"The answer is Volvo..."

The title of the last entry, "I'm not nearly so think as you drunk I am", is for once not from Futurama, Family Guy, The Simpsons, or Whose Line is it Anyway?. This time I got the quote from an episode of M*A*S*H. The one where Margaret decides she wants to transfer out but ends up getting drunk and eventually decides to stay (surprise). I could think of any good quotes. If nothing else I thought that was quite a memorable quote.

Today I guess I'll discuss my new job. I think I mentioned it before. I got a full-time dead end tech support job, like people do... Well yesterday was my first day. To say it wasn't quite what I expected is to put it mildly. For instance I would have expected someone may have actually been expecting me. Pah! No one was expecting me. Wouldn't you think it reasonable for someone to be prepared and expecting a new employee on a first day? No, of course not. That is completely unreasonable. I sit down and get a little guidance from another tech for a little while and try taking a call. Well this being my first call I don't think it did that well. It's been a while since I did that sort of tech support by phone so it takes a while to "get my groove back" so-to-speak. So I had to hand off the phone to other tech a couple times when I felt like I was getting in trouble. Eventually I'm informed I need some kind of network login but the guy who does that wasn't there at the time. So I sit there in the unheated section of the building for a while longer and the other tech goes down stairs. I guess I should have known he was leaving as he didn't come back and I just sat there not doing any thing for quite a while. So I realize I should go down there too. Hey the other tech could have mentioned a minor detail like he's not coming back. I mean what the hell do I know? It's my first day. So I go down to this other room and look over the shoulder of some other techs kinda trying to get the whole vibe of the environment and learn something about my new co-workers.

This night at least all my co-workers were early to mid-20 year old guys always joking and stuff like that. Had I ever gone to a college fraternity it would have reminded me of one. Apparently there's not really a supervisor or anybody in charge of anything in this little tech support office. There's a separate room, you see, separate from the whole of the building. This is because the ISP I work for is upstairs from another business (computer store) and so when the computer store closes at 7pm there's not supposed to be any way to get out so the techs work out of this little room on the side of the building. This room has only one entrance/exit, is really dirty, small and doesn't have a bathroom. No, this is what I've come down to. Working at a place that requires using a porta-potty as a bathroom. And no place to wash my hands. Well that's just great. It's very frustrating knowing so little and not having anyone of any sort of authority to get information from. I also found out that since I'm supposed to be working until 12am I am naturally supposed to look up; naturally this requires a "key". Now I was never made aware of this whole "key" requirement thing. So I couldn't stay until 12am to "lock-up" now could I? Pfff I don't need no stinking key. So I left at 11:30 instead of 12:00. I hear I may get deducted off my time card anything over 6 hours of work anyway. I don't know what the hell that's all about.

So finally I take another call quite a bit letter after I was feeling a little more settled in. I think this was about 9:30. I must have talked to that guy for about 45 minutes, describing how to set up an Internet connection manually. I tried to be as polite and nice and possible, and very patient too. Even when he started to describe some sort of application that he couldn't use with AOL but could with a regular Internet connection and IE 6 for whatever reason. I didn't really have any idea what he was talking about but I just listened to him and tried to understanding. Now sure maybe there is a way to use IE via AOL but as I'm a member of the tech support staff for a competing company it's hardly my job to try and help with that. He seemed to quite happy with the situation by the end of the call and even ask my name so he could ask for me again. According to my co-workers this is obviously a really easy job, supposedly. And I suppose it is going to be.

If this current schedule doesn't change there's a good chance I won't be taking any more classes for a while. I am going to try and take at least one class, the MCSE first couple classes. I think this should be fun if not very exhausting.

I'm watching this commercial right now. The product is called Dermabond, the "liquid stitch". The ad ends with the narrator saying "ask the emergency room doctor if Dermabond is right for you". Riiiiightuh. So something impales me or I get shot, I go to the emergency room and in the throws of pain and agony as I'm being drugged and injected I'm supposed to just say "oh, by the way, is dermabond right for me?". Sure right. That should work nicely. Seems like such a stupid statement. How the fuck am I gonna ask for a specific product when I'm in the emergency room?! Stupid people.

This just in: smoke coming out of Eiffel Tower in Paris France. Maybe I'll just hold my tongue on this for now...

  ¶ 12:03 PM