A new original, exciting... post?

As you might have noticed, I have neglected this site for quite some time since last year. Today I decided to pull everything over from facebook that I felt necessary (see all posts below this one, dated August 4, 2011).

I figured I may as well update this as I am feeling the need to write today for whatever reason, I suppose I just have a bit on my mind... let's dig in a bit shall we?

For starters, this past semester at school I decided was my last in the IT field (academically speaking, as well as job related), simply for the fact that as much as I have been working with computers and technology in general (read > 20 years), I do not feel as though I really belong in that particular area. I would consider myself more of an enthusiast and hobbyist than anything else, despite the fact that I am a complete technology nerd in the fullest definition of the word. Despite my best efforts, I feel as though I'm slaving myself away at Best Buy for their Geek Squad... which really is a complete joke.

That aside, I've moved on to continue focusing on a much deeper and heartfelt passion... music. Music is something I've had in my life since I can remember and something I do not think I will ever do without, or try to stray from ever again. I've devoted much of my time since I was 16 to trying to excel at mastering the art of the guitar; it has proven to be far more difficult than I could have ever imagined. Being the eleventh instrument I brought into my life since I was 7, the guitar has been the single instrument I've been completely faithful to, never wanting to play another instrument with as much passion as I have for it, in and of itself.

As a result, I'm planning to apply and hopefully audition to finish my Master's Degree at the Eastman School of Music, here in Rochester, NY. If this goes well, I will have the MM finished and hopefully be working toward my DMA... Doctor anyone?

Moving along, I quit playing World of Warcraft... why? The better question is why didn't I do this a long time ago?

A lot of these changes came about simply because an amazing thing happened to fall right in my lap... that being... A RELATIONSHIP. ZOMG! In all seriousness, she's my muse, and someone that I could not have asked for at a better time in my life. 

I could write more, but I don't think it would be as comprehensible as I might like for the moment. So perhaps another time. Cheers!

Working with Idiots - Part II

So today was no different than yesterday really. I came to work knowing that nothing regarding my issues with doing my job had been resolved; rather, they were compounded by the fact that they determined nothing was "unusual" about the latency issues we've ALL been having in the office since they migrated us over to a new network. Right... fuck you buddy.

Moving on, I finally had an experience with Tier 2 for Microsoft that I will never forget, and by never forget I mean a memory that will make me want to have a seething hatred towards any Indian (Pakistani) that works in the IT field EVER AGAIN.

This starts out as a normal escalation procedure, where we at the MicroFail Helpdesk raise an issue to Tier 2 regarding a multi-user problem (5 or more people that are being affected by the same issue). Now to give some background information, latency, lag, or ping times, are the amount of time it takes two points to connect on any given network/internet location. This affects overall responsiveness working online, communication between people/computers, etc..

That being said, normal ping times between people on MicroFail's corporate network is usually around100ms (milliseconds) if they're within the same physical location, more than acceptable for efficient workflow/throughput. Well, this particular group of people located in the Portland, Oregon office called in stating that their latency/lag was awful, taking sometimes close to five or six seconds to send an instant message, time between what you've said over your IP phone has been heard by the recipient, etc.. I take the call, diagnose, and escalate as normal.

A few hours pass then I get into a conversation with one of the Tier 2 agents... who begins to ask me about the issue... so I explain it to him (because apparently he is incapable of reading the ticket and forms I submitted to have the issue escalated in the first place). When I post him the tracert logs, which show that their latency is averaging 3000ms, he replies with: "So?" SO? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? I ask him: "What do you mean so? this is completely unacceptable and outrageous that it's causing their work and jobs to suffer for productivity for what they do." He replies: "What do you mean by outrageous?" LOOK ASSHOLE, IF I HAVE TO EXPLAIN TO WHY WHAT OUTRAGEOUS MEANS AND HOW THIS ISSUE AFFECTS OVERALL PRODUCTIVITY IN THE WORKPLACE, YOU NEED TO FIND ANOTHER FUCKING JOB.

I proceeded to explain to him how this works and affects the people having the issue in the first place, why they called me to begin with, and what the resolution needs to be from him, the people that weESCALATE TO to help with these issues because we can't solve them to begin with.

After he contacted the user, he closed the ticket because he claimed he didn't see anything wrong with their network connection... after I clearly and concisely stated what the problem was in the initial ticket, troubleshooting, and escalating paperwork. He then proceeded to ream me out for about half an hour on how we submit outages based on issues we handle from incoming calls.

Are you fucking kidding me? you're going to berate me because you're an incompetent, lazy, piece of shit? are you fucking serious? I had to tell you how to do YOUR damn job, you do not get the privilege of rubbing it in my face about how you believe our process should be run, when YOU can't even bother to read the ticket that's put there because of the process YOUR Tier of help says it needs in order to do YOUR job. FUCK YOU.

I do not understand how these people get the jobs they have. I do not understand how they can sit there and tell me I must be crazy and wrong for submitting an issue that apparently they can't find, when in fact... the proof is in their own documentation they asked for. However, I can understand why people get so upset when they get Indian people on the phone when calling for technical support. Every single one of the people I have to deal with in regards to help on this queue from Tier 2, has been rude, arrogant, pompous, and downright retarded.

A sincere and hearty couple of middle fingers flying from me to you Tier 2 MicroFail agents. Stay classy fuckwads.