....and deeper in debt.

Not much really going on today. Its increadibly slow at work, I've only had one customer who only needed a simple CD-ROM install. I've messed around with the blog a bit more, and now included Sloganizer, so have fun with that, but largely its just a very slow boring day.

Hopefully things will pick up a bit after work. We've got Warmachine tonight at G.O., followed by insulating the new wall in the loft, and doing something to the new door to make it more interesting. Yes, yes, we finally have a door!!!! I know its amazing, almost a year after it was promised the guy finally came in to install it. My dad yelled at me to make sure I kept this 'new' door locked, I think he's forgetting the fact that there's only a framework for the wall, which one can just walk through. Oh well. Hopefully once it's insulated it'll be a bit warmer up there.

Oncomming Traffic Pt. 2

So I've finally gotten around to filling in the majority of my blogger user profile and it made me remember how many of the things I enjoy I no longer get to do. For example I love theatre. I have a major in it after all, and have directed, acted and done behind the scenes work on numerous productions. Unfortunatly because of present circumstances I am unable to participate in theatre in even the remotest way possible. I can't afford to go to a show anymore, parking alone would kill me, and there aren't any Community Theatres in the area doing theatre that I could actively participate in. Sure there are a few places dotted here and there, but they only do the same five musicals and if you've done 'Oklahoma!' once, you've done it a hundred times (Sorry Val, you know its true).

I suppose it sounds like I'm making excuses. If I really wanted to do something, I should just do it, but this isn't Grand Rapids. There aren't little theatres all over looking for non-professional actors on every street corner, and I have no dillusions. I'm not a 'professional' actor by a long shot. I may be a 'trained' actor, but thats a long ways away from the dedication, drive, and pure talent it requires to be a professional.

In the end though, I should really start looking into more opportunities. I'm sure there are some near my home.

Oncomming Traffic

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've actually been fiddling around with the back end of the blog more then actually making posts. It has been a long time since my web programming class back in college, and I almost completly forgot how Style Sheets, and Server Side Includes work. It's a shame really. I started my college life training to be a programmer, aimed at database work. I learned C++, Java, Ada and many other languages. Now almost three years later, I've used almost none of it. I struggled to find a job, and ended up taking the first computer related job that jumped my way, repair. Two solid years of repairing customers computers, and it seems like I've got nothing to really show for it.

A Darkness Descends

Well Black Friday has come and gone leaving me more tired and irritable for the experience. It really baffles me sometimes how stupid people can be. Now, don't misunderstand me, I'm as cheap as the next guy so I understand the impulse to wait in line all night to purchase something at sixty to seventy percent off, especially on the big ticket items, it’s the bitching about standing in line I don't get. It’s Black Friday people, standing in line for three or four hours AFTER you've picked up your items should be expected. Complaining that you've waited in line for a whole hour is like bitching to a Six Flags employee on a pleasant Saturday July afternoon about the 'insanity' of having to wait in line for your favorite roller coaster, its asinine and anyone who does it should be taken to the front of the store, publicly laughed at, and kicked out.

What makes it even more ridiculous is the fact that Black Friday has come a long way from the seeming waves of people who'd pour into a store and rip things off the shelf like plagues of locusts only a few years ago. There are roped off lines, rather then a push and shove to get to the counter mentality. There are vouchers given out for the most wanted items rather then let customers push and fight to get the last one. There is more stock on the shelves rather then the five of every sales item that there used to be. Honestly the whole process is much more streamlined then it was as few as three years ago, so it seems stupid that people would still complain about having to wait in line when just about everything else that made Black Friday miserable has been eliminated.

In summation, don't bitch about having to wait in line, when you've knowingly placed yourself in a position where you know you're going to have to wait in line. Bring something to do, and just wait like a normal, reasonable person.

Spinning in Circles

Ahhh new console release day, a day in which people who preordered 12 months ago or stood in line for a minimum of 12 hours finally get their long awaited system. Alternatively it is a day in which people who preordered last week, or stood in line a whooping 1 hour come in and scream in your face about why they can't have a new game system today. Using things such as logic, or heaven forbid facts, will avail you not for these people NEED their precious console. Telling them that people have been waiting since 10 pm last night only enrages them further.

All in all, Xbox 360 release day wasn't to bad. By noon most of the retards that were screaming at employees and managers about how they'd waited in line since 9 in the morning, or objected to the fact that we handed out vouchers at 8 in the morning to a crowd of 50 had mostly dispersed. Now all we have to deal with is the occasionally enraged phone call, or clueless parent who wanders in every two or three hours.

Honestly though folks, and I can't stress this enough, just wait. I know little Jimmy won't be able to have his Xbox in time for Christmas, but I think he'd be just as happy with a 400 dollar gift card to EBGames which he could use for anything he wanted. Lets face it as well, the early adopter gets screwed. He's been getting screwed since the days of ye' old Playstation 1. Screwed with a buggy console, features that get added 6 months later, and screwed by a release schedule which will change 2 weeks after the systems initial release. If you want a better reason why you should wait, how about this. Microsoft is in this thing for the long haul. They see Sony as the enemy, and are going all out to win this thing. This time around Microsoft is actually earning money on every system sold. Sony won't be, their production costs on the chip alone is $175 dollars. Microsoft already has plans to derail the PS3's launch, with the release of Halo 3, but that won't be enough. Think of how much a sudden price drop to $350 would derail Sony's new system. Not only will Sony have to scramble to change their price strategy, they'll be losing even more money for each system sold, a position they can ill afford given their recent financial postings.

So those of us who chose to wait on buying a new console will get a better deal overall. They system will have the bugs worked out, have more games and be cheaper. The only thing one gets from buying now is the experience of being the first on the block to own one.

Why?

When we were little kids we'd ask this of our parents all the time.

The ocean is blue. 'Why?'
Because thats what color water is. 'Why?'
I think it has something to do with lightwaves, or planketon or something. 'Why?'
Because God made it that way. 'Why?'
Because ...... ad nauseum.

The thing is eventually we came to a point in our lives where we developed critical thinking skills. We may still ask why, but we learn to think for ourselves and reason a problem out rather then simply asking 'Why?' 30 billion times until someone's head exploded. Apperently, however, the typical American consumer has developed a long an entire different evolutionary path. No matter how many times you present them with a reason, if the solution is not something they wish to hear, they will continue to ask 'Why?' like a 5 year old until either your head explodes, you tell them what they want to hear, or they simply decide your wrong and do what they wanted to do anyways.

Take to day for example. A customer came up to me with RAM that was on sale for $20.00. A fairly good deal. He asked me if this RAM would work in his new P4 desktop. One look at the box said it all, PC100.

M: No sir, I'm sorry. It won't.
H: Why not?
M: This is an older style of RAM sir, I'm sorry it won't function in your computer.

End of story, case closed. Or at least it should be.

H: Why not?
M: Because its an older type sir.
H: But my computer is new, it should work with the older stuff.
M: No sir, it won't work.
H: But why?
M: Because there's a different pin type sir.

If nothing else you'd think this would have finally gotten through to him, but no. The customer thinks they'll baffel me with their mastery of computer wizardry.

H: But my computer says it supports 400 type RAM and this is 100, and 400 is greater then 100 so it WILL run on my computer.
M: No sir, again, it is a completly different pin type, not to mention a whole different type of RAM.

Clutching on to his thin grasp on logic, much like a drowning man grabs a lifeboat he continues.

H: But 400 is bigger then 100.
M: Again sir, I'm sorry, but thats not the way it works.
H: But why?

Oh that hated question, and I'm tired of dealing with this guy.

M: I've already explained that to you sir, it is simply not going to work.
H: I think you're wrong, it'll work, 400 is bigger then 100.
M: You're welcome to think that sir, but again, it will not function in your computer.
H: You're wrong, I want this RAM.
M: Fine sir, checkout is over there.

Now, this exchange is bad enough in and of itself, but our story doesn't end there. No, that would be much to simple. Instead the customer comes back in four hours later, demanding a refund because the RAM doesn't work, duh. He doesn't just want a refund, however, he wants additional money back for the time he's wasted, and the gas it took him to bring the RAM back. At this time, I get brought into the whole mess, and he blames me for not telling him the RAM wouldn't work. I explain again, that I told him the pin types were incorrect, but he didn't want to listen. The last thing I remembered hearing before my eyes rolled back into my head, and my vision clouded was, 'But why?'

Upper, Middle, Lower, what now?

So I've realized something. Middle, and lower management at the company I work for, and Dr. Phil have a lot in common. They both exist solely to take the blame for someone elses choices. People don't listen to Dr. Phil because the man is some sort of genius, they listen to Dr. Phil because when his advice invariably doesn't work, they are freed from responsibility. 'Its Dr. Phil's fault, not mine'.

Same with managers. They get the corporate line drilled into their heads until they're perfect yes men. Then the people who actually make decisions ask them questions. They know the response will always be what they want to hear, and thats the point. When their stupid plans, such as forcing employees to play 'morning games' or giving workers exactly 60 seconds to punch in, go wrong, they can point their finger at the sacrificial lamb of middle to lower management. 'Its middle manager Timmy's fault, he thought it was a brilliant idea, not mine.' Thus blame gets passed down the system. The bigger the mistake the further the blame gets shunted and the more low level peons are fired.

I guess what I'm trying to say by all this then, is accept responsibility for your damn lives. Your life is yours to live and that means accepting full responsibility for all your actions. Life is a difficult and hard experience, but its difficult and hard for everyone. Everyone makes mistakes in life, the key is to accept those mistakes, learn from them, and move on, not to pass the buck down the line to someone else so you can gain a modicum of short term happiness. No one, especially not Dr. Phil, has a shortcut to happiness in life, its not a commodity you can buy in the grocery store prepackaged and ready to be lightly warmed.

In summation, if life was ment to be easy it'd be microwaveable.

One Day Older....

So here I am, I decide to create this brand new whooping blog, and what do I do? I don't update it. No excuse either besides sleeping late and playing World of Warcraft all day. So now here I am, back at work, another day wasted.

I have to admit, my current job isn't nearly as bad as my last. That isn't to say I like my job, I don't, but I am better off now then I was. At least while I'm still insulted, yelled at, and treated like shit here, I don't have to work 150 hours a week in an environment that was best described as slave labor. Of course then again, I haven't yet had the joyous experience of working through Black Friday, which is next week. If its as bad as people say, I may just have to commit ritual suicide on the sales floor in front of horrified shoppers. Nothing says Daddy loves you like a blood splattered 4 dollar DVD.

A New Hope

If your friends jumped off a cliff, would you jump off to?
- My Mother

So it occured to me one day that all of my friends have Blogs. Lttle web diaries to jot down their thoughts, feelings, and general rants. As the most technologically adept member of my large circle of friends this is a rather embarissing position to be in. So therefore I've decided to follow my mothers advice and jump face first off the cliff that is the internet. If I'm lucky I'll miss the rocks, and die on impact.