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. ;-)