As like usual, it has been forever and a day since my last postings. I guess it is time to post so I have something to look back on.
Band - Our guitarist in the band quit a few months ago. He said it was becoming too much of a job. We continue to look for either a guitar player or a drummer (as our current drummer can also play some guitar). Friday we were supposed to have someone come out and try out on drums. He called to let us know his son was in an auto accident but asked if we could move it to Saturday. We all agreed but he was a no call-no show last night. What a bummer.
Scooter - I had an accident on it about 2 months ago. I posted some pics on Facebook not long after it happened. It only got some scraps on the right side of it. I stayed off it for awhile so I could heal up but about a week later I was back to riding it. I have only a few miles and then I will have put on 2000 miles on it since I have gotten it. I really do love riding.
Work - Work has been.... well, work. They had mandatory overtime on the schedule for a long time now. They finally took it off this past week. I am glad as it felt like my soul was being ground up in a meat grinder.
Health - A few months ago I came to the realization that I needed to do something to get into shape. I just wasn't feeling well. I had a huge gut and needed to do something. I started working out to P90X and did ok with it but everytime that I am starting to make progress I seemed to have something happen that caused me to stop for a couple of weeks (bashing my head in a speaker, messing up my leg in the scooter accident). I decided to switch up to Beachbody's Insanity program. This program is intense and meant for those that are already in shape (which I am not). I do what I can in the program and then rest a little and jump right back in. I have been doing this program for 2 weeks now and feel a lot better. I plan on looping back through the first 2 weeks a couple of times so I can get more in shape before trying to continue in the program. I am also trying to change up my diet so I can eat better. Just need to make this change.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
900 miles, Papa Rouch and frustration
(To Proclaimer's "I Would Walk 500 Miles")
But I would drive 900 miles
And I would drive 900 more
Just to be that man to drive two thousand miles and so many more
(Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Undela Undela Undela la la)
(Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Undela Undela Undela la la)
Thursday morning I drove my scooter into work. When I was getting ready to leave that evening and I turned the key on I noticed that on the trip odometer that it was sitting at 900.0. My Yamaha has 3 odometers: the overall odometer and 2 trip odometers. One of the trip odometers I reset at every fill up (this is how I know I am getting 60 MPG) and the other I left to roll since the time that I got the scooter.
I have driven the scooter 900 miles now. Of course, the first 250 miles were the trip home. Kind of hard to believe that I have put 750 miles on it around the Tulsa area in less than a month. I have just enjoyed riding it so much. It has given me an excuse to get out of the house. I find that I am more curious about roads that I haven't been down before and when I have the time I have started to explore them. It is just so fun to ride.
Frustration: I went to try and get my license this last Wednesday. They wouldn't allow me to call ahead a drive test since I didn't have a permit already but I could try to get a drive test after taken the written test. I took the written test at 8:30 and once I passed it I asked to take a drive test and they told me they were all full up. They said I could come back and take the test next or so. Apparently in their office they can get time off easy, I only had that day off and getting another day off is maddening as they fill up quickly and weeks in advance. They told me I could take a permit but I couldn't come back to test again for 30 days. I told them to give me the permit as it would probably 30 days before I could get another day off to test.
I took Chris to go see Papa Roach at the Cain's on Tuesday night (which is why I had Wednesday). I had told him that if he got his driver's permit that I would take him. He passed his test on Monday. There were 2 groups that opened for Papa Roach. The first group was entitled Siva Addiction and they are from OKC. They had a pretty good sound. The second group was Mercy Street and they are from Tulsa. I thought they sucked. They are a speed metal band and I am not into that. I am objective enough to know they are good at that style of music. When they were on the stage they seemed to be presenting a theme and the sing kept trying to intro everything. I just wanted him to shut up and get off the stage. Siva played for about 35 minutes and these jokers played for 45 minutes to an hour.
Finally Papa Roach hit the stage and suddenly a mosh pit broke out in front of where Chris and I were standing. I have never completely understood the desire to push others around and be spun in all different directions and trying to knock people down while having spent money to come see this artist. Never been a fan of them. If you wanna beat the crap out of each other to music let me set up my sound system and a ring in a field and you can beat each other to death and pay me $20 a head.
Papa Roach did a really good job but they were only up there for about an hour and 15 minutes. For $28 a ticket I would have hoped for longer show but it was really high energy and I was dripping sweat from all the jumping I had done.
I am sure there are other things that I wanted to share but they escape me at the moment and I gotta run.
Later peeps...
But I would drive 900 miles
And I would drive 900 more
Just to be that man to drive two thousand miles and so many more
(Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Undela Undela Undela la la)
(Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Undela Undela Undela la la)
Thursday morning I drove my scooter into work. When I was getting ready to leave that evening and I turned the key on I noticed that on the trip odometer that it was sitting at 900.0. My Yamaha has 3 odometers: the overall odometer and 2 trip odometers. One of the trip odometers I reset at every fill up (this is how I know I am getting 60 MPG) and the other I left to roll since the time that I got the scooter.
I have driven the scooter 900 miles now. Of course, the first 250 miles were the trip home. Kind of hard to believe that I have put 750 miles on it around the Tulsa area in less than a month. I have just enjoyed riding it so much. It has given me an excuse to get out of the house. I find that I am more curious about roads that I haven't been down before and when I have the time I have started to explore them. It is just so fun to ride.
Frustration: I went to try and get my license this last Wednesday. They wouldn't allow me to call ahead a drive test since I didn't have a permit already but I could try to get a drive test after taken the written test. I took the written test at 8:30 and once I passed it I asked to take a drive test and they told me they were all full up. They said I could come back and take the test next or so. Apparently in their office they can get time off easy, I only had that day off and getting another day off is maddening as they fill up quickly and weeks in advance. They told me I could take a permit but I couldn't come back to test again for 30 days. I told them to give me the permit as it would probably 30 days before I could get another day off to test.
I took Chris to go see Papa Roach at the Cain's on Tuesday night (which is why I had Wednesday). I had told him that if he got his driver's permit that I would take him. He passed his test on Monday. There were 2 groups that opened for Papa Roach. The first group was entitled Siva Addiction and they are from OKC. They had a pretty good sound. The second group was Mercy Street and they are from Tulsa. I thought they sucked. They are a speed metal band and I am not into that. I am objective enough to know they are good at that style of music. When they were on the stage they seemed to be presenting a theme and the sing kept trying to intro everything. I just wanted him to shut up and get off the stage. Siva played for about 35 minutes and these jokers played for 45 minutes to an hour.
Finally Papa Roach hit the stage and suddenly a mosh pit broke out in front of where Chris and I were standing. I have never completely understood the desire to push others around and be spun in all different directions and trying to knock people down while having spent money to come see this artist. Never been a fan of them. If you wanna beat the crap out of each other to music let me set up my sound system and a ring in a field and you can beat each other to death and pay me $20 a head.
Papa Roach did a really good job but they were only up there for about an hour and 15 minutes. For $28 a ticket I would have hoped for longer show but it was really high energy and I was dripping sweat from all the jumping I had done.
I am sure there are other things that I wanted to share but they escape me at the moment and I gotta run.
Later peeps...
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Scooters and authors and books. OH MY!!!!!
Well, yesterday the family got up at 4 in the morning (after I only got 1 1/2 hours of sleep) to make a trip to Conway, Arkansas. There was a 2005 Yamaha Majesty there that I wanted to take a look at.
One of the things that we noticed in driving to Conway was that were a lot of trees lining the highways there in Arkansas. Also the roads in Arkansas were head and shoulders above what we have in Oklahoma, lots of smooth pavement in opposition to the pothole filled monstrosities that we call roads.
We got to Conway about 9:30 and went to find the area where the bike was at. There were some really nice homes in the area. Since I wasn't able to get in contact with the owner we decided to drive around in Conway to kill some time.
While driving around Karma saw a Hasting's store and I figured it would be a good place to kill some time. For those of you who don't know what a Hasting's is, it would be similar to a Border's or Barnes and Noble but it has books and movies.
We got in there and the staff seemed to be busy working on something. I ignored it and went to look at the books. Karma was noticing there were a lot of books by Charlaine Harris on the end caps and she heard the talk about preparing for an author's appearance. She asked the staff and found out that Charlaine was going to be in the store for autographs at 2PM.
Charlaine is one of Karma's favorite authors. She wrote the Sookie Stackhouse books which is the series that HBO's True Blood is based on. Talk about fate, Karma didn't even know that she was making an appearance anywhere that day. We obviously had to go back.
The owner called me with his address and advised that how would be home around noon he had gone camping the night before and wouldn't be back until then.
Around 11 we decided we needed to go to lunch as noon would be about the time to test the bike. We found a place called Pickles Gap and ate there. They was an antiques store there and a fudge shop. An old home type of feel. We really only had time to eat but I was able to get some catfish (it was good). If you are ever in the Conway/Little Rock area I would recommend it if you have some extra time.
By the time that lunch was finish we headed back toward the bike's location and rode around some more to kill some more time. The guy finally called me and we stopped back by to give the scooter a test ride. It was a blast. I decided to buy it.
Now we had to stop back by Hasting's so Karma could get her book signed. I filled up both the car and bike while Karma and Tempus stood in line. Once Karma was done, we stopped by a convenience store for some drinks.
From there we hopped up onto the highway. The Majesty's ride was really smooth and it got up to highway speed quickly. The posted speed for the highway is 70 and I was trying to keep it between 70 and 75 on the speedometer but there were a couple of times that I had it at 80 while not paying close attention. It wanted to run fast.
We had to stop a couple of times on the way back home. I had a couple of times that were a little scary on the way back. I almost pulled into a red sport's car on the way home as I didn't see him coming up on my right until the very last second. Another time there was a car that was merging onto the highway that I had to slow down to make sure to she didn't hit me.
Also, on the way home I had to stop and pay the tolls since I don't have a pikepass for the scooter. When I stopped at the Creek Turnpike northbound at about 31st street I tossed the 85 cents in it and it never registered anything. Even throwing an additional dollar in it never took it. I put over 2 dollars in the machine and it acknowledged nothing. Finally the guys behind me told me to just pull through. He was going to leave a note to let them know the machine was broken.
I was getting closer to home and when I went to take the turn off to get on 44 westbound I noticed that the bike was jostling around a little bit in the slow down. It became more prevalent as I pulled up my street. I pull it into the garage to find that the thread on the back tire had blown out. It looks like the tire might have had some dry rot in it, if nothing else it is another causality of Oklahoma roads.
There is a motorcycle shop right up the road that I will call tomorrow to see if they can get it in to replace the tire on it. Next thing is to get the insurance on it and transfer the title over.
*SIGH* I was hoping to show it off today to some friends and then tomorrow at work. Guess it will have to wait a couple of days.
Later peeps.
One of the things that we noticed in driving to Conway was that were a lot of trees lining the highways there in Arkansas. Also the roads in Arkansas were head and shoulders above what we have in Oklahoma, lots of smooth pavement in opposition to the pothole filled monstrosities that we call roads.
We got to Conway about 9:30 and went to find the area where the bike was at. There were some really nice homes in the area. Since I wasn't able to get in contact with the owner we decided to drive around in Conway to kill some time.
While driving around Karma saw a Hasting's store and I figured it would be a good place to kill some time. For those of you who don't know what a Hasting's is, it would be similar to a Border's or Barnes and Noble but it has books and movies.
We got in there and the staff seemed to be busy working on something. I ignored it and went to look at the books. Karma was noticing there were a lot of books by Charlaine Harris on the end caps and she heard the talk about preparing for an author's appearance. She asked the staff and found out that Charlaine was going to be in the store for autographs at 2PM.
Charlaine is one of Karma's favorite authors. She wrote the Sookie Stackhouse books which is the series that HBO's True Blood is based on. Talk about fate, Karma didn't even know that she was making an appearance anywhere that day. We obviously had to go back.
The owner called me with his address and advised that how would be home around noon he had gone camping the night before and wouldn't be back until then.
Around 11 we decided we needed to go to lunch as noon would be about the time to test the bike. We found a place called Pickles Gap and ate there. They was an antiques store there and a fudge shop. An old home type of feel. We really only had time to eat but I was able to get some catfish (it was good). If you are ever in the Conway/Little Rock area I would recommend it if you have some extra time.
By the time that lunch was finish we headed back toward the bike's location and rode around some more to kill some more time. The guy finally called me and we stopped back by to give the scooter a test ride. It was a blast. I decided to buy it.
Now we had to stop back by Hasting's so Karma could get her book signed. I filled up both the car and bike while Karma and Tempus stood in line. Once Karma was done, we stopped by a convenience store for some drinks.
From there we hopped up onto the highway. The Majesty's ride was really smooth and it got up to highway speed quickly. The posted speed for the highway is 70 and I was trying to keep it between 70 and 75 on the speedometer but there were a couple of times that I had it at 80 while not paying close attention. It wanted to run fast.
We had to stop a couple of times on the way back home. I had a couple of times that were a little scary on the way back. I almost pulled into a red sport's car on the way home as I didn't see him coming up on my right until the very last second. Another time there was a car that was merging onto the highway that I had to slow down to make sure to she didn't hit me.
Also, on the way home I had to stop and pay the tolls since I don't have a pikepass for the scooter. When I stopped at the Creek Turnpike northbound at about 31st street I tossed the 85 cents in it and it never registered anything. Even throwing an additional dollar in it never took it. I put over 2 dollars in the machine and it acknowledged nothing. Finally the guys behind me told me to just pull through. He was going to leave a note to let them know the machine was broken.
I was getting closer to home and when I went to take the turn off to get on 44 westbound I noticed that the bike was jostling around a little bit in the slow down. It became more prevalent as I pulled up my street. I pull it into the garage to find that the thread on the back tire had blown out. It looks like the tire might have had some dry rot in it, if nothing else it is another causality of Oklahoma roads.
There is a motorcycle shop right up the road that I will call tomorrow to see if they can get it in to replace the tire on it. Next thing is to get the insurance on it and transfer the title over.
*SIGH* I was hoping to show it off today to some friends and then tomorrow at work. Guess it will have to wait a couple of days.
Later peeps.
Monday, April 19, 2010
At last it is done….
Well, the change over from being management has finally taken place. I started training for Tech Support today. It was kind of funny to see how things have changed since I last took phone calls for them 4 years ago. I haven’t seen too much that has changed during that time yet, we are going to be going through that over the next 7 days.
It felt a little weird being in a training room. I haven’t had to be in one in the last year and a half. Being on a national team during that time meant I didn’t have to take any of the periodic trainings that reps have to go through.
I got into work a little early since the training class doesn’t start until 9. I stopped by my old desk and saw Judi. She asked me how I felt today. I told her I was still a little torn. I am a loyalist in a lot of things. I told her that I felt a little guilty about moving back as I felt that I was letting my old team down. However I knew that this was the better thing to do for myself in the long run. I told her that the further the taillights go off in the distance I better I will feel.
One of the last conversations that I had with Michelle (the woman who was taking over the UAT duties from me) she was telling me that her boss was telling her that the monthly builds they started this year would need to start to have test scripts written for them and coordination of testers. I just had to laugh at that and made me more thankful that I decided to make the move that I did. That conversation took away some of the guilt that I had on Friday.
This past weekend was fun. I had band practice on Saturday night. It was a strange one as things just seemed to go all wrong before we started. The drummer was plugging in the board and turning on the amps and one of the latest ones that we had started using decided that it was going to fry itself. We switched a couple of things around and were just about to start when the bass players suddenly made a sound that startled everyone and ended up blowing out one of his speakers. We had to push his sound out through the main speakers. The whole practice was loud. I think next time we will need to have everyone turn down. There is no need in me getting a headache due to the overall volume.
In other news, I want to get a 400cc scooter so bad I can taste it. I really want to get a Yamaha Majesty but most that want o sell their used ones are so proud of them it is ridiculous. I had seen one on a site for a motorcycle shop from Muskogee that had it for a pretty good price. The only problem is right now I don’t have a motorcycle endorsement. I think it is absolutely nuts that Oklahoma doesn’t have a permit for motorcycle driving. Basically, you have to break the law to prepare to test and be law abiding. That’s nuts.
One of my friends has a scooter that he is going to let me practice on; I hope to have a license endorsement within the next week or so.
Later peeps…..
It felt a little weird being in a training room. I haven’t had to be in one in the last year and a half. Being on a national team during that time meant I didn’t have to take any of the periodic trainings that reps have to go through.
I got into work a little early since the training class doesn’t start until 9. I stopped by my old desk and saw Judi. She asked me how I felt today. I told her I was still a little torn. I am a loyalist in a lot of things. I told her that I felt a little guilty about moving back as I felt that I was letting my old team down. However I knew that this was the better thing to do for myself in the long run. I told her that the further the taillights go off in the distance I better I will feel.
One of the last conversations that I had with Michelle (the woman who was taking over the UAT duties from me) she was telling me that her boss was telling her that the monthly builds they started this year would need to start to have test scripts written for them and coordination of testers. I just had to laugh at that and made me more thankful that I decided to make the move that I did. That conversation took away some of the guilt that I had on Friday.
This past weekend was fun. I had band practice on Saturday night. It was a strange one as things just seemed to go all wrong before we started. The drummer was plugging in the board and turning on the amps and one of the latest ones that we had started using decided that it was going to fry itself. We switched a couple of things around and were just about to start when the bass players suddenly made a sound that startled everyone and ended up blowing out one of his speakers. We had to push his sound out through the main speakers. The whole practice was loud. I think next time we will need to have everyone turn down. There is no need in me getting a headache due to the overall volume.
In other news, I want to get a 400cc scooter so bad I can taste it. I really want to get a Yamaha Majesty but most that want o sell their used ones are so proud of them it is ridiculous. I had seen one on a site for a motorcycle shop from Muskogee that had it for a pretty good price. The only problem is right now I don’t have a motorcycle endorsement. I think it is absolutely nuts that Oklahoma doesn’t have a permit for motorcycle driving. Basically, you have to break the law to prepare to test and be law abiding. That’s nuts.
One of my friends has a scooter that he is going to let me practice on; I hope to have a license endorsement within the next week or so.
Later peeps…..
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Springtime - BRRRRR!
It seems I am only getting in a blog post update once a month. So, here it goes:
I was able to take vacation a couple of weeks ago. It was nice to get out of the office. I actually turned off the email retrieval on my phone. I still checked it a couple of times a day but I didn't have it chiming at me all the time which was nice. Since I am transitioning away from my job there are not as many emails as there used to be but when they happen it seems to come in waves.
Basically the only thing that I am doing in my job now is training the gal who is taking over the (UAT) product testing. The other part of the job is already being done by Kingsley (a contract worker that was with us last year). I find myself in a lot of cases twiddling my thumbs at my desk. I shouldn't really do the work as Michelle (the replacement) should be doing it and I don't want to work on anything over and above (I believe I have already served my time). I have been mainly forcing myself to go into the office for work as I don't want to get out of the habit as I have to be there as a CSR.
Bryan (my boss) keeps giving me a hard time about wanting to move back but then always tell me that I can change my mind. I have told him repeatedly that I will not be staying. It appears at this point that I will be starting in the new hire class on May 3rd barring any kind of a change.
Today is the last day of Spring Break. Karma took the kids over to visit relatives in NW Oklahoma for a couple of days. It was nice to have the house to myself for a few days. I think I will have to use the term Spring Break loosely. The first part of the week was really nice. Friday it got up to 71 degrees and then Saturday was the first official day of Spring and it snowed almost all day. The great news was that the ground is really warm so there is not as much piled up as there would have been otherwise. It is supposed to be in the mid 50s tomorrow so I figure most if not all of the snow will be gone by tomorrow night. The great time about this snow is that it is slowly seeping moisture into the ground. This should really help things out.
This past Thursday I went over to Rhys and Indi's for a little bit. I got to see their new scooters. Indi let me take her's out for a test spin as I have wanted one for several years now. I had never ridden one before so Rhys gave me a quick rundown of the controls. I took it to the end of the block and then decided that I wanted to try and take it around the block for a spin.
Now the scooter was a 150cc model and I am a hefty guy (last doctor's visit had me at 252 lbs), I was wondering how well this machine would accelerate with someone my size on it. Coming up the next block I have gotten maybe a quarter of the way up the block and decided to give it some gas (I turned the throttle a little and it really picked up speed). My mind was telling me the stop sign would be up soon and told me I might be going too fast and I looked down at the speedometer, I was going 35 MPH. I had to laugh at myself. Rhys was explaining that since I wasn't surrounded by metal and glass that I would seem faster. He said that you get more used to it over time.
He said the place where he got it was supposed to have more of those models out on Saturday but it was snowing or else I would have gone down. Looks like I will have to look at this sometime this next week when the weather is nicer.
Welp, better finish eating lunch. Later peeps.
I was able to take vacation a couple of weeks ago. It was nice to get out of the office. I actually turned off the email retrieval on my phone. I still checked it a couple of times a day but I didn't have it chiming at me all the time which was nice. Since I am transitioning away from my job there are not as many emails as there used to be but when they happen it seems to come in waves.
Basically the only thing that I am doing in my job now is training the gal who is taking over the (UAT) product testing. The other part of the job is already being done by Kingsley (a contract worker that was with us last year). I find myself in a lot of cases twiddling my thumbs at my desk. I shouldn't really do the work as Michelle (the replacement) should be doing it and I don't want to work on anything over and above (I believe I have already served my time). I have been mainly forcing myself to go into the office for work as I don't want to get out of the habit as I have to be there as a CSR.
Bryan (my boss) keeps giving me a hard time about wanting to move back but then always tell me that I can change my mind. I have told him repeatedly that I will not be staying. It appears at this point that I will be starting in the new hire class on May 3rd barring any kind of a change.
Today is the last day of Spring Break. Karma took the kids over to visit relatives in NW Oklahoma for a couple of days. It was nice to have the house to myself for a few days. I think I will have to use the term Spring Break loosely. The first part of the week was really nice. Friday it got up to 71 degrees and then Saturday was the first official day of Spring and it snowed almost all day. The great news was that the ground is really warm so there is not as much piled up as there would have been otherwise. It is supposed to be in the mid 50s tomorrow so I figure most if not all of the snow will be gone by tomorrow night. The great time about this snow is that it is slowly seeping moisture into the ground. This should really help things out.
This past Thursday I went over to Rhys and Indi's for a little bit. I got to see their new scooters. Indi let me take her's out for a test spin as I have wanted one for several years now. I had never ridden one before so Rhys gave me a quick rundown of the controls. I took it to the end of the block and then decided that I wanted to try and take it around the block for a spin.
Now the scooter was a 150cc model and I am a hefty guy (last doctor's visit had me at 252 lbs), I was wondering how well this machine would accelerate with someone my size on it. Coming up the next block I have gotten maybe a quarter of the way up the block and decided to give it some gas (I turned the throttle a little and it really picked up speed). My mind was telling me the stop sign would be up soon and told me I might be going too fast and I looked down at the speedometer, I was going 35 MPH. I had to laugh at myself. Rhys was explaining that since I wasn't surrounded by metal and glass that I would seem faster. He said that you get more used to it over time.
He said the place where he got it was supposed to have more of those models out on Saturday but it was snowing or else I would have gone down. Looks like I will have to look at this sometime this next week when the weather is nicer.
Welp, better finish eating lunch. Later peeps.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Porter and Doelling and laughter, OH MY!!!
Well, once again it has been awhile since I have updated the ol' blog. Valentines Day was last week and I took Karma out to the Cheesecake Factory as we had never been before. It was ok. The food was good but not outstanding and the prices were a little high. The desserts though is where they shine.
I also took her out to the comedy club. I think it is sad when the second comedian is better than the headliner and this was the case. Karma was looking at the upcoming comics and saw that Chris Porter was the following week. For those of you who might not know, Chris was on the last season of Last Comic Standing on NBC. He didn't win but he was a finalist and was pretty funny.
Karma really wanted to see him so we went Friday night. We went to Famous Dave's BBQ for dinner. We had never been there before and I really liked it. I got the "Full Slab" of ribs and ended up bringing some home. It was really tasty.
At the club the MC was a guy named Terry Vonn (I think) and he was ok. He needs to do a little work on his jokes and timing but he was head and shoulders above the MC of the week before. The feature was a comic by the name of John Doelling and he was hilarious. If anyone has an opportunity to see then you should. He was hilarious.
The headliner, Chris Porter, did an excellent job (but I figured he would). After the show he was selling his DVD and CD for $20. Karma stopped by and got a copy of it from him. We haven't watched it yet but I am sure it will be good. By the end of the show on Friday my cheeks were hurting such much from laughing so hard.
Welp, better finish up. The Olympics are on and I have a build to go into work from tomorrow. It will be here too soon.
I also took her out to the comedy club. I think it is sad when the second comedian is better than the headliner and this was the case. Karma was looking at the upcoming comics and saw that Chris Porter was the following week. For those of you who might not know, Chris was on the last season of Last Comic Standing on NBC. He didn't win but he was a finalist and was pretty funny.
Karma really wanted to see him so we went Friday night. We went to Famous Dave's BBQ for dinner. We had never been there before and I really liked it. I got the "Full Slab" of ribs and ended up bringing some home. It was really tasty.
At the club the MC was a guy named Terry Vonn (I think) and he was ok. He needs to do a little work on his jokes and timing but he was head and shoulders above the MC of the week before. The feature was a comic by the name of John Doelling and he was hilarious. If anyone has an opportunity to see then you should. He was hilarious.
The headliner, Chris Porter, did an excellent job (but I figured he would). After the show he was selling his DVD and CD for $20. Karma stopped by and got a copy of it from him. We haven't watched it yet but I am sure it will be good. By the end of the show on Friday my cheeks were hurting such much from laughing so hard.
Welp, better finish up. The Olympics are on and I have a build to go into work from tomorrow. It will be here too soon.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
To Boldly Go Where Others Have Gone Before..... (well I am sure that is the case)
**Warning this post is long and rambly as I haven't posted anything of length since October of last year, just little posts in Facebook**
Well, I did something that I never would have thought I would have a year and a half ago. I called my boss the other night and told him that I wanted to go back to being a rep at the call center.
I took my CS Specialist (management) position in September 2008 and was pretty excited about it. I was going to be working again with a good friend (Indi) and getting away from the call center where they were changing my job priorities daily. I was working as Production Support lead for the Clarify application (customer service software) I have been working with for 7 years (it wasn't there the first 2 years I worked there). Indi was in charge of testing new builds for the application and worked in the same center with me.
Things went ok, I struggled some to do a good job in my new position. Production Support can be like banging a head repeatedly against a brick wall. Indi was going to leave in April of 09 to travel the planet with her husband (Rhys) and they were supposed to be able to hire someone to take her place. Since the economy took a nosedive and AT&T was cutting back positions they decided they were not going to replace Indi with another person. We were able to get a couple of contract workers to fill in and they moved me over to Indi's position. There were supposed to be 4 builds that took place after Indi left in 09 but somehow the first 2 and last 2 got combined (making them large and hard to maintain control over).
I tried as hard as I could to stay on top of things and ended up in October and November putting in 12 and 14 hours in each day to make sure that I stayed on top of it. This happened on the weekdays for 6 weeks, usually I could get some time in on the weekend to get in some rest but there were some weekends in there that I worked an additional 20 hours. During this time Karma kept telling me that I needed to find another job, I am kind of a workaholic and she was really getting concerned over my health. I was watching the news and they said the unemployment rate was 10.2% for our area. I might be able to find another job but it would be starting out at square one all over again and there would be no guarantee that it would be there for very long after I had gotten it. The last build of the year went in on December 6th and I was able to get in the majority of my vacation after that.
I told Karma during the stretch of 12 and 14 hour days that I would look over my job position at the end of January. I would evaluate how things looked for the future and see if I wanted to continue on with the position and if the answer was yes then I would evaluate again every few months. Part of this was to get her to back off as it was only adding to my stress level to think of that and still put in all of my time. She wasn't hounding me about it but things had a tendency to run over repeated in my head during this timeframe as I would analyze and re-analyze things.
I fought a bout with shingles in December. I had never had them before and would like to never have them again, mainly they are brought on by stress and stress is what I had had for a long time. I also had to go to the doctor again the day before Christmas for something else (I won't go into the details on that one to spare you, lol). 2 times to the doctor in a month was something that I hadn't done in forever.
During my time off at the end of December I had a lot of time on my hands to think about my job. During this time I really started to think about how the job was a big stresser and how to make some changes. Lord knows that I can't change the job, I either have to change my perception of the job or change jobs but what could I change to?
1. Did I want to apply outside of the company? The economy is still bad so I would have to worry about being in the same pool as people that have been out of work for 6 months or more. It would mean starting over at a new place, do I want to do that?
2. I could apply for another management job in the company but I haven't finished my training on that as live classes have been short in coming. Also it could be a "out of the frying pan and into the fire" situation where I would end up with worse than what I have.
3. I could try to move back to taking calls in the call center. It would mean demoting myself to do it. I would give up a few things from my present job but I would know that I would be off by a specific time of the day and allocate time to spend working on personal things like working out, studying for a possible different career and spending time with family and friends.
I decided on option 3 but I am kind of a loyalist. One thing that proved that I was making the right decision was that they changed around my duties (due to losing others) to include stuff that basically doubled or tripled my work load. I don't want to leave my boss (Bryan) in the lurch. We have builds coming up in February and June. I told him that I would be willing to stay on until July so a replacement can be found and trained (with my help).
I was really dreading calling Bryan to tell him all of this. I wasn't quite sure how he would take it. He actually took it a lot better than I was imagining. I called him Thursday evening and after giving him the explanation as to why I wanted to move back he said that he understood. I think they are supposed to make an attempt to save you but the only thing that he really did was say that the last 3 months were crazy and not typical of how the work normally is. He did also ask if this was truly what I wanted. My boss indicated he would have to talk with his manager but that if I thought that was the best career path for me then they would not stand in my way of making that happen. After I told him, I felt a little guilty as it still seems a little disloyal even though I have to look out for me and my family.
The next day I was talking with Bryan and he spoke with his boss, John. He said that John was surprised that I wanted to leave and thought that I would "go the distance". Bryan indicated that they might have to move me over before July though. He said he wasn't sure at this point if they would allow for both me and my replacement to be there at the same time due to budget constraints. Someone had told me that if they let me go before the second week of March then they wouldn't have to pay me any bonus but I don't know if that is true or not. Since it was not something that I was planning on I don't really know that I will be missing it. I think that the change of responsibilities will be nice. At least after I leave work I won't have to worry about working late into the evening during UATs or coming in for testing on the weekends (which was only a couple times a year but still it will be nice).
There will be a reduction in pay from what I make now but I should be going back in at top pay for a CSR and keeping my seniority (which since I have been there almost 9 years should mean a good shift). Ultimately I want to go back to working in Tech Support, I always liked working in that group but had to move when they combined the upstairs and downstairs groups and restricted the early shifts so I had to come in later. There are a lot more positions on the team now and I figure I should get a really good shift. I should then be able to plan an outside life easier then.
I guess the best way to put it would be in a list of the things that I will gain or lose and whether they matter:
Gain:
Stable shift (know when I would go in and leave everyday)
Lots of support (others around to help with answers if I don't have them)
Ability to plan outside activities due to the stable shift
Better health care package
Less stress
Getting paid every other Friday instead of twice a month (comes in handy on the months where you have 3 Fridays)
Loss:
Laptop and VPN connection (which I really only need to perform my present job)
Free home phone (it wasn't that bad to pay for anyway)
Ability to work from home (in the year plus I have been in the job I have worked solely from home about 5 times, so not a big loss)
Some flexibility in start time (if I didn't have a meeting or call scheduled early in the morning)
Ability to run errands if not on calls (I have done this only a few times as well but will miss this one but not overly)
Reduction in pay (it won't be overly huge but I am sure it will have an impact, Karma indicated my peace of mind is more important and I agree. If nothing else I can get a part time job to help fill in the gap)
I am sure there are many other adjustments that will take place as well but I either haven't thought of them or just didn't mention them here. I know that some customers are tough to deal with but I don't think it will be that hard to get back in the swing of things. Just knowing that I when my shift ends then my work concerns are over for the day is HUGE. Overall I think it will be the best thing for me.
If you have made it all the way through my ramblings and still have a brain then I congratulate you and would like to offer you an award (although I don't have any). Just thanks for hanging in there with me.
Well, I did something that I never would have thought I would have a year and a half ago. I called my boss the other night and told him that I wanted to go back to being a rep at the call center.
I took my CS Specialist (management) position in September 2008 and was pretty excited about it. I was going to be working again with a good friend (Indi) and getting away from the call center where they were changing my job priorities daily. I was working as Production Support lead for the Clarify application (customer service software) I have been working with for 7 years (it wasn't there the first 2 years I worked there). Indi was in charge of testing new builds for the application and worked in the same center with me.
Things went ok, I struggled some to do a good job in my new position. Production Support can be like banging a head repeatedly against a brick wall. Indi was going to leave in April of 09 to travel the planet with her husband (Rhys) and they were supposed to be able to hire someone to take her place. Since the economy took a nosedive and AT&T was cutting back positions they decided they were not going to replace Indi with another person. We were able to get a couple of contract workers to fill in and they moved me over to Indi's position. There were supposed to be 4 builds that took place after Indi left in 09 but somehow the first 2 and last 2 got combined (making them large and hard to maintain control over).
I tried as hard as I could to stay on top of things and ended up in October and November putting in 12 and 14 hours in each day to make sure that I stayed on top of it. This happened on the weekdays for 6 weeks, usually I could get some time in on the weekend to get in some rest but there were some weekends in there that I worked an additional 20 hours. During this time Karma kept telling me that I needed to find another job, I am kind of a workaholic and she was really getting concerned over my health. I was watching the news and they said the unemployment rate was 10.2% for our area. I might be able to find another job but it would be starting out at square one all over again and there would be no guarantee that it would be there for very long after I had gotten it. The last build of the year went in on December 6th and I was able to get in the majority of my vacation after that.
I told Karma during the stretch of 12 and 14 hour days that I would look over my job position at the end of January. I would evaluate how things looked for the future and see if I wanted to continue on with the position and if the answer was yes then I would evaluate again every few months. Part of this was to get her to back off as it was only adding to my stress level to think of that and still put in all of my time. She wasn't hounding me about it but things had a tendency to run over repeated in my head during this timeframe as I would analyze and re-analyze things.
I fought a bout with shingles in December. I had never had them before and would like to never have them again, mainly they are brought on by stress and stress is what I had had for a long time. I also had to go to the doctor again the day before Christmas for something else (I won't go into the details on that one to spare you, lol). 2 times to the doctor in a month was something that I hadn't done in forever.
During my time off at the end of December I had a lot of time on my hands to think about my job. During this time I really started to think about how the job was a big stresser and how to make some changes. Lord knows that I can't change the job, I either have to change my perception of the job or change jobs but what could I change to?
1. Did I want to apply outside of the company? The economy is still bad so I would have to worry about being in the same pool as people that have been out of work for 6 months or more. It would mean starting over at a new place, do I want to do that?
2. I could apply for another management job in the company but I haven't finished my training on that as live classes have been short in coming. Also it could be a "out of the frying pan and into the fire" situation where I would end up with worse than what I have.
3. I could try to move back to taking calls in the call center. It would mean demoting myself to do it. I would give up a few things from my present job but I would know that I would be off by a specific time of the day and allocate time to spend working on personal things like working out, studying for a possible different career and spending time with family and friends.
I decided on option 3 but I am kind of a loyalist. One thing that proved that I was making the right decision was that they changed around my duties (due to losing others) to include stuff that basically doubled or tripled my work load. I don't want to leave my boss (Bryan) in the lurch. We have builds coming up in February and June. I told him that I would be willing to stay on until July so a replacement can be found and trained (with my help).
I was really dreading calling Bryan to tell him all of this. I wasn't quite sure how he would take it. He actually took it a lot better than I was imagining. I called him Thursday evening and after giving him the explanation as to why I wanted to move back he said that he understood. I think they are supposed to make an attempt to save you but the only thing that he really did was say that the last 3 months were crazy and not typical of how the work normally is. He did also ask if this was truly what I wanted. My boss indicated he would have to talk with his manager but that if I thought that was the best career path for me then they would not stand in my way of making that happen. After I told him, I felt a little guilty as it still seems a little disloyal even though I have to look out for me and my family.
The next day I was talking with Bryan and he spoke with his boss, John. He said that John was surprised that I wanted to leave and thought that I would "go the distance". Bryan indicated that they might have to move me over before July though. He said he wasn't sure at this point if they would allow for both me and my replacement to be there at the same time due to budget constraints. Someone had told me that if they let me go before the second week of March then they wouldn't have to pay me any bonus but I don't know if that is true or not. Since it was not something that I was planning on I don't really know that I will be missing it. I think that the change of responsibilities will be nice. At least after I leave work I won't have to worry about working late into the evening during UATs or coming in for testing on the weekends (which was only a couple times a year but still it will be nice).
There will be a reduction in pay from what I make now but I should be going back in at top pay for a CSR and keeping my seniority (which since I have been there almost 9 years should mean a good shift). Ultimately I want to go back to working in Tech Support, I always liked working in that group but had to move when they combined the upstairs and downstairs groups and restricted the early shifts so I had to come in later. There are a lot more positions on the team now and I figure I should get a really good shift. I should then be able to plan an outside life easier then.
I guess the best way to put it would be in a list of the things that I will gain or lose and whether they matter:
Gain:
Stable shift (know when I would go in and leave everyday)
Lots of support (others around to help with answers if I don't have them)
Ability to plan outside activities due to the stable shift
Better health care package
Less stress
Getting paid every other Friday instead of twice a month (comes in handy on the months where you have 3 Fridays)
Loss:
Laptop and VPN connection (which I really only need to perform my present job)
Free home phone (it wasn't that bad to pay for anyway)
Ability to work from home (in the year plus I have been in the job I have worked solely from home about 5 times, so not a big loss)
Some flexibility in start time (if I didn't have a meeting or call scheduled early in the morning)
Ability to run errands if not on calls (I have done this only a few times as well but will miss this one but not overly)
Reduction in pay (it won't be overly huge but I am sure it will have an impact, Karma indicated my peace of mind is more important and I agree. If nothing else I can get a part time job to help fill in the gap)
I am sure there are many other adjustments that will take place as well but I either haven't thought of them or just didn't mention them here. I know that some customers are tough to deal with but I don't think it will be that hard to get back in the swing of things. Just knowing that I when my shift ends then my work concerns are over for the day is HUGE. Overall I think it will be the best thing for me.
If you have made it all the way through my ramblings and still have a brain then I congratulate you and would like to offer you an award (although I don't have any). Just thanks for hanging in there with me.
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