Camera

Okay. I bought myself a new camera today. Only $70, but it's decent. I guess you'll be looking at some photos soon. You poor, poor readers!

Friday

Well, it's Friday again. Too bad Friday no longer signals the end of my work week. I'm worn out lately, with school and work. I've been so run down, in fact, that I'm beginning to recognize just how much I have neglected myself.

Instead of getting up in the morning to go to work, where I am confronted with all the ambient energy a girl needs, I allow myself to let sickness take over and stay in bed. I find myself spiraling out of control - the lack if energy turns to apathy. I don't care about my house, my health, or even my school work.

Life is too short for this. Consider this a wake upcall to myself. Get up, get out, and get over it.

Thinking about writing

I want to write, I really do. Like someone else said recently, I have a million ideas floating through my mind at any given time. Getting them on paper (literally or figuratively) is much harder. I want to write vampire fiction, especially. But is it played out? On one of my posting boards, I read about how vampire fiction has changed – and not everyone approves.

Ugh, I just don't know what to do. I think I'll spend this evening writing out some ideas. You know; listing, clustering…just your basic brainstorming. What ideas do I have and how can I make them stand out from the millions of other writers out there?

On a side note, who doesn't love Boomhower?

Beach, beach, beach

So, here in Springfield we are lucky enough to have beautiful Lake Springfield. Perhaps that sounds sarcastic, but the lake really can be pretty – especially at sunset or sunrise. The shore is lined with trees and some spectacular homes. There are parks, camps, areas for fishing, a zoo, a muni opera, a golf course, and even a beach.

Ah, the beach! Sure, it isn't a beach in Florida, but it can still be nice, especially on a hot day. This particular beach, however, seems destined to foul up the images we have in our minds of idyllic summer days. Several years ago, our beach was closed because an animal died or, at the very least, became really sick after drinking the lake water. I lay no claims to being a scientist so no long, unpronounceable words from me. Whether it was a virus or a fungus does not really matter after all this time, does it?

Last year the beach became even more tragic with the horrible death of a young boy who didn't know how to swim. The worst part of this tragedy, as I understand it, is the fact that the boy, knowing he could not swim, willingly went past the shallow water to an area he should not have been swimming in. Not that I make light of the situation – absolutely not. The family has my complete sympathy. I absolutely cannot imagine what they were (and still are) going through.

As a result of this boy's death, the beach closed for the remainder of the summer. Why? Because at a time when we should have focused on his surviving family and what we could do to ease their pain, all we heard about was how the lifeguards were affected. This greatly upset me at the time, and I find it continues to upset me even today. Perhaps especially today. Frankly, I am downright pissed off and offended.

There are just certain jobs that we, as humans, take knowing they carry the risk of being exposed to the loss of life. That life might be someone else's, but it might very well be our own. The position of lifeguard would be one of these positions. Maybe lifeguard sounded like a fun, easy summer job to some people. Perhaps this group of lifeguards just chose to disregard the possibility of death on their watch – you know, the proverbial "head in the sand" attitude that is so prevalent these days. I happen to feel this is not only negligible but also down right stupid.

The result of this tragic death last year? The beach was closed for the rest of the summer. The long term result? Now that is what I call a twisted side story. The beach is owned by City, Water, Light, and Power (CWLP – er, does anyone feel a Tank Girl flashback at that name?). CWLP is owned by the City of Springfield. At this time, CWLP has not decided if they are going to open the beach. They have, however, stated that if they do, it will only be at the public's own risk – no lifeguards on duty and no chlorine treatments in the water. Knowing this area, probably no spraying for bugs in the vicinity, either.

If this is carried through, does this mean that not only will the public be at risk, but also the city? We might be the state capitol, but we are not as well off as that well-known city up north. With our governor refusing to be a responsible public figure (I'm sorry – that really is an oxy-moron, isn't it?) and staying up north rather than coming here, can our city really afford any liability?

And CWLP, please be honest with us – are you not providing lifeguards because those whiny ass little kids are still upset? Can you please tell them to put on their big boy britches and move on? As I said, my sympathy is with the family, not the people who chose to be lifeguards. Whether they thought about the risks or not, they KNEW they existed. It is time to move on and others should not be deprived just because these lifeguards are upset.

I

Can We Discuss Our Listening Skills, please?

 

I'm not sure what is going on when we call customer service, but our brains seem to totally shut down. Not only do all those manners we were previously in possession of just fly completely out our collective asses, but we are suddenly incapable of either comprehending and/or hearing even the simplest of questions.

Let us take today as an example. When you call me and I politely say, "May I have your first and last name, please" and appropriate response would be "John Smith" if (seriously – only if) you are, in fact, John Smith. If you are Bob or Donna Smith, then "John Smith" is not an appropriate answer. Another completely inappropriate response to the name question is "yes". I say "may"," not "can". I am not asking for your permission, but rather for you to provide some basic information! Now, "yes" can be turned into an appropriate answer if it is immediately followed by your name as opposed to the ever-so-eloquent "huh" that I got today.

Perhaps those of you not in customer service yourselves will believe this the exception rather than the rule, but you would be wrong. It is amazing how often this actually happens. I mean, even our store reps are guilty of this! You can be 15 minutes into a conversation before some of them will bother mentioning they aren't the customer or an account user, but rather an agent. I mean, seriously?

Now, this is not meant as a rant. Quite the contrary – I am just laying some ground work. Am I overly curious? Perhaps just nosy? Maybe I am a little dumb? I know that we are all really busy these days, what with trying to accomplish 48 hours of work in just three or four. I can even understand why we get distracted when we are interrupted by an incoming call, but today we are discussing the phenomenon that occurs when people call customer service.

So here we are: The attitude we give when we call customer service. Why do we do this? Is it a superiority issue? We call customer service because we need help and how many of us are really comfortable asking for help? I don't like to ask for help and I don't know too many people who do. In fact, I only know my dad as being comfortable asking for help and that could be because he is in his 70's and so rarely needs help with anything. Do we lose basic social skills when calling customer service because it makes us feel stupid?

And if so, is this really a valid reason? I don't believe that it is. I am not attempting to write an essay here, I am just curious. What do you think?

Let’s talk about Link

Perhaps Link is an Illinois thing, so let me explain. Link is your food stamps on a "debit" card. Link is a wonderful thing that helps a lot of needy families buy food when they might not be able to otherwise. Tonight (well, early this morning actually), we are not discussing the people who need Link because we're not all lucky enough to be financially stable all of the time. I, in fact, was once a Link recipient (you try supporting yourself while working part time and going to school full time). This discussion is not intended to put anyone down as I am fully aware I am no better than anyone else.

What I would like, however, is to discuss exactly how people are using their Link cards. Now, as stated, the purpose of Link is to feed your family. A woman came into the gas station tonight and brought up to the counter a SlimJim, a push pop, some soda, and some chips. Sure, we all get the munchies from time to time, but if you have money for smokes then you have money for snacks. WHY did this woman get mad at us because we do not accept Link? We are a gas station – not a grocery store.

I understand the need for Link. I really do. I just don't understand the need to abuse public aid. Can someone explain this to me, please?

I am so tired, by damn.

I tell you, I really thought I could handle two jobs and school. Unfortunately, it just isn't true. I am so damn tired and sore all the time. And grouchy? Man, this girl gets damn grouchy when she is tired! I got up at 5:00 this morning to go to my second job where I stood on my poor feet all day. I had to go to my brother's to do laundry after that and even took the laptop with me to write. You know, write the paper that's due today. I couldn't finish it there. I was just so damn tired. I have less than 100 words so far! And what did I do? Oh yeah, I left my damn power cord there. The one that keeps my computer charged since the battery life for this P.O.S. is like 90 freakin' minutes.

So what am I going to do? Try to get that damned paper done tomorrow during lunch at my first job and after I get off work at 10:30 tomorrow night so I can at least only lose like 9 points off it!

I'll be back in tomorrow with more fun filled excitement. Well, I at least hope something exciting happens to keep me awake!!!