My Life is A Drama Free Zone

I didn't want to see spring until August anyway.

We got hammered good with a freezing rain storm on Monday. We got absolutely dumped by snow on Wednesday. Upwards of 30 CM in town, here. And we're expecting a crapload more over the next day or so.

A STORM IS CURRENTLY OVER WEST VIRGINIA THIS MORNING AND WILL PUSH
NORTHWARD TODAY GIVING SIGNIFICANT SNOW TO MOST OF SOUTHERN ONTARIO.

THE FIRST ROUND BEGAN FRIDAY MORNING OVER AREAS NORTH OF THE LOWER

GREAT LAKES AND LAST EVENING ACROSS EASTERN ONTARIO AND SKI COUNTRY.

THE NIAGARA PENINSULA AND OTTAWA HAVE ALREADY RECEIVED NEAR 20

CENTIMETRES AS OF 9 AM. THE SECOND ROUND OF HEAVY SNOWFALL IS NOW

RAPIDLY SPREADING ACROSS THE REGIONS. KEEP IN MIND THAT THE ENTIRE

SNOWFALL DURATION WILL BE ABOUT 36 HOURS BUT THE HEAVIEST SNOW WILL

BE THIS AFTERNOON INTO THIS EVENING.

STORM TOTALS WILL LIKELY BE NEAR 30 CENTIMETRES ALONG AND EAST OF A

LINE FROM LONDON TO LAKE SIMCOE THEN TO PETAWAWA. THERE IS POTENTIAL

FOR 40 TO 50 CENTIMETRES OF SNOW FROM THE NIAGARA PENINSULA THROUGH

TRENTON TO OTTAWA BY THE TIME THIS STORM SYSTEM MOVES OUT.

Thank god I don't have to shovel the crap, but still. Methinks someone really, really hates me…

What's worse than fixing Microsoft's mistakes?

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.

Oh nos!

Terminator wasn't kidding! Roughly translated: dood, step away from the crack pipe.

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…

Now there's a random search woops.

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.

My computer sucks...

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.

If you're stuck on hold, I'm sorry.

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…

Baby, it's cold outside.

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.

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.

Winter, we need to talk.

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.

I left work nearly 12 hours ago.

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.

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Can someone please tell me, just once, why it is the Writers Guild of America was holding out and being a bunch of royal panzies for the sake of higher royalties to have material streamed over the internet? Are they, perhaps, not aware that if the TV stations weren't doing it, some other generous soul with a nack for getting his hands on free content–not me, RIAA/MPAA, relax–would just do it instead? I mean, not that I haven't thought about it. But really, if that's the only reason they're striking, which is sort of what the article in question's leading me to believe, it is making me contemplate perhaps watching significantly less actual TV content than I already do. Realisticly, I only have a TV right now so I can watch hockey and/or baseball. And since my team's biting the suckitude bullet something fierce, it's going to end up just being baseball. At least this year. And hey, that I can probably get online, too!

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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…

*****************

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.

So yesterday was apparently senior citizens' day?

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.

Is this the international day of dialup?

I just got finished the third call in a row I could do something with wherein the customer's on dialup. That combined with the fact I'm not the only one here who's got that problem makes me think every year or so, there is an international dialup day. And today is apparently it. I wanna go home…

Mother nature doth hate me.

Why else would, out of 3 days I had off, it picked the 4th day when I work to decide there's going to be a freezing rain and flash freeze warning? Winter, you and I haven't had that long and drawn out conversation yet. Does this have to be the start of it?

And this is why I won't say no to a ride to work.

Ottawa city bus kills 3. They say alcohol was a fctor. I say it still would have been a long night for anyone involved. Not pretty when one has to work the next day. In fact, not pretty… in general. As if OC Transpo doesn't have quite the brilliant reputation already. I'm so glad I'm getting a ride home tonight. Unless he leaves sick…

Is it Sunday yet?

The calendar says no, but it's lied to me before. I've been back to work for a grand total of a week, and already I'd kill for a week off. It's been *that* busy this week. Add to that the fact that I've actually been making a conscious effort to semi-keep up with the cleaning of my tiny little place, and not just leaving it all for a day off, and I've been pretty busy. Lazy is the preference, so you can probably guess at my state of mind right about now and not be out somewhere in left field. Right field, maybe. I'm just now getting used to the idea of my weekends being Monday and Tuesday, and now we're talking about shifts changing again. So I'll probably wind up with some funky thing like Wednesday and Thursday being the new weekend. Well, as long as I'm not doing the 2:00 to 11:00 thing again, I'll go for it willingly. I did that when I first got out of training–ironicly, it was just about this time last year. Actually, almost exactly this time last year. I won't willingly do it again unless there's, like, no other option. It interferes with the roleplay. And some days, particularly after lengthy stretches of time with the family, my roleplay is the difference between a murderous rage and a nervous twitch. It would be unwise to take such a thing away from me. *rubs hands together*

I hate to say I told you so, but...

Well, okay, so I don't. And I did. There's no real such thing as "medicinal marijuana", there never was, and there never will be. And this is only really proven by a supreme court decision that, really, should never have had to happen. But, thank you again, Steven Harper, for reminding me why it is I believe you should be taken out back, tied to a tree next to George Bush, and shot. According to this article, users of "medicinal marijuana" can now actually pick their own grower. Now, how in the hell they intend to enforce something like that in a way that the government can still have its fingers all over it is beyond me, but to me, it sounds an aweful lot like "Buy from whoever you want, and have fun doing it.". Which, okay, I can see the point of it from a constitutional point of view, but still–bad, bad move. Never mind stupid, stupid move. Forever ago, I went on my own mini rant on the subject, after a discussion on a blindness related mailing list I'm a part of–the email that prompted that one was also quoted in the linked entry. I won't just plain up and say it's ridiculous–primarily because really, if you have half a brain, you don't need me to say it. But from the brief look at the outlines points in the judge's ruling, it very much does sound like a choose your dealer type of situation. And I still maintain the opinion that, next to the entire decision to actually allow the idea of medicinal marijuana, this is quite possibly *the* worst decision our dear court system could come up with. It makes me cringe to say it, but I really hope the government decides to appeal this one. For a change, I actually like their idea better. Which… mostly means I dislike it less. But, I suppose if I had to pick between two crappy poker hands…

I should not be allowed to think before 9, ever again.

Bad things happen. For example, yesterday. I went to work, which ordinarily wouldn't be all that big a deal. Except I saw the exact same warning I posted about yesterday, in preliminary form, on Saturday. I guess I should have got the hint when the first three words of the warning are "near crippling snowstorm", but again, shouldn't be allowed to think before 9. So I went into work yesterday morning. And by about noon, we were talking about closing the office. So yes, I'm an idiot. But I survived. And now, I get to take down a list of names of folks I get to send emails to wondering exactly what crack they were on when they decided,, nah… it's not gonna snow up here. You wimps can go to work. Yeah, about that. I think next time I'll just preemptively book the day off. Thanks for a whole load of absolutely nothing, jackasses. You're lucky I happen to like my job.

This is where I check out.

I have no idea why I think of about 3/4 of the things I do. But apparently some random part of me finds it amusing. I will seak help immediately.

*****************

Winter storm warning for: City of Ottawa">
Someone tell me they can see why I seriously thought about the possibility of not going to work today. Although granted, the predictions were worse yesterday. It's still nothing anyone should ever have to be out in, never mind have to go to work in. Bleh.

*****************

I think I'm managing to come down with my first winter cold. And a week before Christmas. Go me. At this rate I should be half dead by new years.

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I thought we were supposed to suck this year? The team I'm beginning to love to hate has started pulling themselves together. And I was just beginning to accept another season of golf…

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Conrad Black officially makes less than me. According to this storry (thank you, CTV), he'll be making 12 cents an hour in prison. See, I'd complain, but what expenses has he got there? His food and housing's paid for. Besides, he made enough money breaking the law, he can afford to lose some following it.

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If anyone ever has to know why it is I absolutely despise vista, just try and set up file/printer sharing. You will pull your hair out. I nearly wanted to… thank god today's my Friday. Oh. My. Lord. Good thing I'm not easy to piss off.

*****************

Another spyware call. Another bloody mac user/windows newbie. Wonder how long I can drag this call out before people start pointing fingers at me. Anyone taking bets?

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And lastly, mother nature, please and thank you kindly, stop it with the freakin' white stuff. It's bad enough I get to freeze my ass off on the way to work. Again, bleh. Nature sucks.

Only doing this job...

… can you still sit here on a Saturday morning, working, and still watch Saturday morning TV. Unfortunately you have absolutely no say in what's on. This guy's 13 or 14-year-old daughter's sitting there watching Power Rangers, for instance. And all I can say is my god, I wish her father had the remote controll.

Why I don't go by 'Jim'.

My father and I both have the same name. So to make it less of a headache on both of us, he goes by Jim, and I go by James. And where the legal, given name is required, one of us will usually stick our middle initial in there as well–which, admitedly, can also be problematic given as that's also the same. In 24 years, I've never willingly answered to Jim–willingly, of course, meaning that there are always those few people who just don't really care either way and call me whatever comes to mind. So when I got a phone call this morning asking for 'Jim', I was admitedly a little confused/irritated. He asked for him by last name, too, so sure, I figured it was going to be for either me or my father–if it's for the latter they pulled the number out of the wrong phone book. I still have no idea who this guy is, and then he mentions that I did a job for him a while back on behalf of the ministry of labour. By this time I've gone from general curiosity to "Zuh?". Okay, so now he's not looking for me *or* my father. Now how do we get him out of *that* awkward situation? worst of it is, he called from a Toronto number, so he just paid Bell Canada some coin to be told to try again. I almost felt sorry for the guy, but… then I figured, I needed some amusement. And that was it. I gotta get a life…

Oh. My. Lord.

I don't know whether to be extatic or frightened. So I'm a little of both instead. There was, at one point this afternoon, 63 people available to take calls. Even now, less than 5 minutes later, there still sits 54 available. If I'm lucky, I'll take *maybe* one call before I have to check out. Lovin' it.

'Crunch'? My parking lot does not 'crunch'.

At least, it sure didn't yesterday. But apparently, someone thought they'd be funny and dump a whole crapload of white stuff on it this morning. And in my half-asleep-ness as I usually am, the fact that it was late November didn't immediately register–so I was, understandably, a tiny bit confused when normally solid ground went crunch. Of course, when I was finally 3/4 awake–thank you, colder than hell snow that still has yet to let up–I just had to wonder if, perhaps, we hadn't already had this discussion at least once. Of course, then the trusty archive of my various random ramblings and rantings that is my blog reasures me that, indeed, we have. At which point, of course, I shall now point out yet again, my parking lot should not go crunch. At least not until December. Or until I find some vacation time. Both applies and either would be awesome!

My coworkers are evil!

A direct conversation in an employee only chatroom not 5 minutes ago.

Evil Coworker: it's snowing, folks Me: bite your tongue. i gotta walk in that. Evil Coworker: join the club

Snow. *Before* I have time to go home and sleep. Wicked evil cruel. People like that should be shot. Twice. In both knees.

So this morning. Hella freezing. Why?

That pretty much summarizes it. Yesterday, it was bordering on springlike weather. At least to the point where I thought about taking 5 minutes before the bus came and throwing my jacket back inside. This morning? Freaking, cold. I walk out my back door and across the parking lot to where they've stashed my bus stop, and I wanna turn around and grab a coffee. It royally, and painfully, sucked! And it's not about to suck any less, if the weather netework's got anything to say about it. That's it, I'm calling in sick tomorrow. And every day until it goes above freezing. Winter should be illegal. The cold doesn't bother me usually, except when I have to stand in it for upwards of 20 minutes between buses. *Then* it bothers me just a bit. And *then* I get bitchy. Or maybe it's just that then I have a reason to. Same difference.

You know what they say about rules...

A 23-year-old college student who got told she couldn't wear a revealing outfit aboard Southwest Airlines sure knows. She went and put even less on Playboy. Just goes to prove, tell someone they can't, and they'll just make it worse. Anyone who told these people negative reinforcement works should probably have been shot. On the bright side, it gave me something to read while on this call…

Would you pay to tube?

Techdirt saves me from being completely and totally bored out of my frickin frackin mind! Talk of the prospect of paying for YouTube content has, quite possibly again, made its presence known. And to this, I can only say… um, why? If it's on YouTube, it's because people don't *want* advertisements. Or maybe that's just my messed up opinion–that's a possibility, too! I know fer sure I'd avoid it like the plague if they stuck ads up there. Hell, I might be tempted to launch my own video site. Or at least get all my hillarity from BitTorrent. Kinda like I already do most of my TV watching. Oops, did I say that outloud? Quick, call the MPAA–lock me away before my horrible horrible influence spreads! Too late.

Schedule my lunch at 10:30, will you? I'll show you...

Ha. Got this call at 10:25 or so, and have so far managed to streetch it out to 11:00. Hopefully we can hit closer to 11:30… y'know, the actual lunch hour. And then I'll only have 3.5 hours left of my shift. Suh. Weet. Who says I don't know what I'm doing?

Maybe I live on the wrong side of the border to understand, but...

Is it really worth giving someone a detension and getting their parents involved just for hugging someone goodbye? I know it's been a while since I was in highschool, but so far as I know that was still acceptible. Yes? No? Maybe so? Does someone living in the US want to maybe correct this apparently misguided young man? Any volunteers?

When I bought it, it was warm.

Of course, I bought my coffee at 6:30 this morning. And I ended up not finishing the thing until 10:15, when I could actually get off the phone long enough. I've taken a grand total of 2 calls so far, and one of those ruined a perfectly good cup of coffee. Thanks loads, asshole. I didn't want to wake up this morning anyway. Ah well, maybe this half-empty can of coke I tossed in with my lunch'll do it…

Sidenote: who the hell scheduled a lunch break for 10:30 in the morning? I know I've been here since 7, but come on. It's bad enough that it's an hour. Does it really also have to be early?

Wherein my opinion of relying on other people gets more confirmation it doesn't need.

So remember when I was looking forward to the day shift because I could catch the decent buses going to and from work? Well apparently, they neglected to make that the case on Saturdays. Now, Sundays is understandable–bus service sucks on a good day then anyway. But I distinctly recall seeing that there was a bus running this morning, at the usual 5:20 or 5:21 time slot, just as it did on a normal day. So, silly little me goes out and freezes his ass off waiting for said bus to show up. 5:45 gets here, and… yup, still no bus. Now, ordinarily I wouldn't particularly care–just go to the next stop and catch another bus that's heading in the same general direction, and I'll meet up with my transfer on the other end. Except the only other bus running that early? One that leaves at… you guessed it, 5:46 in the morning. And that particular bus stop is a 20 minute walk from my house, and from the stop I was currently standing at-. 25 if I decided I couldn't be bothered to cut through my building to get there–it's freezing cold. Yeah freaking right. So thanks to OC Transpo misinforming me, my shift was a writeoff before I got out the door. The end result? A phone call in sick, an explanation to my manager of all of 4 days that I did not, in fact, decide to take a Saturday off whether I had one or not, and… I get to enjoy an unplanned Saturday off. Which, okay, can't complain about that. But it would have been nice to have actually planned that unplanned Saturday off, rather than OC Transpo deciding that I didn't want to go to work anyway. Well, I guess on the bright side, I can get some housework done around here. Eventually. Meaning… just as soon as I figure out whether or not I want to go grab a couple more hours' sleep. It's not like I don't have the option now.

Put a wall around Quebec. Then fill it with water.

Or at least put a wall around it. Mayhap then the separatist movement will be content. It's apparently not good enough, after all, when someone who isn't even from Canada and has already learned english, and *only* came to Canada to play hockey, doesn't speak french. Sacreligious, I'm tellin ya! What ever will we do about it? Oh, I know, let's throw the world's biggest hissy fit and further prove you're deserving of the moron of the year 2008 award! I've said it once, twice, 3 times before–the sooner Quebec goes buh bye, the better. I have no problem whatsoever with people from Quebec. Or French-speaking people in general. I do, however, have a problem with the holier than thou attitude certain groups in Quebec like to adopt. News flash, folks–thou art not holy. You are not the exception to the rule. If you would like to continue believing you are, you may walk thyself off the nearest cliff. And thank you for trying to screw with my game. even if it isn't my team.

Where's my invitation to the Britney pity party?

You know she's getting exactly what she's after when now she's got a church pretty much begging for its members to send her love during her supposedly troubled period. Keeping in mind, of course, it's a troubled period she brought on herself. This is why I have to laugh at churches from time to time–they make her out like some fallen angel, some innocent thing who's just lost her way. News flash, folks–she was never all that innocent to begin with, nor was she ever that bright to begin with. And now she gets to realize, guess what–people thought you were just another teenaged drama queen in the beginning, and now you're proving it. Good job, moron of the year.

I gotta have a bit of a laugh at the comparison the priest at this church draws, though.

If she were your next-door neighbor in the same situation without the money and success, wouldn't you care about her problems? Wouldn't you pray for her and offer her support and encouragement?

Nope, not really. I wouldn't offer her or loan her squat, to be blatantly honest–I'd be very likely to either have it not returned or have it completely and totally wasted. I like to think I can get along with just about anyone. But not people who so openly make themselves out to be complete and total idiots, and then still manage to draw people's pity based solely on the fact they used to be famous and a somewhat not all that horrible singer. I saw it coming, and I can't say she didn't deserve it. Hey, maybe next time her and Paris can be cell mates…

Wake me up when it's over, m'kay?

They expect me to be in training until 2, and then in a meeting 'til 4. Which means by the time I take my first phone call, it could be 5. This is gonna make for one hell of a long night…

What a horrible fan am I.

I promised I'd blog more about my hockey team, then promptly fell off the wagon for all of 2 games. I should really make up for that–for the record, they were games in which we both got crushed and did the crushing, so at least I'm missing games on both sides of the equasion. O'course, I'd of probably remembered to write about the thing if I were at home for 'em. Sometimes, I wonder why I ended up working nights. But then, that only lasts long enough for me to catch the morning bus home, at which point I clue in–oh yeah, getting off at 12:30 when the last bus shows up at 12 pisses me off. A moron sometimes, I am. It's what gives me the right to call other people morons. Which anyone who knows me will know I do frequently–and usually with good reason. Just… not necessarily a good reason which I'll admit to. Unless asked. Then all bets are off. Speaking of off… I should be off sleeping. Or something. Other than rambling senselessly. But I'm *good* at rambling senselessly. I have to work tonight–dammit to hell. Sleep wins. At least 'til 2. This random collection of what in creation's inside my head brought to you by way too many calls taken in one night. If I got paid by the call, I could retire in 6 months.

Can we vote for a law against morons in power now?

And they wonder why people don't speak up when shit happens. The Western University of Oregon, in a brilliant act of absolute unrivaled genius, came about *that* close to expelling a student for violating one of the university's policies. And, for the record, it was a policy that basicly said if a student was found to have accessed confidencial information that was *accidentally* left in a publicly accessible area of the network, the student would be responsible for it and thus have to take the fall. Now, keep in mind the only reason he was known to actually have the information was because he reported it. Do I *really* have to explain how stupid, backwards, and outright brainless that is? The idiot factor of this dumbass move makes it perhaps the most hillarious thing I've posted on here. Ever. If… you find retarded policies and the morons that enforce them hillarious. Of course, if not, there's always other websites–Google's full of 'em. But still, the way I see it, the university has preetty much just told this kid, look, yes we screwed up. But you're not getting paid–you're expendable. If it were me, I'd certainly think twice about reporting anything else I accidentally discover. Just in case they've got a policy against that, too. How much you wanna bet even though they didn't expell him, he doesn't catch it good in the end anyway? That's the danger of technology, I guess–there will always be someone there who doesn't have a clue how it works, and blames everything on people doing what they're not supposed to be doing just because they fucked up in the first place. And I get paid to talk to some of them. Somebody save me.

My interwebs were one huge clusterfuck.

It, apparently, started last night at some point, and didn't get straightened out until about 6:00 this morning. Not sure if anything I did to correct it actually helped or not, but at least in doing so I could tell it wasn't anything within my control that was screwed. Translation: Sympatico sucks. Loads. But it's still better than Rogers. I'd switch to Primus for DSL–they already have my long distance service, but they still use Bell's phone lines, so that'd just be shooting myself in the foot in the long run. Damn, we need more choices for internet service up here. That aren't dialup.

I promised you a rant, and here it be.

Warning: this could get very, very long-winded. Possibly requiring it not be posted until the end of my shift–taking one look at how busy we are right now (35 people currently on hold, just for the record) with about 20 minutes before I have to actually start, it might take me that long. So anyvay. I get on the bus yesterday, same old routine I've been doing since, oh… about the first day I started here. Except this time, there happens to be a Senators game. In Ottawa. No big deal, there'll just be a tiny bit of a delay. Except that tiny bit of a delay turned out to be 20 minutes. Which, for those of us keeping score, chalks up one more reason for me to not rely on other people–I recall saying as much at least once on this here blog. Although being at work, I'm not about to take the time to find exactly where. so, I've pretty much missed the bus I normally catch. Which… again, no big deal. I'd just show up 45 minutes to an hour early for work anyway. except the next bus drops me off right smack at 8:00. Which means by the time I haull ass from the bus stop to the office–for the record, they call the cubicle I'm currently sitting in an office–it's kissinig 20 after. And I still have to fire up all the crapola I need to refer to during the process of taking calls. By the time it comes around to actually start working, I have 10 seconds to breathe. Then I go head first into a pile of anywhere from 23 to 31 calls waiting, and don't really come up to breathe again until my break.

sidenote: I'm so not complaining about the job–I love it. It's the other people interfering with the getting to the job that I'm not entirely a huge fan of. The bus driver and I today actually reached a sort of agreement, something I really think they should make law. Every time the Senators win, they should give us a day off to be used when the Senators next play at home. that way, those of us who're sick enough to actually like that particular team can go watch them, and those of us who hate the team (toronto fan over here) and the sudden massive influx of trafic their games provoke can stay home, watch *our* team, or do… anything else that doesn't involve fighting through that mess to get to work. That's it, I've decided. I'm gonna have a look at the Senators' schedule after about January or so, and every game they play at home, I'm booking vacation time for. Before they make me late. Chew on that, mr. Murphy!

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.

James 3, Microsoft 0.

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?

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.

because 2 weeks is long enough.

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.

Oh glorious stupid call.

Not only are 95% of people who call me idiots, they're also cheap/expect things handed to them. Evidenced by the guy who proceeded to screw up his system, complete with oh my spyware up the wazu, and then demanding pretty much that it be fixed for free. Yeah, that'll happen. People like that fine gentlemen should have one finger removed from each hand, be shot in both knee caps, and have their computer user's license revoked. And if their computer's halfway decent, like the killer XPS this customer had, it should go to me. That would make the world a better place, I think. And one enthusiastic geek very happy.

God, I hope I get a raise.

Performance reviews are coming up at work. And the timing rocks. I just checked my mail this afternoon, and apparently, my land lord just got approval to jack up the rent by about 2% by April of next year. For those of you who haven't quite caught on yet, yeah, that all kinds of sucks. I like having money–not giving away money. I'll be keeping an eye on the rental demands over the next bit… something tells me, though, I may be looking for a new hole to crawl into when my lease ends. Stupid land lord. Stupid rent. Stupid money I don't have. Stupid me for not having it. I want a raise.

A smattering of update.

Because I only have a couple minutes before my shift starts.

My late birthday present, one hell of a computer, should be shipping today. It's about time.

Apparently, the storm we got yesterday took out my internet service, and Sympatico decided to conveniently state there were no service outages in the area. Disproven. That didn't take long.

For the record, when dealing with internet issues, it so should not take over 24 hours to solve. Of course, the only reason it did was because I only bothered to sit down and fight with it just before I had to go to work yesterday–also shitty, but it's a paycheck.

Completely and totally not related in any way, shape or form to… um, anything else in this post. Not that this post has any actual point to it as it is, but oh well. Oh my. Identical twins is kinda funky enough. But 4? Freakin' 4? Well, could be more unusual I guess.

And I have managed to make writing this entry last past my having taken my first call. Suhweet. I think.

My Life is A Drama Free Zone

I didn't want to see spring until August anyway.

What's worse than fixing Microsoft's mistakes?

Oh nos!

And yet, Microsoft's status site says it's all stable.

Is today the national day of malware or something?

Now there's a random search woops.

My computer sucks...

If you're stuck on hold, I'm sorry.

Baby, it's cold outside.

This collective duh moment brought to you by morons inc.

Winter, we need to talk.

I left work nearly 12 hours ago.

So yesterday was apparently senior citizens' day?

Is this the international day of dialup?

Mother nature doth hate me.

And this is why I won't say no to a ride to work.

Is it Sunday yet?

I hate to say I told you so, but...

I should not be allowed to think before 9, ever again.

This is where I check out.

Only doing this job...

Why I don't go by 'Jim'.

Oh. My. Lord.

'Crunch'? My parking lot does not 'crunch'.

My coworkers are evil!

So this morning. Hella freezing. Why?

You know what they say about rules...

Would *you* pay to tube?

Schedule my lunch at 10:30, will you? I'll show you...

Maybe I live on the wrong side of the border to understand, but...

When I bought it, it was warm.

Wherein my opinion of relying on other people gets more confirmation it doesn't need.

Put a wall around Quebec. Then fill it with water.

Where's my invitation to the Britney pity party?

Wake me up when it's over, m'kay?

What a horrible fan am I.

Can we vote for a law against morons in power now?

My interwebs were one huge clusterfuck.

I promised you a rant, and here it be.

Even Dell technicians hate Dell technicians. And Sympatico, and Microsoft, and...

James 3, Microsoft 0.

T Hos lifts the highschooler ban, highschools become babysitters?

because 2 weeks is long enough.

Oh glorious stupid call.

God, I hope I get a raise.

A smattering of update.

Would you pay to tube?