Why my job is entertaining

This post is guaranteed to last 10 minutes (or less). I've been at work all day today, so I decided to take a 10 minute break (again--you can take more than one when you work all day long) and tell you why my job is entertaining.

Granted, if my job really were all that entertaining, I wouldn't have to write this post to keep myself from falling asleep, now would I. Don't get me wrong, my job isn't horrible. I kind of like it, really...but it can get a little slow.

1) I get to put stickers (aka barcodes) all over things
2) I get to then scan the stickers and make cool beeping noises. It's kind of like working in a grocery store (or a library...)
3) I am a supervisor so I get to supervise other people, all of whom are older than me but don't know it
4) I get to play with shelves that move and could possibly squish you. It's like a haunted house that has walls that close in on you, only you have to push a button to make them do it.
5) I get to climb 10 foot ladders everyday. I don't know why they call them 10 foot ladders since they only let you reach 10 feet. They aren't actually 10 feet tall...
6) We have a cement floor so instead of walking we sometimes just wheel around in our chairs
7) I get to glue labels on boxes
8) I have to swipe my ID card to get through every door in the department. Sometimes when I leave the department I forget that I don't have to do this anymore and have caught myself taking out my ID card to use the washroom, get in the elevator, leave the library, go inside my own house...it's a little sad, really.
9) I get to see really old things all the time. Things penned by Brigham Young, letters to Joseph Smith Jr., samauri swords, minutes from university meetings in the 1970s...
10) I get to work with a lot of stuff that I don't really understand: fire suppression systems, climate control chambers, etc., etc., etc.

The best thing that happened to me this week at work was reading the manual for our 2-way radios. I don't really know how they work because I never use them, but I'm supposed to fix them when they have problems so I figured that I should probably learn how to use them.

First of all, radios are kind of scary. They have all these warnings at the beginning of the manual saying that if you mess up you can have too much exposure to "radio frequency elecromagnetic energy." I'm not really sure what this causes, but I'll be sure to keep the radio at least 2.5 centimeters away from my mouth when transmitting!

Now on to my favorite part. This really must be the radio manual for dummies--written especially for me. Unfortunately, no matter how hard they tried to dumb it down, I still don't think that I really understand these radios.

Let me give you some partial quotes from a conversation Andrew and I had about it:
me:I'm reading a radio manual right now."A 'bah-bah-bah-bah-bah' tone ... indicates that all available modes are busy."

"A group of three medium-pitched tones (di-di-dit) indicates that a talkgroup is now available for your previously requested transmission."

Andrew: Does it really say bah bah bah?

me: It's very technical.

Yes, it really, honestly says bah-bah-bah and di-di-dit.

Makes me think of blacksheep and "Here comes the sun..."
I think I feel a blog post coming on.

Andrew: You're a crazy blogger head

:)

me: Well, if you're going to use a term like, "bah-bah-bah-bah..." I think you have it coming.

PTT is the "press to talk" button.

It defines a "short press" as "quickly pressing and releasing"

A long press as "pressing and holding for...a period of time (...1/2 to 16 seconds)

and a "hold down" as pressing and holding down while making adjustments.

7 minutes

me: My favorite part is that it keeps referring to the noises:

"If you hear a busy signal (a low-frequency "bah-bah-bah-bah"), release the PTT button and wait for a call-back tone (sounds like "di-di-dit")."

And there you have it. I can entertain myself at work by reading radio manuals (which are much more entertaining and slightly more understandable than the climate control chamber manuals) and then trying to figure out how to get the radio to do what the manual says.

Unfortunately, my current options are: making schedules, putting stickers on boxes, or mopping the floor...good thing I only have an hour or so left!