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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
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So we start at 2:00 PM on Saturday, there's going to be a camera crew and such filming at the restaurant. The restaurant's had a lot of good press lately, and they're taking it a bit further by having some online videos and such of the staff and food. There's a local news celebrity and sports hero officiating, this I know only because staff is quick to explain to me, not having a TV makes me a bit out of touch.
For dinner we've arranged a long table in the main dining room and the owner has outdone himself with dinner for staff and a few bottles of wine. This doesn't bode well, good spirits in the end will sour...
And G has taken issue with the owner's decision to have a girl doing the serving in the video, he feels that after 10 years it's his right, his due, and he has a fight with the manager, harsh words are exchanged, it wasn't her decision, and G in retaliation tears upon all of the waitresses and other staff.
It's ridiculous, and to add to it G has broken down and is crying. I'm not so good with crying women, let alone men, and there's still 2 hours to go before the shift starts. It's going to be a long night.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
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And finally it's here. A month of -20, -30 below, strangely out of season, it's light now until almost 8:00 PM but still the temperature's cold and now, finally, the temperature's shifted, +5, +10, a more seasonal spring. Snow disappears from the roads, the sidewalks, only strange and dirty heaps of ice at the side of driveways remind you of how long this winter has been. Finally spring. The heart leaps at the prospect. Soon it will be garage sale season...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
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It's a busy day. And at lunch a couple of the servers cut early, leaving the Bosses Nephew and I to finish up.
It's busy, but we can handle it. The owner, he looks for the missing staff, can't find them. I tell them they're gone. And there's a couple of minutes, a couple of minutes only, where we fall behind, the Nephew, he's not so strong, doesn't speak English well enough to answer the phone, he isn't really a big help.
In the evening the boss goes on a tirade. There's the "You fucking lazy bastards" and all sorts of permutations, he's having his monthly rant. Mostly I just ignore it, but it casts a pall over the shift and the staff. He goes on for about half an hour, then "You are all fucking-a taking advantage of my kindness ....".
Customers come in and it's a bit of a relief, he compensates for his earlier tantrum by being extra nice to the customers.
I go for a cigarette. There's a customer pulled up in the back parking lot, he's having some trouble, I walk over to assist him. "Are you wheelchair accessible?" he asks, and as I begin to explain that we'll need to assist him over a short step "No shortage of help" I assure him, he begins to swear, we've misrepresented (in his opinion) our handicapped and wheelchair-accessible options....I walk away. Even I have my limits. He calls me back, apologetic he's assuring me that he still intends to come in for dinner (and I'm not so thrilled, the wheelchair appearing to be the least of his handicaps...).
The customer gets inside (without my help) and the Owner calls me over - "Was he just rude to you guys?" he asks, and I begin to explain and the owner interrupts - "because we don't need any fucking rude-a people around here, we can just-a kick him out..."
Without the slightest trace of irony.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
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On Saturday half the restaurant is booked for a wedding.
The owner, he's optimistic that they'll be done early, "7:30" he tells us. I don't know, but I'm skeptical, most weddings I've seen go a lot later than that.
They've planned to arrive early and so the staff shows up early to set up the party. Then we eat, and the party begins to arrive in drips and drabs.
G, the Nephew and I are serving the dining room open to the general public, we've let the girls handle the wedding.
At 7:30 they still haven't been served their main courses. And by 12:00 midnight they're still there, drinking at the bar with the drunken staff members. There's the bridesmaid (being set up by the Owner with G, she's newly single - 25, and the owner confides "She wanted me...., but I'm married", and one is a little too discreet to observe that she's had enough to drink that she'd take pretty much anyone), from the tone of her remarks one gathers that she's looking hard for some revenge sex. G isn't fussed, he'll take what he can get....
And there's the bride's mother, also single and drunk and fondling G's ass, telling him how single she is and asking when he'll drive her home. G tries to look disinterested, he's not really but there's the feelings of the bridesmaid (a better deal all round) to consider...
12:30 and I'm done, it's been an extra-long day and G and the manager can close, the wedding guests, bridesmaids and mothers are still there waiting for G, for anyone really to get off work and give them a ride home. And while I should stay and help lock up, given the general level of sobriety this isn't a party that will end happy or anytime soon and so I bid them all goodnight and leave.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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Having had this argument with a right winged customer, who states that usage-based internet billing is a good thing - after all, why should he subsidize his neighbors downloading of porn/playing games, etc.?
Which makes sense. Except that it's not a subsidy. If, for example, your ISP sets a bandwidth cap of, say, 350 GigaBytes, above which you'll pay a penalty or fine or simply an additional charge - what of all those people who barely use the internet - say, visiting websites and downloading 350 MB per month - will they be then billed 4.5 Cents per month as opposed to the $45.00 everyone else pays?
Or say they block all images from their browser - text-only based internet - why, it wouldn't be unreasonable to then lower your bill to 2 or 3 cents a year - will the ISP's be doing that?
Shaw? Not bloody likely.
And consider the rise of technology over the past 10 years - 10 years ago 350 MegaBytes would have been "heavy Internet Usage". Now it's 350 GigaBytes. In 10 years what will it be? 350 Terabytes? And what will the bills look like, locked in with a 350 GigaByte limit....
The Cable Companies are kicking themselves over lost revenue.
Part of it is simply greed - get as much as you can and hope people stew in their ignorance and just pay. And some of it is to try and recoup the losses they're taking by such providers as Netflix, who offer a flat monthly fee to watch as many of their films as you want - a great business model, but one that puts the cable monopoly of $5.00 Pay Per View movies to shame. That is, if you consider $10 million dollar salaries "Losses", which, next to American Banks, only the cable companies would have the audacity to argue.