Monday, November 30, 2009

no more nervous breakdowns for Jay!

So its the end of the day and end of the month. Yeah i don't see December being very cool at work. I think the exta calls are gonna cause me to punch someone in the mouth. All the calls from Virginia today drove me insane. They were all rude and mean and whiny. All good characteristics. I love it. One lady called and yelled so loud and fast i think only dogs could hear it. I felt like the glass in our centre would shatter not to menion my ear drums. The information she gave me wouldnt bring up an account and this just made her scream louder and accuse me of not knowing how to do my job. She also called me retarded. Nice. She was real pleasant.

So although the month is over i am not looking forward to December. Its gonna be nuts in there tomorrow. I might be smiling by the time january gets here. We'll see i guess. Oh well. Here's to me not having a nervous breakdown in December!!

Monday--ugh!

Sorry for my language but i have to say it. Fucking Mondays. What a shitty day. So we have assigned seating again. Starting tomorrow i have to sit way in the boonies away from Trudy and Deb. Yay. Oh and it just so happens it takes place on the day we start getting more calls from Northern Virginia--the que i hate the most. Seriously if there account is one penny higher than normal they call to bitch about it. What the hell man! I can't believe i have to go back and work another 5 friggin hours. I totally get what Bob Geldoff was singing in his hit "i don't like Mondays." On the plus side i may help Rob out tonight with his show. It was pretty fun last week. Well i gotta get my ass back to hell i mean work. Talk to you later.

250

250th blog Mini wave and celebration for me! A whoo hoo! I should be in bed. Its after 1:00 am and i have to work at 8. We're watching the 25th anniversary of the rock and roll hall of fame concert. Lots of Springsteen goodness! We recorded our show tonight. It went awesome. We did some of our best comic reviews to date. Well it's time for more Boss! Talk to you tomorrow

Jay

Saturday, November 28, 2009

A boring ass Saturday

What a friggin long day. It was slow at work today. I got stuck in training for 2 hours and almost fell asleep. I love my job. Not much to report on today. I just got home and i feel like I'm going to pass out. Not looking forward to next week. We're expecting an exra 30 000 calls this month from the market that i hate. December is gonna be a long ass month thats for sure.

I think I'm going to try and watch the "good" Punisher movie. I'm going to talk about The Punisher on tomorrows show. I think I'm going to go out and see if John is home and try and schedule in some recording. He's agreed to come on next week. I'm actually thinking up 3 shows at the same time. Not to shabby. Can't wait for my family to get home. I really miss them a lot. Feels like forrever since i saw them and its only been about 12 hours. Yes I am a suck. I'm gonna go get some air before i fall asleep sitting here. Talk to you all later.

Friday, November 27, 2009

It's a Punisher Thanksgiving!



Yesterday was American Thanksgiving. Usually we will celebrate with Kath's family. Due to the new passport laws at the border this wasnt to be the case this year. As you are all awae by now-due to me constantly bitching about it- i don't have proper i.d. Kath's sisters family is unfortunately in the same boat. This has been the only the second thanksgiving since 2000 we have missed. Had issues crossing in 2001 due to 9/11. Anyhow we still went ahead and had an American Thanksgiving dinner at our home. We invited Rob and Nickle over and pigged out. For dessert we had fondue. It was pretty cool. We ended the evenong with 2 Punisher movies- the original Dolph Lungren movie from 1989 and Pynisher war zone from 2008. They were both pretty bad. We much preferred the 2004 film with Thomas Jane. We're gonna review all of them on our show Sunday. Guess i should work on a show seeing how i have a couple of days left. Thats all for now. Hope everybody had a nice American Thanksgiving or Thursday as we call it in Canada.

Merry Christmas! Shitter was full!


So we went to the superstore last night and saw something that made me feel old. The 20th anniversary dvd of Christmas Vacation. How the hell is that movie 20 years old? I remember seeing that in the theater. I think that was the last time Chevy Chase was funny. That movie is still awesome. It totally holds up today. Shitter's full! I'll have to watch it soon. Seriously though 20 years old! I am an old man.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Boring ass Jay

Is it ever awesome to be back at work--not. Yup it was the same old day hearing arguements about porn and disconnects. Always warms my heart. I am so happy i have the next 2 days off. Just gonna lay on the couch and veg out. Maybe get some vaccuuming in. Damn i am so exciting. I told someone i was 40 today and saying it out loud scared me. Oh well. Stacey came over to say hi again. Its really cool having her work on my side of the building again. She gave us a nice card. It was very thoughtful.

Just waiting for Kath and Diana to come home. We're gonna hit the superstore for a couple of things. I'm also trying to come up with ideas for our next 2 shows. I can't wait to have John in next week. It should be a good time.

Well it appears i am rambling with nothing interesting to say. What a boring old man i am. Major brain fart going on. I'm gonna go for now. I'm so tired. Have a great night.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Forget the Klingons and lap dances-it;s back to work


Hey kids. Its Tuesday my first day back to work in over a week. Not much had changed. Customers are still dicks. A bunch of people signed a card for Kath and i in regards to her mom passing away. I thought that was really nice. I also got to talk to Stacey a little bit. Filled her in on our weekend at the sex show. It wasnt to bad there today. No one filed a complaint against me. So that was nice. I got sent home an hour early because it wasnt busy. That wasnt so nice. What are ya gonna do?

So as you recall i was nervous about being on Matt and Rob's show last night. It turned out to be really awesome. I've been wanting to go on there for awhile. I had a great time! We joked around and it was really cool. I would definately help them out again in a heartbeat. Had a really cool conversation with Matt and his fiance Nadia after the show as well. Turns out Matt's uncle is Len who ran the comic book store back in the 80's and 90's. I found that facinating. We also bitched about our Niagara College experiences. I felt like we bonded. We discussed a few ideas for Get Your Geek on as well. I'm pretty happy as i asked John to come on in 2 weeks and he's totally cool with that. I'm gonna have to work in a fonzie conversation somehow,

Anyhow i think I'm gonna go lay down on the couch till Kath and Diana get home. It was a long day and i miss them a lot.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Monday:Back to the real world

Here we are on Monday and Kath and i both overslept. Luckilly for me i didnt have to work. Not so lucky: we woke up after Diana was was due at school. She had a long weekend so we let her sleep. Then we both fell asleep on the couches. Eventually Kath went to work. I decided to clean up a bit. Did laundry,cleaned a litter box, did dishes. Worked on stuff for the next show and of course blogged. Diana drew on a big box and made a house. I'm not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. Its ben nice not being yelled at for over a week. I sure wish the radio show was my day job. Speaking of the radio,just got a call from Matt the other producer and Rob has no voice. He wants me to co host their show tonight and speak about the sex show. I'm pretty nervous. I can't say i'm an expert. Ok then my heart is beating fast. Ok then. I'll let you know how it went later.

Sex Show day 3: the wrap up


It was now Sunday. Time to check out. I was over tired. Those who know me know that when I'm over tired i tend to act like I'm drunk. So when i woke up i just went on and on like a bad comedian. Eventually we packed up our stuff to go to the sex show one last time. Today it would end at 6 instead of midnight. We couldnt wait to go pick up Diana. We really missed her. The day ran smoothly. The segments were cool.We all had our picture taken with Santa rob. Plenty of boobs still on display.Ate plenty of junk. Six o clock came pretty fast. Clean up didnt take long and we were on the road by 7:30. Kath and i had a long discussion on the way home about ideas for shows and guests. We arrived at the babysitters and Diana didnt want to come home. She had a great time sleeping over. We finally convinced her to come home after half an hour. We gave her a pesent we had bought in TOronto. It was a pink t shirt with moose all over it. She liked it a lot. Rob and Nickle came over to watch family guy and eat pizza. Everybody started falling asleep so we called it a night. It was a fun weekend and glad we could be a part of it.

Sex show: Day 2:klingons and lap dances


So this brings us to day 2 of the sex show. We got up bright and early at 7:30 am. We decided to cab it to the show. It was gonna be a long ass day. Lukilly i didn't feel tired. Started the day off with an assembly line. We filled up about 500 bags with flyers and condoms so that we could hand them out to people who visited our booth. The show opened at 11. We began to realize that Patrick was cool and had great taste in music. For such a young guy he had a great range in music. We started calling him Roadhouse after that. We made the rounds again and when Rob came out as Santa again i had my pic taken with him. A bit later we ran into 3 people dressed like klingons. We thought they were at the wrong show. Rob got them to agree to come back to the booth at 3 to allow kath and i to do an interview with them. It was cool.

So mid afternoon i had my 2nd incident of not being a fan of the photographer guy. Rob wanted some promo shots of Kath and i for the trainrek website. I was totally cool with that. I thought maybe we would have gone outside and posed a little. There wasn't too many places inside to pose as we are a show that involved nerdy things like comics and crap like that. Nickle came with us because she felt he would try getting us to pose in situations we weren't comfortable in. Ok. As soon as she said that i instantly got worried. So instead of going in the hall way or outside we walked through the show to find suitable places to get our pic taken. First stop? A van that was playing porno movies. Yeah that makes sense for our show. Make sure you get some close ups of anal sex on the monitors. That'll look good on our geek site. i don't even think i was smiling in the photos. Next it was on to the booth that was selling chain shirts and assless chaps. He wanted me to wear something with no shirt. I told Rob i would have been willing to wear the chap s over my jeans--it would have been kinda biker like. i agrees to wear this chain thing over my regular shirt. He seemed pissed i wouldn't take my shirt off. First of all I'm fat and don't take my shirt off ever secondly this has what to do with what we talk about on our show? He also wanted me to take an awesome picture of me staring at a huge bottle of lube. Yeah i was not happy. I was happy when it was over.

Three o clock came and the 3 klingons returned for the interview. They were joined by a guy who had one of the coolest costumes i had ever seen, He was a klingon dressed like Batman! We found out they were part of a group that did a lot of charity work. The interview was cool. I'm so happy Kath was there cause i ran out of stuff to ask. A few times it got noisy so when i asked some questions they didn't hear me. I felt bad but Rob said we did great and it wasn't normal circumstances for an interview and usually we would be prepared if we set up an interview. It was at this point that i had a great idea for a picture for our site. We wanted our pic taken with Bat klingon. His cape actually opened up like a glider. How cool would it be to have him standing behind Kath and i with wings open in a photo. This would make more sense than some of the other stuff we posed with. I asked Rob if that would be ok but the photography guy who had been there in the booth non stop for a day and a half was nowhere to be found. I was pissed. Hmm pic of us by a van showing videos of someone getting peed on or a pic of something that actually pertains to our show. Whatever.

So Rob attempted to cheer me up. He had an idea for a game show. He wanted 2 contestants attempting answering questions while getting a lap dance from 2 ladies at the same time. He picked me to be one of the first contestants against a guy in the audience who was hammered out of his mind. Yes i will admit it was hard to concentrate with 2 naked ladies in my lap. I was actually trying to be funny with my answers and got a few laughs from the crowd. Kath was in the audience cheering me on. What can i say i will do anything to help my friends. What a good friend Rob is to me! It was a funny bit that seemed to be liked by the crowd. Oh for the record i won. One of the ladies told me i was the man. Alright. Giggity giggity.


A little while after that we tried really hard to record a 2nd hour for our Sunday night show. It didn't go so well. We had Nickle sit in. It was so loud from other vendors that it causing feed back on my microphone. Anytime i leaned in to talk i heard a loud buzzing sound. At times i couldn't hear Nickle and Kath and vice versa. It was pretty bad. I wasn't trying to look like a drama queen but i told rob it shouldn't be aired. It was horrible. He said he would fix it in editing. I trusted him to not have us come across as bad.

We continued to work hard the rest of the day until midnight. We cabbed it back to the hotel. Nickle wanted to get some Macdonalds. There was no way i was gonna let her walk alone in Toronto at 1 in the morning. I knew i was really no protection if something happenned but at least i could try and look intimidating. So we went outside and some nice drunk people kept yelling Rock and roll. Macdonalds was also full of drunk people. We saw people asleep on tables and dressed like speedy gonzalez. Good times. We spent about another hour giggling and joking around before we all passed out. Sunday would be a shorter day. Hey i googled and found a pic of the Batman klingon. Enjoy.

The sex show: Day one -whips galore


Well I'm back from the Everything to do about sex show. There was a lot going on so i will break it down into three blogs-one for each day we were there. First of all as you all know i really like doing our radio show. Doing it makes me very happy. Its on my friend Rob's internet station and i want to help him out in any way i can to make his station to succeed. If that means seeing a bunch of scantilly clad women for a weekend then i will take one for the team. Actually in all seriousness i really am a team player and will help out in any way i can. Its worth it to be able to do something that makes me this happy. Anyhow the adventure started right away. Rob needed to be in Toronto early Saturday morning to make sure everything was set up properly. He said he needed someone relable to go with him . I had no problem going early. So Kath and i made plans. She would bring up Nicole and drop Diana off with the sitter and do our errands. Rob picked me up and we made really good time. The show didnt start until 3 and i think we were done setting up our booth by maybe 11:30 am. Nothing to do but sit back and listen to tunes.

So to say this was me out of my element was an understatement. I like sex as much as the next guy--and who doesnt-- but a lot of stuff was new to me. There were different exhibits with many different toys and stuff like that. Rob took me around and i have to admit he was like a rock star there. He had taken his radio station to a few of these shows and everybody there knew him. I have to admit the people he introduced me to were all really cool and nice. First guy i met looked like Thor. Yes my geek mind had already started taking notes. We were right beside a booth that was selling whips. A couple of the vendors were practicing the whips and without missing a beat Rob put the indiana Jones theme on our loud speakers. It was pretty cool. There was another booth nearby that was selling leather underwear. The model in all the posters on the booth looked like Sylar from the show Heroes. My nerd thinking never stops and i was just trying to find things i could relate to.

So because i can't go a day without being paranoid i'll tell you what happenned next. Nickle called around noon. Keep in mind i figured Her and Kath would have left by now to come meet us. She was getting her hair done and Kath was suppossed to pick her up after she dropped off Yammy. So at this point Nickle hadnt even heard from Kath at this point. She said she would let us know if she heard something. Yup it was then i kicked into worry mode. What if something happenned? What if we had van issues? Thankfully we were texted an hour later. All was ok Kath just had a hard time finding the salon. All was alright with the world again.

So we went back to meeting people and Rob introduced me to some adult film stars. The girls arrived shortly after that as did some more members of the train rek radio family. I met Matt the other producer and the station intern Patrick who was going to be doing all the recording and producing that weekend. Then at 3 people started coming in to check out the show. Now because it was expensive to eat there we just brought in a bunch of crap to snack on-crackers,cheezies bagels--stuff i shouldnt be eating on atkins. Oh well what was i gonna do. Screw the diet for the weekend i suppose.

A few hours later Kath and i sat down with Patrick and attempted to record an hour of our show. There were a few technical difficulties but it wasnt to bad. I felt it was our best comic book reviews to date and i was pretty happy with it. Now i should note that during this time i had my first run in with a photographer friend of Rob. Now I'm sure he's a nice guy but he just rubbed me the wrong way. So i'm in the middle of recording and I'm in mid sentence when joe photographer decided to walk in front of and bash me in the face with the microphone i was talking into. So hard in fact that the inside of my mouth was bleeding. What the hell? This couldnt wait till we were finished recording? I don't recall hearing an appology either. By the way i totally get why Christian Bale yelled at that guy on the set of Terminator 4. I of course was on the air at the show so i kept my mouth shut and tried to forget about it.
We went for a walk after that to check out the sights of the show. We took in a burlesque show. Lots of lip synching to the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. Got back to our booth and was in time to watch Rob dress up as Santa Clause. He was giving away t shirts to promote the station and was acting like Billy Bob Thornton from Bad Sanat. It was pretty funny. People were getting there picture taken with him-some in some really naughty poses.

So on the first night the show ended at midnight. We left the show and went to our hotel. Nickle and i left for a bit to go to pizza pizza to buy-you guessed it pizza. Saw a weirdo yelling through a mega phone. By this time it was about 1:30 am and we had to be back at the show at 10 am. We would be at the saturday show for 14 hours. A long day for an old bastard like me. We tried to go to sleep but we just kept saying random things that made the four of us giggle. Oh and at one time Rob threw a clementine at us. F' ing clementine!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Parent /teacher interviews.


Once again I'm gonna write about how proud i am of my daughter Diana. Yesterday morning we had our first parent/teacher meeting. We were so pleased. Diana's teacher said she was a fast learner and very helpful to her and the other kids in the class. After the interview we got to sit in for an hour to observe. It was pretty ccol. We watchde Diana and her friends sing and learn the alphabet. We are very happy that she is fitting in so well. Oh last weekend she went to her first birthday party as well and got to dress like a princess. My kid is growing up and she rocks. We still don't want a second kid though so don't anybody get any ideas!

Boobies and Batman


Do i ever like not having to work. I took the week off and although i havent gotten a lot of sleep i'm pretty happy. So for those of you that haven't heard the radio show let me tell you where we're going next week. So in addition to our show about comic books there are many other adult oriented shows on train rek radio. Next weekend there is a show going on called the everything to do about sex show. On Friday train rek radio and its various programs will be recording from there. Its definately going to be a new world for me. Basically I'm going to be talking to naked people about Batman. It'll be a different experience thats for sure. I think it will be fun to hang out with friends for the weekend. We'll be doing our regular 2 hour show sunday night and a couple shows on friday and saturday that'll be an hour a piece. I will probably be turning red all weekend. Anyhow I've been helping Rob out the last few days getting things ready for the show this weekend. We even drove to Guelph yesterday to run an errand. I am looking forward to hanging out with everybody this weekend. Rumour has it that Ron Jeremy is going to be there. If i get a chance to talk to him i think i will ask him about the few main stream movies he had filmed. I want to ask him what it was like working with Don Johnson in Dead Bang. Yeah i really am a nerd. Anyhow i will keep you all posted on my experience.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Mom's service


Yesterday turned out to be a lot nicer than i thought it was gonna be. I really wasnt looking forward to crossing the border for my mother in laws funeral. I don't have my passport yet and i really wasnt looking forward to being held up at customs. I just had a bad feeling we were gonna run into a prick border guard on a power trip. I'm happy to report we did not. The guy was so nice. Didnt have to get out of the car or anything. Of course now i have my warning so i won't be attempting crossing over again until i get the passport. We get our holiday pay in January so possibly then.

The service for Kath's mom was nice. Everybody had a lot of nice stories about her. I only cried once and thats becasue i saw my niece crying. I know mom is in a better place now and free of pain. The reception afterward was nice. I finally met some of Kath's uncles. One of her uncles was in a movie with John Mellencamp. I've been calling him uncle Mellencamp all these years. I also got to see some of Kath's friends again-Hollie, Rose and Ulana. Kath's friends are all massively cool. I met Ulana for the first time at our wedding. She is so nice. Yesterday she gave me a big hug and thanked me for taking care of Kath. Little does she know Kath is the one that takes care of me. Man i ate nothing but food that is bad for me all weekend. Nothing but cookies and brownies and cake. Funny enough my weight wasnt to bad today. My stomach feels rotten after all that food though. Needless to say I'm back on the diet today.

In a pretty good mood. I booked the week off from work. I'm pretty relaxed right now. I'm just working on stuff for our next show. Last nights show went over well. We taped it in advance. My sister got to hear it for the first time and she seemed to like it. Anyhow I'm gonna go wash the spagetti beard off of Diana. Talk to you all soon.

Jay

Apparently porn plots are something i now need to know to do my job

SO in ridiculous callers at work news. Saturday at work a lady called in to dispute a pay per view on her bill. The film was called public sex. The conversation went as follows:

Cust: what is this movie about?

me: I'm not sure but I'm assuming by the title its an adult movie.

cust: well what was the plot of it?

me: uh I'm not sure i don't have a listing of the plots of the movies we offer.

cust: well my son ordered this movie and before i yell at him i need to know the plot.

so at this point I'm thinking what do you need to know? Its a dirty dirty sex movie where people did the deed for money. Why can't you ask me about the other movie on your bill--Wolverine. I'm familliar with that one at least.

cust: if you can't tell me what the movie was about i want your supervisor.

Seriously? This was the dumbest reason ever to get a supervisor involved. Sorry i don't know what happenned in the porno your son ordered but how is my supervisor gonna know? So i get the supervisor on the phone and tell him the story and he says

supervisor: how the hell am i suppossed to know the plot of public sex? I'm going to assume its about people having sex in public.

Long story short he took the call and told him the same crap i did. You gotta love the customers.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

sad news


It was a sad week for the Stewart family. A few days ago Kath's mom passed away. She will definately be missed. She was a great lady who accepted me into the family right away. Kath got a chance to see her and say goodbye before she passed. I feel horrible. Because of my passport issues i wasnt able to go see her. In a little while we are headed to Rochester for the funueral. I am praying that we'll come across a nice border guard that will let us across. It's a family emergency and it will suck if we don't get someone who is understanding. I'm going to finally meet some of Kaths relatives. Its kind of a shitty way to meet them. One of Kath's uncles was in a movie with John Mellencamp so I've always wanted to meet him. Anyhow it will be a long sad day and hopefully we'll have the strength to get through. R.i.p mom and please take care of my cat Barney up in heaven.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Radio ga ga

I'm in an excellent mood. Sunday we had our best show to date. We were live and people called in! It was so cool. According to Rob we may have had over 300 listeners. I don't know 300 people! So i am completely floored that people want to listen to kath and i ramble on about comic books. I am really happy doing this show every week. I love everything about it even the small things like picking music to play during the breaks. Having Rob there is cool to. He manages to pick the best audio clips. Last week he played everything from Die Hard quotes to comments from the Hangover.I always come away feeling great after a show is done and it gets me through the week now when i have to go to my day job. I really am grateful that we were given the opportunity to do the show. Anyhow thats about it for now. Talk to you soon

Monday, November 9, 2009

Jay:not as fat as he used to be.

So yesterday i decided that since i have lost 22 pounds i would try some of my old t shirts. I managed to fit into about 5 or 6 t shirts that previously were to tight. I was impressed. More t shirts for the rotation as oppossed to the 3 that were fitting before the diet. It made me very happy. To top that off--i decided to try on a pair of homer simpson boxer shorts that never fit--ever! Kath bought them for me long before we had Diana. Just for shits and giggles i put them on last night and they were'nt tight! I was smiling. I still have a bit of weight to go. I'm gonna keep going. I'm really proud of myself. I haven't stuck to a diet this long before. Anyhow I'm done blowing my own horn.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Don't threaten me i know how to kill with a carrot now


Man I am having an enjoyable weekend. Saturdays shift wasnt that bad. I only had 3 bad calls the whole day and that was out of 60. I will mention that one customer threatened to punch me in the mouth, He got his service cut off for non payment. Then he started bringing up stuff on his account from a year ago that had nothing to do with his current situation. Anytime he would bitch to me about something i would find a note on his account that would totally contradict what he was telling me. I would tell hm what was on his notes and he made it out like i was disrespecting him. I believe he politely stated "you're a cock sucker (sorry pal my wife would disagree) I'm gonna find you and punch you out." Sure buddy whatever you say. I'm in Canada and you are not. You can't afford to pay your bill-i don't think you can afford a plane ticket to Canada to come get me. That one made me laugh. The day got better after that.

Came home around 6:30 and Rob was her with his son waiting for me. Kath and Nickle went grocery shopping so the men folk were gonna watch some movies. I chose the Bruce Willis classic Mercury Rising and Rob brought over Shoot 'em up. It was a good movie. I learned you can kill people with carrots in many different ways. Good times. We ate a lot of popcorn and also watched the best episode of Stargate Universe to date.

Sunday is going well so far. We're just getting all our stuff together for tonights show. We're going live again. Can't wat to go do it. Rob got a voice actress to do some voice ads for our show. They sounded really good.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Feeling alright


Ok now that i have a day off and a chance to reflect i will admit that some great stuff did happen as well this week. It wasnt all jack asses on the phone. Although Monday was a long shitty day i did get to spend a break with my friend Stacey. I really hadn`t spoken with her since summer. Anytime she had come over we were massively busy. I thought this time would be the same until i realized it was break time for me to. So we shot the shit for 15 minutes. I told her all about the radio show. She thinks it would be a good idea for us to contact some comic book writers and maybe get an interview. That would be pretty sweet. Stacey says she may be coming back to work on our side of the building again. Not for the same awesome cable company that i do but for a cell phone company. It will be cool talking to her more often.

Speaking of the show,we did our first live broadcast on Sunday. It went really well. Nicole and Rob taped us an intro for the show.It was awesome. Unfortunately no one called in. Hopefully someone will ring us up this sunday as we are live again. We actually get to do 3 live programs in november. We`re very excited. Very happy that our friends have been so supportive. I wish this was my day job. Life would be awesome. I`m working on the new show a little bit today. We`re going to do our top 10 worst super hero movies this week. The problem is-I`m having a hard time finding 10 i hated. Also the ones i do hate-i`ve only seen them once years ago. I`m having trouble remembering why i disliked them. Thank God for you tube and wikipedia.

Oh and one other cool (well cool for me) thing happenned today. I saw an episode of Coach i had somehow missed seeing before. It was like christmas for me.

Anyhow i`m having a nice day off. I`m going to go watch Babe pig in the city with Diana and finish laundry. Have a great day everybody.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

its times like thse you learn to live again



I hate to have yet another blog about out of control customers driving me nuts. However 3 days in a row now i have had a complaint filed against me for no reason. A customer called this morning and was willing to go to a supervisor because there was a valid charge for a service call on her bill. Not wanting to go there i said i would waive it without doing any research as a one time courtesy. I advised if something like this were to ever occur again we would need to do the research at least. I asked her if there was anything else i could help her with-she yelled absolutely not in my ear and hung up. Not even a thank you for the credit. Turns out she called back to say i gave her a hard time. Seriously? Giving you a 30 dollar credit you didnt deserve is giving you a hard time? Whatever. So of course now i'm paranoid because of the corrective action plan i was told i may need to go on for yesterdays complaint. At one point after wards the site director came to talk to me. Thinking the worst i immediately got sick to my stomach. She was just wondering if i could change my shift on Saturdays. I gotta relax.


So after that the day gets better until 5:00 when i get 2 of the worst calls i ever took in a row. The first screaming lady wants me to turn her service back on. It was shut off yesterday for non payment but she made a payment. On our end i show the interruption was cancelled and her services should be active. I appologize and let her know its no longer a billing issue. I will need to connect her to our technical department. She had just come from that department and they told her it was a billing issue. Sons of bitches. I try and explain that because she paid the balance nothing is owed. She doesnt let up. Finally it seems like she's going to allow us to connect her to a tech. Now i need to ask her permission to put her on hold. Here's the conversation that followed

Me: May i put you on hold so i can connect you to a tech

whore: what do you think?

Jay: i think i need you to say yes or no

w: Do your job

J: i'll get a tech but may i put you on hold?

W: Do i have a choice?

J:certainly you have a choice. Yes or no?

W: you are inadequate at your job.

J:sorry maam but its not a billing issue. May i connect you to a tech

W: I want someone different and just so you know I'm going to get you fired.

J: maam i don't appreciate you threatening my lively hood,

W: You threatened me first

SO at this point i'm puzzled. I don't recall threatening her and i challenge anybody to listen to the call and see where i threatened her. Sure i want her to get hit by a bus but i don't say that out loud. I don't know what she has against saying the word yes either. Long story short i finally connected her over where she spoke with 4 different techs. No notes as to my future firing.

If this werent enough i get another annoying,crazy old lady on the phone. She spends 10 minutes complaining that she had a hard time getting through to talk to somebody. She wants to know what every other customer in the last hour wanted. I tell her various reasons which she doesnt seem to buy. Finally i'm able to look at her balance and shes safe from an interruption for at least another 2 weeks. She wants to make a partial payment. I let her know as a one time courtesy and that we can't waive that fee on an ongoing basis. Her reply? Get me someone else--you're polite but not friendly--whatever the hell that means. Oh and apparently i'm robotic. Oh and i need to turn her service back on because she needs it to live. Why is she hooked up to it? Give me a fucking break. Its only tv for crying out loud.


So i'm home now and no work for the next 2 days. By the way blogging while cranking the foo fighters is an awesome way to relieve stress. I'm feeling better already.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

The customer who was a damn liar


Yes it was another fun filled action packed day at work. So a customer called in to speak to a supervisor and flat out lied about me. She said i refused to connect her to a supervisor. Not true. A customer was disputing a technicians charges on her bill. I said i didn't see where we weren't supposed to waive the charge but would send a request via e mail to our dispatch to research. Not good enough she wanted a supervisor. I advised her i would get a supervisor but we would still need to send off the email for the research, She yelled forget it and hung up. I ask you this loyal reader--how is that refusing to get a supervisor for a customer? My supervisor told me there is a chance i will need to go on a corrective action over this. She has also informed me that she will fight this for me and told me not to worry about it. It still pisses me off. If you're gonna file a complaint against me can it be over something that isn't a lie? I've decided i'm just going to credit everything from now on whether they deserve the credit or not. Oh well.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Jay's depressing day from hell


The following takes place between the hours of 8:am and 6:30 pm on the first Monday after halloween. I felt a bit like Jack Bauer today. No i didnt shoot any terrorists. I just had what feels like the longest day of my life. It was wall to wall calls from assholes today-right from call one. Come with me as i revisit that first call that immediately put me in a bad mood. The caller was calling in to see if she was past due and if she could pay on the 14th of November. COme join me on my redneck journey

Jay: There's no past due. Technically though the current balance was due oct 28th. Your new bill goes out in 2 days. You can call after that bill is issued to see if there is an interruption scheduled. If so we can look into payment arrangements.

Bitchy customer: I'm calling now

J: I appologize but you wouldnt be considered past due until the new bill is printed.

bc: Thats unacceptable i want a supervisor now!

J: Ma'am you aren't past due i have nothing to extend

bc: thats 3 times I've asked for a supervisor.

J {to himself): thats actually twice but good guess

J:(again to cust): ok not understanding why a supervisor is required

bc: when i ask for a supervisor you have to get me one thats 4 times.

At this point i totally have stopped giving a shit and want to get her a supervisor--thing is i have to ask her if its ok to put her on hold while i look for one or it counts against me if someone is listening in

J: ok i can get you a supervisor....

bc: 5 times!

J: but....

bc: 6 times. I don't want to talk to you anymore

J: ok i want to get you a supervisor but i need....

bc: 7 times.

at this point its getting ridiculous and i feel myself getting mad. Screw it though. Keep it in.

J: is it ok if i...

bc: 8 times. Supervisor now!

J: ok im just going to put you on hold...

bc : that's 9 times.

fuck just let me finish a sentence i think to myself. This continues until she yells out...

bc: thats 11 times. I hope this call is being recorded so they can hear how you argued with me.

Now i'm pissed. Not once did i argue. In order to argue i think i would have needed to string a sentence or 2 together. I was nothing but nice to the whore. At this point i throw her on hold without telling her. So i get her to a supervisor who also can't believe she needs to talk to him. I explain the situation to him and transfer the call to him. I find out that the supervisor told her the same stuff verbatim. Here's the awesome part--she wanted to file a complaint against me. Some people have way to much time on their hands. The rest of the day was filled with unreasonable callers one after another. I came home on my break hoping to get a hug from Kath but she was running errands. I actually sat down and teared up for a minute. Yup my day was that stressful.

Now I'm home and even though I'm not at work i still feel sad. Kath just gave me some news that is breaking my heart. As i reported a few blogs ago Diana was student of the month for October and she got a certificate. I was so proud of her. What we somehow missed in Diana's bag was a little note that invited us to the presentation of that award--last thursday. Somehow Kath and I missed the note and of course missed the ceremony. I feel really sad-i would have loved being there to support my daughter. I feel like Kath and i should go talk to Diana's teacher so she knows that we do care-- a lot. I just want this stupid day to be over. I want a hug from my whole family and a good cry. Here's hoping Tuesday is a better day.

Trick or Treat



It's 2 days late but happy halloween! I couldnt believe it. I got home at 6:40 on October 31st and halloween was already in full swing. There were tons of kids out and about. The last few years we haven't seen too many trick or treaters. As a matter of factf candy. I quickly got ready and took Diana out. Sadly i had no costume this year. Diana was dressed as Cinderella. We made our way around the complex. One nice lady even gave me some chips. Within 20 minutes Diana was ready to come home. Despite only trick or treating for 20 minutes she made out like a bandit. Some of our neighbours had cool costumes. There was one guy wearing a really cool Batman costume. We ran into John who was dressed like the undertaker. Next year i want to dress up. If i can find a hat i may go out as Indiana Jones. Or i may do the Joker thing finally. We shall see. Anyhow gonna get some rest. I will write more tomorrow.