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The Reprieve
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2028
Now it's supposed to be my day off, but it was busy last night and the waiter who was supposed to get Monday off had to work, and we're all on guard, it could happen to us, business has been strange...
...we thought it was Graduation, but only for a couple of the tables, the rest, well, the 7th Wave, the peculiar synchronized arrival of old and new customers, walk-ins, the restaurant filled, some loathsome political figures, some pleasant-enough regulars, an odd night, busy, busier by far than the weekend...
...and tonight, looking busy as well, my evening off is not assured. As if to make certain I'd show the owner tells me he's booked an appointment with me to meet a rep from Open Table, they've been harassing us for our business, he isn't sure. He knew it was my day off, pretends he didn't, I say nothing, I'm counting the days...My job is to get all the information and translate it for him. A couple of things, most of our customers (existing) are way outside of technologies age bracket, and most certainly the owner is. However "Simple" and easy it is to use it's probably not of any use here...
...the Nephew, he invites himself to sit in. Of anyone here, he should be the most technologically savvy, he spends days gaming on end at home, days on end at the restaurant on his cell-phone, and however we implement this he'll be in charge, I have plans, I'm comfortable with this, especially when he hijacks the conversation to ask questions...
I don't have a lot. Costs? $.35 cents per online reservation made through our website, $2.50 per person per online reservation made through their website. No hardware required, other information, unfortunately they can't tell us how many new customers this will bring us (the most important question in my books, otherwise we're paying them to do what we already do well enough ourselves...). I gather everything we need, tell them to get back to us in a couple of days. The nephew continues, talks, asks questions for about 10 more minutes.
When we're done, we're not so busy, I'm going home. I review the information with the owner, the nephew, he has some questions for me. It turns out he didn't listen to, didn't understand a single thing she said. He only understood the $200.00 set up fee (which, like any cable/internet company they said they'd waive, this is the BS "loss leader", the free incentive, like when your cable company says they'll install that cable/internet/satellite dish for free, a regular $1,000,000.00 value, it's all BS), didn't understand they'd waive it, didn't understand how he'd be getting the reservations, didn't understand anything, and he will be the one in charge...He think's it's a good idea. I'm happy and agree...
"We'll implement it in September" I tell him, and he's excited...
Me, I'm leaving, my regular scheduled day off now once again my own, yet I'm feeling somehow that it's a bit of a reprieve...
A new phone
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Other
- Hits: 1931
Time for a new phone and an MP3 player. I've resigned myself that the USB stick function of my car stereo will never work, am determined to find a battery powered MP3 player for the car, something cheap and disposable so next time the car gets broken into I'm not really losing anything of value...
But phone first. I've broken the screen on my old one, it's a couple of years old already and Virgin's been calling me every day to rewrite my contract, I know I'm due for a new free phone...
And I am. Lucky me, new Samsung Neo, oversized, 2 year contract same as the old contract. And it's a lot better, this new phone, amazing, in 2 years, the old phone, it's a bloody dinosaur comparatively, this one with 16 GB memory, external up to 128 GB, better camera (!!!), I buy it an Otter and screen protector, order a Micro SD card from Amazon, I'm liking it already and it's just out of the box...
As a bonus they throw in a tablet, with another SIM card, free, or an extra $10 per month over a 2 year contract, but now I have 2 phones, and 2 very large MP3 players, 3, if you count the old phone, all for less than I was planning on spending on a cheapo .mp3 player for the car ...
I'm feeling pretty good...
You Are Awake - Pedro Martin-Medrano
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 1905
{embed:vimeo:170638114}
A curiously surreal little short film.
Deafness
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2311
And now the pox is mostly gone and the scars are healing, the flesh is almost done shedding from my hands and my hearing is back in one ear and it's time now to fix the other...
It seemed like something that should just fix itself, earlier in the week, when I was entirely deaf, I could pinch my nose and blow or yawn and get hearing out of one ear or the other, but never both...peculiar, and after a too vigorous attempt to clean the left ear found that by default it became the deaf one...
Never mind, use a syringe to rinse the ear, lie in the tub, somehow or another it feels as if you could only just dive a bit deeper the pressure would sort everything out, ...
but it didn't, and this morning the pressure from the inside was growing uncomfortable, again with the syringe and some Hydrogen Peroxide this time. And it feels like I've woken something deep in my head, the percolating, the bubbles, the amplified noise and tickling, it's like a giant centipede in my head has woken up and is scrambling about in my brains, tickling, stinging, or a nest of ants, and the more you consider it the more awful the possibility becomes...
Empty ear out, repeat, a dozen times at least, two dozen, 3 dozen q-tips later and it's marginally better, time now for a few drops of Olive Oil, keep them in the ear with kleenex...
...and finally, 2 hours later at least, they're clear. I can hear. A bit more cleaning, to get out any gunk, a few more syringes of warm water over the tub, maybe another drop of oil or two and I'll be good as new...
I know I'll regret this when I go to work...
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