Well, today was my first day of the new semester of college.

I'm actually only taking one class, Fundamentals of Microcomputer Repair. Oh, boy! I didn't really know what to expect when I got in there, didn't know if I'd be overrun by extreme users or anything like that, but to my surprise, everyone was a complete n00b. The class is probably attended by a maximum of about 15 people, composed of a general age concensus of about 30. So, I'm the young duckling there. There is one kid in the class, who sits on the other side of the room from my last seat, and all the way in the back, who is probably my age or 'round-about.

So, the first day just consisted of an introduction and things, basically just the professor reading over the syllabus and the required materials, then he did a little survey to see what the people in the class knew. One noteable question he asked was, "in this class we'll be doing things you probably won't want do with your home computer. We'll be ripping out all the guts, doing tests and such, and putting it all back together, and then some! How many of you would like to do that on your own computer?" I cheerfully raised my hand and got a short response of, "haha, that's good!" or something along those lines.

I'm very pleased and looking forward to this class. It's a complete A+ and introductory course in everything involving hardware and software basics. I will learn some things I don't know a lot about, like RAID and things like that, and probably some other things, too! I've definitely got high hopes for this class, and a big reputation to keep considering my girlfriend's step-dad told me he'd give me $100 cash if I received an A for the year. If I just do my work and pay attention, that shouldn't be too hard.

Anyway, toward the end of the class, he mentioned if we had any questions to hang around and he'd talk to us personally after class. I stepped up the desk after he dismissed us, but was cut off by the kid my age. Now, here comes the complete ownage. This kid basically, in a way that I can't remember, basically brought up the question of where to buy 'high performance' computer parts, motherboard, etc. Before the teacher could answer, and without even thinking to wait (foolish of me) I stepped in and told him to check NewEgg, TigerDirect, ZipZoomFly, etc. I rambled off a few more, too. Anyway, he says to me that he's tried all those places and hasn't been able to find anything "capable of what he needs." I'm thinking to myself, "what in the hell do you need more power than the stuff that's out for?" He eventually says he wants a gaming rig. I'm like, "alright..and NewEgg, etc. doesn't have that stuff?" He responds that he didn't see them, so trying to be helpful I asked him what processor manufacturer he was going to go with and, with a complete lack of surprise, he says that he was "going to go with AMD but heard they sucked, so he was leaning toward Intel." I immediately became offended (100% AMD, non-negotioable) and shot back quickly, "I don't know if you would be interested or not, but while we're in this class I'd gladly help you find parts, even put together a computer of your needs, free of charge. However, if you're going to go with Intel I refuse to help you further." I realize that was a little harsh, and I only half-heartidly said it, not meaning it 100%. Again, to my surprise, my professor chimes in, "yeah, I'm definitely partial to AMD. They're workhorses and I tend to root for the underdogs, and Intel needed to be put in their place, anyway. Every Intel I've saw I've been dissapointed with..." and so on and so forth.

So, the conversation runs on, and as the guy changes his topics more than I have to change gears in downtown traffic, we get to the topic of hard drives. He says that he wanted to get a 500GB hard drive. Now, I admit I'm no professional in the hardware field, repairing or shopping, but I knew that if the 500GB did exist, it would probably be way too expensive right now. So, I told him flat-out, "there's two problems with getting a hard drive like that. A: if they do exist, it wouldn't be worth the money. B: you could save money and increase your performance by getting, say, two 200GB and put it on RAID 0." My teacher chuckled a bit, as the guy looked dumbfounded. The conversation then ran into overclocking, video cards, etc. until the guy says to the two of us, "I had better get out of here, things are starting to get too intense for me." This guy was a complete douche-deluxe. I look forward to owning him in the future.

Anywho, so I had some one-on-one time to get to know my professor a bit, and it turns out he does audio editing on an AMD 800MHz processor, which I tried to tell him he needed to overclock. Anywho, I also got to ask him the two major questions I had on my mind.

I finally got word on how much techs actually make around here, and the professor told me that working for local repair companies, you'd be lucky to make $30,000/year. Wow. There goes my plan of an easy career with good money. But, he gave me some really good advice that I definitely took to heart and plan to go with. He said that the money is not in having the customers pay you for your work, but having a business pay you for your work. He said the trick is, make yourself inexpendable to the company by not only having an A+ certification, but have another certification to butter yourself up with. He reccomended either a CCNA or MCSE. I think I'm going to shoot for the CCNA about this time next year, then the following year go ahead and grab my CCNA. If I can get into a decent job to where I can live comfortable (or even in the lap of luxury!) at a good company, the guy said that most of them will pay for any certifications you choose to get that will better yourself for the good of the company. Since, according to him, the MCSE is the most expensive certification, I suppose that's the one I'll get last.

The other question was about reccomendations. After talking with the guy for about 40 minutes total, and finally getting to have some one-on-one time with someone who knew something about computers (face-to-face), I generally felt good about the course. He then told me that, "I require someone to take one of my courses first." I then responded back to him, "so, if I complete this course with, assuming flying colors, you'd write me a letter of reccomendation I could attatch to a portfolio or resume?" He looked at me and said, "I'd be honored to!" So, I think I made my first wise move in somewhat owning a kid and showing my knowledge to the professor, and also getting on his good side in the way of working toward teacher's pet status! Heh.

If you read all this, congratulations!

I can't wait until my lab on Wednesday when we...*shriek*...have to identify the parts of a motherboard! O NOES!

The key is not for me to get too comfortable with things and miss out on learning the technical side of things and jip myself in the class and, more importantly, the A+ exam.

I start classes thursday and then Im done! lol Im off friday. I have classes on M,T,W,T and the rest Im off. Im going for electronics engineering, but first I have to get all my stuff up dates (classes..etc) and then I can get my associates. Im doing for maybe a phd or masters..

lol good job, i start only in may but my course starts off like yours, im goin to have a hell of a time.. ive been helping a friend who already goes there and goin over his material and so forth, seems to easy its goin to be fun

Good write up. Reminds me of my Intro to PC class today. We got done early and the rest of the class sat around naming tunes some kid was playing on his laptop, but they weren't the kind you hear on the radio. Every single one of these were game songs...you know, songs like when Zelda meets a specific someone or the specific tune played on a certain game for a Gameboy only type of thing. These guys were naming them off left and right within the first few seconds of the kid playing them.

Otherwise, these guys are complete idiots everytime we sat down to open up a computer to do our labs. I can't tell you how many times that they were hovering over my shoulder trying to see what the hell I was doing so they would understand it. As a matter of fact, I became the de facto lab teacher, explaining things in plain English so these idiots would understand.

One of the folks in our class...oh my god. Drove me freakin' insane. He was about to graduate; however, they told him that he forgot to take this 100 level class. That "automatically" qualified him as a computer genius. He said some stuff in class that had me rolling my eyes and once I almost called him on it. Somehow the discussion got onto the subject of stupid laws and he said that there is a federal law that states that it is a felony to committ suicide, punishable by life imprisonment.

Folks, there ain't no such animal.

I'm packing up tonight, today and tomorrow to drive up to Northridge California on wednesday, basically my first day of school will be next monday but the whole changing schools thing and it being my junior year in college will make it pretty easy to handle.

I'll post something witty here, along with pictures of my new home and cramped living space when I get the chance.

Quote: Originally Posted by Rob Otherwise, these guys are complete idiots everytime we sat down to open up a computer to do our labs. I can't tell you how many times that they were hovering over my shoulder trying to see what the hell I was doing so they would understand it. As a matter of fact, I became the de facto lab teacher, explaining things in plain English so these idiots would understand.

ahahaha, I got that in high school and middle school too..

2nd day at school here. University of Texas at Arlington. Mechanical Engineering baby!! Its a killer but its fun!