A journey with my boys- The Elf Barn as I call it. (6 Viewers)

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@SipLife graduated last night. Officially a Mechanical Engineer. Mighty proud of him. He is headed to San Antonio this summer for his first gig with International Truck Company in San Antonio. Gig’em.

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Alamo city cruisers is more active on facebook than here. Great group of people to get to know. I'm pretty active in several automotive communities in town, feel free to reach out if he wants.
 
@SipLife and his team won 1st place at formula one US national competition in Michigan yesterday!!!! Big accomplishment given they built it from scratch, tested, tweaked, raced, and won in less than a year! They beat out over 70 universities! :bounce::bounce2::steer:

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Great Job!!
 
Went to “Brown Camp”. A get together of fellow SriLankan friends from college days who have 2nd gen kids. A blast in so many ways for us and the boys. They realize we are somewhat normal parents compared to the wild bunch. They also made friends of their age to compare notes😁.

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I also did something with the boys that I have only spoken to them about in passing. I went to Notre Dame and took a pic at the spot that I was dropped off by a bus 31 years ago with some used clothes in a suitcase and $200 in my pocket and had to figure it out. Brought back many memories. I try never to forget where I came from. Keeps me grounded. Great to have the boys with me sharing that moment.

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We dropped @SipLife at his abode in San Antonio this weekend to start his first job at International Truck Company. This guy was selling roasted corn on the side of the road near @SipLife’s abode. 7 days a week. Sells 200 corn a day. $5 each. At 50% margin he is clearing $15k net. No college education. Drinks beer on the job too!!! @SipLife is in search of business ideas😏.

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Selling corn on the side of the road 7 days a week has got be a tuff go ! 😳

I hope Sliplife’s new job works out well !!
 
congrats @SipLife on the new job, now I have a craving for street corn!
 
In other news @Cowboy45 also got admitted to the Mechanical Engineering program at A&M. Kinda ridiculous bar to get in. As a freshman they are not guaranteed their major. They have to be in general engineering for a year and meet a GPA cutoff. When @SipLife got it it was 3.5. They raised that to 3.75 by the time @Cowboy45 was considering. @Cowboy45 was off by 0.02 to get auto admitted. A&M has a holistic review process for those that do not auto admit. Both @SipLife and @Cowboy45 went through holistic review. Part of the process is making your case for being a mechanical engineer. Their barn work played a huge part. Not many had this awareness or experience going in. What is ridiculous is that there are great test takers (that dont know which side of a screw driver to use) that get in that I would never hire. Told both boys to keep it real and get practical. @SipLife graduated and is at his job that has him engineering in the prototyping shop adjacent to senior mechanics that are shaping design at International Truck Co. @Cowboy45 is heavy into the baja racing team which is a practical pressure cooker for technical and soft skills. He gets to lead the gearbox design for next year’s rig while doing his coursework. His wheels are turning!!!!

Told both of them to walk out better, GPA behaviour to take a back seat. No tests or curriculum in the real world. Curiousity, passion, attitude, and grit is where its at.
 
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In other news @Cowboy45 also got admitted to the Mechanical Engineering program at A&M. Kinda ridiculous bar to get in. As a freshman they are not guaranteed their major. They have to be in general engineering for a year and meet a GPA cutoff. When @SipLife got it it was 3.5. They raised that to 3.75 by the time @Cowboy45 was considering. @Cowboy45 was off by 0.02 to get auto admitted. A&M has a holistic review process for those that do not auto admit. Both @SipLife and @Cowboy45 both went through holistic review. Part of the process is making your case for being a mechanical engineer. Their barn work played a huge part. Not many had this awareness or experience going in. What is ridiculous is that there are great test takers (that dont know which side of a screw driver to use) that get in but I would never hire. Told both boys to keep it real and get practical. @SipLife graduated and is at his job that has him engineering innthe prototyping shop adjacent to senior mechanics that are shaping design. @Cowboy45 is heavy into the baja racing team which is a practical pressure cooker for technical and soft skills. He gets to lead the gearbox design for next year’s rig while doing his coursework. His wheels are turning!!!!

Told both of them to walk out better, GPA behaviour to take a back seat. No tests or curriculum in the real world. Curiousity, passion, attitude, and grit is where its at.

I had a classmate in school that graduated the same time I did, so naturally we interviewed for the same recruiters (on campus) and jobs. He had a 4.0 GPA; mine was like 3.2, and I had dropped out of high school years before. Any normal person could tell within 5 minutes of talking to Dave that he was not on the same astral plane as the rest of us. Super intelligent guy, but very low social skills and absolutely zero common sense in the real world. This was in 1980; nowadays he would certainly be recognized as being on the "neurodiversity" spectrum.

We interviewed for the same job/recruiter with one of the largest major oil companies in the business; the interviewer played it safe with his corporate bureaucracy and recommended the 4.0 GPA. Dave got the job, and of course I was rejected.

Later I was able to get a job with a different and smaller major oil company - despite my lackluster GPA, they liked that I had put myself through school by working all the time, and had spent summers (and more) working manual labor jobs in the oil field. Also that I had been a mechanic before I went to college.

Dave and I ended up in the same oilfield city (Midland, Texas), and ran into each other. He was miserable, and not really able to function in his job. He went back to school for a masters degree, got a different job in the mining industry, until he figured out the hard way that he hated being underground. He quit that job, went back to school again for civil engineering, and I lost track of him after that. I hope that he ended up as a professor or something, because he excelled in the school environment if not in the real world.

Later in my career, when I was interviewing and hiring experienced geologists and geophysicists for the department I headed, I never once ever asked anyone what their GPA in school was. :meh:

Congratulations to both Liam and Keaton!
 
No tests or curriculum in the real world. Curiousity, passion, attitude, and grit is where its at.
Yup. I work as a designer in the machine tool industry, and I see results come from people with those qualities. Whereas the GPA only folks often stagnate off in a corner or up and quit.
 
Glad to have @thatcabledude and his girlfriend swing by the casa. We are doing the Best Texas BBQ trail the next two days. For all those visiting Texas, hope this gives you the real deal places. Not the Dickeys, Spring Creek, Rudy’s which is not the real deal.

Objective- try Beef Rib, Sausage, Brisket at each place. Maybe some desert. Rate it and share what the feast looks like.

Did some pre-game homework scratch notes on itinerary which gives a quick snapshot of the locations we gonna hit.

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