An interesting phenomenon

An interesting thing happened at my weekend job, this weekend. I guess the incident itself wasn't so phenomenal as the reactions and responses that came with it.

First...my weekend job has ohh...probably thousands of agents that work there, from all over the country, from all walks of life. There's a forum board there where you can post your thoughts, bitches, and feelings about work, working there, or just about anything you want to post about. Those forums are dangerous to begin with. Hell, the people I work with are lethal!! They are the most judgemental, opinionated (even for me to say that!), insulting people I ever dealt with. At times I think IRC has nothing over on this bunch. What's scary about that is..."this bunch" isn't IRC. This is a chunk of Americana at its best. Oh yea.

Well. One of the agents decided to grab him a pic of Ari Hesty (some upcoming singer) and put it up as his avitar. Some people put avitars up of celebrities...some put some up of things (flowers, dogs, cartoon captions) some put pics up of themselves. When this guy put his up, some people asked him if it was his real pic. He lied and told them yes. Life at LiveOps went on as usual.

All was going well. He was carry on in the forums, posting and 'socializing' and the general consensus was...he was alright (gay from what I hear, but alright lol). Well, one day (and I suppose this was bound to happen), a different agent was out scouting around in You Tube and found this clip of the real Ari Hest, singing and doing a skit on it.

The posts started in. This one incident lead to about a dozen different threads about this agent who put up a picture of this Ari Hest, portraying it as himself. The majority thought of him as a lying, scheming, untrusting, deplorable human being. There were a few (myself included) that felt it was just a picture. The agent wasn't in any way hurting anybody. He wasn't trying to find real life with anyone. He wasn't promising anything to anyone, wasn't asking anybody for anything. I mean, if its just his looks we're talking about, he means not a damn thing to me or to anyone else there...so what's the big deal?

What was interesting to me was, that while about hmm, 70% of the people posting opinions thought he was a liar and a bad boy, the biggest majority of the 30% of the people who didn't think it was a big thing were the people he actually did form closer ties to than the job. Interesting. Interesting to me, anyway. Imposters...or people saying they look like some picture of someone that isn't them isn't something new to me. It happens ALOT on IRC. Maybe thats why it didn't bother me. Or maybe it didn't bother me because I don't care who he thinks he wants to look like or who will accept him or not if they knew what he REALLY looked like, I don't know. But what I found interesting were...the people he got close and personal with didn't care. If anyone *should* have cared, it should have been them for him not being up front with them, if they went to a deeper level of relationship. But they all maintained what he looked like didn't change who he was.

And all the agents who never gave a rats ass about him suddenly are paying close, close attention to 'the lying fraud'.

I found the reactions....interesting.

A Good Day

Today was a good day. Call volume at my weekend job, so far, this weekend, is killer. I had back to back calls today, and most all of the time I was working was on bonus time. Four hours of work raked in 73 bucks! Yea!! I love this job, and don't mind giving up my weekends to work, when the work is good like that. I take infomercial television and radio offers on this job. The people you meet are interesting. Its a challenge and brings out my competitive nature, as I go thru the steps and try to sell them "upsells, and downsells". Those are good, and increase your ratings which increase your call volume. The downside of this job is I get per minute of talk time. So, when conditions aren't right, I could make as little as a waitress without her tips!! Those are huge bummer days, as I resent giving up my weekend time to sit idly at the pc, waiting for calls (money) to come my way.

Two years ago, I did this job full time. Money was never an issue for me then. I mean, I wasn't Rockefeller, or anything like that. But I wasn't worrying. Now, I work the infomercial job on weekends only, and work a regular 9-5, hourly rate of pay job, Monday thru Friday. The pay is MUCH less than LiveOps (the infomercial job). But it has benefits, like a 401K, paid holidays...and the potential to, along with my retirement pension from my respiratory career...and whatever pittance SS will be, will allow me to actually retire, one day. But...when call volume at LiveOps is good, that temptation to go back full-time kicks in...and I have to keep telling myself there's a reason I'm opting for lower income, even though I sure could use it right now.

After almost three months of painful struggling to make up a mortgage payment that I got behind on, I get a letter from my mortgage company, last week. The arm is being adjusted again. My payments just keep rising. It sucks. Yea...HELL YEA!!! Lets continue to bail out all these irresponsible corporations, while WE, the small guys, struggle and do whats right...at OUR cost, struggle, and worry. It's the American way...and the smart thing to do...((so they say, but I don't, and won't, always believe what "they say").

But that will just turn into a rant, and I'm not in the mood for ranting today. Today's a good day. It's been productive. The freedom of working at home, at my desired time, both for my weekend and weekday jobs, makes me realize I don't have much to complain about (even though I do like to complain :)

Common sense, good sense, no sense whatsoever

As I listen to people going on about their online life dilemma's, I just have to shake my head and well, feel sorry for them, I guess. What I'd like to know is, when was it declared that the people you meet and become aquainted with on the internet are supposed to have, or supposed to be trustworthy people? I mean, when you think of this logically, you only half trust the people you meet in real life, face to face, and would hardly call 'everyone' your friend. Yet online, the rules change so dramatically. Not only are you willing to give strangers trust, you are willing to give them money, let them run your life, let them RUIN your life, then....just sit back and wonder why it happens.



If it weren't for the fact that the people who do get burned get genuinely hurt and become emotional wrecks, I would remind them...point out to them...the haphazard care they took "In Themselves", when they entrusted these online, trustworthy *smirk* people to their lives. But there is little point in that once they are hurting and looking for help, or at the very least a little sympathy. But it still amazes me that people take such poor care of their own well-being, and are so very, very quick to blame other people for NOT taking care of their well-being. There is just no sense in any of it.

I have been accused of 'not having an offline perspective'. I am quite adept with my offline perspective, thank you very much! I am sincerely beginning to think it's not me that has a problem with that. The problem is with people not having the good sense to think about what they are doing. It is those people who have lost perspective on things. They have lost themselves to the comfort of the internet, the comfort of believing what they want to hear, and the logical sense of reality vs unreality. And when it all comes tumbling down on them...when their bad decisions lead to the turmoil they placed themselves into, then they cry foul and boo, when, in my opinion, they are a big, big part of the problem. They are the enablers of the scammers and preditors online. Then they want everyone to understand their position.

To tell them all this makes one seem heartless and non-caring. Yet, to warn these people about what they are doing before they actually do it, is seen as butting into their business and telling them things that (they swear at the time) they have a handle on. The solution?? I doubt there is one. As long as people confuse the perspectives of online life and offline life, these problems will always be there.

Now...I've said it. Albiet, just to myself, and have hurt no ones feelings in the interim, but I feel better. :)