New Semester

[StarFoxIII]

I wished I could have played GC in school 

And get away with it. Noone's in trouble for it, and I even did a Melee match with a few of my classmates  . I lost though .

[Starfox mccloud15]

God I'm back to school as well, since monday actually, but don't push yourself so hard, you'll blast math, I'm learning trigonometry and Analitical Geometry (such a PAIN XD)

anyway, good luck!

[Guest Julius Quasar]

I'm in a constant back and forth with myself of whether or not to go back to school, or apply to art school. The thing is, I hated school growing up because I don't do well with the structure of it and I don't want to waste my time and money just to suck at it. Plus, I know tons of other people who have gone to college and graduated, and they're not any further ahead in life than I am. Yet, it could help me get closer to finding my niche...

Meh, you don't necessarily need school to find your niche, IMO (except maybe for Online Appraiser Course School like I'm doing, or Vocational Tech./Trade Schools and Art or Dance or Music Schools)...and I felt the same way about school.  Most over educated people are such elitist stuck-up colostomy bags, anyways, they're the reason I hate intellectualism, and school.

Why do you wish to go to art school? Anything in mind for an art career? If you dislike the way school went for you as a kid, consider art school or vocational school. I know voc schools have a reputation for being "Dumb people schools" but they actually can help you find jobs that can make you lots of money because of the trade that you learned that so few people know in this day and age in a society where children are expected to become white-collar, college-educated, suburban, "sanitary" people without much character in their lives. I'm not trying to dictate where you should go in life (as you're a mother and I'm only a 16 year old boy), but I'm sincerely trying to give you some advice.

that's so true...vocational-tech and art are where you can find your niche, if you do find it through school....Now far too often more than ever, children are expected to become white-collar, college-educated, suburban, "sanitary" people without much character in their lives, our American society is starting to suck even more so...

[StarFoxIII]

that's so true...vocational-tech and art are where you can find your niche, if you do find it through school....Now far too often more than ever, children are expected to become white-collar, college-educated, suburban, "sanitary" people without much character in their lives, our American society is starting to suck even more so...

Learning a trade like plumbing, homebuilding, electricity and HVAC installation can rake you hundred$ of thousand$ because so few people take jobs like that the tradeperson can charge a lot of money for his or her service. If those are'nt what you have in mind, rainfyre, Culinary Arts might interest you as a voc course.

[Star Fox Runner]

Now I can't say I like school, but the fact remains you can't make it in most areas without a college education. If you find yourself happy with a job that doesn't require a college education, more power to you. If you want a place in life that requires a College education, then it's simply another challenge in your life you must master to make it through.

Meh, you don't necessarily need school to find your niche, IMO (except maybe for Online Appraiser Course School like I'm doing, or Vocational Tech./Trade Schools and Art or Dance or Music Schools)...and I felt the same way about school.  Most over educated people are such elitist stuck-up colostomy bags, anyways, they're the reason I hate intellectualism, and school.

that's so true...vocational-tech and art are where you can find your niche, if you do find it through school....Now far too often more than ever, children are expected to become white-collar, college-educated, suburban, "sanitary" people without much character in their lives, our American society is starting to suck even more so...

I can sort of agree that our society has become more elitist, but then again, not all people with higher education are conceited snobs, that is a choice, and they are the ones who decide to make that choice, and that reflects on who they are as a person, not the entire group.

I look at a college education as a gateway to the place I want to be in life, and that is to be a game designer with hobbies on the side, and possibly a wife and kid, live my life, retire and die happy. I'll go a few extra steps to ensure that, but never to lord myself over others.

[DZComposer]

I love wolfram alpha, but it stopped being too useful to me on Calculus II, the stuff I was trying to solve was too complicated for the program to follow, or at least it didn't give me a clear overview of how to solve it (however, this thing is godly, I tell you, godly if you have to take basic calculus classes).

Probability and Statistics was kinda fun to me, since we used a lot of programming involved to solve real time problems (or just plain old excel when we felt lazy, it really helps  , since it has premade statistics stats out of the cooking book, then again, I don't have any idea on how to program on excel to integrate or derivate so it became useless fast) not SAS like the Business students have to take, it gets better when you create your own world instead of following a pre-made software. Then again, I've heard the kind of statistics engineers have to take are quite different to what Business related folks take.

This semester I'll be dealing with full 52 credit hours worth on classes and work so it will be pretty tough. If my memory doesn't fail me, I'll be taking:

*Calculus IV (YAY , finally last one)

*Engineering physics I (which is basically your adv physics high school class, just with calculus involved instead of formulas)

*Project Engineering (Which I believe it should be about how to make engineering related projects)

*Networking I

*Data Structure (It's like pre-Database)

*PSP

*Thesis I ( I have no idea what to make my thesis of )

*Cisco III (Possibly dropping cause it's not a requisite to graduate and I'm not into networking and it worths 0 freaking credits, isn't that great?, tho...having a Cisco degree throws a lot of job opportunities x_X)

My school hours will still be crazy, waking up at 6am is not fun, nor is it the fact that my Thursdays will be hell, since I have classes from 9am to 9pm without breaks and I have school on Saturday too, something I've been trying to avoid  . I just really hope I don't have to drop a class , cause I think I overloaded myself this time, I usually take 35 credits per semester, and this is basically one third more than I'm used to. The only reason I'm doing this is because I don't want to have school on summer  (having 3 months of vacations beats  25 days)

Good grief... What is your major? I'm assuming some kind of CS degree, but your courseload doesn't resemble the CS degrees at the school I attend.

I went the business route because I figure that that degree would be more towards the environment I will be in (I want to be an IT director). I feel that ti would make me more marketable for that position than a CS degree.

Though, if you're looking for IT jobs, a Cisco cert is a nice thing to have. As is an MSITP cert. Problem is that cert bootcamps can cost more than a semester of college, and it's less courseload... Although the cool thing about certs is you can get a bunch of initials after you name, IE: DZComposer MSITP, CCNA, RHCE. I don't have those certs yet, but I'd like to get them. They are Microsoft, Cisco, and Red Hat Linux. I just hope I can find an employer willing to help me pay for them....

[rainfyre66]

Why do you wish to go to art school? Anything in mind for an art career? If you dislike the way school went for you as a kid, consider art school or vocational school. I know voc schools have a reputation for being "Dumb people schools" but they actually can help you find jobs that can make you lots of money because of the trade that you learned that so few people know in this day and age in a society where children are expected to become white-collar, college-educated, suburban, "sanitary" people without much character in their lives. I'm not trying to dictate where you should go in life (as you're a mother and I'm only a 16 year old boy), but I'm sincerely trying to give you some advice.

I appreciate the advice, SFIII, don't worry!

I'd love to bone up on my drawing and painting skills, as I'm very out of practice, and I have a friend that currently just enrolled in art school and already his drawing has improved greatly. Honestly, I would love to learn how to be an animator in the hand drawn animation field, or be able to make concept art drawings for films and games. (I don't have much interest in the computer animation fields.) I'd also like to be a writer of some sort, preferably a screenwriter of films/script writer for TV shows, as dialogue and characters are my strong suits.

My beef with school is, I know a lot people who have gone and graduated and they're still not doing what they want to do either, and some aren't any more intelligent than I am (I have a friend who graduated, yet isn't sure who won World War II and thought the dollar bills went in the order of the Presidents' office terms) yet on the other hand I feel like I'd give myself a better opportunity to get closer to what I want to do.

[Steve]

Good grief... What is your major? I'm assuming some kind of CS degree, but your courseload doesn't resemble the CS degrees at the school I attend.

I went the business route because I figure that that degree would be more towards the environment I will be in (I want to be an IT director). I feel that ti would make me more marketable for that position than a CS degree.

Though, if you're looking for IT jobs, a Cisco cert is a nice thing to have. As is an MSITP cert. Problem is that cert bootcamps can cost more than a semester of college, and it's less courseload... Although the cool thing about certs is you can get a bunch of initials after you name, IE: DZComposer MSITP, CCNA, RHCE. I don't have those certs yet, but I'd like to get them. They are Microsoft, Cisco, and Red Hat Linux. I just hope I can find an employer willing to help me pay for them....

It's comp and systems engineering, and I'm focusing on IT management. Thing is, I really dislike everything that has to do with networking, but I do love IT regardless that, even if  the previous statement takes a big piece of cake of what IT really is. I'm basically going for the same thing you want, IT director (or IT project manager), but instead of doing business mixed with IT, I'm doing CS engineering with IT instead of programming and hardware stuff and then somewhere around the future I want to master on Business administration, IT focused too or on Systems Theory, of course, if I can afford that and if I have the time  . It will mostly depend on if I  get a decent job right off the hand with some experience involved, but this world is pretty much spinning faster than I thought it would spin, so I might as well just get as prepared as I can.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Now I can't say I like school, but the fact remains you can't make it in most areas without a college education. If you find yourself happy with a job that doesn't require a college education, more power to you. If you want a place in life that requires a College education, then it's simply another challenge in your life you must master to make it through.

I can sort of agree that our society has become more elitist, but then again, not all people with higher education are conceited snobs, that is a choice, and they are the ones who decide to make that choice, and that reflects on who they are as a person, not the entire group.

I look at a college education as a gateway to the place I want to be in life, and that is to be a game designer with hobbies on the side, and possibly a wife and kid, live my life, retire and die happy. I'll go a few extra steps to ensure that, but never to lord myself over others.

I'm sorry, Runner, but to me and many others, that is a load of bull and horse shit there.

Our elitist society is brainwashing people to think that way that you're thinking about college "you won't get anywhere in life without a college education! Achtung! Zeig-heil!" (I do not mean to imply that you are a snob, Fascist, or Elitist, for the record), yet James Cameron dropped out of community college, and look how he turned out.  Albert Einstein never went to college.  Bill Gates walked outta Harvard flipping them the bird, practically.

I agree somewhat with you when you say that "not all college educated people are snobs", but I had some friends and relatives who went to college, and then they did turn into conceited/arrogant/egotistical snobs.  Hell, you see how Doctors are nowadays?  They're awful!  I'd rather bleed to death than go to the hospital.  My dad's a lawyer, he's insufferable...

good luck to you though....

I see a college diploma as a waste of time and money.  Colleges roadblock your important classes with useless "Prerequisites", designed to "run the meter up on you", like a crooked cabbie, you're stuck taking extra classes, the assholes in the counselor department give you so much flak for wanting to transfer/drop/add a class, despite the fact you're good money to attend school, they still screw up and don't put you in the right class(es).  College counselors, like high school counselors, are useless retards who are the tenured teachers that the school can't fire, but everyone hates them, so the school makes them counselors so they quit flunking students left and right.  As counselors, they simply discourage and insult new students or screw up the class enrollments so badly they eventually cause the students to quit. 

Taking college is like taking high school all over again, but you have to live there, eat crappier food, deal with crappier teachers, more [pointless] homework, and your stuck side by side with the same moronic, stuck up, and/or screwed up, degenerate morons, creeps, loser "poster children forced sterilization" jackasses you had to put up with in high school. 

Simply put, through my eyes, I see college as this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fgsailx-jY&feature=related

(not so much militaristic, just militant minded)

[StarFoxIII]

I'd love to bone up on my drawing and painting skills, as I'm very out of practice, and I have a friend that currently just enrolled in art school and already his drawing has improved greatly. Honestly, I would love to learn how to be an animator in the hand drawn animation field, or be able to make concept art drawings for films and games. (I don't have much interest in the computer animation fields.) I'd also like to be a writer of some sort, preferably a screenwriter of films/script writer for TV shows, as dialogue and characters are my strong suits.

So you say you have some interest in scriptwriting, eh? You have a chance right now to gain experience in that field. Tiberius & I set up a contest for the best script for the trailer for the first episode of our Star Fox saga. I'm sure you'll get a learning experience there too  .

[ThePointingMan]

I know that I really shouldn't tell you this, but if you plug math problems into Wolfram Alpha, it will do them for you...

For example, findign this integral ?(2x²+2x-12)dx (this is the kind of crap I had to put up with in my calculus class, but we went further and started dealing with derivatives and shit. It sucked.)

Just click "show steps" Note that it only goes so far. If I put a huge-ass polynomial in there and tell it to find the 12th derivative it, it will only give me the answer not the steps.

It also has writeups on the different mathematical things along with examples, IE http://reference.wolfram.com/mathematica/ref/Integrate.html

NOTE: I DO NOT condone cheating. Use this to see different examples and to check your work, not do you homework for you.

But, I can say this: Wolfram Alpha kicks ass! It also can do statistics and is an almanac.

But back on the topic, I find that accounting sucks worse than algebra. The math in accounting is pretty simple, really. Mostly the big four operations (+, -, *, / ). But, remembering what number goes where and whether or not you add this to that is a pain in the ass. And then you have Credits and Debits, which are NOT like you think they are.

Bank Statements imply that a credit is adding, and a debit is subtracting. Oh, no. Debit and Credit are basically fancy words for "left" and "right" respectively. Of course it's a little more technical than that, but still...

This semester, I have VB programming, Systems Analysis, Some stupid music history class that I can probably sleep through and get an A, marketing, statistics (at 8am in the frikkin morning... fuuuun... ), and concert band.

DO NOT TAKE STATISTICS UNLESS YOU NEED IT! IT SUCKS! Especially if they make you have to learn SAS or SPSS  (stats software) at the same frikkin time...

SPSS sucks. Luckilly I don't need it for my stats class. I am the computer tech for the psychology department at my school (My major is not Psych, though, it's a BBA in Computer Info. Sys. [business school]). Unluckily, they use it for their stats classes, so I still have to deal with that piece of crap. And I hear SAS is worse...

Wo... That things insane!

[Flirven]

man, at this point I'm glad I am not as far along in math. In fact, I am not even sure if my school does Algebra 3; I didn't even know there was any algebra after 2

I have problems with english and chinese at my school. I can't comprehend ANYTHING I read; and well, Chinese is one of the hardest language for english speakers to learn, the challenge is evident too.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

"Ching chong fa ya ma so"

What does THAT mean in Chinese  ?

Watch it, buddy, I'm half Chinese, I find that a little on the offensive side...  O_o

[Flirven]

"Ching chong fa ya ma so"

What does THAT mean in Chinese  ?

nothing, nothing, a part of a name, a verb, horse, nothing

ching    chong              fa                  ya        ma      so

but I suppose they all could mean SOMETHING; like I said, I am not that good

[Steve]

I'm sorry, Runner, but to me and many others, that is a load of bull and horse shit there.

Our elitist society is brainwashing people to think that way that you're thinking about college "you won't get anywhere in life without a college education! Achtung! Zeig-heil!" (I do not mean to imply that you are a snob, Fascist, or Elitist, for the record), yet James Cameron dropped out of community college, and look how he turned out.  Albert Einstein never went to college.  Bill Gates walked outta Harvard flipping them the bird, practically.

I agree somewhat with you when you say that "not all college educated people are snobs", but I had some friends and relatives who went to college, and then they did turn into conceited/arrogant/egotistical snobs.  Hell, you see how Doctors are nowadays?  They're awful!  I'd rather bleed to death than go to the hospital.  My dad's a lawyer, he's insufferable...

good luck to you though....

I see a college diploma as a waste of time and money.  Colleges roadblock your important classes with useless "Prerequisites", designed to "run the meter up on you", like a crooked cabbie, you're stuck taking extra classes, the assholes in the counselor department give you so much flak for wanting to transfer/drop/add a class, despite the fact you're good money to attend school, they still screw up and don't put you in the right class(es).  College counselors, like high school counselors, are useless retards who are the tenured teachers that the school can't fire, but everyone hates them, so the school makes them counselors so they quit flunking students left and right.  As counselors, they simply discourage and insult new students or screw up the class enrollments so badly they eventually cause the students to quit. 

Taking college is like taking high school all over again, but you have to live there, eat crappier food, deal with crappier teachers, more [pointless] homework, and your stuck side by side with the same moronic, stuck up, and/or screwed up, degenerate morons, creeps, loser "poster children forced sterilization" jackasses you had to put up with in high school. 

Alright, first of all...would you rather see a highschooler trying to make a hearth transplant or someone who spent 10 whole years studying boring medicine?.

Second...Colleges have prerequisites because that's the most logical thing to do, I'll take my major as example, there's no way I can take physics, statistics (engineering one at least), electricity and magnetism or anything else that involves integrates, derivates, Laplace transformation, partials, and all that calculus crap...without taking calculusI,II,III, etc, you can't take calculus if you know nothing about precalc, which is limits and how infinites work (most of it at least), you can't take precalc, if you know nothing about trigonometry or adv algebra (how to solve 3rd degree equations, how to play with an equation, how to substitute, how to do the synthetic division, and blahblahblah), you can't take adv algebra if you know nothing about basic algebra (how to add,substract, divide and multiply equations), and finally, you can;t take basic algebra if you know nothing about arithmetic.

My point is, most of the stuff you have been learning WILL help you define your way, most of the stuff you see on grades between elementary and junior-high  are prerequisite for everything on high school (science related). And high school is basically a huge freaking prerequisite for college. High school education throws a ton of boring classes at you, but THOSE that interest you are the ones that will be helping shape your mind so you could take the right choice on what you wanna do to earn money.

Now back to prerequisites....they are there for a reason, it's like trying to climb the Everest without a map, gear or experience at all, you are most likely doomed to die on the first mile.

I respect your point a LOT, and I do believe sometimes college is overrated  when it comes to some majors and degrees and it still has a lot of crappy classes that have nothing to do with what you want to do...but there's just some other stuff that has to be researched, studied or even analysed. We live in a modern world today (I'm not talking about economy here, that's a whole different thing) because there were people that spend quite amount of time studying and creating "random things", it was all thanks to the "higher" education (or people that were smart enough to learn everything by them selfs) that we have... computers, the internet,  videogames, or heck, even have starfox  . Just look around...everything we have required some sort of study to be created, some REALLY required more than just higher education.

Again, it all depends on what you want to do and what you can do, you may have had bad experiences on school, but that doesn't mean everyone in the world is facing the same thing. Higher education is something to be taken seriously, it's there for a reason. I don't want to sound like a man silly with the next statement...but the only way to change how things are going today, economy wise, is with people prepared to TAKE down those who brought us into this mess on the first place. Those who got  "better" jobs, just because they knew someone or just because daddy helped, those who have important jobs and have no idea what they are really doing....are those who need to be replaced with  bright minds, people who REALLY deserve it, and with all due respect, this can't be achieved without some serious education.

Once again, I respect your point (and I personally wouldn't be going through college if I had a great stable job and a nice paycheck) but bashing college education is simply not right.

[ThePointingMan]

Collage, More like UNIVERSITY!!!

Can't wait to get into University, gonna be so great, btw i was to lazy to read all the details about whats going on, but brainwashing + school does not work, they are teaching, adding to the brain.

Now, I myself would much rather not go in the labor junk, I lack in physical attributes, in the arms... I can run fast though:} I would much rather go in the Video game industry, so university is key for me:}

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Alright, first of all...would you rather see a highschooler trying to make a hearth transplant or someone who spent 10 whole years studying boring medicine?.

Second...Colleges have prerequisites because that's the most logical thing to do, I'll take my major as example, there's no way I can take physics, statistics (engineering one at least), electricity and magnetism or anything else that involves integrates, derivates, Laplace transformation, partials, and all that calculus crap...without taking calculusI,II,III, etc, you can't take calculus if you know nothing about precalc, which is limits and how infinites work (most of it at least), you can't take precalc, if you know nothing about trigonometry or adv algebra (how to solve 3rd degree equations, how to play with an equation, how to substitute, how to do the synthetic division, and blahblahblah), you can't take adv algebra if you know nothing about basic algebra (how to add,substract, divide and multiply equations), and finally, you can;t take basic algebra if you know nothing about arithmetic.

My point is, most of the stuff you have been learning WILL help you define your way, most of the stuff you see on grades between elementary and junior-high  are prerequisite for everything on high school (science related). And high school is basically a huge freaking prerequisite for college. High school education throws a ton of boring classes at you, but THOSE that interest you are the ones that will be helping shape your mind so you could take the right choice on what you wanna do to earn money.

Now back to prerequisites....they are there for a reason, it's like trying to climb the Everest without a map, gear or experience at all, you are most likely doomed to die on the first mile.

I respect your point a LOT, and I do believe sometimes college is overrated  when it comes to some majors and degrees and it still has a lot of crappy classes that have nothing to do with what you want to do...but there's just some other stuff that has to be researched, studied or even analysed. We live in a modern world today (I'm not talking about economy here, that's a whole different thing) because there were people that spend quite amount of time studying and creating "random things", it was all thanks to the "higher" education (or people that were smart enough to learn everything by them selfs) that we have... computers, the internet,  videogames, or heck, even have starfox  . Just look around...everything we have required some sort of study to be created, some REALLY required more than just higher education.

Again, it all depends on what you want to do and what you can do, you may have had bad experiences on school, but that doesn't mean everyone in the world is facing the same thing. Higher education is something to be taken seriously, it's there for a reason. I don't want to sound like a man silly with the next statement...but the only way to change how things are going today, economy wise, is with people prepared to TAKE down those who brought us into this mess on the first place. Those who got  "better" jobs, just because they knew someone or just because daddy helped, those who have important jobs and have no idea what they are really doing....are those who need to be replaced with  bright minds, people who REALLY deserve it, and with all due respect, this can't be achieved without some serious education.

Once again, I respect your point (and I personally wouldn't be going through college if I had a great stable job and a nice paycheck) but bashing college education is simply not right.

I don't think a kid who didn't go to/dropped out of college would even WANT to be a surgeon, they'd rather be an artist, tradesman, cook/chef...or something else...

sorry Steve...I just don't like college, and our society needs to realize not all people want to go to college, they'd rather do art, or vo-tech, or something like that.

unfortunately, too much of our society refuses to see that "one size doesn't fit all" when it comes to education, and try to force every kid off to the "Academic Auschwitz" known as college.

thanks for respecting my view points.

[Steve]

I don't think a kid who didn't go to/dropped out of college would even WANT to be a surgeon, they'd rather be an artist, tradesman, cook/chef...or something else...

sorry Steve...I just don't like college, and our society needs to realize not all people want to go to college, they'd rather do art, or vo-tech, or something like that.

unfortunately, too much of our society refuses to see that "one size doesn't fit all" when it comes to education, and try to force every kid off to the "Academic Auschwitz" known as college.

thanks for respecting my view points.

Of course, forcing is ALWAYS wrong, no matter what it is.  And trust me  , there are some pretty crazy youngsters out there that would do a heart transplant just because they think they can 

[ThePointingMan]

The reason that they want people to go to college ect, is because it could lead to more money for the government... mebbe, and cool breakthroughs, they are not necessarily forcing you to go to college, but they really want you too.

Art, does not necessarily improve the better living of everyone/ provide serious money for the government. I think I am wording what I'm trying to say wrong, so have fun wif it.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Of course, forcing is ALWAYS wrong, no matter what it is.

yeah, true, thanks.

  And trust me  , there are some pretty crazy youngsters out there that would do a heart transplant just because they think they can 

WHHHAAAAATTT!? Really!? 

[Showtime 1-1]

All I have to do this semester is maintain a average above 85%. That's All I need for RMC, which is all I need for the AIR FORCE!

[ThePointingMan]

Neat, The air force, but what are you gonna be doing as a pilot? just wandering.

[Showtime 1-1]

Neat, The air force, but what are you gonna be doing as a pilot? just wandering.

Hopefully, flying. What else? :P

[ThePointingMan]

Well, if your joining a force, ya aren't just gonna fly, you gotta do something, while flying and I'm interested in what opportunities there are for someone with the skill of flight, other then a passenger plane.

[Asper Sarnoff]

All I have to do this semester is maintain a average above 85%. That's All I need for RMC, which is all I need for the AIR FORCE!

Air force huh. You're aiming high there. Best of luck with that.

One of my dreams was to be a fighter pilot myself, I would probably have been one of the first pilots in the new Joint Strike Fighters Norway is now replacing it's aging F-16's with. The problem was that I'm to tall to fit in the cockpit. :(