From Nov 20, 2009
I feel rather lucky to be employed in a profession that is intellectual, offbeat, and rewarding (at least to me it is). However, I have experienced some job duties that are have been very random, odd, or a combination of the two. I've had to stumble through crazy translations and transliterations of Hindi and Tagalog (while my coworker breezed through Russian, Polish, German, French, and Hebrew works; she's absolutely awesome). I've met with IRS agents as well as a Census Bureau agent. I've been asked to babysit random strangers' children (I don't think the owners of said children would be pleased with the prices I would quote for such services). I've been asked to write grants and conduct legal research for people during off-work hours (no thank you, very much at all; sorry folks, I'm not that nice to do it for free and plus it would be no fun and the last time I checked, I wasn't a paralegal).
One of the more squeamish events happened yesterday, however. To solve a work-related problem, I found myself watching After the Kill, a DVD about processing deer in the field, in my house before I left for work. The video was hosted by characters with semi-mullets, handlebar mustaches, and an obedient housewife who would cook up the varmints they done killed. Here's the problem though: I don't generally eat meat and think that dead animals are gross (I'm not entirely sure I how I sliced and diced a cat in high school anatomy class). Duty called, though, so I listened to clips from the DVD and tried my best not to watch. I guess maybe it's not much weirder than all the emerald ash borer information I had to sift through once (Don't Move Firewood; It Bugs Me!), but to me, it was definitely more disgusting.
I feel rather lucky to be employed in a profession that is intellectual, offbeat, and rewarding (at least to me it is). However, I have experienced some job duties that are have been very random, odd, or a combination of the two. I've had to stumble through crazy translations and transliterations of Hindi and Tagalog (while my coworker breezed through Russian, Polish, German, French, and Hebrew works; she's absolutely awesome). I've met with IRS agents as well as a Census Bureau agent. I've been asked to babysit random strangers' children (I don't think the owners of said children would be pleased with the prices I would quote for such services). I've been asked to write grants and conduct legal research for people during off-work hours (no thank you, very much at all; sorry folks, I'm not that nice to do it for free and plus it would be no fun and the last time I checked, I wasn't a paralegal).
One of the more squeamish events happened yesterday, however. To solve a work-related problem, I found myself watching After the Kill, a DVD about processing deer in the field, in my house before I left for work. The video was hosted by characters with semi-mullets, handlebar mustaches, and an obedient housewife who would cook up the varmints they done killed. Here's the problem though: I don't generally eat meat and think that dead animals are gross (I'm not entirely sure I how I sliced and diced a cat in high school anatomy class). Duty called, though, so I listened to clips from the DVD and tried my best not to watch. I guess maybe it's not much weirder than all the emerald ash borer information I had to sift through once (Don't Move Firewood; It Bugs Me!), but to me, it was definitely more disgusting.
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