Well today was my first real day of doing some of what I guess I'll be doing for the rest of the summer.
::Let us pause for station identification for those of you who are just tuning in::
This is the Mike O'Malley job chat. I work at Apex Digital, a subcontractor of DirecTV. They have installation technicians, who go around installing satellites and dispatchers, who take care of the office work. I am a form of dispatcher. The office work is split into 2 sections, dispatch, which mediates between techs and customers, and closeouts, who keep records of finished jobs. I am currently in closeouts.
::End station identification::
Now to more of what closeouts really is:
I sit in a cubicle type thing (but not completely secluded, i can see the people next to me) and have only a phone and a stack of forms. No computer or any form of entertainment, unless I bring my own. The phone rings, I pick it up and grab a form. I then fill this form out by asking the technician on the other end of the phone line questions. It a *REALLY* fun game! Anyway...i fill out this form, put it in a box, and then it gets picked up by someone and sent to the computer people, to put in the computers. I guess, I haven't actually witnessed that. But one of the people at the computers came by to clarify something, so i assume that is what happens.
So basically I sit there answering the phone and filling out forms. Wash, rinse, repeat. 70 times.
Now I worked 9 hours today. There was about an hour of me being on break, so that adds up to 8 hours of work. During that 8 hours, I filled out 70 forms. Doing the math, it seems to me that I did about 1 form every 7 minutes, and they take 2-3 minutes to fill out. And really, it wasn't like I'd fill out 10 forms in a row and then have 20 minutes to zone out, it really was just spending a couple minutes doing a form and then a couple minutes to rest my hand. Even if I did bring a book, I wouldnt be able to read it.
Tomorrow is supposedly worse. I can only pray that they will teach me to do something else tomorrow. Like the computer job. I'd like that more. Luckily there are 3 different things and I supposedly have to learn all of them. SO we'll see how it goes.
Or maybe we'll see how it blows.
So today was my first day on the job. I got to find out all kinds of cool stuff, like what I am actually going to do there.
And by cool, I mean boring. I'll save you the 1000 pages of details and tell you this shortened version: Some days I will be keeping records of jobs that were done that day, and other days I will be taking complaints from customers and questions from satellite installation technicians.
Today was a training day, broken into 6 hours of class, 2 hours of observation, and 1 hour of break. Classroom consisted of me and the other 3 trainees and a trainer. The trainees consisted of a soon to be nursing student, a girl that has 3 jobs total and is working on her Master's, and a mother of a 1 year old. The trainer was a pregnant woman.
Now, the combination of 4 girls, one of which is pregnant, another that has been recently pregnant, and another interested in nursing is a bit volitile when you are the sole man in the room. Especially when they start talking about strange pink periods that one of them pointed out to be the color of my face right now while listening to them talk about it.
I'd also like to point out that I am one of about 3 or 4 guys that work in nonsupervisory positions. Or is it "one of about 3 or 4 guys that works in a nonsupervisory position"? Or is it "I am in a large minority"? Or is it "I am in a small minority"? Or am I attempting to thoroughly confuse you?
Then I went out into the office for some observation. Seems like a pretty boring job, mostly reading questions off a sheet. But hey, $9/hr is $9/hr. I got to meet a bunch of the other employees, including 2 of the guys, one of which is nicknamed "Pimp-master" Phil. Not sure why yet...
The person I was observing was also pregnant (and hardly older than me) and I got to hear about stretch marks and creams to prevent them.
Anyway, soon the day came to a close, and I punched out to get in my car and go go home. But as I was leaving, a car drove by. Wait! There's more! Usually I am pretty good about looking away when mooned and keeping my views of the male buttcrack at a minimum. But I sure wasn't expecting this guy. So I got a pretty good view. Yep.
So I guess what I'm saying is today was a pretty crazy day. I learned all there is to know about getting info from techs, pregnancey, and the appearance of male buttcheeks pressed up against glass.
Goodnight moon.
Looks like I might be getting a job afterall, working as a dispatcher for Apex Digital, a company that installs DirecTV. I guess I'd be mostly dealing with irate customers complaining about how they don't get signal when it's raining. Maybe call some people to tell them that someone will be there between 10am and 10pm. Some dealing with employees to get data from installations and stuff. Phone work.
Sucks that i'll be working nights, though. Hello money, goodbye fun. Oh well.
Off to Drake to visit a Mr. Matt tomorrow. SHould be good times.
So, yesterday was quite the day for me finishing things. For example, I finished a design for the archives of this blog. But that is immaterial. I also finished something that amazes me. I finished a book.
Yep. Apparently I am not nearly as illiterate as I thought.
The Da Vinci Code is one of those puzzle/mystery/suspense novels that keeps you guessing. It starts with the murder of the curator of the Louvre, which launches a police investigation that involves Harvard-bred symbology professor Robert Langdon. And, as that last sentence implies, it is full of lectures on symbolism in art, but very interesting, sometimes funny lectures.
"Symbologists often remarked that France--a country renowned for machismo, womanizing, and diminutive insecure leaders like Napoleon and Pepin the Short--could not have chosen a more apt national emblem than a thousand-foot phallus."
But then the book turns into way more than a simple murder mystery. It is a treasure hunt. A treasure hunt for the greatest treasure ever hunted. It is more than a treasure hunt, it is a quest. The all time greatest quest of history, a quest for something so great that it has been sought by thousands of people, and visited by movies of Harrison Ford and Monty Python alike: The Quest for the Holy Grail.
However, this quest is a little different. It is not only a quest to find where the Holy Grail is, but what the Holy Grail is (for the reader anyway...the protaganist already knows what it is, but he keeps it a mystery for a while).
The puzzles add quite a bit of fun to the book, especially when you figure them out before the main characters (hehehe). I'm not saying I'm a symbolism genious, or that this book is ridiculous due to me knowing more than the characters that are experts. I'm saying that the author, Dan Brown, is GREAT at hiding clues to unlock the mysteries of future clues. All you need to solve many of the puzzles is a close reading of all that came before it and a little bit of basic knowlege. However, there are some puzzles that are meant to not be solved by the reader, as there are cases where it adds to the suspense if you don't know. But its lots of fun.
Anyway, that's about all I can say without giving anything away. Read the extended link for more thoughts, if you have read the book, don't plan on reading the book, or don't care if you know what the holy grail is before reading (i won't give away the ending or puzzles, just thoughts on what the book says the holy grail "is". I knew before reading the book, and I still liked it, but you might want to wait. Your choice.)
Oh, and if you are planing on reading it:
Christians: This book will attack the foundations of your religion.
Catholics: This book will attack the practices of your church. Also keep in mind that the Pope of this book is not the current Pope, but a fictitious Pope that took the position in the previous book, Angels and Demons.
However, in defense of Brown, he does show compassion towards Catholics, repeatedly bringing up the theme that a few bad ones do not speak for the whole organization. He also brings up a point that either theory is plausible, people just need to look at the evidence and determine which speaks to them.
And now, without further ado, click below to read some more thoughts on the book's theories.
If you are reading this and haven't read the book, here is the book's account of the real Holy Grail.
We have all heard the story of what the Holy Grail is, the chalice that held the blood of Christ. It is also known as the Sangreal, or San Greal, which is Holy Grail. However, this word can also be split to read Sang Real, or Royal Blood. Here comes the symbology: There is an ancient symbol called the chalice, basically a V, which represents the woman (shape of the womb). The theory is that the Holy Grail, the chalice that held the blood of Christ, is actually a woman that carried the bloodline of Christ, none other than Mary Magdalene, Jesus' wife. The Holy Grail that has been sought for ages is a record of Mary's life after Jesus, diaries and other relics to prove her status, and her family tree, which is beleived to be connected to the Merovingion dynasty of France.
Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute, that beleif came from a misreading of the numerous Mary's in the Bible. The Catholic Church rescinded this beleif in 1969, and since they were the ones to create that beleif (Orthodox Christians have never beleived it), there is absolutely no reason to beleive that today.
The evidence to support the theory that Mary is Jesus' wife is actually much greater than I knew when I first heard the theory. There is astounding evidence in the gnostic gospels, which are beleived to be some of the oldest gospels, and represent Jesus in a much more human, down to earth way. A philosopher.
Why is the Grail the one thing that has been sought after for so long? Why not his grave, his buriel shroud, the bowl of bread, the cross, the thorns, any other relic...Why is a simple cup worth so much? If Holy Grail really is a metaphor for the truth, it makes much more sense. People sought to either protect it or destroy it.
Also, who was the first person Jesus appeared to after he died? Mary Magdalene.
This would be a very large hit to the foundations of Christianity, because if Mary had children, and Christ was actually God, then we'd have numerous possible God people walking around.
Or maybe Jesus was no more God than anyone else...
I might be able to accept that. It doesn't cloud his message in any way. He was still a great man.
And most of the stuff in the book seems to check out. It makes sense. There is another book, Breaking the Da Vinci Code that supposedly exposes holes, but the reviews I read claim that it relies so heavily on faith that it can hardly be respected.
There is one hole in Code that I have looked into though. The Priory of Sion really does seem to be an elaborate hoax conjured by Pierre Plantard in the mid-20th century. But the book is still fiction, and since the Priory is technically a secret, the information that "proves" their beleifs comes from elsewhere. Their being real is not essential to the information in the book.
Well, I gotta eat. I'd like to discuss this on a more personal level sometime though...
Okay, so I think I kinda like tis design a bit better, probably reflective of my sometimes morbid sense of humor. It's not quite as crampy, and looks better than the other one at higher resolutions. The hitch is that I needed to change the html too, this time, not just the css. But whatever, it was just moving some things around and adding a couple images.
As of now, it is not yet done. I still need to add styles for the text. I'll get to that later.
Until then, enjoy this happy land.
Oh, I almost forgot, I promised a link to the previous design: Other way
Now off with ye!
*EDIT* Okay, I think it's done. If you have any suggestions, or find something too unreadable, or love it or hate it, leave me a comment. Thanks.
*EDIT 2* Okay, the archives are not done. Only the main index is designed. I'll try to do the archives in due time. It took me fo eva to get this thing to look right and work in both Mozilla and IE (and unlike kordik...I care. IE may be the worst browser in widespread use, but it is also the most common, due to stubborn people).
Tried redesigning this ol' blog using a new stylesheet, but I don't think I like it. I decided this before i started changing colors of links and stuff, so leave that alone. I like the background and color and stuff, but I don't like how confining it is. I need to figure out some way to make it stretch well, and fill the page. I also don't like how its just a little thing in the corner, with a crappy background color for the rest. Oh well. I got some ideas, I'll work on it. When I change it, I'll put up a link to the crappy way it is now, in case you like it...the next design will be better. And more time consuming.
Anyway, I just wanted to praise Firefox again. You can get an extension called "EditCSS" which lets you edit the stylesheet of any page you go to. Instant gratification too, it updates the page with every keystroke. It is really helpful in designing your own page.
Hmm...now that I think about it, I think the background might make a pretty cool album cover...
"The debut album from 3 Fives Eating Seven, Never Mess With the Prime Objective is sure to be a hit..."
Rock out.
*Edit* --- I think I made it sound like I got this design from somewhere else...I didn't mean to imply that, this is mine, I take all the blame for its crappines. It looked different in my head. Then when I made it it was nothing like what i wanted. maybe that's why I hate it so much.
The background picture is not my photography, it is a composite of 2 pictures I fond on the web, the sky and the tree/gound are from 2 different pictures. Then I just put on some photoshop filters and did some layer blending and voila, an album cover. But not a good web page design.