Not the Best Day Ever

The day started a bit goofy. Not anything in particular happened but it felt like it was going to be one of 'those' days. Boy, if I only knew what it was going to turn into, I might have called in sick.

If I looked at the work day up till 4:30pm, I would have just called it an over frustrating day, but then 4:30 hit and the proverbial shit hit the proverbial fan for me. I happened to randomly be walking by the VP, Chad's, office while he and Brandon, one of the managers, are pushing some chairs into it. He asks me to come in so we can talk about a schedule. I really don't have a schedule that I work on cause I am paid on salary so I am thinking that he is trying to get my opinion on the schedule for the call center. We all sit down and he calls my direct manager in. The three of them proceed to tell me that I am being moved back into the call center and I will now be hourly. The position will be for 22 hours per week and I'll be paid $10.00 per hour. So I will go from $500.00 per week to $220.00 This will be starting the week after next. The reason it has to wait that long is that the executive managers, sales reps, and techs will be going on a PAID COMPANY CRUISE. One of the executive managers going on this cruise doesn't really do anything. I see her half the time on Facebook, she updates her status 3+ times per day during work. Another frustrating part is that I was doing inventory in the outside office and have created most of the processes for tracking and forecasting inventory, yet they give the job to someone else. When I got back here, I was told that I was going to be the 'Corporate Office Manager' and take care of the reps here, but it seems that they will be giving that job to someone who just returned to the office. I come back here and they sort of cut my pay, they paid for my housing out in Fort Worth but not here, yet I didn't get a raise. I am incredibly frustrated but really have no idea what to do. I have to find a new job soon I guess.

The good part was that Chad and Brandon seemed to want to help me find a new job. They offered to write recommendations and said that they really do like having me here. It just doesn't really help right now.

Not Much of a 'Photo' Guy

I really wish I had a new profile photo for here and my Facebook profile. The problem is I don't take photos of myself. Getting a good self photo is, in my opinion, pretty tough, and even more so when I only have a cell phone camera. Its funny that most groups have someone that always pulls out a camera and takes about a billion shots. In one of my groups (that's right, I roll in many different groups) that person is my brother. Recently, he hasn't brought his camera out cause his nose is stuck in one of his text books. Even when he takes the camera out, I usually stay out of this flash cause I'm hanging next to him. Though of the few photos that people have taken of me, I am always pleased with the way I look in the ones he takes. He really seems to have a gift for it. (maybe the years of doing it and the classes helped)

One day I will start taking more photos and, hopefully, like the way I look in them. Fingers crossed!

Visiting Buffalo in November (or 'More Proof That I Need To Get My Head Examined')

Whose bright idea was this? Buffalo and Toronto in mid/late November? I did not think this all the way through when I agreed to the trip. I mean, I love my family, I do. I will be excited to see them and be home for a few days, but I would just rather see them in, how shall I put this, more 'livable' weather. I moved away from there because I don't enjoy the weather. I do like the cold (well, mostly the cool of fall) just not a fan of 6 months of snow. I really don't think it's very likely that there won't be snow while I'm up there, but I can hope.

The trip should really be a lot of fun. Aside from seeing my family, which is always a good time, my friend Jeff and I will be going to a few hockey games, one in Buffalo and one in Toronto. While in Toronto, we will be checking out the Hockey Hall of Fame. I think I should research that a bit and figure out some players in there that I would like to see.

This trip will help fulfill one of the items on my bucket list. I recently started a list of places I wanted to visit sometime in my life. It eventually transformed into a list of things I want to do sometime in my life. One of them is see a hockey game in every arena. So far I have seen the Sabres and Coyotes but will be able to cross the Leafs off the list soon enough. Only 27 more to see. The funny thing was that, even though I had always wanted to go to every arena, I was thinking for a bit that I had to plan out what teams I saw where to make sure I see every team. Took me a bit to figure out that if I am seeing a game in every stadium, I will see every team play as a home team once. Duh! Sometimes I am not the swiftest thinker, but who said hockey fans are?

Just Kicking It.

Spent some time hanging with Chris and Jesse tonight. Had a bit to drink and just chilled. Man, I need to do that more often. That 'chilling' part, but now that I mention it....

Quick California Recap

Just a few thoughts about my trip to California.

1. I never want to drive around LA on a regular basis.

2. I wouldn't mind moving to LA. If I did, I would sell my car and bike everywhere. (Or get a scooter)

3. Always nice to hang with my family.

4. Can't say the same about all their friends.

5. Under-age kids that ask me to buy drinks for them really bug me. I didn't do much drinking before turning 21 (I think I might have had one drink about a month before I turned 21), why is it so hard for you to go without it?

6. I hate long drives.

7. Coffee helps keep me awake. So does shouting every song that comes on my iPod.

8. LA can have some crazy fog.

9. Being at the ocean was amazing. I am looking forward to going back some time.

10. I like Cali. just not sure if LA would be the city I would choose. Looking forward to checking out San Diego sometime.

Now to bed.

California Bound!

I will be in California tomorrow! Looking forward to seeing my bro. I won't be leaving till about noon. I said I would do a charity walk/run with my company, but right after that I will be leaving.

Won't have my computer with me so I can't blog. (Not that I would if I could. I'll be in California with my bro! Can California handle that many Debos?) But if you would like, you can follow my updates on my twitter here. Hope I can at least keep you a bit entertained that way.

Pierced My Knee

I was one of the lucky ones at work who 'volunteered' to help clean out the company's old Scottsdale office. While doing this, someone decided to move one of the clean plastic rug guards from one room to the other. You know, those stupid clear, plastic guard for under office chairs that have the little spikes on the bottom. When I went into the office that it was in, I went to pick up a few flower pots that were around it and I knelt down on it. How was I supposed to know he had put it spikes up? I now have 3 small puncture holes on my knee. My, that was painful. Luckily, there wasn't much damage done. Only small whole, but still, ouch.

Also, I just passed 1000 views after my last post. Actually, I think I passed it. I am not really sure, I am only going off what an add-on that I installed told me. I sort of don't believe it's accuracy, but I also didn't have it for the first few post. Who knows. Cool to know that people are reading it.

Am I a Superhero?

At the corporate office for Siren, they have recently put in a call center for one of the owners' other companies. The company is called Green Monster, they work with customer on how to make their house more 'green', at least, that's what I think they do. Anyways, one of the girls from that call center recently gave me a picture. Since the giant printer/fax/copy machine is near my desk, and she was having trouble with it, I decided it would be nice to help her with it.

I guess this has made me a superhero in her eyes. I am now 'super fax dude'. I have the picture hanging by my desk. Not the best of artwork, but MUCH better than the stick figure I would have drawn. It's nice to know some random person thinks highly of me. (Or, as one of my coworkers pointed out, someone that has a crush on me.)

Hockey Season Started!

It actually started a week or two ago but last Saturday was the first home game for the local NHL team, the Phoenix Coyotes. I was pretty excited so I picked up a pair of tickets and was planning on invited a friend who I used to work with at my last job. Sadly, prior commitments kept us from being able to go together. Thinking, 'Who would I really like to go see a hockey game with?', I send my friend Brad a text, asking if he would like to come along. He asks what time the game is and I reply 7pm on Saturday, the usual time for games. I wake up Saturday morning and remember (thanks to Facebook) that its Brad's birthday. It all seemed to work out, I could say that the ticket was a gift, if he didn't buy it, I would offer to pay for parking (which is free at the arena). I even told him that since it was his birthday, the Coyotes were giving away free t-shirts, which they were, in celebration of the first home game of the season. It ends up taking a little while longer than I thought it would to get over to the stadium. We end up parking at about 7:15pm. I keep saying, 'We probably only missed the singing of the national anthem.' While walking in, I check the score on my iPhone and notice the Columbus Blue Jackets, the visiting team, was already wining 1-0. 'Alright!', I think, 'This should be an exciting game if one of the teams already scored this early into the game.' We enter the stadium and don't get handed the advertised shirt. Excited, and not really thinking about the shirt, I lead the way to our seats and we sit down and enjoy the game.
The game was tons of fun with the Blue Jackets holding the 1-0 lead for the whole game. About the time I am expecting the final intermission to start, I notice the Coyotes pulled their goalie. 'Odd', I think, 'There must be a penalty that I didn't notice.' The Blue Jackets get the put and no whistle is blown. Must not be a penalty. I look up at the score board and notice that under where it says 'PERIOD' it has the number '3'. Walking out, wondering why it was only a 2 period game, I check the tickets. The game started at 6, not 7. Yeah, a bit bummed out about that.
At least Brad and I had a good time. (Well, I did and I think Brad did.) After that we went out and got some burgers from Red Robin. (He had a coupon for a free burger because it was his birthday) It was a really good time, always is when hanging with a good friend. The hockey didn't hurt either.

Just remember, always check the time on your ticket BEFORE the event and not just when its over.

Started Looking

It finally got to me. I came home today and decided I have had enough with coming home upset at my job. I started looking for a new job. I have been working for this company for 5 months now. I know that people there actually like working with me (At least I know they ACT like they do), and I do like staying busy with things to do (A problem I had with a few other jobs I've had). My problem with this job is that I feel that I am asked to do what everyone feels they don't have time for. I think I just don't like feeling like the square peg being forced into the round hole. Looking over paperwork is not my forte. I don't enjoy catering to whiny little sales reps whole expect me to do half their paperwork for them. What they make from one of their deals is normally more than I make in a week. I feel bad asking for a raise even though I am doing at least twice the amount of work as I was in the outside office without a raise. Actually, I am sort of making less cause they paid for my housing out there, not so back here and I didn't even get a raise to compensate. The issue I have with asking for a raise is that I know this company isn't a Fortune 500 company, and some of my friends are making less than I am and, at least one of them has had just as big of an increase in responsibility.

The good news is that, in my 20 minutes of looking, I did find 2 jobs that looked pretty neat. I'll apply for them tomorrow, after refreshing my resume. Maybe something good would come out of this.

Random Friends

I have been getting a few random friend requests on Facebook recently. Well, I have been getting this one guy trying to friend me 3 times over. When I get a friend request from someone on Facebook, I try to find out if I know the person. I am not a fan of making friends with random strangers over the internet. I have met many people in my life but I can not recall any guy I met who is in his early 30s, married, and living in Boston. I would think after rejecting it once, if he really wanted to be my friend, would write me and tell me who he really is, but I guess he had better things to do but still had the time to look me up and click the button "Request Friend". By the way, it case you were wondering, we don't share any friends.

Sorry, I don't know you, not going to friend you.

I Love Fish

In the past year or so, I have found that I love fish. I remember having sushi for the first time with some really good friends. Whenever I eat sushi, I think back to that time or one of the many other times like it, good friends and amazing food. Since that first time, I have really broken out of the self -imposed cage of beef and chicken. I still eat them, but if fish is offer, I am always tempted to go that route. I have recently been trying (but not to much success) to cook fish. Though it has been fun to try and cook it, when it doesn't....

Wow this song is awful. I have no idea what it is, but it is so bad that I need to delete it now and tell you all. Goodbye 'P.S I Love You' by the Beatles from the Please Please Me album. Wow that was bad. Anyways....

turn out well, it is a bit depressing. Not like 'end my life' depressing, just 'man, I should be able to do this better' depressing. I know I'll eventually get it, practice makes perfect, right?

Anyways, this all came up cause I had sushi from dinner. Whenever I have sushi, I wonder why I don't eat it more often. Though, compared to how often I used to eat it, it's crazy. (Well, not sure comparing eating it every once in awhile to not eating it at all is that crazy)

A Problem with the Weekend

Not having to work is probably the biggest reason why I love the weekend. Sometimes though, the weekend can really affect the rest of the week. Neither day did I wake up before noon or go to sleep before 2 am. This can really affect my sleep schedule for the rest of the week. I think I sleep so long on the weekend cause of the little amount of sleep I get on weekdays. Its a viscous cycle. I was going to try to break it tonight and hit the sack before 10pm. Well that didn't happen. At 10, I wasn't really tired. We shall see how tonight/tomorrow goes, if I don't get to sleep soon.

In a Rut with Music

Sometime, because I have thousands of songs on my computer, I forget there is always new stuff coming out. I will go days without hearing the same song on my iPod, but I still love the joy of finding a new artist or song that I feel I need to put on my iPod immediately. I will usually play it 2-4 times in a row, to see if I really like it but not more than that cause I don't want to over play it too quickly. Recently, some of the bands/artists I found that I've enjoyed are:

Phoenix
Regina Spektor
Owl City
I am Not Lefthanded
Frank Turner
Ra Ra Riot
Frightened Rabbit
Sam Hart, though I have only listened to 'Mario Kart Love Song'. I think most of my family would enjoy it. You can listen to it here.

It pleases me to no end when I find that someone enjoyed my musical suggestion. Also, I would love to hear if you already know any of these bands and enjoy them. I am always up for talking about music.

And the Alarm Went Off

Actually, the alarm didn't go off. I was late for work this morning. Not really happy about it.

Before I went to sleep last night, I thought it would be a good idea to lay in bed and read for a bit, a normal routine for me. I was reading on my phone when the 20% battery warning comes up. 'I'll just finish the chapter then call it a night.' I think. Too bad I pass out mid sentence before I got a chance to plug the phone in. So I wake up the next day, thinking, 'Man, I feel so rested. Wonder when the alarm is going to go off." I enjoy laying in my bed for a bit till I really start to wonder why my alarm hasn't gone off, and, boy, it sure is brighter than it normally is in the morning when I wake. That's when I reach over for my phone, find it's not there, and it hits me like a wave.

Yeah, not a great way to start the day. Jumped in the shower, dressed, and rushed to work. Everyone said they were worried about me. I felt a bit foolish but that is to be expected. Luckily, the rest of the day went smoothly. I would say it was pretty much an all around good day. Why can't every day start at noon?