Slug_DC

What's the best newer ride at the park? I moved away from VA like 15 years ago and one of the things I miss is King's Dominion. I want to know what the "must do" ride is when I come back to visit.

What's the best strategy for a non-expert to go about making their choices? Say, one who doesn't really follow college basketball at all, but is always roped into participating in their office bracket bet. Just pick all the highest seeds? Is there some specific trend to look for? I usually just pick Virginia to win it all every year because why not.

I'm in a senior engineering position at a major tech company. And I've been here for over a decade. The problem is that I'm in a very niche field. I feel that if push comes to shove and I have to seek a new job in the future I'm screwed because while I'm very good at what I do, what I do isn't common and openings in this field just don't occur very often. I'd have to start all over again as a junior level employee somewhere because while I'm a smart guy I'm not an expert in much of anything outside of my very specific field. I'm closing in on 40 and while I have no problems taking risks on myself, I am loathe to put the wife and kids on the edge of a financial cliff because I have to take a huge pay cut to "start over". I've considered going to school for something new, but I've got one kid entering college this year and a second just a couple years behind him; money to pay for all that becomes a concern. I've also considered leaving the technical side of things and going management, but the same problem enters my mind; how can I manage a team when I'm not an expert in what they do? So what advice would you give to someone in my position?

TL;DR Long time technical specialist in a very niche field worried that if anything ever happens to current job, he'll have to start completely over from scratch and impoverish the family in the process because he wouldn't be able to land a senior level job doing anything else.

Hi Deanna!

Aside from the drugs, what was the biggest worry/anxiety you had about your son's career choice?

1. Are your SRO duties pretty much the whole of your job, or when school is let out do you jump in your car and go off to do other "normal" police stuff?

2. I imagine that there is a lot of downtime in the SRO role. Hours in the day when you aren't necessarily being called to engage anyone in an official capacity. How do you pass the time? How do you entertain yourself while all that learning is afoot?

3. "Gun Free Zone"s. Yay or nay? Do you think they help, hinder, or have no effect either way on school safety?

Thanks for being there for our kids. :)