What did you want to be when you 'grew up'?

My father was an electrical engineer, my grandfather was a mechanical engineer. Somewhere about the seventh grade my Dad's best friend moved back the the US. He had spent a number of years in Venezuela working on drilling lake Maracaibo.

Listening to my Dad and his friend Bob talk about all the places they had been convinced me not only that engineering was right for me, but that mechanical engineering sounded much better than electrical. My Dad messed around with computer and networks and what not in an air-conditioned building. His friend Bob messed with pumps and compressors and drilling gear out side and on the ocean, all over the world. That was the life for me.

And so it has been. However..... I recently finished a Masters of Divinity degree at our local seminary, and I love to teach, so ministry will continue to be a part of my life as well... But I am still an engineer, and I still love being out on an offshore platform solving a problem with a compressor or a pump..

I had no idea at all...didn't know zip about waht was out there, well, no, really I wanted to be a Knight in Armour and save damsels in distress.

My Dad got me a summer holiday job at Marconi Space and Defence when I was doing A levels...

Apparently I said...'Electronics industry..what a cowboy outfit, you'll never catch me doing that...!'

Of course that's what put's food on the table now...

Oh well, some ya lose, some ya lose

Repeating what I said in the other thread...

My first real ambition was to become a priest. This happened during studies for my first communion. Having a priest in the family is a big thing here in the Philippines (well, at least back then) and Mom was so proud that she told all her friends. You might say that my love for reading was started by reading the Bible.

However, as I began reading other books, I became interested in airplanes. I studied them and learned about the controls and instrumentation. Alas, my eyesight began to go bad by the 4th grade and I had to change my dreams. Planes still interest me though, and I "fly" whenever I can with a couple of coins in the arcades.

A friend's comment about my drawings made me think about becoming an architect back in early high school. I drew houses, bridges, all sorts of things. Later, I noticed that I didn't really spend that much time in drawing as in other pursuits.

The high school I attended divided students into electronics, electrical, mechanical and drafting. Instead of putting me in the drafting section, they put me in a section that studied electronics. Their analysis of my aptitude showed that I had a talent for it. This was new to me but I got the hang of it later on.

When I finished high school, I took a course of Electronics and Communications Engineering. Due to lack of funds, I had to abandon my pursuit for a college degree and settled for a two year course in Radio and TV servicing. Upon graduation, I worked as a service technician for four years. Then, I got into instrumentation and controls.

I never left this field since.

My mum used to say that I was the 'dreamer' out of my brothers and sister. I used to imagine all sorts of weird and wonderful scenarios, playing with an old valve (tube) radio amplifier as if it was a bomb or alien contraption!!!

And quite often my dad would say something like "Watch out! that my still have some juice in it" - pointing to the valve amplifier..... What was this mystical substance called 'Juice' he referred to???

Taking apart an old wind up alarm clock and finding the main spring could travel a fair old distance - Why?

Fitting my sisters dolls house with light bulbs and putting a battery on and all the bulbs blowing very quickly - WHY?

I had presents such as a chemistry set, a Philips Electronic engineers kit with new fangled transistors, I could make about 25 different circuits with that kit and still not understand how or why it worked!!

Making explosives in the science lab at school, some didn't work well while some DID!! - Why??

All other activities such as playing football, running and throwing things etc... just didn't have that WHY? factor and so weren't of interest to me.

At the age of 14 I guess I wanted to be a scientist or astronomer, but I was still fascinated by these transistors and what they did, so at home I would spend 6/6d (about 33pence a lot back then) on a OC71 transistor and wire it up and adjust currents to find out how it amplified...

Marconi Instruments somehow - and this is the truth, they somehow contacted me out of the blue and offered me an apprenticeship when I left school at 18.... I've never found out how they heard about me?? - strange!

The rest is history...

John.

Growing up is optional.

Growing old is unavoidable.

When I was young, I wanted to be a bomber pilot. In the movies, they never did much work other than fly, always got the girl (though I wasn't real sure yet what you were supposed to do with the girl), and got in lots of fistfights (usually winning).

All throughout school I was in to artistic creation. I drew, sketched, painted and made sculptures. Around my junior year in high school I got a job in an advertising firm that created 3 dimensional work for T.V. magazines, and display work. I thought this was the greatest thing I ever did. We made giant tomatoes for Sacramento Tomato juice, Love Doves big enough for kids to climb on for Avon, Giant legs and hands for Big Red chewing gum and forty foot toy soldiers for one of the major airports in the area for Christmas displays. I think it was Laguardia. Computer graphics was in it's infancy so everything had to be made that did not exist, especially extra large items. I thought this was what I really wanted to do. The shop was located in New York City on University Place. Little did I know how cut-throat of a business advertising was. The owners were under so much stress and deadlines that within 6 months of each other they died. One was about 53, the other Late fifties. Without these two major players the company folded.

I was only 19 at this time and figured there was no way I could handle running a shop with this much pressure while trying to compete with other companies. I was also attending an art school that I had been given a scholarship to and that made it increasingly difficult. I took a job doing electronics and electrical just to pay for my supplies and transportation. The rest is history!

The company I worked for sent me to school and paid for all my training. I guess I took the easy way out, but it has supported my family and allowed us to purchase a great Victorian farmhouse overlooking an area reservoir. I still paint and draw and someday hope to retire and open a quaint gallery somewhere and continue my art.

First loves never die. Sometimes they are put on 'hold' while we do what we must to survive, but until we find a way to 'scratch that itch', we will never truly be satisfied.

And, indeed, all design, whether electronics, mechanical design, physics, or the not-so-simple task of trying to imagine the unimaginable is creation and allows us to express the creativity we have inside.

My middle son studied piano for about 3 years, and never was able to really 'play' music. My oldest son, never a lesson in his life, could pick a guitar, or sit at the piano, and although not practiced, could 'play'. It was not my middle son's fault, he just didn't have the 'music inside'.

I truly believe the greatest inventions, the greatest discoveries, the greatest paradigm shifts, the things that have the greatest impact on us all come from those with this 'music inside' ... the real creativity.

Never give up chasing the dream

I've sold a lot of paintings and given many as gifts to friends and family. My daughter seems to have inherited my gift for art. Together we may someday make a mark for ourselves, but until the day I die I will never give up just the enjoyment and stress relief it gives me.

Creativity is probably the most important aspect in all walks of life. Where would we be without Shakespeare, DaVinci, T.A. Edison, and all the engineers and scientists that said " I wish to create so others may bear the fruits of my labors!"

Bridges, buildings and homes, the etchings on a computer chip, landscaping even can be beautiful works of art and a monument to those who saw the possibilities.

Upon graduation from high school ( 1971 ), I attended Wentworth Institute in Boston. I didn't want to be there. I quit after one semester to play guitar in a rock band. The band did pretty good for a while, we even backed up some name acts. It was a lot of fun, but after expenses and the like, I wasn't making any money at all. Our manager made sure we had all the women, booze, and drugs that we wanted. However, no money. I had had enough after 2 years, and went back to get my degree.

I wanted to work at a company outside Boston that made keyboard synthesizers, I think the company's name was ARP. However, this here forging company payed more than twice as much, and I really needed the money.

I still played music for another 10 years or so, part time. I worked for an agency that booked exclusively at colleges and high schools. We had so much experience that we could play any type music asked for. One night an oldies band, next night hard rock. This time around I made some decent money, but all I did was work all the time. Well, I met a girl and wanted to actually spend some time with her, so I gave it up all together. I started a part time company fixing amps and sound boards and the like. Once again, I had no time off so after a few years gave that up too.

I haven't picked up the guitar in about 5 years now.

No regrets on any of it. I like my job as the leader of the instrument and combustion department at a large forging company.

I'm a glass blower, and when I retire,( in 8 years ), I hope to move to Vermont and work part time blowing glass. I'm not so sure there will be any glass operations by then. I'm sure the cost of energy may put many of them out of business.

i wanted to be tall, i was very small when i was a kid, oh and i alwyays wanted to be wolverine for some reason

I wasn't very athletic as a kid, so I tended to read, especially the year we lived a few houses away from the library. Then in fifth grade, I read a couple of books about weather. After that, I was able to make forecasts based on direct observations of conditions, and how they changed during the day.

I also read about electronics, jets, rockets, etc. over the next few years. My nickname form 6th thru 9th grade was "Professor" because I could explain basic scientific concepts, and other kids where always asking me what the weather was going to be like the next day. Mostly I wanted to be a meteorologist.

Science took a backseat during high school. My nickname changed to "Preacher." I still have interests along those lines.

After high school, I didn't do much. Didn't really have an education or training to get me a steady job anywhere. So, I wound up cleaning brick for a demolition company. It was an easy job to get, a hard one to do. You just show up at the demolition site with a roofing hatchet and a pair of work gloves. You knock the mortar off the old brick so they can be reused. You stack up the ones you clean into stacks of 100, then tell the boss when he comes around how many you did that week and he pays cash. I guess my introduction to engineering was at the end of the process.

Other jobs included working at a brick mill, stacking boxes of bottles, janitorial service, and auto parts sales. Never really had a career goal in mind.

During that time, I was in the Army National Guard working mostly in communications, and a couple of years on a machine gun.

While at the auto parts job, I wanted to get into something that paid better where I wouldn't get my hands nicked handling rough old dirty greasy grimy rough parts. So, I went to school at night to learn computer programming - on mainframes, right as they were going out and microcomputers were coming into dominance. So, I never got to work in that industry.

I worked a lot of temp assignments in mostly blue collar jobs. My interest in weather never really went away. I decided that because I like to research and I like weather, I wanted to become a research meteorologist. So,back to school I went to get an associate degree in math in anticipation of going on to get a Bachelor's in Meteorology.

Life had other plans - debts and an old car I wouldn't trust going to a school away from where I lived. So, back to work I went, more blue collar jobs. But the last one ended in a layoff caused by imports, and this qualified me for something I needed: training. I took advantage of the program to go to school once again to become a drafter. I'm not working as a drafter now, but I am looking, and when I get back to work in that field, I'll be looking to move up to engineer.

I see from my story, and from other stories, childhood plans and desires don't always lead to what one becomes later in life. If someone's dream lines up with their abilities, and they follow through on it with sufficient drive and determination, then their dream might become reality. Otherwise, I say be open and flexible, know what your strengths are.

I really like your story. I hope you have the chance to tell it to many, for I think many need to hear it.

Behind my desk is this sign:

When I first made it, it was to help me keep my staff motivated when they day by day they seemed to be dropping like flies. In '03, we moved over 650 people from the south part of China to our current location near Shanghai. It didn't take too long for many of them to begin falling away because of the general stress of moving, and the rough start we all had at the beginning (no heat or hot water the first winter, no A/C the next summer, construction all around and few facilities finished, and on and on).

These days, the reminder remains behind my desk, not just for others, but for me. Not all days are good, and few are easy. It has become my constant reminder.

Thanks again for your openness and your inspiring story.

Take care ...

I never want to grow up, and I"m slowly getting there.

I'm the biggest kid in the room, and loving it...

Now, where is the bosses coffee cup and silastic

I'm still trying to grow up. 42 and still fighting it. :)

when i was in high school, i took computer programming for 3 years. i was very good at it. my senior year, i didn't do anything, including homework, because i was too busy explaining programming to the other students. i made student of the year that year. so that was my goal in life. to become a programmer. the catch.... middle of amish country in PA. hmmmm. Join the Navy. that's the ticket. "What do you mean, no computer programming?"

how about this electronic thingie? okay. i'll do that for a little while. 20 years later... i'm good at it. but it bores me. not the thing i want to do. so today, i am back in college. thanks to a disability. still trying to figure out what i want to be. :) i have this chemistry teacher that has really peaked my interest in this phisics stuff. I haven't been this excited about something in a long time. and someday, maybe i'll learn how to spell it.

Wanted to be an Astronaut or a spy like james bond(beautiful women and cool toys er weapons). After the military I knew both to be unrealistic. I was very near sighted and the airforce wouldn't let me apply to be a pilot. And james bond was more comic book than real. Ian Fleming did use many of his own experiences to write his books but the things that intrigued me turned out to be made of fantasy.

Honored in Physics, Chemistry and Electronics in High School. Made and lost my fortune by 23. Now I design/invent/innovate things.

I also work in my cousins vineyard to stay in shape. (I get payed to work out who needs a gym). Drive a hundered 8 foot steel posts in a day and you are in shape.

Brad

ok, thats working out the grip on 1 hand, and some muscles pulling the leaver to run the driver... or is it automatic pile-driver machine?

One inch pneumatic, flip the switch and hold on to 45 lbs of mass. Grapes grow good in rocky sandy soil, but some of the post grow mighty crooked. Broke two handles on the driver so far and had to go to a grade 8 bolt. Even the T handled bolt to clamp the steel post breaks from the pounding.

The real work is swinging the 45lbs on the post 8-9 feet up to start then sliding it back up off the top of the post when it has gone as far as it will go or to 5.5 foot.

Drove over 800 posts so far. I don't recommend it, my hands are hard but they still hurt from it.

I do recommend working some physical labor to stay in shape. I'm a lot stronger than when I used the gym.

Brad

Yes, the Gym or home gym's (worst) are not that great for you.

Many people, its has been found drive less than 800 meters from their home to catch a train at the station.

One of the friends I have at Karate, I asked her if she wants to go out for a bike ride, for excercise (well I was trying to start something) she said she had a excercise bike at home that she used.

I suggested that a bike ride in the open and fresh air would be better, cause, on a excercise bike, you get tired, you get off, on a pushbike, you still have to get home.

But manual work is good for you, bugger the people who jump in their cars to go out for the day, and pay "Jims" or whoever to cut their lawn, or strap their bikes onto their cars to go for a bike ride.

Bartender in a Whorehouse.

As I read your post I thought: " Is he writing about himself or about me"? And then reading some of the other posts I keep seeing common threads. So many potential priests or ministers, so many individuals with musical talents. All wanting to do something to help others and to solve problems. All highly motivated and intelligent. WOW!!!

Wonder what type of response would be obtained from say a group of doctors, or lawyers or politicians?

Ages 5~12: Air Force jet pilot.

Ages 14~20: Rock Star

Ages 14~22: Ron Jeromy

Ages 20~30: Where's the money? I'm there!

Where did I end up? Development group promoting USA manufacturing. Good 'ol "MADE IN USA".

I'm still young. Now, I'd like to build up my small personal machine shop into a custom bike shop. I see my style on par with Roland Sands (with slightly less ego.)

When I was in high school I tooked math and science because I enjoyed it. At that time, I was interested in Space Flight hoping that I will later in my life work at NASA. That was 1982. In 1988, I gradudated with a BSEE and landed a job with Boeing Aerospace in Houston as a engineer working on the Space Shuttle and then later working on the International Space Station. I have to say dreams and hopes do come true. Now, I am working in the military industry doing various things with the Navy and US Army. I am now hoping to do some work with the US Air Force and eventually go back into the Aerospace with the advent of the new Orion Program. My wisdom or words to others: Do not give up!! Keep fighting!!

a magician

I am in video field/electronics

not close

But ask someone who has no idea of what you do, its still in a way "Magic" to them ;o)

When very young, a cowboy/rancher. By 5th grade (age 10 or so) a scientist. This varied from chemist to lepidopterist to marine biologist to veterinarian. Ended up with a degree in environmental biology (chemistry minor) and have made a career of the Environmental, Health, and Safety field for the last _{(mumble, mumble)} years. So, a scientist I am, just as desired. Woo-hoo for me!

Spelling reformer!

Hard work, but somebody has to do it.

Nooalf

I am also pleasantly surprised by the number of ministers and music type folk that are reporting on this thread, I thought I was the only one. I came pretty close to being a music major but looked at the hard facts that I would never be at performance quality and decided that engineering held more of a future and desire for me. I've never regretted that decision and since then I have found other outlets for my musical leanings. My long-term goal is probably similar to Steve S.'s in that I really enjoy the troubleshooting aspect of engineering. It makes for long hours and at times, long distances from home, but the satisfaction of fixing something is a great feeling.

I think long-term I may go back to school provided I have the money and spare time to pursue either divinity or history degrees. To those with a divinity degree, my mother recently got her divinity degree and then went into chaplaincy, but she had to do an internship prior to receiving her degree. Were you able to find a way to the degree that didn't require a year's sabbatical from your engineering job?

I would bet my pet ferrets that there is also a very high proportion of us that enjoy science fiction programs, books and films as well

John.

Yeah, I figured that, but it is a stereotype that I already assumed

I didn't figure that there would be so many people that could advise you on the condition of your HVAC system and the condition of your soul at the same time

I am seeing the same pattern. My brother-in law is an engineer but also a deacon. As regard to music, I have played different musical instruments while in high school and college and while working. Unfortunately, like everyone else on this blog, I stopped playing because of family.

I am wondering as to what the connection between music, ministry and engineering. If anybody has any theories, please bring them forward.

"I am wondering as to what the connection between music, ministry and engineering."

I would hazard a guess that the 3 areas mentioned above all deal somewhat with "absolutes", whether the importance in minding intonations and rythym, the umortance of observing set "laws" or the specifics of mathematic, chemisrty, etc. all deal with absolutes and specifics.

As I said earlier, I would be interested in what similar responses would be evoked from other fields. Any thoughts?

"I am wondering as to what the connection between music, ministry and engineering."

--------------------------------------

I don't know if there is a connection between them. There may be. I am inclined to suspect, however, that the these tendencies are the result of two seperate inclinations common to all of us:

1. The need to express ourselves into the world; to create a presence in Reality that exists independently of and survives us.

2. The desire to know that what we do and who we are matters; makes a difference in the world.

IMO, a successful childhood is one in which those two desires are nurtured and encouraged by others; parents and teachers especially.

I also believe these to be major underlying motivations for those who love and pursue teaching careers.

I've never met a person who did not demonstrate these two desires at some time in their life.

These are uniquely human qualities. You don't find them anywhere else.

Good points.

It's like those human hand-prints you see sprayed in Neolithic caves. It says " I was here". There is something fundamental about that, whether you carve your girls name on a tree, or post to CR4. We all leave our mark (sorry to anyone with that name), but you know what I mean. We live, we do, we die. Hopefully we have left the world a better place. And don't none of you smart asses simply say I can just do the latter ! You guys kill me with laughter on a daily basis anyway.

Kris wrote: " It says 'I was here'. There is something fundamental about that. . . ."

Yes Kris. And, in our pursuit of that, I firmly believe that nothing is more personal, more meaningful to be left behind than our children.

For better or worse, we carry the voices of our parents in our heads for all our lives. So will our children carry our voice.

This legacy of parental conversations is more powerful and has far greater impact on who we become and the choices we make than any genome or DNA string.

My second greatest challenge in my life was raising my child daughter by myself. The first was facing a history that said "You do not have what it takes to raise a child".

I have since learned that facing that history. and all the discomfort associated with it, was the greatest gift I have ever given myself and smartest thing I have ever done.

It quieted the constant chattering in my head, turned garbage into pure gold and made it possible for my daughter to grow up, unencumbered by her father's history. Many I know are not as fortunate.

I am proud of who she has become. Because of that I am also satisfied with how my life has turned out. I will leave someone valuable behind. Now I can play more and find another way to contribute.

On a mundane level music ministry and engineering are connected for those of us work with sound systems at church! On a more philosophical level I think there is a connection between engineering and ministry in that both involve a search for truth and trustworthy answers. Engineering doesn't leave room for the obfuscation and speculation that are commonplace in some other professions and academic disciplines. Music and ministry have always come together in worship.

The divinity school I went to required two semesters of practicum, but you could do that part time and still work your regular job. I worked for American Hospice as a Hospice chaplain. I would work my regular day job, and then visit patients evenings and weekends. Working hospice was by far the hardest, and the best thing I have ever done. The school is in Houston (290 and 610), I did all my classes at night, it is accredited, and it took me four years to do the required 90 hours. Check it out at www.HGST.edu

I have always wanted to help people. My dream was to become a heart surgeon until the 8th grade when a kid in my class started to show me the cool things his Mechanical Engineer dad could make (reconstructing internal combustion engines). I love math and even considered majoring in it. But the one thing that always hit me was that as far as I can remember I always took stuff apart and reassembeld it. I wanted to know the Why and the How. Still do. So, went out and got a mechanical engineering degree. Started working in maintenance, then I went to production and then went to Quality assurance. This was not for me. Got a job running the production of PVC pipes and accesories. The maintenance director left, twice, so guess what, I`m back in maintenance taring stuff apart.

Well, at least you took the safest road, pulling a heart apart and putting it back together, if you stuffed up, or wanted to experiment with a "New Design" you'd get into quite a bit of trouble.

In Mech Eng. if you had a new idea, you'd may not get paid as much as a doctor (which claim they are still underpaid) but you can pull apart, rebuild, redesign better/improve, and make the original concept better, and get credit for it, or more money ;o)

I was pretty sure I was going to be either a veterinarian, a clown or a mime. Then I took an Idustrial Arts course (7th grade) and had to draw a set of plans to build something. I was hooked. Degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Architecture naturally led to a 22 year career as a Surveyor/Civil Engineer. Currently I bide my time in the administrative end of Public Works, keeping a hand in engineering and drafting as the "Golden Years" approach. A brief sabbatical as a bartender showed me the value of an education. I am happy to be here.

Sitting in a wind-swayed pine-top reading Richard Henry Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast" I wanted to be a boy who could grow up to be an adventuring man who could settle down in his later years and write of his adventures.

Other than becoming the boy part, I've done and am doing the rest.

As a pregnant teenage runaway, I began three decades of traveling by thumb and first class, touching down on all the continents but Antarctica, supporting myself mostly in the intervening years in construction and civil engineering.

And all the while making notes in bound journals, on 3x5 cards, postcards to others, these keyboards where crashed hard drives or stolen computers took the words and sent them off into the ether like the scales a pianist plays upon the wind practicing, practicing for the Carnegie Hall performance.

An undercurrent that caught my wings in all those years of being different from my peers was an abiding sense of not being good enough... or maybe I just took that along with me from childhood. However, that self-perception has borne the book I'm currently writing, "53 Games for The Mind That Won't Shut the @*#! Up!" -- a bedside handbook.

Yes, that creative light we were born with seems devoted to shining through us regardless of our other plans.

Why 53?

Oh, 53. A game for every week of the year... and one more, just in case, after a year of cavorting, the reader isn't quite convinced that engaging one's own mind in playful games can create a tranquil heaven of a wretched hell.

That and the intonation of "52" goes down, whereas "53" goes up!

OK.

Been seeing 53 alot the last 3 or 4 dayz. 2 seperate instancez here.

A general (I was an army kid) but health issues closed off the military route.

An aircraft designer/ pilot/ astronaut explorer etc. Unfortunately my designs had the minor drawback of needing to solve the problems of perpetual motion and anti-gravity. (according to some contributers on this site they have been solved so perhaps I should build it after all!)

Then science, I liked the outdoors and rocks / landscapes so I read geology at university. I also wanted to apply my christian faith to my work but had no idea how to do this.

At university I discovered what I was rather better at anything to do with audio than I was at geology. Through a remarkable series of events I got a temporary job with a leading audio designer which became permanent, retrained to become a design engineer. I am still in the same field but in a different organisation. Much of my work is ultimately directed to providing technical solutions for christian groups recording and broadcasting in developing countries.

By and large I am now doing what I want although there have been some major changes of direction at times.

I wanted to be an architect when I was in my early teens. I was always an artist and really good at math( I was the guy who won all the math competitions in grade school)

Then I saw that Guns'n'Roses video "November rain" where slash steps out of this little church and pulls off this guitar solo, and it was "Rock Star" for more than a few years,

I am now a fairly accomplished musician, play many things, guitar mostly, done some session work and had some crazy times playing with several bands around where I'm from.

I left high school interested in programming and video games and decided to go into computer science, didn't take to it at all. too tedious for me I think, I enjoyed programming for fun ... not to make a machine do some random pointless thing and make it do it in several different ways kinda bull

so got a job driving a freight train (just like dad) for about 7-8 years

decided after 2-3 years (after the novelty/Romance had worn off) that I wasn't a "Lifer" and it took me 4-5 more to decide to go into mechanical engineering

going into my forth year now, I'm two months into my first job in engineering at a mine, and have gotten a chance to do some problem solving, been a real learning experience so far.

I decided that engineering was for me because of the ability to travel and move around, work on new projects, finish something and see the benefit/importance of what I'm doing

I hope Engineering does all these things for me

If I ever grow up, I'll tell you. I hope this thread isn't offensive to people with 'dwarfism' type conditions. I'm, guessing there won't be many posts from the Congo region/Gary Cole. I'd kinda like to be like one of the admins here < grovel, grovel> like Chris/Moose/mgaulin/Roger etc, but I fear that I'm just not cut out for that kind of stuff. Oddly enough, my posts often are. Mrs K often calls me a 'big baby, act like a man", so this thread is utterly confusing to me. I don't care, 'cos the tooth fairy still visits.

OK, I wanted to work with animals. In a veterinary sense. The realization that maths was a more exact thing took me in a different direction. The realization of how bad it's paid made me realize how stupid I was. Looking after 'Skippy' or 'Clarence' would have been much better financially. Blowing stuff up is a damn sight more fun though.

Ooowww I'm with you on your last sentence, explosives are sooooo much fun!!!

I notice that there are an awful lot of preachers / musicians / artist wannabees in this thread...?

I never have been interested in music, preaching or artistic endeavours, although I do like the mystic / occult side of life, its fascinating...

At 56 I've still not grown up and I don't want to.... I still go down the pubs and chat happily away with teenagers and other assorted age groups / genders.... doesn't bother me what they think of me, I just love to chat and listen to other's opinions.

AND I ALWAYS carry a notepad and pen on me for those ideas that spring out of nowhere that I have to scribble down....

John As for the tooth fairy mmmmmmm like Santa I do think I've outgrown his usefulness.

"I've outgrown his usefulness". I'm telling you now, it's a she !

You gotta have faith man ! Blowing stuff up is way cool ( in a kitchen/garden manner). The foil backed paper from a cigarette packet is ace in the microwave. I recommend using a small piece of the stuff as a starter test. My own investigation with a 1" square nearly blew the door off the thing! I damn near got 'arc-eye' as it went off.

It's a hoot getting into a chat with others from different ages/genders etc. Most people like it if you take an interest, and it certainly adds to 'lifes richness'.

Welcome back you rascally squirrel!!!!!!!!

Ferris