I'm a concessionist. That means that I work in a movie theater and I sell popcorn, drinks, candy, and many other assorted items. Just a few: Icees $3.50, hot dogs $3.50, Nachos $4.50, Water $3.50, Pepsi Blue $3.50, Frappachino $3.50, Pretzel Bites, Movie Bites, then the candy: Starbusts, Skittles, M&M Plain, M&M Peanut, Reeses Pieces, Raisenets, Goobers, Milk Duds, Sour Jacks, Nerds Rope with price from $2 to $3.50.
All very fattening. Especially since you can get vegetable-oil-like butter and cheese on all food items. The food is so fattening and the people pay these rediculous prices for them. They're also willing to wait hours in line to receive them.
Being a foreigner in another country, I feel that I have the right to be liberal and talk "smack" about the natives of this country. I'm not saying that I dislike the country or that I want to leave or that this isn't a great place or even that I support places that hate this country or its people. I'm just listing a few observations. I'd do the same if I were residing in my home country or some place else. I can't just complete the same tireless repeated action over and over without trying to learn anything from it. Just a disclaimer to prevent me from being deported. Let's get started.
64% of Americans area overweight. 80%, 4 out of 5, American teenagers are obese. As a person that currently serves food to the American public, I have been thinking of the effects of what I serve to the consumers and the economical implications. I've also noticed a few things that frustrate me as a worker. Besides, these are just pet-peeves.
Indecisiveness. The people walk up, they stand 5 feet from the register, and they stare up at the menu for 5 minutes. Quite an annoyance since I have to wait for them. I don't really mind save for the fact that I'm a laborer there and have to stand for hours and wait. It gets a bit frustrating.
They come to the wrong registers. Sometimes when the concession stand isn't busy and there's hardly anyone walking around, someone might walk up and order something and there I stand at my register and they go to the one two registers down and expect me to serve them there. I can't do that, I'd have to log out, get the manager to check out my money on the register I'm on, go to another register and count it down, and then open on that register. A laborious process.
They ask if we have some sort of combo. We don't have a combo and don't advertise it. I suppose they get the idea from another theater or from 5 years ago when the theater had a combo but doesn't another. The frequency of being asked for this combo is about 1 per 10 customers.
Rediculous prices, as listed above. It would be cheaper than going to an expensive restaurant and paying $300 for a plate of cut up tomatoes and onions with a tiny parsely on the side, but the food the theater serves is still pretty expensive and I do get complaints about the prices all the time. About 3 every shift. Concessionists are required to upsell and suggestive sell, meaning that if you order nachos and a medium Pepsi, I have to ask if you want the large Pepsi for a quarter more. Not everyone goes for it. I've noticed that more people on Fridays and Sundays go for it than people on Saturdays. If there's only a quarter dollar's price difference between the large and the medium drink $3.50-$3.75, then why waste that much money getting the small or medium when the large is only $0.25-$0.50 more? It would be more value for the money. But I've listened to their replies and have concluded that these people have little self control. Somewhere in your mind there should be something that could tell you that you're not thirsty anymore and that you could stop drinking or that you're full and don't need to eat anything else. But I look at their round stomachs and think otherwise.
When suggestive selling, I might ask if they want candy or nachos with their order. Mostly, they give the replies,"No thanks, I just ate," or, "We just came from dinner." Then I look at their order and I see that they've ordered so many high-caloric food items and wonder why they're eating again after they've just eaten. This could be another cause for why America is so overweight.
A couple walks up and stares at the prices and speaks inaudibly to each other for about 5 minutes, then decides to order with that same inaudible voice. There's music, there's the sound of the preview, there's the chit chatter of the customers behind, and there's the noise from the other people on register. I can't decipher a whisper from a room of loud noise without having some sort of bionic ear. I'm no superman. Sometimes couples walk up and they're hunch over on each other and they're making love right there in front of me. I like love. I enjoy seeing people show affection for each other. But some of those couples really should find a room - they take it too far and make love right there in front of everyone.
The customer may spend 10 minutes rummaging through their pockets for change after they make their order and walk off. I wonder why that is - since they've already paid. It takes up time from the people that are behind them.
I long for the day when they stop using paper for money transactions. Money has to be among the dirtiest objects in the world. I handle their money and I serve them their food with the same unwashed hands. There's nothing I can do to control that; I can't go and wash my hands between each transaction. Debit cards are a wonderful idea (overlooking the fact that if someone steals it they may wipe out your account or there could be worser consequences), but after the customer purchases something they must sign a receipt. Still, more paper. Though it is a more cleanly transaction, there could be mroe efficient methods of exchange. It takes 2-3 minutes to verify the card and print out the receipt, time I could take to complete 1 and a half transactions. Fingerprinting, iris scans, anything.
The customer makes an order and stops mid-sentence for about 2 minutes, then continues. Meaningwhile I'm trying to think back to what they said 2 minutes ago to piece their order together.
They order 12 different things. Then they tell their children to order something. Usually when I see obese parents, their obese children are not too far away. They pass their poor nutritional habits along to their children. This saddens me, just to think that they're going to grow older and repeat the same mistake - feeling discontent with themselves because they don't know why they're obese and don't know where they went wrong.
Smelly customers that smell of B.O. I usually wouldn't mind because I'm around people like that at school and I get along with them just fine and don't notice it. But some of them come up with a smell that is so toxic that I can't even smell the popcorn that I sell. It's like radiation and it's difficult to stand smile when you smell something similar to a skunk. Fortunately, the frequency of the smell customer is only once in a month. Americans don't smell half as bad. ...*wink*
Now, it would be quite hypocritical of me and quite out of character to list errors and complaints without listing improvements, ideas, or changes. Here are ways that I believe would improve the theater and increase business.
Equip the bathrooms with deodorant dispensing machines for those smelly customers. Possibly showers.
Add traction to the floors themselves. The floors get slippery when we're making drinks or filling the ice holes and ice falls on the ground. They were thinking about providing concession with a nice slip-resistant shoe, but I think it would be easier to make the floor slip resistant. Besides, the shoe would probably be expensive anyway.
Equip registers with silent alarms and possibly tasers. I just think it would be nice to handle a taser. I have empathy for all of God's people and believe that there's good in everyone. But not everyone is good. There's someone out there that would see an opportunity and be tempted and I just want to make it safe for myself and my dear co-workers.
Candy prices on the candy shelves. I have to tell them frequently how much it costs. Then they'd see for themselves and transactions would be quicker, giving the theater more money.
Actual carrying trays. They ask for trays that allow them to carry their drinks and popcorn into the theater. The best we have is the booster seats, which double as trays but aren't formally carrying trays. They aren't good for it, either. The mold to them doesn't allow you to carry many things without them falling over.
A complaint box so that the customers don't bite my head off when they see their total.
Someone stole my bike 20 minutes ago. I was only in the Eckerds for 3 minutes. It was right across the street. Reported it to the police. Rode in the back of the cop car and filed a report. No one knew anything or saw anything. For a total of 3 minutes the world was blind. And this isn't the first time. This is just another example of humanity's ugliness. It's willingness to give into temptation and sin. I do it. You the reader of my blog have done it and humans are doing it right now somewhere close to you and I. It's sad because they will not know how much riding that bike meant to me. How I learned to ride my bike when I first came to America when I was 5. How I ride my bike every day for exercise. To relieve stress. To get in touch with nature. How I've had 6 bikes stolen from me. In situations like this, there isn't much more that I can do but to laugh.
All people are not good, but there's good in all people.
This is just another fine example of hiding from the truth, from what's righteous and good. It's like using gasoline powered cars for decades that pollute the environment when a safer, more efficient alternative is available. Why not switch to the alternative? Because it wouldn't be economical. These people sit on advantages but don't want to make it more convenient for the consumer because it would cost too much money. Text messaging is a freely open and convenient tool, a good idea. It is our right to freely express ourselves over these communication mediums and just because it may foil some sort of advertising campaign, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a poor idea. This is the information age we all share, why not figure out a way around this "problem" instead of defeating it?
I just received a phone call from my friend Buck. He's in Virginia for AIT training in the military. He told me he learned to cook and that he's cooked himself meatloaf and ribs and all sorts of things. He's doing okay. It sounds like he's really changed. Into some form of man. When he gets back, our little gang is going to go out and have a barbecue on the beach.
Thinking back, I sounded really childish on the phone with this guy who once was a boy and is now a man. But there isn't any difference between him and I except experience. If that's the case then I suppose I should go off and experience the world for myself. Then I'd be more pf a man, too.
I'm fighting back tears right now. I'm about to cry. What sparked it? I decided to look at an old friend's blog (her name is Amy C.) and she's progressing. And so am I. Why did the tears begin to roll? I don't quite know. It's quite odd for a man to cry.
Strong emotion. It has caused me to rethink and evaluate myself. This summer I had grown and matured. I had surrendered my life to God. I have gained so much knowledge. And impermeable, unbreakable inner strength, and a mental immunity to ignorance. Knowledge and wisdom are my greatest allies in this fight. I have learned so much. But what I've learned is only a microscopic molecule of a drop in a pond on a planet that is a tiny speck whirling around a giant ball of gas hurdling around a galaxy in a massive Universe. If only I knew more... This summer my life had gained extreme meaning. I am who I am. I often write or create something beautiful that catches someone's eye and have often found myself wondering why it has this affect on others but I realize what it is inside that is doing it. A strength. An energy. A flicker of light that I've captured and held onto. I used to think that I had no emotion. That I was an emotionless core on a journey of self discovery. What I found was that this isn't a journey at all and that the end of my journey is a step away. That I had already discovered myself. That it's not about strength. That's it about grace. That it's not about will. It's about faith. I was foolish to ever think that there wasn't any emotion in me when my heart is exploding with love and compassion. I love you all. All the world a stranger, all hold a special place in my heart. We are all truly equal. I shall not deny knowledge wherever I go, sin being my greatest flaw. I shall embrace it. I shall share it. I shall not let my heart be distracted. I shall keep an attentive, open heart and mind to it and not turn away my ears. Oh so much to say! So many feelings to express! So many different ways to start!
Well, I saw it. :o Last Friday. After so many years of quivering in fear because I had seen Freddy Crugars I and II as a child. I conquered this fear. This really wasn't a fear for me anymore. God is my Lord and Saviour, I fear no one. Until I realized this, movies like these really had an effect on my sleeping and things. I was really scared. But not anymore. Now it just seems dull and sort of tacky. I was picking all sorts of things apart. Such as the CG used within the movie and Freddy's poor make-up job. The movie was certainly funny. And my friend Erik certainly stole the show by yelling out stupid things during the movie, which was funny. I met his friend Twiggy. She's nice. I don't dislike her. I'm glad she's not some girly-girl. She's really funny and perverted. Sort of like me. We had dinner afterwards at a restaurant and I told her I had a foot fetish and she was teasing me with her boot. I think I made my Asian friend Andy uncomfortable with it, though. I paid for dinner for once. It was great. We all ate these extravagent meals yet the bill came up to like $9.75. I was glad. I had a talk with my friend Andy and he was telling me to get my priorities straight. Even now, they aren't straight. I should be studying for my Calc and Econ tests, yet I sit here telling my story. Well. I'm going to go ahead and take this wise man's advice and get back to what I'm supposed to be doing. Besides, I have a business to start and run also. I have so many commitments now and people depending on me. I need to get down on these priorities. The future of thousands and thousands of good people lie in the palms of my hands. I can't do anything on my own. I rely on the Lord for my strength and to carry these such burdens. He's my support. Well, I better get to work then. Here's to the future. *cling*
This year I'm one of the presidents of MuAlphaTheta with my friendy Robin. Yes, I know. I typed friendy. It's to put emphasis on how cute she is. No, I'm not attracted to her or anything. She just behaves like a really cute person sometimes. :x Or something.
Anywho. Gave the meeting. Robin did a really good job. I hadn't really reviewed the things I was supposed to talk about so I had to refer to my notes a lot. Which shouldn't be. The turn out was 50 kids, lined up to the door and packed like sardines. Good turn-out. Last year there were 60, though. But so I went over everything and I wasn't really getting a good vibe from them. I don't think I was effectively communicating, which is important if I want to get them charged up and ready to participate this year. We have so many things to do this year as a club. So I think I should either improve on projecting my voice more or buy a megaphone. Though it would be cool to speak through a megaphone, I think I'll just project my voice for the time being. So then afterwards Mr. Vincent offered to give me a ride home since I'm a poor sap without a car. I could have taken the bus but by the time I got on there the Freshmen and Sophomores took my seat and all adjoining seats. So I just left and asked Mr. Vincent if he'd take me. So then he went to run off some papers and I went to the auditorium because they were having auditions for some sort of play. I found out that it is called The Diviner. I listened to the plot and it didn't sound very exciting. Far from it. It had swearing in it, though. I really don't like to swear. Besides, God discourages it. It's in Matthew someehere, I should look it up. So then I found a group of people that I know from class and just sat with them. One of them was a girl I'd gone to Elementary school with and am quite familiar with. She was training her little brother on it. So then I was just reading over the part they were practising. You had to speak in a southern accent and say all sorts of slang and twisted English. Slurvian is what I've heard it called in the past. I'm an Englishman and I have somewhat of an English accent left and I thought that I would find it quite difficult to speak in the accent. But I raised my hand because Mr. Vincent was probably done copying papers and waiting for me and I wanted to go earlier. So I got up and took the script to ask her which part she'd want me to audition for. I asked her to choose because I really wasn't bothered by it either way. I was terribley nervous inside and thought I was going to bomb anyway. So I got up on stage and I was staring at the paper as I read. I put quite a bit of feeling and emotion into it and made the accent sound the way the people on the bus might speak it. And when I was finished I was surprised that she was impressed by it. She said she loved my voice and she asked me to do it again only in a different role. The role of the preacher. So I did that and I didn't do it as well as the second part. For some reason, if I'm over-prideful, I don't do as well as if I didn't have confidence in myself to do it. I suppose that's the way my mind operates. It's been an exciting day but I'd really like to buckle down and study for my Economics and Calculus tests tomorrow. I pray that I'll stay above a C on my Calculus test. It's because I'm not doing very well in Calc. As I've explained in a previous Blog entry, I skipped the Trig/Analyt prerequisite course and have to teach it to myself. So we'll just see. 75% of any test, I've found, is preparation. So if I prepare myself tonight and the morning of the test, I'll do fine. Thanks for reading this far into my blog. Hey. God bless you for caring so much. I'll just leave this as a secret message to those that have actually read it. So tomorrow I hope to do well on those tests and get this Nintel CMS done. I'm designing the content management system for a site called [url=http://www.nintel.com/]Nintendo Intelligence Agency[/url]. They used to be CubeSpot.com, which used to own the GameCube.com domain name before Nintendo bought them out. Well, they sent me a free GameCube as payment, which I should post pictures of, and I need to get it done for them. I think I shall do what 'justbreathe' did and post some scriptures in my blogs from now on. It would certainly help myself and others to stay in God's word every day. Because when he sees us studying his word, it gives him such a delight. People often forget that God has emotion. Stronger than those of mere humans, you couldn't begin to imagine. And I'd rather bring my Heavenly Father, Lord, and Saviour much joy, as I am his loyal servant and child.
I was riding the bus again. The kid behind me kept flicking my ear. Again. I suppose he was trying to get me to react. Maybe out of boredom. I was too tired to react. Too tired to bear the strength it would take to retaliate against such an obnoxious and unproductive annoyance. So I just sat there until he stopped. He did it again. Again I did nothing. I reached school and did everything. Then got on the bus after a quick stop at Mr. Vincent's to get a talk on what I'm supposed to talk about in tomorrow's meeting.
I was again sitting at the back, on the left this time. I was talking to one of the girls. I had always seen her with another girl who was rude and obnoxious and sexually persuasive and taunting, which I had found to be annoying also. With her gone, I was free to talk to her friend. She's actually a nice person. She's from Florida. She is interested in the world; she told me that she wanted to visit my home country, England, and to go to Paris. I found this to be quite interesting considering that she's around a lot of people that are loud and crazy, are only interested in gangster rap and violent lyrics, and don't seem to express any interesting in anything else other than that. So maybe there's heart in these people afterall. I was telling her a few differences between England and America and she was intrigued by it. Then the guy behind me, whos name escapes me (lets just call him Cory or something for the time being), commented that I was staring at her in an inappropriate way. And she argued for me, saying that I was staring her only in her eyes and that the expression on my face was just the way I talk to people. And this was true. I wasn't staring at her body. So I said, "I wasn't staring at her legs or anything." After that she sort of tried to cover up her legs. My mistake. I suppose I shouldn't have said that. I wasn't staring at her legs, but I was trying to think and I glanced down at them, sort of in the similar fashion of how someone might stare at the ceiling when trying to conceive a thought. When will I learn... And I can't even remember her name, I'm disappointed to say. Well, Jesus said, "remove the plank [of wood] from your own eye before you remove the speck [of sawdust] from your neighbor's eye."
Then after she left, the Cory fellow began to ask the other girls why they weren't going out with me. I suppose he figured that since I can talk to them and have them feel comfortable talking to me, that I must have a way with them. One of their responses was that they didn't know me very well. So then Cory persisted in convincing them that I am homosexual, which I argued against. I have nothing against homosexual individuals; to each his own. I'm just not homosexual. I was trying to explain to them that human beings have 5 psychological needs... 1. Security, 2. Recognition, 3. Love. When I started to say this, I saw that their eyes lit up as if I were saying something that they were deeply interested in. I got few to these people. There were about 5 of them sitting there at the time. 2 in the front of the bus. But it seems that they're more easy to talk to and more susceptible to absorbing knowledge when they're in these smaller groups together. I suppose it saves them the embarrassment of asking questions in front of the lot of them that ride before everyone gets off. They even asked me questions. I told them that my first 3 psychological needs are filled by my love for God and my servitude to him. But I don't think they quite understood me. Oh well. Maybe I'll have better luck tomorrow. Stay tuned...
I was talking to a person named Vaiva when I came home today. I know her from work and...admire her from afar. She's an Estonian person, I believe. Interesting person. I think I would like to get to know her more. She's a high school sophmore.
Rode the bus today again. I was sitting in the back. Again. I was just trying to listen to what people had to say. I closed my eyes. Then the guy behind me in a Du Rag said something along the lines of "It's 100 degrees on this bus, why you sleepin'?" Only with poorer grammar and with a degree of undecency. I waited until the Baypoint stop kids got off and I turned and explained to him... When it's cold, your jaw begins to involuntarily shiver in your body's attempt to generate heat. So when you're talking loudly and your mouth is moving, you're generating more heat which makes it feel to you hotter than it really is. I'm 75-80 degrees remaining quiet while you're 90-100 while being talkative. He didn't understand me. And when I turned my head and resumed my position, I was laughed at. But I'm not moving. I'm staying right there in the back, no matter how loud or what they do to me. I have a deeper understanding than they do and certainly more patience.
We were reading Geoffrey Chaucer in English class today. As I gain more interest in Chaucer I lose interest in that bumb Shakespeare. Chaucer is sort of like Shakespeare's daddy. More on this later.
Well, I took that driver's test. Failed. You know why? Because I'm too much of an Englishman. It turns out that I was driving on the wrong side of the false rode and I didn't notice it and then the instructor asked me to park and I did it well but I didn't have enough space coming out and I touched a cone. I do know how to drive, though. But I suppose I was tired and the bare Englishman in me was flexing his muscles.
Anywho. Today is my sister's birthday. I gave her a few presents and she really liked them and we took many photos and my mum wanted me to contact her brothers because she was feeling sad that she didn't have an older brother to do things like that (I spent $15 on her and got her a few nice things from Eckerds, an entire beauty kit with candy and tampons in it). So then I took pictures with my digital cam, which I love, and I edited them. Then something outside caught my eye. I looked and I saw the sky.
It was as off God painted the sky a brilliant color that no one has ever seen before and mixed it with 5 million other colors. Then painted it across the sky as if it were a canvas. The clouds formed mounds and shapes and twists and turns and spiraled throughout the sky. It was as if a skyscraper was erected that towered above everything. Then twighlight time hit and they were illuminated with colors of bright orange and vivid yellow, reminiscent of that pink candy frost stuff that they give out at the carnival whos name I can't recall. I decided to ride around on my bike to see if anyone else was marveling at such a wonderous splendor (I hadn't seen skies this beautiful since I was 5 when I came here). Not a soul gazed at the sky. They were all busy driving around angrily in their large cars. Talking about things that no one will care about tomorrow and playing their loud music, completely oblivious to the beauty that lye right above their heads. I mean, it was right there. If you'd only lift your chin you'd be amazed to a gasp. But, no. Nothing. These people go day to day in and out without noticing the beauty that God sets before them and without appreciating these things that they so much take for granted. Everyone here in America has a car. And if they don't have one yet, they're going to get one. They're in love with it. You see hardly anyone riding bikes or walking, like what I do, unless they're financially restricted from owning a car. What's in this wasteful machines that these people love and almost worship so much is beyond me.
Days go by and I go to work and I serve people. Thousands of them. They gather together in lines. They stand and wait for half an hour as they miss their movie, what they paid to see and what they came there for. All for some concession stand snacks. And they pay the outrageous prices. $3.25 for a bottle of water. $5 for a bag of popped corn. $3.25 for a hot dog. $4.50 for some pretzels. They stuff their face, then they come out and get more, mid-movie. And it's my job to tell them that they can refill it mid-movie and get more. They send their large, round children to get more and give them large amounts of money. They let them decide and tell them that it's okay to be excessive. That they can get whatever they want and hand them slips of green and stacks of silver. They ask for medium, I tell them that they can get a large for a few quarters more. They give in. They ask for large quantities of butter (yellow-flavored vegetable oil imitation) on their food items. They guzzle down their large drinks (44oz) and then they come and they ask for more. Endless cycle. And I serve them these things. So why is 64% of America overweight? Why are 4 out of 5 teenagers obese and 80% of them overweight? Because they have their heads down. If they'd only look up, they'd see the beauty and a few of the things that they've been "worshipping" wouldn't seem as important. They'd stop forcing their attention on themselves and their stomaches and how they look or where they work or how miserable they are when they get up in the morning and they'd see the beauty of Who's above them. You decide.
I made a driving appointment for Wednesday and I don't have insurance yet. I hate the way America makes everything so overly complicated when after I have the license, none of this is going to matter.
See, this is why I'm from England. :roll: If I were an American, I'd choke myself slowly every night for being so fat and ignorant. But that's just me. :) Just kidding. Of course I wouldn't do any of these things. Writing is just how I relieve my frustrations. Everyone needs to do it somehow. Anyway, blah. Bye.
Today was my first day of my Senior year of school, class of 2004. I got up, put on my Lugz and assorted thugwear, and stepped out the door for school.
Two ways to get there: I can drive my imaginary Oldsmobile or I can take the bus. I chose to take the bus today. I got on the bus and I sat at the back and had a hassle with the kids. Then as everyone entered the bus from their bus stops I came to notice that I was going to be the only senior on it. Whoop-di-doo... Wow. How pathetic is that? :oops: I felt pretty embarrassed about it on the ride home sitting there at the back as a Senior when the lunch bell rings and everyone gets in their cars and drives off and I'm the only Senior within my class walking onto a bus. I need to get a car. They're so freakin' expensive and difficult to maintain and about 90% of my paycheck will go towards it in [i]payments[/i] and [i]insurance[/i], which for me is like $150-250 because I'm a young man and then on top of the $50 a week - $200 a month car payment. Even then I'm not taking into consideration the $2000 down payment, which will take months for me to generate on my minimum wage job. This means weeks of feeling humb-drumb at school because my peers can leave early and I can't. Such a pitty...
I have a friend that drives a Lexus. He also owns a Toyota Carolla. If I talk him into it, maybe I could get him to lend it to me for cheap and then I could just pay him for it leniently with insurance. Or maybe I could put a bag over my head and die of grief and embarrassment. I don't know. You decide. :wink:
