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It’s 03:34, and it looks like I’m starting off the secular new year with a weird sleep schedule. But I’m not going to let that get in the way. I’ve decided that I need to fix my routine problem, and that means getting up and doing things at a set time. I still plan to get up like a human later this morning. The laundry’s done, and all I pretty much have to do today is some writing. I’m participating in NaBloPoMo this month, and am looking forward to writing with the prompts provided. Hopefully this will get me blogging more substantively. I would like to get to a point where I’m writing at least one post a day, with some really great content at least once a week, and the big goal with my site this year is to participate in NaNoWraMo, or National Novel Writing Month, in November. And these goals go along with my goals of finding a job, becoming healthier, finding my own place, ETC.

You should expect the first NaBloPoMo post later on today. I’m excited to start writing it. The only part I really have no clue about is a title for it, but practice makes perfect, and I’m sure by the end of the month I’ll get to a point where coming up with titles isn’t so hard for me.

Happy New Year everyone, and may the coming year be prosperous for all of you.

Amanda

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I just came back from talking to the HR director.
I asked him if there are any other positions available in order to get out of this accessibility rut I’m in, and keep finding myself in.
He says there aren’t any in the local center, and that I can always apply for some other position in some other ConUs center, but that ConUs doesn’t relocate agents, so that would be my problem.
I’m supposed to talk to the upper management this afternoon.
Basically, I’m going to go back to the bigger management cubes, and then the upper manager here is going to call his boss, and we’re going to sit and talk about how the client doesn’t want to set up the mirror to the old interface, because that would cost too much money to maintain for two people, and we’ll be back at square one.
We’re going nowhere fast, and what worries me is that this will be used as an opportunity to tell me to have a nice day.
It’s definitely the path of least resistance, and right now I’m in the middle of a fight between two corporate whores who are more concerned about maximizing their profits, and could care less if one or two cube-dwellers get trampled underfoot because of something that was never their fault in the first place.
I’ve been yelling (figuratively) about this accessibility issue for the last three years, and it’s getting me nowhere, and looks like it may even signal the end of the line for me at this job.
Cary isn’t really helping matters.
He’s content to just follow the directives of his supervisor, take calls, then call the support team to do the work after clicking around awhile, and making the caller think he’s actually helping.
His justification is that they’ll monitor him eventually, see he’s screwing things up and then fire him, and then he’ll be out of the situation.
He’s taking it one day at a time, so that it doesn’t encroach on his sanity.
Whatever floats your boat.
Personally, I’m a fan of self-preservation.
I hate this job, but I can’t afford to lose it.
If I could afford it, I would have quit long ago.
So I’m interested in not only fixing the current crisis, but preventing future ones so that I can save myself future headaches.
I don’t think that’s too unreasonable.
I’d love to be able to just sit back, not worry about all this, and just wander aimlessly throughout life.
But in order to do that, I’d have to have no ambition, or even a desire to keep from slipping into the multitude of blind and visually impaired people who are unemployed.
As much as I hate my job, being unemployed is infinitely worse.
I detest having to rely on the charity of others, regardless of the level of sincerity.
It’s not that I wouldn’t be appreciative, and it’s not that I think people are incapable of giving wholeheartedly.
At this point in my life, I want to be able to provide for myself, without undue stress, and without having to worry about whether or not my livelihood is going to be jeopardized by some company’s pet technological abortion that lived.
Is that really too much to ask?

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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 need to be sitting here doing blog stuff about as much as I need another hole in my head.
However, I can’t sleep because I’m all stuffed up, and I’m drinking some orange juice to try to make myself feel better.
I’m also washing a load of laundry because I’m going to go to my mom’s for Thanksgiving and I found while packing that I need a few more things clean.
I’ve discovered an inline trackback plugin for WordPress and a Google adcents plugin for it as well, and I plan on installing those so I can test them out.
I’ll most likely finish this glass of juice though and head to bed.
I’ll also make a pot of coffee in the morning because I only have one soda left, and that’s for lunch.
I just started looking around at some of this blog stuff, and those who know me know how easy it is for me to get drawn into some technological persuit I have no business being in at that particular time.
But then, that’s when the funnest things strike: When you really need them not to.

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I’ve gotten an early start today, so I’ve got a little time left that I can use to blog.
We’re scheduled for a meeting of the “Right Team” (mine) today, probably having to do with our latest monitoring, which John says has bone really well.
Good.
Something positive.
And maybe we’ll even get lucky and have relatively little cue, though none at all would be, I think, optimism to the point of foolishness.
I hope today isn’t as bad as yesterday was though.
I’ve gotten a little more used to the cold, except that I’m having sinus trouble because of it, or the heat, can’t figure out which.
I’ve got some people’s sites to move to WordPress this weekend, namely Jerry’s.
It won’t take me more than five minutes to do, and really isn’t a lot of work, so I figure it’ll serve as my good deed for a few days, and I’ll get it done this weekend, after Shabbat.
I’m going to my mom’s for Thanksgiving weekend, and that’ll be a nice change, even if it doesn’t involve Ze’evi.
He’ll probably end up having to work, but either way, we can’t spend the weekend together, which sucks, but it’s life.
I plan on taking on a major editing project for this blog, mainly just going through it and changing all names that are the real ones to protect the privacy of individuals mentioned, especially the ones associated with work, and definitely the instances where the name of my employer shows up.
Admittedly those entries are really old, but they’re in the archives, which means they’re searchable by anyone.
And I definitely don’t want to end up on that list of people who get fired for their blog content.
I’m not sure when I’ll get to the L-J, and the other one’s OK.
I’ve only got one more sip of coke left, so I’ll end this here.
Everybody take care, and I’ll probably post later.
Hope you’re all doing well.

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It’s gotten really cold here really fast.
Yesterday, we were up in the 70’s.
It was warm enough to have the windows open so that the resh air could come in.
Today, we’re supposed to have a high in the upper 50’s, and tomorrow, in the lower 50’s.
Lows in the 30’s and 20’s.
And from the looks of the forecast, it’ll be that way at least until next Wednesday.
No watch it jump back up just in time for Thanksgiving.

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I got back from the store not long ago.
Andrew was nice enough (as he always is) to take me shopping for food.
He’s one of those sighted people you can really count on.
Aftwerords we went to IHOP.
I had an omlet with onions, green peppers, corn-beef hash, hash browns, and cheese, along with pancakes.
I ate every last bit of it.
I was really hungry.
I’m not looking forward to going to work tomorrow, but I’ve already picked out what I’m wearing, so that’s one thing I don’t have to worry about.
I’m looking forward to climbing into bed and going to sleep.
I plan to come in from work tomorrow and do some laundry, as well as give the kitchen a good cleaning.
No, it’s not a mess perse, but it does need to be straightened up, and I always love the way it smells in here when everything’s been wiped down.
I also plan to wash my sheets and blankets tomorrow night, since I didn’t get to do it today due to the lack of laundry detergent that was remedied tonight.
I can’t believe we’re already almost halfway through the month.
Where has this year gone?
I’m not sure what I’m doing for Thanksgiving yet, because I have to work the day before and the day after.
I might end up going to Andrew’s again this year.
I went last year, and had a good time.
And this year, I won’t have to come home to any roommates.

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I got home from work at around 6:00 this evening.
It’s been a very long day.
I got up at around 7:30 this morning, which was entirely too late.
Consequently, I didn’t have time to get any caffeine into my system before I left, nor did I get time to pack a lunch, which would have included more caffeine.
So it was a caffeine-free and food-free day.
It really sucked.
I hope that never happens again.
I guess I just must have been really tired.
My alarm went off at 6 like it normally does, and I hit the button, thinking I was going to get up in a few minutes.
That turned into almost two hours.
Dealing with the callers today was really way too much.
On top of that, I’m doing my best to keep on top of all these stupid rules.
They can take the one about not sitting at my desk during lunch or breaks and shove it.
If they ever get the internet problem fixed, I have every intention of reading the news or blogs while I’m on my time.
I shouldn’t have to go sit in the break room where it smells like a mixture of every food under the sun (we’ve even labelled the scent “Breakroom,” and would love to try to market it), and listen to all the other idiots squalk.
How about some peace and quiet, like a room where one can sit by oneself for a little while.
The employees of the client at least have that much, and free coffee and hot coco.
It’s not much, but like they say, every little bit helps.
It got really cold here really fast.
I left the apartment this morning, and it was in the 70’s.
Now, it’s in the upper 30’s, and it was 50 by sunset.
I’m glad there’s only one more workday left.

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I was serfing the web earlier tonight, and came across some posts on various blogs that were verry anti-Client. One of them is here. What I read was enough to make me sick.
As much as I hate the callers as a whole, and I hate being abused and insulted by them, I hate even more the lengths the client, and my employer, are going to (or not going to) in order to make a buck.
Let’s just say it really shows.
Give the above post a read.

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I’ve got a few minutes before I have to leave from work.
I really don’t want to go.
Not like I want to go any other morning, but I really would like some more sleep, and could do without being yelled at today.
I’d rather just stay home and watch Star Trek, or do house work, or just lounge, without hearing “You People!” all day long.
But, unfortunately, that’s not the way life goes.

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It’s been a very long last two days.
The calls have been outrageous.
I had one before leaving work today from some woman who said she didn’t like my tone because I couldn’t give her the answers she wanted.
The pharmacy was squobbling over how a script should be entered into the system, and that’s not something we can divulge to members.
Inside baseball, you know.
So she got mad and said “How about you transfer me to someone higher than you, like your supervisor.”
So I told her I’d be more than happy to transfer her to my supervisor, and I tried to sound as cheerful as possible.
You know, the customer is always right, and since I committed the unforgivable sin of offending a customer, I must pay!
She told the Support member she talked to (they play the role of supervisor when it comes to taking calls) that I was being extremely sarcastic.
I told him she could kiss my rear end, and for the sake of this discussion, we’d even be nice and say I have two rear ends just to make it easier.
Customers suck.
I hope to be able to post more often than I have lately.
They didn’t actually fix the serf control system at work.
They set my IP up so that it had internet access, and then gave my IP to someone else, so one of the wonderful (I really mean that) network administrators is looking into it and says he’ll have it fixed.
Those people are really great people.
They get to put up with all our crap, and then take the rap when the system fails, and they have no control over the system.
They’re just the high-tech shepherds.
I wrote some entries late last week, and will get them posted sometime soon.
I also have some articles I’m working on, and they’ll be posted as well, when I get them finished.
Hurray for being able to back date posts in WordPress.
They pertain to news items posted months ago.
I also hope to try to find ways to get the site to make a little extra change for yours truly soon.
I don’t expect to get rich off of it, but a little extra would be nice.
I can’t believe I still have three days left in the work week.
Days take way too long to pass when I’m working in that hell hole I call a job.
Everybody pray, or cross your fingers, or chant, or whatever you do for me to get a new job.

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It’s finally time to end the day. No laundry got done tonight. I found out right before I left work today that I’ll no longer be training. Apparently the client’s go-between didn’t think my employer was going to be billing. brilliant. I wonder if they told their guy in PA. I mean, to tell the truth, this lessens my work load. But I’d really hate for him to just be left in the lurch. I really hope tomorrow isn’t like today was, but that’s probably a vain prayer on my part. Later all.

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It appears as though, (after over twenty-four hours of downtime), we’ve managed to re-emerge into the webosphere. Apparently the site was being moved to a different box. A notice of the scheduled downtime would have been nice. Consequently, I’ll be changing hosts. We’ve had nothing but problems over the last few weeks, and it’s gotten beyond the level of ridiculous.

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While I’m waiting for the client’s man to join the conference call to begin today’s training session, I might as well recount how this whole thing came to be in the first place. A few weeks ago, I was asked by John if I would mind helping someone out who works for the client who is using Jaws. I said I would. So a few days later, I participated in a conference call with this individual. I agreed to help, because I figured it would be the nice thing to do. Evidently, that was my first mistake. I provided all the documentation I got during training, sent an email or two back and forth, and pretty much left it at that. Then, last Friday, I was asked if I would agree to a weekly conference call until further notice. I said I wouldn’t, mainly because I don’t believe it really takes that much to learn this system, and secondly because I was afraid that someone from corporate would take one look at that and eventually conclude that it isn’t reasonable accommodation, and I’d take part of the fall-out. That’s something I can’t afford because I don’t have enough job security to prevent my being sacked in order to save someone else’s skin. I came in Monday morning and stated why I couldn’t accept to John. Wednesday morning, he told me that I didn’t have anything to worry about, because I wasn’t being asked to take on a consultant’s position, and it would just be a favor to him as an individual. That settled things a little. Then, not twenty minutes later, our operations manager came to my desk and informed me that I would participate in a daily conference call, and that I would clock into training billable, which makes sure my employer gets paid. I get nothing extra. The implication was that, if I refuse, my career path would be redirected. So there it is. I’m expected to pass on every piece of information I’ve gleaned over the past two years, every tip and trick, every single keystroke, to someone else, for free, (or rather, for my standard $8.75/hour rate). Even I didn’t expect that one coming. I’ll be extracting splinters from my colon for months. And just Sunday morning, I was foolish to think that maybe this could be helpful to me. I was foolish enough to think that, finally, all my hard work might actually pay off to some degree. Now, the whole thing comes to light. This has been in the works for at least the last month. At first they asked. Since I refused, now I’m being compelled. From what I hear, the client is bending over backwards to accommodate this man. The only problem is, it’s at my expense. I don’t blame him, he had nothing to do with this. But for the foreseeable future, I get to be on display. Ladie and gentlemen, for your entertainment and edification, and to help you get some warm fuzzies, a blind person! I thought I was past the point of being vulnerable enought to be hurt by my employer. Maybe furious, but not hurt. I was wrong on that one too. This whole thing makes me feel violated in the worst manner, like something to be used and then thrown away. I feel cheap and dirty, like I’ve been prostituted ritually in the temple of the dollar. I don’t say that just to be dramatic. I really and truly mean it.

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I slept in late this morning. Fortunately, I woke up in time to get ready for work. I didn’t switch the clothes over last night so my WolfFM shirt isn’t dry, and that’s the shirt I wanted to wear today. I don’t want to go and play lab mouse again. More on that later. I haven’t gotten a chance to post and tell the story. It’s really screwed up though. I hope we’re not in cue today, because I’d like to be pushed around and yelled at as little as possible. Going to see if the clothes are in a wearable state. I hope they are, at least something reasonable.

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The server went down again this morning.
I’m not sure how long it was down for, and I’m not sure how long it’s going to be up.
I started looking at hosting arrangements this morning, but didn’t get far as I didn’t have a ton of time.
I’m really not in the mood to deal with all the members today.
They’re getting on my nerves just for being members.
This whole damned place is getting on my nerves.
I’m fed up with it.