Son came over last night and used my computer for internet access. He is looking into the details of starting a small business here in town and needed my internet to do that. He chose to come over just prior to my bedtime and ask if he could use the computer while I was sleeping. A little leary of agreeing to it, I let him. Got up this morning and everything looked fine. He turned off the lights and locked the door when he left as I had asked him to do. He left the computer on, but I remembered that I never told him to turn it off. No problem there. I worked this morning in the call center so didn't get to use the computer for my own personal use until afternoon. That's when I found it!! He deleted the history and cookies...I don't know what else, but maybe all the passwords too. LOL Not that I am not wondering what he looked at that he might think he needed to hide from me...I think I already can figure that one out. I just hope I can remember all my login information for all the sites I am signed up to just remember me. I know. I delete these things myself occassionally, so I do really know what most of the passwords are...at least I know what they are, just not necessarily which site they go to.
I took a short weekend break over the holiday from blogging and squidoo. I had to work at the call center both Saturday and Sunday, but since I was just going to be sitting here at home anyway, why not? Now I am back at it and my mind seems to have gotten stuck somewhere back before the weekend and I can't think of much to blog about. So what do I do when that happens? I go back to the www.wahm.com website and check out the new blog listings I find there as well as the new squidoo lenses. Then I go check out those blogs and see what they might be all about. It helps me think of things to write here. To tell you the truth, though, my mind is still pretty focused on the disappointment I am feeling over the video file conversion problem from my new camera. If my computer should crash before I get those videos adequately saved to CD or DVD, they will be lost except for picture only. What a shame that would be. Believe me I am praying for a soon solution as well as that my computer will not have any major issues before then. I am not expecting anything to go wrong, but you know how it is sometime when you can't back up your files the way you want or need to.
After the outing yesterday with Daughter and Grandson, today was another a-fib episode. This is getting more than a little annoying. Catch 22 is what it is called, isn't it? The more active I am, the more threat of the a-fib episodes which end up wiping me out for the next day...but at the same time, I need to increase my activity level, which I am doing gradually since I surely don't want to end up in a full permanent a-fib episode like last year. In just under 2 weeks Daughter and I will be heading back over to the doctor to find out his decision after getting the results of the monitor. (And we will hopefully be making our side trip to Taj Mahal this time.) Maybe the doctor will have a solution that will help. In the meantime, the fridge is filled with good healthy, lower calorie meal fixin's for me to work on that part of the health plan.
Have you ever had a good chef or tossed salad with grapefruit pieces in it? How about crushed strawberries? One of my cousins likes to bring the food whenever she comes to work on genealogy with me. She brought all the salad fixin's one day complete with grapefruit one time and strawberries the next. I am not a great experimenter with new tastes for the most part, but was feeling a bit brave both of those days. I now can't buy salad stuff without buying a grapefruit to add to it. I love it! Maybe if I remember when I make my salad tomorrow, I will take a picture of it to add here before I eat it all up. I am not a fan of grapefruit, but it is good for me, and since I like it on salad, it is a great way to get it into my diet.
Final topic of the evening: The Nintendo Wii and how it is now being used in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Fascinating! But from what I know of the Wii, it makes a lot of sense that it would be useful as both physical therapy/rehabilitation, and as a social activity. I am going to have to explore this topic further and blog about it on my Activity Director blog soon. Myself, I am still very partial to the old Atari games. My kids and I wore two consoles out during their youth. The first Nintendo's and Play Stations, I have not enjoyed that much during the few times I have had the chance to play them. I am not fond of having to use arrow keys rather than the old traditional joy sticks. I am not that coordinated I guess. So, I am not sure how I would like the Wii system. But as I research this further, who knows? I may have to invest in one down the road just to add some more physical activity to my lifestyle that might not be so overwhelming to my system as to cause more a-fib episodes. Any thoughts?
Showing posts with label nintendo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nintendo. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Friday, February 29, 2008
If You're Looking For a Wii, Please--Don't Call Me!
Telephone technology has advanced tremendously since the days of going through the operator to get your next door neighbor, and, oh, those party lines! Being an employee in a call center, I have to keep certain secrets of the trade, but it might be good to have a clue how to talk on the phone in these times of electronic world-shrinking. You will first notice that I have listed my job title as a call center HBA. HBA stands for Home Based Agent. I get to do my job from the comfort of my living room. No battling bad weather to get to work. But the really interesting thing is that the company I work for has agents all over this country! And probably most of them, if not all of them are HBA's.
Businesses all over the United States and even the world are now tapping into the idea of using call centers to cut down on telephone usage within the businesses themselves. When the call centers can be equipped with enough information, they can answer questions from clients or customers up to 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (or 366 as in this year). Some of these businesses have employed call center staff from countries outside of their own country. That means, it could be that the person talking to you on the phone might be in his or her own country of origin and not living or working in the country you are calling from. It's just another way the internet has made this world smaller and brought us all closer together--if not physically or socially--at least through our telephones.
The next time you try to call for tech support for a computer program, for example, the person you are talking to might not be anywhere close to the location of the main address of the business you are calling. That also applies to stores, government offices, and many other business entities. Most of the time, the scripts used by the call center staff keep it unknown as to whether these people are located right inside the business or at some remote location. The businesses don't hide this information to be secretive. I think they have the idea at this point that the general public just isn't ready to understand it all and that they won't be happy not being able to talk to someone directly in the building. It is kind of like talking to one of those automated systems that can't understand what you are trying to tell it. We don't like them. I think businesses will think we won't like call centers either. Having worked in a call center, I have an inside view. With all the information we have at our literal fingertips via the internet and our computer keyboards, and with all the efforts the businesses put into making sure the information is available and kept up-to-date, the call center employee, whether located inside the physical business building, or in their own home somewhere on the other side of the country or the world, is able to answer your questions and help you find what you are looking for. If we don't have the answer, we know how to transfer you to the person who does have the answer.
So why do we have to deal with these call centers at all? Think of it this way. Call centers keep the phone calls out of the way of the actual staff on the floor of the business so that those employees can devote more attention to the client/customer who is standing or sitting right there in front of them. Just like all other forms of technology, call centers and how to talk to them is something we will all be learning how to adjust to. And as we get used to it, just like all other technology, things will change again and there will be something else to adjust to.
But, without giving away secrets of the trade...if you are calling to find out how to find specific hard to get items, don't get mad at that person on the phone if they tell you they don't have or can't tell you any information about them. They are just as frustrated as you are, and they have to stick to the scripts they have been given. Everyone knows these items are hard to find. If you want them bad enough, you are going to have to break down and do some driving, or some finger walking through the internet. And that is good advice for anything you are calling about.
To end on a humorous note, do you know we also get telemarketing calls? To make that even more funny, when we try to hang up on them....they don't go away!!! Today for example, I had one telemarketer--in a recorded message--continue calling and ringing into my phone line, even though I was continuously hanging up on him. If someone out there knows what kind of technology they have that keeps them connected even after you hang up, let me know. I am curious. Just don't get too technical in your explanation. I am not kidding. This recording just kept going and going and would just pick up where it left off as I kept hanging up on it. Today was the first time I had to actually get off the phone lines for a few seconds to stop the cycle. Be glad when you get your calls from telemarketers, that you can hang up once and that is the end of it. But, if you get a call from a telemarketer who is not a recording, be nice. Like me, they are just doing their job, reading their script, and probably getting pretty tired of saying the same things over and over again. It is paying their bills just like your job is paying yours.
Businesses all over the United States and even the world are now tapping into the idea of using call centers to cut down on telephone usage within the businesses themselves. When the call centers can be equipped with enough information, they can answer questions from clients or customers up to 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (or 366 as in this year). Some of these businesses have employed call center staff from countries outside of their own country. That means, it could be that the person talking to you on the phone might be in his or her own country of origin and not living or working in the country you are calling from. It's just another way the internet has made this world smaller and brought us all closer together--if not physically or socially--at least through our telephones.
The next time you try to call for tech support for a computer program, for example, the person you are talking to might not be anywhere close to the location of the main address of the business you are calling. That also applies to stores, government offices, and many other business entities. Most of the time, the scripts used by the call center staff keep it unknown as to whether these people are located right inside the business or at some remote location. The businesses don't hide this information to be secretive. I think they have the idea at this point that the general public just isn't ready to understand it all and that they won't be happy not being able to talk to someone directly in the building. It is kind of like talking to one of those automated systems that can't understand what you are trying to tell it. We don't like them. I think businesses will think we won't like call centers either. Having worked in a call center, I have an inside view. With all the information we have at our literal fingertips via the internet and our computer keyboards, and with all the efforts the businesses put into making sure the information is available and kept up-to-date, the call center employee, whether located inside the physical business building, or in their own home somewhere on the other side of the country or the world, is able to answer your questions and help you find what you are looking for. If we don't have the answer, we know how to transfer you to the person who does have the answer.
So why do we have to deal with these call centers at all? Think of it this way. Call centers keep the phone calls out of the way of the actual staff on the floor of the business so that those employees can devote more attention to the client/customer who is standing or sitting right there in front of them. Just like all other forms of technology, call centers and how to talk to them is something we will all be learning how to adjust to. And as we get used to it, just like all other technology, things will change again and there will be something else to adjust to.
But, without giving away secrets of the trade...if you are calling to find out how to find specific hard to get items, don't get mad at that person on the phone if they tell you they don't have or can't tell you any information about them. They are just as frustrated as you are, and they have to stick to the scripts they have been given. Everyone knows these items are hard to find. If you want them bad enough, you are going to have to break down and do some driving, or some finger walking through the internet. And that is good advice for anything you are calling about.
To end on a humorous note, do you know we also get telemarketing calls? To make that even more funny, when we try to hang up on them....they don't go away!!! Today for example, I had one telemarketer--in a recorded message--continue calling and ringing into my phone line, even though I was continuously hanging up on him. If someone out there knows what kind of technology they have that keeps them connected even after you hang up, let me know. I am curious. Just don't get too technical in your explanation. I am not kidding. This recording just kept going and going and would just pick up where it left off as I kept hanging up on it. Today was the first time I had to actually get off the phone lines for a few seconds to stop the cycle. Be glad when you get your calls from telemarketers, that you can hang up once and that is the end of it. But, if you get a call from a telemarketer who is not a recording, be nice. Like me, they are just doing their job, reading their script, and probably getting pretty tired of saying the same things over and over again. It is paying their bills just like your job is paying yours.
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