The Fall of 2009

This year, I'm restarting my academic career. I know 'career' isn't oft applied to being a student, but that's what it seems to be becoming.

I acquired two associates' degrees from our local community college, trcc, which is known for its excellent technologies programs. The degrees are in the related fields of Electronics Engineering Technologies and 'Lasers and Fiber Optics' (AKA LFoT). The latter used to be called "Photonics", which made sense, since the elementary particle of Electronics is the Electron, shouldn't the science whose elementary partical (might be)|(is) the Photon be Photonics? (The or coupled with the parens is because a recent movement in the Photonics world has been to deny photons as free-existing entities: light, some very respectable scientists are now saying, are waves all the time, and exhibit photon behavior when interacting with physical particles. Considering how long the conflict has existed between Maxwell's equations and Einstein, et. al.'s particulate approach, this is a good (and understandable) compromise.)

Anyway, I was set on acquiring a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering next, and had been told for 2 years by my boss and the company we work for that I should pursue it. I applied to UCONN, one of New England's highest-rated technical universities and was accepted into the EE departmment...and then 2 working-days before classes start, was told by my HR department that "your job is a first-shift job, and you cannot flex your hours enough to attend daytime classes." End of academics.

Since then, I've talked to a couple of trusted advisors, including my Photonics advisor, and come to the conclusion that I can acquire another associates in Computer Science Technology, then pursue a BSCS through non-traditional channels (online courses, evening courses, etc.) Once I have a BS in _any_ technology (and frankly, a BS in anything seems to work) I can go for a Masters in EE. (With 35 years as an electronics technician and many of those years spent doing electronics design, I've been told I might be able to just go straight for the masters, but I'd prefer to do it in this more orderly fashion.)

So at the end of the month, I'll be starting my ASCST, pretty much as a second-year student, based on credits I've already acquired through APL (Assessment of Prior Learning) and my previous two degrees, with the added credits in history, sociology and literature (not to mention Calculus) which I acquired from trcc in preparation for going to UCONN. By the way, I cannot recommend APL highly enough for people with life experience!

The reason I mention this is that I will be attending trcc with my son, who is returning from a year with Word Of Life Bible Institute (FL,) who is _also_ majoring in CST. So it is likely that we'll be doing our best to go together through the BSCS. He is going to be working part-time, while I'll be continuing to work full-time.

I expect it's going to be fun! I've never had a school partner before. We start separated, because he doesn't have the credits I have, but with the electives I intend to get and the additional courses I can take at trcc more cheaply than at the state college where we'll be going for the BSCS, I expect us to have many classes together.

Hello world...

ok, what's a Renaissance Man?

If the term is familiar to you, this is superfluous. If you don't, it's probably annoying, because people can be very annoyed by other people who like to use terms that aren't in common use. As for me, I just don't know how likely you are to know it, because I was caught by surprise to find out how few High school kids know what an "LP" is, or an "8-track", or why we fought the Viet Nam war, or why it wasn't a war...

Anyway.

A Renaissance Man is someone who has a great number of interests, and who is capable in more than one field.

So what qualifies me to call my blog "The Renaissance Man"? I'll admit, at the start, that it could have, and maybe should have, been "a Renaissance Man", but I wasn't concentrating when I named the blog, so I'll have to live with that. None the less, I have a couple of AS degrees (photonics and electrical engineering tech), I am capable on over 50 musical instruments and musical on more than a few, and I dabble in lots of other fields. I make lasers, but I've made sonars, lab equipment and computers. I manage to have fun, which is a Good Thing.

Add to this having been enrolled in the state's best technical university for an EE degree and being unable to attend because of the Day Job, I've started again, aiming for an ASCST (Associates in Computer Science Technologies) with a goal of at least a Bachelor's in CS and a Masters in Electrical Engineering, since post-grad schools will take any BS, as long as it is a BS.

We'll see what manifests here, then. It could be my experiences in college, yet again, as a past-50's retread. Or my experiences mentoring a musical prodigy, running a string quartet, and watching everyone around me start learning 'cello. Or any of a number of things.