Please don't take this too seriously.

[Ben Kenobi]

Great. Now go to your profs and see what you can negotiate to salvage the semester. And then you'll only be 30 credits away.

[Lorizael]

A fifty thumbs-up post; I like the way you're thinking.

Well, let's see what I'm thinking tomorrow. And next week. And six months from now. My trouble is in sustaining these bursts of enthusiasm and motivation.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Life is always a work in progress...

[Lorizael]

I can graduate in 5 semesters (Fall 2016) if I take a full course load each semester (~13-16 credits). But I wouldn't be able to work full-time anymore. I'd have to cut back to maybe 25 hours a week. Which means I'd have to take out more student loans. I'd probably be something like $30k in the hole when this was all over with. Yikes.

To compare, so far I've been working 40 hours a week and taking between 6 and 11 credits per semester. At the beginning, when I was thoroughly excited by the prospect of going back to school, I managed this just fine. I managed it even though I was at first simply making up stupid gen ed classes I'd failed during my earlier stints in college. Also, half those classes were online, which was much easier because (a) I don't have to go anywhere and (b) online classes are a joke.

I haven't taken a full course load of classes since high school, and that was 11 years ago. Going to school full-time while also working part-time... that's something I've never really done (except briefly when I worked a ****ty minimum wage retail job my senior year). Can I handle this? I'm honestly not sure. The prospect is exciting but also daunting. And the thought of all the debt I will accrue doing this doesn't help, either. As much as I am not a person driven by money, going this route means I have to find a job that pays me well enough to pay off the loans. Blarg.

[molly bloom]

Science once believed smoking to be healthy too.

'Science' did ?

Not individual doctors and scientists paid to promote the cigarettes manufactured by tobacco companies, but 'science' ?

How fascinating. I suppose 'geography' once thought the earth was flat, and 'astronomy' once thought the sun revolved around the earth.

[rah]

A minor in CS is probably the right way to go. It never hurts.
Don't worry about being rusty or only having experience with old languages. If a person programmed well in any language he can learn a new one quite easily.
When I hire, lack of a specific language experience isn't a show shopper. I'm more interested in overall programming skills. If you have the logic and data skills, the rest can be picked up.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

So Lori - you haven't died and you're talking about plans for the future. Weird night and all, how would you say the Welbutrin is doing you so far?

Your Antidepressants Are Freaking Out the Fish
Takepart.com
By Clare Leschin-Hoar | April 7, 2014 5:18 PM


As more people use antidepressants and excrete them into waterways, scientists are worried that residues of common medicines such as Prozac and Zoloft are harming aquatic life, according to recent studies.

Even when exposed to very small doses, shrimp become more active and quick. Freshwater snails have a harder time attaching to surfaces. Cuttlefish, prawns, and mussels experience color changes, and some spawn spontaneously, while minnows show signs of anxiety. Scientists warn that these changes are happening at even smaller concentration levels than previously thought.

University of Portsmouth marine biologist Alex Ford’s study on antidepressants and their impact on mollusks and crustaceans will be published this week in a special edition of the journal Aquatic Toxicology. Ford found effects on marine life can be seen at very low concentrations but said it’s difficult to prove the effects in the wild and emphasizes that all the studies done to date are laboratory studies.

Short of therapists and doctors talking to the fish about how they feel, spotting changes can be difficult.

"With antidepressants, very often the changes can be subtle behavioral changes which are hard to detect," said Ford. Compare that with experimenting on male fish with estrogen, and "it's a lot easier to see if a fish is changing sex than to detect abnormal behavior, when behavior can change very quickly."

How exactly can human medicines reach fish and other sea life? It’s simple. Antidepressants show up in urine, and wastewater treatment plants don’t yet have an inexpensive or widely adopted way to filter out drug residues. Some exciting progress has been made in that field, but implementation is far afield.

It’s been just over a decade since scientists first sounded the alarm that America’s dependency on antidepressants might be affecting fish and other marine life. Since then, the number of Americans who rely on antidepressants has grown substantially, and by 2011, nearly 250 million prescriptions a year were being filled.

It’s not solely antidepressants. In January, researchers with the Environmental Protection Agency published a study that looked at effluent from 50 large wastewater treatment plants in the U.S. and frequently detected active pharmaceutical ingredients. When it came to fish and marine life, they said, “results suggest closer examination of risks to fish and other aquatic life is justified.…”

No surprise that some studies confirmed that fish found closer to wastewater treatment plants showed higher concentrations of antidepressants, but it’s the never-ending stream of them into our waterways that makes the problem a persistent one, not just here but worldwide.

Scientists worry that fish and other aquatic life that are repeatedly exposed to medications that affect their behavior could lead to changes in the way they feed or reproduce, and they are concerned about how those effects may affect entire populations. One study showed exposed male minnows became more aggressive, while females produced less eggs.

"Fish do not metabolize drugs like we do. Even if environmental doses aren't thought to be much for a human, fish could still have significant accumulation, and as it appears, changes in their brain's gene expression," Rebecca Klaper, a professor of freshwater sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, told Environmental Health News.

Baylor University environmental science professor Bryan Brooks said that by 2050, seventy percent of the world’s population will live in urban areas, compounding the problem.

“People are living longer, and older populations take more medicines in developed countries,” Brooks said. His recent paper, "Fish on Prozac (and Zoloft): Ten Years Later," makes it clear there’s still much we don’t know about the effect of pharmaceuticals on marine life.

Improving wastewater treatment can be effective, especially when used with wetlands, Brooks said.

“Wetlands have advantages over other technologies because they can provide less expensive options for wastewater treatment while providing other environmental services, such as habitat for wildlife,” he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/antidepressant...211812252.html

...

Not intended for you to feel guilty about...

[Ben Kenobi]

To compare, so far I've been working 40 hours a week and taking between 6 and 11 credits per semester. At the beginning, when I was thoroughly excited by the prospect of going back to school, I managed this just fine. I managed it even though I was at first simply making up stupid gen ed classes I'd failed during my earlier stints in college. Also, half those classes were online, which was much easier because (a) I don't have to go anywhere and (b) online classes are a joke.

When I left and had to go back again in 2005, I had to do pretty much the same, except it was filling in all the arts electives. I ended up doing 6 history courses in a single year to rack up 36 credits, I basically earned my major in one year, with the rest of the years filled up with science electives from my physics days. I had to negotiate with each teacher and the Dean wasn't too pleased with me doing this. I lived in the library and my life really sucked that year. After that I was done and went back to work. Debt wasn't very much thankfully.

I haven't taken a full course load of classes since high school, and that was 11 years ago. Going to school full-time while also working part-time... that's something I've never really done (except briefly when I worked a ****ty minimum wage retail job my senior year). Can I handle this? I'm honestly not sure. The prospect is exciting but also daunting. And the thought of all the debt I will accrue doing this doesn't help, either. As much as I am not a person driven by money, going this route means I have to find a job that pays me well enough to pay off the loans. Blarg.

I ended up having to do this to finish out my degree. First three years were already in. At that point it had gone from a marathon to a sprint, but I only had 36 to do.

[Lorizael]

So Lori - you haven't died and you're talking about plans for the future. Weird night and all, how would you say the Welbutrin is doing you so far?

I'm clearly doing better right now, but my guess is it's far too soon to credit the Wellbutrin. What I'm hoping for is some fortuitous timing. Regardless of the source of my current optimistic outlook, hopefully the Wellbutrin can help sustain it.

Not intended for you to feel guilty about...

I eat a lot of fish at my work's cafeteria. I hope I don't OD.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

It's usually supposed to take over a week for antidepressants to kick in, I believe, so you probably did this on your own...

[Lorizael]

Sigh. I guess I'm not a total failure...

[molly bloom]

I ended up doing 6 history courses in a single year to rack up 36 credits,

You know what they say about taking too much on. It shows, by the way.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Not being a total failure ain't nothin'. I bet nobody here has you plonked, either.

[Lorizael]

Not being a total failure ain't nothin'. I bet nobody here has you plonked, either.

One of the advantages of being a moderator.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Okay that, but I bet no one's tried.