Had this been real would I have survived?

So if this mock scenario of a zombie apocalypse was real I would have died. Three zombies did pass me by. The man that came in first place had actually registered as a zombie.

The hardest challenge for me during this race was trying not to die laughing at all the different costumes I saw. There was a man running in a banana costume, there was another guy dressed up like a mentally challenged kid, and another guy only wore a leopard spotted speedo and shoes. Two boys dressed in drag and held hands as they crossed the finish line, and there were a ton of brides and expensive wedding gowns worn by what looked like both human and zombie.  There were too many people that just didn’t take it seriously. I too, like the above mentioned participants can’t take it seriously and find people who do very amusing.

Do you think anyone who is seriously immersed in the Zombie trend is a dork?

How to Play the Game in a Zombie Race

All money and contributions to Night of the Running Dead go to The Huntsman Cancer Foundation. Are you a penny pincher or do you know someone who is? Do you like to run but hate having to pay the hefty registration fees to participate in a race? If you don’t have a guilty conscience you can “play the game” by not paying a thing to participate in the race.  I found out that the registration is quite easy. After you have paid your registration fee all you have to do is pick up your race packet before the race starts.

What is included in your race packet?

• A t-shirt
• Lots of advertisements
• A window sticker
• A small unofficial race number

The small unofficial race number that you pin on yourself at race time identifies you as a runner in the race even though the number does not make any sense. I was number 2012 and so were about 22 other people. This number is optional, some runners who dressed up as zombies or whatever did not get harassed or even questioned for not wearing the number.

After seeing how casual the registration was, how easy it was to sign in and how there was zero security checking to make sure the participating runners were actually registered, any cheapskate could easily just have figured out the meeting day time and place and just showed up, time themselves and run for free.

Do you love running races but don’t want to pay for them? Unless they change things this may be an option for you next year.

The concluding blog post explores the following quandary: if this had been real would I have survived?

Overall experience at Night of the Running Dead

I love running but have never signed up for an official race before. So, when I first heard about this I thought this would be the coolest thing ever, being hunted by zombies in a 5k race. Then I read their terms and conditions - waiver of liability and rules of the race, which summarized is: no props, no contact at all with other runners, don’t touch them, or taunt them, if you catch up to them you can pass them but that’s it. And then I said, “That’s totally lame.” After wrestling with indecision I decided to sign up anyway despite how lame this actually sounded.
 

My overall experience with night of the running dead was this: I signed up as a human not a zombie, so I just wore my regular running attire. All runners were corralled to the starting line where we had to watch an intro movie about zombies at 8:50 pm. They then shot fireworks off and I was confused and asked a runner next to me if that was the starting signal. They said no. At 9:00 pm they started the race by someone just saying go through a bull horn. According to the program they were supposed to start the zombie runners at 9:02 pm but that didn’t look like that happened. 

They 5k race in Sandy Utah went through a trailer park, (I noticed that many trailer park patrons were watching us) down the Frontage Road and around the Sandy South Towne  Mall.

According to this link to the overall results for the race: http://strideracing.com/2012/october/2012_zombie5k_overall.htm

I was the 29^th runner out 137 participants to cross the finish line. My time recorded was 24.49.6 a little under 25 minutes which calculates to be around 8 minutes a mile. Because I didn’t pay the extra money to get “chipped” and monitored I didn’t qualify for any awards and my spot on the list says Unknown male participant.

Since this was my first official race I set some personal goals:

1.       Never stop running

2.       Don’t be the last one to finish

3.       Try to make it under 40 minutes

Mission accomplished. Would you try to run this race if the rules were different and they said you could touch or taunt other runners?

Stay tuned: next blog post is titled How to Play the Game in a Zombie Race. Now that I know how they handle things I will share with you what you can get away with.

Call Center Woes

Have you ever worked at a call center before? Have you ever thought about working for a call center? Consider these 13 points of what call center life is like:

1. During your interview, every call center claims they're different from the average call center. They are not, this is a lie.
2. Every call center at the interview tells you that you will not be on the phones long, that this company is growing too fast and they will need staff elsewhere soon other than on the phones. This is a lie.
3. Every call center is always hiring (I wonder why).
4. Every call center gives you a very brief lunch break and they encourage it to be as short as possible because they need you on the phones.
5. Every call center has a phone queue that counts the minutes a caller is waiting for service. The call center team leads freaks out the higher up those minutes go.
6. Every call center has programed phones with different categories of putting yourself on hold whether it's for an emergency bathroom break, technical down time, or you just need to log in notes from a previous complicated call. Even though this "Hold" option available to you, don't ever use it. You need to always be available to answer calls no matter what.
7. Every call center has a hired staff of "over-seers" specifically hired on to electronically watch your computer and phone status to make sure you are never off of or away from your phone.
8. Every call center listens and records your calls incoming and outgoing to use--they say--to protect you and the company against law suits, but it's more to be used against you in future force and criticisms.
9. Change! If you don't like your job, wait two weeks. Every call center changes so much and so fast: policy, rules, job shift, even your salary, will all change at a moment's notice and not to your benefit.
10. Every call center wants was a phone agent to answer any question the caller may have even if its not job-related.
11. Every call center has usually has shifty and entrapping terms and conditions with account orders. Even though they are completely legally compliant they can still be misleading to the average customer. This is why they need over-the-phone agents to deal with the huge demand of angry customers. Think about most big businesses that require you to sign a contract with them. Most of the time the only way to inquire about your contract and account is over the phone (because this is easier than dealing with people face-to-face).
12. Most call centers have only one source of communication... over the phone. Sometimes you may have an email option.
13. Most call centers have escalations and tech support that is supposed to be there to assist you but they highly encourage you to not use them or transfer calls to them because you need to deal with the belligerent customer yourself.

If you have ever worked in a call center before, leave a comment and share your experience with me. Do you think my 13 descriptions are accurate?

I Love Halloween Part 3

This was the most expensive part of my budget this year for Halloween: finding a skeleton. After searching for skeletons at all the stores and online this was the most decent one I could find. I realized that I just needed to splurge a bit and get my own Budget Bucky Anatomical Skeleton (4th Quality) built for educational purposes. It's meant for anatomy classes but since it's 4th quality there are some flaws so he can't be used in school. They still charge a hefty price for a 4th quality skeleton.

 

 

 

After I purchased Bucky I was automatically signed up for a subscription to "The Anatomical Chart Company" magazine, just in case I wanted to buy charts and other plastic body parts.

My long term plan for Bucky is to decorate him to look like a rotting corpse in the coffin. Unfortunately, I am running out of time this year so Bucky may just be a simple skeleton resting on display for trick-or-treaters this year. I will continue to update you on this project. 

Do you also have big plans for projects but not enough time to complete them? 

I Love Halloween Part 2

After my coffin was constructed I had to paint it.

We had some leftover wood stain finish that was originally used for our garden box to help prevent termites and decay, so I used that to give it a more rustic look.

 

The odor turned out to be very strong and it still stinks up my basement

 

 

 

 

 

After I had finished staining the wood, I wanted to add rope handles to the coffin to give it more of a distressed look.

 

 

 

 

After my coffin was constructed, stained, and 'handled' there was only one thing left to do to complete this coffin.

 

 

 

I added lining to the inside of the box by stapling old cheap fabric I bought from Savers. This completes my coffin. Now the next question I have to work on is: What will go inside the coffin?

 

Originally I wanted to lie in it and jump out to scare trick-or-treaters. Unfortunately I am a little to big to fit in it. My wife fits perfectly inside of it but that just a coincidence and I digress.

 

My next option was to create my own rotting corpse to lie in it. Stay tuned for the next blog which will show you the step in completing my corpse. 



 

How are you going to celebrate Halloween this year?

I Love Halloween Part 1

I love Halloween! As a boy I would always save my lawn mowing money to buy Halloween decorations to spice up my home for the upcoming all Hallows Eve festivities.

My new hobby is to make my own Halloween decorations because, let’s face it, all retail stores and the seasonal Halloween stores are a money pit. This year I have decided to do a graveyard scene out in front of my condo with things I built from the local hardware store.

 

You can buy an animated corpse in a cheaply built coffin that, if you sneeze on it wrong you will tear it in half from a Halloween store, or you can build one yourself for half the price.

After studying other blogs and websites I decided to try to build my own wooden old west toe pincher style coffin with rope handles.

I bought 16 wooden pickets 6’ long and then I followed the following diagram kindly provided by scarefx.com.



I used this diagram generously provided by
http://www.scarefx.com

The following photos show me constructing the life-sized wooden coffin:



Screwing in the base boards

 



Adding the finishing touches in construction

 



Finished box ready to decorate

 Do you think Halloween decorations are too expensive too?