ElkArte Community

General => Chit Chat => Topic started by: badmonkey on June 06, 2016, 08:38:38 pm

Title: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: badmonkey on June 06, 2016, 08:38:38 pm
Think of this as an ice breaker topic.  The overall point is friendly dialogue with a starting point.  Tell us anything else interesting about yourself, what you like, hobbies, etc. 

By day I am a natural resource conservationist.  I work with landowners who wish to improve or protect the quality of their environment.  Camping, hiking, biking, offloading, and pretty much anything outdoors are in the list of hobbies.  And of course maintaining a couple spots in cyberspace. 

What do you do?
Title: Re: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: ahrasis on June 07, 2016, 06:30:43 am
A practicing lawyer. This is my hobby.
Title: Re: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: Jorin on June 07, 2016, 06:40:45 am
That's short and definitely will brake the ice!!  :D
Title: Re: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: emanuele on June 07, 2016, 06:10:27 pm
My current main job is... looking for a job. xD
Title: Re: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: Spuds on June 07, 2016, 07:30:30 pm
I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls or crushing ice.  I have been known to fight crime on my lunch breaks.  I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, and I manage time efficiently.  Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row for no reason and I once swam the Pacific ocean to test my endurance and ability, it took me 5 days.

I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing, I can pilot mopeds up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes.  I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.

Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants.  I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets, I am the subject of numerous documentaries.  When I'm bored, I build suspension bridges in my yard.  I enjoy urban hang gliding.  On Wednesdays, after work, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.

I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie.  Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear.  I don't perspire.  I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail, Madonna will not stop calling.  I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes.  Last summer I toured Europe with a cold fusion demonstration.  I'm a scratch golfer.  My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles.  Children trust me. I have no enemies.

I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy.  I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening.  I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket.  I have performed several covert operations for the CIA & KGB.  I'm a double agent.  I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair.  While on vacation in Italy , I successfully negotiated with an angry group of tourists who had seized a small coffee shop.  The laws of physics do not apply to me.

I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid, I have an 850 credit score.  On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami.  I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven.  I breed prizewinning mollusks.  I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin.  I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have recently spoken to Elvis, no he is not dead.

OK none of that is mine but it always makes me smile ... My main job ...  Mechanical Engineer ... and fixing bugs emanuele writes  :D
Title: Re: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: badmonkey on June 07, 2016, 08:08:33 pm
Lol Spuds!  How long have you held that write-up at the ready, simply awaiting the opportunity to post it?  Funny stuff!

Wow!  This is a diverse group as one might expect on the www.  Didn't see the attorney coming.  Lol.  Not that it's a bad thing.  Respect for anyone who makes an honest living.  Extra kudos if you enjoy it
Title: Re: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: emanuele on June 08, 2016, 01:49:29 am
Quote from: Spuds – and fixing bugs emanuele writes  :D
And that's almost a full time job! xD
Title: Re: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: Jorin on June 08, 2016, 01:58:49 am
I'm working as a technical illustrator for an energy supply company. My job is to document the location of water, gas and heat lines and power cables in our GIS (graphical information system). I am responsible for our wiki (where we document how exactly we have to work in detail) and some special tasks. The next weeks I will start to work part as an admin there too.

I'm a shy guy, but nevertheless I'm engaged and will marry in September. The same woman!  :D  We are living in our own house which we bought last year. So all I have still to do in live is: plant a tree and get a kid. We are working on both.  ;)

I am not very sporty but I am relatively slim, thanks god. I enjoy nature, reading a book and my favorite music artists. I really love music. I collect movies and series. I always wanted a stunning home cinema but because of the huge amount of shoes and handbags from my fiancee there's no room in the basement.  ::)  ;)  Just kidding... Maybe...

I am member of WWF (not active, but I spend money), use 100% eco-friendly electricity, drive a hybrid car and have a board for hybrid and electric vehicles. So yes, nature and enviroment is important for me and of course for coming generations! For eight years I owned the one and only german SMF support board, but I had to give this away, which was a big mistake. But now it's too late for my baby.
Title: Re: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: Frenzie on June 08, 2016, 04:59:01 am
Twiddling my thumbs hoping to get a PhD fellowship (they grant about 15%). Nah, actually in the meantime I'm reading and listening to lots of French stuff. I still haven't quite raised it to the level of my German, but I can read French texts with relative ease and understand spoken French a heck of a lot better than half a year ago. Also see this test I tried (https://www.plurk.com/p/ln8sc8) a couple of weeks ago.

tl;dr I'm currently unemployed. :P
Title: Re: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: ahrasis on June 08, 2016, 10:32:28 am
Not really, but, a job is a job, just like others.
Title: Re: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: emanuele on June 08, 2016, 03:51:48 pm
Considering the last time I barely used it "live" was in 2010 and since then I only posted a couple of messages at sm.org in French, I'm more than happy! :P
Actually, I think I started reading a couple of books a couple of times, but I gave up because it's more soporific than English. LOL
Title: Re: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: kucing on June 08, 2016, 07:12:53 pm
I'm just a IT support for motorcycle store [1] in Indonesia. :)
and bike store, baby shop, and my boss home and whatever their friends and relatives when they need help in computer/gadget
Title: Re: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: Frenzie on June 09, 2016, 08:08:17 am
Quote from: emanuele – Actually, I think I started reading a couple of books a couple of times, but I gave up because it's more soporific than English. LOL
Wouldn't that depend on which book you're trying to read? lol

Actually I'm having a decent enough time reading Vers les sources des langues romanes, which I imagine most people would find pretty boring. Besides that I read the first 53 Spirou albums, the Wikipedia article of the day, Le Monde International and a variety of other things (like hardware.fr).

Much more slowly I'm also reading an anthology of French literature (unimaginatively entitled Anthologie de la littérature française), and I intend to read Kinderzimmer after I finish Americana (that last one is Don DeLillo, not French).
Title: Re: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: emanuele on June 09, 2016, 11:05:40 am
If memory serves me right I started les fleurs du mal and Vingt mille lieues sous les mers. xD
Title: Re: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: Jorin on June 09, 2016, 11:53:05 am
For me it sounds like #!!$?$*W$!#HA##!?T?!#$!!##$?!?
Title: Re: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: Frenzie on June 09, 2016, 03:14:42 pm
Quote from: emanuele – If memory serves me right I started les fleurs du mal and Vingt mille lieues sous les mers. xD
Well, that's your problem right there. :P

Baudelaire I haven't read (yet), but just because something was banned doesn't mean it's particularly exciting.

Jules Verne I have read (albeit in Dutch, like 20 years ago) and although it's perfectly enjoyable he can be a bit of a bore at times.

So what would I recommend? Well, just whatever looks interesting to you, but I'd really recommend to go with classics like Spirou and Astérix, and of course more modern stuff like Le chat du rabbin. It really doesn't matter much what you read in the beginning, as long as you're reading. As far as classic stuff goes, Micromégas (Voltaire) is pretty decent.

Quote from: Jorin – For me it sounds like #!!$?$*W$!#HA##!?T?!#$!!##$?!?
There are plenty of French works that are simply part of the world literary canon. Nothing wrong with reading 'em in translation. ;)
Title: Re: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: emanuele on June 09, 2016, 05:49:04 pm
Quote from: Frenzie – Baudelaire I haven't read (yet), but just because something was banned doesn't mean it's particularly exciting.
Was it banned?
I started reading it just because it sounded funny... or maybe because I was looking for another author and got it wrong. xD

Quote from: Frenzie – Jules Verne I have read (albeit in Dutch, like 20 years ago) and although it's perfectly enjoyable he can be a bit of a bore at times.
That one I started because I like sci-fi and thought it could be a nice reading... because I never read it before. lol

Yeah, I don't put too much thinking in my readings, I just pick by the sound of the title or the name of the author. :P
Title: Re: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: ahrasis on June 09, 2016, 10:14:33 pm
I previously thought you're from Sarawak (Kuching, Sarawak). It's nice to have a neighbour here. :)
Title: Re: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: Frenzie on June 10, 2016, 06:30:25 am
Quote from: emanuele –
Quote from: Frenzie – Baudelaire I haven't read (yet), but just because something was banned doesn't mean it's particularly exciting.
Was it banned?
I started reading it just because it sounded funny... or maybe because I was looking for another author and got it wrong. xD
lol, Madame Bovary (Flaubert) and Les fleurs du mal are pretty well known for being against public decency and yada yada yada. But Flaubert was acquitted and Baudelaire got fined. I imagine Madame Bovary probably makes for a better reading experience, although I'm not the biggest fan of realism.[1] If you want to read one of the most boring books on the planet, try Middlemarch by George Eliot.
I suspect it might be decent, because Flaubert himself said he despised most of the humongously boring imitations of his style.
Title: Re: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: emanuele on June 10, 2016, 07:50:18 am
/me is not very fond on boring stuff. :P
Title: Re: What does everyone do for a living?
Post by: Joshua Dickerson on June 18, 2016, 04:06:02 pm
Mostly Web Development. Some system administration.