@DanielStraight - I guess it just comes natural for me to want a degree - having grown up in a private school until college they drive down your throat - you finish high school, finish Undergrad and work on Masters. And I guess I never realized it until now - but you are right I do have a drive to learn I just don't think of it as learning because it is so fun at times.
@mfrye I am located near Philadelphia, PA. I am going to try to contact the county commerce offices - maybe find some one close by to work with for free.
If anyone in Philadelphia area happens to read this - I know .NET, HTML/css (not the recent 5.0 stuff though), PHP, MySQL, Java, I am currently learning Common Lisp(halfway through Siebel's and Grahams books), and I can read C++ but do not have an active interest in learning to program in C (so far, although I am sure it would be a nice learning experience as it seems like a good number of robust applications are in C).
For now I think I will continue to try to become a Comp Sci major - even if the piece of paper has no meaning. But if an opportunity arises with a job I will definitely jump on it.
First - thank you for even clicking on this and attempting to read and help me. I understand this is a long post, but I would really value your input as a human being and a member ofThis is a very touchy subject for me - as I have not talked about this with anyone. The best place to start is the beginning I guess. I would think that the first part is what most of the HN community can share...