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Sense of Urgency
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1929
We've been trying out a few waiter and waitresses to fill a new vacancy on the team.
Now this restaurant, it needs experienced waiters. People who know what they're doing. But we've tried a few that were experienced and they didn't work out. So we try somebody new. He's Chilean, good looking, young, "experienced" as he tells us.
I go through the drill with him today. I explain the rules, treat him as if he's never done it before. He has, in New Zealand, which is to say he hasn't really.
I explain "Sense of Urgency" and "Walk with a sense of purpose". He nods as if he's understanding, but he's not really.
It's a shame, I rather like him, he's amiable enough.
I explain to him the rule of never leave the kitchen empty handed, and never walk into the kitchen empty handed.
He doesn't understand this. I explain further, he gives up and pretends to understand.
Some people don't get it. They're suited for jobs that pay them a flat rate by the hour. They're innately laid back, nothing stresses them out. They'd be great on construction sites or working for the Union.
Waiters, they're not concerned with their hourly rate of pay, they get paid nothing per hour. They're concerned with getting the job done as quickly as possible and going home. The hourly rate, it's a pittance, it doesn't matter. They're paid (in theory) by the customers for how well and how swiftly they do their job.
The Chilean, he doesn't get it. I explain it to him again, I like him, he's personable enough, bright, and I try to share the "Sense of Urgency" with him, his job depends on it, he still doesn't get it, moseying slowly through the dining room, missing obvious details and service points...
He'd probably work out really well at an Earl's.
Broken
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Uncategorized
- Hits: 1150
Broken beyond repair;
Sometimes some things get so lost,
You forget they were ever there.
Sometimes, some people, they wear out;
there's nothing left to say,
and just when you'd wished they'd disappear,
You find they've slipped away;
Sometimes some words get so obscured,
and what is said
isn't what is heard,
and all this writing only serves
to add to the confusion;
Sometimes the grandest gestures,
are doomed to crash and fail;
sometimes the finest actions
are played out to no avail.
Some times drag on forever;
measured lifetimes without end;
Sometimes some things get broken,
So broke they'll never mend;
Sometime when all your tears are wept,
and spilled into the sea;
Sometime when you have erased your life,
and swept up the debris
Sometime when you have fixed yourself
You'll turn around and see
That I was never broken;
that you abandoned me
(that you discarded me)
Day Off - January 24 - 2010
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1745
Last night, a late night at work, in bed by 2:00 AM.
This morning, up at 7:00. The cat's been scratching at her litter box for an hour, she won't quit, I need to empty it, and when it's done I resolve to stay up. Coffee. More coffee. Check email, enter a few online contests, another win, apparently, 3rd prize, need to call tomorrow and find out what it is....I don't recall having even entered their contest...Shovel sidewalk.
9:00 AM - Call friend for coffee.
Meet for coffee. He's into Deepak Shopra at the moment, it's all making sense, he mimes for me the attitude of perfect mental emptiness I need to manifest my dreams.
I give him a minute or two, ensuring I understand. He's got his eyes screwed shut, holding his hands in front of him, waiting....
I don't need lessons in mental emptiness at the moment. My mind, my head, is a vacuum.
After coffee a ride to the Hillhurst Flea Market, no great treasures today, the periscope, it's vanished, not sure if it's been sold or the dealer's simply forgotten to bring it with him, I don't ask, to ask is to reduce one's bargaining power...
I do find a made in Holland porcelain statue of the beloved virgin for a twoonie, I pick it up, sucker that I am for religious kitsch.
Then home, a sandwich and a nap.
Dreams, erratic, that my rosary collection has been vandalized, someone has stolen the crosses from them, broken jewellry, an old house in Moose Jaw, they, the thief/antique dealer, lives across the street, he agrees to pay for damages only he wants to take back an old round oak table he sold me, he'll pay me $1400, which is OK, wheeling it across the street, an Asian gangster is watching him...
The phone wakes me, tele-web-advice, provided, back to sleep...
...more bizarre dreams...
then up, exhausted, at 5:00, email, work, surf the net, writing, projects, laundry, pay bills online, the ever growing list of countless things to be done in a very limited time....
Now time for laundry, dishes, back to writing, watch the rest of the BBC special on Chaos...
Time passes.
BBC - The Secret Life of Chaos
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
- Hits: 1191
A rather excellent documentary by the BBC on the history and science behind chaos. Great music & visuals, and if you're not terribly well read quite informative. Especially intriguing are Turing's illustrations of his theories as they develop.
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