The simple truth is that higher education as it is currently practiced is unnecessary. In all but the most generalized of fields, it is effectively a trade school, drilling the same information, semester after semester, into the minds of young men and women who are more likely than not to find a career in a different area. The real purpose behind the continuing existence of four-year universities is to continue the existence of four-year universities. If their degrees were to fall out of favor, university administrators and professors, many of whom have no marketable skills, would be destitute. Entire government agencies, employing innumerable bureaucrats, would cease to exist. Denied a steady turnover of low-yield loans, banks would forfeit billions in revenues. Without a near-universal means of propagating debt forward another generation, the engine of economic inflation would grind to a halt.

The question now must be, is there any compromise? Can a system be designed which would advance the interests of both industry and student? I believe so. The most useful skills – basic mathematics, foreign languages, the sciences – are, ironically, taught at the earliest levels. The fundamental skills of almost any field could easily be accommodated by a parallel track over a total of perhaps two years of study. Relieved of half the crippling debt of a higher education, graduates would be more inclined to explore alternatives before deciding on a career. With greater job satisfaction would come greater productivity and an increased willingness on the part of young professionals to take risks and engage in new ventures. That willingness, perhaps more than anything else, will create new industries and spur the next cycle of economic expansion. After all, the heroes of the generation currently being educated were not the products of universities, but of their own innovative spirit. Bill Gates dropped out of college to found Microsoft. Jeff Bezos left Wall Street, wrote a business plan while driving cross-country, and founded Amazon. And FedEx had its beginning as a paper written by Yale undergrad Fred Smith. He got a C.

And they wonder what drives college students to drink. Hell, just thinking about school makes me want to go tie one on. And as if that weren’t enough, some limp-dicked community college grad who couldn’t even hack it as a real social worker starts doing shit like this:

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/news-story.php?story=194268 

and saying that they have students’ best interests at heart, when if that were really the case what they’d do is get off their asses, roll up their sleeves, and make some goddamned changes in the whole fucked-up system. But no, the last thing they want to introduce into a university is some honesty or integrity. So what you wind up with is a degree factory that trains the next generation of while-collar drones to keep their heads down lest they get fucked over by the man, that the rules only apply if you don’t have something to offer in return, and that fun is a four-letter word. So go ahead kid, wear your sarcastic t-shirt to class. Just don’t be late, or you’ll miss the attendance quiz.

I just Googled my name. The results were a little depressing. Some free-lance writing I did from back when I was a MacMac, a couple of mailing list archives, this blog, and my .Mac site, plus a bunch of other Sean Terrills. Oh, and the results of an IQ test that was supposed to be private, as if I care who knows that I’m not living up to my potential. Anyway, the point I’m slowly coming to is that although I am a privacy advocate on principle, clearly if I actually cared about my own privacy I wouldn’t be writing this stuff where you can read it. So I’ve started thinking about that idea I’ve been throwing around forever, which is to carry around a PDA, mount a video camera on a pair of glasses, and broadcast my life 24/7. It’s getting steadily more technically feasible, so I guess I just have to look into costs.

Let’s talk about girls. I’m in favor of having them around, even if they do hate me. I’m just joking, most of have never met and most of those who haven’t never will. So, I’m not really shy. It’s more like I’m so disillusioned with the whole male-female paradigm that I don’t think it’s really worth the effort. I don’t want a girlfriend, but I do miss having female friends. Or maybe it’s just that I miss my friends from high school and most of them happened to be female. So on the one hand we have Jason, who doesn’t show any signs of giving up playerhood anytime soon, and on the other hand there’s Kevin, who finally seems to have found someone cool but probably exaggerates these things more than I do. So where do I fit in? I guess that’s what I’m trying to decide, and I have to wonder if this is another thing that “normal” people do based on emotion, where all I have is logic. So then I worry that worrying makes me weird and the only conclusion I can draw from all of this is that on some level, at some times, I do care about what other people think of me. I guess that’s what bothers me the most about the whole girl situation: it makes me feel less secure about myself.

OK, I need to go run now.

Stuck in my head this week: The General by Dispatch. Thank you, Phil and Yuri.

Our “spontaneous” was at Veno’s last night. I actually wound up having a really good time, probably because I took Chelle. I know it’s history repeating (she really *is* Glynis), but but I can’t help it. Abbott asked her to formal for me, and I’m not sure I’m crazy about the idea. Having a boyfriend may only be a yield sign, but I guess what I’m getting at is that I don’t just want a fuck buddy, or maybe that I’m incapable of having a fuck buddy, and just like with Glynis, that’s all it could ever really be. Emotions are such a hassle sometimes, and yet I’d forgotten how good it feels to be hugged.

Walking back from the bar Kyle found a bike that wasn’t chained to the rack, and since I was the only one sober enough to ride it back to the house it became mine. So, I have a bike now… I guess it’s time to start training for that triathlon. I haven’t ridden a bike since Yuri and I disassembled mine to build TWHDT, but it really is like skinning a cat – once you learn you never forget.

This weekend is actually bittersweet, because I know I’m going to be psychotically busy. I really need to get a head start on all the work for next week – four Spanish essays and another Linear Algebra midterm, on which I need to do well to make up for the first. Plus BMOC tonight and more pledge stuff tomorrow… ugh. Maybe I’ll get started early for a change. After this week, I’m definitely going to need a break.

That song by The Darkness has been pretty much the soundtrack to my life for the past week. I actually paid 99¢ for it at the iTunes Music Store, so I guess I’ve been trying to get my money’s worth.

I ran for the first time in almost two weeks today. I could barely breathe and I only made it a mile before I had to call it quits. Miles to go before I sleep, I guess, but at least my body is back on the To Do list. No, really, I listed it in iCal: 3/12/04: Get ripped. The weather is really nice all of a sudden, so I can start running outside and everything.

Parties on Saturday, Sunday, and Thursday this week. Three weeks to find a date for formal – argh.