Narutooooo!

My main interest at the moment in hobby and entertainment is anime, as you may probably already know. As with many different genres of art and entertainment, there are those creations which will be total, utter, utter, crap. (DBZ anyone?)

And there are those which will be so stupendously popular that everyone will think it's either genius or crap. (Akira happens to fall in this category.)

And there are the underrated ones that should become stupendously popular so that everyone will think it's genius, with the danger of it being considered utter crap. (Kodomo no Omocha, to name one.)

Anyway, you get the picture.

Naruto is somewhere in the second category, although I don't know if the casual viewer would realize its popularity in the anime scene at the moment. Its main appeal is the ninja themes and comedic tools (and yes, sometimes even sexual in nature). So it's understandable that young boys will be drawn to this more than other demographics, on an overview. [I wouldn't have given this anime a second thought if I wasn't so curious about the popularity of the series, and its availability through bittorrent and fanatic fansubbing.]

But good anime is not so cut and dry in themes. This anime series is about a bratty, loud, and brash boy growing up, developing his skills and fulfilling his desire to become the most badass ninja in his village. But it's also about the struggle of making friends, discovering the real meaning of many untangible qualities, like courage and teamwork... and a lot about human emotions.

Growing up in a village that shuns him for a past that is none of his own fault, the orphan Naruto constantly acts out in bad ways, in order to gain the recognition he yearns from the villagers. Given already this tragic background, the viewer instantly becomes hooked on the character. Then the series presents a cornucopia of mysterious characters who become more rounded and many-dimensional at once.

So already by the second episode, I was itching in my seat to get as many episodes of this series as I could. Since I'm in Quebec with this damnable Sympatico connection, I had to suffer with one episode per week on average. (Hey, just like a regular television series...)

But this last episode I just saw (#19) made me cry a waterfall. (What, haven't you ever been moved by anything, you heartless freak?) The episode ends a long arc that started somewhere in episode #6 or so, involving two villains who are not quite as they seem. Even villains in the series are no longer one-dimensional beings out to destroy the heroes' dreams. One can say truthfully that any character on Naruto will have some sort of back story that will make your gut wrench and question the nature of justice and human decency...

Anyway, I wrote all this just to say I watched almost all my episodes of Naruto that I burned so far, and I'm probably going to run out by tomorrow. ;_;

Sum it Up Already

So what I hate the most about working at a buffet? Safety hazards. And skinny people stuffing their faces with deep fried blobs of fat. And bastard coworkers.

Yesterday night I had the misfortune of slipping on the wet floor and smacking the back of my hand on a table corner. It immediately grew into a giant purple bubble that hurt like mad. The traditional chinese method of tending these kinds of injuries, no matter how painful, is to RUB IT HARD UNTIL IT TURNS RED.

Which is what I did.

Then this morning my thumb was no longer swollen in a single bump. No, it was swollen ALL OVER. It's stiff but not too painful. I can't seem to do much with it though. But it doesn't matter. I already broke a small bowl today from my stiff thumb-ness.

Anyway, good news. I get to say I may not be working there much longer because I have applied for a job offer that the Emploi Quebec office finally got around to telling me about. Apparently it's 3 months of office work at downtown Montreal, but I guess I can make do with it because anything would be better than getting smacked around like yesterday... well, maybe not ANYthing (thinking about my bad 3 days of telemarketing.... *shivers*) ... All I need now is to wait for a possible interview.

Buffeteer by Night... Superhero by Day!

Julie suggested it would be a good cover job, bufeteering I mean, for a superhero. Unfortunately, it's mostly night work for me, since I finish at around midnight after cleaning the damn tables.

So here's a list of potentially fatal injuries (to your job) if you are a buffeteer.

Scrapes

• Downfall: Sure they're innocent bleeding scratches, but if your arms are secreting the red stuff, it's no longer so tasty for the clients to eat anymore. This is probably just hazardous to the clients though. UNTIL IT GETS INFECTED!!! (Which it did, yes.)


• Counter: Bandage. Baby stuff, really. Unless there are no plastic adhesive bandages lying around, which can happen even in a restaurant.


• Prevention: Suck it up.

Blisters

• Downfall: Your little bobo on your pinky toe can actually make your work a living hell. Just by walking back and forth may bring about a GIGANTIC PUS BUBBLE OF PAIN-BRINGING AGONY!!! (Which it did, yet again.)


• Counter: Bandage.


• Prevention: Thick socks. Good shoes. No running to work because of a stupid late bus.

Burns

• Downfall: Steam is a nasty, unsuspicious HELLBRINGER OF PAIN!!! You don't think of it as a burn hazard until you have to work with it every day at the tables. Even some hot metal surfaces don't burn as much as steam, since the only direct thing that is being heated up is the water in the tables. As you can probably guess, two of my fingers got burned today from escaping steam. Thereby, one of the burns evoled into a blister, and the other evolved into a swollen mess.


• Counter: Bandage. Buffet ice cubes. Chinese ointment would have been useful if they had any at the time.


• Prevention: Avoid touching anything ever again.

Bruised and Bloody Fists

• Downfall: You keep telling yourself it isn't a good idea. No matter how many times the bitchy coworker oversteps herself, or how much the untouchable coworker slacks off, you knew in your good sense it was never a good idea. But you had to do it anyway. And now both your fists are sore from the X-TREME!!! POUNDING!!! you submitted to the unfortunate coworkers. Now you're screwed.


• Counter: Bandages. Lots of them.


• Prevention: Meditation classes.

Free Comic Book Day... my ass!

I have been looking forward to going to a comic book store on July 3 (today) to pick up copies of free comic books. I went last year in NDG around May, and I enjoyed many of the publications immensely. (Possibly gearing towards purchasing my own comic books but I hadn't had an income at the time.)

But this year, I'm in Quebec City working my ass off this summer at this wretched buffet. I was looking forward to going to the comic book store this year in Montreal, where they would have the same 20-odd comics for the taking.

I even convinced my mum to drive to the mall (Place Laurier) to go pick them up. (Now if that doesn't sound like a 30-year-old basement geek, then I don't know what does.)

I even woke up at 9 am, despite not sleeping until 4 am this morning after work. (Holy crap am I tired.) And I have to go to work later at 4 pm.

And I had a crappy last two days at work. (I won't even start on *that* one.)

Anyway, we went to the store, and it was full of people outside (smaller boys and 30 year old guys) playing Magic cards or something like that. Inside, there was one table set up, with a guy signing comic books. He apparently inked a few comic books that they were giving away at the table. In fact, there were exactly 4 comic books they were giving away at the table.

I went all that way to get 4 comic books??? And at least one of them I already had from *last* freaking year!

Anyway, the trip wasn't a total loss, really. We went to the Bay afterwards and picked up a couple of 5 dollar slip cover sheet and duvet cover. Woo hoo.

I'sa gonna take a nap now.

The Inevitable RANT of Work

I've been working for about two weeks now. It is indeed boring to listen to another person gripe about their job, so I will try to sort this into the "good" and the "bad" aspects. More obvious is that the "bad" aspect will be much, much, MUCH longer.

Good:

• Free food. From people who know how to cook. And as much as you'd ever want. (It's a buffet, after all.) Probably makes it balance out the 15-minute break to eat during a shift.


• Kinda brainless tasks with some variety. Normally, I would jump at brainless paying tasks like that "primo" thing from a few months ago, but who wants to work at a place full time where all you do is stand and greet?


• Tips! The minimum wage job is enhanced when we get gratuities that make it seem like you get more per hour. Last weekend, it was enough to pay for almost a whole gas tank... (at these prices anyway)


• Work is nearby... in a way. A ten minute drive. Unfortunately there is no bus that goes there directly, nor often enough, so I still get lifts from my mum or brother.


• Decent learning experience. Everyone knows I have never worked a day in my life before at a real job with regular hours and regular pay. I am grateful for a chance to get some work experience, especially to be written into my CV, to indicate that I ain't no longer no freaking stupid student no more.

Bad:

• More stupid injuries than you could bump your head against. I have so far cut myself a few times on the most innocent of implements, like a pair of tongs. I hit my head constantly on the lamps and window of the buffet tables from cleaning them. I burn my fingers every day from lifting pans and vats out of the steaming tables. I have mysterious bruises from mysterious sources. And just recently, I seem to have sprained my right hand, and I have a blister on my blister on my pinky toe. I never even heard of a blister on a blister until today. Hurts like hell though.


• People are cheapskates. Around St-Jean, we had a boatload of people coming in and gorging themselves like mad, and I made less gratuities than if you would have went out on the street and knocked over a parade of small children and senior citizens.


• People are pigs. Buffets are designed so that you want to keep eating and eating, since there's so much food sitting around that you get hungry looking at it. (They make money from drinks, like most restaurants.) It's got to the point where I don't even notice the fat people anymore, just the odd skinny ones.


• Coworkers are crazy. Now, I don't want to generalize about people who work in restaurants. Considering that my parents worked in them for their entire lives, my friends' parents and my friends work/ed in them, and I've known countless of students who work in restaurants to put themselves through school, I can't generalize. So I'm just going to say that people who don't get past high school will end up working at these places. ***


• Stupid shifts. The scheduling boss is nuts. Today, I worked starting from 8:30 am. Now listen through here; I don't complain about working in the morning. No, I don't. Unless I usually work in the evening shifts until midnight. Which is what I did last night. I probably looked like a zombie because Mrs. Lim (Kathy's mum) looked at limpy me and decided I shouldn't be working until whenever she finished, which is usually late, and I was relieved of my shift early. (Yay?)


• Haven't been paid yet... According to the payroll boss, I missed the last pay day by giving my voided cheque to the bosses by one freaking day. I am supposed to be paid this week, but we'll see.


• No one understands a damn thing I say! Despite being almost functionally trilingual, at this workplace anyway, no one will ever be able to understand what I say. The waiters/waitresses, busboys, dishwashers, and buffeteers are all french speaking, the kitchen staff are all either chinese and speak english, or francophone, and the bosses are also english speaking. So why the crap do I have to repeat something thirteen times before I get my freaking vat of soup?

I think the only thing I look forward to task-wise is cleaning the buffet tables at the evening shifts. It keeps me from going into the kitchen to deal with crazy staff there, and also, I know that I can go home afterwards with a pocket full of tips.

*** I was thinking about papa yesterday night while I was limping from kitchen to buffet. I guess this is what he meant when he said to study well in school. Yes, people: if you don't study well in school you will end up working as a dishwasher, buffet girl, busboy, cleaner, or a crazy chef.

Work SuXX0rs

My mysterious sudden disappearance is caused by my first, new, summer job at a chinese buffet / restaurant in Quebec City (Ste-Foy). I'm a buffet girl.

Now, as you, the reader who knows me or not, may or may not know, knowing me or not will drive you nuts since this sentence doesn't make sense very much, or not. HA! ... Stupid joke.

Anyway, I have always adamantly veered away from going to work in the food service businesses because of the nature of the work my parents have always done. But since the passing of my dad, I have been through (and am still going through) much deliberation of my life. There are many things I regret not doing in the past, and I am catching up with each of these regrets.

Although buffet girl isn't exactly one of those, it's something to do this summer at least.

It makes me sad, indeed to be away from Montreal and all my friends there, and away prematurely in my plans, but it lets me be with my mother at the least, and I get to work at the same place as her. *And* I get tips. :)

School's out in the high schools, so I don't get to substitute anymore anyway. :( I haven't heard any replies from schools for a full time job in the fall or winter so I guess I'll have to keep looking. Double :(

---

In the meanwhile, I'll just describe the job at the basic level. There are buffet tables and each dish needs to be changed or maintained by refilling. Cleaning and putting more plates and bowls is also our jobs at the tables. So far, I haven't had luck at the hot buffet because I don't speak loud or clear enough for the chefs to know what the heck I'm asking for. So I was usually assigned to the soup bar, salad bar, and dessert tables where I don't have to talk much to them. These tables are still pains in the wazoo to maintain.

The bosses and workers are reasonably nice. They don't understand half the things I say, mostly because I try speaking either French or Cantonese to everyone and no one understands either of these languages when I speak. *grumbles*

Now, people are total pigs. Buffets are meant for the gluttons and the huge groups who can't be served properly at normal restaurants. If there were any doubt for anyone to find the biggest, most unscrupulous eaters, McDonalds would not even come close to rank to buffets. I have seen people of all shapes and sizes. Some are fit, but most are spherical, conical, pear-shaped... I've seen a cylindrical little girl. CYLINDRICAL.

I have witnessed things that would probably send more chills all over your body than a snow storm in the arctic. And probably would make you lose your appetite in a flash. I won't spoil it for you though. (Although it's probably too late for Lil' V.)

Obviously, when we get breaks I can't eat at the buffet.

---

Next time you visit a buffet, make sure you don't whine to the managers too much about stupid things like how little food there is at closing time. It's freaking closing time, just go home dammit!

Ode to the Graduated

"Better late than never," they told;
"Prepare your future past now!
Treasure this paper you were sold -
The proletariat to wow!

"Bless us, the patron of our school,
We roam the earth in quest!
Our bookish training in western ways!
Thirsty knowledge sans rest!"

Blessed be the grim-faced student,
The sorrowed and the toiled;
You worked and failed and worked again,
your heart and knees you soiled.

A median world as a moderate man
Whose eyes may never wander -
Same sun and moon and earth and stars,
Your life may be more fonder.