Pussy Whipped!!

Yeah I got roped into this too...Charly as usual using my body and anything else in the house as her own personal playtoy. This is really getting out of hand. I miss my long hair and beard sometimes...

Pure Donkey Balls...Thoughts on the tracker...big brother is watching you

Okay yeah I'm going to wear my new mantra out but damn yesterday was awful and the rest of the work year isn't looking any better. It all started with the fact that my company layed off the entire network operations staff or our sister center and gave us ALL of the work, but not before laying off a few people here. So in a nutshell they more than doubled our work load and cut our local headcount as well. As of this writing there is nothing on the books in terms of relief anytime soon and frankly my hours, already insane, are going to get worse and worse. Yeah...I'm soooooo outta this place as soon as I can be.

My current thoughts on the tracker may seem a little funny here but you know what? Every since those morons got there own forum and you can delete the forum I don't ever see them post anywhere else!! It's almost a prison the webmaster created to trap them in their own sex filled, immature play room and gave us the option to lock it behind us and not have to see it. In many ways maybe it was his intention after all, but honestly after putting an hour glass on the usual offenders I noticed most of them haven't left that room since it was started. Good riddance!! Maybe it was a good idea after all. Lead them away from the forum with their own sex room and all of a sudden it's problem solved once you get rid of the forum. I still think there is a problem with the discussion threads still showing up in the top threads but hopefully that will get fixed.

Lastly I've installed Site Meter on this damn thing which has some interesting stats in who is viewing my site, where they are located (or at least thier hopoff router is located) and where they came from. Interesting stuff. It gives you a full view of the world and lets you know where everyone was visiting from and so far it's Canada, England and the good old USA...this is pretty interesting stuff. If you don't have it try it out at www.sitemeter.com

Another Blends win? Possibly

Well folks a more constructive thread happened on the tracker today concerning the OT threads and whether or not they should have been removed or left around. Well after a lengthy and mostly intelligent debate I think we might have a sort of win in that the Webmaster has agreed to amend the forum rules and put in places a list of crimes and punishments so to speak. I'll say it's a step in the right direction and if he begins to enforce it well then I think we'll have come a long way. Thanks to all of the blends who voiced their opinions pro or con for the forums because it was nice to have the webmaster involved and for him to start responding to everyone's requests instead of just a select few that wanted their own dirty word clubhouse. Well this is my dirtyword clubhouse and the password?

DONKEYBALLS

:)

Jolly Roger again...

Well I tried to stay away but I couldn't. Again I'm fighting for the right for a decent tracker moderator, not one that seems to have masturbatory thoughts about Mellie's lips around his Johnson. Looks like I may have to raise the Jolly Roger again...YAR!!

The Tracker Sucks...I Rule

Okay as most of you know I was one of the blends jumping up and saying we needed to take back the tracker and get rid of these fools. I started making T-Shirts, recruiting people to help out and hell I even emailed the webmaster about BUYING the damn website. Then...for a while things seemed to settle down. Sure the magpies were there but it seemed to be stupid and no one seemed to be paying any attention. Then the events of the "fuck em" thread seemed to just bring it all back to a boil. You see I have no problem with an R-Rated thread, I have no problem corraling of those stupid silly dumbasses into their own little world so they can play grabass and engage in stupid silly humor. Fine. Great. Wonderful. But you know what? When they start calling out other blends and plain flaming and trolling I've got to just say why the FUCK aren't these people banned. I can think of 3 instances in which Mellie's account should be banned, IP blocked and letters sent to her ISP to ask for a shutdown of her service.

1. She attached Moggie right out and open in front of everyone in the "Fuck em" Thread
2. She displayed the content of Chuckdiesel's PM's back in December
3. She has been constantly asked by the webmaster to tone it down

Now in ANY other website I've been a part of, someone like her would have been gone after the posting of the PM's and the attacking someone right out. But know our precious webmaster can't seem to fish his balls out of his pocket and make it a place where people like that aren't welcome. Again, I have no problem with him making an r-rated forum. But allowing people like that to get away with a slap on the wrist? That's ridiculous. I'm about 90 percent sure I'm going to leave the tracker and just keep blogging. I'm tired of fighting a losing battle. In some ways it was a much better moderated site when the blends came in and started stacking the deck with great posts. But by the webmasters lack of action against these people when they get out of line it simply opens the door for them to be more outrageous as they feel they won't get punished and frankly anything he does dole out is a PM that says play nice. Oh man...the pain...the pain. Webmaster...you're a weak small pitiful excuse for a moderator and yes you suck big donkey balls since you apparently don't have any yourself.

Sorry folks I'm just a little pissed off today.

Thanks!!

Well folks you've been giving me a lot of great advice so far. Dub, Jess, Jen, Tom and Lala thanks for your comments in my last post (and also to anyone who posted there after I wrote this) as they help. Dub I have a copy of the Parachute book and I'm also reading soemthing called "Do what you are" and "The Pathfinder" which all have interesting and very helpful things to do and think about. Jen thanks for the advice over IM last night it definitely helped get my mind around some things as well. Tom...we are complete and total opposites lol!!

Here are a few things that I need to do to get things rolling with my current job whether it's moving to a new job within the company or a new job/company altogether.

1. The last time I left a job I was sued and lost on a small contractual stipulation concerning training. Now given, this old employer was a mom and pop local company and my state is a right to work state (meaning loosely they can fire you at any time and for any reason) and more often than not any greivance you file will usually fall on deaf ears. AT&T isn't a vindictive company to it's employees, but I want to make sure that I make my offer or a lateral move or possible leaving from the company something that is professional and doesn't rub influential people the wrong way. More than anything I want to get across that I'm not looking for a way out of a job, but looking for a way to be better asset in another capacity.

2. I need to start looking at my marketable skills and seeing what other kinds of jobs I might be able to move into or at least temporarily perform while I'm figuring out my true calling. In addition to my computer, office and professional skills I know i'm good at negotiation, planning, dumbing down technical concepts to the non-technical and hey I can make people laugh. Not sure what kind of jobs directly use a lot of those skills at this time but I'm open to finding out what they are and whether or not I'm interested in them.

3. I need to really start looking into the possibility of moving out of North Carolina as an option, finding a cheaper lifestyle in the interim and applying BFL tactics to my wallet a little better than I have. I've been looking at other things to slim my finances down in preparation for a 40-50% cut in pay if I leave my job. Not saying this will be THAT drastic but I definitely need to prepare for things to get tight in a hurry. Currently I'm at a level that I'm able to save about 1/3 of my paycheck which is pretty good and means that if I lose no more than 33% of my pay then I'll at least be okay at that point. But I'd rather shave off a lot more debt and uneccesary expense while I can instead of waiting until I'm forced too.

4. I need to get a meeting with my direct manager and discuss what's going on and also look at the possibility of volunteering for the layoff that we know is coming. I want to have a number of possible options and plans, up to and including a termination from AT&T, instead of going in with no ideas and a meetings that seems more like whining and an ultimatum. I love that AT&T has given me a generous salary, a great benefits package and great co-workers, it's just my current job isn't where I want to be, but I'm open to new opportunities most definitely and if not...hey I'll take the buyout and go from there.

And Dub I think I read this in the parachute book...something like 10% of workers change their careers every year VOLUNTARILY and 7 out of 10 wind up making at least 10% more then they did at their old job...so I'm hoping that statistic will hold true.

Thanks again for your support guys.

Needing a Change

Okay folks this is a big one.

I'm wanting to make a career change and I've been debating for about 2 years now and it's coming to a crux because my job is affecting me mentally and physically and frankly I hate my job. I don't hate my company or my managers or my co-workers...I just hate what I do. I got into IT back in the heyday of fast money and easy job placement. I started off as a design engineer for customer PBX's doing configurations and implementation. Then I decided I wanted to go out into the field and actually work "hands on" which was great. I had a van, a tool kit and I got my hands dirty. Then I got the opportunity to work for the big leagues and began working at AT&T doing system administration on certain applications we used in our network operations center. Then I moved out to the network operations center and began doing troubleshooting and break fix over the phone for our large business customers around the world.

Essentially I sit at a desk 10-12 hours a day in front of a computer fielding or making phones calls. It's the epitome of working a fast food drive thru with the exception of better pay and no food smells. However, the respect is about the same. You get customers calling in cussing you out, your managers are only as supportive as their managers, you find your own project teams cutting you off at the knees and essentially you're forced to fend for yourself, however, due to restrictions you're not exactly autonomous either. It's nuts, it's too much noise and frankly I've decided that they don't pay me enough to hate my job. And folks I REALLY REALLY REALLY hate my job.

So I'm stuck with a problem. I know I hate my job...but I haven't any idea of what I would like to do or what I would be good at. I've picked up a few books that measure your skills by your myers briggs results (ESTJ, INFP, etc) and that seems to help a bit. I'm an ENFP and the description that I found in the book was completely on the ball. I'm great at working with ETSJ's because I'm the creative one and they are the logical ones and thus I'm able to come up with the ideas and they can implement them. I'm on the reverse end of that spectrum now, I'm on the logical end of things vs the creative side. It's funny the list of jobs ranged from customer relations managers and School Guidance Counselors to Character Actors and Radio Personalities (no Jess I'm not after you job...although I would DIE to have your job if only because I think I would have a blast doing something like that) so it's a wide assortment of opportunities to choose from and some sound pretty interesting. But how do I go from my job to those jobs without proper experience or training?

Has anyone with considerable work experience made the leap from one career to another and if so how did you do it? I know I'm asking a pretty general question but honestly this is a pretty big step for me and I need to be happy instead of miserable and don't want to do this half ass or furthermore lose my shirt because I'm out of work doing this the wrong way. I would love to hear any stories or advice any of you have as frankly getting out of this job will help get me back to blogging again ;)

Thanks for reading and yes I'm still in the gym :)

Alive? Yes...At they gym? You bet...back on BFL...welllll....

So I'm at the gym this week doing lots of HIIT cardio trying to burn myself back into things. Honestly at this stage I'm just happy to be doing that. I don't know where my head is on starting C2 but for some reason I just can't get to it. Don't get me wrong I'm still eating mostly clean and I'm in the gym 2 times a week but for some reason I'm just not getting my head clear enough to start the second challenge. I think a lot of it is the fact that I'm happy at the pace that I'm on right now and just not ready to kick it up a notch out of the fear that I might fall flat on my ass like I did the first time I started my second challenege and just say @#$% it and quit altogether. I guess it's everything in moderation right now including moderation. I'm still maintaining my weight and I'm still eating mostly clean (meaning no fast food or sodas at all) and trying to get back to eating 5-6 days a week. I'm not a cold turkey clean and jerk kind of guy. I question everything and listen intuitively to my body and my mind and right now it's telling me to take things in a moderate fashion and then get going when I'm ready. Not a bad thing I think and certainly better than the alternative I was living before I was doing BFL. So I'll keep blogging and supporting you guys and while I'm still eating, working out and doing a psuedo C2 and maybe...just maybe I should try a mini-challenege and see where that goes.

In other news I'm still making new friends and meeting new people. The dating thing was nice but just not very fruitful. I'm a complex person and unfortunately I think the amount I was dating mixed with the lack of really having my heart and soul into it discouraged me quite a bit. I've met one or two people that I wouldn't mind going further with but I think we are in different places right now so I'm mostly just trying to build a nice friendship. One of those girls works out at my gym (no not gymgirl) and she's really cool and happy and not dark and twisted which is...nice. So we'll see how it all goes. Hope everyone is doing well and I'm sorry I've been away so much I truly am getting ransacked at work and by the time I get home from there I have just enough energy to get into bed, wake up in the morning, eat and then head to the gym and then to work.

Alive and well and kicking...

Just an update to let everyone know that I'm okay. Honestly I've been sick enough to work but still achey, sneezy and coughing enough to go home and go straight to bed. I did feel well enough tonight to cook some dished from the EFL cookbook and I'll be eating those over the weekend and getting myself prepped for next week. Thanks for the comments and thinking of me. I'm trying to get back to normal. Thanks :)