Wednesday, March 12, 2008

pi day minus .02

so today the MAA is having their usually pi day, which is usually held on march 14th (aka 3/14 or 3.14), but this year it's early. probably due to the fact that if it was held on friday, nobody would really show up since that's when spring break starts. kinda sad this is my last spring break :-( but not really at the same time as i'll be glad once may comes.

anyways, this week has been full of school and work. never fails that teachers always give homework assignments or have exams the week right before spring break. luckily one of my assignments due dates will most likely be pushed back to the day following spring break (all depends if i go buy a pie and bring it in for pi day today).

well class is gonna start soon

Saturday, March 08, 2008

HS sports observations

so this weekend was the SD girls state basketball tournament here in Rapid City. My cousin's team from Sioux Falls made it to the championship (against Pierre), which is in a few hours.

Anyways, I've noticed some big differences between the high school sports here verses the high school sports i was in. First, the furthest i ever had to travel for an away game was maybe 2hrs (and that was only about once a season) and then for state tournaments i believe it was the same. Here the bigger schools travel across the state to just play regular season games. I suppose tho, that if you want to have a fair competition between teams, you can't have a high school that is more than double the size of nearby high school play each other. Granted there are some small schools/towns around here that have some pretty awesome teams, but still.

Another thing that also stood out to me was the parents. They seem to really get into it (and not only for the state tourney). I'm not sure if it's just a girls sport thing or if it's a whole SD thing (i haven't been to any boys sporting events). I just know that the parents of my teammates in high school were never too extravagant, or if they were i just completely blocked it out :-P It's not that it's a bad thing, it's just an observation of the difference of where i grew up verses here.

The last thing that kinda goes along with the first is that there are kids that aren't even on the teams that travel to the away games as well. Not as many go to the ones on the other side of the state, but they still drive more then i would have ever been willing to drive to watch my high school play.

At any rate though, the games do make it fun to just people watch, ie to just sit and watch how they react to different things happening out on the court or around them.

well i should find something to eat before heading to the game. i'm hoping that the ticket person only charges me the high school student price again. then again the signs don't say student's k-12, they just say students and i am still a college student :-P

Sunday, March 02, 2008

work rant

so just to warn everyone this is mostly just a rant and not much more.

so last night was a UFC fight night and was pay perview (somehow that word doesn't look right but i don't wanna check to see if it's correct, instead i like to write a long message saying i think its mispelled :-P) or something like that, thus no where else really gets it so everyone that wants to watch it (but not pay for it themselves) come to watch it where i work. i really really really dislike working on nights that we have the fights. my reason for severe dislike is the same as when there are football games going on and such, which is that people come in sit for hours (like 3-4), but still only tip the same amount as if they had just been there to eat dinner and that was it. since they are at a table for that amount of time (the 3-4hrs), no-one else can, which means that i'm not getting any new tables.

also do not show up, say there's only a certain amount of you and then more of your friends show up after you've already been sat for a set amount and expect us to be able to magically make space for everyone. this comes to mind because there was a table that had been sat as there was only going to be 8, and it ended up being 20. thats a big difference. if it was just a couple more people, then it's easier to accommodate, but more than doubling the amount of people is just plain ridiculous. luckily tho, the table was in an area that we could move tables (luckily people had just been there to eat so there were a few empty tables).

and now i'm gonna rant on tips for a little. now i know that if you have an empty drink most the night and that if i'm not checking on you then yes i deserve to be stiffed with no tip. however, if a couple people at the table say how awesome of a job i did, then it means that i more likely than not provided the same service to you. tips should also be at least 10 percent, as that is what i am getting taxed on. not only am i getting taxed on 10% of my sales, but i also have to give tip money to the bartenders, hostesses, bus boys, etc. Thus if you stiff me or don't leave 10% tip, I am paying for some of your dinner or whatnot. verbal tips are nice (ie you're very good at what you do), but if you then don't leave a good tip, then it's kinda like a slap in the face. words are not gonna pay bills. one last thing on tips. just because someone else at the table is tipping, doesn't mean that you should not, unless that person is taking into account your bill as well (this is for when tickets are split up).

k, i'm done. mostly i think i needed to rant as i was at work from 5pm-1:40am and the ratio/percentage of my tips to my sales was just slightly over 10%. maybe i just need to work as a waiter in a country where they don't tip, so you actually have an hourly wage worth something. for example Australia :-P

k, thats it, i need to go work on some hw and whatnot.