I don't suppose any of you know any Quakers?

I am not a cat person.
( Really, I'm not. )

Am I a language snob? I don't think I am. I know for certain that I am misusing the word "meme" on the regular. I will gladly mangle words for the sort of private language that is built between families and friends. But sometimes I'll hear or participate in a conversation that bring my English major soul to its knees in agony.

For example, where I work the supervisors meet weekly to do calibration. In this sense, it means that they all listen to a call and grade it. Then, they compare how they graded the call so that expectations can be brought into line and all the agents, theoretically, get a level playing field. I actually like the system. But that's not my point.

In any case, the supervisor that sits at the end of the row where I sit had written on her whiteboard "Calibration 2:30-4:00." A girl that sits near me looked at the board with a puzzled expression on her face and said "Collaboration? What's collaboration?"

Mis-reading the board isn't what made me twitch. I, along with another gentleman on the row, tried to explain that it said calibration. She had apparently never heard the word, so David and I tried to explain it. Her response was "It sounds just like collaboration to me. People coming together, right? That's collaboration."

Okay, I'm willing to admit that there are elements of collaboration in the way they do calibration here. But no amount of explanation could get it through to her that, yes they were collaborating, but that calibration was not the same word and did not have the same meaning.

Is this too complex an explanation: Collaboration means to work together. It really actually says work together: co-labor-ation. Calibration means to make sure everything measures the same. Caliber has to do with how large something is or a measure of quality. They're making sure they're all measuring things the same.

Her response: I think they're the same thing. I think it's stupid that they've got two words that sound that close and mean the same thing! Why would they do that?

I don't think this would make me want to tear my hair out if the girl in question were not, overall, fairly bright. She's just very, very ditzy. Kinda like me, I guess. They always say that the things that aggravate you most in others are the things you don't like in yourself.

I really, really don't like it in myself when I'm missing a fairly obvious, if small, distinction. Or maybe I'm just stunned that she's twenty, a high school graduate, and never hears the word calibration.

So tell me, am I just being a snob here? Is calibration really that much of a fifty cent word?

Stolen from hopeevey by way of firehair28:

Pick ten movies that you like. Post a line of dialogue from each. As people (correctly) guess them, cross them off the list. Guesses should be from memory only - no googling, y'all. Extra Credit: name the actor and/or the role, nah, that's too boring. Instead, quote the immediately following line of dialogue, and the actor a/or role...

1. Because in The Service one must always choose the lesser of two weevils.
2. Wakey, wakey. Eggs and bakey.
3. And bad boys get spanked. Bad boys get tortured!
4. She amuses herself with silly questions about the world below, such as "How many people are having an orgasm right now?"
5. It's quite modern what I do and it may feel a little strange at first, but I think, if you're open, then you might enjoy it.
6. Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death! (I consider this one almost a gimme, which should tell you about my taste in movies.)
7. There's nothing the matter with my face. I got character!
8. This for instance was filed under "H" for toy.
9. "Emotion: Agitation or disturbance of mind; vehement or excited mental state."
10. Then we're awake, but we're very, very puzzled.

Why is it that comfort food is rarely healthy?

I've come up with a compromise. I found a really nice silver cross-shaped mustard seed pendant. I'm going to cannibalize the necklace and make it into a brooch.

Christmas is coming up and I'm trying to think of something to give my Southern Baptist mother. I was working on a cross-stitch piece, but it's not going to be done in time for Christmas, so that's going to be for her birthday. My next idea is a pair of mustard-seed earrings. I don't know if this is a purely Baptist thing or what, but growing up a very Christian gift to give was a mustard-seed necklace or earrings. There are several verses in the Bible about mustard seeds, but the one that is usually printed either on or with the pendants is this:

Matthew 17:20
And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

The other is this:

Matthew 13:31-32
31 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.

In any case, I want her to know that I respect her beliefs and support her in them and that I'm thinking of her when I look for something to gift her with. I would like to actually make the earrings for her and wondered if anyone had any ideas of how to do a smallish pair of earrings (they need to be post back) with a mustard seed in them.

So, yes, it's perhaps goofy and a little sappy. But I really wanted to take a moment and count my blessings.

First off, I'm a pagan who celebrates Thanksgiving. I have a friend who calls it White Shame Day, and, yes, it sucks that the various native tribes had to put up with the things that they did and it sucks that many of them died out. I'm part Cherokee myself, my heritage is of a people that were made to walk from Tennessee to Oklahoma because my European ancestors thought they'd be better off elsewhere. That aches me every time I think about it.

But I put that part of it aside, because what today is for me is a harvest festival that I can share with my blood family. It's a day to be grateful that I have the family I do. They're Southern Baptist and they don't understand me, but they love me.

I have medical and emotional issues, but I keep chugging along and today I am content. This doesn't mean that I will quit moving forward, but I look around and I'm happy with where I am for now. I know there will be progress and there already has been progress. For today, that's enough. I may not love my body every second, but it gets me around and it's not suffered any hugely catastrophic failures yet. It's soft and snuggly and lets me give good hugs. That's a wonderful thing.

I am grateful for my lovely wife, ottergrrl, who feels like she doesn't do enough for me. I say to her, "You do just the right amount to take care of me when I need it and to push me to take care of myself when I can." I love you.

I'm grateful for old friends and new, to list all of you would take up far too much space. Still, you are all special to me in your own unique ways. I am thankful for loves and lovers, past, present and future. Even those that hurt me taught me valuable lessons, and most of them can still be counted among my friends.

I am thankful for a good job and a place to live that doesn't leak too much. I am grateful for the cats and the way they always seem to know when I need a cuddle.

I am thankful that I am alive and loved.

In honor of getting a new phone soon (which means a new address book) and because I know I have incorrect info for some of you and just because I think this ought to be done occasionally, let me know where you are!

If you want me to have your contact information, comment on this post with that information. All comments will be screened unless requested otherwise. If you don't feel comfy with that and want me to have the information, comment anyway and ask me for an e-mail address if you don't already have it.

This is the problem with LJ, we all think we are so close, and we know nothing about each other. I'm going to rectify it. I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about.

Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you.

Occasionally I find toys that make me wish I knew a child the age they're meant for, just so I can live vicariously. this is one of those toys. They had them at the book fair at work today for $11.

I even called my mom to see if any of the people on our Christmas lists were the cousins between ages 5-10. They aren't, unfortunately. For a split second, I even considered getting them for Bronwyn, who is all of two weeks old.

Dammit. I forgot Frankie! But with my brain, I would never remember to send them. Ahh well.

( Cut for memeness )

I have a new job! As of this morning, it is one hundred percent certain that I start work at US Cellular on Monday!

The pay is almost two more dollars per hour. Benefits start the day I start and I get free cell service. I'm very, very jazzed about this.

The downside? I really like a lot of the folks I work with and I'm going to miss working in the same office with ottergrrl. But I guess that will make the time we have together in the evenings and mornings more special. I so love my wife.

In other news, happy Coming Out Day!

Date:	2004-09-21 11:56
Subject:	Don't take it personally...
Security:	Public
Mood:	irritated

The first rule of staying sane while working any sort of customer service position is Don't Take It Personally.

Whatever they're calling about, it's not your issue. You're just the face (or the voice) that represents Company X right that second. This is not a problem with you. Not unless you make an arse of yourself.

It's a helpful rule. Helps you keep your temper and keeps you from making things worse by responding in kind to the customer.

Still, sometimes I can't help but take it personally. Usually, I'm OK with letting it slide off unless the customer actually calls me myself incompetent or something equally insulting.

( But today, oh today I took it personally. )

I want one of these!

LJMeme.com Crush Meme

Number of crushes on me so far: 14

LJ username:

Whahuh? Fourteen people have crushes on me? I'm with technomom on this one. I know four of them. Pleasepleaseplease tell me who the rest of you are? Please? I promise to be gentle.

Taking a page from hopeevey's book:

Question of the day: What does "crush" mean to you?

I've got my own answer to this that I'm going to post in a bit.

Stolen shamelessly from my sweet ottergrrl's journal:

Recommend to me...
1. a movie
2. a book
3. a musical artist, song, or album
4. a LiveJournal user not on my friends list
5. what I should have for dinner
6. a web site

then post this in your journal and I shall do the same for you!

I may just be cynical and grouchy because of this whole switching to day shift thing, but...

I got an e-mail from a customer today who can't access their e-mail. (Yes, I know. They fill in a web form.)

The customer's last paragraph says "I would love to hear how you intend to answer this so I can actually read it. It would be ludicrous to reply to my bellsouth (sic) email address now wouldn't it?"

Is it just me, or doesn't it follow that if you don't expect to be able to receive an e-mail replay that you shouldn't send a message to the e-mail helpdesk?

*mutter* Ludicrous indeed. *mutter*

For something that's just cutting and pasting, that last entry was hard to do. Wow. It's not as if most people I know aren't aware of this fact. It's just... I hadn't realized there really was some shame and reluctance associated with it.

Wow.

I'm Waya. I'm a survivor of sexual violence.
No pity. No shame. No silence.