Surfin USA

[AArdvark]

Those red lines to keep people from getting smacked upside the concrete corners?

[Jizaboz]

Those red lines to keep people from getting smacked upside the concrete corners?

Sort of! Basically, it marks where a whirlpool forms on each end of the pool after a wave crashes. Teenagers (these days anyway) fucking love these things. They'll crowd into one like a mosh pit and get slammed into each other lol

They'll blow the whistle if you get close enough to be touching the wall due to the risk of the water or a person slamming you into it. One of my favorite exchanges I saw last year..

Lifeguard: <blows whistle> Hey kid! Do you wanna die?
Kid: Uhh no
Lifeguard: Then get off the wall!

[Jizaboz]

Water!



Edit: I just noticed re-watching that with sound you can faintly hear me humming "mmm-hmmm" lol

[Jizaboz]

Got word today Thursday is my last day helping the og team getting stuff done for opening. Friday off!

Took me half the work day to finish the red stripes for the wave pool, but it looks immaculate and the time just flew by! They will still need to be touched up at the top though or with a ladder (my OCD will ensure this happens).

Sunday I begin the graaaveyard shift all by my damn. Stoked!

..I do need to get back to my surf/fish shack asap though once I get a flow for my new schedule.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I am delighted for your schedule to have the NIGHT component! I believe you were looking for that?

[Jizaboz]

I am delighted for your schedule to have the NIGHT component! I believe you were looking for that?

Correct! Originally I thought that I was going to start shortly before the season started, part-time, at night. But during the interview process they asked if I was interested in "pre-season cleanup and preparation" Mon-Fri 9a-5:30p and I told him go ahead and sign me up because my computer-related contracts were all drying up.

On the night shift so long as I get my rounds done and all I can use spare time to work on things on my Macbook, watch streams, etc. Even float in a pool once it's hot. They don't really expect you do be doing much in the middle of the night when it's dark. After my shift I open the gate for the grounds guys I've been working with.

[Jizaboz]

[Tdarcos]

Took me half the work day to finish the red stripes for the wave pool, but it looks immaculate and the time just flew by!

I can remember two temp jobs I had, years apart. I was doing temporary work to at least keep eating. One, I had been called in to assist an executive by typing his notes, papers, memos, etc. Unfortunately, either they didn't know that he called in sick or was out for some other reason. Well, it's not a fault on my agency or me, so they still had to pay me for the whole day since they had booked me for that long: 8 hours plus lunch and mid-morning (bathroom) break. I think I did ten minutes total work typing one letter for someone else - but I did do three drafts because once he saw how it looked he'd make changes - because I was available. Other than that, I spent the time poking around the computer, It was an actual Unix system, with Word Perfect running on it. One of the few systems running APL - a vastly underrated programming language, if you're good in that you can probably get an order of magnitude improvement in productivity over anyone else doing the same work with conventional language tools. Bored to my teeth, or to tears, take your pick. Probably one of the worst days at work I ever had.

Other place. Accounting firm, one of their typists was out sick and they needed a replacement. This company did something different. Executives did not have a secretary to handle correspondence - no one person has enough work to actually keep a secretary busy all day, instead, for the 10 partners working there, they had me and one other person, and all we did was type material all day long with an hour off for lunch. You pick up a document from the 'in' basket - prior version with notes or longhand on legal pad - and type it up, then send to plain white paper. Finished, you put it in the out box. If that version was correct, you'd be instructed to reprint it, only this time on letterhead.

I think this arrangement was perfect. Ten busy accountants do generate enough work product to keep two full-time typing people busy. And busy we were. Unless they had a 'hot' document because it was time-critical, nothing was ever like, someone hovering over the printer to get the document as soon as done. That was maybe two five minute periods in the whole day. Occasionally there were 30 seconds or a minute where we had no work to do. Then you look up and see you've been typing for three hours straight and you didn't even realize it. Very soon, more documents come in and we're back to work. Then, at the end of the day, they tell me thanks and unexpectedly gave me a $25 bonus, because I had kept up with them enough, they got more work done than they expected and were actually a bit ahead on some of the work they were doing.

Busy all day long, never rushed, but not slacking off, either. Probably the best day I ever had on a job up to that point.

Jiz, the whole point of this reply was to show you that when you say you did some great work and it was either so challenging, or so much fun, that you don't even notice the time going by, i can honestly say I know exactly how that feels!

[pinback]

Let me fix that for you.

i can honestly say I know exactly how that feels!

See how easy that was?

[Jizaboz]

This is fine. It is friend month after all lol

While the 2 gigs aren't remotely the same, it's the same concept. I used to actually enjoy typing up a couple hundred invoices every month at one of my last jobs for the same reason; I'd just zone out between taking service calls and the time would fly by.

[Tdarcos]

Let me fix that for you.

i can honestly say I know exactly how that feels!

See how easy that was?

And if I say that, he knows I've been a programmer and has probably never done physical labor, and would not be able to say that. First rule of writing, show, don't tell.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

You had a 20 page post and you think you aren't "telling"???

[Jizaboz]

Took these just as the sun was rising earlier this week. Water now in Shipwreck Cove! Really awesome to see areas I worked on come to life.

I was also informed I'm getting a good raise now that I'm a security dude. What an awesome job..

[Jizaboz]

[Jizaboz]

[Jizaboz]

Back at Salty Shores! I’m usually out here for the first time each year by about late March, but the new job didn’t allow that until now this year. Tomorrow will be dealing with the cable guy (lol every year here!), kayaking, Walmart, and going out to eat some local seafood. Surfing conditions may be worthy of taking the board out Friday.

[cassie_91]

This looks like the most fun job ever!

[Jizaboz]

This looks like the most fun job ever!

I really enjoy it!

The waves in the Bogue inlet were too flat to surf out at the coast, but I did get a good amount of kayaking in. Discovered I've got a leak under my sink when the water is running.. gonna have to fix that on the next trip in a few weeks. Rather than do any fishing or net-casting I cheated and spent 35$ at the seafood market on 2 pounds of big shrimp and a pound of flounder filet.

Woke up at 3 today (I was up super late after the long drive home) and managed to get to the store for ingredients I needed, peeled the raw shrimp, fried up half the shrimp, all the fish, hushpuppies and fries, eat it, clean up, and got to work only 4 minutes late after 6:30. Whew. Tomorrow I will use the rest of the shrimp to make fahitas :)

Pretty uneventful night at the park tonight. Would have been a great evening for swimming but there were a lot of people there training the new young lifeguards into the night. About the time everyone left, we had a wicked thunderstorm. Cleaned the dirty breakroom yet again, this time I even mopped it for the first time in at least a year lol In a way it's annoying cleaning up after teenagers, but it helps pass the time and because I hang out there more than anywhere else, I'm way too OCD to just chill out among all that mess. I've also been making sure the soda fountain in there is stocked with ice and syrup.

[cassie_91]

Cleaned the dirty breakroom yet again, this time I even mopped it for the first time in at least a year lol In a way it's annoying cleaning up after teenagers

This totally brings back memories, i used to ride-op at Kennywood back around 2008, i couldnt decide who were more disgusting the park guests or my coworkers. Ughhhh

[Jizaboz]

This totally brings back memories, i used to ride-op at Kennywood back around 2008, i couldnt decide who were more disgusting the park guests or my coworkers. Ughhhh

Hey, that's cool! What ride(s) did you attend back then? I've never been to Kennywood or Dollywood, but I definitely would given the opportunity. The only large amusement parks I have visited aside from all the Disney stuff my mom took us to when I was 12 were Carowinds, Busch Gardens VA (probably my favorite roller coaster park), and Six Flags Over Georgia.

The only large waterpark I've been to that even compares to Emerald Pointe was one near Seaworld in Florida, but I don't recall the name atm.