It was well past time to cull a bunch of drafts: half-finished posts that generally didn’t even meet the mediocre standards of this website. As I sat wide-eyed viewing the dreck, this chant passed through my brain as the words of each draft went by one by one:
“Boring, stupid, stupid, boring, boring and stupid, stupid, boring, sadistic, boring…”
At Publix (supermarket) this morning, I went to pick up a couple of foods. They had their usual two lanes open, except it was extra busy and the lines were quite long. I chose the line with the “10 items or less” sign, having only 3 items to purchase at the time. My confidence in getting to work less than half an hour late swelled as the people around me were also interested in purchasing maybe 1 or 6 or 4 items.
Then the line seemed to stall. Craning my neck, I finally saw the problem: a thirty-something goateed guy wearing a jacket had put down cans and cans of garbanzo beans, some cans of something else, along with a few miscellaneous items. There had to be 20 garbanzo bean cans alone, plus the other junk. The cashier glanced at the guy in rebuke, then started scanning items as fast as she could. As she reduced the number of cans on the counter to four, the rest of us started to shift position and grab items in anticipation of crawling the next few steps forward.
But then he started pulling more cans from out of his jacket. Was he kidding? Was he too lazy to go get a cart or basket? We all breathed a sigh of relief that he didn’t pay with a check. At least he had the dignity to look a little sheepish.
Learn this: If you have ten cans of something, it counts as ten items. It does not matter that they’re all the same brand, size, and/or flavor.
Maybe a year ago, a restaurant called Casino Subs opened up. They sold subs (obviously), but also Kerrybanes (Philly cheesesteaks) complete with Amoroso bread! I went a handful of times before they closed down.
A month or two ago, they re-opened, except compressed into half the space–I can only suppose they were hemorraging money by trying to pay rent on too much square footage.
Yesterday, I went in after the lunch rush, and was the only one in the store. There was a woman at the cash register. As I approached, she left the cash register to go to the back, and joined some co-workers who were having some sort of argument about a failed order or something. They must have taken their cue from Asian @#*!$ Kitchen about having heating arguments in front of customers. Except without the cussing.
Is it a coincidence Asian @#*!$ Kitchen and Casino Subs are next to each other?
They had to have known I was there, as I could see them easily. But I guess having an argument was more important than a serving a customer.
Eventually, I ordered the “Johnny Chan” cheesesteak (includes teriyaki sauce), and took a seat to wait. Upon realizating I needed a drink, I got a bottled water and went back to the register. The guy did not look up to greet me, and was eventually prompted by the manager to take care of me.
Having to initiate the conversation with the employee is my pet peeve of bad customer service. I always tried to make sure the customers were at least greeted even if we were really busy (working at Pearle Vision).
One time at Circuit City, I had gone to the “Firedog” counter to ask a question where there were FIVE FRIGGIN EMPLOYEES standing behind the counter, and not one of them recognized me. 2 were busy; 3 were fake busy, and it was one of the busy ones that finally acknowledged me a minute later. I purposely did not try to get their attention to see how long it would take.
If Casino Subs didn’t have such good cheesesteaks, I wouldn’t be inclined go again.
Ever since changing to Wordpress in May, my perspective on the blogging world has evolved quite a bit. The WP community and resources are rich, and I’ve been visiting various blogs just to see what’s out there.
The thing about blogs is that mostly, I’m visiting once or twice. It could be that the subject matter just doesn’t interest me. It could be bad writing.* Maybe it’s targeted to a narrow audience. Perhaps it almost never gets updated. Possibly, it could have been good if everyone weren’t already saying the same thing. Or maybe there are just too many grilled cheese posts.**
These guys are different. I actually visit once or twice a week to see what they’re up to.
Reassembler: Has perhaps the greatest image header of all time. Your source on subjects as diverse as Miss Sakamoto, bathrooms unspeakable, and how to drive in Massachusetts. And of course, reassembly. He’s a USCF-rated expert, and would whoop up on me pretty good on the chessboard.
Hardcore Pawnography: If you have some interest in chess and can tolerate the occasional cuss word, this is for you. It’s a lot about his quest to improve his chess, and is much more interesting than I made it sound.
Out of the Ether: Mostly chess stuff; I’m waiting for the next unusual chess set he/she comes across. Not so frequentedly updated.
An Iranian student organization has developed a game called “Rescue the Nuke Scientist”, where Iranian special ops rescue nuclear scientists from the U.S. and Israel. This is in response to KumaWar’s “Assault on Iran”, in which the player infiltrates an Iranian nuclear facility. Next thing you know, we’ll start deciding wars by computer simulations instead of actual fighting.
Parents addicted to an online game were arrested for neglecting their kids. According to the prosecutor, “They had food; they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games.” That’s pretty sad.
Speaking of online games, a couple friends and I had a most gratifying World of Warcraft session (and it’s been a while). Our job was to escort a computer character without her dying; we had an average level of 36. There was this level 42 enemy Hunter who decided to kill the escort just to be annoying–but we all ganged up on him and he panicked, realizing as he fell to his death that 6 levels of difference wasn’t enough to deal with three against one.
Side note: when a female says “watch my rear”, most males will be all too glad to oblige…
I am proud to say that I haven’t made any children starve due to World of Warcraft.
Sometimes the day after a cholesterol test, I’ll go to a Wild Bean Café in a BP station and get an egg and bacon on an “everything” bagel. They even have a touch-screen computer to enter your order, which is a good thing if the person at the counter can’t speak much English.
Today’s sandwich-purchasing path was rather convoluted. First, a middle-aged guy yelled “Young man!” at me just before entering the automatic glass doors. He said he was homeless and hungry, and was interested in a meal more than money. He promised that both of us would be blessed if I would help him.* So I gave him a bit of cash, and to his credit, he went directly into the store to buy breakfast.
I went in and placed the order on the touch-screen machine, which printed out a receipt (”please pay the cashier and your sandwich will be ready when you return”). The cashier tried to ring up the order, but didn’t know how to do it. She asked me to wait while the more experienced other girl came back.
So I watched other people pay for their stuff for a minute, then started reading “Backseat Driver”. It’s an activity book for young kids that’s not cleverly disguised propaganda designed to trick them into thinking BP is pro-environment.
The experienced lady came back and was able to ring up my sandwich. I tried to pay by debit card. The first time, I typed the PIN incorrectly. The other 3 tries only got a “network error”–but, fortunately the credit card worked.
Despite the receipt’s assurances, the sandwich was not ready when I returned. It didn’t take too long…but still.
OK, that’s enough. Happy Friday the 13th.
The only bad thing about going to the doctor is the lack of magazine variety. 90% of them are “Golf” and “Boating Life”; my interest in either could be represented by an imaginary number (ah, for the days when 2 ± 3i meant something). There was a copy of “Business Traveler” that I already read last month’s visit, and “Highlights”.
There was no one else in the waiting room, so I broke out the “Highlights”.
It was actually mostly readable, except for the bad jokes. Goofus and Gallant–with a major makeover–were still there (raise your hand if you liked Goofus better). The Timbertoes, too.
After re-reading the bit on Russian cultural differences in “Business Traveler”, finally got to see the doc.
He’d just gotten back from vacation, and had this report: “All I did was sit on my ass.” I told him that was too bad, but he broke a big grin and told me how great that was! He and his wife visited Israel, and the most work he did was walk with his wife to go shopping.
So we went through the regular stuff:
Don’t know why I made this “grilled cheese post”, but no sense in wasting all this good typing. (A “grilled cheese post” is an entry that’s a boring story of the blogger’s personal life. The term probably comes from the idea that people will post, “I had a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch today!” and think for some reason others will want to read it.)
