Last Week

Last week was sooo busy. It's kind of surreal looking back on it. Also, there's not much I can coherently manifest into blog form, so instead I leave you with the following thought:

It is considered normal to eat birds, and it is considered normal to eat fish, but it is considered weird to eat amphibians or lizards

That is all, have a nice day.

1:30 AM... Revisited

5:00 PM

Ahh... What a difference 15 hours can make!!!

Big day today in many aspects.
Short Story: I'm going to the Six Sigma training next week!!!

Now the smaller ramifications in list form

1. My Plant Manager: I've been on the fence about my new plant manager in Mobile. At times he's seemed genuinely involved in the plant and the people who run it, while other times he's seemed more concerned with how his bosses view his plant. This is obviously a trade off with all managers, but my plant manager in Blooming Prairie who clearly stood behind his plant at all costs, generally not caring how his own bosses felt. Not to name names, but I've also heard of a manager at another site of our company who blatantly is known to put the safety of his own site second to corporate interests. Like I said, I've always been on the fence as to where Tom sits on the spectrum, but he earned points today... I won't reiterate the discussion about Six Sigma training from my last post, go read it if you need a refresher. Apparently it had an effect on Tom though, because today he came into my office and asked if I'd be capable of making it to the training if he pushed to get me in. I told him I could, and within 90 minutes came the email I couldn't get after a month of trying... I was registered in the training. I'd imagine there was some resistance to expanding the training at the eleventh hour, but it means a lot that someone fought that fight for me.
2. My Project: ...or rather lack thereof. For those unfamiliar with the Six Sigma process, certification requires you to apply Six Sigma methodology to a specific project, and you should have this project begun before starting the training. My boss and I had tentatively looked at a project, but planned to develop it further when I officially had a training time for Six Sigma set up. That meant that the four hours between when I found out I would be going to training and everyone leaving for the weekend became very, very stressful. It gets worse...
3. Goodbye Training Wheels: I didn't know this until today, but my boss took today off. Also, the only Six Sigma Blackbelt (err... in training) left around the same time I got the good news for a two week trip to Europe. This means I had almost none of the support I needed to prepare a project charter, especially assuming my project was nothing more than a vague idea (and after some analysis, a bad, vague idea). Basically I wound up developing a totally new project with the help of another of our engineers. It will be a good project to use for six sigma, though. My boss got a quick phone call with which to OK it.
4. Homework: I need to develop a powerpoint of my project, to be presented on Monday. Better get started...

All said and done, not a bad day. I get to see the Zemans tomorrow.

Life is good

-Mark

1:30 AM...

...Which means I have to be to work in less than 6 hours

OK, it's not so bad. About 15 minutes ago I woke up from a nap. Retracing my steps, I think I fell asleep for that at around 6, so I've actually gotten 7 hours of sleep in already tonight.

In a very related note, I've decided to try giving up caffeine again. I came to this decision today during a meeting where I realized that I was only drinking one cup of coffee a day. I'm going to try making it through the day tomorrow with none at all, but if this task proves impossible, I'm going to allow myself a half cup of coffee. For the record, I still can't stand the taste of coffee, but if it's a choice of that or falling asleep at my desk, a grudgingly accept the coffee.

You may wonder why I bother giving up caffeine. The reason is that I gave it up when I was a senior in high school ~February 2005. I kept this up for a long time, ultimately falling apart ~August 2006. I felt amazing. Without caffeine, my body was unbelievably capable of regulating staying awake and sleeping on it's own. I had an inordinate amount of energy. Just the removal of pop from my diet made me shed weight. I want that again. You could say I need a fix of uncaffeine. (I'm going to find that a lot less clever tomorrow morning.)

Anyway, I mentioned earlier that I had a meeting today. Today was our quarterly review meeting where we met with a group of corporate higher-ups and discussed the plant's progress over the last 3 months. I didn't need to present anything today. I gave my input on a couple projects I have going on, no big deal. The most surreal moment I experienced was seeing a man in his 40's get his presentation torn apart, Caretta style. (In all fairness, it was not a great presentation, he clearly wasn't prepared for the meeting.)

At one point, me and several of the people at varying levels above me got talking about Six Sigma training. This is a kind of management training I'm supposed to be getting. I am currently on the waitlist for this training next week, however since there is only one day left for someone to cancel, I don't think it's going to happen. This is the same training Two Is Better Than One referenced in her recent post. After talking about it I am lightly angered by the fact that I won't be attending for a few reasons.

1. Normal six sigma training is general to all industries. The training next week is geared to the chemical industry specifically. Corporate expects this will be the best training they've ever done. I won't get it though. I'm going to have to settle for some training intended for fast food managers or something in a few months.
2. This is the first time they've ever had so many people signed up that they needed a waitlist. I am the first name on that waitlist.
3. This is the first time they've ever had no one cancel who was signed up
4. I know several of the people on the training roster for this week, including some former co-workers and one Mrs. Chini Zeman. I'd be nice to see people again, but fine, OK

Just a sidenote, when we were talking about it, our Global Manufacturing Director mentioned offhand that maybe he should talk to the man doing the training. I think he was just joking, but maybe...

A man can dream....

OK, that's all for now. Time for bed

Waffles

I had this thought a while ago while driving to work, eating a waffle for breakfast.

If I ever were to choke while driving, that would be it. Not only that, but I'd take a lot of innocent people with me. Oh and I drive past a school on my way to work. Oh and I easily drive 20 over as I pass it. So one of my delicious waffles could kill a bunch of bright and upcoming high school students. (Remember, they go to school in Alabama, so they're really not that bright or upcoming.)

Hmmm....

That's all for now

-Mark

Blogging! Revisited

Just an update here.

I just dropped off my rent CHECK!!

VICTORY!!!!!

Also I was told that the other "company policies" were not cataloged in any type of list, but rather just told to employees as part of training. This is actually worse to me than a list somewhere, as that means that there's no document to back up any policy that mysteriously gets used against me. Either way, I was promised by management that a list would be comprised and given to me.

WOO!!!

RIP Bill

Just a moment to say goodbye to a truly great cat. Bill was put to sleep at about 9:30 this morning. He had an amazing personality as far as cats go. He gave new meaning to the phrase "He thinks he's people." Bill refused to be thought of as anything less than human. He seemed to learn from us how to behave, acting as human as you can while still on all fours.

He will be missed.

Southern "Hospitality" Revisited

OK, I've had a chance to cool down since my last post, but it's still an issue. I've come up with a few solutions.

1) Calmly correct people for calling me ma'am

2) Irately correct people for calling me ma'am

3) Don't give business to establishments where employees call me ma'am

4) Learn to ignore the problem

5) Change people so they no longer call me ma'am

The problem is either implementing these solutions or the unintended ramifications

1) Generally, when a person calls me ma'am, it is the first time I have met them. That means that even if I manage to get them to change, it's a moot point. The next person I run into will have not yet been corrected, but rather will go ahead and call me ma'am. It may help me though, feeling as though I'm being somewhat proactive in solving the problem.

2) Same advantages and disadvantages as 1, but I get to unleash some anger. Disadvantage: I don't have that much pent up anger, although this issue tends to stir up a lot.

3) This is an interesting one. It has the major advantage that if I, say, call to set up an appointment to get my oil changed and the guy calls me ma'am, I can correct him and then take my business elsewhere. The guy now knows not to make that mistake again, and has a real dollar consequence of his actions. The downside: now to follow through with it, I need to avoid patronizing the only auto shop in town where the worker knows not to call someone ma'am implicitly.

4) This is the most zen option. Just let them make their mistake. Unfortunately, I can't imagine anyone who can take insults like this continuously without letting it turn them into a serial killer or something.

5) OK this is the solution. I just need to find a way to change people's behavior prior to meeting them. Easy, right? Hmm... Maybe a public ad campaign to make people aware of my pet peeves?

Anyway. That's the moral of my story. Please don't address me as ma'am.

Southern "Hospitality"

Ok, a moment here for pure, unadulterated complaining.

If you have any problem with swearing, earmuffs.

This posting goes out to everyone who works in Alabama in some type of customer service which may result in communicating with customers without seeing them face to face. I refer to people who answer phones, work at a business people may call, fast food drive throughs, etc.

Seriously, why the fuck do you insist on calling me "Ma'am"?!?!?!?!

I know I don't have an exceptionally deep voice, but, EVERY GOD DAMN TIME!!!!!!

Seriously, this is the definition of shitty service, immasculate your customers? Yeah, nice work. There isn't even a solution. If I tell off one POS burger jockey on how they're as dumb as fuck for addressing me as a woman before knowing for sure, the next one will be just as bad.

Seriously Alabama, fuck you

Ok, earmuffs off

My rant is over, that is all

-Earmuffs-

Fuck you Alabama

-Earmuffs off-

Have a nice day!

Blogging!

This isn't my first blog, for the record. My first blog was called the Minneapolis Bucket List. It was intended to serve as a source of tracking my progress in completing a few important things I wanted to do before I moved out of the midwest. It was pretty successful, I missed a couple things, but that's all the more reason to go back sometime.

This is my first blog not to serve any purpose. Since I've moved to Alabama, I've caught myself thinking some good thoughts, and since I haven't had a chance to develop a group of close friends here like I have in Minneapolis or Grand Forks, there is no one to hear them.

I'm currently in the process of fighting the man. I'm having a bit of a tiff with my apartment complex. I'll share the letter I sent to the company who own's my complex here:

Hello Laura,

My name is Mark Liepold. I live in apartment 609 one of your company's properties in Mobile, AL: The Estates at Lafayette Square. I was referred to you by a property manager there, John.

I was hoping you could help me out with a situation I've found myself in. Last weekend I went travelling for the Labor day weekend. I left at about 6:00 AM on Thursday the 2nd, and didn't get back until Tuesday the 7th at about 2 AM.

Unfortunately, in the excitement of leaving town, I neglected to drop off my rent check before I left, resulting in a late payment. When I returned home from work at about 4:00 PM on Tuesday the 7th, I promptly dropped a check off at my property office for the amount due plus fifty dollars late fee per my lease.

The issue developed on Wednesday afternoon when I returned from work again to find my check returned with a message stating that after the 5th of the month only cashier's checks and money orders will be an acceptable form of payment. As I have only just moved to Alabama from Minnesota, I have not yet transferred banks, making it difficult for me to obtain cashiers checks or money orders.

I'll make a note at this point that upon moving into this property, management there and I signed a lease. Here are two key points I'd like to make from that agreement:

1) The lease stated clearly that check was an acceptable payment for rent dues.

2) No reference was made to a policy percluding checks as a method of payment after a given date.

After a discussion with management at Lafayette Square, I came to understand that my check was rejected due to a company policy set in place roughly 5 years ago to prevent delays associated with checks, as a bounced check would not be returned until after laws would prohibit eviction. As stated before, this policy was not mentioned in the lease I agreed to. After my discussion with management, I spent some time browsing the websites of both Lafayette Square and Morgaurd Properties. I could find no reference to this policy.

At this time, I would like to kindly ask for your help with two issues.

1) I would like to request an exception to the policy in question, and I would like to pay my rent and late fee with a check.

2) I would like to request a list of any other existing company policies which may affect me in the future.

If it would be helpful, I'd love to speak to you over the phone. My phone number is (701) 610-3337. Please call any time.

Thank you for any help or advice you can provide me

-Mark Liepold

I haven't heard back yet, but since this went out on Friday afternoon, I may not know until Monday. This worries me some, because I am scheduled to be evicted on Tuesday. Worst case scenario, If I haven't heard anything by the time I leave work on Monday, I'll set up a money order that night, but the main thing I'm not giving in on is the list of other "company policies" they may be holding me to. As my friend Pat put it, they could just walk up to my door one day and evict me, citing "Company Policy". Yeah, I think not.

That's what I have right now. More to follow