Home to the brave, land of the free. (refill)

I was eating at a Chinese restaurant this weekend with my wife and a friend of ours and when my soda got low I was getting a little upset that no one had offered to refill it although they filled my water several times and my wifes ice tea once. I have worked in restaurants as a waiter, bartender and even a cook at times over the last 12 years so I am fairly critical of the service I receive at other restaurants. So when I finally asked for a refill I was surprisingly told that I would have to pay for it? Really? It wasn't like I got a can of soda, the place had a soda fountain but charged for refills. A fountain soda costs me $1.25 to roughly $2.00 depending on where you go. The establishment only pays about $.05 for the drink in a reusable glass and maybe $.20 if its a to go cup. We were not being cheap or anything either, we had 2 appetizers on top of our salad, soup and four entrees for three people. It is so rare to not be able to get a free refill that I guess we take it for granted nowadays but it seems to be the standard in this day and age.

Sure the standard was set by the bigger chains like Mc Donald's and Burger King but its pretty hard to name a place you can't get one. A little known fact is that if you have a cup you can get a refill at Disneyland which would find a way to charge you for breathing if the Los Angeles area air wasn't next to poisonous. Maybe I am cheap but it cost them more in labor to keep coming over to refill my water than it would of for the sda since I drink water much fater than my soda. I could of went to the buffet down the road and got almost the same thing for a third of the price and drowned myself at the soda machine and then got a brain freeze on soft serve ice cream to boot.

This is America the home to the brave and land of the free (refill). Its not like I expect a free refill on my beer at the bar although it is nice when it happens but restaurants piss soda and make a lot of money off of it whether I have one or five refills. I'll just drink water next time.

Looking for a job is depressing...

Probably one of the most depressing things a person can do. Its seems I am hounted by the Goldylocks syndrome everywhere I go, your either too qualified or not qualified enough. I worked in Restaurants for over 10 years doing everything from waiting table to bartending to management. What does that qualify me for? Nothing! Putting management on your resume in the restaraunt industry means one thing. You sir are over-qualified to wait tables and bartend. Just because I worked in a 10 million dollar a years restaurant in San Francisco doesn't mean I can't work in a one million dollar a year store in Fresno.... but it does. People feel threatened if it may seem like you know more than them, which I probably don't. No one wants to hire someone who is going to try to be their replacement... which I won't try to be.

So , I try to step out of the realm I know best and happily move on to something else... but you have no experience is what I get. So, I get my foot in at an Indian Gaming Casino around town here as a bartender and from there move to slots about 9 months later. I wanted to do something different and I networked myself into a position to do it. I work there for a little over a year and I hurt my neck and get fired for absences. No big deal, I get unemployment and can take my time getting a good job. In the town I live in now though its all about who you know. You don't get a job because your qualified, you get a job because you know someone who works there already who is probably sucking the dick of the manager. I don't like getting a job through these channels and honestly I don't know that many people here besides my wife's family who bamboozled us into moving back here when we got married almost three years ago.

So, I have one lead in town to be a teller at a bank. The only way I have gotten to this point is by tucking my balls in between my legs and getting my father-in-laws help. I have tons of cash handling experience. At the casino I would be trusted with thousands of dollars at a time. I have gone to other banks with no luck so here I am trapped like a rat in the cage I have been frustrated by so many times before. Maybe, I am not qualified for the position. Maybe, I am taking a job away from someone else who deserves it more.  

Most place I have worked if I go back to visit they try to give me my job back. I grew up in Connecticut and worked in New Haven at a place called TK's American Cafe just before I moved to CA. They have the best buffalo wings in the world and the best bosses in the world. TK and Suzie were fantastic and evertime I go back to visit I have to stop in as soon as I walk in the door Suzie tries to get me to stay and I always have to turn her down. Everytime I go back to the bar I worked at in Oakland, they offer me my job back. They got a reference letter when I applied at the casino and they called me to ask what to put on it and told me I was always welcome to come back there if it didn't work out.

Well, thats all for me. I sure did pick a shitty time to quit smoking.

New kid in town...

Well, this is my first post to this so called blog which in the future will probably be full of lots of complaining since its what I do best. I am 30 years old and married. I grew up in Connecticut but live in Central California now. I have been in California for about eight years now and have already lived in several different cities including San Francisco, Vallejo and Fresno.

I am happy to find a site devoted to older gamers and I think the creators here are fantastic for the idea. I do find it tiresome sometimes playing with squeaky voiced kids on XBL. If I wanted to play with kids I'd have some, which I don't, yet... When I do, they will not act like most of the kids you hear on your 360 or they will be living with Angelina Jolie in a heartbeat.

Let's see here, I do have a recent claim to fame. I was asked to appear on a episode of Gamer Dojo which can be found on some cable formats On Demand channels. Its should be under the Lifeskool section in about a month. Its the Shadowrun episode if anyone actully sees it, yup, thats me. Disappointingly the run for that episode will probably be short since Halo 3 will be their next episode and I am a nobody as appossed to the designers and whatever people they normally have on.

I guess besides that the only other exciting thing I got for anyone is a youtube video of some Shadowrun gameplay. I just got a DVD recorder and tested it out on some 360 gameplay. Then I used Windows Movie maker to edit together a few matches. I will probably just make a kill video next to tone down some of the slow parts but this was my first time using the program.

Thats it for me, I'm outta here!