Rusty's Ramblings

[Rusty Edge]

TOPIC- Flashbacks.

I was trying to shave for Easter. Didn't have time to do the shaving mug thing. My can of shaving gel was empty, but I knew my travel size was in the bathroom, so I grabbed that. There was some rust on the top of the can...

When I was about 10 ( based on the house we were in ) my brother and I were goofing around with Christmas gifts. Don't remember why, but we had this new tin toy train. Molded black plastic steam engine with a wind up key, painted metal tender, box car, and caboose. Oval track.  Maybe it was a secret santa or grab bag kind of gift from the extended family party. We were into trains, but Lionel 027, or HO scale models. This was something for younger kids.

So we set it up and tried it anyway, one night. The gears in the mechanism must have been misaligned, because the engine only worked in fits and starts when nudged. We figured that we needed some kind of grease to lubricate the mechanism. There was a tube of hair grease that was on the desk, a gift from the barber. What else were we gonna do with either one?

We greased the mechanism. Better. More grease, more attempts. Working well now. Getting faster every time we released the spring. Pretty soon it was jumping the rails. Then it was doing burnouts in place, and practically releasing all of the energy in an instant! Well, it was fun. We went to bed.
The next day when we picked up the engine to wind it, the mechanism was covered in rust and completely seized up. Amazing. We had a laugh and threw it out.

We learned never to put grease in our hair!

It was the corrosion on the shaving gel  can that triggered the flashback.

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Did you ever have a funny flashback?

[Dio]

TOPIC- Online Advertising

What sort of internet advertising in general do you think would be effective?
OR, What sort of internet advertising really annoys you?

I see many advertisments, both print and video, for online universities. I cannot fathom the reason people that people pay thousand, or tens of thousand, of dollars for paltry education from online universities like University of Phoneix. I can receive educational opportunties for education from universities that do not have a known history of causing debt defaults.

[Rusty Edge]

I don't know. I figure somebody realizes that their life isn't working, or that they will be out of a job sooner or later, and they see the ads, find it convenient and affordable, and make the decision.
They don't research the school. The fact that they've heard the name a lot is enough. These "commercial schools" have room to operate because the cost of the institutional ones spirals without regard to the economy.

TOPIC- College Education. What baffles is me is people who go to college for 5 years and haven't learned a marketable skill. I totally understand studying art, philosophy, or history, but isn't that what minors are for? There is a lot of time and money invested, shouldn't that train you for a career, or get you married to somebody with one?

Some examples from my extended family, different sides and generations.

1) Sociology major. Work study in the college cafeteria, practicum in the soup kitchen. No jobs in field at the time. Worked in restaurants and butcher departments until becoming very successful as an independent caterer for corporations.

2) Nursing major. Hated college science. Couldn't decide on a major for years. Became a criminal justice major by default, although they are too small and frail for any kind of law enforcement work ( too weak to be a waiter/waitress ). The only job they ever had was college work study as computer lab manager.

3)  Video tape editor. Met some celebrities during the practicum, but there were no jobs. Fortunately, retail was in their blood. Worked in a mall chain store and became a manager, I think before graduation. It was a fast growing chain, and they became a specialist in opening new stores and fixing underperforming ones. Married one of the execs at HQ.

4) Art major with a big scholarship at a small private school. To begin with. Switched  schools regularly, adding loans and losing credits every time. 4 schools, 5 years, and a cosmetology degree.
Well, to be fair, they'd probably be doing that full time if the Affordable Care Act didn't keep them under 30 hours. Instead, they are juggling that and wait staff job they had in high school, and a retail job. So far, the cash flow works. The debt load my preclude future installment purchases.

5) Majors in Theater and Psychology, minor in French with honors.  Graduated on time. Knew they didn't want to push pills, pursued Theater in the Real World with the intent of directing plays. Mostly worked as a stage manager, directed sometimes,  supplementing income in factories, promoted to front office. Moved to finally be a part of the dream theater. Determined it wasn't really living their dream, and dropped that career. ( Perhaps it was more fundraising than creating. Don't know, it's a closed subject) Got a job as an office manager for a new company converting court proceedings to searchable disks. Went from there to various tech companies in Seattle. Mostly liaison work- helping the management, tech, marketing and customer service people communicate and get along. Well, I guess it's the perfect application of Drama/Psychology/language translation, now that I think of it.

So there's two in five doing what they studied in college. Three in five working extensions/progressions of the work they did during college.

What's your anecdotal evidence?

[Buster's Uncle]

I don't know if I have the energy to go into it, but a college education -any good program not overspecialized to where there's no freshman bonehead courses- offers intangibles difficult to articulate.  I didn't squeeze out an entire year of employment in my major field, but I can walk into any job interview with a degree and little need to prove I have it and earned it other than talking.  It made me a profoundly more well-rounded person intellectually.  There are jobs -almost all the ones in the entire world that anyone would want- were they won't even talk to you without a college degree.

Separates me from the trailer-trash, after all.

Check this -you'll recognize that I'm right as soon as I point it out- a college education confers social status.  If, like either of my siblings, I had the right to make people address me as Doctor fill-in-the-blank, it would definitely be part of my username.

[Dio]

I don't know if I have the energy to go into it, but a college education -any good program not overspecialized to where there's no freshman bonehead courses- offers intangibles difficult to articulate.  I didn't squeeze out an entire year of employment in my major field, but I can walk into any job interview with a degree and little need to prove I have it and earned it other than talking.  It made me a profoundly more well-rounded person intellectually.  There are jobs -almost all the ones in the entire world that anyone would want- were they won't even talk to you without a college degree.

Separates me from the trailer-trash, after all.

Check this -you'll recognize that I'm right as soon as I point it out- a college education confers social status.  If, like either of my siblings, I had the right to make people address me as Doctor fill-in-the-blank, it would definitely be part of my username.

I despise the fact that a simply social institution grants the very social status that people seek. The whole concept reeks of internal power struggles that originate from the Protestant work ethic of our society. I do not despise the education itself, but I despise the institution that continues to maintain its grasp on the whole process that grants recognition of the education.

[Buster's Uncle]

MONEY is the real social status, of course.

College made me a better-rounded person.  Fer realz.

[Dio]

MONEY is the real social status, of course.

College made me a better-rounded person.  Fer realz.

I concur with the above statement that the education and skills from the institution help to create better people. I also realize that the whole process remains less about education from the adminstration's perspective and more about money from the government (Money does make the world go round).

[Buster's Uncle]

Lacking money, if you're not college-educated, you're not real people (for the most part; Uno and his GED beat it being far more competent than the other aerospace engineers he works with) in our society.

College fails badly as vocational training, for the most part, yes - but it's still a prereq for most of the better things in life these days.

[Dio]

Lacking money, if you're not college-educated, you're not real people (for the most part; Uno and his GED beat it being far more competent than the other aerospace engineers he works with) in our society.

College fails badly as vocational training, for the most part, yes - but it's still a prereq for most of the better things in life these days.

The whole process involves the movement of goal posts as people continue to claim that the only good things in life involve extensive creature comforts. I would much rather have fewer material comforts, but more time, than more material comforts and less time. I reason in the above manner because I can work with less material, but I cannot create more time. My opinion reflects that I do not value extensive material possessions.

[Buster's Uncle]

Neither do I - but ohmygod, do I ever value respect.

(Why do you waste time signing out when you leave the boards, only to waste time signing back in later?)

[Rusty Edge]

I don't know if I have the energy to go into it, but a college education -any good program not overspecialized to where there's no freshman bonehead courses- offers intangibles difficult to articulate.  I didn't squeeze out an entire year of employment in my major field, but I can walk into any job interview with a degree and little need to prove I have it and earned it other than talking.  It made me a profoundly more well-rounded person intellectually.  There are jobs -almost all the ones in the entire world that anyone would want- were they won't even talk to you without a college degree.

Separates me from the trailer-trash, after all.

Check this -you'll recognize that I'm right as soon as I point it out- a college education confers social status.  If, like either of my siblings, I had the right to make people address me as Doctor fill-in-the-blank, it would definitely be part of my username.

Yes, you're right.
But like Dio, It kind of makes me resent the whole college as a social institution thing system.

Do you think that if Bernie waved his magic wand and gave it away for free that It wouldn't matter so much any more?

[Buster's Uncle]

[shrugs]  You still have to show up for classes and do the work.  College isn't for everyone.

[Dio]

Neither do I - but ohmygod, do I ever value respect.

(Why do you waste time signing out when you leave the boards, only to waste time signing back in later?)

I can value respect that comes from actual accomplishments rather than the regurgitation of information that occurs at all levels below the Phd. The fact remains that those in the upper echelons desire to hold onto power through social control of the expeditious variety. The whole concept shares many paralles with former practices seen to remove African Americans in the south during Jim Crow and Black Code periods. The first parallel it shares includes the principle that it excludes the people that do not match specific requirements that it establishes for itself with sancations from the government. The second parallel it shares with the policies of the pase involve the fact that it often excludes the impoverished individuals that differ from the people around them. How many people actually hold a Phd that come from minorities in the United States of America? The ultimate fact in this case involves the reality that the cost of attendance at universities continues to increase and to exceed the growth in demand for many fields.

[Buster's Uncle]

Oh, just do your homework and get the degree.  You can fight city hall when you're done someday.

[Dio]

Oh, just do your homework and get the degree.  You can fight city hall when you're done someday.

What do you think I have been doing the whole time that I have been a member of this board? I continue to work towards a resolution that provides the opportunity to create a socialist community that does not raise money beyond that required to coexist with the behemoth of a government. I believe small scale communities that exist on gift economies could operate well within specific circumstances because the presence of money remains a liability in the future.