2022 Spring Training Thread

I have 4 graduate degrees I never use. In reality unless you teach in college you are unlikely to use graduate courses. They tend to be esoteric. A pretty good description of the academic profession. 

I disagree whole-heartedly.  Never a day goes by that I am not reminded of something I learned from literature, legal briefs, political science, chemistry, physics, psychology, English composition, logic, philosophy, zoology, sociology, history, statistics, foreign languages, even writing subroutines in computer science, etc.  Associations made during the day from the most minute and seemingly inconsequential stimuli bring back ideas and facts and coursework from my university experiences.  

I was going to say that I haven't found algebraic expressions helpful, but that isn't true either, as I recalled many times finding the hidden value of x in proportionality and for proportional comparisons.  I often wish I had taken more physics and mathematics and some engineering courses when faced with building or fixing something.  But, I changed my major eight times - too many interests, and I frequently wish I had never left the university atmosphere and that ivory tower that is academia.  

I still have those days from high school, whether I’m picturing my Math And Algebra teacher, Mr. Ellison, a tall fellow with a Clyde Crashcup mustache, quick with a joke but a mercurial temper or the 4’9” Mrs. Burt, pear-shaped with horned rim glasses, looking every bit like an owl pontificating to us in health class. “A man went to the doctor and was informed that he had a venereal disease. He asked the doctor, do you suppose I could have contracted that from the toilet seat? The doctor replied, it’s entirely possible sir, but that would be a strange place for you to take a women”. Then she would throw back her head and laugh.

Also from the experiences at my first job, which came during my “college years”, and my once avid desire to study anything that grabbed my interest. I think youthful years always put memories in our heads that never leave. Just a moment in time, often unconnected to the surrounding context. A tenth grade spy of a classmate’s unknowing down blouse exposure (hormones raging). A joke. A lesson. A confrontation resolved or otherwise. A fish I caught. The words I wish I could call back or had said.

I’ve pulled algebraic principles out of my mental
File to create simple equations at work, done complex simple math in my head and been right with answers while our in house financial folks were incorrect pounding adding machine keys beside me. Even now, with a quick glance at an electric bill, and knowledge of the azimuth of a rooftop I can come within a KW in either direction of the expected system size for a PV project.

I wish I had been able to sleep or had the moral support of my family in those days. I could have done even more in life. Yet, it’s been okay. I learned to climb the mountains before without a boost, survived my falls into the chasms of hell on earth. I appreciate my scars, and am thankful they are no deeper than they are. I understand better the scars Ruthie suffers from, scars inflicted long before we got together.

Life is good overall…

Does it get any better?