Thursday, October 24, 2002

There's a great article in today's New York Times (registration required, blah blah blah) by lightningfield's David Gallagher about custom-built car mp3 systems.

I've often speculated about doing something like this myself, but lack anything approaching the technical expertise necessary to pull it off. If I harbored any hopes of doing it with my current skill set, this piece dashed them. Besides, the last thing I need at this point is one more time-sucking hobby.

Hooking the Saturn up with digital audio will have to remain a pipe dream for now, at least until affordable, decent off-the-shelf systems hit the market.

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I'm jazzed about starting the new job on Monday. Let me spill a few more details.

The name of the place is Carroll Publishing. They... sorry, make that we... bill ourselves as "a leader in the government print directories industry." Basically, we compile contact and biographical information on government officials and employees at all levels and sell that aggregated data in online and dead-tree formats.

My title is Research Editor. I'll be doing the nitty-gritty work of collecting the info. My days will be spent scouring the Web and contacting offices by fax, phone and e-mail to keep our listings as accurate and up-to date as possible.

To most folks, this must sound tedious. To me, it sounds like heaven. I love digging into the little details, making sure that everything is just so. I had a similar job years ago at GuideStar. Most of my time was devoted to cleaning up a monthly IRS listing of non-profits in the US, all 700,000 of them, for use in the database. That meant checking and confirming odd names and making sure addresses actually existed, among other things. To me, that's fun at work. Draw what conclusions you will from that admission.

The best part of all is my beat. I'll be covering the US Congress. All 535 members plus their staffs, both here in DC and in their home districts, are in my jurisdiction. Being the moderately rabid political junkie I am, I couldn't ask for a better assignment.

I always watch election night coverage, usually with handmade tally sheets and an Irish coffee at hand. Now it won't just be for my own edification. Now, it's part of my job.

Posted @ 12:13 PM

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