The way I see it

I'm picky about food service. I bled, sweat, and suffered in the food service industry back when I was young and handsome so I do have knowledge on certain industry standards. Because of my experience, my training, and my expectations I tend to have a zero tolerance approach to all things service oriented.  I also have tried to maintain a zero second chances policy with food service no-nos, unfortunately if I did that I think I would never eat out again! The first place in Malaysia to raise my fury was 'Johnny's Steamboat Restaurant' a family steamboat restaurant with many locations (at that time) around the city.  My issue was first quality followed shortly after but customer service and finally managerial. The long and short of it was that my fried rice had insects in it, not an insect, INSECTS - plural. I kinda did one of those things where my mouth hung open and the food fell out; it was gross.  This kind of thing can and does happen everywhere, so I don't f...

I have unbelievable luck sometimes. I went out last night to meet an old friend and along the way I was going to drop by one of the premier shopping malls, KLCC, and visit the bookshop there.  The store was closed.  I believe it was a 'company dinner.'  I might be ignorant or crazy but I don't recall this being a very common occurrence back home in Canada. I actually think this is the first time I heard of was here in Malaysia and actually now only recently. I don't understand the point in closing your entire retail operation for one night for a dinner.  Wouldn't the loss of revenue be of some concern?  I begin to wonder if some smaller shops are using this 'corporate dinner' as an excuse for closing shop for the night.  I have noticed in a shopping mall near my condo here that a few smaller electronic shops have had 2-3 annual dinners this year.  Perhaps it has been a particularly long year... I mean there is one more day ...

My first experience with the Avengers was when I was  about 9 years old I was at the local convenience store (we actually still had some of those) and a comic cover caught my eye.  The issue was number 305 and it was, I thought, a really cool cover.  The Avengers are basically being swarmed by 'lavamen' (whatever they are) and are more or less completely surrounded. The funny thing about it is that I never bothered to get issue 306 or 307 which I gather should be related as there was a cliffhanger at the end.  I was a kid so I'm sure the scourge of that day was pocket money, but I digress. With this happy childhood memory it was with great relish and glee that I saw the Avengers movie. The movie is actually really good.  As with a lot of these 'comic book' movies the film seems to set us up mainly for a big battle at the end and of course a sequel. I think this is a very standard format for this type of film, not good or bad... just expected. The plot follows ...

Drudging through work once again and wondering about some fundamental aspects of management: evaluation and feedback.  Feedback during my evaluations falls into this handy blanket term of 'constructive criticism.' Constructive criticism is an odd topic. In the most basic terms this feedback is given when you see something that is not working and you make a small comment with the intention of correction or at least acceptance of said defect.  The constructive portion of this comes from the understood caveat that this negative is going to build into or comes packaged with a positive. The danger here is that if you are too 'constructive' the problem is overlooked and if too 'criticismy' you end up looking... well... 'douchey.' So I begin to wonder... when does criticism cease to be criticism and start being just 'douchey.'  To start with constructive criticism should not be about entirely changing how someone does something; it should be a catal...

Well I am knee-deep in work but I am trying hard to get my 10,000 steps in daily. How am I counting?  glad you asked nobody. I am using the pedometer on my nintendo 3ds, although I am not sure how accurate it is... this week I appear to be averaging just under 10K per day... but it's hard. I kept the 3DS in my pocket the whole day basically and track steps in my daily working life. You would NOT be amazed how little I walk during my working hours as it's almost nothing.  I supposed that can only be expected from a desk job. So basically every evening I have to find an excuse to go walking for a while on some errand or another so I can build up my steps... it's 8:45am and I have just over a thousand steps. It is a good start but a very long way to go