More degrees

On Sunday, The Lady had to help staff a booth from her university department -- so the kids and I wandered around the other booths. Pretty good swag: got a small tape measure from the Engineering Department, a pen from the Business School, a squeezy ball from Accounting, a flexi-frisbee from the Health Dept, and I forget what else.

Picked up a catalog from Engineering. Good stuff, but if I won the lottery I wouldn't bother getting an Engineering degree: I have enough knowledge to dink around in the shed, making contraptions, without having to go to university. And at this point I don't need to do that stuff for a living: I'd rather mess around doing what interests **me**, not what my boss tells me needs doing.

I also stopped by the Creative Industries booths. The "Music and Sound" program is interesting, and I think I would've enjoyed being a film student. If I won the lottery it might be fun to do the Film and T.V. program -- not that I couldn't just go out and start making my film shorts, but more that it would be fun to hang around with like-minded people.


They also have a graduate certificate in Music and Sound: six months if you do it full time. **That** might be something fun to do, once I earn my "long service leave".

Long service leave is "a period of paid leave granted to an employee in recognition of a long period of service to an employer." In addition to the four weeks of paid vacation each year, Queensland government employees get eight and two-thirds weeks of leave for each ten years of ongoing employment. So that's twelve weeks, if I combine them.

A university semester is thirteen weeks, plus finals. So if I saved up a little vacation from a previous year, I could spend my entire three months doing a graduate level university course on recording technology.

Hm. Actually, I'd be better off spending the AU$7,400 tuition on some recording equipment, and spending the three months locked in a room, recording songs.

Although, it would be a different experience.

Mostly, I'd just do it to be able to put some more letters after my name, on my business card (seems to be an Australian thing: listing your qualifications on your business card).


--GG

That dream again

About a week ago, I dreamed a variation on my "back in university" dream. It was my first semester at a new university, and I was trying to cobble together a list of classes that I wanted to take, so that I could earn a Master's degree. The problem was, I kept forgetting to attend class.


Last night, I had yet another variation. Again, I was trying to get a Master's degree, and it was my first semester of the program. But this time, I was having a hard time finding any courses that seemed interesting. I ended up with a Literature class, some math class, and (I think) some Engineering class. But what the heck kind of Masters degree could I earn with such an oddball mix?

Then I realized that -- hey! I already have a Ph.D.! I don't **need** to get a Master's degree. In fact, I have a JOB! So, I dropped all my courses, early enough that I got a full refund.


The interesting part was that it wasn't until half a day later that I realized -- duh -- that I also have a **Masters** degree: I got it as part of the Ph.D. program. (That is, you get your M.A. -- then you keep going and (hopefully) get your Ph.D.) But neither in my dream, nor after I woke up, did I remember that I do have a Masters.

Huh.


--GG