RE: A WASTE OF TIME?

["Bartlema, Lauri, L." <BartlemaL@emh10.bliss.army.mil>]

I am 28, with house payment, health insurance bills and the usual
monthly bills.  I am also a grad student.  I work full time and go to
school full time.  While I like most people will say they are underpaid,
I have not and have never felt overexploited.  No one is forcing me to
go to grad school.  I do what I do because its what I want to do.
Everyone has different priorities in life.  It doesn't matter if you are
22, 52, or 92, we all have our bills and little agonies.  Paying work is
precious to me, I like a roof over my head.  But my studies are even
more precious to me, and a little or a lot of extra work is not going to
dissuade me in the least.  Either you can deal with the pains of going
thru grad school while working, or you can't.  We all have different
priorities and we all have to do what we think is right for ourselves.
No one with a brain goes into paleo thinking they will make big bucks
and be rich.  We go into paleo for the sheer love of what we do.  I
would much rather live out my life being happy in my job and earning
less, than making the big bucks and being miserable.  Lifes just too
damn short to be miserable and cranky and crabby all the time.

Just an observation about you, Dinogeorge.  I have had, for the last 6
months or so, an average of about 6 messages a day from you.  You, who
does not want to give up your time to write a paper.  Yet you post many
copious messages everyday, to the point that I have seen comments from
people asking that you be timed out after X number of times in 24 hours.
I guess I am just wondering why you have time to argue with everyone on
this list, but no time to write any papers. [no intended  malice in this
statement, just curious]

*Opinions expressed are my own, not those of my employer*


Lauri L. Bartlema
Curatorial Assistant
Conservation Division
Directorate of Environment
Fort Bliss, Texas

> ----------
> From:         Dinogeorge@aol.com[SMTP:Dinogeorge@aol.com]
> Reply To:     Dinogeorge@aol.com
> Sent:         Tuesday, September 01, 1998 8:43 AM
> To:   darren.naish@port.ac.uk; dinosaur@usc.edu
> Cc:   Gareth.Dyke@bristol.ac.uk; jon@eclipse.co.uk;
> bz050@freenet.carleton.ca
> Subject:      Re: A WASTE OF TIME?
> 
> 
> 
> How other people respond to their situations is no business of mine. I
> just
> stated my reasons for doing what I do; take them or leave them. I
> really,
> really don't give a damn. When you get to be 52 years old and have to
> cover
> house payments, health insurance, the usual monthly bills, and so
> forth,
> paying work will seem a lot more precious to you. I did my stint as an
> underpaid, overexploited grad student myself back in the 1970s, and
> that is
> the last I >ever< want to see of that life, from either side. Dinosaur
> paleontology is not my career; it's just a sideline.
>