"Woody Allen's Wife"

The title of the last entry, "The answer is Volvo...", is from a special Showtime version of Whose Line also starring Drew Carey also. Now I'm not actually going to try and explain what the punch line is to this joke, as I don't think I want to go there. I'll give you a few clues though. First of all there was this game where they ask the audience for a car company which came back Volvo. Then the host says "ok the answer is Volvo, what is the question?" to which a female cast member came up with a special answer. But I won't repeat it here. You'll have to watch an episode of Seinfeld. The Deloris one *wink* *wink*. Yessss...Now you get it don't you? Ok so there doesn't seem to be any rhyme-or-reason to my entry titles. But there never was really so I guess it's ok. And if you see the show in question it's extremely funny.

Well for somebody who has never had a 40 hours a week kinda job I think I'm actually doing remarkably well, thank you. I mean sure sometimes a customer calls up and is really pissed off about e-mail not working and/or his connection getting stalled in the middle of an e-bay bid and sure I as a simple barley-above-minimum-wage tech support employee can really do a lot to help this but...that's mostly the exception. Actually just about all the customers I talk to seem to be really pissed off and tell me how they've called five times in a day to have no one ever call them back. It's not like I can really blame them for being pissed off about having so much trouble with the e-mail system. And I understand how frustrating it must be and all. But again there's really nothing I can do to help them or rectify the situation. Now I hope this blog doesn't turn into "the other perspective" when it comes to those frustrating tech support experiences I know everyone of all skill levels has had to go through. But please what I am I to do? It's not like I can offer them a "free gift" or something. No I mean I really can't offer them a free gift. Trust me if I could I would offer them the free gift. Not sure what that would be really. Free speakers or whatever. Oh and another thing...

Now I'm writing this half out of utter shock something like could happen and half out of I hope Justin Blanton finds this entertaining as I surely do not.

In a past entry, can't remember which one, I went on and on about the greatness of MS Windows 2000. So how is it I've become the goto-guy when it comes to Macintosh calls?!? Now there used to be this one anointed "Mac guy" that I never even really met someone just kinda pointed at him and mentioned his name and I immediately forgot it. Turns out this mysterious "Mac guy" hasn't come in for work this whole week. Now look I don't even have a Mac nor do I want one. I just took this ONE Mac call. I think the user was using version 8 of the OS and having trouble with the dial-up settings. So what do I do? I go to Google and type in "Mac OS 8 dial up settings walk through" and start progressing through the links trying to find a guide with screenshots along with the steps. I do a couple successful calls and now I'm the new "Mac guy". I hope someone finds this funny and/or ironic. Now why can't the other tech support do that? Don't they know how to search Google? Now this other caller on Mac OS X was having trouble getting her mail. It was obvious she was using an e-mail program as opposed to web mail so I kept asking her what her mail program was called but she didn't know and then proceeded to describe all these menus and preferences and crap. And I was like "wait!" I don't know which program you're using. Ok so it turns out Apple's incredibly creative name for the new e-mail client is "Mail" or "Mail.app" or something like that. How was I to know? And why doesn't it say this across the title bar like in Windows? Well I finally found a guide and managed to walk her through it.

Well I hope someone is laughing at me. Now my co-workers seem really apathetic. I'm beginning to think there is some sort of apathy formula or something. Kinda like Moore's Law pertaining to processor speed double every 12 to 18 months. Well the Law of Apathy is something like

current apathy = current apathy * #of months working as tech support * (10% of #of callers fielded)

Pfff. What am I a math major? I don't think so. Now before you think this is improper algebra let me defend myself by saying it's more like something you would find in programming code than in algebra class. And I like programming more than algebra, much more.

So how is my life different now with the full-time job as compared to what it was before with out a job? Well it's hard remember way back then when I didn't have the full-time job. A week ago. Well all the days just kind of run together into one continuous blur like before, only now I talk on the phone a lot more and I drive places and stuff. Well only one place followed by back home. I've only worked three days thus far how monotonous could it be by now anyway? I do think I am getting better though. Now at my help desk job I had a few years ago I didn't work nearly the number hours I work now and I had long stretches between semesters but I don't think I ever really became as apathetic as a lot of my co-workers. And I did work there for 18 months.

Looks like I have to leave now. Seems my entries are getting shorter and shorter. What's up with that?

  ¶ 3:32 PM