Post-Survival update

So this will be the last entry in the long-lasting Survivor: Minimum Wage series. I know that I haven't posted in a while, and that is because I was busy relaxing and doing nothing lately.

To keep things in perspective, today is a Monday. My last shift was on the Friday of the week before the week before last week. 17 (seventeen!!!) days have passed since I worked. Kinda surreal that 17 days have already passed, and my memory about Harvey's are already fading, as well as any thought or focus on Harvey's. That's how lazy I've been in doing blog posts. To be honest, I haven't really been thinking about this anymore since I've been unemployed. Oh well.

So last Friday, I went in and got my last paycheck, as well as my vacation pay. As I was going in, the place was busy as hell, and it did not relent until at least 2:30. Because I went in at 2:00 in the afternoon, I had to basically wait 30 minutes and chat with Hussein, Mamoud, and his friends. They're actually telling me that Troll isn't as bitchy anymore ever since I left? Whaaaaat.

So on that day, I saw Konvikt, Troll, Boss, Mom, Harley, and two new employees. And a shit load of customers. Seriously. Harvey's food is stomach churning, why there are so many people that would eat that crap, I will never understand.

Once the line died down, Paul came up to me and gave me two checks, one for vacation pay and the other for the last four days of my employment. I ended up getting more than I actually expected. Around 100$ more than I expected. Excellent...

So now that I no longer have to go to Harvey's for any reason whatsoever, I will post the nicknames of the co-workers that I gave when I wrote this blog.

Boss - Paul
Troll - Karen
Hobgoblin - Amanda
Stupid Lying Bitch (SLB) - the short Jenn. Fucking hate her.
Skipper - Katie
Konvikt -Mo
Co-op - Ed
Mom - Natalie
Pandora - Neeshee
Colonel - Kevin

Now, I promised to say something good about my time working at Harvey's, but I seriously can't say anything that I will particularly miss. Well, I will miss the camaraderie between me and Ed and Mo, and when I worked nights with the high schoolers and Kevin, I eventually had fun there too.

I know what I won't miss. I definitely won't miss the batshit insanity of Troll, i.e. Karen. I definitely won't miss waking up at fucking 6:30 or 7 AM during weekends to slice tomatos and pickles. I definitely won't miss the shitty attitude of Amanda, whom I heard have apparently quit as well because her boyfriend called off the engagement... probably because he regained sobriety and saw what an fucking bitch her bride to be is, and thus has to move back with her parents in her redneck town (aka Kingston). Add to the feeling that this torture will never end, and Survivor: Minimum Wage was truly an experience I won't want to repeat. Anyways, since these bad things pretty much dominate and stifle over the good parts, I definitely will not be missing this.

When I was working, I thought I would never see the day when I don't have to work there anymore. The goal just seems too far fetched, working at the place seems like it will never end. And traveling to so many places for so long seems too... unreal. I still haven't quite processed what I've done, and what's going to happen in 44 days. A friend of mine said that it will start sinking in once I'm on the plane. Just like I have a hard time thinking about doing the hated job when I'm resting at home, so too is it hard to think about what traveling alone, in so many different environments, will be like. But, I think that, just like work, when I get there, I'll just know what to do.

This is going to be my last post on Survivor: MM. I'm not sure of the future of this blog. I think I will use this blog as a personal blog, and I will have a more serious blog (Survivor: MM has basically destroyed the seriousness of this blog) and have a more serious blog made up in another domain. How frequently I will update this blog is what puts this blog's future in jeopardy. However, I will definitely be posting a lot (whenever I can) in my travel blog at tomsbackpackingblog.blogspot.com.

To all those that I worked with, you guys definitely made my experience there an overall good and educational one, and for that, I thank you all. Except Jen, Amanda, and Karen. Go fuck yourselves. Seriously.

Day 143 - Like being hit by a fucking train

Today was the last day of Survivor: Minimum Wage. I went in slightly tired, because I only slept for around 6.5 hours.

Troll was there today. Great. Not going to leave on a high note then.

The day started pretty normally, and the regulars are all there i.e. me, Co-op, Konvikt, Mom, Hobgoblin, Troll, Pandora, and the Boss, like countless other days. Today is the definition of a typical day. The rush comes in, and we all started to do our thing. Except for the fact that the fucking cunt literally assaulted me.

Basically, I was garnishing some customer's orders. My hand slipped, and a tong dropped on the ground. So I picked it up and put it on an area of the front counter thats well away from the food area, to put in the back later, because there's about a billion customers waiting to have their orders garnished. Right then, the fat fucking bitch literally BODY CHECKED ME and grabbed the tongs and said "don't put dropped tongs on the counter". She violently assaulted me for no fucking reason. I was actually physically shaken by that, like a rape victim, because this was basically a rape. Holy fucking shit. That fat fucking thing was so heavy, when she slammed into me, it was like being hit by a fucking train. Fucking ridiculous. The last thing I ever wanted in this life was to have that fat, noxious, repulsive, wart-faced walking blubber against my body.

The thing that surprised me the most was the audacity of what she did. It was so audacious but so characteristically barbaric and disrespectful that I was shocked and not the least bit surprised at the same time. What a fucking classy act, on the last day of my work too.

For the next 10 minutes of work, I was completely distracted by the thought of what I should do. Maybe yell at her? Maybe threaten her? I thought about saying something like "if you ever fucking touch me again...", but I honestly can't think of a good way to end that sentence. What would my threat be? What is the worst thing I can do to her? Quit? How do I complete this sentence without sounding like a complete fucking retard? Complain to the boss? It's my last day, what would I gain by agitating or upsetting him by telling him what a bitch his loving wife is?

Konvikt and Co-op both said that I should have blew up on her. I guess I should have, I was completely justified in blowing up on her. But, in addition to not having a threat, I can't think of a good opportunity to do blow up on her because there were so many customers waiting to be served, and to be honest, I don't have the nerve to do something like that. The reason is because, honestly, I was afraid of having a 500 pound gorilla assaulting me, seeing as she had no problem slamming her fat vagina on me. Being assaulted by a large round gorilla can cause serious injuries, and I didn't go to my last day of work expecting to leave in a stretcher. In retrospect, I do kind of regret not being able to stand up for myself in this situation. But, I do take a slight comfort in being the better man, and more importantly, not blowing up and upsetting the Boss, who is crazy enough to actually care about this bitch.

Other than that incident, the day passed off normally and peacefully once I calmed down. I did my thing, cleaned tables, filled up the bowls, checked the pop tower (put ice in it), told Pandora that she was fired for the billionth time. When the time came, I said good-bye to the people I liked (Konvikt, Co-op, Pandora, and Mom), shook hands with the Boss, and thanked him for giving me the opportunity. I actually am thankful for this experience and to the Boss for giving me the chance. This is one of the few things in my life that I truly earned without feeling too easy and eventually end up not appreciating and squandering it (like getting into the University of Waterloo, for example), and it taught me some valuable lessons. Lessons like, for example, never to screw up on education ever again; school always takes priority over everything. EVERYTHING. That making money is hard, which I should know, because I was fired from 3 places before settling on this barely doable job. That persevering in the face of a long challenge is worth it, which is some a valuable lesson that I will remember in my time at school. Cause if these lessons weren't learned, I'm going to have to end up repeating these lessons, maybe at a job even shittier and with a more insane boss than this.

This is kind of surreal, actually. I can't believe that all these months that I've been looking at my spreadsheet for travel, that I don't have to go work at that place ever again, that I will (hopefully) never garnish a burger, or asking the customer if he wants a fry or a ring with his combo, that I never will have to slice tomatoes or pickles on that broken down slicer machine. No more constantly glancing at the digital clock on top of the drive through window. No more checking the schedule to see who's working that day, or more importantly, if Troll was working with me or not. All of this, I'm done. It's really a huge change, now I am confronted with LOADS of free time, something I haven't experienced in 7 months. It's like coming back from war or long-term traveling. I still haven't processed mentally these sudden changes, even though I have been looking forward to it for so ridiculously long. It still feels like I have to get to sleep at 11 tonight to get up for my 8 to 2:30 weekend shift. But I don't. I'm done. The reality hasn't sunk in yet.

This will definitely take a while to get used to.

I was going to write some closing thoughts about my time working there, some of the positive or funny things that have happened, or some nice things about it. Going in today, I was thinking that I might even be nostalgic of the times I spent working there, that I might actually miss working there, the teamwork, the rough, but hardworking people that eventually opens up to you and become a good friend (i.e. Mom), the friendships that I made, the funny things we said and the things we laughed about. But after having Troll being at work today, and especially with this bodychecking incident, I can't really think of anything good to write at this moment, and I honestly won't be missing this work. This bitch ruined it.

Actually, now that I think about it, this bodychecking incident is a good thing. It's a deterrent to me missing my time working at Harvey's, to not take school seriously and thinking that working at Harvey's is a fall back, a better option than it actually is, "Harvey's wasn't all that bad". This incident compelled, and really, this whole blog, are going to make me to work harder at school so I can never end up in this situation, and that's just a good thing, because I can't get nostalgic about this.

In spite of all that, I WILL write some good things about this job in a post-game follow up post in the next few days.

Survivor: Minimum Wage is over. Outplayed, outwitted, outlasted!

... and no, I did not show up early today :D

Day 142 - Twilight of the Survivor

So I haven't updated for a little while, unfortunately. I've been really busy lately with some school stuff (busy doesn't mean productive). Tomorrow will be the last day at Harvey's for me. So many people have quit recently, like Eric the world of warcraft guy (and brother of Skipper), countless high school girls. And now, it is my turn.

To continue from the last entry: after that shouting incident with the Troll, which was the worst incident of abuse that she has ever inflicted to me thus far, and likely ever (but I've seen other people get worse). I was exhausted from enduring the Troll marathon that were the weekdays of that week. And now the Troll blew up on me. I fucking had it. I knew that was the day that I will tell Boss that I'm quitting.

A few moments later, I told boss that I need to talk to him about something after my shift was done. When my shift was over, I stood by the back counter area, waited for the boss to come over so I can get this conversation started.

I have never complained to the Boss about Troll before, because I don't want to risk my job and Survivor and my trip. But now, I was pissed and I had nothing to lose. So when he came over, for the first time ever, I told him that today's abuse from Troll was completely unacceptable. He actually got offended at that, and started to defend her, saying that lately she's been under a lot of stress from working so much hours... yeah, no shit, cause she suspended Konvict and took all his hours for herself.

Then I told him that Troll horrible and counterproductive attitude and unacceptable behaviours. For example, when I ask her anything or say anything to her, she literally ignores it like she didn't fucking hear anything, and instead of asking or talking to me, to, for example, let her take over the cash, she would just not even talk to me and literally shove me aside with her grubby troll fingers. This kind of ridiculous behaviour is well-known to everyone. After I told the Boss about the Troll's behaviour, and asking him about what he will do about this, all he said was "have I said 'please' to her". I was completely taken aback by the statement, because this is probably the stupidest, most naive statement I heard this year. After all that, the guy is asking me if I said please to her, when she has never shown any civility since literally Day 1. The fact that I didn't spit on her face until my mouth is course every time I see her is an incredible act of grace on my part. It was just such an unexpected response that I can only mutter out "I don't need to say please", a lame, inarticulate response, but the only thing I think of after hearing something as ludicrous as that. The boss provided a non-sequitor. I am actually completely surprised by my Boss. I was expecting some degree of sympathy from him, maybe a lie about how he will try to get the Troll to be a little more civilized. No, the guy was actually defending her somewhat tenaciously. It's incredible how anyone can be this loyal to that fucking round thing, who frequently verbally and emotionally abuses the Boss in public. I guess the Boss has a fetish for the Fat and the Insane.

I closed the argument by saying, "this is completely unacceptable, and I have to quit. You'll get a written letter tomorrow." I was expecting him to be a little bit surprised, but he wasn't. He knew this was coming, and all he said was "well, okay." I've done it. I've quit.

After I left the store, I felt euphoria. The moment I've dreamt about for so long, the countless times earlier that I had to resisting to quit, has finally arrived. All the pressures and fear of losing my job, of losing my trip, of being afraid of the Troll, of having to appease that monster, all of it fades, and the end was coming. I can't believe it. I was full of adrenaline that day.

That day was almost two weeks ago. The two weeks following have been going so incredibly fast. It was incredible how smoothly and enjoyable these two weeks have been. The Troll no longer yells or abuse me anymore, because all her power have been taken away from her. I no longer said "please" or "can I ..." like I did occasionally to not have her explode on me, like that one time when she yelled at me for being rude because I didn't say those words ever to her, (LOL), even though she never deserved it and she never had a problem with that before. Everything was just easy going, I no longer felt pressure, and I ended up doing having much more energy and being more productive at work than I have ever been. This is what happens when the poisonous atmosphere don't affect employees, they work a lot better.

As was mentioned previously, because I've quit earlier than planned, I am missing about 8 days of wages. So, to make up for it, I shaved down a week off of my Western Europe time. Instead of having 35 days in Europe, I will instead spend 28 there. That saves me about 650 dollars, more than enough to cover the lost days. The 8 days lost isn't really a big deal to me anyways, because I actually had no plans for those 8 days. Unfortunately, the way the train schedule is and everything, that means I will spend less than 24 hours in Paris, instead of 4 as originally planned. Oh well, that place is for the rich anyways. I'll go back there some other time in the future, when I don't have to work in a minimum wage job to travel.

Looking back, despite the bad things about this job, namely the Troll, there were some good parts too. I've made some friends, met some cool people, the place was close enough to home that I can walk there, and it has some really good policies, such as that they won't give you a hard time if you are late a few minutes (which for the past 2 months I have been pretty much everyday). The last point really stuck out. People would think that it's obvious that you wouldn't get too much shit if you're late 1 or 2 minutes, or at the very least, on time. But no, some places, such as Canadian Tire, require you to be at work 10 minutes before the shift starts. I got written up because I was 7 minutes instead of 10 minutes early. Fucking cunts. Boycott CT!

I have to say though, that the managers at this Harvey's work hard, work long hours, and, from what I've seen, don't really have too much in their life except this job. It's hard not to feel at least a little bit of sympathy for them (with an obvious exception or two), because all of them, except Troll and Hobgoblin, are decent people. Well, I guess that really only leaves the other two managers, Boss and Mom. I do feel bad to have to kind of offend Boss as a way of giving him my resignation, and I didn't tell Mom that I handed in my two-weeks notice, because her son recently had a surgery for some cancer thing, and I didn't want to upset her, except she found out today that I'm going to quit tomorrow. Oh well. At least, from her mood, her son is probably doing well.

So tomorrow is the last day of Survivor: Minimum Wage. I will definitely savour it. I plan on showing up to work early (for once!). Hell, maybe I'll even buy a burger!

Survivor: Minimum Wage continues!

Day 130 - Quit!

Yep... I've finally had enough. I quit today!

This Saturday started out like any other Saturday... I came in about 2 or 3 minutes late, went to the change room, and expected to hear Skipper's upbeat voice. Except I didn't.

Except I heard the rumbling of a Troll.

I got pissed off at this point. Really pissed off. I was exhausted from having to deal with this fucking cunt for the last 3 out of 5 days, and I was looking forward to Skipper's today badly. Instead, I get this stupid fucking shitface. This is going to be a long, fucking day, and this will require buddhist master like inner-peacefulness to get through.

Except I'm no buddhist master.

So my weekend started off like any other weekend for the past 130 days: push the tomato through the grinder. Except the tomatoes we're getting is fucked up and half of them are soft. So instead of getting tomato slices when you put the tomatoes through, you get tomato spaghetti. This makes making tomato bowls exceedingly difficult, and exceedingly frustrating. My patience was getting thin... FUCKING thin.

I eventually finished with those damn tomato bowls (damn... can't believe I have to do them again tomorrow). So after a break, I was on garnish (again). Fat Cunt (this nickname has officially replaced Troll) yelled at me to get a new bowl for my area... problem is that the bowls in my area were all full. So I said "they're full". All of a sudden she got pissed (no surprise) because someone actually pointed out that its impossible to do. She is the kind of person that gets pissed off for no reason at all, so she basically repeated what she said, except with her teeth gritted and clearly losing her temper, the exact same thing... not taking my question or the reality of the situation in consideration at all. Normally, I would do it, but today, my patience ran out, and I kinda want to fuck with her, to be honest, because I know that I can't be fired (a lot of people have been quitting lately because they got tired of putting up with Fat Cunt's bullshit, and that since we are already short-staffed every lunch time during weekdays, so I know my job is safe) . So I said "they're full" again. So she said, "what part do you not understand" in the previously aforementioned ridiculous tone. I said, again (mirroring her ridiculousness) "it's full". She basically lost her shit and screamed "GET A NEW BOWL OR GO HOME". Slightly jolted at this (but not surprised), I went off to get new bowls... only to see her fill the bowl up from full to... teeming full...

I was outraged by this attitude, and at this point, I had no doubt in my mind that today, I will be telling Boss that I'm quitting.

More to come in Part 2.

Day 124 - False Ending

So today would have been the day that I win Survivor: Minimum Wage... except that it's not. As previously stated in the blog, at this time, I have already accumulated enough funds to go on my trip... and stay in China. Since I intend to come back to Canada after this trip, and that I'd rather not rely on my family members (my extended family because I do not want to give them financial pressure for a short visit, and my immediate family because they are pricks and won't lend me any money), I need around 2 more paychecks. That means one more month of Survivor: Minimum Wage. So, instead of celebrating today and doing other stuff I want to do because I would've been done if my parents would just give me a loan, I have to work 4 more grueling weeks.

I really really wished that today was my last day, because on either tomorrow or the day after, the district manager for Cara will be visiting. When that guy comes, even the Troll gets scared. And like any brutal slave driving dictator that has his/her authority challenged, the Troll will get even more mentally unstable, paranoid, and angry. And that means I get to suffer.

What's making this worse is that Konvict got suspended for a week because he didn't come in one day or something. This means that the Troll is going to be around even more during my shifts, i.e. all four of my weekday shifts, and I'm fucking pissed about that. Troll and I are pretty much not on speaking terms anymore, because it's so completely clear that I fucking hate her that I don't even disguise it anymore, nor do I care to disguise it. The things that she do, like literally shoving me aside from behind, instead of talking to me like a normal person, or not giving me any instructions or answering my fucking questions or queries on what she wants me to do (because she doesn't talk to me) and then yell at me for not being a fucking mindreader and knowing what to do in the ambiguous of situations. Just by thinking about her as I was writing this sentence made me look up ways of scraping off some money from my budget so I don't have to work for four more weeks, but alas, I can't (without seriously degrading my experience).

I also think it's a little suspicious that the biggest beneficiary of this happens to be the Troll, who got 10 more hours than she was suppose to.

Anyways, for four more weeks, I am essentially working for that ticket from Beijing to Toronto. I have a feeling that next week will be challenging.

Survivor: Minimum Wage lives on!

Day 116 - Two Betrayals

Today, I've broken two promises that I made to myself. One is to quit next week, the other is to never use my money to buy food at Harvey's.

The reason I had to break the first promise, which is to quit next week, is because in my original cost estimate, I did not take into account the cost of the plane ticket from China to Canada (basically, the way home). The reason is because I originally thought that I have a nice family and that they would be so happy to see me that they would buy the ticket for me. It's been clear (for a while now) that my parents won't be give me shit (as in they won't be giving me anything good, not "giving me shit", i.e. pestering me and making my life crap, which they will give me). So my secondary plan is to have my those previously aforementioned family member, who are so grateful to see me, to give me money for a ticket home. However, that's kinda unreliable. The third option is to have my aunt borrow me the fund necessary once I get there to buy a ticket. That option still kinda stands open, but also somewhat unreliable (I may have to take up that option tho should I get fired before I make the money needed).

The reason that this is actually noteworthy is because the planet ticket from China to Canada is expensive. Ridiculously expensive. It costs between, if booked today, 7 months ahead of time, from $850 (Etihad Airways) to $1250 (Air Canada and American Airlines (of course)). The cost is almost equal to the rest of my plane tickets combined (and I have 6 other planet tickets total). Basically, what I'm looking at is 4 more weeks of work if I manage to get the cheapest flight. Redonkulous.

To be honest, I always kinda knew (even though I wish it wouldn't) that I had to pay for this flight too. It's just that previously, I didn't include this cost in my calculation so that I wouldn't be too damn depressed at having to work until mid-March. However, since mid-March is only 5 weeks away, and that if I actually didn't have to pay for this cost, tomorrow would have been the day that I tell Boss that I'm quitting, all this is slightly easier to swallow.

So it looks like Survivor: Minimum Wage got extended by 4 more gruelling weeks. Four more weeks of troll dodging. Four more weeks of slinging mud with Hobgoblin. Four more weeks of dealing with Stupid Lying Bitch. Four more weeks of dealing with the Boss's angst. The good news is that the Super Hippy got fired (which I'm sorry to not have witnessed, I heard it was hilarious).

This trip better be damn worth it.

The reason that I broke the second promise, which is that I would never spend a single dime of my hard earned money on Harvey's, is because I was hungry. Harvey's employee benefits is a joke. You have to spend $40 of your own money to buy the uniform, your only employee benefits are 50% discount on Harvey's food during your shift, and you get a shitty card that entitles you to a massive 20% discount on Cara restaurants. This is truly the shittiest company that I have ever worked for. Ever. Not only do you get an insulting employee perk, but the management lies to your face. For example, when one guy said "don't you usually get free uniforms at places?", the Hobgoblin said "no". What a fucking liar. I have never worked at a place that required you to pay for uniform. The company also steals your holiday premium pay. I would never recommend people I don't dislike to work for Harvey's, Montana's, Swiss Chalet, because all these places are under the same umbrella corporation.

Anyways, the reason this is such a big deal is because, first of all, the food is disgusting, dirty (I know where that sliced pickle and tomato have been) and leads to heart attacks. I would only eat at this place if I was hungry as hell and I couldn't eat at home and if it was free. I only ate here before on the few occasions when it was a free meal (the Boss gives a free meal to people that pick up an extra shift). Some people, some fatassed fucking disgusting people, seem to indulge in this fucking shit everyday, specifically Troll and Hobgoblin. I seriously don't understand. I don't even consider that I work with food at work; I work with factory manufactured shit. Second, even after the pathetic employee discount, I still paid five bucks. I just consider it plain wrong to work half an hour to basically get this shit, instead of getting five bucks. But today, I had no choice.

And what a grand feasting it was. I had the Smoky Maple Premium burger with large fries and honey mustard dipping. Holy shit. First of all, I got 5 kilos heavier and lost 5 months of my life expectancy. Second, I'm still fucking thirsty at this moment, 8 hours from my first bite, because of the ridiculous amount of sodium in that stuff. I should've bought a pack of cigarettes instead; it would've lasted me longer, got rid of hunger (until Dinner), and I would have been 5 kilos lighter. I feel sick right now. I can't believe this place actually gets customers.

Anyways, Survivor, Minimum Wage continues!

If you'll excuse me, I gotta go to the bathroom.

Day 104 - Murder at Algonquin

I signed up for a French class (Beginner's 1) at Algonquin College a week ago, and today was my first class. And with the way it went, today is also my last class.

It was an unmitigated disaster. The teacher is completely inept. She did not have the syllabus ready, she did not a coherent lesson plan, she did not even know all the verbs in VANDERTRAMP (which a french educator should know), she did not even have the list of students (we had to write it down on a piece of paper). Basically, she did not have her shit together at all. Her teaching strategy is extremely curious: she literally opened the class by writing down the conjugation to etre and avoir, which any retard can just Google if he/she (oh sorry, en francais, il/elle) forgets. Then, she does the same thing except in Future simple and Past perfect form. Hello? This is Beginner 1. What the hell are you doing with future simple and past perfect in the first class of Beginner 1? I felt really bad for the poor Chinese girl in front that didn't even know what "je", "vous", "il/elle" means, she was clearly ready to die. This woman does not know how to teach.

The teacher was so god damn incompetent. Her piss poor teaching method actually sparked an argument between her and 3 or 4 classmates. Things were getting angry and people were getting pissed, snide remarks were openly and freely made by some of the more vocal classmates.

The problem with the grammar lesson (which is not what I was looking for) was that she does not actually explain the grammar coherently, because she is a poor English speaker, and apparently a poor grasp of the linguistic and grammatical principles of French as well. She just explains things in a way that only people that already know (and thus don't need to have things explained) would understand, so it was futile. It was obvious she had no plan, and she stated that she "just teaches whatever she wants", so she intend to not ever having a plan.

For the last third of the class, she FINALLY started to write down some damn dialogues, in forms of personal questions (where do you live, what's your name, etc). Things got considerably better, people got less pissed, but the teaching experience is still crippled by her absolute ineptitude, so most people weren't that eager and people were still pretty pissed. At that point, I knew I was not going to learn any French from her, and judging from the reactions of other classmates, I think a lot of people will ask for a refund.

What pisses me off is that this class is ridiculously expensive, like, 1.3 times more expensive than the Alliance Francais course. I thought that a college class is a safe bet because institutions like this would have a fucking clue, but then I learned that college administration, like the people that attend there, have mostly no fucking clue. Tabarnak!

Anyways, I'm going to get a refund on Wednesday. I still want to take a French class before I go to France, so I'm thinking of going to Alliance Francais in Ottawa. It's about 100 dollars cheaper, and rumor has it that it has a high satisfaction rate (although the Ottawa website does look sketchy, and did not have any evidence to back up the high satisfaction rate they claimed). We'll see. Apparently Alliance Francais is like McDonald's, the product quality is about the same, and they are interchangeable; you complete one, you can continue on at another place.

Day 98 - An idiot and people that think we're all idiots

The good news is that the next day is my 99th day at Harvey's. The better news is that, after some adjustments on my itinerary (subtracting 5 days from Germany and France and adding 5 more days in Poland), I have saved $200. Which means, at this moment, I need approximately $850. That is almost exactly 2 paychecks away. In other words, in four weeks, I will officially be the winner of Survivor: Minimum Wage, and win my round the world trip. Needless to say, I am excited.

Another thing that is making me relieved is that I am officially past the 3 month probation period. This means I cannot be fired on the spot anymore, and instead the employer need to give a termination notice 1 week in advance or termination payment. Which means I only need to care about not getting fired (eliminated form Survivor) for 3 more weeks (well, 2 and a half weeks now). Needless to say, being able to not get fired on the spot is a great feeling. Thanks, government of Ontario!

So last week we have a new addition at Harvey's, and this guy is extremely annoying.

The guy looks like he is aways stoned, and this guy is unreservedly completely retarded, because he wouldn't shut the fuck up about his $7000 one month animal rescue eco-volunteer trip to Ecuador, or how he spent the weekend picketing Urbandale Real Estate for building houses on some pond in Kanata. What is even more incredible is that he has less social tact than even the fucking Troll. While we're at work, this guy keeps talking to me about some shit about environmentalism that nobody cares about, or about how disgusting fast food is, or how much he hates working here, WHILE HE IS GARNISHING A CUSTOMER'S FUCKING FOOD, AND THE GUY CAN HEAR HIM. Sorry, but I don't care, and the customer doesn't deserve this (well, neither do I come to think of it). One customer had some sweater that said "Trees causes pollution. Cut them Down!", clearly a joke shirt. This hippyguy actually got offended by that shirt and said to customer "You don't actually believe that do you?" in an righteous, indignant tone. The guy just answered defensively "it's just a shirt man." What the hell kind of socially untact retard would actually say that to a customer? Afterwards, when that customer was done, he turned to me and said "I bet those guys live in Urbandale houses." I wasn't sure why everyone seems to be avoiding him, maybe it was cause he's the new guy. Now I know, it's because he has a big mouth and he won't shut the hell up.

I made the unfortunate mistake of befriending this annoying whiny ecoterrorist wannabe, and this guy keeps clinging on to me like bad breath. I wouldn't be surprised if this guy gets me fired. Like, holy fuck, this guy just KEEPS TALKING TO ME. I JUST WANT TO WORK AND NOT GET INTO SHIT OR GET YELLED AT BY THE FAT TROLL. STOP TALKING TO ME YOU STONED HIPPY FUCK. YOU'RE GOING TO GET ME FIRED. YOU MIGHT NOT CARE, BUT I STILL DO. This is why I have to be a dick sometimes. I'm getting soft these days. I gotta be a huge dickhead like I used to, if only to keep some of the fucking idiots away.

Speaking of fucking idiots, that's what the management of Harvey's think of their employees, apparently, because they screwed me (and everyone working at Harvey's except possibly the manipulative and egomaniacal managers) over my premium pay that I am entitled to under the Employee Standard Act of Ontario. Under that law, if I am working on a stat holiday (which I was on Boxing Day and New Year's), I am entitled to receive premium pay, which means my hourly wage for the day is multiplied by 1.5, or in other words, $15.37. But I did not get my premium pay; my wage for the stat holidays were not multiplied by 1.5. I asked the Hobgoblin (which is also the payroll officer) about this, and her reaction is interesting. Firstly, I explained clearly that I did not receive my premium pay. She tried to divert this into an explanation on how my payroll hours were correct, and a lecture about holiday statutory pay, which were not what I was asking her about; I clearly told her that I did not get my premium pay. When I finally got through to her thick skull, she finally said that, regarding premium pay, "we don't do that here". What the fuck? You don't do that here? You're exempt from Ontario Labour Law? The law says that you are to pay 1.5 times for each hour worked on stat holiday. I tried again with the Boss, and he tried to give me the same runaround. This attracted the attention of Convict, who got curious about the fact that he got screwed over on pay. Hobgoblin comes around, and this time her explanation is that "the public holiday pay and the regular pay comes together comes to approximately 1.5 times the normal pay, that's where the 1.5 number comes from". Uh, no bitch, there's no "approximate", the law says exactly 1.5 times the hourly wage for the day should be paid. I know that they're fucking with me, and after showing it to my parents, who agreed with my assessment, we came up with the next step. Basically, I'll let this go... for now, until the day I quit, which I will hit them with this issue again, and will call the Employee Standards Board to look into this if it doesn't get resolved. Basically, I got screwed over for $57, which isn't that much, but much more important were the time I could've spent with my family on Boxing Day and New Year's Eve, not to mention the sleep I could've gotten if I didn't have to wake up at fucking 7:30 in the morning to go to work.

I'm more pissed over the fact that they're fucking with me and the people that work in the lowest income bracket and could very well have gotten away with it. I can't wait for Quit Day, which not only will I not have to put up with that stupid Fat Round Cunt called Troll, but get some government heat on them as well for unpaid wages. Fortunately, that day is coming soon... very soon.

Survivor: Minimum Wage continues!