Spring has Sprung
Spring has finally arrived in Brussels. Its been teasing us for a week or so, but it now seems to be here to stay. To celebrate the warm sunshine and flowering trees, Rich and I went to the park this evening to feed the ducks. With the time change last weekend, it doesn't get dark until after 8pm, so we had time to leisurely wander around the park (we only found two ducks) before settling on a bench and cracking open a couple of Belgian beers. A Duvel for him, a Cassis for me (which tastes like berries, not beer!). There were quite a few people in the park with the same idea - enjoying the weather, jogging or walking dogs. Even with the other people around, it was quiet and peaceful and so nice to be outside without freezing to death.
Rich is leaving tomorrow to go to Florida for a week, so it was nice to take 30 minutes or so for ourselves and just enjoy the nice weather and the park.
~K
Tuesday, March 30
Sunday, March 28
All Over
The Brussels Festival of Fantastic Film is finally finished. Saturday was the closing night ceremony, closing night film and the Vampire's Ball. The Ball began at midnight and lasted until 7am (we only managed to stay til 2am and then walked home because the metro wasn't running). Today I am recovering, but only for a little while. This afternoon I have to go back to work and begin packaging up the remaining films for shipment. Each film weighs about 25 kilos, so I get a good workout moving them from the theater to the office, even with a dolly! I've spent so much time lately thinking about what I have to do and where they all have to go, that I've been dreaming about boxes and film titles and destinations and FedEx.
During the festival my job was to make sure the films arrived in time for their screenings and then send them back out afterwards. Lots of the films came to us from one film festival and then were to be sent to another festival - sort of a film festival circuit. I ended up sending films all over the place; to Singapore, Denmark, Philadelphia, Germany, France, Luxembourg, etc. But this only took three or four hours a day, so I had plenty of time to read or run errands or whatever. True rest and relaxation will have to wait a little longer because I am working for two more weeks, helping Freddy get the awards shipped to the winners and sorting out all the Beta and VHS copies of the films (the festival has a video archive of all the movies they've screened from the last 10 years). This should only take a couple of days, so I think by the 8th or 9th of April I will be done.
The festival was fun and tiring and not stressful in the least, so all in all, a good experience. The best part was seeing movies for free! Rich and I saw 13 films during the last two weeks, including my favorite, a hilarious Danish film called "The Green Butchers." Freddy (my boss) saw to it that we had unlimited drink tickets for the festival bar, gave Rich free passes to all the films and a ticket to the Ball. Working for free since the end of November paid off!
To see photos of the film festival events and read about the films, click here.
~K
The Brussels Festival of Fantastic Film is finally finished. Saturday was the closing night ceremony, closing night film and the Vampire's Ball. The Ball began at midnight and lasted until 7am (we only managed to stay til 2am and then walked home because the metro wasn't running). Today I am recovering, but only for a little while. This afternoon I have to go back to work and begin packaging up the remaining films for shipment. Each film weighs about 25 kilos, so I get a good workout moving them from the theater to the office, even with a dolly! I've spent so much time lately thinking about what I have to do and where they all have to go, that I've been dreaming about boxes and film titles and destinations and FedEx.
During the festival my job was to make sure the films arrived in time for their screenings and then send them back out afterwards. Lots of the films came to us from one film festival and then were to be sent to another festival - sort of a film festival circuit. I ended up sending films all over the place; to Singapore, Denmark, Philadelphia, Germany, France, Luxembourg, etc. But this only took three or four hours a day, so I had plenty of time to read or run errands or whatever. True rest and relaxation will have to wait a little longer because I am working for two more weeks, helping Freddy get the awards shipped to the winners and sorting out all the Beta and VHS copies of the films (the festival has a video archive of all the movies they've screened from the last 10 years). This should only take a couple of days, so I think by the 8th or 9th of April I will be done.
The festival was fun and tiring and not stressful in the least, so all in all, a good experience. The best part was seeing movies for free! Rich and I saw 13 films during the last two weeks, including my favorite, a hilarious Danish film called "The Green Butchers." Freddy (my boss) saw to it that we had unlimited drink tickets for the festival bar, gave Rich free passes to all the films and a ticket to the Ball. Working for free since the end of November paid off!
To see photos of the film festival events and read about the films, click here.
~K
Friday, March 26
The Whingers
I don't understand how an entire island with the population of more than 58,000,000 can collectively evolve into being a nation of complaining, whining drama-queens. Now, I know that's a HUGE sweeping generalization, so I apologize to the Brits I currently know and the ones I may know in the future who don't fit this description. But the numbers speak for themselves.
Take the call-center I work in for example. The volume of calls from other countries (like France, Spain, and Italy) far outweighs the volume of calls we get from the UK. And that's not a total of all those countries versus the UK. That's per country. Despite that fact, the amount of cases from the UK that end up requiring supervisor intervention or handling by the Customer Relations department is far higher than the amount of "escalated cases" from the other countries. So, what does that tell you? Then add the fact that every single person in the call-center who has taken any amount of calls from the UK shares the opinion that these people are a bunch of complainers. Any chance we get to avoid calls from the UK is exploited.
In my case, the Team Leaders are constantly mentioning how long the wait times and how high the "abondon rates" are for the Swedish market. So, I keep telling them to put me on Swedish only because the long wait times ALWAYS have to do with the fact that I am on an English call (usually with the UK). They haven't taken the bait. I'll keep trying, though!
So... why am I now whinging and complaining about the whinging and complaining UK customers? Because I want to take this opportunity to take a public vow. "Well, you're not from there, so why are you worried about that?" you say? Because this "social disease" is not exclusive to "native" inhabitants of the UK. Seemingly, immigrants who have lived there only a few years quickly learn these argumentative, complaint skills. If it weren't for their foreign accents, I wouldn't be able to tell them apart from the native English. That's a scary thought! We're going to be living there for at least 4 years, so we're in grave danger!
My vow: I swear upon all that I hold dear, that I will NOT become one of these complainers when we move to the United Kingdom (or any time thereafter). If you find me moaning about all the injustices in life that I've been subjected to and demanding recompensation for mental duress or other such nonsense, please serve me a good, swift kick to the rear when I least expect it. Why? Because that's what you deserve when you act like that!
-RP-
I don't understand how an entire island with the population of more than 58,000,000 can collectively evolve into being a nation of complaining, whining drama-queens. Now, I know that's a HUGE sweeping generalization, so I apologize to the Brits I currently know and the ones I may know in the future who don't fit this description. But the numbers speak for themselves.
Take the call-center I work in for example. The volume of calls from other countries (like France, Spain, and Italy) far outweighs the volume of calls we get from the UK. And that's not a total of all those countries versus the UK. That's per country. Despite that fact, the amount of cases from the UK that end up requiring supervisor intervention or handling by the Customer Relations department is far higher than the amount of "escalated cases" from the other countries. So, what does that tell you? Then add the fact that every single person in the call-center who has taken any amount of calls from the UK shares the opinion that these people are a bunch of complainers. Any chance we get to avoid calls from the UK is exploited.
In my case, the Team Leaders are constantly mentioning how long the wait times and how high the "abondon rates" are for the Swedish market. So, I keep telling them to put me on Swedish only because the long wait times ALWAYS have to do with the fact that I am on an English call (usually with the UK). They haven't taken the bait. I'll keep trying, though!
So... why am I now whinging and complaining about the whinging and complaining UK customers? Because I want to take this opportunity to take a public vow. "Well, you're not from there, so why are you worried about that?" you say? Because this "social disease" is not exclusive to "native" inhabitants of the UK. Seemingly, immigrants who have lived there only a few years quickly learn these argumentative, complaint skills. If it weren't for their foreign accents, I wouldn't be able to tell them apart from the native English. That's a scary thought! We're going to be living there for at least 4 years, so we're in grave danger!
My vow: I swear upon all that I hold dear, that I will NOT become one of these complainers when we move to the United Kingdom (or any time thereafter). If you find me moaning about all the injustices in life that I've been subjected to and demanding recompensation for mental duress or other such nonsense, please serve me a good, swift kick to the rear when I least expect it. Why? Because that's what you deserve when you act like that!
-RP-
Tuesday, March 16
Three pieces of good news today
1) My "activity" score at the call center came to an all-time high last week: 94%! I'm pretty happy with that number. Sure, the "big earners" on the team have over 100, but for a guy he deals primarily with the "whingeing" UK market, 94% is pretty damn good!
2) They hired another guy for the Swedish support line. He started yesterday. Today he was listening in to my calls and learning the habits of one of the more conscientous workers in the call center. Those are good traits to pick up!
Oh yeah, and...
3) I got accepted to the University of East Anglia! I had a very long commute yesterday morning (starting at the eye-splittingly early hour of 4:30 am) to Norwich. Had a quick meeting with the course convenor and the head of the film archive. I thought the interview went pretty well and I had a good feeling that I would get a positive response in a couple of weeks. But, today, the course convenor e-mailed me to let me know their decision. I quote, "Slightly earlier than expected, I'm able to give you the good news that we will be OFFERING you a place on the archival MA for Sept 04 entry - documents will follow by mail from Kerry in the GS office."
How d'ya like dem apples?
-RP-
1) My "activity" score at the call center came to an all-time high last week: 94%! I'm pretty happy with that number. Sure, the "big earners" on the team have over 100, but for a guy he deals primarily with the "whingeing" UK market, 94% is pretty damn good!
2) They hired another guy for the Swedish support line. He started yesterday. Today he was listening in to my calls and learning the habits of one of the more conscientous workers in the call center. Those are good traits to pick up!
Oh yeah, and...
3) I got accepted to the University of East Anglia! I had a very long commute yesterday morning (starting at the eye-splittingly early hour of 4:30 am) to Norwich. Had a quick meeting with the course convenor and the head of the film archive. I thought the interview went pretty well and I had a good feeling that I would get a positive response in a couple of weeks. But, today, the course convenor e-mailed me to let me know their decision. I quote, "Slightly earlier than expected, I'm able to give you the good news that we will be OFFERING you a place on the archival MA for Sept 04 entry - documents will follow by mail from Kerry in the GS office."
How d'ya like dem apples?
-RP-
Friday, March 12
Wednesday, March 10
Just a quick update...
I heard from the University of Exeter earlier last week. They have offered me a place in the Masters program! Haven't accepted it yet because I'm waiting to hear about U. of East Anglia. It's great to know that my secondary choice is confirmed.
Oh? I haven't really mentioned preferences yet? Well, I've definitely pegged East Anglia as my first choice. Despite the "eccentric" campus. The technical aspect of learning archiving along with film studies is too enticing to ignore. Not only am I a psychotically fanatical proponent of film origination and projection (as opposed to digital), but protecting film history is important. And on the practical side, if I decide that I don't want to go to school for another three years after the Masters program, then I can graduate with a degree in archiving and start working immediately in any of the archives all over the world. There is a dearth of officially trained archivists.
Not sure when I'll hear from East Anglia about a decision. I've been in contact with them a lot. They have my complete application already, but they have to interview everybody who is applying to the archiving program. It is quite competitive and I think they only accept 12-16 students per year. So, on Monday I'm flying over to the UK again and driving up to Norwich for the interviews. I don't know if they'll offer me a spot in the program on that same day or if they'll have to have some sort of roundtable discussion about the applicants. Hopefully, I'll know pretty soon.
Then it will be time to start looking into financial aid...
-RP-
I heard from the University of Exeter earlier last week. They have offered me a place in the Masters program! Haven't accepted it yet because I'm waiting to hear about U. of East Anglia. It's great to know that my secondary choice is confirmed.
Oh? I haven't really mentioned preferences yet? Well, I've definitely pegged East Anglia as my first choice. Despite the "eccentric" campus. The technical aspect of learning archiving along with film studies is too enticing to ignore. Not only am I a psychotically fanatical proponent of film origination and projection (as opposed to digital), but protecting film history is important. And on the practical side, if I decide that I don't want to go to school for another three years after the Masters program, then I can graduate with a degree in archiving and start working immediately in any of the archives all over the world. There is a dearth of officially trained archivists.
Not sure when I'll hear from East Anglia about a decision. I've been in contact with them a lot. They have my complete application already, but they have to interview everybody who is applying to the archiving program. It is quite competitive and I think they only accept 12-16 students per year. So, on Monday I'm flying over to the UK again and driving up to Norwich for the interviews. I don't know if they'll offer me a spot in the program on that same day or if they'll have to have some sort of roundtable discussion about the applicants. Hopefully, I'll know pretty soon.
Then it will be time to start looking into financial aid...
-RP-
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