Bling...and more!

I'd like to point out right off the bat that I delayed this post primarily to annoy Michelle. Hi Michelle. Teach you to say mean things about how slow I post. So...almost a month, back to the periodic posting concept apparently.

These last few weeks have been absolutely insane for me. The stand-alone Geek Squads in Atlanta have been mayhem the last month, people leaving, being promoted, taking temporary transfers to cover outages, etc. James accepted a temporary Precinct Chief job in Madison, MN. Their Chief stepped down and he's up there for a month to cover for him, so we're down a person. Then somebody at another Atlanta store quit, and so they're down a person. We were already attempting to borrow someone from their store, so now we're sharing borrowed employees from the third store, who's probably pretty pissed at us. As a result, all three locations are seriously busting ass to keep up. I've been splitting time between in-store and on-site. Sadly enough (for me and my performance numbers), the on-site business has slooooooowed down a lot. This reflects badly on me because I miss my numbers. As of this writing, I have more than twenty outstanding voicemails waiting for callbacks to schedule. They need to hurry the hell up and call me. Oh yeah, and uh...the pic. BLING!

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I apologize to Becca, who will probably not want to read this section. However, it's exciting, so...bleh.

Things kinda never took off with Ciara, which was interesting. We set a date...and then she cancelled and re-scheduled four times. It seemed to me that she kept finding other things she wanted to do first. She went to visit her sister, went out with her mom, went bowling!?, stayed late at work, etc. Finally we both found an afternoon where we could randomly link up for like an hour, and had lunch. Things seemed to go pretty well (to me, at least). We laughed, shared stories. I learned lots about her, I told lots about me. I learned why she wears a gold band (a promise ring, no sex before marriage) on her wedding ring finger. I learned about her school experiences in Tennessee, her job hatred at Applebees and the Chiropractor. Her desire to move to California. In the end, we agreed to talk again and schedule a second date. I called, we set a day, she cancelled and rescheduled. Turns out we both had to miss that next one, so we both re-scheduled. I met up with her (accidentally on purpose) with Dad a week later when I knew she was working at Applebees, she said she'd call and figure it out for when we were free. That was last week. I've called since, no response. I suppose I should be more upset, but I suppose there's a reason for everything.

Speaking of...here's why. A month ago I went to Outback with Greg. We got a table and our waitress came by. Her name was Erin, and she was fairly cute (me and waitresses, I swear). She was very sassy and didn't take crap from either of us, which always makes the experience better for me, because it's enjoyable when the server has a personality instead of being a brick. After a few re-visits by her, I realized she was kinda staring at me now and then. It took me a bit longer to realize why, and then I put it together. I laughed when I caught her looking again, and showed her my Geek Squad tie-pin, explaining that I wasn't a Mormon. She laughed as well, admitting she wasn't sure, and thought I was with the Squad. If you're not familiar with why this is funny, I wear the exact same (item for item) outfit as a Mormon who goes door to door, with the exception of my Geek Squad tie-pin. She explained that she loves our commercials and cars and such, then proceeded to ask me some surprisingly technical questions about computer upgrade and repair. All in all, she was a kick-ass waitress. We always request our favorite servers (Will, Erin, Faith, Kristin, and obviously David and Crystal), so we added her to the list after that day.

About two weeks ago we went again, and I requested her section. While I was standing there waiting for Greg to show up and for her table to clear up, the hostess was asking me (again, surprisingly technical) questions about her network problems. Erin came by and flying-tackle hugged me and proceeded to drag me by the hand to her table. She and the hostess had a very amusing conversation about who I belonged to, with Erin winning (especially in my book!). After she remembered my entire order from memory (This is a bonus to the tip, just fyi. Anyone who does this gets a bigger tip, *especially* if you've only served me once before!), she disappeared again and the hostess and I finished our conversation. She came back after Greg appeared and put in his order from memory too (also a big tip in his book!), and more or less spent her entire down-time standing/sitting with me at our table telling stories about our least favorite waitress (may she rot in hell, that bitch) Heidi. She asked me more about my job (reiterating how much she loves Geek Squad), and began to ask Greg about his job. When he started to explain that he wasn't with the Squad, she mocking cut him off and sat back down with me to ask me more questions (this, also, is a big tip, just fyi.) about my job. Well of course, I had to give her a t-shirt then, so when she disappeared I hopped out of the booth and went and got a shirt. When I gave it to her, she once again flying-body-tackled me with a hug (She's already at an insane tip, this one was just called even. Greg did not increase his tip for my hug.) We said our goodbyes and such at the end, and I left with a laugh.

Fast forward to last Friday. I sail out of work an hour early due to schedule adjustments, and bolt for home. It had already been a good day. I found out we got our bonus, I made my budget, and I got out an hour early! TRAFFIC JAM! Son of a! I heard about a multi-car accident on I-20 pretty much at/on my exit, with expected delays of an hour or more. What do I do? Take a side-road the opposite way into Douglasville, the way I went home to my old house. Coincidentally, this road leads directly to my brother's house, where I fully intended to go and spoil the bejezus out of my niece. Oh, and check out this pic. Is she not the cutest kid ever born? I pull in their house just as they're pulling out of their driveway, and they 'force' me to come to Outback with them, even though I've just eaten. For the record, I had a Chocolate Thunder from Down Under, and have no guilt about setting a bad example by eating dessert first infront of Grace, who got more than a fair share of my food. We arrive and I ask for Erin's table shamelessly, but she's not serving yet. We get HEIDI's table (may she rot in hell, that bitch) and I am very not thrilled. No cute waitress, she bitch from hell. However, about 20 minutes on, Erin walks by and I laughing pretend to need help. She's halfway through answering my question before she fully turns to see who I am, and once again, flying body tackle hug, in the booth! She more or less hangs out with us during her downtime even though she has tables, and spends 90% of the time talking to Gracie-boo about Hello Kitty (of which they are both gigantic fans) toys. She vanishes for a bit, during which David drops by. He sees Grace playing with my ultra-cool new Belkin light-up pens, and is totally amazed by it, just like Grace. Knowing a pen is worth a thousand dollars at retail or dining establishments, I give David one of the two light-up pens I have, since I already gave Gracie-boo the other one. Five minutes later, Erin walks by, mock-pissed, punching me for not giving her my pen! She, of course, won't talk to me for the rest of the visit because of this.

We get up and leave, I give the Munchkin my gigantic patented "Uncle Matt Man Hug (tm)" which involves spinning her around and letting her try to squeeze me to death (Becca knows this hug in reverse). I go to my car, I get another of the fifty pens I was given, and I go back inside. I stand near the bar, waiting for Erin to go by from the server's entrance. David looks at me questioning, goes "Ah. If you didn't, I would have asked for you." and walks off. Apparently I was slower than I thought...but I was chasing Ciara first, so...meh. Will comes by, my favorite male server. He's freaking hilarious. He looks at me, looks at the server entrance and goes "She's hot, I'd do her." (which is funny primarily because he's gay, and saying this in a macho voice) to which I respond "You just want the pen. I saw you looking at it." and he goes "I won't lie, I'm mostly here for the pen and a Geek Squad t-shirt. She thinks you're cute, though. We hear these things" (we being the gay men, apparently. They have a gossip-input I'd kill for.). I laughed, nodded, and she came out. She motioned me to wait, and ran off to her table. Will disappeared instantly. She came back lightning fast and looked at me curiously. I brandished the pen, damn near got knocked over by a JUMPING flying body tackle hug, and she moved over to where I was sitting at the bar and thanked me with another hug. I played it corny and told her I'd have to get her another pen because the one I gave her apparently was broken and only writes down her phone number, to which she insisted on testing, and scribbled her number on a sheet of paper I accidentally had handy. Damn pen truely was broken! She took it anyway, after a hell of a lot longer hug and a promise to a movie date as soon as possible. I totally went out to the car, came inside, and threw Will a t-shirt. He coulda had the car for all I would have cared at that moment.

What a month!

Meeting Demands

So I asked her out finally. I've been thinking and trying to figure out whether I should for something like two or three months now, and been attracted to her since god knows when last year. I finally took the chance and asked.

For those of you not in the loop, I'm referring to Ciara, my favorite waitress at Applebees. See, Applebees is basically on the front doorstep of Best Buy, and when I still worked over there we'd eat there multiple times a week. As a result, we have favorite waiters/waitresses/bartenders, etc. By far the best service generally came from Ciara and Shana, our two favorite girls. The guys basically sucked. Some time early this year I began to consider asking her out because she is definitely an intelligent girl who holds her own in a conversation. She never hurt for insults to hit us with if we teased her, and she was always kick-ass at the service. Oh, and she's cute as hell, too. I suppose that matters a wee bit too.

Anyway, I would have taken the chance awhile back, but she wears a gold ring of some type on her wedding ring finger, which we basically took to be a wedding band for the obvious reason. However, the last month or so I've been hearing her say things or comment on things that seemed to indicate she was single. So, with a bit of assistance from Shana, I discovered that she was infact, single. Shana seemed much relieved that I decided to inquire, as apparently she herself has been approaching the point where she was going to beat me with the subtlty bat and tell me Ciara was single. Score? Oh, I think so. So I asked. And she said yes, and now I have to try not to make a fool of myself. It's been awhile since I've been on an actual first-date type event, as the last few casual dates have been with friends or co-workers.

After the excitingly huge news, I thought I'd move on to a different female to discuss, so now I target Heather! :D Not long ago, I commented to her on her own blog that I frequently dealt with insanely over-the-top rich clients who crapped money all day long. I figured I would finally show her a pic of what some of my clients owned. This is the pic I sent her. Now, to put things into even more perspective, note that I'm at the second access gate to his house. I'm probably two hundred feet from the road already, but in that two hundred feet I've driven about six hundred feet worth of distance on his winding driveway. Oh, and he's two miles from downtown Atlanta. Even the State Governor's mansion is not this big, and I know because I pass it every day. $$$$

This last section is for Becca, who is probably undergoing an interesting week right now. She's spending the week with her toyfriend Dan who has come to visit her. She was a nervous wreck all last weekend preparing for his visit, and I hope things have gone well for her. I'm thinking of you, Goobie. Good luck!

You know, upon more reflection, the women in my life are pushy, for the most part.
Hard to please, definitely never satisfied. You make a few blog posts, they want more and better. Blah blah blah. You comment on something, they make fun of you! Oh well, whatever keeps you alert and on your toes, I suppose.

Following the paths...

I thought I'd bring about the end of the world by posting twice in a month. Check your Signs of the Apocolypse and mark off the next sign in your list as necessary. If this was your last sign, congrats, you win! Now you die.

Things are moving quick lately. Opportunities are popping up left and right for not only me, but other family and friends as well. A client of mine made a job offer which I have forwarded to Greg because it's perfect for him. Another client of mine made me a job offer to be their local IT guy...in Hong Kong! A job has become available at Geek Squad City, which is the largest repair center ever built, up in Louisville, KY. If things work out right, my old supervisor's job will open up when he becomes a manager, and this is the most tempting job of them all.

Money has been coming and going at a crazy rate lately as I covered Brandon for various purchases, then got a bonus, then got paid back, then got raped by taxes. My bank account usually jumps up, then trickles down. Now it looks like a trampoline and it's ridiculous to watch, much less manage. Real temptation comes on Friday when I get two bonuses on the same paycheck, and I get paid back in full by Brandon. It will leave me over a thousand dollars in money which I had basically written off already, or never had to begin with. I'm trying my hardest to just put it aside and use it for vacation this fall, but it's so tempting. Must behave.

The thing that makes all of this interesting for me is the explanation of one of my most intrinsic concepts. I am, perhaps more than anything else, a wanderer. If someone came along to me and offered to let me explore the world with them but I'd have to leave everything else behind, it would be a tempting offer I would probably give in to. I'm always looking for something new, something bigger or more exciting. The best term for it is wanderlust, the desire to be Out There, doing things and going places. I know my Dad and I share this concept, because both of us long to go into space. I want to be somewhere else, radically different, doing something new.

That's what made that Hong Kong offer so crazy tempting for me, it's about as different and new as you can get. It's totally irrational for me, but I want it none the less. *sigh* At least life isn't dull.

Back from the dead

So I missed my monthly appointment and then some. Truth is, the free time has basically dropped to nil in the last two months. Despite the fact that I work fourty hours, I lose about twenty more to the job every week anyway, plus the hours are so early and late that the remainder is generally spent sleeping!

So I was intending to post in March as a followup to the new job process, but I missed it, which I suppose is a good thing. The first month is always the hardest, and moreso than ever with the transition from Counter Intelligence Agent to Special Agent. In addition to the on-site aspect, I got the rush treatment of being a REAL Geek Squad Agent, versus what most people who work in Best Buy Geek Squad's (BBYGS) get to do every day. I was the king of manipulating the system to get things done at BBY, because that's how we had to live. However, the Geek Squad Store (GSS) concept is very much different. Everything is proceedural, everything is set in stone and always followed to the letter. I have no problem with that concept, and in truth it works phenominally better if you have a competent staff to execute it, but it's not what I worked for over two years, so it took some work to change to. I made many a faux pa the first month that I have since managed to avoid the majority of.

On the whole, the experience is fantastic. One of the downsides of working at BBYGS is that the competence level for your co-workers was all over the place. I worked with people (both current and long past) who were not qualified to plug in a computer, much less perform advanced repairs on them. I could never delegate or hand off work to them and be sure it would be done right. I couldn't trust a process to them and be certain I would be covered. At the GSS, everybody meets a certain standard level and above, so while I may not be able to hand somebody a specific task I'm 100% sure they can do in ten minutes, I know it will be done properly and I won't have to worry about it. In addition, it's nice to run into an issue I have no clue how to solve and be able to just toss it on the table for folks. At BBYGS I would occasionally get a specific answer or vague hint from some people, but in this case I can toss it out there and get ten legit answers or suggestions in a minute.

This second month has gone far superior to the first. Less mistakes (I think!), less problems, more solutions. The niche I seem to have fallen into is the abstract-fix guy mode. Agent Watford will frequently bring me bizarre behavior machines to see if I have run across the various issues before. The Chief likes to hand me computers with a specific issue there seems to be no support for, and let me fix it.

My onsite work has gotten better in terms of following process, as there are about ten thousand things that have to be done right in the scheduling and work process. It sucks. I schedule calls in STS, our job software. Once I schedule it in STS, I have to go to Outlook and enter it in the calendar manually, using a pre-built form I made. Once the event is scheduled, I create the personal contact for the client in Outlook so that I can schedule the event to them. Once that is done, I take my phone over to the front desk so that I can enter the information into Palm desktop so that the Chief has his copy of it too. Once that is done, I have to electronically print and fill the call paperwork. This takes about fourty minutes per call, and I have to make sure every step is done or somebody is missing a copy of the work and I can get in trouble.

I've had a couple big jobs so far, including one where I got to set up 64 routers for wireless access, for a company who literally put them in place in a skyscraper downtown. That was pretty cool, we earned the entire week's budget in five hours because I figured out a way to automate the updates for each router. Took me longer to unbox/rebox the routers than to do the setup. I was also (proud moment!) the first Agent in the history of Geek Squad to land one of our new maintenance contracts. We're test piloting a system where companies pay to have me on retainer for repairs, as well as scheduling a monthly visit where I basically do a once-over on their PCs.






On the home front, things are stabilizing in the new house. We acquired a replacement third roommate (Greg had to bow out) and things are cool so far. We had to replace the toilet the other day, which was nasty because I had to dig into the old one and help remove it. I got that blue shit from the bowl cleaners all over my arms. Let me tell you, that stuff is not easy to get off your skin. Not easy.

We are fully settled in and slowly planning things, like chores and groceries and bills and such. Bumps all along the way, but nothing more than the process of building the road to drive on. Thanks to the new pay increase I'm slowly creeping out of riding broke and going toward actual savings, which is amazing for me considering how long I survived on the shitty pay as a CIA in BBYGS.

All in all, life is tiring, but good. Work leaves me only a few hours a night to relax, if that, but it's still fun. For some weird reason Alex, who had all but disappeared socially, has suddenly reappeared. He frequents the house and is all about playing games with us and such now. Whatever works, I guess.

Wonder how long it will take her to find this...

Lots of News!

So I can finally write about the events of last month, after all the work to realize it in every way that mattered. January was probably the most chaotic month of the last few years for me. Time to dive into the details.



The most important event came in the third week on the 19th. In short, I snuck up to Canada to visit Becca for her birthday that weekend. I had been planning this for months and finally pulled it off, after some last-second hair raising complications. I owe Greg and Cori huge favors for saving my ass with some assistance. I arrived at Becca's place about 3PM or so, and had a nice chat with her parents who had come home a bit early for the festivities.

We arranged it so that they were in their usual afternoon positions when she came in. I could hear her unloading her stuff in the entryway and she came around the corner mid-sentence to her father. She sort of glanced over my way as she spoke, and the look of 'somebody I know' passed over her face as she looked toward her mom. It didn't take but a second or so before the 'what the?' look hit her face and she focused back to me. She went dead quiet for like two seconds and said something like 'what? you?' and just looked. I probably had a huge ass grin on my face at this point. I had a nice casual conversation with her as she stumbled through basic speech in total shock. All she could really say for about three hours was "Holy shit...", it was great.

The weekend was a blast, I brought her movies, games, and nerd toys, and a sneak visit. The best part of the whole thing had to be the fact that she had been making fun of me days before for not being able to keep secrets worth a crap. I rubbed that in for days. We played Mario Kart and Mario Party (rented in substitution for Soul Calibur, which was damaged upon rental) a lot, had a good time going to the movies and out around town. We did lots of nothing, and it was worth it all the way. Fun stuff. Hi Goobie!



So, as I posted in January, the Special Agent position interview process moved forward through January. Time passed pretty regularly without much input, before I was informed all the interviews had been completed and they would be contacting each of us in late January. While on my secret vacation to Canadia, I received a call from Best Buy Corporate Recruiting and go through my final interview. The interview seemed pretty fantastic and I got some good vibes, so I waited hopefully. More than a week and a half went by without word before I got a call from the same person asking me to contact her, that the company had made a decision and she was passing the results on. Still I was hopeful, and called back the next day. After playing phone tag for two hours, I found out I got the job! How kick ass is that?

The position comes with a nice pay raise (a nice raise!), a personal Geekmobile, a kick ass phone, and a badge. I'm now Special Agent Stewart. I'm excited regarding the possibilities and this will hopefully be a good step forward for me in the career path. The position will count towards on-site business and server maintenance experience, which will platform me forward pretty well when/if I choose to leave the company. At the same time, positions like Precinct Chief interest me as well, since they pay phenominally well and allow me to be in charge of activities like repairing PCs.

More to come,
Special Agent Stewart.

Progress Report

Long gaps are notoriously my style, but I like to bunch up my posts so you'll just have to deal with it. A lot has happened in the last month, so let me bulletize this post.

- Christmas! Holy crap man, I spent a lot, got a lot. I nabbed Serenity and Battlestar Galactica for watching, as well as the usual clothing and money from folks. The big gifts this year were a nice new watch (perfectly timed, as my current one was wearing out) and a voice controlled R2D2! He kicks ass, takes all kinda of questions and secret instructions to do funny stuff. There are very amusing videos of him in my photo section of my site under Christmas 05. Go look! Also, check ThinkGeek for the kick-ass dogtags that Becca got for me. She ordered me the Geek and Barcode tags, and I love them.

- Early January finally saw my interview come and go for the Special Agent position. Brian and I had a nice long chat, discussing Geek Squad, the requirements and considerations for the position. He also explained to me that the position itself did not exist yet, but the projected creation date was early February and that they were taking selections to create a talent pool, essentially. Time will tell as to whether anything comes of this, but I am hopeful.

- The new house is progressing as well. Sadly, Brandon's grandfather died last week, so I suspect his family is anxious to help move his grandmother in. Once this is complete, we will begin to move other things in to their old house. Our target date is early to mid February, and we've been making efforts toward preparing for this goal. I plan to start basic packing in the near future, leaving the most vital stuff (like the PCs) till last.

Up and Away

So, a pre-4AM post. I find myself with downtime today, so I felt like making a post. On the way home last night, Greg and I stopped and chatted with Eddie a bit. Come to find out that Eddie might be able to get us a discount on an apartment in his complex.

This works out pretty good for both of us. While I have no real need to escape my comfortable surroundings, I'd prefer to venture out at some point, and this is as good as any. Greg on the other hand, needs to get away from the little bastards that live in his house, as soon as possible. I'm still looking to see if I can afford it and still have an actual life, so we'll find out what comes of this.

In other news, they've set a tenative date for Dad's surgery: February 14th. I suppose I'll get more tense about it as time closes the gap, but I'm kinda relaxed right now. Plenty of time to freak out later.

Some new pics in the snapshot gallery. Take a look!