I really don't know

[Elder Iptuous]

I am planing on going back to school this year as a part time student. I'm not sure at all what I plan on doing as a career but marine biology, mathematics and psychology all interest me.

huh.  that's interesting, because i just happen to know that there are a great many dolphins that are really hung up, to a debilitating degree, on such things as the Riemann Hypothesis and the twin prime conjecture.  you could really do a lot of good!



seriously, though... if your interests are broad, then you could pick a field that could work towards some childhood dream type thing, but also has a lot of standard work type options to pay the bills.
i went into engineering to build a giant robot that i can ride in.
but working for a govt. contractor making flight sims is paying the bills in the mean time...

[East Coast Hustle]

better Nate than lever.

I hate you just a little bit right now.

[Cramulus]

Grant Morrison gave a talk at Disinfocon one year, and in one tangent he talked about the walkman phenomenon

in the 90s, when the walkman got popular, suddenly you'd see all these people listening to music while they were in public.

and at first it pissed him off, he was like, "Yo, is the real world NOT IMPORTANT ENOUGH that you need to shut it out?" He felt it was disrespectful - that people are becoming so introverted that we're losing some element of human connection. It got worse when cell phones got popular, and even worse when wireless bluetooth headsets started to appear. You've got people walking around having conversations with invisible people, only barely connected to the meatspace we share. And then years later, of course, Grant Morrison got a cell phone and ipod and whatever, and now he's part of the problem too.

He says that this is a microcosm of one of the big spiritual challenges on humanity's horizon. In the next century, as it becomes easier and easier to escape into the digital, we're going to be further and further apart. There's a japanese poet who laments about this high cost of modernity - why is it that I feel lonliest when I am on the train, when I am completely surrounded by humanity? There is a chasm between every human being. And in crowds, that chasm is wider.

But you can't fight it. You just have to roll with it.

[Elder Iptuous]

But you can't fight it. You just have to roll with it.

I don't know if i agree with that.
If you genuinely compliment a stranger in a crowd it immediately and lastingly puts you on their radar as an actual person standing next to them.
i'm sure there's all kinds of ways to fight the slide into the lonely crowd.

[Doktor Howl]

Grant Morrison gave a talk at Disinfocon one year, and in one tangent he talked about the walkman phenomenon

in the 90s, when the walkman got popular, suddenly you'd see all these people listening to music while they were in public.

and at first it pissed him off, he was like, "Yo, is the real world NOT IMPORTANT ENOUGH that you need to shut it out?" He felt it was disrespectful - that people are becoming so introverted that we're losing some element of human connection. It got worse when cell phones got popular, and even worse when wireless bluetooth headsets started to appear. You've got people walking around having conversations with invisible people, only barely connected to the meatspace we share. And then years later, of course, Grant Morrison got a cell phone and ipod and whatever, and now he's part of the problem too.

He says that this is a microcosm of one of the big spiritual challenges on humanity's horizon. In the next century, as it becomes easier and easier to escape into the digital, we're going to be further and further apart. There's a japanese poet who laments about this high cost of modernity - why is it that I feel lonliest when I am on the train, when I am completely surrounded by humanity? There is a chasm between every human being. And in crowds, that chasm is wider.

But you can't fight it. You just have to roll with it.

This is the future we wanted.  If we hadn't wanted it, we wouldn't have built it.

[Mangrove]

If I have any anger towards people with i-phones or cell phones or whatever it is the following:

a) Texting while crossing the street and not paying attention to traffic.

b) Texting while driving a car. Now this really fucking gets to me. As I said to Mrs Mang the other day:

"If I get killed by a texting driver, I hope to god that they're an MIT student (or similar) and were sending a breakthrough formula for a Unified Field Theory of Gravity or something else of importance. Knowing my luck, I'll get offed by some dick who thought it was so crucially important to write 'LOLOLOL!!' before ploughing into the intersection we're sitting at."

c) People in public spaces intent on showing just how hard they're working. "LOOK AT ME, I'M TREATING THIS B&N CAFE AS MY OWN PERSONAL OFFICE." Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. I'm there to get a cup of coffee or read a book, I don't need to subjected to your vacuous conference calls you corporate narcissistic asshole. (Same goes double for airplanes)

d) People who call you on the phone and then ask if you'll 'hold' because their cell is ringing. Uhh...I didn't ask to speak to you in the first place!

[AFK]

I've always been a little Ted Kacynski (minus the blowing people up part) about cell phones.  I only recently in the past year got a cell phone but it was a pretty rudimentary one.  I got it while my wife was pregnant mostly so if she went into labor she could get a hold of me if I wasn't home or in the office.  But I just don't get into the whole being connected all the time trip.  I like talking to people in person.  I like talking to people, when I want to talk to them.  It's why only certain people get my cell phone number.  I just think isolation is going to grow as more and more of us get immersed and dwell in the digital world. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I like my iphone because I don't like talking on the phone, and it helps me stay connected/meet up with friends (in other words, I use it as a tool to make time to see them, rather than as a tool for chitchat), as well as stay current with what's happening with my kids when they're at their dads.

The incredible convenience of cell phones, and being able to do things like text my friend a simple question about her cat's food while she's traveling, far outweighs the annoyances of, say, people talking on them in cafes, which is simply a matter of bad manners.

I do HATE HATE HATE when I've made plans to hang out with someone and they take a call while we're hanging out. Unless you have good reason to think it's an emergency, don't fucking do that.

[Cramulus]

The social protocol involving these devices has not yet caught up to the terrifying rate at which they are being invented.

When I'm in the middle of talking to somebody, and they get a text, and they stop talking for a second so they can send a reply, I always want to swat the phone right out of their hands. Infuriating!  

When I get a text I usually let it sit until there's a good moment to check it. People often tell me, "Hey dude, don't know if you heard the beep, but you got a text."

DUH, dipshit, just because my phone beeped does not mean I'm going to put my palm in your face and tend to my digitial device. This little piece of plastic in my pocket is not the boss of me.

[Doktor Howl]

This little piece of plastic in my pocket is not the boss of me.

Yet.

[Elder Iptuous]

This little piece of plastic in my pocket is not the boss of me.

Yet.

I'm sure they're working on a Manna iPhone app....
http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm

[Doktor Howl]

This little piece of plastic in my pocket is not the boss of me.

Yet.

I'm sure they're working on a Manna iPhone app....
http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm

One day, they'll jam phones into our mastoids, and we'll HAVE to listen to telemarketers.

Mark my words.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

DUH, dipshit, just because my phone beeped does not mean I'm going to put my palm in your face and tend to my digitial device. This little piece of plastic in my pocket is not the boss of me.

SERIOUSLY.

The reason I like texts is because I don't like jumping to attention every time someone makes a bell ring in my house, you know? It's supposed to be a tool for communication, not a Pavlovian response training device.

[Doktor Howl]

DUH, dipshit, just because my phone beeped does not mean I'm going to put my palm in your face and tend to my digitial device. This little piece of plastic in my pocket is not the boss of me.

SERIOUSLY.

The reason I like texts is because I don't like jumping to attention every time someone makes a bell ring in my house, you know? It's supposed to be a tool for communication, not a Pavlovian response training device.

Wait til they mandate the shock feature.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

DUH, dipshit, just because my phone beeped does not mean I'm going to put my palm in your face and tend to my digitial device. This little piece of plastic in my pocket is not the boss of me.

SERIOUSLY.

The reason I like texts is because I don't like jumping to attention every time someone makes a bell ring in my house, you know? It's supposed to be a tool for communication, not a Pavlovian response training device.

Wait til they mandate the shock feature.