I think that maY Is yhe best
Sorry, a roommate/kitty interrupted me. While I think that may is the best, what I want to say is this:
"Revolution cannot be simply a sober act of duty. It MUST be a drunken act of joy."
Every living being ought to strive to make the universe a better place before dying. I say this like it's a sober duty, but the truth is far from it. The truth is that the only way to make the universe better is to let that joy inborn in us transform the world.
One often thinks that we need to fight and struggle to make the world a better place by changing the injustice and in a way being a martyr for a better world. But the truth is that none of us need be martyrs to make the universe better. The truth is so much simpler than that. The truth is just that we have to be-- truly BE and the rest will sort itself out. For revolution must be a drunken act of joy. It is a sober duty that must be done, but it should not be done soberly... OR sober for that reason. Speaking of-- *chug chug chug*
2013/04/11
2013/04/10
Master Plan
So I want to go to Canada. I'm not sure why. We've discussed it. However, it is harder to do than I had originally thought. One needs a Canadian work visa or some other thing. I've tried to make the "has a relationship with someone there" card and it didn't work because it's kinda hard to prove you've had a relationship with someone who you've never really seen.
ANYWAY!
My master plan.
I work in a Canadian franchise. I work a little longer. I get a manager position. I get some rep. I request a transfer.
Request a TRANSFER. It is fucking brilliant.
ANYWAY!
My master plan.
I work in a Canadian franchise. I work a little longer. I get a manager position. I get some rep. I request a transfer.
Request a TRANSFER. It is fucking brilliant.
2013/04/09
You
If you are reading this, I just want to say that talking to myself in this journal-thing is a little awkward because I never know if I sound like a complete idiot or not.
If you ARE reading this, first off: thank you.
But second: you should say something. Email me or comment and be like "fuck you, you wrongity-wrongpants of wrongness, let me tell you what's up" or "hey, that's really interesting" or "HI, BLAGOSPHERE!" or "what if ____" or "you should try _____" or I dunno, anything.
If you ARE reading this, first off: thank you.
But second: you should say something. Email me or comment and be like "fuck you, you wrongity-wrongpants of wrongness, let me tell you what's up" or "hey, that's really interesting" or "HI, BLAGOSPHERE!" or "what if ____" or "you should try _____" or I dunno, anything.
Random happiness at work... then random unhappiness
There are some awesome things about where I work...
Nothing is more awesome than working at a store surrounded by vegetables all day. Fresh produce has to be delivered and chopped frequently. This morning, a very rushed deliveryman ran into the store as I was cleaning counters and dropped a bag of onions and cucumbers in my arms (yes, OW) and said, "thank you thank you, have a nice day," before quickly leaving. I just can't get over how awesome it feels to just get to work with fresh vegetables all day and have random things like that happen.
But there are some annoying parts about it...
Today the whole team was in early working on a truly epic catering order. We filled an entire car with a huuuuuuge catering order that was big enough to offset our weekly shipment so we'd have enough stuff for it. But anyway, we got a 70 dollar tip on the receipt they signed for us. The owner brings back the receipt and pulls 70 out of the register. He gives me 10. I'm like "lol what's this for" and he's like "oh that's the tip for the jar." Our jar is split up every week evenly between our employees. Like most franchises, we only accepts cash tips except on deliveries (which is really just compensating us for the delivery since there is no delivery charge), so it's really quite pitiful at times, yet it's enough to get by and we've really made it great... but not when our boss pockets 60 dollars.
When I think about business, I think about my tip jar...
The better we do, the happier the customers are, the more tips we get. The same is true for our total sales, but the tips are the portion I have control over. I take the tips and split it among the 5 of us evenly except on rare occasions of sickness or low hours where I'll pro-rate someone. If I ever own a place, I kinda foresee running it like that entirely. Let's say we are doing decently and we are having basic $1500 days (which is about as low as it gets for our low-end estimate). We work 5 days a week for 4 hours (excluding open/close) and we'll assume 4 weeks in the month. So we'll make roughly 5*4*1500=30000 dollars a month. Rent/utils is probably a good $10,000 a month? I have NO idea, but we are in the financial district, so wtf we'll estimate. We order food from a special place with bulk prices. Each shipment is about $1300 and we do about one of those a week. Contents vary a lot due to catering needs, but in all seriousness it doesn't NEED to be that high-- we keep getting shit we don't need and not enough shit we do need. Let's also set aside $2000 dollars a month to fix shit. Emergency UPS order, fridge needs to be checked out by a pro, broken printer, normal shit like that. So we're at less than two thirds of our revenue even in this low estimate and let's actually round it up to that and assume we are spending $20000 to run the business. Now we get to paying our employees. Let's say there are 5 employees and myself (imaginary owner). $10000 split 6 ways is roughly $1600 a month. But to be fair, of the 5 employees, 2 of them work like 3 hours a day. So maybe instead we should take that money and split it evenly among each hour. Work an hour, get one share of the pie, etc. So 3 employees work 30 hours per week and 2 employees work like 20 (high estimate again as one does in fact work 10 hours a week) and then there is me and I'll say I work 40 because I fuckin own the place and do everything behind the scenes. 40+30*4+20*4=240 hours total to split the 10,000 into making each hour of work equal to 41 dollars an hour. That seems awesome, but let's say I'm an UBER dick and decide to say I work 24 hours a day. Same calculation with my new "back breaking hours" (probably less than my employees) yields hourly wage for all employees is roughly 20 dollars an hour and my monthly salary would be $9600 or 115k a year... Oh yeah, and that's like the lowest possible estimate of our wage. On great days, we rock nearly $3000 dollars, I doubt our rent is seriously 10k, and we probably didn't really need to round up our operation costs from $17,200 to $20,000. ---Oh yeah, and we'd still have a tip jar. And I can betcha we'd earn more tips (that I wouldn't take 60 of the 70 of) if we ran the business that way.
Would it work? Would people buy into working for me when I'd tell them upright that our wages would be dependent on how well we work as a business and really let them in on how well we were doing?
Nothing is more awesome than working at a store surrounded by vegetables all day. Fresh produce has to be delivered and chopped frequently. This morning, a very rushed deliveryman ran into the store as I was cleaning counters and dropped a bag of onions and cucumbers in my arms (yes, OW) and said, "thank you thank you, have a nice day," before quickly leaving. I just can't get over how awesome it feels to just get to work with fresh vegetables all day and have random things like that happen.
But there are some annoying parts about it...
Today the whole team was in early working on a truly epic catering order. We filled an entire car with a huuuuuuge catering order that was big enough to offset our weekly shipment so we'd have enough stuff for it. But anyway, we got a 70 dollar tip on the receipt they signed for us. The owner brings back the receipt and pulls 70 out of the register. He gives me 10. I'm like "lol what's this for" and he's like "oh that's the tip for the jar." Our jar is split up every week evenly between our employees. Like most franchises, we only accepts cash tips except on deliveries (which is really just compensating us for the delivery since there is no delivery charge), so it's really quite pitiful at times, yet it's enough to get by and we've really made it great... but not when our boss pockets 60 dollars.
When I think about business, I think about my tip jar...
The better we do, the happier the customers are, the more tips we get. The same is true for our total sales, but the tips are the portion I have control over. I take the tips and split it among the 5 of us evenly except on rare occasions of sickness or low hours where I'll pro-rate someone. If I ever own a place, I kinda foresee running it like that entirely. Let's say we are doing decently and we are having basic $1500 days (which is about as low as it gets for our low-end estimate). We work 5 days a week for 4 hours (excluding open/close) and we'll assume 4 weeks in the month. So we'll make roughly 5*4*1500=30000 dollars a month. Rent/utils is probably a good $10,000 a month? I have NO idea, but we are in the financial district, so wtf we'll estimate. We order food from a special place with bulk prices. Each shipment is about $1300 and we do about one of those a week. Contents vary a lot due to catering needs, but in all seriousness it doesn't NEED to be that high-- we keep getting shit we don't need and not enough shit we do need. Let's also set aside $2000 dollars a month to fix shit. Emergency UPS order, fridge needs to be checked out by a pro, broken printer, normal shit like that. So we're at less than two thirds of our revenue even in this low estimate and let's actually round it up to that and assume we are spending $20000 to run the business. Now we get to paying our employees. Let's say there are 5 employees and myself (imaginary owner). $10000 split 6 ways is roughly $1600 a month. But to be fair, of the 5 employees, 2 of them work like 3 hours a day. So maybe instead we should take that money and split it evenly among each hour. Work an hour, get one share of the pie, etc. So 3 employees work 30 hours per week and 2 employees work like 20 (high estimate again as one does in fact work 10 hours a week) and then there is me and I'll say I work 40 because I fuckin own the place and do everything behind the scenes. 40+30*4+20*4=240 hours total to split the 10,000 into making each hour of work equal to 41 dollars an hour. That seems awesome, but let's say I'm an UBER dick and decide to say I work 24 hours a day. Same calculation with my new "back breaking hours" (probably less than my employees) yields hourly wage for all employees is roughly 20 dollars an hour and my monthly salary would be $9600 or 115k a year... Oh yeah, and that's like the lowest possible estimate of our wage. On great days, we rock nearly $3000 dollars, I doubt our rent is seriously 10k, and we probably didn't really need to round up our operation costs from $17,200 to $20,000. ---Oh yeah, and we'd still have a tip jar. And I can betcha we'd earn more tips (that I wouldn't take 60 of the 70 of) if we ran the business that way.
Would it work? Would people buy into working for me when I'd tell them upright that our wages would be dependent on how well we work as a business and really let them in on how well we were doing?
2013/04/06
Dancing as an Art form
I made the mistake today of showing this to a dancer.
After watching it she said, "well fuck, dance as an art form is now ruined for me. Nothing real will ever beat that performance."
The piece is one of those things where they had some dancers and recorded it and had the animators draw over it however they pleased. The result has characters growing wings, becoming water, stopping time, and disappearing at will. Combined with the already beautiful choreography, music, and message (yes, never forget that piece, for even the most beautiful thing is nothing without it), this piece brings to life everything I could want and more from a performance piece.
That being said, I don't think that dance is ruined. The other me screams from their long lost slumber in another dimension. This other me reminds me that many bodies simply joy to dance. Where my body joys from fulfilling my purpose, some bodies simply joy and find purpose in moving to and creating art with their bodies.
Art forms, technology, our very ways of life, -hell- our lives themselves, are all evolving day by day and decade by decade. Is one way ever ruined by the one that comes next? Yes? No? We all have so many thousands of examples one way or the other. But in the end, there is only one example that is as of now without answer. Death. Will that change in our way of life (if you can humor me and call it that) ruin what we had? Or will it, like this video, EVOLVE the very way we are able to look at and create?
Time will yet tell for every person reading these words. Hope you enjoyed the video as much as I did.
After watching it she said, "well fuck, dance as an art form is now ruined for me. Nothing real will ever beat that performance."
The piece is one of those things where they had some dancers and recorded it and had the animators draw over it however they pleased. The result has characters growing wings, becoming water, stopping time, and disappearing at will. Combined with the already beautiful choreography, music, and message (yes, never forget that piece, for even the most beautiful thing is nothing without it), this piece brings to life everything I could want and more from a performance piece.
That being said, I don't think that dance is ruined. The other me screams from their long lost slumber in another dimension. This other me reminds me that many bodies simply joy to dance. Where my body joys from fulfilling my purpose, some bodies simply joy and find purpose in moving to and creating art with their bodies.
Art forms, technology, our very ways of life, -hell- our lives themselves, are all evolving day by day and decade by decade. Is one way ever ruined by the one that comes next? Yes? No? We all have so many thousands of examples one way or the other. But in the end, there is only one example that is as of now without answer. Death. Will that change in our way of life (if you can humor me and call it that) ruin what we had? Or will it, like this video, EVOLVE the very way we are able to look at and create?
Time will yet tell for every person reading these words. Hope you enjoyed the video as much as I did.
2013/04/05
Hahahahhahaha, yeah right.
Our menus are so vast and intimidating that frequently people sit there for a very long time just getting through it and deciding on what sounds good. Occasionally, customers will ask me what item is best. And of course, I tell them :3
The best item on our menu is the Buddha Satay bowl but you do some stuff to it. The bowl starts off with rice noodles topped with a choice of protein, bean sprouts, spinach, carrots, broccoli, peanuts, and some spicy satay sauce. The small changes go like this: take out half the noodles and replace them with quinoa, add some avocado, and put it in a plastic bag to toss it before making it into a burrito instead of a bowl. When tossed properly, the quinoa and noodles really suck up the sauce and distribute it evenly and lightly over all the vegetables which become the centerpoint of the burrito. The avocado just ... makes anything better.
So I've been teaching this burrito to our customers and one person was like, "you should name it the Cody Satay". I laughed and played along like I normally do.
Today someone came up and was like, "hey, I was told I should try the Cody Satay". I plugged it in and sent it on its way. They greatly enjoyed it. I smiled a lot. ... It's totally a silly coincidence, but I kinda hope it catches on as one of our burrito choices so I can be compared to Buddha every day by hundreds of customers. :P
The Troubling Tao
There are many statements in the Tao that are sometimes ironically hard to live up to.
"Do your work and then step back. That is the way of the Tao."
The philosophy here is straightforward. First, know your work. Know what it is you are here to do and do it. Then know what isn't your work and avoid working too hard, for if it is YOUR work, it will exhaust you perfectly. In the mornings, walk forward towards your work, start when you get there, work because you love what you give to the world. Know what your work is and the pace will set itself. A comic book artist knows they will need 10 years to create their masterpiece doing a full page every day, yet they do it because the joy of the art would leave if they did more. At the end of the day, be like the comic artist and leave the story on your desk. Come back tomorrow and tomorrow until it is done. When it is done, don't hang around and stagnate over it. It is done and you will find more work. Step back.
But this can be very hard. My problem is knowing where my work ends. I know what my work is and I love it. Yet I don't see any boundaries to it. I don't see the boundaries of what I can and what I cannot do. No. I think I can see that much, but I don't see where I should stop.
I do my work... and then I go and do more work. Sure, I never stagnate or dwell on my past work, that is good. But it's still bad. What I need to do is know where my work ends.
Go to work, let my work with people lead me simply to do and step back. Go home, let my heart lead me. Some days art, some days games, some days stories, some days more helping people. Yet all with the caveat of knowing that my work will end today and begin tomorrow after rest. True rest. Restful in body AND in mind. I must leave the work on the desk.
*breathes in*
*breathes out*
Let's try it today.
"Do your work and then step back. That is the way of the Tao."
The philosophy here is straightforward. First, know your work. Know what it is you are here to do and do it. Then know what isn't your work and avoid working too hard, for if it is YOUR work, it will exhaust you perfectly. In the mornings, walk forward towards your work, start when you get there, work because you love what you give to the world. Know what your work is and the pace will set itself. A comic book artist knows they will need 10 years to create their masterpiece doing a full page every day, yet they do it because the joy of the art would leave if they did more. At the end of the day, be like the comic artist and leave the story on your desk. Come back tomorrow and tomorrow until it is done. When it is done, don't hang around and stagnate over it. It is done and you will find more work. Step back.
But this can be very hard. My problem is knowing where my work ends. I know what my work is and I love it. Yet I don't see any boundaries to it. I don't see the boundaries of what I can and what I cannot do. No. I think I can see that much, but I don't see where I should stop.
I do my work... and then I go and do more work. Sure, I never stagnate or dwell on my past work, that is good. But it's still bad. What I need to do is know where my work ends.
Go to work, let my work with people lead me simply to do and step back. Go home, let my heart lead me. Some days art, some days games, some days stories, some days more helping people. Yet all with the caveat of knowing that my work will end today and begin tomorrow after rest. True rest. Restful in body AND in mind. I must leave the work on the desk.
*breathes in*
*breathes out*
Let's try it today.
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