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.

I'm really not scared of doctors...I'm just too lazy

So my stomach/guts have been killing me for the last 3 days. I went to work on Tuesday, and got my duties changed so I'd just be typing on the computer instead of walking around. Then I've been home for the last 2 days b/c I've only managed to get maybe 3hrs of straight sleep (I've been passing out and waking back up before the snooze on my clock-radio runs out), and stuck in bed constantly b/c it hurt too much to move. Amazing how important the stomach muscles are to movement. I hadn't been able to eat much either. Today, it was a little better but I was still tired, and I'm making a lot of typos (most I've been able to catch. A lot of homonym or similar spelling errors, and just wierd ones). I was able to eat the same volume that I usually eat at least. I was thinking of going to work, but it's like, eh no. If I go to work, I'm going to be totally sick on Friday which is my day off, and that's when I finally get to see my family so screw it. Which was really a good decision. Today I was able to do laundry, but the prospect of doing 3 days of dishes was too daunting, so whatever could went into the dishwasher. Managed to sorta sort out my tax stuff. But my stomach is still aching really bad at times, and I'm still having the fits of sleep.

On the positive note, I finally got my package w/ my DS lite accessories. My DS is pretty tripped out w/ Pokemon stuff. Now I just need a bag to carry everything. Funny thing is that I was about to write an email to the company asking where my stuff was b/c it'd been over a month even w/ overseas pkg delivery. Then I go to grab my paper and there's a delivery notice under the door, so before I started writing, I changed (I've seriously been in my pjs for the last 2 days) and headed down to the office. Apparently the mailperson had just been dropping the pkgs off but not leaving notice w/ the tenants, so the manager got sick of having a ton of boxes in her office and printed out a delivery form to everyone. Technically I can now carry my DS lite w/ me on the bus b/c I have earphones (I can't wear the earbuds b/c they pop out of my too small ears), a protective plastic-silicone case that surrounds the DS, connector caps to keep out dust during travel and cases for my games. But I'm still one of those types who needs a bag to hold all the accessories.

I'd been playing a lot of Animal Crossing these past 2 days. Mostly b/c when I get home to play, all the stores are closing, so I can't sell my oranges/fish. Or shoot down presents and hunt bugs. Yeah, I'm onto paying off my 2nd mortgage. I'm actually so good at arranging and utilizing space that I've gotten the message that if I put any more stuff in the room the floor will give out. And I'm still able to move all around my house. Yeah, I rock. So far I've picked up some cool stuff like the Lucky Cat (I think Nan gave that to me) and telescope (found in recycling bin). Managed to dig up another ammonite, so that's in the house. Apparently I'm also most like Pelly. I've yet to connect to WiFi, so I'm not sure what awaits. Annoyingly, the Nintendo website does not like Firefox. I've had to open it in IE.

D will be back on Saturday. *sigh* While it's good to know that if something major happens in the apartment there'll be someone else to help drag all my crap out, it means no more leaving my my dirty sorted laundry in the living room. I guess I'll also have to semi tidy-up the stack of newspapers I have strewn on the bench. Yeah, and no leaving my bras out to dry on the rack. D and H aren't sure if H will renew her contract. But if she does, D will move out which means I'll need a new roommate. B/c I'm not very partial to spending 50% of my monthly income on rent alone. Although that'll put me more in line w/ what my fellow co-workers seem to do: live hand-to-mouth. Prob w/ a new roommate is that unless it's someone who you know and trust, you're constantly guarding against theft, conflict and deadbeatedness. Never had an argument w/ D, mostly b/c I was much better at keeping track of bills and food, and tended to be very logical on decisions, never pried too much, and kept to myself. Other than T (which would be awkward b/c of his gf), there's not really anyone else who I could probably easily room w/. Of course he likes living by himself (likes to roam in underwear, which I'll have to also stop doing once D comes back) so...*sigh*

Anyways, time to go to take a shower, go to bed, and hopefully get some real sleep. My dreams have lately been of Animal Crossing. ^_^ That is no indication that it might be time to lessen my playing.

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.