Saturday, July 12, 2003
Today, I learned I am an ass. I kind of already knew it, but today it was proven to me. I mentioned that I was giving a presentation at Meikei today about high school in Georgia. It went well. Actually, a better turnout than I expected. There were a lot of good questions and hopefully good answers. How does this prove I'm an ass? It doesn't, yet. So, after it's over, I am cleaning up and a few of the students are asking me questions they were probably too shy to ask during the presentation, or maybe it's about something not related to the presentation. I don't remember any specific questions, except for one. The one that proved that I should change my name to Hugh Jass. "What does it mean when you do this?" "This," is the thing that proves I am an elitist, pig-headed, intellectual snob. I don't know where I picked it up. Maybe from my friends (Cox comes to mind), maybe from students, maybe from another teacher, maybe from televison or cinema. I am not sure about the origins of this behavior, but I am sure that it proves that I am a self-important, egomaniacal jerk. If you've read this far, you are probably saying, "You know, you are an ass. You haven't even said what it is that you do. Stop stringing me along, you ass!" Well, with that kind of peer pressure, I suppose I should oblige. It seems, that when I talk, well, maybe just in the classroom because I've never picked up on this behavior before, but when I talk, I sometimes do the "quotation marks thing" with my fingers. See, I just did it again. Why did it take a group of teenaged Japanese girls to tell me this? Why hasn't someone beat the hell out of me by now? I don't get it. I'd like to stop this behavior. I'd like to stop being condescending. I'm asking for your help in this matter, to stop myself from trivializing the intelligence of other human beings. The next time you see me give the "quotation mark fingers" to yourself and/or others, please do me a favor and punch me in the face.
Friday, July 11, 2003
Komban wa!
Last two days have been really unexciting. I've been working on another PowerPoint presentation for a deal I'm doing after school on Saturday. Yes, I said Saturday. I guess I had the day off today if you count the fact that I didn't go in to any office, so it evens out, I guess. If you factor in that I was working on this presentation most of the day, you may change your mind. Or not, your choice. I'd let you take a looksie, but it seems pointless. It's a brief intro to school in the States. Wheeler more specifically, comparing a bit to their school so they can see what it'd be like to go to American school. Well, the best I can with most of my pictures taken from Google image searches. The problem with Wheeler's web site, it seems, is that the admin is adamantly opposed to posting pictures of students and even their full names. That means no cool hallway images available to me, no cool pep rally pics, no pics of students making out in the courtyard. No real 'essence' of Wheeler. I guess I understand their concerns, avoiding stalkers and all. Back to my point, stock photos are abundant throughout my presentation, but don't tell them. I even managed to slip in a subliminal message. Ok, you got me, it's just a picture of good ol' Ma.
I had a shitty dinner at Shakey's Pizza tonight. I was pressured into getting the buffet and the food was sucktacular. The best part of the meal was the beer and the shaved ice dessert. I got to run the shaved ice machine too, a DIY deal with little bottles of flavored syrup and all. The most amusing part of my meal was this older teen-looking Japanese girl eating with some younger 20s-looking Japanese guy. She was kind of cute in her Philly 76'ers cheerleader uniform and she had cool boots and wacky stick out pony tails. Face wasn't so cute, but the get up was. I wish I could have taken a picture without getting gang raped by the Yakuza. You know how some shirts have the breast pocket logo on them, even when there's no pocket? How funny would it look on their back instead? It was the first thing I noticed and it was hard not to laugh when I looked at her. I made it look ill-fitting too, despite the fact that it was tighter than Britney before Justin.
Tune in tomorrow when I will have more time to write about the differences in Japanese and American craftsmanship. I need more time to write it and more time to collect my thoughts to give it the treatment it deserves.
Last two days have been really unexciting. I've been working on another PowerPoint presentation for a deal I'm doing after school on Saturday. Yes, I said Saturday. I guess I had the day off today if you count the fact that I didn't go in to any office, so it evens out, I guess. If you factor in that I was working on this presentation most of the day, you may change your mind. Or not, your choice. I'd let you take a looksie, but it seems pointless. It's a brief intro to school in the States. Wheeler more specifically, comparing a bit to their school so they can see what it'd be like to go to American school. Well, the best I can with most of my pictures taken from Google image searches. The problem with Wheeler's web site, it seems, is that the admin is adamantly opposed to posting pictures of students and even their full names. That means no cool hallway images available to me, no cool pep rally pics, no pics of students making out in the courtyard. No real 'essence' of Wheeler. I guess I understand their concerns, avoiding stalkers and all. Back to my point, stock photos are abundant throughout my presentation, but don't tell them. I even managed to slip in a subliminal message. Ok, you got me, it's just a picture of good ol' Ma.
I had a shitty dinner at Shakey's Pizza tonight. I was pressured into getting the buffet and the food was sucktacular. The best part of the meal was the beer and the shaved ice dessert. I got to run the shaved ice machine too, a DIY deal with little bottles of flavored syrup and all. The most amusing part of my meal was this older teen-looking Japanese girl eating with some younger 20s-looking Japanese guy. She was kind of cute in her Philly 76'ers cheerleader uniform and she had cool boots and wacky stick out pony tails. Face wasn't so cute, but the get up was. I wish I could have taken a picture without getting gang raped by the Yakuza. You know how some shirts have the breast pocket logo on them, even when there's no pocket? How funny would it look on their back instead? It was the first thing I noticed and it was hard not to laugh when I looked at her. I made it look ill-fitting too, despite the fact that it was tighter than Britney before Justin.
Tune in tomorrow when I will have more time to write about the differences in Japanese and American craftsmanship. I need more time to write it and more time to collect my thoughts to give it the treatment it deserves.
Wednesday, July 09, 2003
I apologize to my devoted readers for not posting last night. My brain was a little preoccupied with maintaining balance and vision after my excursion last evening. Let me explain...
Dr. A took me to Tsuchiura, a neighboring town, to see a new construction home that belongs to his friend. Surprisingly, he knows everyone in that town, too, or so it would seem. His friend, Suzuki-san, owns a store that sells paper lanterns and Buddhist items, such as beautifully decorated prayer cabinets that hold all of the little statues and candles, incense, the little statues, the whole shebang. It was a pretty neat store and I was tempted to buy one of the hand-decorated paper lanterns. They come with fancy stands to make them like a piece of furniture, you would have to see it to really know what I am talking about and I can't find an example online. He already has a pretty sweet pad on the top floor of the tallest building in town. Now he has an even sweeter pad just a couple of blocks away. I took some pictures, but they were very boring. There's not really any furniture yet, other than the new table and couch. No decorations or anything yet, they just got the keys this past weekend. It does have a wine fridge in the kitchen, already stocked with some of his favorites. As a matter of fact, we took a few bottles with us to dinner. The house was amazing and smelled great, like the tatami mats that were in some of the rooms. Most of the windows have these automated security shutters that roll open and shut sort of like a garage door. I don't know if it's to keep burglars out or just for protection from the elements, maybe both. He had some awesome adjustable lighting in some of the rooms, not like dimmers, but you press a button on the remote and get different kinds of light. And the toilet seat automatically raises when you approach it and automatically closes and flushes after you get up. It was crazy. I wish my pictures hadn't been so boring, maybe I wouldn't have deleted them. The craftsmanship of the house was unmatched by anything I have ever seen in the States, but I digress.
After checking out the house, we went to have dinner. We brought some wine with us from the stocked fridge in an empty house. First, we stopped at this restaurant to have beef stew. Maybe I should be more specific, beef tongue stew. I know what you're thinking, and I know you're wrong. It was awesome! The chef kept thanking me for complimenting his food by sopping up all of the gravy with my roll. Oh, man, it was good. It was like eating regular beef stew, without too much pepper and with tender, non-fatty meat. It was something that could turn a vegetarian back into an omnivore.
After that, we went to a small sushi shop a few blocks over. They said it was good ahead of time, that it was a famous restaurant. I had no idea they were serious until I tasted the first piece. It was all melt-in-your-mouth fantastic. I tried pretty much everything he had to offer. Apparently, the sushi chef is very famous. I saw a picture of him serving Hideo Nomo from a commercial shot in '93. And the prices were alarmingly expensive. For some of the sushi, it was 2500 Yen for one piece. That's about $20 US for those who don't know the exchange rate. It was honestly the best sushi I have ever eaten. We also had some soup with a big ol' shrimp in it. You can see it in the foreground of this picture of sushi lady. We also enjoyed more wine and I got to sample Japanese brandy, called shochu. It was essentially 86 proof sake, made pretty much the same way brandy is made from distilling grape wine.
After all of the good food, we stumbled back to Suzuki-san's penthouse pad where his wife was preparing tea and honeydew melon in brandy. Notice a trend for the evening regarding beverages? Well, at least the tea was non-alcoholic! I took this shot of Tsuchiura at night from his balcony. A little overexposed, but still pretty amazing.
After that, we dropped in on a bar that Dr. A apparently knows more people at. The former Ms. Ibaraki to be exact in this case. Maybe we should call her Mrs. Ibaraki now? If you don't know, Ibaraki is the prefecture that Tsukuba and Tsuchiura are in, sort of like a state, but not like a state. Ibaraki is sort of large, so I am sure the crown is quite honorable. Ol' Cookie took a picture of me and one of the servers. I still haven't been able to answer Josh's question about why Japanese people always flash the peace sign when being photographed. It is a strange phenomenon no one has been able to explain to me. I'm sticking with my original hypothesis that they never found out John Lennon is dead. Another of the servers was wearing an interesting shirt. I am curious to know if she was fully aware of the translation of the phrase featured on it. In Engrish, it pretty much said "World's Largest of... Source Natural Gas." I am assuming that it meant "World's Largest Source of Natural Gas." I tried my best to read the back of the shirt without being too obvious but I never got a good perspective. To be honest, I was afraid to be behind her for long enough to read it just in case the claim was true!
Dr. A took me to Tsuchiura, a neighboring town, to see a new construction home that belongs to his friend. Surprisingly, he knows everyone in that town, too, or so it would seem. His friend, Suzuki-san, owns a store that sells paper lanterns and Buddhist items, such as beautifully decorated prayer cabinets that hold all of the little statues and candles, incense, the little statues, the whole shebang. It was a pretty neat store and I was tempted to buy one of the hand-decorated paper lanterns. They come with fancy stands to make them like a piece of furniture, you would have to see it to really know what I am talking about and I can't find an example online. He already has a pretty sweet pad on the top floor of the tallest building in town. Now he has an even sweeter pad just a couple of blocks away. I took some pictures, but they were very boring. There's not really any furniture yet, other than the new table and couch. No decorations or anything yet, they just got the keys this past weekend. It does have a wine fridge in the kitchen, already stocked with some of his favorites. As a matter of fact, we took a few bottles with us to dinner. The house was amazing and smelled great, like the tatami mats that were in some of the rooms. Most of the windows have these automated security shutters that roll open and shut sort of like a garage door. I don't know if it's to keep burglars out or just for protection from the elements, maybe both. He had some awesome adjustable lighting in some of the rooms, not like dimmers, but you press a button on the remote and get different kinds of light. And the toilet seat automatically raises when you approach it and automatically closes and flushes after you get up. It was crazy. I wish my pictures hadn't been so boring, maybe I wouldn't have deleted them. The craftsmanship of the house was unmatched by anything I have ever seen in the States, but I digress.
After checking out the house, we went to have dinner. We brought some wine with us from the stocked fridge in an empty house. First, we stopped at this restaurant to have beef stew. Maybe I should be more specific, beef tongue stew. I know what you're thinking, and I know you're wrong. It was awesome! The chef kept thanking me for complimenting his food by sopping up all of the gravy with my roll. Oh, man, it was good. It was like eating regular beef stew, without too much pepper and with tender, non-fatty meat. It was something that could turn a vegetarian back into an omnivore.
After that, we went to a small sushi shop a few blocks over. They said it was good ahead of time, that it was a famous restaurant. I had no idea they were serious until I tasted the first piece. It was all melt-in-your-mouth fantastic. I tried pretty much everything he had to offer. Apparently, the sushi chef is very famous. I saw a picture of him serving Hideo Nomo from a commercial shot in '93. And the prices were alarmingly expensive. For some of the sushi, it was 2500 Yen for one piece. That's about $20 US for those who don't know the exchange rate. It was honestly the best sushi I have ever eaten. We also had some soup with a big ol' shrimp in it. You can see it in the foreground of this picture of sushi lady. We also enjoyed more wine and I got to sample Japanese brandy, called shochu. It was essentially 86 proof sake, made pretty much the same way brandy is made from distilling grape wine.
After all of the good food, we stumbled back to Suzuki-san's penthouse pad where his wife was preparing tea and honeydew melon in brandy. Notice a trend for the evening regarding beverages? Well, at least the tea was non-alcoholic! I took this shot of Tsuchiura at night from his balcony. A little overexposed, but still pretty amazing.
After that, we dropped in on a bar that Dr. A apparently knows more people at. The former Ms. Ibaraki to be exact in this case. Maybe we should call her Mrs. Ibaraki now? If you don't know, Ibaraki is the prefecture that Tsukuba and Tsuchiura are in, sort of like a state, but not like a state. Ibaraki is sort of large, so I am sure the crown is quite honorable. Ol' Cookie took a picture of me and one of the servers. I still haven't been able to answer Josh's question about why Japanese people always flash the peace sign when being photographed. It is a strange phenomenon no one has been able to explain to me. I'm sticking with my original hypothesis that they never found out John Lennon is dead. Another of the servers was wearing an interesting shirt. I am curious to know if she was fully aware of the translation of the phrase featured on it. In Engrish, it pretty much said "World's Largest of... Source Natural Gas." I am assuming that it meant "World's Largest Source of Natural Gas." I tried my best to read the back of the shirt without being too obvious but I never got a good perspective. To be honest, I was afraid to be behind her for long enough to read it just in case the claim was true!
Monday, July 07, 2003
As a quick addendum...
I checked out my visitor stats. I've apparently been getting Google and Yahoo! hits for searches about illiteracy. I did a search on 'illiteracy in Japan' and I made the third page. I get first page recognition on Google when you put in 'Japanese illiteracy' or 'illiteracy and beer.' Glad to know I am contributing to society in a positive way.
PS - I also get first page dibs on "anne geddes pics+vertical." It'd be interesting to see what hits I could get from using words like sex, naked pictures of Tyne Daly, prostitutes, teen, labia, women, poontang, ass pirate, booty and vagina. But I won't stoop to such techniques.
I checked out my visitor stats. I've apparently been getting Google and Yahoo! hits for searches about illiteracy. I did a search on 'illiteracy in Japan' and I made the third page. I get first page recognition on Google when you put in 'Japanese illiteracy' or 'illiteracy and beer.' Glad to know I am contributing to society in a positive way.
PS - I also get first page dibs on "anne geddes pics+vertical." It'd be interesting to see what hits I could get from using words like sex, naked pictures of Tyne Daly, prostitutes, teen, labia, women, poontang, ass pirate, booty and vagina. But I won't stoop to such techniques.
Let me get back to last night. I would have written it then, but for sake of time, I merely ranted about customer service. That went like I had planned, really. Today was kind of boring, so I'm glad I postponed it.
And now, for the rest of the story...
Went to a party at someone's house yesterday. Maybe not most people's idea of a party, but Dr. Koizumi invited us to a get together at his friend's house. His friend is a researcher at AIST, another laboratory here in Tsukuba. They both do diamond research, but not really working on the same topics I think. Dr. Koizumi-san brought his wife so we met her and the other guy had a wife and son that we met. I regret that I can't think of the guy's name now. I will have to ask Dr. Koizumi. It would be a lot easier if they had names I was used to, like Smith, Jones, Johnson, etc. I'm bad enough with those anyhow. Back to the story, we had a great Japanese meal and some good discussions learning about each other over about a 2 hour period. (notice a trend?) There was another researcher there as well, and once again I have forgotten his name. Maybe I should have written this last night come to think of it.
After the meal, the three researchers had a jazz jam session. See, that was really the point of the whole evening, a jam session get together. Imagine, three Ph.D. researchers having a jazz jam. Ok, you don't have to imagine, here's a picture! And here is a short video excerpt with sound. I took some individual pictures of the three as well. I should have used a tripod in the low lighting situation so some are a little blurry because the shutter speed was slow, but I edited them to sharpen the edges a little. They're better than they were.
On the keys
The bass man!
And the git-fiddle! Funny, his wife is in the background.
This one was the blurriest so I gave it a matte finish to make it look intentional. Not that you would know if I hadn't told you.
I also took a picture of the wives during my time talking to them. They entertained us with stories about Japanese history and literature and asked us a lot about what we do in the States. I like this picture because of the slow shutter speed. It caught Koizumi-san's hands in action as she spoke to us. The Japanese people use a lot of body language in their conversations and I am glad I was able to capture it without the use of video because that wouldn't really do it justice. And let me explain her clothing. Some people would probably think it's a kimono, right? Well, it's really called a yukata. It's made of cotton while the kimono is usually used to refer to one made of silk. It's not typical dress for the Japanese like many people would also think. Actually, most people dress like people in the States, that's not that different. They only wear traditional clothing really for special occasions. What was the special occasion? Well, meeting us of course! No, not really, I'm far from being that special unless you're talking about 'special ed.' It's really a Japanese holiday called the tanabata today, the star festival. It's not the type of holiday that closes banks but somehow I managed not to go in to work today. I still did work, just from home rather than in the "office." Had an Internet conference with someone back home from the research program and worked on the product I have to do for the program.
Three more weeks to go. Only two weekends left so I had better get to planning my exciting tourist trips. I'd like to go see Fuji-san and the shrines at Nikko. I'll have to buy a Hawaiian shirt to fit the stereotype for American tourists.
And that's the rest of the story.
Muddy-san
And now, for the rest of the story...
Went to a party at someone's house yesterday. Maybe not most people's idea of a party, but Dr. Koizumi invited us to a get together at his friend's house. His friend is a researcher at AIST, another laboratory here in Tsukuba. They both do diamond research, but not really working on the same topics I think. Dr. Koizumi-san brought his wife so we met her and the other guy had a wife and son that we met. I regret that I can't think of the guy's name now. I will have to ask Dr. Koizumi. It would be a lot easier if they had names I was used to, like Smith, Jones, Johnson, etc. I'm bad enough with those anyhow. Back to the story, we had a great Japanese meal and some good discussions learning about each other over about a 2 hour period. (notice a trend?) There was another researcher there as well, and once again I have forgotten his name. Maybe I should have written this last night come to think of it.
After the meal, the three researchers had a jazz jam session. See, that was really the point of the whole evening, a jam session get together. Imagine, three Ph.D. researchers having a jazz jam. Ok, you don't have to imagine, here's a picture! And here is a short video excerpt with sound. I took some individual pictures of the three as well. I should have used a tripod in the low lighting situation so some are a little blurry because the shutter speed was slow, but I edited them to sharpen the edges a little. They're better than they were.
On the keys
The bass man!
And the git-fiddle! Funny, his wife is in the background.
This one was the blurriest so I gave it a matte finish to make it look intentional. Not that you would know if I hadn't told you.
I also took a picture of the wives during my time talking to them. They entertained us with stories about Japanese history and literature and asked us a lot about what we do in the States. I like this picture because of the slow shutter speed. It caught Koizumi-san's hands in action as she spoke to us. The Japanese people use a lot of body language in their conversations and I am glad I was able to capture it without the use of video because that wouldn't really do it justice. And let me explain her clothing. Some people would probably think it's a kimono, right? Well, it's really called a yukata. It's made of cotton while the kimono is usually used to refer to one made of silk. It's not typical dress for the Japanese like many people would also think. Actually, most people dress like people in the States, that's not that different. They only wear traditional clothing really for special occasions. What was the special occasion? Well, meeting us of course! No, not really, I'm far from being that special unless you're talking about 'special ed.' It's really a Japanese holiday called the tanabata today, the star festival. It's not the type of holiday that closes banks but somehow I managed not to go in to work today. I still did work, just from home rather than in the "office." Had an Internet conference with someone back home from the research program and worked on the product I have to do for the program.
Three more weeks to go. Only two weekends left so I had better get to planning my exciting tourist trips. I'd like to go see Fuji-san and the shrines at Nikko. I'll have to buy a Hawaiian shirt to fit the stereotype for American tourists.
And that's the rest of the story.
Muddy-san
I don't have a lot of time to give today the credit it deserves. Too many people are waiting to use the computers for me to upload pictures and write all of the HTML tags and whatnot. It shall wait until tomorrow.
Japanese Restaurants
They be illin', yo. No, seriously. Every meal I have had in a restaurant in Japan has been very pleasant, the staff very polite, I felt very relaxed. How many times have you been to an American restaurant and had a 2.5 hour long dinner without being constantly harassed by the service staff? Not very often when business is good, right? Not so here. The service staff doesn't bother you at all unless you request their service. Everything is at your pace, your call. The reason the dining experience is literally hassle-free and, in my opinion, far more relaxing and enjoyable than most American restaurants: no tipping. Yeah, it is not necessary to tip anyone, anywhere, at any time. Not wait staff, bellhops, taxi drivers. Imagine that, good, no, GREAT customer service without extortion.
In the Japanese system, workers feel that they are compensated well by their employers and take pride in doing their job well at no extra cost to the consumers. What a damned novel idea. You do your job well, people notice, they come back as regular customers, your employer makes better profits as a result which they ideally pass down to their employees in wages and benefits, the worker keeps doing their job well, other people notice, etc. No bribery involved, no phony-ass facades from wait staff and other tip earners looking to earn better tips, no pretending you like a jerky customer, just good, old fashioned, hard, honest working people. I like it a lot. I hated my job as a tip earner at TGIFinally-the-end-of-my-shift, mostly because I had to act like someone I wasn't just to be able to bring home enough money to justify the hours spent on the job. I hated being nice to rude people that I knew were going to stiff me when it came time to settle the bill, sometimes giving me less than I had to 'tip out' to the bartender, bus boys and hostesses, meaning I was losing wages by serving them! I hated the way that other servers weren't very helpful because helping you meant that they were not helping themselves. I hated refilling the fucking ketchup bottles and salt shakers every night and rolling silverware before I could clock out because it drove down my hourly wage because I wasn't receiving tips during that time or an increased hourly wage. Don't ask me how old some of the ketchup and salt in the bottom of some of the containers was, you probably don't want to know. I could go on, and I only worked there for about a month, but I think you get the point. If the damn employers would actually do what they should do from the beginning, compensate employees well, treat them well, train them well, reward good employees often, fire bad employees instead of keeping them on just because it is more trouble to replace them, maybe the employees could actually take pride in their work and perhaps we could stop using a variable ratio reward system.
The slot machine of customer service. It pays well when you win, but unfortunately the odds are often stacked against you.
You want happy lay down dancing?
Muddy
PS - Sorry, this somehow detoured into Negativity Land, but I've always felt that the whole tipping process was a load of crap. Service should be good because people take pride in their work that they are compensated well for regardless of the number of customers that came in that day, regardless of the whims of stupid people who were never taught good tipping manners, regardless of the people who think that $1 per person is fine even when you are not at the Waffle House, regardless of the countless number of people who are bad at math. (countless, it's a joke, see?) Japan is enough evidence to me that it works. The problem is, the tradition is so deeply instilled in our tradition that I don't think it would ever take on fully.
At Publix supermarket, the employees are not allowed to take tips, even for going above and beyond the call of duty. They actually send out, I forget the correct term for the people, but people who are supposed to test the employees by offering them tips. The reason they can ask this of their employees and their employees are still good workers?? The starting pay rate is around $7.25. Kroger's starting wage? Last I heard it was minimum wage. Why do I go out of my way to shop at Publix? Well, besides the fact the Kroger wants me to take an active role in helping them to track my purchases.
They be illin', yo. No, seriously. Every meal I have had in a restaurant in Japan has been very pleasant, the staff very polite, I felt very relaxed. How many times have you been to an American restaurant and had a 2.5 hour long dinner without being constantly harassed by the service staff? Not very often when business is good, right? Not so here. The service staff doesn't bother you at all unless you request their service. Everything is at your pace, your call. The reason the dining experience is literally hassle-free and, in my opinion, far more relaxing and enjoyable than most American restaurants: no tipping. Yeah, it is not necessary to tip anyone, anywhere, at any time. Not wait staff, bellhops, taxi drivers. Imagine that, good, no, GREAT customer service without extortion.
In the Japanese system, workers feel that they are compensated well by their employers and take pride in doing their job well at no extra cost to the consumers. What a damned novel idea. You do your job well, people notice, they come back as regular customers, your employer makes better profits as a result which they ideally pass down to their employees in wages and benefits, the worker keeps doing their job well, other people notice, etc. No bribery involved, no phony-ass facades from wait staff and other tip earners looking to earn better tips, no pretending you like a jerky customer, just good, old fashioned, hard, honest working people. I like it a lot. I hated my job as a tip earner at TGIFinally-the-end-of-my-shift, mostly because I had to act like someone I wasn't just to be able to bring home enough money to justify the hours spent on the job. I hated being nice to rude people that I knew were going to stiff me when it came time to settle the bill, sometimes giving me less than I had to 'tip out' to the bartender, bus boys and hostesses, meaning I was losing wages by serving them! I hated the way that other servers weren't very helpful because helping you meant that they were not helping themselves. I hated refilling the fucking ketchup bottles and salt shakers every night and rolling silverware before I could clock out because it drove down my hourly wage because I wasn't receiving tips during that time or an increased hourly wage. Don't ask me how old some of the ketchup and salt in the bottom of some of the containers was, you probably don't want to know. I could go on, and I only worked there for about a month, but I think you get the point. If the damn employers would actually do what they should do from the beginning, compensate employees well, treat them well, train them well, reward good employees often, fire bad employees instead of keeping them on just because it is more trouble to replace them, maybe the employees could actually take pride in their work and perhaps we could stop using a variable ratio reward system.
The slot machine of customer service. It pays well when you win, but unfortunately the odds are often stacked against you.
You want happy lay down dancing?
Muddy
PS - Sorry, this somehow detoured into Negativity Land, but I've always felt that the whole tipping process was a load of crap. Service should be good because people take pride in their work that they are compensated well for regardless of the number of customers that came in that day, regardless of the whims of stupid people who were never taught good tipping manners, regardless of the people who think that $1 per person is fine even when you are not at the Waffle House, regardless of the countless number of people who are bad at math. (countless, it's a joke, see?) Japan is enough evidence to me that it works. The problem is, the tradition is so deeply instilled in our tradition that I don't think it would ever take on fully.
At Publix supermarket, the employees are not allowed to take tips, even for going above and beyond the call of duty. They actually send out, I forget the correct term for the people, but people who are supposed to test the employees by offering them tips. The reason they can ask this of their employees and their employees are still good workers?? The starting pay rate is around $7.25. Kroger's starting wage? Last I heard it was minimum wage. Why do I go out of my way to shop at Publix? Well, besides the fact the Kroger wants me to take an active role in helping them to track my purchases.
Sunday, July 06, 2003
What an adventurous day. Dan is going to love me taking up all of his hard drive space with my pictures. Oh, and I fixed a link from yesterday. Sorry, I got lazy with checking my tags again. I have given myself 41 lashes, above and beyond most self-punishing offenders. When most of them go to 40, I go to 41.
I am not so sure if my mpeg worked from yesterday. It was just a crappy bike ride by the park shot anyhow. I did figure out how to make smaller movies today so maybe I can perfect the art of posting them by the time I have to come back. Let me know if todays brief clip works. The file size is apparently smaller than a lot of my images.
No 4th of July celebration for me yesterday. I hope you ate a hot dog for me, here they serve leftover cow parts before smashing it up and mixing it with delicious nitrates.
So, on to todays events. Dr. Ahmadyar had a friend, Dr. Kumano, come up from Shizuoka University for a conference and he brought one of his graduate students, a guy from Indonesia, with him. Since his friend was in meetings all day, he asked Dr. Ahmadyar to show the grad student around Tsukuba. I was asked to go to lunch with all of them and lunch was great. We met with his friends at an Indian restaurant and had a good talk over good food. Dr. Kumano does research in science education and apparently does a lot of work with US research groups as well. He gave me a copy of some of his papers and his thesis, a $100 value apparently! He invited me down to his university, somewhere near Mt. Fuji which I may take him up on. The guy got his Ph.D. at the University of Ohio if I remember correctly. Or maybe it was Iowa. Stupid 4-letter-3-of-them-vowels states!
So, after we left there, even though I hadn't really planned on going anywhere, we went to see an old Japanese home. I mean old. Like several hundred years old. It's basically a "historic" home and there are a lot of government rules about how they have to keep it. It had an awesome old roof made out of really thick grassy mats. It looked really heavy. Then, the old man that lived there had us in for tea. His daughter served us (regrets for not getting a picture of her) while he entertained us with stories and photographs. The house had a mud floor entrance and the grass ceiling/roof was supported by these really old, well trees I guess, all constructed using no nails if you can believe it. Decorational items may have been, but not main structural components. Then we walked around a bit. I got a shot of a guy doing repair work and another of part of the garden. It was a very unique history lesson.
Then, we went to Mt. Tsukuba. This time a little more relaxing because we drove instead of cycling. Dr. Ahmadyar sent me up with the grad student to show him around and he came to pick us up on the other side of the mountain. There is a railway on one end and a ropeway on the other side. I saw some parts of the mountain we didn't go to last time and this time I was given a lesson on how to visit the shrine. This time I was the one throwing money in an clapping! Anyhow, I took some pictures on the mountain. Here is one of me under "toad rock". We were in a cloud so visibility was low at the top but I got a cool shot of a tablet despite the fact. For your viewing pleasure, here is a brief video clip coming down the mountain on the ropeway as she comes. No dirty jokes intended, but feel free to chuckle. And lastly, a view of the rice fields from the bottom of the ropeway. The grad student didn't seem very thrilled about much that we did all day and I didn't get to make it to the second summit (Mt. Tsukuba has two) because he wanted to go directly to the ropeway. I considered going by myself, but I didn't want to be rude. Now I feel like I have to go back to finish the trip. Either he was very shy or he didn't like hanging out with us very much, it was hard to get a bead on him. Definitely a low-talker as well.
After Dr. A picked us up, we went back to where we went up the mountain to a hotel just below the shrine. It was where we asked if we could park our bikes two weeks ago. The girl we asked turned out to be a Meikei graduate and she remembered me. I guess it's not too hard to remember a whitey with a sissy-ass bicycle. Behind the hotel they have a garden with a mountain stream and interesting landscaping. After having coffee and receiving complimentary postcards explaining the hotel's history, we departed to take the guy to his hotel back in Tsukuba City, incidentally where Dr. Ahmadyar had an appointment to meet with the hotel manager, totally unrelated to our visitors. The grad student guy went to his room and we met with the hotel manager and had drinks over looking the amazing hotel garden with a small tree that cost as much as a house when they bought it 12 years ago. After that, we walked around the hotel a bit. Awesome architecture based on the since destroyed Imperial Hotel in Tokyo designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. They have a lot of weddings there, some were going on as we walked around, but we saw many ballrooms being prepped for weddings tomorrow. Check out the gift bags that every guest gets, and the room setup too I guess but you can tell what interested me. And even though our wedding cake was very cool, this one is pretty amazing, too! If I come back to Tsukuba, I am probably staying at this hotel.
I had to bike home from Meikei before we went to dinner, mostly because Dr. Ahmadyar had another appointment before dinner and I wanted to rest for a bit. When I got back, I took this picture in front of Ninomiya House. Sorry I cut off the JST part but I think you can deal.
We had dinner at a great Chinese restaurant. A Meikei parent came in to eat and she bought us dessert. It is amazing how many people Dr. Ahmadyar knows. He knew the people at both hotels, at a store on the mountain, random people we ran into. Back to dessert, I had sesame ice cream. I know, but much better tasting than it sounds. Then I was dropped off back and home and now I bring you today's edition of MuddyVision 2000™. I'm going to have to upgrade to a more impressive, more futuristic sounding version of MuddyVision™.
You want happy ending?
Muddy-san
I am not so sure if my mpeg worked from yesterday. It was just a crappy bike ride by the park shot anyhow. I did figure out how to make smaller movies today so maybe I can perfect the art of posting them by the time I have to come back. Let me know if todays brief clip works. The file size is apparently smaller than a lot of my images.
No 4th of July celebration for me yesterday. I hope you ate a hot dog for me, here they serve leftover cow parts before smashing it up and mixing it with delicious nitrates.
So, on to todays events. Dr. Ahmadyar had a friend, Dr. Kumano, come up from Shizuoka University for a conference and he brought one of his graduate students, a guy from Indonesia, with him. Since his friend was in meetings all day, he asked Dr. Ahmadyar to show the grad student around Tsukuba. I was asked to go to lunch with all of them and lunch was great. We met with his friends at an Indian restaurant and had a good talk over good food. Dr. Kumano does research in science education and apparently does a lot of work with US research groups as well. He gave me a copy of some of his papers and his thesis, a $100 value apparently! He invited me down to his university, somewhere near Mt. Fuji which I may take him up on. The guy got his Ph.D. at the University of Ohio if I remember correctly. Or maybe it was Iowa. Stupid 4-letter-3-of-them-vowels states!
So, after we left there, even though I hadn't really planned on going anywhere, we went to see an old Japanese home. I mean old. Like several hundred years old. It's basically a "historic" home and there are a lot of government rules about how they have to keep it. It had an awesome old roof made out of really thick grassy mats. It looked really heavy. Then, the old man that lived there had us in for tea. His daughter served us (regrets for not getting a picture of her) while he entertained us with stories and photographs. The house had a mud floor entrance and the grass ceiling/roof was supported by these really old, well trees I guess, all constructed using no nails if you can believe it. Decorational items may have been, but not main structural components. Then we walked around a bit. I got a shot of a guy doing repair work and another of part of the garden. It was a very unique history lesson.
Then, we went to Mt. Tsukuba. This time a little more relaxing because we drove instead of cycling. Dr. Ahmadyar sent me up with the grad student to show him around and he came to pick us up on the other side of the mountain. There is a railway on one end and a ropeway on the other side. I saw some parts of the mountain we didn't go to last time and this time I was given a lesson on how to visit the shrine. This time I was the one throwing money in an clapping! Anyhow, I took some pictures on the mountain. Here is one of me under "toad rock". We were in a cloud so visibility was low at the top but I got a cool shot of a tablet despite the fact. For your viewing pleasure, here is a brief video clip coming down the mountain on the ropeway as she comes. No dirty jokes intended, but feel free to chuckle. And lastly, a view of the rice fields from the bottom of the ropeway. The grad student didn't seem very thrilled about much that we did all day and I didn't get to make it to the second summit (Mt. Tsukuba has two) because he wanted to go directly to the ropeway. I considered going by myself, but I didn't want to be rude. Now I feel like I have to go back to finish the trip. Either he was very shy or he didn't like hanging out with us very much, it was hard to get a bead on him. Definitely a low-talker as well.
After Dr. A picked us up, we went back to where we went up the mountain to a hotel just below the shrine. It was where we asked if we could park our bikes two weeks ago. The girl we asked turned out to be a Meikei graduate and she remembered me. I guess it's not too hard to remember a whitey with a sissy-ass bicycle. Behind the hotel they have a garden with a mountain stream and interesting landscaping. After having coffee and receiving complimentary postcards explaining the hotel's history, we departed to take the guy to his hotel back in Tsukuba City, incidentally where Dr. Ahmadyar had an appointment to meet with the hotel manager, totally unrelated to our visitors. The grad student guy went to his room and we met with the hotel manager and had drinks over looking the amazing hotel garden with a small tree that cost as much as a house when they bought it 12 years ago. After that, we walked around the hotel a bit. Awesome architecture based on the since destroyed Imperial Hotel in Tokyo designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. They have a lot of weddings there, some were going on as we walked around, but we saw many ballrooms being prepped for weddings tomorrow. Check out the gift bags that every guest gets, and the room setup too I guess but you can tell what interested me. And even though our wedding cake was very cool, this one is pretty amazing, too! If I come back to Tsukuba, I am probably staying at this hotel.
I had to bike home from Meikei before we went to dinner, mostly because Dr. Ahmadyar had another appointment before dinner and I wanted to rest for a bit. When I got back, I took this picture in front of Ninomiya House. Sorry I cut off the JST part but I think you can deal.
We had dinner at a great Chinese restaurant. A Meikei parent came in to eat and she bought us dessert. It is amazing how many people Dr. Ahmadyar knows. He knew the people at both hotels, at a store on the mountain, random people we ran into. Back to dessert, I had sesame ice cream. I know, but much better tasting than it sounds. Then I was dropped off back and home and now I bring you today's edition of MuddyVision 2000™. I'm going to have to upgrade to a more impressive, more futuristic sounding version of MuddyVision™.
You want happy ending?
Muddy-san
