I just built an 8-foot tower of Legos. I could’ve made it taller, but the ceiling kinda got in the way. I’ve got a promising carreer in architecture/civil engineering ahead of me, don’t I? 
Just thought it was worth sharing.
[sub]Yes, I’m 18 and still play with Legos. You got a problem with that?[/sub]
Yes, like me you will be filled with giddy enthusiasm if you go to Engineering School.
And then you will take Differential Equations as a required Math course. What happens next will follow this probability tree:
50% chance you will be weeded out, and become a business major.
30% chance you will barely pass, and learn to hate all math from then on. You will either graduate, or drop out and write a manifesto against technology. If you graduate, you will get an MBA or JD in 3 years, and soon forget all that you have learned.
15% chance you will be a Grad Student. You will have no soul, and be the slave to a crazed psychopath (your advisor) for 4 years or more. Then you will enter a research lab, where your time will be divided between incredibly boring and innane research, and begging for money.
5% chance you will be a well-adjusted, well-rounded, happy Engineer who still likes what she/he does after 5 years. Like me. 
Bon chance!
If you want major lego projects bordering on the insanse, I suggest you go here.
http://www.ericharshbarger.org/lego/
And you’re never too old for lego. 
I’ve got something I’ve dubbed a Lego Saga on my webpage, if you care to look. (no pics or huge models, just a story kind of thing)
Gunny, doing it on purpose beats stumbling into it unemployed and with an Anthro degree. Keep going, work hard, and don’t be embarassed to be smart.
BTW, quite a few people prototype with Legos. Don’t knock it.
Una, that sure takes a lot less typing than Anthracite, so I might continue calling you that, especially since I now know for sure it’s not your given name. My point? Oh, yeah. I have been called an engineer (though I’m not a real one because I didn’t study differential equations and am really just a ghoul who had to find a REAL job) for twenty years and I hope you don’t take this the wrong way but you aren’t well-adjusted, even by engineering standards. And I adore you anyway! Or because of it.
Yeah, I never was very good at math. I just want to build stuff. This is just the backup plan in case the winning the lottery/murder for hire/automotive magazine staff/photograpy ideas don’t pan out, of course.
Eh, differential equations aren’t so bad. Of course, I probably couldn’t solve one to save my life anymore.
<goes off to work on a lego-bomb to blow up Gun’s lego-buildings>
(i can’t help it, i’m a mechanical engineer…we build weapons, structural engineers build targets. it’s the way of the world)
The first few weeks of DiffEQ (yes, you must prounounce it Diffyque :)) were hell. Once I stopped trying to understand it, and decided to treat is like a pattern recognition class (analyze equation to determine type, apply appropriate rules to solve that type of equation) and not worry about why I was doing it, I ended up with an ‘A’ in the class. Had I persisted in trying to understand it, I probably would have gotten a ‘C’ instead.
What? Una Persson is not Anthracite’s real name? Sure. Next you’ll be telling me Sue Duhnym is a pseudonym.
I was torn the first time I heard it–it’s an easy translation, but it SOUNDS so real!
Since what I do was reduced the other night to “making Clappers for rich people,” either weapon OR target would be an improvement.