Random Thoughts....

Twerp128 said:
One of the most successful people I know (financially, but more importantly mentally,) took a semester of college, got pissed with uninspiring classes...It's about doing rather than contemplating and separating yourself from the status quo. A BA is hardly a bad thing to have but don't treat it as a crutch, because everyone else has one too.

Don't worry about learning stuff, if your passionate you can learn anything. There are a million different ways to dive deep into a field like photography.
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I never once took a class in photography, and oddly, people like my photos.

The self made person reminds me of my former bosses son. He took a one way flight to Nassau, crashed at different houses for a few months, and then was befriended by a diamond trader. After apprenticing and getting paid very little for it, he took all of his money to buy one diamond and trade it.

He came back to America two years later with 5 million dollars in his bank account. :| And he was all of a high school graduate, nothing more. But he was very interested in diamonds, and is a natural salesman. And he did all of his dealings by the law and honestly.

Take for another example radio entertainer Rush Limbaugh. He did maybe one semester of college and gave up. After many successes and failures, he is the top grossing radio personality in America, and has 20-25 million listeners a day, and is worth tens of millions.

I learned from early on that I was a natural at photography, whereas some people need to go to school to become proficient. Listen to your instincts, and act on them.
 
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Jay said:
I never once took a class in photography, and oddly, people like my photos.

The self made person reminds me of my former bosses son. He took a one way flight to Nassau, crashed at different houses for a few months, and then was befriended by a diamond trader. After apprenticing and getting paid very little for it, he took all of his money to buy one diamond and trade it.

He came back to America two years later with 5 million dollars in his bank account. :| And he was all of a high school graduate, nothing more. But he was very interested in diamonds, and is a natural salesman. And he did all of his dealings by the law and honestly.
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The watchmaking school I'm going to is through the Texas Institute of Jewelry Technology, and they have a lot of classes in precious metalwork and gems. My mother has pushed me more than once to also take some of those classes so I also have that experience. Needless to say it's quite tempting.
 
If I were you I would learn how to cut gems and such; I would think watchmaking and that would go hand in hand.
There are not too many people of either trade these days.
 
I probably will, it's one of those things that's just obscure and wonderful enough I'd love to do as well.

When I went there for a tour they took me into one of the gem classes that was doing their final test. Every student had a bunch of diamonds they had to look at under high magnification and grade properly. Really interesting stuff.
 
Jay people should never confuse the talented from the trained - it is possible to make a living using both routes, however speaking as someone with no talent what so ever I am glad I went to college and made a career out of the subject I studied. Oh and RiP Polytechnics (A UK thing).
 
I guess I am just one lucky sonofabitch; most everything comes naturally to me. I mean, every Sunday I bow my head and I literally say in my head, "Thank you God for making me one talented sonofagun." And yes, I do say sonofagun.

The thing is, I feel terrible about it, and I try my best to hide my talents. EVERY SINGLE DAY I have to remind myself that I am no better than the rest of the world.

Yeeesh, even now I feel embarrassed and vain.
 
No need to be embarrassed, i think.
 
Jay I think it is Ok to display one's talents by doing stuff well, quite another going about the place dissing others for not being as good (criticise, but not by an unfavourable comparison to oneself) and 'bigging' up yourself. Self praise is no recommendation, except on a CV perhaps?.
 
Jay said:
I guess I am just one lucky sonofabitch; most everything comes naturally to me. I mean, every Sunday I bow my head and I literally say in my head, "Thank you God for making me one talented sonofagun." And yes, I do say sonofagun.

The thing is, I feel terrible about it, and I try my best to hide my talents. EVERY SINGLE DAY I have to remind myself that I am no better than the rest of the world.

Yeeesh, even now I feel embarrassed and vain.
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Don't feel embarassed at all. You have talent means you should be thankful (as you are) and love life and love your abilities. In fact if I was so talented I'd want to try and do everything, just to see what I'm shit at.

However If you start saying things like "Yeah you suck, I'm so talented, watch me juggle these hot brazilian babes while solving the grand unifying theory", then..you might want to tone it down a bit. Although I'd be interested in knowing how you solved it, and one of the phone numbers of the brazilian babes.
 
Driving a tractor-trailer is more difficult than I thought.
 
Cobol74 said:
My God I suck at everything I want to be good at - its a bummer - but at least I know, unlike some people.
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You raised two healthy children, and remained married. Children baffle me.

So - one nil to Ian! :)
 
Random thought: If someone with a lisp sang "Killing me softly" it would be "Killing me thoftly with his thong"
 
Jay said:
If I were you I would learn how to cut gems and such; I would think watchmaking and that would go hand in hand.
There are not too many people of either trade these days.
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I know someone who's a "certified" Goldsmith (more like certifiable). But even though he's got the paper saying he's qualified, because he's only 20 most stores here won't even hire him because they think he's way too full of himself and way too young to have so much experience in something like that.
 
SRSLY, the rain can freaking piss off now! We're gonna drooooowwwnn!! Our backyard has crappy drainage and the water has almost submerged the bottom back door step as I type.

On a related note, I just donated some moneys to our uni's efforts to raise money to help flood victims in Pakistan, while I was in the admin office handing my work and self-assessment stuff in. Some of the stuff I've seen on various news programmes in the last few days has made me cry. Also, that fucking landslide in China, knowing there's whole families, including young children who were buried alive under a torrent of mud and rocks...:shudder: The world is depressing. :cry:

At least I got my stupid work done and got my mum a birthday present - just some nice jewelry, even though she already has lots. It's all I could think of. Anyway, I hope she likes it. It's not all bad, then! :)
 
I don't know of anything I'm particularly good at, aside from maybe the ability to fall asleep just about anywhere. Unfortunately, that doesn't really do much for me...
 
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