I'm such a troublemaker...

Had training today and was scheduled for 4 1/4 hrs, but the guest trainer finished her presentation early. So instead of doing what we usually do which is let us hang around until time is up, the lead trainer says we have to get back on the phone. Now considering we were doing stuff on the computer by ourselves, logic would dictate that not everyone may be finished w/ some of the material we're supposed to cover by ourselves. Not to mention they said that there was additional things avail on the computer that we were supposed to do. And we were covering new material that we have some questions about. But the trainer kicks me out of the material I was reading, and even takes down my name, phone login id, and TL's name. When I mention that she should probably get another rep's info since he was talking w/ the guest trainer, she completely ignores me. Boy, was I pissed!! 1) I don't want to be back on the phone before I'm supposed to b/c my schedule says I'm not supposed to, not to mention more time off the phone is less stress for me b/c I'm a loafer as much as the next person 2) I was actually covering the course material and really hadn't finished reading it. It wasn't like, oh I'll just re-read it, I never finished going thru everything. Sure most of the stuff was mentioned by the trainer, but it's not like her memory is flawless. So after I left, I jwrote to my TL and I sure as hell didn't log into my phone until I was supposed to. I'm sure she'll say I'm a troublemaker, but I'm used to it, and I can argue her down. I may not have been part of the debate club, but I didn't idolize Spock as a kid for nothing.

Anyways, some changes to the site. I still don't know what tags reference to, so the graphic I wanted on the title bar, which is on the title bar, is somehow on the bottom too but is the full graphic. But fuschia, green, purple, yellow is a bit too much color. Think I need black. Black is good.

Trying to upgrade my job...again

Still haven't heard back about the assistant position but then again, neither has people who are more qualified than I am, so I'm not too worried. But another position came up, it's a pay raise, but not necessary a title raise. Well sort of title raise, it's basically assisting other reps w/ probs and handling customers who cuss out the reps.

I'll admit this much, if I think that you have a legitimate greviance and are nice about it, I'll really help you. And I believe I've mentioned this in an earlier post too. But if you're arrogant, I'll give my empathy statements thru gritted teeth, even if I think that you have a legitimate greviance. And I sure as heck won't bend on any policies either. Credit? What's that?! I have an analytical personality, so I hate being wrong, think explanations solve everything, and don't like being pushed around. And never ever tell me how to do my job. I may say I take feedback well, but I really don't. I'll either slough it off, or else argue about the details. But I have argued my supervisor to the point where she couldn't say anything other than "Because I told you so!" Well that was a fun professional exchange! :P

But it's just too mcuh stress lately, I wanna take some days off, but I don't want to be caught w/ doing an interview during my vacation so I'm pushing it off. Argh! I'm soooo tired. I need more cat days.

I should write more often

Just have too much stuff to talk about. And to think it doesn't take that long to log in, create a post, type something an log off. At least get things out of my mind so I don't end up w/ huge long posts. But anyways, on with the show...

So about my keyboard, actually that wasn't what I originally wanted to write about, but it's kinda come up, or ouch as it were. I have a pull-out keyboard drawer, which is fine, it's quite nice, but I also like to rest my wrists on the drawer, which pushes up my keyboard to the back, and in order to reach all the keys, I end up banging my knuckles against the bottom of the desk. And since I don't want to do that, I think I'm getting more typing mistakes. And my carpal's starting to act up. *raise chair up* maybe that'll help the carpals. Yes, I have carpal tunnel syndrome. it's a pain, when you're an artist who knits, crochets, draws, inks, paints and well does everything w/ her hands.

Darn, with the seat higher, my rolly ball is going everywhere. I've got a green studded ball for accupressure for my feet. But now that I'm higher, I can't put as much pressure on my rolly ball, which means it ends up shooting across the floor. I also have one of those carpet mats so the carpet's not squished by the rolly chair.

So back to my original reason for posting, trying to make a template. Having no clue how to do it, and just going by trial-and-error. Which isn't working too well. Time to start reading.

Not that I have much time. Got rejected for that supervisor position. So did a bunch of other people, but I totally hate interviews, so I'm applying for assistant position. it's not more pay, but I think myself and a 100 other people don't want to be taking calls anymore. Haven't gotten response yet.

How much curiousity is appropriate? I work at a mall,so on my breaks I shop. Whenever I buy something, my male friend has to look and see what it is. It's like the other day, one of my work friends wanted me to knit something for him, so we went shopping for yarn. Then as my friend picks me up, he's like what's that? what's it for? who is it for? Like when was it ever your business?! I should just say "pads" all the time, I'm so sick of it.

And now the wait...

Ga, finally time to relax a little. The last few days have been just slightly hectic. So I got my interview for the supervisor position, and it was time to think of "stories" to tell them when they ask those behaviour questions. Wrote everything out, rehearsed answers...and forgot everything. Ooohhh, that sucked. Course it didn't help that I was super-worried that they were going to ask for references. I have a bad tendency to not look back, and look just slightly forward. I think maybe it was that worry that they were going to ask for references that made me forgot everything. Or the throwing up in the sink at home. Anyways, I wrote them a thank you note, even though I barely remembered anything from the interview. I did not get much sleep that last few days.

Had a great time w/ my friends today. Now I finally know for sure what pot smells like. For a while, I was never really sure but thought maybe those people smell funny, but 2 of my friends smoked some. I even got offered some, which makes me happy b/c I'm not considered ....hmm anal-retentive about drugs. I might try 1 inhale, but I think that might be it, just to see what it's like and to cough my lungs out.

Tried the x-men legends game too, the VA for Megabyte from Reboot is Magneto. No doubt about it. It was very confusing trying to figure out who was who sometimes and where my character was. The movies weren't too bad, sure were a lot of characters in there. Kinda gave my friends an X-men history lesson. Yup, I was a total x-men fan for a while, then things got stupid, then Morrison came and I got back into it, and now it's kinda wahhh?!

So it'll be this upcoming week where they'll annouce who gets supervisor. I doubt I got it, but maybe I got the assistant position. It's not like I want to spend my life at that company anyways, but at least w/ some supervisor experience, it might help me get a better job later. At least it's better than my dad, who was offered a supervisor position but turned it down b/c it was too much paperwork and responsibility. I may not have much ambition, but at least if someone's going to offer me more money, I'm not lazy enough to turn it down.

Paypal...?

So I was d/ling my torrent when I noticed the Paypal link. It's not like the first time that I've seen it. I've thought about donating to different sites, but the last time that I went to Paypal, there were some fees associated w/ it and I really didn't feel that safe w/ it being linked to my bank account. Now I go there, and it's really opened up and everything's free w/ credit cards etc. But it really doesn't tell me how safe it is. Is it safer to individually give out your credit card to a few merchants, or keep it on a database w/ millions of others that can be accessed by millions of merchants? I dunno. Their website was not good at providing info on how safe it was, at least not on the main pages. I don't have the time or energy to read thru the entire T&C tonight. So another site gets unpaid.

Course, what is a proper rate of pay for these sites? It's a donation, so it's however much you can spare. But seriously, a decent rate for providing anime/game/j-pop music that I don't have to sort thru pop-ups to find? I'm thinking like 0.10/song on avg although some sites I'm thinking deserve more for providing rarer music. Then for torrents, maybe 0.01/MB? Course that gets pricey but then how much do they pay for bandwidth too? But it's a moot point b/c I still don't have Paypal. Laziness, stingy or paranoid?

Anyways, had a customer that wanted to access the online site for his account info. But he had to turn on his cookies. Which he thinks is grounds for cancellation. Mind you, he's still in his Buyer's Remorse period, but geez. He's totally into the "you can't tell me how I should set up my computer." But dude, not all cookies are viruses, spyware, trojans etc. And I loved how he asked me where I was working, and I just named a place in the US, and he was like "did that guy that I talked to before you work w/ you?" and I just tell him that we work in different call centers and I don't know where. So he goes "sounded like a foreigner." And I'm thinking "Boyo, you're a bloody immigrant too b/c I don't think you have a drop of Native American blood in you. And would you look the other way if I passed you on the street too?"

Why the Answering Machine is better than the Old Man...

I come home the other day, and my dad tells me that someone called about an interview for a position. Well aside from why they couldn't tell me at work since it was an internal position, my dad didn't write down who called. Now I know of a few people in the HR dept, but who was in charge of the hiring? So I call the number that he wrote down, and it's not in service. Gee great. And he didn't take down what day the interview's on either. I call into work today b/c I have the day off, and my fill-in supervisor who is actually competing for the same position, isn't sure either who I should contact. She told me that if she could, she'd find out but otherwise I could just check on Monday. Great, so for 3 days I'll have no clue on when, who, or where the interview will be, how I should prepare for it or anything b/c HR doesn't work on the weekend. I'm so pissed off at that senile sack. >:(

Then we were watching the presidential debate, and Bush is so damn pathetic. All he can come up with is how Kerry flip-flops. Well as the Bizarro comic strip pointed out, only in America is a person that adjusts his opinion based on new information considered weak. The idiot who will maintain the same position despite overwhelming facts that the position is false is considered the hero. Unfortunately it's not avail on the Kingsfeature Bizarro site anymore, but it was very accurate, as usual. Also when Bush insisted on replying to a comment that Kerry made, interrupting the moderator, Gawd if I was the moderator, I would've just killed his mic and told him that he's breaking the debate rules. Course if I did that, I'd probably be jumped by a dozen Secret Service guys and get blacklisted from media forever, even though i was doing my job as a moderator. Bush is just a big bully, and he wonders why everyone hates him.

Trust No One

Ya know, after working for the x amt of time doing customer "care", I've learned that you just can't rely on anything. Everyone always exaggerates, covers their butt, wants to make that sale. Which is evil. Commissions are evil, b/c then you're more focused short-term gain instead of improving the customer's long term satisfaction. But as a consumer it's caveat emptor time, so... ah screw the philosophy, here's what happened. Customer calls in complaining that the dealer told him that some software was going to be available at a certain time in the future. Which is true, but the customer has to get new equipment to get that software. Is it misrepresentation? Maybe. Is it unexpected? Shouldn't be. Most recently Microsoft released their latest IE patch only avail for Win XP, thereby trying to "persuade" users to upgrade their OS. Is it evil? Heck no, it's great business practice! The company saves money by not having to spend more money to support older products, not to mention it helps the company target its advertising and research. So why should American consumers be upset? You're living in a capitalist society aren't you? Enjoy the workings of capitalism! Everything in capitalism is about creating a need, and it's a throw-away society. Just do your duty and spend spend spend!

Anyways, something a little more related to the Title, there's the saying "customer's always right." But what if the customer is lying? Should we still believe that customer's can get away with whatever they want? Had a guy on the line that claimed that the dealer told him to call into Customer Care to get the cost of his phone credited back to him b/c he renewed his contract. I'm thinking "what the fah?! That *bleeping* dealer!" I call the dealer, dealer says "nope, just told him Customer Care might be able to give a discount, not that you would." I'm thinking "Okay, well expected dealer to say that but shouldn't even mention that Customer Care can do anything about phone pricing." Anyways dealer calls customer, customer then claims that he only wanted to see if I could give a discount, not that he expected one. Yeah right, I know how you phrased your question, you were totally expecting your money back. So trust no one, definitely not the customers who'll "stretch the truth" to get something that they hope will slip by, not the salespeople who want the commision, and not the rep that can't explain everything for you. If ya can't see it, don't trust it. Course, there's also Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle...

Hello me!

Yes, I've found my picture. For those of you who don't know, it's actually the Fusionist from YuGiOh. It's not a very powerful monster, but then again my deck isn't that powerful at all. The first time I saw her was when I won it on the YuGiOh computer game. Considering how hard it is to get new cards in that game sometimes(can anyone say Exodia?), I was pretty disappointed since I didn't have the monsters to make the fusion(and I still don't) and at only 900 ATK and 700 DEF with no effects, it's useless. But it sure is cute!

Incidently I do have a real card deck, not just the one on the computer. It's one made by my friends after I gave him the Shining Blue-Eyes White Dragon that I got when we saw the YuGiOh "movie". It was really OVA quality or more like TV episode quality. The voice acting was pretty bad, especially when they switched the guy for Grandpa in the middle. But Pegasus is always a hoot.

Yes, you have to pay...

Hmm, another day another dollar. Or in some people's cases, a hundred dollars. I guess as a sortof addendum to my post where if you're nice to the customer service rep they'll bend the rules for you, sometimes when you're stupid we can't save you. Case in point, your kid thought that free meant everything d/l would be free including games. You get a $100 bill for games. You don't call in to ask about the bill until the company actually calls you to tell you to pay up. Now regardless of whether you were misinformed about something, I'm sure in every company's T&C that there's a section about the customer's responsibility to review the bill and notify the company of any discrepancies w/in a certain time. After the time has elapsed, the charges are considered correct. If you're too lazy or "dumbfounded" to call us to tell us there's a problem, we can't do anything if you tell us 3 mons later. Especially when it's not like an actually screwup on the setup of service or billing error. There is a statute of limitations on misunderstanding. And if you don't like being told you're an idiot for not telling us there was a problem, well then...DON'T ACT LIKE AN IDIOT!

Anyways, on a more normal matter, I've d/l Firefox to replace IE. Hardly get any pop-ups which is sweet. Unfortunately it won't play the Anime Hardcore stream in the Live365 browser. Which means I have to open it in Sonique instead and I don't know what song is playing. Except for a few, which is why I'm singing "Half-Pain" from Witch Hunter Robin.

And yes, I'm trying out the links. I've also changed the colour of the links too. I was thinking, hmm, pansies are purple-yellow-black. No, I don't know where the dark orange came from. I think I have to find my seed catalog for more ideas.

Success!

OK, just changed the Title colour. It was this lime-green (#ad9) I think, which totally clashed w/ my colour scheme which is black-purple-silver. Hmmm, now the links colour doesn't work too well either. The visited links is ok(gee, purple) but the blue isn't so good. Pink? Naa, too girly even if it does look good. But pink is the new black as Knight says.

Knight? Who's Knight? Just Knight from Duel Monsters. Yes, I watch that show. I'm not sure if the original was supposed to be a parody of YuGiOh, but the American one sure is. Yes, the CGI sucks ass, the game's a rip-off of YuGiOh, but it makes me giggle sometimes. And Knight's pretty hot. Though my favourite character is Mimi.

So what colour to use? Dunno... I'm not colour-blind but sometimes my colour sense isn't so good. Other than pink. Dang, pink goes w/ purple, silver and black. I dont' like purple and red, it's horrid. Think...nature's colour scheme always looks good. ...purple-pink. Argh!! Whatever, I've got to go back to painting my Shenlong model.

Also noticed that the time stamp is when the post was started. Which isn't so bad, keeps a counter on how long you're thinking of something to say, and when it's a blog, you don't want it to be too long. It's not an essay for God's sake.

This isn't the start of an addiction...

Oy, going thru the FAQ on how to format stuff is a lot of work. Just like trying to look for work. Except I know how I want my blog to look, and no one else can judge except for me. But aren't we our own worst judges?

Speaking of work, I have to go back tomorrow. While I get paid enough to get by, is any amount of pay enough to compensate us for all the stinky doo-doo we have to put up with? The way some customers act, even if their situation does suck and it is entirely not their fault, if they were nicer to us, they might be surprised how much we would do anything for them. I've let customers slide with a lot of things just b/c they were polite, understanding if we couldn't do things, and DON'T DEMAND! When you're a customer like that, we'll look for that extra bit of courtesy credit or minutes, we'll let that promo that you shouldn't have stay, we'll give you that extra bit of information that might save you money b/c then we want you to have everything. But if you're rude, obnoxious, screaming -- even if the situation isn't your fault-- we're just going to do the minimal to settle the situation and get you off the phone. It's human nature: the Golden Rule.

As for today, after I started the blog, I spent some time w/ my nieces. It was tres fun, after they got over their mother's edict to get home early. Less said about my sis-in-law the better. While this site is really probably only going to be viewed by me, it's still public property. Of course even the stuff in our heads aren't private anyways. Damn those psychics.

New Posting...so just testing

Well having heard all about this for so many years, but being totally out of it when it comes to web communities, I've just got too much in my life to not yap about anymore. Course I'm lazy as heck, and know I'll get bored w/ things soon enough that there's no sense actually paying for it. Which leads me to Blogger.

Too lazy to set up a real homepage to host my pithy comments (which will inevitably comes in cycles, as all things in my life does) not to mention my HTML is outdated and mostly forgotten. Still remember when you had to have a chart for the colors that you wanted w/ all the numbers.

I did have a page once...so long ago. However it sucked when you know no one but your friends looked at it. And forget trying to sell stuff over the Web(yes this was before eBay). But blogging...I don't really care if no one reads it. I talk to myself constantly anyways. No one's supposed to hear me, but if they do...well they can run away.