DOCTOR: "Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer, I took one down, passed around, ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall...ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-eight bottles..."

ROSE: "Oi Doctor, a bit of hush, yeah? It was bad enough at five hundred!"

Well, tonight I passed the time after work (4 hour wait for the bus) watching a free movie at the library, by Sidney Pollack(?), about some archetect named Ghery or Goldberg or something like that..it was okay. Read a Dr. Who book in the library, Genisis of the Daleks, as well.okay, started it...marked my place, will continue it tommorrow, after I've put in some applications.

So, first day on the job--I'm utterly exhausted! Left the house on the 7:30 bus, and didn't get dropped off again till about quarter to ten tonight. Monday through Thursday is mostly going to be a pattern of: Wake up and dress, eat, feed the cats, leave for work....come home from work, eat, undress, feed the cats, go to bed. Maybe a bit of computer time for about and hour or so, roughly--but right now I feel like if you touched me with a bit of paper, I'd fall over!

The people at the new job are supernice...at least so far. The job's a bit complicated--the phone script is really a mess to make heads or tails of...switches back and forth between pages, gives reps incomplete information (making you seem like an idiot with the customers) We had a focus group meeting--and the big boss came storming in raising her voice, as everyone (but moi) was grumbling and complaining...even seasoned reps...so I didn't feel so bad about stumbling over my script so much at first. It's really bad, that script---sounds exactly like a script--which, and I know this may sound odd--but any script, phone scipt, stage or tv/film, doesn't matter--should not "sound" like a script! It should sound completely natural and flow smooth as butter...this just wanders all over and it way, way too long...despite my---and seasoned reps--best efforts, we're losing people. Some reps have even resorted to abandoning script mostly altoghter--which isn't really allowed from what I'm told--but they can't make sales with this thing--and this is my very first time selling over the phone---not a great beginning, I will say.

Funniest moment: I got some guy who's name was actually "Edsel Etrich"...try saying that five times fast. And down in Alambama, I got a genuine redneck (we were calling hunting club members) named "Elmer Poteet"...straight outta' a Hollywood comedy about southern rednecks, that name, ha-ha. The guy even sounded like an
"El-mer pooo-teeet." Nice man though, really. Bought a membership from me...my first sale, as a matter of fact.

One guy said he didn't hunt anymore--wouldn't touch a gun or kill anything, because his daughter was murdered with a gun. That kind of was sobering to have to deal with on my first day on phones, let me tell you--but my supervisor was listening and said that I handled it "perfectly" so I feel a bit better about it.

But, I did make 5 sales today--which I'm told is very good for a first-timer....but gosh, it was slow going..and some of the stories..oh my. Cancer, dismemberment, long-term illnesses galore...so sad.

And now, I'm on my one of my rare "soapbox" moments--getting up and spewing liberal thoughts...so if you're a conservative...especially a republican (blah--phoeey, yuck) you might want to skip the next several paragraphs...or, if you hate political rhetoric in general.

ON MY SOAPBOX: A LIBERAL VIEWPOINT

We don't have NHS here in the States. Everyone, unless they work for state, county, town or federal government, or are so poor they virtually have no money---is pretty much on their own--especially in the private sector. Some 50 million Americans--have NO health care. Period. None. Every day in the U.S., thousands and thousands of Americans get turned away from hospitals and doctors--for no other reason than money and/or insurance--and the lack thereof. People lose their homes--people dying of teminal illnesses. Hospitals garnish the wages of people to collect tens of thousands--even hundreds of thousands in hospital debt---it's extreme capitalism gone beserk. We spend billions worrying about a few thousand terrorists--but care not one whit about the millions of Americans who've died, lost families, homes, jobs--from lack of proper health care. In the U.S.---half the population is super health consconsious and have excellent care--and just as many more don't have enough to eat or are in danger of homelessness--for lack of health care.

Anyway, the number one reason why people can't continue membership in this club--broke from health care bills. Yet Washington protects and nurtures the pharmaceutical, insurance and health care industries--because of "economics." God help Washington if Americans ever stopped being so mentally lazy and started actually thinking...we'd have a second Civil War on our hands!

How the heck does millions of Americans losing their jobs, homes, families and very lives--"help" the economy? Helps big corporations--yeah. Okay, I'll stop---but sometimes--I really do hate my fellow Americans--some of them, I mean--the mindless drooling lazy people who are so terrified of thinking, and who mindlessly chant "USA! USA! (RE: "Seig Heil!") and say "United We Stand"--and then spit on the suffering of their fellow Americans. Grrrr! I hate these people...they are so....empty.

I swear--I get more intelligent conversation from my cat Flame, when she meows and chirps! I was in a class once--State and Local Government--and one American student thought there was 51 states! Yikes! This is college, folks, too! I told that to a local woman--she had no problem with the fact that a young American student thought that Puerto Rico was a state (it's a territory, not a state)..yeah. Okay then.

I guess many Americans find being stupid so much easier than actually making the effort to know something. It shames me that we really are the laziest (mentally) nation on earth--and that it doesn't bother most Americans that we're basically stupid. They seem to like being stupid--no work to it, you see. Doing the wrong thing is easy and not thinking takes no effort..zero. It really makes me sad...I wonder if other countries are having similar problems? I mean, you don't have to have an education to think--but, that said, you do have to expend some effort to preserve an reasonably open mind--asking questions can be difficult--even embarrasssing, sometimes--but not asking questions and taking things at face value---is ten times worse--at least, I think so..I think, not thinking....weakens us, as a nation.

It's like some Americans, when they hear opinions they don't like, given to them by other Americans--tell that person to shut up, or leave America! That's NOT democracy--that's communisim. Democracy isn't about waving a flag or sticking patriotic bumper stickers on your car--or agreeing with every single thing your country does...democracy is about the freedom to stand up and say--"NO!" "I disagree!" Or, "Yes, I agree," for that matter, without getting shouted down or censured or told to get out of the country.

Well, I do try to avoid politics--but I made the mistake of reading the political pages of the newspapers tonight while at the public library, and now I've just got to get some things off of my chest so I can sleep good.