CafeChatNoir

There seems to be a question as to whether or not hockey will be broadcast this evening due to some silly political speech.

So… Should I find myself having to watch some talking head instead of several well built gentleman pounding the crap out of each other on the ice - what is the SOTU drinking game for this year?

StrongBad’s Intro to Technology…

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail143.html

(Is it wrong that I immediately noticed that the 5.25 disk had the write protect notch on it?)

Last summer, I switched from the 8 to 5 shift to the 11 to 8 shift for various reasons. It’s really not a bad shift, especially if it’s one you want, and like most things in life, if it’s forced on you, it sucks.

I got nicely adjusted to it. I was doing well at it. Of course, this means there is no way in hell that can continue. This would be when boss’ boss gave away my shift to someone else for every other week. Thanks. Thanks a BUNCH. So, then it’s 9 to 6 one week, 11 to 8 the other week and 9 to 6 on Fridays, unless I’m on beeper which it’s then 11 to 6, or Mercury is in retrograde in which case I just show up whenever I damn want to.

Now, the thing is, the person she gave half my shift to is front line. Not bad front line by any means, but front line nonetheless. We don’t usually put anyone on 11-8 who is front line because the last hour of the day it’s all you and no one else. You need to have someone that can handle whatever gets thrown at them. But hey, management does what it wants.

So, fast forward to today. I’m on 9 to 6 this week. I should be getting ready to leave to go to the gym right now. However, my phone rang at 8PM and it’s my coworker… Massive OMGWTFBBQ URGENT call, she doesn’t know what to do… I give her a few pointers, check in w/her a little later, the client has been a complete ass and now isn’t bothering to answer his phone. That just speaks volumes to me as to the “urgency” of all this, and yet I am here trying to chase this jackass down so we can put the smackdown on this crap once and for all.

I’ve dealt with this client before. They’re notorious for this - call at 7 something with some URGENT issue and then just drop off the face of the damn earth and tomorrow they’ll bitch that it’s not been fixed yet.

And you know what? You shouldn’t be waiting until January 30th to print your W2s to begin with, and you most certainly shouldn’t wait until 7:15 to call if there is a problem with it.

Thing is - it’s not like I am on call for front line or anything like that - she’s just really lucky I heard the phone ring and picked it up. Were it tomorrow night? I think not since my ass would be watching hockey and I get crap cell reception at Glory Days. Thank god for small favors.

Edit: For the record, I am not at all mad at her for calling - that was a smart move on her part. But she shouldn’t be in a position to have to do that in the first place.

Seems some client got hostile and started yelling at one of the newbies who proceeded to say, “I don’t get paid enough to get yelled at!” and hung up.

I had one guy go apeshit on me once, I didn’t even have the presence of mind to hang up - I was just too dumbfounded listening to this idiot going off and thinking “My God, you are such a loser…”

Realizing that you are not the only one who has put the phone on Do Not Disturb in order to get any work done.

Knowing you’re not the only one beating your head into the wall.

Counting your blessings that you have no family or children depending on you should this all go to hell in a handbasket, nor do your friends give a rat’s ass what you do or don’t do for a living.

Realizing that you’re doing them a favor by sticking around, it’s not like they’re “allowing you to stay”…

The knowledge that yes, if you decide to drop out of the rat race, you can. And you won’t starve.

But apparently the reason I can’t get my brain engaged this morning is explained by my horoscope:

You’re a little overwhelmed by your own brilliance as the day begins, but that’s just the price of having all the answers. You won’t lose any of your smarts later in the day, but you will get more focused and energetic.

*snort*

I’m hoping this week is slightly calmer on the work front…

I am so writing a letter to Matthew Bogdanos after I finish this book.

I still read them… And just happened to find this one fascinating today:

An urge to live authentically won’t be ignored. It’s time to put your money where your mouth is and pay attention to what matters. Stick to your guns and listen to your instincts, even if it means leaving a situation.

But a very good weekend for downtime so far.

Got my 10 miles in last night after work (as I told my coworkers, “I am going to go run off 10 miles worth of bitch now.” Managed to get over to Glory Days afterwards and get in a couple beers with the boys, caught up with Beezer, which was a stroke of luck since he’s pretty scarce with classes back in session.

Spent an obscene amount of time sleeping today. Classwork, laundry, oil change, laundry, grocery shopping, laundry, and gym tomorrow… (And more laundry.)

will be joining the ranks of the blissfully unemployed in two weeks, and the to-do list for him has been growing exponentially. :) It’s gonna be nice to have an extra set of hands around that doesn’t have a 40+ hour work week wasting all kinds of time.

I am still recovering from this hell week - no partying for this girl tonight, more sleep ahead… Mmmmm…sleep.

Look, you’re in a bar, yes, you’re probably going to try to pickup some chick, fine, whatever.

HOWEVER - If you spot a girl INTENTLY watching a hockey game, to the point where she is cussing a blue streak and questioning whether or not the parents of certain players (and refs) were married at the point of conception - do not, I repeat, do NOT speak to her about ANYTHING but said hockey game, because otherwise you’re just going to get the evil eye and get ignored.

And that is your PSA for today.

(And dammit, the Caps lost again.)

Edit: This is why Beezer was able to get the time of day out of me… He started with “Um, so, who are you pulling for?” “Penguins” (It was Penguins v. Flyers and I’d had a SHIT day and any hockey was better than none.) “If they lose, are you going to kick my ass?” (He’s a Flyers fan…)

The signoff from an email from the Marine needing assistance with his computer…

The guy who should be you for this,

I don’t know why, but it made me smile. It’s not often I can outdo a Marine on something. :-D

That and he’s been infinitely more gracious than any of my clients with the help I’ve provided so far w/his. I’ve offered to just take the machine while he goes off to Texas for training next week - that may be his best hope…

It’s been the kind of week that shows that making plans for what’s next isn’t such a bad idea. (Not that I had any illusions of doing this forever anyway, but you know what I mean.)

I feel really bad for our new manager - she’s terrific and we adore her and she wants to fix things, but things just aren’t really fixable. We’ve got 10 people in our group, and 6 of them have never been through a busy season, and 3 of those haven’t even been here three months. So you’ve got 4 people carrying about 70% of the workload in a 275+ ticket queue. The 4 of us are just done. We can’t make the new people get smarter any faster, we can’t shut down the incoming calls, we can’t send a letter to the clients saying “90% of your calls are not real problems, so please stop”… We’re just kind of stuck right now and all we can do is hope things improve.

I know it sounds very pessimistic, but sadly, it’s just reality. I’ve been the most optimistic of anyone in our group that things would get better and we would get through this, but now I’m just not so sure.

Ah well, we shall see what, if anything, today’s core group conference call with the manager brings. It will likely only be a bitch session and nothing else, which is OK cause at least we get to vent.

Speaking of which, it starts at 11 and I should probably get my ass out of here so I can be on time. As one of my coworkers pointed out, “I know you’re fried, you’ve been late getting in every day this week and that is just not like you at all.” She did readily agree that in times like this, the Starbucks stop on the way in is much, MUCH more important than missing 5 minutes of work. She and I have also decided screw the dress code this week - they can fire us if they want. Yes, the revolt of the peasants has started in it’s own small way.

You know you’re exceptionally tired and distracted when you manage to miss a turn trying to get to work…

Hell, I’m not so sure I’ll be able to find my way home.

Yesterday lived up to being a Monday in pretty much all regards. I like the actual work I do, but the conditions under which we’re doing it have really deteriorated over the past 6 months, basically to the point where I’m spread so thin that I’m no longer effective at what I do. Ecch. Not pretty.

Part of it is busy season, which theoretically is temporary and ends at the end of February. But at this point, I don’t see things slowing down given our recent sales push. (Good for the company, bad for support when you’re understaffed and not fully trained on the new product that is being pushed.) Upper management would like to see things improve, but I don’t see them actually doing anything to assist in that regard.

Plans are in place for the next step in life, but it will take a while, so the questions really are:

– How long do I hang in and see if things actually improve?
– How long can I do it and maintain any level of grace, dignity, or effectiveness?
– Do I actually want to?

Lots to think about.

Well, a good weekend has been fairly well trashed by now, between work and people going out of their way to piss me off. Exceptionally bad idea.

10 miles.

Get the new router setup so I can have a working network again.

Get a copy of Turbo Tax

Quit my job, cause it just interferes with everything else…

I’ve been trying to get hold of my grandmother most of the afternoon and it just goes to her answering machine. I’ve just gotten off the phone with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s office and they’re going to go over and see what’s going on and call me back, but I’m afraid I already know the answer.

Edit: That woman is going to be the death of me. All is fine, and god bless the Maricopa County Sheriff’s department.

Safeway is having yet another “grand reopening” - they seem to do this about every 6 months. This time they seem to have succeeded only in making the store smaller and more crowded. While of course, rearranging everything so you can’t find anything to save your life.

Cause if I could work it at home today, I’d be early, instead I’ll be speeding down the parkway hoping there are no cops.

Argh, hate it when the snooze button doesn’t stop time.

I should probably try and remember where on earth I put the beeper before I go into the office tomorrow…

Did make it to the gym. :) Zero grace or coordination on the treadmill. This is not unusual, but it seemed worse than most go rounds with it. But no matter, just happy to be back in the swing of things.

I miss running outside.

This little email exchange occurred between me & my brother, it started with some general ranting on management and such…

Oh, and we don’t have enough staff on support, or enough training, and yet, we’ve hired 6 of the Washington Redskins cheerleaders for our “pep rally” on Monday.

That’s the shit that infuriates me.

I probably wouldn’t mind so much if I were a lesbian.

You almost killed me. I had a mouth full of cheeseburger when I read that.

I win.

Caps won last night, WOOT! OK, yes, they were playing the St. Louis Blues, who aren’t exactly having the best year, but hey, we needed the win. They’re on a good roll going into the Carolina game tomorrow night. And Carolina is going to be overconfident coming off a 9 game win streak. Yeah, that’s it…overconfident! Good time was had by all watching, though B’s Flyers lost. Sucks to be him, but hell, we won’t get into how many Caps losses we’ve had…

It’s FRIDAY. OK, yeah, I have to work tomorrow, in the office no less, but it should be exceptionally slow, so I can deal.

My Linkin Park CD’s arrived yesterday, have been ripped and are currently getting loaded into my iPod (They have NO Linkin Park on iTunes. So I had to *gasp* BUY the CD’s) Now if Folk Implosion and The Flys would just get here, things will be good. (Yeah, two more not on iTunes…I actually bought the cd singles for Natural One and Got You Where I Want You.)

Never did get out to run yesterday. :( But, will hit the gym tonight once the beeper time is done so it shouldn’t be so gawdawful crowded. Keeping my fingers crossed that Sunday’s weather is decent so I can do my 10 miles outside instead of on the treadmill, but right now it’s only looking to get into the 40s and that’s just not real comfy for me. (I’m a wuss.)

Probably helping my mood is the fact that I don’t have to be on til 11 today so I got some really good sleep too. :-D

OK, time to go rock the house and knock some calls out. Short day on queue…sweet.

Argh, not looking good for getting out to run at lunch. Jeez, it’s the first decent day we’ve had in a while.

Note to self: Get back to regular routine of gym time after 9PM. I don’t know if it’s always that much of a mob scene between 6 and 8 or if it’s just the New Year’s resolution crowd, but jeez.

Oh, , was that you earlier today on IM? (I think it must have been since it is apparently you now on IM)

Seeing stories like this make it much easier to slam the snooze button on the ol’ biological clock: Holly Hunter Delivers Twins She’s 47.

Caps are up against the St. Louis Blues tomorrow evening, and assuming I finish work on time (haven’t managed it yet this week, but who knows…) I’ll be able to see the whole game. Will have to drag Beezer out to play.

Not a bad day at work, my call count is actually going DOWN for a change, which is nice.

I lost my tri partner at work. His job is kinda insane to start with and now they’re sending him overseas at least once a month for a project, usually on about 3 days notice. Tried to reassure him it is OK - life happens.

But seems I don’t have to:

Court: Ovechkin won’t be forced to return to Russia

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two days after scoring the highlight goal of the NHL season, Washington Capitals rookie Alex Ovechkin learned that he will stay in the league.

A judge ruled Wednesday that he cannot be forced to return to Russia to play for his former team, Dynamo Moscow.

I still think the Caps should have multiple bodyguards on him in Turin…