I sure am glad...

I realize that I work in retail and that turn over is really high. But in all honesty, how can you just quit? Especially when everything seems to be working out so well? I had one guy who worked for me for about three weeks who just decided that it was okay to leave half way through a shift. Didn't even wait until the end of the day. What possessed him to think 'gee, I think I'll quit'? What has happened to responsibility? I know who's fault this is...the governments. Why? Because I said so.

Okay, maybe not the government, but close enough. I feel that if someone doesn't put in a two weeks notice to quit their jobs...they shouldn't get paid for the week that they quit. I know that making just seven dollars and change an hour isn't much. But if you were to quit on, say, a Friday (like this douche bag did), that's a weeks worth of pay. He was working thirty hours a week. Times that by just seven, and you have over two hundred dollars, pre tax. After tax, you're looking about around lets say one hundred fifty dollars. Hold that over someones head...they may think twice about quitting without giving their two weeks. So that is team member number one....let me tell you about team member number two.

He struts into Target right around Christmas time. Thinking he is hot shit and all. Thinking that the world is just going to fall apart if he isn't everywhere at once trying to do something for everyone trying to get approval from all the team leads and executives. Here is the problem. Stretching yourself around the whole store leads to a problem...you piss people off because you are just running around and not really doing anything. So when he started working for me, he was talking about how Target wanted to hire him for a team lead position right out of the gate and he turned them down because he didn't want the responsibility right away. So after working with the company for a couple of months, he starts talking about how he is interviewing at different target stores for team positions almost every other week. Funny story about that, he had one of these interviews and they supposedly told him he did real well, but called up my store executive...the head honcho (funny word) and told her that he just fell flat on his face during the interview. It made us all smile and laugh. The arrogant fucker.

Well, after he doesn't get that job he's in applying for another different position, this time building maintenance. That, of course, fell through. And all the while, he is just pissing people off because he doesn't do jack shit when he works. He worked with me this past Saturday and worked on stocking shelves in the dry grocery department. He worked on the same flat bed for two and a half hours. That's right two and a half HOURS. It shouldn't have taken an hour, at the most. So I'm witnessing this as are my bosses and he wondered why he fell out of the graces of the Target company. So he finally found a different job...but it wasn't even with Target. He is driving trucks, supposedly, down in Texas and started his training today. Good riddance to worthlessness.

Too sensitive

I just finished reading an article off of MSN's website that stated that the movie '300' was basically racist against the Iranian people. Okay, for anyone who doesn't know the premise...you know...all of you who have been living under a rock and have no connection to the television or the internet...this is basically it: 300 hundred Spartans (and to be historically accurate, about 1500 more Greek warriors) try to fend off an invading force of tens of thousands of Persians who are hell bent on burning Sparta to the ground. Got it? Pretty simple plot line. This is based on an actual battle that took place in history: The Battle of Thermopylae, 480 B.C. The Iranian government are saying that the U.S. (which is where the movie was produced) are giving the Persians a bad name and making them look evil.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but this movie is, first off a work of historical fiction, and secondly, based through the eyes of the Spartan army and Sparta which looked upon the invading Persian army as bad and evil and all of that. This honestly is a case and point for being too sensitive about stupid shit. Honestly, it's a fucking movie. This article makes me want to go slap someone. People watching this movie aren't going to come out thinking...my God. Those Persian invaders were so mean....I HATE THE MODERN DAY IRANIAN PEOPLE! No kids, it isn't like that. If anything, people are going to leave the theatre thinking about sacrifice for the greater good of one's country. Think about it...those last thousand men (give or take a few hundred) sacrificed themselves so that those who wanted to leave, could go warn Sparta and the rest of the Greek city-states to prepare for defense.

And, I got this from watching the History Channels program on this battle, this led to great democracies. It was one of the first times you see a bunch of smaller city-states put aside their differences and ally themselves against one force. This in turn led to these city-states working more and more with each other and forming bigger city-states until the end product: one big happy democratic country.

So, for all of you out there that think that this movie is some western world propaganda to show how the modern day Iranian people are mean and savage and don't like democracy and all that other bullshit, just blow it out your ass and toughen up. You people are too sensitive about stupid things.

Home tomorrow!

YES! I get to go to Michigan tomorrow. I get to spend the weekend in Detroit. I get to see a Wings game, and see some friends from the Island. I can't wait. I may not want to come back home.

New edition!

I talked to my parents this morning and they said that my sister had her baby today. Very exciting. It was a baby girl that they named Zoie Ryah (pernounced rye-ah). So everyone is happy about that. The only disappointing thing is that she missed my birthday by about nine hours. :o( That is funny because when my sister had her first kid, he was born the day after my dad's birthday. So she now has two kids that were both born day after me and my dad.

That just puts a little bit more icing on the cake (mmmm...cake) when we go home, because I have a new niece to see.

warning: debauchery ahead

Looking at the calendar, I realized today that sixteen days from now, I will be enjoying both beer and hockey with family, future family, and my best friend in Detroit. I can't wait. I get to spend a weekend in Detroit doing whatever I feel like. How exciting. And then, I get to go home and see my new niece or nephew (yet to be determined). He/she is to be born within the next week. Michelle's due date is the 14th, but I'm hoping that the baby holds out another two days and is born on my birthday. :o)

The bigger picture here, though, is that this is a long vacation. ten days for me. rock out! The only concern I have is going back to work. I am really fearing what will happen to my department when I'm gone. Hopefully it'll all be taken care of and I won't walk back into a disaster.

Work is been stressful as of late. The three guys that work for me have flaked out. Well, one of them just flat out quit a couple of weeks ago, and the other two are playing the 'who can call in or not show up for work' game. And that is just pissing me off. I want to clean house and start with a fresh group. Or, get some other people who have been with the company for a while and won't randomly decide to quit working. The guys that work for me now just don't get the job done all the time...it is hit and miss really. Aggravating!