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Wednesday March 10 2004

Is it Wednesday already?

One of the ways you can nearly always tell a troll (or, for that matter, just a fairly worthless person) is that they won't sign their insults. They'll make the most reprehensible personal attacks, apropos of absolutely nothing, but they always do it anonymously. Or so, at least, the couple of trolls who have recently been hanging comments over at the abehm blog have been. And to be honest, I can't really recall a time when anyone has attacked me on a personal level via Internet and signed their name to it.

Don't look for the latest comments from these idiots; I zapped them, and then I banned them... probably an overreaction on my part, but such witless, moronic, vulgar stuff didn't merit anything else. There are ways around bans, as I myself have found out, and some trolls are very experienced with the Internet. But I've done what I can, especially in shifting this blog.

One of them called me a pedophile, or, rather, his/her entire comment was (bafflingly, I'm not sure I've ever discussed pedophilia on my blog) "At least I'm not a pedophile, Darren". Perhaps that's a reference to something I've written somewhere, I've written a LOT of material, and I do tend to believe that our culture's bemusement with the odd notion of 'adolescence' (something not reflected in any pre-Industrial human culture; prior to the late 19th Century, when a human being became sexually mature, i.e., capable of reproduction, society acknowledged this and granted them adult status... and I do believe much of the bad behavior modern youth exhibits comes from the oddly artificial extended childhood that our weird concept of 'adolescence' enforces on them regardless of their own urges, needs, and desires... but I digress) is probably causing more troubles than it solves... but honestly, I don't know where the comment comes from. I responded to it, and another comment now banned, in a humorous fashion over there, so if you've been there and seen my comment, well, this is what it was in re.

Leaving all that nonsense aside (gratefully) today is Tropical Day at Accent. I have little that is Tropical to wear, but I'm going to try, because if you dress in theme (even to a minor, token, placative effect) you get to dress casual, which means I can wear sneakers, which is always much better than the one ratty beat up pair of loafers I otherwise own. I was told that even minor, token Tropical efforts will be greatly bolstered by wearing a lei (handmade leis are going to be judged today) and while I was at first baffled as to what I could make a lei out of, I finally realized I could hang a lot of my spare HeroClix on the string they gave us and call it a lei. So that's what I'm doing.

Yesterday I failed yet another attempt at certification. Nathan is apparently the guy assigned to certifying me at Quality and everyone I've talked to agrees he's the toughest guy there to get past. He keeps failing me on stupid little technical crap, and honestly, I don't know how much longer I'm going to be at Accent, since the calls he has failed me on I consider to be calls where I gave excellent customer service... I just failed to cross some t's and dot some i's the Accent way. If I get fired from Accent I have little idea where I'll go or what I'll do... I suppose I'll find something, but I honestly don't know what, at the moment. I should probably be able to get Unemployment for a while, and out here in Zephyrhills, I might be able to live on it, too... but anyway, this is premature. I keep being reassured by folks that there are people working on the floor who took forever to be certified, that Accent will make a real concerted effort to get me certified before they waste all the money they have invested in training me by firing me... and anyway, I'm a goddam good customer service rep. Unfortunately, my sales mostly suck, and that's what they care about at Accent. So... I don't know what's going to happen.

I do seem to be annoying everyone around me, which is never good, but I could be wrong, too. If I could start hitting my sales numbers I'd be in a much better position, but I'm just not a sales guy. I'll pitch to a customer if I feel there's a chance to do it without alienating them. However, if I feel that making a sales pitch is just going to irritate a customer further, and make them angrier at Sprint, I don't do it, and unfortunately, Accent doesn't trust my judgement... we are REQUIRED to make two sales attempts on EVERY call, and if Sprint Complete Sense is available, our first and strongest attempt must be on SCS. This is one of the major requirements that keeps autofailing me. Nathan seems to have a genius for picking out calls in which SCS is available and I don't offer it strongly enough to the customer, usually because I get caught up in actually solving the customer's problem and forget by the end of the call that they're eligible for SCS.

Tammy is sending me stuff all this week, but since I won't have a mailbox until Thursday (it takes that long to change the locks and get me the new key, apparently) I doubt I'll see any of it until tomorrow. She did drop $50 into my PayPal account, though, which I can't fault her for, since I've told everyone at various times that I think my work is professional level and I've done a LOT of it so I'm happy to be paid for it... so I'll just say 'thank you' and I wish editors/publishers would adopt a similar point of view towards my writing.

Other than that, there's not much to write here. The toilet got fixed, so it's not constantly running any more, but the bathroom faucet seems to have been put on a 'let's see if he bitches about it again' list, since no doubt it would require actual plumbing, which would be actually expensive. I can live without hot water in the bathroom sink fairly easily, so I think I'll just let it go, for now.

I walked over to a secondhand furniture store that is right next to Accent yesterday and looked at some stuff. The guy does beautiful work and his wares are lovely and since he's close and will deliver for $20, I'll probably end up picking up a small sofa and coffee table there next paycheck... but I'd really rather go to a Goodwill or Salvation Army, because his stuff looks too NICE for me. I'll be uncomfortable using it. I'd rather have some hand me down couch, well sprung, with the odd stain or cigarette burn on the cushions, and a beat to shit, scarred and scratched and dinged up coffee table with a few indelible rings on the top that I can put my grubby feet up on without feeling vaguely guilty. Still, I'm just grateful there's an affordable furniture store so close that will deliver so cheaply.

I know, I know... I'm trash to the core. Except I don't watch Jerry Springer. I'm home in the daytime and have good reception; maybe I should start...

I could get an entertainment center there, too, and I might... one would certainly enhance the viewing experience here at the Satellite of Love, especially when a VCR joins the array as one should shortly. But it would add a few bucks to the visit's price tag, so I don't know. We'll see what he'd got in stock in ten days or so.

Boring boring boring boring BORING... I know, I know. Well, what do you want? My life is never exciting.

Oh, the proofs are back and apparently my book has been sent to the Art Department and within four to eight weeks I should be getting a mock up of the cover. These guys are definitely taking the whole damn year allowed by contract to get this thing out! I swear, there are long stretches where I nearly forget about UM entirely. I suspect I may have gone through two different jobs and be on yet a third (whatever it may be) by the time this thing actually comes out in tangible form, although I'm hoping not, because Accent would be a good place to flog a few copies, there are some geeks working there.

Okay, that's about it. Sorry. Wish I had something more exciting to talk about, but I kind of like my life dull, actually.

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