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Your choice. If I had my druthers I'd rather they live under a bridge than either. As my back reminds me everyday, I worked at McHell and Jack-in-the-Crack, if your taller than average fastfood is really hard on the body (because you spend all day slightly hunched over) and six years of it left me with a wide array of physical scars, and even some emotional (ask your brother about the timer nightmare, if he worked in fastfood more than two years he'll know what you're talking about). My first step out of fastfood was actually to smut (not porn, I DJed at a strip club, there's a difference between smut and porn, oddly enough both sets of workers tend to look down on the other), at least I got to sit down and not mess up my back, and when nobody was in the club I got to listen to whatever I wanted to on a really kickass sound system (when you're 23 and stoned that's a big perk), so it was a definite step up for me. For the girls it was probably lateral, maybe a little downhill especially if they started getting into coke; on the other hand it's a great way to pay for college, 4 hours a night 3 nights a week, clear a couple hundred a week. I know one very attractive blonde lawyer in the SF that has some good things to say about the industry.

In the end there are plenty of jobs that suck and parents don't want their kids doing them, which isn't a good reason to boycott whatever particular industry they're in.

Let me tell you about a hard job - one that really takes a toll on the body and mind. I have been in construction, sales and now computer consulting. I have never had a more grueling job.

When I was 17 I worked in a Quarry, a rock quarry.

My day began by showing up at 5:30am, I would begin by starting the compressor, saying hi to the other 5 or 6 I would be working with (in Spanish) and put on the gloves.

I was a splitter - yep I split rock. Take 1 large boulder recently blasted from the side of a mountain. I mean large, 4 to 8 tons (average 4' x 5' x 8' or so), and begin by drilling 14 to 40 6" holes in the boulder. Right down the middle of the stone, all the way around, less one side. To drill you are using a compressor driven jack hammer - a big one (100lbs or so) and a small one (60lbs or so). You drill into solid rock using your arms, legs, butt or arm pits - you need enough pressure to actually drill into rock while holding a drill sideways as you work your way around.

Once you have drill enough holes you must fill the holes with feather and wedges. The wedges are steel wedges 3/4 of the diameter of your hole and the feathers are thin pieces of steel that you slip on either side to create a snug fit for your wedge. You place two feathers and one wedge in each hole.

Now hammer. Allot. You have two hammers, one 90lbs sledge and one 4lbs trimming hammer. Here you are using the sledge, allot. Hit each wedge a couple of times and then start over, hitting each wedge up and down the line until it make your first split. Yep - your first split. You have got to large boulders now. Before we go on I would like you to realize the effort needed to make this split happen. Swinging a 90lb sledge sideways or down while standing on an awkward boulder is enough to make a man cry after the first day or so. It is not the 1st swing or the 10th, it is the 80 and the 230th.

Now you have two stones, you need to split it down into trimming hammer size so repeat the process on each piece. 1 piece, then 2 pieces, then 4 pieces, then 8 pieces. Each piece getting smaller. Now you are ready to split these manageable blocks into usable stone for the mason or homeowner. Of course these are manageable for you, the average guy would bust a gut trying to lift one.

You must split each block (about 200lbs to 350lbs) into Squares (square pieces 3" to 4" thick 6"x 6" to 18" x 18"), Recs (like Square only rectangle), A-split (like squares only three sided) and Thin Split (any combination of those except 2" to 3" thick). Any thing too thin or odd shaped is c-split and anything thicker must be split thinner.

Here is the interesting part. I got paid $5.00 an hour and tonnage. Square & Recs made me $10.00 a ton, A-split $8.00 a ton and C-Split was worth $3.00 a ton. In the first week you are lucky to make 5 tons C-Split and a couple tons of A-split. If you got good (only two white guys ever made it to "good" and neither was me) you could make $15.00 to $20.00 an hour, just not for long. Mostly Mexican did this job, they lived together and saved their money. They would work for 5 or 6 months and then go back to Mexico.

I remember this job well, I did it for three months. Mostly I remember the Pain, incredible pain. Imagine placing a 250lb rock against the inside of you leg\calf area. Now use your other leg to steady the stone as you pound on it to split down to a couple of 70lb stones. Do the same thing with each new smaller piece in an effort to turn the jagged odd shaped rock into a square paving stone. It hurts. Now imagine the feeling of doing that 100 times a day in the first two weeks and 70% of the time you bust the stone into c-split. AAAHHHH

I went home each day to a bath and bed for the first two weeks. My hands would not come out of the grip position for days when I was not working, only to stiffen back during Mondays grind. Think hold a can of beer position and not being able to extend them further. You try swinging a 4lb and 90lb hammer all day, when your not gripping a jack hammer of one size or the other. Back pain? When was I not hunched over during a 8 to 10 hour shift? 30 minutes for Lunch. I did my time in the early spring in the Northwest. Remember I was outside, all day. Cold, wet and I hit my fingers allot the first month. We had snow one day and hail a couple of times, we were less than a mile from the Columbia River Gorge so you can imagine the wind, the cold cold wind.

I remember vividly the day I quit. Another cold drizzly day, it is the Northwest after all. 40 degrees if your lucky and wet. I was on a decent role, pulling 3 or 4 tons of good stuff a day. And cut, boy was I cut. I had only hit my finger once or twice that day. Did not matter much, after the first month you hands and fingers are numb to all but the hardest blow. You have lost a fingernail or two and your tuff. So I am moving along and suddenly I feel a burning sensation on my arm. I look down and see my controlling arm caught in my small drill (the drill bits slip in and lock into place with a lever of sorts), a good sized chuck of my arm, muscle and flesh, were caught in the lever. Of course I turned off the drill. Then I waited. I waited for someone to come over and hold the drill so I could lift the lever and release my arm. My supervisor came over and throw up, the Mexicans a asking what to do in Spanish (I had picked up a bit) and the one other white guy was calling for help.

Enough was enough, I was tired of the freaking out. So I grabbed hold of the drill with my legs and lifted on the lever, it moved a little and I ripped my arm out. The supervisor came back over and asked if I wanted to go to the hospital, I said no. I finished working the shift. And it was a good day. I made 4 tons Squares, 5 tons A-split and a couple tons a C-split. And I quit, never going back....... to the quarry.

I spent the next 3 years working in a landscape supply sales yard for the same company. Loading trucks, big trucks and little trucks, helping little old ladies and weekend warriors. Sometimes loading a 15 ton with a trachoe and other time hand loading 12 ton of the stuff I use to split. Allot of time in a loader and answering questions. Learned allot and became a manager of one yard and then another.

All the while working two days a week as an apprentice for an IT consulting firm. Extending my computer education (I apprenticed for a year at 16) and going to school.

Your back reminds you? I have a slipped disk and cannot sit in one place for more than a few minutes without pain. I have an arm with deadened nerves.

I would still prefer my daughter do that than work porn, better I would do it again to keep my daughter from needing to porn.