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[Eris]

Finally: Please don't tell anyone to smile.

Alternately, please don't comment on how happy I seem. I have to smile and be polite, and even though I am on my 8th hour of my shift and have been selling all you fucks lots of alcohol and want to sit down for a minute I still have to smile or my manager gets cranky at me. Saying "Oh, you're awfully happy today!" makes me want to stab you in the eye with the pen used to sign the credit card receipts. As soon as you are out of my face I will go back to slouching and trying to stay awake, but for the moment I have to be happy so shut the fuck up.

I am glad I don't work at that place any more. Maybe we should have a job thread, because I already have some strange things happen to me at my new job, which were kinda funny.

[Bastardous Bassist]

Luckily, I've not really had to deal with customers much in any job I've had.  I spent about four years making my living playing music, so aside from requests, nobody really could talk to me.  Then I worked as a cook upon moving to Rochester, since I didn't know any musicians.  Now, I'm a graduate student, and I basically work with scientists all day.  Jobs in high school were mostly office work.

I am now finally getting over my hangover of death.  I'm revising the "never drinking again" to "never getting drunk off of beer again."  That pretty much means I'm sticking to gin martinis from here on out.  Good bye hangovers!

[MrBlu]

So coming up on my work schedule I have Bloc Party, Tom Jones, Michael McIntyre, Snow Patrol, Eddie Izzard, Alice Cooper, UB40, James Morrison, Status Quo, Jools Holland, Lily Allan and Ricky Gervais coming up.

Which ones should I work, people?

James Morrison.


Uh oh. Is this page under warranty?

[BrittanyMarie]

My former retail job was indeed a total breeze, but I worked at a video store and not a big box chain so it maybe wasn't so bad. Plus I could sit and watch the Labyrinth over and over when it was slow (which I did, because it was frequently). The only times it sucked was one this crazy lady grabbed my computer and I got mad at her and got her kicked out permanently, and another customer would always come in right before close and take a giant smelly messy poop, so for him I'd lie and say the bathrooms are out of order. I probably couldn't have done that at a big corporate place.

And BB, I get the worst hangovers from gin. Specifically gin and tonics. I think that's just because they are so delicious so I drink more of them faster than anything else.

[tania]

i work as a sales associate at both of my retail jobs. one of them is commission based and the amount of commission you make depends on how talented you are at convincing customers to buy things that profit the company and not necessarily the customer, so your commission is based 100% on how much the sale profits the company. the other involves daily sales goals and although everybody only makes minimum wage, it's similar enough to a commission environment in that it's part time and everybody fights for shifts so whoever gets the most shifts is whoever is the best at their job and selling stuff. it's a lot of pushiness and a lot of selling. any type of sales job is both incredibly easy and holds the potential to be extremely lucrative for someone who is extroverted, likes money, and actually likes the company they work for. for someone who doesn't enjoy constant pressure or the dishonesty and lies that come from goading people into buying things under the guise that they need it when the real reason is so that you can keep your job and the company you work for can get even richer, it's pretty fucking unbearable.

guess which type of person i am!

[Hat]

Also, receiving stock isn't what I'd call easy if the boxes are both bigger and weigh more than you.

I suppose recommending a brief training montage (complete with a catchy background track) being played until you can compete as a contender would be out of the question?

This has actually worked really well for me when I was in charge of incoming stock (playing Eye of the Tiger that is, not the montage), but then again you don't really do stock where I work unless you are pretty tanked to begin with or a scrapper (who becomes a tank by way of having cartons of booze thrown at them)

I kind of miss that I can't do deliveries at work any more because of uni to be honest.

Moving house today, have all my shit piled in one giant pile. It's interesting to just look at all your stuff in its most condensed form.

[Bastardous Bassist]

I've actually heard the hangovers from gin and tonics are due to the tonic water more than the gin.

Also, how did your job in the video store compare to Randal's in "Clerks"?  Yes, I know that was a video rental place, but it might have been similar.  And was that poop anything like the one experienced by these guys?

Twice, I tried to get a job at a store where I'd get commission (the same company both times, in different cities).  Both times, I was told that I had the job, and then they changed their mind after making me come in a number of days to fill out a bunch of paperwork.  Fuck Guitar Center.

[Hat]

I've actually heard the hangovers from gin and tonics are due to the tonic water more than the gin.

It's actually quite a complicated (and beautiful *sigh*) relationship because the booze makes you want to piss more so you piss more but your body isn't really getting enough liquid in to piss so you get dehydrated and most mixers have a lot of sugar so they aren't pulling their weight in the hydration category in the first place either. Just drink x and soda! That way you can actually taste what alcohol you are drinking, sort of.

[Bastardous Bassist]

Yeah, but soda doesn't have that beautiful quinine in it.  It also doesn't taste right.  Anyways, in good gin and tonics, I can taste the alcohol.  There's always martinis, too.  Unfortunately, whenever I drink martinis, I get WAY drunk.

[tania]

Twice, I tried to get a job at a store where I'd get commission (the same company both times, in different cities).  Both times, I was told that I had the job, and then they changed their mind after making me come in a number of days to fill out a bunch of paperwork.  Fuck Guitar Center.

dude honestly you do not want to work in a commission based environment unless a) it's a company you absolutely adore or b) you are fully and completely prepared to sell your soul and hate yourself for a pretty good paycheck every two weeks, forever

example - i make an extra $8 for every ridiculously overpriced $30 printer cable i sell which can be bought for like 50 cents if not cheaper on ebay and even though i have told dozens of customers that they absolutely need THIS printer cable because i want that $8, it has never not made me want to punch myself as hard as i can in the face

[BrittanyMarie]

It was a video rental store, and yeah I guess it was kind of similar, but my store was slightly bigger and also we didn't have actual porn, only "late night" videos which are soft core. And yes, that motherfucker would come in like EVERY NIGHT and then he asked me out twice. Like no, you jerkface first off you are gross and second of all I clean up your dang poop all the time and it's always after I'm finished cleaning for the night. He was actually kind of good looking in a hippie with dreads way but so gross. SO GROSS.

And Brett, I can taste the gin in my g&t's, that's what makes them SO GOOD.

[Bastardous Bassist]

dude honestly you do not want to work in a commission based environment unless a) it's a company you absolutely adore or b) you are fully and completely prepared to sell your soul and hate yourself for a pretty good paycheck every two weeks, forever

The way they work is that you make either your $8/hr (or is that below minimum wage now?) or commissions, based on which is higher, which means I'd probably not really be working for commission (because your commission is pretty much never higher than your hourly pay, apparently).  Plus, I would have been selling guitars (and hopefully basses) for reasonable prices, and I was kind of okay with that.

By the way, does anyone know the plural for a gin and tonic, definitively?  Are they gin and tonics, or gins and tonics?

[jhocking]

Who says "gins and tonics"?  That sounds like something an asshole would say.

[tania]

bb: they do that at my job too, but beware - in my case, when they say they'll comp you in minimum wage what they really mean is that they'll do that until your probation is up and then if you still aren't making more commission than minimum wage they'll fire you because your employment isn't actually doing anything to profit the company.

at this point i've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that  will probably be fired at the end of september because i don't really care enough about my job to pressure people into buying things as much as i could be but apparently getting hired at any of my store's direct competitors is hell of easy once i've got it on my resume that i worked there cos they really like stealing employees from the competition so, hey, whatever.

[Bastardous Bassist]

Who says "gins and tonics"?  That sounds like something an asshole would say.

That's exactly why I will now start using that phrase exclusively.

I'm not going to work retail ever again, hopefully, and my friend worked at a similar place (Mars Music, if you're familiar) and he got to keep his job long after his probation period was up, despite the fact that he rarely made commission.  Maybe that's why they went out of business...

[ViolentDove]

Guys.

I just built a fort at work.

A fort for bacteria.

It was fun.

Except that it was in the 30^oC room that is ridiculously humid.

When I worked with chytridiomycetes I'd make little cities out of their sporangia and watch their little zoospores swim around in corridors of water. Those were the days!

Also New Job Thread, I have a new job! It's that newspaper about newspapers thing I mentioned a while back. My new boss talks (and looks) like David Brent from the Office (the UK one), but seems to be much more intelligent. Also, I have a phone allowance, he told me to get something that can do email... iPhone?   

And tonight there is some kind of fuck-off awesome warehouse party being planned in this newly discovered gem of an abandoned warehouse:





Should be pretty great. Until it gets shut down, anyways.

[Lunchbox]

Nick nick where is that thing what is happening tell me details

[ViolentDove]

It's a secret!

(no really, location is secret, you have to call a number tonight... I'll send you the facebook thingamy)

(ps. there will be no running water, toilets, or anything like that, and wear sensible shoes and look out for exposed wiring, nails, asbestos, etc. etc.)

(pps. it is more likely than not the riot police will show up, so uh... yeah. Don't talk back to them or touch them in any way whatsoever)

[SirJuggles]

So I go away for two days and the blog thread grows 3 pages. Way to go whiny internet people.

So I went camping with my girlfriend and noone else and it was all kinds of awesome. But now I am dirty and tired and hurhglbrhlhjghoh

[imapiratearg]

Dear Internets,

I made kisses with a girl I've liked for like, years.  It was really sweet!

Also, I'm going off to college tomorrow!

Love,
Matt

[evilbobthebob]

It seems my thoughts about the interview were correct, I didn't get the job. I also got a rejection letter from another company I applied to. Fuck employment.

[est]

Hey blog thread I had my first day of about a week's worth of contract work today.

For about two hours this morning (9-11) I got to unpack office chairs out of their plastic, pick them up and spin them around so that I could cut plastic off their chairlegs, then put them into the office.  Like, most days it is lucky if I am even up by that point.  The I got to move pcs around all day and re-cable desks and build monitor stands and walk up and down two flights of stairs every so often.  I am getting about $25/hr basically to do physical labour.  It's pretty tops.

It's supposed to only go until late next week, but the managerial type there says they've probably actually got about 3 weeks worth of work for me.  I hope so, because I needs money like ice is cold.

[Coward]

I could probably write for a local newspaper (but that would crash hard with my uni time, probably), in a kindergarten (I am pretty okay with kids past the larvae-stage), a home for the elderly, or possibly even freelance for real newspapers - that'd mean a lot of work, though.

Is there an accepted way to become a freelance journalist (like do you have to be certified as a journalist) or can you just cuff it?

[allison]

I had a huge fight with my mom this morning over money. I've worked 3 jobs all summer to pay my fairly hefty tuition, which I did. She yelled at me a lot but let's face it folks, she was really yelling at my dad (who hasn't contributed to my education at all) and I cried a whole bunch and basically I need money real bad or I'm screwed for the $200/mo transit fees and all the books I have to buy. She says unless my dad puts up some cash, she's not going to let me access any money from my RESP.

Cool.

[Sox]

When it comes down to it, and it's either she allows you to or you don't go to school, then she should make the rational (sane) decision and give you access anyway, since you already did 99% of the work yourself and she's your mother.

[Jace]

Today after I get my license back my mom is going to put some gas in my car and I am going to go look for a job in three different restaurants since snowbird season is a'comin and restaurants need people who really actually want to work in a restaurant (that's me).

Also, I have never really gotten mad or understood getting mad at a retail place. I can understand getting mad at a food place, and I can understand getting mad at a hotel, but I really don't understand getting mad at a retail place. Like, if they do not have something you are looking for getting mad will not make it materialize and will only make the employee not want to help you because you are being mean.

[Barmymoo]

One of my law books arrived today! Sadly not the one I need for my assignment, but since the DoS hasn't actually posted the assignment yet I guess that doesn't matter. I can take it with me camping this weekend!

What is good food for camping when there is no fire?

[Coward]

What is good food for camping when there is no fire?

No fire as in bonfires, or as in no cooking on stoves etc?

[Yayniall]

Cheese and crackers.

[Jimmy the Squid]

Like, if they do not have something you are looking for getting mad will not make it materialize and will only make the employee not want to help you because you are being mean.

Yeah I've never really understood this mindset. I mean, working in a call centre you can tell when I think someone is being a prick because I don't go out of my way to help them. I'm not overtly unhelpful but I do not suggest anything that could make things easier for arsehole customers. Honestly if I was vindictive I could really fuck things up for people who are wankers, having access to all kinds of delicious identity information about people but luckily I'm just a really nice person and not the type to commit credit card fraud or to find people who are rude over the phone to call centre staff and slash their throats in their sleep.

Clearly I have a had a bad day.

[pen]

My baby is going on vacation.  Apparently her grandparents are spending the week in New Hampshire and her dad decided they'd tag along (with my permission).  Since they don't usually DO anything during the week when he's with her, I figured this is a great opportunity for her to go, but oh man am I going to miss her. 

I'm surprisingly anxious about it.  I'm not used to not having her home when I'm home.  It's going to seem so empty and lonely.  I mean, I'll probably get a lot done that I wouldn't usually, but... I'll miss the bedtime stories and hugs and stuff.  I miss her already and I just saw her 5 hours ago.  This is going to be a long week.

[Coward]

I can just cuff it, but I don't have a lot of experience with journalism asides from a column in a major newspaper I had a brief stint with (then they started rewriting me, which I hate, so I quit - and it was unpaid as well), and I don't have a whole lot of connections in the business either - getting my foot in the door might be tricky.

Anyone in your uni who might be able to open a door for you, such as lecturers knowing the right people, editor of an internal newsletter etc?

[J-cob9000]

So on Monday I am audition for a play! I will, hopefully, be playing the part of Mike, a born-again Christian. It is pretty monologue heavy but I can pull it off I think.

I am so excited for drama club this year. We are getting an outdoor storage building, more staff support, more advertising, more organization and a muuuch better student president.
a;sldkfjao So excited.

[Scarychips]

Dear Blog Thread,

1) My girlfriend and I broke up 3 weeks ago. I still love her and I'm not yet over her, which makes me all weird inside.

2) School started today. My last year before going to college. I'm still in my enriched science program and I had Physics and Chemistry today. My Physics teacher is boring and he thinks we know nothing about optics and light.

3) I decided to be in the prom organisation club and the drama club this year. The teacher who chooses the latter is a really great guy. Talking about teachers, I talked to most of my last year teachers today. Really great people.

Anthony.

[Reed]

Wooo, got a job tutoring student athletes, which may or may not put me over the poverty line! To celebrate, my friend took me out for a couple of pitchers in the middle of the day.

We are going to take a couple of students out to the 'discoteque' (or however the fuck you silly foreigners spell it) in Hartford.

I plan to be fully trashed by the time I get home tonight, even if I have to spend money that I need for food on $5 bottle of bud light.

[Sox]

This last year, I've met a lot more people, done a lot more things. I've found a new level of acceptance and open mindedness amongst my peers. Perhaps because of the field of interest that the people I meet these days suscribe to. Perhaps it's something that occurs naturally with age. Sometimes young people can be the most judgemental in the face of what they don't understand. Typically, children are extremely accepting of those who are different, but there's a strange time between childhood and adulthood where people become somewhat blurred. Teenagers are difficult. Especially if you're one of them. It's a difficult period to live through, especially if you're...
...different.

There are aspects of my life that I prefer not to talk about, subjects I'd rather not touch upon and a lo of this has to do with my years spent in school as a teenager, when I first realised I was slightly...
...different
to the rest of the people in my class.

This is the story of the the first time I came out to my friends.


Outwardly I was a normal teenager doing normal teenage things. I was just turning 14, weekends were spent experimenting with drugs and testing how much alcohol we could drink without passing out. Friday nights were spent watching crappy local bands in bars and buying drinks for girls because those places didn't ask for ID and we really thought we had a chance. Your friends were the people you went to school with because they were the people you had to spend the most time with.
The summers were long and spent high while singing along to hormonal teenage mixtape songs about getting dumped, riding shopping carts down steep hills and jumping off the highest surfaces we could find. They were simpler, easier times...
...for most.

Over the years I had been coming to terms with something about myself that I knew would be hard for some people to understand. It wouldn't be easy for them to hear it, but it wasn't exactly going to be easy for me to say it either. And yet! I had to. When you have to lie about who you are every single day for fear of not fitting in, it eats away at you. And it had been eating away at me for years...

It was a typical March 23. Grey skies, a chill on the air. But considerably dry. I had been rehearsing all night what I was going to say and I was late for school because I had been practicing in the mirror. I had to deliver the news just right...
The day progressed as normal until lunchtime. I sat at the back of the room, feeling like a ghost amongst my classmates. How could they understand? Classes ended and the dinner bell sounded. I met up with my friends for lunch. We counted our funds and set off into the village centre for cones of chips as usual. I felt a knot in my throat, my confidence was seeping away. I would tell them, I would. I just had to eat something first.
That didn't work. As soon as I uttered the words, I knew I'd be outcasted. I knew that they would no-longer accept me as one of them. I couldn't do it. I wouldn't do. I had to remain silent!

The walk back to school continued in it's typical fashion.

Dan, Stephane and Toby (in unison): "I took her out, it was a friday night! I wore cologne, to get the feeling right! We started making out, and she took of my pants, and then I turned on the TV!
AND THAT'S ABOUT THE TIME SHE WALKED AWAY FROM ME! NOBODY LOVES YOU WHEN YOU'RE TWEEENTY TH...
..."
Toby: "...Darryl?"
Darryl: "Hm?"
Dan: "Why ain't you singing?"

I couldn't keep it up anymore. I had to tell them. No matter what the consequences, I couldn't keep living a lie...

Darryl: "Guys...there's something I have to tell you..."
Toby: "yeah?"

It was now or never. This was it. I'm saying it. I'm saying it!

Darryl: "...I...
...
...I don't like Blink 182."
Stephane: WHAT?!
Toby: "Hahah, sure."
Dan: "wait, I think he's serious..."
Darryl: "Yeah...I just listened to them because you guys do...I wanted to fit in..."
Everybody: "..."
Darryl: "...this doesn't change things, right? we're still the same people, right?"
Everybody: "..."

Suddenly everything made sense to them. The way I dressed, the way I talked, the way I behaved differently around girls, the reason I couldn't kick a ball, didn't know anything about sports, why I was a big sissy...
It was obvious. They should have realised earlier. They couldn't believe they hadn't noticed it before. All this information hit them all at once and they responded the only way they could.
I got punched in the stomach. And the face. They pulled my arms behind my back and pushed me into the ground.
And that's about the time they walked away from me.

I got back to school a little later than usual. People avoided me. Clearly news was getting around pretty fast. People exchanged glances as I walked past and whispered to each other. Suddenly I was the freak. Finally my friend Verity approached me.

"Dan told me what you said...is it true?"
"...yeah..."
"I'm really sorry about what they did...they were assholes and I made sure to tell them that."
"...you don't mind?"
"...about you? no! to be honest, I guess I kinda always knew that about you. It was kinda obvious...
It's okay! Be yourself. We'll still accept you and...well, if anybody doesn't, fuck'em!"
"Thanks Verity. It means a lot."
"I'm sure Toby, Dan and Stephane will come around. Just give them a little time."

I was kinda quiet for a few months after that. Then after a while I decided to try being loud and proud, but I was kinda uncomfortable with that...
I didn't want my musical orientation to become something that defined me. Plus wearing it as a badge like that kinda made me look like an asshole. Throughout the rest school, I wasn't really sure how to deal with it. I tried to carry it in a lot of ways, some working better than others, with plenty of severe missteps. It wasn't until I was 17 that I decided that it shouldn't be a big deal. I wouldn't say I'm back in the closet, but I just don't talk about it anymore. I let people assume based on my behaviour. People are generally more okay with it now. Sometimes people can't tell, but if they ask, I just tell them straight up. Most people don't even notice it about me.

The entire time I was worried about ostracization but it turned out the entire time that it didn't even matter at all. It didn't matter at all whether or not people knew what my orientation was, as long as I knew myself and was comfortable with it.
Obviously it means I've made a lot of sacrifices, and I don't meet as many potential partners as I'd like. When I'm hanging out with the guys, there's a lot of conversations I'm sort of excluded from because I don't really have a clue about those kind of things. Sports, girls, popular music...
I chose to share this with you all because I want you to know...
...there is life after coming out. The pros far outweight the cons and it's much easier than living a lie. You don't have to keep your orientation a secret anymore. The world is changing and nowadays it's far more common than it used to be. You don't have to like the same things as everybody else anymore.

My name is Darryl Patterson and I like indie rock.

[Scarychips]

Goddamnit, Darryl, if we weren't on the Internet, I would start applauding. You kow that applause that starts off slow, but eventually becomes that fulfilling applause? I would do that.

[Jimmy the Squid]

TL:DR

Make your stories more to the point Darryl.

[Sox]

...point?

[Sox]

Nobody said it was.

[Sox]

Well, what if it was?
I'm just saying, what if?
Imagine it was for a second, what then?

[Sox]

I was under the impression that it was a currency.

[Eris]

Yesterday I worked from 6pm to 12 (about 12:30 really with the cleaning and closing up procedures included). We would have finished earlier but there was a group of ladies sitting there yammering while we cleaned up around them. It was only when we moved a table loudly right next to them that they got the point that we really wanted them to piss off. Ben met me out the front and we stumbled home tiredly. Thankfully all the drunk dumbarses that are normally wandering about had all gone to a pub or something so they weren't wandering down the street and getting in my way.


I did get asked a strange question by the kitchen hand, though. He asked what my name was, said it was a nice name, then asked if my Dad named me. I have never been asked which parent chose my name, so I made up some shit about how Dad chose my brother's name so Mum chose mine. Still, strange question.

[Vendetagainst]

Thinking about college. I think I'm going to go to spend two years in junior college and then transfer to a university abroad (maybe London or Sweden?). I would really like to know what you people think about this because I don't know where I would look to do something like that.
Pleeeease Heeeeelp.

[MrBlu]

Dear people who care.

[Insert expletive of choice] school.

[Lunchbox]

My apartment is the cleanest ever, now I am going to grubby it up by making lasagne and lemon pudding to take to the boy's for dinner tonight. Hooray!

[jodizzle]

Hi guys!  I have been good, house hunting and job hunting!  I have good news about house hunting.  Well, potential good news.  The unit that I really wanted (it is 2 story, 3 bedroom, large lounge, large and clean kitchen, clean and pretty bathroom, own courtyard and little balcony off the master bedroom, allows pets and perfect location for $185 a week), the real estate called me yesterday to say they approved my application and have sent it through to the owner so I just have to wait to see if he says yes or no.  they thought they would know by yesterday but didn't call, so I guess I have to wait until next week! (They will let me know either way if I was approved).  SO I am hoping so hard!  The boy has decided to move in with me seeing as he is at my house every single night and all day on weekends and the only time he is not here is when he is at work.  So he may as well have his things there and be paying half of the rent!  I am so happy!
Also I am applying for admin jobs which is annoying and quite unfruitful but I am trying trying trying to escape Cocos!  I had my first week back at work after 5 weeks holiday this week, it was like putting on a pair of comfy but really annoying slippers.  Must...be...free.

Basically I am doing ok, and life is looking pretty rad right now!

[Lunchbox]

Oh wow Jodie! Best luck, fingers crossed and all that.
When you get a place I will come visit I promise!

[KvP]

So I saw this girl at my friend's band's (gr?) show last week and I kind of meekly talked to her and it turned out she was very bright and very gorgeous and something of a gabber, which I like. I kind of felt a bit down on myself for not asking for her info (she was with her friends, which sort of intimidated me) Cue tonight, and she ends up right next to me at my friend's band's show. I talk with her a lot more and if not for my friends in attendance who needed an immediate ride out of the place, I would have certainly asked for her info. I am hoping I'll see her again soon.

Also tonight, I was at the afterparty and I put Wagon Christ up on the stereo and a very fetching lass recognized it and we talked a bit about electronic music. Up until tonight I had never met anyone intimately familiar with Luke Vibert (Emilio, you don't count). Needless to say my heart is quite a-flutter.

I think it was a good night.

[David_Dovey]

Gentlemen, sack up and do something.