After hours of study...

I've finally got my crossover cable to work and the 2 computers to talk to each other. Seriously I would be searching at work to see what I needed to do to get them to talk to each other. Unfortunately there was a lot more stuff for connecting XP and 98 together. Vista just doesn't seem to be very popular. *sarcastic* I was just changing features and settings willy-nilly for the last 2 days. It actually took a tutorial on setting up 2 Win 98 computers to finally pull everything I learned together.

Now I'm trying to burn the files that I moved over to see if I can get a good copy. The burner on my old computer wouldn't burn it properly. The burning program that come w/ the Acer computer is called NTI CD&DVD Maker. Never heard of them. And boy does it suck. I'm burning mp3s, and a bunch of them have long names. All my other progs will ask me if I want to shorten them and how to truncate it. Not this stupid thing. I had to manually go into my File Explorer and guess which ones were probably causing the prob.

Anyways, super tired. My nose is massively stuff, and my throat hurts.

Our team had meeting w/ SMO to air out some issues we've been having w/ managers. Quite amusing his reaction on who some of the worst offenders were. And they've "found out" that there was an issue w/ their scorecards, so they had to recalculate everything. But they said that there weren't that huge amount of changes, but they'd be talking to people who's cards have changed. Huhn, well I haven't been talked to yet, and quite frankly if I don't get my bonus, I might not be going in to work during their most busy days. Just go in to get my stat pay, but there's no way I'm working Boxing Day.

No time

To post. Or do anything actually. Sooo busy, and w/ my work schedule being what it is, I hardly have any time for Xmas shopping or putting together the presents I do have. And I got myself a new computer. Which I can't seem to hook up to my old one to transfer files. Why not just burn them on DVD? B/c my old computer can't seem to burn it properly. Gotta finish my emails now. And survey.

Slapped in the Face

Ah yes, another post about the injustice and crap at my job. So they had launched a "career path" program, supposedly giving us bonuses on top of our raises if we met a certain criteria. And it was not supposed to be bell curved or anything. Essentially it was their Performance Appraisal. Which is supposed to be confidential. How do they roll it out? We're go into the lunchroom on our breaks and they look up our names on a list which tells them which lanyard to give us. And the lanyard tells us which bonus if any we get. Oh and then we can get cake.

Are we in f*cking elementary?! This isn't some freaking ribbon that's handed out at a school-wide track meet! Their lanyards certainly cost the same as the ribbons that I got in elementary. No, they publically announce what our bonus is when before they always told us to keep the results on the Perfomance Appraisal secret. Not only that, but for those of us on specialized teams, if we didn't go up in their rankings, we get no bonus whatsoever. And those us of who are already making more than their recently capped wages, we get bumpkiss. Guess who fell into that category. I was so furious. Not only did I completely waste my break on this bullsh!t, but I get absolutely nothing. The more I thought about it, the more riled I became and still am. T was kinda getting freaked b/c he never saw me so mad. Unfortunately I have to unleash the anger physically so if I can't damage something, then I start to cry. So after a half hour calming back down, I go to tell someone I'm going home. And it was JVH which was good in the way that he knew why I was pissed. But of course he has to try and ask me to stay, which makes me mad again. Well at least I got a hug out of it. And he's smelling pretty good since he got his new position. But he said that everyone on our team got the same fisting except for 2 people, one who certainly didn't deserve it. So they think that there's something wrong w/ the scoring and are going to review it. We'll see if anything comes out of it.

Anyways, that time of the month did start for me. Which sucks. And I was late today for work b/c a freaking CN train, and the bus driver managed to get stuck on nothing. There was no snow or ice that we could see.

'Tis the season for charities to come a-begging

I'm not lying. I'm looking at a pile of letters/cards/calendars from charities that's 9 cm high. Last time I processed all the charities stuff was beginning of October. Ugh, and you have to be so careful too. There's a lot of groups out there that sound like well-known charities, until you read the fine print where they say they're "non-profit". Whatever that's supposed to mean. If I don't get a tax receipt, I don't care then.

Anyways, I booked all my remaining vacation for these next weeks. Have to send out xmas cards...oh yeah, have to ask my cuz her address. Have to work on my friend's scarf. It's hand-designed strand knitting pattern for part of the scarf 72 st by 38 rows. And I'm using 5 mm needles, so even though I've worked on it for about 7 hrs today, I only got maybe 5 inches on straight stockinette st part. The strand knitting was the worst. And then the dp needles I got are actually too short, so I've dropped a few stitches, and accidentally created a few b/c I thought they'd dropped. So tired.

Stupid roommate D left my TV on all night. Said he was in a daze b/c he was watching it at 5 in the morning. Useless piece of #!@$!!! I can't stand to talk or look at him anymore. Everything he does or says makes me wanna boot him in the head. And I'm so cursing renewing the lease. B/c T thought that V had gotten an apt so we wouldn't be rooming anymore. But that's not the case, so now T and V are looking for an apt, and I'm stuck w/ D. *looking at calendar* Well it also could be that time of the month too.

Anyways, I'm majorly behind on my manga. And it's all because of RG Veda. Only have to read Vol 10 and then I can pack it away and get onto my other books. But I'm just not digging it. When CLAMP does epics, it's all so....overblown. Everyone's so mysterious. The quieter moments are good, but there's not enough character development. Everyone dies...although they get resurrected in another CLAMP series. So until I finish RG Veda, I'm not touching my other series...and that's why I'm so behind. I just don't wanna read Vol 10 b/c I've spent too much of my time going "Yeah, sure okay, whatever."

No Vacancy

AAARGH!!! Stupid Revenue Canada website!!!!! I have it tabbed and trying for the upteenth time to register for their epass, and it forced Firefox to shut down. So I have to retype everything. And of course stupid blogger has their freakass delay so I can 't look at the screen while I'm typing.

Anyways!!! I woke up early today to do apt hunting. And called 4 places. 2 were full, including the place where T is staying. When I got to the first appointment, Carlton Towers, I called the manager to let me in, and he tells me that the suite just got rented. Then since there was an hour to the next appt, so I tried callng them to see if they could show it to me right now, but he never answered. I ended up calling another apt b/c they were right in the neighbourhood, but they were full too. So I ended up buying milk, finally using the $5 gift certficate that work gave me. Went back home and finally go to pay the flipping Shaw bill. Because I usually pay it at the same time as my Visa bill, but their stupid website is always down at night. So yeah, my customer feedback on that was negative.

Headed back out to my 2nd appt, at Secord House. Mgr seemed enthused when I first called, although his first question was where I worked. But then it seemed to die when he saw me even though I was dressed in beige turtleneck, black jeans, canvas sneakers, natural makeup, hair in clip. Didn't say anything to me in the elevator, and basically rushed me thru the room. I had a big checklist and didn't even get to ask him if they allowed pets. He was really patronizing when I asked if there was any fire extenguisher or sprinkler system, saying that apts don't have that, and then when I said I was in an apt that did, he changed it to no apt over 30 yrs. Well, that's not going to add a lot more to my tenant insurance! Anyways it was $875 for that place. At least the appliances looked kinda new, although the kitchen was tiny. And there were some serious cracks on the bathroom wall. I dunno if he thought the way that I was scrutinizing everything that I was actually a building inspector, or maybe I just wasn't white enough.

And so I went to pay my rent. We have occupany of this apt until end of Nov but have to give them a decision by Nov 1. And really, even w/ going month to month, it's only $615 after the split. Plus unl internet+cable which is about $47 split. If I went on my own, they don't offer unl internet anymore, so it'd be at least $30 for just 10GB. I have enough unwatched DVDs for a year. Then utilities is $30 estimate b/c I'm OC on turning off lights and appliances. So basically if I lived by myself, I'd be looking paying around $850-900 at the cheapest rent that I'd seen advertised. Right now, even month to month, it's only $750. Argh! Yeah, so I asked the building manager some questions about our rent, and then she seemed kinda puzzled at first, but then when I explained that I can't stand to live my roommate anymore, she totally understood.

Yeah, heh, no one wants to live w/ D. T will kill him the minute he ticks T off. B knows her son won't want to room w/ D. Yup, so this summer D got dumped by H, and now 2nd wife wants a divorce too. I pity myself for pitying him. Tried calling H, but she didn't answer. Should be home by now though.

Good thing I didn't press send

Yes, so I'd made an order on C&L for some DVDs and manga. and at the time they were offering 14% off all items. So I'm calculating it, and what I expect the total to be. And the discount didn't seem to be there when I submitted the order, but the rules seemed to indicate that it would be there once it was packed. So then it gets shipped out, and it doesn't seem like it's 14% off. And I'm like WTF?! and start composing a long, polite, pointed email about how there's a discrepancy. And as I'm writing it, and doing all the math, it turns out that most of the discount was eaten by GST and the s/h. Argh!!! So it's been that kind of day.

Yeah, so got my CAP. And they throw a curveball saying that not only is the CAP itself 30 days (which is standard) but I have to be on calls another 30 days after that "in case I regress" WTF?! What does my call quality have to do w/ my attendance?! If anything, I'm going to find more ways not to show up for work. And they they give this story about how that's standard for CAPs for Floor Support. Having never been on a CAP before, I was skeptical but didn't press further. Well, after talking to fellow teammates who've been on CAPs while on the team, that doesn't seem to be the case. So I want it in writing, and it better be applied to everyone.

Oh yes, and my stupid manager again chased me out of my friends' section. And then talked to their manager about something. So I'm seriously peeved that I have to sit in a section that no one else on my team actually sits in, nor get chased into sitting. So if she wants to apply that to me, then she needs to do it to everyone else. And I'm really going to call her on it. And if she doesn't enforce it with anyone else, then it's a double standard. If she's going to throw it into my face, then I'm going to throw it right back. It's a bad idea to piss off someone who was also in management before. I don't like getting treated like a peon.

Oh yes, and the stupid call went a bit late, the bus was early, and I tripped and slid a foot as I was running for it. No cuts or ripped jeans. I guess the unshaven legs helped w/ lessening the scraping. Although there might be some aching. Don't bruise much though. And I have a split flesh just on the tip of my finger so it hurts much to type.

How not to retain employees

So my current workplace should really write a book on how not to retain employees and encourage turnover. My manager's going to put me on a CAP which means I have to be on the phones for a month. Just b/c I was late a couple times for the last couple of weeks. And it's not like half an hour, it's just at most 10 mins b/c I keep missing my bus. It not a huge deal compared to other crap that we see happening. And really she could just ignore it. But whatever. But what really pissed me off is that she's telling me to change where I sit, that I have to sit in "team seating." Where no one else sits but reps from other teams. So I can't sit w/ my friends, where I can chill. And it's not like I change my spot where I sit, which I could understand that it might be a little hard to find me. I sit in the exact same section all the frigging time. The manager that has that section doesn't care b/c I don't bug her agents, and actually help them out all the time w/ things. I've even done some of their work for them. And at least I know that section is relatively clean b/c the same people sit there all the time. There are so many disgusting stations out there, it's revolting. There's no logical reason why I should move.

T asked his manager if she could do something for me since I'm going to be on the phones, and she said if I was good (totally putting the brakes on my immediate tendency to tell management to f-off and screw around) for 2 weeks, she'd put me on the list to help her team. And thus sit w/ her team again but on official capacity. She's a smart one.

And so I'm still looking for other places of residence. It comes down to money and sanity. Money b/c I don't wanna spend more than 1/3 my take home pay on rent. However I also need to keep my sanity, which won't happen w/ the current living arrangement. H dumped D on me, so I'm trying to be nice to D while H w/ f*cking around and doesn't have to deal w/ him.

And my dad's going in for surgery, hopefully to fix his pumping. But he's old, and my brother who was living w/ him is moving out b/c he bought another house on the other side of the city. So while I'm not close to my family, there's still that concern about him being all alone. Even though my eldest brother is only a block away, he's got 4 kids and a b!tchy wife.

I still have to scream at the life insurance people to give me policies that make sense. Need to look for another place b/c obviously that place is handbasket to hell. So all that, and plus my frigging "." coming in, is putting a lotta stress on me. Gawd, I wanna read some yaoi.

Control

So this will be the gross post. Had to do some tests that my doctor ordered up, I was okay w/ the blood tests. Just don't look when they poke it in, and I'm okay. Needle seemed a bit big, and left a visible mark. But even though I had a glass of water 1/2 before, and I hadn't gone for about an 2 hrs, I couldn't manage more than a trickle. Actually I think I just gave barely enough of a sample. And why do they only give you 2 towelettes? Guys have it so easy. >:( Yeah, but anyways, I still didn't really need to go after I got home. So weird. Lately, especially at work, I have to go about every 1 1/2 hrs. But anyways, I had to do the other thing too. Usually I do it when I get up b/c it's good to be regular (and your gas doesn't smell as bad b/c there's less fermentation), but b/c I didn't want any contamination, I waited until after. Well anyways, just mentioned it b/c my roommate has a medical condition so he can't control himself. And H has no medical condition but can't tell when she needs to go until she nearly craps/pisses herself. She used my bathroom several times b/c D was in the other one and she couldn't hold it. Thought she was toilet-trained, but apparently only enough to actually look for one. *ba da bing!*

After I went to lunch at Kyoto. Ate 2 bananas on the way there b/c I had to fast for 12 hrs. It was pretty darn good, as usual (the restaurant, not the bananas...well they were pretty good too). I had the sashimi & tempura bento. The squid tempura was just perfect. The shrimp tempura was a little over done. I'm so sad that they only gave me half a hotategai. The surf clam(hokkigai) was really sweet. The sake wasn't so good this time. And no, I didn't smother it in wasbi/soy sauce this time. It's been so long since I had sashimi. Now nigiri's kinda common for me b/c I buy it all the time from T&T, but sashimi's always been a favourite. I love chirashi. But the best is when you have the baked oyster or scallop, and you pour the saunce into your rice. It's soooo tasty.

So I went thru my piling of Xmas cards from charities. Yes, they've already started coming. Gawd, I have so many cards. I might just have to make one for everyone I know. And then the empty mooncake box was too small, so I had to alter it. Hope the glue sticks. I have so many envelopes for them too. I might need to alter another tissue box, just for the new set of envelopes.

Got my shipment for Play-Asia. I ordered a DS cartridge but it sticks on the top of the DS...with sticky tape. Which means I can either use it and probably never take it off. Of keep using my Dalkia cover. Argh!!!! Haven't watched my Pokemon movie yet. It's the one w/ Manaphy. It's called Pokemon Renzya to ? Umi no Ouji manafui. Yeah. And then they came out w/ a collection of all the Pokemon movies a week after I ordered it. Waaaah!!

Anyways yesterday, was my Dad/nephew/nieces b-day party. They liked my presents! Yaaaay! Well I dunno about my Dad, but whatever. It's hard to find plain drab boy's clothing b/c that's his size. So I had to go w/ a small women's jacket. It looked vaguely unisex. After we went to the Space Science Centre/ Odyssium /Telus World of Science b/c it was free admission day. We had a blast. Considering we all had science backgrounds, we were still running around looking at things and had to keep reminding ourselves to look out for the kids. What is it about chicken that's so tasty? Had KFC on Sunday, and 2 kinds of chicken today too. And I'm not sick of chicken! Mind you, their living environment was probably horrible, crammed 10 rows high in a warehouse, pecking from a conveyor belt. But they're so yummy. I must have no spiritual sensitivity, can't taste their misery.

Quiz: The Song of Ice and Fire House Test

Your Score: House Stark

27% Dominant, 27% Extroverted, 81% Trustworthy

Responsible. Respectable. Dour. That’s not shit coming out of your ass--it’s honor. You are clearly of House Stark.



You are a submissive personality, meaning that you are more than willing to relinquish control to someone more qualified; you will unflinchingly accept any responsibility that is thrust upon you, including servitude. Unfortunately for you, your unending patience and accommodating nature often make people look to you for a leader. In essence, you are the perfect leader: someone who has no desire to lead, yet is substantially well-qualified to do it.



You are also introverted, which means that people sometimes have difficulty understanding your thought process. Your dependable nature makes you predictable, but you’ve probably got all sorts of emotional dysfunctions when it comes to more intimate relationships. There are very few people whom you trust unwaveringly, and you’re not the type to confide in other people. So cold, so aloof--so Stark.



Finally, you are trustworthy--the very definition of the word. All secrets are safe with you. All of your vows are unbreakable. True to your name, you world is a stark place; there is black, and there is white. Your rigidity tends to undercut your overall value as a friend and ally. Honesty such as yours is hard to come by, which is easy to understand when you consider how easily manipulated you are by less decent individuals. Essentially, you’re the nice guy, and you’ll always finish last.



Representative characters include: Eddard Stark, Jon Snow, and Sansa Stark



Similar Houses: Frey, Lannister and Tully



Opposite House: Baratheon



When playing the game of thrones, you play it with one sword in your hand and another up your ass.

I really have no clue what this is referencing to, but since my friends did it, so did I. This was actually my 2nd result...after I more carefully considered what the questions were asking. Yes, this is what happens when you're tired and just clicking. My first result:

Your Score: House Frey

36% Dominant, 27% Extroverted, 45% Trustworthy

Violent. Self-important. Total fuckers. Universally despised, you are of House Frey.



You are a submissive personality. Piranha-like, you’ll viciously attack anyone weaker than yourself. However, you are content to bow and scrape and kiss-ass, as long as the owner of that ass remembers the favors you’ve done him. You’re slimy like that.



You are also introverted. You don’t enjoy broadcasting your devices and ambitions to the entire world; instead, you prefer to confide in a close-knit support system of friends and family. The people you keep around yourself are as vicious and proud and power-hungry as yourself, so you’ll always get the advice you want.



Finally, you are untrustworthy. In fact, you are the most untrustworthy of all houses. Do you have any idea how bad that is? Lannisters kill their kings and their fathers and fuck their siblings, but they are still far more trustworthy than you! Nobody likes you; nobody trusts you; nobody respects you. In the end, your blatant ambitions and ruthless executions thereof will alienate you from everyone. You’ll die alone. And you deserve it. (Asshole.)



Representative characters include: Walder Frey, Lothar Frey, and Cleos Frey



Similar Houses: Greyjoy, Stark, and Tyrell



Opposite House: Targaryen



When playing the game of thrones, you play it like a true villain.

Link: The Song of Ice and Fire House Test written by Geeky_Stripper on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Okay, I lied. I was quite awake when I did it the first time. So this is either an example of how wildly inaccurate online quizzes can be, or a hidden look at my true nature. :D

Angry...very angry...

They have the voting on the readers choice for the Shojo Beat girl, and mine was not in the top 10 runner up. Some of them were pretty good, granted. But at least my submission didn't have her arms do not go down to her knees. Argh! So unless they have top 3 editors choice or something or another, mine didn't make it. *gnashing of teeth* Which is why I am blogging right now, instead of taking a shower.

Anyways, today wasn't too bad of a work day. Had training for 3 hrs, team meeting for 2. Apparently I met some quality metric so I get a draw into a turkey dinner. The option was a frozen turkey or you could have a $50 restaurant dinner. Personally I think the best option is to go to restaurant b/c you don't have to clean anything up. B said she'd prefer the bird b/c she makes an elaborate Thanksgiving dinner. Of course, since I never win anything, I won't win this draw either.

Made doctor's appt for Thursday. My ears' been bugging me for 2 weeks now. And I'm very sniffly, coughing, sneezy, itchy eyes, get chilly easily, headaches, tired. I know, classic symptoms of allergies. But it's still very annoying, and doesn't seem to go away. At least my stomach hasn't hurt lately. And problem w/ getting cold easy is that I prefer cold weather. So when I have to bundle up b/c my body can't handle it, and then I start sweating...it really sucks.

Anyways, H dumped over D about how he's a loser. He's very emo, doesn't take criticism well, so he cried even when he was telling me about it. So I email her about it, since he is my roommate, which means I have to deal w/ him everyday, whereas she's a couple thousand km away. She was really insensitive w/ her reply, and actually quite crude. And seriously pissed me off, b/c she's not taking any responsibility for any of her actions, and then she acts all offended when we call her on it. As TA said, she acts like a selfish 17 yr old. No flipping thank you even for the armwarmers I'm knitting for her, which she's not paying me for, and I'm just making b/c I'm nice and she's my friend. No acknowledgement of all the work I'm putting into it. Just asking me when they're ready b/c it's getting cold in Quebec. Well at this point, they'll be ready when I flipping feel like it. I have Xmas stockings and Xmas presents to make.

Finished Fossil Collection!

For Animal Crossing! Yatta, finally completed it! Quite exciting to walk thru the room and see everything. Should show T since he was a dino-fan when he was younger. Still lots left in the insect, fish and painting collections. Still can't find a bloody ant, and I'm running out of time. Haven't caught scorpion yet, although I've been stung 3 times already.

Took a while but Playstation site finally came up so I could blog about finishing Devil May Cry 1. I'm always surprised when people make comments about my posts. Had one go to 102 replies b/c it was about American's ignorance. Now I'm just weighing in on expensive games.

Yeah, I succumbed

It is w/ grave regret and too little sleep...that I signed up for Google Ads. Mostly b/c I forgot how ugly they look. But well I'll maybe give it a whirl. And hopefully I'll be able to withdraw w/o starting a new blog. But I'll try to see if I can find any advertisers that actually match my interests.

Anyways, friends are pressuring me to get onto LiveJournal and Facebook. Really I don't have time for more projects. Hard enough trying to sort thru the insurance policies I have.

I requested copies of my policies, and they send me a single page. With no details on what it covers. And there's no info about their policies on their website. And you can't create an account to get more info. Like WTF? If that's the way they're going to treat their customers, I'll take my business elsewhere. Which is unfortunately harder b/c I'm older, and I've paid quite a bit into it already. Damn vultures.

Cooking is always a useful skill

Whether it be in RPG or RL.

Looking at Domino's flyer, and why the heck would I pay $6.99 for a 12" 1-topping pizza?!?! Geez, unless I was someone who had a restricted diet, that's stupid. Mind you a cheese pizza from them is $10.99, so I guess it's a deal. Should get that and order just Hot Banana Peppers. LOL. But pizza's not quite what it used to be. At least not when I used to make them. Dad would buy 2 premade pizza doughs, and I'd lay on a bag of cheese, can of pineapple and mushroom, kubasa, ham and tomatoes. Get about an inch thick layer of toppings. Yeah, that was awesome.

Anyways, my stupid roommate D is sick. So after whining that he couldn't go to sleep b/c he was hungry, but lacking the culinary skill and ingredients to actually make anything, I found his can of veggie alphabet soup, which he prepared a la microwave. Then he goes and opens a can of root beer from the fridge. Aside from the fact that combining those 2 flavours is really disgusting, he thinks that having them alternately will equalize the temperature in his mouth. Yuck. Everyone knows that you don't drink anything cold while your throat hurts. But whatever, it's his stupidity if he can't get better. Anyways, he misses his ex. Even though she dumped him.

Yeah, so bringing lunch everyday, and prepping from scratch is helping my cooking. Found out that while Korean soy bean sprouts, tofu, red peppers and BBQ sausage is good w/ noodles, not so good w/ rice. So I guess I'll be having noodles for the next while. Although I have bok choy that needs to be taken care of before it spoils. Had it made w/ roast pig for my bentos. Then had some last night w/ steak & rice. Hmmm, *goes to pull out the mackeral* guess I'm having it w/ mackeral for tonight. Mackeral's kinda big, so I'll probably have to chop it in half after I gut it. Yeah, D's totally squeamish about stuff like that. TA doesn't look at me like I'm a freak when talk about butchering, but he figures I'll be one of those people who'll actually be able to survive in the wild if hunting.

But sometimes I feel like I should splurge and buy lunch like everyone else. But then not everyone else has enough to go on a trip to Asia tomorrow just b/c they feel like it. Yeah, but there are those urges. So I tend to splurge on buying sushi at T&T...after it's been discounted twice b/c it's near the end of the night. Heh, gotta work out though. Now that I have to take the bus to work, I'm really losing out on my exercise. B/c I actually had about a 25 min walk a day. Now it's like 10-12. So sad. Trying to restrict portions, but it just looks so sad when you have a big bento box, and so little food. Hurm, well one of the boxes probably holds about 1L, so it's really not that I'm starving...it's just sad.

Misnomers for donations

Yah, so it's that season again. For all the charities to start sending out their Xmas cards, calendars and giftwrap. It's getting to the point that the only way that I can use up all the Xmas cards I've accumulated is to give one to every single person I know. Like everyone at work.

Anyways, the thing that's annoyed me is that I got a request from the Canadian SPCA. Which you would think would be maybe the central organizing committee for all the SPCAs in Canada. Okay, well that's what I thought. B/c there are SPCAs all across the world, so I thought it was like the Canadian branch. Well stupid me, I didn't actually go to their website, just checked that their Charity ID wasn't revoked by Revenue Canada. Turns out that they only really support work in Quebec. Quebec!! Why are they calling themselves Canadian when it's only 1 province?! And the province that wants to separate from Canada? The nerve!! Yeah, so I probably won't give them much.

Another thing that's irritating is that they don't always state what the minimal contribution that needs to be made to get a tax receipt. Yeah, yeah, I know. It's so that people will give more to ensure they get a tax receipt. But it's still annoying.

Finally getting something

So after completing all my monitors and more, I'm finally getting paid more than regular rep. Yeah, got extra $0.50/hr, which is same rate as when I'm floor support. Least better than nothing, which was before. Wow, that almost rhymed. Kowaii.

So today was first day back on the phones, after about a month. I also didn't have most of my systems, so it was a bit wierd. And considering I was coaching about everyone else's bad habits, I caught myself making a few mistakes. But I got a compliment from a customer. And then there was a guy who sounded like he wanted to flirt w/ me b/c his tone got all shy at the end. At least I got to sit w/ my friends, and we bugged each other the whole time. So it wasn't all bad. But it did cause my CTS to flare up more, even though I had a wrap on. Actually hurts a bit to type.

Cleaned the bloody stove, well just the top, and the covers and the little dishes under the coil. Took close to 1/2 to scrub everything off. Told D that he'd better be careful when he's cooking. He just grunted. Think he's still all depressed that H didn't beg him to forgive her. Not that she would, she did dump him after all.

Got screwed again and almost didn't know it

Yup, another work rant. So when I first started the monitoring thing, I learned from a TL that I had a target of 140 in 12 days. Met it on the 8th day. So I'd been helping other TLs w/ their monitors, either just listening or even entering them. They had to coach. Then today, another TL asks me what my target's supposed to be, so I'm like 140. And then they call me over, and the f*ckers raised it to 184. W/o telling me. So I go to the OM, and he blames me for helping other people and tells me to do 20 a day. With only 2 1/2 days left. WTF?! So I'm like freaking b/c no TL wants me to do monitors on their team under my name b/c they have their own monitors to catch up on. So now I'm doing monitors on my peers. Yeah, well desperate times call for desperate measures, eh? And if they happen to help my team, all the better. *snicker*

You Are A Gold Girl

You're dependable and hard working. You never miss a deadline - and you're never late. You have a clear sense of right and wrong. You're very detail oriented. You get frustrated when your friends are sloppy - or when they don't follow through. You're on top of things, and you wish that everyone else was!

What Color Girl Are You?

And this is what happens when I'm such a bloody workhorse. I did so bloody well that they raised expectations on me. And make me freaking miserable b/c my CTS is completely acting up after my drawing spree. Which incidentally appears to have made it just on time. Yeah, I think I'm coming down w/ something b/c I'm constantly sneezing, starting to cough lots, and really tired all the time.

Summerslam 2007

So went to see it with D at the theatre. No one else was avail to go with. He said that it was better to go to the theatre instead of watching it at home (just needed 1 more person to make it cost-effective to stay at home), b/c he liked the bigger experience. I have suspicions it's b/c he didn't want to do any housework. Which I asked him to do before I left for Warp. B/c he's been doing nothing but surfing or playing on his computer every day and night. Which of course he never did when I returned 4 hrs later.

I really wanted to know who was McMahon's son. Although the Mae Young skit was hilarious. Especially when Vince said it wasn't that bad. Fabulous Moolah looks really thin. During all the inbetween matches, I pulled out my DS Lite and played Pokemon LeafGreen. Levelled up about 4 pokemon. Someone next to me even asked what I was playing.

Anyways, for the matchs, liked the Findley v Kane one. I think Hornswoggle added a good dimension to Findley's character. I was cheering for Findley, and it was pretty good work from the both of them.

Umaga v Carlito v Kennedy was pretty good too. Everyone almost got all their spots in, although Carlito only got his flying elbow. It was quite entertaining when you have 2 talkers in the match who wrestle smart.

Mysterio v Chavo was good too. I'm not sure why Mysterio came out covered in silver paint. Maybe to say that he's a ghost from the past to haunt Chavo? Seemed to have gained some weight around the middle, and not the same intensity as before he left. But w/ his buddy Chavo against him, they pulled off a good match. I'm sure he'll be back to normal soon enough. The luchadore at the beginning was cool once they got it figured out.

Divas Battle Royale kinda sucked. I wish they didn't get rid of so many of the ECW ones like Ariel and Trinity. They looked like they could tussle. The stupid dancers were sad. Glad Beth won. Think I was the only one that cared. Ticked that it wasn't a final 4 of Victoria v Beth v Malina v Mickie James. That woulda been cool and more like the male battle royale finishes.

Liked the Austin entrance. Saw it a mile away. Had 2 marks sitting next to me, and even after the audience started chanting Austin and going "what?" they were still trying to figure it out.

CM Punk v John Morrison was bleh. They can do sooo much better. They've done better in the TV broadcasts. Very disappointing from them. Compared to the other matches, wasn't too bad.

Batista v Khali was bad. Too short and pointless. If Khali's not ready to do an extended match, they shouldn't make him champ.

Orton v Cena. Gawd I wanted Cena to lose, and so did half the crowd. Unfortunately the 2 marks were split btwn them so they were shrieking every other second. And there was an idiot Cena fan behind me. So I was plugging my ears half the time. When Orton started schooling Cena, I knew he'd lose. Just like HBK. But Orton did a really good job, so hopefully he'll have some more big matches.

HHH v Booker. HHH seems to have moved off the 'roids. Looks good still, but not at as big. I wonder if it's b/c they mentioned steroids being a factor in the Benoit tragedy. Didn't have some of the moves, but his intensity was good. Nothing too surprising from either of them except at the end w/ the reversals. But it's cool to see HHH really thank the fans.

And once again, no one cares about the tag team division. Or the cruiserweights. What happened to Jeff Hardy? Did he fall off the rehab again? As much as I hate to say it, I hope he's been MIA b/c he was injured.

An actual model guide please!

I'm doing an entry for Shojo Beat's Beatgirl contest, and I'm in the home stretch. Just need to add colour, photocopy and scan it for keepsake and send it off. It's been almost a week planning and about 2 weeks of madly drawing, redrawing and redrawing again. I actually have 4 test pictures, and 4 redraws of the final thing. Test pics were finding a pose in a fashion mag, doing the pose North American style, then same model in manga style(Crimson Hero), then close up on the face for facial expression, then putting everything together. The redraws were mostly due to rescaling so that everything fit on the page and were in proportion. And we're talking manual all the way. No computers. I used 3 inking pens, 1 brush w/ diluted black ink for tone, and white paint for touch-ups. My arm's really tired. And I need a better light to draw by. It's waaaaay too dim.

But my beef w/ the contest is that it says the hair has to be certain way, but the written directions are completely contradicted by their example which has the instructions written above it. Someone doesn't know left from right. And their examples from their features artists don't even follow the character guide. And why is the hair colour red? A colour that is only found in a small population in Northern Europe?? For a magazine featuring Asian characters and culture??! Really peeves me off. And of course I'd forgotten about the hair colour, so the colour choices I had were for someone w/ dark hair. Now I have to re-pick the colours. It totally sucks. And her eye colour switches from green to brown. Driving me nuts.

Freedom!!!...maybe?

So it's the start of my week-long vacation! A whole week away from my job, although it won't mean that I'll be loafing the entire 7 days. I still have a drawing to start on, and then I'm working the Animethon for C&L Yeah, so on my vacation, I'll probably do more work than my roommate who's been looking for a job since he's unemployed. Actually I got him and H a job working w/ me at Animethon. B/c they need money. B/c he's mooching off her and neither of them are very good at saving.

But for the last 2 days I've been listening to bad calls, working unpaid OT, swearing at the computers and been really super tired. Didn't help that I needed to get up 3 hrs earlier. I was supposed to take over a team for 2 days (why bother?) but then they wanted me to just monitor their calls. But do to 50 calls or 25/day. I told them they were crazy. But I ended up doing about 40 anyways. Which almost a week's worth in 2 days. And coached them too. And it's not like some of the reps will shut up when you bring them over to review their monitors. And you don't really wanna say, "shut the f*ck up, I've got another 15 monitors to do and enter, I don't have time to listen to you prattle. " So I had about 3 sessions that were about an hour long. I'm sooo tired. Since the computers and network there suck so much, you can't pull up multiple systems at a time or they'll crash. Actually this morning we didn't even have the Internet for a while. How pathetic is that? And the system I needed to enter the monitors went down so I couldn't enter them. And I write up my monitors as if I'm going to enter them, which means a lotta arrows, scribbles, and uncircled scoring that's not relevant to the rep but we need to enter. So I had to leave them on my OM's desk w/ a note that I couldn't enter them. Yargh!!!! If the systems weren't so stupid, I wouldn't have to do OT! Although for OT it was only about 1/2 each day, which is really good for me. When I was in Team Leader role, I would do about 1-3 hrs a day.

My stomach's been bugging me lately. Not sure if it's my ulcer-lite coming back. I call it lite b/c I haven't spat up blood, but it hurts bloody lots. I've spent hrs lying in bed rolling around.

Went to Heritage Festival. It wasn't too bad. Went w/ H, D, TT, and AB. Was hoping for a Pokemon mask, but they were sold by the time we got there. Picked up an Ocarina from Peru pavilion, and pencil drum from Afrika pavilion. The food tickets were overly expensive at $0.83 each. And Venezuela was a ripoff compared to the other places. Had a Quesillo and Mango juice from them. Had bannock from the Aboriginal site. Tandoori chicken from Afrika, Combo from Japanese. Finally got to have takoyaki, and it was pretty good. But the okonomiyaki had pickled ginger in it, and it totally overwhelmed the flavour from everything else. Even when I tried to pick it out. Really had to choke it down. Had my fortune told at the Taiwanese and Chinese sites. Both were the fortune sticks. So at Chinese it was just that it'd be good time for new project. My fortune cookie said that I'm a good influence on others. Taiwan said I had a Medium Ordinary Fortune. 1)Litigation would be solved in a hurry. 2)Ailment be prayed early. [??] 3)Information be reached soon 4)Wealth be as usual 5)Pregnancy to give birth to a son [think I'll name him Henry or Iori ^_^] 6)Pray God for health [well that might help my stomach] 7)Everything be managed under one's own opinion [??]. H got a super lucky one, but some of the stuff could mean trouble for her.

It's all about networking...

Okay, Blogger is starting to piss me off. It's so damn slow w/ it's spellchecking, and just loading in general. Anyways...

So I get another invite to Facebook. And well, yeah okay, like it's another thing that I have to spend updating. Frig, I'm not playing Nintendogs anymore b/c it's too much work taking care of my dog. It's at least 1/2 hr to walk him, plus contests and grooming. Getting a 2nd dog was a bad idea. I guess I'm not someone who likes to have something constantly nagging them, demanding attention all the time. Which is probably why I'm still okay w/ my betta fish Akao. Feed him twice a day, change water every so often and that's it. Although I've been lax on water changing at times. Good thing they're pretty tough fish.

So I still haven't joined Facebook. Not sure I like the thought of people keeping tabs on me. Even if they are my friends. Heh, sometimes I just can't stand to be around people in general.

How not to book...

I didn't bother buying "The Great American Bash" but since I was dusting my computer(which always takes a while since I have so much stuff on my desk), I decided to mosey over to the WWE site. And not a single title changed hands. How crappy is that? Oh, wait sorry. 1 title changed hands. The cruiserweight. Which is almost a joke title. The one that everyone remembers as an afterthought. You know that it means nothing when they have the champ forming tag teams with another cruiserweight just to beef up their tag team ranks. Not that Chavo is a joke champ. He's got a hell lot more talent than stupid Cena. But it's really sad that it's the only title that changed. Nothing against Hornswoggle, but geez, giving it to him?!? The matches were kinda crap anyways. Most were obvious on who would win. I'm sure their buy rate on this PPV reflected that too.

There's no point buying the monthly PPV when there's nothing to look forward to. And you know the tag titles are jokes too when there's no match for them. I honestly cannot remember who are the tag champs for either RAW or Smackdown. TNA may be small, but they book so much better. More professional rivalry instead of soap opera.

Random just posting because...

So I really got nothing. Just decided to post b/c I thought it was a while since I had posted. Although it turned out that it wasn't really that long ago. I mean, I've gone months w/o posting, so a week is really nothing.

But again, Blogger is super slow on showing what I'm typing, so I'm typing blind again. It's absolutely irritating. B/c sometimes I forget what word I'm typing and lose track of the spelling.

So today, when I was eating breakfast, I forgot how to chew. I was sorta gumming my food and just swallowing. So my stomach didn't feel so great, and I didn't eat all that much b/c I was eating slow. So I ran out of time to eat breakfast. And then nobody relieved me for lunch, so I ended up just turning it off and going at 8:00. And with the weather changes, my joints are aching, especially my wrists and knees. Yeah, my brain hasn't been working well lately. And I've been going to bed around 5am or so, so I'm getting about 5-6 hrs of sleep. Damn weather. It's probably not a good thing that I see the sunrise and sunset. I don't want to go to work. Well I suppose that's nothing unusual really. But I can't say that I look forward to anything there.

I don't like people. They annoy me.

Anyways, Ticketmaster is being annoyingly vague on the disappearance of the WWE Canadian live shows. Not saying anything about cancellation or postponement. Argh! Nothing on WWE site for any Canadian events either. All disappeared. And I'd collected most of the money for the tickets too!

Is it a bad thing that I've played Animal Crossing so much that it's starting to creep in my real life? Rocco wanted me to find a moth, so I'm waiting for the bus home at work, and I see the lights at the Rogers Video. And I'm thinking..."I bet there are moths there. But I don't have my net!" That would be fun, spend all day fishing or catching bugs. Shooting presents out of the sky. Shooting aliens out of the sky. Drinking coffee. Digging up fossils. Picking fruit. Getting chased by bees b/c you shook the wrong tree. LOL

Review: The Prestige & The Messengers

Well, I'm really not sure what's going on. Seem to be missing the option to select my font and also my colour. And of course with my patchy remembrance of HTML programming, it's going be loads of fun trying to figure out how to do that. Oh, and I did I mention how bloody slow the stupid words are appearng in the field, which completely dirves me crazy? I'm a touch typer and I actually sorta type somewhat subconsciously. So I actually have to see if what my fingers typed is correct. I can't look at them or else I loose track of my thoughts...sorta like right now. And yes, I type tons worse when I'm looking at my fingers. Actually even w/ my eyes closed, b/c I have to think about what I just typed, instead of seeing it on screen, I'm getting pretty bad.

Hmm, just published the darn thing, and the font is still Arial (Yahhh!!) but it's all in yellow. But the HTML isn't showing up in the Edit version. Whaaaa? Must admit, it is quite easier to see. And the typing seems to come up much quicker when I'm in Edit HTML mode. Okay, well whatever. And the mouse pointer isn't quite pointing to where it should. It's like where it's affecting doesn't seem to match w/ what's on the screen. Particularly on the title field. Blogger doing something again?

Onto the review. Actually saw Messengers first w/ H and D. The bad thing about watching anything with them is that H will loudly comment all the time. Whereas D will be surfing on his laptop and constantly pester you what's going on. Ending was quite disappointing. It seemed they changed the villain at the end, and decided to make John Corbett's char the baddy, b/c the events leading up to it didn't make much sense. What was w/ the Cigarette-smoking Man constantly wanting to buy the house? Why were there tons of crows even before the family got murdered? Why would a sepia-coloured photo be in the locket, when the murder took place 5 yrs ago? How did the pitchfork scratches appear behind the 2 kids when they were running, but also puncturing the walls from either side? Special effects, atmosphere-wise, it was pretty creepy. At least for me. I'm not a horror-veteran, so I get spooked easily. Yeah, I was holding onto Goleo throughout. I'm a wimp. So ending was very dissatisfying, but was good and freaky up until then.

The Prestige was pretty cool. Hugh Jackman looks lovely as an aristocratic magician. Christian Bale's pretty good-looking, but his eyes are too squinty. I think Cutter was working for the both of them the entire time. If Bale had given more of an apology and taken full responsibility, Jackman's char might've been more willing to forgive him. But I guess this is what happens when you're jealous, prideful, and vengeance-obsessed. Bowie was awesome as Tesla. H thinks there's still a Jackman running around somewhere, but I don't think so. I did want Jackman to win, b/c it seemed he lost more w/ his wife's death. Bale's wife killed herself b/c of his duplicity. So I think it's a good movie, and would be good to rewatch, just to see if you can spot all the tricks. I wonder if at the end, Cutter killed the bird when showing the trick to Bale's daughter. I'm not really sure how the cage was supposed to work w/ Jackman's trick. Yeah, I like magic tricks.

***P.S. Looks like Blogger fixed it b/c everything back to normal. ****

Whatta cutie!

I was looking up the lyrics to Siam Shade's "Get a Life", and found a live concert video. His English is pretty good. I wonder if more Japanese artists are just going to start performing in English to break into the USA. I wish they didn't have to, but that's the sad reality of American xenophobia. I was really just interested b/c I thought I heard him say "f*ck"when was listening to the mp3, so I had to make sure. Not that I have an issue w/ it, but just caught me by surprise. I'm one of those sad people that don't know much about the different music genres, and just listen to what sounds good.

Then I finally decided to see what was avail for Seki Toshihiko on YouTube. And they had clips from an old children's show that he used to do. It's pretty interesting to see him back then, his voice hasn't changed too much but he's dancing so it's very much a squeal moment. And he's singing one of my childhood favourite songs "Sing."




And I learned how to put YouTube videos on my blog. Yatta!!! *clap clap clap*

Lousy week

I really thought the worst thing that could have happened this week was the death of Chris Benoit and his family. The circumstances of their death is so bizarre, I really don't know how I feel. Of course I'm saddened that he's gone, but there's also the feeling of disgust by what he may have done. It's not a good feeling and I know a lot of people are feeling the same way. Most of us have tried to just focus on what a great wrestler he was. Certainly the tribute they had put together on RAW left me alternately crying and clapping @ his matches. We'll see what what the WWE does during their Smackdown and ECW shows.

And this week, probably due to the stress of Benoit's death, has left my immune system really weak, so I'm coming down w/ flu-like symptoms. My CTS is flaring up, my back's aching, throat's sore, and it's been non-stop headaches. Coupled with a GI tract that's been functioning in spurts, it's been cruddy. I really felt like going home early yesterday but then my TL threw a fit so I stayed. Gawd, was that a mistake. That's been why I haven't written earlier about Benoit.

Of course Sensational Sherri passed away the week before too. Yeah, it's been bad times. I got interested in theatrical makeup from her.

But the one that really is close to breaking the camel's back is that stupid fat c*ntla. B!tch has been on my case for months. She's always rude to everyone who's not her buddy. Anyways, today I was doing my chat support and trying not to throw up from being sick or dwell on the Benoit investigation, and playing Bejeweled 2. For those who might not know, the version I'm playing pauses whenever I'm not on the page, so in between chats, I just go back to it. Still trying to get past Lv 7. Anyways, the c*nt-sniffing sow comes up to me and tells me to move to the other side of the room (we'd always told the reps to move b/c there's not enough support for questions/escalations, but d@mmit, I am SUPPORT!), and since she's told me before not to be surfing on the web she's going to tell my TL and Ops Mgr about it and put a CAP in on me. (CAP is this punitive measure even though it supposedly stands for corrective action plan). I'd never been on a CAP before (written plenty though), and I was so furious, I was ready to start destroying the computer and desk. I was really debating between just walking out, sitting at my desk (it's even labelled!), or slowly moving my @ss over to there. After I calmed enough to not destroy furniture or march up to her overpainted @ss to tell her off, I moved over to where I thought some friends I know would sit. But they'd left already. And of course I had to clean up the desk, only to find that I could really hear the thrumming of the ventilation system which matched up lovely to the pounding headache. So after another 3 moves, I got another seat next to JO and stayed there. But the desk smelled and was really gross no matter how much I cleaned.

So I'm sure tomorrow I'll hear something from my TL. And depending on how they handle it, I might just walk out. Although w/ the July 1 and 2 coming up, the pay would be pretty good. Also I signed up for OT tomorrow, to support the launch of the next "it" device, the iPhone. Anyways, definitely time to dust off the resume. Heh, and D will be laid off tomorrow too. Wow, won't finances be great?

Review:Animal Crossing: Wild World

It's been a while since I've gotten Animal Crossing...and it's completely addictive. I've given up trying to take care of my Nintendogs b/c I can't afford the other hour I need to take care of them, and the amount of time I spend on ACWW. Finally shot down Gulliver, and as usual the conversation is hilarious and cute. Heh, maybe he shoulda spent more on his ship instead of his suit...oh wait, he just pointed that out. Yeah, I'm blogging as I'm playing. And I should probably only do one thing at a time though...did I mention ACWW is addictive? It's summer now, and raining. I dunno if you need to water the flowers when it's raining. The faqs says you don't but I've found that some of the flowers are still wilted the next day. And I have a excellent town environment, so I'm trying to keep it that way for a golden watering can. About 8:20am ACWW time, although obviously not in real life. I do change my DS lite's time a lot, b/c of when people visit, catching bugs/fish, meeting KK etc. I wish you could select your coffee flavour. Yup, I drink plenty of coffee in ACWW. Well only one of my residents anyways. I just created another one the other night, bringing it up to 3. Need the extra room to store all the gyroids, clothes, wallpaper, flooring and furniture. I'm trying to get the exotic, classic, cabana, green series. And yeah that's a lot as HRA tells me. Find it's better to give Gulliver the parts as you find them instead off all at once b/c he says what they're for. ...Inhibition Inhibitor? LOL Although I'm little disturbed that he thinks he considers our heads bulb and expects things to bloom from them. Don't want him to wanna see fountains of blood, heh heh.

I'm so annoyed w/ the spellchecker thing. It makes the typing so slow that I'm making more mistakes and losing my train of thought b/c I can see what I'm typing. Unless I'm typing w/ my eyes closed so it doesn't really matter. Yup, it's actually slowing me down b/c I'm watching what I'm typing so if I can't see what comes up, I'm lost.

Anyways, off to play. I think I'm also behind on my manga b/c of this game. *sigh* Just bought $200 of books today too.

Aren't managers supposed to inspire?

You know, I thought this week would be fun. Only had 1 shift on calls and 2 1/2 hrs would be spent in a potluck/team meeting. And I had a 1 1/2 hr training. And I was going to see my family for belated Father's Day thing.

Well, on the personal side it was fine. Had fun w/ the kids, my family didn't ask me annoying questions. Got my youngest niece to talk and interact w/ me. Melissa's quite the talker, and very interested in learning. When her big sisters do their homework, she gets some paper and sits right next to them and says she's doing her homework too. My nephew Justin was cranky and didn't get to play with him. He seemed to cry every time he got near my dad. LOL. But he's so big now, I can barely recognize him. Which makes sense. He's 21 mons now, but I've seen him maybe...4-5 times? My sister-in-law as usual barely spared us a glance or hello when she got home.

But work-wise? Gawd, I've never been so annoyed in a meeting that I've wanted to walk out. Being told that if we're late, swear on the floor or are rude to the customer that we'd get our position on the team evaluated? It's one thing if the definition of swearing and being rude would make a sailor blush, but their definition is anything that would offend the Pope. And even then the Pope would probably forgive a lot. If we don't kiss up to the customer, we're in trouble. If we're stern or point out the customer's stupidity, we're in trouble. We can't even say they're lying when they completely contradict themselves. They're telling us if what the customer says contradicts what the reps have notated (and notated very clearly and well), we're supposed to believe the customer. All b/c a bunch of stats are low, so they're trying to buy the stats by having us throw out the policies and procedures. She keeps harping on the "you're the creme de la creme", while throwing all this crap at us. Our previous managers were a lot better about it, they'd let us whine and bitch for a decent amount of time before telling us to move on. Now it's if we step out of line a bit, we're going to get canned from the team and its perks. It so sucks.

Anyways, a lot of managers are leaving too. There's another team that's hiring, and they have a fair bit of perks, but not the $0.50/hr bonus. But I dunno who their new manager would be so it's kinda annoying. Truly when you find a manager you can connect with, it's so much easier.

Anyways, T had surgery about 2 weeks ago. Been trying to take care of him w/o seeming smothery. I dunno, think I read too many manga and watched too many anime with episodes of characters taking care of other bed-ridden characters/love interests, and they're mostly romantic comedies or shonen-ai. Even volunteered to tidy up his apt! Anyways, also used up all my min checking up on him...and my bill cycle doesn't end until about end of month. *sob* Maybe I should call up my carrier to see if they got any bonus minutes or something.

Yeah, so work has really sucked. I've been thinking of just calling in absent, just so I can get an extra day off. I haven't had a cat day in ages. It's been grocery shopping, going away parties, cleaning, cooking or some other chore. So odd to be so popular. But what pisses me off is that D doesn't do anything that I can discern. All he does when he's home is nap, go on his laptop, play his games. Doesn't bother cooking or cleaning. I have to tell him to clean the stove or counter, take out the garbage, etc.

Since I'd had to write so many cards lately, and I haven't time to practice a new font for each card, I've been working on the Linoscript font from Linotype. I've added a few of my own touches, and it's looking pretty good. My characters are about the same size, same angle. Heh, who needs to buy fonts when you can just copy them?

This won't become a Den of Iniquity

Is basically what I told D if he let some person that he met thru the casual sex ads on some online dating site come to the apt.

I was wondering why he was being extra nice and washed his dishes(which'd been sitting in the sink for last couple of days) and cleaned the oven top, although I attributed it to the fact that I talked w/ H for close to 3 hrs yesterday, and she told him that he'd better start pulling his weight around the apt. But apparently some girl replied to him in one of those online dating sites he goes to (I thought so that he could mock the ads and/or play yo-yo w/ his self-esteem). So when he first started talking about the girl replying, I was like "huh, well whatever. That's nice you're going to get laid." Then when he said that the girl said that she had prudish roommates and thin walls, I'm like "So what?". Then he gave this look, and I'm like "Hell fuck no, you're not bringing her over!" And he's like "why not? I'll only bring her over when you're not here." Like dude, I have tons of expensive stuff, and I'm not letting someone steal it. Someone always has to be watching her. And he's saying "Oh I'll be with her all the time." Yeah whatever. Like he's going to follow her to the bathroom, after he came a couple times. (not that I actually said that. Neither did I point out that considering that he's had bad luck w/ attracting women, the fact that someone's paying attention to him will mean that he'll be too giddy to notice anything. And he's not observant in the first place.) So I told him that I'm letting the apt turn into a den of sin, and I'm the prudish roommate here. So he's all pouty and goes, "so you're not letting me have anyone over?" And I'm like, "I don't trust these people, I don't know these people. You could've had Z (mutual friend) over, and it'd be awkward in the morning but I know that she wouldn't touch anything. "

And really that's that. She could be some streetwalker, drug-addict, kleptomaniac, sociopath, who knows what. And I have lots of easily pocketed stuff around. Hell, I don't even like it when the building caretaker comes over, and the guy's in his 60s. I may be overprotective, protecting the nest, but dammit, there's a hotel on either side of our building. Frigging pick one.

Evil corporations

Of the day is... Marvel Comics. Yes, that lovable company that used to be fronted by the friendly octogenarian Stan Lee... until they fired him. I mean released him. Anyways, they've released some very questionable material. Found out about it on Sequential Tart's page, and it's pretty hilarious. The statue is a very much, "WTF, and why would anyone want to buy that?" Wow, MJ washing Petey's longjohns, how completely domestic and pointless. But the best is the cover for Heroes for Hire. I'm pretty sure I've seen that cover for a hentai or two. How the hell it ever got by an editor is beyond me. I wonder if tentacle porn turns on any females. Lesbian or otherwise.

Anyways, also got sidetracked by the chance to be surveyed by Google and paid. I already belong to 2 other survey companies. It's sometimes fun. Harris Polls is much better than Lightspeed, b/c Harris gives you a reminder and more time before closing the survey. I haven't used my HIpoints yet. I remember getting asked about the Duracell firefighter commercial. I'm not sure if my opinion helped, but I don't see the shot of the fireman listening to his music on the new commercials.

Reality wasn't too far from the dream

So I had another work dream. This time it was triggered by the first day at the new site. Same old job, but new location, trying to figure out travel times and buses and getting used to new setup of systems. And of course I was the Floor Support which is fine...except when it comes to people asking me how to do transfers, logging in etc.

So my dream was that I was at work, and we were trying to figure out how to use the systems. We were in a classroom and looking at slides of the phone. D was there too, although he's really found a new job. D was making fun of my troubles trying to learn the system. Anyways, we finally got to go home, so we started walking home. Somehow it turned out that we were walking thru a forest environment, and I did have my brand new pink Nike sandals (Yes, I got it from the youth section, and it was on sale) We're walking and we get into an hilly area, and the trail is next to a ravine. So I insist on walking on the inside b/c I don't like to walk on the edge, which D finds hilarious. We walking some more, and we start hitting mountainous area. And we have to cross a wooden cloth bridge, and D goes first and then as I'm crossing, he starts shaking and swaying it. So I'm hanging on in fun, and then I start to notice that the bridge is really breaking apart, and I hurry off it before it falls completely apart. We're up in the mountains now, and the path is snaking around the face of the mountain. There's a Roman outpost on the side of the mountain, and D just walks past it. I look in the window, and there's people sleeping. Suddenly a Roman centurion (who looks vaguely like Julius Ceasar from Asterix & Obelix) steps out of the outpost looking around. I go to hide in the curtain, but he hears me, so sneak into the outpost and hide under the bed. The centurion walks into the room, and the sleeping African soldier wakes up and says he didn't notice anything, but starts getting up. I sense that he's had a busy night b/c he found a dancer that came from his home village and his dances reminded him of home so...he slept w/ her. His lover wakes up and gets out of bed too, and she's ...pretty ugly. Around 4" w/ loose rolls of skin hanging off her. And fairly old, and waddles around. And as they're walking around, I wake up. And find that I slept thru my alarm so no chance to pick up the dream.

So what really happened at work was that I did manage to get off at the correct stop, was a little lost on which entrance to get into the place. Didn't have a seat, spent the first 1/2 hr wondering where everything was. Was totally useless trying to use the phones, which wasn't much fun b/c I had to call a cust back. I wasn't in the right queue so when my friend just logged me in, I ended up getting calls that I just released until I figured out how to stop them. Fought w/ the computer b/c the settings they have on it make it really annoying, and you couldn't change them either. I was very exhausted. And b/c I'm riding the bus now, I need to figure out what to take to occupy my time. Reading is okay but my eyes are tired at the end of the day...which means reading is probably a good thing b/c I'll have to keep my eyes open and not fall asleep (which I've done before). Bringing my DS isn't an option b/c I don't have my locked drawer anymore. My CD player is old, but still... no secure location, especially when I won't be at my desk all the time. Guess books it is.

Drowning in Donations

Argh, was going thru my backlog of donation requests. I give a fair bit, have like my 6 charities I like to give, which was whittled down a bit from before. However although I'm pretty sure I'm fairly diligent w/ checkmarking the "do not share my info w/ other organizations" box, I've gotten a slew of mail from other charities. Some I don't mind, like MADD, but crikey! I still have a huge stack of them, and I try to check out their charity registries on Revenue Canada first. It's quite...irritating. And I'm so sick of the labels they send as gifts. I also have a huge stack of cards and notepads, but those are at least more useful. The most you can do w/ labels is use them as stickers. And when some of those labels are reeeeeaaally ugly, you just gotta trash them. Like the CNIB mailbox ones. I still have labels from my old address that I keep b/c they're good stickers.

I like .hack music. *listening to The Story Where You Are*

Ugh, and filling out those surveys that you get on your reciepts too. I had fun scoring Sears poorly. I hate going there. No one picks anything up, and there are boxes in the same place a month later. But the surveys are too long. And one of the questions for the Bay was "I can’t imagine a world without The Bay." Like WTF?

Leading by example

So anyways, I'm again targetted by the fat lazy b!tch. I come in at my scheduled start time and log into my phn to show I'm here. Then I check my duty schedule again, get waylaid by a few people, and go to the b!tch to get into the right queue. And we started talking about how easy it is to get paper cuts (I'd just gotten one from a newspaper), and she says it's all done. So after I was finished talking to customers and switched to answering reps questions, she comes up behind me and asks me what I'm looking at. So this was when I'd just lost the NYC subway page I was looking at, and I was trying to see if I could find it again in the History (apparently not in the version of IE that was installed), so I was kinda distracted and caught off guard. So I tell her I'm looking for NY subways. And she's like "is that for a customer?" And I'm still pretty braindead b/c I'd been waiting for questions for a while, so I'd still hadn't clued that she's trying to get me into trouble, so I go "Uh, no, I was looking at them b/c of Spiderman 3" Then she says "well you know our Internet policy don't you? So I'm going to have to -ask- you to close that window." And I'm thinking WTF? Everyone goes on the Internet, even TLs when they're not supposed to technically so as long as I'm not looking at porn or doing bad things, who cares? We've always been able to surf as long as we still do our job. Anyways, I see her go to talk to my mgr. Then I check on my schedule and she marked it down that I was late! And also messed up my schedule too for the next 2 weeks. So I msg my manager about it, and he's like "oh, okay, well don't worry about the schedule b/c I go by your punches." Then he asks me about the Internet thing, and I'm like "my prev TL(who's found a better job) told me it was okay, and when I mentioned it to the Ops Mgr, he didn't make a comment." So my Mgr likes to keep things neutral and just tells me to keep off the Net until he gets it clarified.

So the rest of my shift consisted of me letting my friends use my computer whenever we wanted to look something up on the Net b/c then I'm not doing it. But geez, considering I have a comic book cover as my background which can only be acquired by surfing, which you can see whenever my computer is locked, and NO ONE's made a comment about it, seems to indicate that it's not a big deal that I have Internet. Just the b!tch is picking on me. Incidentally when she corrected my schedule, she removed that I was late that day. Probably trying to make it seem that she's not targetting me. But I did show my friends everything, so it's really just stupid what she's pulling. Everyone's seen and knowsTLs goof off at work, when they're supposed to be working. I do my work, but keep myself awake by surfing b/c otherwise I won't see the chat requests on my screen. I'd spent that day reading my book, snipping split ends, chatting w/ my friends, and getting really close to dozing off. None of which meant paying attention to the computer. But I'm sure that b!tch's going to spin some crap to the Ops Mgr. If I were to act like her, I'd be a backstabbing lazy cow who blames others all the time.

Anyways today I took D out for his b-day dinner. I actually had a dream that he fell asleep and forgot or some other thing that we didn't go today. And he actually did have a concert that he'd just found out about that he wanted to go to w/ his friend but couldn't afford the tickets. Anyways we managed to find the Fuji Palace restaurant, but it was only so-so. The price wasn't bad for amt of food, but there was some confusion about the menu, the salmon sashimi wasn't fully thawed out, and the cutting of the maki wasn't even. Taste-wise, it was only okay.

Review: Spider-man 3

Pretty darn awesome. The fight scenes were really good and well done. Couldn't tell all the CGI work. The storyline wasn't bad either. There were some overly sentimental lines, and it really seemed that they rushed the time that everything happened in. Really we're talking about maybe a week at most between opening night from MJ's musical to the funeral. I know Petey has the bad luck hindrance, but everything happened way too fast for people's feelings to flip-flop so fast.

Yeah, so I saw the midnight showing w/ some of my friends. Except one of them slept thru 75% of it, and all week he'd been pumped up about watching it. It was pretty funny. I'm going to see it again tonight, at the IMAX w/ D. I told him to invite his other friends, but he probably forgot.

Been spending the last...4 1/2 hrs trying to get my DS registered on the Nintendo WiFi site so I'll get the d/l from them. But I don't have any friend codes, so that pretty sucks. You'd think Nintendo would have a default one for the company for us. Still hasn't worked apparently, although it says that testing was successful.

Chance meeting of geeks

So I was in Shoppers Drug Mart on my break, and they had the new Shonen Jump magazine. And it had a preview of Houshin Engi, which meant I had to get it. I loved the anime, not just b/c it had Hiro Yuuki, Rica Matsumoto and Akira Ishida in it. Anyhoo, I take it to the counter, and the young Asian cashier first just asked me if I minded that she put it in the same bag as w/ my facial cleaning stuff. So I'm thinking "well it's already in a sealed bag b/c of the YuGiOh card, and the bottles shouldn't leak anyways." Then she asked me if I like anime, so I'm like yeah. Then she asked me if I was going to Animethon, and I said "Totally! but the last 3 years I've been working it." So she tells me that she was also there working last year at the Warp 1 table, and wanted to know which table I was at. So I tell her that I was at a table for a company that came from BC and they sold DVDs and manga, and that I was going to probably be there again this year, although the manager hadn't contacted me about that but he did let us keep the T-shirts that we had to wear last year. Then I asked her that she must know Lin (manager of Warp 1) and that I go to Warp all the time. I didn't recognize her as an employee of the store, but Lin's brought in people that I didn't recognize to work the event b/c their table's always busy. But it turned out that she's actually part of the drawing circle that Warp1 had sponsored. So by this time, I'd forgotten that I hadn't paid yet and there was starting to be a line too. So I paid, grabbed my stuff and waved bye to each other. But wow, that was fun and funny, how manga brings us together. I'm sure the people waiting thought we did know each other. And yeah, she was pretty cute.

As for the YuGiOh card, completely useless unless you have a hero deck. Which I don't. Haven't played YuGi for a long time now, but I still have my cards. I had an Amazon/water/furry cute deck. And yes, I did win a decent share of matches against my friends who have 1000s of cards.

Quiz: What Your Hands Say About You

What Your Hands Say About You

You are logical, analytical, and rational. You have good verbal skills. Flexible and broad minded, you can fit in to any situation. There's no telling where your life will take you. Consistent and reliable, you like to count on structure and routine in your life. Your emotions tend to be relaxed and uncomplicated. You don't read too much into things.

What Do Your Hands Say About You?

Well I'd certainly like that to be true but the quiz was way too short. And I was expecting questions like "how many times have you cut your hand that it required stiches?" (2 and both thumbs) "Have you lost any of your fingers? And was it an accident?" (anyone an unsuccessful yakuza member?) LOL, yeah but some of it is pretty close... to describing 30% of the population.

Quiz: What American accent do you have?

What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier on Memegen.net

Canada. You probably get irritated when British people and Europeans think you're from the States, but over here we wouldn't make a mistake like that.

LOL, right on! Although I've been known to take on Southern, British (don't ask me which region, I watch Brit comedy and only know how to distinguish btwn a few), Valley Girl accents. Some people may think me crazy, but if you're proofreading essays, it actually helps to read them out in diff accents b/c it forces you to listen to watch you've written, and you'll pick out grammatical errors.

Just a note about this quiz, I had to do a lot of html corrections on it to get it to display properly. Kinda sad b/c it's been ages since I've written html code. Err, other than to make my blog page.

Time to declare war

Yeah, so I go to check when my breaks are scheduled, and it seems the fat b!tch marked me as being tardy by 19 min, when I actually showed up only 6 min late. Blah blah that I'm supposed to be logged into my phone at the scheduled start time. She wasn't even accurate on when I did start taking calls. And really, considering my position when I could be talking w/ my supervisor or checking what I'm supposed to be doing or rebooting the computer, none of us on our team are ever logged in on time. And it's only on the days when I have to go up to her to have my split changed. And since they removed the previous week's schedule and the system we used to use to check any changes, I can't see how long this crap has been going on. But I'm letting my fellow team members know about it so they can watch out for it. The fat b!tch gives attitude to our entire team, so everyone needs to watch out. But I guess I gotta keep my ass in gear on the days I need to have my split changed by her b/c my duties are different that day.

And then an OM came by when I was on a call, and said that he wanted to talk to me but since I was on the call, he said he'd see me next week. So it's either going to be my complaint about the fat b!tch (highly unlikely b/c most of those complaints go nowhere) or me surfing the Web or printing some stuff out. If they're going to whine about that crap, there's so much other junk that we see supervisors doing and don't mention, it'd be really obvious that they're just picking on me. And considering they're retaining agents like a sieve, do they really need to make more agents pissed off? While I won't say that I'm indispensible to the company (we are really just numbers to most of them), my quality and experience isn't something easy to replace. Course I've probably developed a reputation of being argumentative and cynical which is great for my fellow reps b/c I'll spill the dirt and won't take crap, but I know I've scared TLs before. It's pretty easy to tell when they never coach you so you actually have to request a meeting, and then when they tried to monitor you, you have to correct them and then teach them how to use the systems. Yeah, that still makes me laugh.

No particular reason

Just felt like blogging. Sorta that itch that's bothering me. Not quite like the itch on my left palm. That has been bugging me for ages. At first it was like a little pinprick from possibly getting poked by something. And it seemed to sorta heal. Then it got itchy. And I'd scratch. And it'd hurt after a while so I'd stop. And then it'd start up again. Now there's little bumps under my skin at that spot. And it seems I've scratched that area so much, that the skin is separating off the bottom layer. So I peeled it off. Maybe that'll help.

Anyways, read H's blog/livejournal. I don't really see what's the big deal that'd you'd actually pay for a diary spot. Anyhoo, she's still dreaming/thinking about this guy, who's not her hubby but she slept w/. I've really got no comment about their "open relationship", it's not something I'd do. But this guy is just bad news and has messed up her life. And she's still f*cking obsessing over him. Why couldn't she obsess over the German, Irish or any of the other EU guys she's slept w/ while she was overseas? At least they're all adults. And probably a hell lot interesting.

And I'm like the world's biggest slacker/procrastinator. Keep on forgetting to book a dental appointment, and get my eyes checked, so I use my benefits before I jump ship. Argh! Anyways work's been a b!tch. Well there's been one particular b!tch that's been getting on our nerves. I'd been using my supervisor access to keep myself from falling asleep while on the computer waiting for chats (just googling comic books and visiting various G - PG sites), and print a few things off for personal use, and one of the supervisors saw me. So while I was on my break, and someone else was covering for me on the chat, the annoying b!tch came over to check what windows were open. Since I was trying to find stores which sold a book I wanted, I left that window up. Which the b!tch made my friend pull up. But like seriously, considering all the times I've left my computer locked and you can obviously see that my background is not something that came w/ the computer (it's actually the cover from a Deadpool/Cable issue.) how can you not figure out that I have greater access to the Net?! Anyways, if my supervisor wants to see what I was looking at today, all he'll see is a whole lot of comic book stores and visits to the Berlin Zoo to coo over Knut.

And following the Great Turtle Race. Poor Stephanie Colburtle. She woulda won if the aim was to actually reach the islands, not just get into the general area. That Billie was way too far north to actually hit the beaches. And what's w/ Sundae and Drexelina?

Yeah, so again my stomach was bugging me. Last few days I've been bloated by gas. Mostly the burping kind. But last night really sucked. And my stomach this morning was hurting big time, that I was thinking of calling in sick. But I'm better now. And if I call in sick tomorrow (friday) think it might be a wee suspicious b/c I have the weekend off? And I'll be able to see T before he leaves for LA???

If you won't listen to me, then don't ask for help

Ah, another work rant. So one of the jobs I do as Floor Support is answer reps' questions over a chat program. And most of the questions are inane, stuff they could find if they could read and actually had any brains to search for. I really do mean literally just search b/c they provide a search function for their policies and procedures. It's a crappy search tool and not forgiving, but it does work. So you got a question on military suspensions? Oooh, type in military suspensions and it'll give you results w/ the word in the article. I've seriously had to tell people step by step: type in this, click on this link, what do you mean you can't find it?, do you see the chart/sentence?, read the chart/sentence. It's absolutely pathetic. And it doesn't help when you're standing next to them and you tell them where to go, and then they just start scrolling to god knows where, and you have to go "what are you doing?", make them click the link again and then stick your finger on the screen and go it's right here, or grab their mouse and highlight the passage for them b/c they can't read. I had a rep I sat next to, and I'll read the note and go, "see it's right here". And then they read it and they're like "okay". And you ask them, "do you understand what you should tell the customer?" and they tell you "no", and you tell them to read it again. And they'll read it out loud. So you ask them again, if they understand it. And they'll read the part of the note you tell them to look at. And you ask them, "do you understand what you should tell the customer?" And then they tell you "no" again. So you ask them what part they don't understand. And it's the whole friggin' thing, b/c they can't seem to understand that when the rep notated that customer can't get CR for equipment until it's returned, it really does mean that the cust can't get CR for equip until it's returned! Like WTF?! And of course there's the people who can't do add or subtract anything beyond 10.

Uh, anyways back to my original rant. So I'm answering questions on the chat program, and at least twice the agent will ask me the question, I'll give them the answer and then they'll flag a roving Floor Support and ask them the same frigging question. Once my fellow FS answered at the exact same time that my reply posted. I was wondering why the agent closed the chat so fast. And then there's an agent which I once actually praised her for being able to explain prorating to the customer, who I could hear was asking a roaming FS the same question I answered. So I typed that I could hear her talking to him. That is so unbelievably rude and such a waste of my and my friends' time. Rargh!!!! Just wanna go over and smack them.

Anyways, all's not too entirely horrible at work. Well that's not exactly true. It's more that I'm buidling friendships at work, which helps alleviate the stress. We're getting into a semi-tradition to watch RAW at the local bar. End up spending $10+ more than wanted, but it really helps socially, emotionally and mentally (although not physically b/c pub food isn't all that healthy).

Computer madness

You ever get the feeling that you're suddenly so behind on stuff that it's kinda scary? Well I'm not talking about filing my tax return (which I'm doing until I realized that I can't look at paper, or anything close up w/ my contacts in b/c it starts feel like I'm going cross-eyed), but actually updating my computer. We're not talking about getting a new one, but I've gotten a DVD-burner (just a few years behind) and while I'm fully aware of dual layer, DVD-RAM and +/-...it's when I start reading up on it, that my brain starts to fry a little. A wee more complicated than before, but then again, it's stuff I know but forgot. Like I've forgotten everything about CD+/-R, CD-RW etc. However I've developed a skill of bluffing my way thru a lot of stuff I know vaguely about. Using a lot of logic and deduction, you can piece a lot of stuff together. It's how I do a lot of my job...well that and actually reading up on stuff. Gotten pretty good at searching things out. So it's time to hit the web again, and use it for information searching. Which is mostly what I use it for. Gawd, I'm on the computer all day at work, coming home and being on the computer more seems...kinda masochistic. Just want to get away from it a bit. Too bad I can't get towards doing more exercise *sheepish laugh* Darn gym's closed by time I get home...and working out before going to work seems torturous to myself and those I'll sit next too.

I'm same way on talking to people. I talk to people for 8 hrs, why do I want to do more when I get home? I'm so anti-social. I liked having my apt to myself. So nice and quiet. Well w/in the apt. If only my neighbours would shut up. I'd recovered some of my hearing when D was gone. Now it's all shot again b/c he turns everything up, and I don't notice unless I look at the volume number.

Anyways w/ my computer, I'd thought it was the CD burner that was shot, but it might be the files also b/c Nero won't burn some of the mp3s, even though my other CD prog would. I guess Nero has lower error tolerance. So annoying too. I had an awesome song that would play fine on my computer, but I couldn't get it to burn as .cda. I think I tried d/l about 5 progs, but still no luck. And of course w/ progs you have to be careful of viruses and malware. Waaaahhh!!!!!!!

It was my friend's b-day, but I'm not very inclined to get her anything more than token stuff. She's been extremely stupid this past year, ignoring all our advice and doing things that could jeopardize her career and relationships. And on the scale of present reciprocity, it's been really unbalanced. Pretty unhappy about spending money on someone I'm losing respect for.

Darn, just remembered I need to make a congratulations/best wishes/been nice working w/ you card. She's leaving this week, and I wanted to showcase my calligraphy to her. Still can't think of what to write though. She's leaving b/c of better job and upper managements been treating supervisors like ....just above dirt. Like global warming. Keep on dumping stuff despite previous studies that it's bad for the (work) environment, until it's too late. And then they have to create a bill to try and reverse it (hiring drive).

I also got Nintendogs this weekend...d'oh it's the next day already and I never played w/ him! I've got a corgi...and yes, his name is Ein.