Setsuna's crazy adventures - a cataloguing

[Setsuna]

Well, it's been a while but it amounts to a quick update (not that I honestly expect anyone to care):

Apparently when I fail to do things as required by social security law, I break the law and I get duely punished.

When a government department breaks the law, it applies for an exemption under national security, and the person who reported the breech goes to court for a day trying to explain why they shouldn't be detained under national security guidelines.

Oh, and the government gets to break the law in the process of breaking the law.

I also get to break the law on behalf of another government department in a futile attempt to prosecute someone else (Who I will never know) because of some unknown international thing.

And the best part? I lost 50 dollars just today because I dropped it after withdrawing it, and a kid (who was probably 12-14) managed to run away fast enough and get on the train before I did.

People tell me the world's a nice place and that good deeds will be rewarded.

I honestly would like to know where this world of theirs is located, because the real world I live in isn't very forgiving, or even gives a damn about doing the right thing.

[Nakiame]

And the best part? I lost 50 dollars just today because I dropped it after withdrawing it, and a kid (who was probably 12-14) managed to run away fast enough and get on the train before I did.

People tell me the world's a nice place and that good deeds will be rewarded.

I honestly would like to know where this world of theirs is located, because the real world I live in isn't very forgiving, or even gives a damn about doing the right thing.

Maybe that kid have done something good and was rewarded with 50 bucks for it? =)

[Amazing_Grace]

Well, it's been a while but it amounts to a quick update (not that I honestly expect anyone to care):

Apparently when I fail to do things as required by social security law, I break the law and I get duely punished.

When a government department breaks the law, it applies for an exemption under national security, and the person who reported the breech goes to court for a day trying to explain why they shouldn't be detained under national security guidelines.

Oh, and the government gets to break the law in the process of breaking the law.

I also get to break the law on behalf of another government department in a futile attempt to prosecute someone else (Who I will never know) because of some unknown international thing.

And the best part? I lost 50 dollars just today because I dropped it after withdrawing it, and a kid (who was probably 12-14) managed to run away fast enough and get on the train before I did.

People tell me the world's a nice place and that good deeds will be rewarded.

I honestly would like to know where this world of theirs is located, because the real world I live in isn't very forgiving, or even gives a damn about doing the right thing.

Oh, wow...I swear, people could make your life into some kind of soap opera or slapstick slice of life sitcom. Maybe you can pitch to have your life made into a movie or write a book about it?

I would pay good money for that. And hey, then you get money! You can earn back those $50 that jerk of a kid stole from you!

[Setsuna]

It's been a while - Three months in fact, since I decided to write on things.

On the bright side, things have stabilized somewhat. A whole lot of nothing happened, mostly cause I've been doing my damnest to make sure that nothing happens.

In short, I actually like being really bored a lot, simply cause if you're bored, nothing exciting or terminal has happened. Like oh, being shot at or what not.

Okay, apart from things like heatwaves and what have you anyway.

Out of the things that did happen though during what I consider 'I want to be chronically bored, because excitement gets me into trouble' phase....

1. For whatever reason, apparently I'm required by some intergalactic law to be able to come up with all sorts of things in a hurry, because people and situations keep asking me for things that, at least at face value, there'd be no reason for me to know. I'm pretty sure there isn't a school for this sort of thing, is there?

- Like for instance, the correct steps to intervene in a suicide attempt, where the other guy is armed with a bladed weapon and is threatening to kill themselves, and anyone who's crazy enough to stop them. Or a suicide attempt where you're several thousand kilometres away from the other guy.
- Or the correct steps on how to remove an arm that should have rightfully got sheered off due to a traffic accident that damaged the door, and hey, you just happen to be the closest person who got to watch a car hit face first into a truck.
- Or the best place to stand in the event of a gunman deciding that someone needs to die today, and you're just walking by. No, I made sure I left in one piece.

2. For whatever reason, I'm also required by some intergalactic law to have knowledge of a whole bunch of diverse things that on request, I have to be able to recite facts of.

So I've been asked to as of this month...

- been asked to source various old video consoles, for replacement and modification.
- figured out through sheer force of trial and error on how to repair a Vita by concluding which bits are interchangeable between the 1000, 1001 and 1002 lines. (The short answer is 90%. There's a couple of modifications to be done due to slight differences in the parts, and I am now back in possession of a Frankenstein Vita that's able to broadcast out.)
- been asked to figure out how to analyze and then make effective a couple of campaigns that are apparently about to launch, including one political campaign.
- Spec a computer from parts, to be a mainstay gaming platform, while ensuring that the computer can do high quality recording.
- Arrange for specialised equipment, and figuring out the three seperate places someone has to visit in Japan to make arrangements for specialised modifications. Apparently if you want a N3DSXL USB broadcast mod, a Vita USB broadcast mod, a SNES HDMI display mod, or a specialized HDCP breaker, you might want to ask me for acquisition methods and costs.
- Analyse and explain economic models,  assist in a couple of investigations, and account for various frauds on the face of the planet. Nothing like understanding and helping to explain how to destroy national economies, account for huge fraud, and break in four security systems while still in your nightie.


3. Apparently the natural laws of probability don't apply to me either, at least when I found out when a friend dropped off FE Awakening (And borrowed the US copy of FE Fates I've been sitting on, due to a lack of real interest).

Apparently when I play FE Awakening Lunatic, the AI can't seem to miss any shot below 52%, which is a problem, because the first 3 stages it's nearly impossible to actually reduce enemy hit chances much below that. Or at least they didn't, 72 times in a row. We did the math, and apparently the odds of that happening (assuming flucutations and accounting for the skew due to the FE RNG modifications) somewhere between 1 in a a couple of quadrillion, and a septmillion.

Oh, and before you ask - it wasn't a spot wielding because the % odds when I tried to hit them were behaving mostly just fine (within reasonable margins of error). I started laughing after AI hit number 28.

For the record, the odds of winning the lottery are not anywhere near close to this. Yes, this was counted for over about 3 hours of constant play and resets (since you can't make battle saves)

Some people win the lottery, or score the best job ever, or other happy fun things.

Apparently I blow my absurd luck on asking the AI to kick my ass just cause they can. That and I haven't figured out a way how to make a program to select numbers based on the odds of absolutely horrible things happening to me yet.

Sad part is, that sort of thing doesn't even have me bat an eyelid. I mean, I play Xcom, I expect the absolute worst to happen.

------

Yes, this is the sort of thing I barely register, because I really, REALLY am trying my very best to keep my life boring. I actually make a note not to leave the house unless absolutely necessary, just because, well, apparently when I do things, things just... happen.

I dunno. People ask me 'So what sort of person are you?' and I mention that I don't go out to have fun, and that I spend a lot of time at home, and I honestly don't travel or do things unless I have a reason to.

I'm pretty much your average run of the mill housewife without the married part, so I predictably get told that I really should get out more, because staying at home so much isn't healthy.

Then I tell them what happens when I do go out, then they mysteriously go quiet, because apparently when I go out into the world, the world decides that things must happen. People magically expect you to know everything, and look at you like you fail at life's simplest things when you protest on how unlikely one person should happen to know the mechanical aspects of PCI-e lanes, corporate law, how to override a car door's airbag system, suicide safety protocol, concealment and covering fire, and the time it takes for someone to make it to Sydney Airport Domestic Terminal 11 from 50 Pitt Street Sydney to prove that that the cellular GPS data wasn't inaccurate and did in fact reveal a side trip...

Then make you do it anyway, like the above is a cakewalk for your average five year old.

... Then for good measure, you then find out that you're mysteriously failing at cooking, when you have blisters over both hands due to minor accidents in the kitchen, for things you normally do without question.

Yeah, I might be rambling just a little bit, but I dunno. At some point I think I want to just quit at life only cause I'm tired of all this fantastical crap. There's no reward, pay or incentive in it all, and most of the time, you earn the scorn of the people you interact with, because they want to believe a view as opposed to dealing with what's actually there in front of you, and get very, very upset when you explain that hope isn't a substitute for the things you actually have to do to get things done.

And yes, this is when I think I'm horribly bored. I'm trying my damn best to be a very boring person, and it's simply not working.

[Setsuna]

And in yet another episode (Well, actually two) of 'Oh hey, no one's life can be that screwed up... right?'

This is life, and yes, I get accused a lot of making this stuff up. Or if I write this story in an autobiography, it'll end up being relegated to the fiction section, because no one will ever believe me.

As some of you may know, I play a lot of Atelier games. I'm surprisingly good at them.

I've been moving most of my earned funds towards various logistical improvements and a few things here, which is why you might have seen a 'mysterious post' where I'm sort of vague about why I'm doing something.

There is also a reason why I'm not doing OfA or im@s 2 requests at this point. Well, several of them. One of them is simply the fact I've been picking up Temporary positions (Labour Hire or whatever else term you know it as) so you know, busy and stuff.

Anyway, even someone like me has a few vices, and I like Atelier games as a whole, so in the few vices I have, I figured I'd order Atelier Sophie from NISA, as well as other things cause well, I haven't had a chance to actually enjoy life in nearly a year.

No, I don't own a PS4 still. Yes, you can laugh.

Anyway, so what ends up happening is that I run the order on the 18th of May. They run the authorisation as expected (You know, they need to know I can pay for my order)

They then decide to collect the money on the 19th (executed on the 23rd, due to how banks work namely, they executed on a Saturday here, carrying over to the Monday)

Nothing surprising here, right?

Well, this is where things become a lot of fun - due to some sort of bug, they drew the money the Monday morning... but the authorization remained.

Financial rules and good practice should go 'When collecting the funds, execute the authorisation, closing that, because you know, you got the money you came for'

This in turn sent my account into overdraft by a significant amount (The order was 350 AU, so you can guess what happened when they took the money and left the authorization!) and this in turn prevented me from recharging my Opal card because you know, what was the worst thing that could happen?

This in TURN caused me to miss a day of work, costing me directly 179 AUD (due to 27/h & 7 paid hours that day) because I didn't have cash, I had the money set aside, and I flat out couldn't go anywhere cause I don't drive, and rely on public transport to get to my assignments.

That had me on and off for the next week trying to fix this issue. NISA couldn't find the troublesome Authorization at their end to kill, there was no record of the ghost authorization at Paypal, and NISA's e-Shopify contacts didn't have a record of the problematic Authorization executing in the first place, the bank and I are all 'Hey NISA, Paypal, e-Shopify, what the hell are you doing? You know what the proper financial rules are'.

The issue was resolved Thursday, due to the mad scramble of 'So what the hell happened anyway?'

We're still discussing compensation, because they have evidence that they screwed me over (And my bank has let them know too).

Needless to say, last week (being the 25th -30th) was... a lot more stressful than I'd like.

[Setsuna]

Yep, I'm double posting for a reason. I explained what happened LAST week with NISA. I would have written this last week, except you know, I wanted to be in a position to mostly resolve it, and at least that's mostly 'We're quibbling over the discount due to the costs incurred.' as opposed to 'Hey, you just claimed half my wage this week after you already taken the money!'

Now I get to explain what happened THIS week (30th May - 3rd June)

As you might have concluded, I'm in the job market as a temporary worker - or for those who might know one of the formal terms, I work as Labour Hire.

For those who don't know what that is, it's basically short term contract work. Drop in, drop out, paid a rate, no job security. It's not casual, and it's usually around set contracts. It's a 'you get what you can get' situation. Your pay cheques vary from week to week, because you can only get paid on what work you can secure.

Since my specialties are in office administration and I can do customer service, I'm pretty flexible, and the skill set helps with the drop in/out nature of labour hire. It's also a good way to quickly hone in discipline and your skills - You learn very quickly to be good at the job you're in at least to meet the standards required, and you learn that your reputation means a lot, so no slacking. If you don't do a decent job, the agency that you have contact with won't send you anywhere else.

Anyway, it's not a nice position to be in long term due to the lack of stability (I don't mind it though, because the variety due to the changing workflow, but you can't get a regular wage that way) so I work on what job leads I can get so I can get a stable income.

Which leads to a job interview that I attended yesterday.

I was referred to there by my employment agency, after he hooked me up for this interview.

The job in question is appointment setting for sales - you cold call businesses, and you try to convince the business that it's worth their time to consider your company's products, and we'd like to send one of our consultants out there to show you what we have.

It's what's known as soft telemarketing - all you're doing is setting up a sales consultant to do the hard yards, and it's easy enough, but a necessary service, since you're getting the foot into the door. The pay rate's okay (Just shy of $24/hr, but bear in mind that the Australian minimum wage just moved to $17.65 an hour, so it's not quite as much as it first seems.) and I figured I could learn a few new skills since most of my work is customer service, not sales.

The interview was a group interview, and I honestly thought my lack of 'hard edge' wouldn't get me through - basically, if you've seen the Wolf of Wall Street, to be REALLY good at sales, you must have an innate skill to always be closing.

I DO have a sales edge, but I take a more calculated approach - figure out who the customer is, figure out what they want, then hit the angle, and offer 'additional services'. There's objective handling, and basically a little bit of force, and I use a softer version of that - via offering solutions, while tailoring them to make sure they generally lead the way to our benefit.

I also don't wield the skill set that much - I can of course, but you probably haven't seen me use that skill set here, due to the fact I don't have to.

Anyway, I get home after the interview, and I let my contact know about the fact I went there, and how I felt I went - I'm brutally honest in my assessment, because there's no point being otherwise for post interviews. You have to impress, and I felt like I fumbled it.

The conversation that resulted (he called me up roughly 10 minutes after I put in my report) went something like this after the usual greeting:

-----

"So how did I go? They mentioned if they liked me enough, they'd ask me to return on Monday to do a workshop and try a call to see if I'm good enough to go onto the floor."

"They've invited you back for the workshop. Only 3 of the 5 candidates that were there were asked to return."

"Ah okay, thanks, I'll prepare for Monday. I wasn't expecting to pass because I was worried I didn't have a sales edge but I'll take the offer. Is there anything else?"

(Nothing unusual here. He set up the interview for me, so this is regular business.)

"Well, actually, something just came up, and I'd thought you'd like to look at this."

"Oh?"

(This is where things go off the rails.)

"Well, an opening at one of our other offices is available, and I'd like to put you forward for that position."

"... Okay. What position is it?"

"It's a Customer Service Officer position at the agency. I know you can do customer service, and I know you can do this position very well.  Can I put you forward for the position to our business manager?"

-----

Now to recap:

- The person on the phone was the one who made the arrangement the day before to set me up to the interview.
- The business I attended to is one of their clients on the employment providers' books
- They know where I'll be, and the status of my hiring (namely second stage interviewing), because the agency earn a commission (It's how they make money of course) depending on how many people land positions and how long these referees hold said positions.

To be fair, the job position IS filling my skill set (customer service, office support and administration and front of house operations) better than my mostly untested ability to cold call and appointment set (Which has not been tested in a business setting) so the offer is reasonable.

... I just don't think very many people can say 'I think I just got poached by the employment agency from right under their clients' own noses.'

[mariokirby]

Anyway, even someone like me has a few vices, and I like Atelier games as a whole, so in the few vices I have, I figured I'd order Atelier Sophie from NISA, as well as other things cause well, I haven't had a chance to actually enjoy life in nearly a year.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Tecmo-Koei has taken over publishing the Atelier series since they bought out Gust (or something like that).  So, I assumed NISA no longer publishes the Atelier games.

But, Atelier Sophie is on the NISA online shop, so I thought that's kind of weird since they no longer work on Atelier games.

[Setsuna]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Tecmo-Koei has taken over publishing the Atelier series since they bought out Gust (or something like that).  So, I assumed NISA no longer publishes the Atelier games.

But, Atelier Sophie is on the NISA online shop, so I thought that's kind of weird since they no longer work on Atelier games.

You would be correct that Koei-Tecmo have purchased Gust.

However, it's a bit murkier than that when you look deeper.

My understanding is that Koei Tecmo offers NISA the opportunity to do freelance translation work for the series, as well as offer them limited distribution rights - they're the only entity that will stock the English Limited editions of the game.

KT will handle the regular distributions as per normal though, through their normal distribution channels.

So the relationship is very murky, and my understanding it's actually a loan of specific staff for the projects.

[mariokirby]

Oh, I see.  That's pretty interesting.  Didn't know Japanese companies can hire free-lance translators to work for them. 

I'm guessing NISA will also help translate Atelier Firis once it comes out. 


Sorry, didn't mean to go off-topic.  I was just curious.  So, thanks for the explanation. 

Hope you get a PS4 soon.  Must be a terrible feeling to own a game without the console.

[Setsuna]

Oh, I see.  That's pretty interesting.  Didn't know Japanese companies can hire free-lance translators to work for them. 

I'm guessing NISA will also help translate Atelier Firis once it comes out. 


Sorry, didn't mean to go off-topic.  I was just curious.  So, thanks for the explanation. 

Hope you get a PS4 soon.  Must be a terrible feeling to own a game without the console.

It depends. The translators and the localiser working on the Super Robot Wars game being released in Asia is a direct employ.

And as I said, they may have gotten a contract which lets them work on the game as individuals since they do not have branding in the game, but I DO know that for some games (at least) they worked on the Atelier titles as a contractor.

Not having a PS4 isn't the end of the world surprisingly - Considering the PS4k is inbound later this year, the delay actually works out in my favour, considering I can wait for a PS4 price drop. I'm also tossing up if I want to get Firis in Japanese, as I'm expected to do.

There honestly isn't much of a topic set here - I'm just honouring what I said out to do since I made this thread last year - then again, I'm pretty convinced most people read through the thread so far and have said 'There's no way she's telling the truth. No one person can have that many things happen to them in the modern day and age, and not have gone insane, because reality isn't supposed to work that way'.

It is what it is though, reality or not. Basically, for some people, reality takes a completely different bent, and things don't always work out the way they're supposed to on paper.

[mariokirby]

Not having a PS4 isn't the end of the world surprisingly - Considering the PS4k is inbound later this year, the delay actually works out in my favour, considering I can wait for a PS4 price drop. I'm also tossing up if I want to get Firis in Japanese, as I'm expected to do..

Oh, yeah.  I forgot about the Neo.  I wonder if a lot of people are going to upgrade.  Though, it seems you would rather have a price drop PS4 instead, which is fine since games support both Neo and regular PS4.  But, I wonder how companies feel about that trying to develop 2 modes for one game.  I hope the regular mode doesn't suffer too much.

then again, I'm pretty convinced most people read through the thread so far and have said 'There's no way she's telling the truth. No one person can have that many things happen to them in the modern day and age, and not have gone insane, because reality isn't supposed to work that way'.

I'm sure a lot people here believe you.  Some people can have terrible luck and things don't fall in the right place.  I think you mentioned you don't expect anyone to read your posts, so this is something you wanted to do.  Some people express themselves via writing or chatting.  If anything, I think I learned a thing or two from your life experiences.

[Setsuna]

Sometimes you have to wonder if some people are just cursed to have issues no matter how things go.

As some of you guys know I've played a lot, and I play mostly cause it's the only bit of reality I seem to have any control over.

The joke always is though, something seems to go wrong...

I've been wanting to hunt down Deathsmiles, Code of Princess and the Umihara Kawase trilogy on PC, and Green man gaming have the game set for 40 US (It's 50 US - 20% code)

Of course, it wouldn't be that easy, because you know...

Apparently they won't take the credit card.

Or more accurately they'll charge it just fine with an authorization. I don't get charged though, so go the heck figure.

I'm dealing with them now, and they asked me to try again after they removed the ghosts (At least THIS time around, they can get at said ghosts)

Should things go this wrong this many times?

Probably not, but the whole thing is what it is.

[Setsuna]

For the record, I'm now quite ticked off, because well, I'm PRETTY sure the system works for everyone else.

After killing 4 separate attempts, we decided to change the purchase mode - I tried using through paypal.

Of course, we hit the 500 error, and they now charged the money via paypal.

I'm very sure that Greenmangaming isn't some dodgy site (I had previously successfully run a purchase of another game there even!) and I'm back to customer service asking them to fix yet another problem.

I'm flat out convinced that I'm on some blacklist that says 'Life is not supposed to work properly' because I'm PRETTY sure that anyone else who rocks up and runs purchases anywhere don't get this sort of problem.

[Setsuna]

Okay, time for another installment of 'So how badly can the world work for one person, anyway?'

As you might have known, I currently am scheduled to work for the Australian Electoral Commission as part of the Australian Federal 2016 election, as a 2IC of a polling place on the day of the election - I report to the OIC, who's the guy who calls all the shots.

It's one day though, and I'd like to put in additional time, so I've applied for roles revolving around that.

Of course, we wouldn't be here if things went as planned.

I passed application stage (because you know, if they can trust me with supervising a booth, and I know a lot about how the election process goes, you'd probably want to keep me for related work) and they now require a online video interview.

Yes, it's what it sounds like - You get given questions, a window to read them, then a set time to answer them, and you only get one shot, while being filmed via your smartphone/mobile/laptop/whatever.

So I do it the first time, after full calibration as per their tests and the whole nine yards, and there were 9 questions, and I fire them through, because you know, it's nothing new.

I do a quick review of the video.

4 of the questions failed to carry audio, but the other 5 did.

So I call up and go 'Okay, what's going on?'

We find out there's a technical issue, and I'd have to reshoot the entire interview. This DOES give me a slight unfair advantage, because now I know exactly what they're going to ask me.

But we wouldn't be here unless something ABSURD happens...

So I get the email to redo the interview.

It first opens an application I don't recall making which is marked as incomplete. I punt it through because well, maybe they remade that. It's nothing insane, since it was a 'fast tracked' version of the position I'm applying for.

No link to the interview after that. Okay...

So I log out and back in, and a link comes up. Looks about right, so I follow it through.

Then I get this:

Number of Questions:
361

Time to Answer:
1,076 minutes (approx.)

For an idea, their system wants me to do a ~18 hour long interview.

Needless to say, I have to escalate this all the way up.

And people keep telling me that I have to be making this up, because one person can't POSSIBLY have this many things go seriously wrong in a row, right?