27/07/05

Putting this up early, as with luck I shall be going out drinking tonight. I am such a piss-head at the moment, it's so embarassing.

Anyway, interview went okay, I think. I didn't spill coffee on the guy, or imagine I was hearing the theme tune to the Magic Roundabout or anything like that. Will know the worst in a couple of days.

Did read this article in Professional Engineer (seriously, it does exist. And I sometimes find it quite interesting, god help me) while I was waiting, which gave me another job on my list of 'Jobs they never mentioned at school'. So, bird strike is a big problem for aeroplanes and it happens all the time. (Apparently, the US lost a 200 million dollar B1-B bomber because it tried to take on a 15lb White Pelican in mid-air. And don't even think about trying to fly through a flock of Canada Geese). Understandably, the people who make the planes have to test for this. So, because birds are very difficult to model, it is someones job to fire dead chickens out of a cannon at bits of aeroplane just to see what will happen. And, as I don't want to die in a fireball caused by an unexpected albatross, I think it's a very useful job. But it just gets me, because at school it seemed like the only jobs in existance were things like 'teacher' or 'chef' or 'banker' - you know, the kind of jobs they could teach you how to say in French. They never mentioned 'chicken-firing aeroplane safety test guy'.