At my workplace, I am not the sole bartender there is. There is one other, and he is a tall, Nepalese man in his twenties. He has a lot more experience doing this than I do. He can make a large variety of drinks, tell a lot of good jokes to keep the atmosphere buoyant, reach bottles and glasses on high shelves effortlessly, and perhaps best of all, spot the beautiful ladies at the bar as soon as they appear. There are some things that he still has to learn, though, and one of them is the fact that he has bad breath.
Restaurants and bars get pretty noisy, especially around 8 to 9pm. The music is blaring, people are chit-chatting, and the boss, the waiters, the waitresses, the barmen, the chef, and the sous-chefs, are all shouting at each other about this table and that, in order to keep the food and drink running smoothly.
And since it's so loud, us bartenders must sometimes resort to approaching each other, up close, to communicate. And when my partner comes up to me, and wants to clandestinely mumble something to me about this red wine nearly running out of stock, or how that customer over at table 28 is a total asshole, that moment is when I get a whiff of his odorous sigh.
I'll admit, I don't have the best oral hygiene. For the past few years, there are times when I'm just too tired and lazy to brush my teeth. I try to brush my teeth during my morning shower, but you see, keeping my teeth clean is not the point. The point is, I chew on gum, and I nibble breath mints, and I eat mint chocolate chip-flavored ice cream, in order to keep my breath fresh. (Okay, that last one sort of works against me in the long-run. I'm just joking about that.)
I don't mind if people don't use any soap when they shower, so long as they use deodorant/perfume before I see them (but of course, using soap is... preferred). There are just some things people need to do to be presentable around others. My bartending friend is fit to be seen, but his breath is utterly revolting.
Showing posts with label loud. Show all posts
Showing posts with label loud. Show all posts
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Sunday, April 5, 2009
142 - Occupational cockiness
I've just finished watching the series finale of ER. It's sad, not because I'm an avid fan of the show, but because I have seen quite a lot of episodes in the past fifteen years, and it's sad that a show that's been airing for so long just ends. Watching all of the fourteenth and fifteenth seasons, I just feel the hard work that's gone into this certain highly entertaining and culturally influential phenomenon.
What I really find interesting about medical TV dramas like ER, Grey's Anatomy and House is the way in which they depict doctors and surgeons. Sometimes, they're nice people, seemingly worthy of being physicians, but at other times, they're unsympathetic, melodramatic and downright cocky.
People who have been trained in the field they work in (especially those that have been educated for a long time like lawyers, doctors, engineers and airplane pilots) are always so arrogant. They think that just because they're the best at what they do, they can be rude and all high-and-mighty with everybody else. The doctor will shout at the cop, "With all due respect, Officer, this man needs medical care, he's suffering from a xanthine oxidase deficiency!" Then the cop will respond with, "And without meaning any disrespect to you, Doc, he's under arrest and we have the right to arrest you, too, under the Californian Penal Code, Section 853.6!"
It's like the taxi driver in the morning that tells me he knows which route has less traffic, when I've been going to the same school on a taxi everyday for the past three-and-a-half years. It's like the doctor, the plumber, the tour guide, the optician, the waiter, the cop, the teacher and the librarian who are just so damn impatient and inconsiderate. Aren't we paying these people's salaries with our taxes and our bills? Don't they teach them to be amiable in the services industry?
It's like the cashier girl at McDonald's who thinks I'm wasting her precious time just because I wanted barbecue sauce instead of sweet and sour to go with my McNuggets. Like, girl, look at yourself. You work in McDonald's. Are you proud of that? Are you proud, of that? And besides, I told you I wanted barbecue sauce already, you just forgot. Stop thinking you're so good.
I'm sure my perspective will change when I grow up and get a job where I have to be of service to a customer or a client. But hey, I think I'll be able to accept that the customer is always right. Why are there so many people, especially in the services and catering industries, that lose their inner, human kindness, their fundamental manners, once they are at work?
What I really find interesting about medical TV dramas like ER, Grey's Anatomy and House is the way in which they depict doctors and surgeons. Sometimes, they're nice people, seemingly worthy of being physicians, but at other times, they're unsympathetic, melodramatic and downright cocky.
People who have been trained in the field they work in (especially those that have been educated for a long time like lawyers, doctors, engineers and airplane pilots) are always so arrogant. They think that just because they're the best at what they do, they can be rude and all high-and-mighty with everybody else. The doctor will shout at the cop, "With all due respect, Officer, this man needs medical care, he's suffering from a xanthine oxidase deficiency!" Then the cop will respond with, "And without meaning any disrespect to you, Doc, he's under arrest and we have the right to arrest you, too, under the Californian Penal Code, Section 853.6!"
It's like the taxi driver in the morning that tells me he knows which route has less traffic, when I've been going to the same school on a taxi everyday for the past three-and-a-half years. It's like the doctor, the plumber, the tour guide, the optician, the waiter, the cop, the teacher and the librarian who are just so damn impatient and inconsiderate. Aren't we paying these people's salaries with our taxes and our bills? Don't they teach them to be amiable in the services industry?
It's like the cashier girl at McDonald's who thinks I'm wasting her precious time just because I wanted barbecue sauce instead of sweet and sour to go with my McNuggets. Like, girl, look at yourself. You work in McDonald's. Are you proud of that? Are you proud, of that? And besides, I told you I wanted barbecue sauce already, you just forgot. Stop thinking you're so good.
I'm sure my perspective will change when I grow up and get a job where I have to be of service to a customer or a client. But hey, I think I'll be able to accept that the customer is always right. Why are there so many people, especially in the services and catering industries, that lose their inner, human kindness, their fundamental manners, once they are at work?
Friday, March 20, 2009
134 - People who don't shut up during movies
Sorry, folks. It's been a tiresome week and I've been arriving home at around 10pm every night for the past three nights. Exhausted, your familiar hater naturally goes to sleep. I don't know what else to say. Forgive me.
Today, I was on Facebook and I found a message in my inbox from someone who I used to go to school with a long time ago. He wanted to ask me out to eat dinner, have drinks, catch up, reminisce about the good old days, that sort of thing. I remember our group of friends used to go out to watch movies every Friday. The mall we went to also had an ice-skating rink in it, and I recall that was always a lot of fun before and after seeing a film.
There was one time the class dunce (the one that poured sugar in his mouth) decided to join our group to see a movie. He chose the film for us, a terrible choice in my opinion, as he decided we should watch Bad Boys 2, a bad sequel to an already appawling first movie, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, rated 23% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Anyway, our group all hated the damn movie, but the idiot in our class loved it. Since we all disliked the distasteful car chases and gun shooting, we started chatting and laughing at the back of the cinema...
...and then things got a little out of control. One of my best friends decided to stand on one of the chairs and stick his hands in front of the projector. Watching a dog's silhoutte eating Will Smith's old rusty yellow car was simply hilarious.
And then this guy sitting three rows in front of us, a white man with thin-rimmed glasses, stood up, walked up toward us, and told us to "either shut up or get the Hell out of the cinema".
And so we all got the Hell out of the cinema.
Yeah, I get it. There's nothing more annoying than, say, a young boy that exclaims "COOL!!!!" whenever Batman or Spiderman suddenly appears on the screen, or nothing ruins a movie more than a young girl that screams, or even cries, after there are loud sound effects. I think it's the worst when any grown adult doesn't understand that he/she has to switch their mobile phone off before the movie starts, people who have crappy ringtones, who have no sense of respect for the people around them, and who talk at an unbelievably high decibel.
Yeah, all of that can get pretty irritating. Those dumb teenagers in the back projecting hand-shadows on to the screen deserve to get flogged. I understand where the guy with the thin-rimmed glasses was coming from. I probably would have said the same thing, if I had the same stinking, substandard taste in movies as he did.
Today, I was on Facebook and I found a message in my inbox from someone who I used to go to school with a long time ago. He wanted to ask me out to eat dinner, have drinks, catch up, reminisce about the good old days, that sort of thing. I remember our group of friends used to go out to watch movies every Friday. The mall we went to also had an ice-skating rink in it, and I recall that was always a lot of fun before and after seeing a film.
There was one time the class dunce (the one that poured sugar in his mouth) decided to join our group to see a movie. He chose the film for us, a terrible choice in my opinion, as he decided we should watch Bad Boys 2, a bad sequel to an already appawling first movie, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, rated 23% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Anyway, our group all hated the damn movie, but the idiot in our class loved it. Since we all disliked the distasteful car chases and gun shooting, we started chatting and laughing at the back of the cinema...
...and then things got a little out of control. One of my best friends decided to stand on one of the chairs and stick his hands in front of the projector. Watching a dog's silhoutte eating Will Smith's old rusty yellow car was simply hilarious.
And then this guy sitting three rows in front of us, a white man with thin-rimmed glasses, stood up, walked up toward us, and told us to "either shut up or get the Hell out of the cinema".
And so we all got the Hell out of the cinema.
Yeah, I get it. There's nothing more annoying than, say, a young boy that exclaims "COOL!!!!" whenever Batman or Spiderman suddenly appears on the screen, or nothing ruins a movie more than a young girl that screams, or even cries, after there are loud sound effects. I think it's the worst when any grown adult doesn't understand that he/she has to switch their mobile phone off before the movie starts, people who have crappy ringtones, who have no sense of respect for the people around them, and who talk at an unbelievably high decibel.
Yeah, all of that can get pretty irritating. Those dumb teenagers in the back projecting hand-shadows on to the screen deserve to get flogged. I understand where the guy with the thin-rimmed glasses was coming from. I probably would have said the same thing, if I had the same stinking, substandard taste in movies as he did.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
111 - "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!"
What is up with mommies in public who ignore their children's pleas of "Mommy, look outside! Mommy, Mommy, look! Mommy, Mommy, Mommy! Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy! MOOOOOOOMMYYYYYYYYY!"?
Lord, I loathe these 'darling little angels'. They're so darn cute, and worse yet, innocent, but kids are like the spawn of the Devil himself. I mean, I want to sew their lips together whenever they open their mouths and emit sound. (Huh, perhaps I've said too much.)
I know we're all overworked, and the economy is bad, but really, a simple word of motherly recognition can go a looooong way in keeping the harmony.
Plus, it saves you from other people's disdainful looks. Like mine.
I absolutely abhor these callous mothers.
Or perhaps they're more deaf than they are insensitive and they can't hear their kids' beckoning in actual fact. Their eardrums have probably been shattered from years of adorable high-pitched screaming.
Lord, I loathe these 'darling little angels'. They're so darn cute, and worse yet, innocent, but kids are like the spawn of the Devil himself. I mean, I want to sew their lips together whenever they open their mouths and emit sound. (Huh, perhaps I've said too much.)
I know we're all overworked, and the economy is bad, but really, a simple word of motherly recognition can go a looooong way in keeping the harmony.
Plus, it saves you from other people's disdainful looks. Like mine.
I absolutely abhor these callous mothers.
Or perhaps they're more deaf than they are insensitive and they can't hear their kids' beckoning in actual fact. Their eardrums have probably been shattered from years of adorable high-pitched screaming.
Friday, February 13, 2009
107 - People who eat loudly
When I was seven years old, I spent my winter holidays in Toronto, Canada. I have two aunts there, and one of them once took me to the movies to see The Prince of Egypt.
On the car ride to the cinema, I was chewing gum, and my mouth was open, so my aunt could hear that horrible sticky snap every time my upper jaw and lower jaw moved away from each other.
When we reached a four-way junction, she stopped for a red light and turned around suddenly and screamed at me, and told me to stop chewing so loudly. She looked so angry, and I cried, and I never chewed gum with my mouth open again.
This goes for all food, in fact. I don't slurp my soup. I try not to make those horrible noises with my straw when I've nearly finished a beverage. I don't create nails-on-a-blackboard sounds when I'm using a knife to cut food on a plate. I don't make sucking noises when I'm trying to get all the meat off a chicken wing. I eat crackers, and potato chips, without crunching. I don't suck up long pieces of spaghetti. Even something as simple as gulping water has to be silent as well.
My best friend says that these noises make a meal more enjoyable. The noise adds an acoustically pleasant component to the dining experience.
I think that's a load of bullocks. Eating should be quiet.
A lot of things should be quiet for me. I hate the sound of high heels, and whistles, ruffling sheets of paper, dogs barking, people sniffing, everything.
My best friend jokes that in my ideal world, everyone would be ninjas.
And you know, that is precisely what I want. Don't you think that would be awesome if the world was all as stealthy as ninjas?
On the car ride to the cinema, I was chewing gum, and my mouth was open, so my aunt could hear that horrible sticky snap every time my upper jaw and lower jaw moved away from each other.
When we reached a four-way junction, she stopped for a red light and turned around suddenly and screamed at me, and told me to stop chewing so loudly. She looked so angry, and I cried, and I never chewed gum with my mouth open again.
This goes for all food, in fact. I don't slurp my soup. I try not to make those horrible noises with my straw when I've nearly finished a beverage. I don't create nails-on-a-blackboard sounds when I'm using a knife to cut food on a plate. I don't make sucking noises when I'm trying to get all the meat off a chicken wing. I eat crackers, and potato chips, without crunching. I don't suck up long pieces of spaghetti. Even something as simple as gulping water has to be silent as well.
My best friend says that these noises make a meal more enjoyable. The noise adds an acoustically pleasant component to the dining experience.
I think that's a load of bullocks. Eating should be quiet.
A lot of things should be quiet for me. I hate the sound of high heels, and whistles, ruffling sheets of paper, dogs barking, people sniffing, everything.
My best friend jokes that in my ideal world, everyone would be ninjas.
And you know, that is precisely what I want. Don't you think that would be awesome if the world was all as stealthy as ninjas?
Friday, November 21, 2008
25 - Librarians who aren't quiet
There's a new librarian that came here in September at our school and I think she's loud, talkative and out-of-this-world annoying (and I think my classmates will agree upon this. Comment if you read this, guys!). You'd expect a librarian to whisper quietly all the friggin' time, but this one talks with a loud nasally Australian voice that travels to all corners of the library, enabling everybody to listen to all the bullshit she has to say.
She insists on being helpful or conversational but she always goes about the wrong way in doing so. She's nosy and she'll peer at your computer screen or at the book in front of you just to see if it's something she's at least mildly interested in. My friends were all holding Shakespeare's Othello in the library one time, minding our own business as we should be, reading the play in preparation for English class later on. The librarian asked one of my friends in a fucking patronizing tone, "It's a good one, isn't it?" and went on to share her own understanding of Othello in a loud, booming voice, "Some say it's one of his easier ones... in terms of trying to understand it. It's a good one, especially when it comes to the theme about racial discrimination against blacks"
Thanks to the volume of her voice, by the time the word 'blacks' was uttered, everybody was looking at us. My friends sitting there beside me (whom I believe have very little appreciation for Shakespeare) just nodded at her, unsure of how else to react, while I, frustrated on so many levels, shook my head in disgrace with my face buried in my hands.
The librarian's nosy like that. She once asked another one of my friends if she could browse through the website that he was reading on the Internet. She insists on asking all the young kids what they're working on and whether it's economics, English literature, history, geography, or art, you can count on her to have something to say.
There's a girl three years below our class, and she had to write a hundred words on China's One Child Policy. She had already managed to cram more than a hundred words into her work with the help of trusty reliable Wikipedia, but our tragic excuse for a librarian just had to butt in. For half an hour, the librarian kept yelling at the girl, telling her to have a look at different websites like the policy report on the New England Journal of Medicine website and countless articles on BBC. I just found it incredibly ridiculous. Not only did the librarian not care about keeping hush-hush about it, but the girl that was doing her work really just didn't give a damn, making the librarian's Samaritan-eqsue deed completely futile. Sometimes, students in the younger years just don't care about their work enough to go further in their research beyond Wikipedia. In addition, sometimes, librarians should shut up.
Her behavior drives me insane and it's not just when there are loads of students there. There was one entire hour where it was just me and her and the story to come is the root of my problem with her and the inspiration for today's entry.
So, I go to the library to do some homework by myself while all my classmates either went out for lunch or had class. I couldn't believe it when I first heard her voice, but she was talking to herself, asking the air around her, "I wonder which African countries were occupied by France?"
Okay, okay, I knew she wanted to talk to me, as I was the only sitting there, but I wasn't going to let her seduce me with her useless, trivial ponderings. Nonetheless, I still had to listen to her speak for the whole sixty minutes and yes, thanks to her inability to keep her own Internet readings to herself, I now know that Benin, Niger, Mali and several others were under French rule for sometime during the French colonial empire.
Isn't that great?
Whatever. She doesn't deserve such in-depth analysis. She's overly-curious, abrasive, patronizing, uncontrolled, loud when she shouldn't be, self-involved and she doesn't take her job seriously. It's no wonder nobody's actually bothered to learn her name. Hah.
Oh, and I just remembered that I sometimes check my blog at school in the school library. She might actually read this because she's just that nosy... Meh. (Today, I heard 'meh' is now an official word in the dictionary.) Miss Librarian, if you do indeed read this, I hope that it's clear now that I hate you! (...as a librarian)
She insists on being helpful or conversational but she always goes about the wrong way in doing so. She's nosy and she'll peer at your computer screen or at the book in front of you just to see if it's something she's at least mildly interested in. My friends were all holding Shakespeare's Othello in the library one time, minding our own business as we should be, reading the play in preparation for English class later on. The librarian asked one of my friends in a fucking patronizing tone, "It's a good one, isn't it?" and went on to share her own understanding of Othello in a loud, booming voice, "Some say it's one of his easier ones... in terms of trying to understand it. It's a good one, especially when it comes to the theme about racial discrimination against blacks"
Thanks to the volume of her voice, by the time the word 'blacks' was uttered, everybody was looking at us. My friends sitting there beside me (whom I believe have very little appreciation for Shakespeare) just nodded at her, unsure of how else to react, while I, frustrated on so many levels, shook my head in disgrace with my face buried in my hands.
The librarian's nosy like that. She once asked another one of my friends if she could browse through the website that he was reading on the Internet. She insists on asking all the young kids what they're working on and whether it's economics, English literature, history, geography, or art, you can count on her to have something to say.
There's a girl three years below our class, and she had to write a hundred words on China's One Child Policy. She had already managed to cram more than a hundred words into her work with the help of trusty reliable Wikipedia, but our tragic excuse for a librarian just had to butt in. For half an hour, the librarian kept yelling at the girl, telling her to have a look at different websites like the policy report on the New England Journal of Medicine website and countless articles on BBC. I just found it incredibly ridiculous. Not only did the librarian not care about keeping hush-hush about it, but the girl that was doing her work really just didn't give a damn, making the librarian's Samaritan-eqsue deed completely futile. Sometimes, students in the younger years just don't care about their work enough to go further in their research beyond Wikipedia. In addition, sometimes, librarians should shut up.
Her behavior drives me insane and it's not just when there are loads of students there. There was one entire hour where it was just me and her and the story to come is the root of my problem with her and the inspiration for today's entry.
So, I go to the library to do some homework by myself while all my classmates either went out for lunch or had class. I couldn't believe it when I first heard her voice, but she was talking to herself, asking the air around her, "I wonder which African countries were occupied by France?"
Okay, okay, I knew she wanted to talk to me, as I was the only sitting there, but I wasn't going to let her seduce me with her useless, trivial ponderings. Nonetheless, I still had to listen to her speak for the whole sixty minutes and yes, thanks to her inability to keep her own Internet readings to herself, I now know that Benin, Niger, Mali and several others were under French rule for sometime during the French colonial empire.
Isn't that great?
Whatever. She doesn't deserve such in-depth analysis. She's overly-curious, abrasive, patronizing, uncontrolled, loud when she shouldn't be, self-involved and she doesn't take her job seriously. It's no wonder nobody's actually bothered to learn her name. Hah.
Oh, and I just remembered that I sometimes check my blog at school in the school library. She might actually read this because she's just that nosy... Meh. (Today, I heard 'meh' is now an official word in the dictionary.) Miss Librarian, if you do indeed read this, I hope that it's clear now that I hate you! (...as a librarian)
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