Waiting on the Rinse Cycle
I don’t know how well this will work, but it’s better than not hearing from me for a month.
I don’t have a PC. Not right now. I still haven’t been able to afford installing an extra cable outlet in order to be able to go online, and that’s the biggest reason I would need to have a computer, especially if I don’t have a printer. I have a computer, of sorts. It’s my dad’s old Thinkpad. It’s ok if I want to do things like type up letters and journal entries and draw pictures in Paint and use Excel to balance my checkbook (HA!), but it apparently doesn’t have enough memory to install an ISP. I tried installing an old AOL 3.0 disk a year or so ago - I do have a modem card, so that’s not the problem. I can’t remember all the details, but smoke and sparks flew out of the base, and the screen started flashing red and tilting from one side to the other while the icons ran across the desktop and back, so I abandoned the idea.
I usually only have a half hour or so at Tadashi’s house to do anything on her computer; I’m either pressed for time, or I really wanted to just visit and don’t want to spend all my time there on the computer. It actually takes me an hour at least - on short entries - to write one. So, last weekend, I thought of this idea.
So much is happening, and I’d like to be able to write in my journal a lot more often. I don’t have a PC, but I do have a computer, that has an attachable A drive, and I have a couple of 1.44 MB disks. What if I type up my journal entries on my laptop, and save them to one of the disks, and then simply upload them when I have the chance! Why the hell didn’t I think of it before! Well, technically, by the time I got down to actually starting to do that, I had thought of it before…
Right now, I’m sitting in my apartment’s laundry room waiting for my darks and lights to finish washing. It’s kinda cold in here, but it is November and I’m wearing shorts and a T-shirt because I’m washing my other clothes. I had to hunt for half an hour trying to find some place that would be willing to spare a roll of quarters (a feat which I never accomplished.) I ended up going to about 4 different places to rustle up about $5 I quarters, all because the laundry room doesn’t have a fucking change machine and all the washers and dryers take are quarters. My clothes are done. Just a minute while I put them in the dryer.
I now have 39 minutes before I have to start folding clothes.
Last weekend, I was very giddy. It’s worn off by now. The reason I wanted to bring this up is because I realize WHY I was giddy, and to those of you who have never had to start from pretty much scratch in a new home or apartment may not understand. I was giddy on Saturday because I finally had a broom, and a garbage can, and a toaster! Joy of joys! I’m almost living like a regular person again! It got better on Sunday. At the end of the day, I was able to open my fridge and for the first time see food in there! O, happy day! I’ve got food other than ramen noodles, pans to cook it with, dishes to eat it on, stuff to clean it up with, and a garbage can to throw away the wrappers and rotten leftovers! Wow! Please don’t ask what I was doing before I had the garbage can…) Ok, Tadashi, this is why I couldn’t wait for Christmas to get it. Thank you for the noble idea, though.
I’m going to be much happier at work in about 2 weeks. For the past two and a half months, we in the testing group have been taking retention calls. These are the second most irate group of customers in any business. (The first being collections, which we have been assured we will never have to take…) These are the customers pissed because their stuff isn’t working right, it’s too expensive, the customer service sucks, they can get a better deal somewhere else, they thought they were getting a better deal somewhere else and now they’ve got a contract, they don’t want to pay the fee for breaking the contract with us because they say their stuff hasn’t worked for the three months they’ve had the service (but this is the first time they’ve called in about it), they can’t get the same kick-ass deal we gave to their friend who has had service with us for 3 years and they only started last week, etc, etc, etc… Not all of them are pissed. Some of them are nice people who either just don’t need or use the service anymore, or have fallen into hard times. And then there’s the people who pretend they are pissed just to try to get free stuff. The purpose of the retention department is to try to prevent customers from canceling service. We have to deal with all of the above and then some. We are the last line of defense. Dealing with these pissed-off people makes me pissed off, and I’m usually in a pretty bad mood by the end of the day. I’m gonna be happier in 2 weeks because (and I never thought I’d say this) we are going to be taking set-up calls again!!!! These people are usually either pretty happy or excited because they just got the service, or indifferent because this is the third time they’ve had service with us and couldn’t find anyone better, or that pissed them off less. This is all I did for 3½ years before I got my “promotion”, and I hated it. Now, I’m happy to be going back. You know what? I think everyone that works for our customer service department should take retention calls for a few months. I think that would drastically improve our customer service and satisfaction.
Tadashi had invited me to the movies today, but I had forgotten I had left my phone off after changing the battery a few days ago, and I missed her call. I did call her back, but there was no answer at her house, and her cell phone was off. I do have my phone with me in case she calls, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to hear it ring above the machines.
My clothes are just about done, and I’ve got to get busy folding them. Maybe I could put something warmer on now…
I will try to write more often. Thank you for being patient.
I don’t have a PC. Not right now. I still haven’t been able to afford installing an extra cable outlet in order to be able to go online, and that’s the biggest reason I would need to have a computer, especially if I don’t have a printer. I have a computer, of sorts. It’s my dad’s old Thinkpad. It’s ok if I want to do things like type up letters and journal entries and draw pictures in Paint and use Excel to balance my checkbook (HA!), but it apparently doesn’t have enough memory to install an ISP. I tried installing an old AOL 3.0 disk a year or so ago - I do have a modem card, so that’s not the problem. I can’t remember all the details, but smoke and sparks flew out of the base, and the screen started flashing red and tilting from one side to the other while the icons ran across the desktop and back, so I abandoned the idea.
I usually only have a half hour or so at Tadashi’s house to do anything on her computer; I’m either pressed for time, or I really wanted to just visit and don’t want to spend all my time there on the computer. It actually takes me an hour at least - on short entries - to write one. So, last weekend, I thought of this idea.
So much is happening, and I’d like to be able to write in my journal a lot more often. I don’t have a PC, but I do have a computer, that has an attachable A drive, and I have a couple of 1.44 MB disks. What if I type up my journal entries on my laptop, and save them to one of the disks, and then simply upload them when I have the chance! Why the hell didn’t I think of it before! Well, technically, by the time I got down to actually starting to do that, I had thought of it before…
Right now, I’m sitting in my apartment’s laundry room waiting for my darks and lights to finish washing. It’s kinda cold in here, but it is November and I’m wearing shorts and a T-shirt because I’m washing my other clothes. I had to hunt for half an hour trying to find some place that would be willing to spare a roll of quarters (a feat which I never accomplished.) I ended up going to about 4 different places to rustle up about $5 I quarters, all because the laundry room doesn’t have a fucking change machine and all the washers and dryers take are quarters. My clothes are done. Just a minute while I put them in the dryer.
I now have 39 minutes before I have to start folding clothes.
Last weekend, I was very giddy. It’s worn off by now. The reason I wanted to bring this up is because I realize WHY I was giddy, and to those of you who have never had to start from pretty much scratch in a new home or apartment may not understand. I was giddy on Saturday because I finally had a broom, and a garbage can, and a toaster! Joy of joys! I’m almost living like a regular person again! It got better on Sunday. At the end of the day, I was able to open my fridge and for the first time see food in there! O, happy day! I’ve got food other than ramen noodles, pans to cook it with, dishes to eat it on, stuff to clean it up with, and a garbage can to throw away the wrappers and rotten leftovers! Wow! Please don’t ask what I was doing before I had the garbage can…) Ok, Tadashi, this is why I couldn’t wait for Christmas to get it. Thank you for the noble idea, though.
I’m going to be much happier at work in about 2 weeks. For the past two and a half months, we in the testing group have been taking retention calls. These are the second most irate group of customers in any business. (The first being collections, which we have been assured we will never have to take…) These are the customers pissed because their stuff isn’t working right, it’s too expensive, the customer service sucks, they can get a better deal somewhere else, they thought they were getting a better deal somewhere else and now they’ve got a contract, they don’t want to pay the fee for breaking the contract with us because they say their stuff hasn’t worked for the three months they’ve had the service (but this is the first time they’ve called in about it), they can’t get the same kick-ass deal we gave to their friend who has had service with us for 3 years and they only started last week, etc, etc, etc… Not all of them are pissed. Some of them are nice people who either just don’t need or use the service anymore, or have fallen into hard times. And then there’s the people who pretend they are pissed just to try to get free stuff. The purpose of the retention department is to try to prevent customers from canceling service. We have to deal with all of the above and then some. We are the last line of defense. Dealing with these pissed-off people makes me pissed off, and I’m usually in a pretty bad mood by the end of the day. I’m gonna be happier in 2 weeks because (and I never thought I’d say this) we are going to be taking set-up calls again!!!! These people are usually either pretty happy or excited because they just got the service, or indifferent because this is the third time they’ve had service with us and couldn’t find anyone better, or that pissed them off less. This is all I did for 3½ years before I got my “promotion”, and I hated it. Now, I’m happy to be going back. You know what? I think everyone that works for our customer service department should take retention calls for a few months. I think that would drastically improve our customer service and satisfaction.
Tadashi had invited me to the movies today, but I had forgotten I had left my phone off after changing the battery a few days ago, and I missed her call. I did call her back, but there was no answer at her house, and her cell phone was off. I do have my phone with me in case she calls, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to hear it ring above the machines.
My clothes are just about done, and I’ve got to get busy folding them. Maybe I could put something warmer on now…
I will try to write more often. Thank you for being patient.