Boycotting Samsung!

For all of my avid readers and fans...ahem.... :)
Just a warning that the below post is nothing but me bitching! If you don't want to hear me bitch, don't read any further. I have reached a point of irritation and can't hold back any longer. Just another warning, this is work related and doesn't contain any fun gossip or news about Cole, cookies, my kankles or Goliaths endeavors in getting the neighbor dogs knocked up.

For the past month and a half, I have been working on a pretty big project at work for Samsung. Mind you, they gave us an INSANE timeline which we actually met. Testing was supposed to start this last Monday, which it did, kind of. We were provided with a testing time frame of three weeks. Week one was to be one day of testing. Weeks two and three, two days. Oh, also during this time, we need to change our work hours to 1pm-10pm to accommodate for the folks at Samsung as they are in Asia. NO PROBLEM! We're game. Yes, I had my mini meltdown at the change in time but this was because of the bus I would have to take at noon. We'll get into that in a bit as it's a whole other story in and of itself.

So Monday comes and we had been told by Samsung that testing would begin promptly at 3:00 our time. We were told to be prepared to be ready to go at this time and WE WERE!!! But guess what.....THEY WEREN'T. We did not begin even testing until after 7 that night. AND....we're now on day three and still not much further than we were 48 hours ago. Just so you are in the know...we are testing 4 divisions of Samsung which are being migrated into one and this entails over 8 inbound/outbound messages for each division (I have two of the messages). On top of this, we totally kicked ass at analysis and mapping/internal testing within the time frame we were given - which again, I remind you was INSANE. All the while, we were pretty much belittled by the client. They made it a point to let us know we had to have everything done perfectly with no errors what so ever by 3/3 for external testing. We were all stressed out and nerve wrecked - but got everything done. And for what. I have been here from 1-10 the past few days and we've gotten NOWHERE. Oh, I forgot to mention that we have met the INSANE timeline and were ready to test for translations that won't even be installed until August 1, 2008. Yes, August.

Now, I really don't want to bore you with the details of each day. To sum it up. I get here at 1:00, catch up on emails and other items until 3:00. At 3:00, I am ready to go hopeful that today will be different than the day before. From 3:00 to 10:00, I sit and bitch to myself about how this is SO POINTLESS. Lather, rinse, repeat. I will be here again tomorrow at 1:00.

Now, onto the bus situation. Please know that I generally am a very nice person (or at least I like to pretend I am) and try not to be cruel about other people. However, I strongly believe that having had to take the 120 bus from Burien to Seattle has damaged me in ways I will never fully understand.

I actually take the 5:50am bus into Seattle each morning and the 3:08 bus back to Burien. I have no problem on either bus because they are commuter buses and typically, you only see productive members of society on board. Unfortunately, the commuter buses stop running pretty much when rush hour is considered over. At this time, apparently, the crazies and non productive members of society all come out to play. It's like some secret code they must all have or something. Anywho, I have been taking the 120 at 12:14 into work the past few days. On Tuesday, I thought I might possibly ralph my brains out right on the bus. I am not sure if it's because I've been fighting a cold or if it was due to the man that poured a bottle of cologne on himself and then sat behind me on the bus. I had a raging headache and wanted nothing more than to be off that bus right at that very moment. Mind you, we're only about 10 minutes into a 45 minute ride. My normal commuter bus only takes about 20-25 minutes. The 120 however, stops at EVERY possible stop starting in Burien (semi ghetto), then onto White Center (GHETTO) and into the Delridge area (SUPER GHETTO - there are actually chickens that run around on the sidewalks). Tuesday's ride consisted of a couple female crazies and the cologne man. I refuse to go into details as I do not want to re-live the experience. Let's just say, I got off at the first stop I could in Seattle and walked to my building. As soon as I got here, I went straight to the bathroom and dry heaved for 5 minutes - I shit you not.

Today, while riding the ever so lovely 120, I'd say about 3/4ths of Mexico was on the bus with me. And apparently, people from Mexico don't wear deodorant. YUM! I thought I'd make today fun and count just how many stops the 120 actually made from semi-ghetto to SUPER GHETTO. I got to 20 when Steve called. Damn. Lost count.....but I know it's close to 30 stops.
Somewhere in between GHETTO and SUPER GHETTO, an entire classroom of teenagers hopped on board. Yes, the bus driver was actually yelling at them because they were being dumbasses trying to all get on the bus at one time. Apparently, they were trying to defy the law of physics. Hmmm. I'd say there were about 25 kids. This filled the bus up and I actually had to share a seat. I was none too thrilled about this because I am rather large these days and also have two bags that I bring with me. So I take up space. Oh, before the gaggle of hoodlums hopped on, a rather obese man came and sat very near me. I was in the seats facing forward and he sat in the seats that face sideways. He talked to himself. Quite a bit. It annoyed me. Not as humorous as the mentally ill woman who asked a complete stranger if she could go to Disneyland with her and then proceeded to tell her that she loved her. While I know that my accounts of the 120 don't sound all that traumatizing, believe me, they really are. If I could video record the experience without looking like a crazy myself, I would.

Some advice, NEVER take the 120. EVER.
More advice, boycott Samsung or I will NOT be your friend.

Some of you clever folks are probably asking why I don't drive in. To this, I say, give me $21 dollars a day to park and I will GLADLY drive in. Thanks for playing!

Now, my saving grace has been the fact that I am lucky to work with a fun group of people who are going through the same thing that I am. This has truly been a test of patience for all of us and all I can say is we're tired, cranky and ready to go home and go to sleep and resume normal working hours before we lose our minds. This has been the most non-productive three days of my working experience.

More of you clever folks are probably saying, hey, at least you're getting paid to do jack and blog about it. To you I say, fuck off. You're totally right but I don't want to hear it, okay? I already told you....tired, cranky and I'm even going to throw out semi-irrational at this point - oh, and hormonal.

Okay, I am going to spare you any further bitching now and get back to the good old "hurry up and wait" game I've been playing for three days now.

Stay beautiful!