Miscellany: The easiest job in the world

In times of crisis and sadness, you can always count on your friends to cheer you up. Last week, I visited a couple of my buddies (who have summer jobs in the computer lab of a commuity college) in order to get my mind off of things. I also got a lot of my JTLP competition cases printed up.

My friends have the easiest job in the world. They sit inside an air-conditioned, spacious computer lab all day helping people print or finagle the settings in Microsoft Word. When no one is using the lab, they have free reign. We even played a three-player deathmatch session of Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force for almost an hour before being disturbed.

Even more surprising, the community college in question doesn't care that my friends goof off when no one's in the lab, because it doesn't affect their performance as lab assistants. Sometimes, the lab is commandeered for an orientation and my friends get hours and hours to do whatever, on the college's dime. They make $12.50 an hour.