the other day at work, a man with his wife and daughter came in for a late dinner. I was working the closing shift and they were "that" last table. They came in pretty late and even phoned before to make sure we were going to be open. I usually get pretty upset and annoyed when customers come in so late, but he ended up being very nice and easy going which made me less hostile, plus, they ended up ordering lobster and wine. When he asked for the check, he paid with a Centurion American Express card (aka the "black" AmeX card). He was very happy with the food and service. How do I know he was happy with the food and service? because he wrote "great food and service!" on the receipt.
He tipped $100 bucks on a $230 check. I was grateful, not for the money, but for the fact that human beings like him exist and I occasionally get the privilege of meeting one of them in person.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Wealth, Women and Wisdom
Temporal tempest. Fate flinging faint forgotten faces in to focus. Maudlin memory makes musing music a must. Change, come and conquer. Change comes and conquers but cannot camouflage character, character continues. Teens or twenties, tired traveler teased and thwarted time and time, by time. Losers in lust look at lovers in luck and lament the Lord's lame love. Doomed, the decision to dither daily in delusion and daydream is definitively decided.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Happy Valentines Day!
Today, while at costco, I saw a girl I had a crush on in high school. Good times.
Oh god I'm so alone.
Oh god I'm so alone.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Apparently, I was on the local TV news on Sunday evening. I was approached by a female reporter while I was working the lunch shift that day and was asked some questions about the estate owner's plan to renovate the building my restaurant was in.
After her casual in-person questions , she very casually asked me if I could say all those things I just said to her on camera. I very casually said yes. And that folks, is how it's done.
So, we stood in the packed parking lot and did our little interview. This was my first television interview but I wasn't nervous. Between the contempt I have for the institution of local news and the annoyance I felt at being interrupted during a really busy lunch hour, I was not impressed by the experience. But I will say that the interviewer had really pretty brown eyes and a reassuring smile, which helped a lot.
The whole thing was over in less than 5 minutes. I played "the game" a little when she threw me a bit of a unexpected curve ball asking me what I thought about the landlords (considering how potentially disruptive and costly the construction project could be for our business). As much as I hate property managers, landowners and the ruling class, I wasn't going to bad mouth my landlord on the record, to a reporter, on camera. And that folks, is how you sell out/perpetuate the institutions of social repression.
After we finished, I was glad to go inside and get back to serving customers. It was really busy. I didn't think much more it. I honestly didn't expect that interview to make it on air. I figured they were looking for filler in case of a slow news day. But over the next few days, quite a few customers told me they saw me on the news. Although the thought came to me every time, I did not ask any of them if I did okay on the interview. I don't want to know because I hate watching myself on video. And the possibility that I looked stupid on TV makes me panicky. So I am going to assume I did an intelligent, articulate, awesome interview and looked sexy as hell while doing it.
After her casual in-person questions , she very casually asked me if I could say all those things I just said to her on camera. I very casually said yes. And that folks, is how it's done.
So, we stood in the packed parking lot and did our little interview. This was my first television interview but I wasn't nervous. Between the contempt I have for the institution of local news and the annoyance I felt at being interrupted during a really busy lunch hour, I was not impressed by the experience. But I will say that the interviewer had really pretty brown eyes and a reassuring smile, which helped a lot.
The whole thing was over in less than 5 minutes. I played "the game" a little when she threw me a bit of a unexpected curve ball asking me what I thought about the landlords (considering how potentially disruptive and costly the construction project could be for our business). As much as I hate property managers, landowners and the ruling class, I wasn't going to bad mouth my landlord on the record, to a reporter, on camera. And that folks, is how you sell out/perpetuate the institutions of social repression.
After we finished, I was glad to go inside and get back to serving customers. It was really busy. I didn't think much more it. I honestly didn't expect that interview to make it on air. I figured they were looking for filler in case of a slow news day. But over the next few days, quite a few customers told me they saw me on the news. Although the thought came to me every time, I did not ask any of them if I did okay on the interview. I don't want to know because I hate watching myself on video. And the possibility that I looked stupid on TV makes me panicky. So I am going to assume I did an intelligent, articulate, awesome interview and looked sexy as hell while doing it.
Monday, February 7, 2011
If no one else wants to say it, I'll be the first one to say it. Hawaii, and the travel industry in the West, are pretty excited about the potential of the burgeoning Mainland China Chinese tourist market. I'm here to say, "fuck that."
New rich, upjumped Chinese peasants are the worst customers ever. They are rude, uncouth, rough and lack any appreciation of Western dining social norms. And worst of all they are bad tippers, they'll drop 300 buck on drinks on a food tab of 200 but they tend not to tip or tip poorly because it's not how it's done in China.
They are unbelievably disrespectful of service workers. In China, lording over the waiter/waitress is part of the dining experience you pay for. Shit is going to hit the fan when those demanding old Chinese men clash with tired, grizzled, young, female, $7/hour American service workers.
They'll chain smoke in their hotel rooms, they won't tip, they'll spit, they'll be demanding, they'll ask for free stuff, they won't queue properly in lines, they'll put their food waste on the table (cuz that's how they roll in China), they are LOUD...and they just don't care. how can you appeal to a person's sense of decency and propriety when their idea of of what is proper is ferocious survival of the fittest in a quasi-free market, semi-lawless, managed-capitalist economy?
what kind of people are we, the chinese? that we can build a powerhouse economy in the 30 years since Mao died and to do it all under a communist government? what does that tell you about the Chinese people? they just don't' give a fuck man, they'll do whatever they want. Want to build the worlds biggest dam? Drown a thousand villages and destroy countless archeology sites. Need 100,000 sneakers by next Tuesday? I can get it to you by Sunday. Need a new hotel built? Done. In less than a week. A new highway will destroy the endangered Asian Blue Necked Crane's habitat? I'll build that highway and serve you Roast Blue Necked Crane at the highway ribbon cutting ceremony, fucker.
Not to say that Chinese people are inherently bad customers. There are lots of cultural and anthropological forces at work. For example, in a country with over a billion people and over 160 cities with a million people, everyone has to develop very thick skin at a young age. If they so choose, Chinese city dwellers can make New Yorkers hold their pockets.
Also, because of the Communist Cultural Revolution very traditional and strict Chinese social norms were replaced by a godless communist creed. And when strict communist central planning started to break down under the pressure of capitalist forces, millions of young, uneducated Chinese men began to migrate to the major cities to find their fortunes. This created a HUGE population of young, single men, concentrated into congested urban living conditions. And all of them without a dominant, binding, coherent ideological structure that spelled out the rules of harmonious social interaction. Like what happened to dating and gender roles of america in the 60's, the Chinese had unknowingly destroyed long established social rules of etiquette and found themselves in social anarchy (say what you will about the repressive nature of these old norms, they did at least provide structure). Which is why, I believe, we have the arrogant, uneducated, mean, sexist, classist, cheap, uncaring Chinese tourist we find today.
Of course, not all Mainland Chinese people are like that. There are plenty of well educated, polite, considerate and gracious Chinese people too. But they are in the minority.
Does The West, as a collective economic region, really want to depend on these kinds of people for revenue?
PS: Fuck the koreans too. The Japanese are cool.
New rich, upjumped Chinese peasants are the worst customers ever. They are rude, uncouth, rough and lack any appreciation of Western dining social norms. And worst of all they are bad tippers, they'll drop 300 buck on drinks on a food tab of 200 but they tend not to tip or tip poorly because it's not how it's done in China.
They are unbelievably disrespectful of service workers. In China, lording over the waiter/waitress is part of the dining experience you pay for. Shit is going to hit the fan when those demanding old Chinese men clash with tired, grizzled, young, female, $7/hour American service workers.
They'll chain smoke in their hotel rooms, they won't tip, they'll spit, they'll be demanding, they'll ask for free stuff, they won't queue properly in lines, they'll put their food waste on the table (cuz that's how they roll in China), they are LOUD...and they just don't care. how can you appeal to a person's sense of decency and propriety when their idea of of what is proper is ferocious survival of the fittest in a quasi-free market, semi-lawless, managed-capitalist economy?
what kind of people are we, the chinese? that we can build a powerhouse economy in the 30 years since Mao died and to do it all under a communist government? what does that tell you about the Chinese people? they just don't' give a fuck man, they'll do whatever they want. Want to build the worlds biggest dam? Drown a thousand villages and destroy countless archeology sites. Need 100,000 sneakers by next Tuesday? I can get it to you by Sunday. Need a new hotel built? Done. In less than a week. A new highway will destroy the endangered Asian Blue Necked Crane's habitat? I'll build that highway and serve you Roast Blue Necked Crane at the highway ribbon cutting ceremony, fucker.
Not to say that Chinese people are inherently bad customers. There are lots of cultural and anthropological forces at work. For example, in a country with over a billion people and over 160 cities with a million people, everyone has to develop very thick skin at a young age. If they so choose, Chinese city dwellers can make New Yorkers hold their pockets.
Also, because of the Communist Cultural Revolution very traditional and strict Chinese social norms were replaced by a godless communist creed. And when strict communist central planning started to break down under the pressure of capitalist forces, millions of young, uneducated Chinese men began to migrate to the major cities to find their fortunes. This created a HUGE population of young, single men, concentrated into congested urban living conditions. And all of them without a dominant, binding, coherent ideological structure that spelled out the rules of harmonious social interaction. Like what happened to dating and gender roles of america in the 60's, the Chinese had unknowingly destroyed long established social rules of etiquette and found themselves in social anarchy (say what you will about the repressive nature of these old norms, they did at least provide structure). Which is why, I believe, we have the arrogant, uneducated, mean, sexist, classist, cheap, uncaring Chinese tourist we find today.
Of course, not all Mainland Chinese people are like that. There are plenty of well educated, polite, considerate and gracious Chinese people too. But they are in the minority.
Does The West, as a collective economic region, really want to depend on these kinds of people for revenue?
PS: Fuck the koreans too. The Japanese are cool.
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