shah269

good vibes to families involved and the dz. Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

I'm looking around I don't see anything that slow? No intro to kyaking or wine and painting. I do have NYC near by and maybe a helecopter tour of the city? It's $200 which is about the same price as a tandem ride. Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

Very good idea! Thank you! Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

Thank you I will ask the DZ if we can pull something off. She is a great person who just hit a life long stretch of over protective parents and bad luck. Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

Yes well....but the education level in the EU is much much MUCh higher than it is here in the US. I don't know if it would ever work here. Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

Skydiving as a gift? I'm in a bit of a catch 22. My next door neighbor is an older woman who for lack of a better word has lived in purgatory for all of her life. Though she is a professional with respect to her career she spent all of her life taking care of, first her elderly grand parents and later her mother. She never really had a chance to do what most of us take for granted such as going out on a dates or even flying and going on a nice vacation. Two years ago her mother who she was taking care of passed away and now she is attempting to make up for all of those lost years. But it has not been easy. It is difficult to escape the comfort of routine to discover and to grow. Her birthday is this Sunday and she's been a great help to me taking care of my two cats when I have been on travel and over all she is a very nice person. I know she enjoys cooking and have gotten her a Persian cook book, helping her try new things, and a nice card. But I've been thinking that I would like to perhaps buy her a tandem ride. She has never flown before and she is trying to do new things but I don't want to push her or scare her. Maybe a simple note stating that I owe her a tandem and that if she wants she can transfer it to someone else? She is I would say in her early 60's. Please no smart ass remarks. What are your thoughts? Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

Oh those evil socialists.... how dare they wish to have a better life for their people. Well.....it's also a very smart way to help their economy recover. You see when you are not worried to death of going hungry or loosing your house odds are you will continue to spend money to keep the economy going. Funny thing, my taxes there were 40% my taxes here in the US? Are about the same. So go figure? Such is life i guess. Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

Nah it's because I'm very selfish. And I'm ok with that! But congrats Foss! Will you be throwing her a party? Or maybe buying her a tandem as a graduation gift? Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

Well it was 2002 not the best year for engineers. My brother who the same year got a job working as a civil engineer made not much more than I did. He now lives in upstate NY and has his MBA and works for a very large general engineering company and makes a little less than I do. Which for him is just fine due to the relative pay of where he lives. I live in Northern NJ about 30 miles from NYC. My pay is OK. I'm not starving now. But it has taken me 8 years to get to my pay level. And sadly no there was no negotiations. It was what it was. It was the going rate at the time. But that's me. Let's see what the future holds for the field? Who knows maybe more kids will decided to go into the field and things will be better for them in terms of compisation and gender diversity. Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

When I was living and working in Europe, I recall the unemployment being higher than it was in the US but the peole never feard that they would loose their homes nor go hungry due to the support of the state. Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

So is she going to write a book? This is why I will never have kids! Because I know full well they will write a book about all I did or did not do or did too often or not enough. Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

When I graduated I got a job in Finland. I was pulling 2,500 Euros per month. Not a bad gig at all! For a guy right out of school, I was doing quite well. And since I was considered the least suicidal person in the company I had a corner office with a balcony. Finns like to BASE jump without a parachute when their home team loses a hockey game. I was let go after the company was acquired by the Austrians. I came back to the US in 2002 looking for an engineering gig. I got an interview with Johnson Controls for a sale engineering job. The compensation looked amazing and the company was great! They flew me out to their HQ and we had three days of interviews. On the last day Enron went under and they didn't hire a single one of the engineers who were interviewed. So time running out working for the federal government was the last option at a GS-5 level. Which at that time was an amazing $36k give or take. I've worked with larger private firms and larger public institutions and the best way I can describe it is this, "Engineering is a PHD level education crammed into 4 years, taught by people who do not speak English nor care to learn, only to graduate and be given the compensation and respect of a ditch digger." And here is why, who brings more profits to a company? A single engineer or one single competent manager? And before any one screams "innovation" and "New products"....really? What new product have you seen on the market in the past 25 years other than cell phones? And before you point at a hybrid car and start jumping up and down that technology is well over 10 years old. Look engineering and science really need an PR firm and some high priced legal people on staff. For the industry needs an image makeover and the people who survived the hazing need to be paid better.....hell maybe it's just me....I need to be paid a bit better. Would have rather skydived every Saturday for two years than spend it 8-5 taking EMBA classes. At least I'm doing better than the average! http://www1.salary.com/Mechanical-Engineer-I-salary.html Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

Mabel it was the time I graduated maybe it's where I live but many of my engineering friends who are driven also feel as if they are under paid.......then again I made $36 k my first year out in 2002 my brother the civil engineer made a little less. So.... Was it worth it for me. No. Do I hope to do much better when I have my MBA yes. Not only in compensation but also with the more diversified work environment. Working with dudes dudes and yes more dudes and limited earning potential isn't for all of us. Which is a shame for I actually enjoy the work Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

I've been well off and I've been poor. I know which of the two I enjoyed better. Capital gives one the ability to make choices. Without capital one has very little choice. And people like to have a choice, and they like to have capital. As it stands, engineering is a very large investment of time and capital with very low returns on time and capital. Thus, the question which came to pass a few pages back. Is it worth it? My opinion? No. I like capital. I like having it for it provides me a means to by which I can find happiness. Furthermore, I personally don't enjoy working in a total sausage fest environment. I prefer a gender diversified environment where I can have relevant and adult conversations. I can't find either in engineering. Be it private or public. But that's my problem. As for the population? How to get them interested in the field? Pay more! Much MUCH MUCH MORE! Make it such that the pay of a base engineer is equal to that on an MBA. Same level of effort was put forth and as such same pay should be provided. Until the pay matches the effort.....why invest time or money if you have a choice? Or as someone pointed out, you have a serious hard on for learning how to speak Hindi. Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

I feel like your argument is slowly morphing into, "The real money is in being dishonest." Sadly, and I hate to say it but recent history will prove it correct, but yes. The real money is legally taking blood from a stone. Not in building or expanding or creating. Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

Everyone and their mother is holding their breath thinking that we are going so somehow innovate our way out of this stagnant economy. And they keep talking about how engineers are going to do it..... I honestly don't know. I'm not holding my breath. Between talking to my friends in the private industry and the public sector......why should any company hire anyone when they are making record profits and are flush with cash? All the years of "lean engineering" has translated to record efficiencies in production which has matched up with a stagnant economy perfectly such that companies are making as much money now as they did when things were rocking and rolling. So....why hire? Why invest when the company is doing just fine? I don't know. Will engineers come in and save the day? Or will financial engineers continue to find new and innovative ways to ensure huge bonuses for themselves and to ensure large dividends to meet stockholder demands? It's a rough place. Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

Hum...let me see how this works out Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

That could be it. Thus is this our new normal rate of growth? Or shall I call it steady state of blah.....where we grow just enough to keep ourselves out of the poor house mean while cooperation are being pushed by pensions to continually spit out double digit returns? Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

A bit f help would be nice. I have to ipods of differing size. Is there a simple way of setting up Itunes such that each device has it's own playlist and media with out having to create a separate account? Thank you Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

It's amazing every year since I have graduated I have made more money and thus feel rather fortunate. Yet I can't help but wonder what is going on and why I personally feel very little confidence in the economy. Yes the unemployment numbers are higher than average and much higher recently but things should not be that bad on paper. Perhaps it's the sinking housing market, the unstable energy market or perhaps it simply the deadly stagnant economy but boy do things feel a bit bad. And perhaps this feeling of stagnation is the new normal Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

Just because I have a good idea what work environment that brings me peace doesn't mean I know how to get there let alone if it would even be possible. But the hope that I will get there....that's happy. If there is no hope due to lack of traction then....there is a lack of joy. Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

Since I graduated in 2002 I can't think of a time where the unemployment has dropped significantly lower than say %7. All this reminds me of the year I worked in Europe where on average the unemployment or under employment was in or around the %10 mark. Thus my question is this, for the US is this our new "normal" state of existence with respect to our labor situation? And as such is it sustainable? Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

Yes but if you are in a position where you can strive all you want but the facts on the ground are such that you will not be at making any movement towards those goals..... Case in point as I stated my upside down mortgage. I can't "walk" towards my goal but I can move on other aspects of my life in this case....perhaps a new more vibrant more diversified work environment where the genders are more balanced and I can have more "adult" and "relevant" conversations. Thus perhaps we can redefine "finding happy" by restating it as "finding hope" Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

Wow that looked amazing Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!