Day 79 - Super Mario Week

Okay, so I've fallen off the wagon for a bit. Haven't updated this blog for a while. Can't believe it's being 26 days (almost a full month!) since Week of Hell. I'll get to it really quickly, because it's 11:38 at night on New Year's Eve and I've got to go to work at 8:30 tomorrow.

Main points:

- Six weeks, or three paychecks, to go after this week (!!!)
- I'm going to call the Christmas and New Year's pay period "Super Mario Week", because the holiday pay rate is insane. The holiday pay rate works about 2.25x pay per hour for the two holidays in this period (Boxing Day and New Year's Day). The reason I call it "Super Mario week" is because of the boosted of speed in money I'm getting is like getting a Star Power Up in Mario Games, and also because I've been playing a good amount of Super Mario Galaxy 2 lately.
- The three managers (Boss, Troll, Hobgoblin) are getting more and more aggressive towards me. Boss being bitchy and irritable; Troll is a hypocritical fat round asshole; Hobgoblin styles herself as a "sarcastic cool girl". Don't get me wrong, I like the sarcastic cool girl archetype, they're personally very easy to get along with for me, but the problem is that instead of cool, she's just bitchy and retarded. Can I manage to last 3 more paychecks???
- Language learning... I think I made a lot of progress on German this month. I am getting lazier these days tho; not doing what I'm suppose to do. Thinking of enrolling into a German language school in Germany when I'm there.

While 6 weeks to go is a pretty long period of time, I think there are two ways of "organizing" how I perceive it, so that it goes by faster. One: pretend that there's still a long way to go, so I don't think about it so much, focus on other things I need to do (like language learning and most importantly getting into University or college applications). The intent is that the time passes by "before I knew what hit me".

The second way is to divide the 3 paychecks into three smaller time periods. The first paycheck will be thought of as "the paycheck before the pen-ultimate paycheck," the second will be "the penultimate paycheck." The last will be "the last paycheck." I only really need to work until I get my "penultimate paycheck" before I say "I quit" and start my two week notice period. This is an interesting way of organizing how time is perceived, but I'm not sure if it's appropriate, because 6 weeks is STILL long, fully 35% of the entire Survivor experience. If I think like that, this might drag out longer than I expect, and I really don't want to think that I worked more than I need to.

Survivor Minimum Wage is on it's last legs. Literally only $1500 separates me from both the grand prize and the gratification of never having to work at a minimum wage job (hopefully) again. I am actually finding it a little bit surreal, because I have never attempted anything like this before, ever.

Well, gotta catch some Zs. Tomorrow is a Super Mario Day, which means instead of making $50 for five hours of work, I make $125 instead.

Day 53 - the long weekend of hell part 2

So the long weekend of hell is three-fourth over. In retrospect, it wasn't that bad. It's basically exactly like every other weekend that I have, except tack in 3 hours in front of it. I guess I just resented having to wake up early 4 days in a row. But, another week has passed, and I am ever closer to my goal.

To continue my story from last time, I would basically garnish orders (I have not been issued any cashier tasks for quite some time now) through the lunch rush, which usually starts at around 11:15 and begins in ernest at 11:45ish, ending at around 1:30. There may or may not be a post-rush rush that occur starting at around 2:00. If there is, I would do that until the clock strikes 2:30, or if there is not, then I would probably do the pop tower/garbage changing thing, which as aforementioned takes up almost half an hour. Intermissions when we don't have customers would have me go around the tables doing some wiping and/or taking the broom and pan-handle and sweep up the floor.

One thing that I hope I would never have to do is dish washing. I've had enough of that at the restaurants that I worked at, and I refuse to touch any of the grease coated crap without a rubber glove (which we don't have).

People that I usually work with during weekdays are Boss, Troll, the Hob, Konvict, and three previously unmentioned people (henceforth shall be known as Pandora, because I think her name is a character from Avatar, Co-op, because he is a co-op student from Earl of March and a fan of this blog, and Mom, because that's her nickname). Occasionally we may get Bestbuy (he used work here before working at Bestbuy before coming back here).

Why can't you pass the time when there isn't customers by chatting with your fellow co-workers and relaxing, like other places (Quizno's)? Because Troll will yell at you (unless you are the Hob or Mom) to get back to work (which is how I got my of many yelled-at incidents at work). She will say the most abusive things, and coupled with the foul odor that she emits, she makes any interactions or confrontations with her extremely uncomfortable. Her abusive behaviours are so bad that during one clash between him and the Troll, the guy did what one would instinctively do and said that he is quitting (he has since then retracted the quitting by talking to the boss). The point is, when Troll is around, an easy moment will not be had by anyone. Everyone realizes this, even the Hob.

The more that I work at this job, the less things that I actually find annoying. Namely, I actually enjoy garnishing customer's burgers. I no longer mind the customers that want "everything" and say their orders out of sequence. The logic is that the more the customers want, the longer the lines are, and the longer that I get to garnish customers' burgers, because time passes by relatively fast when you do this, and most importantly, working on a customer gives you the best shield against Troll aggression.

More details of my routine to come in future posts. Survivor: MW lives on!

Day 50 - the long weekend of hell

So the next four days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday) are shaping up to be the really shitty. Basically,the guy that's normally doing the prepping from 7:30 to 10:30, let's call him Scrawny, for he is a scrawny frenchman that hopes to become an egomaniacal illiterate chef like Gordon Ramsey, can't make it tomorrow because he is being told to go to school for that day, since he is actually a high school co-op student and his school wants its students to show up to school once in a while. So when Boss found me, he asked me if I can make it to work at 7:30 tomorrow. At first, I wanted to say no by making up some BS, but I already said no way too many times lately, and I already used a lie to get out of going to work early one time ("I have to stay home because workers are repairing my furnace"). So I gotta say yes this time just to keep his trust. Boss may be a nice guy, but I suspect he is more clever than he lets on, and the guy does have his limits, which is constantly being challenged by that Troll wife of his.

Basically, for the next four days, I have to get up at 6:30, 7:00, 7:30, and 8:00 respectively, and get off at 2:30 on Friday and 2:00 for the rest. If there's one thing people that know me know about me is that I fucking hate getting up early, because that means I have to go to sleep early, and without drugs like Melatonin, it's impossible for me to sleep early. So thanks for getting me addicted to sleeping drugs, Harvey's! Basically, it's like I'm having a long weekend, but in reverse.

So the whole purpose of this writing about my Survivor: MW thing, other than to provide entertainment to friends, is to have a written record of my experiences and what I felt while working this crappy job, so I have a self-deterrent against future incidents where I am forced to take minimum wage jobs again. I feel like I haven't done enough of that, just a whole lot of (deservedly plenty of) complaining about Trolls and SLB and other creatures of darkness at the expense of other stuff. So I'm going to talk about other stuff for a bit, especially things like working conditions, the people I work with, the obstacles I face, and the various emotions that runs through me during my shift, etc.

Basically, during the weekdays, my shifts are usually 4 hours, from 10:30 to 2:30 (Troll is now too lazy to alter the schedule, because, having absolutely no brains at all, she is completely incapable of the little foresight and strategic thinking that's required of schedule making, and basically relies on ad hoc solutions to everything); weekends are from 8:00/8:30/9:00 to 2:00. I don't expect to get night shifts anymore. Weekdays are pretty easy: when I get to work, I wash my hands, put on gloves, and "check the pop towers", or put ice from the ice machine at the back, put them in a bucket, and dump it inside the pop machine (the pop machine is incapable of producing its own ice). I do this for the drive-thru ice depository as well. Afterwards, I take out the garbage through out the restaurant, and dump them to the garbage bin outside (thankfully, it is right next to the restaurant, unlike Lapointe's). Amazingly, this whole process can take half an hour to do. So this is a good way to pass the time, and in this line of work, it's ALL about passing time.

By that time, there usually will be the customers eager to fatten themselves up with our crap. So I will probably alternate between garnishing their orders or doing some half assed sweeping of the restaurant floor or some other crap I can find to pass the time (anything I can do to avoid cleaning things other than table surfaces. I absolutely despise cleaning things other than tables or countertops).

As it is past 10:30, and I have to get up at work at 6:30, I must take my sleeping pills and go to sleep. More to continue.

Day 45 - A Hundred Days

So I got my third paycheck yesterday. I have officially obtained 3 out of the 10 paychecks that I need to obtain the Grand Prize. It may seem like I still have a long way to go, but I have already done more than 30% of what I need, which means on my next paycheck, I am halfway done and I have only have to endure the other half of this Minimum Wage misadventure. Basically, I have calculated that I need to work at most 100 more days (but I could always work more for my wants). Every day that I work (the obligatory Wednesday off doesn't count as a workday) is one 1% toward completing my goal.

However, I think I am getting increasingly paranoid, since I've already developed an antagonistic relationship with namely Troll and the Hobgob. Every time one of them talk amongst themselves or the boss or someone else in low voices, especially when they are aware I am around, I keep thinking that they're talking about firing me. I keep thinking that I'm going to get fired at any moment. Even today, when Skipper asked me to "talk to her after I'm done serving the customer", I was actually getting scared and afraid that she'll tell me that I'm fired. Only later did I find out that she only wanted to ask me if I can stay longer today cause it's so busy (I said no). Living in fear of being fired from my job has been almost a universal constant in all my employment experiences, sometimes with good reason, and living in fear is a shitty way to go. But, as work goes by day by day, the fear subsides more and more, because the difference between how much I have saved up and what I need gets smaller and smaller. I feel myself getting bolder and bolder as each day pass.

Anyways, pretty tired right now, can't think straight, so I'm going to hit the sack and get ready for my 8:30 to 2 shift.

Day 39 - Point of No Return Part 2

Remember in my last entry, I said that if Troll and I put aside our egos, we can co-exist together peacefully? I lied.

I am now completely convinced that Troll is mentally unstable. She frequently verbally abuses all the male employees and quite often the Boss himself, whom as previously mentioned is also her husband (I guess she wears the pants in that household). As well, she speaks extremely fast and hard and her voice noticeably quivers like a scared little chicken shit that she is when she is put in a situation where she actually has to interact with a customer instead of verbally abusing her male co-workers. She frequently loses her composure and professionalism (from henceforth shall be referred to as "losing her shit"), as I have personally seen her cry during a lunch rush, having to have the Boss take over. As well, I received second-hand report of she having a separate crying episode from a fellow co-worker (henceforth shall be referred to as "Konvict" should he make an appearance in this blog again).

Again, now that the point of no return has been passed, there's nothing to do but go full speed with it, which is kinda inconvenient, actually, because now if things go too far, instead of spitting at my apron and slamming it at Troll's warty face. I actually have to put up with her mental instability.

I can overstate this enough, because although temporary (minimum until March 4th, maximum until mid-April) and the consequences are not too great (lose 450ish dollars and a crappy job), this is nonetheless a taste of an abysmal alternate reality in which I don't get my priority (aka school) straight and end up having to take up a job like this, only to be completely trapped by it and do this for the rest of my life because of how the low-wages and long hours make it so that I only have enough money to sustain yourself to work the job, and not have money saved up to invest in yourself (i.e. go to school), i.e. an alternate reality which I become the Troll. I shudder at the thought, and remind myself that I need to get my shit straight.

Speaking of getting my shit straight, I decided (a while ago) that it would be best to actually go to school in Ottawa, instead of roughing it "out there". Like it our not, Ottawa has become what I am used to, and roughing it in Toronto or Waterloo or anywhere else other than home is just not conducive to learning. The smartest decision, I think, is just to go to school in Ottawa. The getting my shit straight part happened when I called both Ottawa U and Carleton (the two local schools that offer computer science degrees), and it appears that it is possible for me to be admitted to these schools in September of next year, just in time for the end of my academic suspension. I really hope to get into these two schools, they're both excellent and have co-op programs, but I'm especially hoping Ottawa U will give me a chance, because honestly, that is the only university which I actually feel completely and 100% comfortable with ever since I was like, 11, and I can see myself going. I'm too comfortable and familiar with and there's just too much good memories associated with Ottawa U. Also, it's a good opportunity to improve my French. Anyways, I apparently have to send them my GPA from both York and UW and an appeal letter saying why I was suspended and all that crap, which shouldn't be too hard, since I have experience with this. If I get accepted to Ottawa U, life would be grand.

So the Troll has reduced my hours drastically. My hours used to be approximately 35 hours a week. Now it has settled down to something like 26.5 for the past 2 weeks. At first, I was pissed, because I have no nightshifts now, which means I may never work with Colonel again. As well, my traveling plan is in jeopardy, due to me not getting paid enough in time (or more precisely, instead of reaching my goal on early March, I have to work 2 or 4 more weeks before I can not care about getting fired). However, after some modification to my itinerary, I have made it work out so that I can still quit if I want to on March 4th (sorry Janice, can't visit you in Korea this time). This actually is a good thing now, because I have a lot more free-time to do what I need (which is improving my French and German) and what I want and usually end up doing instead (playing Wii).

Anyways, Survivor: MW continues!

Day 33 - Point of No Return

I meant to write an update sooner because so much has happened, but because of that very fact, I procrastinated, and in the meanwhile, so much more has happened during the procrastination period. Anyways, it's time to keep this blog up to date.

The most important thing that happened was getting my credit card. Finally, I have my own credit card! At the age of 21! Anyways, on the very hour that I am eligible to use my credit card online (24 hours after activation), I went to Farecompare and bought a one-way ticket to Paris from Toronto for 430 Canadian total.

I have reached the point of no return.

No possibility of exile to Quebec; no possibility of outcast to South America. I have to go all in with my first prize now; my round-the-world ambition. There's no looking back, I'm going to have to complete my dream of traveling the around the world, win Survivor: MW, or else risk being stuck in Europe for a few weeks like a loser.

It's becoming reality.

There's several things that prompted this decision.

- This air fare is at least $200 to $300 cheaper than the next cheapest one-way air fare from anywhere in Canada to Western Europe at around that time.

- I have enough money already right now to stay in Europe for a reasonably long time, even if I get fired tomorrow.

- The ticket only costs $430, if I can't go, then I can still go to Quebec/South America for a while, only that I am short $430, which is an unfortunate, but not excessive amount of money or an amount to grieve over.

- Things with Troll and Hobgoblin has gotten a lot better recently, and the chances of me getting fired randomly or getting yelled at has exponentially decreased

As aforementioned, things have gotten a lot better with Troll and Hobgoblin. To be honest, I did change my attitude toward them to get that. One reason was an incident which had the Troll scare the bejesus out of me by pretty much jumping me from behind. What happened was that on that day, when I was at the back doing prepping, and Troll told me to go help the (lone) co-worker at the front, who, from henceforth, shall be referred to in this blog as "That Fucking Stupid Lying Bitch", or SLB for short. So I went over to SLB, and she gave me a task to do (butter the toast, if that matters). Now, there were only 2 customers, which this bitch could easily have handled. I said to SLB, "I can help you, but do remember that I have my own work that needs to be done," and I went on and did what she asked, despite that she was not overwhelmed at all and could've easily have had this handled. When I was done, I asked her if she needs anymore help. She said no, and I went back to work. Five minutes later, Troll came from behind me and started shouting at me, which scared the bejesus out of me cause I didn't know she was there. She yelled "WHY AREN'T YOU HELPING HER????" After I was able to get my heart-rate down to triple-digits again, I managed to tell her "I asked SLB if she still needed my help when I was done, and she told me that she doesn't need my help."

"THAT'S BECAUSE YOU KEPT SAYING 'CAN I GO NOW? CAN I GO NOW?'" I said "I did no such thing. I only said 'do you still need my help', and she said no". Troll yelled at me, saying that she doesn't care, and customers comes first. At this point, I was actually in fear for my safety, and I was so fucking scared by this unstable screaming giant scowling woman in front me that I instinctively managed to say "okay, okay. Be nice. Please." Now, I have no objection to serving customers and following orders and all that, and I understand that at work, you have to be professional, but I was under the impression from SLB, who was not pressured or coerced by me at all, that I was not needed at the front anymore. So I went back to the front and said to her "you told me you don't need me anymore." She said to me "no, I never sent you away". I was fucking furious at this lying bitch, I wanted to punch the SLB in the face right there, for lying to get me in trouble where I didn't need any, and for getting the Troll to scare the shit out of me. Thankfully, I was able to restrain myself from escalating this further and helped out until finally, when there were no customers, I went back to her and said "do you still need my help?" "No". I heard that shit before. "Are you SURE?" I responded. "YES," she said in an irritated and icy tone, as if I am the one pulling her away from work and pestering and getting her into trouble.

To be honest, I am a lot more mad at the SLB than the Troll, even though the Troll scared the bejesus out of me. Later that day, Troll cut my shift by two hours, "because there are too many people." I heard that line before when I was fired from the Thai restaurant. The next week's schedule wasn't there as well, even though it was there on the day prior. I got worried, and at the end of my shift, I asked her if she can make available the next week's shift. She didn't answer, and I asked her if it was in the office. She then yelled at me to go home and call later. I backed off and dashed home on my bike in fear for my life and uncertain about my employment status.

Thankfully, I went back later (after having dinner with my parents for my mom's birthday), checked the board, and found my shift for next week. But during that time of uncertainty about my employment status, I definitely thought that today was too close for comfort, and that, despite all the Trolls, Hobgoblins, and SLBs (have you noticed that all the worst co-workers with the horrible egos and attitudes, at least in jobs like this, are female?), I still need this job to accomplish my goal, and yes, win Survivor: MW.

The next day at work, Troll told Boss about the incident, and Boss talked to me about it. After I explained to him what happened, he said that there's no problem, it's only a miscommunication, and told me to just do what Troll tells me to do. I feel that, at least this time, Troll is not completely at fault here. She may be unpleasant, but this time, it was the SLB that fucked me, Troll is only reacting in her ridiculously unstable way.

Anyways, after being scared like that, and being so ridiculously close to being fired, I decided that it's just not worth it to tangle with someone as irrational and unstable as that. You can only appease, not defeat, her. So now, I'm actually nicer, more friendlier, actually used some words like "please" and "can I ..." in my interactions with her. She actually responded by not yelling at me every time now! Once, she actually went out of her way and helped me find a calculator! This is incredible, because before, she would literally ignore me whenever I ask her or tell her something, before yelling at me. I guess once we both set aside our ego for a bit, we can have a truce.

So for now, I am 95% sure that I will actually be going to France next year. Hopefully there won't be some bullshit that comes up and thwart my life-long ambition again. Survivor: MW continues!

Day 22 - Omar Khadr'ed

So 22 days has passed since I started working at Harvey's. Things have pretty much solidified to a point where things are more routine now. I even recognize some of the regulars, like that weird guy that always orders two hot dogs and two fries, every time, or that retarded guy that can't talk properly.

Things that I have observed during these past days of working.

- Customers are fucking annoying for the most part. Most of them want "everything", which takes a long time to garnish and is annoying to do. However, the most annoying are the ones that tells me to give them lettuce, and THEN asks for tomatoes and pickles. What the hell? Why can't they ask for tomatoes and pickles first? Tomatoes and pickles are flat, so they can be put on the stupid patty, which is a flat surface. But if you make me put lettuce first, I have to waste time making sure the damn tomatoes and pickles aren't going to fall off the damn lettuce. I hate it when I ask them what they want on it, and then they go "lettuce" first, then actually wait until I put on the lettuce, and only then will they start saying pickles and tomatoes. So annoying. Combine the "everything" and lettuce-before-tomatoes-and-pickles and you have the ultimate asshole.

- I hate doing the cash, because if I do the cash, I have to spend time near the end of my shift to do the count, and there's potential for some white-knuckle anger. Firstly, if there is a discrepancy from the computer count and my own count, the total is deducted from my paycheck(!!!). And secondly, this task always goes over my shift, so I'm spending unpaid time doing work, and that pisses me off. Unfortunately, I've been put on cash way too much these days, so there's a lot of potential for these assholes stealing from my paycheck and my time. I'm too tired to make this paragraph more angry sounding than I am, but I have the biggest gripe with the fact that this crap is coming out of my paycheck, and almost as big a gripe as my unpaid time.

- Troll is still a troll, and getting along with Hobgoblin is getting progressively difficult, because we both hate each other and know how we feel about each other, at this point. These two monsters are just so fucking obnoxious; I can't wait for my Quit Day.

Speaking of quitting, I did some calculations, and I have worked out that I need approximately 8500 CDN to "win grand prize." This works out to be around 4 more months of work... which is amazing, because that means I can stop acting like I care about the job at the end of February and start acting cocky and finally getting into some two-sided arguments with the Troll and Hobgoblin for once. I thought I had to work until the very end of April, but now it's just the end of February... it's like going from maximum sentence to a reduced sentence ... Omar Khadr'ed if you will.

However, not everything is shitty. There's some interesting people, and night time are much more enjoyable/less stressful than daytime, mostly because Troll and Hobgoblin aren't usually at work at this hour. As well, this is usually the time when Colonel work. However, I am being put into daytime shifts too much. I don't really expect it to change, because of all the part-time students, there's too many people that's available during night shifts, so I can't get anything more than 2 or 3 night shifts per week.

For the moment, my plan is still to work as much as possible, but anything beyond the February is just money for shopping/left over money for school. In fact, I have enough money right now to go somewhere interesting, so I already won the conciliation prize. But, I want to win the grand prize, so Survivor: MW lives on.

Day 14 - A day off

Today is a day off for me, which is pretty rare because the last time I had an entire day off was last Monday.

My general scheduling is pretty absurd. Sometimes I get 3 hours a day, sometimes 5, sometimes 10. But unfortunately I only get 32.5 hours total. It feels like I work 6 days a week though... maybe that's because I do... but I only get paid for 32.5 hours of work, which is slightly discouraging. And my hours are placed at random times, totally at the mercy of the Troll.

A co-worker, who is a Colonel in the army (from henceforth he shall be known as Colonel), said that Istanbul is an interesting place to visit. He does a lot of traveling and he seems like an interesting guy. Finally, I found someone other than apathetic and retarded teenagers, bitchy Hobgoblins, and depressed Trolls to talk to. Talking to him reminds me of why I'm working here in the first place, i.e. so I can get off my ass and do something.

Colonel is a fairly young guy (mid to late-20s), and is already an officer in the army, but for some reason, he won't be deployed until two months later, even though he was supposed to be deployed last Wednesday. He has a lot of qualifications, as well, he used to work as a by-law officer, i.e. the guy that gives parking tickets. He made a lot of money doing that and he could've found a far better job than literally flipping burgers at night at Harvey's and working at Rexall (a Canadian pharmacy chain) during the day. But, since he is going to get deployed on short notice, and because he used to work with the Boss and enjoyed working with him, he decided to work here instead to support himself before he gets shipped off. Anyways, an interesting person to work with and definitely an ally. He seems to be above the petty squabble that goes on, especially with the teenagers and trolls and hobgoblins. Unfortunately, he only works during some nights, and most of my shifts are daytime shifts, so I don't really see him that often, unfortunately.

So the duty I've been assigned to the most, by far, is garnishing. Basically, I take customer's receipt to a garnishing station, look at the thing, and go to the rack where Troll puts the burgers that she finished grilling, come back, and put whatever crap customer wants on it. The things that customers can get are sliced pickles, diced onions, shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes, sliced hot peppers, and relish (the sliced pickles and tomatoes are sliced by the prepper, which was what I did last week for three of my shifts). They can also get me to squirt some ketchup, mustard, mayo, hot sauce, and "mesquite sauce", which is, from what I can tell, the mayo and the hot sauce mixed together. I have a fun new name for mesquite sauce: my-skeet sauce.

Not a day passes by without the fucking Troll blowing her fuse at me about some random bullshit. I've had three different guys secretly confide in me that they find her short-tempered and constantly angry and whom are convinced that Troll has a target on their back. Funny, I thought I was getting it bad. We compared stories on who she hated the most. No one was convinced that the Troll hated the other guy more than them.

There's not really much happening at the moment. Two weeks done, five and a half months to go.

Day 10 - Customer service is a two-faced street

Or Day 11, something like that. It feels like I have worked at Harvey's for an eternity, but I only started on the Thursday of the week before (it's Monday night right now); I haven't even gotten a god damn paycheck yet!

Anyways, I am settling into a routine now. So far, I've been getting a full day off per week, and this week I got 32.5 hours ... less than I needed but about what I wanted. Sometimes I work 3 hours a day, and sometimes I have to work for 8 to even 10 hours a day. Usually, the 8 to 10 hour days are divided into 2 shifts with a 3 or 4 hour gap in between. This is okay for now, because I can bike home during that time and play some League of Legends or relax and watch some TV or something, but when it snows, it's going to be a lot more difficult for me to do that.

Basically, if a day has me starting during breakfast time, I would be doing prepping. What I would be doing is using the slicer machine and slice bowls of pickles and tomatos. This would take approximately two hours. Then I would make the salad, which takes around 20 or so minutes. I've done this three times so far: last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I hated doing this before, because I had to wake up early and the job is pretty tedious. But I don't really mind it as much anymore, cause I tend to whistle random songs while working, and sometimes I would talk to my manager about random crap to pass the time. Maybe I'll ask the guy if I'm allowed to listen to my iPod in the future.

The worst part of the job so far, other than the tedium and the seemingly slow passage of time that incur in the building, are the co-workers. Most of them are nasty, ill-mannered people with terrible attitudes. They are people (not to be sexist or anything but so far all of them are women ... just saying) that have been too stupid to get another job or gain better job prospects or go to school and thus condemned to crappy places like this for the rest of their life. The more upbeat/less irritable people tend to be the kind that actually realize what this place is, which is a place where you get some money and then get the hell out. These people are trapped here for life. To be honest, I would feel the same way if I am trapped in this kind of lifestyle as well. Hell, I'm only going to be working for six months, being at it for only 2 weeks, and I'm already getting a taste of what it feels like to be "trapped". I really hope I can get back to school next September. As I said, I will never be academically suspended ever again.

Anyways, one woman is particularly vile. From hence forth, I shall refer to this individual as "Troll", because that's what she looks like. She looks like Lady Ashton with 50 extra kilos of the burger grease that we cook with in her belly. She looks like a freakin' troll, and she has a foul attitude and tends to snap at everyone, predictably she causes few co-workers to be sympathetic to her. Unfortunately, one of them that is sympathetic to her is the manager, because the manager is her husband. As well, she also writes the schedule, and thus can deal some sweet scheduling retribution on me if she suddenly decides to dish out her wrath on me. She's horrendous to deal with, and even customers that have seen the way she dealt with me have offered words of condolences, and she's connected as fuck. Crap.

From my experience, I just find customer service to be a hilariously two-faced affair. There's another women that works the drive-through a lot, let her be henceforth be known as "Hobgoblin", because she will eventually transform into the Troll in her future. Anyways, she would be apologizing to the drive-through customers on the headphone, going "Aaaaaaaam sorry about that" on her drive-through speakers every five fucking minutes. Just try going through the drive-through at Harvey's one time and see for yourself! Anyways, that phrase is so overused that it's becoming an ironic kitschy defining character of hers. She's just so sorry all the time! Except she's not! Sure, it could be interpreted as manners/politeness, except she is an inherently nasty, arrogant bitch, for she has shown most condescending and impolite attitude toward me. In other words, Hobgoblin is going to grow up to be a troll.

Customer service is hilarious, because when I worked at Canadian Tire as a cashier, there was this manager that's more two-faced than Harvey Dent. She would literally come to my cash, in front of a customer, spew to me the nastiest insults on my intelligence and my dignity in the most arrogant, brash and condescending tone with a nasty snarl, and then in the same sentence return to the customer and talk in the sweetest voice like you would use on a child. It's like going from Hitler to Mother Theresa in the same breath. It's hard to explain, so if you see me, ask me about that Sports Manager from Canadian Tire. Power corrupts. A little bit of power corrupts assholes absolutely.

Other than that, I find that there are little to complain about so far except for some other idiotic, anal-retentive women (the guys are generally not as irritable and most have good humor), and the fact that I have to work itself, that kinda sucks too. Going back to the first point, I'm not saying all women that work here are annoying, stupid, and inflexible. There are some cool ones, like one particular manager, whom I shall call "Skipper". Apparently she worked here for two and a half years, and is, of course, a full time student about to graduate, and therefore, has a half-decent future ahead of her. She's generally very pleasant to deal with thus-far, and I actually confided in her about Troll. In general, she said that she will help me deal with Troll if Troll is going nuts and decides to fire me or royally screw me over like give me like, 7 hours a week from 7 to 8 in the morning each day. I just find it incredible that "Skipper" has endured this for two and a half years. I guess doing this part-time while going to school keeps you from being demoralized and knowing that you'll be doing something else eventually. Working in a burger joint full-time and sometimes you start to think that you might be stuck doing this for the rest of your life, and that's scary.

Anyways, my usual routine is do some garnishing, do cash if they tell me to, sweep the floor, wipe the tables, change the garbage bags, and restock some items and garnish. I alter it up, just so I can look like I'm doing something constructive and therefore will not bitch at me or tell me to do stuff that I'd rather not do, like mop the floor. The thing is, I kinda like doing the aforementioned tasks because they're fucking easy to do and aren't physically demanding.

Basically, try to bleed out as many hours as possible. I'm making progress on saving up money, and haven't gotten fired (lost and exiled to Quebec) so far, so I guess that's a plus. Approximately 26 weeks left in Survivor: MW!

Survivor: MM - Day 1, 2, 3, and a bitter rant about CT

So I have worked three days at Harvey's without getting fired or reprimanded yet. So far, this is the least objectionable place I have worked since I left Chipworks. The tasks that I am assigned to are so far not that bad relatively. Taking orders, doing cash, garnishing the burgers, and even tasks that I traditionally despised, such as sweeping, cleaning tables, and taking out the garbage, just seems to be easier than, say, working those dirty assed kitchens that I worked at at the beginning of September. This is much more bearable than Canadian Tire, because I'm not stuck in one place at a time. Eventually I will have to do prepping and the frier for the fries and onion rings, cause I see some of the kids doing that.

I have to say that the manager is a genuinely nice guy. All the managers I had in my Minimum Wage adventures have been owners of the establishment, so they are all no non-sense and watching-you-under-their-constant-gaze types (i.e. dicks). There are a few dicks here too, but there are not that many, and I am on good terms with the manager, so all is good for now. I think he might be the nicest manager I've had since Denise from my co-op term in Toronto.

Overall, this Harvey's location isn't a horrible place to work for. A handful of students worked here for two and a half years or so, so it looks like they don't fire people randomly for being "slow". No one is bitching at me for being "slow" or some bullshit, and the tasks aren't as physically demanding or backbreaking as the three other jobs that I worked at since September. I actually was told I'm doing a pretty good job. All in all, Survivor: MM is proceeding as planned. Six more months to go.

One observation that I have is that the people here are a lot less anal than Canadian Tire. For example, in Canadian Tire, the people (that weren't fired) really seem to be indoctrinated (and therefore more likely to rat you out if you speak frankly), or for the managers, have an authoritarian streak to them. We were instructed to learn about things like "corporate mission" and stuff like that. Managers at CT go left and right giving "verbal warnings" or "reprimands" like they're some hall monitor in some middle school, and everyone is careful of what they say because everyone is a potential big brother. Canadian Tire made up all these inane policies and irrelevant training that I had to learn and adhere to. I got written up for a warning in Canadian Tire once because I was 7 minutes early instead of 10 minutes early like I was suppose to. I am here to make minimum wage, my labor is already being exploited disproportionally to make rich people richer. Don't make me give a shit about Canadian Tire's corporate strategy or be here 10 minutes early for my shift instead of 7 minutes. I don't need 10 minutes to be ready, I only need 1. As long as I'm ready to go at the appropriate time, don't bitch at me and fuck off.

However, in Harvey's, you just have to be ready at the right time (with your uniform and everything) and there's no problem. You don't need to be here 10 minutes beforehand or some crap like that. I don't need to know about Harvey's corporate strategy. They just taught me how to do things that I need to do on this job, and I'm not being harassed to give up my time outside of work. Overall, a much nicer place to work for, if unglamorous. Hey, if I'm getting paid minimum wage, then I'd rather just do work, not know as much as irrelevant information as possible, and not know what the hell Canadian Tire's 5 values are.

Another thing that is good about Harvey's, or accurately, another thing that sucked about working at Canadian Tire, are "secret shoppers". What these douchebags do is that they pretend to be a customer and try to catch you making a mistake. Mistakes include not saying "hello, how are you", offering to sell them those ripoff Canadian Tire MasterCard plans, having to open up every stacked large bins and containers to check for theft and then awkwardly apologizing to the customer because you are basically accusing them of theft, having to scan 50 of the same thing, even though you can just hit x50 and scan once, and saying "thanks, see you soon". You get reprimanded for saying "thanks, have a nice day" (because it signals them that you don't want them to come back... yeah), and not scanning every item, despite the fact that 50 of the said items are the exact same thing. But no, you have to scan each of them. Once these secret douchebags catch you, you are given a reprimand by the manager. You never know when these guys are around, but given the fact that 99% of Canadian Tire's clientèle are people over the age of 80, well it's probably going to be that middle aged smug bastard that's buying 50 bins, stacked on top of each other, inviting me to waste hours unstacking and scanning each one while frustrating the hell out of other customers.

Speaking of training, there is online training thing that employees (i.e. I) go through called "Canadian Tire University". In it, they have these "courses", and they have many courses including "Canadian Tire Corporation Strategy, Corporate Vision, and other crap that business majors invent to make themselves feel useful. They set it up like a curriculum so that if you take these courses and some of these electives, you get a "degree" or certification, just like a real university! First of all, I object strongly to the name, because using the word "university" in their corporate indoctrination program is demeaning to real universities. Universities are places of knowledge and free thought, they promote equality and fairness and intellectual merit, and serve as the economic equalizer of society. This "Canadian Tire University" and Canadian Tire itself is the antithesis of a University, it's a corporation that only cares about profits. Canadian Tire University is to universities what Church of Scientology is to churches; it's blasphemous.

In Harvey's, there's no crap like that. People are just generally more chilled out/apathetic. When customers come in, people usually say "hi, what would you like", or something to that effect; nothing's set in stone. You know, normal, appropriate stuff, instead of clumsily engineered statutory phrases born out of an attempt by a corporation to make the customers feel at ease while regarding people's worth only in so far as how they contribute to their profits.

Maybe it's because the workers at Harvey's are basically indistinguishable from, say, Beavis and Butthead in those Burger World episodes. Maybe because people working at Harvey's are in general much less anal. Harvey's is just less stressful place to work for, and as I said, I'm making minimum wage, so I can't afford good healthcare anyways.

Speaking of money, I got my check from Canadian Tire recently for my time there. I have extracted a total of around $460 from them. Not too bad for less than a week of work. They can still kiss my ass though. Fuckers.

Survivor: Minimum Wage

So for those of you that don't know, I got fired from Canadian Tire (boycott Canadian Tire!) two weeks ago. What happened was that they said I was "too slow", which was a complete lie, because I was performing at the speed of the other regular cashiers. I was very competent and never had a customer complain or become dissatisfied with my service made the sudden termination by that bastard manager with a shit-eating grin all the more surprising. The more likely reason was that I recognized this almost axiomatic fact: Canadian Tire is a horrible place to work for. The managers and department heads (except my Head Cashier, she was really nice) treat their subordinates with absolute contempt, and what little authority they receive in their retail job world they use it to abuse their underlings. The fact that this didn't rub well on me, the fact that I forgot to bring my pen with me (a required item) a few times, and working in a place where my legs buckled faster than Space Shuttle Challenger were the real reasons that I was fired. Retail is horrible, and good riddance to them. Some people enjoy retail work, lording over their underlings because that's the only place in their life where they have a little bit of authority, just like some people are Nazis (or both). I believe afterwards some of the other new hires found new jobs, so good for them. I'll miss some of the guys I worked with.

For the past two weeks, I've been seriously thinking about how else I should make due with my year in suspension. My original plan was to work from September to March/April and then go on a vacation. But, if I don't find a job soon, I need to have a second plan that would interesting and/or educational. A co-worker from Canadian Tire, Mimi, suggested a brilliant idea. She, like I, was very disgruntled, and told me about the Quebec government's subsidy of French language classes in their province. Basically, there are many French language schools in Quebec that the Province would like Anglophone Canadians to go to. They subsidize, and according to intetwebs rumors, even let Canadians go for free. Now, I am an adventurous guy, and while Quebec is no Europe or Middle East or whatever, it's still very different than English North America. I wanted to improve my French anyways, and I would like to explore a new culture, so my plan was that if I don't find a job soon, I think I will take what I saved and enroll into a French language school in Quebec. I like learning languages, and French is a very important language in this country, because all the decent paying jobs for those with a high school degree need bilingual abilities. Also, rumor from knowledgeable sources has it that French chicks (that aren't from Quebec) dig the Quebec French accent. So learning French in Quebec is a very attractive option.

Thankfully I found a new job today at Harvey's. And having learned my lesson, having had three jobs in the last month, I think I definitely need to change my mindset, which is to "get through" six months somehow, hopefully with as little effort as possible, and then go vacationing. The problem with this mindset is that I tend to get discouraged by how hard work is (having been spoiled at Chipworks by work that were enjoyable, and thus easy). Henceforth, I will have to adopt a new mindset.

I call it "Survivor: Minimum Wage". The idea is that what I am going through is a challenge. I gotta treat this situation like a gameshow. The challenge is to get through six months of minimum wage action, and all the delinquency and abuse that comes with it, and if I succeed, I win a free vacation. If I lose (i.e. get fired), I am banished to Quebec to learn French. Honestly, it's a win-win situation, because while one alternative is slightly more attractive to the other, the banishment to Quebec thing isn't that bad; it's just a toned down version of vacationing, really.

Anyways, hopefully I will succeed in "Survivor: Minimum Wage". Outwit, Outplay, Outlast!

I never want to be academically suspended ever again

Okay, so for those of you that don't know, I am academically suspended this year. This is because of a number of stupid beliefs and personal errors that I made. Nonetheless, what happened was that I failed most of my electives. Namely, the damned arts electives with essays. Anyways, doesn't matter.

I worked this summer at Chipworks, an IT intellectual property company with fantastic work environment that my dad worked at for the past 10 years (i.e. 95% of our time in Canada). Working at that place for two months seriously made me underestimate how hard it is to make money. This is not to say that I did a bad job at CW. In fact, I think I did fantastic work there because I just did what I'm naturally good at, which is research, working with internet, and sitting on my ass for hours at a time with intermittent piss/smoke breaks.

After that, I stupidly decided to look into other jobs, namely, restaurant kitchen jobs, because I "wanted to know what it's like to work at a restaurant" and that "everyone growing up have worked in shitty jobs before" and that "restaurants might be fun." Biggest mistake ever, because all these myths have been dispelled in around 4 five-hour shifts.

I can honestly say that working in a kitchen is the worst job ever, and that I'm reminded of how limited my physical capabilities are. I mean, I bike fairly regularly, fairly far, so I'm in good shape right? Wrong. Not being able to sit for five hours at a time, constantly moving large, heavy dishes and kitchenware, as well as having to put up with dirty dishes and nauseous chemicals is just a whole lot of no fun. Even worse, is when people around you do this day-in, day-out, and actually enjoy it. That was the worst and the most tiring work experience I have endured my life; it is beyond the scope of my physical endurance. I quit after 4 shifts in 2 restaurants.

So now, I am employed as a cashier at Canadian Tire. I heard good things about it, and I have heard that cashier is not too bad of a job in terms physical exertion. Well, we'll see how this goes, but the break policies is worse than at Quiznos, which was a quick break every hour or two. Here, it is five, so I have to stand for 5 hours at a time. Crap. Get me my knee supports.

Which brings me to this: why the hell am I in this situation in the first place? If I got my education and my shit together, I would never have to grind my ass on these sort of jobs. Jobs like this is why people get an education. I never want to be academically suspended again. When I get back to school, I will destroy the hell out of my studies, it will make the professor stupid. Man, I'll never fuck up in school ever again.

Which brings to my lesson learned: only take CS/Math courses and foreign language courses i.e. what I'm GOOD at.