Snownarok

After a long winter of varying temperatures and little snow, today we are finally getting a nice coating. I should say "nice for DC." I've become so used to snowless winters that this seems remarkable. And at this "late" date, too. I was working outside in a t-shirt last Saturday. This weather will of course lead to widespread panic.

I had an odd thought at work today. My job is very episodic, in the sense that it is clearly broken up into arcs, not unlike the plot arcs of many tv shows. I'm sure in some degree this is true of many jobs - you work on one project, finish it, and move on to the next. However, I've noticed that my projects seem to vary quite a bit. There is the common thread of ships and engineering, of course. But a month ago my job was to be a researcher and writer. Today, I was a statistician with side helpings of physicist and computer programmer. And in a few weeks, depending on if we get particular contracts, I could be a middle-manager, an accountant, an electromagnetics analyst, or a draftsman.

I'm curious if this is the case for most people. It wasn't true at my one other "real" job working in the bookstore. It was all pretty book-related: finding books, selling books, buying used books - not a lot of variety. And even what little there was, it would all come in a farrago over the course of a day. Not like this job, where I'll often do one sort of job for a week or even months, then suddenly switch to another. It demands a certain flexibility

In other news, I wonder what the hell is going on here:

(via MAKE)