A possible career choice I've been thinking of lately would be software engineering, or programming. I'm currently taking a CompSci class here at school and I'm doing pretty well in the class, and the work is...well, not exactly fun, but it makes you think and challenges you without giving you a headache. It's like its own kind of puzzle, figuring out how to do things and putting various techniques together until they work. I'd compare it to math, which I'm also pretty good at (but it does give me a headache, so I'd really rather not do it all day). Even though I know the stuff I'd be doing on the job would be a lot more complex than the basic stuff we're doing as we learn in class, I don't think it would be too bad. Programming's a useful skill to have, too. You can use the programs you design yourself if you want to - I still use a quadratic roots program we wrote a while ago on my other homework, and more complex programs would be useful in a lot of other situations if the needs of the client happen to match something you could need yourself. Furthermore, it would be a much more stable career than the other "ideal" careers I've mentioned on here before (writing, scientific research, etc). I'd like to balance stability and a fairly solid income with an actual task I don't hate too much, and I'd be okay with this career choice. (I also want to find out more about other career areas that require a similar form of thinking, see if maybe one of those fits me better.)
It would still have downsides, though. Debugging is really annoying, for one thing, because it's hard to find mistakes in your solutions without "running" the code in your head (which definitely isn't fun, because that's what the computer is for). It's easier to come up with an answer than to find out what's wrong with an answer. And when problems get harder it's easier to make mistakes. Another downside would be getting tired of coding eventually at some point in the day, just because your mind's been working in the same way for so long, but that's a risk any kind of job comes with.
Overall, that's definitely a career I'll keep in mind. As I gain experience coding in class, I might realize I actually hate it and never want to do it again. You never know.
Friday, December 14, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
Spoilers!
(*cough* character impressions don't work well in text form.)
Most people would agree they prefer to watch movies, read books, etc. without getting spoiled beforehand. Certain people, in fact, clap their hands over their ears and run away the second they hear people discussing something they haven't seen yet. I would say I agree - the suspense is much more entertaining when you don't know what exactly is going to happen. Emotional moments have much greater impact when you haven't seen the scene out of the proper context before. Problems are more interesting to watch the characters solve when you don't know the answer going in. And of course, plot twists are nowhere near as fun when you've been awaiting the twist the entire movie. So for this blog entry, I decided to look at some reasons I've heard or thought of why spoilers might not be a bad thing - at least in some cases. Because why not.
Most people would agree they prefer to watch movies, read books, etc. without getting spoiled beforehand. Certain people, in fact, clap their hands over their ears and run away the second they hear people discussing something they haven't seen yet. I would say I agree - the suspense is much more entertaining when you don't know what exactly is going to happen. Emotional moments have much greater impact when you haven't seen the scene out of the proper context before. Problems are more interesting to watch the characters solve when you don't know the answer going in. And of course, plot twists are nowhere near as fun when you've been awaiting the twist the entire movie. So for this blog entry, I decided to look at some reasons I've heard or thought of why spoilers might not be a bad thing - at least in some cases. Because why not.
- "It's fun to see the little clues leading up to the big revelation!" I kind of agree with this one. A lot of authors leave subtle foreshadowing hints that you might not catch (or see in the same way) if you don't know about them beforehand. And if you really like that aspect of fiction, go for it! Spoil yourself rotten. I personally prefer to leave this part to the re-read or re-watch, so I get to experience the same work twice two ways.
- "It gets you excited about the show!" Okay, I might not argue here. The plot twists can make the story more intriguing, before you start. And you need some information about the show to get anyone interested in the first place, and some of that information might have been more fun if it was completely unexpected. If you go in completely blind, you'll just be skeptical the entire time because you have no reason to believe you'd like it. But still, if I can get interested in something with minimum spoilers, I'd prefer that.
- "Oh, come on, everybody knows that!" DARTH VADER IS LUKE'S FATHER. Yeah, there's not really much to be lost if one solitary person doesn't inform you - a bunch more probably will.
- "It's fun to spoil stuff for people and then see how they react!" I'll admit it, I've been guilty of this on occasion. Doesn't change that it's still pretty dickish. What's more fun, though, is to give them fake spoilers. Same reaction, less cost for them! :D
Excuses, Excuses
Some of you might know about National Novel Writing Month, a month-long writing event (well, yeah) during which participants attempt to write every day to reach a word goal of 50,000 words. Well, this year I decided to participate for the first time and...yeah. Not going so great. I'm hopelessly behind, and the weekends I'd planned to use to catch up I spent doing pretty much nothing.
See, me and writing have a complicated relationship. Sometimes I'll get super-inspired and just write for an hour until I get it done, when I really love the idea and I have free time. Slightly more often I'll get inspired, start writing a bit, then leave the piece alone for a week or so and then finish, revise, etc. Or I'll just randomly start writing stuff and let myself be inspired as I write and then edit for coherency later. I should probably mention these all generally only work for short stories.
What happens with anything more major (incuding novels) is that I start out with an interesting but vague idea, which then sits in my brain where I'm constantly plotting, characterizing, adding details, perfecting it before it's even written. And then when I sit down to write, it's hard to get excited about more than just a couple parts. Maybe I'm excited about the story as a whole, but getting to the interesting parts ends up feeling like slogging through scenes. And that's not fun.
The story I chose to finally (attempt) to get on paper for NaNoWriMo was one I've had rolling around in my mind for...about two years now? It's changed a lot since its initial (extremely vague) conception. And then I cannibalized interesting elements from stories that were just not working at all. I'd say the story in its current general form, with the right feel, has only been around for five or so months. But that's beside the point. In all that time, I never felt like I knew enough of the story to start writing it down, because some piece of the plot, or of a setting element, or a character, was always missing. I got stuck in a long string of "I should figure this out first"s. And the thing is, I really don't know how I would write without having any clue what to write.
So when I finally ended up with a fairly coherent outline, I felt if I was ever going to write it down, this was the moment - I knew everything I had to write, so the actual writing should be easy. Nope. In all that time figuring out everything about the story, I lost passion for it. Right now, I'm much more interested in another idea of mine - but with that one, I know hardly anything except one character. They'll be so much fun to write about if I ever figure out what happens to them in the story - but by the time I do figure that out, I won't care as much and I'll move on to something else. It's a vicious cycle, and in the end, it ends up with me getting hooked on brain crack.
See, me and writing have a complicated relationship. Sometimes I'll get super-inspired and just write for an hour until I get it done, when I really love the idea and I have free time. Slightly more often I'll get inspired, start writing a bit, then leave the piece alone for a week or so and then finish, revise, etc. Or I'll just randomly start writing stuff and let myself be inspired as I write and then edit for coherency later. I should probably mention these all generally only work for short stories.
What happens with anything more major (incuding novels) is that I start out with an interesting but vague idea, which then sits in my brain where I'm constantly plotting, characterizing, adding details, perfecting it before it's even written. And then when I sit down to write, it's hard to get excited about more than just a couple parts. Maybe I'm excited about the story as a whole, but getting to the interesting parts ends up feeling like slogging through scenes. And that's not fun.
The story I chose to finally (attempt) to get on paper for NaNoWriMo was one I've had rolling around in my mind for...about two years now? It's changed a lot since its initial (extremely vague) conception. And then I cannibalized interesting elements from stories that were just not working at all. I'd say the story in its current general form, with the right feel, has only been around for five or so months. But that's beside the point. In all that time, I never felt like I knew enough of the story to start writing it down, because some piece of the plot, or of a setting element, or a character, was always missing. I got stuck in a long string of "I should figure this out first"s. And the thing is, I really don't know how I would write without having any clue what to write.
So when I finally ended up with a fairly coherent outline, I felt if I was ever going to write it down, this was the moment - I knew everything I had to write, so the actual writing should be easy. Nope. In all that time figuring out everything about the story, I lost passion for it. Right now, I'm much more interested in another idea of mine - but with that one, I know hardly anything except one character. They'll be so much fun to write about if I ever figure out what happens to them in the story - but by the time I do figure that out, I won't care as much and I'll move on to something else. It's a vicious cycle, and in the end, it ends up with me getting hooked on brain crack.
Friday, September 21, 2012
One Down, 300 Million To Go
The thing is, I have no clue what I want to do once I get out of college.
I don't think I ever really did, to be honest. I remember when I was asked that question as a kid, I looked through a book about various jobs and decided botanist sounded okay and then stuck with that answer for years to avoid actually thinking about it. But that's not really an option when you get to high school. That's when you have to start thinking about college apps and ap courses and all that fun stuff, and try to figure out a possible future career that both provides a reasonable income and is at least somewhat enjoyable. So I might as well use this blog as a place to brainstorm and ramble about some of the possible jobs I might choose someday.
For my first entry, I think I'll start with my original childhood default answer. I really do love science: I love understanding how things work, I love seeing how all the different parts of nature fit together, I love finding out what kind of cool stuff is possible. So even if I didn't go into botany (which seems to have become the area I'm least interested in), researching something like chemistry or physics could easily be my dream job...in the sense that it's an unattainable ideal. I really doubt I'd be happy in such a competitive environment - obviously every job will have competition, but not to this degree. I feel like I'd be under constant stress trying to think of a possible explanation for this or that phenomena while it seems that everyone around me is excelling and/or double-crossing everyone else. Plus I'd probably make ten million silly arithmetic mistakes on any mathematical proofs of my concepts and get fired on the first day, and then what? It's not like it's a job that's in very high demand. You have to be the very best just to get hired once.
I do think I'd be interested in a career that at least involves some sort of science in some sort of way. I'll just need to think of one first.
And to conclude, here's a quote I've seen floating about that seems relevant here:
"My goal is not to wake up at age 40 with the bitter realization that I have wasted my life on a job I hate because I was forced to decide on a career in my teens."
I don't think I ever really did, to be honest. I remember when I was asked that question as a kid, I looked through a book about various jobs and decided botanist sounded okay and then stuck with that answer for years to avoid actually thinking about it. But that's not really an option when you get to high school. That's when you have to start thinking about college apps and ap courses and all that fun stuff, and try to figure out a possible future career that both provides a reasonable income and is at least somewhat enjoyable. So I might as well use this blog as a place to brainstorm and ramble about some of the possible jobs I might choose someday.
For my first entry, I think I'll start with my original childhood default answer. I really do love science: I love understanding how things work, I love seeing how all the different parts of nature fit together, I love finding out what kind of cool stuff is possible. So even if I didn't go into botany (which seems to have become the area I'm least interested in), researching something like chemistry or physics could easily be my dream job...in the sense that it's an unattainable ideal. I really doubt I'd be happy in such a competitive environment - obviously every job will have competition, but not to this degree. I feel like I'd be under constant stress trying to think of a possible explanation for this or that phenomena while it seems that everyone around me is excelling and/or double-crossing everyone else. Plus I'd probably make ten million silly arithmetic mistakes on any mathematical proofs of my concepts and get fired on the first day, and then what? It's not like it's a job that's in very high demand. You have to be the very best just to get hired once.
I do think I'd be interested in a career that at least involves some sort of science in some sort of way. I'll just need to think of one first.
And to conclude, here's a quote I've seen floating about that seems relevant here:
"My goal is not to wake up at age 40 with the bitter realization that I have wasted my life on a job I hate because I was forced to decide on a career in my teens."
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