Regular Rambo!

I didn’t get the supervisor position at work, and my hours and bonuses are still being cut.  Money is tight right now, and I really need to trim my expenses and pick up extra hours where I can.  I will also continue my search for a better job, although nothing promising has shown up on Monster lately.

I am also retaking the reigns of my D&D group, because reports have been coming my way that Dave has not been successful as a Dungeon Master thus far.  He has personal and family issues right now, wich I feel are limiting his ability to run the game well.  I will be starting my new campaign on the first Sunday in May, and we shall meet every Sunday thereafter for four hours.

I am using much of the Quietville Material I published here, with a few important changes.  Chiefly, I am changing the pantheon to a dualistic system, with two primary deities, a god of light, and a god of darkness, and also some kind of neutral nature deity who will play a lesser role in the campaign, as this particular campaign will focus primarily on the battle between the gods of light and darkness. I am taking there names from the video game Fable, Avo being the god of light, and Skorm being the god of darkness.  I haven’t yet decided what name I will use for the goddess of nature; possibly something archetypal like “Gia” or “Mother Nature”.  I will post more updates here as the game design progresses.

Yay!  Today marks the 25th anniversary of my birth.  I really stopped looking forward to birthdays within the last couple of years, and today doesn’t feel particularly special to me.  I guess I should take this opportunity to reflect upon my life, and count my blessings, so I don’t feel so down on my birthday.

First and foremost, I am thankful for Rachel, my wonderful fiancee, who is always here for me.  I was in a pretty bad place before she came along, and I really appreciate everything she does for me.  I can’t wait to spend many more birthdays with her.

I am also thankfull for my family, who has always supported me and my crazy career ambitions.  They have always taken me in when no one else will, and believed in me.  They have provided me with words of kindness and wisdom when I need it most.

Finaly, I am thankfull for my freinds, and all the laughs and good times we have together.  I will always remember summer cook outs at Joe & Courtney’s house, late night D&D sessions, and poker nights.  I have so many fond memories with my dear freinds I can’t even to begin to list them all here, but you know who you are.  No matter where you go, I will always be right there with you, and you here with me.

Today I found this Obama cartoon I would like to share with you.

One of my favorite supervisors at work is leaving tomorrow.   This is a little bit of a bitter sweet occasion because, although she will be sorely missed, this does open up an opportunity for one of us peons to become a night shift supervisor.  Needless to say, I applied for the position.

I submitted my resume earlier this week, and I was called into the facility managers office this evening for a preliminary interview.  She will be holding second interviews for select candidates on Monday.  I was nervous as hell, and it showed, but some of the other sales managers in the office told me I made a good impression.

This move is really all about money for me.  If it don’t make dollars,  It don’t make sense.  It would bean about a three dollar pay raise from my current base pay, and about 10-20 hours more per week, as well as benefits, which I need desperately. 

I have decided to create a new page here on my beloved wordpress blog in order to indulge in a little shameless self promotion.  I have posted my resume, for the benefit of all the visitors that I don’t have.  I am always keeping my eyes open for new opportunities.

If you happen to be looking for a good sales or customer service manager, feel free to check out my credentials.  I am willing to relocate, however I am reluctant to accept positions outside of the continental United States, or in cold climate areas, unless sufficiently compensated for my discomfort.

I will also make no secret of the fact that my services will always be available to the highest bidder, so be prepared to pay for my loyalty.  I can asure you however, that my services are well worth the money, and with the results I can produce for you, the costs of hiring me will quickly pay for themselves.

Okay, first and foremost, I want to make a pledge to myself to post more regularly on this blog.  Daily if at all passable.  I just haven’t been keeping up with this lately like I would like to.  I have been to absorbed in playing video games and such.

Now for an update on work.  Last week I was sent home early one more day, but as of Friday, they started giving us our hours back, and as of Monday they called most people back from layoff, although some would not return.  I had submitted my resume to a few employers on Monster.com in the meantime, but most of the offers I have received thus far have been less than tempting.

Now on to more fun matters, this weeks fantasy NASCAR picks:

Jeff Gordan
Dale Earnhardt. Jr.
Kyle Busch
Brian Vickers

P.S….   When I was proofreading this post I discovered, ironically, that the word blog is not recognized by the wordpress spell checker.  Nor is the word “wordpress”.

I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt.  I tried to continue to work diligently, and be a good employee despite all the shit that has been going on at work.  But ultimately, management could care less.

Today, I showed up for work, worked two hours, and then was sent home, and stripped of my attendance bonus for the remainder of this pay period. This was all done despite the fact that I have never had any attendance problems, and have consistently exceeded my sales goals.  Yesterday I had 5 sales, putting me at 15% conversion, which is currently 4% over the group average.  Today, in the two hours I was there I had two more sales.

Despite all this, those assholes had the nerve to send me home, and fuck with my paycheck.  Needless to say, I am livid.  I am updating my resume tonight, and taking a look at job listings on Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, and Yahoo! Hot Jobs.

Today I went in to work to find a skeleton crew remaining to man the office.  Many of my supervisors were now doing more shifts on the phone to help make up for the reps that got laid off.  I was also kept quite busy, and ended my day with 5 sales. 

At one point during my day at work I was called into a meeting where I was informed that one of my companies 4 offices would soon be closing, and that we are basically in competition with our other offices as to which of us get to stay open.  The office than puts up the worst numbers gets closed.

I was also informed that if you fail to make a sale during your work day, you will be suspended for the next day, and lose all your bonuses for that pay period.  I haven’t had a day without sales thus far, however I am not pleased by the fact that one bad day could cost me so dearly.  I think if that happens to me I am likely to start looking for jobs elsewhere.  We shall see how it goes.

The company I work for, Intermedia Marketing Solutions, laid off around 300 people today.  About 40 of those people where from my office, leaving us with around 25 people in my office.  Fortunately for me, I was not one of those people.

Seniority seemed to have not been a consideration in who was chosen for the layoff, as I have only been there for about three weeks, and others who have been with the company for much longer have been laid off.  The vast majority of my training class was laid off as well.  I suspect the company has had its hours cut by our key client, Verizon, after attendance problems have caused us to fall short of our committed number of phone hours.  This is why, it seems, that employees with histories of attendance problems seem most likely to have been chosen to be laid off.

I am thankful that I have had perfect attendance thus far.  I also have hit all my sales quotas, and have been quick to learn the job.  I feel that customer service is a career specialty of mine, and that I can continue to excel in this field.

I look at today’s events as both a challenge and an opportunity.  On one hand, lay offs like this raise serious concerns about my job security, and I will be keeping a close eye on the job market.  It also means that my work load will now increase, as the remaining reps will be expected to carry the load for the reps that have been laid off.  Unfortunately, I can’t realistically expect to receive any extra compensation for this increased work load, although I have considered drafting a letter, to be submitted after my 90 day probationary period has been completed, asking for a reasonable cost of living increase.

On the bright side, having fewer reps in the office does open up a few potential opportunities for the enterprising individual.  For one thing, I can expect to get more sales per week, do to the extra call volume I will be handling, statistically speaking of course.  Also, I feel that having fewer reps in the office reduces my competition for any opportunities for advancement that may become available, and you can be sure that I will be waiting to pounce on any such opportunities.

In conclusion, I feel that this day marks a time of uncertainty, excitement, and opportunity for me.  My condolences are certainly with those who lost there jobs today, but I simply can not afford to dwell on such thoughts.  I hope you all had a happy St. Patrick’s day.  Erin go bragh!

My work week is finally over.  It is time for me to relax and enjoy my weekend.  This week also marks the end of a two week pay period, when our commissions and bonuses are calculated.  I feel like I did fairly well.  Hopefully my paycheck will reflect that feeling.

I am also sad to note the passing of Gary Gygax last week.  Gary Gygax was best known as the creator of the Dungeons & Dragons game, and an inspiration to players and dungeon masters everywhere.  He will be sorely missed by us all.

I am currently awaiting the release of the 4th edition of the Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook, scheduled for this May.  I have been playing 3rd edition since it’s release, and am anxious to see the new game.  I am curious as to how well it will fare in the market.  I hope that wizards has done a good job with this new edition, and achieves there goal of attracting a new generation of players without alienating there core fan base, and ruining the game.  I will post a review of each 4th edition core rule book shortly after they are released.