Work only survives because of the internet

[threeplusfire]

My So Called Blog: NY Times magazine article on teenage bloggers, with many references to Livejournal.

I've read way too much of the Times tonight, and refreshed Drudge fourty thousand times in my quest for sustenance. My queue currently holds 11 certs. I've completed 24 tonight. Our production standards have been oh so generously lowered from 46 certs a night to 40. We're all doomed. If they give everyone warnings, they won't have to pay our end of the year bonuses. And just why the hell does the end of year bonus not materialize until the end of February? We're paying bills now.

Brett is moving to the dayshift Monday. Work will be less fun without him around. Who will sign all my stuff, or make fun of things with me now? My side of the office is quiet. No D&D tonight, we're going out to drink and celebrate Brett's fortune in moving on towards happier desks.

Lately, I dream almost always of Anna. She was only created to be a minor character in the scheme of things, but I keep finding her. I haven't figured out what her story is, other than her midnight flight in a stolen Jeep with a laptop and a briefcase. She's bitter.

Why won't they send us home? Don't they realize none of us are working, that we're all telling stories and taking illicit smoke breaks or surfing the net for something, anything better?

Comments

[lawnrrd]

Who knew I was emo?

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Haha, I didn't know we were supposed to be emo. I should find my converse.

[evilgeniuskatie.livejournal.com]

Fuck this so called high school guy.

First of all, I'm in high school....

When I see what's going down in my "blog" the first thing I do is read my "friends," I can get to what other peoples say later....

And fuck the bullshit, I spend me time on AIM when I am absolutely-positively bored. Like, "I have nothing else to do." And I really like some of these people, for whaddeva tha's worth.

And as to the rest of the article, here's a hearty FUCK YOU to this guy.

Ceterum censio, delendus est Canada. ~KMK

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Do you overreact to everything?

[evilgeniuskatie.livejournal.com]

Yes. ~KMK

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Well, hopefully you'll grow out of that.

[blue-by-you.livejournal.com]

I can't believe I just read that entire article. It was interesting. Thank you for pointing it out. I didn't realize what a high percentage of LJs and other online journals belonged to young people. I think I've managed to isolate myself from all of that by getting to know friends of friends rather than perusing random journals. I'm curious about your work. I hope you don't mind me asking what you do?

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Sure thing. The NY Times Magazine usually has at least one good article every week. Thank heavens, as it is often the only thing that makes Friday bearable.

I have the pompous title of Map Analyst and I do flood zone determinations. Whenever someone buys property or takes out a mortgage the bank requires a flood zone certification to determine if they need flood insurance. All the address get sent to FAFDS and put in the queue, divided by states. I work mostly in Colorado.

So I pull up an address, find the legal description of the property, and hunt it down on the map. We use the maps put out by FEMA, and work strictly in two dimensions. If it's an area where there are multiple zones, then I have to scale in the lot, pull an photo from the satellite service that shows the house from the air, and determine which flood zones touch the structure.

Normally when I tell people this their eyes glze over in 15 seconds. ;)

[blue-by-you.livejournal.com]

So, is there not so much work right now because property sales are down? Actually, it sounds fascinating to me.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Winter is generally a slow season in construction and consequently in property and home sales. Plus everyone's recovering from holiday spending.

Hee, thanks! For once my work knowledge is entertaining.