What else would you be doing for a living?
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For those of you that make your living writing software: Let's say that for whatever reason you never became a professional software developer, what do you think you would you be doing for a living? I think I would probably have been a chef but there is a slight possibility I might have been a commercial artist or an actor.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt
John Cardinal wrote:
Let's say that for whatever reason you never became a professional software developer, what do you think you would you be doing for a living?
There was little chance of me not becoming a software engineer. But I can talk about the other possibilities, some of which I still actively persue on the sides. At first I wanted to become an astronaut. like many kids did. The difference is I knew what I needed to do, and I was already in elementary school training to do so. Then I got glasses and my world came crashing down to earth again. I started doing astronomy as an "as close as you can get" alternative. If I am never going to get to the stars, at least I can watch them and learn about them. This still occupies my time, learning about Hubble, following deep space probes, etc. This was exactly what my carrer choice was in High school before I was introduced to my first computer. So there as a better than even chance that was my direction. I had actually wanted to be an artist. Once I reached high school, I was forbidden from taking art classes by my mother. That went over like a lead balloon, and led me to my current career in computers. IF I had different parents, Art might have been my career choice, for better or worse we could never really know. Since things didn't happen that way, it is hard to do such projections. And maybe I would have come to computers from the art side rather than directly. Certainly the dual-capability has helped my career. I was already trained as a draftsman and an architect from High School. That was as close as I could get to art, so I took it and was good at it. I recently designed my own house, but I can't afford to build it, so ended up redesigning a few rooms in our current one. The builders liked the redesigns enough they are encorporating them permanently into their design sets. That is what happens when you turn an efficency nut loose on blue prints. There was a decent chance I might have chosen architecture over astronomy before I got to college. Since I discovered computers we will never really know. In school for computer programming in Tulsa, I put myself through school working as a gardener. That I enjoyed and it was good relaxing and pleasing work. There are days even now that I miss it. Because of that I am helping with the landscaping of my new house. I have drawn landscaping for others, and helped them set it up. I am still considering adding to that on the side by getting cert
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For those of you that make your living writing software: Let's say that for whatever reason you never became a professional software developer, what do you think you would you be doing for a living? I think I would probably have been a chef but there is a slight possibility I might have been a commercial artist or an actor.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt
Hmm. I'm astoundingly bad at most other things... Driving trucks maybe? *shrug*
every night, i kneel at the foot of my bed and thank the Great Overseeing Politicians for protecting my freedoms by reducing their number, as if they were deer in a state park. -- Chris Losinger, Online Poker Players?
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I'd be in some form of racing. -- modified at 9:44 Monday 29th October, 2007 Or maybe a mercenary...
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001I would too if I had learned my current love of racing at a younger age, but I was trying to think of what path my life would have taken if I hadn't been so interested in computers at such a young age and what else I was interested in and have always been good at. If I had started watching F1 racing as a child I'd probably would have raced go karts and tried to get into some kind of open wheel racing series.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt
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I would have, and should have, been a lawyer. I'm still trying to get a law degree now, at 38.
My dad had always wanted to be a lawyer, then he had a family and started working in the bush as a logger and in various other jobs in the forestry industry. In his 40's he decided he wanted to become a lawyer again, finished his high school, went to college and then university and now he's a writer and teaches translation courses at university and no longer has any interest in being a lawyer, but it took him on the path he's on now.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt
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Being a carpenter would've been fun, I think.
Yeah absolutely. When I was younger I did a *lot* of jobs that involved working with my hands and building things. There's a kind of satisfaction in it that you can never get from writing software and the comraderie of your co-workers is entirely different and loads more fun than in any office job I've ever had.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt
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John Cardinal wrote:
Let's say that for whatever reason you never became a professional software developer, what do you think you would you be doing for a living?
There was little chance of me not becoming a software engineer. But I can talk about the other possibilities, some of which I still actively persue on the sides. At first I wanted to become an astronaut. like many kids did. The difference is I knew what I needed to do, and I was already in elementary school training to do so. Then I got glasses and my world came crashing down to earth again. I started doing astronomy as an "as close as you can get" alternative. If I am never going to get to the stars, at least I can watch them and learn about them. This still occupies my time, learning about Hubble, following deep space probes, etc. This was exactly what my carrer choice was in High school before I was introduced to my first computer. So there as a better than even chance that was my direction. I had actually wanted to be an artist. Once I reached high school, I was forbidden from taking art classes by my mother. That went over like a lead balloon, and led me to my current career in computers. IF I had different parents, Art might have been my career choice, for better or worse we could never really know. Since things didn't happen that way, it is hard to do such projections. And maybe I would have come to computers from the art side rather than directly. Certainly the dual-capability has helped my career. I was already trained as a draftsman and an architect from High School. That was as close as I could get to art, so I took it and was good at it. I recently designed my own house, but I can't afford to build it, so ended up redesigning a few rooms in our current one. The builders liked the redesigns enough they are encorporating them permanently into their design sets. That is what happens when you turn an efficency nut loose on blue prints. There was a decent chance I might have chosen architecture over astronomy before I got to college. Since I discovered computers we will never really know. In school for computer programming in Tulsa, I put myself through school working as a gardener. That I enjoyed and it was good relaxing and pleasing work. There are days even now that I miss it. Because of that I am helping with the landscaping of my new house. I have drawn landscaping for others, and helped them set it up. I am still considering adding to that on the side by getting cert
El Corazon wrote:
The difference is I knew what I needed to do, and I was already in elementary school training to do so. Then I got glasses and my world came crashing down to earth again.
You too huh? :( :sigh:
"If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual." - Frank Herbert
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chemist, probably
When I was a wee lad I had a chemistry set and an electronics kit. The chemistry set had a little alcohol burner, lot's of glass tube and instructions on blowing your own test tubes and beakers and stuff. Also loads of chemicals and plans for making bombs, smoke and explosive variety, growing crystals, making cosmetics, Gibberelic acid to be used to mutate plants in thier seeds and grow to see what mutants arose. Loads of cool interesting and highly dangerous stuff. Just try and buy a chemistry set these days. There was a piece on Wired Science the other day about the demise of the good old chemistry set and even schools now are having trouble just getting the chemicals for labs. Chemistry (in North America) is a dying profession as a result.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt
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In the town where I grew up for a while everyone wanted to be a vet, particularly the girls because of some series of books written about an English vet (I think) that were really popular at the time. It would be a great job in the country in an area with a lot of smaller farms. Probably not so much fun in a place where you dealt with factory style farms a lot though.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt
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My dad had always wanted to be a lawyer, then he had a family and started working in the bush as a logger and in various other jobs in the forestry industry. In his 40's he decided he wanted to become a lawyer again, finished his high school, went to college and then university and now he's a writer and teaches translation courses at university and no longer has any interest in being a lawyer, but it took him on the path he's on now.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt
I'm also interested in writing. Maybe my studies will take me somewhere else as well. At the moment I would like very much to reach a level as a consultant developer that enables me to do a semester full time at varsity. Who knows what I'll run into then.
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I would too if I had learned my current love of racing at a younger age, but I was trying to think of what path my life would have taken if I hadn't been so interested in computers at such a young age and what else I was interested in and have always been good at. If I had started watching F1 racing as a child I'd probably would have raced go karts and tried to get into some kind of open wheel racing series.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt
John Cardinal wrote:
F1 racing
I said "racing", not "parade laps". :)
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
John Cardinal wrote:
Let's say that for whatever reason you never became a professional software developer, what do you think you would you be doing for a living?
There was little chance of me not becoming a software engineer. But I can talk about the other possibilities, some of which I still actively persue on the sides. At first I wanted to become an astronaut. like many kids did. The difference is I knew what I needed to do, and I was already in elementary school training to do so. Then I got glasses and my world came crashing down to earth again. I started doing astronomy as an "as close as you can get" alternative. If I am never going to get to the stars, at least I can watch them and learn about them. This still occupies my time, learning about Hubble, following deep space probes, etc. This was exactly what my carrer choice was in High school before I was introduced to my first computer. So there as a better than even chance that was my direction. I had actually wanted to be an artist. Once I reached high school, I was forbidden from taking art classes by my mother. That went over like a lead balloon, and led me to my current career in computers. IF I had different parents, Art might have been my career choice, for better or worse we could never really know. Since things didn't happen that way, it is hard to do such projections. And maybe I would have come to computers from the art side rather than directly. Certainly the dual-capability has helped my career. I was already trained as a draftsman and an architect from High School. That was as close as I could get to art, so I took it and was good at it. I recently designed my own house, but I can't afford to build it, so ended up redesigning a few rooms in our current one. The builders liked the redesigns enough they are encorporating them permanently into their design sets. That is what happens when you turn an efficency nut loose on blue prints. There was a decent chance I might have chosen architecture over astronomy before I got to college. Since I discovered computers we will never really know. In school for computer programming in Tulsa, I put myself through school working as a gardener. That I enjoyed and it was good relaxing and pleasing work. There are days even now that I miss it. Because of that I am helping with the landscaping of my new house. I have drawn landscaping for others, and helped them set it up. I am still considering adding to that on the side by getting cert
Yeah, now that you mention it, landscaping would have been a good choice for me as well. That's the problem with having so many diverse interests, it's hard to settle on one. My dad has always been a proponent about learning about everything in the world around you and had me interested in just about anything under the sun at a young age. My parents were the opposite, we grew up in a hippyish country area and telling your kids what they should do was *NOT DONE* at all. It was more like show them every possible thing in the world they could do, then let them loose and hope they don't end up growing pot for a living. :) I think it worked out quite well for most of the people I know from that area. Most of us gravitated towards stuff we were interested in and made a career out of it.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt
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Hmm. I'm astoundingly bad at most other things... Driving trucks maybe? *shrug*
every night, i kneel at the foot of my bed and thank the Great Overseeing Politicians for protecting my freedoms by reducing their number, as if they were deer in a state park. -- Chris Losinger, Online Poker Players?
When I left home and lived in my first city I had a nearly overwhelming urge to become a bicycle courier after watching them zipping through traffic and being all cool and gnarly at their hangouts at espresso shops.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt
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In the town where I grew up for a while everyone wanted to be a vet, particularly the girls because of some series of books written about an English vet (I think) that were really popular at the time. It would be a great job in the country in an area with a lot of smaller farms. Probably not so much fun in a place where you dealt with factory style farms a lot though.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt
James Herriot, the first one was called All Creatures Great and Small. I grew up in the agricultural boonies of southeastern Pennsylvania, US. Kennett Square, PA - mushroom capital of the world! Located very near to one of the four east coast hotbeds of equestrian stuff. Horse crazy from birth. Started working at a stable at the age of 12 in order to work for lessons and just to ride and learn. This was before they started getting nasty about enforcing child labor laws. I would have done the vet school bit except the folks couldn't afford that much schooling, even with scholarships. Judy
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John Cardinal wrote:
F1 racing
I said "racing", not "parade laps". :)
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
-----
"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
James Herriot, the first one was called All Creatures Great and Small. I grew up in the agricultural boonies of southeastern Pennsylvania, US. Kennett Square, PA - mushroom capital of the world! Located very near to one of the four east coast hotbeds of equestrian stuff. Horse crazy from birth. Started working at a stable at the age of 12 in order to work for lessons and just to ride and learn. This was before they started getting nasty about enforcing child labor laws. I would have done the vet school bit except the folks couldn't afford that much schooling, even with scholarships. Judy
Yeah that's it! The girls and women were gaga over it big time. I never had a horse of my own but I had two ponies. We had cows and goats and chickens and etc, you name it. Sometimes I like going to the fall fairs and checking out the 4H stuff for nostalgia but it's not the life for me, too much work! :)
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt
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Yeah, now that you mention it, landscaping would have been a good choice for me as well. That's the problem with having so many diverse interests, it's hard to settle on one. My dad has always been a proponent about learning about everything in the world around you and had me interested in just about anything under the sun at a young age. My parents were the opposite, we grew up in a hippyish country area and telling your kids what they should do was *NOT DONE* at all. It was more like show them every possible thing in the world they could do, then let them loose and hope they don't end up growing pot for a living. :) I think it worked out quite well for most of the people I know from that area. Most of us gravitated towards stuff we were interested in and made a career out of it.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt
John Cardinal wrote:
My dad has always been a proponent about learning about everything in the world around you and had me interested in just about anything under the sun at a young age.
hehehe. I was the useless dreamer, the one my mother was embarassed to tell her friends about. When she actually told me that to my face, I went out of state and supported myself. The irony is, now that I AM successful, she brags to her friends that she "fostered" that knowledge, she helped me become the person I am. Which is partly true. I grew the way I am in pure spite of her demands! :laugh: She even comments that she encouraged me to combine art with career choices which led me to computers. :rolleyes: Oh the irony. There is so much irony in that they could build the worlds largest tanker.... And even fuel it with the methane produced by the BS. :laugh: She can say what ever she wants, that's her life to live. If only it worked the other way around....
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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For those of you that make your living writing software: Let's say that for whatever reason you never became a professional software developer, what do you think you would you be doing for a living? I think I would probably have been a chef but there is a slight possibility I might have been a commercial artist or an actor.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt
Well, at the age of 18 I was heading down the road to become a pro photographer, but then that little VIC-20 computer entered the picture and photography faded out of sight ;) The main problem though for me, is that my mind never rests and I continually have ideas. If it were not computers, I imagine some other idea or ideas would have come up and side-tracked me somewhere. In my elder years, I find I like to cook, but would hate to do that continually every day in volume. In that area, I would probably want to teach or build cookbooks where I could be a bit creative and invent new recipes. That all said though, that mainline addication to computer technology might just be blurring my vision on the subject :)
Rocky <>< Blog Post: MVC for ASP.NET! Tech Blog Post: Cheap Biofuels and Synthetics coming soon?
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:laugh: We'll never convince each other. At least your sport is subsidizing SpeedTV so they can show all the really interesting racing from around the world. ;)
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt
In reality, I started boycotting Nascar in 2001 because a) They started really dickin' up the rules b) They changed the points system c) The COT ("Car of Tomorrow", aka "Crap On Tires") d) Toyota I haven't watched a single race or bought a single diecast since February of 2001.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
Well since I also have a biochemistry degree I guess I would be a chemist/biochemist. Now and then when I get tired of all the inanimate bits I do long for the lab.
"When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, `Who is destroying the world?' You are."
-Atlas Shrugged, Ayn RandMe too - B.S. in Biochemistry - UC Riverside - 1985.
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For those of you that make your living writing software: Let's say that for whatever reason you never became a professional software developer, what do you think you would you be doing for a living? I think I would probably have been a chef but there is a slight possibility I might have been a commercial artist or an actor.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt
