Just wondering how everyone was doing with school. I know some of us were studying something. My academic year has just started, my 3rd and last for my degree. My main concern at the moment is my project/dissertation naturally because i have not done one before. The assignments are easy in my eyes now. It just depends on how much time I allocate to study.

Typical academic year consists of 2 semesters. 1 semester consists of 4 modules. 1 module consists of 5000 words. 1 academic year = 40000 words.

I know in Italy it works completely differently, in a bad way. The assessments are mostly on oral exam, which offers little skill development.

Im aiming for 1st class grade to set me up for a postgrad degree after. I dont plan on doing a phd, thats just silly.

PhDs aren't silly! I'm working on my third!

Well..sorta...and my second..and my first...and my master's....and my bachelor's...and my associate's.

Anyway, I'm taking another class this semester...it's a half-semester class, so I've got like 3 weeks or something left. It's retarded, but a requirement for my degree: computer maintenance. Needless to say, I skip most of the classes, don't read the chapters, and get between 70s and 90s on all the tests. :p I just don't care.

And after this, I'll have a mere 7 more classes before I get my associate's. Then I can go for my bachelors. At this rate, I'll have my first PhD when I turn 60.

Haha, this is pretty much how it goes down in Italy.

Well, i'm officially out of work now. I finished the extra master's course and now I'm technically looking for a job. In reality though, I didn't bother looking much yet. I should kinda get started if I want a full christmas bonus and/or paid holidays next year. We'll see.

I'm somewhat dreading the idea of having to lose many friends from uni now that i'm not in the city that often anymore, but it's only natural I suppose. I mostly dread losing contact with girls i'm into, but hey.

So, now I have a master's in Dutch and English literature and a 'master after master' in multilingual business communication. If it was up to me I'd do some freaking engineer studies or a Phd or something. The former because people seem to think I can't do engineering studies cos I hate math. And sure, I do, but they seem to mistake what I like to do with what I can do. I'm fucking brilliant.

Unfortunately, I'd need to make money in the meantime, which could prove to be a bitch. Oh and I stop getting scholarschips and support money soon anyway, as I'll turn 25 in a month.

Meh. We'll see. I also heard what a construction worker earns, that's probably more than i'd earn with my degrees...and I like working with my hands. Maybe good to do for a while, I dunno.

Youre quite the academic! Yet you like working with your hands. Again, that's so how it goes down in Italy. My aunt graduated in political science at Padova, and now she's a tennis coach.

lol, but political science is probably even more useless than my degree. Especially in Italy where leftish intellectuals are severely distrusted by the rightwing populists, I imagine.

As for the working with my hands...well, it's not like I'm totally into it, but unlike most of my uni pals I never shied away from heavy duty work; that may be because a lot of them are sissies tho. Physically that is. I actually think the biggest problem I'd have at a manual labour job is conversation topics. I've done a few of those over the past few years and that was the worst thing about it. All they seem to talk about is off-colour sex jokes. Now, I like them as much as the next guy, but if that's ALL they talk about it gets boring after a while, trust me.

And me, academic? Hahaha...most people at uni still wonder how I managed to graduate; professors, students and secretary people alike.

I know what you mean about bland conversations in manual workshops. I once worked in a factory, and I was regarded very much the golden-boy of the industrial estate. Even though, i was just tempin'. I would make people double my age get absorbed into deep intellectual issues they obviously never thought twice about. I got along quite well with the director, which led to me sometimes being sneered at by the workers, but then i'd come down on the workshop and become one of the lads. That was a good time i had there, earned a good few bucks too. One of the few jobs i can genuinely say that I enjoyed getting up at 0400 each day and cycle 30 minutes for.

As you probably know, i'm still going to school but in a different context: trying to teach the kids something.

But i'm happy i got a job i really enjoy doing (most of the time), since i didn't find anything i really liked in the other sectors. Oh and i suck at manual labor

Guess you don't have the right profile/image to become assistant at some uni Ox?

Somehow I don't think Rinox The Terrible is proficient in Patience, Caring, and Selflessness.

he could be a physical fitness coach. Yelling at people and making them run in circles for no apparent reason.

"How my education is going?"

I've studied computer science for two years, on one faculty of mathematics.

Then I changed the school. I started studying the same but on German language. Bad thing about that is that I had first to spend one year on learning the language and after that start all over again.

So now I am on second year, computer science on one technical faculty. Course is four years long and gives bachelor degree.

Truth saying, I am tired of teachers who need to be teached programming and math. On both faculties, I felt many times like Jon thrown into BG1.. cannot wait to finish studies and start making money.

Well me and moley are still on our home web design course... but i ahven't done any of it for over a month now, and it probably won't get done for another month (we're moving), but it doesn't matter, we dont pay any more or less depending when it gets done, and we get a career or our money back at the end, so can't really complain. hehe

You guys will be creating the next generation of web sites? Remind me to change careers.

I would call you bastards, but you're right, teaching isn't really my thing. I'm afraid I'd be quick to pass the "don't hit students" line if they started to push me. And as for assistant at uni...hahaha. Yeah, i'm sure they want somebody with my grades and study ethic for that position.

Still, I am brilliant, and some professors know it (the ones who graded my 1.5 week's work thesis for one ), so who knows. It is a fact that the more freedom I was given, the better my grades got while those of others steadied or even dropped. So I might just be a good fit for an assistant's position, working part-time on a doctorate. Meh. =)

@ Gfree: lol @ Jon in BG1. That would be quite the sight!

"I cannot be caged! I cannot be controlled! Understand this as you die, ever pathetic, ever fools!"

or maybe he'll go

"Silence dog, you have no purpose but to die by my hand"

to Sarevok. W00tness. Man, I'm such a nerd.

Oh that quotations would be quite rude...

I didn't mean it in sense of arrogance, but knowledge. Truly, it is not my fault that professor in math is trying to sell me that ln1/y is the same as -lny, for y -> inf. Even kids could feel it is not the same.

Professor of programming who cannot understand the tale about convexity of polygone or about (not)belonging an point to an polygone, regardless of how good and how much times I explain it to him, is rather boring.

etc.

I'm far from genius. I just have fate to study from people who do not know many things they should, due to their calls of professor and teacher. (which is not that bad for me at all) That is what I meant with "Jon in Bg1".

Due respect, there are some really good professors and teachers here.