Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Robert Thompson's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, November 11th, 2007
2:45 pm	*wave* Today, I would like to send my greetings out to a new reader, one Vance Miller. Apparently, Mr. Miller has been reading this journal for about 6 weeks, having been introduced to it by a friend and colleague. On Friday, we had a frank and interesting discussion about some of the points covered in my journal. I conceded several points, but it would seem that we have fundamental differences in world-view that simply cannot be reconciled. I daresay we can continue to work together without any trouble, but I don't think we'll ever be pals. Still, he and anyone else at work is free to view this, a public journal. I hope they are entertained by what they find here. It's flattering to know that someone is so eager to read everything I have to say on an endless variety of subjects. I will attempt to not let this knowledge colour my writing, but I am only human after all. Annoyingly, I won't have the capability to post much here for a while. My computer at work has developed faults which, while interesting, are also hampering to both work and play. Meanwhile, at home, we still haven't gotten around to fixing our modem problem. I'll try to get to either a library computer or a net cafe during the week, but I can't make any promises. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007
10:54 am	Lounge space Following conversations with people on Saturday night, I verbally committed myself to doing a movie night with Mirrormask (and probably Lost in La Mancha) some time in December, and a MADLAX marathon some time after Christmas. Of course, it all depends on how the Ulysses 31 marathon goes: if our house turns out to be somehow totally unsuitable for showing things, I'll have to back down and find another way of bringing these things to the MUJS public. There are now about 10 people due to come, and I think we're pretty much at the limit of lounge space. There are things we can do to make space, but we only have two sofas, each of which can fit two people (or an exceptionally intimate trio, I suppose). There's only so long you can sit on the arm of a sofa before discomfort becomes agony... (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 1st, 2007
3:22 pm	On a more mundane note Th annual Manchester Beer Festival is held in the basement of the former UMIST Student Union building on 7th-9th November. Who else is up for heading down there, and when? (Comment on this)
2:02 pm	As if I didn't have enough sisters... ( It's a dream post. If you think it'll bore you, DON'T READ. ) (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 29th, 2007
1:01 pm	This is what happens when I'm suddenly earning a full-time wage... Had an uneventful weekend. So uneventful, indeed, that the only thing worth mentioning is the small pay-day splurge I went on. I popped into HMV on the way home on Friday and bought: System of a Down - 'Toxicity' (CD) Nirvana - 'In Utero' (CD) Stephen King's "It" (DVD) Ulysses 31: the Complete Series (DVD box set) Yes, that's Ulysses 31. ULYSSES 31, MOFO! This may well have been my first ever encounter with science fiction, way back when I was a toddler, so getting the whole lot for only £15 is awesome. I got it home, and almost imediately decided I want to marathon it. I had a chat with Dave & Ste, and we decided that the best date for it was 24th and 25th November. I've set up a Facebook event for it ( http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=6396502925 ) and a thread on the forum. Until then, I'm not even taking off the celophane wrapping; it will be completely fresh to me when I see it in about a month's time. Any way, I'm also extremely happy with the SoaD album. Obviously, I love 'Chop Suey', but I've only really heard the other tracks when my brother has played it - which was fairly often, the last couple of times I've been back in Essex. I love the fact that the band are willing to mix issue-based songs, angsty personal stuff and just plain silliness ("I brought my pogo stick, just to show her a trick, she had so many friends") on the one album. Half-a-dozen of the songs have gone straight onto my MP3 player. Last bit of news: a friend told me yesterday that Ash are playing the Apollo today, and tickets aren't sold out yet! I made a snap decision, and now we're going down there after work, picking up tickets on the door for £15. Woo, I'm going to see my second favourite band EVER for only the second time! Come to think of it, the venue will be the same as the first time... (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 26th, 2007
12:41 pm	Consequences Oh God, how the hell did I think coming into work in this condition was a good idea?! I feel AWFUL and I'm going back and forth to the loo every 20 minutes or so to lean over the bowl with my mouth agape. Still, as always, it is my own fault. I have always looked at hangovers as the inevitable penalty that one pays for having a bit too much fun. It's surprising how often arrangements like that crop up in life: the consequences of overdoing it. The only other one that springs to mind is sunburn, but I'm sure I've seen some that I can't remember. Anyone? (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
11:36 am	I called her yesterday/ It should have been tomorrow On the upside, it gives me the perfect opportunity for that enigmatic, angsty one-line post I've always wanted to do, complete with song lyric title. Having said that, I'll spoil the effect by asking if anyone knows where the lyric come from. A million Bob points if you can get the band and the song. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 20th, 2007
11:25 am	Coming to you live from Oxford I'm in an internet cafe just opposite Christ Church College, Oxford. My sis, it turns out, is working for a large chunk of this weekend, and so has left me to my own devices until 10 PM. I'm taking a break from wandering the streets, staring at moderately picturesque buildings. A rather alarming thing happened to me after my last post on Friday. Ask me about it the next time you see me.* Stardust was ace. Not the same as the book, but rather more filmic and retaining the vital fairy-tale feel of the original. The ghosts are great (including David Walliams, Rupert Everett, Jimmy Carr and that guy who plays Dr. Mac in Green Wing) and Robert De Niro actually manages a surprising departure from the roles he seems stuck in recently. * Except for Dave & Kaye, whom I have already told about it. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 19th, 2007
4:13 pm	Contracts I've just had an extraordinarily frustrating phone conversation with a customer, that got to the following point: Me: There is this clause, Clause 17, in that contract which you signed that states "a charge of £50 chall be imposed for a dishonoured cheque for any reason." Customer: But it's not my fault that I had to cancel the cheque. There was this... [etc.]. Me: It says in the contract which YOU signed, "FOR ANY REASON". Customer: But why should I pay, when the fault is not mine? Me: Whoever's 'fault' it is, that's still a reason. It still comes under the heading "ANY REASON". Customer: But I shouldn't pay when it's not my fault. Me: I'm not sure you understand the meaning of the term "FOR ANY REASON". [Choosing my words carefully] If there were a hypothetical situation in which the error was entirely 100% ours, you would still have to pay. That is the contract which you signed [the legal presumption being that she read it!]. Customer: But it's not my fault... AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! WHY do people think that they can sign a reasonably clear (and actually comparatively short) contract, and then not abide by it. A large chunk of the laws of this land are founded on the principle that a signed contract is legally binding. If you don't want to abide by the contract, DON'T SIGN IT!! I'm so irritated that I'm not even going to put in the standard '1's in place of exclamation marks. Having said that, it would help if the people on the phones at this company could tell customers the whole truth of a situation from certain knowledge, instead of just going with what feels right at the time, based on dubious common sense and what sounds suspiciously like guesswork... (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 18th, 2007
11:41 am	A non-work related post Well, not particularly work-related. Why is it that, on the one weekend I choose to go down to Oxford to visit my sister, a whole load of social events suddenly turn up? Just by being away from Friday late afternoon until Sunday afternoon, I've managed to miss two birthday parties, a film night, a Saturday meal, and I daresay some other stuff besides which I didn't bother looking for because I knew I was busy. Apart from anything else, I'm going to see Stardust with my sis and, if I were here, I'd definitely be organising a cinema trip for it. Oh well, there will be enough things going on soon to make up for it, what with Halloween, Fireworks Night, et cetera. I also need to remember to text Nic and Sandi on the day in question, though... p.s. Earlier, I found a client in the files whose name is TRACEY KILL. Yes, that would appear to be her real name! She definitely needs to team up with a small-time Dutch cyclist I once spotted called Jurgen Guns for the most hardcore detective duo ever! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 16th, 2007
12:04 pm	Working? At my place of employment? Surely not... Huzzah! At last, I have things to do. The postal strike backlog came through yesterday, and left me with several tasks to work through. It might even be stressful, if it weren't for the fact that none of these tasks appears to have any particular time-limit. I did the longest and most complicated of them yesterday afternoon, leaving today to fill in a few gaps, get clarifications from superiors, and perhaps occupy any spare time with the low priority tasks on the periphery. I'm quite amused that it didn't even take a whole day to get back pretty much to zero. I've also spoken to a customer in person for the first time. He seemed a little miffed, but I apologised, placated, and by the end he seemed satisfied. Go me. There's still another who didn't answer my call, but I'm not worried. Admittedly, all I'm really doing is clarifying how earlier problems have now been sorted, so there shouldn't be any more trouble than their irritation that I'm ringing them after everything already seemed done. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 15th, 2007
3:35 pm	Are you my friend? I posted an entry at about 1 today, and made it 'Friends Only'. If you can't see it, post here: you must accidentally not be on my Friends list. (Comment on this)
Friday, October 12th, 2007
3:48 pm	This could be really bad... LMAO! Vance has signed himself onto Facebook. I've joined the company's Facebook group, for my sins, so go have a look. I can't see this going anywhere good for him or me, but you've got to give him a bit of credit for trying. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007
12:29 pm	Fast-track Yesterday, I was given a couple of very odd tasks. First, I was given a letter by Alan. He's the owner and proprietor of the company (in name at least) and, incidentally, I think he was the guy reading my post last week. Anyway, this letter was from a solicitor saying an optician defendant was willing to offer a settlement of some thousands of pounds. He said "Send back a reply saying it's not enough," and that was that. I had to read the letter, guess at the context, and frame a reply that could fool them into thinking I'm not making all this up as I went along. The funny thing is, it has nothing to do with the company. It seems to be just Alan trying to sue an optician for some kind of damage to his eye (which I couldn't spot). Then I printed out what I'd written, and showed it to him. He literally glanced at it and said "Okay, stick a stamp on it and send it out." He didn't want it sending on the company's postal account, but he didn't seem that interested in where I got the stamp from, so I used one of my own. The bastard now owes me 35p-odd. Then, later in the day, Vance himself came into the office. He wanted me to go on the internet ("post on those boards and stuff, you know") to try to find cheaper alternatives for changing currency between dollars and pounds than paying the 2% or so commission taken by the banks. I said I'd get on it, but it would be a few days before enough replies came back to form a decent answer. Still, it's a bit of an out-of-the-way task to give someone with my duties normally. I mentioned this back home, and Kaye suggested that they're testing me for promotion prospects! She reckons that if I prove capable, I might get fast-tracked up the ziggurat. I'm not sure I want to be promoted, though. The prospect of real responsibility disturbs me. I'd much rather be doing what I do now, but for more money, to be honest. Oh, and ideally closer to Manchester, with a company with a cleaner reputation... (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 9th, 2007
12:54 pm	Homme Fatale A good year or so ago (I think), there was talk of Dave H having 'stolen Pete's mojo'. According to rumour, several of the female MUJS n00bs were all interested in him, in much the same way that Pete had grabbed attention at one point. I didn't think much of it myself - the reason was always unclear* - but then he did end up with one of them... Well, now it's starting to seem as if I've stolen Pete's mojo... from Dave! Several girls at work seem to be chasing me, and it's bloody disconcerting! I'm used to the pattern where I meet someone, decided that I quite like them, eventually move on to deciding that I may be attracted to them, and then pining from a distance until it's too late. Doesn't sound very satisfying, but there's a certain comfort in a situation where nobody has to actually _do_ anything at any point. So, now I've got one girl flirting with me, one wierd, autistic-looking girl insisting that we're going to have sex very soon whether I like it or not, and I've been told there's another one in my very office who likes me even though I noticed nothing of this. The question is, what exactly are they attracted to? Okay, I have an awesome personality and am generally wonderful, but I haven't really showed that to anyone at work yet. None of them actually know me at all, unless they've been stalking me (and seeing autistic girl, that's not such an unlikely idea!). I simply haven't mentioned my enjoyment of heavy metal music, my membership of the LibDems, my idolization of Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore. They don't even know about my lifelong Catholicism or the fact that I'm half-French. Okay, I wear my geekness and my former student nature unmistakably, but all they seem to draw from this is that I use long words and am not scared of computers. They must have seen me reading, and yet nobody seems to have taken an interest in _what_. All the real features of my life are so far hidden from them by the guards that we all raise against random strangers. To be honest, I don't know who they've seen sitting at my desk and liked the look of, but it certainly isn't me! * It can't have been any actually attractiveness. Bwahaha (23 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 5th, 2007
12:08 pm	And so, the week endeth I've been at kitchens for about a week now, and I think I'm settling in pretty well. I'm learning names, and people are learning my name. I'm slightly disturbed by how impressed people are that I know and use words of more than two syllables, but it does pleasant things to my ego. For the last day-and-a-half I've been scanning. I'm told that I do the job unusually quickly, but all I'm doing is what I've done all day every day in previous jobs. Less in fact, since there's only one folder that all the scanned files go into. It's also exceedingly easy, and the only awkward part is having to stand up every time I put a new page in: the scanner is a huge photocopier-type assembly that has been placed on a desk-top so I can't reach it properly while sitting down. Today is pay-day, and I've handed my punch-card to a supervisor, but I'm still not sure how exactly we get paid. I haven't been asked for any bank details. In fact, I'm becoming increasingly certain that we just get given cash-in-hand when we clock off this afternoon. To be honest, I'm actually rather hoping for this, since any delay in payment would cause me problems. I've got debts to pay, you know. I'm also a bit worried that the shortage of sleep is going to catch up with me some time soon. I've been getting about 7 hours per night this last week. This may not seem too bad, but last week I was still in the slacker pattern of going to bed around 2 AM and getting up around 11. Compared to that, my body-clock needs some significant re-adjustment and I'm not sure it's done so yet. Yesterday, I went straight back to sleep after my alarms, and only leapt out of bed when I realized it was the time when I normally leave the house. I eventually got into the office about 25 minutes late, but they accepted my excuse. Oh, and I left my MP3 player in the loo when I was changing clothes yesterday, which means I'm never going to see it again. I suppose I'm going to have to look around town for another equally bargain one: I got this MP3 palyer from a Sale bucket at Tesco for only £5. I suppose it wasn't much of a loss, when you look at it that way... Addendum: I suppose I slightly maligned the company. I've just been given the form (P46, apparently) that deals with tax and stuff. TO that extent, they're being entirely above board. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007
2:54 pm	The next day Today, I have been mostly doing nothing. You see, I have something I should be doing. I should be setting up cases on the County Court website. There's seven of them that should go up there as of now. The problem is that there's a £30 fee for each case. Normally, I am told, the finance department would just give me the credit card and I'd put all of them on that, up to a limit of about four per day. And the website isn't recognizing it. I'm told that this same card has been used today for a much larger payment, which went through fine, and yet it just won't authorize for me, either before or after that. I've checked through all the details I'm entering a dozen times: it's simply inexplicable. On top of that, the guy I'm supposed to talk to in the finance department appears to be incredibly busy, and quite irritable because of it besides. The instruction has come down to me to wait here by my computer until he has time to deal with my problem. So that's what I've been doing. All day. I've tried to find things to do. I spent half the morning typing up my exhaustive notes on the details of the job, ready for any future cancellations administrator who might replace me in the near or far future. I've had a good look through past cases, to familiarise myself with the process. I even go back every few minutes to try the card again, just in case something's changed. And all the time, I'm keeping quiet about my lack of work, in case someone decides to do something about it. If this continues into tomorrow, there's no doubt that I'll tap people on the shoulder and ask for some other work while I wait. For the moment, though... By the way, I might possibly be rumbled. You remember my last post, written about 2 pm yesterday? Well, I went away a bit before 4 to do something and, when I came back, a guy was sitting at my computer reading the post! He asked who had written it, and I told him it was me, adding that it was "only the truth". Which it was, and is. He asked what it was: some kind of letter? I told him ti was just my livejournal, a kind of weblog. He seemed mollified. I don't know what his rank is or anything but, if he has reported me to the higher-ups, it was in a sneaky "I bet they didn't know this" way, not a righteous "this is against policy" way. That is, he gave me the impression I was in the clear before leaving to do whatever he was going to do. To be fair to him, I've had no indications about it today... Then again, apart from getting emotional about my 'betrayal' or something, I can't see what they would do. They're not going to deny that the company has a bad reputation, and I didn't actually say anything derogatory. Just an interesting observation to finish up: the office appears to have less than a dozen computers, despite housing (at a guess) over 50 employees. I've never seen an office environment so un-digitalized! (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 1st, 2007
1:15 pm	Into Oldham's Wild West... So, I'm more than halfway through my first day and, so far, it's going okay. I'm still kinda feeling my way through what the fuck I'm supposed to be doing, but I'm not lost, which can only be a good thing. Senor Vance Miller is not in the office, and I get the impression that this isn't unusual. Personally, I can do pretty well without him. The company itself is ... interesting. It bears all the marks of a highly professional major company, until you look more closely. Things just seem to be left on an informal basis that tend to be tidied up by some kind of official policy in the other places I have worked. I write out in full the letters I am required to send out, rather than having some sort of template. We leave 'a bit over 2 weeks' after the first letter sent out before we move further, and that period depends on when I can get around to looking through the backlog. Breaks are just when I feel like I need a break (although I'm restricting myself to only the lunch hour). The office is _very_ open-plan... Still, thus far I've not been told to do anything illegal. I think. More to come. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 29th, 2007
2:22 pm	Oh dear, what have I let myself in for?... I went in for my first half-day yesterday, to get trained up and ready to start properly on Monday. I also had a second interview with the guy who runs the company, one Vance Miller... You might have heard of him, and it alost certainly won't be anything good. His reputation seems to be as the lord of all cowboy businessmen and, having met him, I can see why. Obviously, I knew nothing about this. He only seemed to notice me when, after a good three hours of in-depth explanation of the job (all of which I jotted down to refer to on Monday, when I will have forgotten every word of it), I went out to find out all the stuff not specifically related to my duties. So, he sat me down and let me ask about pay arrangements, holiday allocations, designated first-aiders (I don't much care, but I've worked in enough places to sort of expect this stuff), and where I can put my bike. "So you're not interested in finding out anything about the actual job?" he asked, with an undertone I was refusing to pick up on. He didn't seem satisfied with my explanation that we'd been over all that already. "Right," he said. "I think I'm going to have to give you another job interview, because all I've heard from you so far is whining about holidays and where to go if you get a fucking paper-cut. So, what's your speciality?" Which threw me, because I don't have a speciality. I suspect most people don't. Mr. Vance Miller almost certainly doesn't. I fell back on describing what I'd done well i previous jobs over the last year: fixed tasks, with precise instructions, to do over and over again. I was going for that kind of self-deprecating "He says he's okay but it means he's very good" impression. "So in other words, you're not good at anything, and you've got zero initiative. You're fucking useless. I'm surprised this didn't come out in the first interview." The hot PA mentioned in my last post was sitting next to me and, no doubt suddenly realizing that her own job was being questioned here, said "That's not true. We discussed skills you have. What about that typing speed, and computer skills?!" I confirmed this, and babbled a bit, stressing (when he seemed interested by it) that I was very confident with Word, Excel, Outlook and Internet Explorer. I then added that, rather than having no initiative, I had merely never been tested in such a role, and recklessly added that I would like to. "How do you spell initiative?" he snapped. I spelled intitative for him. Correctly. "Okay, so you can do something. You can spell." "Well, yes. In fact, I'm moderately proud of my abiltiy with spelling and grammar. Add to that my typing speed, and my ability with Word and Excel." By now, I'd found my feet. He wanted me to stick my foot in the door and get at him. He's a blunt, no-nonsense person, and he respects that in others. Later, he gave me a DVD of a Channel 4 documentary in which he was one of 3 businessmen trying to make it in China. The others trod lightly, naively trying to use western business practices. Miller didn't: he browbeat anyone who wasn't being straight with him, and short-circuited several people who tried to take him for a ride. He's abrasive, but shrewd, and I think I can grow to respect him. The rest of the interview went better, as my confidence grew to interrupt him if I thought he had the wrong impression about me. The funniest part was when I mentioned that I write, and I'm working on a book. "Could you do biography?" he asked. After an instant's thought, I replied "Yes, I suppose I could. It's not what I like to write usually, but I'm sure I could manage it." Later on, as the interview was coming to a close, he said "This job probably won't fill up all your time. If you've got nothing to do, come talk to me and I might see what I can do about that biography writing." Dear Lord, he wants me to write his biography! ROFLMAO! I'm starting to think that this job might be the closest thing you can get i office-work to an adventure. After the interview, people kept checking that I really was going to come back on Monday... (17 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007
3:29 pm	Well, it turns out... ...that I now have a job! I'm working for a company in Oldham called Kitchens; they make and fit (bizarrely enough) kitchens, and I went up for an interview with them on Monday. I'm glad it payed off, because I spent about an hour walking down to Victoria station and another 25 minutes at the other end besides. As a result, my extremely uncomfortable posh shoes gave me several painful blisters. Still, even if I hadn't got the job, I could have comforted myself with the fact that the girl interviewing me was exceptionally HOT. I thought at the time that the interview went reasonably well, and ironically I had another interview today that was rather worse. I'm not saying I screwed up, just that it was the kind of interview that people who have practiced their 'interview technique' do well in. I hadn't. They give me one of those annoyingly vague questions: "Tell us about some achievements that you're proud of." Gah. I ended up babbling about how easy my GCSEs were. Anyway, I've got to go now. Expect reminiscences on the nature of commuter life (shocking I know, but I will be COMMUTING to Oldham!) in the next few weeks. (1 Comment |Comment on this)