Recollections

Music - Lebanese Blonde by Thievery Corporation.

This marks my third vacation-themed music video -- the other two of course were from Europe. I did not have access to Adobe Premiere this time (my editing program of choice) due to the fact that Adobe has stopped offering trial downloads since the last time I wiped my hard drive. Once again I used music from the Garden State Soundtrack and I think it works pretty well.

The editing software I settled on was Windows Movie Maker (free) which doesn't allow for much control over the editing process, but I think it turned out pretty well anyway -- especially considering I had roughly 10% as many pictures to work with as I did when putting together my Europe videos. Enjoy!

On the road again

Day three was by far the best day of the trip so far. With Manitoba behind us, we were looking forward to Sioux Narrows Provincial Park for some camping. We started the morning with breakfast at a nice sit-down Pizza Hut in Kenora, ON. It had a great view of a harbor and the waiter was a hilarious and very friendly older gentleman. We ordered water to drink he replied, “Very good. The only time you have to worry about the water here is when you see me running down there with a bucket (pointing at the pier below).”

After a bit more driving, we arrived at the park and were greeted warmly by a man cutting down dead trees at the gate. “Colorado? Boy you’re really lost.” He informed us that the park manager recently had a hip replacement and invited us to take a look around the park before meeting with her. We made a couple laps around the campgrounds and found a great spot for our tent before heading into her house/manager’s office to say hello. She was laying there in a bed with a huge pile of books and welcomed us along with the man from the entrance. She was very spirited and funny, a hearty old Canadian woman.

There was some confusion, however, because when I asked how much it would cost to stay there she replied, “Twenty-five and twenty-five.” After returning to camp and thinking about it, I didn’t know if that was $25 each, $25/day for each of 2 days, $25.25 or what. So we made another awkward hike back for clarification and it turned out to be $25.25, which seemed kind of random to me…

The park itself was very odd because they insisted on bringing everything to us. We didn’t pay at the gate, rather we set up tent and a few hours later someone came by in a truck to collect the pay for the day. We stopped by the manager’s office again later to ask for wood and she shooed us away, saying someone would bring it to us. For dinner, we took a trip to the town of Sioux Falls a few kilometers away and bought some bratwursts. However, not thinking, we neglected to buy either a lighter or lighter fluid.

Starting the camp fire proved difficult. Not only was it windy, but it had rained and all the wood we had collected was wet. In vain, I squinted hard at the fire but the death rays of my yester-youth failed to produce any semblance of sparks. Jenn impressed me with her ingenuity and lit a citronella candle we had along and poured the hot wax over some of the wood. This acted as a very weak fuel but was enough to get the fire started after about an hour. Soon our sausages were plump and our bellies full.

Earlier in the day, we had tried our hands at fishing -- with no luck -- but after some roasted marshmallows, we decided to have another go. Again, we never caught anything but it was a lot of fun nonetheless. We were some of the only people at the campsite and were pretty much always the only ones down at the water’s edge. There weren’t any real bugs to speak of and the weather was cool.

The night itself was freezing, but we bundled up in the tent and made it through ok. We spent this morning playing around at the beach and stopped by a nearby playground as well. We spent some time messing around on the swings before proceeding to the teeter-totters.

Laughingly we rose up higher and higher. I had a thought that I could trap Jenn in the air so I pushed down as hard as I could at the peak of my arc. I was able to hold her in the air for a few seconds but her momentum slammed her back down hard and launched me haphazardly into the air. I would probably have flown forward over the bar but, fortunately, I caught my groin on the handle and tumbled softly over the side amidst kaleidoscopic visions.

After that, we packed up camp. We had to wait an hour for one of the park guys to get back from lunch so we could pay and check out but then we were on the road again. Today is our 1 year anniversary together so we decided to go on to town for a hotel so we could clean up and go out to dinner.

Winnipwned

The next morning we scampered out of the hotel a few minutes after checkout and proceeded towards Canada. After a short time, we had reached the border and prepared ourselves for border patrol. The line of cars coming from Canada to the U.S. stretched almost a far as the eye could see. Not to be discouraged, we pressed on and joined the maple leaf pilgrimage of the three cars ahead.

I would have assumed I had learned something from Europe, but once again, when border patrol asked what we would be doing I replied with, “Camping.” Nobody wants vagabonds in their country and he immediately wanted to know where we would be staying. I had no idea and the look of mild amusement on Jenn’s face didn’t provide me with any answers either. After another harsh round of questioning, he finally relented and Jenn and I were permitted to enter the country along with our economic stimulus checks hot from the press.

I had the idea that we should spend a day in Winnipeg, Manitoba before heading on to our beloved Ontario. It seemed like a good idea in the trip-planning phase, but there was one crucial flaw in the design of my plan: Winnipeg sucks. To be fair, I’m sure it has its good points but we had a hard time trying to find any. The drive to the city from the border was like driving through a dust bowl, it was incredibly expensive (we’re talking $100+ a night for Best Western-style hotels vs. $45 in Fargo), and the city itself was frustrating to navigate by car. In some cases, stoplights do not have turn arrows. Rather the round green light itself will just start blinking, indicating you can turn.

Ultimately, our frustration, combined with Jenn’s unwillingness to use the makeshift bathroom I offered to make out of a leaf pile, forced us to leave the city earlier than expected and we made our way towards Ontario. However, we did manage to make a good time of it before we left and we spent some time in a nice sculpture garden and the Winnipeg Zoo.

On our way out, we decided to stop by a casino as they offer free currency exchange. Jenn and I each set aside $20 to gamble. Much to my chagrin, she ended up with around $21.50 and I finished somewhere around $18.00 . There wasn’t anything to do hardly but slots so after a while we left, feeling refreshed and happy. Nothing much happened that day until our hunt for a motel later that night.

After going from one hotel to the next asking for prices (with our phones off to avoid international roaming fees) we finally settled on one with a somewhat more reasonable price (still around $80). They gave us the key to the room but it turned out the door was unlocked. There was no deadbolt or chain or anything, just the little turning-lock mechanism on the knob. Did I mention the hotel was also a bar? As such, I piled a chair and all of our luggage in front of the door for a little extra safety and (thankfully) we survived the night.

Vacation at last

Well, after many months of waiting, our vacation has finally arrived. We're only a few days in but already we have some pretty memorable memories in the making.

We headed out last Thursday around 9:30am which was only an hour and a half later than we had planned (pretty good for us!). We had planned out the first day to be our longest day of driving, though all in all it wasn't too bad. We drove continuously for the most part, until around dinner time. The pickings were rather slim in South Dakota but we did manage to find a charming little restaurant called Pizza Ranch.

We sampled much of their food by means of an all-you-can-eat buffet and it was rather good and quite varied. There was, however, one pizza that threw me for a loop. It had little green flecks of mysterious danger which I had originally assumed were jalapeños. Later, after having placed the flavor somewhere between fish-market and hot dog, it finally occurred to me that it was pickle. My initial reaction of horrified optimism escalated quickly to horrified nausea and I pushed back the lump in my throat in time with the food on my plate. Interesting to note, Jenn has been known to call me her "pickle pie" on occasion. In light of my recent experience I am deeply offended.
Things went rather smoothly afterwards as we continued on towards our destination for the night: Fargo. However, my Garmin navigation device did manage to provide us with a little excitement. After having been second-guessed all day by Jenn's antiquated road atlas (2006 called...), it finally got fed up and retreated to its happy place somewhere on the other side of the screen. No manner of power button pushing (I tried at least 240 times) nor gentle cooing could bring it back to life and we were forced to navigate briefly by colorfully-detailed dead tree matter before I realized that my cell phone also has GPS; as such, we were able to navigate that last 120 miles of straight-line highway without incident.

A quick look at the user-guide online at the hotel suggested pressing the 'reset' button which did the trick.

Vacation route

View Larger Map

Birthday

Last Tuesday was my birthday. Overall it was a nice, relaxing weekend. In order to celebrate, Jenn and I took a three (read: four) day weekend off from work.

Sunday night we had dinner with my mom at her house along with Jenn's dad and brother. It was a little bit awkward but mum made some apple pie, so all was well. The next day Jenn and I took a little trip back to 1876 and I snapped a couple nice black and white photos during a hike in the foothills. The only camera that I had on me was my cell phone. It doesn't recreate color well, so generally I take black and white pictures when appropriate.

Afterwards, I took a much needed nap in the parking lot of a waxing salon -- amidst inquiring glances -- whilst Jenn finished prepping for another intense round of wedding dress shopping. Soon it was time to head to my dad's for birthday dinner number two. We had a nice spaghetti dinner and a crumble (yes dad, crumble) for dessert.

On my actual birthday, Tuesday, we mostly just lounged around the house and had some much needed relaxation. I spent the morning brewing a batch of beer in my new Mr. Beer Home Brewing Kit and Jenn made me a delicious Angel Food cake.

Ironically, that very same day Sprint held a quarterly drawing for prizes. Under our current system, you earn points based on your attendance. The point totals are then broken up into different tiers and you qualify for different prizes based on how many points you have. The very top prizes are pretty amazing. I believe they were paid trips to Las Vegas this quarter. At any rate, I won a $300 Tivo HD digital video recorder (like a digital VCR), which was waiting for me upon my return. Jenn and I don't actually have cable so I am unsure what to make of this gift, as it is a little cumbersome for a paperweight. I am deciding between selling it on Ebay or possibly leaving it at one of my parent's houses while I am on vacation to record some shows, hehe.

Notable birthday loot is as follows:

Special thanks to my brother, Nathan, for the pickle.

Birthday hike

Pics of the week

Lobster and the carrot on the string pt. 2

Back to business. As I had alluded to some time ago, Jenn basically had sent out a request to permanently switch shifts with someone else in the call center so that we could have the same hours/days off. Well it turned out that someone on my team took her up on her offer and the gears started turning towards a shift swap. It was decided that the switch would occur the first work week of the following month, which was several weeks away. During this time it was made known to management that Jenn and I were engaged and we made sure that this was not against any sort of policy; everything was approved and she moved onto my team. Coincidentally the person that left my team had the top stats, and being that the switch technically took place 1 or 2 days before the month ended, I took top performer by default (Woo! Default!).

Anyway, Jenn and I were on the same team with the exact same hours and days off. All was good. However, before our first week together was through an ominous cloud had appeared on the horizon. Apparently, two people on another team had started dating and their manager was making one of them change teams. Somehow our names came up (I have no idea how, nor any idea who the two people were) and they asked why we got to be on the same team while they couldn't. Rather than allow that couple to stay together, or even deny them and treat this situation on a case-by-case basis, Sprint did what it does best: it went back on it's word.

After several meetings and a very heated (but professional) email to my supervisor/manager it was decided Jenn would have to move to another team. The decision was very offensive to me because we were basically treated as if we had somehow arranged this behind managements back, when in reality we had gone out of our way to get approval before the change took place... and then waited weeks for the change to go into effect. Ultimately, she was able to keep the same shift, so overall it was a bittersweet ending.

Sprint's repeated lack of professionalism as an organization, combined with mandatory overtime, the stress of being thrust onto floor support with no training, and the cruel reality of being placed into a position to help people (customer service) and not being empowered to do so had really started to wear me down. The button I use the most on my phone is the transfer button...

I sent another strongly worded email to my supervisor which basically said that I had no interest in building a career with a company with such blatant disregard for the satisfaction of it's customer's and employees (at least they're unbiased in their indifference). As such I asked to be removed from floor support and requested my position be given to someone with an eye for advancement. Interestingly this sparked a lot of support to my cause. I met with my supervisor, Danielle, and she completely agreed with the issues I raised. Danielle, in turn, talked to one of her supervisor friends (who was actually one of Jenn's old supervisors) for advice and got her all worked up. She is half Puerto Rican and very feisty and sometimes hot tempered, but overall very nice and funny. She ran into her manager's office and basically started yelling and venting her own related frustrations. She also made the point that something was really wrong with the company when someone like me, who really likes helping people, has become so jaded.

It escalated further and the supervisor that runs the floor support program came and pulled me off of the phones and we walked around a little and had a talk about my frustrations. Basically he said that he really didn't want to lose me, that he thought I would make a good supervisor and that floor support is a good way to get noticed for advancement. He asked me to take a couple or three weeks off from the program to distance myself a little and think about what I want to do, which I greatly appreciated. So much of our communication at Sprint is handed down impersonally through Memos and emails that it is nice to communicate with a face.

Anyway, enough of that. Since then, mandatory overtime has been done away with (earlier than expected!) and I am feeling much less burnt out at work. Positive changes are taking place, though sometimes excruciatingly slowly. Still, I am planning to write a letter (essay?) to the director about my views on why I think Sprint ultimately fails in regards to customer service in the hopes that we can turn things around, but I have not had the energy yet.

Things are looking up, I have a three-day weekend coming up for my birthday. Roughly two weeks after that Jenn and I will be on vacation! I can't wait! We've weathered quite a storm and I am ready for some good times again.

Today's word: Carrot.

Lobster and the carrot on the string pt. 1

My how time flies. It seems it has already been several days since my last entry. I would like to say that a lot has happened since then, so I will.

One nice perk at work is that each month the top performers on our teams are generally rewarded with gift cards. Each team and/or supervisor will decide what the goal for the team is (be it your average time on each call; conformance -- how well you conform to your schedule -- i.e. not taking unscheduled bathroom breaks, etc.). It is not uncommon for me to squirrel away one or two of these cards each month as my stats are rather good, but lately I have been having some trouble getting a hold of any. This is mainly due to the fact that my manager has not been handing them out.

The excuse given to us was that her cat had run away. Regardless of whether or not it was the cat's responsibility to do the shopping, waiting nearly two and a half months for the cards seemed a little excessive. However, I finally had the gift cards from January and February in my hands and was quite impressed with their randomness: $25 for Red Lobster, $25 for AMC movie theaters, and $15 for McDonald's. I had thought to give back the McDonald's card but this seemed rude on the off chance it was the parting gift of my manager's feline companion.

Friday night came and Jenn and I decided to head to Red Lobster. At the entrance we passed the smiling benefactors of our feast-to-come, laughing and jostling for position within the lobster tank. I wished I could eat them all; as it was I decided on a barbecued chicken with shrimp, which was very good. Jenn, on the other hand, went for the Ultimate Feast and mercifully ate one of our friends from the entrance along with some of his fallen comrades. I supposed they could they could have been the bitterest of enemies but they seemed happy enough on the plate with one another. If they weren't, they said nothing.

The next night we took advantage of the AMC card to go see The Ruins. It was pretty standard horror movie fare, but was suitably gruesome to scare Jenn and I. So as not to ruin it for anyone else eagerly anticipating the film, I shall give my breakdown in white text and you may select the passage to reveal it's message: Some people lived, the likable characters were not among them. Some people died. There was no twist, which I suppose is a twist in itself. The ruins themselves didn't actually kill anyone. The least likable character with the fewest lines became the hero. Highly recommended.

Last but not least... Jenn was able to switch schedules at work to have both the exact same schedule as me and be on my team, courtesy of management. However, by the end of the week the decision was made that she would have to move, courtesy of management. More on this next time in The carrot on the string pt. 2. Please look forward to it.

Today's word: Lobster.

I have a blog

It has occurred to me recently that since graduating from college it has become increasingly difficult to keep in touch with friends and family. Strangely enough, one of my friends who I feel the most up to date with is Erik... and he's in France. He keeps a [somewhat] regular blog about his adventures in Europe and I have decided to start my own to detail my fabulous adventures in Denver.

Lately Jenn and I have been really busy with work. We have been working at a call center for Sprint for many months now (me since August, Jenn since October) during which time it has gone from 'fun' to 'ok' to 'bad' to 'worse.' Basically what we do is we take calls from dealers and retail agents calling in from stores (Best Buy, Radio Shack, Sprint Stores, etc.) who are having problems placing orders for cell phones and service and we solve these problems.

It all began with several weeks of training. This basically consisted of:

• Playing games
• Coloring with markers
• Learning about fun games you can play with markers
• Getting free cell phone and service

If it sounds like fun, it was. And I was excited to graduate from training and get on the phones to start coloring live for our sales agents in the field. Little did I know that the skills I had perfected in training would be of little use to me. Where I wanted to hear, "Please draw me a kitten." I heard instead, "This order is stuck in the system. The customer paid for overnight shipping 6 days ago and has not received the phone. Additionally because it didn't ship out before the end of the month I lost commission. How do you plan to make this up to me?"

As I sat pondering the situation I couldn't help but think that the answers to this dealer's questions couldn't be found at the bottom of a box of Crayola, and I told him so. Through some coaching I soon learned this was not an acceptable response and thus began the descent from 'good' to 'bad' to 'worse.' As it stands now, the only coloring I see is on the conformance report I receive from my supervisor indicating in bright pink ink that I may have used the bathroom too many times for a Wednesday and I may need to rethink the efficiency at which my body digests liquid.

Though not all was bad in the land of Sprint. After months of me declining the offer and showing no interest, my supervisor was finally able to convince me to join our floor support staff. By signing me up when I was not paying attention she was able to bypass my reluctance. Floor support is basically a group of people from the department that know their way around the systems well and walk around with walkie talkies and answer people's questions around the call center. Most of the supervisors did not come from our department originally and are unable to assist with a lot of issues, so we are really the last line of help.

I decided that going from telling our sales agents, "there's nothing we can do for you" to telling my friends and co-workers, "there's nothing we can do for you" might be a good change of pace so I decided to play along. The week leading up to my fist shift on floor support was filled with excitement and anticipation. However, as the day grew nearer it occurred to me that I had no idea how to do it really and as it turned out, my supervisor was on vacation for 2 weeks. Fortunately, one of the women on my team is on floor support and she took me under her wing.

She put in a schedule request to take me off the phones for a bit so I could shadow someone on floor support and get the hang of it. This was denied. No matter, I thought, surely someone else can help. Unfortunately, neighboring supervisors had no idea either.

Finally the big day arrived. Luckily it turned out that Jenn's supervisor, Jenn, knew what she was doing and was able to assist me in getting started. Fortunately, it was a slow day and everything went smoothly. However, 45 minutes later I soon learned that through some error all of the codes we had in the system for the price plans we offer had somehow got deleted or changed, causing mass panic. Mistaking the walkie talkie in my hand for a never-ending supply of knowledge, I was called upon again and again for solutions... which I gave in spades. Only time will tell whether or not they were of use.

As it stands now, we are on week 3 of 7 weeks of mandatory overtime (8 hours per week minimum). Things are going well, considering, and we have a paid 2 week vacation coming up in May. That's it for today.

p.s. I have decided to feed Youtube videos at the bottom of my blog based on my word of the day. Today's word is KITTENS. Please enjoy responsibly.