Wii have Fitness

Sometimes it's nice getting those annoying e-mails from vendors. New Egg sent one this morning that said they had Wii Fits in stock. I checked right away and they were still there so I bought one. It's too bad it's on a Friday, that usually means I won't see it until Wednesday or Thursday. I did get rush processing so they should be able to get it on a truck today, but it's going to sit in California or Iowa all weekend :(. The other downer is that there's $12.99 shipping on it. However, it's not in stores around Beaver Dam at all and I'm sick of driving around Madison for one. Now Pam just has to figure out how to pry me away from Rock Band to be able to use it.....maybe we should get a 2nd TV (hint, hint)

The plasma place didn't work out. They're open til 6pm but stop taking new donors at 4pm because the new donor process is freakin 3-4 hours long. Apparantly they do a physical exam and everything. So now I'm actually taking time off from work to go through the new donor process and then hopefully subsquescent visits I can get in after work. With any luck I should have the $90 before the 13th to get the Resident Evil 5 collectors Edition. Failing that, I'll still be able to buy the game (even if I only do 2 donations).

So I suppose that's it for now.

Fluids for sale

So anyways, despite the fact that we got almost $6000 in debt paid off, money's still pretty tight until we can straighten out our house payment (and even then that won't free up a lot). I'm actually considering selling plasma to a plasma bank here in Madison. Now of course I don't know how that will work out, what the hours are, etc. but I think I'll be giving it a try. It'll be worth it once I get the collector's edition of Resident Evil 5 in my grubby hands.

Also on the list of swag to get:
-Iphone or iPod touch
-Nintendo DSi - a street date of April 5th has supposedly been annoucnced so yay for that.
-A few more piercings/tattoos. I technically have to get a tattoo for my 2nd kid as I have one for the 1st and I want to get my eyebrow repierced
-New Rock Band guitar controllers and a Rock Band 2 drumset
-Possibly an XBox 360. I'm not a fan of the three shitty but there's quite a few decent exclusives for it, so....maybe.
-If I can swing it I want to go see Stephen Lynch at the Barrymore on the 7th, but that's really pushing it.

Either way it's yet another thing I'm doing for some more dollars.

I broke down and got Rock Band 2 and I'm really liking it.

The Pros:

-Better Career Mode (you can hire staff, and there's more venues to play at)
-Difficutly seems easier. I've 5 starred almost everything I've played on drums the 1st time
-Less Harmonix songs. It's not that I don't like them, it's just that I want to be able to download them and listen to them outside of the game to learn them.
-Import Rock Band 1 songs. Other than 'Enter Sandman', 'Run for the Hills', and 'Paranoid' all the Rock Band 1 songs can be brought in which will give you quite a bit of songs to work from.
-No solo tour. You can now do World tour by yourself, that way you can progress in the tour if you don't have a band. Woot!
-Trophy support. Rock Band 2 has 50 trophies to earn from just starting the game to completing the Endless setlist (all 85 songs in one playlist) on Expert. I managed to get 100% on drums and vocals in Expert on a few songs, but I don't think I'll be able to pull it off with guitar and bass unless I get some improved intruments.

The Cons:
-For your band scores to count towards the online leaderboards, you have to play in online mode. However, if your PS3 disconnects for any reason it will cancel you out of the song you are playing. It's fucked me twice now. Quickplay scores will be added to the leaderboard without it having to be connected for some reason.
-You can't import your band from Rock Band 1. The number one thing is your scores on the songs from RB1 don't get carried forward and you have to recreate all of your band members.
-The Harmonix songs are integrated into the game so you'll have to learn them if you want to 5 star everything on World Tour
-Some of the trophies are downright brutal and punitive to those who can't field a full band or can't play shit on Expert. For example one trophy is to get an 8X band multiplier which can only be done with a full band. We will probably get 4 people together eventually but it doesn't happen often.
-The drum trainer. There are 4 trophies set up for this that require doing x # of patterns at a specific BPM. The problem is that when you go up in levels the patterns get faster and way more complicated and you never see some of them in a song so what's the point. I'd rather just practice a song.
-I'm a friggin' addict and that's not good.

Anyways, that's pretty much all that's going on in my life right now.

The train definitely is not a-rolling

Note: You Know Who: you will probably not want to read this, as I'm bitching about money. I need to vent on this but I can't stop you from seeing it. No more fights please.

On the road to financial success we've made progress but have hit a few potholes too. My wife and I finally (after 6 yrs of marriage) have gotten a joint checking account. A lot of it is that I always feel weird having to use a card with her name on it when making purchases. I've only been hassled about it a few times in 4-5 years but it's still weird. On top of that, all of my online purchases I have to put in her name because she's the account holder.

Anyways, we got a sweet deal at West Bend (now Westbury) Bank. If you:
-Make 10 credit purchases a month and
-Have 1 direct deposit or 1 automatic bill payment a month and
-Check your online account at least once a month

You will get 4.44% interest paid out on your checking account balance and out-of-network ATM fees (up to $25) refunded. That's almost double the FNBO Savings account I just opened. Now of course we don't usually have too much in the account, so we won't get too much in interest but it's still nice. Also even if you don't meet the criteria for the month, you still get .2% Now we just have to go through all the hassle of switching our account stuff over. I've got my Direct Deposit changed and now there's an automatic payment or two we have to work out.

However, as I've been tracking the finances more, I thought (at first) that we had a lot more money to save. However, I was really tired and failed to account for a few things. Pam redid it at work and found that we have a lot less than I thought. Money really makes her anxious and when she's anxious she yells at me. I suppose it's her right, but when she starts getting into how I'm getting nothing back for my 60,000 in student loans, I think it's a low blow.

I mean she's right in a sense. While I'm doing better than if I hadn't gone at all. I'm only making $3 more per hour than when I was at the factory, so that's not really worth the 60000 of debt I incurred. I have a CIS degree which I've never used for a programming job. I could not find a job after I left school the first time. Looking back, I didn't try hard enough but still I did try and didn't get any callbacks because I had no experience. So in order to not pay on the student loans, I went back for a CNT degree (networking). Using that, I was able to get a job, but it was only through sheer luck, as my neighbor ran a computer repair shop and hired me. I saw that a lot of jobs are requiring a Bachelor's degree, so I got a BS in Technology Management, which was a waste of time and money in my opinion.

So yeah, I'm 60000 in debt and working a $15/hr job that I can't get promoted to permanent employement (The state has a hiring freeze) and with the economy, I can't find a new job. Even if I could, it would be hard to move up because someone would have to take a chance on me. I've been repairing computers/general help desk for 4 years now but I'm not doing much here that would translate experience for a higher paying job. How do people move up? I don't know? I can't get experience because I have no experience....and that makes me anxious and depressed because I don't know how to get out of this hole.

So anyways, when that comes up in arguements it always makes me feel like shit because I did need to go to school to get the jobs I want, but I made so many fucking mistakes that it ended up doubling my student loan debt. If I had just gotten my CNT and had been done with it, I'd only have 25-30k worth of debt, which is much more managable and it would all be through the gov't. As it is for my bachelor's degree I had to take 12,000 out in private loans which my wife cosigned on so now she's on the hook for it too.

All this makes me a saaaaad panda. So I'm going to stop talking about it before I jump off a bridge or something.

How aboot them Steelers, eh?

Crazy game last night. I think that rates as one of the top 3 Super Bowls that I remember. Patriots - Giants last year was good and the Patriots - Eagles in 2005 was fairly good too. I would have said Patriots - Rams from 2002 was a good game but I missed half of it (and no, I'm not a Pats fan, I just like games that are close in the 4th Qtr.). It's too bad that the Cards didn't win. I would like to see each team out there win a championship so that the fanbases can stop bitching about not winning the Big One. Of course teams like the Cards, Lions, and Browns all have NFL championships to their credit but no Super Bowls, so the fans will still bitch about that. Oh well. I'd like to see my 49ers make a return to postseason glory and tie the Steelers for most Super Bowl victories. With the state of the NFC West, it's very likely.

Not much there on the commercial front. The Doritos and hulu ads were pretty funny, the Pepsi ones were OK and Budweiser just needs to stop right now. I'm tired of made up words and Clydesdale horses. I'm shocked actually that Miller didn't do a commercial, I suppose though that they did save a good chunk of money by NOT doing one.

I loved the 3D ads, but a note to the ad people for Chuck.... if something is 1 dimensional, that means it exists as a point on a plane. The gimmick where Chuck and whoever else transformed into something with no depth is 2 dimensional. I know you idiots didn't pay attention in geometry but come on, it's the Super Bowl, you need to give 110% and bring your A game.

Oh and here's how stupid I look in 3D glasses, in case you were wondering


Also there's too many damn movie trailers. The new Fast and Furious looks retarded (big shocker there right?), I really don't care for Angels and Demons, both Pixar movies are intriguing but I'm not paying for my kids to not sit through another movie when they could do that at home. The only one I'm really interested in is the new Star Trek and I know about that already.

One other thing is that John Madden is a dirty dirty old man. Between all the talk of Larry Fitzgerald's big strong hands, and Ben Rothlisberger "pumping it, reloading, and just putting it in there" I couldn't stop laughing. So thank you John Madden for making the actual commentary more enjoyable than the commercials.

12 ways to keep a tech support guy happy

Today's been a really awful day for people stepping on the things that annoy me. If anyone should ever have to call into a tech support call center here are a few things to keep in mind:

1) When calling, do not launch into a 3 paragraph description of your problem right away. First of all we need your basic information to start the ticket. Secondly, we have to type most of this information in the ticket so don't just assume that we are keeping up with you. Instead state your name and a brief description (be more specific than "It doesn't work") of the problem and when we're ready we will ask you to continue.

2) Do not argue with the technician if he asks you to do something you've already done. As the fictional Dr. House likes to say "everybody lies". We are usually required to document in the ticket that we have asked you to do basic troubleshooting steps (rebooting, checking the cables, etc.) before we continue with more advanced steps or sending the ticket to another department. Please just humor the technician and do what he asks. Many times we'll put a new twist on the step that may help fix the problem. Instead of logging out and back in, we may want you to restart. Instead of restarting, we may want you to shut down and disconnect the power for a minute.

3) Follow instructions and don't get ahead of the technician. If we say open Internet Explorer and you open Outlook it gets in the way of us being able to help you. Listen carefully to the technician because we will typically not just fix it for you, we'll need your help. If you don't understand or don't know just ask. We would rather answer a question or explain something than have you lost because you aren't listening. Conversely don't assume that you know what the technician is asking you to do. If you are two screens ahead doing something else that is very irritating

4) (Could possibly be 3A) Don't bullshit us. 99.999% of the time we know more about computers than you. That's not arrogance, that just fact. Why else are we working here and you are calling us? That said, if you don't know something, just say you don't know or ask. We'd rather tell you that the thing you are resting your feet on is your computer tower and not have you tell me that it's the CPU, modem, etc. Another thing is that if you're not sure about something please ask, it really cuts down on wasted time. For example: I personally worked with someone for 10 minutes asking them to do various things with the computer (reboot it, pull the power, etc.). I finally asked what they see on the case. "Uhhh, Hewlett Packard Laserjet" THAT. IS. A. PRINTER!!!!

5) Don't say "I don't know if you can help me" - this is very insulting to us even if you don't mean to be insulting. We are paid to help you, if you call that is what we will do. Even if it's something we don't handle we will let you know where to get help or if it's beyond help

6) Don't ask us why something doesn't/didn't work - Honestly, do you really care that a registry key wasn't set or that an .ini file was corrupted? It's a waste of our time because you'll forget it as soon as I hang up. You called, it didn't work, we looked at it, and now it works. End of story. If we think you need to know why something happened in order to stop you from doing something that is causing the problem, we will let you know.

7) Don't constantly interrupt us and/or freak out. We can take it a few times because we know how stressful computer problems can be but your interruptions/freaking out are distracting us from doing our jobs.

8)If you are told that you will receive a call when your problem is fixed and it HASN'T been more than a day since you called do NOT call back asking for a status update. Calling more often will not fix it any sooner and just pisses us off. For most problem, give it 2-3 days before getting a status update. Consider that you aren't the only one with problems. For example, at the DOC there were about 35000 tickets called in last year. Those 35000 tickets are serviced by 62 people. There are 6 people who take the initial call, 3 people in 2nd level, and no more than 6-8 people in each 3rd level team (Software, desktop, server support, etc.). At any one time they could have 10-100 tickets open per group, each crying out to be worked on.

9) When calling and you need it fixed now or are calling on something that we need to speak to you with (usually password resets) stay on the line until someone answers if you don't have anything else to do. If there's an alternative method of contacting the help desk (e-mail, voicemail) that's fine, but don't be surprised if it's not handled very quickly. Our main responsibilities are taking calls.

10) Do not ask about problems unrelated to what's happening now.. I'm specifically talking about if you are calling the service desk for work, don't ask about problems with your computer at home. Even if we choose to humor you and help, it distracts us from the problem at hand and also keeps us from speaking with other customers who are waiting.

11) If you are put on hold and can't hear music, the tech has muted the microphone. They can still hear you so don't start talking smack.

12) If service desk hours are from 6am - 5pm, here are some times when you may get a tech right away. 6-7am, 8-10:30 am, 1-3 pm. Any other time, coverage will likely be short and you may have to wait. Now of course if you all call at that time it will tie up the lines, but that's just something to keep in mind.

They may seem like nitpicking to some of you out there, but I'm only putting out there to enhance my experience and yours should you ever get me on the phone. Do you think these are justified? Am I an asshole? What would you change? Let me know in the comments. If I'm wrong, I'll gladly admit it.

The man is keeping me down

The recession (don't you DARE call it a depression) is really starting to hit home now. We were informed that because we had a shortage in our escrow account for property taxes this year that we'll be paying $80 more on our mortage. The cost of food is steadily rising, where we'd normally pay $100 every 2 weeks we're paying $150-$200. There was a scare that clothing resale stores (such as Goodwill) would no longer be able to sell kid's clothes unless they were tested for lead. This has since been clarified http://www.ohio.com/news/top_stories/37555019.html. Despite paying an extra $50 last month, our energy bill is $50 higher than last month because the billing cycle was 36 days. WTF?

What pisses me off the most is that there are goverment roots behind all of this bullshit. Our mortage is held by the USDA, the gov't is partially responsible for food pricing (price ceilings, etc.). They created the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act . and are partially responsible for energy pricing. Add in the mandatory taxes and stuff and your lower income Americans are drowning in this. That doesn't even take into account the credit card debts and student loan debts (also held by the gov't) that we and others have.

On top of that, I'm a contractor for the state and our contracts only get renewed every 3 years (or so I was told, I think it's a crock of shit) and with the budget crunch there's no extra money for me. Pam's maxed out at her job so there's no money there. So where in the fuck is your average family suppose to get all this extra money from and be able to pay down their debts?
Here is what we're doing:

-Making our own laundry detergent. There's a really good article at http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/. I used recipe #9 and while it was a little messy to make, by my calculations we should be saving $65 a year.

-Unplugging everything not in use. My electronics shelf is a sucky beast even when everything is off, all the status lights and idle network traffic is a drain. Same for the computer, that is on 24/7 and it really could be off more often with the modem, cable modem, etc unplugged.

-Turn down the heat....again. We already keep the house nippily cold, but we've dropped the temp another degree. Here's hoping my cock doesn't fall off. I guess I'll just have to "keep warm" with Pam in bed, hurr hurr hurr.

-I'm now getting my hair and the loofah wet, turning off the water, soaping up and then rinsing it off.

-We're going to have to start weatherproofing the windows again (at least the ones that haven't been replaced.

-Go thrifting more. Goodwill and Salvation Army are great places to get clothes, especially for kids. As fast as they grow there is no fucking reason you should be spending a lot of money on clothes. At Goodwill nothing is over 4.00 and we're talking some good clothes, barely used and labels like Gap, Calvin Klein, Old Navy. We spent $150 this weekend and the kids are set for the next 6 months. See how many outfits you can get from Gap for that much. I dares you.

Alright, I gotta cut this rant short because it's busy as fuck at work now. Go figure. Sometimes it feels like I'm the only one here :(

"I hate my job, all of my rich friends I hate everyone to the bitter end. Nothing turns out right There's no end in sight I hate my life! " Theory of a Deadman

Busy at doing nothing

This weekend was pretty lazy. Friday night we had Kristi and Brandon over for some Rock Band action. It was decent except for Brandon wouldn't sing and Pam had to keep hassling him about it. Pam went one drink over the line and had to drop it off at the pool :)

We sat around all day Saturday catching up on 1st season of 30 Days which was pretty sweet and then later Pam and I worked more on getting more stuff in the band section of Rock Band, and that's all we did. Time sure flys when you're have fun. :)

Sunday, we took the kids out to Chuck E. Cheese's and then I proceeded to be a kid. That place is mega expensive though, we blew through 60 bucks there and that was with coupons. We recycled the salad bar plates however, that'll save $11 bucks, which we can then blow on tokens to get tickets to get more worthless crap. We also stopped at the Madison Westside Goodwill. We only had 15 minutes to look but still managed to find some decent stuff. I got a sealed copy of Lost and Found by Mudvayne, Candlebox by Candlebox, Ritual de lo Habitual by Jane's addiction, Sixteen Stone by Bush, and Cereal Killer Soundtrack by Green Jello (and in the original Green Jello packaging, sweet) for $3 each. The kids got some clothes and some old WWF figures :) Thrifting rocks.

Monday, was kind of a repeat of Saturday except Pam had a class in Milwaukee so I played Fallout for a while (I scored one more trophy, almost there :) ) and the kids and I watched House, Monday Night Raw, and 24.

On Tuesday the shit hit the fan. Our cat, Burrito, had been pretty listless for the last few days and Tuesday was pooping yellow and refusing food. That fat fuck never turns down food so we knew something is wrong, so that cost us $60 and pretty much wiped out every extra bit we had in checking. However, there's a possibility that he could have whatever killed Kristi's cat which they suspect may have been FIP, which is a mutation of a virus that most cats have already. It kills the cats in only a couple weeks and is very hardy in the open. We shared our kitty carrier with Kristi and never thought about disinfecting it. However, it's up in the air as to whether the virus is actually transmitted in it's lethal form or if the potentially mutated virus is transferred and then eventually mutates to the lethal form inside the host. Either way, a blood test is $100 and if positive, death would be in a few weeks. The way I see it, if he has it he will die, and if he doesn't die then he doesn't have it. However, I am NOT paying that vet any more money for this. The cat can die at home.

So essentially, I haven't really done too much lately, and it doesn't matter how much I sleep, I'm always tired and cranky. Maybe winter's getting to me? I wish it would go away. I'd like to actually get outside and exercise, and that's a sentence that you normally wouldn't hear from me.

"I'm tired of holdin' up the weight,
The weight of the motherfuckin' world.
All I want is just to get right here
Right now.
We struggle and fight just to get in a grave
That's overflowing
Clock's ticking on my fifteen minutes of fame
Come on now, one two three go" Mudvayne - Determined