On another note, I'm putting up a fence.. Boy, am I sore.. I got sunburned REALLY bad (forgot sunscreen.. again!), but overall, it gave me a sense of accomplishment. So far, I've put the posts in the ground and cemented them... Next weekend we'll start putting up 2x4's, and then the fence boards themselves.

I was also told that I needed to "pay" for past indiscretions (which I can't spell... so sue me.) I think that is pretty childish, too. In fact, I think the whole situation was childish in and of itself. Oh well.

Maybe I should grow up and toughen up..? Nah.. that'd be to easy.

Damn. I forgot what I was going to bitch about.. Uhm... Well... I'm sure it was something about the leads.. Ah yes...

So, I got in trouble for expressing my opinion. Now, I didn't get in trouble from the person I expressed my opinion to, I got in trouble from the collective boss of the call center. So, instead of dealing with me on an individual level, I was "reported" to the higher-ups. That sounds pretty God-damned childish to me.. Don't you think?

I mean, if you have a problem with me, tell me (yo, Andy, fuck off!) and that's fine. Don't go crying like a three year old to your mommy to fix your boo-boo. I mean, COME ON! We're grown ups here, I thought. At some point, you need to take control of yourself and stop running to somebody else to take care of all the bad people out there.

Right? Who's with me on this?

I mean, if I was waving a gun around or something, fine, then call the cops, but damnit.. I just said what I thought. I thought that this was a civilized country with freedom of expression and whatnot. In fact, I would be MORE concerned with me expressing my opinions to a higher up because that could be considered libelious or slanderous.

I don't know. It just pisses me off that some people need to go crying to mommy at every turn. My wife sure doesn't do that.. If I piss her off, she tells me so, and we deal with it, usually by me validating her and telling her that she's right.

I don't know.

People with money to burn bother me. Maybe it's just people with money to burn who make their money in a poor way. One of the leads slapped down $20 for charity (good), but they get their money from not actually doing any work (bad). I'm just very irritated that they make considerably more than I do. That's pretty pissy, if you ask me.

I continue to find it exceptionally intriguing that I know more than the supposed "leads." Laurie had to ask how to do something that I know down cold. That is some true comedy. Here I am, a lowly call taker, and I know more than the people that are supposed to know more than I.

I love it.

And the break police.. They go around with a listing of when people go on breaks and they run around enforcing them. It's quite childish.

So, when they do work, they just enforce stupid rules. The idea is that they lead us.. they show us how to work. But, instead, they just sit around, ordering lunch, talking, jabbering about stupid things, and when you need them to help you out, they're nowhere to be found. It really bothers me that I can do their job AND mine.... at the same time.

Oh yeah. And another thing. I was told to mind my own business. Now, that's just wrong. I saw an injustice and I tried to deal with it. While I admit that I didn't deal with it in the best possible method, I did deal with it.

Somebody told me to just leave it alone, let it be, since it didn't directly concern me. Well, that's just wrong. It didn't directly concern me, but it did piss me off. If I didn't correct it now, I saw a slippery slope developing.

Ugh!

One more complaint. The supervisors are all in training today (uh huh.. I'm sure) so, the leads had to cover the floor. Wah. Well, one of the leads called in sick, so we only had one lead to work during the day, Erin. She hadn't done a lick of work, as far as I can tell, all day, but she had to call in backup to come and help.

It just bugs the hell out of me that leads can't just do their job and deal with it. They're all a bunch of wusses.

I think I'm done.

Next thing to complain about... My right eyeball hurts like the dickens.. I think I have a persistent stye or something in it which rubs against my contact lens and hurts like hell. If I can make myself cry (pretty easy when I have this much pain in my eye) it tends to make it better.

Although, I am jealous of Holly who had that laser surgery on her eyes... now she doesn't have to worry about any of this stuff. I think I need to save up for the same thing.

But, I have to build a fence, first.. Went and bought the wood and stuff last night... I need to borrow Dad's (Marlon's) post hole digger and stake out the site. Friday night, I'll set out stakes.. I'll probably start digging those first holes, also, then, but it'll be dark before I really get a good start on it. I guess Saturday morning and early afternoon, I can do the same thing. I need to dig about 6 holes so I can lay out the corners.

I'm really excited about it, but I think Marlana isn't.. She says she'll be weeding (I don't really know why... We're putting down grass and it'll choke the weeds to death). I don't know.. I think it'll be fun to use my muscles and create something.

I'm jealous of Marlon working on his garage like he has been. I wish I could do something like that, too, but I don't currently have the money for it. It'll be great to add on to the house, but we'll need to worry about resale value.

I'm bored. I hate my job. But, I need to hang on to my insurance for the baby. I can appreciate that, but I really wish I could do something other than sit here tied to the chair.

Also, I need to bring up something to James... I need to talk about having the Area Desk do their job.

I was told that there was a problem of perception.. that the leads appear to not be working when they really are. I don't buy that for a second. There are too many leads and not enough work for them to do. I want to be a lead VERY badly, but there isn't room for another one. The ones we have sit around. If I got promoted to some sort of lead position, everything would get done too fast. What a bummer! All the other leads would get canned, or at least bitched at for not working up to their full potential.

I guess I'll never understand office politics enough to work only as hard as is required. I was also told (by James) that I came in working too hard, and achieving too much when I started. He didn't tell me that I was slacking off (which I am, but I don't know if he knows that), but said that the categories had changed and that I was a victim of circumstance. I exceeded all expectations for trainee, but now I am a level one representative. I am exceeding expectations to a degree, but not as much as I was before.

So, before I bore everyone to death and back, I'll post this and get on with my life.

So, this is now my place to bitch about work. I got in a mild amount of trouble for complaining out loud and in emails, so I'm just gonna post this stuff online. Sure, it can be traced back to me, but that's okay. I'm not complaining to get anything done, so that should be okay.

So, I overheard one of the leads (it happened to be Erin, but they've all done it) tell Piper, one of the call reps that "You're cable box is the correct time." That's just fine and dandy, but time at work is VERY different from home time. For example, the time at work says it is currently 7:41. The time on my cable box says it is 7:37. That's a 4 minute difference. That's virtually the difference between late and not late (5 minutes required).

So, I got in trouble, also, for bitching that leads don't do any work. It's true, but apparently I wasn't supposed to express my discontent. They (the powers that be) told me that I should feel free to bring up my discontent, but I shouldn't bring it up out loud. Interesting concept.

Well, that's all the bitching for right now... Except that it's really busy... At 7:47 am... Ugh!

Got library books.. Two more Asimovs and a book called "Elixir." The sad thing is that I won't have any time to read them once I get my outline back tonight... Oh well.. it was worth it... I did some very light reading over the weekend...

It's annoying when you finish a book and you don't have anything else to read. Had to send the pregnant wife to the library for me. I'm a bad, bad man.

Oh. And, I'm really disappointed by this.

Went to the baby shower. Pretty boring. Did what I was supposed to do, though.. Show up, hang out for a few minutes, return to work. Didn't lose any time from work for it, just burned up my lunch time with a lot of driving. But, it made the wife happy.

Got a lot of stuff. Some of it pretty crappy, but mostly really good stuff. Marlana and I agreed that we won't use pacifiers with our children, so we have to return those. Other than that, though, we're pretty much set. Her mom bought us a play pen thingy.. Pretty neat. I never had one as a kid, but it sure looks versitile.. You can chunk the kid in there and forget about her. :] Of course, not really, but hey.. I can dream, right?

Tired. Bored. Did homework, so I don't have anything else to do right now...

Although, my wife is having a baby shower this afternoon and I'm planning on going to that... Have to take a long lunch from work, but I'll still be there to "participate." I guess that's important to her...

Well, I emailed my professor about that and I got back a two page email that basically told me to do some more research into them. Well, I can do that, but I don't think that being more knowledgable is the answer. I can cognitively understand all about the concept and the reasons for relationships, etc. However, I have that moment of "eww"ness. Ah well. I have a lot of stuff to do when I go to school tonight. That'll be fun, though. I'm bored to tears at work...

By now, everybody has read this about the lady who killed some guy by leaving him in her garage while he begged for mercy. So, I wanted to share that, too.

And, something a little personal. I'm studying about homosexuality and the issues that are faced by homosexuals (who are actually called gays in my book. I think I have a problem calling somebody "gay"). I can't help but laugh at some of the things that they talk about in the book. Ya know what that means, though, is that my level of understanding towards homosexuality is limited. So, I am going to see what I can do about that. I'll see if I can get into a message board discussion or two about it.

Plus, it'll be something that I can put my energy towards since I'm so frustrated at work with the monotony of my job.

Okay... So, somebody at work is having a baby shower today.. I ate some of the food (not much.. don't wanna appear glutenous ) but I'm really jealous of all the presents.. He sure did rack up.. Lots of toys and things... And remember.. I'm registered at Babies 'R' Us.

Yeee haw! Outline is done. Only bad thing is that I'm bored stiff. Nothing to do until class tonight. I missed my break at work, so I guess I'll just work through. It's not busy yet, so I'm fine. Maybe I'll plead ignorance and go later when it is busy.. Muwahahah.

Finishing the outline for my big paper. The outline is 25 pages. Go me.

Reading homework for class. Nothing too exciting.

Test tonight. Whee. Time to study about the Ascending Reticular Activating System. Whee.

I am very tired today.

That is all.