A Day At Wonderland

Our company family day was held June 23 at Canada’s Wonderland. Staff were provided free tickets – a maximum of 4 tickets per family including food vouchers, free parking and lots of discount coupons for the stores inside the park. The package was certainly appreciated by everyone. My family comes here every year but it is great when it is free 🙂 We hope this perk happens every year!

Canada’s Wonderland which is located in Vaughan, Ontario, suburb of Toronto is rated as one of the top 10 theme/amusement parks in North America. The ride selections – 200 in all with 65 thrilling rides with the most variety of roller coasters are more than enough to statisfy the appetite of those seeking the ultimate adrenalin rush experience. The new Splash Works – a 20 acre water park is a great place to soak up in summer and in the cooler fall(water is heated). It also has an outdoor music theatre where concerts are held all summer long. Another interesting fact is Canada’s Wonderland is a seasonal amusement park ( opens in May and closes in October ) and its attendance is tops amongst seasonal parks in North America in 2005 and 2006. It is also a great provider of jobs to high school and college students in summer.

The Wonderland roller coasters riders are wicked and it is pretty common to see hats and shoes flying all over the place, for those that understimate the power of these beasts 🙂 I ‘ve done my time chasing these coasters and I don’t want to subject my body to the G forces which gets to the extreme with these modern day monsters hehe . The Tomb Raider which is in fact a flying coaster is one interesting monster. It offers a different sensation – that of flying rather than rolling 🙂 Heck, I’d have to take this ride hungry, with my stomach empty 🙂

Here’s a video of Xtreme Skyfler . The good thing about this ride which resembles a bungee jump is you don’t have to take it alone. It can handle up to 3 people which means you can be with your buddies – if that gives you a little bit of moral support – and you have someone to hug and shout till your lungs almost break as you fall within 6 ft of hitting ground 🙂 This is one ride I wouldn’t take unless I am between Paris Hilton and Linsday Lohan and they better be scared shit LOL 🙂

FACTS TAG BY WIL

Will had tagged me for the 15 facts about me but since this blog already contains 12 facts about me, I’ll do only 3 this time 🙂

1. I was hooked up on Chess in my teens and younger years and played in the Inter-Commercial Chess Team tourney in Manila representing my company where I had a chance to play with nationally rated players. I played National Master Ramon Lontoc to a draw in a simultaneous game. I played with Grandmaster Eugene Torre and English Grandmaster Raymond Keene in a simul exhibition but lost in a long end game ( as expected hehe). I have stopped playing chess for many many years now and play very rarely but I still manage to surprise people every now and then 🙂 Napoleon Bonaparte is known to have said ” If you want to destroy a man, teach him how to play chess”.

2.When I was in my younger years I wished I was much older so people in my office would give me more respect 🙂 At 28 years I was assigned to manage 17 people, most of whom were older than me 🙂

3. I’m pretty flexible with my palate but I can’t seem to eat paksiw na isda. Maybe it had to do with my abhorrence with this dish when I was a kid.

TONGUE TWISTER

Last week I attended a disaster recovery presentation of one of the companies our technology infrastructure supports. The meeting was quite long which took us to lunch. The recovery coordinator was excellent in his presentation except when he touched the section on handling of pandemic occurences and the issue of employee absenteeism was touched. The poor chap couldn’t pronounce the word “absenteeism” even after drinking water, taking lunch and downing coffee to stabilize his nerves 🙂 He gave up on the word after way too many attempts LOL 🙂 He was one of us, an employee of the corporation so we took the issue quite light heartedly. Man, if this was a sales presentation it would have been a debacle. And this is a country where English is the first language !

I remember when I was in high school, a few of my classmates couldn’t get a handle on the word “executioner”. It wasn’t so bad because they would ultimately get it in three tries. I am laughing now but I am questioning myself – am I dead sure I could pronounce all the words in the darn dictionary ? Funny tounge twister stories, anyone?

TOO MUCH HOMEWORK?

While I was strolling at the fast food section at a mall in a predominantly Chinese suburb north of the city Friday night, I chanced upon a bulletin board ad that enjoined parents to explore the power of Image Abacus, a system of brain power development based on the principles of abacus calculation. This method of mental acrobatics supposedly develops all sides of the brain works wonders with the person’s intuitive thinking, enhances problem solving skills and memory retention. The program is pretty ambitious. To think that a person’s brain can be turned into a human calculator through virtual imagery of the abacus principle is truly mind boggling. Hmmm… I suppose this program makes geniuses out of ordinary kids, which starts at a very young age of 6 years, on to their trek towards the much coveted membership with Mensa International. I was grasping for an answer as to what would motivate me to turn my kid into some kind of a human robot. There is no doubt in my mind that there are people obsessed by the thought that the supreme satisfaction in their mission of propagating the homo sapien specie is to see their offspring become a genius. I wonder if this kind of motivation has something to do with the child or simply an expression of the parent’s vanity in that quest for fame, recognition and stature in society.

My curiosity about Image Abacus was still fresh and unabated when a Monday news item of a local newspaper struck me – HOMEWORK OVERLOAD UNDER MICROSCOPE”.

“No homework on the weekend, during March Break or even the Christmas holidays. Forget about tests on Mondays. No big assignments four days before exams. “

While the proponents of Image Abacus suggest a rigorous training of the brain over and above the regular school curriculum, some people believe that children ought to be given more time to socialize and interact with family and community. School trustees in consultation with parents have come to a conclusion that school going children are being overloaded with homework and assigments to the point that the quality of their lives are being negatively affected. The trustees came up with a supposedly equitable formula that would balance study and home life – 10 minutes of homework per grade. In short a grade 1 student will have 10 mins of homework ; a grade 6 with 60 minutes. Here’s what parents say about the proposal. What is your opinion? Fair ? Not enough ?

IDOL CONTROVERSY

Poor Sanjaya Malakar. Not only did his hometown refuse the Idol producers request to hold a parade or a town hall type meeting to honor him, Ozzy Osbourne backed out at the last minute, refusing to do a duet with him at the Idol finals night. Canadian Idol judge Farley Flex blamed the American Idol judges of screwing up by including Sanjaya in the top 24. Flex said ; “Sanjaya was put in there by the judges, it wasn’t the public that put him in there – the public kept him in there, but they didn’t put him in there”.

The Canadian Idol is on its third week with a big change in the auditions this time. Contestants are allowed to play musical instrument of their choice at the auditions 🙂

VACATION

Darn, I’ve been trying to post the pics I’ve taken on our short vacation at the Adirondacks (Northern New York) on the first week of May. Blogging laziness had overtaken me lately. I did take my laptop on the trip and loaded my photos while on the trip. When I opened my laptop at the lodge where we stayed, I was able to scan an unsecure wireless access point in the neighborhood which I promptly hijacked 🙂 I was able to get to the internet, sent emails and blogged a bit. The wireless access-point had TINKER as its node ID. One day when I was at the golf club trying to confirm my tee off, a couple of elderly gentlemen came in. They were almost late and hurriedly proceeded to confirm their tee off time which was before mine. The pro shop clerk asked – ” under what name did you book your reservation? ” whereupon only of the guys replied ” TINKER”. LOL 🙂 I had no doubt the dude was the owner of the wireless access point I hijacked 🙂 He looked like he lived in the neighborhood close to the resort. I just smiled and murmured – thanks pal 🙂

Customer Service Blues

People working in a customer service call center are a rare breed. Working with irate and foul-mouthed customers is not only stressful but oftentimes downright humiliating. Other than the missionaries and Jesus workers, this is one profession where people learn how to not to hit back and turn the other cheek, not because of some lofty ideals but all in the name of the almighty green buck. Keeping customers happy at the expense of strained egos and suppressed anger of verbally abused customer service staff seems to be the rule of thumb in this business. Staff are urged not to respond to customer expletives and insults. They shouldn’t and they can’t because every call is recorded and randomly reviewed by the quality assurance team . Staff are urged to comply with the protocol of gracefully terminating a nasty call and are forewarned to never engage the client in an altercation. An impolite handling of a customer can mean termination. Not an easy way to earn a living. With smoke coming out of my ears and my horns getting itchy when agitated, BW couldn’t possibly last for a day dealing with these irate jerks 🙂

Unbeknownst to many, dumb and ignorant customers can raise the blood pressure levels of customer service folks to the same level as irate customers do. Dealing with an angry customer is as equally stressful as dealing with a numbskull. Sounds odd but true. The psychological impact of extreme frustration can be as equally explosive as suppressed anger.

Operator: “Ridge Hall, computer assistance; may I help you?”
Caller: “Yes, well, I’m having trouble with WordPerfect.”
Operator: “What sort of trouble??”
Caller: “Well, I was just typing along, and all of a sudden the words went away.”
Operator: “Went away?”
Caller: “They disappeared.”
Operator: “Hmm So what does your screen look like now?”
Caller: “Nothing.”
Operator: “Nothing??”
Caller: “It’s blank; it won’t accept anything when I type.”
Operator: “Are you still in WordPerfect, or did you get out??”
Caller: “How do I tell?”
Operator: “Can you see the C: prompt on the screen??”
Caller: “What’s a sea-prompt?”
Operator: “Never mind, can you move your cursor around the screen?”
Caller: “There isn’t any cursor: I told you, it won’t accept anything I type.”
Operator: “Does your monitor have a power indicator??”
Caller: “What’s a monitor?”
Operator: “It’s the thing with the screen on it that looks like a TV. Does it have a little light that tells you when it’s on??”
Caller: “I don’t know.”
Operator: “Well, then look on the back of the monitor and find where the power cord goes into it. Can you see that??”
Caller: “Yes, I think so.”
Operator: “Great. Follow the cord to the plug, and tell me if it’s plugged into the wall.
Caller: “Yes, it is.”
Operator: “When you were behind the monitor, did you notice that there were two cables plugged into the back of it, not just one??”
Caller: “No.”
Operator: “Well, there are. I need you to look back there again and find the other cable.”
Caller: “Okay, here it is.”
Operator: “Follow it for me, and tell me if it’s plugged securely into the back of your computer.”
Caller: “I can’t reach.”
Operator: “Uh huh. Well, can you see if it is??”
Caller: “No.”
Operator: “Even if you maybe put your knee on something and lean way over??”
Caller: “Oh, it’s not because I don’t have the right angle – it’s because it’s dark.”
Operator: “Dark??”
Caller: “Yes – the office light is off, and the only light I have is coming in from the window.
” Operator: “Well, turn on the office light then.”
Caller: “I can’t.”
Operator: “No? Why not??”
Caller: “Because there’s a power failure.”
Operator: “A power……… A power failure? Aha, Okay, we’ve got it licked now.
Do you still have the boxes and manuals and packing stuff your computer came in??”
Caller: “Well, yes, I keep them in the closet.”
Operator: “Good. Go get them, and unplug your system and pack it up just like it was when you got it. Then take it back to the store you bought it from.”
Caller: “Really? Is it that bad?”
Operator: “Yes, I’m afraid it is.”
Caller: “Well, all right then, I suppose. What do I tell them??”
Operator: “Tell them you’re too stupid to own a computer!!!!!”

click.. customer service staff disconnects the call, smiles sheepishly, breaths a deep sigh of relief and experiences the adrenalin rush that reinvigorates her entire being quietly whispering to herself – “you deserve that you stupid SOB ” and proceeds to answer the next call in the queue. The recorded conversation eventually fell into the hands of quality assurance for the routine review. The staff was found to have seriously breached the customer service code of conduct and was fired. The staff appealed the decision. There was no complaint from the customer. Was Wordperfect justified in firing the staff ?

A $32 Million BIRTHDAY GIFT

A man bought seven (7) Lotto 6/49 quick pick tickets and inserted them into a birthday card for his wife. Lo and behold, when his wife opened the card and checked the tickets, one of them was the winner of the $32 million Saturday night Lotto jackpot ! The 7 tickets were worth $14, pretty paltry gift for a birthday present for your better half but geez the stinginess paid off big time. Darn, I just bought my wife a new Subaru for her birthday – I deserve to win more than that cheapskate ! LOL 🙂

Which reminded me of a joke about a man whose business was under threat of bankruptcy. He prayed to God hard for money so he can save his business. He bugged God night and day for a miracle, for that cash infusion so he can get out of financial trouble. Finally God got incensed by his persistence and “ kakulitan” and broke out of his omnipotence and in his humanized form, took the prophetic sounding voice of Orson Wells and commanded the man – “ at least buy a Lotto ticket you dork “ 🙂