So I was at Walmart getting a microwave and a radio when I stumbled across the garbage can section. Well, garbage cans are always interesting and I took a look at some of this years new sleek models. As I admired Walmart's diversified selection I found a heavy duty monster that had two foot lever, pedal, things. Two? Like, for both my feet? The logistics of that boggles my mind. Anyway, on to the meat and potatoes. Why was I buying a microwave you obviously asked with the characteristic curiousity of you. Well, I have moved into a new apartment, that is why. Not just a new apartment, but the company office, which is still in the process of being made into an office/apartment, or offpartment, or aparffice. Seeing the opportunity to trim some fat the company (Elite) decided to close down some of the apartments they had rented for we the employees. A month and a half ago. Since that fateful day we just lived in the apartment until someone told us we had to leave, which happened this monday. So we packed up and cam on over to the office.
Pro: I get my own room.
Con: The view is ugly.
Pro: I don't have to go anywhere to go to the office.
Con: The neighborhood is pretty ghetto, I used to have a big ole' garden land of relaxation.
Pro: I just got to install my own doorknob, which was fun.
Con: We as of yet do not have a washer, or dryer, or much else that the standard American needs.
Pro: We have a microwave, thanks to yours truly.
So the moral of the story is: I lived in Uruguay for two years, this is easy sauce.
On Tuesday I stepped through a mans roof. I was up in an attic, I lost my balance and my not very heavy self went right through the roof. I cleaned up the mess and told the man of the house I would of course be paying for it. He seemed pretty cool with that but apparently in the inside he was a raging vat of rage. He called the sales rep nine times after I had left, yelling at him about all sorts of things. When I tried to call him he would not answer and I found out later that he refuses to talk to me ever again (we'll give him a few days and see if he cools down). Man, where's the love? It's not like I drilled a hole in his dog. Honestly, people baffle me. All the time.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
From england with love
Just when you had lost hope that you would ever recieve of me another glorious imbuementation of my life...you did. Right now.
Every day I get up bright and early to go do an early morning install or perhaps finish or fix a previous install. Then I return late at night, exhausted with more to do the next day. There has been no time to sit down at the computer during the day. I'm lucky if I get to eat. Fast food has become my staple and even now I listen to my arteries weep. Although this last friday I found myself with one of those moments of free time more precious than gold and I used it to go grocery shopping (for the first time in a long time) at the local Piggly Wiggly. Besides some sugary cerals all I got was a huge heap of different fruits and veggies. Mmm, I am sick of unhealthy food (says the boy who is typing as he waits for his order at Dominos to be ready).
So how did I come to sit before a computer screen you ask? Well folks, I will be spending the weekend with a vsery special young lady. Her name is Tasha and she is currently vieing for my attention with her feminine wiles and I don't know how much longer I can resist. To fully grasp what a lucky fellow I am I think a physical description is in order. Tasha has beautiful black eyes and a great smile, with curves...lots of them. Actually, they're more like folds. Tash is about two feet long and more or less ten pounds. She is a pure bred English Bulldog, absolutely adorable. I want a dog. You see, one of the sales reps and his wife bought this dog, or puppy to more precise. This weekend all the salesmen have taken off for Pensacola Florida and I got the job of dogsitter. She is currently trying to eat my feet. So freaking adorable. Anyways, my pizza is done and Dominos is about to close so I must go.
Every day I get up bright and early to go do an early morning install or perhaps finish or fix a previous install. Then I return late at night, exhausted with more to do the next day. There has been no time to sit down at the computer during the day. I'm lucky if I get to eat. Fast food has become my staple and even now I listen to my arteries weep. Although this last friday I found myself with one of those moments of free time more precious than gold and I used it to go grocery shopping (for the first time in a long time) at the local Piggly Wiggly. Besides some sugary cerals all I got was a huge heap of different fruits and veggies. Mmm, I am sick of unhealthy food (says the boy who is typing as he waits for his order at Dominos to be ready).
So how did I come to sit before a computer screen you ask? Well folks, I will be spending the weekend with a vsery special young lady. Her name is Tasha and she is currently vieing for my attention with her feminine wiles and I don't know how much longer I can resist. To fully grasp what a lucky fellow I am I think a physical description is in order. Tasha has beautiful black eyes and a great smile, with curves...lots of them. Actually, they're more like folds. Tash is about two feet long and more or less ten pounds. She is a pure bred English Bulldog, absolutely adorable. I want a dog. You see, one of the sales reps and his wife bought this dog, or puppy to more precise. This weekend all the salesmen have taken off for Pensacola Florida and I got the job of dogsitter. She is currently trying to eat my feet. So freaking adorable. Anyways, my pizza is done and Dominos is about to close so I must go.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Get yo' daily dose of boom!
Man, keeping up a blog is hard. Mainly because I hardly have time; any minute now I could get called on a job. Not to mention that I only have a limited amount of time on these library computers. It's a race against the clock, very mission impossiblesque.
So the title of this post refers to the fact that at least once a day a monsterous thunderhead rolls in, anouncing it's entrance with many loud booms. It then proceeds to drench everything in its path and in a few minutes it's gone and everthing is sunny agian. Of course, it doesn't cool things off at all, it only makes everything more humid. When you step outside here it feels more or less like you just hopped out of the shower and into your clothes without drying off.
Cool things that have happened to me: I got to give a reference to the missionaries. I was doing an instalation and when the guy found out I was from Utah he asked if I was a mormon. "I am indeed," replied I. He had quite a few questions and I basically got to teach the first discussion, and he told me he was interested in having the missionaries pay him a visit. Cool. Let's see, what else? I ate asperagus for dinner the other day, that was fun. Every day is quite an adventure, in sort of a 'doing the same thing but at different houses' kind of way. I had another missionaryish experience. There was an old man who would not stop talking the whole time I was at his house (that is in no way a stretch of the truth). Dances with Wolves came on and he gave us a running commentary on everything that was happening, as it happened. He would say, "Oh, now that injun is killin' that guy!" as the indian was killing the guy. That sort of thing happens all the time to missionaires, this was alot easier because I wasn't trying to teach him anything.
So the title of this post refers to the fact that at least once a day a monsterous thunderhead rolls in, anouncing it's entrance with many loud booms. It then proceeds to drench everything in its path and in a few minutes it's gone and everthing is sunny agian. Of course, it doesn't cool things off at all, it only makes everything more humid. When you step outside here it feels more or less like you just hopped out of the shower and into your clothes without drying off.
Cool things that have happened to me: I got to give a reference to the missionaries. I was doing an instalation and when the guy found out I was from Utah he asked if I was a mormon. "I am indeed," replied I. He had quite a few questions and I basically got to teach the first discussion, and he told me he was interested in having the missionaries pay him a visit. Cool. Let's see, what else? I ate asperagus for dinner the other day, that was fun. Every day is quite an adventure, in sort of a 'doing the same thing but at different houses' kind of way. I had another missionaryish experience. There was an old man who would not stop talking the whole time I was at his house (that is in no way a stretch of the truth). Dances with Wolves came on and he gave us a running commentary on everything that was happening, as it happened. He would say, "Oh, now that injun is killin' that guy!" as the indian was killing the guy. That sort of thing happens all the time to missionaires, this was alot easier because I wasn't trying to teach him anything.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
The busiest week ever
Well, I haven't been able to post for a while because well, I haven't had time. This last week was may have been one of the most stressful of my life. Let me explain a wee bit how this job works.
The sales reps start selling around two o'clock. As soon as they get a sell they report it to the office and the office dispatches one of us technicians to go put it in. There is some sort of method to the order in which the dispatch us but I don't really care. Anywho, an install can take anywhere from an hour to lots of hours depending on it's complexity. At my not so fast speed I usually get to do two a day, three if I'm lucky (even though by the time that third one roles around it might be 10 o'clock ,which isn't fun). We're out pretty late but we usually have the morning to relax. Sometimes we get a job scheduled in the morning, maybe once or twice a week.
Now, there's a lot of paperwork to be done, not on the technician end but on the office end, and if something is not quite right with said paperwork it can tie up the whole process, making it so that we have to go back the next day. On our end there are dozens of little technical things that can go wrong, and if we overlook them the first time we'll be returning to the home latter on a service call, for which we do not get paid.
Each of these things happened last week, multiple times. Because our work (for which we are paid) happens in the afternoon we schedule service calls and return visits in the morning. So every single day last week I got up early, ran out to the area we were working in, trying to put out all sorts of little fires and then worked late into the night. Wow.
On a more interesting note, all the homes that I have done installs for in recent days have been black families. I have watched more black sitcoms, listened to more black music, and been exposed to more black entertainment in general than ever before in my life. Not a bad thing, just a different thing. Like their white neighbors they seem to leave their TV's on nonstop and I often am installing close to the TV. I've watched more TV in the last month than the last 4 years of my life. Yuck, TV is junk.
The sales reps start selling around two o'clock. As soon as they get a sell they report it to the office and the office dispatches one of us technicians to go put it in. There is some sort of method to the order in which the dispatch us but I don't really care. Anywho, an install can take anywhere from an hour to lots of hours depending on it's complexity. At my not so fast speed I usually get to do two a day, three if I'm lucky (even though by the time that third one roles around it might be 10 o'clock ,which isn't fun). We're out pretty late but we usually have the morning to relax. Sometimes we get a job scheduled in the morning, maybe once or twice a week.
Now, there's a lot of paperwork to be done, not on the technician end but on the office end, and if something is not quite right with said paperwork it can tie up the whole process, making it so that we have to go back the next day. On our end there are dozens of little technical things that can go wrong, and if we overlook them the first time we'll be returning to the home latter on a service call, for which we do not get paid.
Each of these things happened last week, multiple times. Because our work (for which we are paid) happens in the afternoon we schedule service calls and return visits in the morning. So every single day last week I got up early, ran out to the area we were working in, trying to put out all sorts of little fires and then worked late into the night. Wow.
On a more interesting note, all the homes that I have done installs for in recent days have been black families. I have watched more black sitcoms, listened to more black music, and been exposed to more black entertainment in general than ever before in my life. Not a bad thing, just a different thing. Like their white neighbors they seem to leave their TV's on nonstop and I often am installing close to the TV. I've watched more TV in the last month than the last 4 years of my life. Yuck, TV is junk.
Friday, May 28, 2010
The return of Bill Nye
So I popped in a CD of Cajun music this morning and they started singing in french. Not just french, but funny, hillbilly french. Cajun music is already 100 times more bouncy and fun than other kinds of American folk music and this, the goofiest french in the whole world, was the cherry on top.
Then I went and enjoyed a sandwich called a po-boy, which is basically enough meat to feed a third world country stuffed between two slices of french bread. To my surprise the bread was not the french bread you find at Maceys but legit (and delicious) french bread. It reminded me of of the bread in Uruguay, very much after European tradition.
The Cajun people of Louisiana remained connected to their European heritage much longer than our ancestors did. Even when the Cajuns became an autonomous people it still took a long time for them to be assimilated into the the US culture. The moral of the story is that traces of french-european tradition are everywhere. I find it abtholutely fathinating.
I'm sad because the oil spill is going to wreak havoc on New Orleans. In one of my installs the client was watching a documentary on the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It absolutely destroyed the local economy around the spill. Bill Nye the Science Guy was on the news chatting with the anchor about the consequences of the spill. At first I wondered why on earth they got Bill Nye of all people, but then I remembered that he knows everything. Anywho, the fates have it in for this poor place.
So yesterday the salesmen only sold 2, so I didn't get to install anything. What did I do? I drew! There really isn't much to report about my own goings ons. When I don't work I go to the library and listen to music on youtube while I practice my drawing. Yep.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_peoples
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajun
Then I went and enjoyed a sandwich called a po-boy, which is basically enough meat to feed a third world country stuffed between two slices of french bread. To my surprise the bread was not the french bread you find at Maceys but legit (and delicious) french bread. It reminded me of of the bread in Uruguay, very much after European tradition.
The Cajun people of Louisiana remained connected to their European heritage much longer than our ancestors did. Even when the Cajuns became an autonomous people it still took a long time for them to be assimilated into the the US culture. The moral of the story is that traces of french-european tradition are everywhere. I find it abtholutely fathinating.
I'm sad because the oil spill is going to wreak havoc on New Orleans. In one of my installs the client was watching a documentary on the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It absolutely destroyed the local economy around the spill. Bill Nye the Science Guy was on the news chatting with the anchor about the consequences of the spill. At first I wondered why on earth they got Bill Nye of all people, but then I remembered that he knows everything. Anywho, the fates have it in for this poor place.
So yesterday the salesmen only sold 2, so I didn't get to install anything. What did I do? I drew! There really isn't much to report about my own goings ons. When I don't work I go to the library and listen to music on youtube while I practice my drawing. Yep.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_peoples
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajun
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Sick of Shakespeare
So, I never thought I'd get sick of Shakespeare. I'm sick of Shakespeare. The Bard had been accompanying me back and forth on my various trips around the city in the form of performance on CD and I am very ready to not hear Shakespeare for a few years.
So Wednesday last I did my first job solo. The next day I did another one, and then another one, now I've done lots. This morning I installed a system in under 3 hours, which is great because first few took me just under 8 hours each. Each time I did one I saw something completely new that I haven't ever seen before, which was awesome because I got to rack up lots of experience but it was also nasty because learning new things takes time.
People here are really nice, just like people everywhere. They have funny southern accents and EVERYONE has a cute dog. I've also spent a fair amount of money trying the food (which is amazing) and I think I've tried just about everything so now it's time to be thrifty.
So Wednesday last I did my first job solo. The next day I did another one, and then another one, now I've done lots. This morning I installed a system in under 3 hours, which is great because first few took me just under 8 hours each. Each time I did one I saw something completely new that I haven't ever seen before, which was awesome because I got to rack up lots of experience but it was also nasty because learning new things takes time.
People here are really nice, just like people everywhere. They have funny southern accents and EVERYONE has a cute dog. I've also spent a fair amount of money trying the food (which is amazing) and I think I've tried just about everything so now it's time to be thrifty.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
The Lost Boys
These last few days have been great. I've been able to go on lots and lots of installs, still shadowing a more experienced technician of course, but I feel as though I'm starting to understand how things work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlv8PUyc1HQ
So this next part is rated PnfG. That means: Probably not for Grandma.
Each office has a lead technician, who is the boss. As a general rule in recruiting lead techs recruit people for their own office. I was recruited by a the lead tech of Kansas City (although he was moved as was I). He was a man of very similar disposition to that of myself, which is the trend that I noticed with lead techs, they hire people like themselves. (This may not be how the system actually works but as far as I can see it is)
To cut to the chase, my lead tech is a man of very loose morals, and has surrounded himself with other such men. They embody all the core values of a musketeer: drinking, wenching, and...umm...protecting the king (if there were one to protect I'm sure they would do splendidly, but seeing as there is not they are forced to preoccupy themselves with the former values.)
So then there is me, who upon meeting my cohorts thought to myself, "Uh-oh." Just as you are probably thinking, "Uh-oh" right now on my behalf. I'll admit I was pretty quick to peg them all as immoral villains but I very quickly learned that they are not. Slowly but surely (in a very Hollywood sort of way) the story of each of my companions has been unfolding before me. Bit by bit I seem to learn who these people are, and with each each morsel of understanding my stereotype of them crumbles away. In fact, I really like these guys.
Some are rebelling, some are hurting, others just want to be accepted; but none of them are evil. They've all got good hearts, and although a good heart is hardly justification for stupid actions I have hope for them. Love the sinner hate the sin has never been more meaningful to me.
As for myself I will be fine. I have made it abundantly clear that my values will not be compromised and they had made it abundantly clear that they will never pressure me. They are good boys. Lost boys, but good boys.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlv8PUyc1HQ
So this next part is rated PnfG. That means: Probably not for Grandma.
Each office has a lead technician, who is the boss. As a general rule in recruiting lead techs recruit people for their own office. I was recruited by a the lead tech of Kansas City (although he was moved as was I). He was a man of very similar disposition to that of myself, which is the trend that I noticed with lead techs, they hire people like themselves. (This may not be how the system actually works but as far as I can see it is)
To cut to the chase, my lead tech is a man of very loose morals, and has surrounded himself with other such men. They embody all the core values of a musketeer: drinking, wenching, and...umm...protecting the king (if there were one to protect I'm sure they would do splendidly, but seeing as there is not they are forced to preoccupy themselves with the former values.)
So then there is me, who upon meeting my cohorts thought to myself, "Uh-oh." Just as you are probably thinking, "Uh-oh" right now on my behalf. I'll admit I was pretty quick to peg them all as immoral villains but I very quickly learned that they are not. Slowly but surely (in a very Hollywood sort of way) the story of each of my companions has been unfolding before me. Bit by bit I seem to learn who these people are, and with each each morsel of understanding my stereotype of them crumbles away. In fact, I really like these guys.
Some are rebelling, some are hurting, others just want to be accepted; but none of them are evil. They've all got good hearts, and although a good heart is hardly justification for stupid actions I have hope for them. Love the sinner hate the sin has never been more meaningful to me.
As for myself I will be fine. I have made it abundantly clear that my values will not be compromised and they had made it abundantly clear that they will never pressure me. They are good boys. Lost boys, but good boys.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
I dun et dem mud bugs!
I have no clue what direction I am facing.
Ever.
So, soon after I sent my last post I did some more exploring of LSU campus. I tracked down the LDS Institute on campus. There was nobody there but I found an open door and made myself at home. After a little while some boys came in and I helped them set up some tables for an activity later on that day, which turned out to be a crawfish boil.
I walked up to the line at the table and I noticed that everyone had the top of a cardboard box. My astounding skills of observation totally failed me and I could not figure out what they were for until someone shoved a box into my arms and then filled it with crawfish. Crawfish are like big shrimp. Or little lobsters. You tear off their tail and then pull it apart in a series of steps until you have a delicious little chunk of meat. It's a finger food...a very messy finger food. A very tasty little morsel.
The next day (Wed) the others still hadn't arrived so I went to the Baton Rouge temple and enjoyed another day of relaxation. Everyone else had been working for a week in Beaumont, Texas, because they were unable to get licensed in Louisiana until this week. They all rolled in around 1 AM, exhausted. I do so love my solitude but it was nice to have some company. Very interesting company I might add. They're a funny bunch. Everything is still getting worked out but I should go installing today, I'll let you know how that goes.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Frog legs and U-Turns
Where in the world is the amazing Mr.Tobey?
Chillin' at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Which I must say is a beautiful school, except for their library, which is ghetto. As I walk around campus I feel like I'm in some medtierranean city, much cooler than grey ole' USU. Except for the library. So what am I doing in Louisiana? If for some reason you don't know, I'm going to be installing securtity systems this summer. I've just spent the last few days driving across the country with my buddy Taylor Rudd, who agreed to accompany me so that I would not get bored.
As far as our drive goes there is not much to report. We drove...lots...and lots. Everytime we stopped the people and their accents got progressively funnier.
Yesterday afternoon Tay Tay and I rolled triumphantly into the party city of the south, New Orleans. We got there around 5 o'clock and decided to see the sights. Little did we know that 5 o'clock is when all the sights close down. It appears that anything that doesn't involve alcohol closes pretty early around these parts.
A local recommended that we go to a restaurant called Mulates, which serves authentic canjun food. The cultural ambience in that place is great. There was a band consisting of very old people playing some awesome canjun music, which is like blue grass but a million times funner. It's a very jazzy country style, done primarily in a bouncy 3/4 time. The waiters had their thick accents and the decor was very southern. Then we got our food...
We ordered a sampler plate, you know, a little bit of everything. Here's what it entailed:
Crawdad legs, crab bits, stuffed mushrooms, fried catfish, grilled alligator, and frog legs.
I'm not going to lie, it was all very delicious, especially the frog legs. They were the perfect combination of chicken and fish, it was amazing. I'm going to see if I can become a frogleg fan on facebook. I also had some gumbo, which was tasty stuff.
After eating we drove around and looked at the city, which for the most part looks pretty modern in the business district. As we got farther out there were some pretty cool old buildings and some big ole' southern manor style homes in all their guilded age glory. The roads in the city are crazy and you can tell they were created not by pioneers but by drunken french guys. Crazy roads lead consequently to crazy driving and we soon learned that the bread and butter of a New Orleans driver is the U-turn. Everyone is U-turning all the time. Which makes me wonder if everyone else was lost too. Or perhaps just drunk. Anywho, this post is already so long that nobody is going to get down this far, so I will bit you all adeiu.
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