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IntrepidRD
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read my profile
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Country: United States
State: Oklahoma
Birthday: 5/30/1981
Gender: Male
Interests: Probably everything. If it's interesting. Funny how even boring things usually become more interesting when you learn more about them. Like tennis. Tennis is boring, but the more I learn, the . . . slightly less boring it is. I still don't like Wimbledon.
Expertise: I'm an expert in not sticking with anything for a period of time longer than 3 years. Usually, its shorter.
One year down, two remain until I have to do something else. Only one left if I'm lucky
Message: message me
Member Since:
5/27/2003
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| The best way in the world to wake up is to a friendly female
voice. Things seem to be much better now. I guess its a
matter of perspective, you know? "Do you like me? Yes. Do I
like you? Yes. Do you want to be with someone else? No. Do
I? No... so what's the problem?"
Work is tiring me out and I'm not even taking calls this week.
I'm in training, like I said, and its getting really old. Not
that I'm anxious to take calls, but I usually work 3 10 hour days, 2
days off, 1 10 hour day, and another day off. I'm doing 5 8 hour
days at different hours than usual. It's messing me all kinds of
up.
Anyway, news flash: Stillwater visit is in the works, perhaps as
early as next weekend (not tomorrow, the one after it). I had
originally intended on doing something with my parents, they look like
they're too busy, so that leaves me a 4 day weekend.
Possibilities abound, folks!
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| God, it's been ages since I made a personal post. I feel like I
need to, it's been a stressful night. I'm going to get it all
out, and if you all think I'm horrible for it, then so be it. I'm
not the same person I was in college. My job sucks. I don't
mean that it's an awful job, I don't mean that I hate it. As a
matter of fact, I like it, and that's for some of the people I'm around
and also because I'm good at it. For those of you that don't
know, I do advanced technical support for a major cellular phone
company and my job is supposedly to fix peoples problems where it's
concerned with computers and PDA devices, like palm pilots. What
I actually do with 80% of my working time is work that is far far
beneath me. There are 90 people in my group, there are 2000-3000
people in the country that do technical support at all, and 25,000
people who do customer service. This puts me in the top 3% of the
10% of the company that does this kind of work. Phenomenal isn't
it? And for my efforts, I do make a princely enough sum, at least
by what the local standards are for someone who has no more official
education than "some college" on his job application. I'm one of
those guys who organizes a skills-based resumes. Not that I've
filled one of those out in a while.
So currently, on the work side of things, I'm undergoing training for
something that is once again beneath me because of the impression that
any agent at my level should be able to handle any problem that comes
his way. I agree with this. However, I also know based on
experience that this simply means that I will be expected to bulwark
against the unending flow of calls that the other 2500 technical
support specialists aren't able to handle "in a timely manner".
Apparently the solution isn't to hire more menial technicians, it's to
train the top few percent to do even more work. The reasons I
like my job are as follows: there are other people like me who
are actually way overqualified for the job but simply don't have pieces
of paper to back up our worth, and two, because I fix people's problems
and for some reason wholly unexpectedly, I like that. I like
being able to say, "Hah! I kicked that thing's ass," and then
have people be excited and in awe of my technical prowess. This
is probably why people work out. I work out so that I get bigger
muscles so my t-shirts look better and so that I'm even stronger.
I'm shallow like that.
My company pretends to listen to me, "You talked, we listened," is what
they put up on trash cans and horrifically painted walls. I know
I sure was about to quit because of the trash can to person ratio was
merely 1:3. Whatever. Some joker, and I think I know who
(but it wasn't yours truly) put up a hand print on a marker board and
decorated it as a turkey. You remember when you did this in
elementary school? The legend next to the illustration was, "You
talked, we listened. You wanted hand turkeys." That's all
as much attention as they pay to us. Not that management at the
level directly above me has it any better, their cubicles are simply
two of ours put together. I can't say it makes them feel
prestigious.
Let's talk cash a moment. I, a highly trained technical support
person in the top 0.3% of the company am paid $12.50 an hour. Not
bad for a HS Diploma being my last official certification. Now,
since my company outsources my job from the telephone company I "work
for", this seems like a good deal to my actual employers. After
all, they charge the telco upwards of $30 per tech in my group,
apparently based on seniority. We never see this. The guy
who has been here 4 years likely makes less than mine as they suspended
merit and cost of living raises quite a while ago. Eventually,
after half of those guys quit, they pay them equal pay to what I
receive. The telco, however, pays their customer service starting
pay of $15 per hour with a department that serves as our overflow
receiving between $18-24 dollars an hour. Yeah, I feel
valued. Why do we have overflow? Because they won't hire
more techs to do the low level tech support.
You can see I'm frustrated with my job.
My social life is on my computer and at my job. I don't go
out. I don't like going out. I went out with Anna and
Bonnie and Kallina and BJ and Daniel because I wanted to see you
guys. I missed you, and it was fun to see how much you
girls have grown up from being the proper little freshmen that I met
you as. Anna especially loosened up, and Anna, I get along with
you well because we both have to have time to ourselves and we have a
social battery that just goes away and then we are no fun at all to be
around. I think you'll all remember I was out of my room a lot in
college. I didn't do as much homework as I should have, and I
played a lot of Magic the Gathering. I desk clerked, did student
government, and basically was around people a lot. I liked being
around people like me, and even in government and work, I knew all the
people before I even got into it. It's hard to find people like
me now. I'm not a bar person. I'm not a coffee house
person. You probably can't pick up girls too easily at the
library, either. So I did what anyone would do, when a guy from
work told me about a "video game" called Second Life, I joined
up. Scripting, building, and people, though virtual. It
satisfied my social need for a while, especially as I met someone there
who became very important to me. She still is, and I care about
her a lot. I haven't ever met her in person, though I want to and
soon. We talk online a lot, we talk on the phone literally every
night (though today is an exception and I'll get into that in a while)
and we've used the web cam from time to time. I feel like we have
chemistry, but it's hard to tell that online, you know? The
bummer is that she lives in California. To be honest, I find a
long distance relationship easier and that makes me a coward. I
don't have to deal with being rejected as much because if they want to
lose contact, they can, or it can just fall apart. I can turn it
on whenever I want, and if I don't want, then I don't sign in.
You can't do that in person.
I miss all the good things about being there in person though, smell,
touch, what someone looks like and tastes like. I don't get to
read facial expressions to know when I'm screwing up, though being on
the phone a lot at work has done a lot to legitimize that as a method
of communication for me. I don't get do do things with her, at
least things that aren't online. I've found ways for us to watch
the same movies, the same TV shows (of which I hardly ever watch TV, so
that's a sacrifice on its own) because I want for there to be something
for us to do to together, something to talk about. She's as blue
as you get in politics, and I'm a bloody purple color that looks like
the opposite of whatever you hold it against. We don't always get
along in ideology, but she knows me. Her parents are divorced and
so are mine, we both love monogamy but hate the idea of marriage
holding you into it. We're strong willed and loners and
introverts and have nebulous goals but still don't know what we want to
do when we grow up. I probably should find out soon, shouldn't
I? My goal was always to go back to college, but I don't know
what I want to do, and as I'm footing the bill this time, I'm not going
to waste time doing it. I can't afford that.
I don't go over to anyone's house, I don't go out. I go outside
and look at the stars a lot, and I write stories. I have a
handful of short stories already, 20,000 words on one novella and
going, 10,000 and 8000 on a couple of others. I'm not satisfied
with a single one of them, and I have no system, I just write and the
story comes out. That's why I have several in progress. I
entertain a notion of being a teacher because I find it romantic, and
I've come to realize that I'm more idealistic and romantic than is
probably good for me. Right now I'm hurting because once upon a
time where I worked, several months back, I thought I felt something
for a girl I worked with. I was involved with this girl from
California at the time, just as I am now. What I felt for the
girl at work, however, was chemistry. She was dating one of my
friends and she didn't like people, but she stood close and paid
attention when I talked, she made eye contact, she didn't shy away, and
the day that she quit, she hugged me and a few of her friends. I
asked her once if she felt the chemistry between us, and she
nodded. I told her I wasn't ever going to act on it and she
nodded her agreement too. Chemistry isn't everything, but it's
physical and it's tangible and I didn't tell the girl from California
about it at the time because I was putting it away. Recently, she
had talked to a friend of her's that had a similar situation.
Girl meets boy online, boy tells all kinds of stories and lies, girl
runs away cause guy is full of crap. Now, I'd already made
mistake one with this Cali girl because I'd told her that I had my own
place and I live with my parents. Stupid, but I wanted to look
better in her eyes and how could she find out? My guilt, that's
how. I wound up telling her. Just like I wound up telling
her about this chemistry thing, after the fact, because she knew of
this girl at work and she teased me about her. Feeling
uncomfortable because of this other couple, I mentioned, when pressed,
that I'd asked this girl at work how she felt. The Cali girl
pressured me today to go talk to this girl formerly from work and see
if that feeling was still there. She didn't want to feel like
second place, and I understand even though I'd picked her once before
because chemistry just isn't everything. So I called this girl
tonight. She's a mess. She had broken up with her boyfriend
because he lied about loving her, saying it just because she wanted to
hear it. This happened at the same time she got a new car and a
new job, so she's lost, hurt, medically depressed and tearing through
alcohol and boys with abandon. Needless to say, there wasn't
anything there for me, and it was a long and bumpy telephone call with
me trying to give her advice, suffering my own bruises and having
nothing, such as work, to fill the awkward pauses or counteract the
constant interruptions on both of our part. So, feeling relieved,
I tell my Cali girl that whatever chemistry there may have been, was
now gone. She wasn't exactly relieved. In fact, I get the
distinct impression that she's upset that I called this girl, even
though she told me several times I should, and then asked several more
if I would. People have already told me I shouldn't have said
shit to this girl about the other. They also told me that the
right answer was never to have called the girl from work, but I know
this Californian, and she'd have thought some chemical ghost lived in my
brain for all the rest of the time. Well, I don't know about
that, but it sure isn't there now. As a matter of fact, I want to
distance myself from these people because there's too much drama and I
prefer my quiet world of long distance relationships and writing and
reading and just being.
That's going to come to an end eventually, either by meeting someone
(the girl from cali or as she fears, someone else) or losing my job or
something. The center doesn't hold, said the poet, and I know I
need my own place eventually, though I'm just lazy and comfortable
enough not to do it. I've put it off for years now, feeling that
I was quite disposable at my job. I may be, but I've been
disposable for 2 years now, I can always break lease if I have
to. I just live in mortal fear of debt.
So that's my happy life at the moment, frustrating job that I like from
time to time, a girl that I care deeply for though she is halfway
across the country, and very little flesh and blood interaction to
speak of that isn't just a work formality.
I'm not unhappy with my life, though I want more. That's part of
why I write. Do I want someone nearby? Do I want
friends? Of course, but I want them to be people I like, not just
someone who will do the job.
Sorry for having such a heavy downer of a post, but that's condensing
about a year's worth of activity into a very brief post. Looks
like from there, doesn't it?
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| Jesus, since when did I become an Apple cultist? I don't even own one yet. (But I will in '06 cause I'll never own Vista!)
First off, there aren't many feeds for this data, just a german site
and best yet, the ars.irc. The post is up here, my original notes
are below.
There's a new iMac G5 out now, two of them. The 17" model is
1.9ghz, 512mb 533mhz DDR2 SDRAM, 160gb SATA, iSight and Apple Remote
built in. The 20" model is 2.1ghz, 512mb 533mhz DDR2 SDRAM, 250gb
SATA, iSight and Apple Remote built in. Apple Remote is a small
device about the size of an iPod shuffle that attaches to the side of
the machine. I can't tell if it's velcro, but it doesn't appear
to actually slide into the frame. It works with software called
Front
Row, which is of course standard with both new iMac G5s. It can
also be purchased for $29.00 and it's listed as being compatable with
all the iPods as well, but you'll need it to be docked. iSight
is also built in, but appears to have a resolution of 640x480 which
isn't great for a webcam, but its built in and it's the same as a
normal iSight.. Photo Booth is new photo editing
software for iSight. It cleans up and distorts images, a cute
app, but not really functional unless you're dying to have a fun house
photo or want to be in black and white. The awesome part of it is
building in the ability to use iChat AV to every machine. Not a
Photoshop killer, but a NetMeeting killer.
The new computers run $1,299 and $1,699 respectively. Now that
the 20in isn't 2in thick, I want one. I don't even want to wait
for '06, but I think it might be silly to get one now and then have to
use some translation software to run apps next year.
The new iPod... white and black of course, following the trend of the
wildly successful iPod Nano. And the Korean goverment wants a
word with you about that... The iPod comes in 30gb and 60gb
flavors. The 30gb is only .43 inches thick, the 60gb is
.55. That's quite a bit thinner, I wonder if it's using flash
memory. It'd almost have to because you'll need more components
for the brand new 2.5in display. This new iPod has a resolution
of 320x240 (QVGA) running h.264 (MPEG-4) and is capable of playing
music, books, photos, podcasts (audio/video says Steve), home movies,
music videos and whatever lands on the new iTunes.
Speaking of a new iTunes, iTunes version 6 is out now, and a great many
people can't even get to the download site at
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download. I did. iTunes v6 has
4 new features. First, gifting. You're now able to give
songs, videos, and playlists to other users, though they will have to
verify through a confirmation email. Second, you can now review
music you've downloaded and other people will be able to use your
reviews. Pretty much like Amazon. WWDC 05, Steve said that
iTMS is one of the largest online stores in the world, and though the
numbers are hard to come by, it looks like they're second only to
Amazon. Which explains the third, the automatic suggestion of
music you might like based upon your ratings. The fourth, of
course, is video. There are 2,000 music videos and 6 Pixar shorts
available for download. One video is approximately equal to 6
songs. Oh, one more thing... wouldn't it be nice to watch
television on your iPod? Now you can. A deal with Disney and ABC
has allowed iTMS (I wonder how long it will stay iTunes Music Store now
that they do video...) to sell for the same price as the music videos
and Pixar shorts, 5 television series. Lost, Desperate
Housewives, Nightstalker, That's So Raven, The Sweet Life of Jack and
Cody are all available for download, the entire past season and new
episodes are available the day after they're on television. It
all costs just $1.99. Now true, the video is all caught up in
DRM, and you can't burn it to cd, but since the new iPods have the same
video connector as the iPod photo, and now that the iMac has a remote
control, why would you bother?
Oh, and did you notice? No more eMac.
iMac - Thinner and with built-in iSight. Bigger HD (160/250gb SATA).
Includes FrontRow, which is remote control/software
suite. The remote is about
the size of the Shuffle actually. 1.9ghz/17in $1299, 2.1ghz/20in
$1699.
iPod - 2.5in display, 320x240, MPEG-4 h.264 (Quicktime?)
30gb 0.44in thick, 60gb 0.55in thick (30gb is 30% thinner
than 20gb)
Music, books, photos, podcasts (audio/video),
home movies, music videos.
iTunes - iTunes version 6. 4 new things. 1) Gifting,
2) Reviews, 3) Automatic Reccomendations,
4) Video. Gifting requires confirmation email on
recipient's part. Video can't be burned.
1 video = 6 songs. 2000 music videos available,
6 pixar shorts, 5 TV series (Lost, Desperate
Housewives, Nightstalker, That's So Raven, The
Sweet Life of Jack and Cody). TV series available
as soon as the day after it was aired.
Videos are $1.99, but are DRM and can't be burned. | | |
| It may suprise you all to know that I do still get Xanga digests and
just because I don't post, doesn't mean I'm not out here. On the
other hand, because I'm not active in the community, and due to
duplication, I'm not tagging others. I will quite happily respond
though.
In no particular order, I present:
1. 21st Century Living - Matthew Good
2. On Your Porch - The Format
3. Homecoming - Green Day
4. Stars - Switchfoot
5. Thank You! - Home Made Kazoku
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| Something Fun to Do
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.
Meanwhile, either as political exiles, or, lilke Ernesto, mearly eager
to see Guatemala's "socialist" experiment first hand, hundreds of Latin
American leftists had arrived in Guatemala, and their presence had lent
a combustive element to Guatemala's hothouse atmosphere as the war of
words between the Arbenz government and Eisenhower administration
escalated fully.
From Che by Jon Lee Anderson
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