Journal nizo's Journal: So what did you want to be when you grew up? 25
Especially your earliest "dream job", what was it?
When I was six I wanted to be a race car driver or a doctor (but when I found out how much extra schooling you needed to be a doctor, I was like "no way!"). I have to admit race car driver sounded way cooler back then than it does today. And the field I work in barely existed back then.
A space scientist using computers (Score:1)
Mind you, I'm now a bioinformatician and have worked on various cures/drugs for Malaria, Tuberculosis, and now am working on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's so I guess I did pretty well, considering we don't have any large space fleets in the US anymore.
Amusing how close I was.
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Every job is better in space
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Well, almost any job. I work in Medical Genetics now (formerly in Biochemistry), so there are a few jobs I can think of that would be worse in space:
1. PDE researcher (involves poo, think about it);
2. Skin Cancer Specialist (exposure to radiation) (but you would be busy);
3. Geriatrics Specialist (bone density, muscle usage, calcification of tissues - all impacted by the environment and most "knowledge" would be not very useful - admittedly not much call for this given the common ages in space).
Every job is better in space (Score:2)
I would have probably settled for *ANY* job in space, on the moon, on Mars, etc.
Still would.
Space ... the final frontier ... beam me up, Scotty.
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Large MANNED space fleets, that is. We have a bunch of robots on and around Mars that need plenty of computer/space scientists to run, one of which I'm fortunate enough to be (again).
I honestly don't think I had any one job in mind as a kid. I wanted to be an astronaut, a Marine Corps officer, or a lawyer at one point. My mind started to turn to computers when I was 11 or so in a time when few people had them (this was the Apple II/TRS-80/Commodore PET era). So I guess I'm doing what I wanted to do. :-)
Astronaut (Score:2)
First thing I can remember wanting to be. I still think it would be awesome.
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Me, too!
As a 7-year-old boy in 1969 watching the astronauts walk on the moon, I think every boy in America that year wanted to be an astronaut. I remember seeing some show on the TV that showed the astronauts' training regimen: they had to keep their feet in a tub of ice water to see if they could take the cold, and they had to stand on their heads for an hour to see if they could work in space if they were weightless and the blood rushed to their heads. So I stood on my head for an hour, and put my feet
Astronaut Rock-Star (Score:1)
dabbling in a little bit of asteroid mining on the side. I'm not kidding.
Another "no surprise" answer (Score:2)
Astronaut- sort of... (Score:2)
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by junior high i would have killed to be a space marine - which would have worked out well, as it would have been followed up with lots more killing.
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bwahaha
I like Starship Troopers, but damn I don't want to be a space marine.
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Not me man - killing bugs - on the bounce - oh yeah. That book is probably a good 75% of the reason I enlisted when I turned 18. I wasn't a marine - it didn't override my brain to that point, but I was very influenced by it in how I view military service in general. And of course that view is a lot more positive compared to some other views of future military.
I wanted to be a scientist... (Score:2)
... an inventor, engineer-type scientist who made complex and awesome machines. The machines would not only perform some ultra-cool function, but they would produce impressive pyrotechics and make unearthly noises.
They would also have really technical-sounding names, and would be such cutting-edge technology that they would a) be barely even understood by other scientists, and b) impress chicks. I'm halfway there.
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My early dreams (Score:2)
First, lawyer (I *loved* to argue), then physicist (High-energy LASER optics - w-a-a-a-a-yy cool), then computer programmer (Until I discovered how light-years far behind the leading edge I was) - currently, I sway between psychologist/counselor and cult-leader
Either (Score:2)
Mr. Spock, George Harrison or Heinrich Schliemann.
I was always a realist...
An actor or a doctor (Score:2)
I'm actually going to go to school to study medical biology this year, 12 years after I should have started it.
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Hey better late than never.
And how about playing a doctor on tv? It's the best of both worlds!
I'm doing it. :) (Score:1)
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I hate you :-)
Seriously though, be glad because most people aren't so lucky.
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Seriously, I love my job. The pay is quite decent for the work and this city (Winnipeg) is very reasonable to live in.
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How is the job market in your area for tech weenie jobs? And what is the weather like (I always picture Canada as an arctic wasteland :-) )?
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The weather here is what you'd expect: hot in the summer (high 30's), cold in the winter (-30's at times)
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And what is the weather like (I always picture Canada as an arctic wasteland :-) )?
There's a reason why Winnipeg is called Winterpeg. :) At any rate, something like 90% of Canadians live within a few hours drive of the US border, so just map the Canadian city to its US counterpart and you know the approximate weather. Vancouver is like Seattle, Winnipeg is like Fargo, Toronto is like New York, and Whitehorse way up in the Yukon Territory is like Anchorage or Juneau, Alaska.
Part of that misconception might be that some weather programs report US temperatures in Fahrenheit and Canadian te