From Under My Rock

The place where I spend the majority of time at work. There's another desk, the reservation desk, where I'll be sitting for most of my Friday shift.

The past two days I've done eight hour shifts, 0930 to 1800. The initial idea was I'd ride the reservation desk and learn that while the regular morning dispatcher did her thing, cover the time between when she went home and the even lady came in, and then do both dispatch learnings and reservation learnings. However, morning dispatcher has been sick for two days, so I've been right into the barrel. Still not dealing with actual customers beyond saying "Classic Limousine, this is Doug, would you mind holding?" So someone more experienced can take the call. But I am getting good at handling the system, and learning some of the more prominent special cases. For example, Company A gets $10 off the base fare, and if booked through Booking Company, we don't charge the usual fee unless the job is in certain areas of San Jose. Some companies are Direct Bill unless the particular account notes for that person say otherwise.

It's a lot to learn, and I'm still double and triple checking myself. Today we did some fake calls, with Boss number One calling me from his office and testing how I take calls. Still a ways to go on that. The key is to get the name and if they've traveled with us before. Then it's likely we have them in they system for things like piuck-up address, phone number, method of payment and I just need to get trip details: which airport, which airline, departure time, and will you be needing a return trip?

Getting to know the drivers, who are a cool bunch (as drivers are wont to be.) They are being extremely patient with my fumbling attempt to help them. One of the big duties for the dispatcher is to update flight arrival times. We want our drivers there at the luggage carousel or at the exit from customs with a smile and a greeting sign. So if, as happened tonighyt, a flight from Japan rides the jet stream and comes in a half-hour early, we need to let the driver know well in advance.

One odd thing... I mentioned when I first got hired that there was another new hire, a woman who had also worked the board at ShuperShuttle. She seems to have vanished. Last week we were doing alternating morning and evening blocks, so we didn't see each other. But this week I'm there for much of the day, and you'd think they'd have her in as well for the training. This is not an easily absorbed system! You need lots of practice. Who knows, I'm too busy learning and grinding to ask, and if she did flame out early, I expect once I'm trained they'll hire another person. to fill in the gaps.

But here's the other Office Dog, Coal:

and you don't.

neener.

I haven't seen it and have no desire to do so. But if this was a five-man sniper team from the 3/2 Marines as has been reported, each and every one of these Marines needs to be charged and, once convicted, thrown out of the service with a Dishonorable Discharge.

This is a hard concept for a lot of civilians to get. "Wait, blowing someone up with a cluster bomb is fine, but peeing on a corpse is wrong?" Yes. American soldiers will strive to kill the enemy with all the tools at our disposal. That is our job. We, from a grunt Marine Rifleman to an Air Force Missileman in a silo, are there to Kill People and Break Things. This is what we do. We are very good at it. But we are also trained in the tradition of mercy to the enemy wounded, fallen, and to those who have become our prisoners.

Respecting your enemy is perhaps the hardest thing a soldier is asked to do. The enemy is trying to kill you. Odds are, the enemy comes from an alien culture which may be offensive to the average American. At worst, the enemy may be seen as a cheater who refuses to stand up and fight. When you actually get your hands on the enemy, alive or dead, the urge to take out your anger or frustration is near-overwhelming.

But we have to resist that urge. Because we are supposed to be better than that. The difference between a mob and an Army is discipline. We treat enemy wounded. We protected captured enemy troops and treat them humanely. And we treat enemy dead as we would one of our own fallen. With respect. To see that respect fail so spectacularly among an elite group like a USMC sniper team is sickening. For all the legends that surround snipers as merciless death-dealers, we're still humans. We are just held to a higher standard since we are expected to operate outside the normal chain of command much of the time.

Some will blame the high operational tempo, the endless and repeated tours. Bullshit. Every single service member serving today, a decade after we entered Afghanistan, knows what they were getting into. Stress is not an excuse. There is no excuse possible for the complete breakdown of discipline to the point where United States Marines would desecrate an enemy's corpse. None. These five Marines need to be loudly and publicly thrown to the wolves pour encourager les autres. If we're really cutting back on the military and making training harder, I suggest tightening the screws on discipline as well.

In my perfect word, once convicted, these five losers would be paraded in dress blues before as many of the 2nd Marines as can be gathered. On a stage, every piece of rank, insignia, awards... anything that makes the uniform a Marine uniform, is ripped off. The discharges are read aloud. Then the entire regiment turns their backs on the malefactors. I'd also deny any government benefits to those dishonorably discharged. That includes unemployment, Medicare, and Social Security.

Yes, I'm furious about this. These morons just handed the enemy a propaganda coup.

As many of you know, we love pizza, especially from Round Table. We order maybe once a month. Each time, the delivery guy brings us little packets of crushed red peppers and grated Parmesan cheese. Lots of them. During recent cleaning, I've found a good number of these things, and did a census. I have, sitting before me, 28 packets of cheese and 32 of the red peppers.

I think next time we order, we tell them to save that part.

The Command Papasan has been sent to the other side of the room, as it was beginning to creak in an ominous way.

After yesterday's adventure in selling, today we attacked the remaining pile of CDs as well as the DVD shelf. End result? In two days we've made about $250 and cleared about a mile of shelf space. Which means I can better organize the bookshelves. Still want one of these in black with a few of the accessories.

But that can wait. Now taking a break before tackling the dishes.

The first day of Spring Cleaning and Decluttering is done, and it turned out to be a money maker. After clearing out trash and putting things where they (allegedly) belong, I tore into our two large boxes of CDs. Kirsten and I were pretty vicious about eliminating things, and we ended up with a nice load of stuff we didn't want any more. Off to Streetlight!

We dropped off the stuff, and went browsing for about a half hour. Came back, and asked what our stuff was worth. We walked out with a check for $128 and about a quarter of the CDs we had brought in that they didn't want. This was just the first load as we clear out unwanted books, games, CDs and DVDs.

Decluttering can be profitable!

Job interview, tomorrow at 1200hrs. Dispatcher/office for a limo service.