Peoii’s Place

It’s day 4 of training here, and other than a case of exhaustion, things are going really well. We’ve been working on our various training information, getting familiar with the products and services that we offer, and in general simply having a good time. A lot of things so far are familiar to me from my previous training doing the customer service line, but there have already been new items on the menu, and I’m sure as time goes on more and more new things will come up.

Weather wise? It’s the greater Seattle area, do you really need to ask? Rain Drizzles (rain to those non-seattleites) all day, everyday, without question or fail. Personally? I love it. I’ve really missed this weather and it’s nice to be in it for a while.

Other than that? I’m doing well. Kinda boring during the evenings, but overall not so shabby. They’ve got me staying in the afore mentioned Redmond Inn, which has me in a king size bed with a mini-kitchen (sink, coffee maker, and mini-fridge). It’s remarkably comfortable, which is handy as I spend most of my evenings there.

Well, just thought I’d make a quick post letting everyone know indeed I am okay. That may have been a completely different story had I decided to travel over here last Sunday. It appears as though there was a rather nasty rock slide coming across the very same pass I had travelled over. They’ve still got one direction of the traffic closed, and do not have a timeframe for it to reopen. So yea, good thing I came over when I did.

Alrighty, well, lunch is getting close to ending here, so I’m gonna just close this. Wish I could check my email, but alas, I can’t while I’m here (due to a proxy server), so I’ll have to do that this weekend. If you’ve emailed me and I havnt’ replied, it’s simply because I havn’t had a chance to check my account. Remember though, please use my gmail account mentioned earlier, as I won’t be checking the others until I get home.

More Later.

Okay, so maybe it’s not a road trip… But it’s at least an excuse to go on a really nice drive. I’m most likely going to be heading out today for my training. Why leave the extra day early? Just take a look at the pass I’m going to be driving over. Given that it’s supposed to snow more tonight, and then snow thru the day tomorrow? Yea, I think I’ll take off the day early, and save myself the headache.

Not only that, but Kelly has tomorrow off, and it’d be cool to spend the day with my sister. We haven’t really hung out, except for a brief visit she had out this way, since she moved back to Bremerton. So I figured why not, it’ll make the drive safer for me, and give me some extra time to hang out with family.

Here’s where I’ll be staying for the next 2 weeks:
Redmond Inn
17601 Redmond Way
Redmond, WA 98052-4913, US

So if you wanna get hold of me, that’s where I’ll be. I’ve got a cell phone thanks to Cingular for this trip, and if you want to know the number, either email me, or contact my sister. Also, feel free to email me at jharrell AT gmail DOT com. Not sure how often I’ll be able to check it, but I’ll try to at least on the weekends.

Anyway! Time to finish getting ready for this. See you all in 2 weeks folks!

… but wow is this month going to be crazy for me. Sunday I head out for Redmond, WA for a couple weeks for training with Cingular. Unfortunately I don’t have a laptop that is in working enough order to make the trip, so I’ll be effectively offline during that entire time, making it rather hard to get a hold of me. On the other side, it’ll be a great chance for anyone who’s interested to see me while I’m over there! Here are the details of the trip:

I’m planning on driving over Sunday the 6th, so that I can be ready for the first day of training which is the 7th. Training goes as follows: 10am-7pm on the two Mondays, and 8:30am-5:30pm Tuesdays thru Fridays, with Saturdays and Sundays off. I’ll be driving back here to Post Falls on Saturday the 19th. So far the only plans I have is during the weekend, I’m going to be heading over to the Bremerton/Silverdale area to visit family. Other than that? My schedule is open folks (aside from the training of course), so if you’d like to get together, by all means, please contact me.

Once I know what hotel I’m going to be in (I’m hoping to get those details today) I’ll have a better idea of where abouts I’m going to be, and what I’m going to be close to. Not only that, but I can get the phone number all prepped for those wishing to contact me once I’m in town.

But yea, given the trip for training, and then the start of the holiday season, this is going to be a VERY busy month for me. Lets just hope nothing catastrophic happens during it… So to all you old people I know, no dieing, you hear me???

Well, anyway, off I head to work! More later.

Happy Halloween, or Samhain! (whichever you observe) Todays the day when we get to express our inner selves in the form of a costume, and allow others to try to figure it out. Okay, so maybe to a great many people, it’s just running around, gathering candy, and attempting to scare the hell out of people… But hey, to each their own right?

At any rate, it’s shaping to be a very wet holiday here in Idaho, so what am I doing? Right now, I’m sitting here writing out this post while drinking some tea, and talking a friend thru some serious issues in her life. It’s raining slowly outside, and I absolutely love that sound… it’s something I miss a lot from the Seattle area in which I grew up. Sure, it’s going to suck for the trick or treaters that come knocking on the doors later on this evening, but right now? I couldn’t imagine a better day to have off and just enjoy around the house.

Well then, the question comes up! How is everyone spending their Halloween? Going to a party? Going out trick or treating? Speak up, leave a comment, and share what you’ll be doing today.

So yea, last night I was just not up to posting about my day at work. Not that it was bad, don’t get me wrong, I’m rather pumped over the idea of what this job has to offer, I was just tired. Actually, I guess more to the point, my feet just HURT. Reason? Well hell, look at my last couple jobs: Call center, Call center, and oh yea, Call center. That means a lot of time sitting around working in front of a computer. Well, this job isn’t at all that, it’s on your feet (in front of a computer) and running around the store (to usually… another computer) helping folks with their cell phone purchases.

As for my co-workers? Great lot of people, lots of experience, confidence, and a sense of family I have missed these past few jobs. Sure, I’ve always had friends in the various call centers, but these folks really feel like they’ve gotten to know one another really well over the years. I’m rather excited to see how this develops over time, and how folks will react to “the new guy” in the office.

Overall though, I just thought I’d leave a quick note and say yes, I’m pleased with the new job so far. Days 1 and 2 had me doing quite a bit of training, but both days I’ve had my customer experiences to deal with, and I’ve already learned quite a bit that I didn’t know before. So things are looking up.

Now, if I could only reach that next goal…. but that’s another topic, and a post for another day.

Well, I got the phone call. I start at the Cingular store tomorrow, and honestly? I’m really looking forward to it. Not only because I’ll be able to get those “pre-job” jitters out of the system, but it’ll just feel good to be going to work again. I’ve got high hopes for this turning into something special, and I’m going to do everything in my power to see that it is.

So I’m prepping the clothes, prepping the path I’m taking to work tomorrow, and getting ready for my 10am start time. Here’s to hopeing!

Just thought I’d make a quick post about it. I’ll post more again tomorrow after work.

That’s right folks, it’d appear my sister is getting married! It’s pretty damn cool if you ask me, and I couldn’t be more happy for her and her man. His name is Jacob, and though I’ve only met him once, he definitely sounds like a really nice guy. Ahh hell, pictures speak louder than words, so here’s the only picture of the two of them I have access to:

The date they’ve set is May 13th, 2006, so if you know them and are expecting an invite to the wedding, start clearing your calendars folks. Hell, with my new job, I’m already prepping to start telling them NOW that I need that time off. My sister is that important to me, and hell itself couldn’t keep me from that wedding.

A few words for the happy couple should they read the site:

To Kelly: Grats Biotch! Now go be a good wifey and get your man a beer.

To Jacob: You’re cool in my book, remember that, but you break my sisters heart ever, and I’ll break your body in half. It’s not a threat, it’s a promise. Nah, in all seriousness, I just wanted to let you know that you’re marrying a wonderful woman… treat her like it, and she’ll treat you the same for the rest of your life.

Anyway… Grats to both of you, and may this marriage last as long as ya’ll both want it to.

Over the years, I’ve played TONS of different games out there… but tonight, after a VERY long day, I sat down (around midnight) and decided to play a quick game of Minesweeper while talking to my sister over AIM. I’d never really been overly good at the game, but I enjoyed the challenge of playing it, and I figured tonight would be no different. However, something rather special happened… I finally beat it on the Expert skill level!

Okay, sure… millions of others have done this before, and I’m sure millions more will after me… so it’s not really that impressive to most people. But you know what? This isn’t most peoples blog, it’s mine. So WOOT for me! And now, without further adue, the screenshot of proof!

Yay me! Okay, now I can go back to mindlessly playing the game…

More later.

You know, there are tons of popular blogging sites out there where anyone and everyone can easily setup their own blog. My problem with a lot of those? They’re really limiting as far as what you can do with your blog… it’s literally a journal and that’s about it. Until now!

As reported by Photomatt over here:

Want to know a secret? If you have Flock you can get on Wordpress.com without an invite. Enjoy!

What is “Flock” you ask? As it’d turn out, Flock is a fork of the amazingly popular web browser Firefox, with some rather interesting additions to the codebase. One key feature specifically that’s drawing a lot of attention is it’s built-in blog editor. That’s right, you can post to your blog right from within your browser, using an advanced editor from any webpage, anywhere. Pretty damn slick of you ask me!

And what’s this Wordpress.com [link] business? Well, it’s the free hosting blog provider that is powered by none other than Wordpress. This means you have access to the same powerful blogging tool that’s powering this website, for FREE, and already hosted and setup for you! Now that’s bloody awesome. Unfortunately it’s invite only… well, unless you download Flock.

So go ahead, download Flock, and give it a shot, you might just like what you find.

In the words of the Internet gaming community at large….

WOOT!

I’ve passed my background check (by some grace of god…), I passed the drug test (gee, I guess they didn’t check for everything…), and I’m now officially an employee of Cingular Wireless. Now whoa whoa whoa folks… I know what some of you who have read this for a while are thinking:

“Hang on a second, didn’t he work for them before?”

Well see, that was working for West, as a Cingular wireless 611 customer service rep. This time, I’m working for Cingular Wireless directly, in one of their local stores. Not only is this a major upgrade from my previous position, but it’ll be very nice working for the company directly. Needless to say, I’m very hopeful this is going to turn into a very fun and rewarding job.

But yea, anyway… one more time for good measures sake:

WOOT!!!

Okay, I’m happy, and I’m done. More later.

Edit Note: I’ve created a new category called “The Job” in which I’ll document my experiences as they present themselves there. Of course, I’m not going to go into any details that would compromise any employee or customer there, but it’ll give me a place to simply talk about the job in an open forum.