Friday, 15 August 2008 01:31 pm
Red Line to Shady Grove, red stripes to Charlie Brown
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deckardcanineIt’s no secret that the DC Metrorail System is not having a golden age. Revenue has declined, fares have increased in response (one blogger found that driving to work was still cheaper), and no proposed alternative solutions sound great. I suspect that the subway conductors are receiving less training as well, because from what I can tell, the last two years have seen a huge rise in the frequency of delays. Not just major delays that merit office emails, but miniature delays to build up the microstressors. I’m talking about when a train randomly decelerates and accelerates (a pain for standers), when it spends far too many seconds just sitting in the station with the door closed, or when it comes to a complete stop at a station but then moves forward a bit. The last habit never even happened on any of my rides from before my current job. I like to think it’s not because they used to leave the caboose riders stranded.
The last time I rode with my folks, my dad wondered aloud how someone with so apparently simple a job could make such apparently inattentive mistakes. That question reminded me of another such job: online colorists for weekday comic strips. I don’t know whether those people have various other duties within the companies, but I think I could do a better job in my spare time -- and would for free if they’d let me. Never mind the often tacky clothing colorations. Never mind the inconsistency of the palettes over time, which could be taken as mild retconning and which more casual readers will miss. I’m concerned with sloppiness within a single strip, such as the wallpaper leaking into a word balloon. In the worst cases, they mess up the punchline, proving that they didn’t even take a few seconds to read the words.
There are limitations to the comparison, of course. Probably no one really wants to conduct a subway; it’s monotonous. But even today’s comics are less repetitious, and coloring without guidance offers creative leeway. I’d expect anyone working with comics to love the medium in general, just as film critics love film in general despite all the stinkers they have to watch. I also expect the syndicates to have decent standards for coloring quality if they’re going to bother. You want people to choose your site over a B&W paper, right?
I guess that in the end, much as one liked the job to start with, it becomes just a job -- a means to an end peripheral to said job. Doing the work all the time makes one cocky as well as disinterested. Yes, there are people who love their jobs forever, but chances are that if your job is that simple and low-paying, you’re not all that driven.
Okay, this is starting to sound familiar....
The last time I rode with my folks, my dad wondered aloud how someone with so apparently simple a job could make such apparently inattentive mistakes. That question reminded me of another such job: online colorists for weekday comic strips. I don’t know whether those people have various other duties within the companies, but I think I could do a better job in my spare time -- and would for free if they’d let me. Never mind the often tacky clothing colorations. Never mind the inconsistency of the palettes over time, which could be taken as mild retconning and which more casual readers will miss. I’m concerned with sloppiness within a single strip, such as the wallpaper leaking into a word balloon. In the worst cases, they mess up the punchline, proving that they didn’t even take a few seconds to read the words.
There are limitations to the comparison, of course. Probably no one really wants to conduct a subway; it’s monotonous. But even today’s comics are less repetitious, and coloring without guidance offers creative leeway. I’d expect anyone working with comics to love the medium in general, just as film critics love film in general despite all the stinkers they have to watch. I also expect the syndicates to have decent standards for coloring quality if they’re going to bother. You want people to choose your site over a B&W paper, right?
I guess that in the end, much as one liked the job to start with, it becomes just a job -- a means to an end peripheral to said job. Doing the work all the time makes one cocky as well as disinterested. Yes, there are people who love their jobs forever, but chances are that if your job is that simple and low-paying, you’re not all that driven.
Okay, this is starting to sound familiar....