Just got this cute clip from The Princess. Enjoy a little Halloween Humor.
Cool OP swampy. How does it feel to be a minion of Evil? Because all telephone companies are Evil. All of them. And their cell phone divisions are the puppy kicking, candy stealing bullys of the communications industry. 
On the plus side, I’ve got Verizon, so I don’t need any tech support like the rest of these moochers in the MMP.
This weekend I spent my time taking a buyer around looking at houses, which put me in a mood of utter disgust. As I understand it, aren’t banks slowly dying because of bad mortgages? If so, wouldn’t it be prudent to attempt to offload the foreclosed upon, or short selling houses, in some manner resembling prudence, if not outright haste?
Not, apparently, if you’re a bank. I’m consistently seeing listings that are asking the buyer to wait 4-6 weeks for a response. This, of course, if effing idiotic because those very same banks will only guarantee a loan rate for 45 days. So, 4-6 weeks to hear back, 45 days to close. . . . and you wind up with a buyer scared to put down a contract because they worry about their rate getting jack by closing time.
Add into that the fact that the banks are acting as if the boom was still in effect instead of a total housing meltdown. All homes being sold as-is, requesting the buyer to pay their own termite inspections, making the buyer pay the fee for HOA docs, etc. etc. etc. It’s enough to make me want to start the revolution and to start locating executives to be the first against the wall. Urgh.
On the positive side this week, I was finally able to accept the fact that the Dallas Cowboys are going to play like a third rate team forever, and I will never see them in another Super Bowl. It’s a great load off my shoulders, I can tell you.
This is, I’m not againt deer hunting. As far as I’m concerned, kill all the Bambis; I’m tired of running them over. I’m against tresspassing, and since my place is out in the open, the rednecks have no real business being on my land.
So far my AT&T service seems great… but then again I’m not paying for it so I have no idea if there are any billing issues. 
Did anyone else hear Carl Castle on NPR this morning or was I dreaming? Or having a flash back?
KT made Giada’s squash-arugula-gorgonzola pizza last night. Here’s a picture. It was quite tasty, but I think in the future I’d be more inclined to use it as an appetizer than a main meal. But still very yummy. And it looks really pretty, doesn’t it??
We gave blood on Saturday, and KT’s reached the gallon mark, and that’s just what he’s done since we moved here just under 2 1/2 years ago! I’m only 1 donation behind so I should get my gallon pin next time. (OK so that’s more related to the OP from last week or the week before on volunteerism than this week’s but that’s what the MMP’s about, right?)
We also went out to a small-ish observatory Saturday night to look at the stars. It was a beautifully clear night and we got a nice look at Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune, plus M13, the swan nebula, ring nebula, Andromeda galena, and I’ve forgotten what else. KT’s thinking about joining the group that runs the observatory (It’s all volunteer based.) so that’d keep him busy. He doesn’t have any group-based hobbies at this point, so it’d be good for him to get involved and meet some people other than coworkers who all live > an hour away.
I got that. Seems I remember you had problems with some construction vehicles as well, no?
Loggers, farmhands that tend the cotton that surrounds me, hunters. There seems to be an open season on my place.
swampus, I think it’s pretty cool that they’re putting you through the regular CSR training so that you have firsthand experience in what they deal with. Very smart.
Out of curiosity, is this four weeks the last time you’ll be taking calls ever, or do they get the QA folks to take calls during All Hands On Deck situations (generally if call volumes and/or queue wait times get ugly)? I know our in-house QA is expected to pitch in, but I don’t know if they apply the same rules to the third-party centres.
(boy oh boy, am I ever looking forward to the crazy customer stories… it’s the one thing I miss about taking customer calls, actually)
taxi, that pizza looks Teh Yum. I think I might borrow the topping combo for a dinner this weekend… the Bakers Challenge this month is pizza-related. 
Spaz, can’t speak for AT&T, but here in Rogersland our system does recognize your cell number when you call in and “pops” the account on the rep’s screen, but the rep is still required to confirm both the cell number and caller’s name before they can discuss what’s on their screen (just in case the wrong account popped, for whatever reason). The wireless industry is very sensitive to privacy because you can dig up a lot of dirt just from a person’s cell phone records… adultery, shady business practices, insider trading, and on and on it goes.
The Boy and I spent a lazy Sunday at home doing not much of anything, and then made a lovely dinner for our friend The DJ who dropped in for the evening. We stuffed our faces, polished off a bottle of lovely shiraz, and chatted late into the evening about music, home buying and why being a grownup sucks. It was lovely.
Countdown to NYC - 7 days.
I’m also in an industry that has access to tons of PII, including credit scores as well as name, address, SSN, etc. What surprises me, given the media attention paid to situations where data gets lost/stolen, is the number of companies that we work with who are surprised when we say we require all data to be encrypted before being transmitted. Um… would you want *your *PII winging its way across the internet unencrypted??
Well, howdy back at ya. “3acres” works well for me, if you like it. I don’t know if I post enough to earn a nickname, I’m a pretty boring person. Let’s see, my big adventure last week was having the cardiologist tell me my pulse and blood pressure were down a little more in the last six months. Oh, and my lungs still sound ok. Whee. Aside from that, I can barely tell weekdays and weekends apart. Yes, they call me Mr. Excitement…
Howdy all,
I’ve decided to go back to my old practices and open a text document to make comments as I read so as to give the impression that I actually retained something.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, for those of you up front, I decided to do this at Welby’s post.
What occasioned this decision was Welby’s comment that he “had Verizon and thus didn’t need tech support”. To which I say, “It’s a good thing you don’t need tech support from Verizon, ‘cause their tech support sucks!” FWIW it didn’t used to suck. I don’t know what happened to them. I think they must have hired an MBA to run that department. See, I have this theory that most of the bone-headed decisions made at big businesses are made by graduates of Merrikan Business Schools. I base this theory on over 30 years of observation of management types in a number of corporate settings.
Continueing on with Welby’s post; we’re seeing the same bone-headed banking practices here. Must be those MBAs again.
Woot! The mail just came and I’ve got my mail-in ballot. If I mark it up and send it in the political ads will stop coming up on my TV and ‘puter, right? Right? Please tell me that’s right. 
3 Acres is your handle a riff on ‘40 acres and a mule’?
I don’t know why they call deer hunters ‘sportsmen’. What’s sporting about it?
Bobbio, you could shoot up the next truck that drives on your land, and when the cops come, you could tell 'em I saw a deer with a rifle run into the woods over there.
Well, it amuses me.
Well, I don’t have anything else to say, and for once Ima shut up.
Morgyn, I’m sad to say that there are far less classy things you can hang on your trailer hitch, unfortunately. In the grand scheme of things, that little deer is downright tasteful and restrained.
Thislooks like an easy (and yummy) way to use up some of that leftover phyllo dough from last week. And some apples that a coworker gave me a few weeks ago. And given how much phyllo I still have left, I think I could make a couple of these AND some baklava. Why does phyllo come in such big boxes?
Oh, I know. I’ve seen quite a few of those classless wonders. That’s why this was amusing.
I still don’t understand the impetus to do this, though, unless the people putting covers on their trailer hitches are also the same people who pile little crocheted doilies on all their furniture.
Bumba, I’m not saying I don’t need any tech support, I just don’t need to bug Swampy like some other freeloaders I could name.
Plus, my phone doesn’t do anything but phone calls. In fact, I paid about $10 more to get one without a camera and all that other fancy crap that’s out there these days.
And yeah, it’s the MBAs. They’re special.
I was sent home at 0930 due to low census, which was good, seeing as how I have college night with #1 son tonight and I have to work tomorrow. #2 son is off to Outdoor Ed on Wednesday, and I’m working Th and F. Gah.
I came home and took a 3 hour nap. Lovely. Going to make a casserole early due to college night. Ciao.
I can attest to this with a personal connection - one of the companies my spousal unit worked for about 6 years ago is now defunct. The MBA idiots who were running it made one too many stoopit decisions - one involving the purchase of a metric buttload of raw materials right before the price of those materials plummeted. They had to unload the stuff since orders didn’t meet their expectations and they needed cash. I believe they were hoping to get at least 60 cents on the dollar - this from a multi-million dollar purchase.
**FCD **quit a few weeks into this fiasco. The company went bankrupt within 6 months. This was a company which had been in business for over 60 years. Yeah, those MBAs from General Electric did a damn fine job running the wire mills. Thankfully, my sweetie got out before it hit the fan.
Back from the dentist with shiny clean teeth. I go back next Monday for fillings. But overall, my toofies are good. Heck, I’ve still got them all. By the time my grandparents were my age, they had full sets of dentures.
We’ve got AT&T service, and I need to call them to cut the text message service. I never text and **FCD **might send 3 a month. It ain’t worth $5 for 3 stoopit messages. I should contact them right now.
Other than that, just another day in paradise. Smoochies all around, just because, and a butt-pinch for **Bumba **because I’ve missed him.
Howdy Y’all! Home and checkin’ things out for a bit before I go out again. Tonight is men’s night at my church. I have a steak ready to grill and beer iced down in my six pack cooler for consumption. Ol’ y’all know who should be here in a bit and we’re on our way. I’m lookin’ forward to an evening of good food, beer and bs.
Muppet it is all hands on deck if we get (heh!) swamped. I figure it’s the only way to make sure customer calls are handled in a crunch.
Today I had a lovely thirty minute session on the puter learnin’ about AT&T’s email policy. If I had been told to come up with a way to be bored for half an hour I could not have done any better. By way of review first thing this morning, the trainer had us come up with two questions a piece which we got to read aloud and see if others could answer. It’s called “Stump The Class” and we get “points” each time we stump the class. At the end of training the person with the most “points” gets a prize. I got two “points” this mornin’. Actually I was amazed at how much info I have actually retained so far. Oh and I took two more web-based tests this afternoon. I made two more hunnerts. Go me!
welby I get to be a minion of Evil? That’s one perk they didn’t tell me about!
I have a beef stew simmering on the stove. Should be ready in another couple of hours.
Now I just need to get up enough motivation to do my one hundred pushups challenge and work on my introduction some more.
I forgot that the exhibit of the life-eating collection from last year opened up on Saturday in Archivin’ Work. I meant to go, but what with the early voting and walking the dog and coming home tired, I forgot. But my old boss said very nice things about me and the work I did on the collection. I know because two people stopped by to tell me as soon as I got to Archivin’ Work this morning.
I need to start job hunting soon. Dammit, I forgot how. 
Job hunting sucks. Mostly the cover-letter-writing part. Good luck.
I think I’m going to go for a quick bike ride before dinner. I really like this nice fall weather we’re having!