Video Games aren't Toys

Yup. That's right. According to Best Buy, video games aren't toys. My mom gave me a coupon for Best Buy which was good for 10% off any single item. This coupon was only good for items in certain categories. The coupon had a variety of categories that it was good for. While it didn't explicitly say that video games were included, it didn't explicitly say that they weren't included. They did list "Toys" as being eligible. With that, I did a search for "Toy" on Best Buy's website. What I came up with was a list of video games.

I do know that someone else had the same experience a few months ago, and I wasn't quite sure if I was going to have the same experience that they did, so I gave it a shot. I should have known better that even though someone else had the same experience a few months ago that Best Buy wouldn't have done anything to correct this issue. To me, its a bit deceitful, but hey, thats the Best Buy quality of service that we've all come to expect.

Well, Best Buy, one less customer for you for good.

Someday...Another Bank

The day was April 15, 2008...payday. Also happened to be tax day...but thats another story. I checked my bank account in the morning and had seen funds come in. I figured that I only had 403.64 left of this debt. So, seeing that it wasn't very much, decided to make a transfer and make the final payment to the account.

I was promptly given an error. The error read "You cannot make a payment that is equal or greater than the balance." What the hell is that supposed to mean?

I called the support line to find out what was going on. A customer service representative, Heather answered the phone. I told her the message that I was receiving and she told me that through online transfers, I cannot make the final payment on any loan accounts with this particular financial institution. She explained that I can't make the final payment because the online system doesn't reflect the outstanding principal. I then asked her for the outstanding principal balance including the interest that had accrued. She told me that the outstanding balance up to the day was 406.44. Fine, I asked if I could make the payment over the phone through her. She told me that I could, except that there would be an 8 dollar fee associated with this transaction.

This particular bank nickel-and-dimes me for everything. Pretty much everything that I do, they charge me a fee. It's quite ridiculous.

I asked her what I could do then. She said that I either had to do the transfer on the phone with her and get charged 8 dollars or go into the branch and close it in person. I told her that its ridiculous to charge me 8 dollars in order for me to make the final payment or require me to go into the local branch to make the final payment.

During today's lunch, I went down to the local branch to make the final payment. I stood in line and was helped by Jaqueline. I told her the situation about me wanting to pay off my student loan. She just looked at me in a puzzled way and called over the teller supervisor, Rodrigo. Rodrigo asked what I was trying to do, and I told him that I wanted to pay off my student loan. He spoke to Jaqueline for a moment, I couldn't hear what they were saying. Jaqueline then tells me that I should talk to Matt about making the final payment to this student loan. I turn around and look for Matt. She tells me that Matt is directly behind me with the tie.

Matt told me that it wasn't going to be a problem and that he just had to get the current outstanding principal balance. This looked promising. So he got on the phone and called the student loan department. The first person he spoke to was Josie. When Matt explained the situation to her, it sounded like he reached the wrong department. He was then transfered to Melody. Matt again explained the situation to her. She then was able to give him the balance that needed to be paid. Great. I then asked if I could make the payment through him. Matt told me that I'd have to go back in line to one of the tellers and have the transfer done through one of them. Dangit.

So I stand back in the teller line and wait for another teller to help me out in closing this. Its finally my turn and Tracey helps me out. I tell her exactly what I want to do and what the outstanding balance is. She looks down at the counter and thinks for a bit. She then calls Rodrigo over again and asks how to perform the transaction that I want to do. He then punches something into the computer real quick and it somehow rings a bell to Tracey and she was able to carry out the transaction.

Finally, I've paid this thing off and it only took me 1 phone call, standing and waiting for a teller, getting referred to a personal banker, who had to place a call and got transfered, then standing and waiting for another teller to finally make the final payment. Ugh!

Someday...I'll have another bank.

Just Playing Around with FeedBurner

I'm playing around with FeedBurner to see what it can do.

If you like my posts, you can subscribe to my RSS Feed and be updated every time I update.

April Fools Day 2008: Google Style

When I logged into GMail today, I noticed a link called GMail Custom Time. I clicked the link, and was a bit puzzled at what I was seeing...then I realized its April 1st.

Check out GMail Custom Time.

C'mon Apple, Make Up Your Mind

What is it that you want? First you tell me 6 characters or longer then you want me to enter an 8 character password. Which is it?

StumbleCard

Goodbye Scratch-n-Sniff, Hello Lickable Ads

This has got to be the coolest thing that I've seen in a while in terms of advertising. Lickable ads. It's simply brilliant. According to the Wall Street Journal,

Welch's is taking out full-page print ads in People magazine this month that give readers a chance to sample its grape juice by licking the ad. The front of the advertisement shows a huge bottle of the juice, while the back has a strip that peels up and off, with text that reads: "For a TASTY fact, remove & LICK."

I just hope that more companies play around with this idea. When going to the grocery store, I've always wanted to know what some new product tastes like. So this is especially appealing to me...minus if someone else pre-licked the ad.

Get the entire scoop in the full article.

Jamba Juice Secret Menu: Part 2

Today's Jamba Secret menu item is Skittles. Picked one of these up today, and I can't really say that it tastes like Skittles, but it is really sweet. Actually, scratch that, my technique for eating Skittles is what may be throwing me off. When I eat Skittles, I like to eat one at a time to isolate flavors I guess. BUT, if I had shoveled the Skittles into my mouth, then I could imagine this Jamba smoothie tasting like Skittles. Try it out. Order it by name. If the person at the register doesn't know what you're talking about then use this recipe.

• Skittles Smoothie
  
• Caribbean Passion
• No Peach Slices
• Substitute Pineapple Juice
• Substitute Peach Blend
• Light Orange Sherbet
  
• Light Passion/Mango Blend
• No Boost
  

Jamba Juice Secret Menu: Part 1

I discovered that Jamba Juice has a secret menu. Very much like In-n-Out's secret menu. One of the items on the Jamba secret menu is a smoothie is that supposed to taste like white gummy bears. On a side note, in packs of gummy bears, the white gummy bear has always been my favorite, followed by the red gummy bear.

I went to Jamba for lunch today and ordered the white gummy. I was a bit hesitant that I was going to feel like an idiot if they didn't know what I was talking about, but the order taker actually knew what I was talking about. I asked them if there was anything else on their secret menu, and they told me that there was also a red gummy. With that, I ordered a white gummy and my co-worker ordered a red gummy.

Five minutes later, our smoothies were ready. And much like the name states, the smoothie tasted like a white gummy bear. My co-worker's red gummy bear smoothie as he described it tasted like a red gummy bear. I'm excited to find out what else Jamba has on their secret menu.

If you go to your local Jamba Juice and they don't know what you're talking about when you order the white gummy, you can follow this recipe.

• White Gummy Smoothie
  
• Orange Dream Machine
• No OJ
• Substitute Peach Juice
• Light Orange Sherbet
• Substitute Raspberry Sherbet
• No Frozen Yogurt
• Substitute Lime and Pineapple Sherbet.
• Add Mangos
• No boost

Political Correctness: Proving that Americans Have Too Much Time on Their Hands

While attending California State University, Northridge, many of the professors for my general education courses all stressed one thing in common. This commonality was political correctness. My professors would stress that we needed to write our papers in politically correct form in order to minimize offense in identifying groups of people. The goal of being politically correct is good, but how much is to much?

Trader Joe's Gingerbread PEOPLE?!?
My brother loves two kinds of pastries. He absolutely loves his pumpkin pie and he loves his gingerbread. Last week was finals week for him, and my mother wanted to surprise him with some gingerbread cookies. She bought some gingerbread cookies from Trader Joe's and placed them at his seat on the dining table. I looked at the packaging, and to my surprise, Trader Joe's no longer sells gingerbread men, but rather "gingerbread people".


What I want to know is who is the idiot that made a big freaking deal about if the package read "Four Gingerbread Men". Why would anyone want to waste part of their life in making sure that Trader Joe's products are 100% politically correct. This just seems like a waste of time to me. Gingerbread cookies I know did not make the complaint. It's a cookie for crying out loud. Why are people wasting time trying to make everything 100% politically correct. Cookies do not care about anyone grouping them.

Last time I checked, my gingerbread cookie, shaped as a person, didn't even have genitalia. Is it a man? Is it a woman? Who knows? Who Cares? Was it delicious? YES! It was absolutely delicious.

Being Politically Correct Leaves Room for Assumption
To an extent, it feels like making sure that the wording is 100% politically correct leaves room for assumption. People have told me that when they speak to me, I am very specific towards how I describe things. However, if my house was burning down, and a man came and put the fire out, isn't he a fireman? Yes, he is a firefighter, but more specifically, he is a fireman.

I see the reasoning on why political correctness is important, however, do we really need to get down in the nitty-gritty when we're dealing with cookies and food? Come on people, lets try to find something better to do with our time.

For the people who have to be politically correct 100% of the time, I've recreated the story of the Gingerbread Man.

Once upon a time, there were a little old woman and a little old man who lived in a little cottage near the river. The little old woman and the little old man were hungry, so the little old woman decided to bake a gingerbread person.

She made a big batch of gingerbread dough, then rolled it flat and cut it in the shape of a gingerbread person. She gave him raisins for eyes, a cinnamon drop for a mouth, and chocolate chips for buttons. Then she put the gingerbread person in the oven to bake.

When the gingerbread person was done, the little old woman opened the oven door, but before she could take him out, the gingerbread person jumped up and ran through the kitchen and out of the cottage shouting, "Don't eat me!"

The little old woman ran after the gingerbread person. "Stop," she yelled. But the gingerbread person ran even faster, chanting, "Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread person."

The gingerbread person ran into the garden and passed the little old man. "Stop," the little old man called out, "I want to eat you." But the gingerbread person ran even faster, chanting, "I've run away from a little old woman, and I can run away from you, I can. Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread person."

The little old man chased the gingerbread person, followed by the little old woman. But the gingerbread person ran too fast for them.

The gingerbread person ran through the yard and passed a pig. "Stop," the pig snorted, "I want to eat you." But the gingerbread person ran even faster, chanting, "I've run from a little old woman and a little old man, and I can run away from you, I can. Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread person."
The pig chased the gingerbread person , followed by the little old woman and the little old man . But the gingerbread person ran too fast for them.

The gingerbread person passed a cow by the barn. "Stop," the cow mooed, "I want to eat you." But the gingerbread person ran even faster, chanting, "I've run from a little old woman and a little old man and a pig, and I can run away from you, I can. Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread person."

The cow chased the gingerbread person, followed by the pig and the little old woman and the little old man. But the gingerbread person ran too fast for them.

The gingerbread person passed a horse in the field. "Stop," the horse neighed, "I want to eat you." But the gingerbread person ran even faster, chanting, "I've run from a little old woman and a little old man and a pig and a cow, and I can run away from you, I can. Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread person."

The horse chased the gingerbread person, followed by the cow, the pig, and the little old woman and the little old man. But the gingerbread person ran too fast for them.
Then the gingerbread person reached a wide river, but he didn't know how to swim. A sly and hungry fox saw the gingerbread person and said, "Jump on my tail, and I'll take you across the river!"

The gingerbread person thought to himself, "I'll be safe on his tail." So he jumped on the fox's tail and they started across the river.

Halfway across the river, the fox barked, "You're too heavy for my tail, jump on my back." So the gingerbread person jumped on the fox's back.

Soon, the fox said, “You're too heavy for my back, jump onto my nose." So the gingerbread person jumped on the fox's nose. But as soon as they reached the riverbank, the fox flipped the gingerbread person into the air, snapped his mouth shut, and ate the gingerbread person.

And that was the end of the gingerbread person.

What We Can Learn From Our Dogs

Today, I visited Petco #554 and discovered a few things that we can all learn from our dogs.

I was browsing around the store today and looking for a nice piece of driftwood to put in my new aquarium. So many people had brought their dogs to this store today. Some were really large, and some were really small and a bit scared. But all the dogs had a few things in common.

Dogs love the companionship of their owners.
All the dogs were so happy to be with their owners. My father has a dog too. His name is Randy and he's about 3 or 4 years old. Randy is no different from the dogs that I saw at the store today. He loves to be with my father, my stepmom, my brother, or myself. When we have to leave to go to work or to dinner, Randy becomes very upset and sad. Even when we're all going to bed, Randy would sleep under one of our beds, or in his doggy bed at the foot of my father's bed. Randy just wants to spend time with us. Every second of every minute of everyday, Randy wants to spend that time with us. Our simple presence is enough to make Randy happy.

Dogs are not materialistic like the lady working the register.
This expands on dogs loving the companionship of their owners, but dogs don't really care about that new chew toy that is on the shelf. All the dogs that I saw at the pet store today couldn't care less about the new chew toy that was on the shelf less than 2 feet away from their mouth. Nor did they really appear to care about Beggin' Strips on the shelf. Sure those treats taste like bacon, or bacon and cheese, or bacon and beef, but did those dogs care? Not really. In fact, I probably cared about those Beggin' Strips more than those dogs in the store today. Thinking of Randy, I purchased a new reindeer chew toy for him and a laser pointer for myself. The lady at the register asked me if I was doing Christmas shopping. I replied to her that I wasn't doing Christmas shopping. She told me that I should buy Christmas presents for my dog and fish. I do realize that this is her attempt to sell me some more doggy toys and treats, but it isn't working. Sorry, Ms. Petco-employee-who-believes-her-pets-are-materialistic-like-her, Randy isn't materialistic. In fact, as smart as Randy is, I don't believe he knows the difference between December 25th and any other day of the year.

Public Apology in Advance
Randy Kam, if I am insulting your intelligence, I'm sorry. Speak up and let me know that I made you feel bad, and I'll give you an extra belly rub. Or...I can simply spend time with you so that you can enjoy my company, and we can go on with our merry lives.

Manage People's Expectations

The single most important skill that I've learned so far working in IT is the ability to manage people's expectations. When providing services for people, make sure that you can deliver at least what you promise. If you're promising to provide a certain quality of work, be sure to meet that quality of work. The people that you provide the service for will be satisfied and perhaps come back to you for more service. That means more money for you. Unless they think you're going to work for free, then do the exact opposite so they don't come back.

Managing expectations takes a little bit of practice to accomplish.

Don't promise things that you can't deliver.
Promising things that you can't deliver will always make you fail in managing people's expectations. If you don't believe me, you can try this simple experiment. Tell your date or significant other that you want to take him/her to a fancy dinner, maybe at Ruth's Chris. Instead of going there, take them to McDonalds or Burger King. See how they react to that. I'm willing to bet that they're not going to be too happy unless they like $1 dollar double cheese burgers with extra pickles more than they like fancy dinners.

Deliver what you promise to deliver on time or earlier.
If you promise something by a given date, make sure you deliver by that date or sooner. Typically when choosing a delivery date, I give myself a little bit extra time to take into account the unforeseen. In addition, if you give yourself an extra day or two as a buffer, if you deliver early, you've more than met their expectations.

I've been using this strategy to deal with people and I've had very good results. I still do have people wanting me to work for free, however, but that is a separate issue.

Nobody Wants to Work for Free

Working in IT, I have a lot of people come up to me asking if I would take a look at their personal computer. Now, I don't mind taking a look at the computer to help them figure out what is wrong, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I am going to fix the problem. For some reason, people tend to get confused about that and assume that I want to fix their computer for free. WRONG! GeekSquad doesn't want to fix your computer for free and nor do I want to fix your computer for free.

Everyone has the same amount of time in a day, exactly 86400 seconds or 1440 minutes. If they're spending time to help you out with anything, regardless of how large or small, compensate them for their time. For the most part, people don't want to do things out of the goodness of their heart. Sorry, a simple "Thanks" doesn't put food on the table. If it did, I'd be super obese.

Somewhere in advancing personal relationships, people assume that you want to help them for free. Perhaps sometimes they do, but believe me, you might get one freebie, but free labor isn't going to last forever. Test out this little experiment, go to Home Depot, and ask the day laborers outside if they want to lay down some concrete for free. I'm willing to bet that none of them are going to jump to their feet and hop in your car just because they really want to lay down some concrete.

Oddly, members of your extended family want free labor also. I used to have extended family members always asking me for help with their computers, and while their offered compensation, I never saw anything headed in my direction. I'm not talking about immediate family, I'm talking about the distant family member that contacts you once in a blue moon only when they need something.

Now don't get me wrong, I love getting good deals. I absolutely like finding good deals and will take the deal if its offered to me. One of my favorite websites, Spoofee, lists deals related to mail-in rebates, coupons, or just simple price drops. The vendors are offering these good and services at a reduced price on their terms. I am not forcing the vendors to sell me some product for a ridiculously low price, or free. If they offered something to me for free, I'd take it, but if they don't, I'll pay them. This applies to labor as well. Unless someone explicitly offers a service to you for free, don't assume that they're going to do the work for free.

Compensate people for their time. Pay them for the time that they spent to help you out. At least buy them dinner or lunch.

IT Department Horror Stories

A little while back, I posted an article Rants from your IT Department illustrating typical IT complaints about end-users. I'm a bit curious to hear what kind of storied that users have about their IT departments at work, whether they are too unresponsive, or incompetent. Whatever, it may be, I'd like to hear your IT Department horror stories.

Google + Boredom = No Financial Advisor

I am always a bit concerned about my personal finances. I'm particularly worried about retirement and not getting myself into too much financial trouble. I went to visit a financial advisor to see what he had to say and just generally hear him out on what he had to say. Going in, I already knew that this was going to be a sales pitch. Knowing that, I still went in to visit to see if this guy would be worth my hard earned money and if he could advise me in any way. I am always open to new ideas on getting a leg up on my financial goals.

The visit started nicely. I started talking with him about my financial goals and what current plans I currently have. He then went on to gather general information about how many assets and debt that I had. The final assessment was that I have very little debt and minimal financial obligations. With that being the case, he described my financial situation as "simple".

Somewhere during the talk, I started to become skeptical about the quality of service that he would be able to provide. He did appear to be quite young. So in my head, I was thinking "What does this guy know about personal finances that I don't know?" I am by no means a financial expert, hence I was seeking advisement, but this guy couldn't have been in the industry for more than 5 years. I felt somewhat uncomfortable seeking advisement from someone who hasn't been in the industry very long. After all, it is my hard earned money.

Here's where it gets ugly. I politely declined his service. He then got a bit irritated. I assume he was expecting me to be a shoe-in client and when I declined, he didn't handle it very well. He hammered back "You don't think I am worth XXX and that I could save you XXX money within a year?" I simply replied that I couldn't afford to invest that amount at the current time. He flipped out.

He became unprofessional at this point, so I headed home. I later became a bit curious to find out exactly what qualifications this guy held. I did a quick google search for his name. The first thing that I found was he graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara. That's fine, nothing wrong with going to a party school. I then found out that he majored in a degree called "Global Studies". What the hell is "Global Studies"? Quickly looking up UCSB, I found the Global Studies Course Descriptions. I also found an overview of the Global Studies major.

January 2004 marked the fifth anniversary of the establishment of UCSB’s pioneering global studies major. When it was established in early 1999 it was widely recognized as one of the first interdisciplinary undergraduate majors in international studies in the country to focus on globalization. Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher presided over the inaugural occasion.

Within those five years, the numbers of global studies majors grew to over 700 per year—60% focusing on the socioeconomic and political aspects of globalization, and 40% emphasizing the cultural and ideological side. Most students choose Europe as their geographical area, and Spain is the most popular venue for studies abroad.

Last time I checked, globalization didn't have anything to do with personal finances. Nor did socioeconomic and political aspects of globalization.

Searching further, I discovered that he was in the graduating class of 2004. I just recently graduated at California State University, Northridge in 2006 with a degree in Computer Science. Really, neither of us are really experts when it comes down to what we studied. To give him credit though, he did say that he was certified to deal with financial advisement. However, to me, a certification only means that he read a book and took a test on what he read. A monkey could do that (Sorry Pan. I shouldn't have compared this financial advisor with you).

Disregarding that, what kind of advice would I have gotten if I really did reach out to him. To figure this out, I jumped over to the Ameriprise Financial careers page. To my amazement, I couldn't really find any requirements to work there. It seems that they are willing to provide training and resources to make anyone a financial advisor. What I did find was a compensation page. Here's what I did find.

• "Commissions paid bi-weekly ranging from 40% to 55% payout".
• "Initial commission payout of 50%"
• "First year payout of 60% of all financial planning fees"

Does this mean that he's going to be trying to sell me options that he gets paid large commissions on? ABSOLUTELY!

In the end, I am very happy that I didn't spend the money that was asked..

Thanks Google! Sorry Mr. Ali Kattan-Wright, I'll pass at this time.

Rants from your IT department

Working in the IT department of my company is a blast. I always get to play with new technology. I get to help other employees in the company solve their computer problems. And ultimately, I am doing what I enjoy doing and getting paid to do it. There are some downsides, however.

1. Frustration from end-users.
When people contact the help desk, they are always already a little upset. The only reason why people call the help desk is because they have already exhausted their options on how to solve their problems. They contact us in hopes that we can provide some enlightenment. Because they have already tried everything to their ability to solve their issue, they are already a bit frustrated with the entire situation. IT workers typically have to play shock-absorber to make sure that the user doesn't explode and have a complete break down. In fact, we have people yelling and ranting at us for things that are beyond our control.

2. Under appreciation.
IT departments and employees are very under-appreciated. I feel that the best IT department is the IT department that is never seen. Everything is in full working order and no users are calling the help desk asking for help. However, in this situation, people get used to everything working and forget about the existence of the IT department. When people are calling the help desk, they are getting resolution for their computer problems. When enough of these incidences arise, IT departments scramble to find a more proactive solution for this problem. Essentially, this is a lose-lose situation. If we're doing our job 110% and being totally proactive, people forget about our existence and ponder the need for the IT department. If we're constantly answering help desk calls, people begin to grow frustrated with the frequency of these calls. I typically hear more complaints about the IT department rather than praising us for solving their computer issues. The funny thing is, despite these complaints, then people leave the company, I always here comments like "Wow, I miss a competent IT department", or "The IT department at my new company is so slow in responding to help desk requests".

3. Setting people up for disappointment.
People regard IT department workers as somewhat computer-know-it-alls. Often times, people have high expectations of us that we can resolve any issue or many anything happen. While we can resolve and make most things happen, some things just cannot be done. When telling users that something can't be done, I feel a little bit bad because I couldn't fully satisfy their expectation. Even though it really isn't my fault. People do appreciate when we are able to satisfy their requests, however, I feel that they remember the incidences when we can't satisfy their request to the fullest extent.

4. ALL CAPS DOESN'T MAKE US WORK FASTER.
For some mysterious reason, when people email the help desk, they feel that typing in their subject line in all caps will make us respond faster. Let me tell you a secret though...it doesn't work. Whenever I see a help desk email with the subject in all caps, I always feel a bit annoyed. I feel that people think that we're robots that fix all the computers and that all caps will put their ticket in priority. I typically answer help desk request in a priority queue. For me to do this, I read all help desk requests, assess the situation and determine severity of the issue, and then determine a priority in relation of other help desk requests. Tickets in all caps always, in my mind, suffer a penalty and I don't respond as quick.

5. Stop persistently bugging us.
We are aware of your situation. Bugging us only slows us down in finding a solution to your problem. When we have a solution, we will contact you and let you know how to fix it. In many cases, for my favorite users, I will personally stop by their office or cubicle and walk them through the solution. People who bug will get a quick and dirty email with the solution.

6. Don't call us if you don't want the problem fixed right away.
For some odd reason, I have users calling the help desk requesting help, but when I offer to either log onto their computer remotely or come to their desk to fix the issue, they tell me that they are too busy to deal with it right now. It's good that we've established that you have a problem, but when we have the solution, let us resolve your issue. Don't push us off when we only want to help you out. When calling to the help desk, at least have some time allocated so that we can help you resolve your issue. Don't just call down to complain that something isn't working (See number 1 again if you are still confused.)

7. Don't call us, put us on speaker phone, and start chit-chatting away with your coworkers.
It is very annoying to us when you call down to the help desk, pose your computer issue, and start chatting to your coworkers. Often times, we need to you be near by to either provide a password or to make sure that the issue isn't replicating after we've attempted a fix. Its very strange and annoying to be put on speaker phone and listen to your entire conversation. It becomes especially annoying when we have to ask you for something and we have to interrupt your conversation.

8. Why are you calling the help desk to clear out paper jams?
I do realize that IT is a service department, however, why are you calling us to clear out a paper jam in the printer on the floor. Our paper "unjamming" skills are no better than yours. The procedure is simple and is outlined below.

1. Open printer.
2. Find jammed paper.
3. Remove jammed paper.
4. Close printer.

We don't have some unique built-in sensor that detects paper jam, at least I didn't have that upon birth. Stop being lazy. Don't be afraid to get toner on your hands. And remove that paper jam. You could have cleared the jam by the time you spent walking back to your desk, picking up the phone, calling IT, and waiting. Practice makes perfect and you probably won't end up like her.


9. Learn to use the technology that is in your office.
If you have some product that sits in your office all day and you use it everyday, learn to perform all the basic features please. Why are you calling the help desk repeatedly for the same problem. Be a little proactive with your self and learn how to fix the problem. Don't call help desk every time you need an ink cartridge replaced. We'll be happy to show you how to do it, but don't expect us to come running up time and time again to keep fixing the same problem.

Show your IT department some love and appreciation. Bring them some caffeine for their long days, and maybe some breakfast sandwiches.