That’s the working title for a book I’ve decided to write.

Tonight at work, and over the past few weeks, I’ve realized that some people are just beyond help, but there’s some people who actually try.  I want to help those who actually try be the best they can be, from looking for a serving job, to training, to moving up and all of the above.

I’m going to incorporate a serious approach to advice combined with excerpts from here at RagingServer…classic Ribeye you might say…

The idea to actually write a book of advice like this came about when I decided to write a couple of little “mini-books”, giving hints to the new hires at my job.  To be honest, I’m just tired of working with people who don’t know what they’re doing or don’t want to try.  Too many of my current co-workers whine and cry about not making money, yet they don’t want to take the time to listen or learn.  They screw up on the simplest things, and make things too hard, and I seek to change that.

Writing a book that’s mostly non-fiction also might give me something to do when I’m not working, reading, blogging, or writing on my fantasy book.  It also could be a big hit as either a comedy or a help guide, and I think I’m going to enjoy writing it.

I’m not going to be one of those that quotes a bunch of sources in a bibliography or anything like that; this is all going to be based on my personal experience and advice given me by you, the loyal readers that serve.

That’s basically it for now, but I’ll talk more about it later.

Ribeye

My weekend from Hell is finally over.  After working on 5 hours of sleep Friday night, 5-12:30 or so, not sleeping but 3 hours before work Saturday morning’s double shift from 11 am until almost 2 am Sunday (the open to close) because I just couldn’t get to sleep, then only getting 4 hours before my double yesterday (Sunday), I’m at the point of pure exhaustion.

Work last night was Hell, pure and simple.  The day shift wasn’t that bad, it was actually quite fun!  The day shift game room bartender called out, so I got to do a bit of bartending during the morning along with running the floor.  About 3 pm though, I was ready to fall to the ground.

I was tired, I was dragging, I was a zombie.  I gave up tables to other servers, I didn’t focus on my tables, I forgot to ring things in.  I just don’t know if I’m young enough to handle the double shifts anymore….or I need to find a good sleeping aid by next weekend when I have another set of them =).

On the plus side, I’ve just finished the next book in a series that I started reading over 10 years ago, by Raymond E. Feist.  This one is called Wrath of a Mad God, and it’s awesome…to an extent.  There are things that were changed, and I’m not much for rewriting history, but all in all, I finished it in 2 days (would have been a night had it not been for the accursed double shift), and it was an awesome read!

You should all check out his books if you like fantasy, starting with Magician..or the split versions of Magician, Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master.  You’ll like them.

I got to work early today.  I was in a good mood when I got to work early, despite being very tired from little sleep and getting up early this morning.  I was ready to work and make money.

This is after I was asked earlier in the week to come in Yesterday (aka, Thursday) and work a day shift on my day off.  Thursday was a complete waste of my time.  I cleaned the entire time I was there, and made 17 bucks.  Thursday put me into overtime for the week.

So I got to work today…early.  I was in a good mood when I got to work early.  I was told by new GM that the night managers wanted to send me home and to go talk to them.  The Ribeye is broke at the moment, and cannot afford to NOT work on a weekend.  So I go talk to the night managers.  They suggest my going home.

“I can’t afford to go home, send someone else.  I’m the cocktail with the most seniority tonight, shouldn’t that count for something?”

“You’re in overtime this week and we have too many people,” says Manager _ the Wise.

“Then how about I come in at 6 tonight and tomorrow, and 5 on Sunday.  Between coming in an hour later and breaks, that should even it out.”

“We already have too many people on.  Why not just take the night off?”  I’m getting the sneaking suspicion that they’re trying to piss me off enough to quit, which I’m not going to do.  I love my job.  Not big on some of my co-workers, but that’s another post.

“You’re not understanding me.  I am BROKE.”

We compromised, and I went in 2 hours late tonight and missed happy hour, and I go in at regular time the next 2 nights.  I just don’t see why other people who haven’t been there as long and who haven’t done as much for the dept. are getting better shifts.  I love the people I worked with tonight.  They’re the core of my dept. that actually work.  They are the ones who don’t mind doing sidework, or running sidework.  They are my friends, and I actually enjoy being around them.  There’s some others that I would rather not ever have to work with again, but I’m not going to mention names.

I’ve heard there are changes coming, but nobody’s saying what they are.  I’ve heard that corporate rules are going to come into play more there, and I don’t mind that in the least being that I follow 99% of them all the time.  The ones I break are minor, like having a cell phone in the building and smoking during the dinner rush.  I just hope it doesn’t run off some of the people I do like to work with.  I want the new changes to run off the worthless ones.  I do have to say that a couple of people are in for a rude awakening when it comes to working with me.  I’m done playing around when it comes to sidework and rolling silverware.

Now, at the request of Mizz B, who took a table at the end of the night that I should have taken, the reason for the quote.

This table of white trash thuggy ghetto people, two guys and their girlfriends, sat down about 10 minutes before last call.  I got their drinks, after trying to figure out what the guys were ordering through the fake gold they had in their mouths.  The skanky assed girls, one skinny as fuck brunette and one bleached blonde, only got a diet coke and a water.

Mizz B walks up while I’m waiting on the beer, and I ask her half-jokingly if she wanted a table.  I was cleaning when they sat down, and didn’t want them, but I wasn’t going to pawn off the ghetto trash on her…at least until she said she’d take it.

I introduce Mizz B to them and walk off.  She comes up to me afterwards.  This is what she says:  “They asked me if we have a coat room…for their hoodies…”  The hoodies in question weren’t even expensive.  They looked like they came from Target or something.  I hate ghetto white boys that are trying to be thugs.  They’re just stupid.  These two weren’t even cute like some of them are.

Fast forward until later in the meal, when a magical hair appears in their food despite all our cooks being black with short to no hair, and the hair in question being so bleached it’s almost yellow.  The kitchen is closed when they notice the hair, and the fryer has to be turned back on for 4 wings.  While Mizz B is hunting a manager, Bleached Betty sucks down her diet coke.  She doesn’t wait for Mizz B to get back for a refill and sends her thuggish boyfriend to the bar for it.  He bitches at the bartender for having to wait on his server for a refill.

They leave her a shitty tip in the end, and a big mess on the table.  I was in a hurry, so I had my side of the venue walked off and made sure it was okay with Mizz B. that I leave, and I left.

Mizz B, I’m sorry you took that table and I will make it up to you.  You shouldn’t have had to deal with that trash and their disrespect, you’re too good for that.

I still can’t get over them asking about a coat room for their ugly assed ghetto hoodies.  It happened 4 hours ago, and I’m still in disbelief that they thought their hoodies would be important enough for a coat check.  I wouldn’t even pay the price of a coat check to buy hoodies as ugly as those were.  Hell, I wouldn’t have paid for them at all!  I have a couple of hoodies, but they’re not all ghettofied with those funky patterns of dollar signs and colors and shit on them, looking like New Years just threw up on them.  The ones I own are solid colors.

Currently Reading:  King of the Murgos, book two of The Mallorean by David Eddings.  

So if you’ve met me in person, you know that I love to read.  Books are great, books are knowledge, books are fun.  I love to read.  Last night, while out driving with RagingPartner, we found a used bookstore in West Nashville.  We went in, and I was in Heaven.  For those of you who’ve never heard of it, you should visit McKay’s Used Books and Cd’s.  They also have DVD’s, old VHS tapes for the people still in the 20th century, video games.  It’s just a great place to be.  Used books for cheap prices.  75 cents to 4 bucks for paperback, 7-10 bucks for hardbacks that are normally 20-30 bucks.  I love that place, and I will be back.

Visit McKay’s Used Books and CD’s today!   

Yes, this post has absolutely NOTHING to do with serving.  At least I don’t think it’s going to end up having anything to do with serving.

I’ve been letting the whole “Dumbledore is gay” statement ride since it first came out.  I was content to continue enjoying the books, because they’re still good books.   They’re always going to be good books.   People are having such a major public outcry against J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series now, much the same way the Christian Right went against it for the magical overtones, that the entire series is being made out to be a pornographic series of events.  What people who haven’t read the books don’t understand is this: The books are nothing more than very well written fiction.  As the series progressed, it became darker yes, more death and decay, but there were no sexual perversions held within the covers.

People are also saying the quote was made in order to boost sales of the previous books.  I myself am one of those.  As a great fan of the Harry Potter series, and an open homosexual male, I personally believe that it was an advertising ploy, and I applaud Ms. Rowling for it.  She has done what any great PR person would do.  She’s put focus on a a controversial topic in order to boost sales.  She not only has skill at writing, but at getting cash too.  Yes, she was in the proverbial poorhouse when the first book was written, but she wrote it well and is a billionaire.  I say GO MS.  ROWLING!  Do what you need to do, even if it includes outing a character.

People are also quoting areas of the book that show Dumbledore was gay.  Namely one,  “You cannot imagine how his ideas caught me, Harry, inflamed me,’ ” Dumbledore says in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and final book in Rowling’s record-breaking fantasy series.  I got this quote from a friend you all know from the comments here, Jimmy-James, so you’ll have to ask him where the quote actually came from.  

The problem with the above quote is that people are only seeing part of the conversation between Harry and Dumbledore.  Dumbledore wasn’t alluding to his homosexuality, no matter how much we try to make it seem like he is.  Dumbledore was great friends with “Grindelwald”, the character he was supposedly in love with.  The conversation in question was about Dumbledore explaining to Harry about his past, including his days of having more evil tendencies toward ruling “Muggles” aka, non-magic humans.

Christians (not all Christians, but many) are saying that children shouldn’t be exposed to homosexuality at a young age, yet there’s nothing in the books that exposes them to homosexuality except for a crass joke in the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, where Dudley Dursley says, “Who’s Cedric, your boyfriend?”  after hearing Harry moan his dead companions name in his sleep during a nightmare.  What the Christian Right is overlooking is that these books actually got people to READ which is something that children have been doing less and less of in this busy new age.  The Christian Right is also overlooking the works of other Homosexuals in history.

Take Tchaikovsky, a famous composer of the Romantic Era, notably one of the best composers in history.  You’ve all heard some of his work at one time or another.  Think of Marche Slave and The 1812 Overture.  Also think of his musical masterpiece in The Nutcracker Suite.  Many people believe that Tchaikovsky was a Homosexual, yet fanatical Christians still allow their children to see the Nutcracker every year during the holiday season (I would say Christmas, but it’s becoming less P.C.) these days.

Think also of the other homosexuals throughout history, and what they have contributed or what they represent.  They are taught about in your Literature classes, you see them on television.  They have held high office, and have helped guide civilizations in the past.

Think of  Alexander the Great 356-323BC, or BCE,  and Hephasteion.  

Think of Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony.

Then we have some of the most influential artists of all time, Leonardo DaVinci, Raphael, Michelangelo Buonarroti and Donatello.

I could go on and on about the influence of Homosexuals in the historical context, but it wouldn’t change anyone’s mind.   I just find it funny that the very same people who cry about their children reading a book that has a homosexual character yet has no homosexual exploits don’t cry in the least bit about their children learning from or about these same historical figures in school.

For those of you who are screaming that the Harry Potter books should be banned, burned or anything like that, think of all the other historical homosexuals and what they have given to our world today.  Also remember that J.K. Rowling succeeded where many other authors and parents have failed.  She got children to read.  She got children to enjoy reading.  In this era of technology, television, XBOX, Playstation, and cellphones, who of you save for a few can say the same.

Sorry for the change of topic, but I just had to get these things out.  Readers new and old, enjoy debating this post, and come back for more of the normal.

Ribeye