As I mentioned here previously, my last big job search after I got laid off from MIT was decidedly Not Fun...

I ended up taking a job I would normally never take, because I felt utterly backed up against a wall by the economy, increasing competition in the tech sector, and the big skeleton rattling around in my closet - the lack of a degree.

I got turned down by 2 or 3 prospective employers because of this, which is something that hasn't happened to me for a very long time.

So, when I took said job, I steeled myself for the worst and called my old school, Worcester State College.

The result was not at all what I was expecting. I still only need two courses to get my bachelors degree!

I got all the paperwork filled out, jumped through all the necessary hoops and found out that I (still) need a science, and a science with a lab in order to graduate.

That information in hand, I went casting around for a science course I could take. Not easy, many of them required calculus, and those that didn't hab lab periods smack dab in the middle of my work day.

I found one course, Astronomy, that only claimed to require College Algebra and was taught Tuesday and Thursday evenings. So, I leapt.

BIG mistake.

The course started a week and a half ago. Since that time, I have poured ~30 hours and a number of sleepless nights into it, and unfortunately I have to admit that there is eactly zero chance of my passing this course. No amount of effort, lack of sleep, or heroics short of quitting my job (Freaking unlikely since I'm INCREDIBLY happy where I am now. I escaped from Windows enterprise hell and am working for an amazing company, Blue State Digital.) will save me.

I had been expecting the math to kick my ass, but in the end analyais, I could handle that just fine! There wasn't a single bit of algebraic manipulation I couldn't get past with a little work and some Google thrown in for good measure.

It was the formulas! Crazy, INSANE formulas crawling across the page and eating my poor addled brain like some kind of scene out of Dawn of the Dead.

F_ev / F_em = ( G M_v M_e / R_ev² ) / ( G M_m M_e / R_em²)

I have to withdraw from the battlefiend this time - I've lost the skirmish, but I am bound and determined to win the war!

I'll take some time to recover, take a fresh look at the problem, and talk to my academic advisor to see if I can apply some 'life credit' or something, or at the very least not bludgeon myself senseless over my lack of higher math, so I can finish up the silly degree and get on with my life!

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