Thanks to the work we put in on Sunday and the strategic slightly early mornings and slightly late nights, I'll only be trapped at work for four or five hours today. This suits me just fine, I gots schiznat to do. After work I'll pick up the freebie Zelda games from pre-ordering Wind Walker, grab a book or two on the ACT and SAT so I can start studying again, and then swing by Costco to get this satellite-dish-heater-thing. Our current one is an power whore. Then tonight Mike and I are going to go to dinner and a movie. We're thinking Gods and Generals. I love the Civil War. I really wanted to see Daredevil, but I just recently realized that Ben Affleck is in it, and the whole movie is ruined for me now. I'll have to supress my gag reflex and check it out eventually. It's my duty as a comic book fan.

Walking to my car yesterday I spotted a Hyundai whose model decal had been slightly modified. The H and N were removed. What was left? "YU DAI". I'm tempted to buy one just so I can do that too.

Listening To:Money - Pink Floyd

Looking Forward To:Movie night!!

I nearly forgot. Mike dug up this site yesterday. It's good for a couple of laughs. Gods know we need them.

I saw a car the other day with a "What Would Xena Do?" bumper sticker. I was asking myself that question all day yesterday, but unfortunately the only answers I could come up with involved a sword, a chakram, or both. And while I cannot deny the satisfaction if attempted, neither of those can realistically solve any of my problems at the moment.

It turns out that my training next week won't be starting at 6am after all, which I suppose is something. I'll only have to modify my schedule by an hour instead, with an 8am start time. Still not enthused, but at least I'll be less exhausted.

You know, I had this poignant observation yesterday. I told myself to write it down, but I didn't. And now I can't remember what it was. I hate it when I ignore myself.

Listening To:The car alarm that woke me up this morning reverberating in my head.

Looking Forward To:The weekend. What else at this point?

Sorry for the lack of updating lately. I'm really in something of a funk. When all is said and done, I'm not very happy with my job. I'm working on a few things to improve my situation, but I almost feel like I did when I was back in Louisiana working for the OSB source. It's not a pleasant place for me to be, and is certainly not a place I ever wanted to return to. An unfortunate side effect of that overwhelming feeling is a complete lack of desire to do anything even remotely interactive. That includes one-sided conversations to nobody inparticular.

But as I said, I'm working on some things that should improve my situation, and I'll also try to remain focused on things that typically make me feel at least a little bit better, like updating Daily.

If I miss a day, feel free to prod me.

Listening To:You Spin Me Right Round - Dead or Alive

Looking Forward To:Eh.

I gone and went and done it and posted a new rant. See? And you thought I never would. Or was that hoped I never would? I get the two confused.

You know, prior to this rant the last one I did was on 18 September 2001. Well over a year ago. That's amazing when you consider the vast myraid of things that have irked over the past 17 months. Ahh, the things that motivation, or a lack thereof, can rob from you.

Listening To:You Oughta Know - Alanis Morissette

Looking Forward To:Pursuing a little idea I had.

Mike pointed out to me that I haven't updated since Wednesday. Oops. I thought I'd only missed Friday. Don't ask how I mistook a three-day gap for one day. I think I fell into a time warp.

Okay, playing catch up. As my last entry states, Thursday was indeed a late day, and we worked from 2pm to 10:30pm. This was designed so that we could take calls in a relatively chaos-free environment. "Unfortunately" this wasn't to be. The particular billing system that we've been trained on has been removed from the center that I work at for the next few weeks. So yes, this means that we've spent the past three weeks training on a system that is not currently in use.

So guess what that means? Yup, more training.

There are currently three billing systems in use for various regions on this project, but they are all consolidating into one. This is the one that we probably should've been training on from the outset, but that would be logical and is probably why it didn't happen. However the current plan is that the week after next, we'll begin a two-week training course for that billing system.

I haven't been this trained on something since college. Mmm. College. I never thought I'd come to the point where I could say that I miss school so much I can almost taste it. But that's a discussion for another time.

Next week, they really don't know what to do with us. We're effectively useless for answering questions on the floor because we don't know any of the billing systems that they're currently using, and it's not worth assigning us a team yet because we'll be gone again a week later. We don't have our trainer anymore, because he has to go prepare for the next class. So I predict that next week will be spent much like the first -- directionless and inefficient.

Just in time for the next training. Did I mention that this class is a morning one, and will thus start at 6-FREAKING-AM?!?!? 6am. I will have to be up by 4:30am just to make it there. When Jet Wolf is at her happiest, she's just going to bed at 4:30am.

I haven't yet decided how to handle this. I'm contemplating the idea of going to bed shortly after getting home, getting up around 9pm or so and then just running through the rest of the day. That may be the only way I'm cognizant enough at 6 in the goddamned morning.

As I was saying, they don't know what to do with us, so they're starting early with mindless activities by having us come in tonight to move monitors. But bear in mind that they don't do overtime at the moment, so whatever time I spend tonight, I have to cut out of the rest of the week. I'm thinking that I'm going to do my best to rack up hours before Friday so I can leave early.

Hell, I'll need the extra time just to figure out how I'm going to handle the Monday after.

In other news, Mum sent Mike and I King Cakes. One of the only things I miss about Louisiana, shipped right to my door! Strawberry and cream cheese. Delish.

Listening To:Mike making cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

Looking Forward To:Writing today? Maybe?

We're working a late shift tomorrow, from 2pm to 10:30pm.

Mmm. No getting up at 6:30am. Mmmmmmm.

I had an odd dream last night. I was helping an Orka (in captivity) give birth. I considered her my Orka, although I have no idea how she wound up in my charge. After prolonged labour, she eventually had twins, a girl and a boy. I then jumped to a scene where the Orka had, momentarily, transformed back into a human. Yes, back into a human. It seems that human was her natural state, but that she had somehow gotten stuck 99.9% of the time in Orka form. She stated she had named her two whale babies Aniña and Lyceus, and she then proceeded to bitch about how much an 11 month gestation sucks. I have no idea if that's an acurate number or not. And then I woke up.

Any amateur dream analysts out there want to take a shot at that one?

Well, I took my first call today. The entire situation was unbelievably chaotic, which I fear is rather setting the tone for the work environment. I won't bore with details -- suffice it to say while it was easy, it's been soooo long since I've spoken to customers, I feel I can honestly say that I haven't missed it.

Mike and I just finished watching Joe Millionaire. You know, the one where he picks his "true love" and reveals the charade. We were hoping that the girl would go berserk and, I dunno, wipe that smug grin off his face or something. No such luck. And so much for this big "twist". That was one of at least a dozen possible "surprises" I figured they'd pull at the end. Bleah. This was good reinforcement for why I don't waste my time with reality shows. That's two whole hours of my life I'll never recapture.

Listening To:The rain.

Looking Forward To:Still looking for something.

We finished NWN this afternoon. I admit that Chapters 3 and 4 were a bit of a letdown given the huge scope of the first two, but it was still enjoyable overall. Whatever shall I do with me free time now? Oh yeah, I guess there is that writing thing, huh.

The rest of today was spent curled up on the couch cleaning out two weeks or so of TiVo.

Given the high irritation of Saturday, I can't help but feel cheated out of a weekend day. I considered demanding Monday by way of compensation, but I have my doubts somehow that anybody else will go for it.

Listening To:Space Oddity - David Bowie

Looking Forward To:You know, I just don't have anything right now. Kinda sad.

What an irritating, crappy day.

Well, Friday itself wasn't too bad, although it was laced with irritation. I was attempting a new way to get to work, which was working out great until I got within about three miles of the place. And then I just couldn't find it. Had I been able to drive there instantly, I would have been half an hour early. However I had to spend that half-hour (and we're talking 27 of 30 minutes) just trying to locate the street. It's not like I haven't been there before, I have no idea why this was so difficult. However it was, and day began with huge amounts of stress. Never good.

The day itself wasn't too bad. In fact, we spent most of it playing 20 questions. (This was loosely tied in to troubleshooting and how to narrow down something specific, but I think it was really just nobody wanting to work on a Friday.) I was even able to reverse my new directions and made it back on solid ground for getting home early ... until I hit a nasty snarl up on 26W. As a result, I got home later than I had all week.

I barely made it home in time to run out the door again to make our reservation at the Outback. (It wasn't so much a true reservation as that call-head seating, but if you're not there when they call your name then they scratch you off the list and you start all over again, so it's purpose is the same in my eyes.) Mike commented that he was glad he had called so early (5:20pm), as he had been informed the wait was over two hours from that point. We made it with less than 10 minutes to spare. But of course, we needn't have worried -- we still had to wait.

"It'll be about 10 to 20 minutes," they said. Given that those just arriving were being quoted a three-and-a-half hour waiting time, we were okay with 20 minutes. We waited and waited. We saw some friends from DTV and chatted to them for a while (they chose not to wait 3 ½ hours for some reason). After they had moved on to the much less crowded Godfather's Pizza across the street, we realized that 30 minutes had now passed and our little pager doohicky hadn't buzzed so we went inside to check.

Another 10 to 20 minutes.

Okay, so I'm getting somewhat irritated by this point, but at Mike's urging I do my best to not let it cast a cloud over the evening. I amuse myself by watching boxing on television and marvelling at the fact that I would never really want that as my career.

Some seating inside clears out and we grab a seat. And wait some more. After another 20 minutes have passed without a buzz, Mike goes to check again. He returns with a grim expression.

10 more minutes.

They've sworn it will be no MORE than 10 minutes, but at this point I was so tired and hungry that it was only pure stubborn energy keeping me there. (That, and the fact that I really wanted a Bloomin' Onion.) Luckily they were on the money this time, and we were seated in about five minutes from that point.

Now you'd think that would be the end of it, but oh no. Our waiter was, shall we say, terrible. Well, I guess to be fair, it wasn't as bad as "terrible" indicates, but you'd think that after having waited as long as we and absolutely every other customer in the building had waited, they'd be a little more friendly. Or at least normal. Every other time I've gone into an Outback, I've been impressed with the service. The waiters and waitresses are attentive but not overbearing and friendly but not obnoxious. This guy, while polite enough, made me feel rushed from the minute I sat down. I don't know if that was just a reflection of how he was feeling that evening, or if he had been specifically told to get customers in and out as quickly as possible, but I didn't appreciate it either way. All in all, it rather soured the evening.

Though Mike helped make up for it by giving me Godiva when I got home.

So then that brings us to today. I'll skip on the many assorted little things that stacked up to piss me off today and instead hit on the big one.

I think my video card has gone insane. It locks up within seconds of loading any game that is even remotely graphics intensive. I fought with it (troubleshooting, uninstallating, reinstalling, etc.) for, oh, about FIVE HOURS today. I finally grabbed the video card from Katchoo (my old computer) and installed that one instead. What do you know, it works perfectly.

My video card has been a bit tweaky since I got the computer, but it's never been this bad. Needless to say, I shall be in contact with Voodoo very soon. I didn't spend $400+ on a video card just to go back to my old one.

And that has been my weekend thus far. I hate it when they suck.

Listening To:Cartoon Heroes - Aqua

Looking Forward To:A better day tomorrow.

On the way to work today I was stuck in line behind a truck with Louisiana license plates. Very peculiar.

So, tomorrow is Valentine's Day. By and large, I don't subscribe to it. It, like many of them in recent years, is a Hallmark Holiday, designed to do little more than guilt people into spending money. I think its sub-reason is to make half the population feel giddily superior to the other half for a day. But all that being said, I think Mike and I will be going out to dinner, and I do have a "gift" of sorts planned. I remain trepedatious about how it will turn out, but I shall give it my all.

I'm thinking of getting really early night. Like, going to bed now kind of early. So very tired.

Listening To:Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve

Looking Forward To:Pay Day.

Some early morning brain food (and it's greasy, just like McDonald's).

Gods I don't want to go to work today. Okay, I don't want to go any day, but I really want more sleep. I need more sleep. I can't wait for a later schedule.

Listening To:My computer run much more quietly. Did I mention I fixed the fan?

Looking Forward To:Friday. I think we're going to get off early.

Oops, I forgot again. That's probably for the best though, I've been in a foul mood all day. Just one of those things I think, although it may have been set off by the re-emergence of that blasted Mary Poppins tripe early in the morning. There should be a law against such things.

Tired. Forgot to update when I got home. I go bed now. Rargh.

Our trainer was playing some "mood music" for us today as we completed worksheets. The first song on his CD was "A Spoonful of Sugar" from Mary Poppins. I can't take that song in the best of circumstances, but at 9am on a Monday morning it is definitely a faux pas. It was all I could do to stop from screaming and jumping out the window. I was reminded of that South Park episode where Stan is locked in the room with the never-ending Enya song.

Ironically, Enya was the next artist on the CD.

I think I shall head to bed early. I didn't sleep very well last night. I believe my cold is attempting to come back. Bastard. I was lying in bed last night unable to breathe, and my ear kept popping. But not airplane-level popping. Just little pops. Not enough to resolve the problem, but enough to drive me insane.

My body's against me.

Listening To:NOT Mary Poppins, thank the gods.

Looking Forward To:The weekend. And it's only Monday. :\

I... I can't stop. I just can't stop. I simply must spend every waking moment playing Neverwinter Nights. The next quest... The next item... The next level... They're all so close. They're always...so close.

1. [Persuade] It's okay. We'll get through this together. Just give me the keyboard and everything will be alright.
   
2. [Lie] Xena and Gabrielle are downstairs, and they want to take you to dinner! Wouldn't you rather do that than play this silly game?
   
3. I understand. I've been there too. That's why I actually find this blog entry amusing.
   
4. You're WEIRD. What the hell's wrong with you?
   
5. Yeah, yeah, whatever. Stop playing or I'll pry the keyboard from your cold, dead hands. Oh, and I want all your gold, too.
   
6. Goodbye.

Last night I had a dream about work. But it was in Neverwinter Nights format. One of the managers had asked me to find out some information about something, so I was walking around the floor, with the viewpoint being like the interface screen of NWN. I opened a desk, and the contents window popped up and I put a notebook in my inventory. I returned to the manager and my dialogue choices were listed for me to select.

All in all, the effect was unsettling and I believe that I may be going slightly mad.

Seriously though, dreaming about work seems to be an important step for my subconcious to reconcile what's going on. I have yet to take on a job which did not aggressively enter my dream world for at least three weeks. (The most unpleasant of all of these was my stint at McDonalds. Dreaming about Chicken Nuggets is not relaxing.)

Another week down. We had official training this week, all structured and everything. It's not too bad. As I accumulate knowledge, I'm becoming more comfortable. And hey, I had another flash of writing inspiration, so go me.

We have another two weeks of training, and then we'll either start doing the job we were hired to do, or we'll have a week on the phones. I'm not sure which at this stage. I've never had a training so extensive before. I'll give the company this much, they certainly seem more together than any other place I've worked for. That's probably just a shiny illusion that will wear away quickly over time. We shall see.

I depart now to continue the adventures of Caine, level 10 monk. I just got third attack. I can't wait to kill something.

Listening To:Jett whimpering. She just came back from the vet. She hates that.

Looking Forward To:Blood, devastation, death, war and horror. In NWN, of course.

Note to self: Keep a close eye on the time when you have to be up early the next day for work. And consider not playing NWN when the alarm will be set in the morning; there's no such thing as a "quick" game.

I knew if I complained enough, Oregon wouldn't let me down. This morning was clear enough to not only see Mount Hood, but I got a good view of St. Helen's as well. Of course, the really sad thing is that'll probably be the best thing to happen all week.

On the way home tonight, my MP3 player cued up Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen. If you haven't heard it before, you should do yourself a favour and track down a copy. I love it, it's probably one of the most moving and powerful songs I've ever heard. It's the sort of thing that you probably shouldn't listen to when you're in a borderline depressive mood, but the pain just feels so damned good.

Listening To:Joey - Concrete Blonde

Looking Forward To:TiVo's next recording of Sealab 2021.

Just finished watching Gosford Park. I have to admit that I'm somewhat disappointed in it. I expected something along the lines of Murder by Death and Clue (two of my favourite movies). Unfortunately it turned out to be more like a murderous episode of Upstairs, Downstairs. And I don't mean that as amusedly as it sounds when you read it. I might have enjoyed the film more if I hadn't had a completely skewed perception going into it, but alas.

You know, I've been driving to work and back for going on three weeks now, and I have yet to see my mountain? Darn this cloudy grey weather. And I never thought I'd say that.

Listening To:Come As You Are - Nirvana

Looking Forward To:Sleep. My life is boring at the moment.

Will the getting up early every get easier? I am, by nature, a night owl. I feel discriminated against because I am not an early bird.

Think about it. Businesses are biased against the night owl. They refuse to serve us when it is convenient for us to be served. Television is biased against us, the quality of programming dips dramatically when the early birds go to bed. Night owls are only good for spending money on things they see on television but could never need? Maybe we're just compensating for the fact that all of our stores are closed.

This is an early bird world. We night owls have to fight to make our voices heard! We are the underappreciated members of a society who puts too much value on sunlight and not enough on the beauty of darkness! We will be able to shop at Best Buy at midnight! We will be able to sleep until 7pm and be able to bank! We will make an 11pm start time at a job seem "normal"!

Our first meeting is tomorrow. Unfortunately it's at 8:30am. That was the only time I could book a room.

Listening To:Pinball Wizard - Elton John

Looking Forward To:Watching Gosford Park tonight.

Neverwinter Nights ... Can do nothing but play Neverwinter Nights ...

Geez, how bloody long is Chapter One? I swear, I've spent the past two hours just trying to end it, and I still have no idea when it's going to close. So much for going to bed on a nice clean note.

Listening To:My brain buzz. I think I killed it.

Looking Forward To:Trying to sleep straight through the night.

Mike and I have returned to playing Neverwinter Nights. We had to start over again, since we lost our "big" characters when we got our new computers. (Big being relative, of course. I think they were only level five or six.)

Today was a pretty good day. Went and got an oil change (oooo), did some clothes shopping for my new job (aaaahhh) and then we stopped by CompUSA and partook of their monitor sale (baaaad). Yeah, we probably shouldn't have, but hey. We got those bonuses from DTVBB that we weren't expecting, and they were a great deal.

Mmm. 19" goodness. Good no matter how you look at it, but even better considering that we were previously using tiny little things. Mike's wasn't even really working anymore, it had this disturbing dragged screen thing going on, like it was a funhouse mirror.

Still many hours left in Saturday, and all of Sunday yet to enjoy. I so love weekends.

Listening To:Music from NWN.

Looking Forward To:Sleeping in again tomorrow.