Did I ever know this stuff?

I just looked at an assignment for Jonathan's Calculus III class, which was a review of Calculus II stuff. It was totally Greek to me - and not because it had Greek characters in the equations. OMG! Did I really know this stuff once? I sort of vaguely remember it, sort of. It kind of makes me want to take calculus again so I can relearn it, but not really. Why would I really need to ever know calculus except just to know it? But I kind of like just knowing stuff, and I really don't like not knowing stuff. I never made it as far as Calculus III. I had the world's worst professor for Calc II - seriously, he was the worst. He once took 3 blackboards to solve an equation, got to the end, scratched his head, said "gee, that's not right....well, you'll figure it out in your homework", and dismissed the class. WHAT?!?!?!? I withdrew from the class shortly thereafter. He went on a "highly recommended" sabbatical the next year (as in, "take time off or you're fired") after failing 75% of the class (I would have been one of them). It was not long after that that I changed majors. I couldn't fathom why someone who wanted to write software had to know how to find the volume beneath a three-dimensional curve. I still don't, to be quite honest. Why do computer science majors have to take Calc III and Linear Algebra, Physics, and Chemistry? I guess it has to do with critical thinking and the ability to understand the complex problem solving you may possibly be asked to do in some future job, but that's sort of far-fetched. Most CS majors are either going to design hardware or write software. I don't think you need to know calculus III to write code for an office application, computer game, or operating system. But what do I know. I just run a network and design web sites.

Maybe I'll find a web site where I can refresh my memory and relearn calculus, just for the fun of it. Or not.