Sounds like an Art Director (in the movies) does a lot of what you’re talking about–after all, anytime a movie takes place in another time period, be it the future, gladiatorial Rome, or the 1970s, you have to create a self-consistent, believable world.
Okay, don’t laugh (all right, laugh. See if I care) but I have always wanted to be one of those midnight horror movie hosts in the tradition of Zacherly, Sammy Terry and Count Floyd.
I can see it all now… crappy rubber spiders, lots of dry ice… terrible puns… aaaah, bliss.
I’d also love to host a Captain Kangaroo-like kid’s show.
Unless Joe Silver rates your movie as ‘This year’s laugh riot!’ in which case, there’s nothing believable about it at all.
:eek: How did this one slip through the net? Off to IMHO with you.
bibliophage,
moderator, GQ
I always wanted to be the person who bought the books for the library. Buying lots o’ books with other people’s money… what could be better?
I am a professional duelist. It ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Work has been so slow lately that I have had to take on a day job in order to supplement my income taking heads.
MR
Heh, I know what you mean. Especially since you have to be a librarian to have this job (sorry, it doesn’t exist on its own, at least not in HI), you get to borrow the books (not to mention CDs and DVDs!) before anybody else does too.
A FOAF was in charge of buying for a while, and the library got a lot of translated manga for a while. 
As for me, my dream job is a video game writer. Ideally for a largish RPG, scripting dialogue, narration, story, and all that jazz. Only found the job open once, and it closed shortly after I sent in my resume (and not because they chose me). 
On a similar note, I’d also like to be a fiction writer. Almost the same thing, but there’s something about the branching, (more or less) non-linear, story telling of video games and its ilk that appeals to me. It’s like having to write Run Lola Run several dozen times per project. Sure it’ll be a lot of work, but it’ll also be challenging and, I suspect, great fun.
Nightingale,
have you been watching CSI? (I’m in the UK so it’s probably an old show to you US chappies). That forensic investigation seems a pretty cool occupation.
But now I apologise to those who’ve seen this news before.
I have my dream job. :eek:
As my profile states, I’m your basic harmless nerd who likes chess, D+D and computer games (and eating).
I teach at a private school. My subjects are … chess, D+D and computer games. 
The School pays travel expenses for me to play in chess events, so I can keep my standards up.
There are more benefits, but I almost feel guilty, so I’ll stop.
Hope your dreams come true!
I long to be a professional renaissance woman.
Actually, my ex-wife’s husband has my dream job. He’s the team manager for this guy. He’s a nice guy but what does he see in her? Of course, he spends half the year on the road, so maybe that’s how they’ve managed to stay married. Actually, my dream job would be managing David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen, but you gotta start somewhere.
a friend of mine just got a job as a personal assistant to a multimillionare. sigh. she mostly works from home, booking his 1st class travel or running a few errands. I have to say this appeals to me not just for the glamour, but because I like helping people organize their lives.
me, I want to be a nurse, probably an ER nurse. The more the pressure’s on, the calmer i get.
This probably won’t mean much to those outside the UK but for a long time my dream job has been to be the person who creates all the BBC2 twos that go between programs (where the commercials go for you unfortunate Americans)
Other than that I would like to be a Tube driver, but only on the real early or late services, and I would probably hate it after a few months.
I want to run a school like the one Jo ran in Little Women. I want the whole shebang: a country estate, rich and poor kids getting lots of exercise and fresh air and learning in a sort of “big kid” Montessori way.
I also want to be a novelist/screenwriter, many people think that’s crazy. I’d love to work for a film studio in development, deciding which films get made; or as a producer, putting them together, protecting the writer’s vision, etc.
I also want to backpack Marco Polo’s route to China, taking only a backpack, a camera, and some money and put together a photo-travelogue of the journey.
Fortunately life is long, eh?
I’ll be the first to say it, but I know I’m not the first to think it: I want to be an internet pornographer. WAIT! Before you write me off as being the lamest, most immature loser on the SDMB, hear me out. I’m interested in all aspects of this industry, not just the part that involves looking at naked people. The business side of it interests me (how do you create a distinctive presense/brand in a sea of lookalike sites?), the technical side interests me (I’ve had some ideas for searchable image databases and realtime video-on-demand technologies that I’ve never seen/heard of before, so I assume they’re reasonably original), the content creation side interests me (digital photography/videography, not to mention I’d love an opportunity to create quality porn), and the adult entertainment industry itself interests me (there’s a huge demand for product, yet Americans are so prudish they don’t want to admit they’re consumers of this stuff). The whole making-lots-of-money-while-looking-at-naked-people-all-day thing figures in there, too, of course, but I know if I were to really do this for a living, it would probably be a very small part of my day.
There. I’ve said it. Now you can call me the lamest, most immature loser on the SDMB. Thank you.
Pestie, you should talk to Stoid.
No one is here to judge you, buddy - go for it!
What, did handy give up his post?
On some TV program (on Speedvision, I think), I saw a story about a guy who’s job was to test drive high-end sports cars (that day he had a Ferrari 355) to failure. He would do things like big smoky burnouts, doughnuts, and powerslides around a race course until the car broke. Good work if you can get it.
My dream job would be professional pool player. Not that’s there’s much money in it but if I could get by, that would be just fine with me. There’s really nothing stopping me from going after my dream job except maybe a terminal lack of skill. Alternate dream job would be private investigator.
Two jobs: One is to own and run a truck stop. People laugh wildly when I tell them this, but I’d really love it. I’d make sure the food was so good and the waitresses so on the ball that the local townsfolk would come as well as the long-haul truckers. I’d have very clean showers, great phone facilities, and all the things to make a trucker’s life a little easier. This has been a dream since my undergrad years.
Second dream job: casino host. We were watching this show on “high rollers” and they had a little blurb about the hosts who make the high-rollers feel welcome, keep track of them during their visits, make them feel important and pampered. I think I could be good at this–I mean, as long as I could go off in a room somewhere once a day and bitch to the four walls about their stupid imperious demands. With that little bit of venting, I could come back and take another 24 hours of it. I’d keep excellent files on the various people, and I’m very good at small talk when I’m being paid to make it.
Hey Cranky, let me know when you open your truck stop. I’ll make sure to recommend it to all the car-carrier drivers who deliver to my dealership.
Wishing the nearest Powerball outlet wasn’t a 2-hour drive away,
Zappo