What was your most Unusual Job?

[Friday]

eBay smut peddler 

I thought everybody had done that!

Really?  I thought I was special.   

One job that might seem out of character for over-educated geeky me was office manager of a recycling center.  For three years, I sat in a trailer at a desk right beside the door, which was propped open most of the time, so I was essentially working outdoors year-round.  I didn't have a computer; I did bookkeeping the old-fashioned way, with pencil and paper.  The first two years, I didn't even have access to a toilet, just a porta-potty.  (And may I say that being hung-over and having to puke into a porta-potty is a real freakin' PARTY.    )  The only place to wash your hands was a foot-high faucet sticking out of the ground at the opposite end of the yard.  Many of the regular customers, and a few of the employees, were homeless.  Some of my coworkers had substance abuse problems; one or two had AIDS.  Almost all of my coworkers were male (actually, there was only one other woman in the three years I worked there.)  If the weather was nice and I ran out of other stuph to do, I'd go out on the dock and sort glass.  This is a job that they sometimes make prisoners do.  It's essentially sorting other people's garbage, discarding the stuph that is not recyclable glass, and sorting the glass by color.  In your worst nightmare, you wouldn't believe some of the things people throw into recycling bins.     Ears and eyes covered for protection, bent over, with the sun beating down on the back of your neck and drowning in the smell of old beer and rancid garbage, all you think about is BROWN... GREEN... CLEAR... GREEN...BROWN.... woops, watch the hypodermic needle... GREEN...CLEAR...

Some people bitch about cubicles.  I love my cubicle... and the ladies room with toilets that flush (most of the time, anyway)... and sweet-smelling hand soap... and a steady temperature in the low 70's...  Gratitude, baby.

[David]

Some people bitch about cubicles.  I love my cubicle... and the ladies room with toilets that flush (most of the time, anyway)... and sweet-smelling hand soap... and a steady temperature in the low 70's...  Gratitude, baby.

It is the simple things in life...that make it good.   

[ancapagency]

I did counter-surveillance for a congressional campaign, covered as a campaign volunteer.  The opposition bugged the campaign office, and engaged in widespread vote fraud, with the cooperation of local and state law enforcement. 

Ooohh.... I used to sell that trash for a few years in the 90's, as part of a mail order business.  Lots of TSCM equipment, as well as few pieces of surveillance gear which obviously violated federal law.... but it was common to sell it anyway until such time that you got raided.

I always wanted to get more into the TSCM side of things, but I never really got around to it, which has long been my regret to get in a "legit" line of work.  I had all the equipment, a nice spectrum analyzers.. the works... but I never really followed through on the seeking out cutomers end.  Perhaps one day... Not a whole lot of call for that up in NH, though... and I might suspect that it is not quite the market that it used to be... I think it was a fad that died out.... not sure, I'm a bit out of the loop in the last few years.

I mostly did the "poor man's counter surveillance" as I didn't have the budget (with the campaign) or the connections to get the good high-end stuff.  But, as I mentioned when they discussed the job with me, if they were facing someone with that big a budget (as to afford the high-end equipment and professionals to emplace and operate it) they didn't have a chance in hell anyway.  Most bugging at the time was done with much lower-end equipment--even (especially) if they were using law enforcement sources.  These days, I'm not sure what the LEOs have, but I expect it's not a hell of a lot better.  The ones I found were pretty cheap stuff, and then there was the whole informant aspect, for which we used fairly simple canary traps.

[Friday]

I got to play a specialty-extra in "Army of Darkness: Evil Dead 3".  I've never been an actor, and wasn't seeking any "extra" work.  It was quite a bit of fun, though.

soooooo jealous.  Were you a zombie?

[Moebius Tripp]

I got to play a specialty-extra in "Army of Darkness: Evil Dead 3".  I've never been an actor, and wasn't seeking any "extra" work.  It was quite a bit of fun, though.

soooooo jealous.  Were you a zombie?

No, I was in chainmail and kilt.  In one scene, I'm the Red King's lieutenant, and when the two armies come together, I wave a banner, and then move forward to embrace the Black army with my cohorts.

The deadites (zombies) had to wear *lots* of make-up and very warm costumes.

[dalebert]

3 was my least favorite of the three but still a fun movie.

[AnarchoJesse]

I drove the golf zamboni at a driving range for a summer.

[Friday]

I got to play a specialty-extra in "Army of Darkness: Evil Dead 3".  I've never been an actor, and wasn't seeking any "extra" work.  It was quite a bit of fun, though.

soooooo jealous.  Were you a zombie?

No, I was in chainmail and kilt.  In one scene, I'm the Red King's lieutenant, and when the two armies come together, I wave a banner, and then move forward to embrace the Black army with my cohorts.

Nice!

One of my former bosses was an extra in "Animal House"; they happened to film the movie at his university when he was going there.  He got to meet Belushi et al, and you can see him dancing in a toga at the toga party.