Jeremiah, that's why I always get drunk on weekends. And on weekdays too, sometimes. Like today... in a few hours I won't be able to post.

I'm no Ms. Cleo, Tom, but I suppose "legacy" could be what you're pondering.  How you want to be remembered, what lasting impact you've made do weigh heavily on some.  I'm a bit biased but I think good teachers are a much more positive force in society than some juicer out on a playing field. 

If you've positively influenced even just one of your students, Tom, I say that's something you can look back fondly on, without regrets.

Jeremiah, reading what you have written, I'm reminded of my required summer reading for school: Daniel Pink's A WHOLE NEW MIND (Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future)

Quote:  "To survive in this [technological] age, individuals and organizations must examine what they're doing to earn a living and ask themselves three questions:

1) Can someone overseas do it cheaper?
2) Can a computer do it faster?
3) Is what I'm offering in demand in an age of abundance?"

I highly recommend this book to all.  We as a society have passed through the Agricultural Age (farmers) to the Industrial Age (factory workers) to the Information Age (knowledge workers) and are now entering the Conceptual Age (creators, designers, empathizers), where we crazy right brain folks will finally rule!!!!!

I used to do that in college, Arc.  A few friends straightened me out (no bad joke intended).  Doing harm to myself wasn't going to make me feel any better, so I strived to find more constructive activities to partake in. 

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Well, I'm still in college so that means I'm entirely entitled to it. But I don't drink as often as it seems.

Thanks for the book recommendation, Tom.  I'll look into using my Amazon.com gift certificate to buy it.  Either that or go to Politics&Prose and see if they have a copy.

The whole right brain/left brain concept has made me a bit of a contradiction.  I'm left-handed (so that would mean my right side of the brain would be the more dominant side) yet got my degree in a more technical/analytical field.  Plus I prefer not spending my spare time gaming, but writing.  So who knows when I'm going to overload!

Then again, I like F. Scott Fitzgerald's quote, "The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function".

The whole right brain/left brain concept has made me a bit of a contradiction.  I'm left-handed (so that would mean my right side of the brain would be the more dominant side) yet got my degree in a more technical/analytical field.

The "left-brain" "right-brain" labels are a bit of a misnomer, in that neither side can function without the other.  Look at language -- a left-hemisphere centered activity -- without the right-brain, you would understand words, but not nuance or inflection (or double meaning, but that's more than I need to illustrate the point). 

Unfortunately, "society" has largely over-looked right-hemisphere functions as unnecessary, rewarding left-dominant abilities and careers.  But now, in an age of abundance, left-dominant stuff is more and more able to be done by computers or out-sourcing -- leaving the only value in right-centered function.

Take cell-phones, which barely existed ten years ago.  Now there are cell phones everywhere -- everyone who wants one can have one (much like cars) -- so what matters now is not the technological aspect (all cell phones are pretty much alike).  No, what matters is DESIGN.  What cell phone you like -- what shape is pleasing -- what color -- how ergodynamic, etc.  That's all right-hemisphere stuff.

Interesting point, no?