GameAmp: Profile: xstellari

Stupid #%&@	9/15/04 - 07:48
Ugh, I work in a payroll department for several staffing agencies where I audit timesheets entered by operators who report to me. Holiday time is horrible for us. Our temporaries have weekly timesheets and submit varied hours from 0.25 to over 100 for a week. During holidays, they are supposed to have their supervisor initial hours worked on a holiday. If the hours are not initialed, we assume they mean that they are going to be automatically paid (part of their benefits) and ignore hours listed for the holiday. The employees receive a flyer with the previous week's check reminding them of this process and then they are reminded by an automatic message if they call Customer Service. Of course, only half of the temps actually follow this process. So we have to double check all hours over 32.00, deduct hours from the timesheets, and after all is processed, we receive the timesheets back again with the hours initialed. Those "new" timesheets have to be verified, because frequently the supervisor (our client) just wants to make sure that the employee gets paid because their regular employees get paid. These hours have to be processed as bonus hours, because they are taxed differently and would affect benefits if they were "worked". At this same time, we are short staffed, have increasing business volumes, and had the same short week last week as everyone else. All of our employees had to be paid, so the holiday just means those timesheets have to be processed the next day with that day's timesheets. Other processes get ignored during this time, so we are getting complaints now from other departments about spreadsheets that have not been updated, etc. In addition to all of this, our department does not hae a supervisor, so my peers and I are sharing most of those duties. We have the responsibility of making sure that no one has to work overtime. No really. We are expected to do all of this with no overtime accrued and have to meet with the operations manager to explain all overtime. We have had a number of systems go down in the last few weeks, from power outages to databases and printers. These cause "ok overtime", I think because someone else get charged the additional money for staff hours. That or because, theorhetically, the overtime should not have to be accrued again, because the system will be fixed to never go down again (snicker). The week of Labor Day is also National Payroll Week. We plan a lot of activities to motivate everyone, but of course this adds events to our already busy, busy week. I understand why Labor Day week is the week that payroll professionals are recognized, but ugh.
Rough times	9/11/04 - 05:26
Ugh, I think even with the holiday this past week, or rather because of the holiday this past week, I have only played 2 or 3 hours. I hate holidays. An 8 hour day off frequently results in 8+ hours of overtime (which isn't overtime until I actually work 40 hours in the week) and major amounts of stress. Who decided extra days off were beneficial to morale?
Working on articles	8/26/04 - 06:24
Hmm, I've written one article for the CoH site and am working on two more. It's kind of funny how it seems like homework. Especially as one of them is more interesting now, than it will be a month from now. Note to self: not all of your ideas are good enough for articles. Don't think about adding any more to the mix until you finish these two! Also, do not let other people use your laptop during prime writing time.
Busy week...ugh	8/5/04 - 12:44
Well, since I made 25th level a week and a half ago, I have celebrated my 30th birthday, had a friend in the hospital for surgery, my father had a primary election for Sheriff (and won! Yay Dad! He's in another state.), had a wedding anniversary, and turned in an application and resume for a promotion at work. Oh, and I finally hit 26th level last night after dying 3 times in the last 2 bars of the level.
Argh! Technical Difficulies Abound	7/27/04 - 10:33
So, I started playing CoH on my desktop. My husband was playing on his laptop and had a new one on order. When his new laptop came in and was verified to be in working order, he set up his old laptop for me to use (so we can be together and not in different rooms :) So, I get home from work now and my brother-in-law is on my laptop and I am relegated to the back room with the PC. (Wait. Didn't I say the point of the laptop was to be near my husband?) I eventually take the easy way out and change the password on my laptop so only I have access to it. Muahaha! my husband could have guessed it if he had tried (which he didn't), but it might clue him in to...don't let your brother use MY laptop. Anyhow...my laptop shortly thereafter goes crazy with the graphics. I happened after the first big patch to the game. We cannot fix it. :( But! We have a valid warranty on it. Let's get it fixed! Hmm...the laptop in no way meets the requirements for the game, so we can't say the reason we want it fixed is because the game doesn't work. There have been some missing pixels on the screen, so we take it in for that and, oh by the way, could you take a look at the video card? We think it's dying. 10 days later, after going back to the PC, we get a call re: the laptop (the old one, not my husband's beautiful new one). They cannot repair it, they are going to replace it. Replace it? Really? Hmmm...what a great idea! Oh, they have already picked out the replacement. Well, the game worked on the old one (over 2 years old). It should work on the new one. Right? We get the new one home and the game doesn't work. We can't even get the title screen up, with updated drivers. Ok, my husband returns it and calls me. We have 3 choices. Keep this one that we know won't work, get the old fixed (8-10 weeks), or use the value of the replacement towards the purchase of a new laptop. Hmm...well, I do want to play... Did I mention that we currently only have one income? So, my husband comes home with a new laptop (floor model, last one of it's type in the store). And it doesn't work. Argh! All this to play CoH? I am starting to wonder if it is worth it. What am I saying? Of course it is! So, he takes the floor model one to a different branch of the chain retailer in hopes that it is a problem with the individual laptop. Oh, but they won't take it back there because it was a floor model. He'll have to go back to the other store, return this one, get a gift card with the credit on it, come back to the new store and make the purchase. In the meantime, my husband has decided that he likes a different model. Same everything and better some other stuff, and only another 100 dollars! Oh my, what a bargain shopper he is... (this is going the route of "the more you buy, the more you save). We now have this new laptop. It runs CoH most of the time. I can't play in heavy server loads or near a train station or hospital. If I need to use a train, I have to run to it backwards. For some reason, running towards it bogs me down to a halt, but backwards is only half speed. Weird! And I have to be careful about grouping. No AoE heavy blasters or controllers. You're thinking...what happened to playing on the desktop? That was working for her, wasn't it? It was working for me. Last night we had a brown out that killed my desktop. :( We are very sad. No more desktops here. Our renter's insurance is messed up. We have a huge deductible, they pay half or less of the total cost of the component, and they get to pick the replacement component. Guess our PC is not being replaced any time soon. So, this is the tale of the poor little blaster that can't use AoEs because she'll cause her own laptop to kick her off the game. Hmm...that Internet cafe my brother-in-law has been going to is starting to look inviting.
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