Ahh. Yeah, I understand how hard it is to go against the parental grain on matters like that. My mother tried to dissuade me and convince me to go into something medical, where there's at least a large job market. But, nothing else interested me. I won't go and say schooling helped a terrible lot, but it did give me valuable experience that I'd never trade off.

~grin~ And you should point out to your parents sometime that it's hard to get a job in ANY field right now.

This is off the topic, but have you seen the recent footage of the barrel-headed fish? It's terribly fascinating!