24 June 2023

Some Thoughts on Some Stuff | A 'News Dump' Edition


[HEADLINE]

Obviously, Orca are not our friends. We hunt, steal, kill and enslave them. At least they're revealing themselves to be even smarter than we ever thought, in that they are not killing us. They could easily tip the boats in such a way that the people in them are thrown off board, and then they could kill them. But the orca are not doing this. They are damaging the boats themselves, not the people on board. I would wager an enormous bet that they understand that humans are a "life for a life" type of creature. 



[HEADLINE]

I've jobbed in food service since I was seventeen years old. I am thirty-seven, as I type. My first official job was as a summertime host at a full-service local spot in Basalt, Colorado. By the end of the summer, I was a server. Even though I wasn't old enough to serve alcohol, the manager let me; I just had to keep my mouth shut. By the following summer, I landed a server position at the upscale Tempranillo, in Basalt for the following two summers. I made about $300/night, on average. 

Since then, I've jobbed at a McAlister's Deli, Starbucks, a Chinese-food restaurant, a French-style bistro, and in a grocery store as a person who cuts up fresh fruits and veggies so that they're ready-to-eat and as a commercial baker. Our very first business was food service, and I still job in food service, to this day. 

What I've learned over the two decades I've jobbed in food service is that people who have never worked in food service do not understand exactly how much power people who job in food service hold over their food/beverages. The fact that lazy-ass motherfuckers, who eat out every fucking day, want a personal human being to make them their food, complain about tipping the preparers of said food is outright disgusting to me. 

If you don't want to tip, don't fucking eat out! It's that simple.

And if you're like, "Oh, but the reports say that it's the credit card companies who are really benefiting from all of this," then pay in fucking cash. I've said it before, and I'll keep on saying it ...

As an everyday consumer, IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD SOMETHING IN CASH, YOU CAN'T AFFORD IT! 

If you don't want to tip the person who handles your food/beverages, then don't. Don't gripe that the credit card machine is prompting you, and it makes you "feel bad" to not leave a tip. Everyone who jobs in a food service establishment knows who the bad customers/tippers are. We all know, and we behave accordingly. We prepare your food/beverages accordingly. 

Have you ever wondered why your venti, soy, triple-shot white mocha doesn't wake you up anymore? Ask yourself if you're a good customers, i.e. friendly and a good tipper. If you're not, you're probably getting decaf shots, etc. Facts. And this "customized" beverage is a very banal example. 

My point is that everyone, in general, has the idea of eating out ass-fucking backward. Eating out is a treat. It's a privilege. Even eating fast food is a privilege. What you're demanding is a private chef. You're embracing a lifestyle wherein a human person prepares your food/beverages for you. If you cannot see how you need to treat these people (like me) both well and abundantly, then you can go fuck yourself.

If you don't want to tip, make your own goddamn latte; make your own goddamn meal. Oh, you don't know how? You lack cooking skills? THEN FUCKING TIP!



[HEADLINE]

When you feel down, and you're prompted to "be grateful" and/or "find gratitude today," and you're internal instinct is to think about how other people have it worse than you, you're not being grateful; you're comparing yourself to other people and deciding that you're better than them. That's PRIDE (not like lgbtq+ pride), like "Pride comes before the fall"—type Pride.

Gratitude, instead, is realizing that all of the challenges in your life, everything that you're going through and have gone through makes you a better person, has created within you, a human who is learning what it means to live this life in a way that is better not only for yourself but also, for all humankind.

Looking back on your life and accepting it, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful, is gratitude.