I got a lightsabre! Woot!

Kinda figured this was going to happen. Sylvia got me a lightsabre. One of these but mine is blue like Anakin's from Episode 1. It's super neat. Makes noise. Glows. When you power it up the lights in the blade light up in sequence so it actually looks like the blade is powering up just like in the movie. Very very very cool. It's funny because I had mentioned that I didn't want one because I didn't like it. Truthfully, I said it because I thought it was a very large investment for such a trivial thing. Super truthfully? I'm SOOO happy she got me one. It's been a while since I nurtured my inner Star Wars nerd/geek. Thank you, Love.

She also got me a rather substantial gift card for FS that I'm going to get great use out of. I'm going to wait until all the boxing week sales are over, however, because they won't price match during that period. I want a couple things: a G15 "Gaming" keyboard, a DVD dual layer burner and a few other odds and ends. Maybe some more memory for the rig. Get me up around 2 gigs or so. The keyboard has me a little pissed off. They currently list it at $99.95 but I can get it over at the Yellow Store for $25 bux less. My inner Scot coming out perhaps? Needless to say I want to be able to purchase them at FS but get the better price, hence needing to get the price matching service back in place.

I had 4 days off over the holidays, two of those paid. Yummy. I'm settling in here and starting to enjoy the work a little more now that I don't need to worry so much about making the noobtastic mistakes. Now I just worry about the normal mistakes that everyone seems to make. LOL.

Christmas time and the living is easy

Maybe not so much easy as not difficult. WTF does that mean anyways?

Finished the main 'training' part of our... ummm... training. Now we're on our separate, respective teams and working towards customer service Nirvana. Or something.

Christmas is but three or four days away. Meaning I've spent a few days wandering the local malls and electronics outlets in search of gifts for my loving family. Meaning my wife, mother and step-father. I've always hated Christmas and hated shopping for it. I always begin feeling melancholy about this time of year. Maudlin if you will. Mau-d-lin! Seems like such a depressing time of year. Or perhaps that's just me? Can't be there's so many suicides this time of year. So though I'm not ready to join that group of people in their life-ending activities, it comforts me slightly to know there are others out there feeling as I do. Worse in some cases.

Sly is concerned about her choice in gift for me. She's apparently purchased something that she's not completely convinced is going to make me reach new heights of consumer-based orgasm. It's hard to convince her that whatever it is I'm really, really going to like it. It really IS the thought that counts. Too many of us have forgotten that simple fact. Lost between endless commercial brainwashing on Radio and TV to familial pressures brought to bear because of that same brainwashing. Good god, it could go around in circles forever.

I'm finding less and less joy in my life, in my wife and in everything around me. Time of year? Whatever... I'm a unique snowflake that has no other equal. Fight Club is THE shit. His name was Robert Paulson.

Customer Service is my Life!!!

I live to serve. Honestly. There's nothing more exhilerating than having
you call in about your bill without you having even taken a look at it.
So when I ask if you've read it and you reply that you haven't but it
can't possibly be that big, you can bet you'll receive a cold silence on
my end of the line. Did you learn to read as a child? Is your inability
to do basic math or add up dollar amounts correctly causing you as much
grief in your life as it's causing in mine? I honestly doubt it. But
then again, it doesn't really matter does it? I'm just another face-less
CSR that you've called in to abuse with nary a thought at repercussions,
aren't I?
We're nearing the middle of our 'on the floor training' which is
basically us being thrown to the wolves while still having a couple
knowledgable agents nearby for answering the tough questions. It's nice
to have them nearby because they are quite helpful when it comes to
current situations affecting our work. I've always been hateful towards
companies who insist on getting their employees trained by trainers who
have not done the actual job in aeons. That is not the case here, thank
goodness.
I've been invited to 'do a little parking' tomorrow on one of my days
off. I could use the extra money but I could also use the day off to
myself. I have to pick up Sly's Bday present and pick up something to
celebrate our anniversary, which occurs for the former on Tuesday and
the latter on Sunday. I want to pick up an Ice Cream cake from the Dairy
Queen with Belle from Beauty and the Beast decorating the top. She loves
that story. I sometimes wonder if it's her love of the movie that
allowed her to marry a beast such as myself.

Another day, another test

Of which I'm not concerned in the least. I was more concerned about the
potluck we are having for lunch than the contents of the final exam. The
80% rule is in effect again and I've a feeling we may lose a couple
prospective Full Time employees this day. Or not. After discussing it
with my co-workers and we simply don't believe that. How could a company
spend close to $3k on training time only to have to fire said trainee?
I worked my last 'parking' shift the other night. Went home after work
yesterday instead of the Jubilee. That was a strange feeling to have all
that spare time available to me. Almost didn't know what to do with
myself.
Sly's work has the whole season of Battlestar Gallactica on the shelves
so I'm working my way through them. So nice to see good, basic Sci-Fi
instead of convoluted crap. I'm so jaded ever since Episode 1 came out
and the whole franchise went to shit. BG is very complex but feels
simple. Therein lies the difference between the feeling of those two
types. All the Star Wars movies (Yes, even episodes IV - VI) are very
simple. There's very little in those movies that are complex at all.
There's no political intrigue, no interesting conflicts between
same-factioned characters and there's sure as Hell no references towards
interactions like sex. SW have always been a very 'child' friendly
series. I suppose that's one of the reasons I enjoyed it as a child.

One Tired Man

That's me. I've had nothing but work for quite some time. No time to play. No time for Sly. No time for anything. Coming to an end on Monday, next of course, and I'm looking forward to it.

I'm a lucid dreamer. Have been my entire life. The definition of a lucid dream is as follows: a dream state in which one is conscious enough to recognize that one is in the dream state and which stays in one's memory. Basically, I am 'awake' enough to make my own decisions within that dream and know that I'm dreaming. Because of this I've only ever had 3 'nightmares' in my life. One of which was last night.

In the dream, Sly and I were over at someone's house visiting and watching videos. I'm not sure our host was anyone that I actually recognized but I think it's irrelevant. The crazy dark-haired girl from The Ring, Samara, came by to kick our asses. Well I didn't take to kindly to that so I started getting indignant, as one is want to do in that sort of situation, and started dishing up a bit of kick ass myself. Or at least the attempt was made and this is where I lost control of my dream.

Samara beat me senseless. Not fair, she's a supernatural being and I but a lowly human. Never the less, laying in a bleeding heap while Samara closed in on my wife was a very, very disconcerting feeling. I felt fear. Honest to god fear. In a location where I've always been in control of my surroundings, my emotions and eventually my fate. This is kind of where the odd stuff comes in.

Laying on the floor I was offered a terrible choice by a voice in my head: watch my wife die a horrible death or allow myself to be 'taken over' by a malignant spirit who would be able to fight Samara but I would be lost in the transaction. By lost I mean that my spirit/soul/inner light, whatever the fuck it is you want to call it would be extinguished, my body then inhabited by whatever bastard spirit was making the offer to me. What a conundrum eh?

Needless to say I made the sacrifice and was forced to watch from behind my own eyes my body kicking the crap out of that little bitch. Samara, of course. However, as the fight concludes I'm left inside my own little prison, trapped in a small corner of my own mind while the evil creature with who I've made the trade laughs incessantly and goes about his merry way.

It's at that point where I actually wake up and look around the room, scared. Really scared. I scanned the shadows of our room for ghosts and when my mind couldn't register any I tried to fall back asleep. But I couldn't do it. I simply couldn't get the feeling of fear out of my mind and couldn't sleep. I tried several times but kept seeing the same evil countenance smiling back from my closed eye lids. That really freaked me out.

I told Sly about the dream this morning and she said I woke her several times twitching in my sleep. Gee, I wonder why.

Someone who believes more in dream analysis might say I'm concerned about events in my life that are stripping away my ability to make choices for myself. Or something.

Graphics Cards: Price Vs Performance

Great article comparing a list of video cards by performance and price. Great for someone such as myself looking to upgrade my video card in the near future. The have one similar for processors that I might post as well.

Poke me and prod me: you'll not get what you seek

I've always been very interested in the way corporations test their 'new hires'. Though I speak from a thoroughly arrogant view point (obviously) it always seems that they are more interested in ensuring you can regurgitate memorized fact as opposed to teaching us how to think critically in respect to our on-going contact with our customers.

In the past 3 years in my 'corporate' life, I've not been impressed with the testing program. Now this is where the arrogance comes in. I knew you were expecting this.

I always do very, very well on what these corps try to pass off as 'testing'. Normally a multiple choice exam with absolutely absurd options for the three 'wrong' answers and the correct answer standing out on the page like it's circled in red. I always know I'm going to do well on these but the surprising thing is that there are people who invariably fall below the 80% threshold that indicates a pass.

It's quite obvious that the interview process invests more time in discovering if a person is malleable enough to be brainwash…. Errr I mean 'molded' into the correct corporate shape that said corporation is looking for and not enough on brain-power. Quite surprising really since we're told that if we fail a quiz, below the 80% mark, we get one re-write. If we fail the second, apparently that's the end of our Rogers career.

I must be one smart sumbitch. ;-)

Another day....

… another couple of dollars. If you think about it hard enough, we spend an average of 1/3 of our lives at work. This is rough math but you get my meaning. Imagine, if you will, being completely unhappy for 1/3 of your measurable life. I think I'm depressed.
Or getting there. Quickly.

It's pretty pathetic when a man is happier standing in front of a parking lot, directing traffic and making 50% LESS in wages than he is working his day job. My wife, Sly, doesn't understand that. Or she does but she's throwing the fact that I suggested her staying at Telus Operator services, which she absolutely HATED, while also working at Rogers Video. I do not ignore the irony in that statement considering I am no working for Rogers as well, regardless of being in a different part of the company. So, no, I do not ignore the irony.

I really enjoy being sent a paycheck from one job or the other each Friday. Who wouldn't want to get paid like that? The surplus is coming back from our trip so we'll have a good Xmas (and I'll be Sly will have a good birthday too).

Power!!!

I have the power to post! Wooot!
I've not really utilized the post-via-email interface before. This actually looks like I'm doing work while … I … may… not… be. The elipsis is your friend. No, I mean my friend.

I gain confidence with each call. Oh joy.

Posting from work....

Who would have thought that posting from work would be so fun.
I got the honor of doing a call with my manager today. Seems like a good manager as she had all the right answers at all the right times and was able to explain it to me quite quickly.

I've been feeling quite low over the past two days. Sly gave me the news about the Shaw position and she really didn't want to tell me. She was worried for my mental well being. I can understand that. I was really upset as illustrated by my previous post and it's excellent use of brevity. I've sped through the 5 steps of loss and arrived, quite abruptly, at acceptance. How much can I mull this over before it becomes a moot point? 48 hours it seems. :rolleyes:

At this point I'm going to do the best I can here while continuing to weigh other avenues. I made the mistake with Telus in thinking it would be a step in the right direction to start a career. That didn't work out so well. I'm not bitter **sarcasm off**

Anyways, back to work.

...

Damn. I didn't get the job. I'm quite upset. Leave me alone.

Ummm Hello? Is this thing on?

Yeah, yeah. I know. NO posts. Nothing at all. Like there's been nothing new in my life for the past couple of weeks. Well.....

I started that job with Rogers Wireless 3 weeks ago. They got us on the phones today and I'm not enjoying it so much. Too reminiscient of my previous employer and their policies. Don't get me wrong: seems like a great place to start work in the CSR industry but since I've been there before, and at a higher pay rate :-( , it holds little interest for me. I'm trying to keep my spirits buoyed by the fact that....

I've not been completely written off as a prospective Shaw employee. I did have another interview, third and final, a few weeks ago and they said I would know, one way or another, by this Friday. I've got my fingers crossed and my hopes aloft. Wow. How deep was that?

Alice Cooper was at the Jubilee on Friday. So were 2500 of his loyal, doped-out fans. God I love working there. No responsibility, get to do a very easy job for very little pay and no one is stressed there. Everyone is relaxed and enjoying their time. Again, that might change as the weather does.

I've lost almost 30 pounds. 30... freaking... pounds since the begining of our trip back in June. I'm trying to keep it off but finding it quite difficult. Maybe I was born to be a lazy, fat bastard? I really do feel lighter. It's not just in my mind since I'm actually lighter but it's nice to be able to run up a flight of stairs without having to lumber that extra 30 pounds up with me.

Mom is considering going under the knife to deal with that artery problem she's got in her leg. I can tell she's frightened, as I would be, but she believes it needs to be done. TBH I'm a bit scared as well. That would be a crappy way to lose a parent. Would prefer something more dramatic involving an attempted robbery, a last second dive in front of a pregnant woman only to receive a bullet to the chest. Not very realistic, maybe, but that's how I'd want her to go out. Enough! She's not going anywhere. She'll be around to torment me well into my 40's. It's my punishment. Love you Mom.

Alright. There's my post for the month. Maybe, just maybe, if I'm feeling creative, energetic and... well shit I don't know. Something other than lazy. I might, just might, type out something of actual interest.

Couple of weeks

Only took that long to get my first comment spam in the message below. I'm quite surprised. I guess I will be turning on the comment spam control in the options of my little blog to try and put a curb on that.

Things continue, as they always do, in a more or less level fashion. I'm still waiting on confirmation of my hire at Shaw but had a call from the hiring manager yesterday confirming information about one of my references. He said he had two sterling silver references but three is better than two. With any luck, this time next week I'll be a Shaw employee! Yay!

On a lighter note, Sly (the wife) has begun taking Ju-jitsu classes. First one was last night. She came home exhausted but upbeat. As well as beaten-up. LOL. I kill me. I'm glad she's found something outside the house to do as I should be the only homebody in this household. ;-)

Speaking of the household, the rains we had over the weekend caused us a bit of pain. Seems the building is 'leaking' and it's caused a rather large section of our living room carpet to become soggy. I borrowed a shop vac from Ken and tried to suck up as much as I could but it was still damp. It's much better today but with rain forecasted later today, I'm worried. It's definitely time to move.

Eve is still rocking. We're moving down to lawless space AKA 0.0 space. Down there anything goes. You don't want to be found alone in a sector without escort or the ability to defend yourself. We plan on doing a whole bunch of mining and just generally building up the corp wallet. Being someone that enjoys the whole 'logistics' side of things I'm really looking forward to it. Only problem is moving all our gack around. Lots of stuff to move and not enough time to do it in. Big surprise.

I've also downloaded a copy of the Anarchy Online client. I've not installed or played it yet but I am very interested to see the in-game ads they've started showing to make the game, by all accounts, free to play each month without subscription fees. Though I hear it's not the greatest I still want to pop in game and have a look at what could be the future in MMORPGs.

Quick one

Passed the test with flying colors (though he did mention my lack of Mac skills were deplorable (I may very well have mis-quoted him there :-) )) and I now have an interview for Tuesday morning. Very much looking forward to it.

Directing traffic isn't in my future, I hope. My hip is bugging me and it's because I'm used to sitting on my ass for 12 hours a day. Maybe directing traffic should be in my future.

I Told You So....

How many posts in the last week? See? Loss of interest. However, couple things to add....

I have a couple of jobs. Yes, I said a couple. They are both part time, they both pay far below what I think I am worth and they, for the most part, completely suck. Even if one sucks less than the other they still both suck. Suck, I say.

One job, which I will attempt to keep anonymous, is basically sitting at a desk for hours on end attempting to call people and have them do a survey. Now, it's not sales. No sales are involved in the operation whatsoever which makes it less deplorable than it could have been. Nevertheless, getting strangers on the phone to discuss how they like a certain brand of toothpaste leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. To add insult to injury they forced me to come in and do an enormously painful training session which was unpaid and utterly retarded. I know how to talk on the phone; is it necessary to discuss the different nuances of how to properly hang up said phone? Christ on a crutch.......

However, two other events took place that same day so I can't call it a complete write-off:

1. The recruiter from Rogers called and confirmed that they wanted me to come in for the next training session available, which was going to be on the 16 of September but was only for a part time position. I explained, politely, that I really only wanted full time and wouldn't be able to take the position. Now here's the kicker: I asked how long it normally took for an excellent part time employee to be offered a full time position? He explained that when you are hired on for part time you stay part time for at least 18 months, maybe 2 years. So after some more explaination he then said the next full time intake was 24th of October. Yes, children, two ... bloody... months. I told him to put my name down and I'd contact him if anything else came up. Good guy, would love to post his name but I'll keep him anon since I don't know him that well.
2. The second event that occured was that Shaw called in regards to their tech support position I had applied for.

Do not judge the importance, or how happy it makes me, of each point by the length of which I explain it. For though the first point does indeed fill me with joy, the second point, the more succint point, the point with but 20 words in it, is indeed what warms me to the very core of my being.

I love Shaw. Loved them for a long time until I started working for their competition (Telus, do a google for it and check out that labor dispute) and they offered me a very good price on 2.5 Mb/s ADSL line. It was then when I changed my inet provider to the Dark Tower.

Aside: I really, really, really like the system Shaw use for their customers when they are calling in to the office. If the wait seems like it might be longer than a customer would care to hold for before reaching a rep, it offers to take their phone number and call them back while still maintaining their position in line. Now why can't the bloody phone company get something like that in place? Oh Right the CRTC. Anyways...

I'm going in to Shaw's offices tomorrow to get some testing done. I guess they want to ensure I know how to turn on a computer and perhaps even what a mouse and keyboard are. I'm confident without being arrogant. My wife says that I'm sometimes arrogant that way. I'm trying to grow as a person so I'll just say I'm confident. And excited. I've heard such good things about working for Shaw it just makes me incredibly happy to think all the mental abuse piled on to me by past companies may indeed heal with time. Time and a discount on Shaw Extreme Speed Cable Internet service. Rate Protection Plan be damned!

Also I have another interview tomorrow. This one is for a Skip Tracer position. I've no experience so I'm not sure how it will go. I'm up to the task of learning though so that's something else positive to add to my 'I was a good little boy in a past life and that's why this is happening to me' karma bucket. Yay me!

Oh. And gas is currently 1.14 CDN per litre last time I checked. Strange but I thought the fact that we pumped that black stuff out of the ground here would save us some pain. Guess I was wrong. Ahhh the good old days of 35 cents a litre.

It gets even better.....

Google allows you the option of blocking sites that you choose. I've done so several times so far but NEW bloody urls keep popping up for buying and selling MMORPG virtual goods. Let's keep track of how long I need to do this in order to have them all cleared out. PITA.

Ok now I'm just a bit pissed

So I throw up a few small, random ads on the main page here courtesy of Google Ads. What's starts showing up? Websites that you can buy and sell the EVE in-game currency, something that I'm against. I just don't think it should be done. Why should someone be allowed to spend real money to quickly purchase a virtual commodity for use in a game when it's not even a customer's to sell in the first place.

I may follow up on this but at this point I'm just trying to figure out how to get those particular ads not to show up.

(EVE) War is Hell!

EVE, for those of you not up to date on the subject, is an online MMORPG. You get onto a server and get to interact, in good and bad ways, with thousands of other people playing the same game you are. This leads to some really great social interaction. If, of course, you can call sitting in front of your computer chatting madly with other people sitting in front of their computers as a social activity. I prefer to call it as much so let me continue.

I renewed my subscription today, using Paypal (great service!), I logged in and dispensed a hearty 'Hello!' to all the Corporation (think Guild and you've got the right idea) members on this morning. My greeting was returned by telling me that we were at war and to watch my back as I flew through the different sectors. Reason for this is that when you are at war any member of the opposing Corporation can take a shot at you anytime anywhere. When not at war, you have to abide by many rules about who you can shoot at. In all the time I've played Eve I've not had to deal with one pirate or smacktard PvP'er because of those rules.

I've never been big on PvP, Player versus Player, combat. Too many dicks out there with too much time on their hands. They spend all day getting far better than me at PvP and when they put their crosshairs on you, it's a done deal.

The reason I spent the past three paragraphs describing some of EVE's combat system with you is because I spent the better part of three hours blockaded inside a station. Three.... fucking.... hours. I was leaving the station and was immediately fired on by a few of the opposing Corp's members. Fearing destruction in my hauler that had NO guns on it, I immediately docked back at the station and the waiting began.

They all stayed in the same sector as me and, I suppose, wanted me to come out and supply them with an easy target. At this point I would have been the only target for them as my Corporation is almost exclusively UK based. As a result I am almost always alone between 8 - 12 PM MST. That's what makes this whole war thing so difficult. I don't have anyone to call on if I need an assist.

Bottome line (literally and figuratively) is that being part of this Corp at this point in time is just very dangerous, frustrating and I don't know how long I'll be able to do it. :-(

Douglas Adams Tribute

Was flying through a system tonight and saw this:


You might have to blow it up a bit but in the stars there you'll see the answer to the question. Which question, you ask? Start here. ;-)

Computational Emergency!!!!

Well I had what can only be described as a freak out moment earlier today. It's been hot here past couple days. Damn hot. But at least it's a dry heat. Ba-da-Bump.

So on a lark, I pull up a copy of Sisoft Sandra diagnostic software. Do a quick run on the MoBo and notice a lovely red exclamation mark in the report it supplied to me. Apparently, it was saying, my current CPU temperature was sitting around the 90 degrees Celsius mark and max operating temp for my Barton is 95 degrees. As you can imagine the alarm displayed on the screen was dwarfed by that which sprung into my mind at the thought of melting silicon.

Power down the computer and crack the case. Sure enough an inspection of the case reveals a few resident dust bunnies that simply did not want to vacate the premises. It also seemed that they were incubating progeny within the CPU heatsink fan.

After removing the HS and disassembling the fan to clean it out I'm now hovering around 63 degrees fully loaded and I know this thanks to a great little program called Mother Board Monitor. Grab a copy here and try it out for yourself!

Word to the wise: check your fans more than once a year especially when you are relying on air cooling!

Going all out... Google Style!!!

So I'm using Blogger (obviously. Duh!) to create a blog. I'm using Picasa to categorize my digitial photos. I'm using Hello! to upload the images directly to Blogger. And now I've signed up for AdSense from Google to try and make a few pennies off of this endevour. Will it pay off? Only time will tell.

Meanwhile, here's a picture of Sly (the wife) and I during our honeymoon to Europe this past summer. Yes, that's my hair. No, I don't need a haircut. Yes, maybe I need a haircut but NO I won't get one.

Me on a train, winding our way through Hungary.
Posted by Picasa

I'm sorry.... Back again

I must say I'm very impressed with the interface used to create and post these to my blog. Quite reminiscent of Radio or Movable Type, both products that I've dabbled with before. The whole 'browser as interface' just rocks!

I'll probably, if I follow past behaviours at all, post a whole whack-load of stuff over the next couple of days only to drop the blog entirely at some point in the near future. Funny thing about this service is that if I don't outright delete the blog, it will be here for Internet Eternity.

Back to EVE!

I am a God. Not THE God, but a God

First post! WTFOMGBBQ!!!

Oh wait, this isn't a gaming forum so I don't need to do that. In fact, perhaps this is a gaming forum? Most of what I seem to be doing in my spare time is, indeed, gaming. Hell, I've got some EVE-Online playing in the background as I type this. Ooops, I used the 'H' word. I'm going to Hell. In the timeless words of brain surgeon Britney Spears, Oops I did it again.

I'm not sure why I started this blog, on blogger no less. I had one previously hosted at my own domain but found myself writing for an imagined audience as opposed to writing for myself. I enjoyed putting together the pieces that I did, one in particular comes to mind, but most of the time it felt more like work instead of something enjoyable.

I like writing. I manage to blather on at times though, the words pouring from my fingers as they fly over the keyboard. Let me cut to the chase.

The only reason I'm here, at all, tonight is because of a story on /. about how Google is reacting to Splogs. So to test this, I wanted to jump on here build up a few posts and see if I too could become a target of comment spam and the occassional link to a crap blog. Woot! (That's what the kids are saying today)

So come back once in a while and let's see what we can see. I need to get back to EVE. Seems I've been contracted to go kill off some bad guys. Glee!!!!