mimesere

1) Please let the rep do their job. Do not assume you can do their job better. You do not know the policies, tools, or the limitations of either of them. What you want is either a) totally doable, b) doable with a little fiddling, or c) not only not doable but also probably against rules you have agreed to.

2) Answer the questions that are asked of you. Not the questions you think you are being asked, not the questions you think should be asked, but the questions that ARE asked. Answer these questions concisely. This is especially true on questions like, "May I get your name please?" or "May I get your email/phone number/address please?" There is NO REASON IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE that these questions require a story.

3) You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. Your special story? We've heard it. Trust me. We've heard it a WHOLE bunch. And if we haven't? We'll probably tell you.

4) Basic civility and manners. Have it. I will guarantee you that the person you're talking to will do their level best to help you as long as you're that nice person who's been totally cool instead of that giant d-bag who screamed for 20 minutes.

5) Look, don't mention hold times. We know hold times suck. They suck for us WAY more than they suck for you. Speaking for me and for just about everyone I know, mentioning them gets you a quick trip into eye-roll territory and immediate classification as one of THOSE people (this can be mitigated by otherwise being an awesome person).

6) We're human. There are jerks who work here too. They are, surprisingly, relatively rare.

7) We're going to have relatively little sympathy if we've sent you instructions or otherwise made something clear and you haven't done/read it.

8) I forget what 8 was for.

9) Please understand, people lie to us every day. All day, every day.

10) If you are calling an automated system and the automated system is saying stuff like, "This department cannot assist you with XXX issue, please call OTHER DEPARTMENT NUMBER" or whatever, listen to it. It's not telling you that for the lolz. It's tell you that because this department can't help you with that issue and waiting on the line doesn't make that magically change.

thank you, drive through.

I would take this to work every day with pride.

http://www.lunchboxes.com/krypton.html

Mass Effect 2 is so amazingly good, I can't even.

steve rogers/zinda blake: y/y/mfy?

swing dancing and punching nazis in the face.

I'm reading the first book and went, OH HEY THESE ARE BROWN PEOPLE (and Vikings!). And then I went, WITH SUPER AWESOME WOMEN. and then I went AND THERE IS A RANGE OF SEXUALITY. Oh, and lest I forget: HEY THERE HONORABLE STOICAL EVERYONE.

It's like the book was made just for me :D :D :D

I finished the first book and am now preparing to go buy the next three.

Well played so far, Sherwood Smith. Well played indeed.

...that was an interesting movie experience. More thoughtful than I thought it would be.

Anyone up for discussing it?

YOU CUT OFF ROY HARPER'S ARM? ARE YOU SERIOUS?

today is one of those days.

1) I am making brine for my turkey. Water, apple juice, salt, rosemary, garlic, brown sugar, bay leaves, and peppercorns. it smells amazing.

2) I'm not gonna lie, I'm seriously thinking of wearing these: http://www.converse.com/#/products/shoes/chucktaylor/112491 as my wedding shoes.

3) I got new books!

4) Also, I get to go christmas decorating shopping for the first time on Sunday! It is very exciting.

5) You guys.

grown up stuff is hard. especially coupled as it is with laziness and being anti social. As for example!

1) Nerdtopia now has an extra freezer. Why? The primary reasons are twfold:
a) So we can buy a 1/4 of a cow and thus have various cuts of meat for aaaaaaages.
b) Fewer trips to costco.

The boything will say that the other reason we got it was so he could have giant tubs of ice cream, which barely fit in the freezer we had before.

I will say that the other reason we got it is so I can pre-make things like casseroles and cookie dough and biscuits and chicken broth and save things like vegetable ends for the making of the aforementioned chicken broth.

We are also trying exciting adventures in preparing ziplock bags of meat in combinations we use frequently. So about 1/2 lb of ground turkey, some strips of bacon, and half a kielbasa sausage thing for when we make chili. We are seeing if this helps with the prep time later on.

Um, on a similar note: seriously, what do I *do* with ground meat? Chili, meatloaf, salisbury steak, meatballs, spaghetti sauce, sloppy joes...we eat them all and they are all delicious, but my brain, it is running out of things to make.

2) We also have a new dishwasher. The dishwasher that came with the house worked, but kind of sucked. Then it started leaking, we think because it was improperly installed. So then we stopped using it and it turned out to be a decent drying rack for dishes. However it also turns out that while my mom and family never use dishwashers, I am just lazy enough to not want to wash the ninety BILLION dishes we somehow generate in a very small amount of time.

3) I also bought a bin for flour. And one for sugar /o\ Because apparently i cannot stop baking. And also 40 lbs of multigrain allpurpose flour and 25 lbs of sugar to fill them.
/o\ x100000000.

4) We went to the farmer's market for the first time, since we have mutually decided to incorporate more vegetables into our lives. Me for the iron and the general desire to be healthier and him 'cause uh, well. 'Cause he likes them, coupled with some form of meat and also salt. Things were so cheap! Also, I got apple butter! and some tasty rosemary sourdough. and some delicious delicious orange juice. Anyway. Lots of stuff, all of it looked good, and we're going to go back when we've run out of the stuff we already bought. But there were lots of people and I maybe got a little overstimulated.

5) I have bought many cookbooks! And by many, I mean 4. Two by Alton Brown (I'm Just Here for the Food and I'm Just Here for More Food, which are less cookbooks and more like a handy guide into HOW cooking and baking work, a Better Homes and Gardens one that was on sale in the bargain section of Borders, and also The Pioneer Woman Cooks. 'cause uh, she makes food that the boything likes and also that I like because there are pictures of what the stages should look like. I'm thinking I might try the America's Test Kitchen books next. Or that How to Cook Everything book. Or I shall just continue to use allrecipes.com.

Um. That is it, really. Hi guys, how are you?

also, video game rec, for the no one that is interested:

Borderlands is a FPS/RP hybrid in the style of Diablo II. Apparently what this means is that it is addictive like crack and has randomized loot.