Amy took these, and we decided they worked as a great animation.
Dam.: ”
Only of the few good things about the local Gannett paper back in Yorktown was the great Matt Davies. His political cartoon work won a Pulitzer, and he was always spot on.
Thankfully, he now posts his cartoons on his blog, and I get to revel in his fine artistry. The strip above is just a sample of his work.
I suggest you all subscribe. You can find Matt at his blog.
-UPDATE: Fixed the width issue with the image. I can’t imaging what it was like at lower resolutions. My bad 
I start my new schedule on Saturday, meaning I have only today as a day off until Thursday. It happens, I’m cool with that. They gave me a late start for tomorrow as well.
Amy woke me softly around 11AM. That was nice. I went back to sleep and was jarred awake by GlaDOS and JoCo. It was my sister, Anne.
I sent it to voicemail.
Anne is the oldest of my younger sisters, and she’s getting married this year as well. She’s attempting to prod me into buying a plane ticket now so I’ll attend.
I don’t assume it’s because she wants to see me, or have me there. She’s never cared for me much, and the feeling is rather mutual. While I was away at college she spent years poking holes in my boat, driving my father further from me. It’s a long story that we’ll skip today.
Needless to say, with my own wedding in the planning stages for later in the year, I’m not terribly keen on going. She’s getting married in White Plains, NY, or Tarrytown, I don’t recall. She hasn’t sent out save the dates and doesn’t appear to have a web site up. I have a penis and I know these are the things you need to do, especially with your wedding six months away.
She hadn’t tried to arrange flight discounts, and the ones she has now (after I mentioned it, she finally called to ask) aren’t helpful in the slightest. ATX to NY an expensive trip these days as it is, and when you’re paying to for two it starts to add up.
Today she gets a half-brained idea that because her flight somewhere for her honeymoon was only $300 each way with a stop in Dallas that if we flew out of Dallas, it would be half that.
I guess she won’t be headed to travel school any time soon. Or learning anything about geography if she hasn’t up to this point.
Last night, I told Amy that I no longer wanted to go. I’d much rather focus on our own wedding and deal with our technology issues than spend nearly $1000 on a trip to NY to see my least favorite sister marry a guy I’ve met twice. She’s willing to defer to me on this one. I’m still toying with the idea.
As Anne elected to IM me as well to try to sell me on her ridiculous Hotwire idea, I told her what I’d been thinking. She tells me that I “kind of have to go.”
Strike one.
I tell her that it will difficult to do financially. She responds that she’ll likely make ours because she’ll have her wedding gifts by then.
This has to do with the price of tea in China how?
I learn that she doesn’t expect gifts, she expects cash. Why cash? She’ll need to pay off a $1000 credit card bill for her wedding. Everything I’ve read tells me that this is a major faux pas. If you can’t afford your own wedding, you scale back, not expect the guests to foot the bill.
Strike two.
I end the conversation shortly thereafter, as I didn’t want to deal with this any more on my one day off. I filled in Amy, my mother and our friend Miriam on the goings on. As both Amy and my mother are at work and aren’t likely to respond to texts, the only feedback I got was from Miriam. She agrees that I shouldn’t go.
What do you think, cats and kittens? Does it make me a bad person, or just a bad brother. I can live with the latter. There are two other sisters that I like much better than Anne will balance this out for me. I have no qualms if she and her future husband don’t attend my wedding. It’s a long trip. I can understand these things.
By the way, we’ve moved our wedding to October 25. We were able to get the chapel that day. I’ll be posting about it on the wedding blog later today. We’re looking at a small wedding, but don’t fret if you’re not invited. We plan to do our best to find ways to hang out with people where they live. Mostly because I need a means of getting to see all my NC and Florida people
I think I’m just going to get Anne a gravy boat and our condolences. I’ll also be conveniently losing the receipt for it. 
After the week I’ve had, I can’t figure out why I’m still awake at 2:00 AM, shoving Fiber One toaster pastry things into my face, drinking Diet Coke and hoping my typing doesn’t wake Amy. This old Apple keyboard is plenty loud, so that’s likely going to happen any minute now.
Let’s rewind a little, shall we?
Last time I posted something, I had gotten a haircut in preparation for a job interview. I’d never interviewed for a promotion anywhere. It usually just happened that I’d get a new title or more money or additional responsibility.
I’d determined a few months back that I was sick and tired of answering phones for a living. I don’t mind helping people, as I seem to have developed a quixotic nature over the last fifteen or so years. The feeling that people wanted my assistance and asked me to solve their problems was amazing. Actually solving their problem felt even better.
Technical support seemed like a natural fit for me. I’d spent much of my life figuring out my own PC issues, something that became a lot easier after the World Wide Web became easy to access. Once I got to college, classmates and flat-mates alike sought me out to look at their printers, or their network connections, or the ugly viruses they’d acquire after looking at porn in Internet Explorer. Initially, it was because I’d show up before ResNet Support did, but soon I developed a reputation.
People I’d never met would come to me, and it was quite the rush. Looking back, I should have parlayed this into bedding women, but geeks were not en vogue yet. If I looked like a pop star, I may have stood a better chance.
After leaving school, I found that people would actually pay me to do this type of thing. Fix computers, not sleep with women (oh, if only!) that is. A technical placement company got me contract work with IBM Global Services. I moved into a smaller desk at RailEurope about a year on. Six months later, I got tired of driving an hour each way to work, and slid into a job at Time Warner Cable.
Each job was about the same. I’d answer the phone, isolate an issue, and fix it. That may have entailed getting someone else to fix it. Or actually getting up and going somewhere so wiggle a cable or figure out why the crap Internet Explorer gave up on rendering pages. Each time I made slightly more money.
Amy entered my life as I was getting tired of hearing overpaid whiners in Manhattan complain about when techs were coming or that their cable internet service was too frigging slow. No offense to my friends in Manhattan. I don’t think any of your are whiney and overpaid. Usually just one or the other.
I used my newfound love as an opportunity to get the hell out of dodge. I loaded up the Neon and moved to Texas. I was hoping to fall into a support gig at Texas State, which was down the road from our apartment in San Marcos. This did not happen. I magically got hired by Apple to do iPhone support. I was again taking calls, fixing issues, and eventually hating my life. Yes, that’s possible even at Apple. Expecting call from iLawyers in 3, 2, 1 . .
I picked up at my current job supporting Rodale Publishing for Unisys Technical Services. I later starting taking calls for Texas Workforce Commission and Fox Feature Entertainment. As it was elsewhere, people would ask me questions and keep me in the loop on stuff that was happening. I was a golden god, ruling tech support with lightning bolts and plagues of frogs.
The email came in December. A UTS position was opening up. Typically, all the good jobs were only on the Unisys side, for which phone agents rarely, if at all, were eligible. This was a technical lead gig, under the umbrella of UTS. I jumped on it right away. Had my resume in a week before they were due.
The holidays came and went. In early January they scheduled my interview. They did so three times. Eventually I sat in a room with three men, one of whom had wet hands. I was grilled on Windows 2000 networking, which isn’t my forte any longer. It was 9 years ago, when Windows 2000 was relevant. Rather than WAGging, I answered honestly. This won them over. They also like the fact that I turned my rage against other agents that couldn’t do their jobs in the will to do mine better.
A few weeks later, I’m told I have the position. This was after nerve-wracking days sitting in my cube, answering phones, processing email, and being miserable after a Mac Mini refresh wasn’t announced. My emotions were destroying me. This wasn’t good, as we’d hit the two year anniversary of Amy and I meeting in person. This should have been a very happy occasion. Instead, i was walking on eggshells.
So I’m invited to a conference room. The Aftehours Support Manager tells me I’ve got the job, that I’m giving OS X training for Afterhours agents the following week, Rodale training the week after that, and that I’d still be taking calls in my current queues until I could be backfilled.
It took a while before this all sunk in. I was going to be a lead, the person who coaches agents, answers their questions and generally leads them to be better agents. I’d only be answering calls during crunch times. They’d pay out my performance incentive (this is how they avoid giving me a raise, but this works just as well) and I’d only have to submit to working Saturday through Wednesday.
After my first drink and some form of cheese bread at the Brazilian restaurant Amy took me to that night, the realization finally knocked me over. Well, maybe the mojito knocked me over. Either way, I’d finally taken the first step towards bettering my work career. Or so I’d thought.
This past week, I spent time after in the afternoon shadowing agents taking Unilever calls, as they’d be my charges Monday through Wednesday. They’re a good group of people with some heavy, heavy expectations placed upon them. I think I’ll grow to really like these cats, so long as they keep trying.
Tuesday, we learned that an ice storm was coming to Austin. Coming from the Northeast, ice storms have never bothered me. In Texas, it’s the Apocalypse, similar to how North Carolina treated them when I was in college. They offer overtime for us to sleep in the office that night in case the roads got really bad.
The prospect of driving in an ice storm does not scare me. Doing so with other Austin drivers does. I also like money, to paraphrase Frito Pendejo. I took Unisys up on this.
I get back to the office at midnight, only to find that a Rodale resolver had dropped a dozen issues back on us, some mishandled, others requiring followup. Not knowing if my counterpart Kevin would be coming in the next morning, I knew they had to be dealt with that moment.
Around 1:30 AM, I was done. I fell asleep about 45 minutes later. I heard voices around six AM, bellowing about Detroit Public Schools. I tried to sleep through it. My alarm went off at seven. I crawled out from under my desk, saw that Kevin made it there and that everything was fine. I got dressed in the bathroom and slept for another hour.
That night, I gave some damn fine OS X training. I gave it twice, then went home to sleep. For five hours. I then did it again the next day, minus the early wake up at work. In fact, I overslept, but nobody gave a rats ass. They knew what I was up to, and they were working to get someone to take the calls I normally took.
This may not happen anytime soon, sadly. Another client in the group I’m about to leave wants to dedicate 70% of our agents to their calls. This would leave about three people to take the other five queues. I may be stuck taking calls for the foreseeable future, at least until new people can be hired. With our stock price still under a dollar, this may take time.
At the very least, Amy and I finally got to celebrate our anniversary before the horrible week began. We had a fine time at McCormick and Schmick’s, eating fish that isn’t caught in sustainable fashions and enjoying getting dressed up for dinner in a fancy downtown joint. It was wonderful night on the town, and is probably the only reason why I haven’t completely lost my shit.
It’s been a roller-coaster of a week, of a month, of a post-collegiate life. I’ve set every twist, turn, loop, roll, hill and dip into motion myself, and it’s high time I waved at myself manning the controls from my other posts in the front and rear cars.
Wow, what a terrible analogy.
So, here’s to long nights, better jobs, stupid clients and the road ahead. Here’s to Amy and I, two years on and getting stronger each day. Here’s to everyone who has hated what they do for a paycheck, and an extra drink for those who have done something about it.
Speaking of Amy, as I tend to often, I have a sinking feeling she’s getting worried. She’s likely out cold, but I’ve been out here for a while now. At least an hour. And it’s coming up on three AM. I should sleep.
I leave you all (you few, maybe?) and retire to bed. After another Diet Coke and some knockoff Benadryl. Enjoy the rambling, friends.
I’m enjoying great 3G speeds and a Lone Star at Birds on Lamar. Any minute now my hair will be restored to its usual spiky goodness. I’ll toss up some pics when I get back home.
Update: Amy took some lovely photos of me. Here’s one to check out:
So another year is upon us. Amy and I spent NYE at home, watched the Boston Legal finale and got incredibly drunk. The wine glasses my mother sent for Christmas hold over half a bottle of wine each, so the Stump Jump went quickly, followed by some boxed red wine and a bottle of Asti. We were drunker than Dean Martin.
I’d like to wish a happy new year to everyone who reads my blog. I thank you for checking it out. I know it’s not the best, but that’s something I plan to work on this year. Well, this and getting my yoga done.
Wil Wheaton did a neat year in review post, looking back at everything he’d blogged. I think I’m going to try that tomorrow, after trying to figure out Objective-C delegates again.
We also get a new bed tomorrow. More fodder for this thing.
Enjoy 2009 everyone. I’ll try to make it more enjoyable.
For all the other security nuts out there, I’ve updated my public key. This time I’ve included the actual useful key. If you’ve met me in person and you feel you trust me, please sign my key and return it. Include your key as well. I’ll sign yours and send it back.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I’ll try to find a good page on GPG and email privacy to link to later.
The key has it’s own page, which you can always reach from the upper right.
This theme strikes me. Thoughts?
Update: Think I’ll stick with this new one for now. Might have to mess with the colors and try to add my old banner back in, but this seems workable.
So things look a little different around here. I’ve added a Photo page, which pulls from my Facebook. If you want my Flickr photos, there’s a link on the right. My last three Tweets show up over there as well.
I’ve also dropped the site to a very simple template for the time being. It’s all a matter of finding the right one. I want to go back to three columns, but this should keep things simple and readable for now.
If only Helvetica was licensed for the web . . .
Over at Livejournal, I’ve found that dropping my account to Basic level removes the big stinking ad from the top. Looks a lot nicer now, and I didn’t lose any functionality I had previously. Thanks for the tip Amy!
I want to figure out if I can completely abandon categories for tags. I’m surprised that Wordpress hasn’t moved that way yet. They work in a similar fashion, except you can’t render a page of exploded posts from a tag link. Maybe someday.
I also need to figure out what I want to do with the main page. That’s where I’d just link to crap. I do most of that on Facebook now, so the main site has become rather useless. I’m quite open to suggetions, and our host supports all the latest tech, including Rails.
Work is over in 15 minutes. Then the weekend begins. We’ll be doing some shopping tomorrow. Hooray
Those of you who are seeing this at tomtostanoski.com and don’t go to LiveJournal can ignore this post, unless you’d like to be consumed with vitriol.
Now, admittedly, I haven’t done much to care for the LiveJournal page I set up. I mostly did it to give Amy easier access to my blog and to expand my audience of bored humans. I left it on some ugly theme that I chose ages ago and only checked it occasionally to verify that the crossposting plugin is still working.
So I trotted over there today to ensure that it worked correctly with Wordpress 2.7. It does. I figured I’d stick around and pick a more aesthetically pleasing theme. I did.
Then I noticed it. A big honking banner ad for credit cards above my post. This is so wrong on so many levels.
I get that LiveJournal doesn’t cost me anything. I get that a handful of Russian coders are punching up the nasty perl that makes LJ work. I get that they have to monetize the free accounts somehow.
But did it really need to be a huge graphical banner right above my most recent post? Couldn’t it be a skyscraper along the sides (which are currently blank). I look like a frigging phishing site. Thank you LiveJournal, for knowing nothing about page design. You can kiss the fattest part of my ass if you think I’m buying a paid account to get rid of it.
Those of you who want to continue to view my stuff on LiveJournal should get an ad blocking program for your browser. I don’t think a spam company should be profiting by obscuring my writing without my consent. If anyone knows how I demand they move it to a less obstructive location, please let me know.
The best course of action is to just read this over at http://tomtostanoski.com/blog. I’m currently looking for a better Wordpress theme and I should have my blogroll and links cleaned up sooner than later. I’ll also be adding my Tweets to the sidebar as soon as I can find a good widget for it. Best part: no ads, and I will never try to sell you anything.
Sorry for the rant. It bugs me to no end that they put their ugly Citibank ad THERE!
