If there is one thing I have noticed a big portion of in my job, it is people who are blind who have cell phones. A lot of those people are using special software that loads to their phones that allows them to do everything via speech recognition software. This software is critical for them to be able to use their phones, as a voice command or voice dial feature does not work if the number is not already programmed into the phone. So I can definitely see where this kind of software is necessary.
The biggest problem that I have found is that these people have to have PDA phones in order to use the voice recognition software. A regular phone cannot use this type of software. The PDA phones are very pricey at times, as is the software. I had a customer who was having problems with his phone and informed me that changing his phone meant he had to spend another $90 for the software again, as the license only works on one phone!
I understand that the software developers need their money and that the cell phone manufacturers/carriers need their money as well. However, I would think that in cases like this, they would have some sort of package deal - you purchase a PDA phone and if you qualify for it, appropriate accessibility software is included in your purchase so that you aren't paying money you can't afford. This would also be of great help to those needing to replace a non-working phone. It's just common sense people.
I wish they'd give the store reps a bit more sales training before turning them loose on the unsuspecting public. To be perfectly honest, I spend a lot of time fixing things that store reps mess up - such as incorrect rate plans, incorrect or missing features, etc. Plus, stores cannot give credits, so they end up calling us if they fix the screw-up and asking us to put the credit on the account. That's great, but then I'm getting screamed at by my boss for giving out credits. So besides the sales training, the ability to give credits there in the store would be wonderful!
Other than that, I love my job. It's annoying to be on the phones, but eventually I know I'll be able to get a position that gets me off the phones. The funniest part of the whole thing is that when I worked for the other companies, they constantly harped on me for not passing quality control, yet I've only had TWO fails and I'm in line for our Quality Rocks for March. (Everyone gets a failing score at least once. No one is perfect. LOL) So yeah, I'm liking this place a lot better. ;)
I wish I could gather up the money, gather up my BFL, her mom, and her sister and take them all away for a bit. Just for a tiny bit to get their minds off their grief. Especially her sister, as her sister is taking their dad's passing very hard. As I said in my previous post, the memorial service was beautiful, and I think it helped, but frankly, it still makes me want to find Caribbean cruises for everyone and get everybody out of here. Just to do it. Obviously, I don't have the money, but if I did, I would do it in a heartbeat.
Just because I'm nice like that and because they all deserve it. They really do.
My best friend's dad passed away on St Patrick's Day. We didn't have to pull the respirator after all, he went on his own time. So the memorial service was today, and it was a beautiful service. Dad's sister asked about the obituary and I was reminded of all the obituary promotional product crap that the local printing companies sent out, telling my mom she could get bookmarks, etc with my dad's obituary on them.
Mom opted to create and print up her own obituary which will cost less in the long run than the $65 that the local newspaper wanted to charge for the obituary. My best friend wrote the obituary which includes a listing of survivors that include "two special daughters." Those special daughters are BFF's sister's BFF and myself. We couldn't get BFF's sister's BFF to sit with the family, but I sat with the family today during the memorial service.
So yeah, this weekend sucks.
As far as I'm concerned, this year is just really really stinky. Let me see here, I've lost my voice for weeks on end, I've had sinus infection and bronchitis. My knee is going to heck and I have to see a doctor for that. And to top it all off, my best friend's dad, who has been my surrogate dad for the last 20 years, whom I have actually CALLED dad for at least 18 of those 20 years, is in the hospital, in ICU, and not expected to recover at this point. About the only good thing is that the video card in my new laptop is great, so I won't have to replace it. *sigh* Other than that, this year just totally stinks and I'm pretty well sick of it. Things have GOT to get better at some point...I hope. :(
You know what? I LOVE being able to watch TV online. I watch House, DollHouse, and Lie to Me on the internet. Why? Because I work when they're on and I don't have DVR. I can't wait to see if Castle will be online as well, because it looks interesting. :)
So now I'm able to keep up with coworkers who sit there and yak about House diagnosing some patient with Mesothelioma (like he did a couple of weeks ago) and discovering, as usual because it was only 30 minutes in the the show, that he was wrong. LOL Or that Echo did this mission or that mission. It's nice to be able to keep up with my shows without a DVR and without a VCR. Just log on to the 'net and away we go! :)
I watch the shows at Hulu.com, Fox.com, NBC.com, wherever I can find them. :) It's really awesome to be able to watch online. ;)
You ever have one of those days where you wish someone would have just pulled the fire alarm where you were so you could get out of there? That was me today at the doctor's office. My knee has been giving me huge fits today and so I called the doctor's office, as I was told to do if it got bad again. They said they couldn't get me an appointment until Wednesday when my regularly scheduled check up is, but that I could come sit down there and they'd have me go through triage.
So I went and they said it would be anywhere from 3.5 - 5 hours before anyone would see me. Ok, fine. I sat in the little room for about 4 hours before they showed up. They looked at my knee, said there was a definite difference in my right and left knees (right is the bad one), and that they could either send me up for an MRI or CAT scan or send me to the ortho doctor to have it looked at. Since I can't have an MRI (metal implants in my foot) and a CAT scan won't show what they need to see, the ortho doctor might have to scope it. Yay. Not. *sigh* It was too late to schedule the ortho appt but they'll be scheduling it Monday and calling me with the results.
Then they gave me TWO pain pills - Naproxen & Tylenol 3. Naproxen when the pain isn't too bad, Tylenol 3 for when it starts throbbing and won't quit. After all of that, we find out that my new lapto had BitTorrent installed and the cable company shut off our 'net over a file they said we downloaded with it that I don't even have. You can read about that here.
One of the things I don't like about living in the downtown area of town is the lack of really nice, shady trees. In areas like mine where there are some houses there are a few, but not very many. Walking to work a couple of years ago, I would roast as I walked because frankly, there wasn't any shade over the sidewalk. When I lived in another section of town, there were almost always trees around to shade the sidewalks and the houses. But downtown, it seems like all they care about are high rise buildings (we don't have many of those) and parking lots or parking garages. :(
And then they wonder why it is our environment is messed up. We're running out of trees!
One of the guys I used to work with out at Stream was getting ready to go over to China. Now usually when you hear someone talking about going over to China, you think they're adopting a child over there. Not this time. This was a guy getting married to a Chinese woman. Now what I thought was interesting was that according to what he told me and another friend of ours, she was considered a "commodity" in China. Basically she had a little franchise to provide uniforms, bed linens, etc to either schools or military, one of the two. So once he actually went over there and married her, she would be allowed to being training her replacement. She has six months to train her replacement, then she gets to come over here to be with her husband. I saw a picture of her, she's very pretty although she looked no more than 14! Granted Asian women do age much more gracefully than we do over here. LOL
We told him he'd better look into some good immigration attorneys just in case something happened so he'd have someone backing him up. You never know what might happen when bringing a spouse over from another country. I've seen enough military guys fighting the red tape to get their Korean brides over here to know all about that. *sigh*
