Post 24: People Are Filthy

Working within the confines of a fast food facility while working with people has made me realize something I deem to be quite important: People suck, and I hate them. I'm sure to some of you out there you might agree with me, whilst others may be pondering, "Well, wouldn't that mean you hate yourself?" The answer is not quite. I understand that human nature is irritating, and their understanding of the world is rather primitive, but I believe there is still much room to learn from past mistakes. Regardless though, Humans of nearly any kind irritate me. But the ones that just tick me off the most are the stupid ones. Not really in the ranking of intelligence, but stupid in the sense of their lack of understanding certain things. It could be an angsty teenager, or an old cranky man, but what both may share is their lack to intake certain knowledge, thus making them seem ignorant.

The reason all this really angers me, or simply bothers me, is because I have to deal will several hundred customers per day. It has opened my eyes to things people wouldn't normally notice about other upon first glance. I guess to put it simply, people annoy me with their ignorance and in some cases, I wish they'd go extinct already. Of course I have to be careful for what I wish for, for I too am human and probably act like any other human would. I suppose I'll take the rather nontraditional method and dub this paragraph the introduction. Let me first share with you all things that I notice that particularly anger me.

The first thing I notice that can piss me off so fast, that I give up on humanity and life itself, is when customers argue with me. Now, I would understand if this argument was relevant to any reasonable situation, but sadly, its not. It never is. Chances are, they are complaining about the prices, and how expensive they are. Listen, I don't make the bloody prices, nor would complaining to me make them change or suddenly become lower. Or sometimes they complain about their order. They would say, "Oh, Hey! yeah... uhm.... I asked for a chicken soft taco with NO lettuce... uhm, well there's lettuce in here." What sucks is being where I work, there's a "Customer is always right" policy, meaning you have to agree with the customer regardless to how wrong or how stupid they are. Sometimes they argue about how long it's taking. "WELL sir/ma'am, I'm sorry the food's taking a while to make, let me go check in the back and see how much longer it might take. Sorry for the wait [insert fake yet awkward smile here]" Listen, the first thing you have to know about fast food, is that it's not fast. It isn't. Despite the ingredients in the food, quality of the meals, or even lack of good customer service, fast food is more slow than anything. People should be patient with it if ever even thinking of dinning out. I suppose my analyzation of this is that humans that tend to be too simpleminded tend to take the label of an eatery too literally and in the end, get nothing but enraged about how long the food is take to prepare.

Second pet peeve of mine that wont get you on my good side, is when people, mostly kids in high school (those kids tend to be either jocks, sports players, or scenesters), think they're being cool and smart and start asking me for free shit. Either that, or harassing me about something that I'm doing. Sometimes some kids ask for water cups in hopes that I wont notice that they're not REALLY getting water, but really soda. Seriously. I want to meet the fucker who thought of that ridiculous ruse and just make him feel like the stupidest piece of monkey shit he already is. Honestly, did he really just go, "Oh, well instead of paying for a small or medium cup which would barely cost me $2 cause I'm being a cheap frugal asshole. why not simply ASK for a FREE water CUP and DECEIVE the cashier into thinking I really want water, and just get soda instead" That just deserves a punch in the face; I'll be more than glad to deliver.

Seriously, Fast food is such bullshit.

Post 21: Time is irrelavent

Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for my delay. I've noticed it has been a while since I've posted anything at all, especially the events I said I would post (the ones of her arrival). But that time is long since gone and so now I might as well fill you in on what is occurring as of now.

Quite a bit has changed with me since I last remember writing here. For starters, got rehired at the place I hate the most. To be honest though, I don't really "hate" the place as much as I would dislike it. It's simply the nonprofessional attitude of the whole place tends to throw me off key thus making me feel apathetic about my current employment. I have also tried and failed at many attempts of obtaining another job, but during this "economic crisis" the probability of success is probably below 30%. So, while I'm still trying, I have also bought a new laptop capable of achieving many tasks required from me (although I am still awaiting my version of photoshop cs3, since cs2 doesn't work on Vista). The computer itself isn't that bad, It's actually rather decent. But it's already day 2 of me using it and I'm beginning to have problems already. Perhaps it's the usage of windows Vista that is the source of this problem. I was thinking about installing Ubuntu as an alternative operating system, but we'll have to see about that. Aside from buying a laptop and working somewhere where I deem pointless, comes a bigger factor in my life. This such unknown factor requires me to make a huge if not necessary move to change my life and how I live.... FOREVER! (dun dun dun).

I suppose I'll update on my "big plan" in later blogs but as for now, those are all the physical changes which took place during my absence from blogging. As for my mental aspects, it seems that I took a much more introspective approach on the world around me. I've been watching quite a lot of videos and reading a lot of excerpts from well renown, and even unheard of, philosophers from around the world. It seems that the subject of philosophy, metaphysics, and any other alternative thinking interests me a great deal, I just... don't know how to really approach it in the future. All I know upon that topic is I am still learning, and thus continue learning and never stop, for it's a never ending process with the "limit of infinity".

Well, I suppose that's all I have to say for now (since my thought process went A.D.D on me and all), but I will remember to blog sometime soon! besides, It's interesting to read these after a prolonged period of time and see what was going on in my life at this particular time (: kind of like building your own history through the perspective and writing of yourself! Quite an intriguing concept. After all, what else would be done of personal blogs if not documenting personal history?

(:

Post 19: Long Stretch

Reaching into the second week or my working cycle and awaiting my "final" paycheck of this month. Reason i quoted final, Is simply because I plan on leaving that dreaded place once and for all. Although, my reason for leaving would later result in possibly being re-hired again in the same establishment, I would much rather work to get the money to fly her over, than worry about later problems. So far I have a little over $400 in the bank, and my upcoming paycheck will/should be over $300. I've been working under 40 last week and this week isn't any more, so the total should be 40 something hours worked by the end of this week. Which is why rough estimate is around 300.

In other news, My portfolio launched today! but what sucks about that is that it's on of the ONLY pages on my web site that is fully complete with the exception of my splash page. Even worst, It's probably the most laggiest of the pages. What I mean by laggiest is very glitchy. For some reason it seems to completely drag the browser down in speed. Even though no flash nor AD content is visible, it still seems to be slower than a snail. But I suppose until i figure out a way to make it faster and better, This is what I'll have. I'm not too disappointed in the look though (: it's ALMOST exactly what I sketched it out to be! I should probably do that more often.

So, Starbucks is playing its old tricks once again; getting my hopes up about a job there, then crushing them by completely ignoring me and neglecting my existence. But I will continue persisting. I mean, come on, $9/hour doesn't sound bad, no? nor does $7.15 @ starting, right? Heck, I'm definitely down for that! So much better than getting paid minimum wage in Taco Bell. Yet if things don't go like I wold want them to, one of my final choices is Boston Market. It's awkwardly across from where I work now, but they pay much more than Taco Balls. Not to mention, I have a silent connection with the place as far as my history goes. And on top of that, who DOESN'T love the chicken from there?! It's like they marinate it with crack and a hint of ecstasy. Never the less the food is good, and business is good as well.

And to my addition of job options, I'm also considering taking up modeling again. All I need is two pictures of myself to send in. I guess it's not hard, just getting accepted is a bit annoying, mainly because I'm kind of on a limited time schedule. It makes very quick cash and to a very hefty amount too, but the only problem is getting in. I'll hope for as much as I can but It might take me a few tries (or so I think). It's either that or some online web-design gig that might come up spontaneously. Although such a thing has never happened, I can still hope!!...

Bottom line is that money matter a lot right now. In some sense, It always will matter. But right now, in particular, It matters a lot. It matters so much, it even has the power to bring me happiness (crazy, I know)! If anyone were to aid me attain some currency, I will be indebted to them. Not that I mind, but in my opinion, that's a major step into helping someone; not many people would even consider helping anyone by giving them money. So on that note, I suppose you can say that this is what they mean when they say, "desperate times, call for desperate measures."

Post 18: The Start of Something Bad.

So as of today, my life has turned a new shit point, and has now slid further down the stream of piled crap. Listen, all I want is for me to get my damn paycheck, then buy her the ticket so she can come here. Not that complicated. But no. Life, being a bigger asshole than me, threw a slimy shit ball right at me about 2 days ago, and what happened was the manager screwed up my paycheck.

"But Leo! how did he mess up your paycheck?? He's the manager; shouldn't he know what he's doing?"

Yes, audience, he SHOULD know what he's doing, and I strongly weigh emphasis on the word "Should". See, what he did was he pretty much did not include a good chunk of my hours worked. Thus in result, my check added up to be a total of $143.55. Now, that's not all. Not only did he miss a huge portion of my hours, but he also didn't pay the agreed upon rate for my position. It was indeed a huge mess, and the fact that I didn't even know the first thing about fixing it, worried me that I wouldn't be able to. Eventually, the assistant manager told me that they fixed my paycheck, and that it should amount in the next paycheck. Now although I did complain to him that the paycheck was short of hours, I did however fail to mention the fact that the agreed pay rate was also no included in the paycheck. At this point I don't know what further action to take upon having that fixed. Hopefully I can work something out while it's not too late.

Once I can straighten my check out, and all is good on that end of the issue, then I will immediately proceed to the near Starbucks coffee shop. From there, I will negotiate for an interview and see if I can score a position within the facility. If I triumph, then the result will go as follows: I give Taco Bell my oe week notice prior to resignation, inform Starbucks of my transfer within the following days, and if I'm lucky, I should start there as soon as I quit my job at Taco Bell. Now, if none of that occurs at all (if not by order), then I suppose the next taken step is to search for a job (using the same methods as for the Starbucks) until I find one with a higher paying wage than My current job. Of course, I wont quit until I have another job I can hop to.

And for the record, I am doing this job for the paycheck, but above that, I was also rather curious of what occurs within the confines of that fast food restaurant. In addition to my curiosity, I also learned quite a bit as to how most fast food facilities should behave and should manage. Although I was the one on the outside, sort of just watching everything occur, I got a pretty good idea as to what should and should not be done. Therefore, with the benefit of getting paid, I also learned quite a lot about a field/area in which I was positioned in.

Aside from all the work shenanigans, my family is also in quite a bit of turmoil. Heh, I can't even call it that anymore. Honestly, I don't know what it is. My dad, above all, is being stupid. I don't know when he would realize that his reasoning is irrational, and that out of all the possible answers to a question, his is always the wrong one. He has to learn that just because you give an answer that has relatively more words than it should, and includes some sort of philosophical sounding saying within the response, does not make it any more right than someone answering each question with a question. There's things in life which you do, and things which you don't. The ones which come in between, relatively are the ones based within our own psyche.

All this and more, honestly, I don't even know if this is only the beginning, or the progression of misery, furthermore leading to a horrific outcome. I just want this all to be good again; to maintain an acceptable equilibrium is simply fine by me. Like I mentioned earlier, all I want to do is work to fly her over here, and so I can eventually go over there for school. That's my plan. That's what I want to do. Ironic you may say, for a kid who dropped out of school, I still want to go to it. My reason for dropping out wasn't to just rid myself of high school. I just hated the school I was attending and they left me no other choice but to drop out and get my GED. So far, most businesses and "professional" establishments I've witnessed withing the Florida confines is anything but professional.

Tomorrow I work until 10pm. Someone please kill me. Or at least offer me a better job. I can't stand this fast food restaurant that I work at. Starbucks will do. Much appreciated.

Post 17: Some sacrifices...

I hate my life. What a lovely four words to start off a blog. But seriously, can I really love my life at this point? Let us keep in mind that, despite the current circumstances and other inconveniences, I have in fact improved since the very beginning and even before that. Improved in what you may ask? Well of course i believe i mean moving forward within life; overcoming the obstacles and derailing ones self from daily mundane activities, into... well... another order of daily mundane activities. That being said, let us recap what has progressed: I'm out of school, I have my license, and I have a job. Furthermore, I have a better idea of what I want to do in the future. But, there is a downside to it all. Although I am done with school, the future in my education has nothing to do with the past year of my american education. Even though I have my license, I still don't have a car. Therefore, owning a license to some extent is pointless and has minimum purposes. And the job I have, haha, well, let's not get started on that, shall we? All I will say is that it's by far one of the worst experiences I have ever had working. On one hand I am paranoid that I will get fired for something completely ridiculous and unreasonable, yet on the other, I would be glad to get rid of such a burden.

True, life for me this past (almost) year has progressed quite a bit. I'm just disappointed that it could have gone faster. Knowing that all that has been done, has been done so with ease. I simply wish my laziness hadn't intervened and slowed me down to such a point. And I guess with improvements in life being mentioned, my job hunt continues as I seek a better job, a more comfortable environment, and friendlier employees (although I am aware that there's always one who is going to be a total asshole).

In all honesty though, I don't work well under pressure. Nor would any wanna-be ruses inflict any sort of immediate and accurate action from me. In fact, all that would do is intimidate me, thus forcing me to step down my guard. Maybe I should just work at Google (: then again, scripting PHP is such a hassle.

Post 15: A New Chapter For Life to Pester

So it finally happened! I got a job! Not the best of jobs, but a job nonetheless. Where you may ask? Why at Taco Bell of course. Why would I work there? Well they called back for an interview; the ONLY ones who called back for an interview. Might as well grab opportunity while it's still fresh no? Although it did take them about a month to reply and call back, but hey, it's good enough for me. Now I should be able to fly her over with no sweat what so ever. I just hope I can last working there for more than a month! If they fire me before then, well, then I'm screwed!! Nothing can be worst than working there, yet it's just the same if I don't. Ah the curve balls life throws at me; how does it EVER expect me to catch them all with one mighty blow? I suppose I'll never know. But I sure hope that I can at least sustain the hardships given, otherwise I'm done for.