And when I checked my time-off request for the next week (Jan 1, to be exact) and found it denied, I was depressed and frustrated and pissed off. I resubmitted the request, and in the comments I said, "Because I am working both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, my family scheduled this day to celebrate Christmas together." I was really pissed off--here I am, intending to work my regular schedule on the most important day of the year, without kicking about it, and they can't even approve one lousy day off without pay. WTF.
This attitude does not, of course, affect how I treat my customers. When I'm talking to them, I'm cheerful and pesonable and more than willing to help; but off the phone, grargh.
But the way they handled this whole thing is just stupid. They could have arranged things so that half the center worked one day and the other half the other, just as one possible example of how to do things; and as I ate lunch I fumed, "If I come to work on Christmas and I end up sitting around waiting for a call, I'm going to be really angry."
Well, today--sometime after my lunch break--someone from Workforce was going around the call center with a checklist. He said to me, "Ed, since you've got one of the top scores for Choice, you can have Christmas day off if you want."
He had barely finished that sentence when I said, "Yes!"
"...you do have to make up the day, though," he finished.
"When?"
"That week."
"I'll work Tuesday, then," I said.
"Choice" is our call center's shorthand for "customer surveys". Yes, I'm near the top for it. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Anyway, actually being rewarded for hard work completely turned my attitude around, and after that I was feeling pretty good, because working a different day and having one of the holidays off suits me just fine.
* * *
Nominating either Cruz or Rubio would be a mistake, GOP. It would be a mistake because the mainstream media--strangely incurious about Obama's near-total lack of a paper trail--would be all over [Rubio/Cruz] like white on rice, and every evening newscast would be a constant drumbeat of Democrats say [Rubio/Cruz] is Constitutionally ineligible to be President. If the GOP thinks their guy will get a pass because Obama did, they're smoking something that's still illegal in 48 states.
I won't vote for either one.
* * *
"Totally unstoppable" unless metal goes where it's not wanted. Problem is, "metal going where it's not wanted" is pretty much the practical definition of modern warfare, which is why the Navy invests so much in air superiority and defensive weaponry for carrier battle groups.
If your ship can be rendered inert by contaminated lubrication--just that, if your oil filtration system cannot keep metal filings out of your transmission--you have a really, really big problem considering your ship is supposed to be designed to survive being bombed.
* * *
Cop executes man for driving drunk. That's right. Drunk guy flips his truck, ejecting his wife, who dies; as the guy is crawling out of the truck, the cop decides, "He's gonna flee!" and attempts to shoot him dead.
Oh, but wait!
As Officer Feaster moved towards Thomas, the gun discharged and struck Thomas in the neck. The shot hit Thomas in the C7 and T1 vertebrae and could lead to him being paralyzed for life.Well, why would he? The gun fired itself! The gun discharged! The cop didn't fire it!
When backup arrived on the scene, Feaster did not mention anything about having fired his weapon.
(The fact that a modern firearm cannot discharge without the trigger being pulled notwithstanding....)
Let's give the cop the benefit of the doubt and say this is merely ("merely!") a negligent discharge of his weapon If you or I have a negligent discharge and someone gets shot, we lose our guns and probably go to jail.
Of course cops are "only ones" so they get a pass, right?
* * *
But right now, I have two days off in a row, and I intend to enjoy them.
