FIFA 20? More like FIFA 2/10

Yesterday I mostly played FIFA 20, the game wasn’t enjoyable, it felt different to the last one I played, FIFA 15, this isn’t a unique opinion, it seems others online and my cousin feel the same way. The good news is that CEX will buy it from me for 5p more than I bought it, £35. Despite my lack of enjoyment, I still picked up 60% of the trophies, it would be a little higher if I had a second controller. My main issues with the game are the lack of joy to be found in single player options and the difficulty.

The day wasn’t completely unproductive, I took a telephone interview for a pretty high end role and was invited to a face to face interview the following day, they seem desperate. At this point, I wasn’t asked if I had a criminal record. To celebrate, I went out to ASDA to pickup a couple of bottles of Coke Zero to wash down the leftover rice.

During the day, I also played some Magic the Gathering Arena.

Today was different, I woke up at 11am and prepared for my interview, I ironed a suit and completed an application that was emailed over to me. This one did ask about my unspent convictions, I lied. It took a while to reach the site of the interview, it was a really swanky joint, I took a picture and I’ll post it if I fail to land the gig. I was 30 minutes early so just researched the role a bit on my phone.

Both of the guys interviewing me were male, a fair bit older, they were warm and friendly. I answered the questions well enough and I think they liked me. I was told to expect a response within around 24 hours. When I got home, I decided to be honest, since I really want this job, so I replied to the HR person, said there was a mistake on my previous application form. The new one stated that I had a conviction under the Communications Act 2010 for an offensive comment made on an internet message board. It’s roughly true, at this point, I don’t even remember what exactly the “crime” was.

I spent the rest of the day watching YouTube videos and playing a bit of “The Last of Us”, it’s free with PlayStation Plus and I’ve been itching to have a run on hard mode on New Game Plus mode for a while now. This might not seem like much but it was near 6pm by the time I got back home. I dropped another £20 on MTG cards, it’s enough to build a second standard format deck. I’m avoiding buying any big money cards that will lose their value once they rotate out of the format.

American Express have offered to increase my credit limit to £8,900.

This isn’t living

Same drill as yesterday, I woke up and within an hour went through the morning rituals and headed to work. I’ve recently started sitting far away from the rest of the team, in a little corner.

I wasn’t on the phones again and the day shuffled along painfully slowly.

At home, I ate a couple plates of rice and watched the “Saturday Night Live”.

Tomorrow is a day off from work, I’ll use it to do something.

Riding it out

I got up an hour or so before I had to go to work, I just did what I had to, eat, shower, brush my teeth and some personal grooming. I unenthusiastic-ally headed to work. I wasn’t on the phones, I was needed for a particular task but I still wonder if it’s to avoid me picking up more CEO complaints.

As usual though, I wasn’t grateful, I did bare minimum. It’s tougher to whittle away the hours of the day with 4chan blocked.

There was some soothing rain on my way home, when I got back I didn’t talk to anyone and ate two bowls of rice.

I’ve been playing a fair bit of Magic Arena recently and expect to get back into the Standard format. My Phoenix deck can be used again, though I’ve had to drop around £25 on some new cards for it.

Store Loyalty

I woke up after 1pm because I went to sleep near 4am last night. I started the day gingerly, unsure what to do. At around 2pm my copy of FIFA 20 arrived, I lost the tutorial game and it took too long to fully install so I didn’t get around to playing the main portion of it. It doesn’t strike me as fun as FIFA 15, it’s probably just because it hasn’t fully installed but I miss the songs playing on the menu screen. The menu screen also looks duller.

By 4pm I had decided to dye my hair. It wasn’t a complicated process but it was messy, I got a lot of colourant on all over the bathroom, the staining was minimal. As for my face, it was a pain constantly having to wipe of dye that fell on there. I stepped into the shower to rinse my hair and it look an immensely long time but once I was done, I was pleased with the results. Dye has stained a few spots on my hands though, I apparently need to use rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover to get rid of it.

When I was done, there wasn’t much time before Friday Night Magic so I had to get the train there, I arrived in time but the place was packed due to the pre-release event. I spent 20 minutes chatting to a random guy, one interesting topic was flags, he showed me one he made. At 7pm, I made my way over to the table with the other modern players, the 3 Chinese students from the other store were here and one guy I hadn’t seen before.

I watched them play a game, then I subbed in a played for 2 hours. The judge/organisers completely ignored us. Despite paying a £4 entry fee, we didn’t get matched up against each other officially and we were given no prizes/booster packs. The guys left, I did the same. I feel really ripped off and I’m not sure if I’ll be returning here.

At home I overate and played some MTG Arena/watched YouTube.

I suck at my job, apparently

The day started off on the right foot with me eating right, showering and chatting to my cousin for a bit. I felt in a good mood and after she left, I went into town to buy some moisturiser.

The day slowly ticked along, I thought a lot about playing some Magic the Gathering and then I eventually set off for work. It was a night shift and I was late. I did message my team leader to let them know but they didn’t seem to concerned, just wanted me to get there ASAP. There was also a message from a HR woman asking if I was going to be in. Concerning and confusing stuff, I had no idea what to make of it.

I got into work, only 10 minutes late and my team leader said he needed to do a “back to work” review with me, I replied with “for fuck sake”, he knew I wouldn’t take it well but also said that he had no idea what had gone on. I explained the events of yesterday, he didn’t give an opinion, just completed the form. What came next was unexpected, I’ve apparently had a lot of CEO complaints, I was aware of a few but I didn’t think it was that many. The guy said he thought I was a good operator, guess the implication is now he knows that I’m not? The head of the call centre has recently been made aware of this and now I’m going to be given further training and giving up my night shifts for a bit, failure to improve could result in me being moved to another team.

It was uncomfortable for both of us. It makes sense I’ve had a few more complaints recently since I stopped “giving a fuck” at the start of the month but I couldn’t admit to that. I couldn’t say that due to being messed around with my shift pattern, I’ve been doing a bad job on purpose or that I feel I’m paid to work weekends, I’m not paid to do a good job. It’s also thrown a monkey wrench into my plans since it seems like they want to fire me, I can’t even use the power play I had in mind where I ask to cut my hours.

It was over after 15 minutes. I gave a rushed version of the events to the woman I work with but she was in the office when that other team leader called me and so already had a distorted version of events in her head. We didn’t talk until the end of the shift, I thought her opinion of me changed in a negative way.

The following day, I was down, miserable, I watched some YouTube, overate and played the DLC content for “Batman: Arkham Knight”. There was a short trip outside to buy hair dye but I haven’t found the motivation to apply it.

Going forward, I need to go outside every day, even just wandering the city centre might be a good idea. In the long term though, I need to get some skills, I’m never going to be happy at work otherwise.

My mother and I had a negative interaction. On Wednesday she did the thing where she accused me of hating myself and then smiling/laughing while repeating it, I don’t know what she wants, is she proud of making that assessment? She did it in front of my cousin. Taking joy in putting her children down is something hardwired into her. The following day, she called me from the living room to ask me to bring her tablet down, I replied “do you hate yourself for not being able to do it yourself?”, she hung up.

My sister threw my jeans off the radiator to put her own clothes on there even though my jeans were still wet.

I didn’t interact or see another sister and the other one is away at university, I worry again that she’s as lonely and miserable as me.

New levels of disdain for this job

A couple of things from yesterday that I forgot to mention, my 6’2 friend pointed out that my grey hairs are very visible so I’m going to start dyeing my hair. I also received a call from work, one of the team leaders told me I’m no longer required for my night shift on Tuesday. They then asked me to do a day shift instead, I declined, said I had plans, they then said they’ll look into where they could put my hours and reminded me not to come in tomorrow.

Today I woke up at noon, I had some sleep to catch up on. There wasn’t much to do during the day, I went outside to ASDA to get some Coke Zero, just for the sake of going outside and doing something. It was raining, I caught a cold. I saw a lot of sixth form students on my way, they made my blood boil, especially all the IR friend groups and one IR couple. Knowing why I hate seeing this doesn’t make it any easier.

At home I watched John Oliver’s Lat Week Tonight, WWE Raw and YouTube. I also overate, I guess I eat out of boredom but in this case I also felt it would help my cold.

As it got later and I got more bored, I played some games of Magic the Gathering against myself.

Today the team leader contacted me again, just after 9pm, which is when my shift should have started. She asks where I am. I remind her of the conversation we had yesterday, she responds with “oh” and that she left it to management and the left the shift on my rota since they couldn’t find me hours anywhere else. I point out that no one called or contacted me about that and the last I heard about it was from her, yesterday. She shrugs it off and asks me to come in. I decline and say that I have plans (I should have just said it’s too short notice). She scoffed at the idea of me having plans at 9pm and said she’s going to put it down as an absence.

I’ve sent an email to HR and the head of customer care but I doubt anyone will care, I couldn’t care less at this point either, I might start regularly calling in sick, starting with next Friday so I can go to FNM.

I’m waiting for some spots on my ankle area to heal before I go to a wrestling class.

It wasn’t until 1am that I became productive again, I started applying to jobs. I’m done with Reed, everything there seems to require me to go through a recruiter.

Me and My 6’2 Friend do Blackburn

I went to sleep later than I should have last night, it was before 2pm but after 1pm. As a result of this, I got up later than I should have today, I rolled out of bed close to 10pm. I had to get ready and meet my friend in Blackburn, the plan was to get together by 12:30pm.

I showered, ate and began getting dressed but I wasn’t sure what to wear, I tried on some of the new jeans I bought a fortnight ago but hadn’t busted out of their packaging. Both pairs are fine but I went with the more casual one. Up top I was wearing a colourful t-shirt and grey sweater with red trim. I was running short on time so I KIK’d my friend to let him know that I’d be late, he told me that he was already on his was so I rushed out and tried to get to the train station, it was in vain though and I headed back. As I didn’t have my house key, my mother had to open the door for me, she didn’t seem too impressed with my lipglossed adorned mouth.

This was for the best though, it gave me more time to brush up and I busted out my new accessories (necklace and watch) but ironically I didn’t brush my hair.

While on the train, I kept in contact with my 6 foot, 2 inch tall friend, I learned he was actually running late too so everything worked out for the best though before learning this I did promise to buy food and the first round. I got to Blackburn first and took time to check out a map posted at the exit of the train station and then I sat down on a nearby bench where I waited for him.

It wasn’t too long before he sauntered through the doors and as is typical of him, lit a cigarette sitting in him mouth. He was so eager to smoke the thing that he seemed to have placed it in his mouth while still inside the station. Today he was wearing tan pants and an open button plaid shirt, though he’ll insist it was “tartan”. After out initial greetings, I broke the news that the local museum is closed on Mondays, he took it well. I’d only learned this while on the train.

Our first activity for the day was a bit of sightseeing, so we went passed a cathedral, the sit of which had been the location of a Church for roughly a millennium. We then went onto the Blackburn markets, we had a good look around at every stall. I debated whether to buy some jumpers and a backpack but decided against both.

We then went into the mall but before stepping inside, we observed that less than 50% of the population was Pakistani, this was shocking as a BBC documentary stated that it was. Inside the mall there were a variety of stores, we visited B&M Bargains, the Works and Primark. While in Primark I bought a couple of tops, my friend was happy to give me advice on colours to avoid. I was amused when he sternly told me to avoid a brown one as I did have some common sense.

The next activity was a lengthy walk through the park, the place was huge and moderately beautiful. It really took it’s toll on me physically though as I had to continually walk uphill and my 6’2 friend teased me about my physical fitness levels. There was a lot of greenery, a pond/lake, wildlife but we couldn’t find the “Russian Cannons” that were supposed to be at the top end of the park. At this time we discussed a possible race war and physics.

We then went back into town to eat, we went to KFC, I think we both consider it our favourite restaurant. We both got large Zinger burger meals, his was larger than mine, which is fitting due to his gender and height. While eating, the conversation got pretty real and he asked some tough questions, I felt uncomfortable and laughed a lot. I think I said some revealing stuff and learned more about myself. One in-particular instance was why I hate seeing Pakistanis with white friends, I said it was because when I was growing up, people were more segregated and I struggled to accept this change, I didn’t understand it. He have me some more general advice, it boiled down to “honesty is the best policy”.

On a lighter note, he thought it was amusing that I was a rather messy eater so he took a picture as a memento.

The next stop was a pub for a drink, I suggested one basked on Google results but he liked the look of another better. It was Rock music themed and looked a bit dingey. We stepped inside and casually ordered out drinks, there was a television playing a Metallica song. My tall pal said he’d never seen the music video for this song before and I asked which song it was. He said that it was something by Metallica, I had never heard of it and then pointed out I went to a Metallica show recently. The barkeep was amused.

It was time to pay but the joint only accepted cash, my friend didn’t bring any with him so I paid. The barkeep was amused again. We sat down in a corner and checked out the various memorabilia stapled to the walls. There was more real talk but not as hard hitting as before, I’ve decided to do a sport as it will help me grow as a human being, a combat sport was suggested and the one most suitable for me was decided to be wrestling. My friend thinks it unlikely I’ll follow through with this but I am very dedicated to picking this up as a hobby.

A man entered the dive as we were half-way done with our drinks and then sat next to me to chat. Topics included grandmothers, Salisbury, grooming gang members (while my 6’2 friend went to the bathroom, the man used the term “Muslim bastard” or something along those lines but I pitied the guy so made nothing of it) and a current ITV television show. I was surprised how well my friend could carry a conversation with him and how normal he came across, he did this before with the card game shop owner in Preston but he felt like a completely different person minus the time he took a sarcastic shot at me for my seeming hypocrisy when it came to the topic of grandmothers.

As we left, the guy asked if we were a couple. I’m sure my 6’2 friend was thrilled that someone thought he could get a woman like me.

It was raining as we walked back to the train station, cold too. We said our goodbyes and departed, I got on a train my ticket wasn’t valid for and it took an extra half an hour to get home. No one checked my ticket though.

At home, I spoke to no one. I was tired, I watched YouTube videos and watched the time pass by. I’m still tired, I might watch the NFL game.

I regret not talking any picture of the rest of the day.

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“Living”

My alarm wasn’t work so I woke up a little later than I would have liked. I then ate and went to work. I was off the phones, slacked but still managed to pull a respectable CPH stat. Working slow is just boring.

At home I ate without speaking to anyone and then washed my hair.

This was my day. Tomorrow I’ll be travelling to Blackburn to meet my 6’2 friend again, it should lift my spirits.

Was today even a day?

I got up, did the usual and went to work. I sat at a computer in the back corner since it seems to be only the back row that’s free of the firewall/anti-virus. I wasn’t on the phones since they needed someone to work certain type of contacts and I was the only one “trained” to do so.

I didn’t care, I wasn’t grateful, I did bare minimum again. A woman at work mentioned she played Pokemon GO, I wanted to ask if she had a Farfetch’d to trade but I wasn’t part of the conversation so I didn’t bother. I tried jumping into a couple of other conversations involving different people throughout the day but I was completely blanked both times.

The working day ended at 9pm and it was a while longer before I got home, so that was my day. I did buy a month long NOW TV Sky Sports pass and shared the login details with my brother and cousin, I got it for £8.50 and they seemed to appreciate it. I’m just interested in catching some NFL action.

I bought more MTG cards but I got a good price on them, they’re cards that will never be reprinted so they will hold their value or go up.

FNM Glory

I woke up with less than an hour to go before I had to set off for work. I used my time to call back a recruiter who had gotten in touch while I was sleeping. We’re going to meet on Tuesday for an interview, he won’t put me before any of his clients before this. There’s also some online forms I need to complete.

When I arrived at work, I sat at the back and found a computer where 4chan isn’t blocked. To my my right was the woman that hired me and promised me my current shift pattern wouldn’t be permentant, behind me was the woman in charge of quality and to my left was a new Pakistani woman who has irked me in the past but I like her more than most people here since she doesn’t get any preferential treatment. We chatted a bit and I let her know that I’d be leaving in 2 hours because someone screwed up my rota. I booked a half day off, so I should be in for 4 hours but when someone edited the rota, they made a mistake and shift was listed as ending at 2pm.

I was on the phones, as usual, I was in a foul mood so didn’t put too much effort into anything. After one call, I was finishing up a few things for the customer and then that newly minted supervisor (football guy) approached me and asked if I was “OK with that call” since I’d spent a fair amount of time in wrapup. He understood but I was deeply offended. I took one more call, missed a call from another recruiter, then asked for a bathroom break which I used to call them back. It’s a credit controller position, temporary, sounds like a great change to move up in the world and obtain valuable skills/experience.

When I got back, there were only a few minutes before the end of my shift so set myself to being unable to take anymore calls and then just waited for the clock to strike 2pm.

At home I picked up a missed delivery card and then proceeded to head to the delivery office to pickup two packages from yesterday. A third one from today wasn’t collectable just yet. I unpacked the MTG cards and my deck is about as complete as it’s going to get without the expensive “fetch lands”, I was disappointed with the quality of the “Goblin Guides” I received though, the edges look worn, though this isn’t viable when looking at the front of the card, only side on. I got a text later to say I could collect my other package, it was another playmat and deck box, a small one to go inside my larger one.

Not longer after, I set off for Friday Night Magic. I walked around the store once as the shutters were down, I had thought about just going home but fortunately I had the courage to walk around again and this time I found the shutters slightly ajar so I crawled through. I payed my entry fee, sat down where there was space, near the Chinese guys and chatted a little before the event begun. It was packed, 20 people here today, the highest turnout I’ve ever seen for FNM.

I won my first game 2-0, same Chinese guy I played last time, he was playing another off-meta fun combo deck. The second game was against a new face, I won 2-0 again, another off-meta combo deck. The third game against a guy lost to last week, I won 2-0 and I’m not sure what he was playing.

The last game was against a guy I’ve seen and spoken to before but never played. He had an off-meta combo deck, I lost 2-1 but we had a lot of laughs. He also repeatedly gendered me female, referred to me has “her” and “she”, I’m not sure how I felt about that since while I was wearing womens clothing I gave a male name, so technically not 100% presenting as female. I felt he was being polite. I spoke to my 6’2 friend about it on KIK, he was autismally honest and said that I look like a woman but need to work on my mannerisms and dress sense, I apparently look like a “lesbian student”.

I got a total of 5 packs for coming in second place including 1 special promo pack, my pulls from the promo back are below. I left the store fairly quickly since I didn’t want to open the rest of my packs there. I got home and gave two to each of my sisters to open.