Category: Personal

Well, I’m finally going to announce it, since I’ve kept it quite private. In one week I am moving to Houston, Texas! I finally decided to take some action against my current living situation. Chris and I get along when we don’t live together, and since I had moved back into the apartment in March, things just went downhill. It’ll be alot better for me, because now I have a chance to start anew, and meet alot of great people.

I have a feeling that this is going to be a great thing for me and I’m really looking forward to it. Hell, I don’t even mind that I’m going to be driving for fifteen hours. Rem helped me out with some directions to get there.

Louisville > Nashville > Memphis > Little Rock > Texarkana > Huntsville > Houston

That’s going to be the route I’ll be taking to get there. I’ll end up taking very little of my belongings with. Mainly my clothes, computer, and xbox. Dad is going to drive down from Chicago to get the rest of my stuff and will drive it back home until I move into my apartment. I’m hoping that my little sister Morgan, ends up coming with dad, and goes on the drive with me to Houston. It’s been a year since I’ve seen her, and we could really use the time for a nice drive and to get back into talking. We really lost contact.

My only worry right now is my job situation. I have to call the Texas stores tomorrow when I get all of the stores locations that would be best for me, and hopefully they’ve got some full-time or part-time spots open. Worst case scenario (which would suck honestly, as I love Best Buy) is that I’d have to work elsewhere, but BB is a top retailer, places like Circuit City, CompUSA and others would love to hire me–at least I hope so!

Things are getting bigger and better for Holdfire. Rem and I recently sent another webhosting company an e-mail offering to buy out their paying monthly customers, but so far no reply from them. We did this because of an entry we read about the owner probably not being able to pay for their server, and essentially losing all of their clients. Holdfire to the request, that’s for sure. But again, no reply, so we’re going to get into contact again, to emphasize our offer, because we’re willing to pay this person for the clients.

My other job has been going good. I’ve gotten the hang of wireless in a matter of days. I’ve done Cingular and Sprint activations so far. Haven’t gotten in a Verizon. I’m also trying to get in a deposit as well. I’ve had a few credit applications go through that required a $300 deposit for each line, and then another guy was for $400 for a single line. Sooner or later I’m going to get it in.

I also found out that I can get an ANR account with Cingular. $25/month for 2,000 minutes, unlimited txt, and 5MB of Media Mall download. The only extra I’d have to pay for would be M2M and N/W. But with 2,000 minutes I wouldn’t even need to worry about it. I’d get it solely for the unlimited txt’ing, and use that mobile just for that. The only downfall is that I’d have to go through a credit check, which in turn means a deposit, depsite the fact there’s no contract? Who knows.

Day #2 of working in Wireless has been decent. Yesterday was a really bad day that I’m going to forget never happened. I ended up working 11:30-8:30 all while getting paid time and a half. Thank-you Memorial Day!

Never in my life have I sold so many iPods. I honestly think I sold about 20 ipods, and each of them either had the “PRP ((Product Replacement Plan – replacement of covered products, with no deductibles or other hidden charges. more))” attached to it along with a case (or other accessory) or a “PSP ((Performance Service Plan – ensures the long-lasting enjoyment of your purchase with comprehensive coverage more))”. That’s a feat in itself. I asked Alicia who has sold the most in a day, and she mentioned one of the front-end girls having sold $500 worth, but that was because it was on the XBOX 360 release day. So hopefully we have good numbers for tomorrow. Our budget was for $7,000 and my other co-worker didn’t think we’d be able to hit it. I hope I got it all in though.

Hopefully I will have more days like today, then I’ll actually look forward to work. Computers is still going to be my favorite department, and honestly I’m really still upset over being transferred out of it. I loved working with Rocker, and the other guys, and with Geek Squad. I’ve had the most fun there, and I’ve definitely gotten alot better with my customer service, and just overall attitude about the job. I fucking loved it there. So who knows, maybe the same can be with wireless, once I’m in there for a few months.

The perks aren’t too bad either. I can get a free phone and [regional] plan from Verizon, or a $20 plan from Sprint (that includes all the bells and whistles, 1000 mins) but buy the phone. I’m not sure what we can get from Cingular, but I’m sure there’s a deal as well.

Holdfire is doing great this month. Definitely am ending the month on good terms, and I hope that June looks even better. I really love that Rem has been helping me out with it alot lately, and I’m really grateful for it as well as loving it 😀

Well I got Linux (Ubuntu) installed last night. (Okay, with the guided help of Rem, there ya happy! Maybe I should put that footnote plugin to work, so I footnote everything I ever work on since you seem to help me with it!) So far I’m loving it. I haven’t had a chance to really use it yet, but I’ve messed around with it enough to understand the concept of it. I was telling Rem last night that I might consider using that as my desktop OS and just putting Windows XP on VMware instead. Who knows though, because that will require me reformatting again and I’m not sure if I really want to go that route. We’ll see though.

In the next couple of days I plan on really working on aow, and changing the theme to one of my own. I haven’t had a chance to finish tweaking with this one, and the amount of validation errors were just too much to even go through and fix them all. I have a theme ready to use right now, but I have to go in and add all of the plugins, but of course I’m too lazy to do right now. Also plan on adding some content. I really want to add my recipes up, so I’m sure that’s what I’ll be adding soon. I dont’ care too much for content, because I can list so many other sites that visitors could go to instead.

Pink eye is slowly but surely going away. It’s still a bit itchy, and dry but hopefully tomorrow it will be all cleared up. I’m wearing glasses right now and will be for a long time, unless I get order contacts online without having a Doctor verification on the prescription. Now I remember why I never wore these glasses. With my short haircut, I look like a librarian–or so Rem says.

Well, I woke up this morning with my right eye entirely shut from all of the dried up mucus. Go to the bathroom to see that my entire eye is red, still achey (it was hurting last night), and watery. Was scheduled for work today, so I didn’t want to call out, so I went in anyway. Was told that I needed to go back home, but I was able to stay for 30 minutes while the store was still closed, to make sure that Adam, my co-worker actually came in.

So here I am a couple of hours later, dreading the thought of waiting hours in at the doctor’s office. I have to run to the bank to get some cash out, because I have a $25 co-pay, but 100% of the rest is covered by my insurance (United Heatlhcare). Guess I should take a quick shower (my hair is nasty) and find a book to take with, because I foresee me being there for at least 2-3 hours. This is going to suck. -sigh-

I guess I should also take initiative and call around optomotrists to see who is taking new patients, and to get an appointment set up. I need to get my eyes checked out, and a new prescription for contacts; I’m on my last pair, and now that I have pink eye, my right contact is infected. So I need to buy more solution that will hopefully disinfect it. Who knows.

edit 5:20pm – I ended up going to Norton Immediate Care center around 1pm. Thought I was going to be stuck there forever, so I packed up my ipod to watch a movie there. I endedup waiting max of about 10 minutes.

The doctor confirmed that I had pink eye and also did a bacteria swab on my eye to make sure that it wasn’t anything else. She then gave me Zymar for the bacterial conjunctivitis so it wouldn’t spread to my other eye. Then she referred me to an opthomoligist, and was able to get me in today as well. So after NIC I went over to a Dr. Black’s office (Eye Associates I believe?) and she took a look at my eye as well.

Confirmed what I already knew, and agreed that the drops I was given will be excellent to help rid of the infection. Also tested my eye’s pressure to make sure it wasn’t anything else, and scheduled me to see her again on June 6th pending my eye is good to go. Now I have to check out with United Healthcare to see if my VSP will cover for their service and vice versa, because I could really use a new prescription and an order for contacts. I’m entirely out, and after today I’ve noticed that my eyesight has gotten a little worse. And to think I’m currently at -5.00 pres.

Time to go find my glasses. I had to throw away my [right] contact as well as my mascara and eyeliner, to prevent future infection. I can’t see with just one contact in, so I need to get to those glasses. Haven’t worn them in well over a year. Hopefulyl I can find them!

Well, after a year and a half of smooth sailing with my computer (or rather the hard drive) it finally decided to take the world’s hugest shit on me. It didn’t even die, that’s the worst part. It ended up getting horribly corrupt to the point where I couldn’t delete files without getting read and/or CRC issues, nor could I install various programs (though some worked just fine!?)I wasn’t able to backup anything. The zip I made of my important documents, was going to take well over 24 hours to upload (wtf?) so I decided that I needed to get used to a clean plate to work with. I’m going to ship the drive to Rem so he can take a look at it and work his magic. There’s over 3,000 photographs, and about 2-3gb’s worth of website files. But right now I’m fine with the thought of not having the back. Sometimes it’s good to have a clean start. -shrug-

I’m now running a 120gb Seagate (ATA). Well, it’s not running YET but I just took out the old drive, and put in the new one. Going to boot from cd-rom, so I can install a new OS. My other problem I came across after the drive pooping: Not having my old restore disc, aka I am SOL. Thanks to Rem (again! what a life saver) he went ahead and uploaded it for me, so I could burn the cue file to a disc. So I have to get that started, but right now I’m taking a break and enjoying some Chocolate Marble Ice Cream, and checking up on e-mails and writing this post via Chris’ laptop (the one I’m blaming for my Maxtor’s death!)

I’m excited because this kind of gives me a chance to get everything anally organized. I’m going to partition for the os, one for programs, one for photos, one for music, and one for website files. It’s going to look rather snazzy. Then once I get all of my programs uploaded (it’s going to be a bitch, I have so many in regards to photo editing, os themers, and various other programs.) I’ll worry about uploading my ipod’s hd. That was the one thing I wasn’t worried about–my music, all 30gb’s of it. Hehe, it’s on my ipod, and I knew it was as simple as downloading a program to be able to upload from the ipod. sweet.

Back to getting my computer back into tip-top shape.

edit: Well, my computer is now back up and running. Installed the new hard drive, installed Windows XP Pro, and updated the drivers. Currently reinstalling all of the software programs. It’s a bit tedious and frustrating since I can’t remember the names of some of them–but maybe that’s a good thing. I’m also going to let my iPod upload while I’m sleeping. Which I should be doing in a few minutes…

Almost a year of not cutting my hair (aside from a couple months ago when I trimmed off part of my nasty mullet that gew) I finally got it cut again. Generally I tend to pick shitty haircuts that I’m dissatisfied with within the first month or so. So I really don’t know if this haircut is going to end up that way or not. I went with an A Line style cut, which is a first for me. That and having my hair so short. I’m still trying to get used to it.

In my last post I talked about a customer, Jerry, and how I helped him buy his first computer. Well, he gave me a call at the store today, and thanked me for being so nice to him, and for taking my time to help him get his laptop. Told me that he spent fifteen hours on it the night he got it. Mentioned that he’d be in next week to buy a bag for it. I’m so glad he called, because after I left work, I felt disapointed for not telling him to call the store once he played around with it.

This weekend is going to be a very busy weekend. Rem and I are going to install Linux on my computer. I’ve been dying to get this done for quite some time and finally ask him to help me do it, because well, I’ve got Friday and Saturday off. What better way to spend it!? We’re also going to put the finishing touches on HF. Just minor details like retweaking the layout, customizing whmcs so that the design is incorporated into the main style of hf, and to create a logo for the software. Other then that, life has been pretty good.

Time to go look at round trip plane tickets to Houston. SOMEONE changed my mind on driving down there, so I’ll be flying there instead. It’ll be my first flight too! A month away! YAY.

How work was today, is how I wish it to be every day. It was busy, and the customers were amazingly friendly. I was with one customer, Jerry, for almost an hour, talking to him about laptops and everything else related. He had never owned a computer before, was a 52 y/o disabled war veteran. He was just so happy with my helping him, and talking to him about the little things people take forgranted, and was so appreciative. At one point when I was walking towards the software section to grab him a Texas Hold’Em Game, I felt like I wanted to cry a little bit because he was so happy by my simple act of kindness.

The “customer service” aspect of it was long gone. I just wanted to get him what he needed, and for him to enjoy every second of it. It’s customers like Jerry, that actually make me love my job. I truly hope that in a couple of months, after his hip surgery on Wednesday (he was very outgoing ;)) he’ll still remember me and his promise to stop in to see me and sign up for Insight Cable Internet and In-Home Networking from Geek Squad. More so just to remember my name, and how I helped him out. He also wished me to have the best weekend and to have a Happy Mother’s Day. Told him I’m only twenty and too young to have children, to which he retorted that he had two by the time he was eighteen.

I still hope to hear back from Charter. If not, then I’ll put in my JOS application for Geek Squad City at the end of this week. I really don’t want to work a second job, but the extra money will really help me out with bills, rent, and being able to save it for future needs (vacations, moving, splurging.) Time go to take a nap, I’m exhausted.

I got paid yesterday, and afters bills and rent, I have $55.44 to last me until May 26th. It’s to the point where I can no longer have a day where I do NOT think about money. Part of it is because I was never really “taught” how to be responsible with money–hell, I really wasn’t ever taught anything about life, I just did it as pleased.

It’s to the point where I’m looking at a second job. Earlier today I applied (again) to Charter for their “High Speed Data Specialist I” position. I have a couple of friends that work there, and I talked to one of them while I was doing the application, to let Shawn (HR) know about my application (again). I applied there back in March, and I received a call back, however it was right when I got deathly ill during a weekend, and I never got a chance to get back to the guy. Hopefully this won’t deter him from contacting me again.

There has go to be a better way to get money, then to actually have to work for it. 😐

I’d like to say that I’m pretty sane and lacking any kind of mental illnesses, but I have come to the conclusion that I have an obsessive compulsive disorder with alarm clocks. Every night before I go to sleep, I will set three alarm clocks for the same time. You know, in case one doesn’t go off, two others are there for backup. Or in case I didn’t turn one or two of them on.

Not only that but the process of how I go about setting the alarm. I’ll set the time, then turn the alarm on/off several times to ensure I have it for set for the AM time and that it’s on, and will work. One alarm clock is by my computer, another is by my bed, and the last one is my cell phone.

After this morning I just sat there thinking “Wow, I have an issue with alarm clocks. I am definitely OCD.” But I don’t really mind this, because I’d rather not fuck up my alarm and NOT wake up–oh wait, like this morning.

I didn’t go through that process last night for some reason (first time ever) and had only set my alarm clock on my cellphone. I checked, double-checked and triple checked it. When I woke up, I shot out of bed, looked at the clock by my computer, and saw that it was 10:05am. I was supposed to be at work at 9:45am. So I panic, and fumble with my cellphone trying to call work, while trying not to sound like I’m about to cry. Told the opening MOD I slept through my alarm, and would be into work asap.

Generally I don’t worry about getting written up becuase in most jobs–I never do. But twice in February while I was carless, I had gotten written up, so that meant anything else past that would result in me being terminated. Well, I get to work and I’m stressing out, hands shaking, waiting to get canned. It never came, and apparently I was off the hook.

Moral of the story:  It’s okay to be OCD with checking the alarm clocks 10 or more times to see that they’re set for the correct time, and hopefully will turn on.