I have today been pondering the Mysteries of Life as I see them.

I shall start with the Sandwich Phenomona. When I was a young girl, my mother would pack lunches for my brother and I to take to school. Each of our lunches contained one sandwich, and that was just the right amount to eat. However on the weekend, mum would make us toasted sandwiches, and she'd make each of us two sandwiches. This also was just the right amount to eat. Mysterious!

Next Mystery: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? It is an age old question to which there is no readily available answer. I began considering it in an evolutionary sense - presumably we all started as slime, so an animate creature had to evolve from that and be the first to lay eggs. So I guess the metaphorical chicken came first.

Mystery Three: Why do I dislike some people for no reason at all? There are certain people who have no particularly nasty qualities, who are generally very pleasant and kind people... but for some reason I just cannot like spending time with them. Time spent with them is invariably awkward, and begins and ends with me thinking "When is this person leaving???" Even though there is nothing tangibly wrong with this person. This is a Mystery to which I have not found an answer. I suppose that's why it's still a Mystery.

Fourth Mystery: Why do I have such bloody ugly knees?

I think I know why I feel compelled to constantly argue with Dave - why, in fact, I have always enjoyed arguing with him. It is because normal conversation with him is so utterly boring. He is not an exiting or stimulating person. He is dull. Arguing with him allows me to actually get something out of the interaction.

Well, Christmas was tolerable. A mix of the pleasant relaxation available only in the country, and the unpleasant disappointment of receiving a toolbox as a gift. It is a very comprehensive toolbox, including the humble stanley knife and going all the way up to the hole-borers and other gadgets of which I know not the name. But they did show some good sense, in getting me the Douglas Adams biography and a bottle opener.

So anyway, it was just the four of us, it was lunch at Haguns (far too crowded to be truely enjoyable, but nice enough food), and it was relaxing. I had awful hayfever the whole time and Brad and I got dreadfully mozzie-bitten. Just another bush Christmas!

Geez, what a day. I had this awful woman calling in this afternoon... Originally she'd called to complain about poor service at a particular post office. This was probably her third or fourth call to us. She wanted to speak to Waylon specifically, but it was 5.10 when she called and Waylon finishes at 5pm. She didn't like that at all - I'd had to put her on hold for a while to find out about Waylon or see if any other supervisor type person was available, and when I got back to her she claimed that she'd only missed Waylon because I'd had her on hold for so long. I was like, "You called at ten past five, ten minutes too late to catch him", and she insisted that she'd called before 5pm. There are many words I could use to describe this lady, and here they are:

Unintelligent
Stubborn
Emotional
Vocal

You get the picture, I'm sure. I couldn't get a word in edgeways. I started off trying to be apologetic and nice, as usual, but I ended up having to get very firm with her. At one point she demanded that I page Waylon at home and have him call her immediately - how stupid is this woman? As if somebody's going to go out of their way, unpaid, to call her and be abused and berated for half an hour. It was at this time that she said she knew my name and was going to take action against me, and hung up.

Spent most of yesterday at Michael's. That was rather fun. I introduced him to Sexy Losers and now he's addicted!

I've also been trying to remember the name of another online comic/cartoon. I only remember one of the pictures, and I remember somebody telling me that that particular cartoon is the only thing he'd seen online that disturbed him. It was a picture of a guy strapped to a chair with the top of his head cut off, and these two old people were eating his brain. He was thinking something like "I've just lost my dog's name", and the caption was "If you think this is disturbing, you're not nearly hungry enough". Weird shit, but funny, and I can't bloody find it.

Right. Saturday. Totally kicked butt. Cossack's christmas party. There were about 25 people, mostly drunk. I don't know that there's much I can say - somehow his parties always just work. All he has to do is tell a bunch of people to turn up with booze, and they all do, and it's always fun. I have to get him to organise my 21st next year! Oh, and I beat up Darren again, and so did Brodie.

Today. Today was ok. Just another day at work - I can't believe I'm saying that, it's only my fourth week there. I remember starting work at TeleTech, I was looking forward to work every single day for months. Or rather, to seeing the people at work. The job sucked.

Two days off work sick. This sucks. I hate being ill. And the work Christmas party is tonight. I really really really wanted to go. My stomach feels like a couple of ogres are dualling in it, and my eyes can't focus properly, and my back is totally out because I slept oddly (that is, for the time that I was actually asleep last night which wasn't much).

Went to Michael's place last night - him, me, a bottle of vodka, and his sister who doesn't drink. Lets just say there's not much vodka left. Lots of fun, though. Yeah.

I had an odd dream last night. I don't remember a lot of it, but I remember feeling like I'd eaten too much, and then looking in a mirror and thinking I looked pregnant. Not just fat, but actually pregnant. I don't know who was there, but somebody was there. Whoever it was told me that I looked fantastic. Weird.

Mum came to the city today, it was mostly fun as usual. Except for the bit when she told me about an old family friend having the untreatable kind of leukemia. That bit kind of sucked. This guy and his wife were like grandparents to me when I was a kid. They lived just down the road - our closest neighbours out in the bush. I think they still live there. I remember their house perfectly - they had this really cool little room upstairs where Joan did all her craft and sewing and stuff, I had lots of fun playing up there. It was nestled up in a corner of the pointed roof - stand up straight at one end of the room and you'd hit your head on the ceiling. I remember their old dog, too. Chumley! Chum was a great old thing, even though he stank something terrible. Friendly, disobedient, big and hairy. They had some terrific barbeques over there, and dinner parties. Oh the dinner parties! Robbo and Joan of course, my parents, and Helen and Steve. Robbo and Joan got more and more argumentative as they got drunker, Helen's voice went up by about an octave, and Steve... well, I don't remember how Steve was when drunk, but he was a darn cool guy in general. Helen and Steve had some great dogs too, now I think of it, including a big old Airedale terrier called Tike. Those were the days. The dinners were great fun. Those people were great.

Not for the first time, I wish I could travel back in time. Erase all events and memories from the last ten years or so. Be truly innocent again. Be unaware of Robbo's constant troubles with skin cancers and the fact that he has skin from his bum grafted on his face.

Life ain't fair. Poor Joan. Her first husband died of cancer... now she faces the same thing again. Neither of them deserve that pain.

Quoteable Quote of the Day:
TerrysAlt: My knowledge of sex is more or less limited to "I know which of my things goes in which of her things."

Rebel Without A Pause says:
http://wn.com.au/recruit/images/needagirl.gif
TerrysAlt says:
Aww.
TerrysAlt says:
If I save the porn as .bmp it takes too much room.

It's nice waking up early. I can get ready for work, and then just chill out for a while, turn the music up, and relax.

I took some international calls yesterday, with Carol's help. Carol really is amazing - she's a lovely lady, and she knows so much! She's so willing to give her assistance, and to share her knowledge. Buddying with her was great.

Anyway, I suppose I'd better get a move on. Trains to catch, etc.

Quoteable Quote of the Day:
Joe: Cornflour kicks arse.

I was thinking earlier about how little I really know people. I can get along incredibly well with a person, and consider them a great friend, but when it comes to who they really are and what made them how they are today, I'm clueless. I think it's party because people who ask too many questions annoy me - if I want someone to know something, I volunteer the information. I guess I expect everyone else to be like that too, and I don't ask a lot of questions. I pick up bits and pieces as I go - "Went to visit mum" means the parents are separated, for instance. So I have best friends who, in truth, I barely know. I know I can say anything to them, but it seems that honour is not returned and I am left in the dark. Ah well. They know I'm here if they want to talk. They don't want to? Not my concern.

Had Allan round today, that was cool. Hung out, read books, had some food, and stuff. Stuff is good. I plugged in the fridge the guys obtained for me, it works, so Allan helped me clean it up and de-stink it.

Start work properly tomorrow. I am a little nervous. But I suppose I'll be ok. Stick it out for six months or so, take some leave, head up north maybe. I suppose there's an Australia Post call center in Brisbane too - might even stay up there! See what happens at the time, I'm not making any concrete plans.

HOW DARE HE??? I MADE THINGS HARD FOR HIM? I WAS THE ONE WHO HAD TO FIND A NEW PLACE AND MOVE OUT WHILE HE JUST SAT ON HIS BUM! I'M THE ONE WHO HAS TO GET USED TO DOING EVERYTHING FOR MYSELF AND STOP RELYING ON SOMEBODY ELSE. I'M THE ONE WHO OWES ALL MY FRIENDS FAVOURS FOR THE HELP THEY GAVE IN THE MOVING PROCESS! ALL HE HAD TO DO WAS SIT ON HIS FAT ARSE (which he now informs me is under 100kg, as if I care) AND WATCH ME GO!

What a bloody night! I've had Derek on the phone trying to get in contact with Chris via me, and I've had Cossack on the phone threatening to murder Chris and Nads for fucking in his room. So there I was, standing outside Cossack's door too terrified to go in - in case of what I might find - yelling out and banging on the door. I went in once, I yelled "I'm coming in so stop screwing and get some clothes on" - I walked in, and there's Chris's belongings all over the place and I think Nadine's bag on the floor... and the bathroom door closed. So I scooted back downstairs, wrote a note, and went up again to put it under the door.

The note: To the effect of...

"Chris, call Derek ASAP. Also Cossack knows you are using his place as a love nest and intends to murder you when he gets home on Monday. He also says he's inflicting a lifetime party ban on you both. DIE!"

I took some live calls today! It was ok, I was pretty nervous but it turned out fairly simple. We were on the very very basic queries - postcodes, passports, and people leaving personal belongings in post offices! Silly folk. With regard to people - me and Mark both lost out when we found out that Patrick had a girlfriend, and I've discovered that Rin takes the same train as me. Sweet!

Right, that was a short and boring post. I wonder what I can do about that. Long and interesting sounds good to me. Always assuming I can find that much to write.

I already miss bloody TeleTech! Or rather, the people from TeleTech. Of course I was missing Craig for a while, but at least he was still in the same building, and I've seen Amanda a few times since she left. Now I have even more people to miss. Oh sure, the Australia Post people are fine, very nice, etc. But I doubt I'll ever find another Wayne, or another Dolly! Of course in many ways this is a good thing! I'll still catch up with Liny and Lina and possibly Payal and maybe some others too. I'll have to make an effort to get down to the Royal Melbourne Hotel every now and then, on Fridays. This is quite new for me - to actually have friends from work that I want to keep in touch with. I never cared so much about so many people before! I flatter myself in believing that they actually liked me too - also somewhat new.

Somehow no matter what happens in my life so far I can never quite forget high school. Fucking high school. Never was there a more wretched hive of scum and villiany. Never bring an intelligent child into a small country town. The prejudices and narrow vision there will kill it. 300-odd people all giving you hell for six years is not exactly a morale builder. Sure it was three years ago and I'm totally over it - but I can't deny that if left an impression, of course it did. Those years were my primary years of self-development, whatever happened during those years would have a profound effect on my character and my outlook on life. Without Sandi's strength and friendship I would never have made it through high school. I'd have buckled for sure, given in, lost. Sandi was the strongest person I knew. I remember when she slapped Laura - I don't remember why exactly, probably just for being Laura, that should be reason enough. I remember her pulling handfuls of somebody's hair out, and slamming someone's head with a locker door. I remember how neither of us was accepted, both for very different reasons. Thrown together in group and pair assignments in classes, left alone together in the schoolyard. Two weird little kids. Isn't that always the way?
I remember not so very long ago, sometime in the early stages of my relationship with Dave, he made some remark - I don't even know what it was, but it was something that reminded me of the cruel and hurtful remarks Tommy used to make, and I cried.

Training for Australia Post is going quite well so far. It's only been two days, but already I seem to know a surprising amount. Perhaps it's because Australia Post is such a well known company already, so maybe I'm remembering rather than learning.

My computer works again!!! Thanks Paul, for fixing it for me!
However the new discovery is, it was not my boot drive that fucked up, it was in fact my storage drive. So I've just lost 14 gig of mp3's, 10 or so movies, every episode of Futurama, and shitloads of South Park. Oh, and my porn. All gone. I will choose to look at it in a positive light - it means I can start all over again and download only things that I actually want. I will end up with quality, not necessarily quantity. Although having over 3000 songs on my computer was quite impressive, most of them were crap. I have some Whitlams and some Ben Harper downloading at the moment. Slowly. Good old dial-up.

I need to create a list of people I want to keep in contact with. If I don't write them all down, I am sure I will forget all their surnames and therefore be unable to find them!

At Bohuler's place I am. Waiting for wedding time to roll around - his brother is getting married today, and acting surprisingly calm about the whole thing. So naturally I've taken over the computer with minimum fuss and decided to blog.

More about the Australia Post job: It's permanent, as opposed to the contract I've been on for the last six months at TeleTech, so much more job security and stuff. It's paying 32k + super, whatever that comes out to - probably about 33k or something. It's on Lonsdale St in the city, so I can still catch up with the old TeleTech crowd - and I fully intend to, as life without Liny, Wayne, Jess, and Ria, would be unacceptably boring. The Royal Melbourne Hotel will still be there, packed full of TeleTech people and me of course. I think my hours will be from midday to eight pm or something of that sort, which is fine by me - I am very much a late night person and I don't like mornings! The first week is induction, or training, and I'm faily sure that's nine to five-ish. Sweet.

The Story So Far:
I was ill on Tuesday and stayed home (or rather, at Cossack's place). During this time I idly browsed Seek and equally idly applied for a couple of jobs. Somehow I ended up with a new job. I start at Australia Post on Monday, in their inbound customer service call center.

I am once again blogging at Cossack's as my computer is still buggered - that is to say, I've been too lazy to get a new HDD, re-install windows, and ensure all my music and porn is still intact on HDD #2.

I read in Melbourne's gossip rag MX a few days ago that Holly Valance can't stand her own music. She immediately rose significantly in my opinion. I can't stand her music either.

The reason for the lack of updates: My computer is buggered.

Quotable Quote of A Few Days Ago:
Wayne: What's wrong with my dangly?

Are you a God? by Demonac
Name:
God/Goddess type:	God of Love
Worshippers:	Holy Men
They show devotion by:	Eating Pork
Created with quill18's MemeGen!

Tuna Burgers
Don't ask me for exact measurements... as much as you want!

1 tin tuna
tomato sauce
mayonaise
pepper
lemon juice

Mix ingredients well - taste to see if you need any more of something! Spoon some of mixture into a bread roll. Wrap roll in absorbant paper towel. Microwave for 45 seconds.

Bloody beautiful.

I have developed a sudden fixation on tea. Specifically green tea, but I enjoyed some black tea at work today too. Blame my parents. They kept feeding me herbal tea thingies while I was at their place and I found myself enjoying it. I have been told it's also quite good for a person. I find it refreshing and energising. I think my breakfast from now on will be a cup of green tea and a banana. Those bacon and egg sandwiches weren't doing my waistline any favours!

Lovely lovely public holiday! Lovely day off work, sitting at Cossack's, doing just about exactly nothing! Bless the Melbourne Cup for this lovely lovely holiday in the middle of the week!

It has been a very nice day! Excellent weather, with a top of 24 and a low of something not really low at all. Sunshine and happiness!

Yes, I have had far too much sugar today. This is not a good thing right now, as I need to be getting out of bed in a little over six hours, and I haven't even gotten in bed yet!

I suppose I'd better go and do that.

Hey Craig, are you still reading this? HI!!!

I have just returned from a very nice weekend in Euroa with my parents. It was Wool Week but that's just a coincidence. I was there because my mother asked me to be. Anyway, it was good, I caught up with Sandra and some other folk. Very nice to be back in Euroa on my own - no Dave means no rush to get back to Melbourne, and means more time for me with my parents and friends.

Anyway, it's late and I'm tired. Bed!

Quotable Quote Of The Day
Cossack: Well, you know... meh.

The situation: I rambled. With uncommon good sense, he paid me no attention. Above quote was evidence of said inattention.

I was sick at work today - I was going to stay there, but Dolly told Wayne that I was in the toilets throwing up, so when I got out he told me to go home. So I came home. And then I got a call from my bestest best friend who I hardly see because she lives so far away - she's coming down and wants to meet up! I couldn't have agreed (or even spoken to her) if I'd still been at work!

The odd thing is, I'm going to be where she lives tomorrow evening anyway!

Argh! Cossack not here! How will I eat?!
Phew.
He's left chicken in my fridge. And instructions on how to cook it. Excellent!
Smells nice.
I just called my mum. I'm going up to see them on the weekend. We chatted for ten minutes or so. Then she called me back just to tell me to bring a coat. How like a mother!

Early shift at work going fairly well. We keep running out of verifications and having to do sales. I'm like, "I've forgotten how to sell... want it? Ok, good, do this recording there's a good chap."

Never. Ever. Moving House. Ever again. Such a bloody hassle. I've lived here for... 2 weeks? 3 weeks? I don't even know. But I haven't unpacked yet. I've only just utilised the wardrobe.

Here is a great place to live anyway. I don't need to move again! (Please God let that stay true!) Close to everything, friends in the area... yeah. I'll stay here. I will live out my life in a studio apartment in Hawthorn (Melbourne, Australia). I have a bathroom, kitchen, fridge, queen sized bed... what more does anybody need?

Past midnight and once again I'm still awake. Stupid me. I don't know how I'm surviving - I only had about three hours sleep last night! Yet I'm still bouncing off the walls. Just watched half of Orgazmo up at Cossack's place while Bohuler slept drunkenly on my bed down here. Eventually came down here, woke him rudely, and he's now washing up while I type.

Quotable quote of the day:
Langer: I need someone decent to bonk frequently and hang around with for a while.

The nighttimes are so very depressing. I spend very little time alone, and I have no desire to, as my friends are all I have now, and I intend to enjoy their company as much as possible. But at night, everyone's gone and I'm left alone in my tiny apartment. If I'm not so sleepy, I simply sit and mope for a while. It's not healthy. There are some things to cheer me up. One thing which cheers me up is something a friend said to me last night: "Git, you are loved." Of course, that was right before he said "Remind me to hit you tomorrow" and "Night". But still!

Don't get me wrong. I don't regret anything or miss anyone. All I miss is the constancy a relationship brings - the reliance on a single person who is always there for you. However in the last months of our relationship even that was strained, so what I'm missing now is more a memory or an ideal, than a reality. I am unused to independence, to relying only on myself, and I find it hard. I have lived in Melbourne since January 2001, and started going out with Dave in March 2001. Before I moved here I had my mother to rely on, after I moved I had my brother, and after leaving my brother's house I had Dave. Always somebody, and now just me. It is an odd feeling, but generally good. Something that needs getting used to. I have weird urges to SMS Cossack if I'm going to be home early or late, until I remind myself I don't have to tell anyone those things anymore!

Anyway, onto more mundane things. Work today was good. Went to some spiffy place at Crown Casino for lunch, got slightly tipsy, insulted my boss (who was possibly also slightly tipsy) and came home early! Not that I don't insult my boss most days anyway. Once he said that everything I say is a lie, so I said to a friend loudly that he (the boss, not the friend) was cute. Three days later he was still giving me the finger for that!

To bed, to bed. It's half past midnight! Not very late, I grant you, but I do still have to get up in the morning for work.

I have re-discovered Collective Soul and discovered that they kick serious butt. Download and listen, you won't regret it. Even songs I don't remember from when they first came out, I've downloaded and enjoyed.

I am at Cossack's place in my pyjamas. He is cooking me breakfast. Living here is so far kicking lots of butt. I'm also doing a lot more in general that I wouldn't have done otherwise - seeing more people, getting out more and spending less time on my butt getting fat. Yesterday I went shopping in Richmond with Liny. Tonight Bohuler's coming round and cooking. All these people cooking for me! Almost makes me glad I can't cook!

I think, when I am famous, I will cover the following songs:

Pauline Henry - Feel Like Makin' Love
Donna Summer - Hot Stuff
Bette Midler - Wind Beneath My Wings
Allannah Myles - Black Velvet

Life would not be worth living if the following songs did not exist:

Bon Jovi - Blaze Of Glory
Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms
Guns 'N' Roses - Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Bryan Adams - Everything I Do
Meat Loaf - I Would Do Anything For Love
Live - I Alone
The Righteous Brothers - You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling
David Essex - Rock On

An Email From A Fan


Greetings Stace,

I ran into your blog whilst on a mission to hunt down
a slightly less retarded / less annoying voice for
Microsoft Narrator (I accidentally turned it on whilst
mucking around with my work laptop at home on a fairly
ordinary, overcast Sydney afternoon)... Anyway, doing
a search at google.com for:

"microsoft narrator" voice microsoft female

brings your blog up as the first result (or at least
it did on Sunday 12 October at 18:00 AEST, GMT+10).

In the end, I gave up on my hunt for a less retarded /
less annoying voice for Microsoft Narrator (Microsoft
Narrator was starting to shit me to tears).

I hope your quest for a new place to live is going
well, and I hope you find the above piece of trivia
useful/useless (cross out the word that doesn't
apply).

Smiles,
Scooter P. Jones

Phew!!! Sorry, dear reader(s), for leaving this so long un-updated! The electricity only got connected here in Hawthorn today so I've only just set up the computer and internet. (I've lived here since Saturday... with no power.)

Yes, I'm living in Hawthorn again! Same old appartment block, same old area. Great stuff! Cossack, of course, is living upstairs in my old appartment, so I'll never be lonely again! We go jogging most mornings (when I say "we" and "most", I go jogging every morning and most of the time he comes with me) and I go to his place when I get home from work. Until now I've been showering at his place too due to having no hot water here!

I love this area. Where I live is great. Coles is a couple of hundred meters away, Glenferrie station is not much further, and of course the entire Hawthorn/Glenferrie Rd shopping area is practically on my doorstep. Again. Is good.

I stayed with Andrew and Chantell last night, and will be staying with them for the rest of this week. I went to Bennison MacKinnon Real Estate this afternoon (whilst piking off from work) and applied for an apartment in the old block in Hawthorn. Apparently I should hear if I've got it or not within two days. I hope I do - no offence to the guys, but I don't want to stay with Andrew and Chantell forever!

I've just put some washing in the dryer. When that's done, I'll pack a bag and lug it into the city to pick up the key from Andrew, then lug it out to Preston to let myself in with said key. It's hard deciding what to take - I'm working under the assumption that I'll only be there for the week and will need pretty much only work clothes. And shoes. Pyjamas. Bathroom stuff. Jumpers and jackets. Books? No, too much weight to lug. Mobile phone charger. My DVD's.

I'm going to be pretty much without a computer and the internet for a week, except for at work. It scares me that this fact worries me. Perhaps it will be the start of a whole new lifestyle for me. That'll be nice.

Well, it's done. Dave and myself are no longer. It's all been surprisingly calm and businesslike. I'm going to contact my old real estate agent tomorrow and see if I can move back into the old apartment block in Hawthorn. Dave gets to keep Zeus - no room for him in a bedsit, it would be cruel. Everything for now continues much as it always has. For the next week or so we'll live in the same house, sleep in the same bed, shower with the bathroom door open, and undress in front of each other. And then I'll move out. We'll still see each other. There is no hate, no resentment, no desire for revenge. We can still laugh together. That, I think, is a good thing.

I feel like I swallowed one of these.

Last night. I went to bed. As I do most nights. Dave said he wouldn't be far behind. It was at least an hour later, I think more. The reason I'm not certain is that I was asleep by the time he came to bed.

I remember when he used to hug me because he loved me, not just when he was horny. I remember when he used to want to spend time with me - "Come home with me tonight," he'd say, hugging me at the tram stop while waiting for the 109. (Then we'd get to his place and he'd spend hours playing computer games and ignoring me, but that's not the point. At least he'd wanted me there originally. And we had sex.)

I think I have more physical contact with people at work than with Dave these days. Slaps on the back, pokes, hugs... it's normal at work. Then I come home and I'll be lucky if he touches me! Unless he wants sex. One thing about being hugged by, say, Anoka... I know it's not because she's horny!

Wayne is not helping. Hadn't been at work half an hour before he was telling me to shut up. Talk about ruining the rest of the fucking day. I spend 8 hours a day at work, 8 hours (or more) asleep, and the remainder of the day tired. Work is the only place and time I can be myself and have fun. Until Wayne opens his mouth!!!!!!!!!

No sleeping tablet last night, and no weird dreams. The screen of my pocket PC is fucked. Dave was late for work. It's cold outside. My throat hurts. Forecast top of 15 degrees. Cat is meowing hungrily. I've just done something which has turned one something called Microsoft Narrator by accident. It's incredibly annoying. It's saying everything I type. Thank God (if I believed in it) I managed to turn it off.

More Things That Kick Serious Butt

Long baths
When Zeus loves me
Finding out something horrible happened to someone you hate
Acheiving a goal or overcoming a challenge
Long weekends

Things that kick serious butt

James Bond Movies
Soprano Singers
Sean Connery
Sex
Futurama
Being in bed when it's raining
Payday
Talking to Craig (or so he reckons!)

Dear Ziggy

I don't like you anymore. You used to give me cheap line rental and local calls, but now you're charging me $109.75 for a phone number I never had at an address I never lived. You're also making it very difficult to dispute these charges. You want three forms of written proof that I didn't live there, Ziggy, just so you can keep your beaurocracy ticking over and keep your overpaid money guzzling Credit Management department busy.

Have you heard of "word of mouth", Ziggy? I'm going to use it! I'm putting this rip-off story on the internet, that tool that you so kindly provide for a fortune a month so that the masses (the rich ones anyway) can put their sob stories there.

Have a nice day, Ziggy. Rip someone off from me.

Stace.

It's too early. Garfield is cool. Music rocks. I sing good. Garwood is a funny surname. I like when almost nobody's at work. Quiet and an odd sense of freedom. This guy I'm listening to handles objections really well.

How much of a clue do people really have about reality and the truth? About ourselves? They say there's at least two sides of every story - the same goes for arguments and people. It's a well known fact that truth depends on who's telling the story; and history depends on who won the battle.

I took a sleeping tablet last night. I think they make me have weird thoughts and vivid dreams. I dreamed that we were in the middle of sex, then Dave got up, took a piss, and wandered off to his computer for ten minutes or so. Then he came back and expected me to get on with it and I slapped him!

All stereos should have buttons. Labelled "One meter", "Two meters" etc. Pressing these buttons will set the stereo volume so that you can hear it softly at the relevant distance, and nobody much further away can hear it. None of this fiddling around with volumes and moving stereos around and annoying people with music they can't hear or music they don't want to hear.

I had a rather unpleasant dream last night about being shot and possibly killed. I remember running and hiding, it was in the bush on my parents' old property. I was running towards the house, I had some notion that I would be safe there - I remember thinking something about a bulletproof room. I reached the garden near the house, and was running for the door. The gunman wasn't far behind me. I looked over my shoulder and he was so close, and the gun seemed so large from that distance. He fired, and it was like in The Matrix, the bullet seemed to be moving slowly. I twisted my body and felt a kind of thud as the bullet lodged in the right side of my back. Somehow I kept running, I made it into the house and was searching frantically for a room I'd be safe in. I got to the other end of the house, not having found safety, and I turned to run back the other way - only to find the gunman standing in my path, grinning, with the gun a couple of inches from my head. He said, "It's time for us to say goodbye to each other." There was a bang - I don't know if he shot me, or if police had arrived and shot him. I woke up at that point, my pulse was racing and I was covered in sweat.

Human beings are the most amazing of creatures. Life can be depressing, dangerous, upsetting, traumatic, and tumoultuous. Yet somehow, a large proportion of us do not commit suicide. Life, when considered realistically, consists of going to work, getting money, spending money, coming home from work and dealing with little everyday stresses. For the amount of time we spent ecstatically happy, there is twenty times as much time we spend mediocre and twice as much time we spend actively depressed or upset. How can we live like that? Why do we live? Especially those who believe there's something better waiting for them after death - how can they stand to live in this Hell on Earth when they know they could be in Heaven just by stepping off a bridge?

It's nice to be at work. Nobody makes me feel bad or guilty, everybody is friendly and sympathetic - even if they don't know what's wrong. Happiness makes it's comeback.

I visisted Amanda at her new place yesterday, she's living in Mitcham about 10 minutes walk from our place. It's a fairly nice place, 2 bedroom, reasonably small but she is living there alone so size isn't a priority.

Doh, clock just ticked over that extra minute, I go do work now.

Self-Confidence Crisis

I cry every time my cat avoids me. Does that sound like a sign of a well-balanced person to you? No.

Many people compliment me at work, my clothes and hair and sometimes even my face and body. I thank them and smile nicely. But deep down I'm wondering why my cat always bites me. I'm wondering why I can always tell when Dave will want sex that night - because he hugs me as if he means it sometime during the day before. I'm wondering if my singing is really as bad as Wayne seems to think it is. In short, I'm wondering what's wrong with me. Nobody manages to love me. My friends may like me, but Dave's love for me seems to be wearing thin, and Zeus apparently loves me only as an object to bite.

I've just linked this blog to Weblogs.com, according to Blogger... I wonder if it works?

I'm sitting at Gill's desk now. Although his name isn't spelt like that. Guillermo. He's not here today, so I moved to his desk to be sociable, instead of being stuck over the other side by myself. Now I'm at the desk next to the stereo! I'm listening to that instead of listening to this tedious 360-second recording. That's 6 minutes. To do a 2 minute recording. Woohoo!
It's looking nice outside now. When I walked to Mitcham station this morning it rained on me, and now I'm inside and safe and warm, it's stopped raining. Typical.
I'm just going to leave this post-editing window open and add stuff whenever I think of stuff. Do you like stuff? Stuff is good. This is going to be a rambling nonsensical post. I like it!
We've just been grossing out the local New Zealander, Mary, with tales of poisonous Australian snakes and spiders, and my brother's brutal method of killing rabbits. New Zealanders are funny. They come from a country where there's nothing overly dangerous or poisonous, and are surprised by the existance of red-bellied black snakes, and spiders that can kill!
I'm just back from my first 15 minute break. Early. Breaks are so dull when you're alone!
I forgot to bring my mobile phone to work today. I feel lost and vulnerable without it, isn't that pathetic? How reliant I am on the little thing. Perhaps I should leave it home more often and learn not to depend on it! It's not like I even use it all that often, it's just that I'm used to having it there all the time in case I do need it, or in case somebody tries to contact me.
Should I re-design this page? Again? It is a little plain. But to brighten it up you really need pictures, and I prefer not to use pictures at all or to keep them to a minimum, out of respect for dial-up users. I'll think about it...

When I was young I used to notice things about the world I lived in. Now what I mostly notice is that I don't notice stuff anymore. So this morning, I watched the rain. How the puddles never got a moment's peace from raindrops and ripples, how the heavier drops from the corrogated iron above fell straight down while the lighter raindrops were blown to sharp angles. It made interesting patterns.

The train was full of rowdy Collingwood supporters today. (If you're not a Melbourne resident or a Brisbane Lions supporter, you may be unaware that today is AFL Grand Final day. This has no effect on me whatsoever as the Bombers aren't playing.)

There are a total of 4 people here at work today. Chris, Karina, Mary, and myself.

I need to notice more things. As I grow older my mind is getting more and more closed, my views more and more fixed, and my apathy more and more pronounced. I need to be a child again.

I found the website of Craig's band, the(fucking)setup. No I'm not obsessed with Craig just because I've mentioned him twice in this blog in the last couple of days. He sits next to me at work, we get along fine, we talk, and I think it's cool that he's in a band. (I'm sick of people picking up "insinuations" and "connotations" and other things ending in "tions" when there isn't any there.)

Dave's on night shift this week and is still asleep when I leave. Every day before I go I semi-wake him, give him a kiss and tell him I love him. He gets this smile on his face that's a happy smile and a sleepy smile and a loving smile, and it just melts my heart every time.

And this morning I didn't see that smile. I was running late for my train and just burst into the bedroom, grabbed my phone and yelled "I gotta go!" and left.

Bugger.

You are Purple!


What colour are you?
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Athena


?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
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Some people have cool blogs. Their entries are interesting, funny, or moving. Craig's is one of them. Mine's not. Mine's dull. Nothing all that interesting happens to me. I just get annoyed at stupid new people at work making stupid old mistakes. And I get drunk. On weeknights. That was stupid.

All my deep and interesting thoughts are contained in paper journals in the bottom of a box on the bottom of a pile of junk in the garage. I wonder if I should dig some of them out and type them up and put them here. Could be interesting. It would make me look cooler than I really am. Cool. Actually that's pretty lame.

Someone committed suicide on my train line last week. By jumping in front of a train. It happened at 7.40 in the morning and was still delaying trains at 11. I was half an hour late for work. A friend of a friend was on the train it happened on, they were taken off the train and had to walk past the dead body.

I'm listening to a recording right now and it sounds like somebody's having sex in the background.

I went to Cossack's last night. I had a legitamate reason for going there, I was going to do something productive, but then we got drunk.

We were sitting there watching Black Books on DVD and he suddenly goes, "Want alcohol?" so we spent an hour walking to some obscure bottleshop and back and then had less than 2 hours and drank more than three quarters of 700ml of Vodka. 40% alcohol.

Felt a little seedy this morning. But had a toasted egg bacon & cheese sanger from Chaf's Cafe and now feel Almost Human.

---

I am getting a little bit worried about some of the moles on my right arm. They're itching and going kind of scabby. Perhaps I should see a doctor, are docs open on Sundays? I'm working this Saturday... possibly next Saturday. Darn doctors, I see them too much as it is getting a prescription for the pill every year!

Words That Come To Mind When Describing Myself

Extroverted
Friendly
Funny
Approachable
Attention-seeking
Optimistic
Can't think of a word for it, but I like to make people laugh
(Showed this list to a friend, he said "You forgot weird")
Weird

This blog would be more up-to-date but my computer shat itself. We've just had to go and buy a new motherboard and CPU - that's after buying a new power source to find that it didn't fix the problem. So, today we made one trip to Eastland (to buy me more work clothes) and three trips to the computer shop down the road. We passed the same clamped car on Brunswick Street eight times, in other words. Spent over $400 today. Yay.

Zeus has been outside for a lot of today. Everytime he's outside for a while, he's that much more cuddly when he comes in. So now he won't stop lying on us and purring. This morning he bit me on the neck - the vampire cat!

What To Do When You're Really Bored At Work

Max out the credit card on Ebay

Dance to the Gypsy Kings

Make up/exchange recipes

See how long you can hold your breath before passing out

Sing until your boss offers you incentives to shut up

Exchange short and pointless emails with colleagues all the way down the other end of your desk

Why does the system take so long to load in the mornings but speeds up in the evenings?

Sounds like a riddle. I certainly don't know the answer. Buggrit. Millenium hand and shrimp. I told 'em.

LOOK HOW FAT MY PARENTS HAVE LET MY CAT GET!!! She used to be such a tiny thing! You'd never believe it.

What Happened To Me This Morning

Zeus used my leg as a scratching post and I had to change my stockings and almost missed the train

A retarded guy at Spencer St Station said to me "Nice legs, bitch!"

And now it's afternoon, so any futher lists will be "What Happened To Me This Afternoon".

Went for a drive to Sherbrooke Forest today, to feed the birds, but it was packed and there were no birds.

I've only just woken up and already it's a crap weekend. I only have 1 day of it - worked yesterday, working tomorrow - and do I get my boyfriend for that day? Nope. Tennis. He was up until past 4am watching it, and then he got up at 10am or something to go and watch it some more. He even had an alarm set. Who sets an alarm on a Sunday? I just stayed in bed dreaming about lesbian sex with a girl at work. My subconscious has really bad taste.

At work I am, again. Wayne (to whom I report) isn't in on Saturdays, and neither is half the darned floor, so it's quiet, casual, and we get away with doing bugger all. I like it! I was almost going to call in sick today - I felt really nauseous in the early hours of this morning, and sometimes I'd be staring around the room and it would look like a photo taken at ISO 1600 - that is to say, it looked like a photo full of noise. But I clearly remember thinking "ISO 1600" somewhere in the delirium. I tossed and turned and couldn't sleep from about 2am onwards, but when I did end up getting up at 8.50am, my stomach was ok (not great, but ok) and my vision normal (well, short-sighted, but that's normal for me). Anyway, here I am at work, earning $ so that I can pay other people more $... money makes the world go round. But more importantly, money puts food in my mouth and ADSL on my computer!

I am so incredibly tired. I went to Andrew's 22nd last night, with Chantell and Glenn, and I didn't get home until 12.30 or 1am. I so wanted to sleep in this morning, but nooooo I had to get up and come to work. So now I'm emailing lots of people, updating blog (duh), and waiting for the cursed TCM to load again.

Jess invited me out with her and Amanda tomorrow night, to Crown, I'll probably go. Woohoo.

I'm tired.

Zeus's Antics Tonight

We made pancakes. So, naturally, I lit a hotplate and put the frying pan over it with the oil to heat up. I turned away to get some things out, when I turned back Zeus was crouching on the bench next to the stove... with singed hair! He didn't even realise he was burning, he was unhurt, but he did stink of burnt hair!

And then we put on our lightening ball thingy (see pic) and he decided to play with it! Funny! Cute!

I caught up with Amanda (ex-Teletech) this afternoon, for "coffee" which actually turned out to be hot chocolate. Anyway, she broke up with her boyfriend last night and needed some "moral support" which I provided! It was good to see her again - I was afraid that things might be a tad awkward because we've never seen each other outside of work before, but it was just fine! So much to talk about, so many common friends, all that jazz. So, it was fun.

I just downloaded Deep Purple's Machine Head album using Suprnova.org Bit Torrent download. I won't explain how it works, but it's pretty cool. Anyway, the album kicks serious butt. I hadn't heard it before, although I know most of the songs off it. Awesome!

Evelyn! That's the girl's name that I kept forgetting!

I'm at work, doing verifications of course (I am now doing it permanently, if you recall). I've moved desks, sitting around new people. The new people include Lorenz (who I went through training with), Dolly, Olivia, Anoka (who I buddied with early on in my time here) and another girl who's name I should know but keep forgetting.

I now essentially have a new job. I buckled, and applied for the QA Verifiers position, and got it. So now my job involves listening to arseholes make stupid mistakes all day every day. Fun!

What the hell is that???

Brad's graduation on Saturday was relatively boring. I read through most of it. Then we saw Men At Arms, a play adapted from a Terry Pratchett book. We being me and Andrew. It was a vast improvement on the rest of the day. Very very funny. Very good.

Thesaurus.com/cute. Scroll down to the entry for "pretty". One of the synonyms is "ten". Are you going to walk up to a girl and say "Hey babe, you're looking ten tonight!"? I think not! She'd probably turn around and say "Age, or dress size?!"

Dave says:
bet you cant guess what im doing atm
Mitzi Dupree says:
muddin?
Dave says:
only in the background... what else!
Mitzi Dupree says:
masturbating?
Dave says:
IN THE KITCHEN?!!
Mitzi Dupree says:
well, why not
Dave says:
what are you, perverted?
Mitzi Dupree says:
yes

Let me see, let me see. What is there to say? I feel reasonably crappy. I went to see a doctor today, it seems I have a severe upper respitory infection, and she recommends I take Thursday and Friday off work (I haven't been to work at all this week). It will mean that I won't get paid for a week, of course, however I'm sure if I need extra money Dave and my parents will be happy to oblige. Well, my parents will be happy, Dave will just do it because if he doesn't, I'll be broke. So I've been sitting at home, rather bored... I've watched every movie we own fifty three thousand times and now have nothing to do but be miserable.

Funny Quotes

I feel like crap. Head's stuffy, eyes hurt, nose is running, throat's sore.

You know how I said that Dave had the flu? Well, so do I now. I'm at home today, taking the day off work. Hard to do telesales when your voice sounds like two rocks grinding together.

Pizza Hut finally arrived with a cold pizza and garlic bread.

We have been waiting for over an hour for our meal from Pizza Hut to be delivered. Not only is it late, but I do not doubt it will also be cold. For shame! We were told it would be a long time, 50 minutes. We were told it would arrive at about 7.30pm. It's now 7.50pm. Where is our pizza? Is it cold? My stomach is complaining violently. Curse Pizza Hut.

It's been a whole smegging day, and not a single submission for my website name competition! I'm disappointed in all my readers (should they happen to exist)!

Well... ok, perhaps not that disappointed. After all, I can't really expect other people to do my thinking for me... not all the time anyway. But I'm still hoping! Still taking submissions! Email me submissions: mitzi_dupree@iinet.net.au.

Stacy is the #180 most common female name.
0.121% of females in the US are named Stacy.
Around 154275 US females are named Stacy!
source namestatistics.com

Horsfall is the #30252 most common last name.
0.0005% of last names in the US are Horsfall.
Around 1250 US last names are Horsfall!
source namestatistics.com

Other bloggers all seem to know other bloggers. It's like a community of not only bloggers but friends who blog. I don't have any friends who blog, as far as I know. My friends are largely non-net-savvy, and the geeks I know are just... well, non-bloggers!

Speaking of geeks, my own special geek (Dave of course) is feeling a bit sick today and we can't really figure out why. I think the flu is going around, I hope he's not coming down with that. He says it feels like the way he feels when he hasn't been eating and sleeping properly, but he's been doing both quite well... that sounds odd. What I mean to say is, he has been eating healthily and getting enough sleep. So for now, tis a mystery indeed.

I wonder if my blog is "cool"?

OK, I'm going to run a competition. Email Me with suggestions for names for this site. The prize will be your name listed on my site and of course your submitted site name used as the title for this site.

Wow! Somehow this thing's had more than 1000 visitors!!! (Probably mostly me, but who cares!)

Working on a Saturday. What a travesty! Not that I'm entirely sure what that word means, but it sounds right. Between calls I type - Jamiu isn't here to chat to and I don't know why! Amanda's here but she's two seats away and she's on a call anyway. Ho Hum.

I enjoyed this job at first. Now I confess I'm getting a tad bored with it. It's only been about six weeks. I just have to discipline myself into keeping going - if I give up every job I have after six weeks because I'm bored with it, I'll never get anywhere in life. Not that I will anyway, but that's beside the point.

Dammit I hate when people are saying "yes" all the way through the presentation and then come out with "I need to speak to my wife" or "I need to see something written down". However, I pride myself on not forcing sales, not being pushy or unethical, so I pretty much have to let it slide. Dammit.

Want sales. Dammit.

Last Night: I went to Brad's place, supposedly to pick up my Terry Pratchett books which he borrowed (all six or eight of them, but I only came home with three), but ended up staying quite late and watching most of Fight Club.

Today: We pretty much ran out of numbers to dial from work, and were basically sent home four hours early. I was quite happy with that! I went book-shopping before going home, I bought The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde (I've read the previous two in the series and they were excellent), and Ice Station by Matthew Reilly who I've never heard of before but the book looks good and it was only $5.

Tomorrow: Working again tomorrow - I work every third Saturday.

TXU's coming in! Oh the excitement! I think they're judging the designs of our team areas. I'll let you know how we go...

At work

I stubbed my toe on Monday. It really really hurt. It's currently about twice it's usual size and I can't walk without a limp. I'm getting lots of sympathy, which is good, but I'm also in a lot of pain, which is very bad. What happened was, the toe was bent far enough back to actually severely scrape the inside of the toe. I mean, the bit that's usually pressed tightly against the toe next to it. So you can imagine how far back the toe was bent. Ow. Very very Ow.

"Chup re" means shut up in Indian.

I just took a surprisingly neat-looking photo. I was just standing at the bedroom door with the camera, mostly looking at Zeus (who was lying on the bed), I wasn't even holding the camera properly... accidentally, I pressed the button. And that picture was the result. I think Dave must have had some weird settings happening on the camera to make it go bluey like that. I just thought it looked... abstract? Possibly interesting? Definately cool.

BLOGWISE - Blog Directory and Weblog Research have a section of "Recently updated blogs" which appears to be fairly up to date (some blogs were apparently updated 14 minutes ago), but I've never seen mine in that list. Most depressing!

A Profile of my Grandpa on Dad's Side

In general conversation, I have only ever heard him discuss cricket and the weather with any enthusiasm. On the phone, he launches right into gossip (that is to say, a rambling monologue that goes on for ten to fifteen minutes) without even bothering with the usual "Hi, how are you" etc. His wife, my grandmother, died several years ago, after which grandpa kind of came alive and began to do things. He's quite deaf and I recall quite clearly calling him once, saying it was Stacy, and he said "I don't know any Tracy!" and hung up. Like most of my non-immediate family, I don't know him well and don't see him often. He used to be a maths teacher and until a few years ago still took students for private tutoring.


A Profile of my Poppa on Mum's Side

Poppa's got a great sense of humour, particularly when it comes to playing jokes on his grandchildren (which we loved when we were younger). He seems somewhat downtrodden and quiet when nana's around, but on his own he really comes out of his shell. I have no idea what poppa did for a living before his retirement - I know he bred birds, but whether as a hobby or a job I don't know.


A Profile of my Nana on Mum's Side

Nana is very political and very patriotic. She has her views and often finds it difficult to accept that somebody else's views might differ from hers. She worked in politics for a long time, I know that at one stage when the Labour party came into power she left her job because she only wanted to work for the Liberals. I'm fairly sure she also worked as some kind of social worker at some stage, she knows a lot about the misfortunes of people in general and quite a bit about various cultures - Aboriginal, Vietnamese, etc. Nana has a very dominant personality, and oddly enough for an old person she spends a lot of time online and owns a CD burner.

The last two nights I've gotten home from work to find mushy orange cat poop on the carpet. I wonder if it's the new food... it's the only thing that's changed. Also possibly his litter box is too full - he doesn't like using it if it hasn't been cleaned in a while. I suppose that means tomorrow we have to go and buy his usual expensive catfood - damn fussy creature! I'll clean the litter box out tomorrow, too. It's not such an awful job... cleaning up mushy cat poop from carpets is worse. Oh yeah, and we need some carpet cleaner/stain remover now, because it's left orange stains on the carpet. Great.

I'm at work, doing QA again! How I love work! I'm just typing this in between email conversations with Charlotte, Liny, Payal, Amanda, Jamiu and I think Bhamini as well. Oh, and in between programs loading too! (Yes, I do occasionally work at work!) I'm having to reject a few sales, of course, it's part of the job... it makes me feel bad, sometimes I feel like a Nasti (oops, I mean Nazi) but hey, I'm being paid for it! As much as I curse QA for their feedback on me and rejecting my own sales, I am obliged to join them and do the same to others! (I exaggerate, I don't hate it that much, it can actually be quite fun in a wicked kind of way.) The great thing about QA is I now know the entire EIC script backwards, upside down and inside out. Oh, and the right way, too.

Ah, food guy. There's a guy who comes round with a trolly with food on it. Nice enough stuff, bit expensive but it's handy not to have to go anywhere to buy stuff.

I just told Amanda that I wouldn't talk about our conversations outside of work, because a) they make no sense and b) they can be taken in more than one way. I lied. We constantly talk about being "pumped" and "pumping" each other... I think it may have started out as a synonym for enthusiasm, but you can guess what we all made of it. And now we're talking about itches... of course, it was itchy legs, but Jamiu started listening at the wrong point and jumped to a very wrong conclusion...

Do you think I've written enough crap for the day? I think it's enough for this post. There may be more later. Beware!

umop apisdn 'SdOO

Nine sales today! In about seven hours, too, as I spent a fair amount of time off the phone helping Aleeda with various things. So that's a 1.28 average for me today, and so far for the week I'm on 1.26. Excellent! I was actually quite depressed at lunch time - something was wrong with my eye, and I was only sitting on 3 or 4 sales for quite a while. But things picked up and my eye is fine now!

Today was a great day. I more than met my target, I exceeded it! Ten sales for the day, with the target set at eight. Very proud. Of course, Jamiu got 11 or 12 or something, but that's just normal because he's "da kickarse". I've never had more than six sales in a day before, largely because of doing QA for long stints instead of being on the phones.

I received my Ebay suit today. It would be very nice if I wanted to look and smell like a grandmother! It's not that bad, but it is kind of tweedy. The picture made it look more solid-coloured beige. Ah well, I might wear it... it would also be possible to sell it on Ebay! We'll see. I have to admit it was a bargain though - since when can you get a suit for under $20?

What a weekend. Went to Cossack's on Friday night when Dave left for Mount Buller. Stayed there until about 4pm Saturday, came back here to feed the cat and have a shower, then back to Cossack's for the night. Dave picked me up on his way home at about 1am. So, spent most of the weekend drunk or sleeping or both.

At work again... yeah, I know, I spend too much time here! I'm doing QA yet again, I've worked three hours on the phones and got three sales, so averaged 1 today - I'm happy! I'm not sitting at the QA desk, I'm at my own desk with Jamiu, Caner, and all that lot. It's gooder that way!

I'm home and dry! Unlike Zeus who fell in the bath (yet again) and is still damp!

My slackness in updates of late is unforgiveable! It's just that not much has happened - just work. I could write lots of stuff about people you won't know... I think I'll do that, actually.

Maggie called me when I was on the way home tonight, she's now working at Countrywide Media, where I used to work. (Maggie went through training with us at Teletech but unfortunately didn't make the final cut.) She's doing quite well, she said she's been there for 2 weeks and is already consistently getting 2 sales per day which is great for that kind of cold calling work. She told me to say hi to "everyone", eg Charlotte and Liny, and we've agreed to meet up "sometime" for drinks after work, hopefully tomorrow night.

Apparently Ivan or Bruce is bringing a camera to work tomorrow to take all our photos - I'm not sure why. I think Aleeda wants to put them up on the wall, as kind of a hall of fame/shame (depending on our sales, I suppose).

Incedentally, our team did really really well yesterday. Almost everyone on the impossibly tough two-day Bond campaign yesterday got an average of 1 or more (that is, 1 sale per hour), and the team average was 1.06 (sales per person per hour). As a team we were the best on the floor, and I don't think any individual from any other team got 1 or above either.

At work... been on QA all day, mercifully! Feeling a little sick, I don't think I could handle sales right now. I'll be fine by tomorrow, but today... ugh!

I, Cringely | The Pulpit

Read that.

How totally awesome is that idea?

Lets do it!

TeleTech - the place which at I work. I find it inconcevable how such a large international company which has been around for so long can screw up so many times. I don't mean screw ups like calling the wrong phone number. I mean screw ups like paying their employees too little or not at all for two fortnights running. I count myself lucky that I have received all the money owed to me for my work - there are several I know of and probably many I don't who have received not enough or none. Brad worked at TeleTech a while ago, I asked him if he'd ever had any pay problems... he said they forgot to pay him one time. Even that is quite bad. Tolerable, I suppose, if it happens once in a blue moon to one person. But this is not the case. Fugger!

We've just gotten back from Puffing Billy - Australia's Premier Steam Railway. It was, well, pretty dull. Nice scenery, but it was cold and windy and I was hungry, the kids were noisy and we were held up by bogus bushrangers halfway to Lakeside. However it was better than sitting at home doing nothing or being bored, I suppose.

I'm at work, and quite frankly I'm surprised I can access Blogger from here. I'm left all alone in QA, everyone else finished up about an hour and a half ago, and I'm on for another half hour. It's so quiet! It would make it easy to concentrate on my work, but it also makes it so easy to get away with not concentrating! Although to be fair, I am mostly typing between things, while waiting for programs to load. It's a lot faster than it once was, but it still takes a few minutes... oops, not anymore! The thing about harldy anyone being here - nobody's using the system and slowing it down, so it's nice and quick (or not so nice, depending on whether I want to get any work done).

Work today was pretty neat, I was doing QA! I shall explain:

Each time somebody makes a sale over the phone, we record what's called the EIC, or Explicit Informed Consent, which is just a verbal contract over the phone. After the EIC is recorded, it must be listened to (verified) to ensure that all the questions were asked and answered in the positive, and that all information necessary was given by the CSR (or, as they like to call us, the Energy Consultant).

So my job today was listening to recorded EIC's and either passing or failing them. It's reasonably easy to pass - simply follow the script, it's all in there. I had to fail one because he didn't mention the 10 day cooling off period in the EIC.

What it meant for me today was that I was off the phones! Not talking! Sparing my sore throat (which I have due to a cold caught from somebody at work, eh Jamiu!?)!!!

I've had, so far, a rather boring and ill-feeling weekend. I've been doing a little bit of work on my so-called book - the one which may or may not end up being sent off to a publisher and then maybe published someday in the not-very-near future. It's progressing reasonably well, although not following the plan I originally wrote for it. I've had too many other interesting ideas since writing the plan. Perhaps I should adjust the plan to suit, before writing the story. Meh.

I have a valid excuse for not updating the last couple of days! I got an IPaq!!! Been far too busy playing with it to even contemplate updating this blog! However, for the record:

3 sales Wednesday

3 sales Thursday

4 sales Friday

Good enough for now! I'll do better next week - I'll be more familiar with the script, the product information, and selling techniques, as well as feeling better - darn Jamiu gave me a cold!!!

Things that annoy me

Eczema

My flabby belly

The fact that sometimes I eat compulsively and can't stop

When people say things I don't know how to respond to (eg, "You're too cute to need to wear make up", thank you Lorenz)

When people want something from me that I can't or won't give but they never give up

People who are always judgemental and critical

My own frequent hypocrisy

Six sales today! That's the daily target for all the older people, and I got it on Day Two! Neat!

I'm in such a crap mood. Brooke, who started today same as me, got eight sales this afternoon, and I was the only person in the team to get none. No sales. Zip, zilch, nill, zero. Then I called dad because he'd called while I was at work and unable to answer. He said encouraging things including "Go home and have a nice dinner with Dave", so of course I was looking forward to getting home and having a nice meal with Dave. Instead, Dave gets home just after me with some crappy leftovers from the dinner he's just had at Carl's place. He claims Carl's mum "forced" him to eat dinner there, and that she "forced" him to bring some home for me. Great! So not only does his mental discipline lack so much that he can't even politely decline a dinner, but he also lacks the thought to bring some home for me off his own bat! And then he wonders why I'm pissed off. Go figure!!!

Update:
Well that was pointless. This entire site is about updates, right? Anyway...

I have completed training! Did two tests - one written, one mock call. I got 100% on both of them, I am teh call centre guru! If you want to know anything about TXU and/or the energy industry, just ask me! I also made an actual call to an actual customer today, I didn't do too badly! As of next week I start at 11am and finish at 7pm, I like those hours!

I am making a new committment to lose weight. The old attempt failed miserably, I swear I've gotten fatter in the last two weeks. A new effort must be made! A six-inch roll from Subway, water, no cookies. That's the new lunch plan. Daily excercise will be slighly harder now I'm working, but I'll do my best to fit something in and spend less time reading in the bath!

Once again, apologies for my slackness. I've been so tired, and haven't been spending so much time at home, now that I'm a working girl! Now doesn't that sound dodgy... two dorra, love you long time.

Work's been pretty good - when I say "work", we're still in training for the rest of this week, so it's all been very educational. I know more than I ever hoped to know about the gas and electricity industry, and about TXU in particular!

I'm thinking of creating a CV in HTML format. Pretty much just for the fun of it!

Revision: something has happened today. Carl called Dave and now he's going to Mt Buller for the weekend.

Apologies for not updating, I've been tired and busy and stuff! And anyway, not much has happened :P Just work, and people at work. And the fact that I have no money. w00t.

First day of work was today! If you could call it work - we have 8 days of training before we really start, it's like being in school again only I'm getting paid for it. Neat! So, we learnt a little about TeleTech, a little about what we're in for, and a lot about Occupational Health & Safety (henceforth referred to as OHS). Seems like I'll be working with a bunch of weirdos, and some real nice 'uns too, which is good enough. Also seems like every call centre has it's token gay guy(s), what's with that? It's like walking through the cosmetics department in Myer.

I "worked" from 9-5 today, which meant I was absent from home between 8am and 6pm - when I got home, boy was Zeus glad to see me! Purring and snuggling like a thouroughly neglected cat! Up until I typed that, at which point he bit me.

Gosh Darnit! One mis-click of the mouse and I lose an entire post.

The long and short of it is, I start work tomorrow and I'm nervous.

Also, saw mum yesterday, she bought me clothes and I bought myself the first two books of John Marsden's Tomorrow series which I've already finished.

Oh, and Dave's started a website full of Zeus pics, it's cute!

Just found an online version of Melway Edition 1, it probably dates from sometime in the late 60's! My area hasn't really changed too much, but a lot of other people commented on what's missing from their areas!

Had a pretty neat little party thing last night, mostly to celebrate me getting a job, but also just for fun, and I also found out Chantell finished her exams last week so we celebrated that too! It was just BohulerDave, MyDave, Chantell and I, although Andrew and Cossack were invited but piked out. So, Bohuler and I got slightly drunk, we all played some game called CashFlow which nobody had ever heard of except Chantell (she brought it), which was kinda fun, and Bohuler also brought Good News Week - Unseen and Obscene video, which was hilarious! So, all in all, a pretty good night.

Mum is coming to the city tomorrow, to see me and buy me some new clothes. I need another pair of pants, another jacket, and some more long-sleeved shirts. That'll be good.

I have just discovered the saddest thing I've seen in a long time. I mean sad as in pathetic, not sad as in mournful. Alex Chiu's Immortality Rings. Yes, that's right, Immortality Rings! The dreadful website and numerous spelling errors do nothing to inspire confidence. In the explanation on how they are supposed to work, the phrase "The Eternal Life Rings and The Eternal Life Foot Braces invented by Alex Chiu are believed to allow humans to stay physically young forever or turn humans physically younger" grabs my attention... Believed to? Apparently their lawyer told them to say that! In other words, they have no proof, it's a hoax, a scam, a way to gain money from the gullible. Ah well. It happens.

Right, let me see, what has been going on the last few days when I haven't updated!

I had a job interview this afternoon (the TXU position mentioned below) and found out this afternoon that I have the job. I start training on Wednesday.

I have some better photos of my hair: Vaguely Styled and Spiked.

We were supposed to celebrate me finally getting a job tonight - we were going to get drunk and see a movie. Well, we saw a movie, didn't drink a drop, got home and Dave was too tired to anyway. Ah well. Now we have lots of alcohol in the fridge (Dave nicked heaps from his work, they had some after-work drinks thing tonight).

I saw dad today, that was good, we went out to Headwear and did some stuff he needed to do, then he came back here and met Zeus. Also my dad has bought himself a quite reasonable little digital camera - he would have shown it off to me, but it ran out of battery!

I noticed Blogger have implemented their changes on my site - as far as I can see it's made no difference to the appearance of the site itself (this is a good thing), but as I write this I can't help but see all the changes in the editing fields - nice colours, different layout, etc. Very nice guys (if anybody from Blogger reads this, which I doubt, but anything's possible!).

Anyway, that's quite enough for now, it is just past midnight (dammit, this entry will have tomorrow's date and it will look like I was slack for another day!) and Dave has gone to bed... strangely I don't feel the need to join him there, I had as little (possibly less) sleep as he did, and have had a busy day too. Nevertheless, it is time to relax and do nothing for a while. Reading some Agatha Christie books sounds like a good idea to me...

I look like a man! Or a dyke! The butcher of a hairdresser cut my hair far too short! I told her how I wanted it, she made a few snips and I said "Yeah, about that length is good", and then somehow it just slowly got shorter and shorter... I guess she was trimming it, making both sides even... but the upshot is, I now look like this:




(Sorry about the crappy picture quality, it's just my little webcam!)

The other news of the day is that I have a job interview with TXU on Friday! Apparently my phone test was "excellent" - always knew I had a good phone manner.

Today's requisite half hour's disco dancing: Done!

Had another call from Hays Personnel this morning, I had to call a phone number (recorded message, automated) and read off a speech - basically just a test of my phone manner. Was rather nervous, but I think I did ok.

Also I'm absolutely certain I put a fairly long entry here last night, and Blogger screwed up and it didn't post and now I'm buggered if I remember it.

My list of incredibly sexy actors:

Sean Connery

Alan Rickman

Colin Firth

Kevin Costner

to be continued...

I had a very weird dream last night.
Eminem broke into our house while we were in bed, apparently we had something that he wanted and he was trying to find it and steal it back. I remember lying in bed telling Dave to just leave him alone, let him get whatever it was and go and then he'd leave us alone, but then my grandmother got up (I don't know why she appeared to be living with us) and he attacked her with a hairbrush. So I told Dave to get up and bash Eminem, which he did admirably well (Eminem's a weedy little guy after all). I remember my grandmother (who wasn't actually my grandmother, but she was in the dream) was pretty badly hurt, she had a big gash on her forehead, bleeding badly, and she'd passed out. I remember being quite worried about her, and while I don't remember anyone calling an ambulance I do remember that there was one there at some stage. I don't remember how it ended, or if it ended just there - I don't know what happened to Eminem or the object he was after, or what that object was. Weird.

Stacy been a bad bad girl! No update yesterday. That is for no reason whatsoever, but it must be rectified immediately.

The property inspection yesterday went absolutely fine. Landlady arrived first, I invited her and she wandered around for ten minutes or so before the agent got here (late), then they stayed for another three minutes or so, and left. I asked if the place looked fine, and she said "Yes, yes, looks good..."

The cat problem was solved simply by putting him in a box in the car - with Cossack to keep him company!

Excersise lately has been almost non existant. Must stop being so darned lazy! I've been reading a lot (in the bath) and playing the Discworld MUD for hours at a time. And that's about it. I'll force Dave to come for a run this afternoon/tonight, for half an hour or so, that might make up for a couple of days of non-movement!

Haven't done much besides cleaning today. Bedroom and bathroom are immaculate, the rest of the place will darn well do! I semi-cleaned the laundry, and just as I thought, Zeus messed it up again afterwards, so I'll do that again between putting him in the car and having the inspection. Oh the hassle!

Dave and I have just been for a nice 20 or 30 minute jog around the oval just down the road. That's today's excersise for me, and probably the month's excersise for Dave! I was very pleased with how well I stood it - despite the relatively short time that I've been working on my fitness, I think it's already starting to pay off!

We have a property inspection on Friday! And we have a cat we're not supposed to have! Dave reckons he should just park the car around the corner and I can put all the catty stuff in there (incluing the cat himself) before they arrive, and get him out when they leave. He should be ok - it won't be for long, and I'll leave a window or two down for some air... It'll be half an hour, max. As long as some busy-body doesn't come along and shout animal cruelty or something. That's really gonna piss me off. But I'm sure it'll be fine.

Well, I had a very interesting meeting with a recruitment agency today. I went along expecting the usual questions ("Why do you want this job, what qualities do you have, what skills do you think you can improve on?") and the usual computer tests (MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc). What I got was something entirely different. They had this computer program set up to act almost like a call centre simulator. I sat there with headphones on, listening to recorded coversations (faked, obviously), and depending on the excersise I would have to pick what the customer service rep did wrong, choose a response, or enter customer data into a database as it was spoken. So bascially it assessed my customer service skills as well as basic data entry skills. I scored very highly on working under pressure and speed and accuracy of information entered. I did pretty well in almost all areas tested, but not so great on upselling - I tend to think in terms of keeping customers happy, no matter what, and I know that being upsold to annoys me, so that'll be why I didn't upsell very well. But I suppose that's just another skill I can learn! Anyway, as a result of today I'm being put forward for two customer service positions and I should hear whether I have interviews for them late this week. Cool!

There are a few things Dave should realise by now.

I'm going to get pissed off at him every now and then. We live together, for God's sake, these things happen - probably more often than we'd like, but what can you do?

That doesn't mean I don't love him and value the relationship. I do. A lot.

From that you can deduce the position of any and every other guy I know - friends.

Think I'd risk ruining what we've got here by screwing around? Hell no.

Even if these friends want to (and I flatter myself in even contemplating that they might), they all bloody well know better.

I am a mature and responsible adult and can realise the consequences of my own actions - even when a little drunk, like tonight.

Bah!

It has not been a good weekend. There have been arguments, silences, snores, couches, and finally another silence.

I slept on the couch last night. I think, once you've kicked a man for an hour and he still snores, all hope for a good night's sleep is gone. Therefore, the couch, where it was at least quiet.

Well I've done today's dancing (half an hour) and the walk to Subway and back. I'm still flabby! I expect instant results and they're not happening! BAH!

I had a call yesterday afternoon (While I was watching Robin Hood dammit) from a woman from Manpower (the recruitment agency, not the male strippers). There are four jobs she's recommending me for, which I was very happy to hear. It works very weirdly - she recommends me, then passes me and the jobs on to somebody else who, if they agree with her recommendations, calls me to arrange a meeting. Weird.
Hey, you know what I've noticed about women working for recruitment agencies? They're all British. I get a call and a British accent asks for "Miss Horsfall" or "Stacy", and I just know it's about a job. In a way it's annoying, because quite frankly they all sound the same, and I can't pick their voices apart. In another way, however, it's quite sexy. I like a good British accent!

What do people want from a customer service representative?

Accurate information and extensive product knowledge
To be listened to and understood
Patience
Capability
Undivided attention

Zeus keeps sitting up on the washing machine meowing, and I don't know why. He has food, he has water, his litterbox is clean, if he's just after attention he knows where I am. Perhaps he doesn't want anything in particular, maybe he's just a vocal cat.

Anyway, time for today's dancing. I don't really feel like it, but I guess that's what this "Fitness Campaign" thing is about - being able to force myself even when I don't want to.

Negligible total excersise today. Not to worry, I'll do a fair bit tomorrow with any luck.

I have a feeling I did something else today that I was going to add here. But I'm darned if I remember what it was. Maybe I'll remember tomorrow.

I've just gotten home from the job interview from hell. Ask no questions, I tell you no shit.

Excersise today so far has been just walks to and from train stations - feels like quite enough for the moment! Might do some dancing later. Might go watch a movie now.

Fitness Campaign Day Three
I've decided to dance today. Less strenuous than jogging, but it gets the heartrate up and burns some energy/fat. I can also keep it up for longer, which is probably better. And I enjoy it more!

Woo, that's half an hour of dancing! And I'll probably do more later! I like this idea!

I have decided that the 70s was the funkiest decade ever. Honestly. I have. The 70s produced Daddy Cool's Eagle Rock, Amii Stewart's Knock On Wood, and Wild Cherry's Play That Funky Music. The 70s was responsible for The Jackson Five's Blame It On The Boogie and Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons' Hit And Run. How can any decade beat that? And I won't forget the number one reason for the 70s being utterly funky: David Essex's Rock On. What has any decade ever done that can beat any or all of the above? Sure, The Beatles were huge, they had some great songs. But that was simple, basic rock. Which has it's good points. (Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Beatles fan.) But nothing can compare to Santana's Black Magic Woman or Earth Wind & Fire's Boogie Wonderland. (Older readers: is this a trip down memory lane, or what? You'd never believe I'm only 20!)

Oh, someone showed me this shirt today, love it! I gotta get me one of them - if I could afford it!

I got a letter today from Emergency Services Victoria, I didn't get the job. I didn't think I would. No biggie!

Fitness Campaign Day Two
Well, my ten minutes this morning was decidedly easier than yesterday's, despite my sore legs - really should have done some warm-ups! I might move it up to 15 minutes tomorrow instead of waiting for next week! We'll see. Subway for lunch again today - I'm not the kind of person to get sick of things, Subway is nice and healthy and it's a good walk to get it each day.

Got our first electricity bill for this house today. $253.19, which sounds like a lot until you remember that last winter my bill was about $360. It's cheaper here because we don't have electric heating - got gas! So now I'm dreading receiving the gas bill!

I can not believe the stupidity of that cat. He's just fallen in the water feature for the third time. You'd think he would have realised by now that all that green stuff on top is not solid and can not be walked on. He manages to get himself out of there, somehow, and walks away spasmodially shaking his legs, one at a time, trying to get rid of the water. He then mews pityfully through the towel-drying routine and sulks for a few minutes in the laundry before launching into the next activity!

Fitness Campaign Day One
Have decided I need to lose the unsightly flab that is my stomach. This morning I aimed to do 15 minutes of vigorous excercise - today just jogging on the spot - to see how I went. I was shocked to find that I could only just manage ten minutes before almost collapsing! I knew I was unfit, but I hadn't realised just how unfit. I now plan to do several ten minute sessions of excersise per day, and may increase this to fifteen minutes next week depending on how I feel. I am also going to eat a lot healthier. Subway is approximately 7 minute's walk from here, so that's some more excerise and a healthy meal.
Note to self: Excersise before having a shower, to save having two!

I have paid aboslutely no attention to the content of the blog But It Sounded So Good In My Head, so I can't comment on interest. But I can say, wow, look at the colours!!! They change, all the time!!! Cool!!!

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I think I may have figured out why my blog is a little on the uninteresting side. It's because there's nothing wrong with me! I mean, like anybody, I'm a little bit crazy, I get mad, I get sad, but ultimately I'm a normal person. I have all my limbs, I can hear fine, my eyesight is slightly below average, my boyfriend isn't in the army/at war, both my parents are alive and well. No major drama besides my frantic job-hunt, and that hardly makes me special or interesting.

Female - nothing that interesting there, 50% of the population are the same.

Jobless - again, no shortage of people in the same situation.

Cat-owner - something for me to blabber about, but not something everyone's interested in.

Living with partner - OK, perhaps not every 20 year old girl has lived away from her parents for three years. But still, nothing that exciting.

Boring - duh.

There you have it, my main components listed in a simple and easily understandable manner, and there is nothing there to grab the attention or make you say "Wow!".

Dave stumbled across this article from Melbourne's The Age this morning, which interested me as a blogger. Apparently Google is giving us a search engine of our own! Google already segregates categories of website, such as news articles, and now it seems blogs are soon to get their own little section of Google too.

Despite many attempts to "submit" this page to Google, I've never managed to find it in a Google search - perhaps their recent attention to blogs (including their acquisition of Pyra Labs, the company behind Blogger) will change this!

Today's Stupid Thing:
We went to Hungry Jacks, and I asked for a Quarter Pounder.
The chick said, "We don't sell those, McDonalds does."
I was so glad this was through the drive-through speaker and she couldn't see me blush!

I've just been reading a post in another blog, the woman is talking about how she has a pain in her tooth, but the medical folk can't seem to find anything wrong with it and think she's a hypochondriac. Reading it just reminded me of my own experience with labyrinthitis. It is surprisingly common, and unsprisingly difficult to detect. I had to have a CAT-scan, and was told nothing was wrong with me, before my incompetent doctor came up with the labyrinthitis idea. It just goes to show, medical science is overrated!

The chronicles of Zeus.

He fell in the water feature again the other night. Of course, I locked him outside while I went to find a towel. Well I don't want wet-cat-prints all over the house!

Dave left the lid of the washing machine up, he just fell in there and couldn't get out. Of course I delayed in rescuing him long enough to take a photo!

He goes psycho every night at bedtime. So that means, two hours before I go to bed, I have to exhaust him. Throwing stuff around the house for him to chase, chasing him myself, etc.

7yu6ftgrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrvbggggggggggggggg - need I say more?

He goes psycho every morning before I want to get up. I now have quite a large hole in my thumb from those sharp little claws.

Cats are fun.

Now, I'm going to try to restrain myself today, and not make more than three entries, no matter how bored I get!!! This seems a difficult challenge, until a few minutes' though reveals that I can in fact "edit" previous entries and add more information to them, instead of making a new entry! So I might end up with three quite long entries today! We shall see, though - maybe I won't even get that bored!

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, pee in it, and serve it to the people that piss you off.
How brilliant is that? Courtesy of the Down with Gravity blog.

You can tell when I'm really really bored. There's about five short entries in one day. Possibly more. I have nothing better to do. Perhaps I'll have a bath with a book, that's always good. But that poses the question which book, now that I have three unread books to choose from (thanks to Ebay), instead of the several hundred ones I've read as many times before. Two of the new books are by Greg Bear, and other (actually 3 books in one) is by C. J. Cherryh. Both of them should be on my Favourite Authors/Books List, and if they're not, well, I might put them there someday.

If I were on Southpark!

I just stumbled across something with the word "dishevel". For no reason I know, I began wondering if the word was somehow related to the phrase "She-devil". Also if this is such a word as "hevel", for how can one dishevel if one wasn't hevelled to begin with?
Reminds me of the old "Why is there no such thing as a gruntled employee?" The English language is full of little oddities like that.

What I hate about looking at other people's blogs is that their designs are all so much better than mine!

I just did a funny little Personality Test. I wonder if it's at all accurate?

Disorder / Rating
Paranoid: Low
Schizoid: Low
Schizotypal: Low
Antisocial: High
Borderline: Low
Histrionic: Moderate
Narcissistic: Very High
Avoidant: Low
Dependent: Low
Obsessive-Compulsive: Low

I found the test on another woman's blog, Curmudgeoness, part of the "Blogs by Women" webring I've just attempted to join. I often ponder how on interesting others find my blog, but if my opinions of others' blogs are any indication, mine might be quite interesting! It is oddly fascinating to read another person's blog, to take a peek into their life and their world. Often I find I can relate to somebody, or I find myself looking at something in another way - their way. Very interesting indeed.