Woke up for breakfast in the morning for once, usually breakfast happens in the afternoon when you work at a call center. But my uncle rolled into town last night and he was here so I made a point of being up to talk to him for a while before he hit the road again. I made my breakfast and then sat and talked to him for a few hours and then he set off for his camp for the day before he went back to Moncton for dinner with my cousin and her husband. Since I had a fair amount of the day left and no plans apart from bowling this evening with some friends and a movie, I played the Ghostbusters game for a while and then fired up the grill for lunch. I cooked a couple of meatless chicken burgers and bbqed some baked ham from last night’s dinner, while I was waiting for them to cook I took the time to take some pictures in the backyard. The lighting was perfect for it, with just the right amount of light and shadow and I was able to get some shots that I was quite fond of. As the day bore on people started dropping out of tonight’s plans, first, the bowling alley was painted the night before so it was closed today. Then Tiff bailed because she had a headache, followed by Olivia who legitimately had her car break down in Hubbards and by the time it was towed to Wileville the last thing she wanted to do was walk back into town to hang out for a few hours and then back again. As per usual Kyle, Justin and I were the three that ended up hanging out and we watched Hot Tub Time Machine, which is far better than I thought it would be and I have to say I quite enjoy it. We then started talking movies and it was discovered that Justin had only seen TMNT II one time and that was a long time ago so he didn’t really remember it. Needless to say we watched that too. Aaaaaaaaand I work tomorrow and also have nothing more to say, so that’s it.

I am not in this world to live up to other people’s expectations, nor do I feel that the world must live up to mine.

-Fritz Perls

In the past few days I’ve been declined for a Nova Scotia student loan because I’m still technically a BC resident, Found out I don’t qualify for a B.C. student loan because I only qualify for two of the three factors, yes I’m a BC resident and yes I’ll be going to school in September but even though there are five NSCC campuses which are designated schools the one I want to go to is not. I’m supposed to be getting a call from the Designation Board to see if I can make this campus designated but the girl on the phone (who was insanely nice and helpful which is odd for loan people, I think its because she’s from Vancouver) let me know that it could take “days. months, years” to get it designated and thats even if they say they’ll look into it to begin with. So I’ve got close to two grand due by the end of August with little hope of a student loan as well as a first aid and a WHIMIS course to take by September. Needless to say that when I first found out and then had to go to work 5-10 minutes afterwards that I was a bit frazzled and didn’t seem to care all that much when some schmuck couldn’t figure out how to read the simple instructions on our website and had not only locked him or herself out of the system, but also needed their hand held in order to make it the whole way through without falling apart at the seams. So, I left an hour and a half into my shift, I had spent the first half hour talking to my supervisor about it and told her I may just need to leave because I felt the need to seek out other options and sitting there, while getting paid, seemed like wasting precious time. If I were to already have had info on student lines of credit that would be one thing because then I could look at them at my leisure, but until I did that I would be trying to find time around my work schedule to go and talk to people and figure everything out. Either way, I went to CIBC and TD, spoke to the lady at CIBC and she let me in on all the details and how it worked and how long it took and everything like that, which eased a lot of “what’s my game plan?” thoughts. TD gave me a card and told me to call and set up an appointment to come and talk, which I probably won’t do because I’ve usually had issue with TD every time I deal with them and besides, I prefer red over green. So that, is why I haven’t been writing, because I needed to get everything set to rights and blogging about it would have only made me realize how unprepared I was and how many avenues I had left to research. But I’m back and will have more fun to write about this evening.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good day.

There’s only a step from the sublime to the ridiculous, but there’s no road leading from the ridiculous to the sublime.

-Lion Feuchtwanger

This marks the second post of little to no information, hang tight loyal viewers, all two of you, day three will not be so lacking. Obviously my lack of blogging means that things are going on and therefore there till be stuff to write about.

Faith is a euphemism for prejudice and religion is a euphemism for superstition

-Paul Keller

This is my response to the day.

Tomorrow will be better. If not, I’ll be reusing the picture.

“Failure is success if we learn from it.”

Malcolm S. Forbes

that is what I fee like.

Completely drained of energy with very little patience left. Today was a very long day at work just for the simple fact that it was the exact same type of call that we’ve been getting non stop since Wednesday. It seems like it should be Sunday of next week rather than this week. Nothing seems to be going forward at all, just this perpetual stand still and everytime I answer the phones at work its Joe Schmoe the computer illiterate half wit who can’t read simple instructions and wants me to sit and baby him through the process. It just sort of feels like every day that I go in to work, nothing I did the day before made any difference because the queue is still chock full of the same situation, the same problem, and it just keeps going.

On the upside, Candice won the draw for OT for Canada Day, which she more than deserved with the amount of work she’s put in, and got a beach towel with monkeys on it as well as a little cooler. She didn’t want the cooler and offered it to me since I worked an entire shift on Canada Day as well, which she didn’t have to do and was very nice of her and made the eve a bit better. At one point I gave a tip o’ the hat to a buddy of mine on the other side of the floor in Dollar General and a girl about half the distance between waved back and me and smiled and completely threw me off, because I didn’t then know how to respond to her wave because it was not her I had meant to say howdy to. Either way she was within talking distance so we yarned for a bit between calls, mostly single serving stuff, but yarned none the less.

You know that you are no longer anonymous and very much noticed on a day to day sort of basis when upwards of three people commented that I wasn’t wearing mis matched chucks today. Reason being is I was running late for work and it was hot and I didn’t want to have to deal with socks so I opted for my sandals. It most certainly did not go unnoticed. Cheryl even reiterated “I cannot believe you aren’t wearing odd shoes, just your laid back sandals.” Now, I’m not sure what makes a sandal laid back, but apparently mine are. But in their defense, they’ve always been fairly mellow, never ones to start anything, they just keep to themselves and just sort of lounge about.

Its about this point in the blog, that I have officially lost interest in writing anymore, so I won’t.

“Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.”

-Tom Stoppard

Working one 12 hour day has prompted me to not work two. Today was a very long day, with not much of a reprieve from the calls that just kept coming in. We’ve been in queue since Wednesday, its getting a tad bit retarded. I was there for a full 12 hours today and I answered like 65 calls, the number SHOULD have been way higher but with customers who needed to have their hands held while they registered, to people who didn’t want to talk to you, just wanted you on the line in case they fucked it up, which they did, to one customer in particular who actually told me “Please be patient with me, I can’t type that fast, I only have one arm.” With that guy I spent the rest of the call telling myself over and over again in my head “do NOT say that you can lend a hand at any point on this call!” I didn’t. But I came close. One woman complimented me on saying thesaurus, saying that she was impressed because she couldn’t even pronounce it, and since it was late and I had worked most of the day I couldn’t figure out what she wouldn’t have been able to pronounce out of what I had just said so my response was “what? Thesaurus?” Clearly I was just showing off at that point. My favorite call of the day had to be this woman who was maybe 5-6 years my senior, she called about her balance and once I told her what she had left owing and about her interest, she got a bit pouty and asked something along the lines of “I’ve always paid on time, I have a good history with your MasterCard, could you maybe waive this charge since I haven’t been late before?” I placed her on hold to see what my plan of attack was, somewhat annoyed that she was trying schoolyard tactics of pouting, so I fought fire with fire. I took a minute, got myself into the same pout she had, leaned forward in my chair as if she were seated right in front of me with a skinned knee attained from doing something she was told not to and expecting sympathy and I took her off hold. I gave her the same spiel I give everyone else about the legitimate interest and paying bills in full on time will stop you from getting charged but I said it all in an equally pout ridden tone, to the point that afterwards she couldn’t quite figure out what to do so she ended up just saying ok and hanging up. Made my evening a little brighter by pulling one over on her with her weapon of choice.

Considering I spent the entire day at work, I have nothing more to say really, I watched two episodes of Criminal Minds and did some chatting with some folk and checked my e-mail. Made a few attempts at taking a picture for tonight’s blog but quickly decided it was not a good idea as a half a day at work makes you unphotogenic.

To those who read on for this long, congratulations you made it to the end, and for those who stopped, your end was further up the page, well done you.

“We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.”

-Tom Stoppard

I sure was productive today, I got up at 1, relocated to the couch only to decide that I was hungry and then went out back to BBQ some non chicken burgers. Once I was done that I returned to base camp at the sofa and watched some more Criminal Minds. I’ve started rewatching the entire series and am now on the second to last disc of season two.

I almost just succeeded at cooking, chatting on msn (yes with you), listening to music AND blogging but it just didn’t quite pan out. I could only do three at a time. When blogging I wasn’t focusing on cooking and vice versa. Which means that my dream of having a blogging and cooking show have been shot to hell. As such I will be doing my best to not talk about it any longer as it hurts far too much, the wounds have yet to heal and further exploration of the topic will merely smear lemon juice into the wounds.

My only venture outside of the house today was when mom bribed me to go to Staples with her by agreeing to a side trip to Walmart, home of the impulse buy. Turns out Staples was far worse for me but mom picked up the tab, she got me a fan that plugs into my laptop, Stoppard, via the USB port and acts as a table of sorts for ol’ Stoppard that props him up and keeps the cool air circulating so he neither overheats nor burns the flesh from my legs. When at Walmart I did rather well at restraining and was quite proud of myself. I did however pick up RUSH: Beyond The Lighted Stage and When You’re Strange; A Film About The Doors and put it on the handy dandy PCMC.

Its odd, the clock says 12:34AM and I have to be at work for 9:30AM yet I’m still up and not tired, writing this nightly tome, listening to Treble Charger tunes from yesteryear. I should be tired because I just finished cooking and a fun filled day of being a layabout but the peepers are still wide open. Think I’m gonna go read some more of Stephen King’s Under The Dome, see what that lot is up to tonight.

Until we meet again noble gentlefolk.

PS I just had a very big scare, while I was in the kitchen I had my computer running off of battery and when I came back in I neglected to plug it in so all of a sudden this little message blipped on my screen and everything went black, I then scrambled to plug in the beast and it was all still black. I figured I had lost everything and that you wouldn’t be getting a blog, but then after staring with baited breath I hit a few random buttons and it started up and asked if I wanted to resume windows. Also as I’m typing I’m noticing this autosaves fairly often so I wouldn’t have lost all that much, either way, crisis averted and enjoy reading what almost wasn’t.

explicit content but couldn’t resist, I still know all the words.

“Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late”

-Felix Frankfurter

From old men who type with either two fingers or one, to others who say “In Like Flynn” everytime they got one step further to finishing their registration it was an interesting day. Especially since it was originally day one of my two days off. I got a call last night from Melanie asking me if I had heard about the OT incentives, apparently you get a $5 giftcard for every hour you work OT and if I were to come in today I would get double time and a half. Its quickly became an offer I couldn’t refuse, I told her that I’d see when the Green Reflectors were playing and take a shift around that but it turned out they were city bound for a BBQ so I worked from noon until 9:45. In that time I took maybe 55 calls, normally it would have been way higher but the website went up yesterday and we haven’t been out of queue since. The calls were fairly long, and rather tedious, the majority of them all having issues registering.  Which would be a lot easier to understand if I hadn’t registered this morning before going to work whilst eating my breakfast and only using one hand to type, even with those roadblocks it still only took me maybe two minutes and that’s including having to go back and put in my Vancouver number. Yet some of these Mensa members managed to take upwards of an hour to get logged in. One guy even finished registering while I was on the phone with him and promptly forgot his password and locked himself out of the account so I had to go and unlock him so he could get it sent to him…again.

Apart from that it was a very uneventful day considering I spent most of my waking hours at work. Denise told me not to dance around her because she thought it weirded her out, so naturally I followed her around dancing behind her and when I was leaving when I was off, Steph asked me to do it again and Denise got right flustered. It was rather enjoyable. As is sleeping, which I think is my next task for the evening, taking a snooze.

Goodnight bloggers and bloggettes.

“The most dangerous of all falsehoods is a slightly distorted truth”

-Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Work once again blew chunks in a projectile manner. How’s that for a visual eh?

As I walked in to work today and looked at the screen to check and see our service level, I was greeted with another number, and less positive number, a number not so politely informing me that we were in fact 200+ in queue. When you see that before you even start your shift all you can do is laugh, and sit with your friends. Because that’s the only way you’re going to get through the shit storm your about to log into. My big problem is I have two groups of friends in my program and they side in opposite parts of the department. We could all sit in the same place but where a few of them sit is riddled with designated seats and regular occupants like a damn minefield. Normally its first come first serve but some people are of the opinion that seniority means something =P

As a wise man once said “A roll is a roll, and a toll is a toll.” So long story short I have had a few sick days in the past week or two and I now have the chance to make up some time by going in tomorrow. I got a call tonight from Mel at work which I figured I would considering we were still 170 in queue when I left and I have two days off to inform me of the incentive. If I go in tomorrow I would get double time and a half plus a $5 gift card for every hour I work and on top of that I will get a ballot for every hour I’m there for some random prizes they’ve got on the platform. I can work 9 hours and 45 minutes tomorrow so I am, gonna work a full shift on what was my weekend because money rules us all whether we like it or not. But its different from my last job, I started out loving it when I worked at a video store, but we got a new manager and she made it all about money and not about the customers or the movies and I ended up having to live to work rather than working to live and this sickness and the necessity to move back here saved me from that place and brought me here, so for the first time in a very long time I’m working to live. Taking OT to pay off my debts and pay for my schooling so I can get somewhere with my life, and accomplish my goals. I feel like I’m in a good place for the first time in a very long time and I have the people I’ve surrounded myself with to thank.

So to those who read this thing, Thank you for helping me out, and to those who don’t…well it doesn’t really matter because you don’t read the damn thing now do ya?

“There’s this brother on Death Row somewhere. He checked in when he was 16. He sat there another 16 years while all the courts and lawyers argued about this and that. And while he waited, he painted a mural on his wall. For all those years, he painted, not letting a soul see what he was up to. Finally, when he was 32 and had spent more life on Death Row than in his mama’s house, all his appeals were exhausted. He was about to die. As he was about to be led out for the final time, he finally unveiled his masterpiece. All there was was six words. “Death is certain. Life is not.” The next day the hacks painted over it. Peace out.”

-Augustus Hill, Oz

Ever have one of those days?

Woke up at 7 to be at work for a stupid staff meeting at 9. Waste of my freaking time. We just went over stupid shit that we still can’t to and workarounds for them which they then updated into the SOPs anyway, which if you ask me…MAKES A STAFF MEETING FUCKING POINTLESS! If you’re going to put something onto a system that you advise everyone to read at the start of every shift why in blue blazes would you make us all come in early, shell out more money, to read us something we were going to read a half an hour later? Good use of funds there folks.

System is still dumber than a bag of uneducated rocks, programmers are great, PCG stayed away, so when all is said and done, just another day at the office. My computer locked me out at one point for about 40 minutes so I just read the stand ups (which seemed rather similar to the info from the staff meeting that morning, morons) and answered some other people’s questions because it turns out I knew more than I thought I did. When it locked me out initially I had to restart the program 3 times, the computer once and then the program another three PLUS switch computers which still didn’t work, so after my 40 minute stint on “computer difficulty” I went on break, came back and it booted up fine. Only problem was I ended up separated from the rest of the folk I was sitting with, at least until Tim came in. I also had one of the newbies sitting with me for a bit. At first I didn’t want anyone to sit with me because I didn’t want them learning how to not do things properly as I figured they could do that on their own. But when he sat down and started listening I found out that I actually knew what the hell I was talking about. Because of having the kid listening in I’m now more confident of my knowledge of the program, or at the very least have convinced myself of that.

Once I finally got out of the pit, I made a mad dash for home and for dinner so I could go hang out with Robyn, I haven’t seen her in a while and she was down from the city until tomorrow. She picked me up and we drove around shooting the breeze for a few hours then went back to her place and myself, her and her fam all hung around and talked for a bit then pops came to get me and now I’m just getting her to choose DVD wallets and the number of the DVD to give her some movies to watch while she’s all gimped up from her fall.

The movies have been chosen, the die has been cast, the blogger is bedding down.

“Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction”

–Antoine de Saint-Exupery