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random firings and other news
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1947
It began last week, the owner was upset over a bill the manager presented him for the new website. And so he calls me to take a look at the bill, $3000 for a basic HTML site with flash banner, content copied and pasted from the old site, maybe 12 hours work all told. And I try to diplomatically tiptoe around it, "different people bill differently" I explain, but there's no denying he's been fucked over good.
Real good.
And I tell the manager too, he's furious with her as well (it was her boyfriend who redid the site), and I let her know there were some serious inconsistencies with bill, and no matter how you slice it it was seriously over the top.
She's not happy. No one wants to hear that their boyfriend is a crook.
And the owner, he's gotten a few more second opinions that confirm a little more harshly my own opinion and he's going off, flying into tantrums and rages looking for things to break around the restaurant...
It's a long week.
In the middle of the week Sam's wife shows up at the restaurant to plead with the owner to give her husband his old job back.
Sam was the waiter I replaced when I returned. He'd been fired for abusing the waitresses, pushing them, hitting them, other stuff like that. He's from one of those countries where women don't work, I don't need to be more specific....
Since he was fired he's been selling cars. One a month, not enough to pay the bills, feed the children. She's at her wits end and pleading with the owner to do something for him, anything, if not give him his job back then get him into another job...
Nobody liked Sam. I never worked with him, can't say, but I know the country he's from, know the type and I'm not sure that I like him either.
So yesterday the restaurant is fully booked, a large party, they've pre-ordered all their food, it's basic service. And the owner takes a few more reservations over the weekend despite our being booked and finds room for them in corners of the restaurant that we didn't know we had...
At the last minute he decides we're understaffed. We're not, but he has the manager attempt to call in the one waitress with a night off. And, as luck would have it she's taken the weekend to go to Edmonton with a friend.
That's it. He flies off the handle again, screaming at the manager to tell her she's fired (and she's not even working), he's going to call Sam to come back and work, he's had it, and we're all treated to a list of the waitresses faults (namely that she takes off during days off and doesn't answer the phone - who would?) and he gets on the phone, calls Sam and tells him he starts the next day, 10:00, "And no bullshit with the ladies Sam..." he yells into the phone...
"It's only until Summer" I tell myself.
An Unexpected Gift
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2063
And, in the mail today, an unexpected gift.
No, not from an admirer (or a female one) - rather from an old friend who I'm too seldom in touch with. A brief note, and a CD - new, storebought (ironically) - "Reverend Billy and The Church of Stop Shopping". With an additional bonus DVD - 16 minute "Preacher Feature", and tracks such as "Remove Starbucks and Disney", which as I'm tired now and shortly off work I'll wait until tomorrow to enjoy. Or maybe until I have the boy, let him revel in the irony and pleasure. Delightful!
Wanderlust
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
- Hits: 1721
A website that provides an interactive map detailing famous historical voyages. Only a dozen or so to pick from for the moment, hopefully they'll expand the trips in the future. For the armchair-virtual traveler....
Link: http://awesome.good.is/features/011/Wanderlust/index.html
Sunday, April 17 - 2011
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1994
A miscellany of errands today - the boy having cancelled on our plans (he came up with "better", a shame as I was hoping to take him to see "Hobo With A Shotgun" at the Uptown...), so off - first stop the Hillhurst flea market (garage sales have begun, but I haven't found anything worth attending yet...), here a couple of books - Grey Owl and Henry Miller, a couple of thrift shops (pair of Timberland Loafers and an antique Sunburst bowl), then home for a nap, then the movie.
Not Hobo with a Shotgun, I'd like that to be an IFN pick, but I'm not sure if it's restricted or not. Instead I go to Rubber - the Movie, showing at the Plaza. First a bite to eat at Higher Ground, then the film.
Now I should have been tipped off by the abundance of tires and props adorning the outside of the theater that this was going to be a highlight of the Calgary Underground Film Festival, but I didn't think. Fortunately I was done early, and departing the Higher Ground discovered that there was a line extending around the block waiting to buy tickets. I dutifully got in line, the anticipation improves the film...
And it was - well, interesting. Gory (a staple of underground and cult films it would appear), but self-aware and he somewhat plays with, a nod and a wink, with cinematic conventions. Worth it, if your into that sort of stuff, I'd give it a worthwhile....
Now it's back to work.
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