A sufficiently desperate amalgamated waffle sorter

This was a failure.
I'm making a note here:
NOT SUCCESS.
It's hard to understate
my satisfaction.
The Census Bureau
We call everyone
because we can.
For the good of nobody.
We don't make anyone dead.

But there's no sense crying
over every mistake.
You just keep on trying
till you run out of names.
And the calling gets done.
And you bother every one.
Of the people who are
still alive.

( Dear <<Subject Organization Here>> )

Title text, for reference, is from the Bridge of D'Arnath tetralogy by Carol Berg, in which it is repeated quite a number of times. Usually it's to indicate the speaker's amazement at just how wonderful and beautiful the world is, even in the deepest pain and terror.

So. First day of the new job. Training's over, and I'm having to deal with actual callers and callees. I don't think I've said before, here, but I'm involved in the US Census follow-up calls. Basically, a lot of responses have some sort of unclear answer, or incomplete information, or something else, and the Census Bureau wants everything clarified. Thus, the interviewers such as myself. Fortunately, the computer gives me a script tailored to what we need from each respondent.

It's a bit odd, though. There was a sort of fierce joy on leaving the building today. I noticed it a couple of times during training, too, and it's not a "hey, the job's over, now I can go home" sort of thing. It's really more... well, more "it is a wonder, all of it."

Interesting. We'll see what comes of this. I'm still not entirely comfortable with all of this telephony, and talking to people, but it's only through the end of July. I bet I can handle it that long.

Incidentally, I read a book today that was very interesting. Near-future science fiction with associated meta. The book's called WWW: Wake, and apparently takes place in late 2012. It concerns a blind-from-birth girl (who, by the way, would probably take to Milliways excellently) being given an unexpected technological solution to her blindness (at least in one eye) that, additionally, allows her to communicate with an AI that is simultaneously forming from the very structure of the Web. What makes it really interesting, though, is that it's so solidly contemporary - all sorts of real companies and websites and TV shows are specifically mentioned, although one of the most important, an open-source Google competitor, is apparently completely fictional; also, although neither this book nor its sequel (which I inadvertently read first) mentions President Obama by name, nor (I think) Bush Jr., there are several mentions of the 2008 US general election. In addition, though, the main character exists, after a fashion. There are several references to Livejournal, including specific terminology of the interface and flocking; the author apparently has an LJ at rjsawyer, although he hasn't touched it in years. But also, in the book, are the complete texts of several LJ entries, complete with subject line and mood - three of which are posted at calculass. It appears that there aren't to be any other such postings, given the dates of journal creation and "last updated", and the time since, but it's interesting nonetheless.