OT leaving home

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "Simian"

Lemme guess, you came here after the 80s, right? During that period
there was unlocked a hidden cache of lust and greed in the heart of Joe
Public and his Representatives.

Rain, m'dear boy, rain. The fabled 40 shades of green are brought about
by the 40 kinds of rain.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

Teach a man to fish and he and his pikey mates will have the
river cleaned out in a day.

 

So what makes you think that a degree education will help avoid a
similar fate ? (though on a better salary, natch)

P.

 

Sorry, but I'll have to disagree on the beer front. I didn't find a
decent yank beer the whol 10 days I was there, including the stuff we
drank at that brew-pub. It was OK, like, but nothing special.

--
_______
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`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

Probably depends on the area - there are several microbreweries around
Silicon Valley and SF that brew a pretty decent beer according to my
taste...

 

Have you gone Full Auto yet?

 

It sounds good for summer biking!

 

Sounds like me circa 1982. I got good grades in O levels without doing any
real work just by native intelligence. I then failed my A levels by the
same technique..

*Double Ding*

I then went to college and did a Computer Technology course. And great
fun it was too (and ended up with an ONC - I have no idea where that
ranks in terms of qualifications. Probably just about road-sweeper
level..)

It got me into polytechnic to to an IT HND. Which I gave up after a
year or so because I discovered that being a student was really really
not what I wanted to do.

And despite all that I've still managed to end up with a good job, on
reasonable money and doing something I don't despise..

Phil

 

There are people that can't cook?

Phil

 

Maybe they're rebranding, as cheese-eating, no-surrender monkeys.

 

F**king ace. Went to uni, I was my own man for ever after. Never had
the slightest domestic hassle again. Happiest day of my life.

Remember all those times you've whined and told him washing clothes is
hard? He'd gonna find out it's piss easy now!!!

....and I got on well with my folks. Christ knows how over-the-moon
people are leaving unhappy homes!

 

Discussions are still ongoing, tube platforms at nearly midnight being
not ideal for the 'so, about this moving out stuff, you thought any
more about it?' conversations.

The short version is his g/f is desperate to move out of her place and
can only afford to do it if he moves in with her and a couple of
mates. He's had his eyes opened to financial implications. It looks as
though he may try it over the summer holidays and see how things are
in September when last year of A levels start. I'm sitting down with
the pair of them on Friday to talk it all through and will be using
various points raised in this thread.

Thanks to everyone for your input.

 

Did that years ago. He's shaping up to be a decent creative cook.
While in London yesterday we popped in to see some friends before
going on to the concert and he amused us by casting a critical eye
over their herb and spice collection.

Heh.

 

She does it so well.

He wants to make the g/f happy. I have mentioned I like Laura more
than the new one (well, six months now) haven't I?

All good points, I'll go through them again later in the week.

He vaguely wants to go and do comp sci then do something techie. I
think he needs to spend some time as a tea monkey with a techie firm
to get an idea of the reality. The only code he knows is some VB for a
start.

 

My advice, he should *completely* forget programming.

Writing code is the kind of work that is being shipped offshore more and
more, and it's a trend that isn't going to go away... By the time he's
through education there's likely to be be little entry level code-monkey
work in most places... all the large firms will have farmed it out.
He'd be much better to get involved in one of the areas that involves
human interaction than one that can be done in a darkened room just
about anywhere.

If he really wants to take the short-cut but still learn, he could do
worse than finding a nice 2nd line helpdesk, or end-user support monkey
job, do that for 12 months, then get the hell out of that pit of despair
and into some kind of project work, again for a limited amount of time..

When he's worked on a few projects and built some more general skills
he'll have a broad enough knowledge to decide what he wants to
specialise in... If he's got any sense the specialisation may not be IT
at all.

 

Top end network. Cisco certification etc. Always going to be a market.

 

I'm considering it. I don't think it would work well, but I'm
considering it.

 

Oh sure, good developers will find work, but as a very vague measure
think how many kids straight out of college / uni your mob take on? Or
previous your employers... I suspect the number is very low as that's
the stuff that's going offshore.

It's going to be a difficult career path to embark on for the next few
years, I'd say. So probably better avoided.

 

Especially if she's cute and Bi.

 

Bit late to the party, but here we go.

Having been subjected to the horrors of a daily commute from
Gillingham to Cannon St for 18 months, I was sat at lunch when a
colleague mentioned "Pru flats" - flats above Pru district offices
dotted throughout London. Intrigued, I made enquiries, and was told
that one had just become available in Clapham. £50 a month,
unfurnished. Now, I was coughing £65 a month housekeeping, and £67 a
month on the season ticket (out of taxed income of £207 a month at
this time) - I said yes on the spot. This was April 1982.

Told mater all about it when I got home.

By the end of the week, she'd sorted me out a bed, washing machine,
cooker, 3 piece suite, dining room suite, sideboard, two carpets,
assorted cutlery and crockery and arranged to borrow a van from a
neighbour.

No going back, then.

From initial enquiry to moving in took less than 2 weeks.

Then I got the gas bill, leccy bill, rates (Lambeth =8-0), and the
excitement stared to wear off.

Initially moved in a girl I'd known for years (with less than
honourable intentions on my part), but that came to nothing, then a
schoolmate who'd just finished Uni moved in. He asked how much the
rent was, so I told him. £50. So he paid the rent. Better still, when
the Pru wanted to sell the site off, they paid me £1000 to leave.

Top value.

Meals were acquired at work during the week, and consisted of beer and
curry at weekends.

I've never been so poor.
--
| ___ Salad Dodger
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'^' RBR Clues: 18 Pts:0315 Miles:1048

 

I've noticed this too. I'm resisting the call of the south, but there's
sod all in the way of banks and comms companies up here so it's a tough
one really - things are a bit stagnant and I could do with a change..
Looks like market rates seem to have increased a fair bit in recent
times as well.

There's a lot of it about.

The problem as I see it is nobody appears willing to invest in training
people any more. Probably because they tend to leave for more money
shortly after gaining new skills. I guess that could probably be worked
around by some kind of contractual 'If you leave within 18 months you
pay the training costs back', but it's just not happening out there.

Seems like taking a long-term view isn't the done thing these days.