Today was wonderful, despite the fact that you're going to have to get that stick out and beat me for not writing tonight. My strategy of getting more sleep last night paid off, as my mind felt much clearer and more prepared to speed through and make guesses on the multiple choice test I had to take this afternoon. I made it into work for my eight a.m. meeting, and then studied for the exam from 9am to 12pm; the exam was about display advertising (image ads, video, etc.) + YouTube advertising, which is a pretty fascinating subject that would serve me well in terms of publicizing my books someday, but that I've really had very little practice with at work. So I read the study guide, took some notes, watched a few YouTube videos as 'research', and then grabbed lunch before the exam. The exam was technically from 1pm to 3:30pm, but I finished 110 questions in a little less than an hour; I ended up with an 87% (passing was 70%). I was totally pleased with that, as I tied the big boss's score -- I'm competitive enough to acknowledge that all I really care about is winning, not whether this exam had anything to do with my core job (it didn't, but I was required to take it anyway). And now I'm all done with these exams, which is fantastic news!
After finishing the exam, I had some milk and Oreos while prepping for a 1:1 with the big boss. We had a really good conversation, which was useful since we're not going to meet again for a month (she's out half of next week and we're both out the two weeks after that, so we won't meet again until sometime in August). If I wanted to work fifteen hours a day, I easily could; instead, I'm going to have to triage, prioritize, and figure out how to make myself more productive during the work day so that I can accomplish all of the great ideas that we had for what I can work on this quarter. One of them was making our communications as funny as the Old Spice YouTube campaign was this week -- I made the big boss watch several of the videos, but I don't think that either of us is cut out to compete with the Old Spice dude. If you didn't see any of them, check out the Old Spice YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/oldspice#p/c/484F058C3EAF7FA6 -- be prepared to waste an hour, because this guy is incredible.
But the best thing that happened today was that I discovered (by getting a newsletter from Gavin Rossdale) that Bush is reuniting! Yes, the band behind such great songs as 'Glycerine', 'Comedown', and 'The Chemicals Between Us', which broke up around 2003, is getting back together (although it's really only Gavin and the drummer - they replaced the other two) and releasing an album this fall. I downloaded the single this afternoon and listened to it approximately 40 times; I like it, but I was also the only person to buy his solo album, so I'm perhaps not the best judge.
When I got home, I cleaned the kitchen, took care of some sundry necessities, and made dinner (the last of my chicken fajitas, yum). I then sat down intending to write, but I failed; instead, I set up my Tivo box in preparation for the Comcast guy to come this weekend and bring me a cablecard so that I can get HD programming on the Tivo. It's really annoying that they have to send a technician to do it; I'm pretty sure I could install it myself, but I'm also pretty sure that since Comcast is legally required to provide a cablecard to any customer who asks for it, they're trying to recoup some of it by charing me a $16 professional installation fee for what amounts to slipping a credit-card-sized card into my Tivo unit and punching in a code. Whatever; I'm just excited to get my Tivo fully set up so that I can start recording Craig again.
So now, I'm going to go to bed so that I can get up, finish my work quickly, and do some serious writing. Goodnight!
2 comments:
Hi there!
My name is Melissa and I work for Comcast HQ. Most areas require technicians to come out to install cable cards because of the pairing process. It's a bit involved and we need to make sure that you're getting all the programming that you're signed up to. Anywho, just wanted to drop a line to let you know if you need help with anything, our team is happy to help.
Happy Friday!
Kind Regards,
Melissa Mendoza
Comcast Customer Connect
National Customer Operations
We_Can_Help@comcast.com
@ComcastMelissa
So the entertaining thing about Melissa's response (although I respect Comcast for trying to help) is that the technician who initially installed my cable basically laughed at me when I asked if I needed a technician to install the cablecard. He said that anyone who can slip a card into a slot can install a cablecard, and I should just pick one up at a service center.
I knew that it was too good to be true and chatted into a rep (who was v. helpful, btw) before going to stand in line for an hour, and he confirmed that I would need to have a technician come out. I still have to find a service center to take the cable box back when I get the card, since the service rep recommended not giving it to the technician (since apparently there's a risk the technician wouldn't file the paperwork and then I would still be paying for the box?) -- but at least I'll have Tivo this weekend.
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