The last morning of my senior year in high school...I thought would be the last morning I would feel so anxious about going back to school.  But I was wrong. How is it that I am more nervous about going back to school...now that I am going back to school as a teacher?

I am a wee bit (just a teen tiny) upset that a couple of colleagues are not returning this year.  They will certainly be missed.  I just have to find two other people whom I can share concerns with about my work.  See high school now, is no different from high school when I was a student.  Walls still have ears (and big ones too) and things always get back to the big bad bosses.

One thing I look forward to this year...is that I have fourth period conference every day. So this means I don't have lunch hall duty this year!!!!

I can't believe I didn't blog more about my first year of teaching (it was very eventful). I hope that this year, with just a few tricks up my sleeves, will not be as difficult as my first.  Maybe I can become a good teacher.  And if not this year...hopefully, eventually.

The last time I made a birthday list and made it public was my 21st birthday and that worked out pretty well...hehe. So here is this year's...my 25th birthday gift list. I doubt anyone reads xanga anymore so I doubt this is gonna work as well as it did back in 2004.

#1

(Amazon,Walmart)
#2

(Amazon,Target,Frys,Walmart)
#3 Too Faced Candy Bar (eye shadow quad)

(Victoria's Secret, Sephora)
[Would prefer one of these: Sugar Plum,Tropical Truffle,Avenue Praline]
#4

She & Him (Target, Walmart, Amazon).
#5 I don't know how and when BUT an early screening to

would be great...or an IOU when this comes out :)
#6 BOOKS: I prefer old books haha so you should find the oldest best condition copy at Half Price or some used bookstore...lol here is the book list in order of preference

  

# 7 CASH or Gift Card
 

Compelling reasons not to do CS
================================
1> Huge outsourcing risk - you simply can’t compete with the Indians/chinese for this due to labor cost. 40K in the U.S. puts you on the poverty line, but in India it makes you upper-class citizen!!

2> You will never have a stable job. CS jobs are a string of projects..when your project ends, your boss (or you) better have more work lined up for you. Usually a project manager only keeps the hardest workers (in hours/week), or the ones that he likes…if you’re not in that group, you can probably be laid off. Most people only last 2 years in a company before looking outside.

3> Every time you join a new company (or even if you stay in old company), you’ll be a little older, competing with 20 yr olds. It’s a little embarrassing for a 30 y/o to be mixed in with 20 y/o — so you may have to move into management.

4> Moving to management means that you’re not doing “computer science” any longer!! It’s a lot of politics, meetings, debates and presentations etc. You will certainly not be doing anything your degree trained you for, or promised you.

Look around in ANY company — you may see 1000 young programmers, 100 managers, 10 directors, one VP (e.g.), with each higherlevel older than the lower level…the programmers that don’t move up get pushed out!!! Most hard-core CS’ers will hate moving “up”, so “out” is the only other option.

5> Anybody can get a CS degree anytime they want (just take a 1 yr masters at local uni), so it’s no big deal…if ever the market becomes “hot”, a new flood of people will come and “cool” it off immediately (if india/china doesn’t do it beforehand).

6> Most CS jobs don’t even require a degree…anybody can learn DB, SQL, VBScript, C++, JAVA, PHP, web-servers etc. from a cheap $30 book and start working immediately!!!…especially in a “hot” market.

7> If you’re a “hard-core” programmer (with Ivy-league degree etc.), it helps a little bit, but it cannot alleviate the pressures above!! Eventually, companies are structured so that the mobs of “others” (Sales folks, marketing, legal, business management, secretaries) get a huge piece of the pie also, so that they don’t feel left out — most of your time will be spent appeasing other departments.

8> If you’re smart enough to get a CS degree from a good school, you’re smart enough to become a doctor (M.D.)…it just takes longer. The lowliest doctor gets paid more than any grass-roots engineer!! Doctors usually LOVE their jobs, while most CS’ers hate their jobs (why is that??). A doc-in-a-box family practitioner usually takes home $120k after taxes…a senior CS’er will make at most $110k BEFORE taxes IF they work in silicon valley. Outside of the valley, there’s less chance of ever making that much.

9> People that go into poly-sci, humanities, marketing majors deserve the jobs they get…they’re usually happy doing the stuff they do. They know they don’t give a damn about studying hard…they usually just care about partying, mingling and socializing…they don’t mind eeking out a living doing simpleton jobs. People that do CS really try hard to get a degree, and the degree ends up screwing them…that’s the big tragedy!!! Sure, it’s better than getting a poly-sci degree (in terms of dollars), but it’s nowhere near what the “hard-core” CS’ers could be getting in terms of work-hours, ability, etc.

9> The other arguments that a degree will somehow give you super-skills or special-knowledge in CS is pure crap…it’s true that it’ll teach you theory, but 95% of the jobs don’t require anything more than VBScript. The other 5% good research jobs are reserved for PhD’s at select companies like google/yahoo….if you get a PhD in CS, you better be good at EVERTYHING (math, CS, presentation skills, socializing, procuring funding, teaching, etc.), otherwise companies may find you too expensive to keep around

10> In my humble opinion, computer science/engineering majors have been, and will be in the near future, ROYALLY SCREWED.