Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Litter Bug...

Ultimately there's always someone that walks up to the bar with food. It's just a normal thing that people do. They drink, get hungry and grab some food from one of the street vendors as they go on to the next bar. Some do it because they're hungry and some think it will sober them up so they can stay out longer and drink more. For some reason they think, if they eat, it will soak up that belly full of booze and make room for more.

So, one night a couple of guys come walking up to the front of the bar. They were the typical type of douche bags. The type of guys that either are still in college or are trying to hold on to those glamourous years of high fiving and chasing women with their abilities of spending their parents money. I think I even have a visual for this one...



I thought I did...

So when these two guys come walking up they both have food. No big deal really, I explain to them that they have to finish their food before coming in and they both nod their heads in agreement. Then they start shoving the food into their mouths and the paper plates, napkins and other things they have all fall to the sidewalk. In typical douche bag fashion they let out a little yell, give each other a high five and start to dig their wallets out to give me their ID's.

Now, I'm not going to say that this town is a clean town, everyone knows that it isn't. There's garbage all over the place and there are people that get paid to clean up after all the inconsiderate slobs. From what I understand they make really good money too. Well, they either make good money or they're doing it as a community service because they did something stupid before.

As DB#1 goes to hand me his ID, I look down at the sidewalk.

Me: "You guys gonna leave that garbage there?"

DB#1: "Uh, yea bro. We're here to drink!"

Me: "Ok.. I need you to pick up that garbage first though."

DB#1: "It's cool dude. Someone gets paid to do that. They'll get it in the morning." He then laughs and looks at his friend.

Me: "Yea, it's not cool. If you guys want to come in then you need to pick up your garbage. It's not about people being paid to clean up after you. It's a respect type thing. You leave your garbage here and it's not showing much respect for me, the bar, or many other things."

DB#1: "Dude, why you gotta be an asshole?"

Me: "Really? I'm being an asshole because I'm asking you to respect something else instead of your hair gel and your parents credit card?"

As DB#1 and I are starting our conversation I could see that DB#2 was listening very closely. In fact, he even started picking up the garbage as his counterpart kept arguing with me.

DB#2: "Alright man, is there a garbage can near by?"

Me: "There's one right around the corner. Thanks."

DB#1: "You actually picked that shit up? HA HA HA!!"

DB#2: "Yea... he's kinda right and he won't let us in if we don't."

So after I the guy picks up the garbage and tosses it I check their ID's. I tell them thank you for picking it up and they start walking in. As they walk in I walk in behind them just to take a look and see how things are inside.

DB#1 (turning to DB#2): "Man, that guys a fuckin asshole huh?"

I tap the guy on the shoulder. "Excuse me?"

DB#1: "What man? You got a problem?"

Me: "I do now. Come on, it's time to go."

DB#2 (looking at his friend): "Dude, what the fuck? You can't keep your mouth shut for a second?"

They walk out without a problem and head down the street arguing with each other like a married couple. I could hear them arguing until they rounded the corner a block away.

I don't ask for much. I ask for respect. For me, the establishment, and the people around you. At one time this was a common idea among all people. As time goes by people tend to forget the lessons that were learned by our elders. Is it the elders fault for the younger generation ignoring them or is it the fault of the peers that just let things go because that's just how their friends are?

You can choose your friends, you can't choose your family.



Thursday, May 24, 2007

Days off with a Concert in there...

Finally been able to take a few days off from work here and there. I think I really needed it. With any job you always tend to hit that point where you need some time off. I don't think it was due to the stress levels just the fact that standing in a spot for 7 to 8 hours a night and for 5 to 7 nights a week tends to wear on you.

So I went to a concert on one of my nights off. I rarely ever go to shows anymore. After you've worked in a venue long enough it kind of loses its flair. So I go to 2 or 3 shows a year where I really want to see the band.

The second band that played tried to be more of the political awareness types of bands. This one just tries to push their own ideals. If your going to try and change the world then put the facts out there that you know. Don't just tell all these people what they should do. Also, remember, over 50% of the people at your show are under 18 years of age. They're there for the music and the experience, not to listen to you talk and talk between songs. Plus, they're signatures and opinions aren't worth anything constructive. I almost got up and left.

There are some bands out there that do it right. They talk a little but get straight to the point. They have media slide shows going during their set. Best of all, they provide information so you can make your own decision. They don't try to pressure you into something by saying you only like us if you do this. The best example of a band I can think of that does it right is System of a Down. The band I saw, I won't even mention their name.

So having a few days off has been some what nice. I've gotten a few things done that I've been wanting to get done. I've opened up a few other possibilities that weren't there before and I've started working on a back up plan. Just in case I decide to leave this glorious position.

Big holiday weekend coming up, we'll see what might come from it.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

My purse!!... or rent?

So I get home the other night and I find an email in the trusty inbox. By the time I get home there's usually nothing going on. There might be a few other bar people online and half the time they're just checking their myspace or falling asleep. Then I pop open my mail system and I get this message.

This is so f*ckin ridiculous!! I got jumped when I left the bar last night!! They took my $400 phone, $600 worth of make up, my keys, and my $1100 purse!! I'm so pissed off right now!! It's gonna take me forever to get that stuff back so if you want to get a hold of me your gonna have to drive your ass out here or email me.

Wow.. an $1100 purse.. What a waste of money. I could buy a lot of things with $1100. A used car, weights, gym memberships, rent for a few months, just about anything. Anything more important than a purse. I mean, I have pockets but I realize women need purses to carry everything. Do you really need a purse that costs more than the car you drive?

Now I understand, if you can afford it then do it but come on. If you have to drive a crappy car, live in a smaller place or a far off place to afford your lifestyle then is it worth it? Plus, any team of snatchers knows what purses are good or bad. They probably sold that $1100 purse for $200 and were happy. The $600 of make up is probably laying in a gutter somewhere within a couple blocks of where you got jumped. Which is either a lot of make up or, once again, some over priced name brand crap. The phone has probably already been sold for $100 or even $50. Phones are fairly easy to get rid of and reconfigure.

Sorry for the bad luck but try getting your priorities in order. Just because something costs a lot doesn't mean it makes you look that much better. I've seen a t shirt and jeans girl look a hundred times better than a dolled up turnip.

Just glad to know that it didn't happen when you left my bar.

**To the one that sent me the email: If you actually read this, take note how many times I have driven out to see you. Then realize I'm not going to.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Movies getting Snuffed Out...

I'm slowly realizing why I never really read or watched the news before. People and society are becoming complete and total idiots. The nation is becoming way too much of a police state.

I remember growing up to movies that had rude behaviour, slight nudity and funny situations. They were released into the theaters and had maybe a PG-13 rating. Now they want to give a R rating to any movie with a person smoking a cigarette in it. What has happened here?

Granted, I don't think smoking should be promoted to kids but this is taking it a little too far. There's already all of these bleeding heart nut jobs that want smoking banned from public places. Do we really need them in every form of our society? Smoking is a habit, just like drinking, gambling, playing bingo, jogging, walking, writing and many other things. Next will be banning weight machines and gyms because too many people have more muscles than other people. They might hurt you without thinking about it.

Maybe they should raise the stakes for movies based on comic book characters. I mean it is a fantasy land and some kid might jump off the top of a building because they think they can fly. It's just as possible as a kid starting smoking because they saw it on a film.

Then people wonder why we don't have great movies like Animal House or Porkies anymore. If these movies were released now they'd be rated NC-17 due to the nudity. Not to mention the poor quality of horror movies released in theaters.

I guess movies are going the way of music. If you want something good you have to go with the unknowns. Movies released straight to dvd are becoming the new indie trend. They don't even need to be rated.

If the world worried more about current events and less about "protecting" their children from "bad" things it might work out a little better.

Sooner or later your kid is gonna learn what smoking is. They're gonna learn what sex is. They're even gonna learn what alcohol is. And no matter what you do to try and protect them from the evils of the world... they'll probably learn all about it before they make it to 8th grade. And they'll learn it all from their friends and peers.

So which is worse? Smoking in movies or sex in movies?

The stats for underage pregnancies (age 15 to 19) have been declining on a yearly basis but it still costs the government 9 billion dollars a year to maintain. So should sex, holding hands, kissing and hugging be banned from movies too? Maybe.

Then after that we should definitely work on getting alcohol banned from movies. I mean the kids might see someone drink a beer and then drive off. We can't expect them to see this and know it's wrong. We should hide it from them. After all in 2005, 16,885 people in the U.S. died in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes.

Maybe we should just lock our kids up in the basement and make them read the Bible from front to back until they can quote it word for word. Maybe that would help? Everyone knows that no one kills or murders people because of religion. There's never any problem due to religion.

Here's a great idea. The more a person can take in the faster they learn. Provide your kids with all the information both good and bad on every topic you think you should hide them from. Once they're 18 and no longer your financial burden or responsibility, let them decide what they want to do.

Stay out of my kitchen or I'll piss in your Cheerios.


Thursday, May 10, 2007

The Grace of God or Dog??

There is a very small amount of things that annoy me away from work. One of them is when people try to say that something wouldn't have happened without God. Now, I'm not a religious person in many ways. I don't subscribe to a certain thought about what deity represents good or which one represents bad. I know there's a good and bad for every situation and I try to stay on the good side. This being said, I don't necessarily believe in deities or stories handed down for thousands of years.

But here's what gets me. Recently I've started reading a lot of news stories on the internet from a few of the major cities. I'm a dog lover, I grew up with Labrador's, cocker spaniels, and we even had an American Bulldog which is one of the loving-est dogs but he could be angry if someone was doing something they shouldn't be. I don't want to go into the full story of the breed but there is some pitbull in the bloodline somewhere. So when I see another story about a pitbull attacking or someone trying to get the breed banned I read it.

I can understand why people would target pitbulls. They have a slight reputation for being very mean dogs. Then again, I've seen smaller and bigger dogs that can be just as mean. The pitbull just has the jaw power to actually break your bones.

Now, in this news story a 3 year old pitbull ran into a neighbor's yard, through their locked screen door, and clamped onto the face of an 11 year old labrador. The lady that owned the labrador, and her fiance, grabbed a couple wooden tv dinner tables and swatted at the pitbull. When that didn't work the lady grabbed her dog and started pulling on him and shaking him. Then By the Grace of God... the pitbull let go.

After the attack the owner did the right thing. He put the dog down. The dog attacked unprovoked and it could do it again. Next time it could be a child or another dog or anyone. Now the lady is on a mission to make the attack rate drop from 3 attacks to 1 or 2. (Note: The attack rate is currently 3. Which means if a dog violently attacks anything 3 times it's put to sleep.) She's even commented that she will focus on pitbulls if she has to.

Now here's my problem with all of this.
  1. The pitbull's owner was an idiot for letting the dog out without it being on a leash or having a muzzle on.

  2. The lady and her fiance swatted at the pitbull. In that case, you don't swat, you bash that thing over the head. There might be a life on the line.

  3. Some people think they have to try and change the world because their world got rocked a little. I won't disagree with changing the violent attack laws but I'd suggest that the situations are looked at a little closer not the breed. Why jump on the bandwagon and get breed specific? Dogs will act the way they are trained. If it grows up loved, it will be loving. If it's brought up to protect and be angry, then it will protect and be angry.

  4. Last thing you really want to do when your dog is clamped down by a bigger more powerful dog? Grab it and start pulling on it and shaking it. Your making the wounds bigger, deeper and worse.

  5. God had nothing to do with the other dog letting go. You somehow got the dog to let go. Take credit for your actions.
Everyone has their own beliefs. I won't sit here and put them down for the simple reason that everyone needs something to believe in to belong. It's what keeps a lot of people going. So believe what you want to believe until it comes to a society as a whole.

At that point, you should really think about what your trying to do or say because someone will have the exact opposite belief and call you out on it.

Breed specific legislation is something we destroyed for humans a long time ago.

Monday, May 07, 2007

Hook ups...

When you work in the bar industry there's always certain people you take care of. Certain bars hook up certain bars and it works the same with venues and resteraunts. Everyone scratches everyones backs and that's how you get hook ups at other places. I've addressed this before but you can read the other post just to get caught up.

Here's the other post: CLICK HERE

It's basically an unspoken type of thing. You offer up something and you hope that when you visit that person they'll offer something up to you. That's how it works. You don't barter for certain things that just makes you seem needy.

So when I see Stewie over in the corner talking to Laura about a show coming up I opened up my ear.

Stewie - "Yea, you should really come to the show. If you stop by I'll be working the door and I'll let ya in."

Laura - "Really? That'd be pretty cool of ya."

Stewie - "Yea, I know. Then when I'm hungry I'll come over and you just give me what I want for free."

At that point Laura's face kind of went south. Not only did Stewie offer to let her in for free he pretty much demanded something in return. You don't offer things up and then ask for something. That's like giving someone a pencil that you could get from anyone and then asking for $5 for the pencil. Why pay for something that is being given to you?

Stewie should have just offered it up as a nice guy and then waited to see if Laura hooked him up the next time he went there for food. If she does then cool. If she doesn't then she doesn't get the hook up again.

Stewie's kind of new though, he'll learn in time.





Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Toilet Phone...

"Really? I'm sure as hell not putting my hand in that toilet..."

"But you gotta... it's the only thing I've ever had in my life that I've bought myself."

I'm sure that's how the converstation went with the young girl and her friend. It doesn't really matter how it went really, she got her phone. I've known a couple people who've had to get new phones because they've dropped theirs in a toilet. It's funny and usually a good story to bring up from time to time. Although, I'm not sure I'd reach into a freshly used toilet to get it back. I mean really, it's a Razr phone.. they make them constantly and they're pretty cheap these days. Just quit coming to the bar for a couple days and you got enough money for a new phone.

"Just leave it turned off and put the battery back in after you get up tomorrow. It should be fine."

"But it's not working!!" The tears were running down this girls face as she stood outside of the bar with her friend.

"Dummy... What'd I just say? Don't turn it on."

The girl sat on the sidewalk and cried. You'd think she just lost her wedding ring at her boyfriends house or something. "This is the only thing I've ever bought by myself and no one else bought for me. Hows my mom gonna call me tomorrow?"

I really couldn't believe what I was hearing. A phone is that important? I could see if it was one of those Blackberry phones with the GPS built in and it was the only one of it's kind but this was a cheaply made Razr that was going to probably break on her in a few days anyways.

"I'll die without it!!!"

Hmm.. well.. maybe you should go back in the bar and have another drink.