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I got to work this morning, and found that they had turned the heat off last night.
I’m not kidding around.
They actually turned the heat off, and it’s still in the 20’s.
The people who worked the overnight shift litterally had to wear gloves to type.
John says he put in four service requests to have the heat turned on, and one to turn the air on when it gets to eight thousand degrees in here.
I can’t believe it’s really that hard to keep the temperature somewhere near normal.
Idiocy at work.
They released the new upgrade to the database interface today.
I’ve been instructed to use the old link, (which is running very slow today), until the client’s minion comes out, declares that the new version is accessible, and tells me to try out the client’s latest attempt at bestowing a gift on creation.
I get to be the guinney pig again, and that’s a direct quote from John.
I hate being in this positiion.
Why do I always have to be the guinney pig in these situations?
I know I’m the only one who uses a screen reader around here, but it feels like I’m the company’s experiment or something.
“Let’s set up some obstacles, and see if the blind person can make it work!”
Or is it just extreme ignorance.
Who knows.
I didn’t get the support position, or the supervisor position, so I’ll be on the phones a while longer.
There’s got to be a way out of here.
In the meantime, I’ll settle for a little heat.

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Since a good number of you read this blog via your friends pages on LiveJournal, I’ve decided to introduce a new feature to the site in order to acquaint you all with some of the blogs I have on my personal blogroll, as well as blogs I happen to find while browsing.
This morning, while looking at the Open Trackback Alliance blogroll on my sidebar, trying to pick which sites to visit in order to shamelessly promote myself, I found Less People, Less Idiots.
I’ve been sneaking peaks at it all day, (whenever I had a break during work), and I’ve laughed every time.
During lunch, I spent enough time reading it that I laughed so hard I cried.
It’s a mix of satire, black comedy, and political commentary, but you can’t really place this guy on any particular side of the debate.
And that’s what’s so cool.
He appeals to just about everybody, unless you’re thinking of Pat Robertson, who he makes fun of as well.
No one’s left out.
This site deserves your attention, no matter what side of the political battle you’re on, or what faith you belong to.
And in case you’re looking for something deeper, he doesn’t just make fun of people for no reason.
There’s always some message he’s trying to get across.
So give it a look-see, and leave him some comments.
Everyone’s bound to find something at least slightly amusing, and if you say you haven’t, you’re just ashamed to admit you did, and you’re feeling guilty about laughing, and you’ll probably be making an appointment with your shrink.

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If only we could have seen it on TV!
According to the AP via Yahoo!, things got pretty rowdy during the latest phase of Saddam Hosein’s trial.
Hosein’s defense team staged a walk-out, Saddam yelled at the judge, and the first witness testified concerning the random arrests and torturing that went on during Saddam’s regime.
Former U.S. Attorney General turned part of Saddam’s dream team threatened to take his toys and go home, but Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin informed him that if he and his colleagues walked out, then new defense lawyers would be appointed.
Way to go!
And now, some wisdom from Saddam: “You are imposing
lawyers on us. They are imposed lawyers. The
court is imposed by itself. We reject that.”
Something worth pondering, about as much as pondering whether or not chalk has a soul.

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I just got done taking a call from a woman who had to be half-baked.
She was completely confused, babbling on about wanting this particular manufacturer’s brand of Hydrocodone, and how she had to have all these special numbers on the back of her prescriptions in order to send them in, and how she was going to find the person who gave her misinformation.
FYI: Members can’t choose the manufacturer of a drug.
It’s not like going to the grocery store and picking up your favorite brand or something.
And why does someone need to take three different strengths of a narcodic like that, along with Alprazolam (the generic for Zanax)?
Really scary.

Shamelessly promoted at: Blogin Out Loud The Land of Ozz Committees of Correspondence

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While browsing the blogroll, I found a link to a post which reports that the White House Christmas card is out, and contains no reference to Christmas, but does contain Psalm 128:7 on it, taken from the Revised Standard Version: “The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.”
If you’re going to include a Biblical verse in a Christmas card, you might as well refer to Christmas.

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As stated here, the caller told me the prescription had been called in on the twenty-fifth, which would put it at a perfectly normal processing rate.
When she got on the phone with my supervisor, (actually the Asc member taking supervisor calls), she said that it had been called in on the twenty-third.
How about you get your story right!
I’ll be the first one to admit when I’ve made a mistake, but there’s nothing I hate more than a caller who just wants to get me in trouble because they don’t like what I have to tell them.
She should have given me all the information in the first place.
I could have helped a little more then.
Now, I told her we wouldn’t wave the expedition fee, and then she gets to a supervisor, provides the rest of the details, and gets the fee waved, making me look like a total ass.

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I’ve got a member on the phone who thinks that, even though prescriptions called in normally take twenty-four to forty-eight hours to appear in our system due to their being entered by hand, and even though prescriptions normally take three to five business days to process before they’re shipped, she’s supposed to just magically get it the next morning after her doctor calls it in, and that we’re supposed to expedite the shipping for free because, (according to her), we screwed up.
I explained that the prescription is going through the normal processes, and that there isn’t any way to speed things along, and she wants to speak to my supervisor.
I really hate it when these people act like they own the world, and they’re going to get me reprimanded because they can’t get their way.
Know what that sounds like?
“I’m telling on you!”
“Mommy, she didn’t give me exactly what I want, so I’m going to throw a temper tantrum!”
Get over yourself!
You’re not any better than the rest of us, so quit acting like it.
OK, done ranting now.

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We had another team meeting today.
We got new (or at least passed-off-as-new) information from the client.
It’s official: We’re not allowed to transfer a helpdesk call to the helpdesk.
Any helpdesk calls we get we have to handle, and that includes the groups we don’t service for members but do for pharmacies.
Project merging is in the air.
I took the test today to finish the application for the support team.
I had to bring the craptop (that’s the nickname I’ve given my five-year-old laptop) to work in order to take it because I don’t have write permissions on
any drives anymore.
The test itself wasn’t hard, but figuring out which terms to search for in ORMess was.
I really wish they’d employ a more robust search tool.
It would make life easier.
But then, that’s me thinking logically again, and we just can’t have that, now can we?

Evans, Georgia, United States
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We had another team meeting today.
We got new (or at least passed-off-as-new) information from the client.
It’s official: We’re not allowed to transfer a helpdesk call to the helpdesk.
Any helpdesk calls we get we have to handle, and that includes the groups we don’t service for members but do for pharmacies.
Project merging is in the air.
I took the test today to finish the application for the support team.
I had to bring the craptop (that’s the nickname I’ve given my five-year-old laptop) to work in order to take it because I don’t have write permissions on any drives anymore.
The test itself wasn’t hard, but figuring out which terms to search for in ORMess was.
I really wish they’d employ a more robust search tool.
It would make life easier.
But then, that’s me thinking logically again, and we just can’t have that, now can we?

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I found out something about my blog today.
Everything’s all squeezed together!
But my screenreader says it’s fine!
I’ll have to fire that thing for lying.
Seriously though, I have to figure out how to fix it, because I want to play the trackback games that a lot of the other conservative bloggers are doing, because it’s just plain fun.
So hopefully, I can find some nice sighted person to help fix the design.
The site may be getting a huge overhaul soon.

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I just got a call from someone who tried to appeal a rejected claim that isn’t even in the system.
In other words, they’re putting the cart before the horse, (or the reindeer before the slay for all you Christmas enthusiasts).
Then, I was told how to do my job, and that there doesn’t need to be a claim in the system in order to make an appeal.
If this is the kind of Christmas cheer I have to deal with, then I’d gladly wipe Christmas and everything associated with it off the calendrical map.
I’m so tired of the commercialism, the greed, and the ideals that are hopelessly held up as the standard when no one even comes close to making it that far.
This is supposed to be the “most wonderful time of the year” for all the Goyim, and most of you make it the worst time of the year for folks like me who are stuck on the phones dealing with the crap, while being told by my employer to make sure you can hear my smile.
I promise, there is no smile to be heard.
To all the sincere Goyim, (and there are some), I commend you for your sincerity and kindness throughout this time when your peers make it exceedingly difficult on everyone.
I wish you a very merry Christmas, and hope your celebration of your savior’s birth is very meaningful.
But to the rest, please don’t spread any more of your Christmas cheer.
We’re only a week into the holiday season, and I’m already sick of the havoc you always manage to wreak on society.

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Some people apparently think it’s their obligation to make lapdances as available as possible.
Some highlights: “A 40-foot motor home was converted into a strip club on wheels, offering alcohol and lap dances to football fans outside the stadium before kickoff of Sunday’s
Tampa Bay Buccaneers game, police said.

Six women performed lap dances inside the motor home, charging $20 to $40 depending on whether they danced topless or totally nude, police said Tuesday.
The vehicle, adorned with a sign for strip club Deja Vu, was parked across the street from Raymond James Stadium.”

Now that sounds like something that would occur in the American South, as in Tenessee, the Carolinas, or Alabama.
But it occurred in Florida.
Half-baked indeed.

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Today hasn’t been as bad as yesterday was.
Still more calls than I’d like, but it could be worse.
We’ll see what it’s like when I get back on the phone.
I’ve spent my lunch break reading blogs, because I didn’t have enough time to pack a lunch this morning.
I’m still getting used to using the Pacmate as an alarm.
I woke up at around 07:13, which gave me plenty of time to get dressed, but no time to pack a lunch.
No worry though, I’ll eat when I get home.
I’m halfway through the day, which is always a good thing.
I’m kind of sleepy though.
I’d love to take a nap.

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This is what we have to deal with on a fairly regular basis, except this time it’s taken the system down completely.

Serious Application Container Issue
HTTP/1.0 200 OK Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 16:08:27 GMT Content-Type: text/html;charset=iso-8859-1 Server: SilverStream Server/10.0

Serious Application Container Issue
If you see this message, a serious problem has occurred from which the application cannot recover.

Please contact support immediately with the information provided. Then close your browser to access the application again.

Exception type is :com.sssw.shr.http.AgoServletException
Exception message is :Error while forwarding request to /db_name/SilverStream/Pages/PagenameXSLTransformer
Please close the browser window before restarting your application.

ERROR : Some unexpected exception occurred during the application login process. Access is denied. Please try again or call support. [ UserInfo : 9001 ]
NoReponse. No known context has been provided. 463930669

Now, in a logic-rich environment, we’d be giving downtime verbage (never mind the fact that the thing is a piece of crap anyway) and having the callers call back in thirty minutes.
Instead, we’re told to put the caller on hold, act like we’re doing something, refresh the caller every few seconds, and then finally explain to them that the system is unavailable.
Brilliant.
That’ll win us some awards.

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Today hasn’t started off well at all.
The alarm didn’t go off again, and the time is set correctly.
I think I’m just going to have to chuck the thing and rely on the Pacmate.
I’ll have to get used to waking up with that alarm.
Then, when I got to work, the system locked up when I clocked in.
I really don’t need that happening because it’s already effected one paycheck.
My paycheck last week was a couple of dollars short, six dollars to be exact.
Then, when I went to put the phone headset on, I found that someone has stolen the little foamy earpiece.
Ghetto bastards!
I don’t have fifty cents to replace it right now.
I really shouldn’t have to replace it.
People should just leave anything alone that doesn’t belong to them.
Is it really that hard?
If they want to steal each other’s stuff, fine.
But leave my stuff alone.
This isn’t supposed to be the ghetto, so don’t act like it is.
Then again, why am I surprised?
It may as well be the ghetto, given the people who get hired out here.
I plan to post about my Thanksgiving holiday later.
Hope everyone had a good one.

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You can definitely tell it’s the holidays from the attitudes of our callers today.
We’re getting yelled at left and right, and several of the supervisor calls have actually been escalated to real supervisors.
These people just need to pay their bills like they’re supposed to, and things would be just fine.
The clincher was from a woman who insisted she wasn’t going to pay $53 for 30 pills, when her doctor wrote the prescription for 30 pills for 30 days.
We sat there going round and round about it, because we can’t take the pills back unless they’re narcotics, which these weren’t.
I’m already not in a cheery mood.
I hope my mom isn’t in a bad mood when she shows up or things could get interesting.

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