I like stats a lot, and the particular area I ended up in suits me pretty well. However, I often think if I had it to do over again, the two fields I would have considered more heavily would have been genetic counseling or meteorology/weather in general. The boat has probably sailed on genetic counseling, but I am continually amazed how many weather hobbyists there are out there. Might be a thing I keep getting in to as I continue to age.
So on this (likely) stormy weekend with 53% of the country (including myself) under a winter weather advisory, what are your favorite weather or storm related books/documentaries/resources? What’s your coulda woulda shoulda career?
For myself: I’ve been taking off one day a month at work to do a “nature year” program at the local Audubon society, where you go through the same trails over the course of a year to see how things change with the seasons. It’s more seasonal change than weather change, but here in New England the two are pretty intertwined. This past week we looked for animal tracks and noted the chickadees were already starting their mating calls. Apparently they’re triggered first by the increase in light, then a warmer day. Not gonna be a great weekend for them.
I’m also lucky enough to live pretty close to the major weather observatory in my area, so I’m considering checking out some of their programming. Amusingly, they were supposed to have a session on Nor’easters on Monday night that had to be cancelled due to weather.
I also will probably spend tomorrow reading a book I got my dad a few years ago for his birthday: Mighty Storms of New England: The Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Blizzards, and Floods That Shaped the Region.
Math is the most fun when we put it to use.
So, if you had it to do over again, what would you have done with yourself? And what are you up to tomorrow assuming no disasters strike?
graph paper diaries 
Just out of curiosity, do you follow DataRepublican on X, or Holly MathNerd on Substack? Two more female mathematicians, who provide interesting perspectives on some things. Interestingly, I think they are both deaf, or at least very hard of hearing.
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I haven’t! I’ll have to check it out because I haven’t updated my sidebar in 6 or 7 years and probably should. Odd coincidence with the hearing problems!
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By the way, that BlueGenerously moniker was assigned by whoever hosts your website. It does not give me the option to use my own name.
But in answer to your question, which is actually why I came here initially, before I got sidetracked: I am a retired chemical engineer, who worked in the industry for my entire career. If I was starting over again, I would think about architecture, mainly because it is one of the technical jobs that would allow me to hang out my shingle, and work for myself. If it came right down to it, I dunno if I would have the nerve to set out on my own, but at least it would be an option.
Mr Bill
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Sorry about the name! WordPress seems to have changed some things about the comment section since I first set it up in ways I don’t entirely understand. I’ve had people ask if I’d considered moving to Substack which seems to function a bit better, but that seems more geared towards subscriptions, and I like just messing around with ideas here. Ah well. I’ll see if there’s something in settings I can fix.
Self employment always does sound nice, though with some of my health issues I think I’ll have to stick to things with guaranteed paid sick time. My grandfather ended up a self employed statistician back in the day, he actually made graph paper that helped do some of the more complex calculations and graphing easier prior to computers. Wouldn’t work today.
Architecture always sounds interesting to me but my spacial reasoning is my biggest technical thinking deficiency. Never got the hang of it, and am always fairly amazed by people for whom it comes easily.
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