Geez, Joe, I Might As Well Surrender Now!

oh ya, Mike is the undisputed champeen, maybe I can scare up some fresh smelt this winter to keep him off my back. The freezer burned stuff goes to the pool winner
 
B~C

I thinks I'd rather eat da smoked sturgeon, but Mike didn't catch any keepers this year and is swearing off, so he won't be the source, fer sure.

Can of Kipper Snacks, Maybe?

Joe.
 
With his large number of posts plus all his graphics along with his signature, I think Joe should at least get the award for taking up the most space on the site.
Hey Bill, we need another counter in our posts. Total amount of space used in kb's, mb's or something nerdy like that.

(I'm still struggling to get to 1000) But this helped a little.
 
David-

Yes, there is volume to consider as well as just number of posts.

For a while, I thought I'd never be able to run Pat down because I was writing long, technical types of articles only, where a lot of his were social, and often very short. Of course, that's changed a lot. Blah, blah, blah, etc.

Also, Pat (and YOU) were buying a new boat EVERY YEAR and devoting a thread to follow it's inception, manufacture, and outfitting to the tune of 100-200 posts per boat. That's a fairly expensive way to compete, at about $500-$1000 per post!

And for a can of sardines?

**********************************

Also, I have been wondering if the graphics in my signature were bothering anyone. Mostly concerned with whether it was slowing down those with slower computers or connections. I could rotate the grahics to make it a smaller data package, if necessary.

One more post!

(Looks like Pat had to give up and go to Work!)

Joe.
 
Well, as a newbie chiming in on this matter, I think my hot-rodding a c-dory concept illustrates where I stand on the bantering going on back and forth here. :thup Better watch out guys, I just raised my count from 9 to 10 posts. :peace:
 
Yeah, Jay! Any guy with screwy ideas about a C-Dory (or any thing else, for that matter,) has a much better chance of running up the post count for a number of reasons.

And besides, screwy ideas are definitely more entertaining!

Joe.
 
Daydream with 4.42 % of total number of posts.
Sea Wolf with 3.78 %

Be interesting to see how that compares to the actual % of space the messages take up.

Obviously I have too much time on my hands today.
 
Screwy ideas? Yeah, I have plenty of those! David - I'm currently at my office in SF working hard so I can pay for all of the things I need (want) at Lopez, including a C-Dory with big, humongous motors hanging off the back.
 
The 49,891 was the current total on the Homepage in the right margin.

I used 4%, which was a rounded off number between the two %ages you quoted for Pat and I.

Just take 4% (.04)

times the 49,891

and get 1995.64 posts,

then go to the Member List (top of page)

and click on the options to use 'Total Posts" or "Top Ten Posters" to get the totals and see where 1995 fits in the rankings.


************************************

Another way to quantify the volume of posts, his to go to the poster's "Profile" and click on "Find All Posts by .................."

Then look at the bottom of the first page that starts out with the most recent posts, and see how many pages of total posts there are and compare that to other posters.

The diffiiculty here between Pat and I is that he, being a lawyer, almost always quotes the entire post he's responding to, adding greatly to his volume. I rarely quote the previous post, unless it's necessary for clarity. Lawyers are trained to gather as much "pertinent" information and case quotes as possible to sway the evidence weight in their favor on the scales of justice. More volume = more evidence= more weight in your favor.

I'll post the total pages here in a moment when I can stop and look them up:


Mike 145 pages
Pat 147 pages
Joe 126 pages
B~C 103 pages

Joe.
 
Another difference between the two of us is that Pat attends most of the C-Brat Get-Togethers up there in Puget Sound, whereas I have hardly any to attend here in Northern California.

So, to review,

Pat writes more socially, attends more C-B functions, buys new boats which result in personally oriented threads, and quotes everybody, doubling his volume.

I write more technically, socialize somewhat less, don't go to the get-togethers as much, and I don't buy new C-Dorys as often.

I am purchasing a used Sea Ray 265 Sedan (Flying) Bridge, soon, though, and if the deal goes through, I'll inform the C-Brat gang about it, as the boat is very much in contrast to a C-Dory or C-Ranger 25.

Keep on truckin" (posting).

Joe.
 
oldgrowth":1q4owy2a said:
...You see I was a school drop out. You noticed I did not say high school because I quit listening to the teachers or applying myself in junior high school, could have been sooner, don’t remember...

...From that time on, everything I know I taught my self or learned by observing...
Click to expand...

Well, well, well...ain't that a fine bit 'o confessin' there, Dave. As a fellow non-traditionally educated Brat, let me be the first to applaud you. And I'll also make no apology for the obvious fork in this thread's topic I'm taking, which obviously exists just to raise a few members' post counts...:P

I've always hated traditional education - school was ALWAYS boring to me. I love to learn, but can't stand somebody else telling me what's important. The whole concept of required courses, whose contents I would either forget in a year and/or never use in my life, are a complete waste of my brain cells. If I want to learn something, I'll do it and do it well. But I have no ambition or desire to study things that don't interest me.

Yup...Da Nerd is also a drop out - high school and college. Actually, I'm not technically a high school drop out, as I took and passed both the GED and California High School proficiency tests when it became clear I wouldn't graduate. Both of which I might add, were about as difficult as figuring out which side of the political spectrum Brock is on. :rainbow

From there, I sputtered about through numerous menial jobs, attending the local JC and two different state colleges over a period of 9 years...getting terrible grades, and never coming close to graduating.

The light for me went on after about two years of taking engineering prep courses, which bored me to tears. I was forcing myself through this program, for lack of finding anything else remotely interesting, and knowing that engineers were in demand and made decent money. That, and it kept my Dad happy...he's a UC Berkeley grad in Civil Engineering, which made acquiring student bucks from the parents a little easier...

While enrolled in a college physics course, the teacher presented a carrot to the class. His offer - a computer programming competition. He wanted interested students to break up into teams of 4-5, and write a PC program that took x and y data points from lab experiments, and determined a formula from the data that could be used for predictive analysis. The prize - a large number of points that would be divided amongst the winning team, and added to their individual test/lab/quiz scores.

Now...when I saw the number of points he was offering, the math jumped out at me. If an individual were to win the prize instead of a team, he/she could flunk every quiz and test, and have sufficient points to get a B in the class. The reason for the high number of points - this was back in the mid 80's, and PC programming was in it's infancy. The coding would be time consuming and complex; I'm sure the teacher assumed only a team effort could complete it, given the amount of free time most science/engineering students had available to them.

I'd just started playing around with computers, was pretty well hooked, and was 100% self-taught - still am. At the time, there were no courses available for PC programming, everything was mainframe or mini computer based. I decided to take the challenge...I virtually ignored the physics curriculum, and was getting D's and F's on all the labs, tests and quizzes. The instructor pulled me aside several times to see what was wrong, and I just shrugged him off. I was spending 8-10 hours a day coding for most of the semester, which was WAY more time than would have been necessary to get a decent grade doing things the "right" way.

The final week of the class, just before finals, 4 teams of students presented their programs. All of them were text based, which was expected - hardly any PC computer programs used graphics at the time, as graphics cards were just starting to make an appearance. There were minor differences between the teams' efforts, but they were all functional and well written. Then...I presented mine, which raised a few eyebrows. Nobody knew I was working on it, including the teacher who had written me off.

Mine started out like the other teams. Data points were entered, and the correct equation was determined and displayed. But along with the correct answer, another option appeared..."Show". When "Show" was selected, the screen of the text-based program flickered for a second, and went into graphics mode, displaying a graph of the equation on the screen with data points overlayed. On this screen, was a "Print" selection, which sent all details including the graph to a dot matrix printer. 'Twas one of the few moments in my life I enjoy bragging about...it felt so good looking at all the dropped jaws, and teams of people that knew their butt's had just been kicked by an individual. I didn't even bother taking the final.

I found my career, I got my B, and the program was still in use at the lab two years after I left. But more importantly, I got educated on something that has stuck with me ever since.

Learning is not about a degree or framed piece of paper, and success is not limited to those who earn one. College is the right path for many, and I don't discount the value of a good traditional education. It's certainly the safer route to success, and the only route for many careers. I'm far from knocking the majority of educated people who take this route, and if Computer Science degrees weren't tied to mainframes when I was in school, I might have been excited about taking that path.

But for me, I'm quite happy with my decision to be a "drop out", and I've done just fine thanks to my studies at the "University of Bill". It's not accredited, and like my traditional schooling I see no end in site, but that's not such a bad thing. :lol:

Whew...I think that counts as about 10 posts.
 
Bill, et al.... Congrats on figuring out what works for you! and prob what helps alot of others around you too. My farm is out in the boonies, about an hour SW of Wichita. Neighbors stick together out there and help each other out without having to be asked and many other rules of time worn wisdom prevail.

One of my dental patients asked me how I got along with the old farmers... and, yes, I am about 20 years younger than my neighbors who range from 80 up and can work me under the wagon any day... But.... those old farmers see a college degree as something a person might be able to OVERCOME, if he/she works at it for a decade or so.... learning what is really important!

John
 
Don't worry, Dr. John - I know my limitations. I won't be grabbing the pliers, doing a Google search, and figuring out how to yank any molars. Some things are probably better taught in school.

Dammit...I lied, just couldn't resist. Now I know how.

:mrgreen:
 
Bill-

Thanks for the story and insights. We have quite a few self-educated folks around here, and among them some of the brightest of our C-Brats.

Formal education works for some, and not others. Those who can focus on classwork and put up with the routines do well. Others, bored with the tedious approach, often find ways to learn what's necessary on their own. Too bad we don't provide a pathway for the later types to succeed within the institutions, rather than have to struggle through it on their own, but that may just be impossible considering the independent, non-conformist, separatist form of thinking these folks live by!

I'm actually a pre-law/lpolitical science/international relations major with a minor in life science who taught himself chemistry and physics out of necessity dictated by the job market.

To each his own way to a pathway to a meaningful life and making a living.

Joe.
 
SINCE I AM THE NEWEST OF THE NEW, AND THEREFORE HAVE NO CHANCE OF COMPETING WITH THE OLD SCHOOL, I WILL DO THE HONORABLE IMPELLING OF THY SWORD. DAMN, I MISSED, LET ME THROW MYSELF YET ANOTHER TIME, DAMN, I MISSED AGAIN, THE HELL WITH IT, I'M GETTING A COLD BEER AND CALLING IT A DAY!
I NOW DECLARE HAPPY HOUR TO BE OPEN!
 
Mark Twain " I hope my schooling does not interfere with my education"

In the not to distant past when most folks worked with their hands a degree was viewed as a valuable thing and a way up. Fast forward 30 years to a time when fewer folks work with their hands and notice with interest what has occurred! Now we are back in style. Mike on Huda Thunkit 10th grade / Army GED / mid 6,s last year!
 
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