Goodbye cruel world.

Ok, so here I sit. Another night in an almost empty apartment. I would have gone down to my sisters but the chair is still here thus, so am I. We started moving today and were about to drag the chair out when it began raining cats and dogs. So I get one more day with the internet. One more night to down load a few more movies and TV shows. One more day in the 21st century and then it is a couple months living in the boonies with dialup access. SHIT!

Anyway, Oscar and Boogers are at my brothers so Luci has decided that she will now enter the house. She has been totally freaked out since Oscar had babies and has been avoiding this place like the plague. A half hour after the cats were gone, she was lounging in the middle of the living room, looking very relieved. We will see how she feels once we stuff her in a box to take over to Sonny's. I can pretty much guarantee she will be pissed.

So, this is the last regular post for the blog. I will have to fight my sisters teenage son for internet access. Not that any of you will notice if the commenting is any indication I will probably be back before any of you realize I am gone.

Before I sign off, I still have quite a few GMAIL invitations if anyone is interested just email me.

All ashore who's going ashore.

First day of real moving activity. For the last month I have been packing and sorting and mostly throwing things out. I have gone through about 40 garbage bags.

You know, you don't realize how much 'junk' you accumulate until its time to move it. Things you thought you just had to keep become less desirable in the face of finding a box that it will fit in.

My brother came with his truck today and his bum leg and helped Kimmy and I move some of the larger stuff. Kimmy, I have found is a work horse. I have been packing and mostly tripping over boxes for a month, and an hour after Kimmy showed up the kitchen was cleaned and the boxes neatly packed in one corner. She had my kitchen table apart and everything standing at attention waiting to be marched out the door and onto the truck. I had to act quickly a couple of times to save all my clothes from ending up in storage. She was unstoppable. I was in awe. I really couldn't have gotten this far without her.

In other news, the boy's father refuses to take in the boy's cat. Even after I told him that if he didn't I would have to have it put down. Not even for a month, not even for his son. Asshole.

My cousin, Sonny, will take care of Luci, my older cat, till I find a place. The crazy one (my mothers cat) is on its way to a barn near you. But my sons cat? Well I told my brother about Oscar's situation and he offered to take care of him till we find a place.

This is also the brother that paid for the boy to go to hockey last year. For being such a pain in the butt little kid, my brother has turned into a pretty decent adult. And on his way out the door he says, "If you got a litter box, I'll take that one too." (pointing to Boogers) Sigh of relief.

So here we sit, Boogers and I, in the last remaining chair (sans cushions), with my computer in front of it on a TV stand. I should be down at my sisters but I am clinging to the internet for as long as I can. Stockpiling movies and TV shows to watch in the camper.

Looks like I will be sleeping in this chair tonight, but thank God I stopped Kimmy just in time before she loaded all the blankets and pillows into the truck.

Everyone has a right to my opinion.

Where to start? A lot has happened as far as work is concerned. Finally had it out with my TM. He failed me on a call coach. I never fail call coaches.

It was for an OS password. I told her that for security reasons we do not break, bypass or work around passwords. We could only help her reinstall and she would lose all data on the machine. He failed me for telling her she would lose her data. He asked a tech if the password could be broken and they said yes. However, whether they can do it or not is irrelevant, we are not supposed to do it, and any recovery of the data on that machine constitutes breaking the password. I fought it, I sent it to every TM in the joint and to the MO and I, of course, won. He changed it.

When I got back in the next day he brought me into the huddle room and we had it out. There was absolutely no diplomacy on my part, I am not one to hold back. I asked him if he had a problem with me to just spit it out. Don't hold back and I wouldn't either. An hour later we emerged. I think we are starting to see eye to eye.

So, tonight the MO comes over and asks to speak with me. We get into his office and he says, "Do you smoke?"

"Yes"

"Then what the hell are we doing here? Lets go for a smoke." As we are walking out people are staring, I say, "Hey why don't you swipe me out and I will tell everyone you fired me."

"Not funny." But he is laughing. We get outside and light up.

"I just wanted to get your take on how things are going. How the new TM's are shaping up."

"And your asking me?" The man is brave, hope he isn't looking for sugar coating.

"I ask you cuz I know you don't give a shit about hurting my feelings. You will just tell me how it is." apparently not looking for the sweetened or condensed version.

So I let him have it, everything that everyone was complaining about. The Q management, he said he would have a meeting with all TM's to make sure they truly understand the concept. Stupid things in the coaching tool that bring down our score, scripting problems,(he is working with the client to change this) lack of staffing on the evening and weekend shifts. Anything and everything I could think of. He barely got a word in.

All in all it was a very good 'meeting' I think we will see some changes for the better. The MO is a good guy, I like him. And I know you are saying, "It's a good thing for him that she does."

HEY! I am a nice person. But if I don't like where you got it, I can tell you where to put it.

This is what I have to deal with.

I spoke to the boy's father today, always a treat. Told him I was starting to move things into storage because I wasn't finding a place. At the end of the conversation (believe me I make them as short as humanly possible) he says, "So, how much are you going to pay me? 100 dollars a week?" (referring to the amount of child support he currently pays) WTF?

I lose it, "What exactly is your fucking problem?"

"This has nothing to do with whether the boy comes to stay, but you will pay." Then he hangs up. That sounds like an ominous statement if you don't know the boy's half-wit, socially retarded father. He is a complete and utter moron.

First of all, in order to get child support out of me he would have to take me to court. This from a guy that wouldn't go into a bank to sign his own mortgage papers. There is no fear of court proceedings.

I am not paying that asshole one red cent. In thirteen years I can count on one hand how many times the boy has stayed overnight at his place. He has nickel'ed and dime'd me every step of the way. Oh, he paid his $100/week but not a cent more without an all out war. Even something as stupid as 20 bucks for school photos? He refused, well not exactly, he gave me the money and took it off the child support. (although still taking credit for paying for the photos) I just wish he would get over himself. We have been apart for thirteen years and he still acts like I punched him in the face yesterday.

I always try to have civil conversations with him to no avail. I could care less if he lived or died,(although I would prefer die) but I try for the boy's sake. Everything is a battle with him, last year he even refused to pay to put the boy in hockey, my brothers had to do it. (this year he agreed to half, exactly $187.50 and yes, he expected the change) He really doesn't get it. All he cares about is fucking me over, not realizing that he is doing it to his own son. I guess he figured out that it was the only way to get to me, since I could care less if I ever laid eyes on him for the rest of my life. He continues to break my heart by doing these things that make my son feel like his father doesn't even like him. I try to tell him that it is not because of him, that his father just does these things to hurt me. But even the boy can't make sense of that, so of course he won't believe me. And you can't blame him really, does it make sense to any of you?

Every day his father reminds me of what a favor I did for the boy and myself when I left him. I just wish I had left sooner so the boy wouldn't be saddled with such a mentally unstable person for a father. I really can't understand why he has held onto this for so long. Honestly, all I did to him was leave. That's it. And considering the shit he put me through I can't imagine he was surprised.

Every time I see him, all I can think is, 'I can't believe I slept with that fucktard!'

13 Days and counting.

Up bright and early today to get the boy off to school. I usually go right back to bed but today I am wired. I sent an email to MO last night to complain about the TM's management of our Q, so I am interested to hear what he has to say about it.

Still up to my eyeballs in boxes, and one kitten down.



This one should go today. A guy at work wants him/her? Well, you all know how good I am at determining the sex of a cat.

The boy still holds hope that his father will let him take one of the kittens as well as his cat with him when he goes to stay with him.



I hope so too, every time we discuss someone taking Boogers, he gets all choked up. No idea why, but he has bonded with that one.

If worse comes to worse, we can just tell the boy's father the cat is coming and to deal with it. Hope it works.

Anyway, wanted to mention to anyone that does not have a G.ma.il account yet. I have a few invitations, email me and I will send ya one.

Must get back to packing.

Deep breath.

I know, I know, I am getting slack with the blog entries but there just isn't enough hours in the day to get everything done. Bit by bit I am packing this dump up but it is going to get worse before it gets better. It's an obstacle course around here, boxes everywhere. I can't get the storage place till the 20th so I am stacking them as best I can. Can't wait till this is over.

Had a team meeting with the new TM and vented for a half an hour. Think he may be seeing things my way. I am not the type who stews in silence. Surprising as that might sound. But if people don't know they are pissing you off, then they will continue to piss you off. Might as well get it off your chest. Then if they are still pissing you off, at least you know its intentional.

I tried to drill it into his head that if he doesn't know how to do something, then ask someone, and keep asking till you find out. Don't stumble around and hope you get it right. I don't want him to fail, I want him to get up to speed as quickly as possible. The sooner he does the better off we will all be. I even spoke to a couple of other TM's and brow-beat them into offering some assistance. They know what it was like to learn all this shit, they should be ashamed that they are just letting him swing in the breeze. (the 'you should be ashamed' thing hit the spot)

What else. Oh, we had a regular TM (as opposed to a pro TM) Managing the Q on Sat night. Wait, this might get complicated if you don't know how my job works. Let me give a little bit of insight.

We are paid for a service level of 85%, anything above, we don't get paid, anything below and we get penalized. If we are in Q (meaning a shitload of people are waiting on hold) then depending on how deep we go, our service level goes down. If we have no Q and are sitting around doing nothing (BTW my dream job) then our service level goes up, meaning we are available for calls, it rings twice and there we are. Then too, if we are sitting around doing nothing for too long, the service level goes down. (hope you sort of get the picture) So, when we are not in Q and our service level is good, we can afford to jump into Super Q (mixture of cc and pro) or PPA (internal) Q and help them without hurting ourselves.

Anyway, the cc TM takes us all out of pro and puts us in PPA, to purposely drive down our service level, which in my opinion is unethical, it is essentially cooking the books. But try and explain that to him? You see the higher ups just tell the TM's to manage the Q and assume they know what that means. Some of them do not. So, we have Professional customers calling in and hearing nothing but hold music on a Sat. night, they are not impressed.

Then there is the 'customer satisfaction' (CSAT) element. People are routinely surveyed and asked about their overall satisfaction with the service. Well if you are a professional and are calling on a Sat night because your entire network is down and you have to wait on hold just to reach a customer service representative, how do you think you would answer those surveys? Favorably? I think not. If we hit our CSAT goal each month we get a bonus.

There is a balance, and someone needs to get all the TM's on the same page. This is fucking with my bonus and I am not impressed.

I am ranting now, so I think I will post.

How will I occupy my time?

Called around to find out the prices for storage in the area and found a decent place close by for $60/mon. Not bad for a 9 x 12 unit, I pick up the keys on Thursday and will start to slowly fill it up.

The boy had a great first day, he likes the school and the teachers and there are some friends from baseball in his class. After school we went to check out my new digs, and I found out I will only be able to stay in it a month before it heads for storage. That's cool, by then it will be too cold to be in a motor home anyway.

Another distressing thought, I will be without internet for that time. What will I do? Culture shock. I will still be able to post to the blog from various places, but I'm not sure if I will be able to handle going cold turkey. It will be hard late at night (my preferred surf time) but I am stockpiling movies for the boredom. Anything you want to contribute, Grog? Maybe some PC games? I will have to try and figure out who I lent the Sims to.

I will have to break the 'no internet usage' rule at work so I can read my daily's.

Oh, and I am buying Forest's Palm Pilot, my birthday gift to myself. I always wanted one and he has had one just laying around, so, done deal. Now, all I need to fill out my geek gear is a laptop. I was thinking if I went laptop I would try an Apple. Just for something different. I have never laid eyes on one before and I keep seeing them for sale in the paper.

Just one of those things I always wanted to try. I have a feeling I will be doing a lot of that in the coming months. Here's hoping.

And he's off!

First day of school, 2004. Head to toe in sk8tr gear, the boy is stylin'. A walking advertisement, every teenagers dream.

On the road....again.

The landlord came to pick up the rent and informed me that he has sold the house. He needs me out by the end of the month. WTF? I freak out for a day or so, I could fight it, he really has to give me three months. How will I find a suitable apartment in 30 days?

Then it hit me. Why am I stressing? I can send the boy to live with his father, put my stuff in storage and stay with friends. Save some money, get caught up on some things and take my time to find the right place. Sounds like a plan. I will live with Kimmy. Settled.

Ok, not. I talk to my sister. "You don't want to do that. Come out here and you can stay in the camper." She calls it a camper, how cute. When it is a motor home, central vacuum, full bath. When my sister 'camps' she is definitely not roughing it. I like this idea because of my strange work hours, it would be easier and I won't be bothering anyone.

She is excited and every so often in the conversation she interjects with, "You do realize that you will be FREE?!"

"Ya, but I am trying not to let the boy see how excited I am." This is going to be fun.

Give me strength.

Last night our new TM (you know, the one that was clearly more qualified than me?)'accidentally' deleted the go-home-early list from the exchange public folders. Ok, anyone can make a mistake, right?

Tonight, he is in charge. Alone. I am a little uneasy, but who knows, he may pull it off. There are 5 of us scheduled for 5-1. We do not put our name on the go-home-early list because, well, there are 5 of us. We ain't goin' anywhere. Or so I thought.

Now, remember, since last night the go-home-early list does not exist on the server so you would have to actually put pen to paper. For shits and giggles two people apparently put their names on it. Just around 10 we are experiencing high call volumes, well for us, and I hit the button to see what's going on.

Two agents online. WTF?

ME: "Why are there only 2 of us on the phones? We are in Q."
TM: "Forest is on break."
ME: "And? Shouldn't there be more than 3?"
TM: "Oh, I let two go home."
ME: "YOU DID WHAT?"
TM: "I didn't check what time they were off and let them go." He has a big 'my bad' grin on his face, which really isn't endearing at this point.
ME: "Fine, then get your ass on the phones, we are in Q" He thinks I am joking. I am not joking.

So we remain in Q, Forest comes back and Enrique goes on break. Still Q ville. I am shooting daggers through TM. So finally my break comes up,we are out of Q, I don't even wait for Enrique to come back. I am pounding out my code into the time keeping system and hear.

TM: "I should take my 2 hours on the phones now." (TM's have to do 2 hours or 5 calls) "But I don't think I will get 5 calls, they are out of Q."
ME: "You could have 5 minutes ago, but no point in that, since then you might have actually helped us out. Wouldn't want that to happen now would we?" I head for break, seething.

When I return, and am once again pounding out my code on the TKS, he says to me, "You don't look very pleased with me." ha ha. I did not find this funny in any way, shape or form.

And I reply with a dirty look, "That's because I AM NOT!"

This guy is new, he should be trying to gain the respect of his team, but he is not even interested in the word. Apparently he spells team with an 'I'.

I think that since he fucked up, he should have stepped up and helped with the Q. But apparently he is not going to do anything unless it benefits him in some way. Thank God, A showed up to visit and I had a chance to cool down.

Later, about an hour before shift end, he asks me to dispatch my cases. What? Technically we are supposed to do that at the end of our shift and not before. But he needs to finish his report otherwise he will have to stay late.

My reply? "Uh, sorry no can do, that would not be procedure." If he wanted my help, he should have helped us earlier.

Tit for tat.

You say 'bitch' like it's a bad thing?

You've all seen that bar at the top of our once immaculate blog templates. Ya, and there is no getting rid of it, I have tried. So, tonight I decided I should see if it is at least useful and started to randomly surf blogs.

I have realized one thing in the past hour. Most blogs are dead fucking boring! Now I could handle boring if at least they would refrain from slaughtering the Queen's English. Please people, there is a spell checker on the dashboard, use it! After you have mastered that, try a little thing called grammar and punctuation. Fascinating things.

Instead of whining that no one reads your blog, investigate the reason. And because, as you know, it's all about me. I give you.

Top Ten Reasons I Won't Read Your Blog:

10. People who try to be deep and artsy, put me to sleep.
9. Politics, I am Canadian, I don't do politics.
8. Donation buttons. Get a job.
7. Dark freaky background and white text. Nuf said.
6. Anime makes me physically ill.
5. Animated gif's make me sea sick.
4. Your You're boring. I don't care what you ate today, unless it got you admitted to emergency.
3. Most people like to take a breath every once in a while, so for God's sake, punctuate.
2. If your life is so bad, why not just change it and quit torturing the rest of us with your whine and cheese party.

And the number one reason I will not read your blog.....

1. U kant speel.

You say 'bitch' like it's a bad thing?

UPDATE

Guess I should be more clear, I am not looking for perfection. But some of the blogs were physically painful to read. Some of them went on forever with absolutely no punctuation, spell check or grammar of any kind. If you make it difficult to read, no one will read it.

It's that simple.