Hi!

While going over some posts in this here blog, I noticed I had written a lot about things I like, but not really much about things I dislike. So, I tried to put together a list of:

Pet Peeves!

• When people unecessarily use scissors to open things such as: bags from snacks (such as crisps, cookies, chocolate, candies, chewing gum, cupcakes, muffins), office supplies (such as post-it notes, staples), and other similarly packaged articles. What’s the point? The enclosure is going in the rubbish bin anyway.
• When a coworker is aware of someone else taking his/her lunch break at a certain time, and messing up the schedule by taking his/her own lunch at the same time, thereby leaving no one in the office to answer the phone.
• People complaining about something which does not affect them. For example: A warehouse employee constantly complains about the way the fans make so much noise in the office. He’s not in the office all day. His complaint, therefore, is meaningless. He continues, however, to complain. Gr.
• Customers assuming that an “Estimate” is an actual commitment. Such as: An estimated bid completion time. For example: “What time do you think you’ll have the quote done?” “Well, depending on the project, I think a safe estimate is around tomorrow afternoon.” The customer then calls my boss at 2pm, saying that I “promised” to have the bid done by noon, and that he didn’t receive anything. Gr.
• When coworkers deliberately manipulate information found on existing paperwork to shift the blame on some mistake onto another person. GR.

And all of a sudden this turns into an entry reflecting my dislike for my current employment. Though, I’m happy to say that, now that my permanent residency has been approved, I have more…. freedom! I can quit, if I like, and look for a job elsewhere. That in itself relieves a lot more stress. Though, the way things are right now, I think I’ll wait another…. I dunno, six months, till I start looking for a job. Maybe even wait till I decide to move out or if my parents decide on buying a house (which means moving house). We shall see.

Moar pet peeves!

• Lip-smacking. Especially during eating. It must be one of the more popular pet peeves around, I would think. But I find it really annoying.
• Loud groans and moans of pleasure during a meal. An “Mmm!” is okay, but “MMMMm OOHH WOOOW MMMMMM *GROOOOOAN* SOO GOOD MMMMM” is just ridiculous >:|
• Being reached over during dinner. As in, someone wants, say, the table salt, and instead of asking for it to be passed, the person reaches over my plate of food and over me, to get to the salt. Maybe the person can say he didn’t want to bother me during my meal, but I’d much rather be asked to pass the damn salt, than have my personal space invaded.

I’m tired of being so grumpy now, that’s all for today ^.^

Important Numbers:

• 7 days
• 23 days
• 68 days
• 74 days.

Echo Perez

September 3, 2008 – November 9, 2008

Wanna know something that really annoys me? My coworker. She thinks that because she is pregnant, she can hold her hand over her tummy all the FUCKING time and work slower than usual.

As it is, she takes her time with *everything* and if anyone gives her a deadline, she makes the most sour face in the world.

Now, however, she walks slowly, talks slowly, fucking BREATHES slowly, I can only imagine how long it takes her to take a shit.

It is driving me INSANE. She is constantly holding her hand over her stomach, typing one handed (NO YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO LAUGH AT THAT) and doing and saying the most STUPID things in the history of the world, such as:

• “I can’t make a copy of those checks cause I can’t be around the scanner.”
• “I can’t go to the supply room cause there are spools of wire on the ground, and I may trip”
• “I need a 10 minute break, it is too warm in the office.”
• “I can’t go to the counter because Rolando has a flu. Tell the customer to come here.”
• “Can you fax this for me please, I can’t go near the fax machine.

And so many other completely… I don’t know what to call it. Pointless? Stupid? Myth-based? I don’t know. Or maybe I’m just a bitch, and her baby really will come out with three arms and 4 noses if she’s around the fax machine or copier. It always sucks to get sick while pregnant, and it is dagerous, but there are SO MANY ways one can avoid being sick. She has to take vitamins anyway. It’s not like she’s gonna run around in a plastic bubble. And it’s been proven that avoiding all the grime and everyday bacteria may actually end up being bad for the baby, since it doesn’t get the opportunity to build up any antibodies it may need after bieng born.

*Sigh.*

Why do some people find it so difficult to get OVER being pregnant? Sure it’s an amazing event, and yes, one can take it as a sign of being blessed by whatever deity, and YES ITS EXCITING, I KNOW!!! GET OVER IT!!!!

*headdesk*

I have discovered something new and completely revolutionary about my surroundings. I will never ever see myself or anyone else the same. I know this may sound somewhat shallow, and probably more naive than a lot of things a lot of people discover nowadays, but, this is the first time I ever thought of this (despite how conceited it may sound):

People are getting bored with me.

I’ve discovered that I am really repetitive. There’s nothing ever new with me. There’s, what, my birds… and then my weight troubles, and my school troubles, and work troubles, and family troubles, and relationship troubles, and nothing ever new. Nothing ever seems to fix itself (I know things don’t have a habbit of doing so anyway) despite my complaints.

I’ve always told people that in order for something to happen, one can’t just wish it to happen. One has to do something about it, to push the event forward.

But lately, I have really been hiding from everything. I’m behind on my coursework (Again, for the third time this grading period), I’ve dropped my exercise regiment (for the 5th time this year). All that is depressing me, but I can’t seem to get myself to do anything about it. I’m really annoyed with myself, but still, I do nothing about it.

I don’t think I lack motivation… I want to get my coursework done, and I don’t think I lack the ability, I’ve been in shape and on time with my studies before.

I keep thinking and thinking, what could it possibly be that is making me really *not care* about anything?

I don’t think it’s depression, I’m pretty cheerful, all the time. It’s almost by default that I laugh, and make jokes and all that. It’s just…. inherently part of my character to not be down despite things that happen…. I guess it doesn’t get me down cause I’m accustomed to all these events, which is my point.

Anything that ever happens to me has happened before. There is nothing new. I have been wondering why certain people seem to not have an interest in me anymore, and that’s the only reasonable explanation: They have seem how repetitive a person I am, and have become bored with what they see.

There is nothing new, for me. There is nothing worth gawking at, or saying “WOW!”.

I’m just… boring, I guess.

I’m really sorry for the two posts in a row, but this I just had to share!

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/ci10355397.php

2.5 Magnitude earthquake! Only 4.5 miles from where I work!

My coworker Chris and I felt it! My table shook, and the window close to us started rattling. Chris and I stare at it, then look at each other with a “Wtf was that.” face, then we got back to work.

This morning I hear about the earthquake, and said, well that was it!!! :O

The big one’s a comin’!!! D:

This morning my mom bangs on the shower saying “Azarel! Dad says hurry up, cause the 405 Freeway is closed!”

I go “Oh no…”

Yesterday as we were on our way home on the 405 freeway, there was a car stopped on the side of the road, whose front hood was open. There were flames coming out of the front! Of course, the hillside there is completely yellow with dry grass and shrub thanks to the drought. My dad said “I guarantee you tomorrow morning this entire freeway will be closed. The whole hillside is going to be on fire.”

I said “Oh man, I hope not!”

The top image** is our regular commute to and from work (from/to home).

The bottom picture is the commute we had to make this morning.

As you can see, quite a long way around. The 405-Fwy is one of the most transited freeways in all of California. It more or less feeds the entire Southern California Inland Empire. There are lots of businesses and residences in its path, and for it to be shut down for 5 hours, on a Thursday morning is *very* hectic.

Of course, it’s not like there arent’ any alternate routes. Ours was quite easy, but we had to leave 10 minutes earlier than we usually do (5:20am). 10 minutes minutes in the morning is the difference between getting to work on time, or *very* late. California roads are so overpopulated, one never knows what’s gonna happen. When people on the roads are taken out of their comfort spot, it all turns to hell…..

But we got to work on time this morning (just barely), so all ways good… Even if I did forget to pack some breakfast… The one day I don’t pack breakfast is the one day I turn out to be more hungry than usual. I think maybe it has something to do with the stress of having to rush this morning.

Oh well, I can only hope the rest of the day goes smoothly ^.^

**maps generated from Google Maps.

Okay, so I have an order that has had complications (nothing new). It’s not a huge order, just a couple thousand dollars, (which isn’t much, considering there’s hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of orders coming in on any given day), and a little accessory accidentally gets left out of the shipment. No problem, I let the factory know.

The complication starts when the girl over at the factory who takes care of our orders sits on it and forgets to get it ordered. Weeks pass by, and I follow up, she doesn’t remember, and we start over. No problem, the customer has time.

Another couple weeks pass by, and the same thing happens. I get my boss involved. I *always* regret involving my boss. He has no manners, who has no foresight, he has no idea how to treat people, he doesn’t read, he’s technologically retarded, and it’s always a mess when he gets involved. BUT, this girl’s not answering me and I need to get a supervisor involved.

I don’t feel like dealing directly with the girl’s supervisor (she does favours for me) so I make it look like my boss is the bitchy one, and, lo and behold, things get done.

The girl lets us know when the order will be produced (08/27), and tells us that she will let us known when the order will ship. All is A-Okay:

I am showing a current production date of 8/27 and we have requested to ship this UPS RED at our expense.  We apologize for the delays and I will keep my eye on this to see if to make sure we are on track.

Thank you and again I apologize for the delay.

I follow up today, I just want to make sure that the order’s set, and ready to shop (tomorrow), and she lets me know that it will, it’s set to UPS Red (as in next-day air), and that we won’t have to pay for the shipping.

I celebrate!

Then… my boss sends her this……

You emailed to us b4 that the item is producing 8-27-08 so why do not you ship same day or

following day.  This is late a it’s and customer is going to have problems already.  Please

do call you can to ship latest 8-28-08 UPS red at no shipping cost to us as you mentioned b4.

AAARRRGHHHH. He doesn’t understand!!!! He doesn’t, he doesn’t!!! Everything that he says there, the girl said already, and he is BUTCHERING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE!!!!

Now. If this was every once in a while, I would just ignore it, and not worry, and not stress. But this happens *every day, all day*.

It’s so… disappointing…. and embarrassing (not even sure why I’m sharing this), and just all around unpleasant >:|

]]> http://edrei.wordpress.com/2008/08/26/stupid-boss-excerpt-of-the-day/feed/ 1 edrei http://edrei.wordpress.com/2008/06/04/last-night/ http://edrei.wordpress.com/2008/06/04/last-night/#comments Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:01:02 +0000 edrei http://edrei.wordpress.com/?p=94 ]]>

Last night I had a really strange headache. It would come in go in spurts, like little shocks. This may seem maybe melodramatic, but every time I would feel the pain I would think of something scary or weird, like ghosts or.. a popular one was people in cars. It was strange. I suppose it was the prelude to my dream.

I was watching as a couple and their kids (a little boy and a little girl) drove around Los Angeles in their olive coloured SUV. I could tell they weren’t from around L.A., they had a slight accent I couldn’t place.

After some time, they drove into the darker parts of the city: the places where wealthy folks honestly shouldn’t hang out, for their own good. They were obviously lost, and the father seemed to be losing his patience. (It was strange, I knew they were talking, and I knew what they were saying, but I couldn’t hear them…) The children were beginning to get somewhat afraid, as they were going in circles, passing the same trash piles, the same derelict apartments, the same trashy baseball courts.

Suddenly, the mom takes off a necklace with a heavy Jade pendant. (I was like, lolwut, that’s mine! I have a necklace just like that.) And she told the dad how, if you let the jade pendant swing around and around, whatever direction it pulls the most us the direction where evil things lay, and so you should go the opposite way. She said that, if they just consult the necklace until daylight, when they can see better, they’ll be able to stay out of harm’s way.

The dad figured it would be good enough until daybreak, so they drove around, consulting the necklace every once in a while. It seemed to be working, because they didn’t come across anyone. No cars, no people, nothing. It almost seemed as if the slums of L.A. were deserted.

They could see the big skyscrapers in the distance. But it almost seemed as if something was holding them there, not letting them get towards the city lights.

At some point, the little kids (as most little kids do) needed to use a restroom. They drove around a bit, until they saw a gas-station, where they stopped. The mom walked into the convenience store, while the kids and dad went off to the restroom.

Once they reached the restroom, they opened the door, and stepped inside. At first, it was a regular dingy gas-station restroom, with graffiti on the wall written by some unknown hand with some unknown (but rather suspicious) material. It smelled bad, of course.

As they stepped closer to the stalls, however, the ceiling and walls began to melt away, little by little. It was almost as if the whole place was made of wax, and someone had lit a match to the top. As the walls melted, something else began to form, and, after some time, it seemed that they were standing in the middle of a neighborhood. It very strongly contrasted where they previously were. The houses were all nice, and the lawns were all well kept. They were the kinds of lawns that sort of rise up in a little hill, until the house is reached. The strange thing is, the air felt the same. It was still dark, and dingy. (It’s so hard to explain… The way I saw things in this dream was sort of like looking through a car’s tinted window.)

The children began to cry, and the father seemed very afraid, but he took a hold of each child’s hand, and led them forward. He didn’t know what was going on, but it wouldn’t do any good to just stand there. He walked and walked past every house, until there was one place that seemed to have some activity inside. (I’m going to be brutally honest, both with you, and myself: I think it was  Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall, the place of worship for Jehovah’s Witnesses.)

The three walked inside and the place was PACKED. There were even people out in the receiving hall, standing so they could listen to the service. Then it was time to sing the hymns and everyone was singing. For whatever reason, the dad and kids started singing too. I could tell that, the longer they stood there singing, the better they felt.

Then I went off to look for the mom. I found her still at the gasoline station, but she was scared. She kept calling out for the dad and kids, but, of course, they didn’t answer, they coulnd’t hear her! I kept thinking the whole time how she should be quiet. Something told me she would attract some sort of attention she wouldn’t like.

This is where it turned into a nightmare:

The mom decided to look up and down the street. She was careful to lock the car, but she forgot her necklace inside. She walked up and down the street, and started seeing people. They all seemed to be smiling with the same, creepy, bland toothy smile. Sort of like the old Colgate commercials.

There were people walking beside her, and there was one guy on his bike, who rode past her. They all seemed to be interested in staring at her. Of course, she got afraid.

Then she came across someone who REALLY scared her. He was tall, white, blonde, and was wearing a single-piece orange suit. The mom, well, she turned around, and started running faster thatn I had seen anyone run. Of course the guy in the orange suit started chasing after her. He seemed to be gnashing his teeth, though he had the exact same grin as everyone else. (I dunno why, or how, but somehow I knew that all these people were ghosts. And not the Casper kind, either.)

She ran towards her car, unlocked it, and got inside. She was shaking like a leaf, it was horrible to see her.

Then I went off and looked for the dad and kids.

They were talking with an elderly black woman about how to get back to their car. The lady said that no matter what direction they would walk in, they’d get there. But they had to make sure to hold hands, and not let go of each other, or they’d get lost. She said that no matter who or what they saw, to not let go of each other. As long as they held hands, they’d be able to protect each other from evil creatures.

So on they walked, and walked, and soon they saw the darker part of L.A. They were very happy, the knew they’d see mom soon. The saw, in the distance, the gas station, and their car. As the got closer, however, the knew something was wrong. Mom was in the driver’s seat, head back, mouth wide open, grinning, and eyes blank. In the backseat, was the orange-suited guy, also grinning wide, and staring right at them.

I don’t know how he got out, but the orange-suited guy did get out of the car, and started walking right towards the dad and little kids. But they just held hands, and stared at him….

And then I woke up :/

In writing it doesn’t seem very much like a nightmare. But, it really bugs me that during the whole thing, during the whole dream, I felt like I should help them. Like I was supposed to tell them which way to go, and to not worry, and… Just helful things like that. And even right now, I still feel like that.

I think a couple of things could have influenced my dream. I’m sure a couple movies I’ve seen here and there had some effect on my mind, and may have influenced my dream. And I definitely know better than to go to sleep with a headache. I always get some weird movie-like nerotic nightmare that leaves me frustrated, disoriented and scared when I wake up.

Either way, I have to remind myself, It’s only a dream -_^

Yesterday was shit. I woke up and figured I should stay home. While I lay there in bed, I thought about the money I could have in my paycheck, and how some of that money could go for the earrings I want to get ( http://www.myimportstore.com/store/images/Naruto/NarutoOrochimaruEarrings.jpg ) So I figured I had to go.

When I got to work, everything was dandy. I was excited to get to the end of the day. Not only was it Friday, it was also the day I would dye my hair black!

I had been looking forward to dying my hair again for some time now. My hair had healed well enough, but it looked like shit. I had patches of blonde, and patches of red, and patches of brown. See, if that had all been on purpose, it would’ve maybe looked decent. But it wasn’t on purpose. No matter how well I kept it, it always looked messy. So I figured I’d dye it all one solid colour.

My initial thought was getting it bleached. May as well go blonde, since I already have bits of blonde. But then I thought about the implications behind bleaching. See, what bleaching does is simply diffuse, or, remove, the natural colour (or artificial colour in my case) from the hair. Not only would this still make my hair look uneven, it would damage my hair. I had just barely healed my hair, I wasn’t about to go and fuck it up again.

So, I opted for an actual colour. I asked around, and (after consulting a couple people, including RPharazon) I decided black would be the most extreme I could go to.

I do like not looking like myself, which is what makes hair so much fun, for me. Once I tire of seeing the same person in the mirror, I move onto a different colour!

Anyway… Where was I. Oh yes, I was excited and happy and, even though I didn’t want to go into work, I figured I should anyway.

The day before, on Thursday, I had been invited by my boss to go visit the client he’s currently in love with. We’ll call them “PF” just for privacy and simplicity’s sake. He said PF’s owner didn’t yet trust me. That the competitor who was giving him service (selling him stuff) was doing a lot better of a job because she had gained their trust. He said maybe if he sees me once or twice, he’ll trust me better, he’ll think of me as a person he can trust.

Now, this made absolutely no sense to me. First of all, the lady from the other company has been working in the industry as a professional estimator and salesperson for 30 frikkin years. She was in the industry since she was very young. There is no way in hell I could possibly get the kind of pricing she does. That many years of experience in her field would have granted her connections above and beyond any I could dream of having. Also, the fact that she was a senior official in the company obviously meant that she could handle capital in whatever way she saw fit to fill a customer’s needs. I don’t have that power, because my boss is a greedy, selfish, stingy idiot. Say, if I was someone new he’d want to introduce to customers, that’d be one thing. But I’ve been working there on and off for the past 5 years. It would simply be a waste of time and energy.

So I mulled this over, overnight, and I came to the conclusion I didn’t feel comfortable with the whole thing. So, the next morning, I wrote him a nice email (which is rare, I’m usually somewhat rude, ask JT if you don’t believe me) stating my thanks for his invitation, but expressing my discomfort in his plans. I recommended that he use an outside salesperson for activities like those.

To my surprise, he sent back an email expressing how very “disappointed” he was, but that he was fine with it. He also said that he could “sell the company to clients until [he was] blue in the face (well, he said blue, but I know he meant blue in the face) but that if the quotes weren’t getting done right, that [he] would never be able to bring in new customers”. Thus, he decided that he would take it upon himself to “check all [my] quotes before they are given to customers”.

More or less, he was blaming ME and MY job for the fact that HE wasn’t bringing in any customers! He was blaming MY work!! What did HIS performance have to do with mine?! What did my quotes (which are ALWAYS complete, by the way) have anything to do with his wanting me to visit customers?!

I was so incredibly pissed off. I swear, I cried for a good 5 minutes out of sheer anger, hatred, and frustration. Never in my life have I ever met someone so completely thick, dense… just STUPID. He is truly STUPID in the most pure form of the word. He lacks foresight and insight. He is NOT a good leader, AT ALL. Ohh how my hate for him grew. It grew so much, that I felt that if I wrote a response, it would be my resignation….

But no, I can’t afford to resign. I’m saving up for a trans-continental move, and I have bills to pay. In the current status I’m in, it would be very difficult to find a job which could provide me with the income and freedom I need and currently posses.

Even though his reaction made no sense, was out of line, and was mean, it still affected me very much. I like to think that all the time and effort (time being from 6am to as late as 6pm on some days, without a lunchbreak sometimes even) that I put into his company is all that I have to give. Every last fiber of my being stresses out, jsut so I can get my measly salary.

I have a pretty big ego when it comes to my quotes. They are always on time (with the exception of maybe on or two, but, hey, I’m human). They are always complete, wether i have to cross something over to another brand or not. They are always competetive, and hey, they fucking sell.

I know how to speak to angry or happy clients. I use my own fucking office supplies apart from electricity, water, and paper, and I don’t ever complain about the noise levels.

Why does he insist on piking on me? What the fuck have I ever done to warrant this type of treatment? If I’m not doing well enough of a job, well, he can fucking find someone else to do it…. Or, at least that is what I wish I could say.

In the end, I didn’t respond. I just left a huge stack of files on his desk for him to check before I send them out. If he doesn’t give them back to me on time, Oh well. If because of his “checking” the quotes are late, oh well.

There’s no way in hell I’m going to stress out more, just because he wants to add another stone to the grind…..

At least my hair colour looks decent /-: