no one of consequence.

So thursday was my first payday. A work-wardrobe revamp is entirely neccesary, so today there was Shopping.

Three pair of paints, four tops for around $265. Further expansion will have to happen slowly, and will involve first replacing most if not all of my blazers, which are in varying shades of “worn”. Unfortunately, short jackets seem to be in style this year. Short tops do NOT work on my body type, so im thinking there must be Thrifting.

Also, a 16 oz travel mug, which is needed for my desk, a new wok (stainless, not carbon, but already a vast improvement over the non-stick disaster) and a nice, huge Baker’s Secret cookie sheet to replace the cheap one we finally had to dispose of. Eventually I want to try silipat, but I dont know if I trust the psychotic stove enough with that.

On order is a big old bento-box set in this pattern for my lunches and dinners (depending on the shift), and I want a 1 liter Sigg bottle so I can tote water and not be blowing cash on cans of coke or PET bottles at mall-prices. Next pay probably. Unless someone wants to buy me one? *bats eyelashes*… no? *sigh* yeah, I know, my cute days are long over.

In other news im officially smoking again, my face is still aching on and off thanks to the joys of dry-socket, we’ve torn down and replastered the worst of the bedroom walls, and thanks to Lee’s refusal to let me quit, have joined a new Horde guild in WoW with my main, the orc warlock.

Well, not really a *new* guild… we’re in Old Timer’s Guild. Yep, the big old pan-game guild from hell that never dies! *laugh* After all these years. I figured they’d dry up and blow away years ago, but apparently they’re over 3000 members now, and have chapters in practically every MMO on the market.

Now to get in a little game time, since Lee’s itching…

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Not really reading the old flist. Mostly been avoiding the pc and curling up with a book after work.

Gimme a holler via email in case y’all need me for anything while my keyboard is lying fallow.

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Yeah, it’s been even quieter than usual from my little corner of the blogosphere. Easy enough to explain really, what with the new gig. Sadly, there is no internet access for phone-monkeys at $CALLCENTER. None. Not that I’d be doing much while training anyway, but it’d be nice to be able to check the blogroll during lunch or while the rest of the class dissolves into the childish susurrus of a high school classroom when the teacher turns his back.

As far as the gig goes, im still in the “cautiously optimistic” range.

Pros:

Interesting work. Im sure it’ll get boring as hell once I get the material down, but for now, despite my confusion on certain subjects, I’m learning stuff. I always like learning stuff when Im not panicking for not understanding immediately.

Also, it’s a decent benefits package. I have missed perscription coverage. Desperately. It’s easy to get to, with the bus on the corner taking me practacally to the front door… great for inclement weather. The corporate casual dress code is also very much what Im accustomed to and comfortable with. And breaks are guarenteed, there will be no “sorry, it’s too busy, you arent going to lunch today” nonsense.

Also, the supervisory structure seems to be based off the left coast/silicone valley way of doing things. We have a “team leader” for each 15-20 calltakers, who seem to be more about staff support than about cracking the whip. We’ll see how this plays out on the floor.

Cons: The corporate attitude of $CALLCENTER is suspicious and penny pinching.

They clock by the minute, which would be less of an insult if it was tracked by your time on-site. It is, however, clocked by the time you are logged in to your phone and available to take a call. Which means A) you have to be there before shift time to get set up and logged in B) docking for bathroom breaks, for being a half minute late, and that C) any screwball scenarios have to be reported to your “team lead” immediately if you dont want to get docked.

Treating me as a “time thief” right off the bat doesnt win loyalty points with me. However, I have to admit that if my class is a sampling of their usual catch, I can understand it it. Maybe half of the class is actually taking it with any seriousness, with the others acting like they’re going to be flipping burgers, or that it’s some utterly irrelevant high school class.

Still, fun things like a foosball table in the break room or holiday dress down silliness isnt going to distract from the fact that the company is treating me like I have no work ethic without even knowing me.

It was commented upon a few times that $CALLCENTER wants to be “the employer of choice”. Relaxing the time requirements would probably be a huge step in that direction.

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Nailed for getting nailed.

Ah, the joys of schadenfreude…

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Stock Splits hurt my brainmeats.

that is all.

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SEC. 327. LIMITATION ON INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES.

(a) Limitation- No individual in the custody or under the effective control of an element of the intelligence community or instrumentality thereof, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to any treatment or technique of interrogation not authorized by the United States Army Field Manual on Human Intelligence Collector Operations.

(b) Instrumentality Defined- In this section, the term `instrumentality’, with respect to an element of the intelligence community, means a contractor or subcontractor at any tier of the element of the intelligence community.

Vetoed.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

-The United States Declaration Of Independance.

Get me a gun, goddamit.

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Our cat is insane. Most folk know this about Vlad, but this is a new one. A whole new level of Kitty Insanity.

Cats are pretty territorial. To the point where everywhere you look there are instruction manuals and gadgets and entire websites devoted to the art of bringing in a new cat without starting Cat War III. It is a “Known Issue”. It is “a feature, not a bug”. Now Vlad here is pretty damn social. He’ll play with pretty much anything that will play back and isn’t so large that he has to step back four feet to see all of it. Especially now that he has one of my better Ghetto Engineering projects in the window as a part-time cat door, and spends a good portion of the evening on the prowl.

He plays with the Min-Pin mix across the hall, Lee’s buddy’s new Jack Russell mix puppy and the shi-tszu in the next building. He also plays with the general cat population of the area. We’ve had some running jokes about “Vlad’s Bitches”, since he doesn’t seem to have noticed that he’s been fixed. He’s consistently seen with two. One mostly white with marmalade spots, and the other mostly white with black spots.

This Cat. Some folks will recognize my carpeting.

My Cat Brought Home A Stray. (!?!?!?!)

So, yes, Vlad brought one of his bitches home this evening. They were in and out of the ghetto-cat-door chasing each other and playing dominance games for about an hour and a half. I cannot for the life of me decide if this cat is a stray or just a badly cared for “outside cat”. I’ve been seeing it around consistently for months, while the marmalade spotted one went MIA when the weather got rough. A bit shy, but not afraid of humans at all. Scrawny as hell, but not interested in food offered, (canned, kibble or cold bird from the fridge). Collarless, and stinking to high heaven, but well behaved with the claws when picked up. Hell, Vlad is not as well behaved with the claws as this cat.

Finally the deciding factor was that If this cat DOES have a home, (which is a strong possibility) I dont want anyone to worry. And there are the allergy matters to consider. And the OMFG, this cat STINKS factor. I can still smell it, and I’ve already febreze’d the carpet. Im not going to go through the battle of the bathtub with anyone else’s cat.

The next time Vlad came in, Special Guest Cat was still following him. Only this time, Vlad blocked the cat door himself, and wouldn’t let him/her in. So I pulled the box and shut the window, leaving it outside. Vlad seemed satisfied, and the possible stray wandered off quickly enough.

Still. Who the hell has a cat that brings home strays?

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Meeeeeeh. Lots of paper signing and boring Corporate HR .ppt crap. LARGE class of trainees, and they’re still hiring for this new contract.

Pretty standard stuff, if a bit tight on absenteeism. Rampant paranoia regarding confidentiality, which is rather understandable considering the client. Most perks kick in at a year, with the exception of the medical which starts at 3 months. It’ll be nice to have prescription coverage again. No email, no net access makes for a sad panda though, no bloggage. But it’s a brand spanking new facility… they are literally still constructing the cube-farm.

So yeah, ups and downs. We’ll see how it plays out. Right now I’m going with Cautiously Optimistic.

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Awake before daybreak to go to work. Y’all realise I havent had to do this on a regular basis in twenty years right? I have not had to wake up this early on a consistant basis since high school. Dammit. But a yob’s a job right? *sigh*

Coffee. And cereal. And coffee. And Lucky the lactose-tolerant cat begging for teaspoonful of leftover milk. Who is now purring his head off that I’m awake and playing desk-hockey with (appropriately enough) my puck of Burt’s Bees lip balm.

Thank god Lee set up the coffee pot for me last night. Now if only I could figure out where the hell the ipod is hiding…

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Havent felt much like posting of late. Still dont really, but I figure an update is way overdue.

1) Last wisdom tooth, gone.

This is the one my last dentist in NY convinced me was worth saving two and a half years ago. Not too tough a job since I’d had the other three out over the previous six months. It was, however, more than half filling, and occasionally uncomfortable. This time it abcessed. OUT OUT ENOUGH. So we had to pay $275 to a BUTCHER for the privilege of me keeping an extra tooth for two years, when if I’d had the nerve to argue for more pain it would have cost zip to pull. *sigh* 20/20 hindsight, thats me. He didnt even prescribe antibiotics. But two types of ow-ease…

2) Employment.

So the tooth came out Wed, and about an hour before my appointment I was called about an interview. This is a corporate call center, with a lot of locations. ONLY inbound calling. I was quite interested, since after my last experience with small business nonsense reminded me why I prefer the corporate environment.

So they have a new client and the training for it starts Monday. So if I wanted a gig, I HAD to interview on Friday at the latest. Two days after an extraction. *wince* I arranged for the interview to be as late in the game as possible and prayed.

Yesterday I woke still in pain, really unsure if I was going to go. Took the scrip the Butcher had given me to be filled. I’d held off since I *had* a supply of tylenol3 on hand, hoping to save us a little cash, but I needed more. Adding Advil 600’s to the T3 did the trick. To my surprise it eased the swelling a lot too. So I drugged myself stupid, dragged on a vague approximation of an interview outfit (Gods, I wore JEANS! And no makeup! And my hair looked like shit!) readied an apology for my appearance and went down.

They hired me on the spot. I start training 7:45 Monday morning.

Considering the other applicants I saw there I can honestly say Im not surprised, if they were representative. Hoodies and belly shirts are not interview-wear folks. I at least had a shirt and jacket on, and wasnt loudly cracking gum. The HR woman who interviewed me was actually honestly surprised when my answer to “which of your skills needs improving” was my typing. Apparently 35 WPM with a 95 accuracy rate was pretty damn good on the bell curve of what they’d been getting. Kinda appalling, considering that in my experience, those figures are the low water mark for “acceptable”.

The hysterical part is the client is a NY based financial company, and I’ll be working on the US holiday schedule. I had to move to Canada for this?!?! Im outside ur country, steelin ur jobs…

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