Well here it is, at long last, and on a personal website: the page about me. Gee, who could have seen this one coming? *Chuckles* Okay, bad joke. Believe me, I've got better. They're just out getting dry-cleaned at the moment - but not because they're dirty. ;-)
Having said all of that, I'm going to do my best to present more of who I am here. I've always believed in not hiding behind smoke on the Internet, and so I try to put as much of myself into what I say as I can. *Smiling with gentle amusement.* It's had both good and bad points, but overall I feel much better for following this policy.
To start I was born and raised in south-west Saskatchewan, Canada. As of August 24th, 2002 I moved up to Edmonton, Albera. Currently living with one of my aunts - the older sister has moved down to Calgary as of 26/10/2005...oh, and did I mention three Doberman Pinchers? ~_^
I'm still in Edmonton, although that's definitely a temporary thing now. Within the next few months the plans are to move down to Ohio. The reasons are pretty simple for this rather large location change: I've found someone I love more deeply than any other, and wish to be with her. For those who read that and roll their eyes, I feel nothing but a hope that you might find such happiness in your own life soon.
For further details I've decided to pop the full trip details into it's own section. I'll likely be adding a few of the hundreds of pictures I took during the trip later on. Our Journey so far.
The latest update job wise is the aforementioned move from Convergys to Dell. I started training there on November 14th, 2005. Originally I didn't realize which of their projects I was to support, as I figured it would be similar to the original one I had at Convergys of supporting both computer hardware and software. Instead, I found out I was training for their software-only support now called Dell on Call. It was a bit of a shock as I didn't realize all the major OEMs in the US have switched to splitting hardware and software support like that. The support for Canada's still doing both, so I might swap over to that as one of my future options since they're in the same building. ;)
One of the first things I noticed about Dell compared to Convergys is the simple fact they ~care~ about their employees' happiness. They've got a very enthusiastic group of workers that hold all kinds of events to raise their coporate spirit. They don't have many levels of management, for another thing. I could walk into the Regional Manager's office if I wanted to discuss a few things...as long as I had a good reason for it, that is. ;) The rest of the managers are similarly open to input and concerns. Plus the fact we've got pretty new computers to work on is also a ~huge~ bonus compared to Convergys. Two of the projects there had similar computers, but the HSI project was still on NT 4.0 and running 600MHz pcs for pity's sake! Then there's the benefits package, which you can tailor a bit more to your individual needs. They've got dental, medical, AD&D, and life insurance coverage all in one bundle with a few other things you can add in if need be. :)
Needless to say I'm happy to be able to fix computer problems again. The three weeks of training went pretty well in my opinion, and this is going to be my forth week on the floor coming up in a supervised 'newbie' kind of group. From there I'll be on the floor fully and going hard core. The call center in Edmonton only opened in October of last year, but will be moving to their new building sometime late next summer. Can't wait, though I do hope to be off the phones by then. Not sure if I'm going for a supervisor role, trainer, or manager slot yet but the possibilities are endless. :)
Job Update: Well I've survived being at Dell for over two years, almost two and a half now. Some of my opinions have changed a bit since I first started there. I still quite enjoy helping people fix their computer problems. However, the question of Dell's concern for the employees has returned with a vengeance. As most that keep up on such things already know, Dell's had a rough bit of time the last couple years financially. Early last year there was an internal commitment to lower the company's workforce by 10%. I will say they went about it very carefully. Several high-level meetings were done over the next several months about who was staying and going. The entire upper management's changed with several layers having been cut out completely. What it meant for the call center in Edmonton was several things: firstly, there was a fair number of agents laid off. They tried to keep it to those with the lowest performance or had been recognized for violating several different IT policies. One example I know of for the latter was an agent that had somehow managed to bypass the Internet lock-downs to play World of Warcraft while at work. Talk about just begging to be fired. On the plus side, the layoffs/firings/whatever lasted only three days. On the minus side, it was fairly nerve-wracking as a lot of us were wondering when the HR person would show up at our cubicle to ask us into one of the rooms for the "we're letting you go" speech. Heck, my manager didn't know he was safe until day two.
Next in the process came the reorganizing of our second-tier agents on the floor, the trainers having been already chopped in half, and here another 50% were given the choice of going back to being on the phones or given a severance package. I lost several friends during this part of the process. I still miss them. There were some really good people that knew what they were doing far better than those that remained...fortunately, for the most part those still left behind are very good overall. There's only one exception I can think of. Ah well. Nothing's perfect.
Needless to say, that caused a rather big pall to settle over the call center as pretty much everyone lost at least one friend to the layoffs. We're still recovering from it. The shuttle that had been running from downtown to the call center in Edmonton's Research Park has also been closed down since then. Surprise, surprise, the reason being that not enough people rode on it now. After all, that wouldn't be a natural consequence of firing so many people, now would it? Sorry, I'm still a little bitter over such an idiotically obvious thing. Turns out that the city transit system's not nearly as bad for getting down there as I'd feared. My team has the distinction of being the only one in our department not to lose a single agent during the chaos of the firings. Given my level of self-confidence wasn't the highest ever - still working on it - I was immensely relieved to find out I'd kept my job. Heck, I had a personal pizza party in celebration when I found out. Well, we would have lost one agent for sure, but he'd quit a few short weeks before the purges began. Him I don't miss as an agent, although he was a pretty decent guy.
Since then, I did go to the annual Christmas party. Wasn't quite what I expected, and I'm still feeling a bit silly as I got talked by a friend into a turn on the dance floor during a salsa. I've had some compliments here and there for my slow dancing those few times I've done it. Modern dancing? I feel like a two-footed ox at best. I'm sure that'll improve with experience. At the least I've put forward the idea of ballroom dancing to the one I love as a hobby for Uus away from the kids once a week. The first push was defeated, but I'm not about to take defeat laying down. I think it would be a wonderful way to exercise plus have great fun together.
*Considering.* Well what else has changed? Well I fell into a bit of a funk starting back in December of last year. Perhaps it started before that, but that month's where things really started going downhill in many ways. I would stay up far later than I should, and thus be fairly tired while at work. I didn't give a rat's ass about my stats other than making the bare minimum. In the last couple weeks, this has again changed. It's been a lot easier than I'd feared it would be. Simply a matter of reading a very interesting book called "Happiness Now" by Robert Holden, PH.D. While I've still some way to go integrating many of the thoughts of it into my life, I feel renewed in continuing the journey of life. About bloody time. ;)
I started training on August 26th, 2002 at Convergys, Edmonton: Millbourne Market Mall, and hit the floor after three weeks of it. I answered calls for three of the major clients that were in the centre while I was there. Overall most of the experience was positive for the most part as far as my fellow agents were concerned. Their policies and other aspects were another matter, however - though I freely admit to messing up many times in the beginning - but I've also learned a lot plus helped out many people. *Grinning.* Sure there are those customers I would have loved to press the release button on, but most I tried my best to help if at all possible...though I ~hate~ giving out bad news it unfortunately comes with the territory.
In July of 2003 I was retrained for a different project due to the old one having pulled out to move to India along with a couple sub-contracts for the same company. The new project had me supporting broadband connections in the US, while the first one had me working with laptops. To be honest, I ~miss~ the old project now a fair bit as the tools used in the new one were a bit worse. I still felt that way up until the Microsoft XP project came in eight months or so after I was pushed over to the Internet support. I volunteered for one of the frontline Microsoft positions and got it. It was ~heaven~ as I got a lot less tools to work with, to ~help~ customers again with their computer problems rather than foisting them off to their OEMs or whatever. Not to mention the fact I went from an expected 10 minute average handle time on the HSI project to 45mins. and a philosphy of "customer first". Unfortunately, that position vanished almost a year later due to not getting enough call volume at any of the XP centers. Thus the centre I worked for willingly gave up the project as they still had the HSI plus a couple other ones they could move people to. Some of the other call centres weren't so lucky. Thus I ended up once again at the mercy of the Internet project and their horrible hardware techs. This time I stayed there about ten months before moving to the new job at Dell.
I worked at the local McDonald's in Swift Current for almost 2 years, and in July of 2000 I started taking a PC Support Specialist year long course at the local branch of the Academy of Learning.
I quit the job at McDonald's around February 26th of 2001 to concentrate on the shooling. Which really helped. Graduated with Honours, as a matter of fact, and a 91.777% average.
I took first year university classes from the local regional college in '96-'97, and tried for the second year at the University of Regina. It didn't work out for a few reasons, and to put it mildly I was rather down for a few months after being officially given notice I was out for 6 months before having to reapply again. So far I haven't done the latter as I at the time I didn't know what I wanted. Still not sure, to be honest, but computers will be a part of it so the so the PC Support Specialist course seemed a good start.
After getting home from university, I was introduced even deeper to the Internet as I didn't have that much else to do but read and do some farm work. So I popped into a place a friend showed me up in university - The Park, specifically the Roleplaying Room. I settled in there a bit, but only really talked outside of character with a few people at first due to being pretty shy. Still am a bit, but a lot less these days than then. After a few months there I found myself getting seriously bitten by a creativity bug as I hadn't really let it loose in years, at least not that much. From 3 characters it blossomed to 6 in three months, and three months after that it was 11.
You can see how many I have now in the Park Characters section. It's grown a bit more since then. Also due to the RP Room's influence I took up writing again - somewhat obvious but I meant besides in there - and have added a bit of my work so far to this site in the Stories Archive.
I've made some wonderful friends since those first days in the Park, the very first one that I put on ICQ is my friend Pam (AKA: KidaCat, Sukida). Ever since the list has grown a bit here and there, but I still have a small one compared to many I know. I like it that way. I can barely handle it at times as it is. ^_^ I've had five Internet relationships, working on number six right now...hopefully this is the one and no more will be needed.
In June of 2002 my second g/f and I started exploring things a bit more in the terms of the HC and what is practiced within it's walls - though I only visited four times or so when we broke up that September. Since we remained friends and she suggested perhaps I needed to work off a bit of stored up energy by finding someone in there to play with. Within a short while I was talking with my next love, much as I didn't expect it.
I'll forego explaining the rest of the relationships for now, and simply deal with the fact that since my last update I've met two of the eight women I've loved in reality. We had wonderful times. Hopefully the next meeting with my current love will be a long-term and/or permanent one. I've been outside of the serious relationship game since 08/2005 and only recently started up in it again.
*Smiling gently* I'm not one to "blow my own horn" so to speak, so I'll just say that I tend to be a quiet soul. Friends, family, and loved ones are ~very~ important to me and come first. Be they here in rt or on the Internet. I am here for them as much as I can be, and if they are down I'll do my best to change that. I also enjoy being silly, friendly, and talking with new people along with old friends.
I am somewhat shy, but it's far better now than it used to be. I tend to think a lot about all kinds of things from philosophy, introspection, and life to the everyday things.
Also I have a major curiousity bug that can be very hard to live with sometimes, but overall it is something that has added to my life. Mind you when I can't satisfy that itch it drives me nuts sometimes for days. ~_^
I've been called "sweet", "kind", "caring", "tender", "goofy", a "twerp", a "brat", "a great friend", and several more. Much as I appreciate it, I don't think it's swelled the ego too much. *Chuckles* Though some may argue against it, but I doubt it.
I love to look at the stars, and watch lightning arc across a night sky. *Grins* As long as it's not necessarily on my doorstep. Rping is a big enjoyment, and a good book is just as enjoyable. For Roleplaying I've played Rifts, Star Wars, Shadowrun (2nd edition), and AD&D (1st & 2nd edition). I've also played Yu-Gi-Oh!, Magic: The Gathering, Star Trek: TNG, Shadowrun, Star Wars, Battletech, Wyvern, Spellfire, and Predator collectable card games. I'm also into Starfleet Battles, Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy and Babylon 5 Wars for miniature battle games.
I enjoy most kinds of video games with my favourites being: Xenogears, Metal Gear Solid, DOA2 & 3, Baldur's Gate 1&2, Diablo 1 & 2, Command and Conquer (Original, Red Alert, Red Alert 2), Starcraft, Warcraft 2 & 3, Planescape: Torment, Mechwarrior (original, Merceneries), Master of Orion 2, etc. I also now own an XBox with the games I've enjoyed being Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic I & II, Voodoo Vance, Mechwarrior Assault (both), Halo 1 & 2 (like that's a big surprise given it's one of the best FPS' ever), Ninja Gaiden, Gotham Racing 1 & 2, Fable, Rainbow Six 3, and Soul Caliber 2 so far. Then there's the book reading: SF and Fantasy are my favourites. Same goes for movies and TV.
I'm also a broad music lover with only hard Heavy Metal and rap in the dislike area, and I've no real idea yet on opera. Favourite bands/music types: anime, Eiffel 65, Dido, Loreena McKennitt, Phil Collins, Prozzak, Sting, Medieval Babes, Dead Can Dance, Venessa Mae, Janet Jackson, Delerium, Enya, Zingaia and Dream to name a few.
I've started a page on some of the thoughts I've had over the years. Some of my thoughts
Just for fun, I've done a few tests here and there for various stuff on the 'net. Some of the results are pretty nifty stuff. Test results I hope you enjoy them. ~_^
Here's a couple more recent pictures of me, though I do plan a little tweaking of them in the future. For now it's enough to put them up for people to see. Keep in mind that my younger brother took them, and he's not that experienced in taking pictures. Neither am I, really. ^_^
Main Page EhCon 2000 A Bit about Me The Story Archives My Drawing Progression The Character List Favourite Sayings/Quotes Links
Questions, Comments, etc. - all will be enjoyed and appreciated, send to: phantasm_psi@yahoo.com.
