So I must confess, I've only watched ep 3x04 once so far (I know!), and I haven't read a lot of fan reaction yet (as I'm like 4 days behind on my flist so I'm currently skimming through it at breakneck speed as I am determined, DETERMINED I tell you, not to get so behind on LJ that I stop checking my flist at all because it's too overwhelming), but here are ( a few quick thoughts on SPN 3x04 and a bit of non-spoilery speculation... )

In RL news, the reason why I'm behind on the flist is that I got a temp job through the placement agency I'm working with (as a receptionist/office assistant), it was only supposed to be for 2 days but they really liked me and decided to stretch it out to 5, which means: a) I'll now have enough money to pay rent! and, b) this makes me look REALLY good to the placement agency, considering this was my first assignment, so I should have a much easier time getting something more permanent in the future.

Surprisingly, I'm really enjoying working at this office and I wish I could stay there for more than 5 days. Even though most of my day consists of doing all of the filing, photocopying, letter stuffing, hole punching, and faxing that the other employees don't have the time or desire to do (along with answering the phones and greeting people who come in, but thankfully, it's not a very busy office so I'm only fielding about 3 calls an hour, and most of those just need to be transferred to someone else in the office), it's actually kinda fun. And even though I'm doing more work than I did at the call center (and a lot of jobs I've never really done before), it's so much less stressful than my old job. It's amazing how much more relaxed I am when I'm not being screamed at by idiots all day :-)

I'm sure everyone has already heard, but OMGYAY!!!

SUPERNATURAL IS OFFICIALLY RENEWED!!!!!!!!!!

*does happy dance*

Winchesters FTW!!!

(Aaaand I just typed "Winchesters FTP"... Which means I'm officially spending too much time at work!)

This video is kinda old, but OMG it's too fucking funny. This is exactly my job. Seriously. I really do get people this dumb (sometimes even dumber) more times than I can count.

( Internet Help Desk )

I actually had a conversation with a woman the other day that went like this:

Dumbass: Does my password use small letters or big letters?
Me: They should be lower case.
Dumbass: ...you mean small?
Me: Yes.
Dumbass: ...OK, the letters are small, but the numbers are big. Does that matter?
Me: *shoots self in face*

I also had to explain what the @ symbol was to someone. And when I was finally able to dumb it down enough for her to understand she said: "OH! You mean a capital two!?"

*headdeskheaddeskheaddesk*

And I swear, if I get one more person who can't figure out where (or even what) the fucking address bar is and insists on typing URLs into Google search I'm going to lose my freaking mind.


But...some good news! I was finally able to communicate to my supervisor just how much the phones are driving me slowly mad, so he put me on CHAT SUPPORT! OMG it's SO much better than phone support it's not even funny! I don't have to make stupid small talk with people, I don't need to pretend to be cheerful, it's mostly a lot of copying and pasting and waiting around for peole to follow instructions.

Plus, it's very neutral and people can't yell at me! Well, I suppose they could CAPSLOCK at me if they really wanted to, but that would just make me laugh at them. Plus, the people who actually use the chat support generally have at least a little bit of technical knowledge and are usually able to follow simple instructions.

I've been doing chat support for two days and already my stress level is lower than it's been in months!

\o/



On an unrelated note, I just watched the "Drive" pilot and it was frigging AWESOME (has it even aired in the US yet? I don't think it has, so I won't post anything spoilery yet.)! Now I have a...*counts*...fifth fandom that has hotass brothers in it for me to slash!



I'm so excited, I have pretty much everything all set for my trip to Chicago for vividcon!

*flails*

I already have my plane ticket, the hotel room is reserved, I have roomies, my vacation has been approved. I just need to get my freaking Club Vivid vid done before May 8th (!!!) so I can start working on my Vividcon premiere vid. *tears out hair*


And OMG I love this mood icon! *smishes Jared*

WOOT!

The firewall at work is down and I can access LJ!!!

*happy dance*

I'm in an absolutely fantabulous mood today!

*bounces excitedly*

Just finished off my six-day work week with an eleven hour shift during which, to my great surprise, I didn't have even ONE sucky customer! In fact I had a disproportionate number of really NICE customers! *boggles*

And now? FOUR DAY WEEKEND, BABY! pumpkin_dude, coincidentally, ALSO wound up with a four day weekend, so YAY!

*boogies*


Also, and this is even BETTER news, not only did I get my shiny-new-not-rejected-by-the-stupid-assed-government passport today(!!!), yesterday my mom called to tell me that my grandparents, for no particular reason other than the fact that they are completely AWESOME, decided to give me FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS to pay for my trip to winchestercon!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nashville, here I come!!!

I was SO stressed out about not getting my passport in time or not having enough money for the con (especially with my bank screwing me over and work short-shifting me), but now that stress is COMPLETELY lifted and the only thing I have to worry about con-wise is whether or not I'll get my vid done in time! Now I can just look forward to the roadtrip and the fangirling and the AWESOME that will be WINCON!!!


So yeah, my four day weekend will mainly be spent vidding like a mad vidding thing. So if you see me commenting or posting or anything please feel free to say "Why are you not VIDDING, woman?! Go! Vid! Now!"

Went to the passport office today to drop off my application. Thankfully they didn't find any silly nitpicky reason to reject it, and they say I should have it by September 15th (and thanks again for vouching for me, qwantz! You're a lifesaver!).


Was feeling particularly domestic today and had some overripe bananas lying around (I always end up buying too many because I forget that one can only eat so many bananas during the 1-2 day span where they're at the perfect stage of ripeness) so I made some chocolate chip banana bread...YUM!


I'm currently in the process of figuring out Sony Vegas. It's a little bit daunting, but I've been playing around with it for awhile and I *think* I have a handle on the basics (and OMG it's SO fucking COOL!).

I'm going to be working on vidlets for the next few days (or more) to try to hone my skills a bit before I start in on the vid that I hope to premiere at winchestercon (which is almost 100% planned out right now, so it'll just be a matter of getting the clips from the DVDs and actually putting them together into a vid).


Ugh. I need a new job liek whoa. Seriously, the stress is getting to me hard core. Like it's my day off today and I can't even enjoy it because I know I have to go in to work tomorrow and I won't have another day off until next Thursday.

*frets*

I can't handle this shit anymore. I'm having daily, work-related panic attacks both at work and at home. Not cool at ALL. I'm already on like three different medications for my anxiety but they just aren't helping any more. I think I might have to look into temporary stress leave or something.

Ultimately, I would rather just get a different job, but it's really hard to find one that:

a) pays at least as much as I'm making now.
b) does not require bilingualism (which about 80% of jobs in this city do).
c) involves little to no dealing with the general public (because customers SUCK SO MUCH OMG!).
d) has benefits comparable to my current job.

Yeah, this is not going to be easy.

*overdramatic sigh*


Also, OMG did you guys see the new SPN promo???

EEEEEEEEE!!!!

Woke up this morning absolutely gripped with panic at the thought of going in to work today (yeah, I need to find a new job like NOW!).

That, coupled with the fact that I have CRAMPS FROM HELL, made calling in sick a no-brainer.

So I took an ativan in an attempt to calm the fuck down, and am currently eating an ice cream sandwich while listening to the slash edition of spnfic_podcast.

Because if chocolate and porn can't improve my mood, I don't know what can ;-)

I hate customers.

Really. I cannot fucking stand any of them.

There was some stupid UFC boxing thing on Pay-Per-View tonight, meaning we had an INSANE amount of calls in queue, all of them angry boxing fans.

UGH!

I swear, they're like animals, only meaner.

"MUST WATCH FIGHT NOW!!! FIX IT FIX IT FIX IT!!!"

One guy just started SCREAMING at me like I killed his family or something, just losing his fucking mind, calling me every name in the book. Shook me up so badly I actually had to bum a cigarette off one of my co-workers just to calm down (I don't even smoke and I don't exactly want to start but sometimes it's the only thing that helps, you know? It was either smoke or cry).

What possesses a person to act like that? There's no reason to verbally abuse a complete stranger (especially someone who did nothing to actually CAUSE the problem in the first place) just because you missed five minutes of some silly boxing match. Especially when you expect me to actually HELP you! Cause being called a stupid fucking bitch 20 times in as many sentences REALLY motivates me to want to resolve your problem quickly and efficiently. *rolls eyes*

Ugh, I hope he gets hit by a fucking bus.

Haaaaaaaaate...

\o/

I am SO frigging happy right now!

Work is moving me to a different contract (again) starting next week, and since it's considered a "tech" contract I get an automatic $2 an hour raise!

$2 more an hour! That means I FINALLY won't be broke all the time!

Not only does this contract pay more, there's much less actual work to be done.

My current contract required 4 weeks of training (which didn't even come close to teaching me everything I need to know to actually do my job), it's busy ALL the time, I always have a TON of work to do mainly because they make us do EVERYTHING (billing, troubleshooting, sales, etc...).

Whereas the new contract requires less than a week of training, there's always at least 10 minutes between calls, and ALL I have to do is very basic troubleshooting for cable and internet. No billing, no sales, JUST troubleshooting.

So essentially I'm going to be getting more money for doing less work...

Um...WOOT!!!

The only real downside is that, at least for now, the only shifts available are afternoon shifts. So I'm going to be working until at least 10 or 11 PM every single night. Which kinda sucks, but for $2 more an hour? I think I'll manage.

I had the worst shift EVER yesterday. Like, so bad, I actually had to have a cigarette after work just to calm the fuck down. And I never smoke cigarettes. This was the closest I've ever come to just slamming my headset down and walking out of the call center.

Most of my customers were raving lunatics, but my last customer of the night was especially irritating. He's one of those guys who talks to you like you're a child because he thinks everything you say is wrong, when actually HE's the one who is unable to grasp simple concepts like if you go over your allotted minutes on your cellphone you actually have to PAY for them!

He insisted that I explain every single charge on his 45 page bill then proceeded to argue about every single one of them. *stabs repeatedly with blunt objects* After almost an hour of this shit he finally asked for a supervisor so I didn't have to deal with him anymore. I swear, if I could kill people with just the power of my mind, there would be one less asshole in the world.

Anyway, I'm in a MUCH better mood today. The sun is shining, I'm not at work, I'm currently blasting music and singing along loudly in the hopes that pumpkin_dudewill drag his ass out of bed sometime soon.

I watched the movie "Waiting" a few days ago. A lot of it was pretty gross, but I still laughed my ass off. I love watching movies where people in the service industry fuck with customers. Because customers? They fucking SUCK! If you've seen the movie, the really angry chick? Is so an exaggerated version of how I am at work.  Super sunny and happy with the customers, but raging and swearing like a sailor between calls or whenever the customers are on hold. I have a mute button, and I use it. 

This is how my calls generally go: 

(syrupy-sweet voice) "Oh, you want me to go through all 4000 calls on your bill and re-calculate everything to make sure our computers didn't make a mistake? Sure! I'd be happy to help you with that..." *mute* "OMG I HATE YOU AND I HOPE YOU DIE!!!" *un-mute* "Let's get started, shall we?"

Finally mailed off my payment for winchestercon!!! *flails around excitedly* Seriously, you guys, it is October yet? IS IT!!!??? 

That reminds me, I need to book my vacation now to make sure I actually get the time off. Which also means work will essentially be PAYING me to go down to Nashville and squee with my fellow fangirls :-)

Oh, and starting next week they're finally giving me a more normal work schedule (meaning I'm not working until FUCKING MIDNIGHT anymore), so I will actually have time to devote to fannish things again. Thank GOD! *clutches fandom*

It took me forever to realize that I accidentally had comments disabled on my last post. *is lame*


I love SPN fandom. I really really do. I don't check my flist for like two days, I come back to find that someone started a huge SPN hate thread, and within about a day pretty much the entire fandom has collectively gotten over it (well, most people were never really "under" it to begin with) and moved on to discussing other, more important things. Like the new HOTASS pics of Jensen ;-)

*snuggles fandom*


So I have less than a week of training left before they drag me kicking and screaming back to the phones. Fucking customers... I'm already plotting my escape. Apparently there will be lots of opportunities for promotions on this new contract, so I'm going to get in on that if I can. At this point I don't particularly care what they have me doing, hell, I don't even care much about a pay raise (though that would certainly be nice), just OMG get me OFF the fucking phones! I'm already working myself into a panic at the mere thought of dealing with asshat customers again.

My friend Jo sent me this video and it captures the complete and utter ridiculousness of my job pretty much perfectly. I get this exact same call at least 50 times every single day. *headdesk*


Anyway, here are some random pictures of my dog being adorable because, well, he makes me smile:




( and a few more... )

OK, so that USA Today article...you know, the one saying that Supernatural is "on the fence" with regards to being picked up for a 2nd season? They're just fucking with us, right? I mean they have to pick it up for a second season. They just HAVE to! It's popular and awesome and OMG I just might die if they cancel it.

*freaks out a bit*

OK, I'm calm...*breathes*



On another note, work has gotten unexpectedly awesome in the past couple of days. Nobody quite knows why, but our call volume has dropped to next to nothing. I'm sitting here taking only 3 or 4 calls AN HOUR (when it's usually more like 12 - 15 calls an hour)!

Yesterday I was scheduled to work from 8:00 to 4:30, and they sent me home at 11:30 because it was so dead!!! It was fucking AWESOME! In the two hours I've been here today I've taken a whopping 5 calls. WOOT!

It's not going to stay like this forever, but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts. Getting paid to surf the interwebs kicks ass!

And how much do you want to bet I TOTALLY just jinxed myself by posting this? I'm sure, just to spite me, within an hour everyone and their mother will spontaneously decide they need to call their cable company...


Oh, and also awesome? More icon spaces! *dances*

Dear Customers,

I realize that you all decided, collectively, to have a big bowl of STUPID for breakfast this morning, but could you just do me a small favor and

STFU!!!


Thank you!
ringwench


For serious, you guys, I'm starting to feel like whatshisname from "Office Space". You know when he's talking to the hypnotist and saying that every day his job just gets worse and worse which, therefore, makes every single day the worst day of his life? Yeah, it's kinda like that. *stabs things*

OK, I need to update my LJ layout liek whoa. ( Cut for length, as you all know how I tend to ramble... )

Blah, oh and of course, TV related junk:

( Grey's Anatomy )



"The L-Word":


I don't talk about this show nearly enough, but honestly, after "Supernatural", this is probably the show I look forward to watching the most right now. It's just so fucking awesome ALL the time and I love it and all of the characters so damned much!

( Spoilers for 3x10 )


And, to finish this insanely long post on a completely random note:

The Biggest Tool of the Week Award goes to...Issac Hayes!

Who is quitting South Park because they made fun of Scientology! What the fuck is it with Scientologists? Do they surgically remove your sense of humor as soon as you join or something? You'd think people who base their religion around worshiping space aliens would know how to take a joke, but apparently not. *shrugs*

OMG you guys! Work took down the firewall! Don't know how long it'll be down but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts!

*clings to flist*

It's not often that I'm pleasantly surprised by something that happens at work, but I'm positively GIDDY right now!

About a year ago the company told us we were going to start getting paid for all the sales that we made. Understandably, we all got pretty excited about it because more money=good! We were promised this for months and months and months, always being told the commissions would start on our next paycheck, and it never ever happened (well, OK, I recall one paycheck that had a whopping $2.50 commission on it, but that was it). So eventually, we all resigned ourselves to the fact that this was all bullshit and they were never going to pay us.

No one has said a word about the promised commission for MONTHS, and everyone had all but forgotten about it. So imagine my surprise today when I checked my paycheck online and saw that they're paying us retroactively for all of our sales! I have an extra $400 on my paycheck (which translates to an extra $250ish after taxes, but still)!!!!!!!!!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm CONSTANTLY broke so this is just so frigging awesome! pumpkin_dude and I can afford to actually DO something for our 3rd anniversary now, and still have more than enough left over for rent!

*flails*

Had to leave work a little bit early today as I was about *thisclose* to literally crying with frustration at the unfathomable amount of STUPID FUCKING ASSHOLES I've been dealing with All. Fucking. Day.

( Seriously, the stupid, it's mind boggling. )

Wound up spending the weekend off the computer for a change, *shock/horror* so I had a whole lot of flist to catch up with. I skipped around a lot so hopefully I didn't miss anything too important.

I got my hair cut yesterday. Like REALLY cut. It went from being just below my shoulders to ( really frigging short )

I like it. Sure, I did experience a moment of "OMG WTF HAVE I DONE?!", but that passed rather quickly. There's something very liberating about hacking off a huge amount of hair all at once.

In other news, I'm at work right now and earlier in the day I had the pleasure of speaking with a guy who had the sexiest voice ever. He had a very strong Scottish accent and his voice had this low and gravelly tone to it that made me think very unprofessional thoughts while I was talking to him. It was the first time ever that I've actually made an effort to KEEP a customer on the phone longer than was absolutely necesary.

*fans self*

And how is it not Tuesday already? I swear, having to wait for "Nightmare" has made this week seem about three times longer than usual. *fastforwards time* I need my brother!angst NOW, dammit!

There is a full moon tonight, right? That's the only way to explain the sheer hell that has been my work day.

Every single person I've spoken to today has been a RAGING asshole!

( Some highlights of my day... )

I hate people. But I only have fifteen minutes left on my shift so just a couple more calls and I can get out of here. Well, until tomorrow anyway. *grumble*

I'm having an absolutely HORRIFIC day at work. And my day (not to mention my stupid six day work week) is not even half over.

I swear, a couple more sucky customers and I'm going to FUCKING LOSE IT!!!

I may have to feign illness and go home early, because I'm about *thisclose* to just taking off my headset mid-call and walking out of the call center.

*stabbity-stab-STAB*

One hour of work left...I can do this...*breathes*

( Just had the most irritating woman call in.... )

People are so stupid sometimes it causes me physical pain.

Blech, I hate my job. I have a small glimmer of hope that things might improve here in the next few months, though. There are supposedly some trainer positions opening up soon, which I am SO applying for.

Let's see, a pay increase AND not having to talk to sucky customers all day? SIGN ME UP!!! I could TOTALLY teach people how to do this job. I know HOW to do my job perfectly well, I just don't LIKE doing it. But teaching people? No problem!

*crosses fingers*

I have to do laundry when I get home today. It's moved beyond "I should probably do laundry" to "Ack, I have NO clean clothes, I HAVE to do laundry RIGHT NOW!"

I also need to finish my article for vidder_weekly, which I had every intention of finishing yesterday, but I started it too late last night and was forced to put it aside at around 1 am so I could, you know, get some sleep before getting up at 6:30 for work today. There've been a LOT of new vids posted in the past week!

I should probably type up a long-winded and largely pointless post about last night's "Lost" ep, but right now I keep being rudely interrupted by customers (the nerve of them expecting me to actually WORK at work ;-)) and don't have the time to get into it. I just have to comment on this line though: "What are you going to do, hit me with your Jesus stick?" ROTFLMAO! Funniest line of the SEASON!

I also need to make another long-winded and pointless post about "Scarecrow". I watched it again last night and plan on watching it for a third time tonight, taking notes of all the points I want to discuss, because I neglected to mention a whole bunch of stuff in my last post (I'm not crazy, really I'm not! Just obsessed to a pathetic degree.)

Oh, I also have to catch up on all the latest Supernatural vids that have been posted. I got way behind with my watching and commenting, so if I owe you some feedback, know that I AM getting to it.

Bah, the calls are coming in at an irritating frequency right now so I should probably cut this entry short.

Stupid work.