lol, joke's on you!

Amen. Wish me luck on my next final, which is over various Christian theologies from the early 1100s and the Crusades Era.

Not to worry, Flummoxed. Not going to school doesn't prepare you either. Life is what is known in game theory as a minus-infinity-sum game.

College teaches you how to wait in line.
For practical skills, find out if your department has an experimental class that teaches you machine shop or a professor that needs research assistants to build equipment.
As for taxes, that's just a really bad word problem.

The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.

That's all you need to know for life.

Dont blame school for not teaching you things that your parents or the internet was supposed to teaxh you

@fluminator: So lemme get this straight. You spent 13-14 years of math classes learning all about projectile motion, polynomials, trigonometry and calculus, yet YOU NEVER ONE TIME had to fire up the family catapult and accurately hit an advancing enemy army 1500 feet away with limited or no wind resistance?

Liar.

I think the idea behind pursuing an engineering degree is that you get to spend your time doing something you enjoy, are good at, and that pays enough so that you can hire tax preparers, plumbers and the like. All the best!

"you get to spend your time doing something you enjoy"
"engineering degree"

http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/lol-duck.gif

It's not too late to learn. Never is. Ask for help and listen to what your helper says. Soon you'll be helping someone else.

Source: I knew fuck all about actual gardening and plants when I graduated even though I studied agriculture theoretically. But now that's my job, two years later, and people ask me their plant questions - questions I used to ask myself. Boom

What do you want to know how to cook?

@PE

Those who don't actually enjoy engineering rarely make it to graduation.

A great cookbook for getting started:
--Paula Hamilton, "The 5 in 10 Cookbook." The Pork Adobo and Apricot-Sauced Chicken from this book are staples in my household.

The World's Easiest Recipe (modified from one in 5 in 10):
Raw Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast
Jar of Marinated Artichoke Hearts (anywhere from 8- to 14-oz jar is fine)
Black Pepper

--Chop up the chicken and cook on medium-high heat in a skillet with a little oil until cooked all the way through (white throughout, but cuts easily)

--Dump in the artichoke hearts with their juice

--Heat up, season with the black pepper to taste, serve over rice.

A few simple tips for getting started:
--A spoonful or two of cornstarch (found in baking aisle) mixed with water is excellent for thickening sauces
--Buying a pepper grinder (or those one-shot plastic grinders in the spice aisle with peppercorns in them instead of ground pepper) is absolutely worth it. The taste is much better.
--The easiest starch to prep is rice in a rice cooker, the only kitchen gadget I use routinely. If potatoes are your thing, they microwave pretty well if you poke holes in them, but are also great if mashed (keep the skins on -- much easier, tastier and more nutritious).

Well, I can cook a really good Stromboli if I have the whole day. And our house has a spirulina garden so I'll never have to worry about being malnourished. But whenever I try a complicated recipe, something goes wrong.
I tried cooking something as simple as noodles this one time, and I didn't realize I had these awful gluten free ones and as they were boiling this weird white ooze leaked into the water and all the noodles were stuck together and they ended up being this gross ball of goo.

buy pork belly (really cheap meat here in the US) score and salt the top skin while prepping. before seasoning wipe away salt and the moisture from the skin. (best if done in repetition) season with garlic powder and chili powder to taste, then lay in a roasting pan about half submerged in a applejuice and vinegar solution (3 tblespoons of vinegar for every 2 cups of juice, just do it by eye no need for specifics) roast at 325F for 45minutes per pound. Last 15 minutes put the oven up to 375F or broil on high. You should end up with a delicious sweet and savory pork belly with a crunchy cracklin'. Best served with biscuts, fried eggs, and hashbrowns.

Boneless, skinless, chicken breast? You might as well go and get yourself some cardboard.

Use spices. We didn't invade the whole fuckin world to not use spices.

Last night, I was bored, so I popped down the local shop, got myself a couple of ostrich steaks, marinated them in paprika, salt & garlic for an hour or two, pan fried them in a dab of olive oil, and served them up with some lovely oregano-buttered new potatoes, spicy radishes, bell peppers and wild rocket.

Excluding the marinating time, it took me all of 20 minutes.

"WebDip Forum: Where Even the Recipes Get Trolled."

By they way, Fluminator, that gluten-free noodle story made me chuckle.

School is where you learn academic skills and knowledge.

Life is where you learn life.

I know how to cook because my mother showed me, and she let me help with the cooking sometimes. I know how to wire a plug because my dad showed me. I know how to make a bed because my mum taught me to make my own bed when I was 8 or 9. I know the difference between philips head and straight screws because my dad showed me.

I could go on. The point is, school is there to teach you stuff your parents, family, or immediate social group couldn't easily teach you. School is not there to teach you how to breathe, how to put on your pants, how to comb your hair, how to wash yourself. If you can't do those things, don't blame your school.

Not saying school should teach you absolutely everything important. Obviously some things we'll have to be proactive in learning ourselves. But some of the things school leaves out of the curriculum makes me scratch me head.
Also, I agree that the parents should have a primary role in teaching how to do life, but there are a crap ton of kids who don't have parents or who aren't in a stable environment at home.

Lots of people get to college without knowing any practical life skills. Down the hall from me in my dorm was a guy who never learned how to do his laundry. So he took it all including his underwear to the dry cleaners when he needed his laundry cleaned.

High schools should have a required life skills class that everyone takes for a semester that goes over things like how to fill out tax forms, build a resume, mail a letter, communicate with banks, deal with mortgages and insurance, etc. It would, without a doubt, be the most practical class any high schooler takes. Nobody says you need to learn everything like laundry and making your bed (though many high schools have cooking classes), but we shouldn't risk coming to college or moving out without any knowledge of this stuff.

When I was at high school (in the 1990s) there was a class called "business studies" which was compulsory for the first year of high school (ages 12 - 13), and after that it was an option.

In the compulsory first year, we covered topics including, how to set out a formal letter, basic double-entry book-keeping, how different kinds of bank account work, etc. Thanks to that class, at age 13 I knew the difference between writing "yours sincerely" and "yours faithfully" at the bottom of a letter.

It was quite a useful class.

What's the difference between writing "yours sincerely" and "yours faithfully" at the bottom of a letter?

Seriously, Jamie? What the hell did you do in English? All we did in business studies was extol the glories of Japanese just in time production methods. That and paper trading games in activities week.

I should note that I write formal e-mails, resumes and stuff like that occasionally without really knowing any of the rules. I just make sure it sounds respectful and as official as it needs to, no redundant information, enough information etc. and I haven't had any problem with a pissed off official because I didn't adress him correctly, although I almost certainly did mess up a couple of details in a couple of mails.

I guess I might just get away with it because I show ambition and a proactive approach, as well as the fact that most people my age may have sent a resume to the local supermarket but that's about it so a lower standard might be set for me since I'm supposed to be 'just a kid'..

Really though, in the end I think people will just chuckle and read on when I start my message with "Dear sirs,".