What If?

The U.S. Department of Education is “cracking down” on for-profit schools; namely career colleges, saying essentially that for-profit schools are preying on people who can’t afford to go to college and who really should not be in college.
I don’t believe that college should be for only people who can “afford” it; there aren’t many trust fund babies around anymore. Certainly not enough to support the all of higher education.

Let’s play what-if for a moment. What if for-profit, career colleges where closed down?

Most cars these days are computerized; gone is the day of going to the auto parts store and buying a manual that tells you how to fix your car. If you want your car fixed, you take it to a mechanic. Universal Technical Institute (UTI) has thirteen campuses spanning from coast to coast (Universal Technical Institute, 2010). Those thirteen campuses train mechanics in everything from motorcycles to automobiles – both gas and diesel – to marine engines. Go ahead, close down UTI and suddenly your car is useless when it breaks down.

Forget your car or motorcycle or boat for a moment; let’s talk about food. When you make a reservation at a favorite restaurant for a special occasion, chances are that the executive chef is a graduate of a for-profit college. Le Cordon Bleu North America has seventeen physical campuses and one on-line campus (Le Cordon Bleu North America, 2010).

And if you get sick from eating at a place where the executive chef was not educated in an accredited for-profit career college, you’ll head to your doctor’s office where his/her medical assistant will take care of you. While there are some states that do not require certification for medical assistants (Colorado is one of them), the trend is to hire certified, if not degree-holding, medical assistants. A trend I fully agree with; do you want to be taken care of by someone who hasn’t been fully trained in phlebotomy or pharmacology if you’re seen for food poisoning (because, remember the chef who cooked your special meal wasn’t fully educated)? I can tell you from twenty years’ experience in the medical field – you do not want the physician drawing your blood. It’s likely that the last time he/she has drawn blood was in their third or fourth year of medical school.

Of course, getting food poisoning from a special dinner and having to go to the doctor is all moot if your car’s broken and there aren’t any mechanics to fix it. I suppose you could call an ambulance, but those are typically staffed by Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and Paramedics who attended a for-profit career college.

I don’t think that the people who put this “crack down” together fully thought things through. Closing down for-profit schools will negatively impact the entire country; not just the schools themselves. The people who keep this country mobile, fed and healthy (and countless other professions) have most likely been educated at non-traditional, specialized schools.

My undergraduate degree in biology came from a traditional university. The only job I could land after I graduated, with my shiny new degree in hand, was building trophies at a trophy shop for $7.25 an hour. Eventually I was able to find a job in health care, but it wasn’t my degree that landed me the job. It was the experience I gained while working in the emergency department as an EMT that landed me the job. Career services at the university I attended consisted of a bulletin board with 3x5” cards tacked to it and a binder of employers who “may” hire a graduate.

Accreditation for a for-profit career college is extremely strict; the schools must prove that their graduates are employable after graduation and must keep track of the percentage of students placed in their field of study. Career services employees help with resume polishing, interview skills and job searches. Sure beats the “help” I got when I graduated.

I’m currently pursuing my Master’s degree. I chose a for-profit career college, which I know will provide me with the skills I need to be employable in my field.

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Le Cordon Bleu North America. (2010). Cooking School Campus Locations. Retrieved July 30, 2010, from Le Cordon Bleu: http://www.chefs.edu/Campus-Locations

Universal Technical Institute. (2010). Universal Technical Institute Campus Locations. Retrieved July 30, 2010, from Universal Technical Institute: http://www.uti.edu/Home/Campus-Locations

An Anniversary, Random Thoughts and a Give-Away

Today's my blog's two year anniversary, almost 300 posts.  Scary isn't it? What's scarier is that I have followers. Lost one, but gained eight. I won't complain. It's better than losing eight and gaining one.  Yikes!

I spent about ten days traveling for both business and pleasure and repeatedly some random things popped into my head:

• I love to fly in flip-flops. It makes going through security super easy and I can take them off during my flight. The only problem is that I'm always afraid that I'll lose a toe or two on the escalators, so I end up curling my toes as far up under my feet as possible. If I could retract them, I would.
• Why is it that the upper-end hotels never have fart fans in the bathroom?  Seriously, after eating conference food and traveling, I really need a fart fan in the bathroom.  Here's a tip: even rich people's shit stinks. (Not that I'm rich, far from it, but my company puts us up in n-i-c-e hotels.)
• While we're on the bathroom subject. Single-ply toilet paper. Really? Conference food, no fart fan and single-ply TP - is it all a cruel joke? C'mon for what you're charging per room, buy the good stuff.  Hell, even I can afford two-ply TP.
• When we were in San Antonio there was a football coaches' conference with 15,000 football coaches in attendance.  Can we say testosterone poisoning?
• Bedroom vanity. No, not the kind of vanity that Cosmo tries to instill; the furniture vanity. Even if I owned one, would I ever be able to find it for all the books piled on top? Even though I've got Eloise, I still read paper books and my TBR pile hasn't gone down a whole heap (or at all - it may have grown).

And to celebrate my blog's two-year anniversary...a CSN give-away. The best random travel thought comment will win a $50 CSN gift certificate, good at any of their two hundred stores. I've done a couple of reviews about products I've received from CSN and have been pleased with both the products and the service.  Get your comments posted no later than Sunday, August 1 at midnight MST.  After I've recieved all the comments, I'll post them and we'll have us a little vote-off for the best random travel thought.

PS - not a single one of you can give me any grief about my trichophobia after the comments I recieved on the ear hair post. I think I've just proven that we *all* have some form of trichophobia.

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

The Ashinator is now legal to drive.  Fair warning to anyone driving in Colorado. She's donned her shades, has her license in hand and is now loose on the roads.

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At her celebratory lunch with Nebalee and Autobot, we had a nice, older, obviously gay waiter.  We gave our orders and after he walked way, Autobot leaned over and said, "Mom, he's fancy!"

Apparently, that's 11 year old Autobot speak for gay-gay-gay-gay-gay.

So, Ashinator, instead of having a gay best friend, has a fancy best friend (just thought you should know, T!nK).

Ewww...Just...Ewww

Did you know that there's a Guiness World Record for longest ear hair?!

Guess how much the trichophobic GunDiva loved this news story? 'Scuse me while I go puke.

Monday Minute: Giving Away Secrets

This week Kmama is co-hosting. Link up for your chance. Do it. Do it often. Procreate people.

1. Who is your "what-if" person? (What-if person being what if I married this person or am now in a relationship with "this" person.)

I can't say that I've had a what-if person.  Guess I'm lucky in that.

2. What is your nickname?
What, you mean besides GunDiva? Okay, it's Tel, which a shortened version of my real name, which I try not to reveal.

3. If you could choose how you died, how would you like to die?
In my sleep, peacefully.  Or quickly and dramatically (emphasis on quickly).  But preferably in my sleep.

4. If you could have named yourself, which name would you have picked?
I mostly like my name; it's fairly unique so I don't have to have a qualifier.  You know, like "Short Stacy" or "Blond Stacy" or "Bitchy Stacy" (apologies to any Stacies out there).  The only thing I would change is my first name; I hate it, but only because I was named after my great grandmother who was a million and five years old when I was born and so my mental image of my name is of a shriveled up old lady.

5. Who were you named after or for what reason did your parents choose your name?
See number 4 for my first name.  My middle name is combination of two names, though it's commonly confused with a French name.

I'm Baaaaaaaaacccckkkk!

I made it. Ten days away from home, though it was a good time, was a long time.  I actually got home from Salida early Saturday afternoon, but then spent the afternoon going through my personal email (160+ new emails) and catching up on blogs. Sorry if I didn't comment on your blog, but ten day's worth of blogs meant I was doing my best speed reading impression.

I'll be back with regular posts as soon as I get caught up on some sleep. The let-down from running on adrenaline while I was gone is gonna kick my butt.

My First (Unofficial) Book Review

Note: I'd almost managed to put this book out of my mind, until the person I loaned it out to returned it a week or so ago.  I've since passed it on to another friend who couldn't believe what I was telling him about it.  It seriously gave me nightmares of Zombie Dogs.

I just finished the book Frozen by Larry Johnson and Scott Baldyga.  An article in JEMS (Journal of EMS) magazine piqued my interest, so I ordered it that day from Amazon.  I have to tell you, the first night I started reading it, it gave me nightmares.  This is a true story based on Alcor, a cryonics company, based in Scottsdale, AZ.  There are many who will argue that it is written by a disgruntled employee trying to get Alcor closed down, but as the author gets drawn into the cesspool that is Alcor, it reads like a bad science fiction novel.  The scary part?  It's all true.

It's a book that you need to read for yourself, but it is not for the sqeamish.  As I read the book, the scientist in me just couldn't see how it all would work.  These people are clinically dead - not just for minutes - before they start the "washout procedure", but some times for hours.  Alcorians believe that when their "first life cycle ends" they can be frozen and "reanimated" (thawed out) at a time when science has caught up and has cures for all that ails them.  The biggest question I was left with...what about their souls?  I'm not super religious, but I do believe that our souls help to make us who we are.  When the Alcorians complete their first life cycle and are frozen, what happens to their souls?  Do they get frozen too, only to be reanimated in hundreds of years?  Food for thought.  And what about the Alcorians who opt not for the full body suspension, but the neuro only suspensions?  When they are reanimated in the future, are they just going to grow a body to plunk the head on?  Or are the heads just going to live in jars?  More food for thought.

Another little morsel for contemplation...where do TV producers get off ruining perfectly good books by turning them into cheesy TV series?  Now, I'm sure there are some perfectly good TV series based on books.  Not that I can think of any off the top of my head, but I'm sure that someone can name one.  I had the unfortunate experience of flipping throught the channels today and coming across Legend of the Seeker, a TV series based on Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth novels.  I have always thought, from the first line I ever read, that the novels would make epic movies.  Why Goodkind decided to sell the rights so that this drivel that is such a flimsy representation of his amazing work is beyond me.  It took just about three minutes for me to get absolutely incessed that anyone could bastardize such an amazing series of novels.  I'm so angry about it, I can't even think straight to put the words down.  Let me just say, I'm extremely disappointed that this series of novels is being represented by such a horrible TV knock-off.  Now I need to go start re-reading the series to erase the images planted in my brain by the devil box.