Another Short Post

I'm not one to grovel, but I have one question: Where are all my readers?
Did a brisk wind carry you all away and drop you off in BFE? Or perhaps a flash flood caused a short circuit leaving you with absolutely no electricity, let alone internet? Or a freak accident involving a tack hammer, a can of Pepsi, and a lighter that left your keyboards in critical condition, causing your commenting to diminish?
Just wondering...

I Had To Laugh

One of my temp agencies called me yesterday to say that the company I helped out for a day wanted me back to work yesterday afternoon and all day today. Ha. That's great, but they're never seeing me again. Not only was I working yesterday and today is my last day off until God-knows when, they treated me like garbage while I helped them out.

I really should call the temp agency back and explain the reason why I won't be doing anymore assignments for that company. Isn't it amazing how the way you treat people can come back to bite you in the butt? Good luck finding someone new or naive to help you out.

Another Shameless Plug for Mike Nelson

I wanted to make a quick post in relation to my last one. Not only is there such a thing as The Film Crew, but they're also the masterminds behind Rifftrax, which is essentially the same idea as MST3K and what The Film Crew does, but these are done with more recent and/or popular movies. They could actually be ones you enjoy watching by themselves.

They've done numerous movies so far such as The Matrix, Halloween, and the soon-to-be-released 300. You pay anywhere from $.99 to $2.99 to download the audio commentary, and then you just play it over your movie. This was so the creators could avoid getting sued. I know it seems kind of silly to do that, and you need to own or rent the movie in order to enjoy the commentary, but after having watched all the samples they offer, I think it would be worth it.

Here's a sample from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country:


I think I'm on a "MSTie"/Film Crew/Rifftrax kick right at the moment, and you'll all have to suffer through it.

MST3K'rs Rejoice...Well, Kind Of

It's been long-awaited, and it hasn't come without several petitions being sent from all over the world, but Mystery Science Theater 3000 is back...in a way. It's essentially the same people behind the show (minus the brainchild, Joel Hodgson), and it's pretty much the same idea as MST3K: They make fun of horrible movies by providing humorous commentary over-top of them. There's a little difference in name though. Now they're under the name, The Film Crew, and they've made a whole other set of movies that have just been released this month.

I was excited when my husband told me they had an article on Slashdot about the return of MST3K. After having their DVDs dwindled down to nothing and having the hardest time getting a hold of any episodes I wanted (being forced to download since they weren't available any other way), they're finally making a return. I mean, geez, there was enough of an uproar when they switched it from Comedy Central to the Sci-Fi Channel, and then Sci-Fi gave them the axe soon after.

What's somewhat disappointing is the MIA factor for many MST3K obligatory things. The robots are no longer present, which I thoroughly enjoyed them; and along with that is the disappearance of the silhouettes in the theater that was trademark of MST3K. Yes, I know, The Film Crew is not MST3K, but that doesn't mean I can't miss the little things that made the show great.

I'm particularly looking forward to buying the movies they've released thus far. I see Amazon has them for about $15. Sounds good to me...

Cut the Wires

I find it really interesting that in today's world we're so connected with people over the Internet thanks to sites like MySpace and Facebook that we lose touch with the reality outside of the cables and phone lines. I've been able to find so many people from my past using the aforementioned tools, but I can't say it has produced any physical contact with 95% of those people. Don't get me wrong: I think they're great sites for that purpose, but I could spend all my time typing comments on their pages and never once speak to them on the phone or have lunch with them.

That's why I'm glad I started up a blog once again. While it's still a way to connect with people in a similar (or almost identical) way as MySpace and Facebook, I still get to interact with most of these people in a physical sense. Thanks to the initiation of the Erie blogger meetups, I've been able to get to know some really cool bloggers that I'd been reading for a few years but never knew on a personal level. In fact, I've become really good friends with a couple, and we've been hanging out quite frequently.

I had such a dry period where my whole life revolved around checking my e-mail and comments when I came home from work. That was my sole way of connecting with the outside world. My husband could probably still say I spend way too much time on the computer (I couldn't disagree), but I've been able to get out more with people. It's a completely different feeling when you're hanging out with those who blog than those who don't. I can't explain the difference too well, but you know if you're in that position.

Where YouTube has begun conventions with their vloggers and those who subscribe, I think Blogger, Wordpress, and any others (including dot-coms) should follow. I think it'd be a great way for people who share the same interests in writing to get together and leave the keyboards behind. I'd love to meet some new people, find new blogs, and make some friends.
I find people, in general, to be really interesting, so it would be good to meet someone from a different part of the country or world. I'm just not sure where to start.

Knock Knock; Who's There; Interrupting Customer...

There are few things in this world that annoy me as much as customers who need constant "help" and attention. What's worse is when they interrupt you while you're with another customer and demand that you help them. Which one of us do you think is the rude one?

This happened to me yesterday. There was a lady who had called earlier in the afternoon looking for newborn sweaters. Olga had talked to her and said she was a real treat to handle. She ended up coming into the store a couple hours later, and she asked Olga for help in finding clearance receiving blankets. She showed her where we had very few left and walked away.

Meanwhile, I was helping a customer who wanted to put some things on layaway. They were inquiring about different things regarding the layaway process and payment options they had. The woman Olga had been helping interrupted us to ask where our clearance receiving blankets were. Knowing Olga had already shown her, I was a little frustrated but tried to point them out anyway. I then continued on with my customers.

They wanted to make sure that they could make payments over the phone (I was 95% sure but wanted to be 100%), so I called customer service. While I was on the phone, the woman from earlier came up to me and started saying something. Ummm...why do you think this phone is attached to my ear? That means, don't talk to me. Wait until I'm done. So I had to tell Lisa (from customer service) to hold on while I figured out what this lady had said.
I asked her to repeat herself, and she said, "I need some help when you're finished."
"I'll be with you in a few minutes," I replied.

When I found out they could make payments over the phone, I got off the line with Lisa, told the woman I'd be with her in a few minutes, and I went back to my customers. She followed me over to them and stood there. Ok...this is a little uncomfortable. I could tell my customers were wondering why she did this, but what could I do?

They showed me what pieces they wanted to put on layaway, and of course, the lady followed us down. I told you I'd be with you in a few minutes. Just go away. One of the items they wanted to put on a layaway needed to be checked to make sure we had it in stock, so I told them I'd check and be right back. The lady wasn't having it:

"I had to work all day. Could you at least point me where your clearance receiving blankets are?!?"
This is my problem how..? I thought we already went over this, anyway...twice. I pointed her to where they were if we had any left (I knew they were scarce), and she snapped back, "No, those are regular blankets! I want receiving blankets!"
I replied, "Well, we really don't have many (or any) on clearance at the moment. They'd all be there."
"Then where are your regular receiving blankets?"
I took her directly to where they are and pointed at them.
"Well?!? Where are they?"
Are you blind? Geez. I pointed again and said, "Right there."
"Oh," was all she could say.

That was the last of her that I had to deal with. Unfortunately, Olga had a little more to contend with. When she was finished shopping, she just stood at the desk while Olga was on the phone. She just stared at her waiting for some magical register to appear, I suppose. Olga had to stop her conversation to tell her to go downstairs to pay. Finally! Gone and out of sight!

I have to keep reminding myself that one day I'll be out of customer service.

Sulking

The past couple weeks have been stressful for me, and I'm probably blowing them out of proportion, but I don't handle things well. I have the sense that I'm dragging people down with me when I feel like this. I felt incredibly horrible last night because of this.

I have a tendency to loom over things that are bothering me when I'm all by myself. Usually, I don't have this problem at work because there's so much going on, but I did last night. It was awkwardly slow for a Saturday night, which I think caused my problem to arise.

I switched my schedule last night with one of my coworkers so I could work with Olga, so when she was busy doing other things--when we're normally hanging around each other and working together--I was left to sulk over whatever was bothering me. I had a list of things that were stressing me out at that moment: finding a new job, leaving the one I'm at sometime soon, losing the friends I made at Burlington, finding a way to further my Russian education (I found it to total $399 for a 7-month class at Mercyhurst), figuring out how to pay my $399 bill for a checkup my insurance wouldn't cover. They probably all sound like trivial things to anyone else, but to me they're things that matter a lot.

When Olga was finally done with what she was doing, she came back to a sullen Rachel, and she couldn't figure out why. I wanted to be mad at her because I switched my schedule just to work with her and she was hardly around, and I wanted to be mad because she said she'd go over the Russian with me and didn't, but that's really not what it was about. I was just stressed out about all the aforementioned things. She just happened to get the brunt of it. Unfortunately, I made her feel like it was her fault that I felt the way I did, and she spent the remainder of the night apologizing to me. It should have been the other way around.

I ended up feeling even worse the rest of the night because I dragged someone else down just because I felt crappy. I couldn't deal with it, so I sat down and wrote her a long e-mail at 12:30 last night apologizing for making her feel the way I did. This warranted a phone call while I was at Tam's bridal shower today. It was bad timing, but I'm glad I got that call. The air was cleared, and now we both feel a little better.

What's so bad about all this is that I do it so often. I bring the people I care about down just because I'm feeling like crap. My husband has to deal with this so much, and every time I do it, I feel even worse than I did before. I can't understand why I continue being so destructive. I need a healthier outlet.

The fact that my social life has been more active in recent months than in years has helped a great deal, but when I'm not out with friends or enjoying myself, things are coming to mind that cause me to get stressed out. I'm just wondering if there's any way for me to divert my attention elsewhere when I'm by myself. I don't want to continue to feel the way I do or drag anymore people down. I care too much about them to allow it to happen anymore.
Any suggestions?