"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." –John 16:33

San Pedro Garza Garcia

Day: October 15, 2013

A surprisingly good article by a liberal

Here is an article in the Columbia Daily that does a pretty good job of describing what it is like to be a conservative on just about any secular or government college campus in America today.  With regard to a previous article written on this topic, Jake Goldwasser writes the following:

…he talks about how once we leave Columbia we will leave the domain of constant self-congratulation and enter a world that is skeptical of our institution. It is not that professors collect empirical evidence to support liberal claims that makes the world sneer at places like Columbia. It is the self-righteous attitude, the certainty of conviction that comes from an institution whose purpose is to foster doubt and balanced discourse and critical thinking.

I appreciated the article in its effort to describe the reality of the undergraduate Ivy League world.  Nevertheless, I think both this article and the one to which the above quotation refers, overestimate the level of accomplishment required to gain entrance to a liberal arts degree at an Ivy League school.  Sadly, the level of knowledge attained by earning such a liberal arts degree is equally as suspect.  The “real” world has figured out that ethnicity, money, connections, personal (politically correct) proclivities, ACT/SAT preparation classes, and checking the right social participation boxes is more important than real ability when applying to these schools, especially when it comes to liberal arts degrees.  Many of us have too much experience dealing with the products of these institutions to consider them elite in any meaningfuly way.

Still, and I am sincere about this, thanks for trying to understand.

The good news and bad news about interesting work

Day 785 of 1000

I spent more time in Prescott, Arizona over the last three months than at home with the family.  That is because my company has given me responsibility to get images out of a new camera we designed.  We were able to do that last Wednesday.  Supposedly that would return me to a more sane schedule where I can fly to Prescott only one or two weeks per month for awhile.  It also meant that I could quit working weekends until the next big product development cycle requires me to do this again.  The bad news is that the work we did uncovered new “opportunities” which will require my apt attention.  That means, my schedule will remain pretty much the same as before until the end of the year.

I love the work I do and really do not mind the hours because if I were not working on those technical things for which I get paid, I would probably be doing the same kind of thing on a volunteer or hobby project.  It all works out OK because the kids are getting hammered from now until the end of the year with the toughest classes of their undergraduate degrees and the need to apply to graduate schools before the end fo the year.  They both should have an easier go next semester, but not THAT much easier.  I hope to have a schedule where I do not have to spend too many weekends away from home by then.

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