Night shots

finger rock
Originally uploaded by surly monkey

The living room is pretty much empty, I'm typing this out with my computer one a tomato box that is serving as the coffee table. Across the room is a frame print of this photo leaning against the cabinet the guinea pig cage is on. Hopefully, we'll have everything out of here tomorrow and can clean the next day.

I've spent a fair part of the evening looking at this photo. It's perhaps one of my favorites so far. This one was taken back in 2004, when I first started playing around with taking night shots. There were a few tries before I got this one and I had to wait for a car to come by to catch it. This particular car turned out to be a state trooper who turned around to make sure I wasn't a dead body on the side of the road.

There is something about taking photos at night that I seem to enjoy. I haven't done it in a while and I'm probably due to get out one night and get some night shots of this city. Truthfully I haven't taken a lot of photos here in the city. Of course another advantage to the new apartment is there is an awesome view to get some shots taken. Perhaps some night I'll catch the moon over Cheyenne Mountain.

Keep your phone

I've come to the conclusion that I feel bad for the customers of the company I work for. Or at least most of the ones I deal with, especially the ones that have phone service with us. People who have switched to our phone service have lost the phone number they've had for years, gone without phone service for weeks on end and lost features that they had with the old land line companies. Put it this way, if one needs a reliable hassle free land line phone, then one should stick with an actual land line company. If the home phone is just there for convience then digital phone is for you.

Of course, I'm sure it's not just the company I work for. I would guess that the other cable companies that are beginning to offer voice services are experiencing the same kind of issues. And only a small percentage of our customers do call in and I only talk to a small percentage of those callers.

Nonetheless, the crap we have to put some of these people through bothers me. I try as hard as I can to make it easier on them by getting the service back on as quickly as possible and guiding them how to properly navigate if they want to cancel with us.

Not that long ago I was enjoying my job but I'm getting back to the point where it's just tedious and once again I feel ineffectual. At some point it will get better or so I hope.

Sorry to bitch to much, but I really do feel bad for some of these people. And sometimes I think they can tell.

Brand old heavies

Sunday night I saw the Melvins for the first time. Until Sunday night I think the loudest band I'd ever seen was (believe it or not) Midnight Oil back in the early nineties. Currently the Melvins tour with Big Business, the core members of Big Business also serve as the Melvins bass player and second drummer. When you first look at the drum kits it looks like they've been fused together, with certain parts shared by both drummers. The mirror image effect is fairly apparent when watching the two drummers.

Big Business set was a nice somewhat brutal way to start the night off. Originally consisting of drummer Coady Willis and bassist Jared Warren, they seem to have added a guitar/noisemaker who I have no idea what his name is. He definitely helps round them out as far as guitar and added to the chaotic music that is Big Business. For a band that rocks so hard, they have a rather subdued presence on state, such as the guitar playing just staring off to the ceiling has he was playing these awesome riffs. Towards the end of the set Dale Crover (drummer for the Melvins) came out and played guitar with them for the last few songs.

Then then the Melvins came on. I'd say they stormed the stage but they sort of just ambled up to their spots and just started playing the first song. They pretty much didn't say anything and played a blistering set straight through to the end. I don't know what Buzz Osborne or Dale Crover's speaking voice sound like at all after seeing that show. Buzz came out wearing a camouflage robe and Jared nice floral print dress. Here again was another example of a band that freaking kills it and yet manages to stay pretty mellow when performing. They seemed to just get up there and play the set. The mirrored drum playing was just intense, those two drummers have some awe inspiring senses of timing. To stand there ant watch them play the twin set was just amazing, I really don't have many works for it.

It really was an awesome show. I was already a fan of both bands but after seeing the two together for the first time, I'm pretty much blown away. I will be going to see them again the next time they swing through.

Stuff, Boxes and Books

Currently the living room is filled with boxes and random pieces of furniture. The move is going to be next weekend so the staging has begun. Personally, I hate the actual act of moving. Carrying furniture is a pain and packing everything into boxes annoys me. Not that I've done much with the boxes other than find them. Much of my stuff is still in a boxes, with the exception of my clothes. Most of my possessions consists of books and music (in the form of CD and vinyl), and Phrank has boxed most of that stuff up.

Having said that, I do like getting into a new place even if this new one is pretty similar to the current one. The big differences are it comes with a fireplace, bigger living room and a balcony that is twice as big as the current one. And the biggest selling point for me is no more having to look at and hear the parking lot right outside. Our new view looks down on the courtyard and out towards NORAD/Cheyenne Mountain. Perhaps my chances of seeing UFOs will increase.

Phrank has been quite industrious this last week with painting furniture, sewing slip covers for both people and kitty furniture and making an awesome stereo table. So far the stereo table is the coolest in my opinion. And I've got a lot more records to score to fill out that thing, yeah the LPs fit under the table. Independent Records has this double LP by the Apples in Stereo that I've been eyeballing. I'll probably break down and buy it soon enough. Inevitably, I'm going to have to learn how to rip my records into some digital format. I know I need a certain kind of cable.

Wow, maybe I've stumbled onto a possible hobby. I've been trying to find one.

Snapping

For the first time in a work environment, I saw and heard someone completely lose it today. Shortly before I was supposed to log in to the phones there was a brief power outage that shut down all of the computers, lights and perhaps the phones. When the lights came back on we heard a lady from the next row start yelling "I can't take it anymore!" At first it sounded like she was kidding but we all quickly realized that she wasn't. This woman genuinely had a freak out. If she would have said something about going to strangle someone I think she would have been just sent to take a walk. Of course having said something like that she got pulled into a managers office and I think sent home early.

Coincidentally, there was a regional analyst on site today who was standing around us when this happened. I can understand where this lady is coming from (although I doubt if I'd snap like that, I'd probably tell my supe "I'm leaving for a bit, if you need to fire me then do so") and told the analyst as such.

It was probably good for him to see that even though it was sort of pathetic and ugly at the same time. We are under quite a bit of pressure and quite a few of us feel that the managers and higher up really have no inkling of that.

What would be awesome is if it caused marketing to slow down some of their pushing new sales and focus on the customers we already have.

I feel safe enough to go to work tomorrow, I doubt if she's going to show up with a shotgun or anything like that. And I do know that if I see some coming in with a firearm, I'm hitting the deck caller or no caller and getting the hell out. Getting shot at work is not the way I want to die. And I still have finger puppets to make.

Finger puppets

Work has become ridiculously busy again. The kind of busy like it was back when I started, people on hold for close to an hour and no end in sight. The shift I'm on is the first eight hour/five day a week shift I've had since I hit the floor here. Which means I now have two days off instead of three. Not having to be there for three days was quite nice and I think the busier it gets the more I'll miss having that extra day.

There is now a new team and due to the doubled call volume I don't even know the names of some of my team members. The guy that sits across from me is affable enough but he pretty much just talks about work. I don't always want to be reminded where I'm at when I'm sitting there. That's why I sit there and play with my phone and take stupid videos of my fingers (although when I watched it the first time, I started laughing in the middle of a call). I think I may make some finger puppets or something for work.

To put it mildly, between the new schedule and the dramatic increase in call volume, I have been really exhausted lately. Hence no entries. It was all I could do to not stay in bed my entire days off this weekend (or yes the couch). I didn't even have it in me to go skate.

And on that note, I'm going to bed

Around the corner

Sometime last weekend fall started making it's presence known. The temperature took a big dip for a couple of days, there was a cloud cover that just looked like fall and the smell of snow lightly tinged the air. The leaves haven't begun to change yet, although today I noticed that the green in some of the trees was starting to dull. Fall is going to be here before I know it and that means winter shortly after.

Fall has always been my favorite season, after the heat of summer the coolness is a welcome relief before the bitter cold of winter (I've never lived anywhere with a truly mild winter). Plus, growing up back east the colors were just spectacular. Colorado Springs does have some trees that aren't willows and aspens for a splash of non-indigenous colors outside of the yellow portion of the spectrum.

My hope is that I can get myself outside enough to enjoy the fall this year, and get some decent pictures. I don't exactly remember but I think I didn't really get out last fall.

Crumbling on U.S. 50

Sign outside abandoned building
Originally uploaded by surly monkey

There is something about abandoned buildings that catches my attention. It's hard to say what it is about the relics that attracts me. I suspect part of it is growing up in Indianapolis and seeing the decaying remains of the Rust Belt. There was this abandoned factory on the downtown side of the Kentucky Ave. bridge that I was alway curious about. One of the last times I was in Indy, I could barely find the bridge and that factory was long gone. There probably aren't that many abandoned buildings left in Indy anymore, with all of the revitalization that city has experienced since I left.

Some of this could have come from living in Muncie as well. That city was smack dab in the middle of the manufacturing decline in the U.S. Once one got away from campus and the residential neighborhoods, it'd be hard to throw a rock without hitting an abandoned factory.

It seems to me that these crumbling buildings have stories of their own. Stories about the people who built and work inside them. And in a way the ghosts of those people still inhabit these crumbling structures. Not in a "ooohhh a scary ghost" way but in the way the energy that people expended inside places like this still lingers in those bricks. There is a sense for me that our history is in buildings as well. It strikes me that at one time (not that long ago) factories were very much American cathedrals. They were at least built as lofty at times.

All I know is that when I see an abandoned and crumbling building, I want to remember it or at least take a photo of it.

Work stuff

Strangely the day I was going to turn in my resignation notice, I got two unexpected strokes. I had my mini performance review and I got an "outstanding" on it, which I was stoked on, the next one counts toward a raise. And later that day I was informed that I had been selected as employee of the month. I have know idea what criteria was used to select that and I'm already getting crap from some people about it. Of course, that was to be expected. the only real plus so far for employee of the month is a prime parking spot (I just open no one messes with the Surly Mayfly).

Like I said in an earlier post, even though this may be a crappy job, I sort of like it. Mostly because I feel like I'm pretty good at it and there can be a sense of accomplishment after getting someone back online. Fleeting as it may seem.

I still hope for the day when I can find work that requires no contact with customers at all. But I realize that those jobs can be hard to find in this day an age. But one can dream, can't they?

Of course I pick a schedule that isn't the greatest because I thought I'd only be there for a week of the new schedule. Hopefully this new schedule doesn't last almost six months like the last one did.

Plans were meant to be broken

Turns out I'm staying in Colorado Springs for the time being. Phrank and I came to a decision to try again the morning I was going to put in my notice. Talk about cutting it close. I'm happy with this change of plans. That's not to say I wasn't looking forward to moving back to Indiana. I was. But I want to see if we can't make this work (and there's always the possibility we could move there together).

Both of us have things that we each need to deal with to make this work. My own part is that I don't open up and I stand up for myself. I'm getting some help with that and I think lately I've been better at it. And I'm kind of boring when it comes to wanting to leave the house.

We also put in to get a different apartment, which among other things has a much better view (that doesn't include being directly above the parking lot), a fireplace and a much bigger living room. Phrank had sold the king bed while I was in Steamboat last weekend so today she bought a queen. I think a new place and a new bed might help with this whole starting over thing.

So it's kind of like we're starting a whole new chapter here. And I'm happy about that.