State Net, Data Entry temp

Chris Brunner got back from Germany where he'd lived on a millitary base with his father. He was a soft spoken black man and a goth. I'd never met a black goth before Chris. We had many friends in common and we hit it off immediately. Chris turned me on to a place called State Net where it seemed every musician in Sacramento was employed. They had temporary positions open and Chris and I went down and applied. Amazingly I scored high enough on the typing test to qualify for a data entry position. Chris and I were both hired.
State Net was a legislative tracking service. Groups, like say the NRA for instance could subscribe and they'd pay a fee to be informed of every bill proposed in every state that had anything to do with guns. This allowed them to keep up on their lobbying. To make this work the staff typed in piles of bill summaries. The summaries then had to be indexed which involved marking every category that each bill could apply to; guns, chilren's rights, reproductive rights, etc.
The bill summaries were short, taking less than a minute each. Often I'd finish three or four in a minute as I sat at a a two walled work station, circled in with five other work stations that made up the little hubs filling half of the building.

The repetition made the job mind achingly boring. Add to that the fact that so many of the bills were some Senator or Congress person recognizing the fine service of Joe's Bar and Grill or some other business that offered a free lunch to our elected officials. This is what they spent our tax dollars on. You'd be amazed at the number of these that came through. If such a bill passed, and they always did, a certificate would be presented to Joe's Bar and Grill and more free lunches would be given.
I bought a walkman and being able to listen to music while a worked helped with the boredome. I also volunteered for ever job possible to keep things interesting. None the less I still found myself drinking ridiculous amounts of coffee and taking many smoke breaks with Chris.

The people watching could not be beat. State net attracted all kinds. Joe was a gay guy covered in tatoos and piercings. For some reasons whenever I saw Joe his arch nemesis Brian was nearby. Brian was a die hard Rush Limbaugh devotee. George Bush was our president and we were heading towards the first gulf war or Operation Desert Storm. Brian hung up the stupidest cartoons, like one depicting a camel with a missile in it's ass labeled "Iraqi scud launcher." If they were torn down he'd start arguing that the rest of us should take down our amnesty international bumber stickers, and peace symbols. Joe never let Brian get his goat. He would calmly talk to Brian and skillfully bait him, letting Brian make a fool of himself. I felt bad for Bryan. He was an overweight, angry man who seemed to have no friends. But he had such an angry outlook and was so sure that he was lost amidst the deviants. The strange thing is, I think Joe was as close to a friend as he had. He always took his breaks when Joe took his. He always sat within ear shot so that he could snicker at things Joe said, and when Joe would respond by saying "Did you have something to share Brian?" Brian always did. And Joe would defend him to us, telling us, oh Brian's not so bad. Here the gayest, freakiest guy in the place was defending the one homophobic, freakaphobic ditto-head in the place. I was truly inspired by Joe and I though he and Brian would have made a great couple.
Bruce was one of the managers. He was a satanist which and in his Satanism he was every bit as anoying as the most devout of Christians.
"Bruce. I hear it's your birthday."
"Birthdays don't mean anything to me. It's just another day to give my service to the dark lord."
"Uh, yeah, okay, I got you a balloon!"
"Thank you Keith. Next year forget the balloon, and just reveal some of your true soul to me."
"Um, look! It's one of those cool metal ones. It says, Happy Birthday to a hell of a guy. I looked real hard for one that said hell. That's cool eh? Hell!"
"Don't be afraid of the darkness in your soul Keith. Without Darkness there is no light."
"Okay. Bye Bruce. Happy birthday."

I took lunch with Mike, a friend of mine from before I worked at State Net, and Mike started rattling off bill's he'd processed that day. When pressed he was able to go back further. Mike could pull up summaries from damn near all fifty states. Where I just transfered groups of letters and the spaces between them from paper to monitor, Mike was actually comprehending and soaking it in. I was disturbed and amazed. I tried to follow Mike's lead but in no time at all I was back to daydreaming and singing along with the Sugarcubes.

State Net was about data and so the techies were valued. They had their own section of the huge building. I worked a few graveyard shifts when all the legistatures were in session and so we were extra busy. The same techie's were there. When things settled down again I came by at night, mostly out of curiosity and there they were. Saturday morning, same four pale white guys. They were powerful too, the techies. They were crazy little blind mole rats but the highest paid, suit wearing folks in the building knew them all by name and came by to show their respect. We'd have been sunk without them.

The war finally got going and I felt the need to spend all of my time at The State Capitol expressing my disapproval. I called Dianne, the nice hippy lady who was my direct supervisor and explained where I was.
"I wish I was there too Keith. You represent bolth of us there, and I'll keep your job safe for you here."

Dianne was the best. I did go back, and when the slow season hit and the temps were laid off I was offered an extension working a few hours at night. I did it for a while, but I was missing the sunsets and I had made some new friends that I was enjoying hanging out with including an amazing girl named Christine. I quit State Net, and I discovered that the only thing that made you appreciate your time more than calling in sick, was calling it quits.

I'd return to Statenet throughout the years whenever I needed a couple of months of work. I knew folks who went full time but temp was good enough for me. I just couldn't handle being so far from anywindows, staring at a computer screen for that many hours at a time. And I would eventually quit smoking so what would I do with my breaks?

>>>>Go To Next Job>>>> Bus Boy at John Qs>>>>>>