Pandatron..

Is a variation on the marathon but than instead running you work non stop for days as a Panda moderator. I can truly say it's hard for me to imagine a world outside Panfu.

Fallen in love with what those kiddos talk about when they walk around in the land of Panfu, decorating their tree house, going for a hair cut, shopping or just decide to have a chill day on the beach. They can also play games and make money with which they can buy stuff –clothes, furniture- but only when they have this special Gold Status…that you need to pay for)

This little capitalistic concept is responsible for loads of anger, jealousy, hatred and inappropriate language. Some pandas marry, have sex, deliver and/or adopt children, cheat, checkout each others new bathroom, have domestics and fall in and out of love several times during one shift -4 hours

Basically I work with this programme that first filters the normal, harmless stuff -that I therefore don't see: how are you, what a nice day, lets go for a walk- so that I end up only seeing lists and lists of all the dodgy, but most of all very creative stuff. I can select, block, lock and delete Pandas WHEN, and there is where the fun starts, I catch them.

Never expected such inventive little minds, the role plays and language they come up with to trick us is endlessly! Pandas, especially Dutch ones, can be very mean and sneaky getting passwords, email addresses and mobile phone numbers. And then there is always the adult that tries, the poor little boy that also gets picked online and hard core kiddos that think they can hack Panfu. But I see everything. My favourite warning is the message from God –it’s really called that. If you get 3 of those you can’t chat for 30 min. The fun thing is that they get a personalized message with at the end my name: Moderator Judith. Usually this message gets ignored but besides giving a warning I can also give Positive feedback: Panfu is a nice place to live thanks to special pandas like you. Would you not absolutely love getting a message like that? Trust me, pandas go mental. They started talking to me, Judith is lief -Judith is nice in Dutch.

Panfu is not only a place of disgrace, also very nice conversations and special friendships develop. There is this one Panda that is called Pope, he is really religious and doesn’t like other pandas fighting. He’s got 4 dogs and has been going out with the some Panda lady as long as I can remember. A decent guy you could say. He’s a bit too old for Panfu, actually for kids up to 12 and he is 16, but he does no harm. Sometimes I catch him talking about God to new pandas, how important it is to have God in your live.

This other panda, Cheesetoasty, doesn’t learn from his mistakes. So many times my housemate heard me say out loud:': “You can’t say that, you know!” than 30 min chat lock and then you could just wait for it…again within a minute.

Of course you can’t exchange personal details, but they try very hard cause Panda swap is the new hype. If you have a gold packet that you paid for though things can get nasty.

What’s your password? WW? But than spelt wrong, cut up and send in different messages and more ways of getting away with it. Some kids are more than willing to give any information whatsoever….my mobilenumeris….LOCK. I'm faster and smarter.

The beauty of this job is that I can set my alarm 10 min before my shift begins, go to the toilet –very important and highly underestimated- get the cereal out, make a coffee and get comfortable in the Kitchen. Don’t have to be home, just need a PC and internet cause can download programme anywhere. Also did some Panda checking in Copenhagen when I was couch surfing last month.

At the beginning it was quite tiring, focusing on this screen that is moving and chancing constantly but at the moment I can easily multitask by Skyping, emailing en couch searching at the same time and still do a good job. Planning a trip to Hungary for the end of the month for a couple of weeks, my gran is from a town in the south close to Szeget. I’ve never been to Hungary in my live so decided to go on a little roots hunt. Am very lucky to have found lots of nice people that want to host me, couchsurfing.com is the best! Romania is happening after all, will be going at the end of January for 8 months…but that is a whole different story that will write about later. Need to pick my bike up now, got taxi back from Wednesday club last night, didn’t want to fall of my bike again.

Panda headquarters is in Berlin. All the different nationalities have there own row of desks –Panfu is in 6 different languages I forgot to tell, I’m working for the Dutch one.
You should come round when you’re in the neighbourhood.