I was in the same boat except that I was 29 and a systems admin. While my job was pretty good and the pay was enough for me to live comfortably, I decided to go back primarily because I did not want a management position to be jeopardized for not having the degree.

Here's what I did:

1) Pick the school that works best for you, with the major you want. I decided on University of Texas at Dallas because it has historically been a commuter school and offered a lot of even classes. Also, the campus is along my commute from work to home.

2) Find a local community college that offers as many transferable classes as possible. I decided to start at the community college level because the tuition reimbursement at my job isn't all that great. I wanted to use more of the money available in the later stages of my education. Also if I decided that i couldn't handle school and work, I wouldn't be out that much money. Also community colleges usually offer a lot of evening courses. Some community colleges offer the ability to retroactively award an associate degree if you complete the course load at a four year school.

3) Pick your class load. I decided that slow and steady wasn't going to work for me. I went full time, year round. At the end of 2 years, I had an associate degree that no one can take away.

4) Move on to four year school and do as well as you can. I have the advantage of already knowing that I have a really good job and have enough work experience to back it up in case I do need to look for something else. Having a high GPA is nice, but it really doesn't mean much when you already have a job and plenty of work experience. I have done as much as I can to pass classes with out much effort. With one exception (I had to take Calculus II four times before finally passing it.), I passed most of my classes with A's and B's. Now I'm about a semester and some change from graduating.

Unless you are already a super math genius, I would definitely bone up on your algebra and calculus prior to taking them. I had a 15 year gap in my math education that was really hard to overcome. Especially for CS. You might as well take a few extra maths and get a math degree as well.

Assuming you do not have experience working in an enterprise environment, do not be afraid to take a job at the bottom of the totem pole. Learn all you can from each position that you take, but do not get too comfortable if your ultimate goal is upward mobility.

If the money isn't what you'd hoped for, just think of it as an education expense. For every year you spend learning from others on the job, you are gaining a year of education as well as experience.

At 19 I started off working in the IT department at my university. From there I moved to an ISP doing tech support-with some Linux work on the side and then to another support role doing more SQL stuff than I wanted. By the time I felt I was ready for a job as a full time Linux administrator, I had 8 years experience in not only Linux, but also other IT areas (SQL, Windows, Networking, Storage, Management).

I would also suggest that you go on every interview you can. Interviewing is a valuable skill that really only comes with practice.

I've been happy enough with Verizon that, when I was looking for a house to buy, I only shopped in areas that were supported by Verizon.

I had pretty much abandoned facebook for Google+, but most of my friends seem very confused by it. My major annoyance with facebook was the lack of 'circles' so that I can post about my happy hour exploits without dealing with my mother, bitch about my girlfriend without my girlfriend seeing, or just post general geek stuff for my geek friends without bothering my friend's mom's daughter that I've never met, but insists that we be friends on facebook. Now that facebook has implemented 'Lists', I have used it more, but I think Google's implementation is better.

Of course the fact that G+ STILL isn't available for those of us with Google Apps accounts is a major turn off. I have essentially added yet another email account just for using with G+.

No one should ever go to NY for BBQ. Especially if you're already in the South.

I think this article is neglecting to mention that it also has a fan to maintain the temp inside of your smoker.

  I also have a BGE, which works incredibly well. But when I smoke a brisket, I still have to go out every couple of hours to make sure the temp is still good and that I do not need to add more fuel. I have a wireless probe thermometer that I can watch from anywhere in the house, but that doesn't help me to know that the fuel is spent.

They have commercially built things like this available (https://www.rocksbarbque.com), but that doesn't have the cool factor that one of these would have among my friends.

The simple fact is that if you only take CS and engineering classes, you're going to miss out on all of the cute girls. College and life afterward would be painfully lonely if I had not been in general education courses that allowed me to develop my ability to talk to women.

You're probably going to miss out on developing those crucial social skills as well. You need to interact and make friends with people from different disciplines so that you learn to communicate efficiently with people outside of your normal social/work circles.

I just went back to school this semester. I have 2 online courses that say they do not support my OS, but work just fine. The on-campus wifi uses a web login on the first http request, which works on my linux notebook as well as my Palm pre. Email is hosted through Gmail, so that makes it easy. I've been using Google Docs for most of my notes. It has made it easier to share notes and files with other users.

The only issue I've run into has been uploading my essays for a professor using the submission tool. The formatting was a bit odd, but I later found out that it is normal even if submitted with Windows/MS Office.

I'm in a fairly unique situation. I live one mile from the train station. My employer also has a train stop on site, with a second opening next year for a new rail line. My employer gets a discounted rate of $38 for a year long rail pass, which covers all trains and buses for both Dallas and Fort Worth.

I can ride a bicycle to the train station, which costs about 20 bucks a year in maintenance(tires, bearings, etc). So it would cost less than $60 per year for me to take public transportation.

A couple months ago, a friend of mine was hired on at my job and we have been car pooling since. We alternate weeks. So at 20mpg in my truck and 40 miles round trip, I burn about 10 gallons at $2/gallon. Also there are $1.40 in tolls each day. $27 every other week, so $702/year not including oil, tires and stuff that I feel is just part of owning a automobile. Even if you're not putting the miles on, those things still need to be checked/replaced. I'm not even going to mention the money saved by not owning a vehicle, because that's just not going to fly in Dallas.

The deciding factor for me is time.

In order to make it to my office by train at 7:30am, I must get up at 5am to leave by 5:45am to catch the train by 6am. Then I must transfer trains once and take a shuttle on campus from the train stop to my office. On the return trip, I have to wait for the first shuttle at 4:45pm to catch the first train by 5pm to catch the second at 5:30pm and make it to the train station at 6:15pm and ride home by 6:30pm.

In order to make it to work by 7:30 via car pooling, I must get up at 6am to meet my friend at 6:50 at my side walk, then take the HOV lane most of the way. The return trip is generally the same, but we usually burn a couple minutes saying our good-byes and wrapping up. So leave by 4:40pm and home by 5:10pm.

So, unless I were able to generate revenue by writing a novel or charge those hours to my job as part of my work day, It's hard for me to justify an extra 10 hours a week to save $13.50 in gas and tolls.