It is not often that I complain about Facebook, er, OK I actually complain all the time but rarely write about how annoying that site can be because if I did it would quickly turn into a book instead of this sweet, humble blog. The last time I did so was several months ago about the "Boobquake Idiocy." (It's a good post, click the link and read it too.)
The most recent derangement is a fun (assume I wrote fun sarcastically because, um, that is exactly what I did) little game where you email a person with a number and then that person will post an anonymous comment about what they really think about you using the number as an identifier as opposed to something clear, such as an actual name. On the surface, it sounds about as much childish pointlessness as passing a note saying "check this box if you like me, or check this box if you want to rip my guts out with a rusty spork." Then the reality of the game sets in and we start to see where it all goes wrong (even without a rusty spork).
First off, this game can be fun if you are in that same category of people that passed the above-mentioned notes. For the rest of us it is the same as listening to one of our friends chat away on their phone, only being able to catch one side of the conversation. Granted that you have to expect to get stuck reading some of that kind of posting from time to time, but now with this game going on I have to scroll through at least a couple pages of posting in order to maybe (maybe maybe maybe) catch a post that I actually want to read (and those are always hit or miss on a normal day). Might as well call it McFacebook because most of what it is feeding me is worthless fattening fluff with no nutritional value. Sure, some of the juicier bites might taste good but it is only putting unhealthy weight onto your karma and turning your mind into a lethargic lump.
Second, if we assess the game within it's own value system and pretend that it is a valuable and productive pastime, it still breaks down even within it's own rules. The main point of it is that you can receive either validation or refutation about your character anonymously, yet still in a public forum to give it a sort of voyeuristic quality. However (always seems to be a however) the majority of the posts I have seen (and I have seen way too many) have also been "liked." So out of curiosity to see if my suspicions were correct, the people who "liked" those posts were always different people for each of the postings (the few exceptions I found to that were from people who tend to click "like" for everything that people post and were easy to filter out). However (hmmm, another however can't be a good sign) there are a lesser number of people who actually then comment a reply to these posts. While there is no way to be 100% sure that people are giving up their secret identities by doing such replies, it is a safe bet that a high majority actually are because that is how stupid human nature works. If you happen to be playing this game as the poster of secret comments to numbered people I would love for you to read though your posts and count up the number of people who outed themselves compared to the ones who did not and leave me a comment with the totals (even though we wouldn't be able to be sure that you are not "adjusting" your numbers because you obviously like the game and may want to falsify support for it, or not and give us accurate numbers, but who can say for sure with things being so "anonymous").
Thirdly, for playing such a game on what is supposed to be a social site, it is really more of an anti-social game. While games meant for only 2 people are fun for them, it gets rather boring and tiresome watching people play tic-tac-toe, and even more so when you only get to see one persons side of the game.
Fourthly, I have only seen 2 negative posts out of about 100 in the last 2 days. While this does make sense because most people are not Facebook friends with their enemies, it tends to turn the game into more of a sad cry for validation and it seems that they are receiving just that.
(Afterthoughts)
If you need validation that bad, buy a damn puppy!!! (And I am still giggling about the phrase "McFacebook.")
Showing posts with label Liz smash. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Liz smash. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Repeat... repeat... repeat...
This post is a repeat. That doesn't mean I have written this before but refers instead to something that those who are more tech savvy can only think about with a twitchy eye.
Exactly one week ago, we finally got our internet upgraded out here at my Mom's farm homestead. We were using a usb internet stick from a cell phone company. Now I totally hate those things and did everything I could to talk interested people out of purchasing those when I did my prison time at the AT&T call center (cell phone division, customer service via Alorica), but it was a bit faster than our other option of dial-up (and satellite is too expensive with all the usage restrictions they pile on you). We now have wireless internet, actual wireless internet (not talking about wireless home network) that is kinda like a totally landlocked satellite connection (tower on our house gets a signal from a tower in a town 5 miles away). It's not quite up to what I consider high speed but is still a hella lot better for being dsl's clumsy little brother.
My biggest gripe with it is that I am stuck with a NAT 3 rating when I go online with my PS3 which means online gaming is petty much suckier than a dockside whore. And there is no way to fix it through router reconfiguration cause I have wasted several hours trying. I have not however attempted plugging directly into the system yet since that means moving the PS3 into a different room & I am lazy, but I did attempt wiring directly into one of the wireless routers which theoretically should have given me a NAT 2 rating and still failed to satisfy {insert lame boyfriend joke here}. While disappointing {add a 3rd bad sexual pun} I do have enough toys to keep my happy {enough sucky jokes because 2 is company, 3's a crowd, 4 is too many, & 5's not allowed}.
Now time to address the repetition alluded to earlier. Our internet is piped into the house in a room upstairs. That room is kinda like an entertainment room mostly for my nephews (it's actually my old bedroom) and has directv, a PS2, a Wii, and a computer (tower version). Wiring up the computer to a wireless router (small room, short cable) was simple. Picking up a wireless signal was no trouble for my laptop & PS3 down the hall in my bedroom either. My Mom's computer downstairs is where the trouble began. It is easily within range of the wireless router IF we lived in a more modern (i.e. cheaper built) house. Instead we live in an old farm house built when they made walls by cutting an entire tree into a long rectangle and stacked & mortared them together to make walls before bricking them in to add some polish to the design. While that means that this house will lose its roof several times over before any walls will fall down, it also means that a wireless signal gets kicked in the shin and laughed at for trying to do anything. So the problematic side effect is that I can't get enough of a signal to Mom's computer.
So although I was already using a Belkin N wireless router, there are a few more powerful options that might broadcast stronger, faster, and able to leap multistory building 2 out of 3 attempts. So a couple of trips to Radio Shack buying and then returning the best routers they carried (screw you Netgear) with unsatisfying results, I decided that using a repeater was going to be the best option (see, told you this would be about repeating). Of course no place actually sells those locally, but the max range Netgear (I still hate you Netgear) has a repeater funtion built into it. That was great because otherwise I was going to have to flash software (DD-WRT) to my other Belkin G wireless router to get it to do that and I didn't really want to run the risk of bricking the damn thing if I screwed up a step during that process.
So basically after hours of feeling like Netgear's products would work just as well whole as when smashed into bits from a hammer, I did several more hours of troubleshooting research to discover that wireless repeaters are a pipe dream for a home network due to the lack of standards wireless routers use. The best chance you have is to use the exact same brand and model of routers throughout your entire network, and even then it is still going to be iffy. Hell, even different models of the same type of brand will fail more often than not so using devices manufactured by different companies had me screwed before I even started.
At that point I was ready to flash dd-wrt to my old G router but as luck would have it, the version of the model I have is not compatible with that program (although several other versions of my model actually are, grrrr). Now the Netgear was compatible with that program and although it already did have a setup for wireless repeating (which wouldn't work for me), dd-wrt would work. But that also meant that I would not be able to return it to regain my money and there was a chance I could break it by forcing new firmware into it's spiteful guts.
Last chance I had was to run a cable from the upstairs to the downstairs (which is frowned on in this household) and in order to be clearance from the household boss to do that I had to find a way to get the G router to work as a wired repeater and have it stashed out of sight under a cabinet in the room next to Mom's computer. It took a few different configurations in the router settings (I don't even remember what they are after trying so many different ones on multiple routers) but finally victory was mine, and it only took 5 days to grasp it.
(Afterthoughts)
1) Screw Netgear, 2) If you manage to setup a wireless repeater, immediately go buy a lottery ticket, 3) Screw Netgear.
Exactly one week ago, we finally got our internet upgraded out here at my Mom's farm homestead. We were using a usb internet stick from a cell phone company. Now I totally hate those things and did everything I could to talk interested people out of purchasing those when I did my prison time at the AT&T call center (cell phone division, customer service via Alorica), but it was a bit faster than our other option of dial-up (and satellite is too expensive with all the usage restrictions they pile on you). We now have wireless internet, actual wireless internet (not talking about wireless home network) that is kinda like a totally landlocked satellite connection (tower on our house gets a signal from a tower in a town 5 miles away). It's not quite up to what I consider high speed but is still a hella lot better for being dsl's clumsy little brother.
My biggest gripe with it is that I am stuck with a NAT 3 rating when I go online with my PS3 which means online gaming is petty much suckier than a dockside whore. And there is no way to fix it through router reconfiguration cause I have wasted several hours trying. I have not however attempted plugging directly into the system yet since that means moving the PS3 into a different room & I am lazy, but I did attempt wiring directly into one of the wireless routers which theoretically should have given me a NAT 2 rating and still failed to satisfy {insert lame boyfriend joke here}. While disappointing {add a 3rd bad sexual pun} I do have enough toys to keep my happy {enough sucky jokes because 2 is company, 3's a crowd, 4 is too many, & 5's not allowed}.
Now time to address the repetition alluded to earlier. Our internet is piped into the house in a room upstairs. That room is kinda like an entertainment room mostly for my nephews (it's actually my old bedroom) and has directv, a PS2, a Wii, and a computer (tower version). Wiring up the computer to a wireless router (small room, short cable) was simple. Picking up a wireless signal was no trouble for my laptop & PS3 down the hall in my bedroom either. My Mom's computer downstairs is where the trouble began. It is easily within range of the wireless router IF we lived in a more modern (i.e. cheaper built) house. Instead we live in an old farm house built when they made walls by cutting an entire tree into a long rectangle and stacked & mortared them together to make walls before bricking them in to add some polish to the design. While that means that this house will lose its roof several times over before any walls will fall down, it also means that a wireless signal gets kicked in the shin and laughed at for trying to do anything. So the problematic side effect is that I can't get enough of a signal to Mom's computer.
So although I was already using a Belkin N wireless router, there are a few more powerful options that might broadcast stronger, faster, and able to leap multistory building 2 out of 3 attempts. So a couple of trips to Radio Shack buying and then returning the best routers they carried (screw you Netgear) with unsatisfying results, I decided that using a repeater was going to be the best option (see, told you this would be about repeating). Of course no place actually sells those locally, but the max range Netgear (I still hate you Netgear) has a repeater funtion built into it. That was great because otherwise I was going to have to flash software (DD-WRT) to my other Belkin G wireless router to get it to do that and I didn't really want to run the risk of bricking the damn thing if I screwed up a step during that process.
So basically after hours of feeling like Netgear's products would work just as well whole as when smashed into bits from a hammer, I did several more hours of troubleshooting research to discover that wireless repeaters are a pipe dream for a home network due to the lack of standards wireless routers use. The best chance you have is to use the exact same brand and model of routers throughout your entire network, and even then it is still going to be iffy. Hell, even different models of the same type of brand will fail more often than not so using devices manufactured by different companies had me screwed before I even started.
At that point I was ready to flash dd-wrt to my old G router but as luck would have it, the version of the model I have is not compatible with that program (although several other versions of my model actually are, grrrr). Now the Netgear was compatible with that program and although it already did have a setup for wireless repeating (which wouldn't work for me), dd-wrt would work. But that also meant that I would not be able to return it to regain my money and there was a chance I could break it by forcing new firmware into it's spiteful guts.
Last chance I had was to run a cable from the upstairs to the downstairs (which is frowned on in this household) and in order to be clearance from the household boss to do that I had to find a way to get the G router to work as a wired repeater and have it stashed out of sight under a cabinet in the room next to Mom's computer. It took a few different configurations in the router settings (I don't even remember what they are after trying so many different ones on multiple routers) but finally victory was mine, and it only took 5 days to grasp it.
(Afterthoughts)
1) Screw Netgear, 2) If you manage to setup a wireless repeater, immediately go buy a lottery ticket, 3) Screw Netgear.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Back in the saddle as still angry as ever
Welcome one and all to yet another alluring post-type ramble from our illustrious half-demoness from the Midwestern hell belt.
For those who actually check the expiration dates on various items, thou may hast noticed that it has been a while since I doth last posted (figured I would jump on the obvious train even though a small child could have figured that out without the large blinking arrowed sign pointing straight at that fact).
Turns out that my internet service account got merged with someone else's account who shared a landline # that was the same as my internet #, and when they canceled their service my got partly canceled as well. Now of course it was done in a way that their systems showed my account was active regardless of there not being any brain draining internet piped into my home. Would have been nice for once had it worked out the opposite way where my account would have showed canceled in their system but I continued to receive interwebs beamed into thine house (even when it takes a broom to get them out of the corners at the ceiling). So it took 3 weeks of fighting with them and getting transfered back and forth between departments and being given every excuse a few times over before I got tired of it and told them to offically cancel it the rest of the way out because it was like pulling teeth to even try to get them to cancel service so that we could simply start a new account with them. Blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. The last few posts I did on her were actually via cell phone which is rather a pain in my ass to write through.
Y'all missed out on my angry holiday rants but it does look as though the world has once again survived the incredible amount of damage done to it from you insane humans warping the very fabric of reality to dangerous breaking levels. We all are lucky that it has a bit more flex to it than the few of us who know what is happening to it give it credit for having (oohhh, cryptic). My Christmas involved multiple break-ins, destruction of some of my stuff, and a horribly failed blackmail attempt by a pathetic excuse (even by human standards) of a guy who used to live with us and stole about $1000 of my stuff & disappeared in the night.
I got to work on both the holiday's this past week and am hoping to make the trip to my Mom's house in a few weeks to see my family and exchange loot with them (however meager it will be from all of us being perpetually broke).
(Afterthoughts) ... (stolen from Mousehunt)
Festive Restraining Order:
At this festive time and season, I could finally find a reason, To send a card, and say with glee, Please stop hiding in my tree.
For those who actually check the expiration dates on various items, thou may hast noticed that it has been a while since I doth last posted (figured I would jump on the obvious train even though a small child could have figured that out without the large blinking arrowed sign pointing straight at that fact).
Turns out that my internet service account got merged with someone else's account who shared a landline # that was the same as my internet #, and when they canceled their service my got partly canceled as well. Now of course it was done in a way that their systems showed my account was active regardless of there not being any brain draining internet piped into my home. Would have been nice for once had it worked out the opposite way where my account would have showed canceled in their system but I continued to receive interwebs beamed into thine house (even when it takes a broom to get them out of the corners at the ceiling). So it took 3 weeks of fighting with them and getting transfered back and forth between departments and being given every excuse a few times over before I got tired of it and told them to offically cancel it the rest of the way out because it was like pulling teeth to even try to get them to cancel service so that we could simply start a new account with them. Blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. The last few posts I did on her were actually via cell phone which is rather a pain in my ass to write through.
Y'all missed out on my angry holiday rants but it does look as though the world has once again survived the incredible amount of damage done to it from you insane humans warping the very fabric of reality to dangerous breaking levels. We all are lucky that it has a bit more flex to it than the few of us who know what is happening to it give it credit for having (oohhh, cryptic). My Christmas involved multiple break-ins, destruction of some of my stuff, and a horribly failed blackmail attempt by a pathetic excuse (even by human standards) of a guy who used to live with us and stole about $1000 of my stuff & disappeared in the night.
I got to work on both the holiday's this past week and am hoping to make the trip to my Mom's house in a few weeks to see my family and exchange loot with them (however meager it will be from all of us being perpetually broke).
(Afterthoughts) ... (stolen from Mousehunt)
Festive Restraining Order:
At this festive time and season, I could finally find a reason, To send a card, and say with glee, Please stop hiding in my tree.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Arghhhhhh!!!!!!
Seriously, this is what they now expect us to do at work while speaking to customers on the phone, no joke. We are allowed to only keep someone on hold for merely one whole minute at a time before we have to check back in with them. That doesn't sound too bad initially until you actually put more than a single brain cell into thinking about how that will work out in reality. Most calls tend to result in quite a few of those one minute increments of hold time while features are being processed or research into billing issues are being looked into. So instead of being able to fully focus on solving problems in a short time, every single minute requires an interruption just so that we can add an additional 15-20 seconds to pop back on the line and let them know that we are still working on resolving their issue instead of actually working on it. So in theory, it can take about 3 minutes to add a single feature to their account but now with the check in requirement, that has now gotten stretched out to 5 minutes. Still that does not sound too bad in all honesty, until you factor in the fact that it is rare for someone to call only wanting a single feature added to their account. A good portion of calls are about issues with their billing and charges on those said bills, which often require 5-10 minutes of research and reading through several system notes on the account and looking over a couple of different bills. So now what could have been under a 10 minute call is going to be about twice that with the constant interruptions disturbing the focus of what exactly we were looking at and losing our place in the process of hunting down where the initial problem lies. Not to mention that the customer who is generally not all that happy to start with is going to get annoyed that we are spending just as much time letting them know we are working on their problem as we are actually trying to solve it.
In my experience, people do not really enjoy being put on hold but understand that it does take a bit of time to go through the process of fixing their issues or making changes to their accounts. They tend to be fine with spending a couple minutes on hold while we get the job done. I myself am content to have someone who gets the job done as compared to someone who keeps stopping to chat with me and let me know they are working on it. When you call in to get something fixed it is a normal assumption that they are working on and do not need their hand held and constantly reassured that it is being worked on.
I spent a couple minutes swearing about the stupidity of that to my boss today when she told us about that. Of course she was not surprised by my opinion of that policy and expected me to bitch over it. So I have two ways to deal with it:
1) I will just have to explain the policy to the customer and apologize right off the bat and tell them that I understand it will be annoying but we can make it quick and painless if they just say "OK" when I pop on the line and rattle off as quickly as I can speak "that I am just checking in with them while I continue to work on their issue" every freaking minute.
2) I can just take the sacrifice of 5 points (out of a potential 100) for long hold times if I happened to get a quality evaluation on that particular call.
Welcome to the wonderful world of "improvements" the higher up's decide is a great idea when they have no idea what it is actually like to be the one taking the calls or how great of an annoyance it is to the customers either.
(Afterthoughts)
I will flip back and forth between the two options to deal with this depending upon how I happen to feel at the moment and how cool the customer is.
In my experience, people do not really enjoy being put on hold but understand that it does take a bit of time to go through the process of fixing their issues or making changes to their accounts. They tend to be fine with spending a couple minutes on hold while we get the job done. I myself am content to have someone who gets the job done as compared to someone who keeps stopping to chat with me and let me know they are working on it. When you call in to get something fixed it is a normal assumption that they are working on and do not need their hand held and constantly reassured that it is being worked on.
I spent a couple minutes swearing about the stupidity of that to my boss today when she told us about that. Of course she was not surprised by my opinion of that policy and expected me to bitch over it. So I have two ways to deal with it:
1) I will just have to explain the policy to the customer and apologize right off the bat and tell them that I understand it will be annoying but we can make it quick and painless if they just say "OK" when I pop on the line and rattle off as quickly as I can speak "that I am just checking in with them while I continue to work on their issue" every freaking minute.
2) I can just take the sacrifice of 5 points (out of a potential 100) for long hold times if I happened to get a quality evaluation on that particular call.
Welcome to the wonderful world of "improvements" the higher up's decide is a great idea when they have no idea what it is actually like to be the one taking the calls or how great of an annoyance it is to the customers either.
(Afterthoughts)
I will flip back and forth between the two options to deal with this depending upon how I happen to feel at the moment and how cool the customer is.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Self Service
I must be getting old. I remember when you used to be able to go to a store and they would have a cashier (hell, I used to be one in high school at a drug store and split the week doing that with another girl in my school) who would look at the item to be purchased, punch the price of said item which was gained from the price tag sticker that was stuck on the item into the cash register, and add up your bag of goodies that caught yonder fancy that particular day. Then, because those registers were kinda sucky, you had to do some quick mental math to make change, which you learned to do rather quickly (using a few simple tricks). But nowadays, when you go to buy something they just have a "good faith" monitor watching a group of self service checkout lanes. So not only do I have to do the stores job, but I have to pay them for making me do all the work as well.
WTF!?! If I am saving a store money by doing their glamorous job of part-time cashier then why the hell do I not get some kind of extra discount incentive to do so. Seriously, why would anyone bother ringing up their own purchases (unless they are, um, cough cough, scamming the place) when they can take it easy and just stand and watch someone do that for them instead (which also helps keep their job secure) for the exact same cost. I swear that if I ran a shop of some kind I would just have to promote that nice little detailed fact:
"Come on down to Liz's second hand soul pawn shop where for our valued customer's convenience we have people to assist you with processing your purchases at no additional cost. That is right people, you heard me correctly, the cashier's at our wonderful and humble lil shop are a free service we provide to you for your personal convenience. So be sure to take advantage of that when y'all shimmy on over and give us a visit."
Now the reason I got angry today is due to when I was unable to pay my electric bill online due to it being a closed account since it is the final bill from the apartment. No way in hell to register it and get it setup to make online payments. Trust me, I wasted a good hour trying to find some computer logic loophole which would allow me to process that transaction via the majical computer box. So since I hate writing checks, I resigned myself to making a payment over the phone. Mindlessly punching buttons in the IVR system to get to a payment option, it finally rises out of the dark ocean of choices for me to spear with a desperate button mash. Instead of getting a live person, I get a damn computer that has me punch in my account number, card number, social security number, address, mother's maiden name, city I was born in, date I lost my first tooth, blood type, and a defining DNA marker in hexadecimal code, only to then be informed that she was "sorry Dave" (damn, drifted there for a minute), um, oh yeah, that there will be a $3.50 convenience fee added to my payment. Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa and whoa! I do not pay companies for the convenience of not having to deal with me, especially when I am doing their job for them!!! So I pressed 7-3-3-4-3-f-5-c-*-cue ball-3-8 -000-q or whatever the hell crazy option it was to cancel my payment. Then I hung up and called straight back into the IVR system and navigated my way through the deep and dark forest jungle of options and stalked my way to a live person in the billing department because if I am going to pay an extra $3.50 then someone is damn well going to process that payment for me and chat with me a little bit about whatever the hell I can trick them into talking about so that I feel like I at least got something for my money, even if it was overpriced, unsatisfying, and not something that I would recommend for a leisure activity.
(Afterthoughts)
Granted that my company charges $5 for making a payment over the phone with a live person but that is because it is to encourage people to process it themselves which avoids that fee. Getting charged for using a self-service option defeats the entire purpose of self-service and I am seeing more and more companies that seem to be forgetting that valuable bit of procedure.
WTF!?! If I am saving a store money by doing their glamorous job of part-time cashier then why the hell do I not get some kind of extra discount incentive to do so. Seriously, why would anyone bother ringing up their own purchases (unless they are, um, cough cough, scamming the place) when they can take it easy and just stand and watch someone do that for them instead (which also helps keep their job secure) for the exact same cost. I swear that if I ran a shop of some kind I would just have to promote that nice little detailed fact:
"Come on down to Liz's second hand soul pawn shop where for our valued customer's convenience we have people to assist you with processing your purchases at no additional cost. That is right people, you heard me correctly, the cashier's at our wonderful and humble lil shop are a free service we provide to you for your personal convenience. So be sure to take advantage of that when y'all shimmy on over and give us a visit."
Now the reason I got angry today is due to when I was unable to pay my electric bill online due to it being a closed account since it is the final bill from the apartment. No way in hell to register it and get it setup to make online payments. Trust me, I wasted a good hour trying to find some computer logic loophole which would allow me to process that transaction via the majical computer box. So since I hate writing checks, I resigned myself to making a payment over the phone. Mindlessly punching buttons in the IVR system to get to a payment option, it finally rises out of the dark ocean of choices for me to spear with a desperate button mash. Instead of getting a live person, I get a damn computer that has me punch in my account number, card number, social security number, address, mother's maiden name, city I was born in, date I lost my first tooth, blood type, and a defining DNA marker in hexadecimal code, only to then be informed that she was "sorry Dave" (damn, drifted there for a minute), um, oh yeah, that there will be a $3.50 convenience fee added to my payment. Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa and whoa! I do not pay companies for the convenience of not having to deal with me, especially when I am doing their job for them!!! So I pressed 7-3-3-4-3-f-5-c-*-cue ball-3-8 -000-q or whatever the hell crazy option it was to cancel my payment. Then I hung up and called straight back into the IVR system and navigated my way through the deep and dark forest jungle of options and stalked my way to a live person in the billing department because if I am going to pay an extra $3.50 then someone is damn well going to process that payment for me and chat with me a little bit about whatever the hell I can trick them into talking about so that I feel like I at least got something for my money, even if it was overpriced, unsatisfying, and not something that I would recommend for a leisure activity.
(Afterthoughts)
Granted that my company charges $5 for making a payment over the phone with a live person but that is because it is to encourage people to process it themselves which avoids that fee. Getting charged for using a self-service option defeats the entire purpose of self-service and I am seeing more and more companies that seem to be forgetting that valuable bit of procedure.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Screw the cells
For those of you who follow the cell phone feature trends, AT&T is releasing 2 brand new options this week. Oh, btw, when I say "brand new" I really mean they are finally getting around to offering services that other wireless carriers have already been offering for a long enough time period for a guy to grow an ankle length beard.
Slated for release on 09/20/2009 (or today for those who overlooked this postings date stamp) is something called the "A-list" which is nothing more than a long requested and long denied service of the now "old shoe" favorite list. Innovation knows no bounds for such an original idea. Color me less than impressed that they will now allow their customers to setup a list of a handful of phone numbers that they can call for free even if it is during their 15 hours of daily standard weektime daytime hours (at least they were smart enough to realize that weekends should be free).
Next, on 09/25/2009, is something that those who made the mistake of buying an iphone have most likely been painfully aware of the past few years: picture messages. Send a picture message to an iphone and what they actually receive is a text message with a link to a website where they can sometimes view that picture, and if they cannot get the picture to load (even odds) then you have managed to just waste 15 minutes of their life which they will never be able to get back. The fact that I am missing out on causing that annoyance to people does make me a bit sad because if I knew someone who had an iphone that mistakenly trusted me enough to give me their number, I would picture message the hell out of them simply for that reason alone. But alas, the self indulged zombies at Apple are finally releasing a software update for "the world's most advanced phone" which after several years of hard R&D and testing will allow iphones to send and receive picture messages just like the most basic $20 prepaid Go-Phone is capable of doing. All you will have to do is hook your iphone up to your icomputer via an icable and use your imouse to open itunes and install the isoftware iupdate (which was apparently created through some type of iritual which may or may not have involved iknives, premature dying ianimals, frightening and hastily drawn chalky isymbols, and oodles of iblood). After that has been completed then all you will have to do is call AT&T to talk to a frustrated and flusted customer service rep and scream at them for still not being able to properly send your friend (who lives next door and could more easily walk over and see the picture on your phone) the picture of your cat doing something which you think is award winning cute but everyone else finds lame and tiring enough to consider leaving a tasty bowl of antifreeze on their back porch as a "gift" for the overlooked talent master of looking at a camera with common animal stupidity.
(Afterthoughts)
Yes, I said your baby is stupid but when you start equating animals with humans then you are one step away from being willing to have sex with an animal. Hey, if it can be a human's babay then it had to come from somewhere, I can do the math bitches.
Slated for release on 09/20/2009 (or today for those who overlooked this postings date stamp) is something called the "A-list" which is nothing more than a long requested and long denied service of the now "old shoe" favorite list. Innovation knows no bounds for such an original idea. Color me less than impressed that they will now allow their customers to setup a list of a handful of phone numbers that they can call for free even if it is during their 15 hours of daily standard weektime daytime hours (at least they were smart enough to realize that weekends should be free).
Next, on 09/25/2009, is something that those who made the mistake of buying an iphone have most likely been painfully aware of the past few years: picture messages. Send a picture message to an iphone and what they actually receive is a text message with a link to a website where they can sometimes view that picture, and if they cannot get the picture to load (even odds) then you have managed to just waste 15 minutes of their life which they will never be able to get back. The fact that I am missing out on causing that annoyance to people does make me a bit sad because if I knew someone who had an iphone that mistakenly trusted me enough to give me their number, I would picture message the hell out of them simply for that reason alone. But alas, the self indulged zombies at Apple are finally releasing a software update for "the world's most advanced phone" which after several years of hard R&D and testing will allow iphones to send and receive picture messages just like the most basic $20 prepaid Go-Phone is capable of doing. All you will have to do is hook your iphone up to your icomputer via an icable and use your imouse to open itunes and install the isoftware iupdate (which was apparently created through some type of iritual which may or may not have involved iknives, premature dying ianimals, frightening and hastily drawn chalky isymbols, and oodles of iblood). After that has been completed then all you will have to do is call AT&T to talk to a frustrated and flusted customer service rep and scream at them for still not being able to properly send your friend (who lives next door and could more easily walk over and see the picture on your phone) the picture of your cat doing something which you think is award winning cute but everyone else finds lame and tiring enough to consider leaving a tasty bowl of antifreeze on their back porch as a "gift" for the overlooked talent master of looking at a camera with common animal stupidity.
(Afterthoughts)
Yes, I said your baby is stupid but when you start equating animals with humans then you are one step away from being willing to have sex with an animal. Hey, if it can be a human's babay then it had to come from somewhere, I can do the math bitches.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Ponder this ya tree hugger
Here is the thought to consider for today:
Animal rights activists are cliche well known for throwing paint onto expensive (and gorgeous) fur coats. Isn't that essentially belittling all the animals who died to make that by totally ruining their noble sacrifice to serve the exceedingly wealthy?
(Afterthoughts)
Silly, silly tree huggers, sigh.
Animal rights activists are cliche well known for throwing paint onto expensive (and gorgeous) fur coats. Isn't that essentially belittling all the animals who died to make that by totally ruining their noble sacrifice to serve the exceedingly wealthy?
(Afterthoughts)
Silly, silly tree huggers, sigh.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Death to Indonesia
I literally spent nearly half an entire day trying to get the Hello Kitty mmorpg downloaded and running on my computer after one of my roommates ran across it a couple days ago. After I finally managed to get it loaded up and several failed login attempts, I scoured the forums trying to find a solution to my problem. Lo and behold, someone else has the exact same problem I was and the answer provided to them was thus:
Right now the only version that is live is the Indonesian version, which you can find at http://hellokittyonline.co.id/ . If you've downloaded the game from anywhere else, it's for a version that is not up and running.
Damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn and damn!!!!!!!!
The english version is supposed to be opened up soon and until then I either have to show untypical patience or learn to read Indonesian.
(Afterthoughts)
Sigh, I'm so sad. And no, I am not getting soft, I like Hello Kitty because she is soooo damn creepy, how could I not admire and love her. :)
Right now the only version that is live is the Indonesian version, which you can find at http://hellokittyonline.co.id/ . If you've downloaded the game from anywhere else, it's for a version that is not up and running.
Damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn and damn!!!!!!!!
The english version is supposed to be opened up soon and until then I either have to show untypical patience or learn to read Indonesian.
(Afterthoughts)
Sigh, I'm so sad. And no, I am not getting soft, I like Hello Kitty because she is soooo damn creepy, how could I not admire and love her. :)
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Of course I'm freaking tall, you damn eyes are correct
Yes it is true, I'm fucking tall, or to better put it... I don't own a ladder since it would be a waste of money. At a dizzying 6'3" while barefooted, and no, I do not wear heels ... ever ... because I have common sense and get annoyed when the other rare tall girls bitch about the problems they encounter while doing that. But that is a rant in and of itself.
The brief point I am getting close to physically making is that one of the foolish humans who asks me if I played basketball yet again is going to get a basketball shoved down their fool throat right before I string them up from a hoop.
(Afterthoughts)
Y'all most likely already figured out the question of the day I had to endure again at work.
The brief point I am getting close to physically making is that one of the foolish humans who asks me if I played basketball yet again is going to get a basketball shoved down their fool throat right before I string them up from a hoop.
(Afterthoughts)
Y'all most likely already figured out the question of the day I had to endure again at work.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Thee Dragon Slayer Comith
Ahhh, death in even it's tiniest form can be misconstrued into something full of grandeur and megalomania.
Today's adventure consisted of me returning sleepy-eyed to my apartment door after stumbling out to the mailbox to collect nothing less than my very own single piece of mail (surprise surprise). As I stood in the glaring sunlight finishing a cigarette, I noticed a little wasp nest in the corner of my doorway, with a yellow striped flying and poison coated sword it wielded with it's ass. Damn! I'm not sure if such a skill is more creepy, disturbing, impressive, or just disgusting!?! I battled it with my own sword (er, flyswatter) but ended in a mere draw (er, me running and screaming like a little girl back into my apartment where I locked the door as if that would help).
Hand to hand combat would not work against this devious creature so what options did I have left (my damn neighbor is gone for a few days and could not champion this poor damsel). So falling back on my half-demoness nature I thought perhaps I could nag it to death (or at least leaving my cave entrance). Again no luck other than the general agitation I usually cause. So back into my lair to lurk whist pondering my next option.
Hi Ho! I live in America and therefore should utilize our rich and overkill combative culture. CHEMICAL WARFARE!!! First attack to soften 'em up, 409 (which kills ants almost instantly for those who did not know that little fact since I'm all about education or something???). I think it freaked the enemy out a bit and cause the vile creature to become dangerously erratic. Perhaps not my best choice since it showed such enduring armor. Trial 2 I had more hope for, Scrubbing Bubbles! I calculated that if I could encase it in toxic foam it would surely struggle for a while until it worked itself into exhaustion and succumbed to death.
First blast produced a ball of foam totally encasing it giving me a brief flash of arrogant satisfaction, right up to the point that the little ball of buzzing fury started to shake its way out of the toxin. Another blast, then another, then another, then yet another, and still it kept coming and breaking free. Then finally silence. Was it preparing for a final all out counterattack? As I stood on guard, watching ... waiting ... scanning the blob of foam sliding down my doorway it finally appeared out of the gloom. I silently observed it's cold and lifeless body drift down to the ground in a pool of lemon scented foam, never to move another jagged limb again.
Victory is mine!!!!!
(Afterthoughts)
It was a somber victory at best since such a difficult and well executed battle with thine enemy deserves a show of respect for it's worthy and honorable death.
Today's adventure consisted of me returning sleepy-eyed to my apartment door after stumbling out to the mailbox to collect nothing less than my very own single piece of mail (surprise surprise). As I stood in the glaring sunlight finishing a cigarette, I noticed a little wasp nest in the corner of my doorway, with a yellow striped flying and poison coated sword it wielded with it's ass. Damn! I'm not sure if such a skill is more creepy, disturbing, impressive, or just disgusting!?! I battled it with my own sword (er, flyswatter) but ended in a mere draw (er, me running and screaming like a little girl back into my apartment where I locked the door as if that would help).
Hand to hand combat would not work against this devious creature so what options did I have left (my damn neighbor is gone for a few days and could not champion this poor damsel). So falling back on my half-demoness nature I thought perhaps I could nag it to death (or at least leaving my cave entrance). Again no luck other than the general agitation I usually cause. So back into my lair to lurk whist pondering my next option.
Hi Ho! I live in America and therefore should utilize our rich and overkill combative culture. CHEMICAL WARFARE!!! First attack to soften 'em up, 409 (which kills ants almost instantly for those who did not know that little fact since I'm all about education or something???). I think it freaked the enemy out a bit and cause the vile creature to become dangerously erratic. Perhaps not my best choice since it showed such enduring armor. Trial 2 I had more hope for, Scrubbing Bubbles! I calculated that if I could encase it in toxic foam it would surely struggle for a while until it worked itself into exhaustion and succumbed to death.
First blast produced a ball of foam totally encasing it giving me a brief flash of arrogant satisfaction, right up to the point that the little ball of buzzing fury started to shake its way out of the toxin. Another blast, then another, then another, then yet another, and still it kept coming and breaking free. Then finally silence. Was it preparing for a final all out counterattack? As I stood on guard, watching ... waiting ... scanning the blob of foam sliding down my doorway it finally appeared out of the gloom. I silently observed it's cold and lifeless body drift down to the ground in a pool of lemon scented foam, never to move another jagged limb again.
Victory is mine!!!!!
(Afterthoughts)
It was a somber victory at best since such a difficult and well executed battle with thine enemy deserves a show of respect for it's worthy and honorable death.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
New game
My birthday (May 12th) was a fairly underwhelming affair. I went to the laundry mat (woo hoo???) and then got all dolled up (eek, rare occurrence) and sat on my couch reading a book. I sent out a few text messages to some of my friends since we had all agreed to go out to the bar to celebrate me turning 35 Yep, 35, I am not gonna lie about my age like the freaking pissed off cliche chicks who switch into pure bitchy mode if someone even hints they might be anything other than 29 at the absolutely eldest regardless of the fact that your grandmother looks younger than them. Of course I did not hear a single thing back from any of them so I said hell with it and decided to stay in and enjoy a quiet night to myself for once.
That didn't quite work out that way although it was not too far off. My neighbor stopped by around 11 pm and decided to take me out to eat. Hooray for Denny's being open 27/7. Then yesterday (Friday which was 3 days after my birthday) I got a card in the mail from my Mom. She sent me a gift card for Wal-Mart and my 2 oldest nephews sent me headbands and ponytail holders (yea!) conveniently stuffed inside the card.
Every single year since before I was a teenaged moody/bitchy girl (funny how things never seem to change) I have gotten a videogame for both my birthday and Christmas each year with no break in that tradition. So to keep things going I used most of the gift card to buy a birthday game (she sent a giftcard so I could pick out what game I wanted). Sadly, they have a poor selection most of the time (um, try a Gamestop card next time, OK) but I finally decided upon "X-Men Origins Wolverine, -Uncaged Edition-" since it seemed like the best choice which I did not already own.
As far as what makes it an "uncaged edition" I have no idea since every copy I have seen of this game claims the same thing. It was my understanding that in order to have any type of special edition product, you first needed an inferior original product to compare it to and spout out how much better the newer and shinier one is. But alas, clever marketing has totally cut out the inconvenience of promoting the original and jumped straight to the improved version but cutting out the middle man game in the first place.
That is total fucking crap! A clever and misleading marketing scheme does not have the ability to make anything better by simply slapping a nicer label on it. Don't like the taste of Haggis then try the new and improved version which you can tell is totally different because it says so on the packaging. Blah!
(Afterthoughts)
Watch for my new and improved special -uber bitchy edition- blog coming soon to a computer near you!!!
That didn't quite work out that way although it was not too far off. My neighbor stopped by around 11 pm and decided to take me out to eat. Hooray for Denny's being open 27/7. Then yesterday (Friday which was 3 days after my birthday) I got a card in the mail from my Mom. She sent me a gift card for Wal-Mart and my 2 oldest nephews sent me headbands and ponytail holders (yea!) conveniently stuffed inside the card.
Every single year since before I was a teenaged moody/bitchy girl (funny how things never seem to change) I have gotten a videogame for both my birthday and Christmas each year with no break in that tradition. So to keep things going I used most of the gift card to buy a birthday game (she sent a giftcard so I could pick out what game I wanted). Sadly, they have a poor selection most of the time (um, try a Gamestop card next time, OK) but I finally decided upon "X-Men Origins Wolverine, -Uncaged Edition-" since it seemed like the best choice which I did not already own.
As far as what makes it an "uncaged edition" I have no idea since every copy I have seen of this game claims the same thing. It was my understanding that in order to have any type of special edition product, you first needed an inferior original product to compare it to and spout out how much better the newer and shinier one is. But alas, clever marketing has totally cut out the inconvenience of promoting the original and jumped straight to the improved version but cutting out the middle man game in the first place.
That is total fucking crap! A clever and misleading marketing scheme does not have the ability to make anything better by simply slapping a nicer label on it. Don't like the taste of Haggis then try the new and improved version which you can tell is totally different because it says so on the packaging. Blah!
(Afterthoughts)
Watch for my new and improved special -uber bitchy edition- blog coming soon to a computer near you!!!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Policy
Yet another bitchy blog about my job. Ouch!
This is my new explanation to customers who try to demand that I give them credits on their bill when it is not justified, or when they try to get even more out of me. This is the scenario: "I understand that you would enjoy getting some extra money, but think of it like this. I work for you and am here to help out, but it is similar to being a school teacher. A teacher works for the students but is underneath the school's policies and guidelines. So just because a student may have messed something up on a test, they cannot demand that the teacher gives them a better grade simply because that is what they want even though the teacher could alter the records from a technical standpoint. That hurts everyone, including the student and can cost the teacher her job. If I handed out credit to everyone it would not only cost me my job but it also hurts all the customers by increasing the prices for everyone, including them."
(Afterthoughts)
Of course there are sketchy yet valid points to that but hopefully customers will get the point that I'm not a fraking ATM.
This is my new explanation to customers who try to demand that I give them credits on their bill when it is not justified, or when they try to get even more out of me. This is the scenario: "I understand that you would enjoy getting some extra money, but think of it like this. I work for you and am here to help out, but it is similar to being a school teacher. A teacher works for the students but is underneath the school's policies and guidelines. So just because a student may have messed something up on a test, they cannot demand that the teacher gives them a better grade simply because that is what they want even though the teacher could alter the records from a technical standpoint. That hurts everyone, including the student and can cost the teacher her job. If I handed out credit to everyone it would not only cost me my job but it also hurts all the customers by increasing the prices for everyone, including them."
(Afterthoughts)
Of course there are sketchy yet valid points to that but hopefully customers will get the point that I'm not a fraking ATM.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
3 year old I.Q.
Granted that I am simply cute and adorable, yet that does not make me talk like a freaking child. For god's sake, I'm just a couple weeks away from my 35th birthday. So I wonder why the hell do some of the other girls I know feel the need to use words like "nummy" or "boo boo" or "potty," seriously, WTF!!! This is part of their normal conversation with other adults.
Now I totally understand the whole mommy thing (OK, sort of understand it since I only have had 3 nephews to deal with and none of my own brats as of yet) but unless you are speaking to a child those types of annoying baby talk should not be used. Hell, neither my sister or I have ever spoken like that to the 3 boys other than when they were infants. They were raised (like my sister and me) using real language like we would need to be able to speak during our entire lives. When I was a young half-demoness child (before my first baby fangs grew in) I spoke more like an adult than these women who have hit middle age or later.
It does not matter how smart or talented she may be, as soon as she describes a sandwich as "nummy" I am unable to help deducting at least 50 I.Q. points from her perceived intelligence immediately. Give me a long enough conversation and I start to wonder if she might not be a zombie due to her apparently having a -300 I.Q. with no obvious brain function. If you want to act like a child you can damn sure bet I'm going to treat you like one, and also like the kind who should be wearing a helmet on their head 24/7.
(Afterthoughts)
If you have a "boo boo" try snagging a picnic basket to make yourself feel better instead of bothering me with the mumbled details with your negative intelligence.
Now I totally understand the whole mommy thing (OK, sort of understand it since I only have had 3 nephews to deal with and none of my own brats as of yet) but unless you are speaking to a child those types of annoying baby talk should not be used. Hell, neither my sister or I have ever spoken like that to the 3 boys other than when they were infants. They were raised (like my sister and me) using real language like we would need to be able to speak during our entire lives. When I was a young half-demoness child (before my first baby fangs grew in) I spoke more like an adult than these women who have hit middle age or later.
It does not matter how smart or talented she may be, as soon as she describes a sandwich as "nummy" I am unable to help deducting at least 50 I.Q. points from her perceived intelligence immediately. Give me a long enough conversation and I start to wonder if she might not be a zombie due to her apparently having a -300 I.Q. with no obvious brain function. If you want to act like a child you can damn sure bet I'm going to treat you like one, and also like the kind who should be wearing a helmet on their head 24/7.
(Afterthoughts)
If you have a "boo boo" try snagging a picnic basket to make yourself feel better instead of bothering me with the mumbled details with your negative intelligence.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Everyone point and laugh
Good news everybody, no more pictures, and by default, videos either (hopefully I won't lose the video I made today while waiting for the ban to be lifted). In order to show the futility of special interest groups making demands to have their own unique laws that apply only to them in order to provide them with extra protections, I am comparing this lawmaking folly with the anonymous comment on a blog post from a week ago. Since they refused (OK, they are just a bigger sissy than me and I have worn dresses the past 3 days) and I can't lump them into the general queue of my typical haters out there, I have to afford them "special interest status" and since they were complaining about my pictures I am going to stop doing that, at least until my experiment turns boring (which thanks to my attention span should not last too long).
Screw special interest groups and their whiny "I deserve extra amends since there are only several hundred thousand of us in this state/country/whatever." All that does is start the domino chain crashing down as more and more groups get annoyed that they don't have extra rights as well. Axe them all and just improve the general state of things which benefits everybody regardless of their clique.
(Afterthoughts)
I am going to lobby for discounts on virgin blood for demonic rituals since I stopped being able to use my own years ago and the rising costs limit my celebrations nowadays.
Screw special interest groups and their whiny "I deserve extra amends since there are only several hundred thousand of us in this state/country/whatever." All that does is start the domino chain crashing down as more and more groups get annoyed that they don't have extra rights as well. Axe them all and just improve the general state of things which benefits everybody regardless of their clique.
(Afterthoughts)
I am going to lobby for discounts on virgin blood for demonic rituals since I stopped being able to use my own years ago and the rising costs limit my celebrations nowadays.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
New answer
I have come up with a new reply to people who ask me how tall I am (don't bother, I'm 6'3" half-demoness, half-Amazonian). I am going to immediately ask them a question in return, "How much do you weigh?" When they look at me in surprised shock, I'll just say that it is an uncomfortable question for an uncomfortable question, seems like a fair trade to me.
(Afterthoughts)
I may be a bitch but I am open about that, most people are rude and cruel and don't even realize how bad of a person they are or that they are anything other than civil. Stupid humans.
(Afterthoughts)
I may be a bitch but I am open about that, most people are rude and cruel and don't even realize how bad of a person they are or that they are anything other than civil. Stupid humans.
Unfortunately serious
I'm slowly becoming convinced that the death of my job is gonna come with me bitching back at a customer for their blatant stupidity and overwhelming rudeness. Generally those human qualities don't bother me more than anything else about you weird human worm babies, but that has always counter-depended upon me being able to slide in sarcastic jabs and bitchiness back at them. Sadly, a demure and polite attitude must be held at all times on the phone which is a terrible disappointment to me personally. And not to highlight my 3 worst calls of yesterday which freakishly came close to throwing me into tears at a few points (mainly because of me being unable to release any of my anger and frustration).
1) Topic: international calls. Time: 1 1/2+ hrs.
Canada is a different country than the U.S. Even if you had poor schooling, that is an easy concept to grasp that my nephew who isn't even in school yet completely understands. If you call out of the country, you get charged a flat rate per minute for doing so, and even if you have an international plan on your line, you still get charged a flat rate albeit a much lower one. If you don't want to be charged for doing that, don't make those calls after you have been warned that it will cost you to do so, on multiple occasions, and even gotten most of it credited back to you for pretending that you didn't realize it cost money. Simple! Except when you find a loophole which allows you to think you can fleece the system and the fact that you speak to a different person each time you call. Unfortunately he did not get the "free money reimbursement" for his valid charges for international calls because he annoyed me right off the bat by making demands that I credit him back for calls he made and that he didn't have much time to waste with a girl over the phone. It basically went with him lying to me about what he had been told and me looking up notes from other reps he had dealt with showing he had been told about the charges he was getting on multiple occasions. He got angrier and somehow even ruder the more I validated that his calls were valid charges he knowingly made, at one point even pointing out that a number he claimed he had never called and did not know who that was and had only returned their call to him (which only showed an outgoing call with no incoming calls from that number) I managed to find 6 other calls he had made to that number totally up 77 minutes of talk time. So I asked if that was not someone he knew, why did he make several calls to it that month and talk to someone he did not know for an hour and a half? No answer on that one but he did start ranting about a different topic which slowly happened again and again as he continued to grasp at straws only to return to how he is going to be credited for his calls to Canada. (Ha, good luck with that!) I finally offered him $25 if he would say that his charges were valid and pay his bill. Nope, then he started swearing at me that I was insulting him with charity and that he demanded I credit his calls. After about 5 minutes of him yelling at me everytime I said "I apologize sir but those are valid charges that you knowing racked up and had been educated about on multiple occasions and I am unable to credit you due to that fact" several times until he finally screamed to give him the $25 and he would call back tomorrow and talk to someone who knew what the hell they were doing because he wasted an hour and a half of his weekend talking to me and deserved to get something for that as well. I kinda went borderline sarcasm at that point saying that I would like to point out that he did call us and was able to hang up at anytime he chose. He repeated it again and I told him that I was soooo sorry but he is not getting that $25 because like I informed him earlier I was simply giving him that as a curtesy for his time for me educating him that his bill was valid and he was responcible for paying it. A couple minutes of arguing about that and he finally hung up, and I noted in his account that he is not to be given credit for anything due to him simply calling in repeatedly over charges he knew he was making and then trying any angle he could to keep getting free money.
2) A woman with a new phone was swearing at me that I obviously didn't know my job at all because I didn't immediately know every single little detail about how her phone works off the top of my head (like I freaking designed the damn thing) and not 1 minute later seriously asked me where the power button was on it so that she could turn it on. (Duh, I don't know, the tin cans with string never had a power button) effing bitch didn't even know how to turn on a phone and still had the audacity to call me stupid.
3) A woman needed some security codes for her phone because someone keeps screwing with the settings, she didn't like that I had to look those up (sorry I didn't memorize them in case you called in) and then got pissed when she started asking me how her ex-husband was messing up her phone over the internet. What! Like I have a clue how someone could hack a phone after which a few minutes later she admitted that he was an IT genius, yet expected the first and lowest level of phone support to know exactly how a psycho hacker was screwing with her phone. I still wonder if she wasn't a bit nuts or he was actually that good.
(Afterthoughts)
Y'll may as well start taking bets on how long I will last at this job.
1) Topic: international calls. Time: 1 1/2+ hrs.
Canada is a different country than the U.S. Even if you had poor schooling, that is an easy concept to grasp that my nephew who isn't even in school yet completely understands. If you call out of the country, you get charged a flat rate per minute for doing so, and even if you have an international plan on your line, you still get charged a flat rate albeit a much lower one. If you don't want to be charged for doing that, don't make those calls after you have been warned that it will cost you to do so, on multiple occasions, and even gotten most of it credited back to you for pretending that you didn't realize it cost money. Simple! Except when you find a loophole which allows you to think you can fleece the system and the fact that you speak to a different person each time you call. Unfortunately he did not get the "free money reimbursement" for his valid charges for international calls because he annoyed me right off the bat by making demands that I credit him back for calls he made and that he didn't have much time to waste with a girl over the phone. It basically went with him lying to me about what he had been told and me looking up notes from other reps he had dealt with showing he had been told about the charges he was getting on multiple occasions. He got angrier and somehow even ruder the more I validated that his calls were valid charges he knowingly made, at one point even pointing out that a number he claimed he had never called and did not know who that was and had only returned their call to him (which only showed an outgoing call with no incoming calls from that number) I managed to find 6 other calls he had made to that number totally up 77 minutes of talk time. So I asked if that was not someone he knew, why did he make several calls to it that month and talk to someone he did not know for an hour and a half? No answer on that one but he did start ranting about a different topic which slowly happened again and again as he continued to grasp at straws only to return to how he is going to be credited for his calls to Canada. (Ha, good luck with that!) I finally offered him $25 if he would say that his charges were valid and pay his bill. Nope, then he started swearing at me that I was insulting him with charity and that he demanded I credit his calls. After about 5 minutes of him yelling at me everytime I said "I apologize sir but those are valid charges that you knowing racked up and had been educated about on multiple occasions and I am unable to credit you due to that fact" several times until he finally screamed to give him the $25 and he would call back tomorrow and talk to someone who knew what the hell they were doing because he wasted an hour and a half of his weekend talking to me and deserved to get something for that as well. I kinda went borderline sarcasm at that point saying that I would like to point out that he did call us and was able to hang up at anytime he chose. He repeated it again and I told him that I was soooo sorry but he is not getting that $25 because like I informed him earlier I was simply giving him that as a curtesy for his time for me educating him that his bill was valid and he was responcible for paying it. A couple minutes of arguing about that and he finally hung up, and I noted in his account that he is not to be given credit for anything due to him simply calling in repeatedly over charges he knew he was making and then trying any angle he could to keep getting free money.
2) A woman with a new phone was swearing at me that I obviously didn't know my job at all because I didn't immediately know every single little detail about how her phone works off the top of my head (like I freaking designed the damn thing) and not 1 minute later seriously asked me where the power button was on it so that she could turn it on. (Duh, I don't know, the tin cans with string never had a power button) effing bitch didn't even know how to turn on a phone and still had the audacity to call me stupid.
3) A woman needed some security codes for her phone because someone keeps screwing with the settings, she didn't like that I had to look those up (sorry I didn't memorize them in case you called in) and then got pissed when she started asking me how her ex-husband was messing up her phone over the internet. What! Like I have a clue how someone could hack a phone after which a few minutes later she admitted that he was an IT genius, yet expected the first and lowest level of phone support to know exactly how a psycho hacker was screwing with her phone. I still wonder if she wasn't a bit nuts or he was actually that good.
(Afterthoughts)
Y'll may as well start taking bets on how long I will last at this job.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Child-proof soda cans
*rant sequence initiated*
I've taken a lot of various medications throughout the years, so many in fact that I can't even hazard a guess as to what the actual number of different pills the doctors have shoved down my throat could even total up too. Over 100 easily, and probably closer to twice that number. But my point about that is that I have had to open bottles of pills countless times, and a decent amount of those have had child-proof caps. As you all know, most of those are not too hard to open and most children can open them just as easily as adults (sometimes easier than the 'old' people lol.) Occasionally ya run across a bottle that is tricky to open up but is always manageable. So what I want to know is why they make cans of soda so damn difficult to open! The vast majority of soda seems to have the pull tab virtually glued to the freaking can. You try to get a fingernail under the tab to pry it up enough to get some leverage and "OUCH!", fingernail gets bent backwards. Try to wedge your fingertip under the tab and you just get painfully pinched. I keep checking but have yet to find a screwdriver listed as equipment needed to disassemble the can, and trust me, you pretty much need one if you want to aviod a minor annoyance injury getting the thing opened up just so you can drink a sugar and caffeine loaded carbonated (yet tasty) beverage. They encourage you to drink this stuff everywhere you turn then slap you in the face when you try to do it. Is it some type of subtle psychological trick to encourage you to buy bottles of soda instead because they cost more which means more profits for them? It is ridiculous that I can open a bottle of deadly pills easier than the drink to wash them down with. Grrrrr.
*rant sequence shutdown in 5...4...3...2...1, finalized*
(Afterthoughts)
Oh yes, I totally went there.
I've taken a lot of various medications throughout the years, so many in fact that I can't even hazard a guess as to what the actual number of different pills the doctors have shoved down my throat could even total up too. Over 100 easily, and probably closer to twice that number. But my point about that is that I have had to open bottles of pills countless times, and a decent amount of those have had child-proof caps. As you all know, most of those are not too hard to open and most children can open them just as easily as adults (sometimes easier than the 'old' people lol.) Occasionally ya run across a bottle that is tricky to open up but is always manageable. So what I want to know is why they make cans of soda so damn difficult to open! The vast majority of soda seems to have the pull tab virtually glued to the freaking can. You try to get a fingernail under the tab to pry it up enough to get some leverage and "OUCH!", fingernail gets bent backwards. Try to wedge your fingertip under the tab and you just get painfully pinched. I keep checking but have yet to find a screwdriver listed as equipment needed to disassemble the can, and trust me, you pretty much need one if you want to aviod a minor annoyance injury getting the thing opened up just so you can drink a sugar and caffeine loaded carbonated (yet tasty) beverage. They encourage you to drink this stuff everywhere you turn then slap you in the face when you try to do it. Is it some type of subtle psychological trick to encourage you to buy bottles of soda instead because they cost more which means more profits for them? It is ridiculous that I can open a bottle of deadly pills easier than the drink to wash them down with. Grrrrr.
*rant sequence shutdown in 5...4...3...2...1, finalized*
(Afterthoughts)
Oh yes, I totally went there.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Hammer + computer = "Happy" LizzyBeth
As per the possibly most basic school requirements for my current class, I needed a computer program that I absolutely hate and have successfully managed to avoid for a few years thanks to the wonderful, caring, and loving OpenOffice (which is also priced to move at absolutely free). Although I didn't have to send those "sock munching clay brained trailer tire kissing bastards at Microsoft" (I'm not afraid they might hear me and I'll shout it again "nevermind" ) the $100+ for their brainwashing office software (which has wiped most people's sensibilities completely out since it is damn near a standard format) and polluted my computer with the 60 day trial instead.
Last night I had to write my first report for the end of week 1 using the Word program. I figured that it would not be too horrible, cause I mean seriously, how badly can you screw up a word processor, and they have been making it for years upon years, and therewithin lies root of the problem. When you take something that functions rather well, then try to repeatedly improve it with insane new and confusing features and add functionality aspects that might be used by a physics professor typing out a graduate level textbook, then organize everything by having a drunken monkey poop into a hat, you end up with a less than stellar program.
If you use it and like it and actually understand it and can manage to change the layout on the page without having the other layout tweaks reset and vanish, congratulations on getting your physics degree. By the time I had the blank document ready to start writing my paper, my voice was about shot from all the wild screaming I do at the computer screen and I most likely would have embarrassed the old lady who lives next door if she hadn't lost most of her hearing (but the people on the other side of her probably covered their children's ears). "Angry" is a good word for my experience with it last night but only because any other description tends to ring along the lines of "premeditated" if you want an idea of how upset I was.
I only had a couple pages that I wrote, 10 questions which I had to answer and explain with a couple of paragraphs each. By the time I had begun to type, I would have been half way finished were I using OpenOffice instead. And of course, by the time I started actually "working" on the paper, I was pissed off that I couldn't think as cleverly as I generally do, and my paper suffered for it. Luckily I have never had to use Excel or PowerPoint (or their equivalents) so I won't become quite as upset since I don't have a better standard to base my experience off of.
ELIZABETH SMASH!!!!!
(Afterthoughts)
The one "good" thing I will say about using that foul program is that it was interesting. Everytime I tried to use a feature the toolbar would rearrange itself into a different configuration the each time so that I never got bored looking at the same icons in the same place where they would be too easy to locate when I needed them.
Last night I had to write my first report for the end of week 1 using the Word program. I figured that it would not be too horrible, cause I mean seriously, how badly can you screw up a word processor, and they have been making it for years upon years, and therewithin lies root of the problem. When you take something that functions rather well, then try to repeatedly improve it with insane new and confusing features and add functionality aspects that might be used by a physics professor typing out a graduate level textbook, then organize everything by having a drunken monkey poop into a hat, you end up with a less than stellar program.
If you use it and like it and actually understand it and can manage to change the layout on the page without having the other layout tweaks reset and vanish, congratulations on getting your physics degree. By the time I had the blank document ready to start writing my paper, my voice was about shot from all the wild screaming I do at the computer screen and I most likely would have embarrassed the old lady who lives next door if she hadn't lost most of her hearing (but the people on the other side of her probably covered their children's ears). "Angry" is a good word for my experience with it last night but only because any other description tends to ring along the lines of "premeditated" if you want an idea of how upset I was.
I only had a couple pages that I wrote, 10 questions which I had to answer and explain with a couple of paragraphs each. By the time I had begun to type, I would have been half way finished were I using OpenOffice instead. And of course, by the time I started actually "working" on the paper, I was pissed off that I couldn't think as cleverly as I generally do, and my paper suffered for it. Luckily I have never had to use Excel or PowerPoint (or their equivalents) so I won't become quite as upset since I don't have a better standard to base my experience off of.
ELIZABETH SMASH!!!!!
(Afterthoughts)
The one "good" thing I will say about using that foul program is that it was interesting. Everytime I tried to use a feature the toolbar would rearrange itself into a different configuration the each time so that I never got bored looking at the same icons in the same place where they would be too easy to locate when I needed them.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
In retrospect...
Being half demoness (even though I'm usually a sweetie, blah *gag, gag*) it really isn't too damn surprising that I have a huge well of rage inside of me. But days like this make me realize that I will always have my half demons nature when how easy it is for me to tap into the well of rage and feel the fires that burn deep down inside of me burst into a fireball with barely a thought.
It always reminds me of this quote from the Terry Pratchett book, Monstrous Regiment.
"Good evening, gentlemen!" said the vampire. "Please pay attention. I am a reformed vampire, which is to say, I am a bundle of suppressed instincts held together with spit and coffee. It would be wrong to say that violent, tearing carnage does not come easily to me. It's not tearing your throats out that doesn't come easily to me. Please don't make it any harder."
(Afterthoughts)
Scary but so damn true. Just replace vampire with half demoness and you got me clocked pretty damn good.
It always reminds me of this quote from the Terry Pratchett book, Monstrous Regiment.
"Good evening, gentlemen!" said the vampire. "Please pay attention. I am a reformed vampire, which is to say, I am a bundle of suppressed instincts held together with spit and coffee. It would be wrong to say that violent, tearing carnage does not come easily to me. It's not tearing your throats out that doesn't come easily to me. Please don't make it any harder."
(Afterthoughts)
Scary but so damn true. Just replace vampire with half demoness and you got me clocked pretty damn good.
Monday, November 17, 2008
An entire wasted year
As I was getting ready for bed and stepped outside for a ciggy before I laid down, I had the great idea to calculate out how many ciggies I have smoked thru the years. It was a horrifying number that even estimating lowly, still seemed incomprehensible. So I turned that into a dollar amount and discovered that I have roughly spent an entire years salary on them. Damn. Effing screw those things, I would have spent the money in bits and pieces elsewhere but seeing that number was the shock I needed to finally quit for good. So I am making sure I remember this mood by posting from my cell as I lie on my bed (and cry myself to sleep.)
(Afterthoughts)
If I seem bitchier than usual this week you now know why. I'll try to tone it down but stress always brings out the demoness side when I deal with people and then I cry my eyes out when I have time alone. Bring on the emotional roller coaster and let's get this over with.
(Afterthoughts)
If I seem bitchier than usual this week you now know why. I'll try to tone it down but stress always brings out the demoness side when I deal with people and then I cry my eyes out when I have time alone. Bring on the emotional roller coaster and let's get this over with.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)