A brief history of you

[Hamsundan]

Would you care to share your story on how you came to be where you are today?

 

What is the biggest influenced outside of academics that led you to the field you work in?

What is the most challenging situation you have encountered in your lifetime?

What is the most valuable thing you have learned from your experiences?

What advice would you tell a younger version of yourself?

Is there anything left you wish to accomplish?

 

I understand you are very busy so I want to thank you for the privilege of your time.

[Strange]

Why don't you start...

[Hamsundan]

I'm a welder. It's a steady income now that I have a family. I failed out of a biochemistry program years ago. The hardest thing I've had to overcome was depression. Hindsight I've learned a lot about the value of education. I'd cut off my arm to go back to school. I have no idea what I would tell myself in the past. And I really think I should know.

 

I didn't make this topic because I wanted to talk about myself. I want to know how smart, successful people came to choose their careers and if anything helped make them into who they are today.

[Sensei]

29 minutes ago, Hamsundan said:

I'm a welder. It's a steady income now that I have a family. I failed out of a biochemistry program years ago. The hardest thing I've had to overcome was depression. Hindsight I've learned a lot about the value of education. I'd cut off my arm to go back to school. I have no idea what I would tell myself in the past. And I really think I should know.

...if you didn't fail at school, you would have a completely different life, with a completely different wife, with completely different children..

Once, I was walking on the street, some girl couple meters in front of me, and speedy driven car had accident and literally fly through our pedestrian path, 5 meters from that girl. I said to her "if you would get out of home 5 seconds earlier you would be dead by now"..

[Hamsundan]

I think a lot of people say, "hey if I didn't turn left at that stop sign there's no possible way I'd be where I am right now." When in reality there are a lot of other routes to that same location, and many, many others. Contemplating all the 'what ifs' is unproductive.

I'm happy with my life and family. I plan on going back and getting an education. I was just wondering if anyone had any experiences that would be helpful advice.

[studiot]

This subject is currently making the news on the BBC

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-49667889/i-became-an-accidental-instagram-influencer-in-my-gap-year

 

One of the presenters on out local radio station is a former welder.
Seems to be doing pretty well as a radio journalist now.

[Strange]

35 minutes ago, Hamsundan said:

I plan on going back and getting an education. I was just wondering if anyone had any experiences that would be helpful advice.

In the UK, the Open University made it easier for working people to get a second chance at an education. (I started working towards a degree but gave up for a variety of reasons  - lack of time, money, etc.)

There are so many online courses now, run by prestigious universities and colleges, it makes it much easier than in the past.

[Sensei]

1 hour ago, Strange said:

In the UK, the Open University made it easier for working people to get a second chance at an education. (I started working towards a degree but gave up for a variety of reasons  - lack of time, money, etc.)

There are so many online courses now, run by prestigious universities and colleges, it makes it much easier than in the past.

And that is very good route. The smarter community, the better community..

Unfortunately many fake universities and fake schools have been made here, which are just pulling people's money for worthless education (due to level). Or even just giving diploma for money without any education. Verification of knowledge of students must be done outside of the university or school, in complete anonymity to prevent fraud.

Hm.. Google Glasses, or similar product, to record what student is doing during exam? It would help to solve problem with cheaters and fake diploma for nothing..

[Hamsundan]

What an interesting choice of career. I once knew a woman who was an emergency phone operator who then became a reporter for the local paper- back when newspaper was a thing. I wonder if her experiences guided her interest.

 

I agree there are many resources online that are well structured and totally free. Learning is a thrill now. Does it make you self conscious to be an unconventional student? I was once laughed at by a graduate who was very proud of his accomplishments. On knowing what to do... When I first held my daughter I said, "I don't know what I'm supposed to do." But I knew it was right.

[Airbrush]

When someone tells you that you can do anything you set your mind to, IT IS NOT TRUE.  For every successful person who made it big in life, there are many, many others who are just as talented and work just as hard but they were not in the right place at the right time.  They could not practice football, or whatever their love, because they had to GET A JOB ASAP.

I'm not smart or successful, but I wanted to be an artist.  Well it never happened even though I tried.  I had a good start since my dad was a high school art teacher.   I majored in art in college and it took 7 years to complete a 4-year degree, because I was having so much fun while I was in college.  I even found a job in art while I was in college, as a production potter.  I got good at making pottery on the potter's wheel.  I spent a lot of time making artwork that I sold for a few dollars in student art sales.  But my time was worth only cents per hour.  A few years later I found a job as production potter.  It's a lot of fun, but after you do it every day all day you realize you are doing "stoop labor" very much like picking vegetables in the field.  I was paid a whopping 10 cents per pound of clay I made into pottery.  Then I found another job as production potter at the biggest ceramics shop in Socal, Epoch Ceramics in Compton, CA.  I took the bus to work which took about 1.5 hours each way.  My best day at ceramics was in about 1977 when I threw 500 pounds of clay in one day.  That was 100 pots 9" high and 12" wide.  They all had to look the same.  This shop was paying 15 cents per pound of clay.  So when I set my record, I earned 500lbs x $0.15(USD) = $75.  And that was from working REALLY hard.  That job lasted only about 4 months until I quit and went back to school full time to get my art degree.

When I got my BA in art I searched for a job in art and could not find one.  My friends had jobs and I needed to find a job ASAP so I could hang out with my friends that had jobs.  So I had to take the first offer I got and that was as office clerk for an insurance company earning $750 per month.  That was challenging to work at a desk 40 hours per week.  I found another clerk typist job for another insurance company and it paid better, $900 per month.  So I worked at that for 4 years, but during that time I met my wife who was a nurse.  She was earning twice as much as I did.  After 4 years working as clerk-typist, she encouraged me to go back to school and study accounting, since she thought I was good at math, and she could support both of us.  It was fun going back to school.  I had more self-discipline and was able to study and get A's in accounting.  I got my BS degree in accounting and found a job rather quickly as an auditor for the US Dept of Education.  I was in the CPA review course when I met Nora, who would become my new boss.  She encouraged me to apply for a job and I got it.  It only lasted 10 months because I hated driving so far to audits, and Nora had become bitchy.  I worked at a number of jobs in accounting and bookkeeping, also working temp as an accounting clerk for $9.00/hour in 1993.  My final job was 12 years as bookkeeper for a Mexican restaurant in Sherman Oaks, CA.  I hated my boss.  He was very much like Trump, arrogant and irritating.  Now I'm retired and having a great time!  I LOVE RETIREMENT!  Now I can do artwork just for the hell of it and I don't need to sell anything.  I'm just finishing my 1/32 scale model of an SBD Dauntless dive bomber.  It looks great!  In retirement I became a kid again.  Now I paint big pictures (30"x40" and 20"x30") of famous big-wave surfing scenes.  I use an airbrush, that's how I took the name Airbrush.  (99% of the painting is done with a bristle brush and only 1% with an airbrush.)  My web site is "biggestwaveseversurfed.com" which will take you to fineartamerica.com.

Edited September 13, 2019 by Airbrush

[Hamsundan]

9 hours ago, Airbrush said:

Nora had become bitchy.

Haha, I work with about a dozen grown men with that same problem. Some of it you just have to put up with.

Yes production sucks, especially at a high volume place where it sounds like you worked. You gain a lot of practice but borrrrrring.

Do you think after all your years in accounting that it was coincidence you returned to art? Or has art always fill you with a sense of purpose?

[Airbrush]

14 hours ago, Hamsundan said:

Haha, I work with about a dozen grown men with that same problem. Some of it you just have to put up with.

Yes production sucks, especially at a high volume place where it sounds like you worked. You gain a lot of practice but borrrrrring.

Do you think after all your years in accounting that it was coincidence you returned to art? Or has art always fill you with a sense of purpose?

From my experience, one of the most important things in maintaining a job is to not allow your boss to know you don't like them.  I learned to fake it, and act like everything was hunky dory.

I returned to art because I got interested in big-wave surfing.  I could not believe the public's general lack of interest in such an interesting sport.  More people are interested in pro wrestling or auto racing.  I felt compelled to record historic events.  Art was always fun, but I needed a subject of interest to get back into it.

[waive15]

Hi Hamsundan,

Thank you for the interest. I will try to be sort and not boring.

I am a practical/rational man and finished school 31 years ago. My limits in mathematics are rational numbers and vectors and I reached them in school. There I studied Russia, English and French, other my friends in different schools studied also Spanish and German. These are languages which are officially taught in state schools. I learnt NOTHING in languages. NOTHING!

My computer runs UBUNTU, Firefox and DuckDuckGo. Ubuntu 18.04 is very easy to work with(Ubuntu 16 was difficult for me).

I am a great fan of Youtube. There i take english courses and watch almost everything in English and Russian.

The best language channel there (for me) is Latintutorial. Why? Because there there is short english course, he deals with grammatical cases in Latin WHICH are the same as in Russian.

In short He gives BASIC knowledge  for the language as a whole. In that connection i recommend ETYMONLINE (DOT) COM and WIKTIONARY (DOT) ORG. I am most satisfied with these.

My favorite math channels are:  3Blue1Brouwn(in its style it is very much like Latintutorial; I have the illusion that these two channels are made form one person),  Numberphile and Mathologer. Also for physics I like  Fermilab.

 

I don't like to read and write - especially on monitor. For the purpose of studying English and Russian on my ebook- device I read only 3 books( my all time  favorites): The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely and Мастер и Маргарита.

My all time favorite films are: Midnight run and Evil under the sun (1982 with Peter Ustinov; this film PARTICULARLY is the best Poirot film ever. The music is of Cole Porter - that music really tied the film together ;), if you catch my drift ) On these films which  i watched dozens of times with/without english subtitles I practice my English.

 

Now why I am here - by accident. I stumbled upon a youtube  video and I pose a question in 1 linguistic forum and 3 mathematical forums, one of which is that one. Here, the moderator/I think/ was so kind to reply, so I stayed. The forum is great but as you see I have no mathematical knowledge to be useful here. So soon I will leave. I will stick to Youtube - it is easier for me.

Subject + Predicate, I suppose is a mathematical definition for Simple Sentence. But I want to hear clear definition for Grammatical case(only for English, German and Russia - languages which are important to me) and Tense. That is why I am here. I will be glad if you can provide me with some.

 

Thank you again and have a nice day.

 

 

[waive15]

/i don't know how to use "Quote"/

to Airbrush's last post here

"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made."

                                                                                                      Groucho Marx

Bravo Airbrush!

 

 

 

[studiot]

1 hour ago, waive15 said:

Now why I am here - by accident. I stumbled upon a youtube  video and I pose a question in 1 linguistic forum and 3 mathematical forums, one of which is that one. Here, the moderator/I think/ was so kind to reply, so I stayed. The forum is great but as you see I have no mathematical knowledge to be useful here. So soon I will leave. I will stick to Youtube - it is easier for me.

There is no need to leave. You will find help here. It is one of the main purposes of SF.

The study of language has a scientific (logical) basis.

Answering your questions are off topic in this thread so I have started another.