Month: January 2006

A shot in the dark…

cap60552 General, On the Road

Last night on my way home from work I had a littel vehicle problem… My lights died. It wasn’t a simple death of oops a fuse blew, or something like that… Nope, the multifunction switch in the steering column wore out and died. All I can say is thank God it waited until yeasterday, instead of while trying ot navigate Milwaukee Sturday night. <shudder>

~$236 repair

I knew the repair guy was thinking fuse when he told me it shouldn’t be more than $45. DUH! I’m not a mechanic, but I am also not stupid.

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She sounds alike…

cap60552 General, Work Stories

Hmmm… Our new librarian in training started today. I have a minor problem already, this new librarain sounds VERY simmilar to one of our student workers. So much so that I currently can’t ID her coming throgh the door.
HUH? You may ask. Let me `splain… No that would take to long, let me sum up… Between the door and my desk there is a section of cubicle wall. (The wall is there by my choice, I hate it when people walk in the room only to have the 1st person they see be me. I’m not a secretary, and they know that but they used to immediatly graviate to me. “oooh look someone I can talk to ad nauseum about my bladder problems…”) Over the years since I put the wall in place, I have developed the ability to identify my co-workers from their distinct sounds. Things like their voice, the weight and frequency of footfalls, the sound of their breathing, even the relative height of the sounds give mea clue who it is. This affords me the early warning to prepaire for stupidity in certain cases, and lets me know who’s around without actually having to make eye contact. This new person’s voice, and so far certain nervous manerisims in that voice, are almost identical to those of our student worker. The new person is even roughly the same height and build. This is very annoying to me… I think I’m going to have to request that one of them be made to wear a cowbell so I can tell them appart.

I know, I know… Neurotic much?

A night on the tune…

cap60552 General, Music

WOW!!!

Yup that’s a good summary for the show Saturday night.

Lets see, Saturday is somewhat a blur… Once again I found myself in Milwaukee. This time it was for the Katrina victim bennefit concert put on by Seelie Court, and 3 pints gone. The concert also acted as the CD release party for “Circle”. The show was incredible. It started around 7:15, consisted of three sets, and didn’t end until around 11:30. Seelie Court took the 1st set, 3 Pints Gone had the 2nd set, and final set was the “Build a Band” set. Thanks to the Seelie Cult, and friends, that set contained an insane rendition of “Nancy Lee”. Every time the chorus got to “all the crew was in dispair… Some rushed here, and some rushed there…” we woudl all get up and run like maninacs through the show. The 1st chorus we all got up and randomly switched seats. The 2nd chorus, we all ran pretty random. 3rd chorus we rushed the stage (Thanks Chris). 4th chorus we all ran to the rear of the auditorium. 5th chorus we ran back and sat back in our original seats. The 6th and final chorus we all stood up and spun in a circle and sat back down.

There were many many more great moments, and once I have the pictures transferred I’ll post even more.

Greatly Unrealistic Expectations

cap60552 General

Last night when I arrived home I was a little puzzled to discover my mother dressed in “fancy” clothes. By fancy I mean some sort of robins egg blue colored womans suit type thing. She looked decent in it, but I was pretty confused, so I asked “why so fancy?” It turns out she went for a job interview. I’m glad she’s thinking about getting out of the house and trying to do a little more, and I think a job would do her a world of good. What really blew my mind though was how irritated she was at the potential employer. “They didn’t hire me on the spot!” Uhhh… HELLO… REALITY CHECK!!! “Well, no I doubt they would. Most places don’t work that way, especially if they have more people to interview…” “HARUMPH…. I’ve been hired on the spot for better jobs than that! They don’t know what they are doing…” I knew better than to try to argue this one… I just wished her good luck and walked off.

Ok, so why would she think they would hire her on the spot… This is her 1st job interview (that I know of) in at least twenty five years. She has been out of work due to the accident for nearly eleven years. Her only relevant job experience to this job was working as a telemarketer for a little over a year around 25 years ago. I think she needs to take a real close look at this, and be glad she even got the interview!!! Hell I know people who are currently working, but looking for better jobs that are having troubles getting inteviews. I just hope this isn’t going to trigger another one of those week or two long bouts of depression where I can’t get her to get out of the bed…

Pay me you owe me

cap60552 General

The other day I overheard a group of what appeared to be department heads for a number of branches of a bank chain talking in a restaraunt. It frightens me a little how greedy these companies are getting. I use the term company and not bank, because what I heard was certainly not what I want in a bank. The following conversation is not verbatim but a pretty close approximation.

Manager 1: “So I will probably have to do something about them.”
Manager 2: “They just don’t understand, [bank chain] is a sales driven bank. They need to push those cards!”
Manager 3: “Oh that’s nothing, I talked to my tellers and assigned them to read up on the cards. I came back the next week and quizzed them and the first person I asked ‘so tell me about our [bank chain] card’ couldn’t have sold a card to me at all. I asked him if he even read the material I told him to. He said he hadn’t yet so I made him go sit in the back and read it”
Manager 1: “That’s like my people too.”
Manager 3: “I think we are going to just have to let them all go and hire people who are more sales driven.”
Manager 2: “Absolutly! Last week I worked as a teller for an hour and I sold 3 cards, these people are just not trying!”
Manager 4: “That’s what I have been doing, I give them 2 weeks to prove themselves, and if they can’t make the sale, then they are gone.”

I realize a bank is interested in making mony like every other company… but really do they need to force thier customers into more debt? I guess I’m to sheltered, I thought banks were supposed to help you save money, and to better manage your finances, not force you into debt.

Funny how their name equates to:
1.66666666666666

Hey Winston!

cap60552 General

Winston, plus this to the newspeak dictionary. It’s Double Plus good.

It’s not domestic spying… Silly me… it’s “terrorist surveillance”, what was I thinking…

Don’t forget the best way to combat bird flu is to use the military.