I graduated highschool for a reason, and it wasn't to go to college.
February 29, 2008
Tool outages are your friend.
Particularly when they mean you've only had to troubleshoot and actually fix maybe 2 or 3 calls all freakin' day, and it's now 2:30 in the afternoon. Ladies and gents, somebody up there loves me, methinks.
As I told the whacky bus driver this morning–yes, that one was behind the wheel again–it's minus too damn cold outside. I heard in the neighbourhood of -23. I don't care. It's still minus too damn cold. I wanna go back home and to bed. Because bed is awesomely good.
Fixing apple's. What's worse than fixing Apple's mistakes? Fixing that which they already know about. For the record, I never want to get that involved with anything Apple related again. And this from a guy who's got a well documented hatred of Microsoft. But at least their software doesn't break everything else when you're installing a supposedly updated version. Good job, dipsticks.
A few months back, they started making it mandatory in Ottawa that the bus drivers call out the stops as they come to them. Most of them do so, and the others probably won't be working there for very long. The driver I was stuck with this morning though, oh my. There's calling out the bus stops, and there's having way too much freakin' fun with a microphone. He was doing entirely the latter. I think, now that I actually have time to think about it, I might have seen him on YouTube…
And yet, Microsoft's status site says it's all stable.
Now that's a cover up for anyone who doesn't happen to bother reading the local news. I probably shouldn't be irritated about it–well, or using MSN messenger either for that matter, given my already stated opinion of Microsoft. But I do. So this morning I thought I'd jump online and see what was going on. Except it was apparently down. Not that Microsoft's status page said so. According to that, all systems were stable. Well, things that get media attention are obviously true, or so I'll keep telling myself, so does the fact that CTV has escentially told us otherwise change Microsoft's opinion? Nope.
This page will be updated when information becomes available.
.NET Messenger Service All systems are stable and running.
The error message on my screen that says it's temporarily unavailable says otherwise, but thanks for coming out. Ladies and gentlemen, corporate snow job at work. Just thought it deserved mentioning. Because I do that when people and companies are morons.
Is today the national day of malware or something?
Only explanation I can think of for the reason every call, except maybe 1 or 2, has been a badly messed up system in desperate need of a serious cleaning. If I really wanted to play dirty, I could probably break the single-person record for amount of times reinstalling Windows in a typical day at the office. Ah well, on the bright side, by the time I get off lunch I'll only have maybe 2 hours left. I can drag a call or few out long enough to cover it I'm sure…
I think Google may have had a momentary laps. A Dell technician in India has, apparently, stumbled across this entry while looking for a solution to one of I'm sure a meriad of Sympatico related problems. Particularly surrounding Windows Mail. Now, uh, don't get me wrong–I like the attention, but that's got nothing to do with that particular entry. Oops. Ah well, hopefully it's the same idiot I was talking to shortly before writing that entry. Now there's open feedback for ya.
It's a sad, sad day when you work for a computer company, doing tech support, and your computer goes on the blink. Mine's already developed this nasty habbit of restarting for no real apparent reason. And now while making someone pay me to fix their brokenness, my computer started to again display its brokenness by half freezing up on me all over the place. There was much of the suckitude. I wonder if they'll let me bring in the beast from home. At least I know that one works.
So apparently they've gotten smart and blocked all the good web to IM services out there. I didn't want a way to kill a lunch hour anyway. Anyone have an alternative to things like meebo, MSN's web messenger, ebudy and… um, all those? Will pay in… um, praise. 'Cuz that's all I gots.
I have no idea what's normal anyway. But I don't think you can put much faith in a quiz who's questions only ever have 2 answers. It's a 50/50 thing. I don't do well with 50/50. I don't do well with normal either. I blame anyone who isn't me.
Very rarely will I make 2 work related posts in one day. Not because I don't like my job, but because I'm too lazy. But today–oh, today… there are 23 people currently waiting on hold. One of them, the one I'll probably get to talk to when my break ends, has been waiting for almost 20 minutes already. And it's not even noon yet…
Another Friday morning which feels more like a Tuesday morning. And another freakishly cold morning. Thank you wind chill for making -12 roughly translate to -19. And now you can go right to hell. And now they're threatening me with snow. I thought I evicted you yesterday? I'll say again, winter sucks.
Well, actually, I despise Microsoft. But Office 2007 for specific reasons. Primarily, it should not take me, who knows his way pretty much around Office products for the most part like the back of my hand, an hour and a half to figure out where the hell they put this or that setting that in the end it takes me 30 seconds or less to change. Nor should it stick document templates in easily corruptable files that it takes a small army to locate. And also takes 30 seconds to fix (read: delete). Microsoft, you suck. That is all.
Thanks largely to the glory that is the ability to check on the weather network, it has been established that, by this time next week, we could very well be seeing a definite increase in the outside temperature. And all I can say is it's about bloody well time. Winter, I love ya, but only until December 26th. After that, now you're just overstaying your welcome. By a long shot. Bring on the 30 degree temperatures and the excuses to book off a week's vacation. Yeehaw! I'm too enthusiastic about this. I blame the fact that I'm at work, and this is my monday, and I'm not looking forward to actually starting in half an hour–it's gonna be busy as hell…
This kid trumps any 2 of yours. And she's not even related to me.
Girl's writings opening new window on autism. And all I have to say on this is… wow. For once, that's the only opinion I can offer. Be afraid. But seriously–the kid's 13. She started doing this, according to the article, when she was 10. I dunno about you, but any 10-year-old kid I've ever met can't be bothered to sit at a computer for more than 30 seconds unless they're getting the chance to blow the crap out of something. I mean, yeah neither can she, but at least there's a reason for that. This is one of those occasions where I kinda wish the crap going on in Iraq wasn't the only thing that gets a follow-up from CTV. Kid's practically half my age and already she's gone and proven she's twice as smart as me. Props to her parents, too–it's way, and I do mean way, too easy to just give up, say I quit, and let the system take care of the kid. I used to go to a school for the blind, and by about my third or fourth year there, I saw an increasing number of people there who *may* have been blind or visually impaired, but who had multiple of other issues going on and their parents, I swear, just decided "Hey, that place'll take them off our hands. Away they go.". Good on you for actually standing up and taking control of the situation. I just hope all the media attention that story's gonna get you guys doesn't add to what I imagine is already a bit of an occasionally stressful time. Either way, go Carly go! And if by some freak accident someone who knows her stumbles across this tiny yet very opinionated blog and wants to give her a place to tell her own story, just get in touch with me. I've got lots of space I'm not using, and I'd love to put some of it into an effort like that. And hey, you fools at CTV, follow up on it a little will ya? Iraq can take a week off.
Update:
Someone at the CTV is apparently listening. A little over 24 hours after I saw this article, they did follow up. Awesomeness. And the offer I made in reference to that follow-up still stands. See? I'm not entirely cruel–just when it's deserved.
I just spent the better part of 3 hours on a spyware call. That ended up pretty much being nailed, except for a lingering Windows Installer issue. Nothing I tried was working, and even the fix I ended up settling on was a little iffy at best. If she does end up calling back, I won't be surprised. I will, however, bet it'll end in a reformat. Sometimes, I love this job. And sometimes, I think it'd be much simpler to just blame the computer manufacturer. Unfortunately, we *are* the computer manufacturer. Someone tell me how I messed that up…
I made the stupid mistake back in December of showing up to work when I had plenty of warning about a "significant" snow storm that later turned out to be hell, blanketed in white crap. This morning, Environment Canada has released a statement about two potential major storms, one from Alberta and one from Texas, that will quite probably merge and become yet another "significant" snow storm. Now, I don't have a problem with winter–in fact, I rather enjoy it for the most part. Just… not on days when I have to work, and not on a Sunday when it's already gonna be pushing the limits of an hour and a half getting to work. I'm rather tempted, in fact… very tempted, to just schedule Sunday and Monday off. Mother nature, you tend to give me a rather nifty headache…
This collective duh moment brought to you by morons inc.
Someone else is starting to clue into the whole common sense thing. Not really a new fad, folks. Pot may impair mental functions of MS patients. Gee, ya think? If the media says it, I suppose it must be true. So now can we embarrass the royal hell out of those who say otherwise? Ah who cares? I'll just do it anyway.
I've taken 1 call today. I've fixed 1 royally screwed up computer today. I deserve a quiz.
You Are An Exclamation Point
You are a bundle of… well, something.
You're often a bundle of joy, passion, or drama.
You're loud, brash, and outgoing. If you think it, you say it.
Definitely not the quiet type, you really don't keep a lot to yourself.
You're lively and inspiring. People love to be around your energy.
(But they do secretly worry that you'll spill their secrets without even realizing it.)
I've let this little conversation of ours go unhad for way too long, and it shows. Not only are we being hit with snow on average of every second day, but now you go and throw at us temperatures upwards of -18, *before* wind chill, on top of that? And a wapping -29 after? What ever I did to piss you off, you've just given me reason to do it twice over. Oh, yeah, and go ahead and drown us in snow tomorrow. I have the day off. I can freely bitch you out from the comfort of my own, very heated apartment. Ha and such.
Usually I wouldn't post this many work-related blog entries in a row, and definitely not *from* work, but in this case, I'll make an exception. There are 2 agents waiting for calls. I'm coming off break in 3 minutes. I am relieved. With 2 available, I should not be relieved. It's too busy here…
I'm back at work now. I'm off at 7:00 tonight, barring another 10.5 hour day. Uh, crap on a cracker? The hours I'm billing Dell for are gonna be bloody well insane…
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Ladies and gentlemen. When I left work yesterday, it was snowing like hell. There is more snow in Ottawa's forecast for today. Somebody up there is intent on pissing me off. And it's thinking about working.
The computer they have me working on at the office has developed a habbit of randomly and inexplicably restarting without warning. No error message, no blue screen, no notta. Just I'm in the middle of typing/reading/whatever, and then kerpoof. I bitched a little about that last night. And I'm still thinking about taking the bitching to our I/T folks and flat out giving them the option. Give me access to something as uber basic/simple/non-retarded as MSConfig and let me tell you what the hell's wrong with this thing. That way all you need to do is replace the faulty component I know exists, and then get out of my hair. I wish I could work in I/T…
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It has been decided. OC Transpo isn't *all* evil. I only took an hour and 15 minutes or so to get here today. An improvement, really, over a week ago. I'm… not quite to the point of irritated. Yet.
Review of Terminator: the Sarah Connor chronicles after 4 episodes: weee!
After the writers strike and the fact that that pretty much meant the end of CSI, Anne clued me into a new series that hadn't aired yet but was coming. That of course, being uh, this one. I made mention of it before, but that was kind of before I got my head fully wrapped around the goings on. Now that I've actually seen a bit more of it, I can form a basis of opinion on it. And that opinion, roughly summarized, is why the hell did it take them this long to come up with it? If you aren't or never were a terminator fan, the series will probably give you a killer headache. Unless you like drawn-out storylines, and then you might just want to watch the series in spite of it being a terminator one. It's definitely not something you can just kinda come into halfway through–the way they've set it up, you kinda have to know what's going on in the beginning in order to figure out where they are now. But if you can get enough of it to catch yourself up on what's happened so far, it becomes highly enjoyable. Or maybe I'm just all kinds of odd and crazy. That's a distinct possibility too. I'm a sucker for a halfway decent action movie/series. And for the most part, on an action versus storyline basis, the Terminator movies were pretty up there. And although this series is only 4 episodes old, I think it'll end up right up there, too. If the 1.5 of you who actually read this haven't gotten a chance to see the show and are curious, here's a trailer. At the least, give it a 5 minute look. Anyone who attempts to convince me it sucks without having at least having done that will receive little more than an Achmed style response. Thou hast been warned.
Update:
It took me until 10 minutes to 7 the next morning to figure out I fubared that trailer link. Fixeded. Sometimes, I'm an idiot.
Just about nothing scares me nowadays. I mean, hell, I live in a city where a guy could quite easily kick the royal crap out of you in broad daylight as though it wasn't broad daylight. But I was, well, just a tiny bit concerned when the guy I was getting a ride into work with on Wednesday called me up and his first question to me was, "So, are we still employed?". Of course, 5 minutes after we got there he got his walking papers, so I was understandably just a little uh oh. Dell ended up cancelling the building of a second buildinig here, and I seriously thought they were considering closing this one–they did, after all, just slam the door on the one in Edmonton. Apparently though, instead of that, they're just axing my department and shifting us all over to doing actual hardware related tech support. I hate hardware related tech support. There's no actual work involved in it. "Okay, try this. Didn't work, okay run this diagnostic. Did it go ding ding? Cool. I'll replace your hard drive now." As a girl my mom used to work with said, absolute crap on a cracker. Although, I suppose, it's still better than if I'd followed the periodic proddings and moved to Edmonton…
So this week's work routine started off as per usual at 7:00 or so on Wednesday. And… got very different after that. A guy I work with got shown the door due to cost cutting measures, or so that's what the rumor mill says anyway. So as of that afternoon, I'm back making regular use of Ottawa's ever so very lovely transit system. So yesterday, I get on in the morning as I suspect I'll be doing for the foreseeable future, and the bus I take to actually get me to work just so happens to be driven by one of the older gentlemen on staff. Which, okay, I'm all for that. I mean, hell, I like the idea in Ontario that you can actually keep right on working 'til you damn well don't wanna. But in certain cases, like yesterday morning… he really should have not wanted to. Harsh-ish? Yeah quite probably. But true. So I catch his bus at 6:00 yesterday morning. It's a pretty straight forward route–through the busy part of Kanata, down a couple back roads, loop around and come back up pretty much up the street from where I work. So my plan was to get off at the corner and just walk from there to work. It wasn't *too* freezing cold yesterday, so I could get away with it. Well, if the moron didn't flat out miss my stop. So rather than be half an hour early for work, I ended up being rather half an hour late. And that's not one of those buses where you can just get off at some random stop and catch one going the opposite direction in 5-10 minutes. There's one bus an hour, it goes one direction, and if you miss where you have to get off, you get to go around again. So I got to go around again. And because it was his last run on that route, I got to go back to the original stop where he picked me up from, call my boss to tell him I'd be late, and hop *another* bus to work. Pretty pretty. But not really. And then coming home after work, I had the pleasure of being driven home by another senior citizen. Who also missed my stop going back. That one, at least, decided it'd be better if he just dropped me off at the halfway point so I wouldn't have as long to wait to catch the second one I need. So I still didn't get home too insanely late last night, all things considered. Pissed me right off though, for sure. And of course this morning, senior citizen number 1 was behind the wheel again when I caught that bus, so to say the least, I wasn't exactly bursting with confidence. But, um, I'm here. And I was here on time this morning. And I didn't kill anyone. But I'm not all that thrilled about the prospect of the return trip. And people might die on that one.
