate in this thread to balance the amount of "random" and the amount of discussion. That's a conclusion I've come to simply from looking at pages and the things that are talked about: a lot of stuff and a lot of media. This has led me to believe that it is foolish to go to the URT in search of a good discussion.
Edit: People who feel the need to project the measure of their intellect over the internet are incredibly vain. Again, bad apples spoil the bunch. At least I try to project an earnest demeanor when I want to talk about something that's touchy like abortion or religion. I used to be that way, but then I grew up and stopped being so protective of my ideals. If I'm in public, I don't throw a fit when someone disagrees with me; in fact, most discussions I have in public about politics and the such, depending on the person, are completely cordial and pleasant and, more than anything, I want to project that into things I say on the internet.
People who see the internet as a forum for their vanity probably don't speak that well in public. Being humble in a discussion, more than often, will result in something worth remembering and will probably lead to a higher sense of respect for the people you talk to.
That's what a discussion is to me.