Life's a bi----g female dog!
And no doubt a rabid one at the least! Bloody ill-tempered and poorly raised mutt!
So today was a bit vexing at work (apparently Sundays are the busiest for mid-shift? at least that's what my trainer says). Toward the end of the day, at about 6:30 I got a call during a show. The host was Heidi (the one that is one of the owner's wives?) and... hmm... it would be in poor taste for me to speak ill of her, so I'll just say she didn't seem to be too clued in on how things function in a good, smooth and proper way. Anyway, she dumped out a bunch of items on the table and just started holding them up and talking about them. Ok, cool, no problem, right? Well, the thing is that us, the operators in the call-center, didn't have ANY information on these items! So customers called in really interested and we're just sitting there like, "Um...ok, I'm sorry ma'am, but we don't have any information on those items yet." Most people would say that and hang up, but not me, no, no... I have to be all polite and try to be genuinely helpful. I worked with this woman who REALLY wanted one particular ring on the table (I thought it was ugly). I actually wanted her to get it! What the freak is wrong with me?! Anyway, I patiently stayed on the phone constantly updating the Last Shown list. The rings that the host was showing tended to have inventory quantities of... oh... about ONE!! Naturally a ring would show up in the list for a split second and BAM it was gone. I ardently clicked as fast as I could determined to get that ring for my customer because she seemed pretty nice, spoke in a way that I could understand and genuinely seemed to want it. Guess what? I was on the phone until about 7:10pm when we finally determined (after the host entirely left the table and started something else completely different) that the host was, in fact, not tuned into her frontal cortex and NEVER SHOWED THE RING! Or rather, I should say, she showed the ring on her table, but never held it up and never actually put it up for sale. I ask you, smart? The woman dejectedly gave up the quest, I apologized and we ended the phone call.
Blah... But wait! There's more!
I got home and had received a letter from UT. They had politely informed me that I was rejected from the UT Graduate School (not the department, mind you, but the university in general). I had failed to meet one of their criteria. Yeah, no surprise to those of you who know me, I failed to get admitted because my GPA (overall) was too low. I have about a 2.58 and need a 2.7. Now a year ago I had about a 2.8, guess what happened! You see, there are these requisites they have for their Arts and Sciences majors because they want to make "well-rounded individuals." Therefore I needed to take history courses. Two of them. Bad ones. Courses that EVERYONE must take, thus they're stuffed with 100+ people and staffed by entirely unmotivated professors or TA's. People who know that the students aren't interested in their course. Therefore the professors and TA's become bitter because their course material sucks and nobody likes it. It's a vicious cycle because they want to retaliate and make the course even more unpleasant. Anyway, in spite of this I think most students can pass this reasonably well, but not me! I had to retake freaking Sophmore English in High School... FIVE TIMES! I had finished the bloody ACT and Senior English before I did the Sophmore course. Wouldn't one think, just with common sense, that if a student can complete Senior English with a bloody A that Sophmore English is kind of redundant?! Nevermind the fact that I scored a 35 on the ACT in all language related sections! Doesn't that sort of imply a certain level of competence? And if standardized tests (by which they'll swear the lives of their first born) have any relevance, then I was already more competent than they themselves! Oh no, certainly not, they can't think outside of their bloody safe boxes! They have these complexes they've developed out of fear of people who are different from them (be that advanced or retarded) and will NOT, so help them, allow things to go smoothly! Anyway, yes, I failed... hmm... let me count this up... well, without the paper in front of me I can only approximate, but I believe it was FOUR history courses to satisfy their requisites to graduate. And yes, that does not count the two I passed (with D's). Needless to say, this damaged my already unimpressive GPA. On the other hand, I should feel a marked pride if one considers my colorful academic history. Let me see... ok, Middle School completed with about a 1.2 GPA overall, High School completed with about a 2.2 and now College completed with about a 2.6. I'm making progress! The subjects that I was actually interested in? I never made below a B, usually made A's and finished with an average of 3.7 in math and science and a 3.8 in Psychology itself. Does that count for anything? Certainly not! All it says is that I can do well at things that interest me and they, clearly, have no intent of interesting me. I suppose that doesn't speak much for their confidence in their own course plans.
Yeah, I'm clearly not in the "In-group" of society. Well damn me!
Anyway, what will I do now? I'm not entirely sure, I guess I wasn't really expecting to get admitted, to be honest. But they managed to get my hopes up for a while there. NeoPong is fun, it satisfies a part of me and we're talking about screwing the money (since we aren't getting paid anyway) and just going after our real passions in gaming. It seems the publishers aren't biting right now anyway and frankly while I'm decent, I'm not THAT good of a salesman and only the best-of-a-bad-case in management. We need to bring in a good manager sometime in the future, but that costs money and we have... uh... none. I guess this will allow... well, nothing more than my current situation. Yeah, I was going to quit ACN once I was accepted into grad school and make that my job to keep me alive while continuing my work at NeoPong. Now I'll just keep working at ACN while continuing my work at NeoPong. What's it changed? Instead of having a job to support myself that actually enriches me and gets somewhere, I'll be in a dead-end job. Though there is an upside to this: ACN ACTUALLY ALLOWS ME TO READ MATERIAL I'M INTERESTED IN! Just like in High School I might learn more outside of class than I ever would have in. How disappointing...
Ah well, maybe I'll be permitted by one of the professors to continue some research outside of the graduate program. Though I doubt the school will look kindly on that. Man, life sucks sometimes!
ME
So today was a bit vexing at work (apparently Sundays are the busiest for mid-shift? at least that's what my trainer says). Toward the end of the day, at about 6:30 I got a call during a show. The host was Heidi (the one that is one of the owner's wives?) and... hmm... it would be in poor taste for me to speak ill of her, so I'll just say she didn't seem to be too clued in on how things function in a good, smooth and proper way. Anyway, she dumped out a bunch of items on the table and just started holding them up and talking about them. Ok, cool, no problem, right? Well, the thing is that us, the operators in the call-center, didn't have ANY information on these items! So customers called in really interested and we're just sitting there like, "Um...ok, I'm sorry ma'am, but we don't have any information on those items yet." Most people would say that and hang up, but not me, no, no... I have to be all polite and try to be genuinely helpful. I worked with this woman who REALLY wanted one particular ring on the table (I thought it was ugly). I actually wanted her to get it! What the freak is wrong with me?! Anyway, I patiently stayed on the phone constantly updating the Last Shown list. The rings that the host was showing tended to have inventory quantities of... oh... about ONE!! Naturally a ring would show up in the list for a split second and BAM it was gone. I ardently clicked as fast as I could determined to get that ring for my customer because she seemed pretty nice, spoke in a way that I could understand and genuinely seemed to want it. Guess what? I was on the phone until about 7:10pm when we finally determined (after the host entirely left the table and started something else completely different) that the host was, in fact, not tuned into her frontal cortex and NEVER SHOWED THE RING! Or rather, I should say, she showed the ring on her table, but never held it up and never actually put it up for sale. I ask you, smart? The woman dejectedly gave up the quest, I apologized and we ended the phone call.
Blah... But wait! There's more!
I got home and had received a letter from UT. They had politely informed me that I was rejected from the UT Graduate School (not the department, mind you, but the university in general). I had failed to meet one of their criteria. Yeah, no surprise to those of you who know me, I failed to get admitted because my GPA (overall) was too low. I have about a 2.58 and need a 2.7. Now a year ago I had about a 2.8, guess what happened! You see, there are these requisites they have for their Arts and Sciences majors because they want to make "well-rounded individuals." Therefore I needed to take history courses. Two of them. Bad ones. Courses that EVERYONE must take, thus they're stuffed with 100+ people and staffed by entirely unmotivated professors or TA's. People who know that the students aren't interested in their course. Therefore the professors and TA's become bitter because their course material sucks and nobody likes it. It's a vicious cycle because they want to retaliate and make the course even more unpleasant. Anyway, in spite of this I think most students can pass this reasonably well, but not me! I had to retake freaking Sophmore English in High School... FIVE TIMES! I had finished the bloody ACT and Senior English before I did the Sophmore course. Wouldn't one think, just with common sense, that if a student can complete Senior English with a bloody A that Sophmore English is kind of redundant?! Nevermind the fact that I scored a 35 on the ACT in all language related sections! Doesn't that sort of imply a certain level of competence? And if standardized tests (by which they'll swear the lives of their first born) have any relevance, then I was already more competent than they themselves! Oh no, certainly not, they can't think outside of their bloody safe boxes! They have these complexes they've developed out of fear of people who are different from them (be that advanced or retarded) and will NOT, so help them, allow things to go smoothly! Anyway, yes, I failed... hmm... let me count this up... well, without the paper in front of me I can only approximate, but I believe it was FOUR history courses to satisfy their requisites to graduate. And yes, that does not count the two I passed (with D's). Needless to say, this damaged my already unimpressive GPA. On the other hand, I should feel a marked pride if one considers my colorful academic history. Let me see... ok, Middle School completed with about a 1.2 GPA overall, High School completed with about a 2.2 and now College completed with about a 2.6. I'm making progress! The subjects that I was actually interested in? I never made below a B, usually made A's and finished with an average of 3.7 in math and science and a 3.8 in Psychology itself. Does that count for anything? Certainly not! All it says is that I can do well at things that interest me and they, clearly, have no intent of interesting me. I suppose that doesn't speak much for their confidence in their own course plans.
Yeah, I'm clearly not in the "In-group" of society. Well damn me!
Anyway, what will I do now? I'm not entirely sure, I guess I wasn't really expecting to get admitted, to be honest. But they managed to get my hopes up for a while there. NeoPong is fun, it satisfies a part of me and we're talking about screwing the money (since we aren't getting paid anyway) and just going after our real passions in gaming. It seems the publishers aren't biting right now anyway and frankly while I'm decent, I'm not THAT good of a salesman and only the best-of-a-bad-case in management. We need to bring in a good manager sometime in the future, but that costs money and we have... uh... none. I guess this will allow... well, nothing more than my current situation. Yeah, I was going to quit ACN once I was accepted into grad school and make that my job to keep me alive while continuing my work at NeoPong. Now I'll just keep working at ACN while continuing my work at NeoPong. What's it changed? Instead of having a job to support myself that actually enriches me and gets somewhere, I'll be in a dead-end job. Though there is an upside to this: ACN ACTUALLY ALLOWS ME TO READ MATERIAL I'M INTERESTED IN! Just like in High School I might learn more outside of class than I ever would have in. How disappointing...
Ah well, maybe I'll be permitted by one of the professors to continue some research outside of the graduate program. Though I doubt the school will look kindly on that. Man, life sucks sometimes!
ME