I hesitate to make a post like this, mostly because I see them so commonly at the top of dormant blogs. Basically I haven’t been posting to this particular blog as much as I’d like, so I want to give a quick update with what’s been going on in my life, and hopefully this will be the beginning of some new jamesgoux.com content in the future.

The big thing you should be aware of by now is also the primary reason for a lack of content on this site. I have been writing, and it’s available for you to see, it’s just not on this site at the moment. That’s because my friend Benn Hadland and I have created a new website, called Lock, Stock, and Two Film Geeks.

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It still hasn’t hit me.  I’ve walked across that stage.  Thank you.  Shake hand.  Thank you.  Shake hand.  Thank you.  Shake hand.  Receive diploma with other hand.  It’s all completed.  I have finished school, a week before the ceremony in fact.  But so far it doesn’t feel any different.  The day to day obligations are gone, there’s no where I have to be.  But I’m trying to be an adult, and I’m trying to be responsible, and that means I’m keeping busy.  There’s resumes to build, there’s people to get in contact with.  There’s things to write.  There’s lots of things to write.  And on top of all that, I’m trying to exercise.  Exercising almost seems to take up as much time as school does.  But on the plus side the running is giving me a sense of accomplishment htat’s lasting through the entire day.  After I’ve done that, it doesn’t really matter what else I do that day.  I’ve run!  But there already seems to be a dozen projects up in the air, and there’s a job out there somewhere.  I’m almost worried that I will get a job too quickly now.  How will I finish all this when I have somewhere to go?

or: A Few More Things I Like About My Internship

You may have seen my previous post about my new internship, listing five things that I really appreciated about my new internship.  Since that first day, I’ve gone back twice and it’s been going well.  The people there seem to appreciate my script coverage, and say I do a solid job on it as well.  Luckily, the way I’ve learned to do coverage in the past seems to be more thorough and better than what they usually require.  Rather than come down to that level, I’ve decided to stick with my better quality of coverage.  I’ve just realized that I’ve mentioned script coverage twice now, and some people may not actually be aware of what it is.  Since this particular task is what makes up about 99% of my time at any development internship, perhaps I should go into it a bit.

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I’m not going to pretend that I’m not a sucker for internet trends.  Everyone on facebook is doing the “25 Random Things About Me” post, and I’ve been tagged to do it, so I’m going to.  Here it is:

1. I really love listening to Peter and the Wolf.  Part of it is nostalgia from listening to it as a kid.  Part of it is that I just really enjoy the orchestral piece.  It’s beautiful, and it tells a story in a really unique way.  I like that there’s characters that interact and tell their story without words.  And the narration is really fun too.  For some reason Peter’s theme is the thing that most often gets stuck in my head — ever.  I find myself whistling it all the time.  It’s not that I listen to it on a regular basis, but I did just download and have started listening to it again.

2. I’m more comfortable in smaller groups.  It’s easier to have a more meaningful conversation and I like the general dynamic better.  2-4 people is definitely my favorite way of interacting.

3. Similarly, I’ve always been the type to have a few really close friends rather than a lot of friends that are not as close.  It’s nothing personal to the other people, it’s just what seems to work best for me.

4. Unintentionally, I seem to have put myself to the impossible quest of seeing every worthwhile movie ever made, read every worthwhile comic book ever made, and watching as much good television as I can.  It’s an unfortunate decision due to it’s sheer impossibility and the amount of time in my life it seems to take up.  My Blockbuster.com queue always hovers in the range of 160-170 items and never gets any smaller.

5. I get really nervous when I get my hair cut.  It doesn’t make much sense because I trust the people who I let do it, and even if they did mess up my hair grows absurdly fast.

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I started a new internship today, and my first day went really well.  There were a few things I really liked about it, so I thought I might list them.

1. It’s in Santa Monica.  Santa Monica is simply a really nice place to be.  You’ve got the ocean air, there’s actually parking structures, and it’s not as crowded as L.A.  Plus getting into L.A. can be kind of a pain, not that Santa Monica doesn’t have it’s share of traffic, but it avoids the whole central L.A. thing.  Santa Monica just feels better.

2. Lunch.  They pay for lunch, and they do it from nice places that are also healthy.  Also, everyone in the company eats lunch together, which makes for fun discussion, an easy way to get to know everyone, and an oppurtunity to learn from everyone.

3. They keep a copy of the trades in the bathroom.  This one will sound really weird.  I’ll admit that I like to read on the toilet, and the fact that they keep copies in there makes me feel that that’s not a completely strange thing to do.  I like reading the trades, but usually feel like I have to be doing something more productive for the company while I’m at my desk.  This gives me a good oppurtunity to skim through.

4. Friendly co-workers.  Everyone at the compnay seems to be really friendly and laid back.  Additionally, their younger than most people in the film industry, which makes it a bit easier to relate.

5. Perks.  I had to copy some DVDs today, and not only did they suggest making some for myself, they almost made it seem like it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t.

As mentioned on the “About” page, I work at Ritz Camera.  Before that, I worked at Blockbuster Video and briefly at Cold Stone Creamery.  The point is that I’ve had quite a bit of experience with retail, and in turn, with customer service.  I’ve dealt with a lot of customers over time, and find that at least a portion of them manage to be irritating in some form or another.  What better place to vent about those irritations than my blog, right?  Obviously there’s numerous things that customers can do, or act like, that can be unpleasant.  I’m not going to try and list all of them here, at least not at once.  But I figure it could be fun to mention them one at a time.  I’m going to start with the one that I often tell my coworkers is my biggest “customer pet peeve”.

While I see this trait more often in non-native English speakers, it is not relegated to them.  The problem also occurs more often over the phone, but once again, this is not the only time I see it.  The thing that some customers do that bothers me the most, is when they repeat questions over and over.  One repitition is fine, two is acceptable, but once they go past that in repeating a question over and over I really lose patience.  And here’s the thing: I understand repeating a question when you don’t understand the answer or you didn’t hear.  These people are almost never under these circumstances, or at least the one’s that really bother me are not.  The reason it frustrates me so much is that they do understand what I’m saying, they just want the answer to be different the second or third time around.

A conversation might go something like this.  The customer asks, “Do you have the Neekon [misspelled to match their mispronunciation] S60?”

I’ll respond.  “No, we don’t have the Nikon S60 in stock at the moment, but I can order it for you if you like.”

They pause for a long time and then mumble, “Oh…… So……. You don’t have it then?”

“No,” I’d say, slightly annoyed.  “We don’t have it in the store.”

Now in most logical conversations this would be the end of things, but many of these customers have found a way to keep it going, by coming up with some other question, like, “On your website it says it costs, $299.”

I’ll respond, “That’s right it does.  But I don’t have it”

“You don’t have it.”

“Mmmhmm.”

“So you don’t have the Nikon S60?”

“We do not have the Nikon S60 in the store.”

And the conversation goes on like this.  My coworkers can usually tell when I’m stuck in one of these conversations even if they don’t listen to the words, because my tone of voice will change with the frustration.  They’ll smile and laugh, only to have it come around to them when they get the next call like this.

What’s worse is that some of these customers have made an art of looping the conversation around several times.  Coming up with two questions and just alternating them, hoping I guess that I will forget my answer to one or the other and change it to the one they want to hear.  I’ll exhaust myself of whatever information I have on the subject their interested, and they’ll still manage to keep me on the phone, despite the fact that we really only want to deal with customers that in depth in store.  Bottom line is our object when we’re on the phone is to meet the needs of the caller as quickly as possible, so that we can help the people who actually took the time to come to our store.  These people make accomplishing that not only difficult, but about as boring as it possibly could be.