New But Old...School

[cbsinc]

I just finished about 35 years of work in construction. I was a state licensed general contractor in Indiana, California, Florida, and France. I built thousands of structures. When the market became depressed, I quit and went back to school. I am currently pursuing my PhD in computer science with an unavoidable Math concentration. I’ll be going to Purdue to finish up in a couple years, but for now I am barely approaching my junior year of undergrad, which I guess is pretty good since I’ve only been at it about 15 months, but I’m really toasting my brain. Currently I’m scoring 3.7, but I have a feeling that’s going to go down. I love math, and calc and trig are fine, but C++ is proving a little difficult and frustrating. I was able to learn Spanish and French no sweat, but C++ is a little more difficult. Fortunately I don’t have to work right now, so 8-10 hours a day will return some savvy pretty soon. But in the meantime………HHHEEEELLLLLPPPPPP!!!
I’ve lived, worked, and partied in many places of the world, so now it’s time to kick up the geek meter and burn in. I have a good home office with a good computer with good connectivity, so I’m ready and able. I’m single right now, but am a life-long fan of natural born, beautiful, intelligent women. But as they say, “I’m living right now like nobody else, , so I can live tomorrow like nobody else”  !!!! Not much of a social life, but always looking to squeeze something in. When I was in South America and France many people and especially women dance Salsa. Man, you can’t believe how they shred. I’ve always wanted to become good at that. Now that I’m only going to school, I think it’s a convenient diversion. Not too time consuming, very healthy, and totally social. It’s kind of like programming, there are no set rules, just a few conventions and some guidelines. And you are only limited by your imagination.
I’ve been on the planet for a while, so my list of favorites and accomplishments are long enough that I don’t where to start. But any questions will be happily answered. I would condense to say that I am a proxy for quality, fun, totally awesome geekness, and the hunt for the true flavor in life. So let’s get on with it…
Wow samaru, you have a lot of stuff on your list…”damn, a lot of stuff” me too, very similar. I just kind of condense it all down to say:
1. Keep a strong faith, whether it’s in God, your dog or a bologna sandwich, just keep it real, and always…always make it personal.
2. Cherish every second, and every one, and every thing that you love…don’t ever miss one second.
3. Finally, don’t ever…DON’T YOU EVER, sweat the small shit. 
So, before we all hook up on the other side, let’s have gobs and gobs of fun here!
Nick
Oh, by the way my handle(e-mail), cbsinc, stands for coastline building services, inc, because I’ve always worked by the coasts of the world. It doesn’t mean some kind of esoteric, cryptic, enigma…yet. Picture attached. e-mail: <snip>

[Ancient Dragon]

Welcome to DaniWeb -- I've had a lot of fun here myself from one old fart to another. I've also learned a lot of things from people with far less experience than I have -- just goes to show that you can learn something new every day no matter how much experience I had.

A word of caution -- don't get yourself overquaified for jobs that you want. Getting a Ph.D. is OK if you want to do research or teach, but not if you want to do grunt-work coding, be a team leader, or IT manager. In that case there will be a lot of doors slammed in your face with that Ph.D. because people won't even want to interview you.

[cbsinc]

Thanks. Well taken. I have a mission that includes a PhD. But any advice is always welcome.
Nick