Dog days of summer without a car is a bummer.

Ah, the frusterations of the blank page. Why is it when I have ample time to write, nothing comes to mind? A million ideas fill my head in between calls at the call center I work at, but by the end of the day I'm so mentally drained from listening to the General Public I don't have the energy or wherewithal produce anything constructive or creative. My words are digital mush.

It's just under an hour and a half before my shift starts, and the grind of being the human mouthpiece of a major corporation is indeed wearing me down. Much quicker than I thought it would, in fact. I was taught the best way to go about your life is to do your best to be a good person and not lie, nor bullshit others in order to get what I want. When I see people making bad decisions or in a jam from life's many twists and turns, I want to help. Instead I must abide by the rules of my job, which while giving lip-service to wanting to help our customers (after all, a customer that feels the company is helping him or her out is more likely to continue to be a customer, right?) really comes down to doing whatever we have to to get the caller off the phone unless we can get them to give us more money.

If the caller calls back, it reflects badly on you. If the caller is unhappy before you pick up the phone because they haven't had TV for fifteen fucking minutes and are missing Dancing With the Stars and it's an issue you can't troubleshoot? You should be "taking control of the call" and calming the customer down. Customer hasn't paid their bill on time in over a year, and owes us almost $400? Tell them how awesome HBO is, for just sixteen bucks more per month.

Never before have I been a part of such blatant corporate consumerism. I knew this was what I was getting into when I started here, but each day it feels like a small sliver of my humanity is eroded away.

But enough of my bellyachin', with unemployment as high as it is it's amazing I was even able to land an above min-wage job with full time hours and benefits. So what if I have to do the bidding of a major corporation that's just trying not to get destroyed by our even more major competitors? With millions upon millions out of work, I should be grateful. As a recent NY Times article pointed out, once you are without work it becomes harder and harder to find work, as employers become more skeptical of your skill set the longer said skills are not in use. At least my experience as a Customer Service Representitive is transferrable to other jobs, right? Right?

Eh, it's been a long week. I have Thursdays and Fridays off, so some much needed merriment and diversion is coming up! The Starlite Drive-In is showing Cowboys and Aliens this weekend, and the plan is to get a bunch of friends to pile up into a car, spread out with blankets enjoy the show. I haven't seen something that wasn't on netflix or DVD in over 4 months, so this should be fun. And on that note, it's time for me to get ready for work.

They call it a "long lunch," I call it "not getting paid"

I'm sitting in my place of work's massive break room, trying to figure out what to do with myself. Normally at this hour I'd be listening to screaming customers, trying to discern what exactly they wanted and whether or not I could do it for them. Instead, I was asked to take a "long lunch" from 5:30 until 8 due to a low call volume, with the last hour being a goodbye potluck for our Team Leader/Boss figure. I understand a company's need to cut costs and save money in order to remain competitive in the high-stakes world of 21st century Global Capitalism, but does it always have to come from your workers paychecks? Really.

Ah, but I suppose I shouldn't be complaining. I'm getting free food out of the deal, and they have internet access to pass the time with as well as a giant TV to watch. Maybe they figure if they give us enough things to keep us distracted, we'll forget about the fact that we're inside this giant building and not getting paid for it.

Hanging out while hung over.

I just deactivated my Facebook last night. This is something I've been planning on doing for a while now, but in my drunken early Independence Day celebration at 3am I actually went through with it. A complete Facebook addict (I was checking the site at least 7 times a day) now going cold turkey. I freed myself from the Social Network.

No longer will it matter if I "like" something on a different web site, as there will be no place to say so and no one to see. For the first time in almost five years I won't be able to instantaneously see what most of my friends are up to, or immediately network 90 people for a get-together two months down the road that most will say "Yes" to but only 10 or so will actually show (but it still counts because Facebook said I was there!). I won't be vicariously keeping up with people I don't really know that well. I will genuinely lose touch with people, which is something that both frightens and excites me!

I'd really like to write more on the subject, but I leave for work in an hour and really must shower and make myself presentable. To be continued!

Ancient Aliens and Hard-Boiled Eggs.

I'm sitting here watching the History Channel's "Ancient Aliens" while relaxing the last few hours of free time I have left before I go to work. It's a pretty interesting show, and while most of the theories are pretty far out there it does showcase a lot of insane ancient sculpture that has no real explanation.