emsk

This has been One of Those WeekMonthYears.

Car issues (multiple). Electrical repairs. Dishwasher broke down. Spa pool broke down (twice).

I don't recall if I've mentioned the problems with the Ford. But after the many and varied issues, we gave up and sold it back to the dealership.

The giving-up point with the car was the day, about a month ago, that Tobermory picked it up from a service, drove off, and broke down at the lights. I received a phonecall that went something like this:
"I'm at the traffic lights, and the fucking Ford has fucking died. Car just went *chugchugDOOooooo.....* and everything turned off."
"What?"
"Car died. Now it won't start."
"What..."
"Dead as a doornail. The highway patrol had to bump me off the road."
"You have got to be fucking kidding me."

It turned out to be an alternator fault, which seemed a bit crap on a car that'd only done 60k. But, anyway. We went to the dealership, bitched, eventually accepted a price that was a bit less than we wanted but not entirely unreasonable, and departed for home.

Tobermory was in the Subaru, having come from home; I was in the Mazda, having come from work.

Five minutes later, I was calling Tobermory.

"Guess what?"
"What..?"
"I'm at the traffic lights! And the Mazda has died!"
"What..."
"Just sitting here and car went * chugchugDOOooooo....*, everything turned off, and now it won't start."
"You have got to be fucking kidding me."

I love the AA. It did take the better part of three hours to get me home, as I'd helpfully broken down at one of Auckland's busiest intersections at about 5.30pm. Someone nice pulled over and helped me push the car off the road, so at least I wasn't in danger.

Ninety minutes later, during which time I sat in the car and conversed with my mother lacking anything more interesting to do, the chap from the AA turned up, stuck various electronic prodding devices in my engine, and announced that my battery mumblety mumblety, ignition module mumblety broken, mumblety towtruck.

The towtruck was a further thirty minutes away. I took the opportunity to go to the nearest Starbucks, buy a coffee so as to be able to use their toilet, and walked back to the car just in time to see the towtruck two blocks away. We had a little race down two blocks (he won), and I ran up to the car just in time to receive the phonecall from the towing company announcing that the towie was there and I was not.

So! Car will be delivered, somehow, to the Place of Fixing on Monday.

In the meantime, I would like my life to stop containing things that fall apart.

Winter is coming. Today has been windy, and the last two days have been cool enough that I've brought out my woolen jerseys.

Owing to said cold, Tigra has discovered the joys of sleeping under the blankets - and at approximately four a.m, Boomer decided to investigate what the wriggly purry lump was. Via pouncing.

After a few repetitions of BOING.... purrpurrpurr BOING... prrrrr BOINGBOING ... both Tigra and I got a little upset. Tigra exited the blankets, and with the aid of my foot, Boomer BOINGed off the bed.

They were dragged to the vet, also, for a final set of vaccinations and a weighing (seeing as they were there). Tigra has nearly doubled in size in the last month or so. And Boomer's not far off it. Not that I'll entirely mind when they're grown cats hogging all available sunbeams and sleeping 23 hours of the day - it will be a lot more peaceful at o'dark hundred without kittens kneading my face or jumping on my toes - but the kitten stage is wonderful.

Also, Boomer eats spiders. Watching him catch them can be quite adorable.

Work is not so adorable. I am glad I have a week off next week, as my tolerance for stupid is rapidly decreasing. Between being yelled at because I didn't answer the phone to someone trying to report an outage (because I was busy reporting said outage to the system admins), taking five minutes toilet break on a solo shift to return to a phonecall of I'VE BEEN WAITING ON HOLD FOR HOURS AND HOURS THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE (for a problem that would've been solved with a reboot), and various other acts of irrational dumb.. I will be glad for the break.

Five glorious days to sit in my nice warm lounge in toesocks and my poncho, playing with (or being ignored by) kittens, and relaxing with my beloved. Sounds like bliss...

Originally published at spinneretta.com. » Click here « to leave any comments.

Today marks the first day of my two week vacation. It is shaping up to be glorious weather, and extremely busy.

Reiver and Orthia are staying here. Reiv's helping us run cat6 through the house (along with Pstyken, Thaqui, Colitis, and whoever else happens to drop by on any given day this week). There's also a lot of gardening work we want to do; various bushes/plants need to come out, several of the gardens need to be viciously assaulted (and possibly removed).

And then it's Giftmas, which is being hosted here. I still don't know who's likely to show up, but as the order of the day is "If you want to eat, you bring a food contribution", it shouldn't be a huge problem. I'm looking forward to it! For the first time ever I've bought as many presents as I want to, for the people I want to. For reasons of circumstance or finance, I haven't done that before. I'm enjoying the excuse to give people things I think they'll like. I'm happily free from the usual obligations attached to giftmas, what with the whole lack of family involvement. I suppose you could say I'm obliged to buy things for Tobermory, but on the other hand I actually enjoy doing that*.

I bought fairy lights. They are strung around my bookshelves, looking very pretty. I am still trying to talk Tobermory into a Christmas tree, but he has conniptions at the thought of decorations in the middle of summer. Given that it's currently 25C outside (28+ for the poor boys up in the roof**) and his brain is still running on English seasons, I can't blame him.

Tobermory didn't realise that I know how to walk in a ceiling. For some reason, the jobs that I did laying rodent poison in ceilings had never come up. Although that might be because I never told Mum I'd been up in the ceilings of client's houses as a sixteen year old girl, as she would probably have been mildly terrified at the prospect.

The house still intermittently feels strange. It's different in a rented place, where you don't need to know everything about your home. Here, we're still finding out how things work. Like the way different bits of the house were constructed (it's had at least two additions/changes we know of), two types of insulation in the roof, different wall types (some of the cat6 is going under the house rather than over it as a result). We're still learning things like that. I suppose you could argue that we only moved in three months ago, so it's not surprising. It just seems wrong, somehow, that I can walk the house in the dark, but didn't know anything about the wiring until yesterday. I've been aggressively arting every room Tobermory'll let me - even the most-used toilet has art on the walls - which makes me feel more at home. There are thirteen posters (currently living under our bed) which need to find homes.

His parents arrive in less than a month. Yipe.


* This is also the first time that I've EVER successfully bought something for Tobermory (whether birthday or giftmas or whatever other reason) and not immediately confessed when the parcel arrived from the couriers as to its' contents. I might actually manage to hold out on the surprises until giftmas itself!
** Reiver got left in the roof while the ladder got carted off for other purposes yesterday. He was discovered half an hour later, sitting over the roof cavity entrance, swinging his legs and drinking a cold beer that someone had thoughtfully provided.

Originally published at spinneretta.com. » Click here « to leave any comments.

I must share a d'awwww from this morning. We have an email system for setting up mailing groups. In order to do things with it, you send emails like this:

TO: admin@thegroupsystem.company.com
SUBJECT: change mygroupname
BODY:
add name@company.com
delete name@company.com

etc etc etc. The mail server picks them up, processes them, creates/deletes/changes groups, and in about five minutes you get a "YOUR REQUEST HAS BEEN PROCESSED" auto-response back.

Now, one of our PAs, who is a lovely woman but occasionally technologically illiterate, has just met this system. I'd given her a very abbreviated training session with it, and I was sure she had the basics down pat. Still, I had that inkling that she wasn't quite sure... so I asked a friendly mail admin to keep an eye on the system for me. About half an hour later, he called me over, wearing a big grin.

She'd sent an email as follows:

TO: admin@thegroupsystem.company.com
SUBJECT: change mygroupname (please)
BODY:
Administrator should be name@company.com
Please:
add name@company.com
Also please:
delete name@company.com
Thanks
Signature.

I then had the immensely amusing job of ringing her back, explaining that these emails are automagically processed by servers, not by human beings; and thus there is actually no need to be polite.

I also managed to permanently delete someone's data. I do feel somewhat shit about this, but in my defense, it was stuff stored on his desktop, which users are explicitly told is not backed up, under any circumstances (technically untrue, as we have server-based roaming profiles), and his profile was screwed on the local machine, hadn't backed up to the server, and I deleted it. He was, to put it mildly, pissed.

And the excellent new young bloke who was put on a trial period, after the complete and utter fail that was the hiring of newGirl*, may not have his contract extended due to budget cuts. He is competent, quick, well liked, did I mention competent? confident, learning well, an absolute pleasure to talk to, approachable, COMPETENT, and it will be an absolute disaster if we can't keep him on because there are not enough fucking staff already.

I'm going to my boss on Monday, demanding to know if the rumours are true, and if they are...

Oh, who am I kidding. I'll ask, yes, but then I'll keep my head down and my mouth shut like always because I need to keep my goddamn job. There are redundancies and cutbacks and things left right and center.

Stupid economy.


* in her defense, she is learning, just slowly sometimes, and I do like her as a person; I just wish we'd never hired her, because, well, see previous rants

Originally published at spinneretta.com. » Click here « to leave any comments.

Life has been busy.

The last few weeks have seen me:

• Apply for a job
• Return to a second interview (wearing unbreakable-zipped pants)
• Been offered a job
• Accepted said job after finding out the terms of the contract
• Handed in notice
• Worked a week of twilight shifts
• Ended up impromptu team lead
• Slept a lot and felt like arse at the end of the day after coming home on twilights

I start my new contract on the 12th of February. It looks like it will be good – the last staff turnover they’ve had in about 6 years is promotion and folks travelling overseas.

And I phoned Mum today. Monday is the anniversary of Dad’s death. 18 years on, she still has nightmares this time of year – I know it’s tough for her, so I keep in touch.

She’s doing fine, apart from the nightmares.

Life is good.

Originally published at kiwi geek. You can comment here or there.

User: “I don’t see why! I’ve already rebooted my computer!”
Me: “Oh, that’s fine, ma’am. Can I ask when you did that, please?”
User: “When it first stopped working, before I went to my meeting!”
Me: “About two hours ago? That’s fine, but it’ll need to be done now as well, please.”
User: “I really don’t see why you have to do so many stupid things. I TOLD YOU ALREADY, I REBOOTED IT EARLIER, I don’t WANT to do it again!”
Me: I’ve been talking to idiots all morning. I can’t say I wanted to talk to another one, yet here we are.

Manager: “Why can’t any of you manage the simplest parts of the QA process? All we ask is that, at the end of a phone call, you ask “Is there anything else I can help you with?” and then say “Thankyou for calling”.”
Me: Would you prefer I say “Thankyou for calling” and have that heard, or be hung up on mid-sentence? Because that’s what will happen.

User: “Why do I have to do it this way? It’s stupid!”
Me: I entirely agree. It’s a policy created by management with no regard for real helpdesk or real customer requirements OF helpdesk, by managers who’ve never taken phone calls from people like you.
Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I just have to do my job. The process is company policy.”
User: “You’ll just never see it from my viewpoint, will you?”
Me: “I’m sorry ma’am, but I just have to do my job.”
Me: After similar queries from multiple people, I probably see your point of view BETTER than you do. And, incidentally, shouting at me? Doesn’t get your problem fixed faster.

Manager: “You have a lovely voice and a good phone manner.”
Me: Thankyou. Should I take up working on a phone sex line? I hear it pays better than this.

User: “I need you to tell me where folder OLK11 is on my computer.”
Me: “I’m afraid I don’t know, off the top of my head – I’ll need to run a search.”
User: “No, I’m not going to let you do that, you might delete my work.”
Me: “Unless I can search your computer, I cannot find your files.”
User: “Find a way.”
Me: Yes, ma’am, how about I send a proctologist to extract your head from your arse, clean the shit out of your ears, and then perhaps I’ll find a way by searching your computer for the files.

QA: “… You also neglected to close the call by asking if there was anything further you could assist the user with.”
Me: I was transferring the call to another agent, who was waiting on the line. Counter intuitive, no? Did I follow Script Monkey Central? NO?!? Ook, bad monkey, no banana for you.

Yes. They’re nasty. But oh it makes the shitty parts of the day go by easier.

You have to laugh, else you go nuts.

Originally published at kiwi geek. You can comment here or there.

Life is not particularly exciting at the moment.

I wake up, drag myself unwillingly out of bed. I’m usually tired when I wake up, the remnants of a bad night’s sleep.

So, I get up. Shower, find food, check email before work.

Go to work. Log in to the phones, curse the ticketing system, which I have already learned to hate. It’s slow, it regularly crashes, it’s not particularly useful in it’s categories; as far as I can see, it’s sole redeeming factor is that “We’ve used this for five years, why change it now? Oh, and also it interfaces with the phone software.” Said phone software also sucks, regularly hangs when attempting to route emails to me, and generally makes my day aggravating.

So. Log in. Take calls. Listen to people whine about problems which, approximately 50% of the time, are their own fault. Problems which, approximately 80% of the time, they are angry about. Problems which, approximately 90% of the time, I can’t fix, and can only take details and pass on to the relevant teams higher up the food chain to fix. Listen to upset and angry people whine at me. I’m thanked maybe twice a day, out of the 30 to 40 calls I’ll take, and each one stands out because it’s so damned rare.

I have emails to answer. 75% of the time there’ll be insufficient details provided for us to do anything about it. So I have to send back an email asking for more information, if I can’t raise the user on the phone, and brave their ire; it’s not like I can read minds. Being told “Order 75-D/1538 failed for process 48-22DFN, can you pass on to support” doesn’t help. Being told I’m stupid because it’s OBVIOUS!!! that clearly, this person works in Location XYZ, therefore it’s OBVIOUS!!! that they could ONLY!!! be using program ABC doesn’t help either.

There was a charmer of a caller last week, who, on being told that what he wanted was utterly impossible, as it’s against company policy, informed me that I was rude, impolite, and probably only worked a ridiculous job like helpdesk because I was too fat or too ugly to get a real job dealing with people.

I very politely told him that my personal life was none of his business; although I was pleased to inform him that I was entirely happy with my life, and that my partner found me quite attractive. He was welcome to call the helpdesk back any time that he felt able to trouble shoot with a trained professional, and was able to act in a professional manner. I then hung up on the indignant splutters, put myself in “unavailable” mode, and told the coworker sitting beside me that, if my boss came looking for me, I would be back in 15 minutes, and until that point he could go fuck himself.

My boss is pleased with me. I had my first monthly review meeting today. His bosses apparently rode his tail some, the first two weeks, when I was off sick. “We hired her for $8000 more than we pay the next-highest paid new employee, she’s already flaky, what HAVE you done?” He was understandably anxious. Now, I’m proving my worth. My statistics are on par and steadily becoming better. I’ve had positive feedback from multiple callers. I’ve had no complaints (yet).

Boss 1, Big Boss 0.

I do this job to the best of my ability. After three weeks of ‘productive’ work – that is, weeks when I’m healthy, when I’ve had sufficient training and practice to not flail miserably at every new call, when I’m actually capable of doing the job I’m hired for – my statistics are on par with the most experienced agents on the floor. I’m solving problems as best I can. I’m keeping the end-user in good humour.

I have pride in that. I don’t like what I do, but that’s not the caller’s fault. I’m not going to take out my frustration on them, I’m going to be the best at what I do. I am a good technician, that’s why I was hired. I know how to troubleshoot, how to narrow down problems to the most likely causes, how to establish what I can fix and what I can’t. I’m good at dealing with people, even as I want to throttle them for not understanding; I’m a trainer at heart, and a good one. Several users have thanked me profusely for taking a little time to ensure they know why things have happened, so they can avoid the issue in future. I do my job, and I do it well, despite the bad callers and times when I simply want to punch something in sheer frustration.

And yet, I remain unenthused. I don’t want to get out of bed in the mornings, leaving my warm duvet behind. I can’t wait to leave work at the end of the day.

It’s a job, not a career. I’ll stay as long as I need to – after all, the bills still need to be paid, my finances need to be organised. I guess this is the time I have to work to live.

Originally published at kiwi geek. You can comment here or there.

I walked in the door this morning, to find that the corridors were throwing their biannual masquerade party. This time, they’d chosen to disguise themselves as saunas.

Mars was running around generally flapping his arms and complaining that the relevant IT staff members weren’t there. Turns out the aircon software had sucked the kumara. This is not good, when the software is so old it refuses to run on anything newer than Windows 98 (with an emulator of some sort!) and most of the Work hardware is too new for the various drivers and things that the aircon needs.

Fortunately, HardwareMan searched his Cave of Gruelike Proportions (armed with a large torch, of course) and located elderly hardware in a StillFunctionalState, and armed with said Boxen of the Elder Days, the aircon resumed belching out cool air.

And there we rediscovered one of the idiosyncracies of the work building. Basement gets real cold real fast. (Yay, IT department in basement, nice and coooooool in summer). Upper floors get … cooler, eventually. It’s amazing how many of the TopFloorBods discovered things that they wanted from us today. Including cups of coffee and conversation, simply to revel in our cold air!!

---

I’ve started delving into the depths of the code for this project. It’s both more difficult and less complicated than I expected. Slightly larger in terms of actual amount of code to write – MUCH MUCH simpler in terms of tweaking to existing parts necessary. This is good. (Like, VERY good.)

Had a call from WebBoss as I was walking home today. How much have you done, how is it looking, undertone of “Australia are hassling me, PLEASE tell me SOON is the answer!!!!!!!!!eleventyone!!” As “Boss, I’m on my feet after a LONG day, can I please at least go home and stuff my face before you hassle me?” seemed like a bit catty a response, I duly explained all I’d done yesterday (practically, very little, theoretically, a lot of learning) and what I had planned for my evening.

I’ve done more than I expected, which is always nice.

Also, I acquired some fudge from the lovely fudge place in town in celebration of having signed the loan papers, and $4k in the bank on Thursday. Shopping for a car, anyone?

Actually, seeing as I’m attempting to develop, run as a server, run music, and a few other apps – CONCURRENTLY with WindowsXP – I’m going to get an extra 1.5gig of ram, a new video card, and second monitor, all with the mission of making my life as a developer easier. Also, that should put this box completely off the list of “things to upgrade” for the next year or so.

Quiet in the peanut gallery, please. Yes, once I’m a rich working woman I might buy a laptop, but that’s DIFFERENT. (Because I say so.)

After all, one can’t be a tech goddess without queenly parts, can one?

Originally published at kiwi geek. You can comment here or there.