The Dead End

This photo’s BEGGING for a caption contest!!!

John — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:00:49 +0000

Sorry, but this photo’s BEGGING for a caption contest.

Best caption wins the best caption championship belt. Good luck!

“Sieg Earl! Sieg Earl!”

It’s been 365 and counting…

John — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:00:58 +0000

It’s been 365 and counting for me at my job and I’ll be honest, I’m excited over it.

If you asked me a year ago if I’d still be here, I’d easily have said yes. Then they did the first cuts of the call center. A lot of the people in my training class were let go. Then little by little, one by one, another one was walked down to Human Resources, the lambs brought to the slaughter.

My lunch break saw a good bunch of us meeting at the same time, that slowly dwindled down to just me. Others at other time slots noted the same thing. It was getting lonelier at work, to the point where we would wonder if we were next.

When we were brought into the office with the benefits clerk, the stress and relief was incredible. I signed up for health insurance, saw a raise in my check, and was excited because I could finally say that as long as I went to work on time and did my job, I had a decent job with decent pay and decent benefits that was stable in a world where President Barack Obama comes on TV and tells us that jobs are there, but the jobless rate continues to rise. Businesses I’ve seen flourished are now gone.

I had a job in a jobless universe. While it’s not radio and it’s not what I used to dream about while growing up, I sit on the phone for eight hours a day while playing on the computer. I have awesome co-workers, my hours are awesome, and I love going to my job.

In the past three weeks, five different departments have asked me to consider working with them. One of them was sales, and while the idea of doubling my salary sounded appealing at first, the fact that it would be based on commission (and whether I could pull it) made me realize that I could not handle the stress of that kind of job. The last commission based job I had lasted two days, and I felt physically ill both days until I called my lead and told her I couldn’t do it anymore. The other jobs I considered. Three of them involved moving orders along, one of them by dealing directly with vendors, and the other was a completely different – but totally same – department.

While they all supposedly involve raises, I don’t think I’m really done where I am now. I like my job, I like where I am, and I’m happy to know that others feel I am ready to take on the world.

And when I am… I will.

So, about my computer…

John — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 00:19:58 +0000

So, about my computer…

I asked one of the IT guys at work for advice as to what to do. His suggestion was to talk to a guy, gave me his number, and I decided to do just that. I wanted my computer back, as I just spent a big chunk of pizza to get it.

So I go to this guy in Centereach. A small shack, usually for small offices, which I’ve seen before. No big deal, my car insurance was in a smaller place. We go inside, the Lil Moo and I, and already I’m nervous. The main area was a small shop, but a sliding door to the right lead to – no joke – a bedroom. The place smelled of stagnant smoke and burnt coffee.

He came in from behind us with a couple of other people that I guess were waiting for him as well. Apologizing for not hearing us, because the music downstairs was loud, I was a bit frazzled. There was a LOT of merchandise just sitting there; if I were an unsavory person, I could have taken all kinds of product – like, say, a new lap top.

He started babbling some jabber about how he’d need to hold the computer overnight to see if there was a problem and to recover the data. Then he said it would cost a big chunk of change. But since I was under warranty, he told me to call the company first and see what they can do; for all he knows, they may just send a new computer out. After describing the problem he mentioned the hard drive may be dislodge. Not cool, but it made me think.

When we got home, I went old school and laid the computer down to the side. I’m not a big fan of hard drives standing vertical, so laying the tower down was a hunch. And so far, I’ve saved myself $200.

All by going back to 1996.

Grrrr!!!!

John — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:50:04 +0000

Grrrr!!!!

My computer went blue this week. I am NOT pleased.

I have other things adding to the stress and I really can’t handle it right now.

Anyone want to do something this weekend with me and my son? I’ll even let you buy us lunch!

Why I love Newsday

John — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:51:33 +0000

Newsday is a Long Island based newspaper, for those not in the know. They usually cover Long Island stories, much like the recent sale at the Amityville Horror House.

Rebecca Toback, writer for the paper, wrote the following:

I wonder how many peaks you can get inside a house. And does it make a difference if it’s a mountain peak or an ant hill peak? Maybe PEAK Anti-Freeze? Because surely she didn’t mean that people lined up to “peek” inside the house.

Newsday was always the joke for the college newspaper I worked for. It’s still a pretty funny rag to pick on. I’m going to be upset if they ever hire a competent error.