deird_lj: (Default)
[personal profile] deird_lj
Imagine some railway tracks.
You've got one set of tracks going north, and another set beside them going south. Both tracks look pretty much the same.
And this is in rural Victoria, so the landscape is pretty much long stretches of dried-out grass with the occasional excitement of "oh look! A tree!".
This set of tracks runs for twenty kilometres.
And over the last two years, a whole bunch of people have driven out to bits of the railway tracks, and taken photos. There could be photos of the north-going tracks, taken by someone looking north. Or photos of the north-going tracks, taken by someone looking south. Or both of those directions of photos, for the south-bound tracks. Everyone pretty much takes photos, and then chucks them in the computers at work, without bothering to label them.

My job for the week? To go through all of the photos we have for this particular set of railway tracks, and for each photo, to figure out:
a) whether it's a photo of the tracks that go north or the tracks that go south
b) whether the photo is looking north or south
c) where, along the twenty kilometres of track, the photo was taken

Wish me luck!

Date: 2008-03-25 09:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] spuffyduds.livejournal.com
*blinks* WHY?

Date: 2008-03-25 09:29 pm (UTC)
deird1: Fred looking pretty and thoughful (Default)
From: [personal profile] deird1
Because they love to torment me?

My boss wants to be able to put all the photos in order, so that we can see how the track changes as you move further north. And government people are notoriously slack about record-keeping, so I have landed the job of sorting out the whole mess.

This is not without precedent. My first week of engineering work, I got taken to a room of over 100 files, and told "We don't know what's in these. Could you find out? Thanks." The wonders of being the most junior member of staff...

Date: 2008-03-25 11:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] a2zmom.livejournal.com
ah, why?

Date: 2008-03-25 11:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] a2zmom.livejournal.com
never mind. I see the answer above.

Still pointless.

Date: 2008-03-26 12:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] padawanspider.livejournal.com
Actually, that sounds like fun. Since it only lasts a week, I don't think I'd get burnt out on it.

Okay, so now I want your job.

Date: 2008-03-26 01:47 am (UTC)
deird1: Fred looking pretty and thoughful (Default)
From: [personal profile] deird1
Cool! Let's swap jobs. Any problems with commuting to the other side of the world every morning?

It will be quite fun. I get to do a huge variety of stuff in this job - and it's nice getting to try something different every week. It's just... going to be complicated.

Date: 2008-03-26 02:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] padawanspider.livejournal.com
Hehehe. somehow I don't think I'd be reimbursed for the commute.

How good are you at tool repair and shipping/receiving? ;)

I kinda wish that some job descriptions would have "The ideal candidate will have an attention deficit" written in... some sort of clue as to how fast to expect burn-out, you know?

Date: 2008-03-26 02:49 am (UTC)
deird1: Fred looking pretty and thoughful (Default)
From: [personal profile] deird1
What we really need to do is develop some sort of teleporting device. Thus solving our commuting problems.
And we could market it for ADDers, and set up a job exchange program. So that whenever anyone got bored with their work, they could just fill in a request on our website, and get a couple of weeks swapping jobs with someone in China...

I think it's a winner.

Date: 2008-03-26 12:39 pm (UTC)

Date: 2008-03-26 08:59 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] carlos-v-b.livejournal.com
They need to start taking photos with one of these:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/cameras/9f46

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