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[theinevitable]

Public transit is apparently the last place to hear about new technologies like... the internet. But yeah, you gotta buy the card at the station.

After all of my travails with getting lost on the subway system and getting mad about the lack of signage, today felt like a joke. I got off the train and there was a helpful sign on the wall and you just walked down the hall and it went right into the lobby.

[AugustWest]

Nice rocks dude!  I need to post pics of my new cork kitchen floor.  Been workin' my ass off on that thing tellyawhut.

[AugustWest]

I would be interested in the installation woes of cork flooring.

It's just like a regular hardwood engineered floor.  The planks click together.  Once I figured out how to make them do that (only took two days, thank you YouTube) it went fine.  Of course you have all the usual pains in the ass associated with flooring installation -- the constant up and down, the cutting of the strange angles, the heavy appliance moving.  But that's to be expected.

[wombat]

After all of my travails with getting lost on the subway system and getting mad about the lack of signage, today felt like a joke. I got off the train and there was a helpful sign on the wall and you just walked down the hall and it went right into the lobby.

Oh wow, cool sign. I hope your actual job is half as good as the fact that that sign points to your building.

[pmcd9]

Public transit is apparently the last place to hear about new technologies like... the internet. But yeah, you gotta buy the card at the station.

Sounds like the government. I've heard the nuclear silos run on 7" floppy discs. Those computers are ancient.

[theinevitable]

That's high tech compared to the NYC subway, which still runs on pre-computer technology from 100 years ago. There's an article somewhere with pictures of a command center where everything is operated by cranks and levers like in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

[pmcd9]

That's high tech compared to the NYC subway, which still runs on pre-computer technology from 100 years ago. There's an article somewhere with pictures of a command center where everything is operated by cranks and levers like in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Is it steam powered? Do the operators all wear pith helmets for some reason?

[theinevitable]

Two cool stresses:

When I was planning this whole move I did not think about the fact that I won't get my first paycheck for 2 weeks. I am deadass broke. Also not sure my office-appropriate wardrobe is going to stretch gracefully to cover the 2 weeks until i can buy some more shirts and #####.

I just drove my car to the Philly suburbs to leave it at my uncle's house. i asked him where to leave the key. I took it out and put it on the table. Then I took the train back to Brooklyn... and found the key in my pocket. i do not know how it got there.

on the other hand:

apartment in Brooklyn is great, although at the moment my room is stuffed wall to wall with boxes. Not much room to maneuver, and not clear what stuff I can get rid of.

I start my exciting job tomorrow. It's all worth it.

[AugustWest]

HOW COULD YOU HAVE DONE SUCH A THING!

[pmcd9]

I hope your first day at work goes great except for that one heinous social gaffe you're going to make and then come here and obsess to us all about.

HOW COULD YOU HAVE DONE SUCH A THING!

C'mon man, give the kid a break. Remember Inev, you are the Universe!

[theinevitable]

First day was great. My ##### were too tight and I felt like everyone could see my Business. Other than that my only gaffe was getting conspicuously lost repeatedly. Everyone was very nice, I got lunch with the guy whose project I'm taking over, caught an express train home. Life is good.

Also ran into a woman I know from college who had great post-college gigs, then went to grad school at any Ivy League school. We now have the same job title in the same department but the shit I get to work on sounds cooler. Nice.

[wombat]

Do we get to know what the project is?

[theinevitable]

So, most of this job right now is getting ready for the 2020 Census. The Census Bureau keeps a master list of every address in the country and mails out surveys-- if they don't know about an address, that household doesn't get counted. In NYC this is a huge issue because of how much new construction there is, how many people live in weird tiny apartments, etc. So what my department is doing is collecting address lists from various city departments and comparing them. They each have different strengths and weaknesses. For instance, the Department of Buildings knows about every building, even ones under construction, but doesn't always know how many units there are inside.

My project is getting a handle on "group housing" like prisons, nursing homes, dormitories, military barracks, juvenile homes, and other places of that nature. Apparently these are a big reason we can't just combine all the different address lists digitally-- the Post Office might record a dorm as 200 addresses, while the Department of Buildings records it as 1. So when comparing the numbers we got from different agencies it helps to know where these institutions are, which I'm collecting from a few different sources. Once I've done as much as I can from research, we will go out in person to blocks we can't figure out that have big discrepancies between the sources. That's the fun part.

[Carlos del Vaca]

I assume you will prioritize blocks that appear to have good ramen shops and the like.

[jaydub]

Or strip clubs, pool halls, pawn shops, and similar dens of iniquity.