Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Today in the studio....

Recording English-learning materials in China has to be the most boring job in the world. Only the occasional moments of inadvertent, dada-ist genius in the scripts make the ordeal tolerable.

My favourite today:

"I ate all your apples. And my cat ate all your bananas."

Well, you're just a bad neighbour, aren't you? And your freak cat is soon going to be very, very ill.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

No, I disagree: software testing is *THE* most boring job in the world.
(She who forgets her password)

Froog said...

You have no idea.

I mean, for a start, you're working on a computer, which obviously gives you HUGE AMOUNTS of opportunity to bunk off whenever you feel like it and just go surfing the Internet.

Also, I imagine, you are in a moderately comfortable office, with plenty of other human beings (perhaps obnoxious or crazy human beings, but human beings nonetheless) around.... rather than being stuck in a tiny, featureless, windowless room with only one other person for company.... for hours at a time.

And whereas your job may be a wee bit repetitive, I doubt if you are required to do exactly the same fucking thing three or four times an hour.... every week.... year after year after year.

It's not even a contest, believe me.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but just think of the gobs of money you make!

Did you switch up the dialog with some witticisms?

Currently, I'm slacking off because I'm really bored. I get to organize financial reports from the past year, alphabetize them by PI, then put them in order by grant number and then by date. When that's all done I get to scan them into the computer and create a database for them....zzzzzzzz.... Mind numbing.

Froog said...

But can you tell me the way to the library? Can you? CAN you?? I've asked you twenty fucking times already in the last three hours, but I'm going to have to ask you again, because this time it might be the No.18 bus you recommend rather than the No. 4......

The British Cowboy said...

Yeah froog. You are the only person in the entire world whose job involves doing the same thing repetitively, locked away from human contact.

Now excuse me while I start on another box of documents.

Froog said...

Oh, documents! Don't tease me! Oh, the infinite variety of documents!!

Anything that gives you just a little bit of control over your working process - however much it's something you'd rather not be doing - is better than what I'm talking about. I am purely an automaton, a mechanical shit-regurgitator: shit pours in, shit pours out.

Anonymous said...

Ok, back to your reply to my original comment... I can't bunk off, I can't skive. (So what that I'm replying to this during working hours while the team manager is on holiday and the team leader is at a meeting...). But I work with IT folks! (Geeks... Geekesses... Nerds...) Some of whom cannot interact with fellow humans, and can only communicate with that piece of equipment in front of them (that just about describes most guys, doesn't it? Ha ha). Actually, to be honest, my current team are really good fun, and we still get the work done. And I currently work with 2 Jedis. Well that's what they declared under 'religion' when they completed the last UK census form...
Ali Bali Bee