» Thrown away: The stuff you loved and lost.

Not 'real', not a big deal (now),
but i bet the younger of us can all relate to the moment that mam stepped on the power lead to the console, sending 6 hours or so of hardcore gaming down the pan because you saw no need to save your spot until it was too late.
(Thu 14th Aug 2008, 17:59, More)

» Shit Stories: Part Number Two

Not a funny one as per se..
.. but more informative.

I'd not laid some track in a few days and was over a friends having a bit of a sesh involving weed. Now, it must have been good stuff because it remains to this day the most far gone I've ever been.

Needless to say, not so long into it I felt the push of frantic hands on closed doors and had to let it loose. Now, usually when I go it comes out in stages, but not this time, three days worth of it came out in one, long continuous stream over a period of five minutes. The amazing feat really hit home when I discovered it was a no-wiper.

I went into the next room and told my friends right away, as if I'd just had a revelation. They seemed to be in agreement that it was indeed, a very special moment. The lack of three wise men and a visible star dampened the experience though.
(Wed 2nd Apr 2008, 13:05, More)

» I Quit!

Callcentre
I lasted 3 weeks when I worked in a call centre. Picture this:

16 years old, first ever part-time job. The idea was that this shitty local kitchen company that had already changed their time twice before, changed their name again and now started selling bedroom installations. Our manager? 22 at the most and didn't have a fucking clue. She sat there during every shift and talked to no one about this man she was shagging who had kids. There are about 7 of us sitting in this small room with the makeshift double desks you tend to get in classrooms all arranged into a big sqaure round the room. We got a cliboard with about 10 sheets containing 250+ names and numbers we had to call in 3 hours and try to sell kitchens. The pitch was 'your area has a 35% discount', which was bollocks because every fucking area has this '35% discount'.

The worst call I made was where I asked for this guy and his wife answered. It turns out he had died not so long ago. They didn't give you training for that (actually I got about 30 minutes training in my entire time there) and I'll never forget the sadness in her voice when she replied. There was a good one though when I asked this guy if I could speak to his wife and the person said 'this is she' in a pissed off tone :)

Ah what a shit hole. I know it's bad enough taking inbound calls but calling people up is fucking awful. Most of the time they get quite pissed off, cut you off before you finish the first sentence, call you names, etc. This one woman told me to stop phoning her and get a real job. I was like.. I'm 16 - where is your heart?

That was my last shift. I didn't receive my pay until I got in touch with the citizens advice bureau and threatened to take their swindling arses to court. Apparently the manager at the time was trying to save costs and hadn't even informed head-office I was working for them. Fucking cheek! Funilly enough, the whole £70 came a week or two later (followed by abother £70 when the original application went through and the payment was processed).
(Fri 23rd May 2008, 3:55, More)

» Stuff I've found

Another pr0n one
At work, tidying up our work area and I come across three unlabelled VHS cassettes. I thought it was a bit strange as, in this day and age, they're rarely seen. So I did what anybody else would do - drop everything I was doing and pop them into the rack-mount vcr we had (surplus, we never actually used it) and turned the tv on.

The first two were either blank or contained nothing of interest. The third however, well I was a little surprised, but not totally. It started out innocently enough as some surveilance footage of the computer lounge. Don't ask me why but something made me fast forward. Call it male-intuition, I don't know. Anyway, eventually two people appear and begin going at it for about 20 minutes or so.

Why not so surpised? Well, only my boss would go to the lengths of transferring the digital footage to a VCR - especially when the equipment isn't readily available. I still need to mention it to him.
(Tue 11th Nov 2008, 21:11, More)

» I Quit!

Yes!
Do something constructive in your free time that also taxes you mentally. As a cs student I spend a lot of my free time writing code. People will use it, it will make a difference and it keeps me occupied. I'm not saying you should go out and become a renegade programmer but you should think about what you're giving up first (it sounds like financial insurance for life to me). There were people who would do almost anything to be in your position. Can't you slug it out? You could even get a part-time job to fill the void.
(Wed 28th May 2008, 3:30, More)