My Boss Is Kind of a Douche Pt.2

I get to work today, bright and early at 12:54 in the afternoon. My boss (john) pulls me into a meeting room with out Supervisor 2 (Jeremy) and proceeds to do the following:

1) Give me a verbal warning about not having done enough phone time last week. Admittedly I only did about %50 of the required time, but it was the first week we had to do it.

2) Let me know that two of the people I like best on the team have been kicked off of it for "Chat Avoidance"

And 3) Tries to tell me that I am partially responsible for #2 and that the only reason I was not kicked off was that he didn't want to gut his closing team (at this point me).


He can tongue my sack though. I did 72 chats today, and I was only taking chats for 7 of the 8 hours I was scheduled (I did an hour on the phones today). For those of you what are bad at math, that comes to 10.2857 chats per hour or 9 per hour if we want to count the time I was on the phones. I was working by myself for 2 hours and was taking calls (easy ones) and chats at the same time.

So woozy... I don't know why

I was going to try and be interesting tonight, but I just can't manage it. I'm gonna go to bed

TOO HOT!

It is too hot to even think, I'm going back to bed.

I just found out I get the Fourth off.

Hooray for not working july fourth. Go me.

The Most Boringest Training IN THE WORLD

6 goddamned hours in a warm room, depressant chemicals coursing through my internal oxygen/drug delivery system. And the material was dull as hell. but only 1 workday 'til the weekend, so complaining will not help.

I am looking forwards to camping

I'm ready to go, just 17 days and It's gonna be funtimes.

One of my Roomates appears to have fallen off the face of the earth

Seriously, he has vanished without a damned trace and I have no idea where in the hell he is. Plus he bastard owes me 400 bucks.

Anyway, thats all for tonight. No epic revelations or stories of fail.

I hate phone time...

I was subjected to the first of the 4 hours of phone time since I started in RepAssist. It was terribly boring, It didn't help I was taking supervisor calls and only took 1 in the entire hour. It wasn't even a long or interesting call. It was a customer disputing their bill. I shut the guy down quickly and politely. Not even worth the time, I got paid $12 for 7 minutes worth of work.

In other news, I have officially surpass the halfway mark in the friday the thirteenth series. I plan to move onto movie 7 tonight, tentatively finishing the series by the end of the week.

Anyway, I need to eat and drink something before I pass out, so to all I say: Best wishes from the Night Kitchen.

On horror

I've come to find, over the years, that the very best horror movies aren't, by necessity, the very best of movies. This doesn't mean that they don't need a decent script, actors, costumes, makeup, props, sets, location or a million other vital things. They need all of those things as much as any movie. But, by the very nature of what the filmmakers are creating, they can stretch very little much further.

Some examples:
The mask Michael Myers from Halloween wore, is a William Shatner mask with the eye holes enlarged, the eyebrows removed, the hair poofed and the whole thing spraypainted white.

The entire movie of Evil Dead, was filmed for $375,000.

Friday the 13th was made for $550,000.

These are not high budget films, even by the standards of the time they were made in. Horror movies in general, have always been a little tongue in cheek. And making horror somewhat funny is not without it's merits. Lightening them up a little allows us to take our fears and become friendly with them. It allows us to peer into the darkness inside man's mind and see the little clown waving back from the very depths. We see the world as we would like it, a place where unstoppable killers are defeated by a single person and the world is safe (at least until the next installment). The world becomes a place where the boogeyman can be taken out by a well placed machete blow and where all the annoying characters get taken out first.

However, a problem has arisen. Anybody with a digital video camera can go out and film a TERRIBLE ABOMINATION of a movie. Horror needs film, or at least a digital cam that can replicate the qualities of film. I don't want to watch some idiot smear corn syrup on their chest and have it look like a terrible family reunion video. I want some impact and the suspension of disbelief that is only possible with some kind of budget.

I will admit to liking some of these crop of horror movies. But the ones I like have something to set them apart: B,C or D-list celebrities; An excellent grasp of low budget makeup and effects; Snappy, clever writing that doesn't seem like it's being delivered by a total moron; or people with a real grasp of what their movie should be. Lack any one of those and the best you are going to get is some blonde rubbing corn syrup on her breasts and fake screaming.

You know what else I don't like? Torture movies. SAW (the first film) was an exception, because it was more psychologically driven than the others in the franchise. I'm more looking at movies like HOSTEL (1 and 2), the rest of the SAW series and movies like Turistas. I do not enjoy these kind of movies, I like a psycho with a clever kill, But the movies where they stretch out the suffering of the victims? Not a fan. Also, why are these peoples hideouts always really filthy? Like smeary black crap on everything, rust everywhere, flickery lights. From my admittedly small grasp of Psychopath psychology, these people tend to want to see everything they are doing, not have rivulets of crap all over it. But I digress, I just wish we could get less of these and more monsters (human and otherwise) stalking nubile youths until there inevitable deaths.

Please?

Thanks hollywood, I know you'll never read this.

Belated 30 day BLAGSTRAVAGANZA!

First up, Some Videos:
Thermite IS AWESOME!
The Best Commercial Ever.
Movie Trailer Edit = hilarious
Classic Salt 'N Pepper

Now some random websites:
My favorite cooking wiki
A knife, hand forged out of a railroad spike
The homepage of Inspector Ham and Eggs
The Word Detective

I have in my head, at this moment, some ideas for a setting for a story. The problem is that, while that part of my idea is easily fleshed out, I have no idea for a plot. I have some character ideas, stuff like that, but they don't lend themselves to the spontaneous generation of plot type stuff.

I shall endeavor to flesh it out as I can.

In work related news, I was informed yesterday that, as of monday we all (RepAssist) have to do 4 hours of phone time each week. I don't like this but I will do it until the boss can convince the client that it is a bad idea.

Also, as of last night I have black hair. My boss and His boss said that I was in danger of being put back on the phones permanently if I did not change it from the blue.


Anyway, here's to 30 more days, and 30^10 more than that.

I missed the 30 day mark and didn't even notice

I'm going to do a REALLY big post tomorrow. I would do it tonight but I'm still feeling a little bit under the weather. There's a pretty good chance that I'm going to spend tomorrow doing nothing but linking stuff here and lying on the couch. I guess I might try and go out to get a new satellite speaker, my front right surround speaker went out and I need a replacement or it will bother me forever.

It still feels like small angry people are living in my face

Bleargh...

I am sick like dog...

Stuffy, congested, slight sore throat. And woozy as fuck all day.

I don't know what I have, but I don't like it at all.

Go Go Bad Decisions...

I jumped off something at work today and fucked up my ankle, this blows.

I'm gonna take some painkillers, watch office space and shower. Then I may follow that all up with some sleep.

Post Title

I would post something interesting, but I have to be at work at 8 am (yes I'm still working until 10 pm) tomorrow. I really hate 14 hour workdays. I'll post about it if I haven't gone mad(der).

Blog to the past

I think it still counts if I haven't gone to bed yet and/or the sun hasn't come up yet.

I loves me some steak and dune.

I'm still working on that story Idea I had. I should have something soon.

I loves me some barbecue

I just got home from my buddy Vince's place. There was steak, chicken and sexy burgers. Also beer.

It was a lot of fun, there was a bunch of people there, including my boss (who thankfully left on the early side), my buddies Ivan, Dustin and Brandon. Good times.

I've got a story idea brewing

I'll try and post some of my idea this weekend, but my sister just got home from eugene.



Later, nerds!

My boss is kind of a dick

My boss pretty much told me I need to change my hair back to "natural" hair color. I span a line for my boss about how it would damage my hair to change it so quickly. But I pretty much only have a week before it gets changed again.

It's a damned shame, because I really like my hair the color it is. I'll probably dye it black or something "reasonable" like that.

something something, put on sunglasses, one liner

CSI miami is devoid of any redeeming qualities whatsoever. EDIT: It's the same as taking regular
CSI, a show which I like a lot, adding needless action sequences and making the characters even more one dimensional. The only thing I like about the show is caruso's predictable one liners.


Time to watch a movie.


Looks like he was wrong *sunglasses*, Dead Wrong.

I got a new rat

I don't know if I mentioned this to anybody, but one of my rats died. His name was badger and he was cute.

He was also a bit on the scrawny side. I don't know if he was sick or had parasites or anything like that. I just know he ate just as much as cow but never got any bigger. He was friendly and never bit anybody. I will miss him.

But, I got another rat. He is already friendly with cow and seems to be settling in quite well.

At some point I will have pictures of all my pets up here.

That's all I have in me tonight. Goodnight and do not be consumed by the moon worms.

... blue me.

Here are the promised photos:

It's hard to choose between titling this one "Prison #11" or "KAKAROT!!!!!!!!"


















Prison #2




















semi-final product, after hours of bleaching, drying and dyeing.




I am more pleased than I ought to be, but whatever.

In Progress...

more to come in a little bit. Pics soon.

I've decided to dye my hair...

I'm going to dye my hair dark blue after D&D tomorrow night. I've wanted to do it for a while, and I figured that this is as good of a time as any to do it. Worst case? I don't like it and I bleach it out after a week or two. Pics will be up on myspace after I do it.

Also, I picked up some shaving soap and a brush today, I'm going to try it and see how I like it. If I don't then I'm only out $7 so no big deal.

Tired...

I'm having a little issue getting used to my new schedule, I'm sure i'll adjust.

I are a winnar!!1!!one

I won a $60 prepaid credit card at work today, so GO ME! In other news, my supervisor just put in 2 weeks notice, more on that as I hear it.

Work is Job one...

I am liking my new position at work.

People seem to invent new words when talking with me like: hierchy(hierarchy, expensier (more expensive) and Dimmuy(dummy). Good times.

A quickie...

The adultswim.com games are rad.

With Great Car Comes Great Responsibility...

Being one of millions invested with both a car and a drivers license, I am put in an interesting position by this mere fact. I am called upon to do things, at my own expense (gas, wear and tear, etc...), by other people with no consideration as to the impact to myself. The thing is, I don't really mind most of the time. I've been know to offer rides for people and I've been known to do ___ Runs for people. If I'm already going a direction it's especially not a problem. But it's starting to become too expensive.

It was reasonably easy to afford gas when it was around $2.00 a gallon, harder when it reached $3.00 and now that it's $4.00 it's really hard. Let's examine shall we:

I drive roughly 25 miles a day round trip for work. I drive an additional 5-10 miles on an AVERAGE day for personal business. My car gets (approximately) 25 miles to the gallon.

So, for an average week of driving I use approximately 7 gallons of gas, or round to 30 gallons per month. That used to be $60 a month, which is not so bad in terms of transportation costs.
Now that costs me anywhere up to $120 a month, a difference of up to $60. That differnce could get me:
one 360 game
or 2 new roleplaying books
or 4 fifths of decent liquor
or 5 racks of good beer
or lots of not so good beer
or 15 books at powells
or 4 months of WoW
or a decent meal out for 2-3 people
or a good amount of steak
or 1/2 of a subwoofer
or 2 gigs of ram
or 1/2 a new hard drive
or 20 24oz. cans of pomegranate rockstar
or 3-5 dvds
or 1 1/2 full seasons of something on DVD
or 30 boxes of shisha for my hookah
or 2 100 disk spindles of blank dvds
or 3-4 cds
or 1/4 of a new gun
or 1/2 of a decent power tool
or 60 bags of individual size cheetos (crunchy)
or 20 big bags of cheetos (crunchy)
or 3 co-pays on my insurance
or 3/4 of a month of car insurance premiums
or 3-4 cakes
or 50 boxes of incense
or 1-2 new knives
or a trip to the shooting range for me and a friend
or a lot of dice
or 3 trips to the movie theater (including snacks)
or 2 new pairs of pants
or 3 nice new shirts
or 3-4 webcomic collections
or a box of mid level cigars
or lunch for everyone on my team at work
or 60 items at the dollar tree
or 1 month of my internet bill
or 1/7 of an iPhone
or an hour long massage
or a sack of groceries
or 1/50th of a 2 week trip to berlin or rome
or 1/15th of a 1 week trip to Las Vegas
or 1 share of a cow for a third world country
or 2 gifts of bees for a third world country
or a pocket watch

OR LOTS OF THINGS.

The problem is that the international oil cartel (and cartel is a deliberate word choice here) is doing what they do: Fixing prices to maximize profits. What is happening is that they are making it very hard for people to make a living if they have to drive to work. I strongly suspect that we are going to reach $5.00/gallon before the end of the summer. I also think that will be the breaking point. If It gets to that point I'm either going to carpool for EVERYTHING or i'm going to start taking the bus and only use my car in emergencies.

As a side note, I suspect we will have a big drop in prices at some point, before it creeps back up to previous levels.

Books, SERIOUS BUSINESS...

I've gotten back into the part of the cycle of my life wherein I read a whole lot. In the past 4 days I've read 3 books and am just about to start another. Books are magical things that truly grant us a glimpse into the mind of another person. Just glimpsing someone's idea of what motivates people is a fascinating study. Truly reading is one of my great joys.

But I know it shall come to pass that I start to read less again, probably a few months from now. This has always happened to me, I still enjoy reading during the down portion, but I feel less motivated to do it. It's the same with anything in my life that I focus on.

Until it passes, I will read at the pace that I currently am at and savor every minute, even if it's mostly crap.