work: what is the most interesting thing youve gotten paid to do?

[dvonk]

i certainly have an interesting job; whether i am SCUBA diving in 37°F water, plumbing water lines, constructing cages, trimming branches in a 50' lift, or hanging upside down in a harness changing a massive light bulb, i often find myself thinking, "ha, im actually getting paid to do this..."

what is the most interesting thing youve done at work? surely there are some "Duesies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duesenberg#Etymological_note)" out there--tell us your stories!

my most recent incidence was this past friday, when i got qualified for the Shooting Team. we used Remington 870 12-gauge shotguns with 4-round capacity magazines and 2 3/4" rifled slugs. here is what it entailed:

1) in standing position: grab shotgun, load 4+1 rounds, safety off, pull gun to firing position. time limit: 25 seconds.

2) in standing position at 25 yards: grab shotgun, load 4+1 rounds, fire at 12"x12" target, must hit 4 out of 5 rounds. time limit: 45 seconds.

3) sitting in a pickup truck driver's seat at 15 yards: grab shotgun, load 4+1 rounds, fire at 12"x12" target, must hit 4 out of 5 rounds. time limit: 45 seconds.

4) in standing position at 7 yards: grab shotgun, manually load one round into chamber, fire at 12"x12" target. eject shell, manually load second round into chamber, fire. must hit both rounds in target area. time limit: 20 seconds.

definitely the first time i got paid to use a firearm! :biggrin:

[Dracula]

For me, getting paid to use a firearm was how I spent two years.

Though, I have two; the worst and the best.

The Worst: Cleaning up dead fish that had been rotting on lawns that were flooded when the lake rose due to a freak rain storm. The worst part is that the sewers backed up, so there were stagnant piles of fecal water.

The Best: My month of paid leave after my Iraq deployment. I was paid to sleep in, eat ice cream, and drive my DeLorean.

[Farrar]

I once got paid $175 to play a 15-minute wedding ceremony rehearsal plus a 15-minute wedding ceremony. Total time with the horn on my face: 8 minutes. Best hourly rate of my life so far.

[ccurzio]

I break websites and exploit security vulnerabilities, and when I'm successful I tell the company they won't be able to keep accepting credit cards until they fix them.

[pezzonovante88]

Can't think of any off the top of my head worth mentioning. Although, a guy did offer me five bucks if I'd let him sit in my DeLorean. I didn't take his money, but I did let him sit in the car :)

[thirdmanj]

Sex.

[Dracula]

Sex.

So you're Steve's DCS date?

[sean]

So you're Steve's DCS date?

Win!

[thirdmanj]

So you're Steve's DCS date?

:lol:

[Jonathan]

I used to travel around the world commissioning large water treatment equipment. Been in quite a few neat plants like several Intel sites, power plants, and some pharmaceuticals among others. It was always cool to see the "behind the scenes" view. I've been in the plants that make Brita filters, McDonald's hamburger patties, Coors Light labels, Colgate toothpaste, and Pentium chips (to name a few). One day I was in a graphics/packaging plant and wandered into the area where the machine was printing the holograms for some foreign currency. Needless to say, I got told to get out of that security area fast!

But the highlight was more subtle, the travel itself. Without naming all places, I got paid to go to Sicily, Spain, Holland, Ghana, Trinidad, Venezuela and some others including just about every corner of the US. I've always said, the top 3 highlights of my work trips were seeing the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Alcatraz, and Dealy Plaza in Dallas and the 6th floor museum. I guess the low was the morning of Sept 11th, 2001 when I was at the Boston airport only an hour or so after the lunatics hijacked the planes. That was the first day of the end of my travelling career.

I do remember going to the Molson Indy years ago in Toronto and getting Valvoline pit passes. I thought the coolest guy in the world was the young engineer with his laptop plugged into the car running diagnostics. Oh well, guess I'll have to settle for working on 3 million horsepower nuclear reactors ;)

[Kenny_Z]

I got to work with the IT guy for Three Doors Down. I've been backstage doing networking stuff at a couple of country concerts. One of the ticket handlers helping me said "there goes Kenny Chesney!" and I had no idea who that is. I left before the concert started, I hate country music.

One of my favorite things used to be going into high rise condos while they are still under construction. I hung out in the RSA tower in Mobile a few months before it was complete. It was awesome watching a building be constructed.

[mluder]

The Best: My month of paid leave after my Iraq deployment. I was paid to sleep in, eat ice cream, and drive my DeLorean.

I think you earned it...

Steve

[dvonk]

cool stories, keep them coming! :smile:

[TTait]

Things I have been paid to do (chronologically):

Make an ice cream cone for Carrie Fisher.

Set up Hugh Downs home computer.

Drive the screen used BTTF 1 Delorean.

I spent more than a year as the "pilot" of one of the Enterprise-D shuttle crafts (I was motion capsule programmer for the Star Trek Ride in Vegas.) I have more hours piloting a shuttlecraft than anyone in the universe.

Fly under the Golden Gate Bridge in a helicopter.

Help build the Lincoln Presidential Library/Museum.

Served as Jim Lovell's co pilot in a lunar landing simulation.

Dinner with Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin.

Helped build the Heineken Brewery tour in Amsterdam.

Lunch with astronaut Rick Searfoss in his home.

Toured the VAB and OPF at Kennedy Space Center, including physical hands on with Atlantis and within 50 feet of Discovery the night before her final trip to the pad.

I currently work as a Disney Imagineer designing and building Theme Parks around the world.

[dvonk]

holy shit, what a list!

WIN. :biggrin:

[Dangermouse]

"Steve Sucks".

Yes, I was paid to write that.

Well, I'm at work, being paid, so here it is again : "Steve Sucks". :lol:

[DMCMW Julee]

Present job excluded of course.

*Life as a Surgical Technologist in the OR.*

Hold a beating human heart in my hand....awesome power.

Hold a lung as it "re-inflates".... It is not like a balloon, it is the most incredible cellular structure in the body.

Childbirth....the miracle of it still takes my breath away.

Reconstructive plastic surgery....amazing artwork.

[Bruce Johnson]

$15.00 a night plus all you can eat as an extra in the '76 remake of King Kong at Shea Stadium (MGM Culver City backlot), but I ended up on the cutting room floor. I slipped in hydraulic fluid. Kong leaked allot.

[Rich W]

Lots of cool ones...

Guest Builder/Fabricator on Discovery Channel, Monster Garage ... twice.

Driving new BMW's for Motorloa Automotive (testing GPS systems in the 90's)

Swimming and Scuba Diving with Dolphins at Brookfield Zoo, Seven Seas (15 years)

... and ... an interesting gig with the D Rex later this week ... more details to follow.

Later,
Rich W.

[DARCOM]

I was on the Wane Brady Show once. they paid me.

[sdg3205]

I had to buy a burrito for Justin Bieber once.

I had his credit card and I thought the guy behind the counter was going to think I mugged the guy and went on a shopping spree or something. Instead he looks at me and says "Man you must hate your name!"

I replied "I had it first," signed my name and walked away as fast as I could.

[Dracula]

I had to buy a burrito for Justin Bieber once.

I had his credit card and I thought the guy behind the counter was going to think I mugged the guy and went on a shopping spree or something. Instead he looks at me and says "Man you must hate your name!"

I replied "I had it first," signed my name and walked away as fast as I could.

You, sir, are a better man than I. I'd have taken the maximum cash advance limit and maxed out the rest on porno.

[stevedmc]

I shaved my head for a dollar once.

[sean]

I shaved my head for a dollar once.

Pic?

[Dracula]

Pic?

Pics or it didn't happen!

[stevedmc]

Pic?

I had more than just a pic of my shaved head back when it happened. There is a little bit of a story to it. I was a kid in high school and another guy bet me a dollar to shave my head.

To a poor trailer park kid, a dollar was a lot of money, so I went to a friends house after school that day and he shaved my head.

That evening I went home to the trailer park and my mom saw what I had done. Rage came upon her and she chased me into my trailer park bedroom. Btw, I almost forgot to mention that my brother Daniel sux at html.

Well, I made it to my room before momma could attack me and I locked the door. Little did I know, momma had a really big hammer and she knocked a huge hole in the door so she could stick her arm in and unlock it.

Well, as soon as I realized what she was doing, I went into the attached bathroom and locked myself in there. Fortunately momma was worn out from beating a hole in the bedroom door, she calmed down and decided not to do any damage to the bathroom door.

Lets just say it was a really interesting evening and I feared that my life would end that night. I took a few pictures of the door the next day but I'm not sure what happened to them. But it was a pretty big hole. The hole was large enough for me to put my shaved head through it.

Man I miss those days...

[Dangermouse]

Firstly what does your brothers ability with HTML have to do with this story?

Secondly, if you can't produce a pic, I'm sure that a collective DMCTalk $1 donation can be made to the DCS Companionship fund if you shave it today :)

[stevedmc]

Firstly what does your brothers ability with HTML have to do with this story?

I think its time for someone to turn in their internets card.



Secondly, if you can't produce a pic, I'm sure that a collective DMCTalk $1 donation can be made to the DCS Companionship fund if you shave it today :)

The first time I shaved my head it was for $1. The second time was for $10. The last time was for $50. Make me an offer.

[dmc6960]

I'll stick my whole upper torso through the tool booth window at DCS for $1000. Just get 10 people together all willing to pitch in a hundred.

[DMCMW Dave]

I'll stick my whole upper torso through the tool booth window at DCS for $1000. Just get 10 people together all willing to pitch in a hundred.

Careful - you probably aren't as skinny as you use to be! :facepalm:

[dmc6960]

Careful - you probably aren't as skinny as you use to be! :facepalm:

Which is why the price went up from free to $1000!

[Dracula]

I'll try it for $5.00!

[stevedmc]

I'll try it for $5.00!

Do or do not. There is no try.

I'll do it for a dollar.

[Jonathan]

I think we just scripted the pilot for that new reality show... DeLorean Fear Factor. lol

[dmc6960]

Well then to everybody, photos when you do it or it never happened. Right now I'm the only adult I know of photographed through the window. I also take no responsibility for any damages to yourself or your DeLorean which may occur during this process.

FYI, I was in pain for a while after my last time doing it, at DCS '10.

[sdg3205]

I think we just scripted the pilot for that new reality show... DeLorean Fear Factor. lol

Event 2 for pilot:

Contort yourself into the trunk, close it, get driven in the snow all with a frayed, suspect release cable and no back-up.

Oh the fear.

[Dracula]

Event 2 for pilot:

Contort yourself into the trunk, close it, get driven in the snow all with a frayed, suspect release cable and no back-up.

Oh the fear.

I have contorted myself into the trunk. The strut bar made it uncomfortable, though. From the looks of it, if I can even attend DCS, I won't be taking a DeLorean.

[dvonk]

I'll stick my whole upper torso through the tool booth window at DCS for $1000.

ill do it for free! everyone always tells me im 'too skinny,' so i run with it. :lol:

its a bit of a hobby of mine to try to cram and contort myself into small spaces... here are a few examples from my field research trip with Project Puffin in 2010--and yes, the photos are in the proper orientation. :smile:

9315 9314 9316

[robvanderveer]

ill do it for free! everyone always tells me im 'too skinny,' so i run with it. :lol:

its a bit of a hobby of mine to try to cram and contort myself into small spaces... here are a few examples from my field research trip with Project Puffin in 2010--and yes, the photos are in the proper orientation. :smile:

9315 9314 9316

Have you ever seen '127 hours' or read the original book by Aron Ralston?

[dvonk]

no, but i remember when it happened back in 2003...

a good reason to never go out alone.

[Shep]

I certainly haven't have as interesting a life as quite a few of you have had, but I have gotten paid (on multiple occasions no less) to screw up our production systems so bad as to make them unusable. I work for an insurance company, and on those occasions we had dozens of emails every hour from our agents about how it wasn't working. Sometimes lasted the entire day after a botched transfer from development to production. I think I'm the inspiration for our in-house bug tracking software that emails the entire IT department plus my boss whenever there's an issue that requires immediate attention. I no longer have plausible deniability because "I didn't get that email".

Just yesterday something I'd been working on for two weeks went into production late in the day. The CEO of our company (yes, the CEO; it's a small company) walks over and says how this "will not do" at around 4:50 PM since he didn't get to tell all our agents about it, and wanted it undone. Thank god he went to the guy with seniority instead of myself since I was already starting to pack up to leave.

I guess you can say I got paid to make sure we lost some business. :coffee:

[dvonk]

ive mentioned this to a couple of you guys already, but ill post it here: i got a new job! at the beginning of october i will be starting work as a Train Dispatcher at Union Pacific. if you would like to see what it is/where i be working, check out this video...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU080ixw8aY

im excited for a job that will be mentally stimulating. ever since graduating from college ive felt like i needed a challenge occupationally, and this should be right up my alley.

its also worthy to note that it pays considerably more than my current job, so expect to see the "Obtain-O-Meter" grow faster! :biggrin:

[Dangermouse]

Congrats.

makes me think of

http://images.wikia.com/scratchpad/images/1/18/Fat_Controller_TTTE_1.jpg

Dvonk = The Fat Controller

you'll have to borrow a top hat from Chad

[Spittybug]

Some cool, some not so cool....

Summers home from college, worked "Manpower". Got to build a portable clean room at National Semiconductor and build moving library shelving system for IBM - those were cool. The crappy ones were shoveling all the demolition crap out of a retail shop in a mall that was being gutted and produce "shopping" to fill restaurant orders in the produce section of a market. BORING! Another year I was the substitute driver for a medical lab company and had 2 days to learn a multi-hundred mile route to many hospitals picking up specimen and taking them to the airport. Day 3 I had to know the route and the ins and outs of each hospital because I had to do it alone. (this is way before GPS or cell phones). Also worked as the guy at the end of the assembly line for a magazine (actually multi-page vacation flyers) and I had to reset the banding machine when it failed, take the bundles off the conveyor and stack them on the appropriate pallet by zip code. I could lay down new pallets, but wasn't allowed to use forklift. Well, I looked like Lucy and Ethel (you're too young if you don't remember) in the cake production episode. As the machine picked up speed the banding machine kept breaking and things were stacking up and then I would run out of floor space because nobody moved the pallets......hardest 2 days of physical work in my life. Other summers I was a YMCA camp counselor....great.
Got paid to work on the production floor of Ben & Jerry's ice cream as we worked up plans to get them additional cooling capacity by using liquid nitrogen. 140 pints per minute of Cherry Garcia wizzing by and just grabbing a pint of the line and slurping it down! They used to send me home with a cooler of pints after my visits! Loved going there.
Witnessed test firings of the under-wing Gatling guns at GE's armament systems group. 3 second burst was enough to OBLITERATE the targets in front of the mine shaft they fire into. Used hot gaseous nitrogen to imitate the exhaust gases that normally drive it.
Went in to many operations; steel hardening, concrete kilns, glass works, food freezers, semiconductor labs, hospitals, pulp & paper mills, lead smelters, chemical plants, etc.... all to sell nitrogen, argon, oxygen, helium, etc..
As a petrochemical consultant I traveled the world to visit with clients; Norway, Canada, France, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Brazil, UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad, Japan, Singapore, China, Korea and a couple more I'm sure I missed. Best and worst can sometimes be the same; How cool is it to be consulting to Royalty, the OPEC oil minister and the leaders of the biggest oil company of the world? Yet doing it in Saudi Arabia SUCKS! No booze, no (visible) ladies, 5 prayer calls a day, FREAKIN HOT! ~125* and humid along the coast, illogical, (did I mention NO booze?), demanding clients...... Moving on to Brazil had its perks, pretty much the exact opposite as Saudi! Sold my shares in the partnership in 2011.
Now doing my own thing, consulting, software development, inventing, tinkering.......gotta love $400/hr phone calls to educate the financial community on petrochemicals!


Kind of a strange, round about career for guy with a degree in biology, huh?

[opethmike]

Lighting coordinator on an adult movie set.

[Spittybug]

Lighting coordinator on an adult movie set.
If you had said "make up coordinator", you would win hands down.

[SamHill]

12740

[opethmike]

If you had said "make up coordinator", you would win hands down.

Doing make-up on an adult movie set.... now THAT would be interesting!

[Kenny_Z]

ive mentioned this to a couple of you guys already, but ill post it here: i got a new job! at the beginning of october i will be starting work as a Train Dispatcher at Union Pacific. if you would like to see what it is/where i be working, check out this video...

It may have been stated in the video but I have no sound. Was that room purposely designed to look like the bridge of the Enterprise D?

[dmc6960]

Other than perhaps the color scheme I see nothing resembling the bridge of the Enterprise D. They did joke real quick in the video about it looking like something out of James Bond.

[dvonk]

honestly, it reminds me most of a 'mission control' room. e.g.:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/Mission_control_center.jpg/800px-Mission_control_center.jpg

[Kenny_Z]

The color scheme sure but the angle of the cubes and wood panels. The lighting, arches on the ceiling, view screen, and the panels between the view screens on the wall all look like they were derived from the same elements that make up the bridge.

[DMCVegas]

Pros:
Pissing off Paris Hilton. Twice.

Cons:
Trace Atkins inadvertently sneaking up and scaring the shit out of me.

FML:
Having to deal with Elton John's manager.

[Shep]

The color scheme sure but the angle of the cubes and wood panels. The lighting, arches on the ceiling, view screen, and the panels between the view screens on the wall all look like they were derived from the same elements that make up the bridge.As someone who watched Star Trek: Enterprise on a regular basis (yes, I'm geeky, so sue me), I can say that the sheer size of dvonk's future place of work (congratulations by the way!) is huge compared to the Starship Enterprise. And frankly, you'd be hard-pressed to find a place that size that still has heavy use of incandescent lighting (ST:E was before LEDs were a viable option remember; just take a look at the control screens' lighting).

For comparison, here's the Starship Enterprise:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/Enterprise-D_bridge_stations.jpg/800px-Enterprise-D_bridge_stations.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Enterprise-D_bridge.jpg

I don't see it :hmm:



Pros:
Pissing off Paris Hilton. Twice.Oh now this I have got to hear. Details, details! :biggrin: I can't stand Paris Hilton...

[DMCVegas]

Oh now this I have got to hear. Details, details! :biggrin: I can't stand Paris Hilton...

Since I'm out of the industry now I can probably tell lots of my stories.

First time she was checked in @ The Aladdin and wanted VH-1 in her room so she could watch some show. I explained to her manager that we can't violate terms of a contract in order to deliver a channel to a single room. "No" is apparently a word not in that broad's vocabulary.

Second time she couldn't get her TV to work in her suite @ the Hard Rock. I got the call that a VIP had a room issue, checked in with the hotel who told me who it was. So I went to lunch first and made her wait. Turns out so did the engineers on site who couldn't stand her either. By the time I got there the issue was resolved because they just needed to plug some stuff in that came unplugged, but the employees were very happy that I delayed my visit because they wanted to stick it to her as well.

Fun facts:
Hilton Employees cannot stand her. She is an absolute embarrassment to the corporate name.

Whatever smarts were in her mother and father's DNA all went into her sister Nicky. The stories I've heard indicate that Nicky tends to be very shrewd about business and catches people off-guard. Paris by contrast is a 5 year-old that just plays with her food, phone, or whatever else during meetings and has no idea what anyone is talking about. Her sister tends to use her as just eyecandy to get people to a meeting, but otherwise she's useless.

Paris Hilton has Herpes (http://www.judiciaryreport.com/images/paris-hilton-valtrex-perscription.jpg)

[Dangermouse]

I'm shocked! She always comes across as well read and smart always ready for a stimulating discussion.

Who knew? ;)

[Shep]

She always comes across as well read and smart always ready for a stimulating discussion.Nice choice of words :tongue: