by Oscar Wilde
“My dear boy,” said Lord Henry, smiling, “anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there. That is the reason why people who live out of town are so absolutely uncivilized. Civilization is not by any means an easy thing to attain to. There are only two ways by which man can reach it. One is by being cultured, the other by being corrupt. Country people have no opportunity of being either, so they stagnate.”
In which it went really well!
I had an interview today at 1:30 at an ISP/CLEC1. It’s about four blocks closer to my house than the company I work for now.
I did well in terms of enthusiasm and communication. I probably took a little too much control of the meeting overall, but I always do that when I’m nervous in interviews. They liked my résumé. They liked my experience. They’re growing, and there’s growth opportunity.
They said they’d let me know by Friday.
I think I may have flubbed up once: the leader was trying to end our overly-long meeting by explaining that they did have other people to interview. I replied, ‘Oh, of course you do, of course you do. It’s just that you’re not going to like them as much as you do me,’ and he kind of gave me a weird look.
But other than that, I think the interview went really, really well. I liked both of the guys who interviewed me, they more or less told me that I’m perfect for the job, and I’m certain the guy who would end up being my direct supervisor wants me in his department in the worst way.
Here’s hoping I get a call on Friday from someone offering me a new job!!!
—
1 ISP Internet Service Provider. CLEC Competative Local Exchange Carrier (small telephone company).
In which I’ve decided, in an effort to keep my mind from rotting in my head, to read, or in most cases re-read, the following works. This list is incomplete.
Shakespeare
Sonnets (in progress)
Oscar Wilde
The Ballad of Reading Gaol (done)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (done)
The Portrait of Mr. W.H. (done)
An Ideal Husband
Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime (done)
Plato
The Republic
Xenophon
Anabasis
The Memorable Thoughts of Socrates
The awesome part about reading public domain works is that I can download them (using Stanza on my iThing) from Project Gutenberg for free!
In which I give you a peek at an interoffice email I just sent.
This really happened, and I really sent this email to my boss.
Hello M—,
Friday evening I hung up on a customer. Twice. Here are my notes:
6/19/09 Cust put new CC on file. He wished to argue with me about how expiry dates work, I disconnected the call when he began to yell. He called back and told me I’m “full of shit” and that he intends to get me fired. I gave him my name and my supervisor’s name and hung up on him again. -mm
In the first call, I thanked him for putting his new card number on file and tried gently to terminate the call. He wanted to explain that his card had “never expired” (although in the same breath he told me he’d received a new one in the mail) and that B– is “the only company” who is unable to run charges against an expired credit card. When his pointless lecture escalated to the edge of abuse, I said I was not interested in arguing and that I was ending the call. Then I hung up.
When he called back, he told me I’m “full of shit,” said I didn’t know what I was talking about, called me “young lady” with contempt, and said he would “get me fired.” He proceeded to argue with me again about our stupidity in not being able to charge an expired card, and didn’t slow down at all when I asked, “Do you really not have anything better to do on a Friday night than yell at someone who makes minimum wage?”
I told him to call in Monday and report me to my supervisor. I gave him my name, and I gave him your name. I refused to give him my last name when he demanded it (or yours, for that matter). Then I told him I was ending the call, and hung up on him again.
He has called back in at least eight more times – and hit all the queues: billing, reception, tech, and sales. I have not answered any of them.
I forwarded the one voice mail message he left to your box.
Cheers,
—
Michelle M—–
Support Technician
B— M—— Internet
http://www.—-.net
(800) 485-XXXX xXXXP.S. …before I managed to send this, he called back YET AGAIN, this time from a different number. I answered with my name, and he said “Hello Michelle, I need to speak with someone in billing that’s NOT YOU.” I said, “There is no one else. I’m the only one here.” He said he’d call on Monday and hung up on me.
I’m sure he felt very powerful when he did so.
Of course I don’t actually make minimum wage. but he didn’t need to know that.
Seriously, how many people with MBAs yell at call center drones and don’t understand that you can’t run a credit card without the correct expiration date?
In which I do go on about vacation and Amma and work.
I will go on vacation in nine days. NINE DAYS. I can’t remember the last time I needed a vacation so very badly.
I can’t wait to zip up my rolly case and go to the airport. I can’t wait to get on the plane and turn off my electronic devices. I can’t wait for my Salt Lake City layover.
I can’t wait to check in to the Hyatt Regency at DFW and check out the hotel room and the hotel bed and the hotel shower. I can’t wait to wake up in another town with four days of vacation ahead of me, and get dressed in my whites and brush my teeth in the shiny hotel sink and take the elevator down to the program hall.
I can’t wait see Mother. I can’t wait to meditate near Her. I can’t wait to get darshan. I can’t wait to eat Indian snacks like pakoras and idli & sambar. I can’t wait for Devi Bhava.
I can’t wait to eat genuine Tex-Mex like a total freakin’ tourist.
In short, I can’t wait to get the fuck out of town for a few days.
…
This afternoon my employer began the installation of a web cam in the office. It will hang from the ceiling, and is a model that can be swiveled remotely to view all areas. It has audio pickups.
There was a cam here when I started. It’s been moved into another room, and as far as I know has never been online during my employment.
I have no idea why a camera should need to be installed at all, since the office can already be remotely observed a variety of ways. Nonetheless, there it is, a camera which really can’t have any purpose other than to allow members of management to observe employees.
When I worked at LISCO there were web cams there, but they existed so that people could look at equipment, not the other way around. Why on earth would you want to look at people sitting at desks staring at monitors?
The whole thing’s just creepy.
…
The day before yesterday I clocked a very satisfying 6.25 hours on the phone, but my average phone time lately is hovering around four hours per day.
To fill up the unused time I’ve been given busy-work: something loosely identified as “market research” (involving visiting phone book web pages and counting the number of hotels in particular towns), and a list of roughly 250 dial-up customers I have to call and switch to different access numbers.
Why, yes, thank you for asking: I actually did have a real job once, with root on many servers, where I had to understand subnetting and do network troubleshooting and hang out in data centers and go to customer prems and often had plug ends and jumpers and screws and cool stuff in my pockets.
But now? Now I’m calling dial-up customers to wheedle them into letting me walk them through changing to a new access number.
…
Have I mentioned that I’m really looking forward to the renewal of my upcoming vacation?
Update: The webcam is mounted on a wall pointing at nothing, and it’s made by the same company that makes the rest of the inventory so it’s probably just a test model. Surveillance fail!
In which I accomplish virtually nothing whatsoever.
I had plans to get some shit done this weekend, but The Curseâ„¢ arrived and I decided to be lazy instead.
I watched a bunch of classic Doctor Who. I ate hash browns with gravy, a weird and completely non-nutritious dish I get occasional cravings for. I knitted. I made a big mess on my bedroom floor with all my knitting stuff:
I napped. I walked the dog. There was a trip with Teh BF to Berny’s Tacos for dinner at some point.
I tried on one of my saris, but didn’t manage to bust out the ironing board and sewing machine to alter it as I’d meant to do. Right now the sari in question is in a big messy pile, and it still has no pleats and no hem.
I did do some yoga on Saturday, and I did meditate.
I did not work on the bento article for the paper, nor did I make and photograph any bentos for said article.
I did not fill up my cute set of travel bottles with shampoo, conditioner, moisturizer, or what have you, in preparation for Dallas on the 26th.
I did not launder anything.
I did not bathe. I did not shave my legs. I did pluck my eyebrows, though… at one in the morning, because I’d slept in and napped and couldn’t sleep.
The band guy did not call, and I did not go to an audition.
The slovenliness even seeped into the work week, because even though I’m expecting a package I did not go to the post office today.
Conclusion: I did not do more than I did do.
In which it’s all good news.
Okay, so obviously none of you read, care about software, or have an iThing, so you were not in the least interested in the last post. (At least Shenry was kind enough to comment anyway.) But guess what? I have something interesting to share!
I’ve been asked to write an article about bento for the U-B! Whoo hoo! AND I may be going to a rehearsal/tryout with a new band!
Most importantly, though, the Dallas trip is only two weeks and a wake-up away. Yay, vaction! Yay, Amma!
In which I’m finally truly in love with an ebook app for my iPod Touch!
First there was this more-or-less useful app called… uh, I forget. BookShelf or something. But I paid for it, and it was what I used to read books from Baen [www.baen.com].
I found it counter-intuitive and a little wonky to use. I read a few books with it, but I couldn’t tell you what they were called or who wrote them because the interface didn’t really show me that info ever again after I’d opened a book. The page-turn function was weird and took me weeks to figure out, and over all the app was awkward to navigate. Since I’ve been using various ebook software for a decade on a variety of platforms, an app has to be pretty convoluted for me to find it hard to use.
I did most of my iTouch ebook reading in eReader [http://www.ereader.com/ereader], an app I downloaded to use with my Fictionwise [http://www.fictionwise.com] account (Fictionwise, recently purchased by Barnes & Noble, owns and operates the eReader site, and I think the app itself is a descendant of the Palm Reader).
eReader is a truly great little app, and it connects directly to one’s Fictionwise or eReader bookshelf to download new content purchased online. The interface is easy to use and makes sense.
I installed the Amazon Kindle app because it was free, and there were free books at Amazon to read with it. I’ll always take free ebooks! The app works well, but of course it only lets you read Kindle content. Not all Kindle books can be read with it, either. But it’s a solid app and every time you open it it uses your wi-fi connection to see if you’ve purchased any new content and downloads it automatically.
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4 random books from my Library!
