6 Work days minus 1 day off sick equals 17 hours aday awake....

Well after a week of mayhem, I really am sad to be leaving Sit up channels after such a short term, but hey better to do it on a formally correct basis then a gross misconduct dismissal kind of way, at least that's what I think! Since as far as Sit up are concerned I cannot get any leave, and Adecco cant sort anything out so it is me who has to make the ultimate decision (although kudos to Alex at Adecco for not giving up trying!).

I managed to win the 1st Division and the WEFA Champions League (on WE10 or Pro Evo 6 to those slow people), and this time no one wants to buy any of my players (What??), and I end up releasing 4 of them and signing about 3 kids and one slightly oldish guy just to make up my numbers!

We finished the Win 2003 module this week and me and Dave came in on Wednesday (man I could use the day off...) to install all the disk images for the next module (2277c) which is about windows server 2003 network infrastructure. We got the new books and I tell you what, none of it is going into my head (its all theory and nothing about real life at all, that and the fact I keep falling asleep in class...)! I have been catching up by watching CBT Nuggets prep videos supplied by Vivek (thanks a bundle), and now I know how custom sub netting kinda works(doesn't mean I can do it though!), and some of that DHCP and DNS theory is starting to sink in.

Work has been a drag and only plus side was that we don't have a real team leader yet so the other team leaders were on training this week so we took it easy and happened to get shifted upstairs and downstairs on a regular basis (no sweat, means we have to spend 20 or so minutes logging in/out!).

Saturday came around and we had a decent game of football (we won 10-6), I twisted my knee badly when I saved one of Justin's only shots on target and my foot kind of "hyper extended" in a twisting motion kind of way. Does that make sense? Imagine that you keep your upper thigh dead rigid and straight, then twist your foot side to side or wiggle your foot around - it puts strain on your knee ligaments and mines are quite week from not going to karate now - my knee ligaments / tendons are in a painful way and not the first time too. Not to mention get slide tackled and kicked so many times I prefer not to mention it and kick some of their hides!

Beat Parv 4-0 with France (he was Czech rep), strangely it was 0-0 after 90 minutes and in extra time Henry and Zidane showed the world what Winning Eleven 10 is all about - finesse and total control, that and Parv quit the game with 4 minutes to go!

Watched Bleach episode 80 and 81 - finally this side tracking with the Bunto crap is finally getting a touch more exciting. I'm going to lend my Nadisco DVD to David to try and get him into more subtle and immersing animes then say Gundam Wing (I know many people will not like that comment!) and maybe convince him to watch Serial Experiments Lain (which me and my sister are watching at the moment again) and even maybe Inu Yasha! (yes maybe that is) Would be cool to convert another person into a InuYasha fan (first my sister then Parv and Zesh too) - ah the satisfaction of talking to someone who has come down to the same low level as you...

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Off Sick - Last week's Summary

Notice: The wonderful Fa Cup final last Saturday - a must watch for anyone who missed it.

We started course the Server 2003 book last week, we needed to finish it also the same week but since we are so damn slow in this class we ran over to this Monday and Still haven't finished it!!

I used the E-Learning Microsoft voucher on their site and did modules 8-10 on it and noticed some scary differences - the fact some info is on this e learning course and not in the book and vice versa. I took the assessment and failed badly with 62% which was good considering the question where so hard, I immediately ordered some book off Amazon so help my revision!

Started work proper on the Sunday last week and boy it drains you out! 3pm till 11:30pm getting home about 1am! We did 4 days last week with 3 days off and then starting again this Sunday.

Alex tells me I may have problems getting leave for my exchange module - might have to say bye bye for this job already! I am sure we can come to some conclusion in a professional manner...

Main highlight last week was watching Arsenal lose to Barcelona at work while attending to calls! Good fun that day!

Been feeling sick since Saturday - I had a hair cut on Friday (and as a classmate said "someone shaved off allot of hair!") which is usually not an issue in the summer but the current weather is cold and rainy so my stomach starts to feel abit strange - mainly means I need to get to a toilet ASAP! So I missed work today, which is ironic as I was ok in class (cos its so damn hot in that classroom) and as soon as I step outside my stomach starts talking!

Well at least its given me a chance to post this. Hopefully we will start out network infrastructure class tomorrow or Wednesday.

Oh, and I finished 2nd in my 1st season in the division 1 on Winning Eleven 10, a shame I didn't have the funds (or attraction) to buy any decent players.
So the same old scrap next season then!

Me and my cousin had to pass up the chance to get season tickets for Manchester United - Nooooooooooo! Simply cause we couldn't afford them! (minimum is about 600 to about 800 pounds) We couldn't find any one to share our tickets with! Hopefully when I am working proper I can get a season ticket next time (fingers crossed)!

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Friday = weekend = rest

Today was the final day for the XP (2285) course we are doing, we had to finish the book today!
The afternoon session had the day off so we had to stay back long enough to finish all the practicals in the book.

Afterwards Alvin got us to copy over the Virtual Harddrives needed for the next course (2874) which is about Windows Server 2003.
I learned alot more about Differential Hard disks thanks to my attempt to install SBS 2003 on Virtual Server 2005, and so we actually got the hard drive deployment right!

We got sort of "acheivment" certificates for completing the course, but now we all want the main certificate for passing the exam! (Of course)

Not to mention I beat the daylights out of Juventus 3 - 0 last night and Barca 2-1 this morning really made things good.

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Good Thursday...

Started the day getting smashed by Barcelona in my first cup match in Winning Eleven 10 - Time to quit me thinks...

Went to JTG and Alvin was 2 hours late because he was at his Son's school - I should have stayed in bed longer me thinks...

He tells us that we are over a lesson behind the afternoon class and while they get Friday off, we might have to stay behind into the afternoon on Friday to finish this module...

Some how the finance department fails to add up 18.40 pounds and 18.40 pounds and give me 18.00 pounds back instead for my travel money! (how did that work out?)

Meanwhile at Sit up Channels (where I am now training for my Contact centre job), we had a quick refresher and then took a "Proof Of Learning" test. I killed the test with a class best of 96 percent, while the little Indian girl got 93 percent which was good considering she is under confident in herself, the next best was 87 percent.

So we aced the test and spent most of the day on the phones...

The only downside to the day is that the 18 pounds I got at JTG seems to have whittled down to 7.07 quid ! I really need to bring lunch from home...

NB. My browser - Flock- which I use to make these posts, in junction with Blogger's server, doesn't like POUND symbols...

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I Start a Damn "Call Centre" Job This week - Hurrah!

Been playing Winning Eleven 10 on 6 stars in the Master League.
I got hammered in my first season, only 2nd from bottom! In my 2nd, I managed to finish 2nd in the 2nd division to earn promotion to the 1st division. So far I have had the following fixtures in the 1st division:
Bayern Munich (V= I won), Bayer Leverkusen (V), Real Madrid (V), Roma (Loss), Man United (Draw), Liverpool (Loss), Inter Milan (D).
So I am about 6th in the league - not bad considering I have a tiny sqaud so I am playing my reserves half the time - and I havent even got to the cup matches yet!

Finally got our XP Course Manuals (official stuff) for the XP Module of the MCSA, looks a breeze but the Manual is a useless stand alone read - you need to use the CD and be physically doing the stuff on a PC so you can take it all in!

Went to Addecco on Monday at 1PM, which was a waste of time only spent 15 minutes there. Just found out the shift pattern is 6 days in a row (48 hours) and then 3 days off - Dammit!
The 3 days training is 1PM till 8:30PM and then 3 days off, next monday we start our proper 3-11:30pm shifts.

Started the Training on Tuesday and it was quite daunting till the last hour when one of the trainers actually showed us a call and then we realised how easy it was! Stuff the documentation and the manuals they give you - you just follow some of the script and the general flow of the call is damn easy!

Wednesday was interesting - At JTG the couple who are there were having a typical couple's tiff, and at the Call Centre Job we did loads of live phone calls and some more cramming information and procedures into our heads for a final written test tomorrow! 3 of the guys did 16 seconds of rapping (our whatever you call it) and they were damn good! One of them writes lyrics and does good there and then stuff and has a good vocabulary. The kind of discussions and arguments these guys get into is really crazy! One guy was 30 mins late, in this place if you are late 3 times you get sacked!

The place is good fun working in and the guys are fun and it is easy money - just a tad monotonous or repetative so to speak. I am just worried about the return time - takes over an hour at 8:30 - what will it be like at 11:30PM??

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Last Weekend

My day at JTG setting up the network and the virtual PCs:
Me, Viveq(k) and some guy called David from the afternoon class went about wiring up all the HP machines we had in the classroom.
Setting up the router and getting the network working. We installed Virtual PC and copied over the base virtual machine files needed for this module,
we also set up user accounts for the morning and afternoon sessions.

Why this took from 9am till 4pm to accomplish really beats me, considering when I was at Noden I had 2 hours to shut down all the servers,
move them and rewire them, upgrade them and all sorts on my own on a bloody Saturday!

Pell and Bales turned me down *no warmth and emotion*??:
Self explanatory really - when you are told to read a script only bloody news readers can fake it and not sound abit drone.

So I am expecting that women who interviewed me must be looking for a young female or some south African/Australian person that usually litters the Pell and Bales call centres.

Picked up my Bro from Terminal 3 his flight was 3 and a half hours late

Parv came over and we played Winning Eleven 10:
What can I say, the game physics are improved - in the air ball work is better.
Stronger players don't give up without a really tussle which is nice.
International teams are now Licensed - such as England, Holland, Argentina etc.

On Parv's Laptop he installed XP Pro on Parallel software, he tried Linux but it was waste of time :)

Somehow after installing a pirate XP Pro on his emulator his Mac book Pro and
every thing started to become dis functional - I WONDER WHY, Hmmmmm :)

Crap football match, got beaten so bad I have forgotten the score! I got a bit pissed off that everyone wasn't taking me seriously when it came to paying up,

and because I was left so short I wont be booking the pitch next Saturday so they can sort it out themselves.

technorati tags: winning, eleven, 10, pes, 6, ftg, mcse, networking, pell, bales, call, centres, macbook, parrallel

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View from my room at James Thorton

Nice View from up here, over looking Hammersmith Tube and Bus Stations. 

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Some Progress

We Started (or Semi Started) the XP section of the course. Me and Viveq are coming in tomorrow (rest of the classes are cancelled) to install XP Pro on all the machines.

Supposedly someone from Microsoft is also coming down for a visit/inspection (Hint hint) so we cant come in jeans and t-shirt like I was originally planning to.

I got to teach Tej how to wire a RJ 45 cable, and he went on to teach all the others - which made my day worthwhile.

Had an interview at Morgan Spencer and Pell & Bales for their Charity Fund Raiser call centre positions - was nice to go back to their Old Street Office and check things out, but seems I let my self down on the role playing tests.

I got home and thought I would give Alex a call (from Adecco), seems there was no shortlist so I start on Tuesday! Wicked, but training on Monday and Tuesday starts at 1PM (which I cannot physically make so I will point that out to them).

Parv was back yesterday, and he was impressed at the power of the Pound vs the Dollar, which currently is about 1.86 Dollars to a Pound - which is a 3 year high by my reckoning.

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This Week

We had no training on Friday or Monday - which was a really bummer.

Had a decent game of football against Umair and his college mates again, this time losing only 7-5 and I didnt score any of the goals.

Man United collapsed at Chelsea 3-0 and now Chelsea are champions and Rooney has a broken bone in his foot so he is out of the World cup!

Played football on Monday too and got beaten badly in the first game and it was too easy in the second.

Back to training today and Alvin wants me and Viveq to come in one day this week and prepare all the PCs for the classes!

Adecco called me today, saying I am on the shortlist for the temp position I applied for and I should know by the end of the week if I am starting next week.

The hours are 3pm till 11:30pm which is quite gay, but will do for a few months at least.

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