Decisions, Decisions
I've had several people ask me for an update, information, anything...and I've been on the fence, until just recently, about exactly what I was comfortable disclosing on the blogosphere. Anyone who knows me fairly well knows that I have strong opinions, and that sometimes my mouth has a way of getting me in trouble (and never the small, harmless kind of trouble, but the life-changing kind). I would like to think that I've learned from the last couple of years of verbal misteps and faux pas, but it also occurs to me that the mistakes I've made did not seem like mistakes when I made them...only in hindsight. So, I've intentionally been kind of reticent, trying to ensure that what I do say won't lead to another lifestyle apocalypse.
Synopsis
Let me say up front that I'm not unhappy with where I am now.
Back in 2005, I thought I knew where I was going to spend my entire career, and I felt like I had found my home. In 2007, everything fell apart quite unexpectedly, and I handled the aftermath pretty badly. I regret that, if only because I've always prided myself on handling things with grace...and well, let's just say EPIC fail there.
Coming to the West Coast to work for another PC manufacturer was the best and hardest decision I have ever made. Financially, in hindsight, it was really dumb--my expectations of the cost of living and the reality were leagues apart--and it put a lot of strain on my family. The company is amazing, the best bunch of people you'll ever meet, and I had a great time working there. I still do some forum work for them part time, and I'm grateful that I'm still a part of what could be one of the best small computer manufacturers in the world.
Every now and then you have to do a gut check and then do what you have to do to survive. I got an offer and moved on it. I'll be honest, the firm I worked for down in Seattle was a disappointment. I won't go into why, other than to say that they've got a lot of work to do on their leadership within the company. Too many cooks, you see.
And...here we are. You know, there comes a time where you get really tired of carrying the responsibilities that come with executive management...lying awake at night wondering if the phones will fail, if that customer will sue, if you can squeeze more out of your budget. For the past 4 years, I've been in that place where you come in to a position and they toss you in to the deep end with no instructions other than "fix it". Guys...I'm tired. Burned out.
I have the damnedest luck of anyone I know. I fall into really good opportunities without really trying, and that's what happened with this job. I'm still a manager, but I have a core responsibility with plenty of support. I work for a large company based out of Redmond (DUH) in an operations center, and I am having the time of my life. There are a lot of reasons why, but most of all...I'm doing this for me. The money is good, the opportunities I have are phenomenal, and I'm learning something new daily. I'm not expected to be a miracle worker for once. I'm being mentored to succeed. Man, that feels GOOD.
Hope...I have some now. 2008 sucked. We have a new president, I have a new job, and I'm finally feeling like I'm going to be all right. 2009 may possibly be the best year I've ever had, personally and professionally.
Three years ago, I would have never imagined being here. Life is funny, twisted, and convoluted, but it always takes you where you need to be, I guess.
Imagine that.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Monday, November 10, 2008
So, what now?
For those who follow this blog, things have changed for your favorite technophile. I'm still doing some work for Puget Systems and am active in the enthusiast community, but I spread my wings and tried working in another area of the customer service industry. I'm not going to say that it failed as an endeavor, but it wasn't for me...sometimes you know you're a square peg, if you catch my drift. I fixed a lot of stuff for them, and I'm ok with what I did there.
So, moving right along...
I'm trying something completely different now--operations supervision. Oh, I did a couple of years of that in a chemical plant some years back, but a production environment and a computer services operation center are two different things entirely. Still, I walked into the interview with a feeling of inevitability that I've seldom had when going the rounds with recruiters and various companies. It felt...good. Right. I like learning new stuff, and while there were other offers on the table, to go with this company was a no-brainer for me.
I'll try to keep up with the blog a little more and let you know what is going on as it happens. I'm excited and nervous (which is really not a normal state for me at all), so I'm going to keep this short and go chew my fingernails....
So, moving right along...
I'm trying something completely different now--operations supervision. Oh, I did a couple of years of that in a chemical plant some years back, but a production environment and a computer services operation center are two different things entirely. Still, I walked into the interview with a feeling of inevitability that I've seldom had when going the rounds with recruiters and various companies. It felt...good. Right. I like learning new stuff, and while there were other offers on the table, to go with this company was a no-brainer for me.
I'll try to keep up with the blog a little more and let you know what is going on as it happens. I'm excited and nervous (which is really not a normal state for me at all), so I'm going to keep this short and go chew my fingernails....
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Rethinking the Customer Service Model
I wrote a while ago--while I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life, incidentally--about customer service and how important it is to any company who manufactures or sells a product. I'm content at this point to say that I have found my niche professionally because there's such a dire need for good people to provide customer service, and those people have to have someone at the helm to show them the way.
Economics have made for a tough market when it comes to buying/selling luxury goods, including custom computers. These days, the customer service that a retailer or manufacturer provides has become secondary to how much of a hit the consumer's wallet can take. The choice between a $2000 custom rig and a $400 big box manufacturer's package from WallyWorld comes down to how much disposable income you have, and if you choose the cheaper of the two, you cross your fingers and just hope that nothing breaks. Computers have become disposable to many people because you can get inferior systems for less than the price of a warranty on the expensive ones.
All of these factors could mean hard times for small computer builders--certainly the rest of the company is straining to make it through what some people call a mini-recession. Down the street, I have seen five or six car dealerships fold up. Craigslist is inundated, pawn shops are overflowing...everyone's taking their heirlooms and selling them to pay for the price of gas. You'd think that we'd be losing boutique system manufacturers left and right.
Surprisingly enough, the custom computer market is still relatively strong. People are still saving up to buy high-end custom systems, but they're being more cautious, slower to decide. It's become more of a big deal to the consumer than it may have been a year ago; customers are taking longer to choose, doing more research about the products, posting on more forums, asking more questions. People are still buying, but they're doing their homework first. Once they have their choices down to two or three competitors, then they look at the post-sales details. Warranty, technical support, upgrade policies...they all go under the microscope.
It's not a bad trend.
Using customer support services as a tiebreaker between company A and company B forces both companies to come to the table with their very best. Who has the better warranty? The best support hours for where I live? What about onsite? What about RMA procedures? All of a sudden, we all have to look at what we offer for support and ask ourselves if we're competitive with other companies in the same sector. We have to reassess, improve, innovate--not just with the product, which has been the usual hotbed for recreating a company's image, but with the after-sale services we provide.
Harsh competition, in my opinion, brings out the best and the worst in any small niche market. A mentor of mine once brought a book to a corporate retreat called Blue Ocean Strategy, and I borrowed it (and never returned it, sorry Chip). It was an eye-opening way to approach business...don't worry about out-performing your competition, instead create your own market space and make your competition irrelevant.
The book was referring to entire business models, but I see no reason in the world why you can't do it with specific business groups. Everyone follows the same basic structure, with varying degrees of success, but what if we (as in the manufacturer, or the head of support) shake it up, turn it on its head, do something new? The idea is to make the customer thrilled with the whole experience, including support, so that it comes full circle and produces more sales. Happy customers are the best marketing tool we have in a slow economy, and many companies are just doing the same old things and allowing their base to stagnate. Nay, say I! It's the equivalent of committing business suicide.
If there's a point to this rant, I suppose it's to reiterate out that good customer service isn't something you can learn in school, it's something that you learn from your customers. They'll tell you (and everyone else) what you've done wrong. Now what are YOU going to do about it?
Economics have made for a tough market when it comes to buying/selling luxury goods, including custom computers. These days, the customer service that a retailer or manufacturer provides has become secondary to how much of a hit the consumer's wallet can take. The choice between a $2000 custom rig and a $400 big box manufacturer's package from WallyWorld comes down to how much disposable income you have, and if you choose the cheaper of the two, you cross your fingers and just hope that nothing breaks. Computers have become disposable to many people because you can get inferior systems for less than the price of a warranty on the expensive ones.
All of these factors could mean hard times for small computer builders--certainly the rest of the company is straining to make it through what some people call a mini-recession. Down the street, I have seen five or six car dealerships fold up. Craigslist is inundated, pawn shops are overflowing...everyone's taking their heirlooms and selling them to pay for the price of gas. You'd think that we'd be losing boutique system manufacturers left and right.
Surprisingly enough, the custom computer market is still relatively strong. People are still saving up to buy high-end custom systems, but they're being more cautious, slower to decide. It's become more of a big deal to the consumer than it may have been a year ago; customers are taking longer to choose, doing more research about the products, posting on more forums, asking more questions. People are still buying, but they're doing their homework first. Once they have their choices down to two or three competitors, then they look at the post-sales details. Warranty, technical support, upgrade policies...they all go under the microscope.
It's not a bad trend.
Using customer support services as a tiebreaker between company A and company B forces both companies to come to the table with their very best. Who has the better warranty? The best support hours for where I live? What about onsite? What about RMA procedures? All of a sudden, we all have to look at what we offer for support and ask ourselves if we're competitive with other companies in the same sector. We have to reassess, improve, innovate--not just with the product, which has been the usual hotbed for recreating a company's image, but with the after-sale services we provide.
Harsh competition, in my opinion, brings out the best and the worst in any small niche market. A mentor of mine once brought a book to a corporate retreat called Blue Ocean Strategy, and I borrowed it (and never returned it, sorry Chip). It was an eye-opening way to approach business...don't worry about out-performing your competition, instead create your own market space and make your competition irrelevant.
The book was referring to entire business models, but I see no reason in the world why you can't do it with specific business groups. Everyone follows the same basic structure, with varying degrees of success, but what if we (as in the manufacturer, or the head of support) shake it up, turn it on its head, do something new? The idea is to make the customer thrilled with the whole experience, including support, so that it comes full circle and produces more sales. Happy customers are the best marketing tool we have in a slow economy, and many companies are just doing the same old things and allowing their base to stagnate. Nay, say I! It's the equivalent of committing business suicide.
If there's a point to this rant, I suppose it's to reiterate out that good customer service isn't something you can learn in school, it's something that you learn from your customers. They'll tell you (and everyone else) what you've done wrong. Now what are YOU going to do about it?
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Back to Vanguard, or Why I Hate MMORPGs
Vanguard...Schmanguard.
So, I had heard that Vanguard has been significantly improved upon since launch, and since I've grown tired of AoC already (I have ADD when it comes to games, apparently), I thought I'd fish out my 10 day trial that came with the game and give it another go.
First of all, my computer just sucks. I have got to upgrade, and as if AoC wasn't reminder enough, Vanguard also plays like poop. I have to turn the graphics way down, which makes the scenery all blocky and blah, and that alone distracts me from content because it's still kind of laggy. While there appears to be some interesting facets to the game--the same interesting facets as before, mind you--I can't really enjoy them because I need a better system.
Stop pushing me into a corner, software manufacturers! I don't want to upgrade yet!
Aside from all the performance related problems I seem to be having with games lately, I'm just kind of bored in general. There's nothing out there that does "it" for me anymore. I'm having a hard time getting all excited about any one game. I wish I could find something that could give me a character like my WoW Hunter (and her ability to tame beasts) mixed with an EQ2 Warden's ability to shapeshift and the Ranger's ability to stealth...with the realm PvP siege content of Lineage II. And AoC graphics. With LOTRO-like story lines. Also, no grinding. More crafting, but easier.
I mean, is it too much to ask?
Apparently.
I'm trying to figure out if I can even continue to play Vanguard with my performance issues, and if I do, if it will make up for the hours I lost just patching the stupid thing. So far, I'm as unimpressed as I've been with basically everything else here lately. I beta test every MMORPG that comes out, and I just haven't found anything good.
B-O-R-E-D. Bah.
My husband, meanwhile, happily grinds his little heart out in WoW, and I keep thinking that maybe it's a fundamental flaw in my brain that makes me unable to endure the same type of content over and over.
I WANT to play WoW, I really do. I actually have done nothing with my character since the expansion...she's still at 60, in the Outlands, living off of scraps and the remains of her Worg, no doubt. I just can't seem to do it. There's rep to be gotten...grinding to be done...and everyone is way far ahead so there's few to partner with. I level slow. I have a life. Everyone outlevels me pretty quickly. I hate immature little freaks that run through instances like Leeeeroy.
And now, I'm whining.
Damn it.
Minor Irritations from the Support Desk
1) Windows XP, Service Pack 3. You install it, you can't uninstall IE 7. It won't let you. You have to uninstall SP3, then uninstall IE7, then reinstall SP3 and hide the IE 7 update if you don't want to upgrade your IE. Bah. Firefox, that's the answer.
2) NVIDIA. Same deal, different week. Don't believe me? Look.
3) I hate Mitsumi card readers. Mitsumi=fail.
4) Customer spam. You know, chain letters and the like. I love that you like me enough to put me in your address book, just please don't send me Nigerian Bank spam. Please?
5) Industry events that happen in the middle of the week. Nvision, for instance, is Monday-Wednesday. Why? We have jobs to do!
So, I had heard that Vanguard has been significantly improved upon since launch, and since I've grown tired of AoC already (I have ADD when it comes to games, apparently), I thought I'd fish out my 10 day trial that came with the game and give it another go.
First of all, my computer just sucks. I have got to upgrade, and as if AoC wasn't reminder enough, Vanguard also plays like poop. I have to turn the graphics way down, which makes the scenery all blocky and blah, and that alone distracts me from content because it's still kind of laggy. While there appears to be some interesting facets to the game--the same interesting facets as before, mind you--I can't really enjoy them because I need a better system.
Stop pushing me into a corner, software manufacturers! I don't want to upgrade yet!
Aside from all the performance related problems I seem to be having with games lately, I'm just kind of bored in general. There's nothing out there that does "it" for me anymore. I'm having a hard time getting all excited about any one game. I wish I could find something that could give me a character like my WoW Hunter (and her ability to tame beasts) mixed with an EQ2 Warden's ability to shapeshift and the Ranger's ability to stealth...with the realm PvP siege content of Lineage II. And AoC graphics. With LOTRO-like story lines. Also, no grinding. More crafting, but easier.
I mean, is it too much to ask?
Apparently.
I'm trying to figure out if I can even continue to play Vanguard with my performance issues, and if I do, if it will make up for the hours I lost just patching the stupid thing. So far, I'm as unimpressed as I've been with basically everything else here lately. I beta test every MMORPG that comes out, and I just haven't found anything good.
B-O-R-E-D. Bah.
My husband, meanwhile, happily grinds his little heart out in WoW, and I keep thinking that maybe it's a fundamental flaw in my brain that makes me unable to endure the same type of content over and over.
I WANT to play WoW, I really do. I actually have done nothing with my character since the expansion...she's still at 60, in the Outlands, living off of scraps and the remains of her Worg, no doubt. I just can't seem to do it. There's rep to be gotten...grinding to be done...and everyone is way far ahead so there's few to partner with. I level slow. I have a life. Everyone outlevels me pretty quickly. I hate immature little freaks that run through instances like Leeeeroy.
And now, I'm whining.
Damn it.
Minor Irritations from the Support Desk
1) Windows XP, Service Pack 3. You install it, you can't uninstall IE 7. It won't let you. You have to uninstall SP3, then uninstall IE7, then reinstall SP3 and hide the IE 7 update if you don't want to upgrade your IE. Bah. Firefox, that's the answer.
2) NVIDIA. Same deal, different week. Don't believe me? Look.
3) I hate Mitsumi card readers. Mitsumi=fail.
4) Customer spam. You know, chain letters and the like. I love that you like me enough to put me in your address book, just please don't send me Nigerian Bank spam. Please?
5) Industry events that happen in the middle of the week. Nvision, for instance, is Monday-Wednesday. Why? We have jobs to do!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Random Technobabble.
First of all, sorry for being MIA for so long. I won't bore you with the details, but we moved into a new house recently enough that it still has that "new house" smell. In the weeks preceding that event, everything was chaotic and disorganized, and I tend to just go to pieces when things are that disordered in my life.
Now that we've settled in (sort of), I can start with the blogging.
Age of Conan
I have been waiting so long for this game to come out, that I stopped looking for it to launch and therefore completely missed its actual launch date. Once I realized that it had been released when I wasn't watching, I went on a crusade to find the blasted thing...and the only place in a 30 mile radius that had it was the GameStop by the SuperMall.
(Those that know me well know that I HATE large crowded shopping spaces, and that the SuperMall is the embodiment of the LAST place I ever want to go on a Friday afternoon. The fact I was willing to actually go to the mall for a game should underscore just how bad I really wanted the damn thing.)
So, was it worth it? For the most part, yes.
* The graphics are stunning--detailed enough that they reawakened my sleeping upgrade monster and made me uncomfortably admit that it's time for a new processor/motherboard/video card.
* Character development, including the avatar, is rather detailed, which is something I'm happy to say is becoming a trend in the MMORPG industry. Gone are the days of having your character look and act like 1 out 4 other characters on your server (if any of you have ever played Lineage II, or even World of Warcraft, you know what I mean).
* The game plays like a movie. An R rated movie. The character's dialogue is never flat, and in some cases, risque. The NPCs are interesting and multifaceted, the combat is interesting to look at. Some of the NPCs will even make *ahem* suggestions about where you should spend your evening...and if you take your shirt off, well, you're also anatomically correct up there.
* I remember now just how much I hate full on PvP servers. I have a limited amount of time to play, and when I get ganked repeatedly by some kid whose character is 10 levels above mine, it really irks me.
* I hate the concept of the unified starting point--everyone starts in the same blasted town, no matter who you are or what you do, and if you create multiple characters, they have to quest through the same environment with the same quest content. Everquest 2 used to really irritate me with that type of approach, and apparently I was not the only person who hated it, because they've now created 5 starting areas depending on race/alignment. Hopefully AoC will learn that lesson and give you someplace to start other than Tortage.
* Crafting and skills must start later in the game, because I've yet to get the ability to do either. That's kind of whack. With 80 levels, I suppose I'll have plenty of time to do something about it, but still.
So, go buy it if you liked LOTRO, for instance...but not if all you want is something like WoW. (And as for all of these abbreviations, those in the know will be able to decipher them.)
NVLDDMKM Error, How I Hate Thee
This NVIDIA related error started showing up when I worked for TOCC (The Other Computer Company) right after the Vista release. Those errors seemed to slack off as better drivers were released (or maybe because more people ran screaming back to XP, who knows) until just recently. I've had five instances in two weeks.
Normally, graphical errors can be fixed one of two ways--new driver or new hardware--but this monster is in a class all by itself. One of two things always happens--your display will recover, creating a pop-up in the lower right near the clock, or the entire system will hang/crash/die. In either case, if you happen to be gaming or working with video at the time, you'll probably crash out of the program you're in. Needless to say, if you can't game on your gaming computer because of NVLDDMKM, you now have a pretty expensive doorstop.
I hang out on the [H]ardOCP forums quite a bit, helping customers and anyone else I happen to take a fancy to, and I came across another guy having the problem. I think that may have been the last straw for me, because as soon as he posted, other people started to add on with identical issues, and I was just kind of like...WTF!!! Why can't we make this error go away??
I have a tendency to run things to ground when they irk me, and this error became my most recent obsession. There were fixes that worked for some and not others, there were registry hacks that might fix it all, but in the end, no one really had a good understanding of why it was happening. I got the answer I wanted, at least, if not the fix.
For those out there who come across this post and have this error--if you built your system yourself, log a ticket with the company who built the video card (XFX, eVga, BFG, et al), and if you have a pre-built system, contact your system builder for assistance. Be persistant, make yourself a nuisance. In the end, nagging is probably the only way to make this problem history.
What's New @ Puget?
I'm pretty excited about the launch of the Puget Obsidian, our new low/mid-range business critical system. It's affordable, incredibly well designed, and developed to be a very stable silent workstation. We also have some other changes in the works--very interesting times for me specifically--and I look forward to sharing them with you when they go live.
Now that we've settled in (sort of), I can start with the blogging.
Age of Conan
I have been waiting so long for this game to come out, that I stopped looking for it to launch and therefore completely missed its actual launch date. Once I realized that it had been released when I wasn't watching, I went on a crusade to find the blasted thing...and the only place in a 30 mile radius that had it was the GameStop by the SuperMall.
(Those that know me well know that I HATE large crowded shopping spaces, and that the SuperMall is the embodiment of the LAST place I ever want to go on a Friday afternoon. The fact I was willing to actually go to the mall for a game should underscore just how bad I really wanted the damn thing.)
So, was it worth it? For the most part, yes.
* The graphics are stunning--detailed enough that they reawakened my sleeping upgrade monster and made me uncomfortably admit that it's time for a new processor/motherboard/video card.
* Character development, including the avatar, is rather detailed, which is something I'm happy to say is becoming a trend in the MMORPG industry. Gone are the days of having your character look and act like 1 out 4 other characters on your server (if any of you have ever played Lineage II, or even World of Warcraft, you know what I mean).
* The game plays like a movie. An R rated movie. The character's dialogue is never flat, and in some cases, risque. The NPCs are interesting and multifaceted, the combat is interesting to look at. Some of the NPCs will even make *ahem* suggestions about where you should spend your evening...and if you take your shirt off, well, you're also anatomically correct up there.
* I remember now just how much I hate full on PvP servers. I have a limited amount of time to play, and when I get ganked repeatedly by some kid whose character is 10 levels above mine, it really irks me.
* I hate the concept of the unified starting point--everyone starts in the same blasted town, no matter who you are or what you do, and if you create multiple characters, they have to quest through the same environment with the same quest content. Everquest 2 used to really irritate me with that type of approach, and apparently I was not the only person who hated it, because they've now created 5 starting areas depending on race/alignment. Hopefully AoC will learn that lesson and give you someplace to start other than Tortage.
* Crafting and skills must start later in the game, because I've yet to get the ability to do either. That's kind of whack. With 80 levels, I suppose I'll have plenty of time to do something about it, but still.
So, go buy it if you liked LOTRO, for instance...but not if all you want is something like WoW. (And as for all of these abbreviations, those in the know will be able to decipher them.)
NVLDDMKM Error, How I Hate Thee
This NVIDIA related error started showing up when I worked for TOCC (The Other Computer Company) right after the Vista release. Those errors seemed to slack off as better drivers were released (or maybe because more people ran screaming back to XP, who knows) until just recently. I've had five instances in two weeks.
Normally, graphical errors can be fixed one of two ways--new driver or new hardware--but this monster is in a class all by itself. One of two things always happens--your display will recover, creating a pop-up in the lower right near the clock, or the entire system will hang/crash/die. In either case, if you happen to be gaming or working with video at the time, you'll probably crash out of the program you're in. Needless to say, if you can't game on your gaming computer because of NVLDDMKM, you now have a pretty expensive doorstop.
I hang out on the [H]ardOCP forums quite a bit, helping customers and anyone else I happen to take a fancy to, and I came across another guy having the problem. I think that may have been the last straw for me, because as soon as he posted, other people started to add on with identical issues, and I was just kind of like...WTF!!! Why can't we make this error go away??
I have a tendency to run things to ground when they irk me, and this error became my most recent obsession. There were fixes that worked for some and not others, there were registry hacks that might fix it all, but in the end, no one really had a good understanding of why it was happening. I got the answer I wanted, at least, if not the fix.
For those out there who come across this post and have this error--if you built your system yourself, log a ticket with the company who built the video card (XFX, eVga, BFG, et al), and if you have a pre-built system, contact your system builder for assistance. Be persistant, make yourself a nuisance. In the end, nagging is probably the only way to make this problem history.
What's New @ Puget?
I'm pretty excited about the launch of the Puget Obsidian, our new low/mid-range business critical system. It's affordable, incredibly well designed, and developed to be a very stable silent workstation. We also have some other changes in the works--very interesting times for me specifically--and I look forward to sharing them with you when they go live.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Female Technophile, unplugged.
One of the reasons I've been so apathetic about blogging is that I haven't had any internet for about a month now. There's several explanations for why I've been without, but the most obvious one (and the one I'm sure hits home for a lot of people out there) is the rising cost of just getting around these days. The price of gas is insane, and while the Puget Sound area is well equipped with mass transit solutions, you still have to GET to the station and find a parking space. We've streamlined our expenses however we can, and unfortunately, the internet and cable was the first to go. However, I digress....
It's been really, really strange living without the internet. There's a weird feeling of complete disconnect that strikes me as both sad and amusing, only because I can remember a time when there WAS no internet. We've all become so dependent on recieving information in real-time that it's kind of jarring to lose that interaction.
Of course, we've both lost the ability to play our MMORPGs as well, and it's made us realize just how many hours we spent during an average week online playing. I used to shun the computer quite a bit, since I work with them and on them every day, but now I'm seriously missing my online time. The ability to go kill some random stuff in an ever-evolving world online after a hard day was something I'd never thought I'd miss, but there you go.
As a result of this down time, I've been able to catch up on my book list--I'm rather avid about reading even when I have online access, so this has been nuts--and re-read a few things I'd not picked up for a while. I've watched plenty of public television and acquainted myself seriously with Jane Austen as interpreted by the BBC. I've been watching fuzzy epidodes of American Idol and Hell's Kitchen.
I have come to the conclusion that infomercials are entirely geared towards people like my Grandfather...who have no cable, and so are vulnerable to their silly claims of "rock hard abs" and "real estate success now". Can't I have both? And all for three payments of $99.95? Though, there's this pocket meal thing that looks alluring. I've watched that infomercial three times on a Sunday (look, this week the movie of the day on Fox was "Canadian Bacon", for God's sake) and wonder, idly, if it does what it claims. I'll never buy it, but...well...hm. I always wonder how much money they make off of those things. Apparently enough to keep producing these inane infomericals.
Though a little twitchy, I am surviving...unplugged. Who'd have thought? (Ok, so I'm not counting work access. I might not survive without that much.)
I thought about doing some serious commentary about how the internet controls us all, but in the end...eh, everyone knows that, so why blog it?
It's been really, really strange living without the internet. There's a weird feeling of complete disconnect that strikes me as both sad and amusing, only because I can remember a time when there WAS no internet. We've all become so dependent on recieving information in real-time that it's kind of jarring to lose that interaction.
Of course, we've both lost the ability to play our MMORPGs as well, and it's made us realize just how many hours we spent during an average week online playing. I used to shun the computer quite a bit, since I work with them and on them every day, but now I'm seriously missing my online time. The ability to go kill some random stuff in an ever-evolving world online after a hard day was something I'd never thought I'd miss, but there you go.
As a result of this down time, I've been able to catch up on my book list--I'm rather avid about reading even when I have online access, so this has been nuts--and re-read a few things I'd not picked up for a while. I've watched plenty of public television and acquainted myself seriously with Jane Austen as interpreted by the BBC. I've been watching fuzzy epidodes of American Idol and Hell's Kitchen.
I have come to the conclusion that infomercials are entirely geared towards people like my Grandfather...who have no cable, and so are vulnerable to their silly claims of "rock hard abs" and "real estate success now". Can't I have both? And all for three payments of $99.95? Though, there's this pocket meal thing that looks alluring. I've watched that infomercial three times on a Sunday (look, this week the movie of the day on Fox was "Canadian Bacon", for God's sake) and wonder, idly, if it does what it claims. I'll never buy it, but...well...hm. I always wonder how much money they make off of those things. Apparently enough to keep producing these inane infomericals.
Though a little twitchy, I am surviving...unplugged. Who'd have thought? (Ok, so I'm not counting work access. I might not survive without that much.)
I thought about doing some serious commentary about how the internet controls us all, but in the end...eh, everyone knows that, so why blog it?
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Apathy...for the WIN.
First of all, I'd like to apologize for not blogging much here lately...I've been kind of wrapped up in the real world for the last little bit, and there's not much wiggle room time-wise.
I'm working on some articles for both this site and Puget's blog...stay tuned. I promise something will happen soon!
--H
I'm working on some articles for both this site and Puget's blog...stay tuned. I promise something will happen soon!
--H
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Pondering the BIG Questions.
I've been thinking--yes, I do that, at least occasionally--about technical support in general quite a lot lately. Not because that's what I do, at least not entirely. I've been thinking about the industry, the whole ball o' wax. Let me clarify.
I spend a lot of time on industry forums as a spokesperson for Puget because I want to help people. Yeah, sometimes sales happen because I'm on there and they like me, and that's all well and good. However, I'm actually on there for a more simplistic reason--I don't want people to suffer when they either can't get support, get bad support, or don't know where to go for help. I'll give you an example.
There's a guy who let himself get talked in to building a PC because everyone on the forum kind of pressured him to do it. (You get that a lot--because there's a large volume of enthusiast builders on these sites, every inquiry about manufacturers is met with derision and screams of 'build it yourself'. Most people either resist or ignore them. He didn't.) When he started having problems while building, he posted on the same forums and was met with...silence. All the jerks that had told him he needed to build all of a sudden had nothing at all to say to him. They left him high and dry.
He sent me a private message, asking for help because I'd seemed so supportive in the forums. I gave him my IM and email, and told him to contact me so that we could chat one-on-one, and that I'd help him fix the issues he was having.
The email I received in return pretty much epitomizes why I do this for a living. It was one sentence long.
"I don't know what to say or how to thank you--without your help, I would be completely lost."
That, people, is why you should be in tech support. Not because of the money, but because you can make a HUGE difference in someone's world by merely sharing information. Computers and technology have become so integrated into everyone's lives, they literally are lost without it...and tech support reps are the only hope some people have of finding their way out of the desert.
So, I have been mulling this over, and as usual, wondering why larger companies don't put enough real effort into their support experiences. Wondering why they're completely destroying people's faith in the process when it's a great opportunity to build business and relationships...which in turn will produce more business. I know the answer, but I ponder the problem regardless. It's all about profit and loss. Hence...outsourcing becomes the best solution.
I understand, truly, why large companies outsource to other countries. The price of doing support is HUGE, especially if your product is so-so and breaks a lot (duh). There has got to be a decent way to bridge the gap between support costs and benefit so that outsourcing is no longer a mandantory alternative for larger companies.
I don't know what that solution is right now--and if I can ever figure it out, someone will probably pay me large amounts of consulting dollars to implement it.
Until then, I guess I'll stick to this sector of the industry where I can make a difference, and I'll keep posting on the forums to help all of those people that can't seem to find help anywhere else. If I can keep just one less person from blowing his PC up with a sawed-off shotgun....well, that's a good start.
I spend a lot of time on industry forums as a spokesperson for Puget because I want to help people. Yeah, sometimes sales happen because I'm on there and they like me, and that's all well and good. However, I'm actually on there for a more simplistic reason--I don't want people to suffer when they either can't get support, get bad support, or don't know where to go for help. I'll give you an example.
There's a guy who let himself get talked in to building a PC because everyone on the forum kind of pressured him to do it. (You get that a lot--because there's a large volume of enthusiast builders on these sites, every inquiry about manufacturers is met with derision and screams of 'build it yourself'. Most people either resist or ignore them. He didn't.) When he started having problems while building, he posted on the same forums and was met with...silence. All the jerks that had told him he needed to build all of a sudden had nothing at all to say to him. They left him high and dry.
He sent me a private message, asking for help because I'd seemed so supportive in the forums. I gave him my IM and email, and told him to contact me so that we could chat one-on-one, and that I'd help him fix the issues he was having.
The email I received in return pretty much epitomizes why I do this for a living. It was one sentence long.
"I don't know what to say or how to thank you--without your help, I would be completely lost."
That, people, is why you should be in tech support. Not because of the money, but because you can make a HUGE difference in someone's world by merely sharing information. Computers and technology have become so integrated into everyone's lives, they literally are lost without it...and tech support reps are the only hope some people have of finding their way out of the desert.
So, I have been mulling this over, and as usual, wondering why larger companies don't put enough real effort into their support experiences. Wondering why they're completely destroying people's faith in the process when it's a great opportunity to build business and relationships...which in turn will produce more business. I know the answer, but I ponder the problem regardless. It's all about profit and loss. Hence...outsourcing becomes the best solution.
I understand, truly, why large companies outsource to other countries. The price of doing support is HUGE, especially if your product is so-so and breaks a lot (duh). There has got to be a decent way to bridge the gap between support costs and benefit so that outsourcing is no longer a mandantory alternative for larger companies.
I don't know what that solution is right now--and if I can ever figure it out, someone will probably pay me large amounts of consulting dollars to implement it.
Until then, I guess I'll stick to this sector of the industry where I can make a difference, and I'll keep posting on the forums to help all of those people that can't seem to find help anywhere else. If I can keep just one less person from blowing his PC up with a sawed-off shotgun....well, that's a good start.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Cross-Country in Six Days
An excerpt from my personal blog:
"I guess in my self-absorbed depression I kind of ignored the whole “getting here” scenario. It was quite an adventure…I finally got to see the Great Plains, and my first tumbleweed (and my second, and my eightieth)...
We skirted the beltway through DC into Maryland and then Pennsylvania, and forged through the Appalachians on the Pennsylvania-Ohio Turnpike. Around 2 am (we got a late start that day and it set us behind), we stopped in Newton Falls, OH at a small Econolodge right off the turnpike.
In the morning, we snatched pastries and watery OJ from the continental breakfast at the hotel, and then continued down the Ohio turnpike. Tolls abounded, however, the rest areas kind of made up for it…they were better than any I’d seen, usually with a major chain restaurant and a Starbucks in each one. We thought we’d gotten lost when we crossed into Indiana, but then *duh*, that would be logical since that was the next state on the map.
Ohio and Indiana are notable only for their rest areas and their vast multitude of hipped barns. Barns, barns, and more barns. We were supposed to stop in Rockford, Illinois for the night.
Hands down, the worst state was Illinois. It was so bad, so industrial and so traffic-ridden that we didn’t stop as scheduled that night and pressed ahead into Wisconsin. Chicago, even on a Saturday, was a parking lot on the expressway, it smelled, and it was just plain ugly. Blah.
We crossed into Wisconsin and stopped at the first decent hotel…I believe it was in La Forest(?), right outside of Madison. We had a pretty decent pizza, covered with Wisconsin cheese, and then literally dropped into our beds.
Wisconsin was a beautiful state—all I could think at the time was that it had to be a hunter’s paradise—and the lay of the land reminded me a lot of the land just south of Charlottesville. It was beautiful, heavily forested land, full of rolling hills where complacent cows grazed on browning grass…which then turned into some mild mountain terrain. At La Crosse, Minnesota (or was that Wisconsin…I know the line is right in there somewhere), we went across the Mississippi River…it was a lot larger than I thought it would be, knowing that it actually originates in Minnesota somewhere.
Minnesota flattened out to rolling hills and then to sweeping plains, and I could only think of “A Prairie Home Companion” as we drove through (and was rewarded after doing a radio scan by finding the Thanksgiving special on an NPR station). We forged through to South Dakota and got to see the sun set on the Dakota plains.
Sunset on the Great Plains is amazing…the sun appears to sink into the Earth itself, and in your rear-view mirror, you can see the night slowly rolling up behind you until you can’t outrun it anymore. We stopped in Mitchell, SD, home of the Corn Palace. I had the most amazing fried chicken I’d ever had from the “Pizza Ranch” (or something like that). There were signs on the hotel—by this time we’d stopped following the itinerary and just started following the map—that warned not to “gut your birds in the hotel rooms, please”. Welcome to the Prairie, I guess. Pheasant season. The hunters drank all the coffee in the morning.
South Dakota was probably my favorite state, and I think it was because I had always been so very fascinated by the Plains Indian tribes—the Sioux nation, the Crow, the Blackfeet Indian tribes. I am very familiar with the history and lore of the Southern plain states—Deadwood, Yankton, and the treaties and trouble that those names invoke. I started seeing tumbleweeds, signs for the Oglala college, the last repository for the native Sioux language available to the tribes, and tons of gimmicky crap like “wild-west town” and “props from Dances with Wolves Ahead”. It made me feel nostalgic and unbearably sad. I could picture how it might have looked…there were spots here and there that reclaimed the prairie, and on those spots, wild horses roamed. The rest was a patchwork quilt of crops and windmill farms.
I’d intended to stop in Deadwood, because…well, because it’s Deadwood, but when we stopped in Sturgis and I saw a sign for “Wild Bill Hickok’s Casino and Bar”. I decided that the Deadwood in my head was probably nothing like the town’s modern incarnation, and that I’d stick with my imagination instead.
Wyoming we crossed completely in the dark, which made me sad. I stopped at an overlook around midnight, and in the blackest night I’d ever stood in, looked up at the sky and felt humbled. I could see thousands of stars across the night sky when usually I would only be able to see the brightest.
That night, we exceeded 650 miles, mostly because we didn’t realize that the first 50 miles into Montana was Crow Reservation land. Reservation land, generally, does not have ‘services’ such as motels or restaurants. So we drove through to Billings, passing Wounded Knee, and were slightly bothered by “Custer’s Bar and Casino”. What the hell is it about taking any infamous person in history and making a bar and casino out of his name?
After staying just outside of Billings, we finished our trip through Montana into Idaho and Washington. We followed I-90 as it wound through the mountains of Montana, crossing the Clark Fork at least 17 times before I stopped counting.
Montana enchanted me. Anyone who’s ever seen Legends of the Fall can begin to appreciate the beauty of the land in Montana…the high plains enchant until they collide into the mountains, then there’s a suffocating sense of claustrophobia because after miles and miles of nothing but big sky, the vista is reduced to a crack between sheer mountain walls. We crossed the Continental Divide at 6ooo+ feet in Montana. I remember looking out the side windows and seeing massive boulders that had been thrust up when the plates collided at some point many millions of years ago, and thinking again just how very small I am in comparison to most of the stuff I’d seen.
The mountains kept going and going…and I had gotten to the point where I had to stop for gas. We stopped in a small town that was UNDER the interstate (the very first time I’d ever seen anything like it)—I can’t remember the name of the place, but it was a perfectly replicated small town from the 50s, complete with movie theatre showing “It’s a Wonderful Life”. The woman behind the counter of the Exxon, Lisa (I can remember her name, but not the name of the town…hehe) told me that I had 90 more miles of mountains.
90 Miles. It was already 9pm.
We pressed on to Spokane, memorable only because I REFUSED to look down at Coeur d’Alene out of fear that I’d fall off the side of the mountain. Paranoid, yes, but at this point…well, let’s just say 300 miles of steep mountain terrain had me a little edgy.
Washington itself was not very memorable, but it was unexpected. I didn’t , for instance, anticipate the span of desert-like terrain between Spokane and the Cascades. I didn’t expect the Colombia River to be so big. I didn’t expect to fall in love with the territory around Snoqualmie Pass, though it was terror inducing.
I’ve never been so happy to enter Seattle in my life, nor so immediately vexed by the 4pm traffic…but I felt like I had completed a life-altering journey, and managed to keep everyone alive while doing so. My only regret is that both of my daughters are too young to remember it, and my son is too stupid to savor the ride.
We’re planning to do it again. It seems to be addictive. And this time…we’re going to take our time and savor the beauty of America."
I wish it had been more detailed, or more timely...and accompanied by photos. However, time was tight, and we were mowing down anywhere between 600 and 700 miles a day...we just didn't have time to enjoy anything but what we saw out of our windshields. I've made a personal promise to myself to do it again...and do it right.
"I guess in my self-absorbed depression I kind of ignored the whole “getting here” scenario. It was quite an adventure…I finally got to see the Great Plains, and my first tumbleweed (and my second, and my eightieth)...
We skirted the beltway through DC into Maryland and then Pennsylvania, and forged through the Appalachians on the Pennsylvania-Ohio Turnpike. Around 2 am (we got a late start that day and it set us behind), we stopped in Newton Falls, OH at a small Econolodge right off the turnpike.
In the morning, we snatched pastries and watery OJ from the continental breakfast at the hotel, and then continued down the Ohio turnpike. Tolls abounded, however, the rest areas kind of made up for it…they were better than any I’d seen, usually with a major chain restaurant and a Starbucks in each one. We thought we’d gotten lost when we crossed into Indiana, but then *duh*, that would be logical since that was the next state on the map.
Ohio and Indiana are notable only for their rest areas and their vast multitude of hipped barns. Barns, barns, and more barns. We were supposed to stop in Rockford, Illinois for the night.
Hands down, the worst state was Illinois. It was so bad, so industrial and so traffic-ridden that we didn’t stop as scheduled that night and pressed ahead into Wisconsin. Chicago, even on a Saturday, was a parking lot on the expressway, it smelled, and it was just plain ugly. Blah.
We crossed into Wisconsin and stopped at the first decent hotel…I believe it was in La Forest(?), right outside of Madison. We had a pretty decent pizza, covered with Wisconsin cheese, and then literally dropped into our beds.
Wisconsin was a beautiful state—all I could think at the time was that it had to be a hunter’s paradise—and the lay of the land reminded me a lot of the land just south of Charlottesville. It was beautiful, heavily forested land, full of rolling hills where complacent cows grazed on browning grass…which then turned into some mild mountain terrain. At La Crosse, Minnesota (or was that Wisconsin…I know the line is right in there somewhere), we went across the Mississippi River…it was a lot larger than I thought it would be, knowing that it actually originates in Minnesota somewhere.
Minnesota flattened out to rolling hills and then to sweeping plains, and I could only think of “A Prairie Home Companion” as we drove through (and was rewarded after doing a radio scan by finding the Thanksgiving special on an NPR station). We forged through to South Dakota and got to see the sun set on the Dakota plains.
Sunset on the Great Plains is amazing…the sun appears to sink into the Earth itself, and in your rear-view mirror, you can see the night slowly rolling up behind you until you can’t outrun it anymore. We stopped in Mitchell, SD, home of the Corn Palace. I had the most amazing fried chicken I’d ever had from the “Pizza Ranch” (or something like that). There were signs on the hotel—by this time we’d stopped following the itinerary and just started following the map—that warned not to “gut your birds in the hotel rooms, please”. Welcome to the Prairie, I guess. Pheasant season. The hunters drank all the coffee in the morning.
South Dakota was probably my favorite state, and I think it was because I had always been so very fascinated by the Plains Indian tribes—the Sioux nation, the Crow, the Blackfeet Indian tribes. I am very familiar with the history and lore of the Southern plain states—Deadwood, Yankton, and the treaties and trouble that those names invoke. I started seeing tumbleweeds, signs for the Oglala college, the last repository for the native Sioux language available to the tribes, and tons of gimmicky crap like “wild-west town” and “props from Dances with Wolves Ahead”. It made me feel nostalgic and unbearably sad. I could picture how it might have looked…there were spots here and there that reclaimed the prairie, and on those spots, wild horses roamed. The rest was a patchwork quilt of crops and windmill farms.
I’d intended to stop in Deadwood, because…well, because it’s Deadwood, but when we stopped in Sturgis and I saw a sign for “Wild Bill Hickok’s Casino and Bar”. I decided that the Deadwood in my head was probably nothing like the town’s modern incarnation, and that I’d stick with my imagination instead.
Wyoming we crossed completely in the dark, which made me sad. I stopped at an overlook around midnight, and in the blackest night I’d ever stood in, looked up at the sky and felt humbled. I could see thousands of stars across the night sky when usually I would only be able to see the brightest.
That night, we exceeded 650 miles, mostly because we didn’t realize that the first 50 miles into Montana was Crow Reservation land. Reservation land, generally, does not have ‘services’ such as motels or restaurants. So we drove through to Billings, passing Wounded Knee, and were slightly bothered by “Custer’s Bar and Casino”. What the hell is it about taking any infamous person in history and making a bar and casino out of his name?
After staying just outside of Billings, we finished our trip through Montana into Idaho and Washington. We followed I-90 as it wound through the mountains of Montana, crossing the Clark Fork at least 17 times before I stopped counting.
Montana enchanted me. Anyone who’s ever seen Legends of the Fall can begin to appreciate the beauty of the land in Montana…the high plains enchant until they collide into the mountains, then there’s a suffocating sense of claustrophobia because after miles and miles of nothing but big sky, the vista is reduced to a crack between sheer mountain walls. We crossed the Continental Divide at 6ooo+ feet in Montana. I remember looking out the side windows and seeing massive boulders that had been thrust up when the plates collided at some point many millions of years ago, and thinking again just how very small I am in comparison to most of the stuff I’d seen.
The mountains kept going and going…and I had gotten to the point where I had to stop for gas. We stopped in a small town that was UNDER the interstate (the very first time I’d ever seen anything like it)—I can’t remember the name of the place, but it was a perfectly replicated small town from the 50s, complete with movie theatre showing “It’s a Wonderful Life”. The woman behind the counter of the Exxon, Lisa (I can remember her name, but not the name of the town…hehe) told me that I had 90 more miles of mountains.
90 Miles. It was already 9pm.
We pressed on to Spokane, memorable only because I REFUSED to look down at Coeur d’Alene out of fear that I’d fall off the side of the mountain. Paranoid, yes, but at this point…well, let’s just say 300 miles of steep mountain terrain had me a little edgy.
Washington itself was not very memorable, but it was unexpected. I didn’t , for instance, anticipate the span of desert-like terrain between Spokane and the Cascades. I didn’t expect the Colombia River to be so big. I didn’t expect to fall in love with the territory around Snoqualmie Pass, though it was terror inducing.
I’ve never been so happy to enter Seattle in my life, nor so immediately vexed by the 4pm traffic…but I felt like I had completed a life-altering journey, and managed to keep everyone alive while doing so. My only regret is that both of my daughters are too young to remember it, and my son is too stupid to savor the ride.
We’re planning to do it again. It seems to be addictive. And this time…we’re going to take our time and savor the beauty of America."
I wish it had been more detailed, or more timely...and accompanied by photos. However, time was tight, and we were mowing down anywhere between 600 and 700 miles a day...we just didn't have time to enjoy anything but what we saw out of our windshields. I've made a personal promise to myself to do it again...and do it right.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Look Homeward, Angel....
"If I had known. If I had known,” said Eliza. And then: “I’m sorry.” But he knew that her sorrow at that moment was not for him or for herself, or even for the boy whom idiot chance had thrust in the way of pestilence, but that, with a sudden inner flaming of her clairvoyant Scotch soul, she had looked cleanly, without pretense for the first time, upon the inexorable tides of Necessity, and that she was sorry for all who had lived, were living, or would live, fanning with their prayers the useless altar flames, suppliant with their hopes to an unwitting spirit, casting the tiny rockets of their belief against remote eternity, and hoping for grace, guidance, and delivery upon the spinning and forgotten cinder of this earth."
--Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel
I've been inactive on the blogs, and on the forums, and for that I apologize. I've been trying to adjust to the Pacific Northwest and its constantly but beautifully inclement weather. My body has revolted against the entire move; after running myself into the ground getting here by committing a cross-country drive, I have been getting sick, then sort of well, then sick again. It finally all culminated in a case of pneumonia, and I've been home for three days trying to get back to the point where I am able to perform my job well.
As for where my head is, well...I'm homesick, I think. Not for family or friends, but for Virginia itself. My family has lived in Richmond for the last three hundred years, and I am the first to move away in all of that time; as a result, I think that part of my head and my heart is revolting at the change on some fundamental, elemental level. Or perhaps I'm being dramatic. I read an essay that Edna Lewis did on Southern cooking a little while ago, and it brought back so much that I'd forgotten--the smell of freshly turned soil in my Grandfather's garden, the season's first cresses, the morning glories at dawn strung across the fence posts of the soybean field--and it's this that I blame for my current malaise. What is more fundamental than the smells and sights of your childhood?
Not to say that Washington State is not wonderful. I am still fascinated by the hemlocks, dripping with rain and releasing the most fantastic woody scent...and the sight of Mount Rainier in the distance still awes me. The traffic awes me less, needless to say, but Washington's unrivalled in natural glory. I've always been more impressed with the ambiance of a place than its people or sights--being rather non-religious, I find a lot of meaning and purpose in the natural world as opposed to the spiritual realm. Washington's beauty lifts me, somehow.
I've been feeling kind of fatalistic here lately. We've put a bid in on a house in Orting, ignoring doom-and-gloom reports from my co-workers regarding Mount Rainier and lahars and lava. If it is going to happen, if it is my time, then it will happen regardless of where I am at or what I am doing. As Thomas Wolfe said, we're all simply "casting the tiny rockets of [our] belief against remote eternity, and hoping for grace, guidance, and delivery upon the spinning and forgotten cinder of this earth".
In the end, we make the best go of it we can, and hope to hell we're able to produce something more than a mediocre life from the whole thing.
Enough of that. This is more of a personal blog than I intended, since I usually keep this more as a professional site than anything else. However, at the moment, it seems appropriate to post my current thoughts here.
I love my job at Puget Custom Computers, like I knew I would--no complaints there at all. I'm not really ready for Christmas, but then...are you?
I did a personal blog on my trip over here...I'll post it up here at some point. It was quite an experience.
--Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel
I've been inactive on the blogs, and on the forums, and for that I apologize. I've been trying to adjust to the Pacific Northwest and its constantly but beautifully inclement weather. My body has revolted against the entire move; after running myself into the ground getting here by committing a cross-country drive, I have been getting sick, then sort of well, then sick again. It finally all culminated in a case of pneumonia, and I've been home for three days trying to get back to the point where I am able to perform my job well.
As for where my head is, well...I'm homesick, I think. Not for family or friends, but for Virginia itself. My family has lived in Richmond for the last three hundred years, and I am the first to move away in all of that time; as a result, I think that part of my head and my heart is revolting at the change on some fundamental, elemental level. Or perhaps I'm being dramatic. I read an essay that Edna Lewis did on Southern cooking a little while ago, and it brought back so much that I'd forgotten--the smell of freshly turned soil in my Grandfather's garden, the season's first cresses, the morning glories at dawn strung across the fence posts of the soybean field--and it's this that I blame for my current malaise. What is more fundamental than the smells and sights of your childhood?
Not to say that Washington State is not wonderful. I am still fascinated by the hemlocks, dripping with rain and releasing the most fantastic woody scent...and the sight of Mount Rainier in the distance still awes me. The traffic awes me less, needless to say, but Washington's unrivalled in natural glory. I've always been more impressed with the ambiance of a place than its people or sights--being rather non-religious, I find a lot of meaning and purpose in the natural world as opposed to the spiritual realm. Washington's beauty lifts me, somehow.
I've been feeling kind of fatalistic here lately. We've put a bid in on a house in Orting, ignoring doom-and-gloom reports from my co-workers regarding Mount Rainier and lahars and lava. If it is going to happen, if it is my time, then it will happen regardless of where I am at or what I am doing. As Thomas Wolfe said, we're all simply "casting the tiny rockets of [our] belief against remote eternity, and hoping for grace, guidance, and delivery upon the spinning and forgotten cinder of this earth".
In the end, we make the best go of it we can, and hope to hell we're able to produce something more than a mediocre life from the whole thing.
Enough of that. This is more of a personal blog than I intended, since I usually keep this more as a professional site than anything else. However, at the moment, it seems appropriate to post my current thoughts here.
I love my job at Puget Custom Computers, like I knew I would--no complaints there at all. I'm not really ready for Christmas, but then...are you?
I did a personal blog on my trip over here...I'll post it up here at some point. It was quite an experience.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Week One: If you’re a manager, be a damn good one.
Investment in your technical support staff is the one thing that most manufacturers not only overlook, but skimp on when it comes time to hire. You can’t. The quality of your staff—and their attitude—is the single most important thing that you have in your arsenal. If you have 2 or 20 on staff, it doesn’t matter—how they interact with the customer is what counts.
A word of advice for manufacturers.
I don’t care who you have running your company, you’ve got to be VERY careful in your choice of technical support manager. Computer manufacturer support is vastly different from any other kind of technical support group because of the sheer technicality of the product and the knowledge level of your customer.
* You have to have someone in the position that truly understands the product—which means you should have someone who has done technical support in the field in addition to management experience.
* Hiring a person with no technical experience produces a department with no brakes—the manager won’t know what to approve and what to shoot down, and won’t be able to pacify the difficult customers because he/she won’t be able to make a convincing argument about why a tech did something.
*Customers can smell incompetence and horses**t from miles away, and the last thing you need is a reputation for either.
Being a good manager means being a good tech, a teacher, a psychiatrist, and a sociologist all rolled into one. You’ve got to know your business, but also be able to accurately identify the strengths and weaknesses of your team and figure out how to capitalize on them. Before you can win the trust of your customers, you have to win the trust of your employees.
Avoid firing people as a first solution.
If you have huge turnover, your level of technical support will suffer and will never be on par—you’ll be constantly training replacements, and your phone support and quality of hardware repair will show it. Test potential employees, not just on phone manner, but on technical knowledge and methodology. There are fundamental skills a technician should have for the industry, and in this particular segment of the field, they must not only be able to troubleshoot and solve issues, but be able to convey instructions to customers of any skill level in a manner the customer can understand. If the tech comes off as condecending, or lacks the ability to drop instructions down to the customer's level, you'll have a real problem.
The easiest way to ensure that you retain employees is to invest in them.
I’m not just talking about money, though that’s part of it. I’m talking about knowing your people and what makes them happiest. You should know the names of their spouses and children, know what concerns them, celebrate their birthdays yearly, and reward great performance by hosting events and giving bonuses.
Why, you ask, would I care about John’s kids or Mary’s root canal? Simple answer. Morale.
If there’s one thing that you, as a manager, have absolute control over, it’s your technical support team’s morale. As someone who supervises people, you’ll need to understand this one pivotal truth that exists in every field that deals directly with the public: If your employees hate where they work and hate who they work for, that will carry straight over to the customer experience. The second part of that truth is that dealing with angry people sucks, and you’ll need heavy artillery to counter the strain of dealing with unhappy customers’ problems day in and day out.
You should never be their best friend, but you should definitely be in the role as mentor. Make an effort to know your staff and what concerns them. Have an open door policy and never be too busy to discuss departmental concerns. Listen to your team’s ideas and not only implement the good ones, but let them have ownership when it comes time to put the idea into effect. If you have someone who shows leadership repeatedly, promote them. Most of all, give them something, as team, that will help them blow off steam—whether it’s free pizza at lunch, a Friday night out on the department’s dime, or a cookout. One of the best ideas to improve support I ever received from an employee was revealed over sushi and beer.
Remember, you and your employees are on the same side, and there may be times that you'll have to advocate within the company for them. Having a boss who cares for them—even if the rest of the company doesn’t—will make your technical support team fiercely loyal and dedicated to making the department succeed. In turn, your customers will have the sense that the person on the other end of the line loves the company and is happy with their job—and they’ll be right!
A word of advice for manufacturers.
I don’t care who you have running your company, you’ve got to be VERY careful in your choice of technical support manager. Computer manufacturer support is vastly different from any other kind of technical support group because of the sheer technicality of the product and the knowledge level of your customer.
* You have to have someone in the position that truly understands the product—which means you should have someone who has done technical support in the field in addition to management experience.
* Hiring a person with no technical experience produces a department with no brakes—the manager won’t know what to approve and what to shoot down, and won’t be able to pacify the difficult customers because he/she won’t be able to make a convincing argument about why a tech did something.
*Customers can smell incompetence and horses**t from miles away, and the last thing you need is a reputation for either.
Being a good manager means being a good tech, a teacher, a psychiatrist, and a sociologist all rolled into one. You’ve got to know your business, but also be able to accurately identify the strengths and weaknesses of your team and figure out how to capitalize on them. Before you can win the trust of your customers, you have to win the trust of your employees.
Avoid firing people as a first solution.
If you have huge turnover, your level of technical support will suffer and will never be on par—you’ll be constantly training replacements, and your phone support and quality of hardware repair will show it. Test potential employees, not just on phone manner, but on technical knowledge and methodology. There are fundamental skills a technician should have for the industry, and in this particular segment of the field, they must not only be able to troubleshoot and solve issues, but be able to convey instructions to customers of any skill level in a manner the customer can understand. If the tech comes off as condecending, or lacks the ability to drop instructions down to the customer's level, you'll have a real problem.
The easiest way to ensure that you retain employees is to invest in them.
I’m not just talking about money, though that’s part of it. I’m talking about knowing your people and what makes them happiest. You should know the names of their spouses and children, know what concerns them, celebrate their birthdays yearly, and reward great performance by hosting events and giving bonuses.
Why, you ask, would I care about John’s kids or Mary’s root canal? Simple answer. Morale.
If there’s one thing that you, as a manager, have absolute control over, it’s your technical support team’s morale. As someone who supervises people, you’ll need to understand this one pivotal truth that exists in every field that deals directly with the public: If your employees hate where they work and hate who they work for, that will carry straight over to the customer experience. The second part of that truth is that dealing with angry people sucks, and you’ll need heavy artillery to counter the strain of dealing with unhappy customers’ problems day in and day out.
You should never be their best friend, but you should definitely be in the role as mentor. Make an effort to know your staff and what concerns them. Have an open door policy and never be too busy to discuss departmental concerns. Listen to your team’s ideas and not only implement the good ones, but let them have ownership when it comes time to put the idea into effect. If you have someone who shows leadership repeatedly, promote them. Most of all, give them something, as team, that will help them blow off steam—whether it’s free pizza at lunch, a Friday night out on the department’s dime, or a cookout. One of the best ideas to improve support I ever received from an employee was revealed over sushi and beer.
Remember, you and your employees are on the same side, and there may be times that you'll have to advocate within the company for them. Having a boss who cares for them—even if the rest of the company doesn’t—will make your technical support team fiercely loyal and dedicated to making the department succeed. In turn, your customers will have the sense that the person on the other end of the line loves the company and is happy with their job—and they’ll be right!
Introduction.
Technical support, and why it works for some and not for others.
Consider this scenario: Company A and Company B are offering the exact same computer. Company A’s system is $50 less, but the customer knows their reputation for support is just awful. Company B costs $50 more, and the customer’s brother just bought one and says the support is amazing—the best he’s had with any company. Which system would YOU buy?
Let's be honest. The technical support department for any computer manufacturer bleeds money from the company, is a source of a great deal of negative press, and can literally destroy the reputation of any company if it's not handled very well. Think of any of the huge manufacturers and what's the first positive thing that comes to mind? I bet it's not their customer service or their support. Why do these companies fail when others do very well?
It's very simple. You can draw parallels between the size of the company and the quality of the support, if you like, but it’s truly incidental. The companies that have the worst support tend to be the ones most geared towards selling large quantities of retail systems to the largest possible market, and that’s where most of the money goes. You want someone to buy the product, so you dump your money into marketing, placement, presentation, and advertising. New sales are the fastest way to build your business, after all.
Computer manufacturers often fail to recognize the importance of what happens after the initial sale. They don't care so much what happens after you purchase the system because, after all, support ALWAYS loses money for the company no matter how much you charge for an extended warranty. Those companies don’t think outside the box.
That's stupid, guys. If you have to spend money on support costs, why not take full advantage of the opportunities presented by the interaction? Customer service should always extend past the purchase and into the after-sales experience. Technical support is the most "technical" side of customer service, but it's actually more important than even the "sales" side. It's easy enough to make a sale, but a hell of a lot harder to keep that customer coming back for your product year after year.
Instead of looking at the after-sales experience as a chance to garner word-of-mouth or to build a tradition of reliability, large manufacturers dismiss it as a necessary evil to the industry. They outsource it to reduce the impact on the profit and loss statement. Small manufacturers recognize the fact that they need that word of mouth, but aren’t sure where to draw the line between doing too much for the customer and doing too little.
When your company’s product breaks, it creates an opportunity instead of an obstacle. It’s an opportunity to open a dialogue, create a relationship, and prove that your customer can trust you. The customer is angry, rightfully so, and it's your job to make him love you enough to come back next time and buy again.
Turning a bad situation around is hard, but it is possible to do it and not only conserve money for the department, but make money. You’ve got to start with the fundamentals and work your way up, and that’s what this series of articles will address.
Keep in mind that the series is geared towards small to mid-sized companies that will probably not have a tiered support frame or multiple locations, but do everything in-house. Tiered support falls into an entire different set of rules, and is more on the level of corporate level support.
Consider this scenario: Company A and Company B are offering the exact same computer. Company A’s system is $50 less, but the customer knows their reputation for support is just awful. Company B costs $50 more, and the customer’s brother just bought one and says the support is amazing—the best he’s had with any company. Which system would YOU buy?
Let's be honest. The technical support department for any computer manufacturer bleeds money from the company, is a source of a great deal of negative press, and can literally destroy the reputation of any company if it's not handled very well. Think of any of the huge manufacturers and what's the first positive thing that comes to mind? I bet it's not their customer service or their support. Why do these companies fail when others do very well?
It's very simple. You can draw parallels between the size of the company and the quality of the support, if you like, but it’s truly incidental. The companies that have the worst support tend to be the ones most geared towards selling large quantities of retail systems to the largest possible market, and that’s where most of the money goes. You want someone to buy the product, so you dump your money into marketing, placement, presentation, and advertising. New sales are the fastest way to build your business, after all.
Computer manufacturers often fail to recognize the importance of what happens after the initial sale. They don't care so much what happens after you purchase the system because, after all, support ALWAYS loses money for the company no matter how much you charge for an extended warranty. Those companies don’t think outside the box.
That's stupid, guys. If you have to spend money on support costs, why not take full advantage of the opportunities presented by the interaction? Customer service should always extend past the purchase and into the after-sales experience. Technical support is the most "technical" side of customer service, but it's actually more important than even the "sales" side. It's easy enough to make a sale, but a hell of a lot harder to keep that customer coming back for your product year after year.
Instead of looking at the after-sales experience as a chance to garner word-of-mouth or to build a tradition of reliability, large manufacturers dismiss it as a necessary evil to the industry. They outsource it to reduce the impact on the profit and loss statement. Small manufacturers recognize the fact that they need that word of mouth, but aren’t sure where to draw the line between doing too much for the customer and doing too little.
When your company’s product breaks, it creates an opportunity instead of an obstacle. It’s an opportunity to open a dialogue, create a relationship, and prove that your customer can trust you. The customer is angry, rightfully so, and it's your job to make him love you enough to come back next time and buy again.
Turning a bad situation around is hard, but it is possible to do it and not only conserve money for the department, but make money. You’ve got to start with the fundamentals and work your way up, and that’s what this series of articles will address.
Keep in mind that the series is geared towards small to mid-sized companies that will probably not have a tiered support frame or multiple locations, but do everything in-house. Tiered support falls into an entire different set of rules, and is more on the level of corporate level support.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Blog Blitz--Consider This Fair Warning.
I am probably going to blog your eyes out (is that possible? We'll see....) in the next few days. I am back in the saddle and full of myself, so I'm going to be doing quite a bit of writing and such, which I will share on this site.
One of my projects is a weekly column on how to provide good tech support in the small PC manufacturer's market. It's going to be geared towards boutique companies, not the Dells and HPs of the world, since there seems to be plenty of "how-to" dialogue for big business and corporate support. There are so many advantages to being a small fish in a big pond, and one of them is being able to not only provide kick-ass support, but to make it profitable for the company instead of a budgetary arterial bleed. There's a couple of magazines thinking about picking it up and publishing it monthly. We'll see. It's a niche article, after all.
I'm also doing a piece on being a woman in the technical support industry. That's going to be a good one.
I'll share the details of the last trip I made to Seattle this past weekend, along with my e. coli on an airplane story. Yeah, I was a victim of the ground patty recall...two days too early to make a difference. It reached a climax on the flight from Cincinnati to Seattle. Good times.
One of my projects is a weekly column on how to provide good tech support in the small PC manufacturer's market. It's going to be geared towards boutique companies, not the Dells and HPs of the world, since there seems to be plenty of "how-to" dialogue for big business and corporate support. There are so many advantages to being a small fish in a big pond, and one of them is being able to not only provide kick-ass support, but to make it profitable for the company instead of a budgetary arterial bleed. There's a couple of magazines thinking about picking it up and publishing it monthly. We'll see. It's a niche article, after all.
I'm also doing a piece on being a woman in the technical support industry. That's going to be a good one.
I'll share the details of the last trip I made to Seattle this past weekend, along with my e. coli on an airplane story. Yeah, I was a victim of the ground patty recall...two days too early to make a difference. It reached a climax on the flight from Cincinnati to Seattle. Good times.
Amuses Bouche, Bitchez
The technical definition of "amuse bouche" in the culinary world is a little bite sized morsel, usually accompanied by a complimentary wine, served before a meal to excite the tastebuds. For my purposes, it is the literal translation that interests me--"mouth amuser" [for bouche = mouth; amuser = to amuse, to please]. The following tasty tidbits make me giggle.
From the webosphere, some mouth amusers for your pleasure.
From a HD wallpaper website redirect:
"please click here to access the new look page!
Happy Days!"
Happy days indeed. Where's the Fonze when you need him? Eeeeeeh. (Finger point.)
Mr. Pants, Mr. Pants, Pants, Pants
So much here, you just get the link. Enjoy.
Star Trek Inspirational Posters
Pages of glorious sci-fi goodness here, for the nerd who needs a reason to get up in the morning. I once sent the very first one on the page to my boss--the James T. Kirk one. He didn't get it. Which kind of proves the point, doesn't it??
Bad Engrish
Ok, in today's global economy, and being an enlightened individual myself, I realize that it's bad form to make fun of completely accidental muck-ups of the English language. I used to find the most bass-ackwards interpretations of warning labels regularly on OEM hardware products. It always put me in stitches and working in tech support, it was a very welcome diversion from being yelled at all day.
However, I will defend myself by saying that in today's global economy, your company should be able to find someone to proofread your stuff before it goes out. That's just my opinion.
If I wasn't confined by an NDA, boy...could I tell you a story about the text on one of my old company's monitor boxes....
Bad George
This site has been around for a while, but never ceases to pull forth a belly laugh. It's in my links, but it's worth reposting here. Page 18, first entry, is my absolute favorite. Hehe.
For the noobs, the software George is using to maul the tickets would be Remedy, and I am pretty sure I know what company he used to work for judging from the content and style of the tickets.
Aside: If you knew what company that was, you'd immediately yank all of your investments off the market. That's the same company whose New York head of operations once called me and told me that the company needed to remove all the tunnels from Manhattan because she couldn't use her cell phone in them. Mind you, I worked at the help desk. There were other calls from her involving aliens stealing data from her computers...I couldn't help her there, either, but at least that was computer related. Sort of.
This is not funny, it just proves what I f**ked up World (of Warcraft!) we live in.
I am adding this site as a sobering note to an otherwise funny entry. (Because I can't leave you on a high note. I am a pessimist by nature.)I am familiar with the syndrome, because I am a Widow of Warcraft (and previously, Ultima Online, Battlefield 1942, Lineage 2, et cetera...) even though I play myself. I stop when my butt gets numb. My husband can literally play for days.
I know why it happens--the online world has become so attractive that it's an antidote to real life, because in real life, you can't magic missle someone who pisses you off, and you sure as hell don't get rewarded for it. I PvP when I have a bad day because it works off the irritation, I craft in EQ2 as a form of online meditation. However, people's marriages fall apart because there are players that get so devoted and immersed that they don't care about real life anymore.
It's the new disease of the 21st century. Sadly, it's just going to get worse as the MMORPGs get more realistic and immersive.
Love to all,
H.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Today's quote.
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning."
--Rick Cook, The Wizardry Compiled
--Rick Cook, The Wizardry Compiled
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Things To Do While Unemployed
1) Check your credit report. I just did this today, and no wonder my score is so low...they've misreported tons of stuff. So, this will occupy me for days, filing disputes and whatnot. Busy work, indeed. It bites that your entire life is based on a score that is most likely not accurate at all, anyway.
2) Clean out your closets. I started slowly doing a little "spring cleaning" since I know we'll be moving soon (whether locally or somewhere else, the owner of this house wants to sell,and I don't want to buy). I have a lot of junk. I knew this, but I am trying to shed my packrat skin and honestly evaluate what I need and what I don't. I imagine this is what quitting smoking is like...my brain says "YES" but the rest of me is screaming...NOOOOOO!
3) Read. I am reading anything I can get my hands on, even things I normally wouldn't. I just finished "Wicked" by Gregory Maguire...that was loaned to me a while back by a friend, and I had never gotten around to reading it because it's not my usually digs. However, it was pretty damn good. Expanding one's mind, FTW.
4) Cook. I am trying all kinds of new recipes out, some successful, some not so much. I have gained 10 pounds, so maybe I should switch to the low-cal cookbook now.
5) Stay away from computers. I am trying (and failing, since I'm typing this) to stay away from the PC world, if for no other reason to gain a little perspective. It's not really working.
6) Consider the inane, the inconceivable, and propose that it could work. My family has lived in Virginia since the late 1700s. They've apparently never wanted to roam far. My thoughts on this were likewise, until I challenged myself. What would it be like to move out of state? Would I like it? After all, I have no siblings, my mother and I are not very close anymore, and I have my own family. My ancestors came over to Virginia from England on the premise that change was good...and they've been here ever since. Perhaps it's time to give my children the opportunity to have a foot on both sides of the country.
7) Learn more. Like #3 states, I've been expanding my reading list. Nosing around Barnes and Noble, I found a translation of Herodotus' Histories, so I picked it up. I also bought a copy of "The Art of War plus The Art of Management", a great read that takes Sun Tzu's writings and on the opposite page, translates it into really good management theory. I bought "100 Habits of Successful People" and am digesting that a little bit at a time. My thought is that if I am going to stay in management, I need to make sure that I am the best I can be, and that means constantly learning and adapting my methods. Flexibility = employability, in my opinion.
8) Put the Family First. I have been spending quite a bit of time with my daughters, more than I have since Catherine turned three. Lily is now six months old, and I haven't been able to be with her full time since she was about 6 weeks. (I have a son, too, but he's at that age where he's too good for old Mom's company.) What I have learned from this past month is that my eldest daughter is an amazing, complex creature full of abstract thoughts that border on brilliance at times--something I'd never thought possible in an almost-four-year-old. My youngest is a very happy child, most content when she has a familiar face to gaze at, and as full of love as the the eldest is full of volatility. I now think of them as polar opposites. Little Lily will balance Catherine's tornado of impulsiveness, I think--thank god.
9) Figure out...Who Am I? This whole thing has made me turn inward and try to puzzle out who I want to be. Do I just want money, or is it a deeper thing for me? Would I be happy being a stay at home mom, or working a desk jockey helpdesk job after being so very satisfied with my career? Am I resentful, or resigned? Am I selfish for pulling my family out of a familiar place to go haring off after my own dreams? Should I settle, as usual, or should I JUST DO IT?
My conclusion? If you don't take risks, you'll never find success or happiness. Period. I took a risk when I decided to leap into this field, and it paid off. I took a risk when I left my first marriage and went for true love. There's no guarantee that this will be a good thing, but I will never know until I give it a shot. If nothing else, I've learned that a family's level of contentment is based on every member being satisfied. If I am unhappy, everyone is. LOL.
There was going to be a #10, but my ADD has kicked in, and I am moving on to another list. I love lists. I think I need to write a book of lists...! Maybe that's #10.
2) Clean out your closets. I started slowly doing a little "spring cleaning" since I know we'll be moving soon (whether locally or somewhere else, the owner of this house wants to sell,and I don't want to buy). I have a lot of junk. I knew this, but I am trying to shed my packrat skin and honestly evaluate what I need and what I don't. I imagine this is what quitting smoking is like...my brain says "YES" but the rest of me is screaming...NOOOOOO!
3) Read. I am reading anything I can get my hands on, even things I normally wouldn't. I just finished "Wicked" by Gregory Maguire...that was loaned to me a while back by a friend, and I had never gotten around to reading it because it's not my usually digs. However, it was pretty damn good. Expanding one's mind, FTW.
4) Cook. I am trying all kinds of new recipes out, some successful, some not so much. I have gained 10 pounds, so maybe I should switch to the low-cal cookbook now.
5) Stay away from computers. I am trying (and failing, since I'm typing this) to stay away from the PC world, if for no other reason to gain a little perspective. It's not really working.
6) Consider the inane, the inconceivable, and propose that it could work. My family has lived in Virginia since the late 1700s. They've apparently never wanted to roam far. My thoughts on this were likewise, until I challenged myself. What would it be like to move out of state? Would I like it? After all, I have no siblings, my mother and I are not very close anymore, and I have my own family. My ancestors came over to Virginia from England on the premise that change was good...and they've been here ever since. Perhaps it's time to give my children the opportunity to have a foot on both sides of the country.
7) Learn more. Like #3 states, I've been expanding my reading list. Nosing around Barnes and Noble, I found a translation of Herodotus' Histories, so I picked it up. I also bought a copy of "The Art of War plus The Art of Management", a great read that takes Sun Tzu's writings and on the opposite page, translates it into really good management theory. I bought "100 Habits of Successful People" and am digesting that a little bit at a time. My thought is that if I am going to stay in management, I need to make sure that I am the best I can be, and that means constantly learning and adapting my methods. Flexibility = employability, in my opinion.
8) Put the Family First. I have been spending quite a bit of time with my daughters, more than I have since Catherine turned three. Lily is now six months old, and I haven't been able to be with her full time since she was about 6 weeks. (I have a son, too, but he's at that age where he's too good for old Mom's company.) What I have learned from this past month is that my eldest daughter is an amazing, complex creature full of abstract thoughts that border on brilliance at times--something I'd never thought possible in an almost-four-year-old. My youngest is a very happy child, most content when she has a familiar face to gaze at, and as full of love as the the eldest is full of volatility. I now think of them as polar opposites. Little Lily will balance Catherine's tornado of impulsiveness, I think--thank god.
9) Figure out...Who Am I? This whole thing has made me turn inward and try to puzzle out who I want to be. Do I just want money, or is it a deeper thing for me? Would I be happy being a stay at home mom, or working a desk jockey helpdesk job after being so very satisfied with my career? Am I resentful, or resigned? Am I selfish for pulling my family out of a familiar place to go haring off after my own dreams? Should I settle, as usual, or should I JUST DO IT?
My conclusion? If you don't take risks, you'll never find success or happiness. Period. I took a risk when I decided to leap into this field, and it paid off. I took a risk when I left my first marriage and went for true love. There's no guarantee that this will be a good thing, but I will never know until I give it a shot. If nothing else, I've learned that a family's level of contentment is based on every member being satisfied. If I am unhappy, everyone is. LOL.
There was going to be a #10, but my ADD has kicked in, and I am moving on to another list. I love lists. I think I need to write a book of lists...! Maybe that's #10.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Man, I wish I was profound or something.
I find that there's little going on in my life to blog about here lately. I wish I had something interesting or profound to comment on, but there you are. I'll do my best.
Job News
I went to Cleveland to interview, and found it to be productive. The company is very family oriented, which is important, and everyone was very nice. I enjoyed my time spent there--it was not painfully uncomfortable like one would expect a fly-in interview to be. I came away with a very good idea of what they wanted and where they would like for me to take them professionally. They are going to submit a firm offer to me, with job description, here in the next week or so.
I haven't made a decision yet. I am not going to rule out other positions at this time, simply because that's professional suicide, but there's still at least one more concrete offer. Relocating anywhere is a lot to consider, and there are a lot of factors involved.
As a result, I will most likely be travelling to Seattle in the near future to interview with another prospect. I'm looking forward to the trip because the company I am interviewing with was one of my very first choices. They do very, very good work--innovative and solid--and they are headed by someone who gives careful thought to expansion. They're small, they don't particularly care to grow gigantic, and that really, really appeals to me. The position they're offering is more in line with what I've been doing--technical support--and I can get back to working with the customers again.
My Thoughts on the 'Boutique' Computer Manufacturing Industry
I am tired of rapid growth in the custom manufacturing portion of the computing industry. I hate the mentality that comes with the acquisition of more, more, more. The people that care about the company get shoved aside in the interest of making more money, and it sucks. In order to be a stand-out in the field, you've got to give the perfect experience to the customer from start to finish, and when that stops in favor of cutting corners to generate sales, you're no better than Dell or HP.
When you found a company based on customer support, you have to work hard at maintaining a balance between support resources and sales. If your sales skyrocket, you can't support your customers with the same quality that a smaller company could because the people you bring in to do support don't have the advantage of one-on-one training or time to acclimate . Alienware is a prime example of customer support failure. What a wonderful concept they had early on...and how awful it is to see the entire concept sucked straight in to the corporate vacuum. It's sad.
Let's hope that the few good manufacturers out there--Maingear, Puget, Falcon Northwest--don't sell out and become like the Alienwares and Voodoos of the custom PC world. There's a lot to be said for craftsmanship and niche markets.
Vehicular Vanslaughter
The minivan is gone, thank god. In the interest of cutting costs, I decided it would be cheaper to give it up.
Let me make this clear--I HATED the minivan. The procurement of said minivan was done in desperation during a very bad time where I was in a car accident, lost a close friend unexpectedly AND found out I was pregnant (all in a three day period). In other words, if I had been thinking clearly at all, I would have run screaming from that purchase. So, when it came down to it, it was a $400/month expense I was ready and willing to give up.
No more car payments. I am going to use a little of my relocation package money to buy a car outright. Even if I have to replace the damn motor in one, it would be better spent on something I own free and clear.
The Family
My kids are driving me crazy. Well, the 3 year old in particular. She's INSANE. She's a toddler, so that's actually understood to be normal, but good lord...what a handful she's become since I took her out of daycare. I suspect that it's the lack of things to do that's got her dander up--Mom is not nearly as much fun as 3 other kids, I know this. If I had transportation right now, I'm sure that I could take her to the park or something, but with our emphasis on conserving cash, it's not happening.
I am not housewife material, guys. I am more ambitious than a lot of women and very easily bored by everything that's not fluid or multi-faceted. It's my nature to require constant mental stimulation. There is no "quiet" time for my brain...it's constantly working.
Here I sit. This would be better if I were able to get those last five classes of my degree done during this time, but I'm out of loan monies and need to pay for them out pocket.
The most I have going on right now is reading and preschooling programming from 7am-6pm. It's killing me. My brain is atrophying inside of my skull.
Job News
I went to Cleveland to interview, and found it to be productive. The company is very family oriented, which is important, and everyone was very nice. I enjoyed my time spent there--it was not painfully uncomfortable like one would expect a fly-in interview to be. I came away with a very good idea of what they wanted and where they would like for me to take them professionally. They are going to submit a firm offer to me, with job description, here in the next week or so.
I haven't made a decision yet. I am not going to rule out other positions at this time, simply because that's professional suicide, but there's still at least one more concrete offer. Relocating anywhere is a lot to consider, and there are a lot of factors involved.
As a result, I will most likely be travelling to Seattle in the near future to interview with another prospect. I'm looking forward to the trip because the company I am interviewing with was one of my very first choices. They do very, very good work--innovative and solid--and they are headed by someone who gives careful thought to expansion. They're small, they don't particularly care to grow gigantic, and that really, really appeals to me. The position they're offering is more in line with what I've been doing--technical support--and I can get back to working with the customers again.
My Thoughts on the 'Boutique' Computer Manufacturing Industry
I am tired of rapid growth in the custom manufacturing portion of the computing industry. I hate the mentality that comes with the acquisition of more, more, more. The people that care about the company get shoved aside in the interest of making more money, and it sucks. In order to be a stand-out in the field, you've got to give the perfect experience to the customer from start to finish, and when that stops in favor of cutting corners to generate sales, you're no better than Dell or HP.
When you found a company based on customer support, you have to work hard at maintaining a balance between support resources and sales. If your sales skyrocket, you can't support your customers with the same quality that a smaller company could because the people you bring in to do support don't have the advantage of one-on-one training or time to acclimate . Alienware is a prime example of customer support failure. What a wonderful concept they had early on...and how awful it is to see the entire concept sucked straight in to the corporate vacuum. It's sad.
Let's hope that the few good manufacturers out there--Maingear, Puget, Falcon Northwest--don't sell out and become like the Alienwares and Voodoos of the custom PC world. There's a lot to be said for craftsmanship and niche markets.
Vehicular Vanslaughter
The minivan is gone, thank god. In the interest of cutting costs, I decided it would be cheaper to give it up.
Let me make this clear--I HATED the minivan. The procurement of said minivan was done in desperation during a very bad time where I was in a car accident, lost a close friend unexpectedly AND found out I was pregnant (all in a three day period). In other words, if I had been thinking clearly at all, I would have run screaming from that purchase. So, when it came down to it, it was a $400/month expense I was ready and willing to give up.
No more car payments. I am going to use a little of my relocation package money to buy a car outright. Even if I have to replace the damn motor in one, it would be better spent on something I own free and clear.
The Family
My kids are driving me crazy. Well, the 3 year old in particular. She's INSANE. She's a toddler, so that's actually understood to be normal, but good lord...what a handful she's become since I took her out of daycare. I suspect that it's the lack of things to do that's got her dander up--Mom is not nearly as much fun as 3 other kids, I know this. If I had transportation right now, I'm sure that I could take her to the park or something, but with our emphasis on conserving cash, it's not happening.
I am not housewife material, guys. I am more ambitious than a lot of women and very easily bored by everything that's not fluid or multi-faceted. It's my nature to require constant mental stimulation. There is no "quiet" time for my brain...it's constantly working.
Here I sit. This would be better if I were able to get those last five classes of my degree done during this time, but I'm out of loan monies and need to pay for them out pocket.
The most I have going on right now is reading and preschooling programming from 7am-6pm. It's killing me. My brain is atrophying inside of my skull.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Damn it, I don't WANT to be a cleric!
While reading another person's blog--and it was random, so I can't remember who she was or where I read it--I came across the one great truth of MMORPGs everywhere.
The RL guys think that RL girls should always be a support class. In fact, if you aren't a support class and you tell guys that you're a girl...well, see the sample discussion below.
Persephona: Yeah, I'm really a girl. Breasts and all. For real.
Barbarius: Sure, dude.
Barbarius: ...
Persephona: What are you, stupid??
Barbarius: Everyone knows that chicks don't play melee.
Persephona:
They don't ever believe me until I get on teamspeak, and then they're like "your husband is so lucky". Whatever. Go die now, please...thank you.
I don't WANT to be a support class--being a cleric, druid, priest, etc does nothing for me. Boooring. I want to kill stuff, not heal, not buff. My main character in EQ2 is a paladin. In WoW I’m a hunter (not technically a support class, damn you). In LOTR Online, I play a champion, and in Lineage 2, my main is a sorceress (also known as an aggro magnet).
Wow. I just realized that I kind of just told on myself. Yes, I have a problem…I am a little bit of an MMORPG junkie. But damn it, I don’t play wussy ass clerics and healers when I play. I must maul and maim.
While we’re on the subject—my blog, hahaha, I can designate the subject as I see fit—I am enjoying my l33t status while job hunting. Coming from a boutique manufacturer, I am apparently a rare, hot commodity. If I were a weapon, I would be epic and purple!
I am flying out to Cleveland this Friday (for the day) to meet and greet a potential employer, and the week after, I will be heading to Seattle for more of the same. I have set next Friday as my deadline to make a decision on this most important issue, mostly because relocating is a bitch and I need to gitrdun before school starts. Whomever I go with, it’s going to be based on three factors: base salary, relocation assistance, and company vision. Company vision is not an issue—one wants to grow, the other wants to stay small, either way, that’s fine. Salary, I’m flexible on…so we’ll see who gives me a decent amount to pay for my relocation. That’s not negotiable for me. It costs a fortune to move to another state, and I can’t back down on that one factor.
Anyway, the internet connection is flakey, and I’m feeling like hell…some kind of fluish coldish crap that has been dragging on for weeks now. The husband stayed home, a rarity, because he was up all night coughing right along with me. Good times.
The RL guys think that RL girls should always be a support class. In fact, if you aren't a support class and you tell guys that you're a girl...well, see the sample discussion below.
Persephona: Yeah, I'm really a girl. Breasts and all. For real.
Barbarius: Sure, dude.
Barbarius: ...
Persephona: What are you, stupid??
Barbarius: Everyone knows that chicks don't play melee.
Persephona:
They don't ever believe me until I get on teamspeak, and then they're like "your husband is so lucky". Whatever. Go die now, please...thank you.
I don't WANT to be a support class--being a cleric, druid, priest, etc does nothing for me. Boooring. I want to kill stuff, not heal, not buff. My main character in EQ2 is a paladin. In WoW I’m a hunter (not technically a support class, damn you). In LOTR Online, I play a champion, and in Lineage 2, my main is a sorceress (also known as an aggro magnet).
Wow. I just realized that I kind of just told on myself. Yes, I have a problem…I am a little bit of an MMORPG junkie. But damn it, I don’t play wussy ass clerics and healers when I play. I must maul and maim.
While we’re on the subject—my blog, hahaha, I can designate the subject as I see fit—I am enjoying my l33t status while job hunting. Coming from a boutique manufacturer, I am apparently a rare, hot commodity. If I were a weapon, I would be epic and purple!
I am flying out to Cleveland this Friday (for the day) to meet and greet a potential employer, and the week after, I will be heading to Seattle for more of the same. I have set next Friday as my deadline to make a decision on this most important issue, mostly because relocating is a bitch and I need to gitrdun before school starts. Whomever I go with, it’s going to be based on three factors: base salary, relocation assistance, and company vision. Company vision is not an issue—one wants to grow, the other wants to stay small, either way, that’s fine. Salary, I’m flexible on…so we’ll see who gives me a decent amount to pay for my relocation. That’s not negotiable for me. It costs a fortune to move to another state, and I can’t back down on that one factor.
Anyway, the internet connection is flakey, and I’m feeling like hell…some kind of fluish coldish crap that has been dragging on for weeks now. The husband stayed home, a rarity, because he was up all night coughing right along with me. Good times.
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