Professional Vampire Hunter

It's occurred to me over the years, that possibly the most challenging job existing over the ages is the position of Vampire hunter, or the Dhampir, as they say in the Southern Balkans.

This professional or semi-professional vampire hunter is employed by local government, who pays the Dhampir to remove any unwanted vampires from the area. Depending on the way you look at it, you would hope that you were offered not only good overtime rates for the uncomfortable hours of 20:00-05:00, but also that medical insurance, and possibly some danger money, were thrown into the deal.

But alas, not just anyone can apply for this position. The Dhampir's post must be filled by a person who is half vampire themselves. So if any of you out there has a mother or father who is a vampire, and you don't mind hunting down those who are partly your own kind, this could be the job for you.

Day and Night Job

In the middle of trying desparately to finish one lot of work in order to start on another, I found myself typing the words "Job of the Day" into Google. Low and behold I get a list of search results linked to "Day Job". Upon clicking the Wikipedia result (the link above), I find this explanation:

"A day job is a form of occupation taken by a person in order to make ends meet while working another low-paying (or non-paying) job in their preferred career track. Archetypal examples of this are the woman who is working as a waitress for her "day job", while she tries to become an actress, and the professional athlete who must work as a laborer in the off season because he is currently only able to make the roster of a semi-professional team."

Well, I wonder how this works in practice. I haven't once had a 'day job' that hasn't kept me working into the nights and weekends, and am still struggling to get through the tasks of one of my day jobs (on this fine Sunday afternoon), to get one job closer to my professional job.

Ummm....

Art as Experience - John Dewey

I was reading 'Art as Experience' today by John Dewey, whilst trying to figure out exactly what it is that we like when experiencing art. I came across this paragraph, which I felt expressed the essence of the 'Work not Working' project:

"The intelligent mechanic engaged in his job, interested in doing well and finding satisfaction in his handiwork, caring for his materials and tools with genuine affection, is artistically engaged. The difference between such a worker and the inept and careless burgler is as great in the shop as it is in the studio. Often-times the product may not appeal to the esthetic sense of those who use the product. The fault, however, is oftentimes not so much with the worker as with the conditions of the market for which his product is designed. Were conditions and opportunities different, things as significant to the eye s those produced by earlier craftsmen would be made." (5)

Hmmm... think about that the next time you get your oil changed.

Office with a View

"You've just gotta love an office with a view. For me this is the best job in the world." This was said by the truck driver on Season 1 of The Axemen. You've just got to love it. I'm even tempted to try out my tree legs. Yii haaaa!

Very important work

I was listening to a lecture by Stephen Billett today, and was taken back by the fact that someone actually realised that there is no such thing as s(fee/sees)t work. I am glad that he took the time to explain to his professor friend that to people undertaking unskilled labour, the labour is quite important - even if he did mention that his professor friend still thought it was s(fee/sees)t (I wonder what he teaches).
I started thinking long and hard: Billett is a vocational teacher educator, he has spent the latter part of his career researching on the job learning, and I am glad that his research has shown the skills and expertise people acquire when undertaking 'unskilled' work. I wonder whether he has ever thought about exactly how important the work of a cleaner or greengrocer is to the people, and how much job satisfaction they really get. I thought that there are two sides to this coin. If we leave professionals who have pursued their 'vocation' out of this equation, we can compare:

a) The greengrocer or cleaner who really enjoy what they do, they can see the progress and meet different people, versus the professor who has pursued a career for status (and then what kind of satisfaction or enjoyment does he/she have after all?).

or

b) The greengrocer or cleaner who only has to go to work, earn their money, be cleaners and greengrocers while their on the job, but after hours they get on with the rest of their life and noone thinks of them as the 'cleaner' or the 'greengrocer', versus the professor who does not just go to work to earn money, they also come home from work to keep working, and they are always known as the 'good', the 'atrocious' or the 'nutty' professor.

I do not know. Which work do you think is the most important?

North Carolina bound...and the campout begins!

Yee hah! Looks like it's North Carolina for me, and I guess many others as Yahoo! news explains that the good old NC is one of the lesser touched places of the recession. There might be a bit of a wait as economic growth isn't expected to be that extreme this year. But, by 2010 more jobs will be appearing.

So, let's go and camp out on the lawns of the great NC, in wait of the opening positions.

Crumby breadlines and golden handshakes

Volunteers at Iceland's Fjölskylduhjalpin can't complain, they've had plenty of unpaid work to do. As the economic situation rapidly deteriorates, these happy workers are inundated with demand. In fact, according to Teppo Tiilikainen of Suomen Kuvalehti, the lines keep growing and growing. It's not just the unemployed and students who are lining up to get a bit of Fjölskylduhjalpin's good stuff, but also employed families who just don't seem to make 'ants meat' with what they're getting from the workplace.

So, if you're bored and looking for something to do, pop over to Iceland and take up a post at Fjölskylduhjalpin. Business is BOOMING, and they need all the hands they can get. And, if you happen to see David Oddson, send him Iceland's love.

Picture right taken from Suomen Kuvalehti: http://suomenkuvalehti.fi/Haku/?q=islanti