May 02, 2003 - 12:59 pm
Things to note:
-XMen: United = WOW. Go see it. As much as I enjoyed the first, this one was better. My main complaint (insufficient fleshing out of the characters OTHER than Wolverine) was definitely tended to, and the two I thought were definitely underused in the first (Storm and Mystique) got thier chance to shine. Rock and roll.
-Last night was funny. That's all I'm gonna say. Well, that, and this: Cinco de Mayo is on the fifth of May, not the fifteenth. Cinco means FIVE, not MIDDLE. The next person that confuses is isn't going to get my usual correction and brief explanation of the holiday, but my alternate reality, in which "Cinco de Mayo" is actually a Spanish holiday celebrating an overabundance of refridgerators in which each family makes as much tuna salad as they can with five jars of mayonnaise.
-Speaking of holidays, yesterday was May Day. It made me think of Communists. I think if I had been born sixty years earlier, I would have been one. Doesn't quite match up to what I'm thinking nowadays, but in that environment, I definitely would have been a Red.
-Coldplay is much better than I've ever wanted to admit.
-I should change this layout, at least a little bit. Then again, I should also decorate my bathroom like a tiki bar. What this all boils down to is my incredible laziness.
Now, on to the body of this entry. The MEAT, if you will...
So last week I was talking with Haney and Long while long drew naked ladies all artistic-like in his sketchbook. We were outside of the coffee shop near my work, and as any of you familiar with the area might understand, the doors to my work were in clear view. For whatever reason, pointing to them in and informing my companions that I should get back in there to do some workering prompted Long to ask me just what I did for a living. He admitted that in the last two years, he'd never really been clear on it, though by his guess it involved sitting in a small office, on a computer, and perhaps listening to Ween.
Yeah, I don't know where he got the last bit. Ween? Ah, guess he's not that far off...
Anyhow, what catches on my brainmeats is that this is no where NEAR the first time I've gotten that same comment, either from an acquaintance who never bothered to ask, or from a good friend who never quite cleared it up before. It's like that episode of Friends where the girls lost a trivia game because nobody could name what Chandler did for a living (running joke). *moment of shame for making a sitcom reference*
So for all of you who have no idea how I make my cheddah, and the rest who "know" but still have no real idea, here goes...
So there's this Demographer, William Frey, who spreads himself all over the sociological world, from the Milken Institute in Santa Monica to The Brookings Institution in DC, to the University of Michigan, where he teaches a course and also heads a project called SSDAN.
SSDAN is a motley assortment of (mostly) students who work together with the ultimate goal of making census data more readily available to others. There are a number of ways our efforts have manifested (see website for details...if you're THAT big a nerd). We've got a hot shit website, CensusScope, which has made all sorts of waves. We hold workshops, write books, make maps and data sets, yadda yadda yadda...Oh, yeah, and we're NOT a part of the Census Bureau, damnit!
Anyhow, long story short, I work for this project. I was hired as a research assistant three years ago, and although I still do a little bit of this and that (most everyone here takes on a number of tasks-yeah, we're that cool), my main job is to keep this place on the up and up as far as administrations, organization, etc. goes. I set up paperwork, make sure everyone gets paid, etc. Also, Doc Frey made the trade a long time ago of his ability to take care of himself in exchange for a PhD. So I also take care of his business, remind him to tuck in his shirt, etc. Otherwise...yeah, I am in a small office at a computer for most if not all of the day. In fact, I am often listening to music, though I don't think I've ever enjoyed Ween in the confines of this office. Some day I'll fix that.
Anyhow, yeah, that's what I do. Although the content isn't the most stimulating, I get to make my own hours (making this a perfect student job), my coworkers are the shiznizzle, and my boss is the quirkiest mofo this side of...someone else that's quirky. I get paid damned nice and I get to dominate this computer all day.
So...that's what I do. Anyone tempted to inquire from this point forward will simply be handed a printout of this entry and told to kindly fuck off. Thank you, please tip your waitress.
