Official Off Topic Thread

[progmetaldan]

It is my opinion that what is more inhuman that shooting up a toystore over an argument on clearance items are the kind of people who find such news fascinating or otherwise engaging in an entertainment fashion.

In case you didn't bother to actually read the report, it apparently had nothing to do with 'Black Friday' or shopping, clearance etc. but happened to occur inside a Toy store on that given day, so of course the media are going to portray it as such...

But still, very sad regardless, and the stampede thing is certainly not good either...

 

[razoredge]

regardless black friday shopping is bullshit. Its an old well known fact that SOME people develope or revert to primitive mob instincts, grabbing, shoving and pushing and other such nonsense. Not unlike that of rush hour traffic, mosh pits, soccor(football) games, ticket sales lines... it could probably be an endless list.

I was thinking of the fun it might be to go black friday shopping just to engage in some hardcore bitch slapping...... Imagine the fun of going to a rack of hot sales items and just start filling your cart with every last one.......

 

[Kenneth R.]

I think it'd be interesting to stand outside a store on Black Friday and read statistics of poverty-line income in 3rd world countries.

 

[Iced Dog]

you WOULD, wouldn't ya?

sidenote: Best Buy was just fine today...in & out, cashiers were waiting for me But then, I've yet to have a bad experience there...one of the better retail giants as far as deals/customer service IMO.

 

[1by4by9]

I went to southernmost part of Finland and did some "old school" wallpapering work there. There was a fridge full of free beer and I got the chance to swim in Baltic Sea. The water was just a bit above the freezing point. Cool stuff, so to speak.

 

[Iced Dog]

I got the chance to swim in Baltic Sea. The water was just a bit above the freezing point.

Have your balls descended yet?

 

[1by4by9]

Great balls of fire don't get frozen.

It was awesome. I'm definitely going to do it again during the winter.

 

[Kenneth R.]

lol Best Buy's great service is that they don't even try to help you because none of their employees have a clue what the fuck they sell.

 

[1by4by9]

The concept of Black Friday has been unknown to me (on a certain level at least) until now. I had no idea things could get so bad. That's sick.

 

[Iced Dog]

lol Best Buy's great service is that they don't even try to help you because none of their employees have a clue what the fuck they sell.

Haha, well I'd rather have that than a sales associate who is all over my ass when I didn't ask for help

The concept of Black Friday has been unknown to me (on a certain level at least) until now.

the end of innocence

 

[CantoX]

Yo dudes, I got a job finally! I've been working there for around 10 or so days now. I'm a waiter at a greek/pizza place. In tips I made $152 and wage came for one week of work to $42. Wage is $2.13, low isin't it?

Its my first job, I like it a lot, its really fun and the people I work with are really cool. The food is awesome too.. BUT! The food is overpriced and its been really really slow... I'm thinking of just earning experience points here and then leveling up to a nicer restraunt/steak house cause they get A LOT of traffic.

 

[J-Dubya 777]

Congrats on the new job. Waiters/waitresses/busboys/etc are all allowed to be paid under minimum wage due to the tips. Been like that forever. I think I made $1.21 at the height of my busboy career way back in 79....
Bust ass & earn tips!

 

[Iced Dog]

Busboys get tips?

 

[Beelzebub]

From non-asshole customers, yes

 

[Iced Dog]

Heh...seems lame to me, busboys should have a real wage. How often do customers have any contact with a busboy...the waiter takes me to a table that is already clear, and the busboy comes after I leave...am I missing something?

 

[J-Dubya 777]

Busboys got a split from the tios that the wait staff received. We carried all the shit, we removed plates as courses were finished, plus cleaned up the aftermath. Some waitresses split better than others. Waitresses do NOT want pissed off busboys, as we provided some of the services they got tipped for.

 

[Iced Dog]

OK, that makes sense. I forgot that they sometimes take away cups/plates during the meal in addition to the waiting staff. Still seems to me they should get a better flat wage than having to rely on waiters to split tips.

 

[Meedleyx10]

Looking for advice on mp3 players...

First off...I DON'T WANT AN IPOD!!!!! (but seriously...no ipod)

Now that that is out of the way, the two I'm eyeballing right now are the SanDisk Sansa Fuze 8GB:


[ame]http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sansa-Fuze-Player-Silver/dp/B0015KYV3Q/ref=pd_cp_e_1?pf_rd_p=413863501&pf_rd_s=center-41&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0015L0T68&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1CK81SCJXA3GY1YX4DT7[/ame]

...and the Creative Zen 4gb:

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Portable-Media-Player-Black/dp/B000UV4EU6/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1228119157&sr=8-2[/ame]

I'm leaning towards the SanDisk for the following reasons:

-more for my money (in terms of how much music I can get on there)
-expandable memory (a plus, but I don't need to be able to store ALL my music on the thing...I only listen to my MP3 player while traveling or walking to/from school and have no problem switching out tunes every couple weeks)
-built in voice recorder (my current POS mp3 player has one and I sometimes use it to record lessons/classes and the like...works pretty well)

One thing I do like about the CZ model is the ability to sync it to Microsoft outlook for my calendar and such...but realistically, I don't know how much I'd use that since I'm still using the pen/paper method with considerable success. I've also heard a lot of first-hand praise for the CZ, and I've heard no first-hand accounts of the SanDisk.

If you have input or other suggestions, I'd love to hear it. One thing that would be nice is if I had something that played FLAC files, but that's not a necessary thing.

 

[Swabs]

Looking for advice on mp3 players...

First off...I DON'T WANT AN IPOD!!!!! (but seriously...no ipod)

Now that that is out of the way, the two I'm eyeballing right now are the SanDisk Sansa Fuze 8GB:


http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sansa..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1CK81SCJXA3GY1YX4DT7

...and the Creative Zen 4gb:

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Port...2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1228119157&sr=8-2

I'm leaning towards the SanDisk for the following reasons:

-more for my money (in terms of how much music I can get on there)
-expandable memory (a plus, but I don't need to be able to store ALL my music on the thing...I only listen to my MP3 player while traveling or walking to/from school and have no problem switching out tunes every couple weeks)
-built in voice recorder (my current POS mp3 player has one and I sometimes use it to record lessons/classes and the like...works pretty well)

One thing I do like about the CZ model is the ability to sync it to Microsoft outlook for my calendar and such...but realistically, I don't know how much I'd use that since I'm still using the pen/paper method with considerable success. I've also heard a lot of first-hand praise for the CZ, and I've heard no first-hand accounts of the SanDisk.

If you have input or other suggestions, I'd love to hear it. One thing that would be nice is if I had something that played FLAC files, but that's not a necessary thing.

I hear iPods are pretty cool.

 

[razoredge]

Heh...seems lame to me, busboys should have a real wage. How often do customers have any contact with a busboy...the waiter takes me to a table that is already clear, and the busboy comes after I leave...am I missing something?

Yes it is lame. Restaurant owners make out like bandits on this one, having the entire staff split tips, allowing them the opportunity to abuse the minimum wage laws. This applies to barbacks as well in large resorts, they spend all day tossing kegs of beer around relying on customers to tip the bar tenders decent and the bar tenders comming clean on what tips they collect... when $3-4 or more (depending) is charged for beer that costs the owners a minute fraction. Then you have the wait staff throwing the tips into a "kitty", forcing others to pay the price for the crap waiters that people dont tip much. Minimum wage is that at its best... MINIMUM, hardly grounds for making a LIVING, tips should be in addition to MINIMUM wage. Most wait staff workers bust their ass, running all day, on their feet all day, some waitresses/bartenders make good money in tips... but this should not be to the benefit of business owners to abuse the minimum wage laws, it should be to the advantage of the worker.... PERFORMING THE WORK.