Random Talk.

[† Shazi]

I dunno if i like opera or not, i've never been to one so i won't shunt it as something i don't like if i have never seen it.

 

urrrrg two more lectures, just two more lectures and then it's a massive break from the stupid things

[† Emotional Outlet]

I still think opera can be hilarious. There's some mega melodramatic stuff out there and it's just really amusing to me.

 

 

I'm not denying their talent or skill, but seriously.

 

I also love musicals, I'm all about that stuff. My first musical was Cats--I saw it in middle school, haha.

[† Shazi]

the first stage musical i saw was lion king. that still counts right?

[Pinkie Pie]

i like rock operas, like Tommy or Across the Universe u wu

Actually, Acros the Universe is the only time I'll willingly listen to the Beatles lol

[HeartBeatx]

Well you can have it. We only got freezing rain.

Don't you hate finding a cut and wondering where and how you got it?

I find this happens after dreaming about war or being in some kind of battle. =S

[Kinara Uzumaki]

I get a lot of those........cuts and bruises and I don't know how they got there. I don't mind them but then it leaves scars all over and they attract questions from people.

[lolrawr]

So yeah made it through my first week at my new job.  I had today off so yay.

 

So far it has been going pretty well.  Of course, it should be since there are no classes right now lol.  I expect things to pick up next week when summer classes start.  That's also when my final work schedule starts.

 

Most of the questions I have gotten have been about login issue and stuff like that with the different services we have.  The stuff that I'm still not confident in are setting up certain work orders for people who have issues we can't fix.  Really though my supervisors and coworkers have said that they can get asked ANYTHING.  Lol people mistake us for a general help desk when we are supposed to be an ITD help desk.  So if it's something we don't specialize in like admissions  billing, health services, ect...  We have to forward the call to them.  They said like on the first days of semesters they get calls from students saying they're lost on campus and want us to tell them how to get to their classes.

 

Since we have access to a lot of personal information, we can't just give it to anyone, we can only give it to the specific student.  So mom and dad can't get their kids grades or whatever.  There was one guy, he was a coach.  He wanted to reset the password for one of his player's account.  I was like ummm I can only do that to X since it's X's account.  He was like well I'm his coach!!!  Yeah had to tell him like 3 times before he got the message.

 

I'm also finding patterns on who I like talking to lol.  I tend to like young women who don't know much about computers and find everything you say amazing.  I also like old men who tend to be really respectful since you know... That's how it was back in the day.  The faculty can get a little snappy about things.  Students are well... Students.  So you never know what you're going to get.  Some mumble, some talk too fast, and others sound like they're on their cell phone a mile underground.

 

Oh I have had one bad thing happen to me so far.  This one lady called wanting to know how to reset one of her accounts so she can see some of her things.  I tried finding her in the database and she wasn't in there.  So I asked my coworker who was there to watch over me if I needed any help.  She said to transfer her to (I forget now lol) department and they will make her an account and password.  Well I was like alright and transferred the lady to them.  Well I think she got transferred back to us.  One of the other workers picked up this time.  I think she started yelling at him so he transferred her to our supervisor.  She was then yelling at our supervisor and he tried his best to explain things.  Well apparently I found out that the department can't do what we thought it could.  The only way to get the account and password would be to enroll as a student again.  She graduated in 1996 and they didn't even have the accounts back then lol.  But yeah my supervisor was really stern about the situation.

 

Speaking of supervisors, I have two.  Other than that one instance, they are really cool guys.  They like to joke around a lot, laugh, and have a good time.  They are also really open to answering my questions and such, probably because that's what they have to do for the job.

 

There's another aspect to the job outside of being on the phones, and that's computer software repair.  People can bring in their virus ridden machines and we can fix them.  They haven't talked to me about that so I guess I won't be doing any of that.  But yeah it's software, not hardware.

 

Oh boy I feel like I've rambled on a lot! Sorry! XD  So much has happened this week so it's all kind of a blur.  Just wanted to make sure I kept you guys informed on how I was doing. (I think this is like my longest post )

[† Emotional Outlet]

Handling PII properly is really important! I'm pretty much the only volunteer at the library they trust to destroy PII, haha.

 

People do try to throw their weight around a lot. We always had to be reminded that just because someone is high ranking doesn't mean they automatically get access. Since we dealt with classified materials a lot, it was especially important to make sure no one was looking at stuff they didn't have the need or clearance for.

 

Making sure people have proper permissions to access things like buildings and information has culminated into some weird situations though, haha. Because emergencies can and do happen, and procedure at that point either becomes incredibly vital or incredibly stupid.

 

My basic TI told us he was dealing with the entry controller and then he noticed that someone was, like, passed out and bleeding behind the EC. He was like, "YO LET ME IN THIS IS A FUCKING EMERGENCY THERE IS A BLEEDING PERSON BEHIND YOU".

 

Well, we got told a lot in basic that we still have to follow protocol no matter what, even if they were threatening us and whatever because they lied to us like 95% of the time. So trainee is just trying to swallow up their fear and follow procedure and the TI is still losing his shit because holy shit, someone might be dying.

 

So he PUNCHES THROUGH THE WINDOW OF THE DOOR, rips the hell out of his hand, forces open the door, and deals with the bleeding person behind the EC.

 

Basic training was like a weird waking nightmare.

[† Shazi]

So yeah made it through my first week at my new job.  I had today off so yay.

 

So far it has been going pretty well.  Of course, it should be since there are no classes right now lol.  I expect things to pick up next week when summer classes start.  That's also when my final work schedule starts.

 

Most of the questions I have gotten have been about login issue and stuff like that with the different services we have.  The stuff that I'm still not confident in are setting up certain work orders for people who have issues we can't fix.  Really though my supervisors and coworkers have said that they can get asked ANYTHING.  Lol people mistake us for a general help desk when we are supposed to be an ITD help desk.  So if it's something we don't specialize in like admissions  billing, health services, ect...  We have to forward the call to them.  They said like on the first days of semesters they get calls from students saying they're lost on campus and want us to tell them how to get to their classes.

 

Since we have access to a lot of personal information, we can't just give it to anyone, we can only give it to the specific student.  So mom and dad can't get their kids grades or whatever.  There was one guy, he was a coach.  He wanted to reset the password for one of his player's account.  I was like ummm I can only do that to X since it's X's account.  He was like well I'm his coach!!!  Yeah had to tell him like 3 times before he got the message.

 

I'm also finding patterns on who I like talking to lol.  I tend to like young women who don't know much about computers and find everything you say amazing.  I also like old men who tend to be really respectful since you know... That's how it was back in the day.  The faculty can get a little snappy about things.  Students are well... Students.  So you never know what you're going to get.  Some mumble, some talk too fast, and others sound like they're on their cell phone a mile underground.

 

Oh I have had one bad thing happen to me so far.  This one lady called wanting to know how to reset one of her accounts so she can see some of her things.  I tried finding her in the database and she wasn't in there.  So I asked my coworker who was there to watch over me if I needed any help.  She said to transfer her to (I forget now lol) department and they will make her an account and password.  Well I was like alright and transferred the lady to them.  Well I think she got transferred back to us.  One of the other workers picked up this time.  I think she started yelling at him so he transferred her to our supervisor.  She was then yelling at our supervisor and he tried his best to explain things.  Well apparently I found out that the department can't do what we thought it could.  The only way to get the account and password would be to enroll as a student again.  She graduated in 1996 and they didn't even have the accounts back then lol.  But yeah my supervisor was really stern about the situation.

 

Speaking of supervisors, I have two.  Other than that one instance, they are really cool guys.  They like to joke around a lot, laugh, and have a good time.  They are also really open to answering my questions and such, probably because that's what they have to do for the job.

 

There's another aspect to the job outside of being on the phones, and that's computer software repair.  People can bring in their virus ridden machines and we can fix them.  They haven't talked to me about that so I guess I won't be doing any of that.  But yeah it's software, not hardware.

 

Oh boy I feel like I've rambled on a lot! Sorry! XD  So much has happened this week so it's all kind of a blur.  Just wanted to make sure I kept you guys informed on how I was doing. (I think this is like my longest post )

 

TL;DR

 

WOW dude, my eyes were like "WAAAAALLLLL"

[Dae314]

I'm glad you're having fun lolrawr ^^. Help desk can make some people feel murderous after a while, so it's good to at least start things positive. I haven't had the pleasure of working calls, but I have done a lot with users face to face or over pre-arranged phone meetings. I've always been one of the low level people on the back end handling things. Hopefully that'll change by the end of summer, but we'll see.

The people you'll find you like best are the people who make your job the easiest. For me, those people are the experts who happen to be working a job outside of IT. These are the people who you basically never hear from because they usually solve their own problems. When you do hear from them, their problem is real, their description and evidence is complete, and the right person is contacted for the job.

This is different from the people who have just enough knowledge to be annoying but not enough knowledge to be helpful. These people make big issues out of small ones and feed you useless information that you need to then sort through to find the real issue (if there is one). They'll often use incorrect terminology and the job will end up in the wrong hands. These people are possibly more annoying than the stubborn people who know nothing.

My second favorite type of user is the passive user. This user is one who may not be totally clueless, but they're aware that they likely can't solve the problem as well as you. They're helpful and answer your questions regarding the issue accurately, but they don't try to bog you down with information. Most often they're reporting a real issue, and when they're mistaken they understand with only a simple explaination and a thank you.

My third favorite type of user is the user who knows nothing and worships you because you fix their problems no matter how small. Although these people give you a lot of annoying work, they're always thankful and may even give you food for your trouble ^^. I like them just because they make you feel good.

I guess another type of user I love are my coworkers who know more than me/are more motivated than me. These are the people I look up to and want to emulate. Most of them reside on the inner shell of IT (the one I'm looking to breach soon). They're the network admins, server admins, security admins, project managers, and the like who know everything in their field and use that knowledge to get things done. This is markedly different from the lazy workers and workers who don't really know much. The lazy workers might know a lot but are never motivated enough to actually do much with that knowledge. The workers who don't know much are just annoying because you usually end up explaining things 5 times to them before they manage to remember for a week or so.

[† Emotional Outlet]

Please keep image only posts to the appropriate threads. This is not an appropriate thread for image only posts!

 

I don't really have a favourite type of customer, either military-wise or library-wise.

 

When I was in the AF, we'd get people from other bases try to talk shit about the information we put out because they're lazy and terrible at their jobs. They'd try to audit us and make us do almost impossible shit. They'd give us, like, a thirty minute timeline to do something, and that's not nearly enough time to do the things we need to do (because planes are large and need time to move in the air), even when we had our best ops on the task.

 

At the library I like people who have simple requests, haha.

 

"Where are the non-fiction audio books?" RIGHT OVER THERE.

 

"My Facebook is in Chinese for reason, can you fix this?" HELL YEAH I CAN.

 

Then I get stuff like...

 

"Do you have any books about children songs and finger play?" W...hat...

 

"I want a mystery book." What author?

"I just want a mystery book, where are the mystery books?" They're interspersed with the rest of the fiction books... this isn't a store...

 

"The computer is exploding, help me. I need to download these nine thousand programs." Yo dawg, I'm not IT and even if I was, I know enough about government computers and how locked up they are. You are SOL. Get a laptop.

 

ETA: Actually, speaking about IT, my roommate's girlfriend does what appears to be the equivalent of a 3DX (cyber peeps--without getting into too many details, they "work with computers") job in the Navy. She'd brag about how she'd never touched a computer ever before joining the Navy, and she'd always try to help me or Java with our computer issues.

 

Like, uh, no thanks. I know what military training is like. If you've never touched a computer before the military, then in all honesty, I'm probably more qualified than you to fix my issues. And really, trying to help Java?? With computer issues?? She's in way over her head like 99% of the time.

[lolrawr]

The people you'll find you like best are the people who make your job the easiest. For me, those people are the experts who happen to be working a job outside of IT. These are the people who you basically never hear from because they usually solve their own problems. When you do hear from them, their problem is real, their description and evidence is complete, and the right person is contacted for the job.

 

At the library I like people who have simple requests, haha.

 

Yes getting easy stuff and softball questions will always be awesome. ;D  It's weird though, some of my coworkers actually get annoyed that some people ask easy stuff.  The way I see it is less stress on my part on trying to fix it.  Also to your point about experts Dae, that can be a little intimidating lol.  It's like with a normal person you can try to fumble your way around and get it fixed and they wouldn't know any better, but with an expert he might find out that you're just guessing and hoping to find an answer.  But yes getting pertinent information from a professional will always be better than getting, "Hm it says to restart... Do I do that? Wait it didn't say restart now. Is it going to do it? You said it'd do it now. It's not doing it now!!! I'M GOING TO DIE!!!"

[† Emotional Outlet]

Okay, yeah, but I put the mouse on the screen, and it's not working. Also the cupholder is broken and the credit card reader won't read my credit card.

 

Fix it. Fix it now.

[Kinara Uzumaki]

Speaking of computer issues......I've got a Dell Inspiron laptop for work and it's supposed to be heavy duty......well, it can work for long hours, blah, blah, blah...........but it takes such a long time to start up and sometimes certain programs don't open at once..........or they stop responding and I have to reopen them..........sometimes the internet goes off and I have to restart my machine and man do I get MAD!!!!!!!!

 

The only good thing so far about this laptop is the storage space.......well, at least for me........ but me being such an impatient person, it really drives me up the wall when it doesn't work as fast as I want it to because I do a lot of multi-tasking and I want my computer to be fast. So much for that........

[Dae314]

Speaking of computer issues......I've got a Dell Inspiron laptop for work and it's supposed to be heavy duty......well, it can work for long hours, blah, blah, blah...........but it takes such a long time to start up and sometimes certain programs don't open at once..........or they stop responding and I have to reopen them..........sometimes the internet goes off and I have to restart my machine and man do I get MAD!!!!!!!!

 

The only good thing so far about this laptop is the storage space.......well, at least for me........ but me being such an impatient person, it really drives me up the wall when it doesn't work as fast as I want it to because I do a lot of multi-tasking and I want my computer to be fast. So much for that........

The answer to all your problems here is to load an SSD in that laptop. The problem with this answer is that your IT isn't going to like that one bit. The only way things will get better is to beg your IT to get a laptop with an SSD the next time they do a laptop refresh. Honestly, with SSDs as cheap as they are and since most business laptop usage doesn't take a whole ton of data (or if it does, an external HDD will do just fine) there's no reason why IT shouldn't be buying SSDs for their new laptops. It definitely cuts down on the number of people calling to complain about slowness.

 

Yes getting easy stuff and softball questions will always be awesome. ;D  It's weird though, some of my coworkers actually get annoyed that some people ask easy stuff.  The way I see it is less stress on my part on trying to fix it.  Also to your point about experts Dae, that can be a little intimidating lol.  It's like with a normal person you can try to fumble your way around and get it fixed and they wouldn't know any better, but with an expert he might find out that you're just guessing and hoping to find an answer.  But yes getting pertinent information from a professional will always be better than getting, "Hm it says to restart... Do I do that? Wait it didn't say restart now. Is it going to do it? You said it'd do it now. It's not doing it now!!! I'M GOING TO DIE!!!"

I don't like getting the easy questions . I'm not mean about answering them, but they don't thrill me like the more complicated questions do. For easy questions, I just give a mechanical answer, take the thanks, and go.

Honestly, nobody in IT knows 100% what they're doing all the time. When you're working with an expert working in his/her environment, you can expect 100% certain answers pretty much all the time, but most IT professionals aren't called to work JUST in their environment. The same goes for an expert user. However, people's experience with similar environments and similar problems gives them an expert edge when dealing with things that are outside of their environment. They're guessing at answers, but those guesses are much more educated and likely to be correct than non-experts. They're more likely to catch snafus, find the shortest/most efficient solution, etc.. However, they're still just guessing.

Example from my experience in desktop support:

User's complaining that the cursor (that blinking bar where you enter text) in Word keeps jumping to random places while she types. Me and my boss are near that worker on the day of the complaint so we get a call to go check her out. The user in question is actually kinda high up the totem pole so it's important that we get her issue dealt with. My boss gives the boilerplate interview: "how long has this been happening?" (since I got the new laptop); "can you demo it for us?" (well... *types* it's random so I can't really demo but it only happens in word); "OK, lets check the Office install for any errors". So my boss goes off and starts doing stuff to her office install (not gonna detail it here). After a while he says OK, try typing for a while and we'll see if that helped. So we watch. It just so happens that as she's typing the issue occurs (lucky us!). The cursor really did jump down the page. My boss's scratching his head saying "we might just need to give you a new laptop and take this one in to be reimaged..." At this point I break in, "WAIT!" both of them turn to look at me as though they forgot I was there, "can you type something again?". Before she puts her hands on the keyboard I mark the location of her mouse on the screen (the mouse disappears when you type). Then instead of watching the screen, I watch her hands. Just as expected, her hands' neutral positions don't intersect with the touch pad on the laptop, but with her typing style, she rolls over the touch pad just a little to hit some keys. Even better, right when her hand did an especially large roll on the mouse pad the cursor jumped on screen. Looking at where the cursor jumped to, it was right where the mouse was before she started typing. There's the problem! After explaining my reasoning to them, I asked the user whether she used touch to click normally. She did not, so I went in and disabled touch to click on the touch pad. Like magic, there was no more jumping cursor in Word .

Through stuff like that and my own experience troubleshooting, I've come to think that what most people call "experts" are just people who are really really good at guessing when it comes to things from their field of expertise. Unless the experts you deal with are pompus *********, you shouldn't need to worry about them being disappointed in your for not finding the solution/finding an unoptimized solution. Instead, learn from their knowledge so you can become an expert yourself some day .

[† Mute point]

I had that happen with my laptop... So I bought a mouse and disabled the touch pad entirely. Take that computer! Did the disable touch clicking thing to my netbook. Because I can't exactly use a real mouse while I'm walking around and using it to talk.

[† Emotional Outlet]

My fat hands also activate the touchpad on my laptop, but usually only when I'm in bed being a lazy slob.

 

I don't mind easy questions because it means the customer will be extremely easy to please, and I like happy customers! It doesn't bother me if they want to know where the Mo Willems books are or where the biographies are, because that is something I can do by myself and without bothering the librarians.

 

Since I'm not an employee, I don't actually have any formal training. I am there every day and a lot of people recognise me, though, especially the regulars, so I get the feeling they think I know a lot more than I actually do, haha. That and because I am pretty nice and less intimidating than all those mean evil librarians (hohoho, they are nice people), I suppose they might feel more comfortable approaching me than the others. I can't imagine the other volunteers being approached for help a lot, they look mega antisocial! (Also they're all like 15 apparently.)

[Pinkie Pie]

one of my premolars is loose and it's about to come out finally. it was already severely chipped and then a week ago it got loose and i've been messing with it to get the fucker out because my mouth will stop hurting for a while if it just gets out but it's almost there and i don't want to force it g;kjdg;lkjdf

in other news, i've found my spirit pokemon:

Edited May 20, 2013 by Pinkie Pie

[jobonline20]

what did you bite nto to break your tooth

 

you might want to try this

[DrumRoll]

whenever I rest my hands on my laptop it starts to sound like a submarine that has dived below crushing depths:( CREAAAAK. And the fan seems to work harder when I'm on MS word than a video game.....? It must be the spellchecker working overtime:)