The printer hates me.
Jul. 16th, 2003 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deathpixieThree days in Appeals and I've managed to alienate the only printer available. Which is irritating, since I have a bunch of work I could be doing, but requires a working printer to do. Even more irritating, the techie guy was here not half an hour ago on other business and told me to call someone else, and now they're going to refer the matter back to him any way.
It didn't help that the person I spoke to treated me like an imbecile:
"Well, our systems show there's nothing wrong with it".
"There's nothing printing."
"There should be."
"There _isn't_. I've been trying for the last hour. There is nothing coming out of it and it's not processing data." *grinding teeth*
"Are you sure you're using that printer?"
"Yes.It's the only one we have that prints Courtlink. Only it isn't." *pictures the IT guy's bloody death*
*sighs*
I did a tour of the call centre that handles most of the enquiries relating to us this morning. They do a lot of other things to, like processing the speeding and traffic light camera films, identifying number plates for those matter, data entry of all the infringements the police issue (imagine doing nothing all day but deciphering police handwriting!), process payments (in a high-security glassed-off section even our tour guide doesn't have access to), and a bunch of administration tasks like the mail. I learned two things from the whole experience: 1) the Tenix people are a hard-working lot and we should forgive them the occasional stuff up since they deal with upwards of 3000 calls a day; and 2) I would rather stab out my eyes with a rusty paperclip than work there.
And speaking of eyes...
And I hope this cut works, otherwise [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] is going to have my guts for garters.
So, I'm watching it last night, and they get to the bit with Xander and Caleb, and I squealed out loud in outrage and shock. Because it's Xander. You don't do that to Xander. And of course the episode ended at a point where I wanted it to go on and now I have to wait (hopefully) until next week before we get anything else.
And of course, I couldn't get to sleep for ages (and the episode finished at 11.30pm, what with Channel Seven's idiotic programming, because I was thinking about the episode, and especially the bit with Xander losing his eye, and then I realised that the whole thing is reflecting the heart/spirit/mind thing of Season 4.
I knew my obsessive watching of those over the past few weeks would be useful.
Just as Buffy's heart, spirit and mind are being whittled away, so are the people who represent those things. Willow has been rendered ineffective through her fear of using magic (exacerbated by the backlash thing with the First). Giles has been distanced from her by the whole Spike set-up thing (prompted by the First appearing to Robin). And now Xander has been seriously damaged by an agent of the First. It's reflected in the way she's doing things. Her spirit is constantly wavering, with her crises of confidence about her abilityto win the war and the cost it will entail. She's losing the ability to feel, to empathise with others, locking her feelings up in order to become a better leader. And she's losing her tactical ability, her planning skills - the attack on Caleb, despite how obviously it was a trap is clear indication of this.
Of course, I could be horribly off-track here, but I'd appreciate those who have seen the end of the season not telling me that.
It didn't help that the person I spoke to treated me like an imbecile:
"Well, our systems show there's nothing wrong with it".
"There's nothing printing."
"There should be."
"There _isn't_. I've been trying for the last hour. There is nothing coming out of it and it's not processing data." *grinding teeth*
"Are you sure you're using that printer?"
"Yes.It's the only one we have that prints Courtlink. Only it isn't." *pictures the IT guy's bloody death*
*sighs*
I did a tour of the call centre that handles most of the enquiries relating to us this morning. They do a lot of other things to, like processing the speeding and traffic light camera films, identifying number plates for those matter, data entry of all the infringements the police issue (imagine doing nothing all day but deciphering police handwriting!), process payments (in a high-security glassed-off section even our tour guide doesn't have access to), and a bunch of administration tasks like the mail. I learned two things from the whole experience: 1) the Tenix people are a hard-working lot and we should forgive them the occasional stuff up since they deal with upwards of 3000 calls a day; and 2) I would rather stab out my eyes with a rusty paperclip than work there.
And speaking of eyes...
And I hope this cut works, otherwise [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] is going to have my guts for garters.
So, I'm watching it last night, and they get to the bit with Xander and Caleb, and I squealed out loud in outrage and shock. Because it's Xander. You don't do that to Xander. And of course the episode ended at a point where I wanted it to go on and now I have to wait (hopefully) until next week before we get anything else.
And of course, I couldn't get to sleep for ages (and the episode finished at 11.30pm, what with Channel Seven's idiotic programming, because I was thinking about the episode, and especially the bit with Xander losing his eye, and then I realised that the whole thing is reflecting the heart/spirit/mind thing of Season 4.
I knew my obsessive watching of those over the past few weeks would be useful.
Just as Buffy's heart, spirit and mind are being whittled away, so are the people who represent those things. Willow has been rendered ineffective through her fear of using magic (exacerbated by the backlash thing with the First). Giles has been distanced from her by the whole Spike set-up thing (prompted by the First appearing to Robin). And now Xander has been seriously damaged by an agent of the First. It's reflected in the way she's doing things. Her spirit is constantly wavering, with her crises of confidence about her abilityto win the war and the cost it will entail. She's losing the ability to feel, to empathise with others, locking her feelings up in order to become a better leader. And she's losing her tactical ability, her planning skills - the attack on Caleb, despite how obviously it was a trap is clear indication of this.
Of course, I could be horribly off-track here, but I'd appreciate those who have seen the end of the season not telling me that.
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About Buffy. :)
Date: 2003-07-15 10:24 pm (UTC)Re: About Buffy. :)
Date: 2003-07-15 11:24 pm (UTC)Oh. You may find this (http://www.slayage.tv/essays/slayage3/afifarek.htm) interesting.
Re: About Buffy. :)
Date: 2003-07-16 05:08 am (UTC)Re: About Buffy. :)
Date: 2003-07-18 02:07 am (UTC)Thanks for the link, too. It was really interesting.
Re: About Buffy. :)
Date: 2003-07-16 05:39 am (UTC)Which, of course, leaves a lot of quasi-Scoobies out of the loop. I've always thought that Cordelia and Anya were both the voice of the group, but I don't have a theory as such in regard to Angel, Spike, Riley, Oz or Dawn. (Tara was the conscience, of course, but that was always pretty obvious.)
Andrew ... Andrew is going to be their eyes some day, believe it or not. Perception of a different variety to Xander's, since Xander sees with his heart.
Re: About Buffy. :)
Date: 2003-07-18 02:27 am (UTC)Which, of course, leaves a lot of quasi-Scoobies out of the loop. I've always thought that Cordelia and Anya were both the voice of the group, but I don't have a theory as such in regard to Angel, Spike, Riley, Oz or Dawn. (Tara was the conscience, of course, but that was always pretty obvious.)
I think Dawn was, originally, the innocence of the group. She hadn't been as hardened and as hurt (though this began to change after the season 5 finale) as the others had been. And children traditionally symbolise innocence, don't they? She seems to fit that. Riley was the group's innocence during season 4 - he might have been the big soldier boy, but he was fundementally innocent about the way that the world the Scoobies live in works.
I think Angel, Spike and Oz all fill the same function, just in different ways. I'm not sure what you'd call it, if you tried to classify it, but it's the way that none of them are fully human anymore.
I'm not sure what you'd call what they represent, though. ...or am I just dragging this out too far?
Andrew ... Andrew is going to be their eyes some day, believe it or not. Perception of a different variety to Xander's, since Xander sees with his heart.
*nods* Andrew sees things in a far more intelectual way to Xander. He's the outsider and he analyses their behaviour. He picks it apart and draws conclusions from what he sees.
Re: About Buffy. :)
Date: 2003-07-22 11:07 pm (UTC)Mmmmm. Not sure I can quite see that. I agree that he's the outsider being brought into their world, but he's not as innocent as Dawn was. There's some other nebulous quality that's almost innocence, I'm sure ...
I think Angel, Spike and Oz all fill the same function, just in different ways. I'm not sure what you'd call it, if you tried to classify it, but it's the way that none of them are fully human anymore.
I agree that they all represent a point about the non-human members of the Buffyverse (and how you shouldn't stake them on sight) but I'm not sure if that defines their role in the group. I'll have to think about it.
He's the outsider and he analyses their behaviour. He picks it apart and draws conclusions from what he sees.
Indeed.