Update, finally

It's been crazy recently. The air conditioning broke at work, and it's been 107 degrees most every day, so the boss let us all go with paid leave until the AC got turned back on. I'm actually getting ready to leave this job, because I have been offered a very well-paying job in a different city. I'm going to miss my friends here, and I do feel very bad because my boss has been so kind to me, but I told them all about it and they told me to go for it. I'm still going to come back and visit, because I'm going to miss them a lot. I don't make friends easily, so I'm rather worried about moving and having to get used to living in another city.

Also, G's friend got married recently, and I got dragged along to keep his friend's mother from asking where his girlfriend was (G doesn't have a girlfriend, nor does he want one. He likes living alone, and doesn't want to share his stuff). I will say this: weddings are interminably boring. Well, not every wedding. This one, however, went on for almost two hours since the stupid preacher WOULD NOT SHUT UP. Seriously, he rambled on and on for what seemed like a million years about what god expects in a marriage. It didn't help that the ceremony was outside at night. It was 95 degrees, and the mosquitoes decided that everyone in attendance was a giant buffet. I got covered with mosquito bites. It didn't help that the bride (G's friend was the groom) was a total bridezilla and pitched a fit when someone suggested moving the reception inside because of the bugs. Oh, and the preacher nearly ran G, G's mother, G's friend's mother, another friend of G's, and myself over in his Mercedes. Idiot. I know it was dark, but it's a little hard to miss SIX PEOPLE standing TO THE SIDE OF THE ROAD. Oh well, whatever. I think he was pissed because G's friend's mother made some rather snarky comments about his interminable sermon in earshot of him. Still, that's no reason to try to end us all.

Anyway, I'm having to inventory all of my crap before I move. Whee.

STFU, Lawn Mowers!

People, people, people, I know you really want to mow your lawn to make your house look nice. And I know it gets hotter than hell once it's past 9:00 in the morning. But seriously? Some of us have to work, and don't really appreciate being woken up at 5:00 AM by Home and Garden enthusiasts. Look, I know it's important to you to keep your house looking nice. I get that. But you seem to forget that you're right across from an apartment complex full of people without lawns, and that your lawn mower sounds like an airplane with engine problems.

I'm not just overreacting, either. I live on the 6th floor, and all of my neighbors are irritated with your lawn-mowing morons as well. And if people who are several stories taller than your lawn are having problems, then you really need to either look into waiting until the evening, when everyone is awake, or get a new lawn mower. I think everyone in the complex would be willing to chip in to get you a quieter lawn mower... seriously. It's really annoying, and it's messing with my sleep schedule.

New Blog

Do you have computer questions? Feel free to go check out Instant Help Desk. It's my hope that my new site might able to help some people with some simple computer questions.

Otomen

Recently, I was cleaning a computer of unnecessary files, and I found something interesting. Not interesting in the "Oh god, what the hell is that?" way, but in the "Hmmm. I kind of want to see more of that" way. There is a very interesting Japanese drama called "Otomen," about a guy who is pretty badass all around- he does kendo (Japanese swordfighting) and always sticks up for the weaker students. But he has a secret: he likes pretty things, and he likes to sew and thinks stuffed toys are cute. He hides this to portray only his stereotypical badass side... but then he falls in love with a girl who's more badass than he is, and he is able to reveal his true self to her.

I love it, it's a great series. I really thinks it helps show the reality of life- that people aren't always exactly like the persona they project. In real life, I try not to seem so depressed, and I always act like my mother's suicide didn't really affect me all that much. But I can let my real personality show on the Internet.

Argh, this has nothing to do with the television drama, so I'm going to shut up now. If you're interested, you can watch it on dramacrazy.net, the series title is Otomen.

Yes, I'm still alive...

I'm just recovering from a nasty battle with a very persistent stomach bug. I spent the better part of a week throwing up or doubled over with crippling abdominal pain, and I'm pretty sure I know what caused it... every time I go to a certain restaurant chain, I end up violently ill. It's not that I think the restaurant itself is doing anything wrong, since I've had this problem no matter where I've gone to the restaurant, whether it's in California or Florida, New York or Chicago, or even here at home. I think it's just that they use too much grease or something, and not enough spices. I've found that unless food is at least a few thousand on the Scoville scale I can't digest it easily. It's funny, because most people have the opposite problem. Spicy is where it's at for me, at least if I don't want to get sick.

Of course, the fact that May was kind of the month from Hell probably didn't help much. I know that stress lowers your immune system, so maybe that's the reason I got sick. But enough about my health problems- expect some "interesting" rants soon.

Overworked and Underpaid

The past week has been miserable, and the fact that it's been just me and G at work has nothing to do with it. R's wife was in a car crash last Saturday, and while she thankfully wasn't hurt very badly, she did break her wrist and her leg, and as such hasn't been able to take care of their daughter or go to work, so R has been staying home to help his wife with some of the household stuff. Unfortunately, H (R's wife) can't do her job with the postal service, and that could affect their income substantially. Our jobs pay pretty well (enough to support a family of four), but R's daughter has extra medical expenses, and with H's emergency room trip they'll be getting a rather large hospital bill here soon. Losing H's income could prove to be rather bad.

And with the way prices of everything are rising, if you're married and the both of you do not work (unless you have a legit reason like poor health or a young child), then you're really just shooting yourself in the foot. This isn't 1700s England where the aristocracy could just loaf about all day and never do anything. We've gotta work, people! This is the 21st century!

Ah, that's enough ranting about work for now, well, work as in who should work. Basically twenty minutes after R called in on Monday saying that he couldn't come, all hell broke loose. A local private school that utilizes us so that they don't have to pay a full-time tech support staff is starting their state exams next week, and last week they showed up with a U-Haul full of computers with problems. We've been working overtime trying to get them working again before Friday, and while we're down to about 25 left, it's been hell. Because R is not working this week, that means that G and I have had to do everything, and some of the computers have screen issues. While I know a little bit about LCD screens, R is the real expert on them, and G is actually terrified of them (I can't blame him though, poor bastard electrocuted himself the last time he tried to work with one). So this entire week I've been showing up for work at 6:00 AM and clocking out around 9:00 PM. I haven't eaten anything that's not frozen dinners or drive-through takeout in days. Not that I cook, really, but it's nice to have enough time to get a decent meal rather than McDonald's or frozen taquitos once in a while.

I wish I could get some extra money, but I guess not.

Customer Files: The Flirt

Occasionally we get women in the shop who honestly have no computer problems whatsoever. They come in to ask a stupid question about something ("Are gigabytes bad for your computer?") while wearing revealing clothing. If I'm the one on duty, they see me and walk out the door. They'll walk past several times, waiting for either G or R to go on duty so that they can flirt with one of them.

It usually doesn't bug me. I mean, I'm not exactly the kind of person a girl would want to look at all day (I'm a rather disheveled female tech support worker), and I certainly can't begrudge someone from wanting to find Mr. Right. What I do wish they would do is wait until we're closed.

Today it did upset me a bit, but not for the reasons that it normally would. A local private school is getting ready to take the state exams and of course, didn't look into their computer problems until now, a few days before the exams start. Which means that they showed up yesterday morning with 340 computers in a U-Haul and wanted us to check them to make sure they'd work. Because of this, all other jobs have to be pushed back, and believe me, there's nothing scarier than an angry house-wife who wants her netbook de-virused NOW, or the frazzled older man who needs to use his BlackBerry for work, and it's not turning on. It's an enormous pain already, and when you add Miss Flirt into the mix, it complicates things a lot more than it needs to be done. Today, all three of us were in the back room trying to switch out dead hard drives on these computers. It looked like an electronics store exploded in there. This woman wearing the tightest jeans I'd ever seen and a very tight top came into the shop and asked to see G. So we sent him out. Apparently she was trying to flirt with him to get her laptop fixed faster and at a discount, even though it was quite obvious that we were up to our asses in broken computers. When G told her it would be Friday at the earliest, she flew off the handle and called him a faggot, just because he wouldn't respond to her hitting on him.

The moral of this story is: People, please. If you have a computer problem we'll be happy to help, but you need to understand that we have other customers than just you. Oh, and flirting with us won't work either. I have no interest in a relationship, R is married, and G is practically wedded to his Xbox so there's no point. It's not gonna work, and I'll laugh at you for trying. Because seeing you foolish humans so flustered and desperate is quite entertaining, to be honest.