RIP Commercial radio

I now have XM in my house, my car, my life!!! Happy birthday for me (well it’s the 29th, but my parent’s activated my XM account this afternoon) I have been sitting here in my room all day and night listenting to anything I can. I have listened to all the stations at this point, and preset the ones I liked. The rock stations are great, but I wish they have the harder metal station still on their service (they have one, “liquid metal XM”, but it’s only available on their online). It’s amazing that I can listen to a channel, ad the only commercials on it are just small sweepers about what’s on other channels, but those are once in a blue moon (I think one or two and hour, and maybe a DJ will say something once an hour as well). It’s truly commercial free music, and it’s uncut and crystal clear (well some of the songs on “Fungus”, the punk channel, is poor quality, but that’s more due to the original recording). The only thing that would make this perfect is if I had a MyFi portable receiver, but that will happen down the road when I have the money for it. When I get a MyFi, I’ll be able to record shows/channels over night for my commute.

Speaking of money, I have an interview in Jersey City tomorrow about another assignment. It’s more of less the same as I had in Lyndhurst, just in a better place for me. It’s right off a PATH station, and the hours would be descent. I hope I don’t choke and sound stupid if front of these people, but we’ll find out tomorrow morning. Then the rest of the day I can enjoy my birthday. I didn’t get my real wish yet, but maybe I’ll get it tomorrow or something close to it to make me smile. That’s all I got tonight.

Well it was a nice week at least…..I got let go by my assignment last night. I was told at 8, my lunch time, along with 7-8 others. We were all put into a room ant explained the situation (they had no work so they had to let us go). They tried to comfort us by saying the other people working outside the room were being let go as well at the end of the week. Funny part was that they were training me for another project the time before my lunch. It was a cool gig too, but I wasn’t needed and I was let go. They said I could be called back once the business picks up, so maybe down the road I can come back. I talked to my temp agency today, and they may have another assignment for me soon, so maybe I can get more work soon. I may have to go to the agency in Jersey to pick up my check (lucky me a branch of my back is right there in the same building of the agency’s office, so I can deposit it right there).

I’m a little sad about this being let go after only a week, considering I felt like a real adult for the first time in a long time, but I’m also glad it’s over. I don’t have to work those odd hours and don’t have to have my life revolve around this as much as it was. I asked to be changed to the dayshift yesterday too, so I don’t know if that played into me getting let go early. But at least I am getting some money out of it.

I got Madden 06 the other day. It’s pretty cool. It’s got a new passing system I’m trying to get used to. I haven’t played it much yet, but so far it’s good. There’s a “superstar” mode where you can create yourself, and be drafted by a team and go through what a player goes through (practice, agent dealings, etc.) It’s pretty involved, but OK. I may play with that after I’m done with franchise mode with my G-Men!!!!! It’s the same as last year as far as the mode goes with you also playing Owner/GM over the team’s actions, but they do add “EA Sports radio”, like a sports talk show playing in the background, and they also add some media options so you can see your local newspaper (and for the Giants, they pick the NY Post AKA the Paper for retards). It gives a cool prospective and something more to look at and play with.

That’s all I got now, my brain is still processing all that’s going on. I hope that this weekend and my birthday on Monday can cheer me up. I really hope that my birthday dream comes true, but I can’t say what that is. If I do, it probably won’t come true!!

So I got a job now, and it fucking horrible!!!! It's a proxy solicitor at the Altman Group in Lyndhurst, NJ. Basically what I do is I call shareholders of companies that contract Altman to see if they received their proxy materials and ask them if they would like to vote their shares over the telephone. My shift goes from 4-11pm, which means that I have to leave my house at 2 (even earlier on Fridays-I learned that yesterday when I was almost an hour late) to fight traffic in Manhattan to get to the Lincoln Tunnel and get to my job. Then after 11, I drive back through the city and I'm home by 12. Why take NJ Transit you ask? Well, the last bus going to the City leaves at 11:08pm, and the stop if 2-3 blocks away and my asshole bosses won't allow the people from NYC out early, so they have to sprint to the stop or stay in the overpriced hotels nearby. So in other words, I have no choice but to take my car and pay the tolls and extreme gas prices.

So far the shareholders I have called are sick of hearing from our group (the thing we are calling about was supposed to be voted on in February, but not enough shareholders participated, so 4 meetings have been adjourned and the next one is on the 31st), and people just want us to stop calling. Of course we can't until this is done, so the cycle continues. My "leaders" are some of the biggest assclowns I've had in charge of me. One is too damn hyper and bounces around the halls trying to coach us up with every cliché every coach has ever said. The other is a black dude, but like the “Uncle Tom” type (he's trying too hard to/be sound white.) It’s pathetic, you can hear him strain to keep sounding white, It’s insulting. This guy also paces back and forth in the halls between cubicles and stands behinds people to hear/see what they are doing. He did this with me and after I got done with my call, which I got a vote for them, he congratulated me and spent the next several minutes critiquing what I did. He thought I was rude when I had to take other calls (the dialer program just pops up with the person already on the line, so I have almost no time to be ready for it and get their account info up form the other program I have to use) and criticized me about that.

I really hope to not be here too long. I'm still actively looking for other work, but I really have had no energy to with the hours, and the only free time I have is used now to try to get some sleep and get ready for work. Why did I take this job if I hate it so much??? Well, considering the number of other offers I have had is zero, I have no choice but to stay here. I'm making $12 an hour, but I figure most of that is going to go to me getting to and from work, so I really make a cool $6/hour!!! Honestly, if this was a job in the city or somewhere near a train in Jersey, I wouldn't mind it. The trainride would be a lot easier and quicker and I would have more than 2 hours to do anything not work-related (getting ready, re-reading all the stuff I have to know for the calls, etc.) I hope to maybe get switched to the dayshift, but I doubt that will happen.

If anyone has a job opening that is either at a decent time (8-4, 9-5, etc.) and/or is near mass transit and pays somewhat close or better to what I’m getting now, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!! I’ve only had this job for a week I admit that, but I really can’t see how this gig will get better in anyway.

I am not in a good mood, just when I sat at my computer now, I sat on my nuts, and I am in a bad mood. Speaking of computers, I’ve been having a hell of a time with this DSL line and the computers in this house. Everyday, the computers on wireless cards and adaptors had problems connecting to the network. Yesterday, ALL the computers had that problem. After calling Verizon and having them explain what to do, all the computers were back up and running. On a side note, those who bitch and moan about the “to do x press one”-type phone systems, be happy you didn’t have to deal with the “yell into the phone what option you want”-type system I had to endure. At one point I was screaming every swear word until someone picked up.

Back to my story: Today, we had the same problem and called Verizon up again and they cleared everything up. I also asked why didn’t they have me do these steps the first time I set everything up, and they didn’t have an answer. I will say the people who do the phones there are real cool and helpful, even when I started swearing up a storm when a password wasn’t working.

Well I hadn’t had a breakdown yet about my job situation. I have been applying all over, and I plan on hitting the temp agencies I am registered with hard this week. The other day I got a nice email form someone I shot off an email to about why I seemed so stressed out and all, and this person sent me the sweetest email that I had to smile. I hope to repay this person in the near future for all the nice and kind things they have done for me, and I’m sure this person will be doing the same for all the nice and sweet things I’ve done for them.

My birthday’s coming up this month (29th, hint, hint). My parents already told me what I’m getting, a year subscription to XM radio!!!! Other people are asking what I want, and I honestly don’t’ want anything…at least not what people can give me. Eh who knows….I got nothing planned the weekend before my B-day, so if anyone has any ideas what to do, let me know

I sold my R/C truck!!!! Well, not until tomorrow, but my reserve price was met on my auction, and the winning bid can’t back out now and dick me over!!! So far, the price isn’t what I was hoping for, but enough or me to justify selling the truck.

That’s all I got now, it’s too hot to think. Remember, look out for your pet and elderly relatives, I already lost a dog to this heat, and I wouldn’t want any of you losing loved ones either.

Don’t ever sell anything on forums, just go straight to Ebay (it costs you more, but at least you won’t get fucked around like I have been on the Traxxas R/C forums).

I'll give you an example of what I am talking about what happened on this forum:

Someone contacts me saying they are interested in what I’m buying. I send him pics of it, and he says he wants it and will pay me by the end of the week. A week goes by, and I notice that he hasn't deposited the funds we have agreed on the day we agreed on. Mind you I had several other offers,
but I turn them down because I assumed I had an agreement with the first buyer.

I contact the first buyer, asking about the funds he said he would pay for my truck, and I get a response back that he decided to purchase someone else's truck, and did so one day after he agreed to buy my truck and didn't bother to notify me at all that he did that (had he done so I wouldn't be so angry). I contact the other potential buyers who asked about the truck and if they are interested, and they all bought someone else's.

I then go onto the buy/sell/trade forums to check my thread, where lo and behold THE GUY PUT ANOTHER "WTB..." THREAD UP FOR THE TRUCK I WAS SUPPOSED TO SELL HIM!!! I check the date/time of the thread's posting, and it’s not long after I got the response about him buying someone else's truck.

This hasn't happened once to me, but more like 6 separate times already since I started to try and sell this truck!! I'm sure there has been others put in this position.

I complain to the moderators of the site, and they warn me to not post negative feedback or I’ll be banned for personal attacks. So they blame the victim. I decided to not post on their site anymore. I just put my truck on Ebay, and hopefully after 7 days, I’ll have sold it for the price I want.

And to whore myself and try to get some bids going:my Ebay auction

What a good couple of days. Apparently, hell froze over and the Metros are getting their own stadium. AEG (who own Metro) is putting up like $80 million for it, and hopefully by 2007 it will be opening (I am skeptical with any news Metro, I wouldn’t believe it’s built until the first game).

As far as my job news, well nothing really. I haven’t heard back from TSA yet about my test, I should hear about it this week. I have to call the temp agencies this week to find out anything. I’m still pissed about the situation with my last supposed assignment, but I hope that more come up.

Personally, things really turned for the positive. You ever get an email or a correspondence that just changes you attitude about someone? I got one of those the other day, and let me tell you; it’s nice to be wanted!!!

What a shock, things are going well and then something bad just HAS to happen. I was supposed to have a face-to-face interview in Jersey about a temp gig. Well I get a phone call that says the project I would be working on was pushed back and the interviews are postponed until things are settled, which means I’m fucked and that’s probably not going to happen.

I had my TSA test this morning, and almost fell asleep in it. My god, it was so boring and pointless. The first part is 400 true or false questions, but they were really only 150 that were repeated over and over (probably to see how consistent my answers were). After that, there was a test on if I can see certain things in X-ray images (they showed examples on screen for 20 seconds and then showed several x-ray images of bags and I had to say if what I was looking for was in there or not). The third part was a set of blocks and I had to choose from a set of 4 others to see which is of the examples, only rotated. So it was like I was playing Tetris!!!! The final part was grammar/reading comprehension tests. It was supposed to be a three-hour test, but I was done in less than 2 hours. I don’t know how well I did on it, but I really wasn’t trying too hard on it to tell you the truth.

I don’t know if I want this job if I were to get it. Seems too much stress and bullshit to go through on the job, but apparently the benefits are OK, and given the lack of options I have now, I maybe forced to take this job. This whole day has been like the whole time I’ve been without a job. Fucking hell. I hate that now I may be forced to do some thing that I have no choice to do. I have immense pressure now to do well and get my ass into gear, and with that and all the issues and emotions I’ve held in for so long, it’s really taken a toll on my mentally and physically. I am rally getting sick and tired of people trying to encouraging me with those canned, but probably well intentioned, responses of “don’t get discouraged”, “don’t worry, your luck will change soon”, etc. WELL WHEN AM I SUPPOSED TO FEEL BAD OR ANGRY ABOUT MY SITUATION THEN?!!?!?!?!!?

Oh well, it’s my problem; you’re just here to read about it.