I am not the least disappointed with the outcome.  I doubt I'd have
ended up at my beloved Tundra Tech if I had not been spurned by Windham
and abused by RinkyDink U.  And Tundra Tech did me a world of good.  We
are kind of hoping to send our son there...kinda hoping he doesn't have
to take the pinball bumper careening route I took to get there...and he
has indicated an occasional passing interest.

Have you really spoken to Ginsberg?  Wow, that would impress Patrick
that I know someone who spoke to Ginsberg!

-jc

Actually, a year earlier than applying to Windham, I was really excited
about the Forestry School at Wanakeena(spelling?) NY.  I was gonna be a
smoke jumper and do something useful.  Then I saw the requirement for
Trigonometry and I just gave up on the whole thing.  Years later,
making up math deficiets to get into Architecture School, I discovered
that I absolutely loved trigonometry.  It was the first math course
that made sense and you could use it to do something more useful than
mixing chemicals!  Who knew?!  I feel really sorry for kids who close
doors without walking through and at least seeing if anyone is guarding
the door ready to kick their sorry unprepared butt out.  I'm a big fan
of open enrollment and heavy duty competition to stay.  Comes from
growing up in the wrong neighborhood, I suppose.
-jc

On Saturday, March 15, 2003, at 03:29  PM, Ken Follett wrote:

>> Hey, I made it easy for a school to turn me down...
>
> John: I was turned down by Deep Springs twice. Only place I ever
> really wanted to go. A 2-yr cattle ranch/school north of Death Valley.
> I don't know why now because I hate hot places. Back then it was my
> absolute. They said that due to my heavy interest in William Blake
> that I exceeded their quota for mysticism, or something much. I
> suppose the fact I said I wanted to be a poet at one of my interviews
> but had no idea who Gary Snyder was did not help. Years later Ginsberg
> advised me to go to Naropa University to The Jack Kerouac School of
> Disembodied Poetics. But by that time I was set cranky in my stubborn
> angst. I was raised around the intellectual hyperventittilation of
> Cornell. For a semi-conscious townie that is a brain f*ck. Wrote a
> letter once to Columbia Univ. telling them they did not know what they
> were missing. I'm still waiting for them to respond... though I like
> the checks pretty well they send when we fix their buildings. Best I
> ever did insofar as education was stop self-medicating and start
> busting stone. Hayvard began w/ a library and with the zeal of a rabid
> survivalist I've been accumulating books for a while now -- just need
> to make a few more adjustments. If I sum up my education into a
> nutshell it was one afternoon when the Snap-On Tools salesman we were
> building a little masonry for told me his observation of life that
> when we need to know something it happens to come along, we only need
> to be strong and ready to grab it. Education is a state of mind. ][<en
> --
> To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
> uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
> <http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>

--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>