URL:
http://forum.wowtaiwan.com.tw/twow_forums_page3.asp?topic_id=22726&forum_id=13&GoPage=1&lis=

Babelfish Translation:
The estimate will plan the following movement, everybody will be allowed to provide your opinion

1. Painful curse ?? this curse surpasses the time the injury now only to be able to trigger periodically may trigger the effect.

2. The soul ignition ?? present plays the family may see this when the death makes the soul fragment to reduce the profit effect, and has 5 seconds the duration. The master will not meet to the goal death when will obtain 2 souls fragments. Has not given the empirical value or the honor points goal no longer makes the fragment.

3. Rain of ?? this skill flame once more correctly will trigger the flame to dash.

4. Devil knowledge master ?? when summoning controls in groups the pet can prevent you to have to reach this point the talent gain. This question was revised.

5. The misfortune curses ?? this curse no longer to be able to discharge to is played by the biological control on the family body.

6. Shadow ignition ?? this magic arts if are resisted, no longer will affect reduces the profit effect on the monster body. Has not given the empirical value or the honor points goal no longer makes the fragment.

7. In weak curse ?? essence reduced supernatural power consumption.

8. Crude curse ?? reduction supernatural power consumption.

9. To the frightened technique immunity monster now also can the frightened effect immunity which twines to the death.

10. Suffers distress (void traveler) ?? the radius to grow, renews the news prompt.

New talent simulator near future soon will open to the official is on-line.

Slyck News - Huge Anti-Piracy Push By MPAA

Slyck News - Huge Anti-Piracy Push By MPAA

Boo.

Gamasutra - Soapbox - "World of Warcraft Teaches the Wrong Things"

Gamasutra - Soapbox - "World of Warcraft Teaches the Wrong Things"

Rebuttal to some points later.

Will you be there, holding my hand?

So the week's finally over. It was kind of a crazy one - I was originally scheduled to close Monday - Thursday, 5 - 12 on Friday, and off Saturday and Sunday, 39 hours. I ended up with 52. Jason, the new MIT that we're training for Seguin or Bulverde or something, he ended up calling in on his third day. Supposedly, his mother is having issues, but we're not sure. I mean, we're giving him the benefit of doubt, but at this point, the burden of proof is squarely on his shoulders. Clelia had to leave as well, and we lost Tex since he didn't go and take his drug test within 24 hours of his accident. So we still have Ashley, Emily, Greg, and Enrique. Gina's said we have another two drivers coming on board, and she wants to hire another two CSRs. I think. They're kind of fun to have around, I guess - it's weird having someone inside that isn't a manager, but it helps keep labor down and what-not. Without both of them there on Thursday, I would have been royally screwed. It was tough as it was, but we handled things okay. Friday and Saturday got really busy with the weather and all, but on Saturday, it didn't happen until like seven or so, they had *almost* sent me home when it hit. I still ended up getting out of there at a decent time. We ended up slightly over 21k for the week, not too shabby. If this weather continues, though, we could have another really good week.

Except...

Becca and Felicia both put in their two weeks' notice at Seguin, which leaves *one* MIT - and it's Amber, who isn't that great anyway. Eileen will be coming back from vacation right into the middle of all this, which will be fun for her. She'll probably turn to Gina for help; my guess is that Ambra will end up running Seguin. I'm certainly not going to do it - they've tried to give me Seguin once, and I don't think anyone else at our store wants to, which leaves her. So yeah. Oh, she came and handed down some *more* inane policies - first and foremost, no radio. Period. Once again, some retard down in San Antonio did something stupid, and it's affecting our store, which is really frustrating. We've never had an issue with the radio; it's secured down to its current location, and it's almost never on except for after close, which takes us longer than other stores, since we're busy right up 'til close, *and* we close an hour later than just about everyone else (and I heard they might be making us open an hour earlier too, which is also retarded). Let's see, what else? Oh, yeah, they want us to record driver license numbers on credit card reciepts - also not gonna happen. There were a few more gems, but I've had enough of dealing with corporate bullcrap for now.

On to funner stuff, like girls that refuse to give straight answers, which is one of the most frustrating aspects of dealing with them. As weird as it sounds, that's one of the things I liked best about the relationship I had with Mindy (who will be turning 20 soon, if not already; I don't quite remember when her birthday is). We were very open, very honest with each other. I mean, yeah, she dumped me once or twice for another guy, but I never had to worry about her not telling me that. She'd be very honest about it - "Billy, I'm dumping you for another guy." We could very easily discuss what we liked, what we didn't; it's kind of hard to enunciate. So I sent this girl I like a message telling her as much. Before you start saying anything about the medium used, yeah, it should have been done in person. I prefer to do things in person. I did it that way for several reasons. First and foremost, our schedules were the exact opposite - she was opening, I was closing, so there weren't a lot of great oppurtunities. Second, once I decide to do something, I tend to do it at the first available chance. Third, there are a few benefits to doing it over a written medium - you get to carefully construct your message, you don't really put the recipient on the spot, and they are under less pressure to respond. I no longer have the copy of what I sent her, but there were a few key points; predominantly, if her answer was 'no' (not that I was asking her anything), to just say so, as I understood there were a lot of reasons for that. Her reponse? I'm not going to post everything, just a few key excerpts.

Instead of starting out with the tired ol' "I'm flattered but..." line (which basically is like the kiss of death, but this is NOT that) I'm going to say this. My feelings for you, other than of the friendship variety are still very high up in the air.

I just need more time to think this through more.

and not to sound harsh..this is not another thing that I want to just ahve to "get through". I want to put some thought into it, some thought that would actually give me a better perspective.

When I read her response, I read it to say that she wasn't sure. It wasn't a no, but it was far from any sort of yes either. Not sure now type thing. I still stand by that interpretation.

However, we got into a discussion Saturday night that began on a joking note, but at some point, transitioned into a discussion of our relationship, during which she expressed confusion, believing herself to have already said that we were to be just friends. I asked her when such a conversation had taken place, and she referenced the conversation I've quoted from above.

Now, it's not the rejection that I mind. Well, a little - nobody likes rejection. But that's not what frightens me with girls, what makes me hesitate and second-guess myself. It's the ambiguity, the non-straight-fowardness. It's something I faced with Lilie consistently, and it's one of my top pet peeves; in relationship-type areas, it INFURIATES me. I mean, yeah, you can be ambigiuos without meaning to, because you thought what you said was fairly clear. Then there's being ambigiuos because you don't know how you feel, which is perfectly fine.

Gah, I'm not sure what I'm trying to say, and this thing is getting a little long, and I should go ahead and just post it (It's Wednesday morning, 5:55 am, at this point.)

3 Doors Down -- Kryptonite

You had almost forgot the way

Hmm... what've I been up to lately? Not much. With closing shifts Monday through Thursday, I'm coming up on the home stretch of a work-sleep-work chain that tends to happen every time I have more than two consecutive closing shifts. So, it's fun. I've been more active after work lately, which is nice.

I thought I had a lot to write about, but I don't really. Maybe more later.

Alex Megane -- So Today

She must be the reason God made a girl

Just had a really, really, really cool dream about becoming a Celtic Woad Raider.

Most awesome.

Groove Coverage -- She

No one in the club I'd rather see

So, just had lunch with the family + David and Ambra. Yeah, took Ambra. She told me later how cool my family is (Damn straight!) and they seemed to really enjoy her company as well, so that's good. Going back up 'bout 2 to teach her how to do Sunday night paperwork; that'll be fun. The last two nights have been kind of interesting as well. Joe and I got our asses kicked Friday night, just a lot of orders, and neither one of us was really up for it. Saturday night was much better - him, Ashley and I had a 106 pie hour, and we did fine. Let's see, last night, we had about an hour delivery time for the last part; Mike got back from his last run at about quarter to three; Josh didn't get back until about 3. We didn't finish up 'til about 4:30 - 5. I wasn't quite done yet, but Mike needed a ride back to his truck, and I was happy to oblige. We got him there, then drove back (so he could get his other truck, which was still at the store), and my key wouldn't work in the mag-lock. This lead to a chain of events that included having my key break off in the lock, spraying WD-40 in the lock, and calling Joe to see if his worked. It didn't. So we left a message with Gina letting her know what happened. Went up there this morning after waking up; her key didn't work either, but Eileen's master key did. She's going to get the locksmith out there tomorrow to fix everything up. Good stuff. I have to go back up there in about eight hours or so to train Ambra on Sunday night paperwork; otherwise, I have the day off. Have 5-C the next five days, then Saturday and Sunday off, which is kind of nice, though the fact that it's Saturday and Sunday doesn't have any special significance for me, as opposed to say, Wednesday and Thursday. Ambra's closing Saturday and Sunday, so that's kind of funny. Still not sure what's going on there. Nothing, really.

So anyway.

Akon -- Lonely

Frequent Netflix renters sent to back of the line - U.S. Business - MSNBC.com

Frequent Netflix renters sent to back of the line - U.S. Business - MSNBC.com

This annoys me.

Water's running in the wrong direction, got a feeling it's a mixed-up sign

So, work. Been fun lately. Last week was pretty crappy as far as that goes - had 55 hours, which is nice, but it didn't feel like it at the time. Was supposed to have 4-12 Tuesday, but I ended up closing, they just didn't tell me about it until I got there. I mean, I'm not really complaining - I prefer to close when it comes down to it, but I would have liked to know beforehand. Anyway. Had a training class Tuesday, which is always fun, since they're in San Antonio and about two-thirds of the stuff they say doesn't apply to us, and everyone else knows each other. The San Marcos group tends to stick together. It was a lot more enjoyable going with Ambra than with Shelly, and that would be even if I didn't have a thing for her. Closed Thursday and Friday, had a long shift Saturday, then had to go to Seguin, pick up 60 trays of dough, 1000 boxes, 200 side boxes, and 50 pounds of corn meal, then come back and unload it - by the time I was done with all that, it was pushing 3, so yeah, another closing shift, then closed Sunday night, did the Sunday night paperwork, then closed Monday again. It's nice to have today off, then just a class tomorrow.

But there's been a few things annoying me. Let's start with the drivers. One of the things I've really liked about this job, especially when compared to working at Sonic, is the maturity of the drivers. I rarely have to ride herd or pull rank to get them to do their job, and if they have to stay late, generally not a big deal. In fact, the main reason I was able to start running shifts on my own so quickly is that I was able to depend on the drivers to do their job well consistently without a lot of oversight. However, within the last two weeks, I've had to lock horns with almost every driver we have over one thing or another. Let's see here...

• Mal
  This one kind of surprised me. It was a Friday night, the first busy one we'd have since the spring semester started. It was about 6 - 6:30, right in the middle of the dinner rush. There were no runs on the screen, no orders in at all, and Mal was the only driver in the store, so she was first up. It was my shift, but Gina was there. So Mal comes up to me and asks me if she can go across the street to Murphy's Deli and get something to eat. Now, to be fair, there weren't any runs in the store at all; however, it *was* a really busy Friday night, which meant that there could be a run *ready to go* in seven minutes. She was the only driver in the store, and there were plenty of things that needed doing. She got kind of upset when I told her no, saying that "If I go later, it costs me money" - not to sound harsh, but not my problem. The frustrating thing about that situation is that she can basically disregard that and just go on the to or from her next run - which she did. I'm certainly not trying to say this is a problem with her or anything - for the most part, she's one of the better drivers in terms of getting the job done, reliability, etc. It was a fairly isolated incident, just one that took place along with a few others.
  
• Ray
  Lemme see... we were closing, Mike was doing the back (due to a misunderstanding between him and I when I jokingly said that Ray would 'duel him to the death' for the right to do the front, which I only said since Mike hates doing dishes so much. I thought my use of that phrase would at least provide a strong indication that I was joking, but he didn't hear me. So anyway, they finish up, and Ray didn't change the front trash can. Not a big deal, but definitely something that's supposed to be taken care of, so I let him know, and he let me know *very* strongly that he didn't want to. It kind of devolved into us yelling at each other across the store, but he did it. Also, that night (I think it was that night, but closing shifts tend to run together), Ray was in, the other closing driver was out. He was waiting for his run to come out of the oven, the only run in the store at the time, when a call came in. I took it - it was to Clovis Barker Rd, which is way the fuck out there, and he was happy that it would end up going to the other driver. So they were having a tough time figuring out what to order - the lady I was talking to radioed some other people to see if/what they wanted; they had to review a few different specials and combinations, and in that time, another call came in. Ray took it since his run still wasn't up, and sure enough, he finished his call well before I finished mine. However, he delayed putting his through, in an attempt to avoid having to take Clovis Barker, since the order runs go out is determined by when they go through, not when the order is started. I saw this, though, and didn't put mine through and went to put his through (not that it would have really mattered, since I would have had him take Clovis Barker anyway). He tried to block me, but yeah, that wasn't going to happen. So he ended up taking Clovis Barker, and got pulled over on the way back. It was something really stupid too, like he didn't slow down sufficiently as he passed a police officer that had someone else pulled over. They didn't give him a ticket or anything, but they did take a while running his license. So he was understandably frustrated, and that segued into the trash incident.
  
• Wes
  I've been having issues with Wes in general lately - he seems to take a lot longer than any of the other drivers, and doesn't really care about anything. I mean, it's getting to the point where I'd rather have Ross than Wes. But yeah, in this whole little rant, he's the only one I'm having repeated issues with. All of these other ones, it's just little things that popped up once or twice, nothing habitual or anything. So anyway... one night, he was doing trash; I specifically asked him to make sure to get the trash can out front, which isn't something that has to be done every time. He told me he was ready to check out; I asked him if he had done it, and he told me he had. I went out and checked, and he hadn't, and I called him on it. He told me he was intending to do it on his way out. Which would be fine, if he had told me that, as opposed to that he'd already done it. That wasn't too big of a deal; the next one is. Same Friday night as the Mal incident previously; about the same time, too. Wes starts asking Ross about a possible schedule change. Definitely not the appropriate time to do so. However, it gets worse. Wes calls the store, and asks to speak to Ross, just to tell him that never mind, he doesn't need to switch shifts after all. That was so infuriating, I don't even want to go into it any more. I pulled him aside later to explain that the middle of the Friday night dinner rush is *not* the time to do something like that, and the whole thing just went in one ear and out the other. Rather annoying.
  
• Mike
  Not even gonna go there.
  

Wow, was that really it? I guess we just don't have a lot of drivers right now, though we're getting some more. Greg is doing really well, seems like he's already ready to be a strong driver; I haven't worked with Enrique or Tex much, can't really comment on that. Clelia seems to be struggling a little on not getting lost, which could be just a function of not knowing the area well yet, but it somewhat detrimental for a delivery driver.

So I'm not trying to say anything bad about our drivers as a whole. These were just a bunch of isolated incidents that happened to occur near each other. Last week was kind of stressful for everyone, and with the reduced staff we've had lately, a lot of people are just plain tired. This week is definitely the easiest, least hour one I've had in a while. Felicia called earlier to see if I could go close Seguin tonight, but that wasn't going to happen. And I've got to leave in like three hours to go to class with Ambra. If I understand correctly, we're going to be watching a video tape of a business seminar. [Sigh] Fun stuff. Not really, but at least the company is paying for it, and the company will be very nice (note: the second use of the word company there is referring to the people, or more specifically, person, next to me. I thought it was a nice play on words, if somewhat poorly phrased.)

But yeah, people have been kind of rude lately, especially about us being closed. Now, I've been in food service about five years now. Not quite Gina or Dave with their 15-20 years, but enough that I'm fairly experienced, especially in dealing with customers. Our store closes at 2 am on Friday and Saturday, and 1 am the rest of the week, Sunday through Thursday. Period. I didn't set the rules, I just follow them. We're also open an hour or two later than our competitors, with the exception of Pizza Classics, which keeps basically the same hours we do, but being locally operated and not part of a franchise, is the least likely to adhere strictly to their rules. That, and the employees tend to be slackers and lazy - I'm not saying that as a competitor, just quoting two of our drivers that have worked there in the past. So anyway, we're the late night pizza guys, especially for the campus, which we've done a lot of marketing for and on. That, and I tend to close 3-5 times a week. I'm the closest thing we have to a 'closing manager'.

A'ight, so, done with the preamble. People are asshats. I mean, I don't consider myself overly polite, but I have a decent understanding on how to properly behave and show respect to fellow human beings (whether or not I always do is another story, and not quite the point). Here's the point. I've had a lot of people recently being really, really rude to me on the phone concerning the fact that we're closed. When we're closed, and I pick up the phone to let them know, I always say the exact same thing - "Domino's Pizza; I'm sorry, but we're closed for the night." Sometimes, I omit the 'but'. But it's always in a neutral to friendly tone of voice, and I don't immediately hang up the phone, in case they wish to inquire as to our hours of operation, or it's an employee or friend of an employee calling in, or whatever. Generally, they'll respond with "Aw" or "Oh, okay" or "Thanks" or something along those lines. Occasionally, they'll ask if I know of anywhere that's open - which there aren't any for pizza delivery by the time we're closed - or something along those lines.

Those are the okay ones. Ocassionally, though, people (students) feel the need to be real asshats about the fact that we're closed. I don't if they're drunk, or trying to show off for their friends/significant other or what, but it's kind of annoying, especially since I have a psychological block where I can't just hang up on someone. Here are just a few examples.

It's a guy asking if we're still open, which is a moot point, since I answered the phone with the fact that we're closed. He asks "Are you sure?" (Why do they always ask this?) By now, the other people in the room have realized we're closed, and I can hear this girl start yelling "Man, fuck Domino's! I'm never fucking calling them again! They fucking suck!" Had another guy, the conversation went something like this:
-Domino's Pizza, I'm sorry, we're closed for the night.
-What, you're closed? I thought y'all closed at 2.
-No, that's only on Friday and Saturday. The rest of the week, we close at 1.
-Then why did you even bother answering the phone?***
***We get asked this every once in a while. There are *plenty* of reasons why we answer the phone after we're closed:
*As a courtesy to customers, so they're not sitting around listening to the ringing, wondering if we're open and just taking a while to get to the phone, or what.
*Because drivers can theoretically leave the store on a run up to ten minutes after close, and they might call back with a question.
*One of our sister stores might call concerning inventory, or with a question on paperwork.
*Not everyone has a cell phone, and occasionally, friends/family/significant others will call the store after close, since it's a fairly convenient time to get a hold of someone on a closing shift (ie, they won't be out on a run, and won't be too busy to be able to talk for a few minutes.)
*One of the employees that's not working could be calling up for to ask about their schedule
-Any number of reasons; as a courtesy to you, in case one of our drivers out on a run has a question-
-Oh, so you've still got drivers out on runs, so they could bring me a pizza?
-No, they're taking orders that were placed before close, forty minutes ago.
-Well then, fuck Domino's. I had a coupon, and I was going to give you a chance, but if this is the way you treat your customers, I'm never going to try y'all again. I'll just give all of my business to Papa John's.
-I'm sorry we wouldn't make you a pizza forty-five minutes after close, sir.
-Well, be sorry that you just lost my business. I have a doctor, a msters in business, and I know that the first thing they teach you is "The customer is always right."
-I have to go now sir, have a nice evening.

It was just mind-boggling. First of all, if he had graduated business school, he wouldn't have been living in the area of town he was (we had his info on the caller database from some previous orders). It just bothers me that customers will act this, well, childish, throwing fits because they don't get their way. I could understand being upset if it's like ten minutes before close, and the we're just not taking their order because we want to get out of there a little earlier, but we don't really do that, since most of the drivers would get really upset, since they're there to make money, which only really happens when they take runs.

Also had a few people trying to scam us for free pizza. It happens every once in a while, but had a few come in relatively close together. Now, first, we're always happy to take care of legitimate complaints. It's only when it's obviously fake that we start getting annoyed. For example: Guy calls up, tells me he had an order messed up a few days ago, that he's supposed to have a credit, and he'd like to get it. Fair enough, nothing out of the ordinary there. So I ask him for the phone number it's under. He gives me the number which he's calling from, which has... no order history whatsoever. I ask him if it might be under another number. He says to try his friend's cell phone number, which also has no order history whatsoever. Early on in the conversation, he starts saying that he's not trying to pull a fast one, that he's a correction office and that he makes X amount of dollars, and that he wouldn't need to get the free pizza, and that he's going to tip our driver *so* well... So I start asking him if he's sure that he called Domino's, that there isn't another number it might be under (we usually ask them if they just want it under the number the original order was placed from). He accuses me of calling him a liar, I tell him that no, I'm just trying to find his information. So, since it's slow, I ask him when he ordered - Monday, around 8:30 or so. I also get his address, then pull up the Daily Order Register for Monday, which lists EVERY order that went out, along with address, phone number, etc. Even orders that were placed, and then cancelled, or orders that didn't go out for whatever reason. We can't always do it, but it was *really* slow. So I start checking around the time he claimed to ordered - nothing to his address. Nothing at all to his entire street. I start widening the search - from close, all the way back to around 3 pm. Nothing at all to that address, one order to that sreet, definitely a different address (nothing close by), about 3:30 pm - nowhere near "8:30 pm". So I tell him that I'm not seeing any orders on Monday going to his address, that I've checked most of Monday, and ask again if it might be under another number, or if he's mistaken about which pizza place it was, or if it was on another day. He starts saying "What do I have to do?" Which is kind of a weird thing to say. Yeah, it was kind of amusing.

Hmm.. yeah, people are asshats. More later.


Girls Aloud -- Sound of the Underground

But there's nothing I can say

Not dead yet. No, not by a long shot. I certainly understand the confusion, however. Hell, I even had to check myself, just to be sure. Just had a really hectic week at work, had 55 hours with five closing shifts, kind of caught me off-guard. I've actually got a day off today (Tuesday), but the scant free time alloted to me is rapidly being claimed by myriad activities. I need to go by the bank and deposit my paycheck, and well, that's about it so far. Kinda. I think Joe and I are going to hook up after he's done with lessons and watch Anchorman - he's never seen it.

Frightening.

There's a chance Ambra'll be joining us for that, which would be cool. Oh, and we might go bowling afterwards, which would also be cool. I want to get the dishes caught up again, and I need to get all my trash out to the dumpster. Wouldn't mind playing some WoW in there, but it's not a huge priority or anything.

So, just throwing a few pebbles in the pond to make some ripples, 'cause the water's been way too calm for too long now. So more later.

Milky -- Be My World