I n+1 the Peace Corps recommendation. If, by any chance, you are not a USian citizen, I strongly recommend VSO in Canada. I did that for a year (wish I had done it for 2) in Africa and found every moment of it deeply satisfying and rewarding. And I sleep better at night. It helped me develop so many soft skills that serve me well today. If you are going to go this path, do not quit your job just yet. Go through the selection process of VSO or Peace Corps or whatever and quit just before you have to leave for that Developing country. That way, you make sure you don't eat too much into your savings. While you are volunteer abroad, you will be paid a living wage on which you can live and travel comfortably. And when you are nearing the completion of your placement, you can decide whether you want to stay in the country and find some satisfying job there or come back and train or work in some new field.
Another thing to do is to travel with your savings. Cost of travelling and living in some parts of the world are significantly lower than in parts of the US. And travelling opens your eyes to history and the wider world. And it will give you some extrovert skills. And you will be telling your grandchildren grand stories of your travels for years and years.
A third option is to go to grad school.
That is nice of you, Toolie.
There is tons of people and critters out there that need help. The question to ask yourself is who (Katrina victims? Iraqis? Darfur refugees? Cuddle animals?) you want to help and how (Education? Food? Clothing? Shelter?).
I agree with an earlier poster about 'teaching someone how to fish'. Have you considered giving a year or two of your time to being a volunteer abroad through an organization like VSO or even Peace Corps? Tired of throwing money at supposedly good causes I did. And I had the best year of my life doing it. I got to experience a foreign country like I have never experienced before (a community absorbing me as one of them). And I got to use my skills as a techie helping disadvantaged people learn these skills to generate incomes for themselves. Best of all, I did not spend a penny of my own doing all of this (except paying a monthly fee for some storage space where I stored all my worldly goods).
MSF, though they do a decent job, is very very media savvy. I don't like them for insisting their volunteers wear MSF t-shirts when TV crews are around.
Habitat for Humanity is good. Giving to VSO or Oxfam is also good. You might even consider giving to PBS (and help get those annoying beggers off the screen).
Have you considered doing a year or two through Peace Corps or VSO or some such organization instead of going the ESL route. You may not be able to go to the place you desire (SE Asia), but you will have a fulfilling and fun experience. And it will be MUCH better organized than doing it through these hole-in-the-wall english language schools.
Someone has installed a firefox extension that has overlaid a part of the firefox "chrome" decorations and has messed up your window in the process. I would suggest:
1. Go to Tools -> Extensions and right click on each extension and disable all of them.
2. Restart firefox. I am sure quite sure everything will be fine.
3. Go back to Tools -> Extensions and start enabling one by one, restarting Firefox every time and seeing when the problem manifests itself.
Ladies and gentleman, you have your problematic extension.
Very generally speaking, Canon work out cheaper in terms of price and Nikon has better optics. For most beginning photograpphers, there is no significant difference between the two.
It is better to invest more on good lenses and lesser on the bodies. This is because if you get into photography, you will outgrow you camera body and want a new, higher-end one. At that time, if you had oriignally invested in decent lenses, they will grow with you to the new body.
That said, my personal preference is a Nikon D70 or D200.
middleclasstool, not an Arkansan. Living under the yoke of the Governator. Thanks for all that info. Appreciate it.
Dreadnought, I do not think I am anyone politically important. I do lean quite a bit to the Left of Center, though. I am sure there are departments out there with files on me. Part of the reason for my curiosity to find out how much information supposedly democratic governments collect on its citizens. We always hear about the KGB and Stasi files. I am curious about the FBI and the DoJ files. In fact, it would be more interesting if large portions of my files were blacked out. I am well aware of the tracks I leave behind on the Internet. I want to find out the tracks I leave in Real Life.
cabingrl: How about saying 'I already pay your pay check through my taxes, than you'?
My, oh my. You got all that gear just on a whim. I will back up the "buy a cheap camera and practice practice practice" suggestion you got from the others. And read, damn you. Read like crazy. And shoot. Shot every day of your life. I did for 4 years am finally proud of the output I am able to produce (10-12 good, sellable shots from a roll of 36 exposures. I still shoot film till I can afford going digital SLR). Buy the cheapest digital SLR there is (Nikon D50 or Canon Rebel D) and start. NOW.
I'll trade you a Nikon D50 for all your gear. ;-)
dhruva,
I was just about to post the link to Ramesh Mahadevan's masterful Gentle Introduction... hosted by yours truly.
One of these days I must post some background on Ramesh to MoFi.
Since 2001 I haven't lived in one place for more than a year. For most of 2002 I lived in Palo Alto, CA, CA. I lived in Tala, Kenya for most of 2003. For most of 2004 I have been living in Bangalore, India.
Where I would really love to live is Laos.
homunculus, I did click on the original link you had posted, but the site was "under maintenence" (I still get the same message). So I could not read the alternative tradition.
PY, thanks for those links. I had never come across these other traditions.
homunculus,
No he is not.
I was brought up Hindu and I should know.
You are probably referring to Shiva being the father of Ganesha.
Shiva is supposed to have two other sons: Karthikeya (aka Murugan or Skanda ) through Parvathi and Ayyappa through Krishna in his androgynous form of Mohini the enchantress.
Thanks, fuyugare.
I should add some more information. I am a permanent resident of the US and definitely want to study there. The schools, thankfully, are still among the best in the world. I cannot afford to fund my own graduate studies and my chances of getting a TA or an RA-ship are pretty good (considering my industry experience) in the US.
I want to work in rapidly developing countries in East Asia when I graduate. I feel that in 4-5 years time these countries will feel the need to pass legislation governing technology and intellectual property which I want to hopefully influence.
Causes I hold dear: Open Source, a healthy Commons, Collaborative community computing, Community Area Networks.
I n+1 the Peace Corps recommendation. If, by any chance, you are not a USian citizen, I strongly recommend VSO in Canada. I did that for a year (wish I had done it for 2) in Africa and found every moment of it deeply satisfying and rewarding. And I sleep better at night. It helped me develop so many soft skills that serve me well today. If you are going to go this path, do not quit your job just yet. Go through the selection process of VSO or Peace Corps or whatever and quit just before you have to leave for that Developing country. That way, you make sure you don't eat too much into your savings. While you are volunteer abroad, you will be paid a living wage on which you can live and travel comfortably. And when you are nearing the completion of your placement, you can decide whether you want to stay in the country and find some satisfying job there or come back and train or work in some new field. Another thing to do is to travel with your savings. Cost of travelling and living in some parts of the world are significantly lower than in parts of the US. And travelling opens your eyes to history and the wider world. And it will give you some extrovert skills. And you will be telling your grandchildren grand stories of your travels for years and years. A third option is to go to grad school.
posted by Thaths 17 years ago
In "Curious, George: Charity"
That is nice of you, Toolie. There is tons of people and critters out there that need help. The question to ask yourself is who (Katrina victims? Iraqis? Darfur refugees? Cuddle animals?) you want to help and how (Education? Food? Clothing? Shelter?). I agree with an earlier poster about 'teaching someone how to fish'. Have you considered giving a year or two of your time to being a volunteer abroad through an organization like VSO or even Peace Corps? Tired of throwing money at supposedly good causes I did. And I had the best year of my life doing it. I got to experience a foreign country like I have never experienced before (a community absorbing me as one of them). And I got to use my skills as a techie helping disadvantaged people learn these skills to generate incomes for themselves. Best of all, I did not spend a penny of my own doing all of this (except paying a monthly fee for some storage space where I stored all my worldly goods). MSF, though they do a decent job, is very very media savvy. I don't like them for insisting their volunteers wear MSF t-shirts when TV crews are around. Habitat for Humanity is good. Giving to VSO or Oxfam is also good. You might even consider giving to PBS (and help get those annoying beggers off the screen).
posted by Thaths 18 years ago
In "Curious George:"
Have you considered doing a year or two through Peace Corps or VSO or some such organization instead of going the ESL route. You may not be able to go to the place you desire (SE Asia), but you will have a fulfilling and fun experience. And it will be MUCH better organized than doing it through these hole-in-the-wall english language schools.
posted by Thaths 18 years ago
In "Curious George: Firefox Window"
Someone has installed a firefox extension that has overlaid a part of the firefox "chrome" decorations and has messed up your window in the process. I would suggest: 1. Go to Tools -> Extensions and right click on each extension and disable all of them. 2. Restart firefox. I am sure quite sure everything will be fine. 3. Go back to Tools -> Extensions and start enabling one by one, restarting Firefox every time and seeing when the problem manifests itself. Ladies and gentleman, you have your problematic extension.
posted by Thaths 18 years ago
In "Curious, George: First digital SLR"
Very generally speaking, Canon work out cheaper in terms of price and Nikon has better optics. For most beginning photograpphers, there is no significant difference between the two. It is better to invest more on good lenses and lesser on the bodies. This is because if you get into photography, you will outgrow you camera body and want a new, higher-end one. At that time, if you had oriignally invested in decent lenses, they will grow with you to the new body. That said, my personal preference is a Nikon D70 or D200.
posted by Thaths 18 years ago
In "Courious George: Making a US FOIA Request"
middleclasstool, not an Arkansan. Living under the yoke of the Governator. Thanks for all that info. Appreciate it. Dreadnought, I do not think I am anyone politically important. I do lean quite a bit to the Left of Center, though. I am sure there are departments out there with files on me. Part of the reason for my curiosity to find out how much information supposedly democratic governments collect on its citizens. We always hear about the KGB and Stasi files. I am curious about the FBI and the DoJ files. In fact, it would be more interesting if large portions of my files were blacked out. I am well aware of the tracks I leave behind on the Internet. I want to find out the tracks I leave in Real Life. cabingrl: How about saying 'I already pay your pay check through my taxes, than you'?
posted by Thaths 18 years ago
In "Curious George"
My, oh my. You got all that gear just on a whim. I will back up the "buy a cheap camera and practice practice practice" suggestion you got from the others. And read, damn you. Read like crazy. And shoot. Shot every day of your life. I did for 4 years am finally proud of the output I am able to produce (10-12 good, sellable shots from a roll of 36 exposures. I still shoot film till I can afford going digital SLR). Buy the cheapest digital SLR there is (Nikon D50 or Canon Rebel D) and start. NOW. I'll trade you a Nikon D50 for all your gear. ;-)
posted by Thaths 18 years ago
In "MS Subbulakshmi"
dhruva, I was just about to post the link to Ramesh Mahadevan's masterful Gentle Introduction... hosted by yours truly. One of these days I must post some background on Ramesh to MoFi.
posted by Thaths 19 years ago
In "Curious Armchair Travelling George"
Since 2001 I haven't lived in one place for more than a year. For most of 2002 I lived in Palo Alto, CA, CA. I lived in Tala, Kenya for most of 2003. For most of 2004 I have been living in Bangalore, India. Where I would really love to live is Laos.
posted by Thaths 19 years ago
In "The Iconographic Genesis"
homunculus, I did click on the original link you had posted, but the site was "under maintenence" (I still get the same message). So I could not read the alternative tradition. PY, thanks for those links. I had never come across these other traditions.
posted by Thaths 19 years ago
homunculus, No he is not. I was brought up Hindu and I should know. You are probably referring to Shiva being the father of Ganesha. Shiva is supposed to have two other sons: Karthikeya (aka Murugan or Skanda ) through Parvathi and Ayyappa through Krishna in his androgynous form of Mohini the enchantress.
posted by Thaths 19 years ago
In "Curious George: Hactivist Friendly Graduate Programs"
Thanks, fuyugare. I should add some more information. I am a permanent resident of the US and definitely want to study there. The schools, thankfully, are still among the best in the world. I cannot afford to fund my own graduate studies and my chances of getting a TA or an RA-ship are pretty good (considering my industry experience) in the US. I want to work in rapidly developing countries in East Asia when I graduate. I feel that in 4-5 years time these countries will feel the need to pass legislation governing technology and intellectual property which I want to hopefully influence. Causes I hold dear: Open Source, a healthy Commons, Collaborative community computing, Community Area Networks.
posted by Thaths 19 years ago
(limited to the most recent 20 comments)