not your everyday run-of-the-mill Fear of Failure

not your everyday run-of-the-mill Fear of Failure,
originally uploaded by jhawke.

This is a shot by Jen Hawke, one of my Flickr contacts, a great photographer and a Flick addict. If you haven't played with Flickr yet and you like photography, try it out. She posted it because she is debating her future, I have blogged it because I like the picture and because of something I wrote and liked in the comments. It follows...

"Ya know, I am a teacher. I told myself and my parents (both retired teachers) hundreds of times, "no way will I be a teacher." So I went off to college and got an Aerospace Engineering degree, I am not an engineer, but I would not be the teacher I am if I haden't taken that path and then been in the business world for years before becoming a teacher.

It's all actually pretty simple. Do what you think you might enjoy for a career, try it, if you hate it, change it. So far I've been a cook, a machinist, a construction project manager, a purchasing and shipping manager, and a teacher (for 8 yrs now, the longest profession). All had varying degrees of success and failure. That's life. So go for it, have no fear, try it out, if it fits, good for you, you will be one of the extreme few that go to college and continue on in the same career.

As for Chris (read the photo's comments if you are lost) , go take some computer courses dude, run a side business, learn on your own, it is only too late if you're dead. And if sucks, so what, learning something is NEVER a loss. You might even find that the math wasn't as bad as you remember.

Suggestion to both of you, look into Aleks.com, it is an easy way to brush up on your math no matter what level you are at and it's only like $35/year. You get assessed and then go at your own pace, maybe it will fill in the holes that make you think that math is difficult.

Okay, I am done being a teacher now. I still like this shot 8-P"

Vegetarian Update

Well, it's been four weeks since I stopped eating meat in general. I stilll don't miss it. I find that rather incredible, rather unbelievable and just plain whacky. Most people I talk to about this say that it would be impossible for them to stop eating meat. I usually say that is just because you have been doing it your whole life. You have to give yourself a reason to stop eating it.

I admit, I did cave one night so my wife and I could have sushi. I still haven't quite figured out how I feel about seafood.

Yesterday, we had a cookout and had to have the hamburgers and hot dogs everybody is used to having. I had smartdogs (tasted like a hot dog, grilled okay, but the texture isn't quite there,) portabella veggie burger (good, but better with cheddar and carmalized onions,) and veggie brats (these might go somewhere, I precooked them in beer and then grilled, the taste was good and with saurkraut even better.) A couple of people tried the veggie items, but no one was ready to say, "no more meat for me," oh well.

I've promised my wife that I wouldn't prostheletize to people when we are with them so I figure this blog is a good way to talk about this experiment. As a byproduct of these efforts I have dropped about 10 pounds in the past month, not too shabby.