On Saturday the 14th at 4AM UTC/GMT we will be upgrading the operating system of our network load balancers to a newer version, one that will allow us to use both CPUs! Nifty, because multiprocessing is nice.

Since we have 2 load balancers, the plan is to upgrade 1 at a time, and there really should be very little impact to our website. Hopefully you won't notice a thing and I'll get to go back to the hotel and watch some wonderful late night infomercials.

We've got a lot of exciting projects coming up for 2010 and we're hoping that we'll be able to deliver them all to you, that you will find it useful/cool/lovely and then you will use the site even more. Behind-the-scenes work like this will give us the capacity to handle the anticipated traffic, so expect a few more maintenance windows especially in the beginning of next year as we've got some neat ideas to improve performance around here! We had the recent 30-45 minute outage yesterday due to one of our logging databases filling up disk space -- not so great design coupled with my human error in handling the initial problem -- and it looks like we're going to finally have some resources to eliminate stuff like that. I can't wait!

As usual, I will be updating status.livejournal.org before and after, just in case you are not able to reach our main website during the work.

Did anyone else get thier pay direct deposited a day early?

When I was at Barnes & Noble I worked with a lady named Pat.  She was somewhere in her late fifties, and she was very cool.  We had many conversations in the break room and became quite close.  She was not your average fifty-some year old lady.  Well, she went to Pahrump, Nevada with her husband the one year for vacation.  Pat liked to gamble, and did rather well with blackjack.  When she returned she secretively told me about visiting and touring one of the legalized brothels.  The way she described it, you would go in and describe what you were looking for in a woman....tall, short, black, white, blonde, brunette, etc.  Then the girl would take you to a room and present you with a menu of the services available.
Out of curiosity I asked her, "How much would, say, a blowjob go for?"
Pat replied, "Anywhere from 8-15 hundred."
I recall thinking $1,500 was about $1,490 too much, but I live in Central Pennsylvania, not Nevada.
Some years later I was working as an associate in the produce department at my old Walmart.  The one morning I was working with Denise, the supervisor...Michelle, a fellow associate in her late twenties, early thirties...and Alice, a lady in her late sixties, maybe early seventies.  Alice was a bright woman, but was prone to blonde moments.
Anyway, I don't know how we got onto the subject, but I started telling them about Pat's trip to Pahrump.  As I got towards the end of the story I realized I probably shouldn't say "blowjob" around Alice...she was cool and all, but I just would have felt funny saying it.  So I get to the end and I say, "So I asked Pat, 'How much would a.......hummer be?'  And she told me anywhere from 8-15 hundred..."
Alice chimes in with, "I've always wanted one but they're just so darned expensive.....and get terrible mileage."
I just looked at Denice and Michelle.
Michelle leaned over and whispered in Alice's ear.
Alice's eyes go wide and she said, "Ohhhhhhhhh........"

sixwordstories
Whether you're in the mood for a creative challenge or you're short on time or attention span, this semi-addictive community is perfect for those who find flash fiction way long. Once you get the hang of it, you won't be able to stop. The prince turned into a frog. The girl ran home to mother. Tough to write. Easy to read. It's a double threesome of fun.

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Hi, I have been an overnight associate at my store for the past few years.  Up until about a month ago, our system worked like this:::  There were three overnight assistant managers.   Two permenant for years and years before I was ever working there, and the other position took annual turns for one year.  ....One assoicate from daylight would work overnight for one year, when that year was up, the associate went back to daylight, and another one came overnight for a year.   Also, the permenant managers did our schedules,  we worked 6 nights on, 2 nights off, except for the occasional vacation or what not without enough coverage.  It worked for us, we weren't exhasuted, we were able to get what we needed to get done in our personal lives and still have time for fun, and we got weekends off ever 6 weeks to enjoy.  It's been this way for years before I came over night (I was daylight before I was overnight).

Now, I'm guessing because the rotating overnight manager was fired wayy back in July, for some reason they made our permanent managers go daylight, and made both of the co-managers and 3 assistant managers from daylight and stuck them overnight.  Now are schedules suck, which we new that was going to happen anyways, even though I know we weren't the only store that remotely runs that way.  One of the CSM's is obssessed with WalMart, literally, when she goes for trips she just has to go into all of the walmarts for some odd reason that not many people understand.  Well, she did ask the associates at another store if they operated somewhat like ours did, and they did.  They got two days off in a row for overnight.

So then most of the people I work with finally get over that part, we look at our schedules for the week of black friday and ever full-time associate has to work 13 hour shifts....is that even illegel?!?!?  And the worst part about that was, I've been ful time for the past three years, got 40 hours 99% of them, even got 40 hours sometimes when I was part time, but this week they wanted me to come in to babysit a line for 13 hours, but then cut my hours for the week?!?!!?  I really think I've about had it.

What I really wanted to know, after some ranting and venting, is if your an overnight associate, how does your store work overnight?


P.S.  I also heard from another employee a few days ago that most places get a $1.00 difference from being daylight.  She explained that because we live in a "depressed area", the city we live in, they are allowed to only pay us a $.50 difference?!?!?! 

P.S.S.I also understand about the whole daylight not getting two days off in a row.  I was daylight before, and even though I didn't get two days off in a row, I still was able to go home go to sleep, wake up the next morning, enjoy my day, get another full nights worth of sleep, and wake up refreshed to go to work.  Now, I come home, if I have an appointment or things to do I have to stay up, when I get home I crash, when I wake up I can't be loud or do whta I need to do because my husband is sleeping so we can go to work in the morning.  I can't go to appointments at night, obviously.  By the time my husband wakes up, I'm exhausted for doing not much, take a quick nap, get up shove what I need to do in a few hours, and if I'm lucky I get a quick nap before having to go to work again. 
When I had two days off in a row, It went sort of what having one day off on daylight.  Being at Walmart EVERY single day off the year will drive my nuts.  I would go back on daylight if I could, but I can't because I can't afford to loose the full-time, sadly enough.

I've been employed at my local WM since March of this year,will it be silly to assume I would be getting a Christmas bonus? I read somewhere that there was a 6-month "probation" period before i was eligible,but I'm still not entirely sure.Does it vary a lot from store to store? By the way,I've averaged 30-33 hours any given week.

The empire strikes back

In recent weeks, we've taken huge steps towards blocking spam accounts on LiveJournal. In fact, we've suspended as many as 30,000 accounts in a single day! We've implemented several pre-emptive measures to prevent the creation of spam accounts, and we've honed our detection of suspicious content. Spam bots are a crafty lot, so we'll continue to refine our tactics and keep up the good fight to keep you safe from spam attacks on LiveJournal.

RSS feeds again

If you're addicted to xkcd_rss, icanhaschzbrgr, or other syndicated feeds, we're pleased to report that we've resolved the update error that was mucking up your RSS feeds. While content was being pulled correctly, it wasn't being posted to the feeds themselves. Late last week, we finally nailed down what we hope was the root problem, so content should post properly. We thank you for your patience.

Wii have killer CSI Deadly Intent contests!

c_s_i

If you're a gamer who loves CSI, have Wii got news for you! c_s_i is sponsoring killer contests. Simply post a question to a member of the CSI crew. The winner will get a free copy of CSI: Deadly Intent for Nintendo Wii (with a retail value of $39.99) and get their question answered by a member of the CSI writing team! There's also a fantastic monthly contest. To enter, join c_s_i, play the online version of CSI: Deadly Intent, and respond to a two-part query for a chance to win a Wii! Entries will be judged on composition and originality. Sorry, but you must be a U.S. resident and over 18 years old to participate. Check out the rules here.

Enveloped in postcards

Last week, we asked you to send in postcards to help us decorate our drab concrete walls. Here's a photo of the results so far! Thank you so much and please keep them coming! You can mail them to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be giving ten random users paid account credits.

Photos of the week

If you haven't visited our new LiveJournal photo community, you're in for an amazing visual trip. LiveJournal users from around the world will take you on a scenic journey to everywhere. Post your own pictures or kick back and enjoy at lj_photophile. You can view some of this week's awesome photos after the jump. Please start tagging with geographic location, since we'd like to track all the places around the world represented in this community. Keep on commenting too!
( Read more... )

Does anyone else have to audit the salesfloor people because their name is on the audit list? It is a waste of their time and mine, as far as auditing because they know about it. Just wondering.

Also is this audit list a compliance issue or something? My guess is that it is apart of the accounting scorecard. I can see auditing cashiers and stuff but some zms, ms, are on it and they refuse to come up because they have a bunch of projects to do. Is it that big of a deal if we decide to ignore the audit list?

has anyone else gotten one of these new boards/ it has a stack of post it notes and you are supposed to write a question for management on it and they are supposed to answer it in 24 hours on the other side. Ours has been up 2 days, and i think they will end up taking it down. people are asking great questions, but ones Management wont want to truthfully answer. They are answering by policy, but not by what actually happens in the store. Will see what happens. Some of the questions are pretty good.

My store is now promoting that stupid survey that prints out at the top of receipts. We are given highlighters for each register and we have to highlight the website & the number for the customer to type in online (or tell the operator- ?). Then we have to let the customer know about how they can go online or call the number on the receipt. That the customer "could" [not ever] win $1,000.

This "survey" has been on the receipts forever (by that I mean for the 3 yrs I've been at WM) and I have never been told to ask about it or do anything with it until today. I hated when we had CMN and now we have to do this? Ugh. I also hate the fact that soon we're going to have to promote the WM credit cards. I hate doing this and feel like we're harassing our customers. I feel that if I go into one store this winter and am asked about anything I'll scream at the poor associate.

Hi I was just wondering about the Deli department, I have been offered the Deli Lead job and was told that the hours for that position was 5:30 till 2 working Sundays, Mondays, & Wednesday-Friday. But I have heard from other people that it was a Monday-Friday 7-4 job. so my question is, is my store trying to stick it to whoever takes this job or is it that way at other stores? The pay raise would be nice, but I don't know if I want to give up my Sundays.

Can I rant for a min?

Is anyone else on D-day right now?? I just got ANOTHER coaching today and now I'm on D-day. According to my manager, and totally unknown to me until now, you can only call in sick 4 times in a 90 day period...apparently I called in sick 6 times. I'm more prone a cold or flu than a normal person I guess? I'm just pissed that Walmart gets to tell me how often I can be sick. Is it true that you can get a doctor's note for a chronic sickness so you won't get into trouble?

Oh and management! Management has been terrible for months now! I can barely take it anymore. I never get any decency from my managers, I know that not all managers are like this, but this is just unbareable. They're trying to force full time toys and electronics employees into cashiers and god forbid I ask for a saturday night off once a month, you'd think the world had just exploded. I work in connections with two other women...one of them has sat off and the other works in the morning. But am I allowed to work in the am so I can have one night a week off? No apparently not because I've been asking for it for over a month now. My dept manager is too much of a puss to just talk to me and the other women to come to a compromise. Plus I requested off oct 31 and nov 1 on sept 19 and my manager waited until that week to talk to me about how i'm being scheduled for Halloween. He never told me that I couldn't work so when nothing popped up on my time clock to say that my r/o had been denied I assumed I was in the clear...apparently not. I'm ready to pull my hair out, I'm just trying to survive the next two months until I transfer....

anyone else in the same boat? D:

The walmart I'm at has had the whole ZMS thing in place for about a month now. Since it started I have felt more and more like there are too many things to do and not enough time to do them in.

For the past 2 weeks I have been trying to finish some late mods that an assistant manager asked me to do but I haven't been able to because I was also asked to do test scanning and price changes on the same days that I was doing mods.

While I was doing all that other stuff, I wasn't able to zone much in either HBA or cosmetics and the guy that works in HBA with me has been pulled all over the store to do other things...pushing carts, checking out at registers, returns from the service desk, and zoning food, pets, or chemicals.

I'm glad no one has yelled at me for the mess but it does make me feel unorganized to see it like that...how are we supposed to keep the store looking nice if no one has the time to do it?

aiyatheydidnt
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wendylady2
Designed to rescue fashion victims everywhere, this Brit-based community reads like a rag-ezine. Published once or twice weekly, you'll view bizarre highlights of the global fashion scene through captivating photos and delightfully snarky editorial. Sit tight for a virtual fashion tour from the runways of New York to Milan to Paris and back home again to London in homage to the adage: you can't buy good taste.

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This last week some changes were made to our Electronics Hub book. I'm not sure if we even had one before but now...

We have our breaks and lunch breaks scheduled for us. I guess the front end does it this way too, but it's not always that easy in electronics/connection center.

Today, between D5 and D87 we had 3 people for the majority of the day, 4 people total. Two of us were scheduled according to the book to take our lunch's at 3 and the third associate had to cut hours so was planning on leaving at 15-20 till. If we had both gone when the book said we would not have had ANYONE in the department for 20 mins. I decided to take my lunch an hour late. The problem is, it sounds like we could start getting into trouble for not taking these breaks at the predetermined time.

Is this happening anywhere else or is it just my store?

EDIT: If you're reading this, our maintenance is OVER! The problem was not found on our equipment, which means we'll have to work with our ISP to fix this small problem -- which also means another maintenance window in the future -- but at least we have eliminated our side.

Thank you everyone, and a special shout out to rekoil for giving me a great suggestion AND also the opportunity to feel like I've just called in to a local radio station.

Have a great day, night or afternoon wherever you may be.

---

Hi everyone, sorry for the late notice but I'm going to have to do some testing on 1 of our 4 internet circuits TONIGHT; Friday night or Saturday morning depending on which time zone you're in.

Most of us shouldn't notice any impact, though there may be some slowness or lag when I switch traffic on to our other ISP circuits and then another hit when I stop the tests. If a page won't load or times out, try hitting refresh 1 or 2 times and it should load then. If it doesn't work at all... trust me, I'll be typing really really really fast to try to undo whatever I just did. Hopefully you'll have some Halloween candy (if you're in the USA and celebrate that kind of thing) nearby to take away the bitterness of a small site outage. :(

Here's the handy-dandy Website That I Always Use to get a feel for when the maintenance will start in your area. Our site traffic historically dips on Friday afternoons until Saturday morning which is why we tend to pick this time for maintenance work.

( tech details )

status.livejournal.org will, of course be updated before and after the maintenance window. Or else marta will get mad at me. :D

bt

Just wondering what the policy is at your store as far as facial piercings. I am getting a small stud in my nose tonight. We have a few people that have their nose or lip done, some have their tongue, one is an assistant. As far as i understand i will have to wear a clear spacer for work. I work in GM Receiving, so i really dont deal with customers.