Where I work at (and this is true for almost any airline) we don't freely give out our phone numbers. While it's quite possible to look up a corporate contact phone number online, my department's numbers are not publicly accessible...and I think this is a good thing, since we have enough legitimate work-related calls to deal with. However, we do get the occasional wrong phone number...one of our desks evidently has a number very similar to the county jail, so whoever is working that desk occasionally gets a call asking about a particular inmate. At one of my previous airlines, one of our lines exclusively used for communicating with the cockpit via a radio link system turned out to be one digit off from a local radio station, so we were getting a lot of calls in for a while requesting we play a particular song until my boss got our number changed.
All this being said, sometimes people do give out the phone number where I work to someone that really shouldn't be calling on it...like, someone will put it on a form asking for contact information...and we get repeated calls over a period of days asking for that person. Car dealerships are particularly notorious for this. I wish people would realize when they are filling out an "information form" and not something formal like a loan application to NOT include their work number.
For the last couple of days I've been working a desk dealing with mainly European flights. And, for each of the past two days, I've been interrupted by calls for one of my co-workers...let's just call him James, even though he is not my ex-roomate. The calls all are from people speaking with an Indian accent. "Is James there?" I asked for the last name since we have more than one person who works here named James. They gave it to me, and I told them that he was not at work today after checking to see who was signed in to our computers. Usually that will end the call, but in this case it just seemed to confuse them. I hung up and got another call about an hour later asking for him again. I told them he STILL wasn't here, and they asked me to tell him he was eligible for some kind of rebate (I'm not sure what for.)
Yesterday was the most entertaining call yet. Once again, the representative from India asked for James, and once again, I said he wasn't working. I told him I'd check the schedule and see when he was due back (which is a stretch of the information we're supposed to give out, but I was tired of getting the calls.) He then asked if I was his assistant. I replied no, but that I worked in a big office. I could kind of hear the Indian call center representative light up over the phone when I said that.
"Big office? Really? Do you have any beautiful ladies working there?" I swear, that is what he said next. I started laughing. He explained further: "We are working on an ad campaign and we are looking for beautiful ladies." I told him to hold on for a minute, then put the call on hold for about sixty seconds and hung up. I considered randomly transferring the call over to one department on my floor that does have a lot of "ladies" working in it, but I decided that wouldn't be fair to them.
Looking back, I think I wasted a chance to totally freak out a call center representative. When he called and asked his "beautiful ladies" question, I should have told him, "Nope, sorry! We only hire really ugly people to work here. There's a preliminary test you have to pass, and if you're not In-Living-Color-Wanda ugly, you don't get hired." I think he got the message when I hung up, though, since I got no more calls from him last night. I'm working on a different desk (and phone number) today so hopefully I won't get any more odd calls. I do have to say, though, it made for a memorable shift.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Samurai Cowboy
This story reminded me of a roommate of mine from my Air Force days. Scary as it is for me to realize, I first enlisted over 20 years ago. Yikes. Anyhow, when I was stationed in Okinawa, I was in one of the newer dorms. The positive thing about this was that our rooms were larger than the ones in the older dorms, and each room had its own bathroom. The negative thing was that we had to share the rooms with someone else if you were below a certain rank...and being a newly enlisted E-3, I definitely was below that rank.
The first roommate I had in Okinawa was sort of an odd guy named James. He was a former military brat, and when his father was in the military, he'd lived in Korea for a while. As a result of that, he was really into oriental culture...specifically, samurai culture. He was a sword nut. I know swords are still made in Japan, but they fortunately weren't for sale at any of the shops near base. (An interesting fact: after World War II, during the occupation of Japan, many samurai swords were confiscated to prevent them being used as weapons against the occupying soldiers. So, the United States actually has more antique samurai swords here than Japan does. Something to keep in mind when shopping at pawn shops...that crappy old oriental sword in the corner may actually be quite valuable. Also, there are countries in that part of the world where sharpenable knives and swords are readily available for sale...the Phillipines comes to mind. But I digress.)
Getting back to James...being the samurai aficionado he was, he had bought a replica sword set made of anodized aluminum. Those sets were pretty to look at, and fairly safe as well, since the blades were impossible to sharpen. (Aluminum is a soft metal.) He used to practice swordfighting moves with them in the room sometimes at night. This never really freaked me out or anything because I figured he was basically harmless.
James had several issues going on, as it turned out...there was some kind of trouble with his military job, among other things. I'm not sure exactly what the job trouble was, but I know he'd been counseled more than once about it. I think he also may have had an issue with alcohol abuse, or at least binge drinking, which is sadly all too common in the military. He wasn't 21 yet but in Okinawa, if you had a military ID you could buy liquor. I recall one time a gal I worked with told me he had written her a love letter and ended it saying, "If you decide you want me, I'll be passed out on the hill behind the dorm." I mean, what woman WOULDN'T want him after reading that line?
James was also a slob, which considering he made it through Air Force basic training is kind of amazing, since they are VERY big on cleanliness there (trust me on that.) Post-basic active duty inspections weren't usually hardcore or anything...we were in the Air Force, not the Marines...but they still expected you to have your room in order, dusted, vacuumed, etc. once a month or so. When I first moved in James told me he didn't do that much cleaning since the room basically "cleaned itself." Not sure where he got THAT from, but I got to the point where when I was getting ready for inspection, I'd just tell him to leave, since he was a bigger hindrance than a help in getting things ready.
Anyhow, I finally got fed up when James didn't change his sheets for several weeks (or months, possibly; I'm not really sure and I don't want to know) so I got moved to a different room. My new roommate was a black guy from New York City, and although we had very different personalities and interests, we got along a lot better. (Plus he wasn't a slob, and we worked opposite shifts.) My dorm manager there, an NCO, understood completely my reason for wanting to move, and I think James eventually was moved to a room with another person who had trouble with cleaning. I guess the theory was that if you put two slobs together, they'd be forced to improve. However, it didn't work out that way.
Eventually, James got in an argument with his new roommate (who was in the same job as me) over some issue. I think they may have failed another room inspection, although I'm not sure exactly what the argument was about. I do know that James decided the appropriate response was to attack his new roommate with his aluminum replica sword. This didn't work out too well for James, as his new roommate proceeded to grab the sword and bend it in half over his knee. I think a next-door neighbor called someone from the office at this point and the fight stopped before anyone got hurt. This incident was evidently the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of James's military career, and he was giving his walking papers from the Air Force. In a summary of disciplinary actions within our squadron that was posted a month or two later, we saw "ASSAULT WITH A SWORD" listed as one of the infractions. Everyone I worked with thought that was kind of funny.
I sometimes wonder what happened to James. I hope his dismissal from the military was a wake-up call for him, and that he cleaned up his act and went to college or something and is now doing well. But as we were never very close, I didn't get any contact information for him before he left. Maybe I'll look him up on Facebook sometime, but probably not.
The first roommate I had in Okinawa was sort of an odd guy named James. He was a former military brat, and when his father was in the military, he'd lived in Korea for a while. As a result of that, he was really into oriental culture...specifically, samurai culture. He was a sword nut. I know swords are still made in Japan, but they fortunately weren't for sale at any of the shops near base. (An interesting fact: after World War II, during the occupation of Japan, many samurai swords were confiscated to prevent them being used as weapons against the occupying soldiers. So, the United States actually has more antique samurai swords here than Japan does. Something to keep in mind when shopping at pawn shops...that crappy old oriental sword in the corner may actually be quite valuable. Also, there are countries in that part of the world where sharpenable knives and swords are readily available for sale...the Phillipines comes to mind. But I digress.)
Getting back to James...being the samurai aficionado he was, he had bought a replica sword set made of anodized aluminum. Those sets were pretty to look at, and fairly safe as well, since the blades were impossible to sharpen. (Aluminum is a soft metal.) He used to practice swordfighting moves with them in the room sometimes at night. This never really freaked me out or anything because I figured he was basically harmless.
James had several issues going on, as it turned out...there was some kind of trouble with his military job, among other things. I'm not sure exactly what the job trouble was, but I know he'd been counseled more than once about it. I think he also may have had an issue with alcohol abuse, or at least binge drinking, which is sadly all too common in the military. He wasn't 21 yet but in Okinawa, if you had a military ID you could buy liquor. I recall one time a gal I worked with told me he had written her a love letter and ended it saying, "If you decide you want me, I'll be passed out on the hill behind the dorm." I mean, what woman WOULDN'T want him after reading that line?
James was also a slob, which considering he made it through Air Force basic training is kind of amazing, since they are VERY big on cleanliness there (trust me on that.) Post-basic active duty inspections weren't usually hardcore or anything...we were in the Air Force, not the Marines...but they still expected you to have your room in order, dusted, vacuumed, etc. once a month or so. When I first moved in James told me he didn't do that much cleaning since the room basically "cleaned itself." Not sure where he got THAT from, but I got to the point where when I was getting ready for inspection, I'd just tell him to leave, since he was a bigger hindrance than a help in getting things ready.
Anyhow, I finally got fed up when James didn't change his sheets for several weeks (or months, possibly; I'm not really sure and I don't want to know) so I got moved to a different room. My new roommate was a black guy from New York City, and although we had very different personalities and interests, we got along a lot better. (Plus he wasn't a slob, and we worked opposite shifts.) My dorm manager there, an NCO, understood completely my reason for wanting to move, and I think James eventually was moved to a room with another person who had trouble with cleaning. I guess the theory was that if you put two slobs together, they'd be forced to improve. However, it didn't work out that way.
Eventually, James got in an argument with his new roommate (who was in the same job as me) over some issue. I think they may have failed another room inspection, although I'm not sure exactly what the argument was about. I do know that James decided the appropriate response was to attack his new roommate with his aluminum replica sword. This didn't work out too well for James, as his new roommate proceeded to grab the sword and bend it in half over his knee. I think a next-door neighbor called someone from the office at this point and the fight stopped before anyone got hurt. This incident was evidently the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of James's military career, and he was giving his walking papers from the Air Force. In a summary of disciplinary actions within our squadron that was posted a month or two later, we saw "ASSAULT WITH A SWORD" listed as one of the infractions. Everyone I worked with thought that was kind of funny.
I sometimes wonder what happened to James. I hope his dismissal from the military was a wake-up call for him, and that he cleaned up his act and went to college or something and is now doing well. But as we were never very close, I didn't get any contact information for him before he left. Maybe I'll look him up on Facebook sometime, but probably not.
Monday, July 06, 2009
4th of July fun and other excitement
Greetings all. Since my last entry, I took a quick trip up to Chicago in late June to see my sister and my nephews for a couple days. I got delayed by weather in Chicago flying up there, and the flights were packed both ways so I had to ride in the cockpit, but I had a good time. I did manage to catch a cold on the trip back, which is the second time this year that's happened. I think I need to start taking Airborne or something before I travel. Summer colds are no fun (not that winter colds are either) but I'm just about over it now.
Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July. I had a pretty good one myself, since I had the day off from work. I wasn't super productive, but I did get a couple chores done, and I also took my Mom out for dinner. We had Mexican food, which is her favorite. I thought about taking Mom to see the fireworks, but they didn't start until well after she usually goes to bed, and I didn't want to mess up her routine.
I live near a park that was having a big fireworks display, so when it got dark I walked to it. I'm still not completely used to living in a big city, even though I've been here for a few years now, but any time there is an event like this, which included a free concert, it's insanely crowded. People were parking all over the place, and illegally. I was glad I could walk and avoid the post-event traffic nightmare. The fireworks show was great and lasted about 30 minutes...I was close enough that I could see where they were launching from, and they played some synchronized music through the speakers that had been used for the concert.
All the walking was a good test for my knee, which seems to have completely recovered from my twisting it in late May. So, since my knee is better and I'm over my cold, I really need to start hitting the gym again. We will see how I do this month. I'm going to Yosemite at the end of the month on vacation so it would be nice to be able to do some hiking without getting completely exhausted.
Anyhow, nothing too exciting happened on the 4th. Yesterday was a different story, though. I went back to work yesterday afternoon but I was trying to get some minor chores out of the way before I got ready; one of those was taking the trash out. I noticed when I took out the trash that part of the dumpster appeared to be smoking slightly. I thought that was odd but I didn't do anything about it at the time. However, when I went outside a few minutes later, I saw that the dumpster that had been smoking now had started burning. I grabbed an extinguisher next to my apartment and put out the flames and shut the dumpster lid, but there was still a lot of smoke going. I went to the office to let them know, but there was nobody there yet, since they don't open until noon on Sunday.
When I came back outside, the dumpster was smoking even worse, so I called 911 on my cellphone, the first time I've ever had to do that. They transferred me to the local fire department, which took my information down and said a truck would be there right away. One of my neighbors came outside and seemed relieved to hear I'd already called 911. Right after I called 911, my cellphone's battery died, so I was unable to take any pictures, but I'm very glad it lasted until I was finished with the phone call. The dumpster that caught on fire can be seen, pre-fire, in the left of this picture, beside the big crate my furniture from New Mexico was shipped here in.
My neighbor and I were waiting for the fire truck to show up when the lid to the dumpster collapsed in (made of plastic) and flames started shooting up. Having emptied the first extinguisher already, I went running to grab another one, but by the time I had it in hand, the fire department had showed up, along with my apartment manager. The firemen did a very professional job, donning full gear, including oxygen masks, before drowning out the fire with foam and water.
To the fire department, this probably was a very minor fire and a nice training exercise, but I was a bit freaked out. Adrenalin rush, I suppose. Anyhow, they moved the extinguished dumpster out away from the wall, hosed down the adjacent dumpster a little bit with water to make sure no sparks had jumped over to it, and I opened up the exit gate for them so they could leave.
My apartment manager asked around and soon discovered the fire was caused by someone who had been barbecueing outside by the pool...they had decided to dump the charcoal from their barbecue into the dumpster while it was still smoldering. Not a very smart move, but at least I noticed the fire right when it started, so it didn't spread to the other dumpster, or the adjacent wooden wall.
Hope everyone had an enjoyable and SAFE holiday weekend, and remember to be careful when you're grilling.
Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July. I had a pretty good one myself, since I had the day off from work. I wasn't super productive, but I did get a couple chores done, and I also took my Mom out for dinner. We had Mexican food, which is her favorite. I thought about taking Mom to see the fireworks, but they didn't start until well after she usually goes to bed, and I didn't want to mess up her routine.
I live near a park that was having a big fireworks display, so when it got dark I walked to it. I'm still not completely used to living in a big city, even though I've been here for a few years now, but any time there is an event like this, which included a free concert, it's insanely crowded. People were parking all over the place, and illegally. I was glad I could walk and avoid the post-event traffic nightmare. The fireworks show was great and lasted about 30 minutes...I was close enough that I could see where they were launching from, and they played some synchronized music through the speakers that had been used for the concert.
All the walking was a good test for my knee, which seems to have completely recovered from my twisting it in late May. So, since my knee is better and I'm over my cold, I really need to start hitting the gym again. We will see how I do this month. I'm going to Yosemite at the end of the month on vacation so it would be nice to be able to do some hiking without getting completely exhausted.
Anyhow, nothing too exciting happened on the 4th. Yesterday was a different story, though. I went back to work yesterday afternoon but I was trying to get some minor chores out of the way before I got ready; one of those was taking the trash out. I noticed when I took out the trash that part of the dumpster appeared to be smoking slightly. I thought that was odd but I didn't do anything about it at the time. However, when I went outside a few minutes later, I saw that the dumpster that had been smoking now had started burning. I grabbed an extinguisher next to my apartment and put out the flames and shut the dumpster lid, but there was still a lot of smoke going. I went to the office to let them know, but there was nobody there yet, since they don't open until noon on Sunday.
When I came back outside, the dumpster was smoking even worse, so I called 911 on my cellphone, the first time I've ever had to do that. They transferred me to the local fire department, which took my information down and said a truck would be there right away. One of my neighbors came outside and seemed relieved to hear I'd already called 911. Right after I called 911, my cellphone's battery died, so I was unable to take any pictures, but I'm very glad it lasted until I was finished with the phone call. The dumpster that caught on fire can be seen, pre-fire, in the left of this picture, beside the big crate my furniture from New Mexico was shipped here in.
My neighbor and I were waiting for the fire truck to show up when the lid to the dumpster collapsed in (made of plastic) and flames started shooting up. Having emptied the first extinguisher already, I went running to grab another one, but by the time I had it in hand, the fire department had showed up, along with my apartment manager. The firemen did a very professional job, donning full gear, including oxygen masks, before drowning out the fire with foam and water.
To the fire department, this probably was a very minor fire and a nice training exercise, but I was a bit freaked out. Adrenalin rush, I suppose. Anyhow, they moved the extinguished dumpster out away from the wall, hosed down the adjacent dumpster a little bit with water to make sure no sparks had jumped over to it, and I opened up the exit gate for them so they could leave.
My apartment manager asked around and soon discovered the fire was caused by someone who had been barbecueing outside by the pool...they had decided to dump the charcoal from their barbecue into the dumpster while it was still smoldering. Not a very smart move, but at least I noticed the fire right when it started, so it didn't spread to the other dumpster, or the adjacent wooden wall.
Hope everyone had an enjoyable and SAFE holiday weekend, and remember to be careful when you're grilling.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Various Stuff
Greetings all. Sorry I've been a lazy blogger (again.) But hey, that's nothing new for me. Everything has been going pretty well here, for the most part.
I managed to twist me knee at the start of this month when I was visiting a relative of mine in Dallas. It turned out to be a mild sprain and is starting to feel better. What happened was, I was climbing over a short fence as a shortcut to get back to the apartment, and when I put my leg down on the other side I managed to twist it when I climbed off of the fence. Nothing like a sprained knee to remind you you're not getting younger, although considering my accident-heavy past it's really nothing new either (although it was a first for this PARTICULAR injury...I have had sprained fingers and toes before, but no knees or ankles.) I did see a doctor last week; the x-rays he ordered were normal and he gave me a prescription for a good anti-inflammatory medicine.
I also found a new dermatologist...after my last one didn't biopsy the area behind my left ear, and it ended up needing a skin graft, I just wasn't keen on going back to him any more. I was overdue for a skin "checkup" anyhow. The new doctor seems nice but looks like he is about 18 or so. He's probably around 35 or more, though. He did give me some new scar gel to try out for the area where the skin was grafted from on my arm. I don't really mind the scar but sometimes people's reactions to it are kind of annoying. (What HAPPENED to your ARM?) Here is a (low-quality) picture of it:
He said that I could consider laser treatment if I want to, but I'll try the new gel for a while first and see if that helps.
Mom has been doing all right, and I try to take her out for lunch at least once a week. I should visit more often but visiting her can be fairly time consuming, so I usually do it on my days off. We went to a barbecue place last week which she enjoyed. Funny but true story...the guy who took our order was very nice, so Mom said to him, "You know, I think we might be kinfolk!" He was a black guy (from Lousiana, he said) so that's rather unlikely. He seemed to take it in stride, though. Alzheimer's is not an easy disease to deal with, but sometimes, you just have to laugh.
I've been enjoying Facebook and have met some more people through it that I knew in high school. I was a geek in high school (shocking, I know...well, I guess I'm still a geek) so I played on the chess team, and the majority of people from that team are on Facebook. I told one former teammate I had most of our old chess team friended there and he said, "You remember who was on the chess team from 22 years ago?" My memory is weird like that sometimes. I have a pretty good memory for events and certain things stick with me, but sometimes I suck at remembering names of people I just met. Oh well.
I'm staying pretty busy with travel...this coming weekend I'm flying up to Chicago to see my sister and her family. I haven't seen one of my nephews for about two years, so that should be fun even though it's a quick trip. Later in the month, my relative from Dallas is coming here to visit for a couple days, and then at the end of July, I'm going to California for about a week to visit Yosemite on my vacation. So, I'm making good use of my travel benefits this summer, even if I'm not heading overseas. I'll definitely be taking a fair amount of pictures in Yosemite. I'm also going to stay a couple days in the Sacramento area, which is where I'm flying into...I have visited there many times before but never had enough time to do much tourist stuff. So that should be fun. This is where I'm staying in Yosemite...it looks like a nice affordable way to stay there. Hope the weather is good.
As a side note, I found that by renting a car off-airport at Enterprise I could do it for about 1/3 the price of renting at the airport location. I understand rental car places have high costs at the airport but that seems like a huge price differential. So, I'm taking a shuttle to the off-airport rental place and back. That will be a little inconvenient but well worth it.
That's all for now...more later (and sooner, I hope.) Hope everyone is having a nice summer.
LATE-BREAKING UPDATE: Forgot to mention...I had one of the pictures I took from my trip to London earlier this year get selected for use in an online travel guide. I don't make any royalties or anything but I still thought it was cool. The guide can be checked out here and the photo they used can be seen here.
I managed to twist me knee at the start of this month when I was visiting a relative of mine in Dallas. It turned out to be a mild sprain and is starting to feel better. What happened was, I was climbing over a short fence as a shortcut to get back to the apartment, and when I put my leg down on the other side I managed to twist it when I climbed off of the fence. Nothing like a sprained knee to remind you you're not getting younger, although considering my accident-heavy past it's really nothing new either (although it was a first for this PARTICULAR injury...I have had sprained fingers and toes before, but no knees or ankles.) I did see a doctor last week; the x-rays he ordered were normal and he gave me a prescription for a good anti-inflammatory medicine.
I also found a new dermatologist...after my last one didn't biopsy the area behind my left ear, and it ended up needing a skin graft, I just wasn't keen on going back to him any more. I was overdue for a skin "checkup" anyhow. The new doctor seems nice but looks like he is about 18 or so. He's probably around 35 or more, though. He did give me some new scar gel to try out for the area where the skin was grafted from on my arm. I don't really mind the scar but sometimes people's reactions to it are kind of annoying. (What HAPPENED to your ARM?) Here is a (low-quality) picture of it:
He said that I could consider laser treatment if I want to, but I'll try the new gel for a while first and see if that helps.
Mom has been doing all right, and I try to take her out for lunch at least once a week. I should visit more often but visiting her can be fairly time consuming, so I usually do it on my days off. We went to a barbecue place last week which she enjoyed. Funny but true story...the guy who took our order was very nice, so Mom said to him, "You know, I think we might be kinfolk!" He was a black guy (from Lousiana, he said) so that's rather unlikely. He seemed to take it in stride, though. Alzheimer's is not an easy disease to deal with, but sometimes, you just have to laugh.
I've been enjoying Facebook and have met some more people through it that I knew in high school. I was a geek in high school (shocking, I know...well, I guess I'm still a geek) so I played on the chess team, and the majority of people from that team are on Facebook. I told one former teammate I had most of our old chess team friended there and he said, "You remember who was on the chess team from 22 years ago?" My memory is weird like that sometimes. I have a pretty good memory for events and certain things stick with me, but sometimes I suck at remembering names of people I just met. Oh well.
I'm staying pretty busy with travel...this coming weekend I'm flying up to Chicago to see my sister and her family. I haven't seen one of my nephews for about two years, so that should be fun even though it's a quick trip. Later in the month, my relative from Dallas is coming here to visit for a couple days, and then at the end of July, I'm going to California for about a week to visit Yosemite on my vacation. So, I'm making good use of my travel benefits this summer, even if I'm not heading overseas. I'll definitely be taking a fair amount of pictures in Yosemite. I'm also going to stay a couple days in the Sacramento area, which is where I'm flying into...I have visited there many times before but never had enough time to do much tourist stuff. So that should be fun. This is where I'm staying in Yosemite...it looks like a nice affordable way to stay there. Hope the weather is good.
As a side note, I found that by renting a car off-airport at Enterprise I could do it for about 1/3 the price of renting at the airport location. I understand rental car places have high costs at the airport but that seems like a huge price differential. So, I'm taking a shuttle to the off-airport rental place and back. That will be a little inconvenient but well worth it.
That's all for now...more later (and sooner, I hope.) Hope everyone is having a nice summer.
LATE-BREAKING UPDATE: Forgot to mention...I had one of the pictures I took from my trip to London earlier this year get selected for use in an online travel guide. I don't make any royalties or anything but I still thought it was cool. The guide can be checked out here and the photo they used can be seen here.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Surnames
I'm a Junior, and that has caused havoc with last name misspellings for as long as I can remember, especially since computers became popular. At my current employer, the Rather Large Airline, they originally entered my last name into the HR system as MANNJR (even though they do have an option for surnames!) It took complaints to the HR people multiple times to finally get the issue resolved, and there is still one system that shows my name as MANNJR there.
Any time I list for a flight on the Rather Large Airline, it pulls me up as CHARLES MANNJR in the reservations system. I have tried to get this corrected but the people I have spoken to about it told me that they have to leave it like that to distinguish between me and my father. I've tried explaining that he is deceased, and thus not likely to do much non-revenue flying, but it's been to no avail so far. Sometimes correcting this problem is like banging your head against a wall.
My favorite experience with the surname was when some phone solicitor reading from a script kept referring to me as "Mr. Mann Jr." on the phone. I hung up pretty quickly but it was kind of amusing. And of course, since my full name is Charles Mann, Jr. it allows me to make lots of "Charles Manson" jokes. (Well, to some people that's disturbing but I always get a kick out of it.)
While I appear to be a confirmed bachelor for now (although I never say never) if I do ever have a son of my own I can guarantee I will not continue the naming tradition, even though that's popular here in the South. Plus, I think having a full name of Charles Shelton Mann, III, would just sound too lawyer-ish. I suppose Trey would be a cool nickname, but I'd rather that whatever offspring I have has a name of their own.
Any time I list for a flight on the Rather Large Airline, it pulls me up as CHARLES MANNJR in the reservations system. I have tried to get this corrected but the people I have spoken to about it told me that they have to leave it like that to distinguish between me and my father. I've tried explaining that he is deceased, and thus not likely to do much non-revenue flying, but it's been to no avail so far. Sometimes correcting this problem is like banging your head against a wall.
My favorite experience with the surname was when some phone solicitor reading from a script kept referring to me as "Mr. Mann Jr." on the phone. I hung up pretty quickly but it was kind of amusing. And of course, since my full name is Charles Mann, Jr. it allows me to make lots of "Charles Manson" jokes. (Well, to some people that's disturbing but I always get a kick out of it.)
While I appear to be a confirmed bachelor for now (although I never say never) if I do ever have a son of my own I can guarantee I will not continue the naming tradition, even though that's popular here in the South. Plus, I think having a full name of Charles Shelton Mann, III, would just sound too lawyer-ish. I suppose Trey would be a cool nickname, but I'd rather that whatever offspring I have has a name of their own.
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Back in Texas
Greetings. I've been back in Texas for a while now, actually...I've just been busy working, etc., and haven't written any since I got back. My trip back went amazingly smoothly...we had torrential rain here that lasted into the morning hours the night before my trip, but by the time I got here everything had cleared out, and I got an aisle seat for the flight back, which was nice.
I took my Mom's old (and very SLOW) laptop home with me. While it is slow, it does have WiFi capability, so I'm writing this post from my patio. I activated the wireless part of my home connection so now I can surf the net from anywhere within my wireless router's range. (I also just got a cool laptop mini desk thingy called the Lapinator so I can make sure the CPU stays cool and my legs don't get burned if I am, in fact, using it on my lap.) I don't think this computer needs to stay this slow so I am going to get some more RAM for it when I have the time. However, I've never worked on a laptop before, so I will need to proceed cautiously there.
I also returned my Samsunng Omnia once I got back here, which I decided wasn't so awesome after all...I got sick of its touch screen. I decided to get a Blackberry Pearl instead (and that was free with a contract extension, unlike the Omnia.) I'm pretty happy with the Blackberry so far, even if it's not a full HTML browser. I discovered with the Omnia that the internet doesn't look good on a tiny screen, and zooming in and out is a pain even when you have a touch screen. The Pearl can also act as a wireless modem if WiFi isn't available, a feature it shares with the Omnia. Anyhow, enough tech stuff for now. But my phone does tie into the rest of this story...
When I was in Albuquerque, I decided to have a few things shipped here from my Mom's house. Nothing major, I just wanted a couple of things to remember the old house by...and one of those things was a small desk that had been in my old family room since before I was born. I'm sure I could have found a new desk (or a gently used one) for cheaper than the total cost of shipping this desk and a few other things here, but I went ahead and splurged, and it arrived here yesterday. The shipping company packed it extremely securely...I thought it was just going to be wrapped on a pallet, but they crated it, probably because I was shipping a couple of framed pictures along with the desk.
I'd been playing with my Blackberry that morning, trying to get it to play video clips, which it is capable of doing but does not do very well. I only got one clip to play, and another one evidently freaked out the phone so it wouldn't send or receive calls or data. I didn't discover this for a couple hours, so when the freight guy showed up, he couldn't get through to me on my phone. He went by the apartment office, and ended up tracking me down in the laundry room (I'd put a note on my door that was where I was in case he came by.) He was not in the least bit upset, though, and was very helpful with the shipment...although perhaps not as helpful as I'd figured originally.
I had no crowbar, and I discovered that the freight guy didn't have any extra time to assist me with unpacking (originally, I'd thought I could just ask him to help me carry it up the stairs when it got here, but that's before I knew unpacking it would be a Major Job.) At this point, I discovered my phone was acting up when I tried to call a friend to come over and help me out, so I ended up deciding to carry the desk upstairs myself, since I needed to get everything into my apartment before I left for work.
It was probably not the smartest thing I've ever done, and my muscles are definitely feeling it today, but I did manage to haul my new old desk up one flight of stairs without damaging it too badly. (I did scratch one of the legs a little but I covered it with scratch cover and it looks fine; since the desk is older than I am, I'm sure it had a couple dings on it already.) I think the crate was over half the weight of everything that got shipped. After everything was unloaded, I dragged it over to the dumpster.
Looking back, I should have scheduled the delivery for my day off, asked the freight company exactly what was included with the move (loading/unloading, etc.) and arranged for a friend to come over to help out and bribe them with beer and pizza for helping with the moving effort...but I did manage to accomplish everything myself. I was kind of proud of that, even if I was a rather exhausted, Motrin-popping fool later that afternoon at work. I'm not sure how much the desk weighed exactly, but I would estimate over seventy pounds. I know it's an easy carry for two people and a very awkward one for one person. I also know that old furniture was built SOLIDLY. It fortunately isn't too big, so once I got it into the apartment I was able to drag it across the carpet and get it into position in my bedroom fairly easily. One thing is for sure, I definitely got my workout in for the day.
Today I was taking the crate apart and putting it in the dumpster, and someone inquired about the pallet base...they thought they could use it for their upcoming move. I don't see how that would be a help (that base was heavy, a regular wood pallet covered with a sheet of particle board) but I told them I would leave it out for them if they wanted to take it. One man's trash is another man's treasure, I suppose. I don't think it would be very useful for moving unless you had a hydraulic pallet jack, though.
The carpet guy just finished cleaning my apartment carpet (after two years or so here, it was due for a shampoo) so I may not get this posted until tomorrow, when I can add on some pictures. He was suppose to come yesterday but after the debacle with the desk, I'm rather happy that he didn't show up until today.
I'm glad to have the desk where I can see it...it's in pretty good shape for its age, and will add some much needed drawer storage to my bedroom. So even though getting it here was not cheap, and getting inside my apartment was not easy, I think it was worth the end result.
Hope everyone is having a safe, non-furniture-moving weekend, and I'll talk to you all later.
I took my Mom's old (and very SLOW) laptop home with me. While it is slow, it does have WiFi capability, so I'm writing this post from my patio. I activated the wireless part of my home connection so now I can surf the net from anywhere within my wireless router's range. (I also just got a cool laptop mini desk thingy called the Lapinator so I can make sure the CPU stays cool and my legs don't get burned if I am, in fact, using it on my lap.) I don't think this computer needs to stay this slow so I am going to get some more RAM for it when I have the time. However, I've never worked on a laptop before, so I will need to proceed cautiously there.
I also returned my Samsunng Omnia once I got back here, which I decided wasn't so awesome after all...I got sick of its touch screen. I decided to get a Blackberry Pearl instead (and that was free with a contract extension, unlike the Omnia.) I'm pretty happy with the Blackberry so far, even if it's not a full HTML browser. I discovered with the Omnia that the internet doesn't look good on a tiny screen, and zooming in and out is a pain even when you have a touch screen. The Pearl can also act as a wireless modem if WiFi isn't available, a feature it shares with the Omnia. Anyhow, enough tech stuff for now. But my phone does tie into the rest of this story...
When I was in Albuquerque, I decided to have a few things shipped here from my Mom's house. Nothing major, I just wanted a couple of things to remember the old house by...and one of those things was a small desk that had been in my old family room since before I was born. I'm sure I could have found a new desk (or a gently used one) for cheaper than the total cost of shipping this desk and a few other things here, but I went ahead and splurged, and it arrived here yesterday. The shipping company packed it extremely securely...I thought it was just going to be wrapped on a pallet, but they crated it, probably because I was shipping a couple of framed pictures along with the desk.
I'd been playing with my Blackberry that morning, trying to get it to play video clips, which it is capable of doing but does not do very well. I only got one clip to play, and another one evidently freaked out the phone so it wouldn't send or receive calls or data. I didn't discover this for a couple hours, so when the freight guy showed up, he couldn't get through to me on my phone. He went by the apartment office, and ended up tracking me down in the laundry room (I'd put a note on my door that was where I was in case he came by.) He was not in the least bit upset, though, and was very helpful with the shipment...although perhaps not as helpful as I'd figured originally.
I had no crowbar, and I discovered that the freight guy didn't have any extra time to assist me with unpacking (originally, I'd thought I could just ask him to help me carry it up the stairs when it got here, but that's before I knew unpacking it would be a Major Job.) At this point, I discovered my phone was acting up when I tried to call a friend to come over and help me out, so I ended up deciding to carry the desk upstairs myself, since I needed to get everything into my apartment before I left for work.
It was probably not the smartest thing I've ever done, and my muscles are definitely feeling it today, but I did manage to haul my new old desk up one flight of stairs without damaging it too badly. (I did scratch one of the legs a little but I covered it with scratch cover and it looks fine; since the desk is older than I am, I'm sure it had a couple dings on it already.) I think the crate was over half the weight of everything that got shipped. After everything was unloaded, I dragged it over to the dumpster.
Looking back, I should have scheduled the delivery for my day off, asked the freight company exactly what was included with the move (loading/unloading, etc.) and arranged for a friend to come over to help out and bribe them with beer and pizza for helping with the moving effort...but I did manage to accomplish everything myself. I was kind of proud of that, even if I was a rather exhausted, Motrin-popping fool later that afternoon at work. I'm not sure how much the desk weighed exactly, but I would estimate over seventy pounds. I know it's an easy carry for two people and a very awkward one for one person. I also know that old furniture was built SOLIDLY. It fortunately isn't too big, so once I got it into the apartment I was able to drag it across the carpet and get it into position in my bedroom fairly easily. One thing is for sure, I definitely got my workout in for the day.
Today I was taking the crate apart and putting it in the dumpster, and someone inquired about the pallet base...they thought they could use it for their upcoming move. I don't see how that would be a help (that base was heavy, a regular wood pallet covered with a sheet of particle board) but I told them I would leave it out for them if they wanted to take it. One man's trash is another man's treasure, I suppose. I don't think it would be very useful for moving unless you had a hydraulic pallet jack, though.
The carpet guy just finished cleaning my apartment carpet (after two years or so here, it was due for a shampoo) so I may not get this posted until tomorrow, when I can add on some pictures. He was suppose to come yesterday but after the debacle with the desk, I'm rather happy that he didn't show up until today.
I'm glad to have the desk where I can see it...it's in pretty good shape for its age, and will add some much needed drawer storage to my bedroom. So even though getting it here was not cheap, and getting inside my apartment was not easy, I think it was worth the end result.
Hope everyone is having a safe, non-furniture-moving weekend, and I'll talk to you all later.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Goodnight, Albuquerque
I'm in Albuquerque, going through things at my mother's old house and trying to decide what to box up to be shipped to Houston. I'm using movers to also ship one piece of furniture from here. Tonight is probably the last night I'll spend here (assuming I get out of town tomorrow...the flights are rather full) and I'm feeling a lot of conflicting emotions right now.
My parents never moved any while I was growing up, so this house has always been a constant in my life...even when I moved away, I always knew it was here to come back to for visits and so forth. Anyhow, I should be getting back to going through old papers and packing boxes but I thought I'd take a break and update my blog, since I've been too busy to do that very much lately.
Oh, I also got a new phone so I could use it as a wireless modem while I was here. It's a Samsung Omnia, and it's pretty sweet. I'll have to see if I can do blog entries on it someday.
See you when I'm back in Texas.
My parents never moved any while I was growing up, so this house has always been a constant in my life...even when I moved away, I always knew it was here to come back to for visits and so forth. Anyhow, I should be getting back to going through old papers and packing boxes but I thought I'd take a break and update my blog, since I've been too busy to do that very much lately.
Oh, I also got a new phone so I could use it as a wireless modem while I was here. It's a Samsung Omnia, and it's pretty sweet. I'll have to see if I can do blog entries on it someday.
See you when I'm back in Texas.
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