I need a drink!!

Man oh man ... the crazies are out in force today in the tech support world. OK, not the crazies but just your typical every day crap that goes on that we have to deal with.

1) User calls in a panic that her program is not launching. She had had a new operating system installed prior to her business trip (where she is making a presentation that requires our software) and did not test her applications after the install of the operating system. So - surprise surprise - she goes halfway across the country only to find out her software won't work. Yeah, well, thats because its not supposed to be installed on that operating system. So... she's in need of a patch. Well, this usually should not be that big of a deal to just go and download it from our website but she only has a dialup connection where she is, the patch is huge, so its going to take hours. Cue me jumping thru hoops trying to get something shipped to her for AM delivery tomorrow. Above and beyond ... following thru with something my department typically does not do. We're tech, not admin ... but nonetheless... So far its looking like its going to happen for her - we'll see. The lesson here is, make major change to your machine - do some testing. Speaking of going above and beyond in stuff that is technically not my job but I get roped into, got another nice message from a user about something like that just today:

"I just forwarded you the last e-mail we received from Service. They sent a
new code after your e-mail yesterday and I was able to verify it this
morning with a faculty member. We would not be up and running without
your assistance -- I also know it wasn't your job! Thank you so much!"

Anyway...

2) User calls who barely speaks English. OK, this is wrong. User seems to speak English perfectly but with an EXTREME Mexican/Spanish accent. And, she speaks very quickly. Everyone says that when you hear other languages spoken they aren't speaking quickly, it just sounds like that and if you spoke another language, English would sound the same way to you. OK, this is probably true but .... She was speaking English so quickly with such a strong accent that she might as well have been speaking another language. Really, she should have just tried the Spanish on me. I have 3 1/2 years of classes - I think I could have given it a shot - really! It would have been better than the conversation we were having. I was somehow able to understand the problem she is having and it is a common problem with some typically easy fixes but there was going to be no way we could have done the troubleshooting on the phone and survived. It would have taken hours and as it was, she had to repeat her email address at least four times to me in order for me to get it. So I coolly but professionally let her know there were all of these things that she could try to fix this and that it would be so much easier *for her* if she were to just read the instructions from email and go thru them one by one. So that is what we did and I even added additional instructions to the email. Surprisingly enough, it went thru (guess I got the address correct) so now we'll just wait to see if she writes back to say it worked or not. Keeping my fingers crossed but not counting on it!!

3) Just got stuck on the phone with a user for like 45 minutes who had somehow screwed up his network install. I have no idea why it wasn't working. All I had him do was uninstall, reinstall with me walking him thru it and now it works perfectly. Calls like that always seem like such a waste. You would think that the average person has the imagination to think... oh, this didn't work ... let me try it again just to be sure. At least thats how I handle things. I don't understand the mentality behind some users who will install once and absolutely refuse to try and install again and call us and all we find out is that they have a bunch of junk installed on their machines and its amazing that anything even works. They think they are required to get it on the machine once and what happens after that is up to us. Bull......

Anyway, its always a fun day at the shop. Seriously, I am in need of alcohol. There ain't much more I want to do today.

So last night I ended up at the bowling alley - I haven't been in a few weeks. I'm talking about the local bowling alley, not the place from last weekend. OK ... I'm not some bowl nerd or something. Sadly, the bowling alley seems to have one of the best bars nearby. We used to hang out at another local bar where they have the NTN Trivia and Texas Hold Em but they got rid of those machines so we're not so big on that place anymore. So now the bowling alley has it, plus we've become pretty good friends with a bunch of people who hang there, as well as the bartenders. They also have karaoke every Wednesday night, some decent parties and drink specials and packages and 50 cent bowling on Tuesday nights. Its like I've died and gone to Sullivan. The big joke in Sullivan is that the bowling alley is the only place to hang - or at least to eat. Well, thats not really the truth about Sullivan anymore but you know what I mean.

So yeah I go in there last night and play some trivia and had maybe 1 1/2 beers as I don't really drink anymore. Anyway... psycho boy was there and he started talking to me asking me about his ex's current boyfriend. I said he was a really nice guy. He wanted to know what he looked like and if he was a "small guy" and I'm like ... no, I'd say he's average height and build. Then he mentioned something about how he heard he was quiet or whatever and I said he was a little quiet but I thought that might be because he was meeting people for the first time and he was being teased about singing karaoke when he didn't want to. So then he goes... "Sounds like he's the opposite of me" and I started laughing (couldn't help it) and said "I would say he is the EXACT opposite of you." It was pretty funny.

Anyway, have a few things I need to wrap up here this afternoon. Wish I could chat longer. I have about a million things on my "to-do" list for the next week. I am so not looking forward to it.

LOVE!!

- Melissa