Wrestlemania 23

Went to see Wrestlemania. It was just by myself b/c I forgot to get anything together w/ my friends. It was annoyingly expensive to see it @ the theatre. The PPV @ home would be $50, and the ticket was $25. And since I spent $10 on food (to smuggle in), that's really $35. Anyways, someone behind me had feet that smelt like stinky cheese. And when I went in an hour before it started, the idiots didn't even turn on the theatre lights or play the pre-PPV show, so it was kinda hard to see where people were sitting. Still ended up having some stupid Cena fans sitting next to me b/c they were late. At least I brought my DS lite to play. Played Animal Crossing while I waited for the PPV to start. Yeah, got that recently. Haven't been able to try the WiFi yet. The people in my building have secured their network, and I was too far away from the theatre one. It's not bad, similar to Harvest Moon, although you really don't have any objective. So far I've paid off my mortgage, harvested all the oranges in town, and won several fishing contests.

Anyways, on to the matches. Apparently there was a lumberjack dark match w/ Flair and Carlito. Gawd, they've so decimated the tag team division. There wasn't a single tag team belt on the line. Of course w/ HBK and Cena holding the RAW one (and never defending it), the divisions become a joke. I thought w/ them putting Hardys, MNM and World's Greatest Tag Team back together, they'd be reviving it. But nope, they let Joey Mercury go for some reason, so that's pretty much it. Hardly seen Benjamin or Haas even though they're extremely talented, although Haas is lacking in charisma.

First match was surprisingly the Money in the Bank. It was quite astounding. Everyone pretty much held their own. They had some awesome storytelling w/ the Hardys at the top of the ladder fighting, Booker having to give up his chance to save Sharmell, Hornswoggle trying to climb the ladder and going against Kennedy and Findley comforting Hornswoggle. Of course, the spots were excellent too, but I don't think we'll be seeing Jeff or Edge back anytime soon. I was hoping Jeff wouldn't do it b/c that was crazy dangerous, and I'm not sure if the ladder was supposed to break in half. This was a match were I wasn't sure who was going to get it, although Kennedy isn't a bad choice. They're definitely pushing him, and he has a lot of talent, mike skills, and draws good heat. Sharmell's outfit, once she let the cape down, wasn't bad.

Kane vs. Khali wasn't bad. Kane carried Khali for a lot of the match but they still worked it pretty good, and I'm not sure what they're going to do w/ Khali winning. Are they planning to have him go up against Umaga? And what'd be the point when they're both heels and seemingly unstoppable?

Benoit vs. MVP was pretty good. If MVP was better, Benoit wouldn't have to carry him so much and Benoit'd be able to let loose. Although I noticed that they didn't mention Angle's name when they were listing the technical wrestlers Benoit's gone up against. It was still pretty fun, and some good storytelling w/ the blocks and switches.

Undertaker vs. Batista was an awesome match. Excellent storytelling w/ both of them getting near-falls, intense, good pace. I have newfound respect for Batista. Before he was just there, now he's pretty cool. I couldn't figure who'd win, so that was really good and kept me on the edge.

ECW Originals vs. New Breed was...disappointing. Mostly b/c all the guys in the ring are really talented (although I hold my judgement on Sandman), and it was really short. There wasn't really anyone doing their spots except for RVD. It was really short too, which is pretty bad that 8 guys in the ring can't hold a longer or more intense match.

McMahon vs. Trump. Was there really any doubt on who'd get his head shaved? Trump who has to look "purty" (what the hell is that on his head anyways?) for the TV crap he has, or McMahon who will have "shit" dumped on him to sell a story? Loved his "babytalk" to his granddaughter. And seeing Shane O' Mac come out and do the coast-to-coast dropkick was the best. I love Shane-O. I think Lashley's had experience shaving heads b/c he put his other hand in the right spot to protect McMachon's ears and forehead. I was surprised to see Austin stunner Trump. That was awesome. I think both Umaga and Lashley were really out for the 10-count. The match itself was only ok. I think Lashley needs to demonstrate more of his technical skills.

Melina vs. Ashley. Sucked. Melina was carrying Ashley the entire time, and Ashley could barely do any moves or know how to react. Melina couldn't pull off a lot of her moves b/c Ashley would mess them up. Glad it was short. Actually I wonder if they cut it short b/c it was so bad.

HBK vs. Cena. Considering the opening that they had for HBK wasn't that astounding, and that HBK took Cena to school for the first half of the match, it's pretty obvious who'd lose. There's no way they'd let HBK humiliate Cena unless Cena's in the doghouse. And Cena cannot tell a story worth sh!t. Wasn't your knee killing you after HBk worked on it? You seemed to be rolling around a lot. And then suddenly it's working again and you're not even limping! What a frigging moron. All of HBK's work gone to waste. And of course it's the stupid STFU. 1/3 of Cena's moves right there. I sorta seemed that since HBK was going to lose, they let him go to town on Cena. The spike piledriver was toooo sweet. Something for us poor ripped off fans to savour. You think HBK had enough crosses on his outfit?

On the whole, the people I wanted to win won, except for HBK and Kane. I was pretty neutral on the Money in the Bank, just wanted an awesome match. And at least it was actually close to 4 hrs. Although much of it was filled w/ recaps of events leading to match, ads, etc. I think it was Keith David that did the voice at the beginning. It really did sound like him.

They showed an edited 1 hr version of the Hall of Fame induction on TSN on Saturday. I wanted to see William Shatner's intro for Lawler, b/c that is a bit odd choice. The vibe btwn Dustin Runnels and Cody Rhodes was kinda wierd. It seemed Cody didn't want to be near Dustin from his body language, but gave him and Dusty a lot of verbal praise. I wonder what Cody does? His speech was pretty good and he had a clear emotive voice. I wonder what happened to Mr. Fuji and why he's in a wheelchair? Of course, he's 71 so I guess all the injuries might've taken their toll. I liked Lawler's speech. Can't believe he said that crack about one of the billionaire's will have to cut a whole in his pants to run his fingers thru his hair.

Oi, my guts!

Yeah, so the other week...or was it this week? *goes to check schedule* ah, yes it was last Monday, I called in sick b/c I was super-tired and didn't feel really good. Told my supervisor it was gastro-intestinal problem b/c I left like going back to sitting on the crapper after I used it an hour before. But no explosive diarrhea. However the next 2 weeks were my guts killing me. Felt like I had spikes in my guts and chest. Sometimes I thought I was having a heart attack b/c it would be this intense sharp pain. Have to catch my breath a couple times, it hurt so much. And of course my muscles were all sore from being tense from the pain, and it was migraine city. So yeah, I felt worse than when I called in absent, but I still went to work b/c I need the extra money. Sadly, the top-up pay for Floor Support works out to be an extra $20 if all my hours were Floor Support. Anyways, it's faded a bit now, I still have to make sure that my stomach doesn't take the full weight of my blankets. Although I threw up in to the back of my throat yesterday when I was coughing. And today, I puked the stuff in my esophagus. Although my stomach felt like it wanted to go to. Still went to work. It still hurts a plenty but no sharp stabbing pains. I don't think it's PMS.

Work was...2 escalations. Both from newbie reps, and boy did the customers' notice. The guy wasn't too bad from what I could tell, seemed to be a case of the customer not knowing what to do and frustrated that the rep couldn't expl it in an easy way for her to understand. The other one was a total f*ck up. Rep didn't give me the right account, and actually screwed up someone else's account, so I had re-figure everything out for the original customer and the person w/ the messed up account. It's a good thing both of them were pretty nice. I think they could sense I was the poor schlob who has to clean up after incompetent reps. And it probably help that I was apologizing/grovelling to the guy w/ the messed up account. *sigh* Yeah, that agent will definitely be getting some feedback. Although a part of it could be the supervisors' massive insistence on maintaining stats and not quality. Reps have accounts piled on top of each other, and half the time, they don't know about which is the account that belongs to the cust on the line.

Have to return my hockey bag for the smaller one. We had a fire alarm the other day (didn't know it was just a test b/c they put the notice up on the day they did the test, so I didn't know until I went to the elevator) and it was so hard trying to drag out the bag and stuff things into it. And I didn't even want to use it b/c it was such a hassle! I know b/c soon after I got the bag, I practiced stuffing it. And that practice run caused me to tip over when I tried to sling it on my back, knock tons of things around, and was really insanely heavy to lug. Forget about trying to carry it down the stairs. Yeah, so unless I had the adrenaline rush, I wasn't willing to lug that thing. It's so bad. And of course that's when you start thinking that there's just a little bit too much stuff that I want to save.

I'm still debating on a external hard drive or laptop. My CD-burner is on fritz so I can't save anything before I install WinXP. And I just have enough RAM to get it, well once JR gets me his spare parts. I got irritated b/c he wasn't able to get it for me when he said he would, even though it's a semi-favour b/c I'm paying him for his old CD burner and RAM. Yeah, I'm pretty bitchy and thoughtless at times. Bought a DVD burner but I can't install it yet b/c I need WinXP. Argh!!!!

Quiz: How Misanthropic Are You?

You Are 72% Misanthropic

Here's the truth: Most people suck. You are just lucky enough to know it. You're not ready to go live alone in a cave - but you're getting there.

How Misanthropic Are You?

And the hilarious part is that I'm in customer service. Actually I took this one twice. This is my first result:

You Are 82% Misanthropic

You are misanthropic to the point of being scary. In your view, people are a disease. You may want to lighten up a little - before you become a super villain!

How Misanthropic Are You?

And yup, if aliens came by (and didn't kill me already), I'd be joining them in purging the Earth of humans. As long as their plan was a lot better. Yeah, I'm a tweener. B/c as much as I don't enjoy being w/ humans very much, I do appreciate the products of human culture. So it'd probably be most humans I'd purge. Somehow the gamemakers, artists, Japanese seiyuus would be left untouched. ^_^

Quiz: Are You a Dumb American?

You Are a Smart American

You know a lot about US history, and you're opinions are probably well informed. Congratulations on bucking stereotypes. Now go show some foreigners how smart Americans can be.

Are You a Dumb American?

Bwahahahaha!!!!! And I'm not American either! Which of course means that people from other nations know more about the USA than the inhabitants themselves. But we all knew that. If the Americans didn't believe so much in their propaganda of Manifest Destiny, they probably wouldn't be the superpower they are today. Mind you w/ Bush's mistakes, maybe they'll finally realize that they're really not that special at all.

Honesty is no policy

Just listening to Definitely Not the Opera on CBC Radio right now, and today's topic was Lying, Faking it, Bamboozling, and all that implications, benefits and techniques. First topic was lying in the workplace and how recruiters are now expecting resumes to be padded so they'll automatically downgrade your resume. Which of course sucks for those of us who aren't that good at lying. I'm a fairly good writer, though not as well as when I was in university, but when I stare at my resume...it's hard enough to keep the sarcasm out when I'm describing my previous/current employment. Trying to pump it up is tantamount to torture. Of course w/ the recent changes @ my workplace, and state of the job market, it's time to start fluffing up the resumes.

Then there was the topic of fake working in the workplace. And I've seen most of those techniques a lot where I am. And it's true that a lot of those who get promoted or are OM favourites aren't the most competent. But they can get away w/ it b/c they know how to schmooze. For those of us who are too embittered to fake caring about the crappy job; or even if we did care, aren't skilled enough at faking to emulate the cheese, get passed over. And if we point out the other's inadequencies we get labelled. So it really sucks. Case in point, one of the supervisors complained about the lack of floor support and wanted me to forestall my break. When my break was already an hour past. So I flatout told him "well that's when the supervisors are supposed to fill in." And he just gave me an incredulous look, when I was actually quoting policy. But a lot of the supervisors don't help their agents w/ questions or escalations. One of the agents who was just helping w/ questions had a list of customers who had escalated, and I guess she expected us to call them back even though we were all busy. All of those customers should have gone to the supervisors, even if it did skip Tier I(floor support) and went to Tier II(supervisor). When I was a supervisor and there was no Floor Support, I just took the escalation b/c 1) allowed your agent to go back to taking other calls and hence generating revenue 2) kept the customer from waitng longer and hence pissing them off 3) demonstrated to rep that you wanted to help them and hence improving relationship 4) was usually just repeating what the agent told them and let you do your paperwork 5) fulfilled contractual obligation to have "phone time". And I'll tell that to any supervisor. And they might not like it, b/c I save my candy-coating for the customers. But you know, I've been told by my supervisor that I'm really direct and to the point, but never that I'm wrong.

Anyways on Thursday, finally got to tour the new worksite. We'll all be over there by mid-May. And the place totally blows. It's a 30+ min bus ride from my place. There is only 1 clothing store in their dumpy little strip mall. And the clothing store is very low-end. There is no bookstore, a used bookstore, but that doesn't count. Only 2 major chain stores. I told my friend that it's the place where stores go to die. It's a horrid little wretched place, and prone to vandalism when it's dark. About an hour after the tour ended, I was in a complete daze b/c it was so abysmal. I'll have nowhere to go on my breaks. They have X-Men vs. Street Fighter in their lunchroom but it's $1 to play. An 8 year old game! They only have 2 refrigerators, 2 microwaves. For 700 employees. That's ridiculous. And their washrooms are quite far away from where our project is so if we actually go there during our breaks like we're supposed to, we'll lose 5 min from our 15 min break. Yeah, so it's definitely time to ...inflate the resume. But I'd taken 40 hrs of vacation earlier in the year, and I haven't earned back the deficit yet, so I don't want clawback when I quit. Yeargh.

On a more happy note, I got my Luva-sama and Marcel-san CDs. I still haven't gotten my Pokemon DS Lite accessories even though they were sent earlier. Anyways, Luva-sama is sooooooooo kawaii. Marcel-san just makes you want to hug and pet him. I was stifling my squeals b/c I didn't want to miss anything. It was very short CD b/c there was only a character song, a monologue, and then a chapter in a continuing story. I don't have the first 2 CDs (featuring different characters) so I'm not sure why Marcel, Zephel and Randy were in Luva's room and how they broke one of his cups. But it was sooooo funny. Yup, that's Japanese seiyuus for ya, even if you only recognize 1 out of 20 words, you can still figure out what's going on and/or just enjoy their performance.

Fireworks are an awesome distraction

Finally bought my hockey bag yesterday. Decided to just spend the extra money and go for the most cost effective one w/ wheels. It's huge and comes all the way up my lower ribs when I stand it up on it's wheels. It was a real hassle trying to carry it home b/c w/ the hard bottom, it kept banging against my legs, and I knocked a bunch of stuff over b/c it was so big.

Anyways I had a dream that involved that bag. Seems that our company decided to take most of us on a trip to UK (which would never happen but this is a dream after all) So I have my bag packed up, and was travelling in B's really old van w/ some of my co-workers and her son DW. It was drizzling, so we stopped by a restaurant and were just eating and B asked her son "So where's that rainbow that you're going to make?" And DW replies "Oh, it's going to show up." I look out the window and there's a rainbow! But it wasn't quite your usual half-circle rainbow that was kinda faint. Part of it was very clear and parts were faint, and I could see it being created like the airshow stunts. And it was about 240 degrees of a circle. So we were all going "wow" and B mentioned that DW had always been able to do that since he was little. So it's getting darker and we're still at the restaurant when fireworks start going on in the same direction the rainbow was. No one knew what it was for, but when they were still ongoing for a couple of minutes, we all started streaming out to watch. And they were nice fireworks; lots of big flowers, streamers, rockets. Then it seems that there were some red flashes from above the clouds and booms. The fireworks were still going but something hit me on my head. I don't know what it was, but it seemed very unusual, and I was standing outside trying to figure it out. The fireworks are dying out and everyone's talking about them, and suddenly a flare shoots up. Everyone else is wondering what the flare's for or maybe it's just a firework that isn't exploding properly. I go "Holy crap!", run into the restaurant and tell my friends to leave b/c it's an invasion. So we all pile into her van (I somehow had carried my bag into the restaurant and then also grabbed it w/ me to the van) and take off. Indeterminate time passes and now we're pulling up into a village and there's a small tea place.We're talking about how the lady was making fun of our accents b/c we can't match their British accents, and B goes into a horrible Southern accent, whereas I'm wondering if anyone noticed my mixed-up Brit accent picked up from years of watching British comedies and listening to BBC. Anyways we go into a small room, and suddenly realize there's a guy sitting there, and he's cooking something in a pot. We excuse ourselves and B asks how her son is. The man says he's feeling better, opens the pot and there's some plants brewing away. He grabs a handful of the reddish liquid and smears it on his arms. I ask him what it is, and he says "anil leaves." B asks why he isn't drinking it, and he says "you don't drink this stuff." So B takes a bit and puts it on her tongue and spits it back out, trying to scrape the rest off her tongue, and her tongue has this foamy layer on it. Then the proprietress of the tea shop attached to the building comes in and warns us to be careful b/c people are looking for us. The fellow starts saying that it was a hard battle trying to get us out, and I start going into a movie flashback of when we were travelling thru a marshy forest and then were attacked by some force, targetting DW. Then these 2 pine-like creatures come out and chase them off. And one of those pine creatures is the fellow sitting w/ us but got injured. And that's when I woke up.

Now anil does exist, and it's used to make indigo dye, according to Wikipedia. However I was able to find an article by US govt that its leaves are also used as poultices for treatment of hemorrhages, skin parasites and boils. There's also this article by the Oxford journal detailing that it is effective against certain skin diseases caused by dermatophytes. DW also believes that he has some kind of psychic powers, mostly influenced by his current gf Erin. B doesn't believe him at all. And of course we wouldn't be travelling in B's van (which I don't think she owns one) to UK b/c we'd have to ship it across the Atlantic. But fireworks to attract civilians out in the open and keep them distracted, using it as a cover for troop movement? That's plausible.

Why Nemesis killed Star Trek

So I was wiki-ing Romulans @ work, and it was okay up until I got to the part about Shinzon and Nemesis. There's just so much about that movie that makes no logical sense. It's fine and dandy that the Romulans decided to stop the replace Picard ops, but to not eliminate all the evidence(Shinzon) is just sloppy. Certainly that'd prove that the people in charge deserved to die, and the Praetor was unfit for the position, but was the writer's actually aiming for that? Anybody would know that you kill the clone, keep a sample for a rainy day, and shred/frag all documentation. Stupid stupid stupid.

Then there's the part about Shinzon getting his viceroy to help him mentally rape Troi. Which is stupid b/c Troi should have really good mental shields since she works w/ people who are suicidal, extremely angry, emotionally unstable and everything in between. Secondly if the viceroy can establish a strong enough mental link that a trained empath (who grew up in a society of telepaths) can't break easily, over 100s of kilometres, to someone that he'd have most only touched and didn't know at all...then why the hell isn't he doing more w/ his telepathic abilities?!! It's just moronic writing to get in that scene. Oh, and she could use the telepathic link to find him. Yeah okay, well for a guy w/ vast mental abilites, he also had sh!tty shields.

Yeah, I did actually manage to sit thru the movie when it came out on TV. It was not great, not even including the aforementioned problems. Just seemed to overcomplicate things for no good reason.

Hate Enterprise too b/c of how they f*cked up the Vulcans, but that's another post. Gonna read "The Moon and Sandals" by Fumi Yoshinaga. Yoshinaga-san is such an awesome mangaka. Some people may not like her style b/c it's much slower, has a plot and develops the character, and doesn't have loads of sex. The art is much simpler w/ fewer background details. But her characters are really delightful to look at w/ lots of personality. I think it's more a mature yaoi which you have to be in the mood for, b/c it does take a lot of time to develop. It's manga to savour. Not that I don't also have tons of PWP yaoi too. I like the comedy yaoi. That's always good.

Quiz: What Japanese Smiley Are You?

You Are "Wow"!

What Japanese Smiley Are You?

Oh, that's so cute! Japanese smilies are really cute. I only know a few like ^_^ and >< .And that's pretty much about it. Probably b/c I don't do much chatting or txt msging.

Quiz: What Kind of Cookie Are You?

You Are an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

On the surface, you're a little plain - but you have many subtle dimensions to your personality. Sometimes you're down to earth and crunchy. Other times, you're sweet and a little gooey.

What Kind of Cookie Are You?

Yup, that's pretty much me. Oatmeal Raisin are pretty good. Although I like peanut butter best. Chocolate dough w/ white chocolate chips and almonds are nice too. The best to be dunked in milk is almond cookies. 2 of those is enough to fill you up. I'm not a big cookie eater. Actually since I've consciously decided to eliminate that stuff from my diet (save when I'm at some public thing and that's all they serve), I've never really craved them. I guess I just savour them now.

Starting to live hand-to-mouth

Argh, I so totally have to cut back on expenses for this month. Since D went to visit H for 2 months, I said I'd foot the entire rent for a month, so that plus my credit card bill means I probably won't be making any money this month. Ugh, and looking over my bill, seems I spent about $100 on sushi alone. Mind you it was my b-day during that time...but still. Looks like it'll just be discounted sushi from now on. Which I still end up spending about $15 each time I pick some up, but I spread it over 2 days. The worst about day-old sushi is the hard rice....No really, the wasabi takes care of the bacteria. Well not really, but I haven't become horribly sick yet. And I've even had 2 day old salmon nigiri.

And then there's my manga/comic book bill...looks like $150, which is the average. As expected when I collect about 50+ manga titles, and about 5 comic books. *sigh* I suppose I really shouldn't just pick up any manga that sounds unique, has nice art and wins awards. Had to move lots of manga around to make more space. And this is why I'm so afraid of a fire. And my skin is frequently dry b/c humidity kills books too.

Chatted w/ T today. Well, T did most of the talking and I did the nodding. Geez, I really don't have much to say which doesn't revolve around which book I read, DVD I saw, show I watched. I feel so...empty. Shopping therapy is also making me feel guilty. B/c of the aforementiioned financial situation.

Again, I wonder what they learn in training and how many are taught to use their brains. I'm the type who tends to educate people instead of giving them the answer, so I like to explain the situation, provide info and see if they can come to the correct solution. Well 7 minutes of trying to get him to figure out what equipment price he should give to the customer was pretty excruciating. It went from treating him as an adult, to pointing out that the prices are colour-coded for certain discounts, and repeatedly reminding him the customer only qualifies for a certain discount. Ugh, and the last few days I've been feeling bleah, so I was really looking forward to just sitting in front of the computer and IMing advice to the agents. But instead my supervisor pulls me to walk the floor. And the stupid trainer cancelled the class so I missed 2 hrs of snooze time.

I feel so...bleah. Gripping to routine in a chaotic world, pretending to be the reed in a hurricane. Just as Jamie and Adam proved that it'd be impossible for a reed to pierce a palm tree, I feel like I'm going to splinter if I get pulled from my roots.

Too many princesses

Ugh, got stuck w/ being Support for the transition class again. They're the people who just finished Training and are about to hit the floor. And again, the trainer takes off, leaving me w/ 9 people who don't even know how to change SIM cards. So I'm stuck bouncing from person to person trying to figure out what the customer's really asking, figuring out what the agent wants, fighting the urge to take the mouse over and do everything for them, and getting a bunch of looks b/c I can't keep track of what they'd asked me about 5 min earlier. So I'm still waiting for a trainer to show up, and I have people asking me why they're not getting calls so I have to check if they even logged into their phones properly, explaining to them how to read a bill, showing them how to use resources that they should've been drilled thoroughly on in training, and I have this girl ask me how to take payment and she's not even in the right system. So I tell her what system she needs to take it thru, and she says to me "well I want someone else to help me." So I look around and go "Well you know what, I'm the only support here right now" And she goes "well I don't like how you just give me short answers and make me feel stupid". So I tell her "Look, I know you've missed a day but I've got 8 other people that I'm trying to help so I can't get to you right away or guide you through everything." So she tries to argue w/ me again, and I just go "Look, you want to know how to make a payment? Well I'm trying to help you right now." So finally she shuts up and actually follows my directions. But geez, they don't do a lot of teaching in training do they? There was another agent who was about to leave just b/c he wasn't doing as well in the real calls as he was in mock-calls and b/c he kept putting the customer, the customer hung up.

And I don't know what the hell they're teaching them in class. They would seriously tell the customer that they're going to put the customer on hold for 20 sec. Who the hell cares about 20 seconds?! And being told that every 20 seconds would be really frigging irritating. Their trainer is supposed to be really good, but I dunno. I wonder if they did any Y-connecting on the floor b/c they sure don't seem to know anything.

Didn't have to take any escalations today at least. Although I did a rerate b/c I didn't feel like getting into a contest where I'm saying the customer must've been lying about telling the rep about something b/c based on the detail of the notes written by the agent, the agent would've given him the correct pricing and notated it. I wish we had a clause that if the customer's caught lying, we can take everything away. That'd be so nice b/c they lie to us so many times.

I'm hungry. I think I'll go eat even though I had a double patty hamburger about...5 hrs ago. Well that explains it.

Ooooh, snippy little princess

So I was taking off on my break, and was dashing past JR's desk when he calls out to me "Fine, don't say Hi!". So of course I turn back and go "Why would I stop to say Hi?". So JR's says "Because you're nice." To which I replied "Geez, who's spreading that rumour?" And one of JR's reps who was sitting next to him goes "Well it sure wasn't me." Then JR and I just looked at him and went back to teasing/flirting w/ each other.

But I think that rep doensn't like me b/c I don't give him special treatment. D said he was attractive, although I just give him an average. He's the bf of an Operations Manager, and a lot of TLs/trainers are very friendly towards him, and his attitude is that he expects that from everyone. It's not that he's bad at his job but I don't like that he thinks he can get away w/ talking to me like as if he was my friend. It all comes to those levels of politeness. And if he can't understand that JR can get away w/ teasing me b/c we used to go out, and that I get to bug him b/c I'm his senior...well too bad bucko. Go cry to your bf.

Anyways, took an escalation. Customer was lying about not recieving bills and then when I pointed out that how could she make payments albeit 5 months after the acct was cancelled for nonpay if she didn't get any bill, she made some story that she didn't get bills after she made some payments. Yeah sure. I really hate people who don't pay their bills. For months, and then whine and bitch about it. Guess what? I'm a consumer and I scrimp and save to make sure that my bills are paid and I have enough for a rainy day/year. If you can't read your bill and are too damn lazy to give us a call or email about it, it's your own damn fault. Even when we were open 24/7 we'd still get some dope who'd try to make that excuse. I'm so sick of people who don't take any responsibility and expect us to bail them out just b/c they're "valued customers". Are we supposed to value their stupidity or something?

Anyways, just playing Pokemon here. Sandstorm sounded so cool, so I replaced Bind w/ it on Onix. Turns out to suck pretty bad.

It'd be nice if you were actually nice to the people who care about you...

I was checking out one of my friend's blogs, and she'd written that she'd gotten herself some things from Amazon as an early b-day present. And considering that she still hasn't gotten anything from my Amazon list for my Xmas or b-day, I was pretty pissed. I can understand that she wants to treat herself b/c she's had a rough time over the last few months...but it was trouble that she manufactured herself. Her own stupidity got herself into the mess, and after talking w/ her husb, apparently she's still pining over the guy that she should've never gotten involved w/. A guy that wants nothing to do w/ her now. So while she's wasting her energy over trying to make herself feel better about the sh!tpile that she laid, she's hurting those that are actually trying to help her. It just really pisses me off. ...Which is why I'm blogging when I should be sleeping.

Have a busy day tomorrow, even though it's my day off. Have to ship off my PS2. Apparently I have some groceries to pick up b/c the flyer not in recycling bin. Somewhat enjoying having a newspaper to read everyday (and eat over. Makes cleanup a lot easier). Unfortunately I'm starting to fall behind on the papers. Still reading Saturday. Hmmm, I dunno if I should go get sushi again. I don't really need anything else from that store... but the siren song of sushi beckons. Heh heh, Uta no Sushi.

Yet Another Fire Alarm

Cripes, why are there so many fire alarms?! This one happened right at 12:25-12:30, just when I was watching the end of the tag team title match btwn RKO vs. HBK & Cena. As usual, ran around to change and then grab stuff. This time I actually grabbed my insurance policy, visa statements, passport, SIN card, and money. Then I grabbed some of my plush toys and DS lite. What?! It's what keeps my spirit going. This time it was quite a false alarm b/c it started on the 6th fl, and there was a wierd smoke and smell going on. But it only lasted about 20 min and we headed back up.

My allergies aren't too bad, but I'm too wired to read the paper and watch TV. So I'm gathering what I'd need if there was an actual alarm. Which aside from essentials like policies, ID, clothes; are stuff that would be impossible/difficult to replace. Like all my character goods that I've had to import. Unfortunately I'd have to put my Beast and Legato statue back into their cases to transport, actually I have a lot of figures I'd need to put back into their cases. There's a lot of artbooks too. And we're not even going to mention my manga. Which only a few series fill out my suitcase. (Ranma 1/2, GTO, Rurouni Kenshin, and few others to fill out the remaining space) DVDs and comics are also outta the question. It's gotten to be a big pile, and so I'm trying to figure out what size of hockey bag I'd need to transport it all. There is one @ Sport Chek for $30 but it's very obviously a hockey bag b/c there's pockets in the shape of skates. It's huge, and not that easy to transport when fully loaded. There's another one for $60 which is smaller, less hockey-like and had lots of handles and set of wheels. It might also be used as a substitute for a suitcase. It's pretty hard to decide. Cheap, unwieldy and big or more expensive, smaller but more stylish and easier to manuever? *looks at pile* I think I'm going to have to go w/ the big one...although btwn my backpack, Sanzo bag and the smaller hockey bag, I might be able to fit everything. But today I'd filled my backpack and Sanzo bag, and it was a bit unwieldy. Not completely impossible to move b/c I hiked the 7 flights down and then back up once the alarm was over. But w/ a bag on both sides? Well I think I'd still be able to fit down the stairway. Argh, and I have so many little things too! *sob sob* And then there's computer files...I dunno if I'll get any sleep tonight.

But earlier today I went to a local bar w/ my co-workers to watch part of RAW. They were all guys, and they were really surprised that I liked wrestling and wanted to go w/ them. I actually get that comment a lot. I dunno what it is about me that seems that I wouldn't like wrestling. Just b/c I think Monster Trucks, NASCAR, rodeos suck.

Excellent Service

As detailed previously, I'd ordered a bunch of books from Akadot that was delivered by UPS. And they managed to kill the corner so my book's dented. Well I'd wrote to Akadot about the damage and they replied away and talked to UPS. And UPS told them that they were going to contact me b/c they wanted to examine the box. Good thing I usually keep things like useful sized boxes. A week passes by and no contact from UPS. So I email Akadot back, and next day I get a reply from them. Turns out that now UPS wants to talk to Akadot instead, so I just have to wait for Akadot to sort things out. Which I'm okay w/ so far b/c the customer service from Akadot's been really nice, friendly and prompt. I've dealt w/ UPS before (working in customer service for a huge wireless company that's constantly sending out phones), and I know that sometimes to get them to straighten things out is a mess. That's why I tend not to trust either UPS or Fedex.

Also YTV's feed went out, and I called up the cable tech dept. The guy was really nice, and gave empathy, and nice reassurance. And it was about 1/2 later that the feed came back, just in time for FMA. Apparently I was the first person to call in about the missing feed. :( Of course w/ YTV's inability to start programs @ the right time, I'm not surprised people have been tuning out. It's really annoying when I have to set the VCR to record 5 min before the prog is supposed to start and 10 min after it supposedly ends just to make sure I catch all of it.

Will this inspire me to provide excellent customer service? Eh, maybe for while just b/c I know my TL's going to do a blitzkrieg of monitors on me. And of course it depends on the customer. If the customer's nice, I'll be nice. If you're going to be a jerk, it's strictly following policy.

Hmmm, who's the manager again?

So I finally got my PA delivered. Pile actually came to find me. Since he only had 2 more days before CNY. And it was delivered w/ my current SLR TL. Which I'll have to check w/ my peers to see if they got doubleteamed too. Anyways, he starts off by basically tossing it on the table and saying we're going to over the PA. Like duh. I can read and it's not like he has any other reason to talk to me. So I go to him, "So how late is it?" And he gets all defensive and blathers some crap about having to come up all the information and it takes time, and he doesn't have to explain why it's late. And I go to him, "This is my second PA that is months late. I'd like an explanation." And he makes some lame excuse w/ having to go thru the journals and consult the TLs and OMs we did work for. So I go to him, "well when were they due?" So he stammers that he was sick for some time, but they were actually due by end of December. He barely apologized for it being late.

So he just reads what it says. Well, aside from the fact that I can read a hell faster than he can talk, it's just all generic comments. Considering I got perfect attendance and perfect Quality, whether or not it's expected, is still damn better than the most of the centre, and slightly more interesting comments would be nice. But b/c my stats were 80 secs over I got a lower mark, and his scale for the target I was supposed to be in was completely wrong too, so I really should've pointed out that I did meet target instead. Hah hah. Damn, shoulda done that. Anyways, then there's the category for knowledge/teamwork and I just got average. Which is like bullsh!t b/c I'm on the Floor Support team so I know my stuff. But then he brings up the cr@p about me lipping off an OM (who was completely useless and is not OM anymore b/c she went to diff position in HR. Yes, HR, the bastion of the morally corrupt and useless). Yeah, so he's just throwing his attitude everywhere (which is like watching a Valley girl throwing a tantrum), so I just go "you know what, it's obvious that my questions aren't going to listened to so I won't bother," and start putting the papers into order. Well my current SLR TL had to more or less apologize for his behaviour b/c she said "well we don't want you to go away feeling that your concerns aren't going to be addressed. You can leave a comment on the PA if you'd like. " Leaving comments on PAs really amount to nothing, so I just go "No, it's fine" but of course implying "why bother? It's a waste of time" So then Pile goes "well I'm going to photocopy it," and takes off.

So I'm there alone w/ my current SLR TL, and I'm sure she's thinking "Oh crap." But I'm nice b/c the whole PA had nothing to do w/ her, and she's just there as the fall guy when she delivered my other late PA. So I just ask her about being changed to Floor Support, if I still attend the SLR meetings, and really asked her a whole bunch of questions that would make it easier for her and my Floor Support TL to coordinate b/c of my inbetween role. So Pile finally comes back, and I barely acknowledge him b/c I'm still talking w/ her. Although I did thank him when leaving ...after I thanked my current SLR TL, and it was more like an afterthought.

So for all the crap they give us about treating customers nice and respectfully, displaying ownership and following thru on commitments, and the company's own mission statement and code of conduct; it's obvious that it's doesn't apply when it comes to how managers treat their agents. It's really quite pathetic. The fact that Pile wouldn't take ownership and acted all defensive and lashing out at me is really unprofessional. And who's the one that's in managment? Actually it was really funny how he reacted. I told my Floor Support TL about getting my PA and how I'm sure that Pile wants to kill me now, and she's like "are you okay?" b/c I probably was looking pretty pissed. And actually I was okay and pissed. B/c I expected him to try and dodge everything and the fact that he did such a pathetic job of it made me giggle, and mad that he's getting paid for incompetancy. And so I bragged incessantly about how I got him to lose it. It's really hard for me to pretend to respect people when they don't give me any respect and screw me over. So I really don't try, and I know I have no poker face.

Anyways, time to get ready for bed. Heeeeeennn, it's been a day.

Bah, Valentine's Day

I suppose only really for those who aren't in a relationship. Such as myself. One of my work friends goes to me "Will you be my Valentine?" b/c he didn't have anyone for the first time in a couple years. So I go "What do I have to do?" He's like "well nothing really, and another friend chimed in that he'll get me flowers. But Jon knows me so he's says "you're not really a flower girl, are you?" And I go "Nope, you can get me a game instead. I'd like Trauma Center and Cooking Mama..." Yeah, flowers are pretty and all but they've been bred so much for appearance, there's no smell to them anymore. So might as well just get fake ones.

Anyways, yeah bah Valentines. I got my friend some non-slave labour chocolate (I don't remember the PC term for things like that), and I was going to do a card too...but that would be too wierd considering I didn't do anything else for my other friends. Hurm.

I gotta clean my desk. It has to be done before Chinese New Year, and that's fast approaching. Well I'll try. Been too tired lately to do much of anything w/o getting easily distracted.

And I still haven't recieved my PA. How interesting. We'll see if the ancestors curse him for his irresponsibility. I certainly hope so.

Another Fire Alarm

And I really need to get a hockey bag for all the stuff I need to grab. It was late at night, and I missed Colbert Report because of it. As usual I completely panicked, managed to pull on jeans and shirt, and ran out, realized at 12th fl that I should probably take some things w/ me, hiked 5 floors back up, and grabbed my Visa stuff(my only proof that I bought stuff) and some sentimental things. Totally forgot to grab my insurance policy(bad!) and well, way too many things that would've been impossible to replace b/c of their importance to me. So I need to get a large bag of some sort in case this happens again. I'd been looking at hockey bags for a while, but they were pretty expensive so I was waiting for a sale.

Also I've become completely allergic to cats. Never touched a single one, but w/ 4 cats w/in 10 feet of me, I was hacking, sneezing and sniffling. Guess I'll never get a cat unless I want to be constantly drugged up. Had a anti-histamine once I got back into my apt and now I'm completely woozy. Typing's a real chore.

Slept most of the day. Actually the day before I left work early b/c I had a massive migraine. Well actually it wasn't completely massive. My skull didn't hurt like before, but considering I'd been having nothing but migraines for the last week, I just didn't want to take it. But instead of staying home, I decided to get groceries, which I desperately needed. Which of course allowed me to sleep in.

Yeah so today I cleaned again. Vacuumed and washed the kitchen floor, cleaned under the sink too. I so do not want D to come back anytime soon. It's nice having a clean apt. And I can leave my room door open so the vaporizer can go into my room and the rest of apt. I can't put it just in my room b/c I have too much electronics and books around. Humidity bad for those. Unfortunately, despite running it for 24 hrs didn't really help decrease static electricity.

I think that'll do for now

Yeah, so I went w/ the 3rd image b/c it looked the coolest. However the 2nd image was very nice too, and very close behind. I liked the concept of the 4th one, but it was too light. And the 1st of the set was bleh.

Anyways, again, couldn't see my neices. Well I guess that's not entirely true. She wasn't feeling well so couldn't go out. But I could go over to their house. Since I had the sniffles too, and might want to get my thyroid checked, I opted out. Apparently S & J made me something for my bday. Well, if we're doing anything for CNY, I might be able to see them. Yeah, my folks aren't sure if they're doing anything. Yeah cultural legacy.

Finally got my PUK from my provider. Regular customer service was closed so I just hung on for "Emergency customer service". So when I tell her that I need my PUK, first thing she asks was if my phone was locked. So I'm like no, but I'll need it to SIM lock my phone. Then she's like well I can only give it to you if you locked your phone and I'll have to call back. So I pointed out the ridiculousness of that since she had access to my PUK, and that I could've technically lied and said I locked my phone. Then she's said"well you told me you didn't." So I go "well I could lock up my phone and then it'd be true, so can I have it already?" So she's arguing w/ me here, and I'm thinking screw it and ask for a supervisor. And she gives me the crap story that there's no supervisor around b/c it's emergency hours, and I'm tell her "No, I know there's at least 1 supervisor at your centre. And since you're not resolving my issue, I want to speak to a supervisor." So she puts me on hold and 30 sec later comes back and tells me that for this one time she'll give me my PUK. So then I ask her for the PUK2 also and she's like, there's only 1 PUK for your account. Actually I think I threw her off when I asked for the PUK2. Heh heh, never argue w/ someone who does the same job and actually knows more.

And I just realized...she never verified me. She didn't ask me for the number I was calling from or my name. I could've been anyone, and b/c I was messing around w/ a phone I picked up I could've locked it up. Ohmigod. Dialing 611 seems to be pretty universal for cellphone companies in NA, so anyone would know to dial 611 to get to customer service. That is sooooo lame. Man, might be definitely time to change carriers.

Sorta Getting There

The border image looks a lot lighter than it did as just a tile, so I'm u/l more to see which is better. Oh what fun!

The other issue is when you click on the older posts, it brings up the template I've worked off of, instead of the current one. Strange. And no, I still haven't moved over to the Google-Blog. I was catching up on my email, and when they first went out of Beta(yes, email from Nov-Dec), they had a lot of issues and the support wasn't really there. So I'm still waiting.

Revamping the Blog

So I'm trying to make it look nicer. Previous one was okay, but had some issues w/ the colours. And my HTML is...very shaky. It's been ages since I've attempted it. I still remember the theory somewhat but lordy don't ask me to create a webpage. Have enough trouble trying to change the colours on the template.

I'm not telling you what to do but...

I'm letting you know it's not working. I was on Floor Support again today, for the newbies and I had to sit w/ a rep for over an hour on 1 account b/c she didn't understand the bill, how the account was set up or how to use any of the systems. What the hell do they teach them in class?!? And I had to help her w/ calculations too, so her math skills were pretty shaky. And she's middle aged too. Which means she has a great work ethic and tries really hard but sometimes isn't the quickest to grasp things. So after going over the bill and making sure she understands it and basically preparing her for the callback that she needed to make, her supervisor comes by and basically tells her to get back to taking calls. So I'm try to summarize everything for her, and make sure she's okay and go to help another rep.

A while later I see her again, and she tells me that her other supervisor pulled her aside to ask why she was off the phones for so long and to have her sign a form b/c she released a call before she was supposed to. And b/c of her work ethic, she's really upset about the form b/c she thought it was disciplinary and that her TL was accusing her of doing really bad, and she's all frustrated b/c she's getting grief for her call time and after call work being long. So as someone who's been a supervisor for a couple months and coached reps to self-confidance, it was really killing me not to coach her to ignore those things b/c she's new and that they really don't matter that much. I'm not in a position where I can state those things anymore, especially to a rep that's not on my team, and I don't want to contradict whatever their supervisor's telling them. So after I tell her that I'll talk to her supervisor, I go over and tell them what we were doing and why it was taking so long. So the supervisor like "uh huh, okay." Then when I told her that the agent thought the form was disciplinary (I knew what form was likely handed to her), the supervisor's goes "but I told her 5 times that it wasn't." So I'm like "well you might wanna tell her again, b/c she feels differently." S'funny how I can sit w/ a rep for an hour and know them better than their supervisor. Mind you, I bet their supervisor only met w/ them for maybe 1/2 hr in the 4 days since she's hit the floor, but it's still kinda funny.

I did feel a bit better today b/c we had a team meeting and then a meeting w/ our supervisor's manager. Which meant we could vent all we wanted. One of the biggest issues is that some supervisors won't take escalations and we either have to babysit them during one or they'll just cave and give the customer whatever they want. Which is sooo wrong. So I throw my hand up and s'funny how I would phrase my question w/ a context first on why I'm asking it, and then offer the solution in the form of a question. So I said, "since we're having problems w/ supervisors taking escalations, why don't we have them go back to spending a few hours on the phones taking regular calls like before?" Boy, the amount of agreement in the room from the team was hilarious. And it was funny that for our team meeting I was introduced as being new to the team, but I'd actually been on the Floor Support team before. And since I already knew all the people on the Floor Support team (sometimes helps being there for 4 yrs and in so many diff positions) I gave a cheery hello whereas the other new person gave this weak wave. And none of the new people asked any questions in the big complaint meeting. *sigh* I guess I'm actually pretty happy being back on Floor Support and doing something b/c I'm actually pretty bubbly lately. And also the rep I sat w/ said that she was actually able to understand everything b/c I explained it so well that I should be a trainer, which of course led me to explaining that I was a supervisor but would never want to be a trainer b/c I'd be telling everyone to shut up and listen, but I'm better at one-on-one. Which I am. I've coached agents for an hour to make sure that they understand systems and policies, and boy do I nail them if they mess up on the same thing. But it rarely happens.

So I guess technically it might be construed that I was overstepping my bounds as Floor Support and tell a supervisor that their coaching is making the rep think of quitting, but then again I was thinking of retaining reps and reps will tell us stuff that they'll hold back from their supervisors. And I did bite my tongue on saying how I would've handled their coaching session so the rep wouldn't be so frustrated. *sigh* so funny and sad at the same time.

On a followup to the UPS fiasco, they finally delivered the pkg to my Dad's house. So I can finally get my books and my chibi Iruka patch. I'm gonna put him on my Sanzo bag. Maybe I should start looking for patches for all the other chars that Seki Toshihiko has played? That'd be cool. Then it'd be my Seki-dono bag, instead of just my Sanzo-dono bag.

Never use UPS

Did I mention I hate UPS? They're not open on the weekends. I'm sorry, but what global company isn't open on the weekend? I could sorta understand maybe not delivering on the weekend, well actually not really b/c if they think everyone works M-F9-5, when are people going to be home except during the weekend?! So b/c the sh!tf*ckers aren't open, I can't call them to see if they can allow someone else to sign for it. Hates them!

So I'm up early b/c I'm not sure if my niece's party is going...and it's not. Pffffft! Sucks. Why do I bother sometimes?

I might as well live in another country....

for all the times that I get to see my nieces and nephew. Yeah, they may live in the same city, and when I was living in the house, they lived a whole block away. But the only time I get to see them is for their bday. Maybe. This Saturday, we were going to take them to Chuck E Cheese, but their maternal cousins are seeing that day instead, so my brother thinks it'd be better if we had a party for them another. Well aside from the f*cking fact that they see their maternal relatives every week, some of us don't have 9-5 M-F schedules. And happen to live by ourselves so if I don't cook or clean or whatever, it doesn't get done. No, my roommate doesn't count. Even when he was living here. Yeah, so it'll probably be another year where they'll get their freaking b-day present in the summer or some crap like that. I was going to do calligraphy for her bday card, but I really don't think I should even bother.

And I found out I'm working this Sunday. Royal Rumble Sunday. Although the card really sucks, Royal Rumble's still fun to watch. Usually. Argh. And the stupid losers who do scheduling have me working straight to thursday, one day off, and work Friday, and then have Saturday off. @sswipes.

And I was supposed to be getting a pkg on Jan 23 for stuff I'd ordered from US. But it was delivered by UPS which meant that it never got to me. I live in an apt, and they don't even bother to come to your suite. Instead they ring the buzzer. A lot of other companies will try your suite at least. But since, knowing my stupid roommate, he still has the buzzer rigged to his cellphone, not to the landline he installed. And he's in Quebec. Yeah, so a fat lot of good that did me. And how do they leave notice that they attempted delivery? They stick the paper next to the buzzer console. So everyone visiting can see the delivery notice, but not any residents. Thanks a f*ck lot. And they said they dropped a delivery card. Bullsh!t!!! I hate them so much. And instead of using a brokerage who just sends you a bill a week after they passed it thru customs, the @sswarts instead want COD. So of course they can't leave it w/ the office. And their f*cking pickup centre is in the middle of f*cking nowhere. Literally. It's in a industrial area. So those of us who don't have cars, can tromp around for half a kilometre from the nearest stop to attempt to find the damn thing. And they can't deliver to one of their stores b/c it's franchised. F*cking moronic. At least FedEx has more than one centre you can pick things up from, and it's on a bus route. Although FedEx f*cked up my delivery too and can't keep track of their inventory.

Yeah, so I was rip-roaring mad this afternoon. And then this poor schlob from StatsCan calls up, and b/c I hadn't powercycled my phone for a while, the connection was really crappy. And some of the questions were horrible. For example, I tell them that H is married to D. Then he has to ask me if D or H is under 1 yrs old. So I was really ticked and I acted pretty short w/ him for a while. And the survey went on for 1/2 hour. So by now it's already past 6, and I usually leave for WEM @ 6:30, and I'm still in my jammies. But I'd forgotten to ask my manager what days I have off next week (b/c the scheduling idiots are really late in posting schedules), so I have to call him up again. So by the time I'm dressed, and stick my contacts in, it's already 7:09, and the bus took a while to arrive.

Finally get to WEM, didn't plan on really shopping, just the usual grocery @ T&T, but b/c I'm peeved, I stop by the petstore ($800 for a tortoise, $500 for a baby. And then when you add in their tank, heating stuff etc... it's pricey to get a pet. That's why I like my betta fish. Spent...maybe $30 in total so far on him b/c he's in a IKEA 2L jar, has a lucky bamboo stalk for swimming and resting on its roots, and 4 diff kinds of food for $10, a net, old margarine tub for when I'm cleaning the jar, bleach for cleaning jar, water conditioner, old milk jug for conditioned water. Yeah, and it's his 1 yr birthday too! Maybe I'll give him some bloodworms, though he wasn't too interested before). Anyways even though it was 8:30 and the store closes in a hour, they still didn't really discount their sushi that much. Only on 2nd sticker price still. Argh! But got sushi for today and Sat (was actually planning on eating out on Sat b/c of bday party, but seems that plan will fall thru. Actually this week, I've had sushi every day except for Wednesday when I stayed home and cooked. But b/c it was sooo late and there wasn't that much public transport, I ended up catching only the last 5 min of Zatch Bell. Which is too bad, but at least it's better than the tape running out and missing the last 5 min.

So I guess I should go to bed b/c it's almost 5 now, and I'd actually been typing for a goodly long time. ... And I still haven't done my niece's card.

Videogames Live!

You know, not having the paper really sucks. Or watching the news, not that I'm sure it would've been announced on the local news. The concert started at 7:30, and we got there about 7:30, thinking we were 1/2 hr early but thinking "Where the hell is everybody?" Missed part of the Classic Arcade Medley, but caught the rest. Nothing beats having stuff played by a live orchestra b/c you can feel everything. I believe they were also miked b/c you could hear people cough. Although some of them weren't at the correct distance b/c some people were a bit quiet. And I couldn't even hear Tommy play the guitar during the Halo 3 theme. Hard to say which my favourite was. WoW was excellent, along w/ Medal of Honor. Metal Gear Solid was really good too, along w/ Civilization 4 and Zelda. One-Winged Angel was great, although the choir seemed to have problems coming in on Liberi Fatali. Mind you, Liberi Fatali is one of my favourite songs, so I know it really well, so I might be a bit harsh. I really liked when the pianist Lee Ann Leung did the Mario theme. She didn't have her hair tied back when she was playing the Final Fantasy soundtrack, so she had to brush her hair bit, but definitely corrected for Mario, which I think allowed her to play more freely. Sonic the Hedgehog wasn't bad, but I think the one which caused my mind to wander. But it was worth the $55.65cdn.

Yeah, so anyways, as expected the guys were late, but we still managed to have supper. Finally had my mackeral. *slurp* It's soooo good. And they don't put ginger on it, just green onions. Also had a chop-chop temaki and Futo maki. Yesterday for my birthday, I also had some sushi, but b/c I went to one of those chain restaurants they only had the standard stuff. So I just ordered a sushi bento (which came w/ 1 salmon nigiri and 1 tuna nigiri) w/ chicken teriyaki, rice, bean sprout salad and egg roll. It was filling but not very satisfying.

Yeah, my birthday. Huh, definitely not memorable in the sense of how much fun I had. I'd applied for the Redhat position, which is floor support for the reps. Which is technically a step down from my current position as Senior Lead Rep. So why apply for something lower? Well aside from the fact that they treat us like dirt, we don't get much respect, and it's a surprise when my SLR TL says hi to me, the only time we get a top-up pay now is when we're filling in for TLs. Which won't be happening soon I imagine b/c they want to revamp the program (so we get stages of training we need to pass, instead of the previous tossing us to the wolves), which mean unless we complete the program, we don't get to be acting TL. Even though some of us have taken over teams for months. Even during Xmas, they said unless a TL was gone for more than 2 weeks, we couldn't take over. So whatever, for the last few months I've been on the phone. And had to teach my TL how to use the systems b/c he docked me for not leaving notes. Which as several people can tell you, the easiest way to find my notes is to look for the essay. So after I showed him how notes don't transfer with accounts, I got full points as usual. Yeah, I hardly see my TL which isn't too bad, except when Quality docked me for something completely stupid, which happened over a month ago, but b/c he didn't tell me about it, I didn't find out until weeks later when I check my Quality score.

Oh yeah, what I was writing about? Oh, right my B-day. So anyways, I filled out the quiz and expression of interest for the Redhat, and then they ask me to come in for an interview. I'm like "Dude, it's the first day of my vacation and on my freaking bday." But they're like it'll only be for 1/2 hr. So yeah, I went into work on my f!cking bday to do their stupid interview. And no, I didn't bother preparing b/c it'll be questions I've answered before, and really, considering I've done it before, unless I curse them out, I should get it regardless if I show up hammered. Not that I was. Yeah, so they called me later that day and told me I got it. Heh. Yeah, I know a lotta people would be scratching their heads if I didn't.

Anyways, after my interview, I went shopping for my neice's bday present. Her birthday's on ...damn, I don't actually know when. I never wrote it down. Well sometime close to mine. Actually I have another neice...well technically my cousin's daughter...so I guess that's still neice, and her birthday's on 24th. Which since she lives in Australia means I'd better send her a card. Even though she's only a year old. Anyways back to the neice I actually can visit w/o a plane ticket, although considering the amount of times I've gotten to see her she might as well be in another country, I ended up getting her a foam mat that you can draw on w/ water and also had cut outs so she can practice tracing. Safe toy and suitable for when you have a 1 yr old running around too. Wait, how old is she anyways? Oh well, whatever, I got a gift receipt so they can return it if they want.

Uhhh, before I got distracted again, so as I was shopping at ToyRUs, I got Pokemon Trozei for $20. Everywhere else it was like $40-45 so it's a really good deal. And I'm freaking addicted. All I've really played is Endless mode....which means I'll be playing it for like 2 hrs before I die. Gotten up to level 45. My ass and hand have died and I'm still playing. It's bad. I also found Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Blue for $15. It was used, but booklet was in good shape, so another great deal. However instead of getting Bulbasaur, I'm more of a Squirtle (among my least favourite non-bug type pokemon), Totodile (not too bad but slightly annoying), Pikachu (well, he is actually pretty smart and dependable but somewhat tempermental) and Skitty(I do not chase my tail all the time...although this post is pretty everywhere. I blame it on the late hour). But since I'll need to learn new controls, and I have Pokemon Ranger(finished in 22 hrs! and now to get every Pokemon) and Pokemon LeafGreen (evolved to Venusaur already but stuck in Pokemon Tower and don't have Silph Scope), I think I'll play Mystery Dungeon later.

Really I will be getting non-Pokemon games for my DS. Capcom vs SNK Card Fighter is coming out, and Cooking Mama seems interesting. Wonder if I could learn to cook? Can't seem to find Trauma Center though. Phoenix Wright seems interesting too. I'm so sad that Angelique isn't out for the DS.

So the next few days will be spent...playing Trozei or something. My computer is also going kaputz, think the CMOS batt died. *sigh*

Stupid sites and their stupid logins

So yet another site has my freaking information. And I have another damn login and password to remember. And why do they ask for your birthday when they never send you anything on your birthday?! Heh, if anyone creates a program that automatically sends out birthday cards on people's birthday, I declare that it was my idea first and I want royalties!

Anyways, I'm trying to d/l programs that I'll need when I move over to WinXP. Yes, I'm still using Win98. And I'd still be wanting to use it if some programs would keep supporting it! *cough*ZoneAlarm*cough* All viruses there were written for it have been blocked, and no one cares about it. I guess kinda like Linux (just kidding! I really know nothing about Linux except it's user-created, which is fab but also creates a lotta probs troubleshooting. Just ask my roommate). So I'm trying to d/l Sonique file, which is a kickass prog but was bought up by Lycos. So it tells me that I have to sign up to Lycos to d/l the prog. I'm like "Fine, grumble grumble." Only to find out some @sshole has picked Ravencat. WTF??!! That was my handle for like 10 years! Sure I had retired it for a bit when I was totally disconnected from the Internet. I was sooooo pissed. Anyways, make up another handle, and get booted to Lycos homepage. Ooookay, well I'll just go back to Sonique's page. And I can't find the link to d/l the prog b/c it just keeps redirecting me. I was soooooo p!ssed. Lycos YOU SUCK!! Anyways, eventually got the prog and a few others from Tucows. Tucows rules. Although they say they review a prog, but you can't find the review. WTF?!

So today was my day off. It was above freezing so I walked over to Chinatown. Stopped by library to pick up some blank applications. But they renovated the upstairs too, so I didn't know where the hell to go. So I ask these 2 women who were waiting for the elevator and they act all smarmy and tell me that I can d/l the form and print it out., I'm like "I'm aware of that, but where can I find the paper form?" Bah. Stupid people. Anyways ended up buying absolutely nothing from Chinatown. They'd renovated Lucky 97 a bit (which they'd fix their damn website. Completely seizes up the computer every time I try to look @ their sales), and got rid of the electronics. It'd been steadily growing smaller, but I was hoping for some DS lite stuff. And I was looking for replacement utensils for my bento box b/c I'd broke the chopsticks, and the spoon didn't take well to going in the dishwasher. But nada.

So went to T&T, and they had a mystery lunchbox. Was discounted to $2.99 from $5.99, and was one of those big 10"styrofoam containers w/ a soup on the top. So having a silver stomach (handles most foods pretty well but can react to some things), I just picked it up. Turned out to be breaded shrimp, pickled carrots and cabbage, rice, sweet & sour pork, miso soup. Sweet!!! That's a good investment. I'm kinda lazy now, in that I'll pick up a lotta stuff instead of making it. But I did make a pot of my meat sauce. But I forgot to pick up tomato paste (ketchup was a poor substitute) so it's quite sweet. Also added the garlic a bit late, so wasn't cooked to translucency. Is sprouting garlic edible?

Watched Getbackers while eating sushi. That show is soooo yaoi and slash-friendly. My favourite still is seeing Shido in cat-form and Ban teasing him w/ a cat toy. Next to my KOF and Saiyuki yaoi doujinshi, I'd definitely get Getbackers doujinshi. *heads off to read some Getbackers fanfic* Oh yeah, now I remember why I'd disconnected from the Internet. Just got sick of all the whining, poor grammar....and now I'm guilty of it all. Oh well.

I've been obsessively checking the gaming sites on DS games. I'm sooo tempted to order the Japanese Pokemon Diamond/Pearl b/c I'd get it. And when I was checking out the screenshots on the Pokemon.com site, all the dialog was in hiragana or katakana. Which means that I could technically read it. Make sense of it might be different matter. Even changed my language on my DS to Japanese. Just for fun. Well, really to practice. Finally kicked my tush and worked on my Japanese again. I'm not sure if I'm scared of finished Gr1 kana or something. I don't know why I have so much trouble writing the kana for "sensei". I can read it, but can't seem to remember the character that well. I do have to expose myself to more varieties of how the characters are written. "So" and "N" in katakana are so similar in print, and I think I mix up "Ra" and "U" sometimes.

Word of Mouth

Everyone must know that saying about if you get a bad experience you tell 10 people, but if you have a good experience you tell 3 people. Well, was just emailing w/ a friend who's no longer employed at the same place as I am, and he was telling me that when he was job hunting, our place of employment has such a bad rep now that if it were for his other experience, he wouldn't have gotten interviewed. Ouch! Man, I'd better look elsewhere before the reputation tanks even more! *sad laugh* Actually I remember a time when we were snatched up b/c the training we recieved was superior to elsewhere. But I have a feeling that w/ all the people the management has chased away, that it's now known as a seething pot of discontent. Really, the management is truly something. Never know if the praise they give you is something they're told they're supposed to do in seminars of Effective Management and then they'll fire your @ss b/c you're dead-weight.

Anyways, time to watch Mythbusters!

Bah upgrades

Yeah, so for the last few months, Blogger has been telling me to upgrade to the version supported by Google Accounts. And all I can think about it, there's going to be more frigging passwords to remember, and more ads to avoid. And another site that has my information. Yeah convenience. Do I had the fact that I've lost a few posts b/c it wouldn't upload properly. Hell yeah! But geez, I'm too frigging lazy to read thru all the crap about Google accounts, so I'm not going to do it. Not unless they force me too.

And then I get notice that C&L is closing their points program this month. Argh! I have so few points, but it's enough to buy a DVD. But w/ the cost of the s/h, it's almost not worth it!

Speaking of which I got a desk set from my brother and his gf. Has the desk blotter, mousepad, notepad paper holder, cup holder etc. And I so do not need it. First off, I have everything except the desk blotter. And there's not frigging room either on my desk. Even if it was completely cleaned off.

Got money from my dad. My other brother wasn't able to find my dvds on time, so he's going to try for my bday. I got perfume and a dvd so far from my friends. Still expecting stuff. And I got myself a DS Lite.

And it is sooooo sweet! I got Polar White, b/c pink would so suck. I have Pokemon Rangers and Pokemon Leafgreen right now. Kind wierd that GBA games don't come w/ a case to store them in. Accessory marketing? Anyways, I need to get headphones and a case for it so I can take it out my apt, but no one sells decent headphones. Just those damn earbuds. And they never stay in my ear, so I hates them! But I did find some Pokemon ones online. From Japan of course. *sigh* there was another site that did imports: Lik-sang, but Sony closed them down. So sad. I'm very tempted to order the headphones and a case. And soooo many choices! And why is Angelique only avail on PS?!?! I get a region-free console and it's not avail!!!!

And alas, my PS2 is dead. Again. And committed suicide the same way. Yes, the dreaded static shock. Won't even turn green. Completely dead. If I recall, it was about $90 to go thru warranty. From EBgames, it'd be $109 for a used slim model. For brand new it's $130. *sob sob* At least I have my DS lite. I should name him....Hmmm, actually I think a lot of things I have could be a him. My computer's Gilliam. Although I feel my TV is a her. As for my PS2? I don't get any vibe. Could be b/c it's dead. *waaaahhhhh* And it's too soon to get a PS3. If there were any available to buy. The bugs haven't been worked out of yet. Must design an anti-static shield for the PS2. Cause seriously, I can discharge it on the fireplace and a minute later, I'll have built up enough static to feel another shock. Curse you Static!

Quiz: The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

You Are Bert

Extremely serious and a little eccentric, people find you loveable - even if you don't love them! You are usually feeling: Logical - you rarely let your emotions rule you You are famous for: Being smart, a total neat freak, and maybe just a little evil How you life your life: With passion, even if your odd passions (like bottle caps and pigeons) are baffling to others

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

...Yup, I'm Bert. Smart-ass, easily bored by most conversations, my roommate will testify that I'm pretty neat (well in the shared space anyways. My room's...lawfully messy), pretty evil (he actually tried to show off to his wife how fun it was to wave his hand in front of me like teasing a cat. I swatted it alright, into his head, broke his nail, and left some scratches on his hand. And then he complained that I didn't hit like a girl. Dude, there is a reason why I liked spike serving when playing volleyball). And I definitely have my odd passions *cough* Pokemon, KOF, Angelique, seiyuu *cough* I did always feel sorry for Bert, I liked Ernie but I definitely shared his frustration when Ernie was being annoying. I was wondering if I would get Snuffleupagus. Funny, T and I were talking about Sesame Street today too, and how kids won't appreciate it.

Problems w/ Calendars already

Nothing like having a dozen calendars for 1 year. Have a couple from the charities I donate too, some from charities that want my donations, a Mouth/Foot Painters one, one produced by the Milk Council (turned into my work schedule calendar b/c it fits into my bag and I don't care what happens to it), and one from Shojo Beat.

Last year's Shojo Beat calendar was nice. It was pretty desk calendar, displayed 2 months at once and had a nice pic of the various titles appearing that year. It was a little wonky on how the week started (which would always throw me off), but it worked well on top of my computer tower. But this year's calendar sucks. It's the standard wall hanging calendar. Now I understand that the wall hanging calendar's probably easier to produce since you just need to staple in the middle, instead of having the cuts exact so it stands correctly, folding to make a slip, and having little slips of paper inside, but it doesn't fit on my computer! I can't pin a calendar to my computer! And yes, that's about the only place that has room that I can regularly look at. So I've taken to modifying the new calendar. To fit into the old calendar sleeve. It's a bit of snipping, and looks a little off b/c things aren't centered. But dang it, I've made it work.

Incidentally, their "Beat Girl" is hideous. She's on the November/December month and I seriously thought they chose it b/c they had some contest and that was the winning entry. Then I looked thru Shojo Beat, and they actually commissioned a published manga-ka to draw it. I'm sorry, but that's a horrible representation of the readers. For one thing, most of us don't look like frogs. Wide thin-lipped mouth, tiny little nostrils w/ no evidence of a bridge, huge bulging eyes...it's just horrible. Clothes are okay, I'll give her that, but seriously. Ugh! I can and have drawn better. I have many friends who draw better than that. I'm hoping that she's a great writer b/c I wouldn't publish her art.

Urgh, Xmas isn't about reciprocity

Today was very much a "chicken w/ its head cut off" day. I forgot my Xmas cards @ home, so I had to run back in the middle of my shift to get them. And then I forgot to bring T's present to H back w/ me. And I forgot T's card @ home b/c I was up until 5am working on it, and didn't put it w/ my stack of cards. And it was superwarm in the afternoon, so I didn't need both my jackets, so I could have brought one home when I headed back. On the other hand, it was really windy and cold when my shift was over, so maybe that wasn't so bad. And then when I was fussing over people being on vacation so I couldn't give them their cards, JR says, "well just put them in their folder." So instead of thinking of the folders that we drop off our timecard changes into, I thought of the private folders and was all confused. Yup, JR and John laughed @ me. But I've only gotten 1 card and that was from JR. X( Although b/c I did calligraphy (w/ the real metal nib and pot of ink), Tanya kept the envelope too, and Kristen remembered my card from last year b/c I use calligraphy.

And waited waaaay too long to pick up tickets for Videogames Live, so the seats aren't so great according to the online Ticketmaster site. I'm going to have to go to an outlet to see if there's something better. And I have to talk to my bank so they don't "re-invest" my GIC. Only earned $22 bucks on $1000. That's not even prime!!

And have been trying to check out the flyers for the Boxing Day sales. No one's put anything up so far, so I'll probably have to buy the next few days paper to get the flyers and stuff. Argh! I want to get a Nintendo DS Lite. I don't need it. But I want it. I wanna play my Pokemon and try out Nintedogs. They recently had Pokemon Ranger vs. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon on Review on the Run, and they complained about the graphics, sound...well pretty much everything. And yeah, the graphics and sound could've been updated, but there's still a nostalgia factor. Not to mention since the DS is multi-regional, the Pokemon have different names in other languages. But I wouldn't mind seeing my Bulbasaur(Fushigidane)in 3D. Heh, we had a Secret Santa for the SLR potluck, and the girl who got me asked Kristen what I liked, and Kristen's like..."uh, Pokemon, stuff from Warp". She must've thought I was totally wierd. ^_^

A pretty good day

Was changing my beta fish Akao's water, and usually what I do is pour as much as I can of the old water in to the margarine container and the retrieve him w/ the net. However when I poured this time, he actually jumped from the jar into the container!!! I was so shocked and happy. He can now jump just over 1 cm out from the water surface to graze my finger. What a good boy!

Anyways, my bud H came back from Hicksville, and we had a really good time. H can tell stories like only H can. Ah do declare that H is trying to set me up w/ anyone. Even mentioned that I should go out w/ D's brother b/c I like videogames and anime like he does. After we had welcome back party (which unfortunately lots of people didn't show), H said I should go out w/ either or both TT and S and do them both. Anyways H has a much higher libido than I do (her partners go into double digits, and that's after she was married), so I don't take it too seriously.

However the bummer of the day was that H told me and T about something and it was something bad. And it made us really disappointed in her b/c she knows better but she still did it anyways.

But onto nicer things. I was telling H and D that I didn't care about working Xmas eve or Xmas day b/c my family does nothing, even when I was living w/ them. So they invited me to their families' Xmas celebrations. However I've done that before, and it feels kinda awkward. Sorta like charity. Which is of course what Xmas is about. Well I have yet to see if I work that day. But I am definitely getting Boxing Day off. No ifs ands or buts. Must have it off!

And when I was @ Warp1 I successfully read a Japanese title using kanji and hiragana. It turned out to be Hana Yori Dango. Which means that I'm almost finished Gr. 1 for Japanese kanji. Yep, I'm almost ready to graduate from Gr. 1. Which isn't too bad I suppose, since I've been learning it in between calls at work, and it's been about...3 months. Still have to learn grammar, which I guess means I still don't know the language according to linguistics. Kinda hard to learn grammar when I listen to mostly songs...and that's poetry. Need a script of some anime. And I guess to actually go over all those language books I've photocopied and language CDs. Heh.

It was fun up until the end....

Got to see my neices today. Yaaaaahhhh! I guess that blue moon has come by again. It was my brother's office party, so we went as guests. Got to colour w/ the twins, and I saved the colouring b/c we all did it. Got them to sign it too.

Then they came over to the house to decorate the tree. We haven't had new ornaments since...well I made the paper ones out of the wrapping paper samples so since they complained about the lack of ornaments, compared to the other tree they got to decorate, my bro went to pick some more up. And in the meantime we developed a new game. My brother has one of those balls that's covered w/ suction cups, so we were kicking it around on the linoleum floor. Definitely helps w/ foot coordination. Jada called it "stoccer". And then we had a few rounds of leprachaun. I had to help my brother plug in all the tree lights (wasn't very observant). And the twins wanted to play Monopoly but when I made them do the math for change (I was banker of course!), they wouldn't buy property unless they had the exact amount and didn't have to do any subtraction. So sad.

Anyways, I'd brought a huge whack of bags of presents (yeah for gift bags!), and I'd also bought them Disney's Robin Hood b/c we loved it when we were kids. Well I don't know who's idea it was to open it right away when they got home, but we got a call shortly after that they wanted Disney's Little Mermaid instead. And then my sister-in-law came on too, and said that they didn't want some other DVD (which I'd gotten them ages ago, but b/c they sometimes don't come over when they're supposed to, there's serious delay on giving them the presents). Yeah, so I got the DVD back. So the debate is, to cave in and get them what they want and spoil them and set the expectation that they can ask for whatever they want? Or to just take it back (or just keep it b/c it does have an alternate ending) and not give them anything. Not like they'd probably remember anyways. Or as my bro suggested and burn a copy of Little Mermaid for them, maybe the Chinese version b/c I saw it at my Gran's place when I was there. But seriously I think that sis-in-law encourages them to misbehave towards us. Probably spits on whatever we give her. And whenever she wants the kids to go home (usually like 2 hrs after they arrive), she'll talk to the older one and harangue her into coming home. She talks loud enough I can hear her tone. Yeah, and I got her another f*ing HBC $40 gift card. I'm tempted to give her the $5 minimum, but gotta keep it civil.

Anyways, got a new 17" monitor from the trip. Well not really new. It was made in 2000, and was my brother's old monitor that he doesn't use much anymore b/c he has a laptop. But it's still newer than my old 14" one(which was also a hand-me-down) which was made in...*runs to look* 1996. And worked pretty good still too! Too bad my roommate also has a monitor for his 2ndary computer. Which may never be used b/c he still hasn't fixed his computer and is still using his sister's laptop.

Anyways b/c the monitor is so much bigger (and is much harder to carry when you're stuffed full), I have to rearrange my figures on my monitor, and my danglies from the shelf above where my monitor sits. Yep, really getting to it.

My spirits have been sufficiently trampled

So I'm on the phones today. As usual. And my Team Leader comes up to me w/ a list for a team potluck next week, and he's like "We'll try not to miss you for this meeting." He's a nice guy so I don't take it any other way, like oh say "we want more people to bring food". Anyways, after much thought, and the possibility of a SLR potluck in December also, I decided to put down the easiest thing, which is soya chicken, which is currently in the freezer. It's a whole unchopped chicken, so they won't be able to tell. Not that I think it'll matter for authenticity. Anyways b/c I'm on the phone, I can't run over to give it to him. So one of the Operation Managers walked by, so I go to him in a joking manner, "Hey, can you deliver this for me?" He gives me this look and keeps walking past. So like whatever, I got a wandering Team Leader to give it to my Team Leader.

Later on, another Team Leader comes up to me w/ an envelope and then quickly backs off. I open it up, and there's a PFO letter. In other words "Please F*ck Off". As in a rejection letter for a position I'd applied for. Completely qualified for, but didn't even get an interview. The position went to a bunch of Team Leaders. While my pride is slightly assuaged by the fact that no regular reps got it, it seems w/ the turnaround time between the posting and announcing of who got the position(less than a week), that it was a load of horsesh!t for any kind of competition. And the other thing that pisses me off is that another TL came up to me in the washroom and said that previously mentioned OM was looking for me earlier. Well he was the same OM who signed off on the PFO letter, and certainly didn't approach me later when he knew where I was sitting. So basically the coward handed off his bag of dog poo to someone else to deliver. Knowing that I wouldn't shoot the messanger.

So basically I've been telling everyone about my PFO letter. I was talking to another TL (who came up from Floor Support level) about it, and he's like "it's probably b/c they didn't want to pay an extra person a salaried wage, so you should apply to be a Team Leader." So I tell him that I didn't bother to apply for the last opening b/c my spirits have been sufficiently trampled by the managment there. And he agreed that there's a lot of spirit trampling there but that I'd make a good Team Leader. Which I appreciate, but man, I'd rather be on the phones for the simple reason that I can study my Japanese characters and chat w/ my friends.

Read this article on Japan Today. I highly doubt a scam like that could work in North America or Europe. Quite frankly most of us have so many fake email accounts that we'd just switch to another one and abandon the one that got the threatening email. Or we'd call the cops or get an attorney. I think the Americans would go the attorney route easily. You don't wanna know how many times the caller's told me that they're going to get a lawyer. And maybe 0.000001% of them have any possible case for legal action. The rest are blowing smoke, or that their case is that they were too mentally incompetent to have understood the T&C they agreed to. Guy today was screaming at me saying that Cingular had put a product into his computer w/o his permission and he was gracious enough to agree to an ETF for $125 when he didn't want to use the wireless internet anymore. When I told him that the ETF is $175 and he misheard the other rep and that's what's stated in the T&C, he freaked. Apparently he also doesn't understand that he didn't need to buy the computer w/ a wireless card and svc offered by Cingular. He also didn't seem to understand or want to understand the analogy that it's just like buying a TV w/ the package that offers satellite TV. Well whatever. His own fault for not reading the paperwork. That's usually what most of the customers are, just won't admit to their own screwups and take responsibility for them.