Hi,
When I was twelve years old I had a tonsillectomy. While I was recovering my parents gave me a set of books put out by Colliers whose titles were Understanding . . . where the ellipses represent things like light, mechanics, electricity, etc. I don't remember how many books there were or their exact titles. That's when I discovered that people got paid to do the things I did for fun :)
Having a talent for math and being naturally lazy, I didn't go to college, instead I went to the North Avenue Trade School (aka Georgia Institute of Technology) where I was able to avoid all the (few) courses that required compositional skills and concentrate on fun puzzles (or problem solving if you prefer - but that sounds so blah). Started in '64, got my bachelor's in '73 with a war, a wife and a child helping to slow the process down :)
I set about to look for a grad school that had no language requirement and was on the semester system. The first requirement was again driven by my laziness. The second was that all too often at Tech (on a quarter system) we would get about three quarters through a book, covering the fundamentals, and just as we were getting to the good part the quarter would end. I figured that the semester system would fix that. I figured wrong but that's another story.
Found what looked to be a good one at Washington State University (aka Wassu, aka Moo U) and started there in the fall of '74 without wife or child (and that too is another story -- but I'll need to know you a lot better before I tell it). Took my course work, played around with three dissertation projects, did some pre-doc teaching and research. Finally, after the grad school let it be know that I would not receive another extension (in '83) went ahead and submitted a dissertation and got my Ph.D in '83. I think I hold the record for longest time in the grad school, but, hey, I was having fun :)
Stuck around for two more years playing post doc when a friend recruited me for Boeing. Retired from there in 2000 when, again, things stopped being fun :)
--Pete
When I was twelve years old I had a tonsillectomy. While I was recovering my parents gave me a set of books put out by Colliers whose titles were Understanding . . . where the ellipses represent things like light, mechanics, electricity, etc. I don't remember how many books there were or their exact titles. That's when I discovered that people got paid to do the things I did for fun :)
Having a talent for math and being naturally lazy, I didn't go to college, instead I went to the North Avenue Trade School (aka Georgia Institute of Technology) where I was able to avoid all the (few) courses that required compositional skills and concentrate on fun puzzles (or problem solving if you prefer - but that sounds so blah). Started in '64, got my bachelor's in '73 with a war, a wife and a child helping to slow the process down :)
I set about to look for a grad school that had no language requirement and was on the semester system. The first requirement was again driven by my laziness. The second was that all too often at Tech (on a quarter system) we would get about three quarters through a book, covering the fundamentals, and just as we were getting to the good part the quarter would end. I figured that the semester system would fix that. I figured wrong but that's another story.
Found what looked to be a good one at Washington State University (aka Wassu, aka Moo U) and started there in the fall of '74 without wife or child (and that too is another story -- but I'll need to know you a lot better before I tell it). Took my course work, played around with three dissertation projects, did some pre-doc teaching and research. Finally, after the grad school let it be know that I would not receive another extension (in '83) went ahead and submitted a dissertation and got my Ph.D in '83. I think I hold the record for longest time in the grad school, but, hey, I was having fun :)
Stuck around for two more years playing post doc when a friend recruited me for Boeing. Retired from there in 2000 when, again, things stopped being fun :)
--Pete
How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?