I graduated highschool for a reason, and it wasn't to go to college.
September 30, 2007
I just want a Leafs game...
I used to have a trick I could pull off last year, near the end of the season, to see just how bad the Leafs actually flopped when it came down to playoff time. I could even manage to do so from work. But, for the life of me, I now can't remember what in the name of everything holy I did to get that. So, I'm putting a general S.O.S to any and all Leafs fans with suggestions for methods and ways I can either catch a game as it's being played (I know about 640toronto.com and leafs.tv, but… um… no), or catch it when I have a minute but have already missed the live broadcast. The first game of the season's on Wednesday, not a Monday, and… I'm working. And it's a training day, so I can't even call in sick either. But I wanna watch the game! Anyone got suggestions? I'm dyin' over here…
My first official post from ye old reformatted desktop!
Proof that, after finding pieces of wireless card that have gone mysteriously astray, and after repeated phone calls to Dell techs in a rather mislead attempt to get a straight answer out of said Dell techs, I am still the master of all–well, okay, most–things Microsoft. Except Vista, which I will continue to maintain I will never touch for as long as it exists, lest my job require it to actually perform said job. And, since troubleshooting Vista related phone calls don't require me to have a Vista machine in front of me… you can guess just how much time I'll be spent even investigating that possibility. O'course, if you can't, then… clueless art thou. A cluelessness the level of which not even Vista's suckitude can hope to equal. And… that's all manner of very, very bad. Hm. It's 10 to 5, in the morning, I'm not working, this computer's up and running… what am I still doing awake? Someone wanna tell me? Possibly?
Hey, anything's possible. They beat up on Detroit a little, according to the linked article… they couldn't really do that all that much last season. Oh, wait–they only played like, once or twice last season. Well, at least we're still in the race. Officially. But only because the season hasn't actually started yet. A little disenchanted? Possibly. You would be too after Raycroft, who was supposed to somewhat hold our team together, busted. And they played him tonight. But at least they won tonight. Just one problem… the Senators are our first game of the season. Again. What sick and twisted individual dreamed this up? He should be shot.
You thought it was only in movies. Well, okay, so maybe you're a natural conspiracy theorist and… didn't think that. either way… this is sure no sciense fiction. And all I have to say is… uh, owwy. Owwy owwy owwy. Talk about your holy brain disease, Batman. Killer amoebas–they're comin' to get you. Don't swim in the water…
Even Dell technicians hate Dell technicians. And Sympatico, and Microsoft, and...
Welp, as some of you know and others of you guessed I'm sure by now, the formerly Vista and now XP computer is up and running. Well, partially. No wireless network support and there's still a rather lengthy list of devices Windows doesn't have drivers for. But I'm slowly piecing that together. Now, here's why every time I have to call tech support, I cringe. And not because I am one. So I call up Del on Monday, because their support site doesn't have a driver for my built-in wireless card. Not for XP, at least–which, okay, no big deal; it came with Vista, after all. So I check the Vista drivers list, like I've been doing with a few other things, and there's none listed there. So I just flat out asked the technician I spoke to on Monday, "does this machine even come with a driver for the wireless card?" Honest question, and a simple enough yes or no question to be sure–if I were sitting on the *other* end of that conversation, I could have probably told myself one way or another in about a minute and a half. But, not with this guy, who first wanted to spend 5 minutes making *sure* I wasn't a moron calling up with the misguided belief that, because I got this new fangled desktop thing sitting in my living room, it automaticly comes with a wireless card. Did I mention I pointed out to him at least once I'm employed with Dell, doing things like network troubleshooting on a daily basis? So I know when a computer's supposed to come with a wireless card–like, say, when in your order information, it says that one was specificly requested. So, we get by that round about, and he finally decides he actually wants to varify whether or not it does. So he tells me to go to their support site–I guess he wasn't listening when I said I've already been there and they don't have it. He finally just decides to put me on hold and do some "research"–for the record, when a hardware tech says they're doing some research, you know they're asking one of their l2's if this is a good enough reason to transfer them to the Dell on Call department. About 20 minutes go by, and he comes back, saying he can't find the wireless card on my system. Insert long, exasperated, frustrated sigh, and me telling him, yet again, that it doesn't give a brand name in the order details, but, and this is where I think I drive the point home that I work for the same company, I tell him the training material *should* say what brand the wireless card option includes for my particular model of computer. Silence. Then he asks to put me on hold again. Another few minutes go by. Presumeably, more "research". Then he comes back, says he thinks he found the brand and model of the wireless card, the exact details I honestly don't remember–for the record, when a technician says "I think", it's never pretty–and tells me that it looks like the support for that particular model is built directly into Vista. And there are no drivers for XP. So, not wanting to argue the point, I hang up, and plug that particular model into the almighty goog. And sure enough, inside of 10 minutes, I could have called that particular technician a liar. But… rather than openly and blatantly advertising the obvious, I just dinked around a bit, installed a few things I needed to install, and called it a night–I had to work the next night, and it was 5:00 or later in the morning before I finally decided to fall into bed. So it got to sit there until tonight, when I ended up not going to work–thank you, public transportation, for showing up early and thus making me miss the only bus that'd actually get me there before I was well into my shift. So I go back to that computer, figuring if the support is built into one version of Windows, the other version should have *something*. So I do a little fiddling, and sure enough, one wireless driver, for windows XP, located and installed. What was that you were saying about it was only designed to work with Vista? Now, the problem comes up that it's telling me to make sure the actual card's turned on. Now, they have a funky little keyboard command where you can do that for laptops, but I wasn't sure about this particular desktop. Cringing again, I called tech support. Shoulda figured it out myself. First guy first of all had the same hearing problem as the last technician I spoke to, in that it took me 3 tries before he accepted that yes, Dell technician who troubleshoots networking problems on a daily basis does have a wireless router, does have it turned on, and does have it in the next room, well in range of the card that is trying to look for it. All I wanted to know was the one thing he either didn't know how or didn't want to tell me–was there a switch or something on the back of the bloody machine to turn the card on manually, or is there a similar command via the keyboard to do so as there is in laptops? He finally at least gets me over to the wireless department, and the girl on the other end actually has a brain. And is using it. If it wasn't against the rules, I'd of done my own troubleshooting at work when I went in tomorrow… there, I'd at least have access to the same things these people do, and could have found the answer in probably 45 seconds, instead of 45 minutes and 2 technicians. Move on, now, to what I have to get done so I can actually get the antivirus software I'm using set up on my other computer. First requires actually getting the password from Sympatico for my current email address, so I can resurrect a really, really old one I haven't used since I moved out of Pembroke nearly a year ago. Now, Sympatico uses Microsoft's hotmail interface–so yes, a uber craptastic service to be sure–to manage their web interface for all things email. So in order to change, create or delete email addresses, I have to log into that craptastic interface. Not an altogether too thrilling experience, to say the least. But, I do it anyway, because for reasons beyond my control, I have to. So I enter my email address, and move onto the next screen to enter my password. And it sits there, loading… and loading… and loading… then shows me the logout screen… then sits there loading… and loading… and loading… eventually, I just said screw it, and closed the window. I can think of a lot of things I'd like to do on an unplanned but certainly not unwelcome night off. One of those is not deal with the idiocy of people I have no choice but to trust to keep methods of accessing services I pay for from going tits up. So instead, I shall go drop in on an RPG I haven't played in forever. I'll curse at the evil that is Hotmail, and the stupidity that is Sympatico's decision to join forces with Microsoft, later. For the next hour or so, I'm planning to have fun. Or something.
And all because of a little CD HP didn't send me. Round 1, external HD goes on the blink. Or so I thought. Turns out Windows just decided it suddenly didn't know what it was. Well, after getting frustrated with that, I decided to go right on ahead and start following these instructions figuring, y'know–it isn't working anyway so how much more can I possibly screw it up? Turns out that fixed it, at least temporarily. But, about… oh I wanna say 3 weeks later, it went kerpoof again. And, in the attempt to see what flopped this time, Windows seemingly forgot where it put the *internal* HD. Brilliant. So, it continuously went through the endless loop of startup, logoff, shutdown, restart. And it decided to play the welcome and logging off sounds repeatedly as it went through, indicating it *could* find at least part of the OS–really, really, anoying… I turned off the speakers after a bit. I screwed with it a bit, then decided to bug Trish and see if she had any ideas–she's damn near my equal so far as this crap goes, so it made sense. She dinked around with it on her own, got about as far as I did, and I think we both kinda just… randomly decided the thing was getting repaired. Call it the last act of a desperate couple of techs who don't want to do a complete format. So now, after the repair–for the record, a repair instalation of Windows on a 40 GB HD with 512 MB RAM should *so* not take 2 hours to complete–we're right back where we started. Except with a working machine. And an apparently missing Internet Explorer–easily cured by the fact it didn't touch Firefox. So, this little piece of crap lives another day, giving me time to complete the downloads I'd like to complete, and possibly email myself the crap I wanna get off this machine–I don't plan on keeping this for much longer, since I can get a faster laptop for cheap, even if this thing lasts another 4 years. And with the new email setup now, prompted largely by the near catastrophy I just narrowly avoided, I can actually do that and not run the risk of not being able to pick it up on the other computer–which, for the curious, is now hooked up and just awaiting me to get around to installing the drivers. What can I say? Vista lasted about a minute and a half before the format process kicked in. But that's in another entry when I don't feel quite so geeky and want to. This one's rambling on long enough about things probably only understood by about 2.5 people, with the rest going "Zuh?!?!?!". So now, I go do stuff. Like… clean. Or sleep. Or laundry. Or watch one of the CSI eppisodes I can now access again, thanks to a now fully functioning external HD. Hm. The possibilities are endless. Should they feel that way on a 4-year-old machine that only barely meets the minimum specs?
Toskala, I had such high hopes for you. But already, you're making me wonder if perhaps Cujo was our last attempt at an honest to goodness playoff run. Don't do that. But least of all… don't screw us out of a win 3 minutes into the bloody first bloody period. Against a goalie we should have traded 2 years ago, even. Folks, the first game's against the Sens. And if anyone's curious on my feeling about the Sens, stop. That should outline it enough for you. If it doesn't… well… will this? So… yes. We need goaltending. Not soft goals that kill the game before the 5 minute mark. Boy, you had better be godlike when the season starts. Godlike. Rar! Or… something. Okay I'm done.
The last time calls came at me this rapid fire, I was just starting here. On the day shift. In the middle of freaking January. Oh. My. Loving. Lord. Whoever said I don't keep busy… uh, doesn't know me. Or this company. I love it. Time doesn't go by quite so draggingly slowly–hence, you know, the lack of random pieces of amusement posted on here–when I'm up to my eyeballs in calls. Suh. Weet. And now, I get back to being up to my eyeballs in calls. Yay working in tech support!
You don't know this person? That's okay, here's some junkmail.
Moron. Of. The. Year. Canada Post has given me reason to conduct all my business via email. A new policy has been introduced, with no shortage of resistance, that pretty much means any junkmail that shows up there, whether the person it's intended for or not actually lives there. Brilliance unmatched. Really. Let's just legalise spam by the can over here. Only in the land of ice and snow…
And it doesn't know me at all. I'm not abusive… but hey, if you deserve to get knocked around a little I'm not above it. Just piss off my family and we'll see.
And the Leafs hit the ice officially! Yay 'n such! Lemme see… it's on a Monday, according to my only slightly trusty MS Outlook calendar. which… means I don't have to call in sick for the first game of the year. Which… means I won't have to miss the first game of the year. Which… is really, really, uber freaking awesomeness in a box. And such. Gawd, I feel about 15 years younger. I should stop… but I dun wanna.
It took a university level student to come up with a study that pretty much advertises the obvious. If gas prices go up, people won't drive as much, and will lose weight. yay obvious! Give this man a Captain Obvious award! Oh, wait… I guess we should actually see this as a scientific fact now, eh? Nothing to do with common sense? Oh–it's the US. As I've said many a time… common sense is a foreign idea to the US. And, like anything foreign, it's either ignored, laughed at, walked on, or deported. Hey, what's it doing on TV in Canada then? I worry for thee, Canada. I thought the worst was already here when Harper was elected. Oh, le sigh. I'd move to britain but I'd probably find something over there to mock.
T Hos lifts the highschooler ban, highschools become babysitters?
If I were still in highschool, I'd probably be given a bit more reason not to be. Now, I think I'll start planning my coffee runs based on how close the Tims is to the local highschools. A tim Hortons restaurant made the rather smart decision to force highschool students to buy their shit, and get the hell out of the way so people that matter can actually enjoy their coffee/lunch/breakfast in peace without having to fight with a potential dropout who'd rather hang out at Tims than go to class for a table. Of course, then they went and reversed that decision, proving anyone will cave if enough people cry about it. Of course, now the highschool who's students were crying about the ban has decided to stick its staff in there over the lunch hour to keep the kids from being proper terrors. So basicly, I give it a week and they'll go terrorise and subsequently be banned from the local McDonalds. But at least they'll keep their relationship with Tims squeeky clean. Which is really all that matters, right? When I was in highschool, I went to the Subway halfway across town because the highschool irritated me. with this rather… idiotic decision, I wouldn't blame anyone for avoiding Tim Hortons like the plague now, just for the simple fact of it'd feel like an extension of the highschool. Which I, personally, was trying to avoid. But that being said, even now, not being in highschool, I'll avoid that place if ever I find myself in this particular area, just based on the fact that… uh, well, duh–I'm not in highschool. So why would I bother going to some place where it's being monitored by the highschool staff? What, pray tell, if you so kindly could, would be the point in that? Oh–right, there is none. Go back to banning the highschoolers. Make it a chain-wide ban. It's good for business. Trust me.
Which, roughly translated, means… absolutely jack for me. Yay workin' for the man! One of these days, I'll work for me. One of these days. Possibly. Nah, too much work. Just hit me up with another bonus or 6.
… Until I get to go home. Not that I don't like it here–hell, it's awesome. But… well, this cold I thought I'd kicked on the weekend? Yeah. It's back. And it's got revenge on its mind. What a royal bastard it is. So I'm sitting here, on my lunch break, trying very hard to stay awake and getting nowhere. If we go through another of those dead periods like we did for… oh… most of last night, I'll start to question my ability to actually stay awake. So far, though, at least I've managed to avoid becoming a walking sneeze fest. Now, I just need to get set up for this year's anti-winter campaign. Hopefully I stop being stuffy before I have to get out the big stick. Okay, lunch break almost over. Have things to attempt to get done before I leave. ending random ramblings now.
Starting the night off right, because it probably won't stay that way. Oh, and because I haven't done one of these in forever.
You Are Not Prejudiced
Not only are you color blind, but you're also ethnicity blind, gender blind, and sexual orientation blind.
You don't judge someone until you truly know them. And even then, you're probably reluctant to judge.
You try to treat everyone equally. Everyone has a fair chance with you.
Good job - there's not a prejudiced bone in your body.
Specifics will come out when I see exactly how much of my bonus actually makes it to my bank account, but at the moment, if it's as much as I'm thinking… there could be some fun being had here. Pay off computer type fun, perhaps. Unless it conveniently stops working. Oh, wait… it already has. Well, maybe the replacement computer will do better. Ah, who cares? I got bonus!
Y'know, I don't like repeatedly asking questions made mandatory by the US either, and I live in Canada. But I wouldn't be quite going to these lengths to protest it. My opinion on the US's terrorism policies and whether or not Canada should be in line with them doesn't really matter here–not that they aren't already made quite known or anything. Now, it's about breaking the law. Y'see, yes, it's a crackpot paranoia tactic now. But they've made it law to the point where people can lose their jobs, and companies can be shut down for not following it. so, if it means I get a paycheck every second Friday, I'll jump through Bush's hoops a couple dozen times a day, and listen to people get irritated about it. Like any good law abiding citizen working for any good law abiding corporation. Do I agree with it? read the above link and you'll probably draw your own conclusions on that one. But, they're there, they're probably not going anywhere, and wining about it won't change that. Hm… I wonder, did the physicist decide to go and do business with HP instead? Bet they do the same thing. If they're still in business, they should be. Not that I haven't seen enough questionable tactics in this company, never mind others, to know not everyone will be following that… but… eh, it's not my ass. Hm. I should have taken more than 3 calls tonight. this is getting disturbing.
Of course, when you do as much in 2 weeks as I've somehow managed to do in *this* 2 weeks, yeah… it's long enough with no updates. Let's see… where best to start. Vell, I could always start with the usual, easy routine of what had me so busy that I couldn't post to the thing. but… well, that'd take up all of about a sentence. 'Cuz, well, when the highlight of your little bit of time away is getting absolutely soked beyond all repair at the ex, there's not that much of an essay to be written about it. Not that it wasn't still fun–anything that results in making Trish's poor husband nearly lose it is entertainment for me. I'm sorry, was that… um, too mean? Ah well, whatcha gonna do? I'm gonna… well, I guess I'm gonna sit here at my desk and wait for a call. That's what I'm gonna do. And… curse the people for whom I work for stiffing me on a computer. Y'see, I took one of these, customised the absolute hell out of it, threw in a few fancy toys just so I have something to do when I'm bored, and had it shipped to my apartment. Where it promptly wouldn't turn on. I figured it'd be the mobo or power supply, but… eh, I got the max on warranty, so I was gonna use it to the fullest. fortunately mister probably outsourced technician from India agreed with me, so it got set up for a return real fast. And will be returned in… about… um… oh, 5-10 days. Not that it bothers me all that much; everything else works. It's currently sitting in my room right now, hooked up to my ever faithful but still slowly dying laptop. Which makes it sound a whole hell of a lot meaner than it actually is. Not that it wasn't mean when I got it… but… eh, that was like 3-4 years ago. It's a kitten now, in comparison to the potential monsterness of some fo today's systems. and the monsterness of the one currently, um, not working. Stupid computers. If it wasn't for the fact their breaking keeps me employed… okay, I'm over it. And now back to our regularly scheduled taking of calls. Which… just for the record, I haven't actually done since I got off lunch. Granted that was 10 minutes ago. But still. When I get home, and if I don't forget, I have politically motivated pictures to display. And a picture that should have been a bit more threatening than it actually is. Not that I'd know anything about picture quality–I'm going by the opinion of the girl holding the camera. Surprisingly, I'll trust her opinion on a lot of things before most people's. Setting myself up for difficulties? We shall see. Granted she *is* family, but so far… she and I are proving to be exceptions to the family rule. In just about every category. They hate it. I love it. It's all good. And… that's why they hardly call me. But, y'know, you don't hear me complaining about that one. If you ever do, please shoot me.
