how are you? what are you doing now that u r done with school?? school keeping me Busy

ok here...was in chicago for 4 days at end of feb.... going back for spring break

remember zenrin and the videotaping? well, every year i do a different kind of recurring project for them called exit data- takes 4 or 5 months in summer and is very localized territory

I would like to ask if you would be interested in working a day or two a week for the first few weeks (more or less if you want) of the project as I will have a slight overlap in school vs project schedule.

I told them that this year i will start around the beginning of May (or mid May) because of school not ending until June; the project is usually Apr/May through Aug/Sept or something close to those 5 months. It would be very hard to do a full-time job in addition to my school schedule; I am also a TA in spring so will most likely have a course to TA and two more classes for ten weeks starting April.

What's the gig? You know the Nissan commercial where the driver asks his GPS system to find nearest Chinese restaurant... exactly that kind of stuff... it is called exit data field research and has lots of perks! You work alone...on your own schedule (within reason) and get to check out all these 'points of interest'! (POI's)

Anyway, you could work in Torrance on the 405. You use your own vehicle and all of your gas is paid - even non-business usage. We collect, verify and update the database data for freeway exit points of interest to travelers for all Interstate freeways. It sounds like a lot of driving but in reality, you could spend a whole day doing 1 or 2 exits... thus, you can choose the area closest to your house and work those 405 exits for a few weeks, never driving more than just to the freeway (and making circles around and within the 1/4 mile perimeter of each offramp or just parking and walking some stuff).

The company sends 11 X 17 database printouts listing the businesses accessible from each freeway exit (within 1/4 mile) from that exit...you simply check that the business still exists and update/verify its attributes. When you find a new business, it gets added to an add sheet along with its info/attributes or you may be deleting businesses.

You get a gps handheld device to record the coordinates of any new business. We log all types of things like: restaurants, gas stations, hotels, conv store, rest area, shopping mall (dont have to add all stores... just show mall), theatre, pharmacy, hospital, med office, police, car wash, RV or auto service centers, Dept store, Groc, pet care, weigh station, office services (like kinkos, offc depot), natl/st parks...

The attributes which are updated/recorded are different for each type of category but not too much (a gas station would not have a cuisine type) - here are the majority of them:
This is an ez job!!!

• Truck parking - this data is also for truckers, they need to know about fuel stops/parking
• RV parking- ditto
  
• Rv Dump -rare to find one, esp in Torrance...mostly found in rural stretches at reststops
• Store- does gas station have a convenience store?
• diesel
• car wash
• liquid propane
• kerosene
• scale - does fuel stop/rest area/ truck serv have a truck scale
• play area _ McD's and Burg King big on these
• open 24 hrs
• pharmacy
• cuisine type - see list they provide
• longitude/latitude- only add for new business or if not in dtb, not verified for existing POI's

What do ya think? A couple days a week for three weeks? Hey, with gas prices like they are, just the free gas is worth it! You just provide any gas receipts and they get reimbursed. There is also car allowance money provided in order to offset your auto usage (you will be local...city work keeps you busy without much travel so your mileage will be low- the allowance is a flat amount so you can really benefit). We can set up a cash pay structure like last time so i will deal with the taxes. If you want to do more or less than a couple days a week... thats fine, too.

Call me if you like... 310-600-9867

Jim, this is a great way to meet women! Think of all those local businesses you can visit... you will know every babe in Torrance under a respectable guise of updating the phone number!

FYI, actually ... many of the businesses get verified by simply driving by, seeing they exist. You only have to go in if info is marked to be verified (phone num disconnected), is missing, can only be verified by asking someone or if you are adding a new POI and can't ascertain all data visually.