You know, canvassing is a pretty interesting job. I had wondered what it was like being those people who get paid to knock on doors and waste other people's time. The basic protocol of my job is this:

• Approach the house.


• Knock on the door.


• If someone answers, deliver the pitch, hand them a flyer, and try to get the lead.


• If no one is home or otherwise no one answers the door, leave a flyer in the door.


• Move on.

The exchange you see in the title of my entry is actually one that transpired when I was doing my on-the-job training with Box. I was going to try speaking to someone and he blew that one over my shoulder. Got a good laugh out of the guy, and we double-teamed him. Wound up getting a lead, too. Too bad Joe got the commission for it.

Interesting people pop up, though, who don't want to give us the time of day. They'll stare at you through the screen door, and when you begin to talk, they say "I'm not interested." and shut the door in your face. Some people can't take that kind of treatment. I can, but only the way Baron Von Engar would. I stuff two or three flyers in their door anyway and then move on. Lord, forgive me... but they started it. It's hard to ask forgiveness for something you don't feel bad about doing, isn't it? ^__^;

My boss, whom I shall call Djinn, is the coolest boss I've ever had. It's a crying shame I can't have him as a boss anywhere else. I don't feel it necessary to detail too much on this job's history, because it's going to be so short-lived, so let's just cut to the chase, shall we?

Box has already put in his two weeks. Because this job is located in another town, and Box is my ride there, and I have no other way of getting there, his two weeks is essentially my two weeks as well. To keep me around, however, Djinn is prepared to pay my grandmother a little bit to bring me to and from work. There's only two other people working with us right now, and they're also planning on quitting, which is not good on Djinn. But what makes things even worse, is that the corporate bigwigs have told Djinn that if our numbers aren't improved by this Wednesday, they're going to can the entire program, meaning Djinn, too, will be out of a job. I'd love to help, but I can't do any better than I am, and I've been pulling in on average one lead per day. Djinn says that he's impressed with those results considering how I haven't been with the company or long, but he also said that what the executives expect is for us to be bringing in three leads each per day. Simply put, I don't think that program is going to last past Wednesday. I suppose we'll see what happens.

So my parents invited me to go on a gem mining trip sometime back that they finally left for on Friday, I believe. But I'm here, typing this entry? Well, it seems I was volunteered out of the trip and into watching my parents' two dogs as well as the two dogs and cat I already live with. They said this was because of work, and something else, idunno. It sounded logical to me, but I'd have like to have opted out of it than them asking me, "You know we've pretty much squished your trip, right?" especially when my mom initially invited me because I told her I was lonely for some company. Yeah, thanks. ^__^;

Our pool is open once more, except this year I intend to play a role in its maintenance. My grandmother is seriously considering filling it up since nobody uses it and she's the only one that maintains it, and blah, blah, blah. Even though I have extended myhand in an offer of service, and yet I'm never asked for it and when I offer to help with things, she tells me she's got it. So essentially, I'm merely left with using the pool to encourage her to keep it since no one else seems to want to anymore. Eh... problem is that I don't get a thrill out of using the pool, I get a thrill out of experiencing it with someone, like many other things. Without someone else there, I can find many more appealing to do for many more appealing reasons. Anyway, I digress. I'm just going to autonomously maintain the pool and try to get the jump on my grandmother. While she's been gone, I've vacuumed the bottom of the pool out and pulled the remainder of the solar cover off, pulled it to the front yard and sprayed the debris off of it... at the cost of scratching a bunch of plastic bubbly things off of it on the concrete and tearing a hole in it the size of a football. ^__^;; Well, it's the thought that counts, eh? Eh, thought not. Anyway, I've been working on killing the algae with a little bit of superchlorination.

I entertained the little girl from next door with the water hose and the dog a bit, and then I came inside, played some video games, watched some TV... things are so different here when I'm alone for so long, heh. I'd really like some company, but in my current state am still otherwise able to entertain myself for the most part. We'll see about today.

Speaking of today, Box is still sick as a dog from Friday, and will be incapable of bringing me to work today. I must find alternate means of getting to Lorton. Eesh. Maybe Djinn can pick me up, but I don't know how I'm getting back. Perhaps a cab, I guess.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'll detail Saturday's events later today.

mood: lonely

Things just keep happening in my life and I really want to catch up so I can get them all and finally relax! Damn ModBlog! Damn their constant server failures!

Anyway... So bus tickets can take forever to sell. I don't like doing it.

Dope: Hey, how much are tickets from here to Plattsburgh, New York?

Dennis: *pulls up company website* *enters city names* *skips itinerary* It'll be $46 USD.

Dope: Oh. What kinds of transfers are there?

Dennis: *backs to itinerary* *opens scedule information* There's two transfers, one in DC and one in New York city.

Dope: Oh. How much for that with a round trip ticket?

Dennis: *backs out entirely and repeats process for a round trip ticket* It's $84 USD.

Dope: Oh. How much is a single ride from DC to New York?

Dennis: A one-way ticket?

Dope: Yeah, a single ride ticket, just one. Adult.

Dennis: ...... *backs out entirely, repeats process*

Dope: Oh. And what about a round trip?

Dennis: *back out entirely, repeats process*

Dope: Oh. Thank you. *leaves*

People also call on the phone wanting this information. So many people call wanting to waste my time like this, I really begin to wonder exactly how many of them don't already have the internet that they can't just visit the website.

Now bear in mind that in the midst of doing what this guy could easily do from the company's website at home, I'll also be trying to help other people riding the train in ways that are actually conducive to business. I've had crowds coming in while I'm being faced with such tribulations, a few people wanting train tickets and a second person wanting a bus ticket, who actually intends to buy.

This brings to mind one fateful Saturday in which I worked all day. Morning time, not so much a problem. But later on in the evening, a huge bum rush of bus riders came in wanting tickets, and I, being inexperienced, could not always provide accurate information, thinking that what I was telling them is accurate. God forbid you screw these people out of a few hours' ride, yeesh. It was the worst day I had ever had at that station and convinced me never to work another double there ever again.

Heh... I get some stupid questions sometimes. (By the way, there's only one bus company here in the states [or so it seems], so I'll just point out right now that I worked in a privately-owned Greyhound station.)

Dennis: *picks up phone* Greyhound Woodbridge.

Dummy: Hi, is this the Greyhound in Triangle?

Dennis: ...No, this is the Greyhound in Woodbridge.

Dummy: Oh. How much is *continues call*

Anyway... moving the story forward, a woman came in one day wanting a 'TLC' pass, which allows the wielder to have unlimited access to the VRE train and metro for one month. See was deaf and mute, and asked for the discount on it. Now, the one she wanted sells for $239.30 USD, meaning that the discount would be half that amount. I was curious at first, but used logic to solve my problem. The money goes in the VRE drawer, and there are discounts available on our 1-Trip, 2-Trip, 10-Trip, and even our pricey monthly passes. Why wouldn't there be one for the TLC? The only real difference between the TLC and everything else is that I don't sell them through the computer. I just pull one out of an envelope and echange the money. Either way, I let the woman have it for $119.65 USD and sent her on her way. Problem solved.

Well, the following month, I suppose this woman assumed I'd recognize her face after only seeing her one other time in my life thirty days ago. I accidentally charged the woman full price for her TLC to her card. Now, my machine is not equipped to give refunds on our credit card purchases due to our distinct lack of ability to anything outside making money. I call Ing to see what I can do, and she then decides to tell me that discounts are not given on TLC passes. I didn't recall selling the prior ticket at this time, so I saw no problem. I did my best to tell this woman that we don't give discounts (by writing it on paper, which we used to communicate with, by the way) but she instead became frustrated and demanded her money back. I told her she could come back at noon and my boss could help her with that, since it's nothing I had been trained in and would therefore know nothing about. I told her about someone being in at noon and she angrily says to me as best as she could, "I have to work." I told her we're open until 7:00 PM EST, and that there was nothing I could do. She then left, and I resumed helping the other customers in line.

Around this time, Box had managed to help land me a spot at his canvassing job, where we could work together. He would be my ride to and from as well, since I couldn't get to the town the job is stationed in myself. Sounded like fun, heh. Basically, by canvassing I'm going door to door offering people free estimates on their windows, doors, siding, etc. There is a distinct difference between soliciting and canvassing too, as stated in a supreme court ruling. I've yet to see it myself, but Virginia state law also defines canvassing as separate from soliciting, so we don't need solicitor's licenses.

On my first day of actually being out on the field, Box was showing me the ropes. We went door to door and tried to get people to sign up for their free estimates while enjoying a few laughs along the way. That's when I get a call from Ing:

Ing: Dennis, you sold a TLC pass for half price last month!

Dennis: I did?

Ing: Yes! Dennis, TLCs don't get discounts!

Dennis: Well, you guys didn't tell me that when I was training!

Ing: Dennis, if there's ever something you don't know you're supposed to call us, you're always supposed to call us if there's something you don't know how to do...

Dennis: You guys should have told me that before, the woman said she should get a discount on it, so I gave it to her!

Ing: *moan* Dennis, what am I gonna do about the money...?

Dennis: I don't know, I guess I'm gonna have to pay for it!

Ing: I don't know what I'm going to do, I'm so busy... I'll talk to you later, okay?

Dennis: Yeah, alright.

It was that next day at the train station that I went in and was performing my shift as usual. After some time Art, came in.

Art: Hey, Dennis, how you doing?

Dennis: I'm alright, I guess, just doing the accounting here.

Art: Well, uh, Dennis... I don't think we'll be needing your help anymore.

Dennis: Oh, really?

Art: Yeah... too many mistakes, too many errors.

Dennis: Oh, I see.

Art: And... it's been very slow lately.

Dennis: Slow?

Art: Yeah. So maybe I have to cut some hours, you know? Give some more to myself.

Dennis: Yeah, okay.

Art: Dennis, you don't have to worry about that, I'll finish up here, okay? And you can also give me back the key to the place.

Dennis: Yeah, alright.

Art: You know, if you want... you can use us as a reference, for in the future.

Dennis: Okay.

I walked right out of there, unhappy. Not with my performance, though, but with my boss' performances. Let me brief the errors and mistakes I had made while working there:

I need to call them when I arrive there every morning so that they know that I'm actually there.- I infracted this rule countless times. People start coming in and wanting things as soon as I walk in there, and since even if we're closed, we're technically still open, it's not like I can go in when I don't have to help anybody. I easily get sidetracked and this was just one of the minor things that went over my head. They would call the station if I didn't call them, and within a very short period of time, too. This problem had long been fixed though, when my bosses installed a nifty alarm clock program on their computer, and set it for me whenever I came in.

The total value of the Metrocheks I count must be equal to the computer's count.- I infracted this rule every day except one. My counts were always off, but I never stole from them. I was either vastly under or vastly over, and only one day did I actually break even. I had asked them how this happens, and to this day they have never explained it, nor did they complain. I guess everything broke even in the end, or something.

When my shift ends, I need to be ready to leave immediately.- I cared about this rule so little in the end that I ignored it entirely. My bosses began complaining about it, and how coincidental that they stopped complaining when I took my sweet time leaving and began claiming to have worked five hours instead of the six it took me to leave. They want me to begin closing up shop an hour before I shut down, but I can't do that well with traffic at times, and ultimately began waiting until it slowed down at the end of my shift.

Any other mistake I made was due to something they did not tell me. They only happened once and never again. I know they fired me over that TLC pass. Joke's on them, though. I never paid the rest of my tab I had going before I left from munching on their confections! Heh, heh.

From there, I simply canvassed.

Aaand now that I'm all caught up, I suppose I'll post this entry here and begin what I hope can be the new beginning of a day by day log of my life. ...I hope.

mood: pleased

And so another chapter in my life comes to a close. However, I do not see it as an ending of sorts, rather a beginning of sorts. I, for a time, functioned as a shift leader for a place I have nicknamed RC Video. (Can you pinpoint this cultural reference?) This was my first real break in employment, having finally found something decent paying, with plenty of hours. I had power, which meant my word actually mattered, and my daily tasks would allow me to talk to people about things I like. It was good... though all too good. You see, as per the growing trend, RC liked to sell programs as well as renting out their videos to customers, and as my employment continued, so increased their insistence that we sell programs. Selling wasn't exactly a job-specific function, nor was it a practice of protecting my employment... simply a means to get patted on the back. Lack of commission didn't bother me too much, as I'm not much a seller anyway.

However, it wasn't too exciting to have the boss lady Tin get on my case about not selling any programs. I have a rather cynical viewpoint on RC's tact in selling the programs to customers, as well as generally any other place around here that offers said deals. As long as my job wasn't as risk, however, I was fine. The insistence escalated, however, as I noticed a note in the office one day, written in Tin's handwriting, "If you can't sell then don't work at RC!!!" Lovely.

It was a manager that I had trained with and works at another RC store that broke the news to me that after only four months of having worked there, my store of all RC stores was to be shut down. Ironic, for such a nice job, hm? As I eventually came to learn, however, RC did not intend on merely letting their employees go. We were to be transferred to other stores. My issue is that given my rather limited range of mobility, I can't go too far, and the only nearby stores that would take me weren't exactly in the range I cared to work. In addition to this, at one time Tin informed me that she was instructed to begin writing people up who did not sell. Again with the selling. From there, I had become fed up with RC and decided that I would leave them on good standing and find management employment elsewhere, preferably one which does entail selling.

Also, a man whom I shall refer to as Art came in one day and offered me a job at the local train station, stating that he was looking at a potential buyer for the place, but could use some help for the next couple of months of so. Seeing as I could work the train station's morning shift and RC as a night shift, I accepted his generous offer.

Just my luck that a mere few days before my store locked their doors for good to begin official shut down procedure did I for the second time during my employment forget to lock the doors when I left at night. I was subsequently fired on the spot and from then on was employed at only the train station.

As I trained for work in the train station, I noticed not only a very relaxed environment, but also very relaxed procedures, procedures that I felt, could be taken advantage of easily. Due to the lack of any real security in the way they do things, I could conceivably steal small amounts of cash from there here and there, or pilch candy and they would never notice. I know this, because for crying out loud, they float all of their coins to and from one location, whether it be bus or train tickets, or confection puchases I'm processing! No transactions are recorded for confections, and I often find myself running out of change in confections because there's so little given to me that I wind up making change from the train ticket drawer. I sell bus tickets, so one would expect me to be a Be-All-Know-All for the buses, when in actuality my only resource is the bus company's website, which only tells me schedules and fares, but cannot tell me the locations of buses or anything else that would be generally useful to anyone with a question that doesn't involve buying a ticket or inquiring itinerary. In the end, I was never even fully trained on everything there, and the training I did get to me felt quite rushed, as they expected me to be able to handle doing things by myself after three days of working there. There were a couple things I was never trained to do, such as the bus company's parcel delivery service, and MoneyGrams, or however they're spelled. Big things that I really should have had gone over a couple times to make sure I know what I'm doing. Although, I will admit that it was quite fun to take advantage of my own ignorance and explain to customers that I could not help them because I was not trained on how to do something. Not my fault! Heh.

Some flags went up, though, as I noticed these things but I didn't particularly care. I still don't, really. It was just a 'number two' job, not something I wanted to stay with, very minor anyway, et cetera. However, things did not stop there. I was clearly told when I started there that I could use the internet, as long as the material I was pulling up was appropriate. Well, I hopped onto meebo.com, a website that allows for instant messaging on AIM, YIM, MSN, and a few other IM programs from any computer. Why did my boss come in one day, see me on it, and tell me not to let him see me doing that? Well, I followed both of his statements. I still did it, and I just didn't let him see I was. Another red flag, which I continued to ignore. I greatly enjoyed being able to enjoy the company of friends while on the job.

One day, as I closed the station at the end of my shift at 10:30 AM EST, someone came by while I was doing end of shift reports. He wanted to buy a ticket, but we were closed. He approaches the door, ignores the giant 'CLOSED' sign, and pulls on the already locked door. He then fails to read the hours on the door, and calls to me. I tell him repeatedly that we're closed. Well, before too long, my boss gets there to start doing his shift at 11:30 AM EST and tells me that even if it's past closing, I need to let the customer in and sell him a ticket. "You need to drive those sales," he said. I was distinctly unhappy. Not because I had to do extra work, but because he just told me that even though we're closed, technically we're still open. It's fine to let a customer slide in at the last minute for that last sale, but there eventually comes a time where you have to say, "We're closed. Come back during hours." In this man's case, during hours would have been in about forty-five minutes, and there are no buses that run between 10:30 AM EST and 11:30 AM EST. In fact, the next bus doesn't even run until 12:50 PM EST! This is where I wonder why I should stop all of my accounting procedure and open stuff back up to sell this man this ticket, which would then disrupt the end of shift cash counts. That in turn makes my entire end of shift count worthless, and I really should have to do it again. Thankfully though, my boss didn't make me do it. If he was intent on such, I'd have likely quit, because people like to come in one right after another when the station is closed and waste so much of my time, because bus tickets can take forever to sell, which I will detail later.

*more than a week passes*

Yes, later this entry has festered on my computer long enough. I'm just going to post it now, and begin a new one. With luck, the new one will be posted within the next week. -__-;

mood: okay

Some time back, I had typed this entire entry once.  It took me at
least fourty-five minutes to do, perhaps more.  But then I lost it all
(the manner in which is immaterial).

...I now I can't remember how I started.  Darn it.

Anyway,it seems that my life has come to a supposed standstill.  I
used to be able to find something interesting about every day, but now
such has progressed that I see the same things every day, or at least
so it seems.  A friend of mine told me a while back that it seems like
I'm depressed, which makes sense as one of the signs as he put it was
the lack of motivation to do the things you like to do.  In addition
to this, these haven't been the happiest of times for me, so yes I do
believe this is a case of depression.  Harmless, nonextreme, but
depression nonetheless.  I shall detail (of course I'm going to
detail...).

Over the past couple months, I have grown into a person with a fair
number of friends, yet I remain lonely.  This is because of my
friends, there are only a few that I really feel close enough to that
I can hang out with on a whim, that I feel comfortable enough around
to invite to my house to do things with.  Of those close friends,
there are two I've heard from in the past month and seen in the past
two months.

To make things clearer, there are only three people I can hang out
with on a whim anymore.  I shall refer to these people as Box, Ritz,
and Bony.  Bony is only available on weekends, and he spends a lot of
his free time with his girlfriend... in another city.  Ritz has
college and work, and when he doesn't have college, he plans to work
two jobs.  Box, who is my most available friend and perhaps the
closest to me of all three, is going into the Air Force in June in
which he will be gone for four years.  When he comes back, it's
speculative that he won't even live in Woodbridge anymore.  Because of
these things, I'm forced to rely on the company of the people I speak
to online on a regular basis, all two of them.  One of them is
responsible, and likes to sleep at night, which leaves only one person
I can talk to, and this is at night.  This is indeed most of the
reason why I stay up all night these days.

The other day, Ritz dropped by for a visit, and Box shortly
thereafter.  I'm also going to be hanging out with Ritz again today,
though.  Interestingly enough though, the company doesn't appear to
help better my loneliness, because the next day, I'm feeling just as
miserable.  I guess that the company, not fixing my problem, helps me
to forget about it, and it is becoming more and more apparent that
what I am really aching for is someone who can be very special to me,
that I can be near enough to visit or at the very least communicate
with somehow on a halfway regular basis... this is not good because of
my recent epiphanies, my messages from my heart that have told me what
I must do for the ultimate benefit of myself and those around me.  I
guess then, too, that that means my time trial will be more than just
a waiting session... it will be a true test of devotion and endurance,
one I promised myself I will not fail.

mood: gloomy