What does everyone do?

Peter D · Post by **Peter D** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:11 pm

I'm a very underemployed songwriter and an overwhelmingly overemployed legal researcher and writer. I recently returned from Guatemala where I worked on a legal project representing women imprisoned, tortured and sexually assaulted by the powers that be. Currently, I'm doing my best to avoid employment in the legal field, and will be traveling around the southwest being an itinerant bass fisherman and songwriting fool.

TANEYTOWN · Post by **TANEYTOWN** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:12 pm

I used to be a butcher. I would go into work do a few lines of coke. Than drink 7 cups of coffee put my white meat coat on cut open a bag of beef butts take the blood & get it all over my white coat & take some & smear it on my face! Man I miss the good ole days!

Tuxedo T-shirt · Post by **Tuxedo T-shirt** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:14 pm

TANEYTOWN wrote:I used to be a butcher. I would go into work do a few lines of coke. Than drink 7 cups of coffee put my white meat coat on cut open a bag of beef butts take the blood & get it all over my white coat & take some & smear it on my face! Man I miss the good ole days!

This is, without question, the funniest fucking thing I've ever read in my life.

Nortwoods · Post by **Nortwoods** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:16 pm

track11 wrote: Someone calls up and says, “My roof leaks!"
I drive out there, take pictures, and sketch the roof.
I then sit down at my computer and draw a CAD of the building,
then create a proposal with a few different options.

I'm the guy that drew the original building which now has a leaky roof.

RiverInTheRain · Post by **RiverInTheRain** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:22 pm

Colorado Sun wrote:River! Any antiques or replicas? I am a map freak and have been known to spend many a lazy afternoon at our awesome antique map store in Downtown Denver...... My prize is a authentic 1920 planning map of the Denver Rail Car system when they were working on the expansion...

-Sun

No, we don't deal in collectables (but I know some people who do). We carry a small handful of "decorative" wall maps that are antique reproductions but mostly we're into contemporary working cartography. Along those lines, though, I know people in the map division of the Library of Congress and I've been lucky enough to get a private tour into their amazing collection on 3 different occasions when I've been in the DC 'hood. They've got this one hermetically-sealed room where they keep the real delicate antiques. I've gotten to put on white surgical gloves and actually turn the pages of 400 year old atlases and admire up close black pencil surveying sketches of Mount Vernon done by somebody with the initials "GW". Pretty damn cool.

Colorado Sun · Post by **Colorado Sun** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:25 pm

RiverInTheRain wrote:
Colorado Sun wrote:River! Any antiques or replicas? I am a map freak and have been known to spend many a lazy afternoon at our awesome antique map store in Downtown Denver...... My prize is a authentic 1920 planning map of the Denver Rail Car system when they were working on the expansion...

-Sun
No, we don't deal in collectables (but I know some people who do). We carry a small handful of "decorative" wall maps that are antique reproductions but mostly we're into contemporary working cartography. Along those lines, though, I know people in the map division of the Library of Congress and I've been lucky enough to get a private tour into their amazing collection on 3 different occasions when I've been in the DC 'hood. They've got this one hermetically-sealed room where they keep the real delicate antiques. I've gotten to put on white surgical gloves and actually turn the pages of 400 year old atlases and admire up close black pencil surveying sketches of Mount Vernon done by somebody with the initials "GW". Pretty damn cool.

Doooode! I hate you.......

There are few things that can really flip your lid anymore as you get older.......That would have done me in! Great story River. Thanks.....

-Sun

TANEYTOWN · Post by **TANEYTOWN** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:26 pm

Hey Bob it's all the truth! I was a hard-core meat man when I did it! I was like a warrior putting my war paint on & going to work cutting meat ! Funny as the neighbor hood I worked in was like all 200.000 + dollar houses! Man you should have seen the people that shoped there the looks on there faces when they saw me!

HighPlainsDrifter · Post by **HighPlainsDrifter** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:32 pm

cashew wrote:Drifter, have you found it difficult finding jobs in G.I.S.? I'm starting to get a little worried.

Somewhat, yeah. At least they're hard to come by in my city. A buddy of mine who's in this field said earlier last year that a lot of the glitzy big-league jobs are only to be found in DC and California (two places to which I have no wish to move), but that the job market seems to be improving at the state level and nationally as some positions are being vacated. It's pretty tied in with the economy of course; people just weren't moving on and vacating existing positions when things got tough.

Seem like that's been slowly changing in the past several months. Still, I check the job postings on the WI State Cartographers Office site and other links my friend sends me and pickings are relatively slim. But, this is a slow time of the year. A lot of stuff is entry-level (and they aren't listed, but don't forget internships) and generally low-level--definitely nothing I want to move across the state for.

The only paid GIS position I've worked was part of the summer of '04, after my junior year. Internships and limited-term work are kind of a sick joke to me, unless one has another regular source of income (esp. for unpaid positions), like I did. Right now I'm applying to get into the GIS certificate program at Madison (one year), with a possible Masters following. An internship is part of the requirements so that could be good or bad. Right now I'm working one day a week (Thursdays, but not today) on a county historical GIS project back home on a completely volunteer basis, and have a couple other possibilities for the spring/summer once that's finished. One is a GIS of the cemetery of the county seat where I'm working now, but I might have to get some kind of proposal together to kick the stingy municipal bastards in the ass and get something going. Just trying to stay active, have this be my volunteer work/dues-paying, and wait to move off and begin more schooling, while holding a regular bill-paying job too. I feel like a starving artist in a sense.

So (and sorry to ramble), there are entry-level jobs to be found, it's just a matter of where you look and the type of contacts you make. Networking is key. I know nothing about the job market where you are, for all I know it could be worlds better than what I've seen here. Good luck man, it's a wide-open and burgeoning field.

track11 · Post by **track11** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:47 pm

Nortwoods wrote:

I'm the guy that drew the original building which now has a leaky roof.

So you're the bassard?!

Well, come to think of it, if you guys didn't draw nearly flat roofs, I wouldn't have my current job.
Come to think of it, I would probably still be a broke-ass ski bum in Oregon,
riding pow and hanging out with hairy legged mountain girls ...
Damn you, Nortwoods.

Strange roofing side note – While everyone else is scrambling to get away from all those hurricanes,
commercial roofers are praying for mass destruction. It's a sick world indeed.

Hap · Post by **Hap** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 5:05 pm

RiverInTheRain - I've got the "map freak" thing in common with CO Sun. I'm also damned close to the Library of Congress. Do they have cool public map exhibits? It's been on my to-do list anyway.

PeterD - rock on, brother. I did public interest stuff too but even that wore on me. There's things I miss, for sure, but so far so good outside the "practice." Good luck staying away if that's what you choose to do.

And someday soon I'll teach myself the how to use the quote function.

HighPlainsDrifter · Post by **HighPlainsDrifter** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 5:07 pm

Any of you self-styled map freaks familiar with a little thing called GIS?

TANEYTOWN · Post by **TANEYTOWN** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 5:09 pm

any of you like the taste of blood while on coke?

wounded dog · Post by **wounded dog** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 5:10 pm

Nortwoods wrote:
track11 wrote: Someone calls up and says, “My roof leaks!"
I drive out there, take pictures, and sketch the roof.
I then sit down at my computer and draw a CAD of the building,
then create a proposal with a few different options.
I'm the guy that drew the original building which now has a leaky roof.

I'm the carpenter who rebuilds the rotten piece of shit. Only wood work, I'll leave the roofing to the roofer. I have my own little carpentry bizz, no employees, I'm my own boss and I'm makeing more money than I ever have. I studied photography in collrge, tried to make money there but had to get a construction job to pay the college loans. Still hoping to persue photography, thing is its all gone digital now

I need to bite the bullet and get an digital SLR. I think 35mm is on the way out. I guess, I'm really out of touch with it all these days.
I'm thinking of getting my contractors license, its a big responsibility

ironman · Post by **ironman** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 5:28 pm

I have a slight map fetish too...

In my bonus room I wallpapered the ceiling with a map. I also have a Civil War Battle Map of Franklin, TN. where I live on the wall. I also, have a few others and civil war map books and so forth.

May not the same kind of map thing but I am pushing the limits...

TANEYTOWN · Post by **TANEYTOWN** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 5:30 pm

I have a map in my side room were I can take a peek at the top cities that let hot chicks roam around freely!

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