polynation

Bastard crinoids

After some years being 'fractionally employed', I went for a job interview yesterday at that most august of institutions, The BBC. The job description contained everything but my name, height and weight - so well does it fit my requirements. It's essentially a librarian/research role, and involves recognising and cataloguing film footage and still images of wildlife caught by the BBC for their many world-class wildlife documentaries. There's a nice fat database to contend with, a very complex hierarchical indexing system to apply, and tons of superlative animal footage - all of which factors contribute to the growing pool of saliva on my keyboard.

There was a brief test during the interview, just to see what I could recognise, and at which I did quite well (even recognising guanacos, as distinct from llamas!). I didn't, however, recognise the stately crinoid when I was presented with a picture of it, nor could I say what phylum (echinoderms - like starfish) or even kingdom (animals!) it belonged to. Felt pretty stoopid.

Still, they'll let me know in a day or so. In the meantime, there are some Covenant aliens that are just squeaking for a quick and painless lasering.

posted by Christopher Gray @ Tuesday, November 30, 2004