(June 8, 2014 at 12:04 am)GalacticBusDriver Wrote: Putting this in the "General Science" forum for reasons I believe will become clear.
A little back story:
I'm an electrical designer working in the mid-stream oil and gas industry. While it's a good paying job with one of the best companies I've ever worked for, I'm having trouble going to work every day. Part of it is burn-out. I've been doing CADD in one shape of form every working day (and a good number of weekend days) of my life since 1993. The other part is the fact that I am contributing directly to destroying the very planet I count on for my very existence. Far more directly than driving a car or buying some petroleum products. I'm helping the bastard tear it out of the ground (fracking) transport it and refine it. Ugh!
The good news:
Colorado State University is starting a new degree program, "Fermentation Science and Technology." When I heard about this my first thought was "what the fuck?" Then I started thinking. Majoring in this, with a business minor, I could open my own micro-brewery. There's huge demand for micro-brews almost anywhere you go in North America and plenty of locations where there are very few/none at all. At the very least I could land a position with Coors, Budweiser or any of the plethora of existing micro-breweries here in the area and do a job that makes people happy instead of one where I'm helping to kill a whole planet.
The (potential) problem:
There's a ton of science required for this degree. It's a little intimidating at my age (well past 40). Lots of chemistry, biology and math. The math doesn't scare me. I've always been good w/numbers. What I know about chemistry and biology (beyond the very broad strokes) you can fit in a thimble. For the most part, I only have myself to blame since I spent a lot of High School stoned out of my mind and asleep in the back of class. Still, I managed to get an AAS in Drafting Technologies in 1993. So, is the chemistry and biology that hard? Am I freaking myself out over nothing? I really want to do this.
Maybe a name change is in my future. GalacticBrewMaster has a nice ring to it.
Well I can't really help you on those classes since I'm studying law, not at all related with maths, chemistry and biology, but I think those subjects are though on college level. However reading some manuals to give you the basis before taking the course will certainly help you, most highschool basis material that provides and sustains/precedes college is easy to learn in a few weeks (I've noticed that a semester of introduction to economics taught me more than 2 years of highschool economics - And the semester only has 3 months of classes, didn't show up for a single one and read the whole textbook containing the material, the highschool exam was easy as a piece of cake) - My advice is to do what makes you passionate, you're never old to enter college, heck I have a 80 year old taking a law degree in my university, it's never too late, just take the risks after measuring the cons.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you
