Yes yes, I know, I’m a little late on the upkeep, but at least I’m getting it up only a day late as opposed to a month!

It’s been a long time since I started blogging.  I started writing about the trials and tribulations of the restaurant industry in May of 2007, at a site run by the RagingPartner that’s now become…a work in progress, called MyServerBlog.com.  In September of last year, I decided that I wanted to have my own domain and my own e-mail and such, and I hit GoDaddy and purchased the rights to RagingServer.com.

This place started out as a place to vent, a place that I came to every day and told my stories.  I went from blogging every day to at least once a week, then not even that for a while due to time constraints, and slowly I’m coming back to it.

The stats from RagingServer, thanks completely to all of you, my loyal and new readers, have been so high that I’m continually amazed people keep coming back for more.  It’s kind of humbling to be honest, I never expected my meager writings to be as popular as they have been, and I never expected to get as much hate mail because of my less than popular opinions on things.  I can only say that I’m blessed.

I’ve gotten threats from my bosses because of my love of the site and my love of posting the goings on at “The Restaurant that Shant be Named”, and that’s going to continue.  As much as I wish I could give you all more information on who I am and where I work, unless you already know or have figured it out, you’re probably not going to.

I’ve had people ask over the last year, especially during the last few months (when it started getting really bad at work) if I’m keeping a job I hate only to keep the site running.  I’ll be honest, the thought has crossed my mind.  Then I realized, I’m not keeping the job just to keep the site going, I could find another serving job if it was only that.  I’m keeping the job because no matter what happens, I’m loyal to the company.  I may hate some of the management staff, and I may hate most of the guests that come in at night, but I’ve also been there for 2 years now.  It’s my own fault that I’ve not moved any further than a few bar shifts, so I can’t blame the company for that.  There’s things that I have to take care of before I make the choice to move up into management, or full time bartending or anything else, and I’m not in a position to take care of them yet.

With the help of others in the Blogosphere, the RagingPartner, and Manuel of WellDoneFillet, I started the first service industry oriented blog carnival, The Round Table.  The Round Table was and still is very important to me, and I’m trying to get it back up in more than a “once in a blue moon” capacity.   With the help of my readers, I started the Horror Stories section, which still gets a ton of visits even though I rarely get new submissions for it.

I came up with pens that nearly got me fired because of their message and the advertising of RagingServer.com.  I’m getting more soon, and I’m working on a way to send some of them out, including getting a FedEx account or something like that.

When I let known my issues with the bank account (that’s still screwed up), so many of you stepped up and offered to help that it really touched me, and for those of you who did offer, I’m working on putting up a donation thing.  You’ve all gotten my thanks in e-mail, and I’ll say it again, thank you so much for offering to help.

Last week, when I got the renewal messages from GoDaddy, I thought about not doing it.  I thought about going out with a bang and revealing myself after the Labor Day series, and putting up some stuff.  Then I realized just how much RagingServer meant to me, and I’ve renewed this domain for another 2 years.  I don’t know what the future holds for me employment wise, or anything else-wise, but I know this, I’ll always have people to talk to it about.

I’ve got a few ideas for the site:  There’s a new theme in the works for the background, a new sidebar and such.  I’m thinking of having guest bloggers.  I’m going to bring back the weekly features (my educational series), and I’m going to have more lighthearted posts thrown into the hateful ones, even though the hateful ones were the backbone.  There’s going to be more polls, more Ghetto names, and provided I can find new and updating industry blogs, the Round Table will survive.  I’m still working on ideas for the RagingStore, which may or may not stay on CafePress, and I’m hoping that I might get a sale or two out of that.

I’m also thinking about a RagingServer podcast, even though I’ve no idea how I’m going to produce one.  RagingPartner will be able to help me out with that, as he’s got experience in radio and such.  I’m trying to get more radio interviews, I don’t think the last one really gave me a chance to talk about the site or anything like that because it was an interview about Tipping.  Despite my disappointment with the interview, I thank the producers of the Murray Wood Show, and Murray himself, for giving me that opportunity.

In short, thank you all for continuing to come back and hear about my life.  Without your constant readership, there wouldn’t be a RagingServer to come back to because I’d have lost interest.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get back to the every day posts like I was doing, but rest assured, I’m going to try.

Springs1: As much as I hate to say this because I disagree with you on almost every point you’ve ever made, you can come back at any time.  You’re a traffic driving little toad, and you’re driving that traffic to everyone else.

342 posts and 4,821 comments since I started this, hopefully next year, those numbers will have tripled.  Well over a million hits, hundreds of thousands of visitors.  Could I ever not keep the site up?

Here’s to another two years and more, everybody!

Ribeye

No tag for this post yet.

Not a major post this, nothing like the last ones anyway…

If you guys and girls look at the sidebar, you might notice that a considerable amount of links are now missing; after a couple of months of procrastination, I finally went through the links and got rid of the dead ones, and the ones that people just aren’t clicking on according to Woopra, Awstats, and Firestats.  If I’ve happened to delete the link to your site, and you think I should have kept it, please either leave me a comment or drop me an e-mail and I’ll be glad to fix it.

Also, if anybody knows of any new sites that I might like, any new Restaurant or Medical industry blogs you think would go good on my blogrolls, please please please let me know, maybe we can drive traffic to these new sites, and they can drive some back to RagingServer.com.

Another bit of news that you might or might not have been aware of;  The One Year Anniversary of the RagingServer.com domain is this coming Sunday (September 7th).  I know you all see posts from before that date in the archives, and if you’re wondering about that, that’s back when I had my site hosted on a different server, before I got it into my head that I wanted to truly make this my own.  I’ve got some ideas for the Anniversary post but nothing final, and I would LOVE some suggestions on that note.

Thus I charge you, my faithful returners and my new followers, with the following tasks:

1. Getting me new links for the blogroll, and helping me get RagingServer linked on other sites!
2. Helping me out with ideas for the upcoming Anniversary post, which other than some flashbacks to faves, will probably not be near as dark as the recent ones,
3. Help come up with new merchandise designs, and help me find a new online store location other than the RagingStore at CafePress, though you can purchase there if you want to!

Finally, before I end this post, I’d like to draw your attention to a new link in the LifeSavers directory of links:  Er Stories: Shocking, Hilarious, Bizarre and Sad Stories from the Emergency Room.  This Dr.  has an awesome site, and has a penchant for creating controversy by telling the truth as he sees it, just like I do, and I think it’s fucking awesome, so you all will enjoy it by default (at least I hope you will) and keep visiting the site!  He has a recent post dealing with obesity, psychosis, and drug seeking that I believe everyone can benefit from.

I’d like to give special thanks to ONT-RN from the comments on Labor Day for sending me in the direction of the obesity post at ER Stories.

Thanks to everybody else too!

Ribeye

No tag for this post yet.

I went into the racial issues a little in the last post, about what happens after 8 pm.

Holidays are different. Holidays are unpredictable. Holidays just plain fucking suck, and Labor Day 2008 was no different.

When I got to work, I knew the day shift had been busy. School was out, and when school’s out, we get all the worthless high school students who think they’re hot shit when they don’t tip, and even hotter shit when they walk out on their bill. They try to talk a big game, trying to sound like fucking worthless assed ghetto rap stars, but when security is called they get on their cell phones crying to their mommies.

The day shifters weren’t at all happy with the money they didn’t make compared to the business they did and who can blame them? When school is out, it’s just like the after 8pm crowd. Nobody makes more than 9% of their sales unless they have parties that don’t bitch about the automatic gratuity.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you all will remember what I went through with the Whites Creek High School prom goers, and know my reasoning for not wanting to deal with them. I don’t envy those that have to work the day shift on any holiday that allows school to be out. Well, the night shift was no better than the day shift, let me tell you…”after the jump”…Gods I hate that phrase….

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: african, african-american, bad tips, bitch, black, ghetto, hateful, high school, kids, racial, racism, racist, stealing, teenagers, thief, thug, tips

I’m just plain done working them. Someone always ends up calling out “sick” and fucking the rest of us who diligently show up for our jobs despite our lack of sleep, the kitchen inevitably crashes due to everything coming in at once, and the managers are generally useless. Tonight was no different. Talk about a Happy Labor Day Weekend…I dread tomorrow (the actual Labor Day).

I’ll go ahead and take some responsibility for tonight: I went into work on next to no sleep under the impression that we wouldn’t be at all busy based on our lousy Labor Day Weekend last year. I can’t take all the responsibility for it, however, as there were many aspects to the Hell this night.

First, when I get to work (on time for once), I learn that one of my other 4 cocktails has called in “sick”, and we will only be 4 in the game room. I’m okay with that at first, except for the person scheduled to close didn’t want to close and the person who wanted to close took forever to find the closer to switch sections. Things were a bit confusing the first hour due to bad communication, which could also be due to my apathetic attitude when they asked me what to do. I just didn’t want to be in the building and didn’t care who knew it.

The first few tables I had were pretty awesome; good money and great conversation, people as insane as I was in my fatigue induced dementia, I had a blast. The first three tables of the night were the only ones I had fun with for a while. The kitchen was crashed when I went in, and no matter how I tried to tell these “guests” that their food was going to take up to 30 minutes or beyond, they were still hateful when it came out late. I was perfectly honest with everyone as they were sitting down, so I’m not sure I really deserved their sour attitudes (though they sure as hell deserved the sour attitude I returned).

At around 7:30 or so, I made a really fucked up judgement call, and sent the girl in the section beside mine (the other 4 of the 8 tables on our side) on her break. At the time, it seemed like a good idea; she’d been working since noon without a break and wanted to get something to eat. I felt a little bad because I’d already taken one but I was under the impression that she’d had hers already. At any rate, she got her food ordered and came back to the game room. I was expecting to be introduced to her tables, then be able to close them out one at a time, thereby getting them bussed and re-seated at my own pace. Ms. A’s guests, it seemed, had another plan in mind.

The last thing Ms. A said to me as she went out the door on her break was “I’ve only got those guys, everyone else is paid out, here’s my card.” As her tables appeared to be empty, I thought it was still a good idea, because I could finish up with my two new ones and start bussing hers so that people could sit down. I get the drinks for my newbies and am about to head to her tables to start cleaning, when I see the busser in her section. The busser is cleaning all 4 of them, and there are guests waiting to sit down at each of them. I just rolled my eyes and got ready for the worst.

Part of my preparation included letting the manager of my area know that I was most likely going to need help because Ms. A was on break. He started to get pissed at her about it until I let him know it was my own stupid decision to let her go. Let him yell at me, not someone who just wanted to get a bite to eat. I made a quick run through with a towel and menus, letting each table know that I’d be with them as soon as I could as I was now running the entire side. Had these been my own tables, I probably wouldn’t have been worried but when I’m giving someone else a break I have a certain style, a style that was now blown out of the water. I return to the manager and ask him if he’ll greet a couple of the tables for me and get their drink orders. I’ve now got another new one of my own, a party of 6 (two adults and four of their groin spawn) that I haven’t even been able to say hi to yet. I know when I need help, I know when I’m in the weeds, and I’m not afraid to admit it. You’re only as good as the team that helps you out when you’re fucked.

The manager decided against greeting said tables. I don’t think he had a call on his radio to take care of, as he just wandered for a bit, leaving me to sink or doggie paddle as needed. Thankfully, all of the guests except for one of my tables were very patient and could clearly see that I was slammed. They can see me going to all my tables, and to one of the games that I had tabs running at, and back to them, so it didn’t end up being too bad until I had to fix a mistaken order (meal was supposed to be steak and shrimp and I’d only heard sirloin). It was no issue for me to get the shrimp for the gentleman, and we gave it to him free for his inconvenience, yet he still stiffed me. Fucker.

During this whole time, I’m randomly forgetting what I’m doing, survival owed solely to the fact that I write everything down when I’m that busy. The fatigue didn’t help either, yet somehow I made it until Ms A returned. I wasn’t all that thrilled with the manager in question (this manager shall remain undisclosed owing to my co-workers that read this and not wanting drama to follow). It seems that with every new set of management we get, they get less and less “team oriented” when it comes to doing the job of a server, and that’s going to be a whole post in itself. I just don’t get it, there’s a couple of managers at my job that don’t mind greeting tables and getting orders, or even serving tables when we’re slammed. It’s part of their jobs! This one, however, has been heard to say such things as “I don’t care” in regards to guest issues, and proved to me that he just doesn’t care when his staff is in the weeds and needs his help. He did go to the kitchen to relay instructions for me a couple of times but I think it’s because he sensed that I was about to lose my temper with him.

Disclaimer: The remainder of this post is VERY racially charged. I don’t use the “N” word, but I make clear where I stand on the race issue in ways some of you may not agree with. It doesn’t matter if you agree or not, though, as I’m only human and I can only take so much. Click the little button following this warning if you want to read the rest.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: african, african-american, bitch, bitches, black, charged, cocaine, crack, cumshot, curdled, dark, darkness, drug abuse, fat, food, fuck, fucker, gang, gang bang, ghetto, gratuity, gun, Hell, judgement, Labor Day, money, negro, racism, raging, redneck, regulars, respect, ribeye, serving, shit, stupid, tip, tit, trash, weekend, whore, whores, worthless

Ok, it’s a little….off color…this post, and it’s mainly for the guys (unless some ladies have experience with this phenomenon). Those of you who have experienced it know exactly what I’m talking about.

You’ve worked a long shift, or a hectic shift. You’re sweaty, tired, hot, sweaty, sweaty. You’ve been moving for so long and so fast that you don’t realize you’ve got a bit of pain, or you’re so busy that you block it out. You finally start to slow down, and you feel a slight sting in your rear. It’s not in a “safe” place, however. As your body goes slower and slower, the pain grows stronger and stronger but you don’t know why.

You finally get a chance to go outside and smoke a cigarette (or take a breath of fresh air, to each his own), but you find yourself walking somewhat bowlegged due to a chafing pain. When you finally make it outside, you see an empty chair, the corner of a step, the ground itself. You plop down in utter exhaustion and you feel fire. You resist the urge to grimace, and you keep from jumping up because you don’t want people to know what’s going on.

Keeping up appearances, you chit chat while inwardly you’re screaming bloody murder.

My friends, THAT is Server Ass.

I haven’t yet figured out what causes it, whether it’s due to the amount of sweat, the type of underpants (I’ve heard that briefs are better, I’ve heard that boxers are better, I’ve heard that boxer briefs are better), or a combination of everything, but conventional remedies are no good. Even baby powder causes a sting like no other.

What actually happens with Server Ass doesn’t have anything to do with the cheeks, or even the inner depths. The O-Ring is always left intact to my knowledge. It has to do with the outer rims of the crack itself. They get swollen from chafing or sweat, or expulsion of gas perhaps, as I said, I don’t really know other than the fact that it hurts like a bitch!

I have a couple of theories, however. I think that as men, (most of) our asses just don’t take abuse (ok get a laugh and move on now) and they are rebelling against us. They want us to sit down at least 3 times an hour, preferably for 20 minutes at a time. You do the math. When our hind quarters don’t get the relaxation they desire, they take revenge upon us.

Perhaps it’s got to do with the amount of “rear hair” or lack thereof. Perhaps those of us with gorgeous looking bubble butts (like mine) have more problems because our cheeks naturally rub a bit as we move. That thought leads me to wonder if men with a flat ass experience this too….I’ve only heard guys at my job with nice asses complain about it, and complain that they can’t ease the pain of it.

At any rate, I, along with a few of my co-workers and some of the other guys in the restaurants surrounding (anonymous poll) have all dealt with this more than once and let me tell you it’s just not fun. Consider this an open question: I want to know who else has dealt with this horrid malady, the pain of which I can only liken to the passing of a kidney stone or childbirth, a pain for which there is no known cure, a pain which male servers everywhere are afraid to admit they deal with for fear of ridicule. You don’t have to leave your name (though I’d prefer something), but I want to know who else has dealt with this. Ladies, you also; please let me know who among you can relate, who amongst your number have felt our pain.

Any remedies that you’ve come up with that would help out your fellow man should be left in your comment as well. ANYTHING, from Desitin to the Donut, let your words ring bold and clear!

Faithful readers of the medical profession, lend us your knowledge as well!

For those of you who don’t want to comment, I’m adding a poll for you!

Thank you, and thank you!

Ribeye

No tag for this post yet.