On my way

I'm on my way to becoming a manager. Without knowing much of anything, really. After our manager left, and before the new manager arrives, it's pretty much my store. I believe my goal is to 1. take care of my people, 2. make sure the store doesn't burn down, and 3. make sure things get done. Not very lofty goals, but right now I could care less about beating budget and increasing sales, because we are so f&cking understaffed.

Which is why I gotta hire hire hire. And fill shifts. I hate, hate filling shifts. It must be karmic retribution, because I didn't work very much outside my own store when I was a barista, and I don't usually call back people when they left voicemail entreating me to take shifts. So I deserve this. I love the people I am working with, they are all very wonderful. Except they have their own lives, and it's not right to ask them to do anything more for the store.

So right now it's the calm before the storm. I got my two days off. Then we shall see.

In other news, I cannot make it to Lust, Caution. Boohoo.

Limited as it is

Regardless of how wide the world wide web is, I have a very limited repertoire of places that I go regularly on the web. I check my emails, I look at celebrity smut, I stalk people on facebook, and that's about it. Even with Youtube, I only look at a few things that I've already seen on tv, and youtube just helps me to relive the excitement.

Things I regularly go back to youtube for include the Natalie Portman gangsta rap from SNL (and they keep on taking it down), various routines from So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD), and most recently, the Live Earth performance of Madonna and Gogol Bordello, a Roman Gypsy group. The song is La Isla Bonita, and the new interpretation is amazing. And Madonna is amazing, it's hard to learn that she's already 48. I wish I looked that good at 48.

Now Madonna has her own group of dancers who go on tour with her. I am currently very interested in one, I think his name is George but I am not sure. Alas, all is not mighty with Wikipedia and Google. He seems to be of Asian descent, and he may have appeared in Madonna's "Hung up" video, but I am not sure. Anyway, he is really cute!

Limited as my repertoir on web and youtube is, it's still exciting to see them there. (Boy what a crappy wrap-up) My life is crap; there, my usual world-hating life-hating message to you all.

Blast from Past I

tectonic shift

As I recall, one of my previous post was about discovering online, that my ex-boss had found a new job and was going to quit. The advantage of knowing before she announces officially, is that there was no surprise, and I wouldn't say anything stupid. Today, however, my current manager dropped bombshells one after another on me.

First two didn't really concern us, mostly district-related stuff, who is going where, etc. Third and fourth things, however, kind of hit home hard. Our dm is moving to another post, so he is leaving the district. Who is going to take over? Who knows? And then, my manager announces that he is leaving the company in October. He is going to be a sales manager at London Drugs. Me, being completely insensitive, remarked on how he is leaving the store hanging. Because it is true, the store I am at, people don't tend to stay very long. And the people left behind has this sort of resentment towards that. I don't blame them, but I digress. So he is leaving, and that's that.

I'm not really sure what to make of it. It's impossible for me to take over the store at this point. God knows I don't even know how to make schedules or do payroll. So someone else is going to come in and take over. On the up side, I'll get to experience a different management style. On the down side, I wouldn't be able to give the new manager much help, because I know so little. And a new dm! The need to forge new relationships, to foster professional compatibilitism (ok I know it's not a word, but you know what I mean), makes my head hurt. I can't wait, though, to see the people's reaction when he announces officially.

To Tiff: I didn't necessary enjoy the day with dad. I just enjoyed looking at new things.

A day

I spent my day at the Taiwanese Cultural Festival. Most parts it's like the Night Market, lots of booths selling dim sum (I know, it's not Taiwanese) and bubble tea (now this is Taiwanese), as well as random stuff like health food and stitched pouches. However, there was also some real "cultural" stuff, like the steam locomotives display, and art exhibition, also the Barbie exhibition.

The steam locomotives display, is apparently NOT simply "train models". They are actually made from real train parts, just scaled down. Which made me really confused, because wouldn't that be a model still? Anyway, dad was excited to see that, because he'd actually seen one of these locomotives when he was young, when they used to harvest sugar canes where he lived, and ship the sugar canes to the Taiwan Sugar Company via one of those trains. Very cool indeed, real pieces of Taiwanese history right in front of you.

The art exhibition is amazing. There are some pieces I'd like to own. There is this one collection made from bamboo, and has an all-naturalist theme to it. There is this wall hanging, with a lotus flower carved out of a piece of bamboo, simply stunning. Also this bamboo sculpture piece, called 知音, which was quite wonderful as well.

Finally, the Barbie exhibition. Basically they dressed tons and tons of Barbie dolls in tradition Chinese/Taiwanese garments. The exhibition was chronological, so it went from probably the Tang/Ming/Qing dynasty to the early 20s/30s in Taiwan, with the 旗袍, etc, then to recent years. The clothes on the Barbies were AMAZING. I am so mad that I didn't bring the camera, they were all so beautiful. They are like costumes you have seen in books, in paintings, on television, they were all surreal to look at. Extremely impressive.

There was this one booth I visited and ended up buying stuff from, is this group of artists called C-DRIVE. They are all very young, and the art they do is mostly visual art, comparable to manga- and anime-types. However, some of their work I really liked, reminds me of some off-balanced Japanese manga type, or the Tim Burton type, you know? Really dark and whimsical. So I got their magazine. Hopefully their art will grow and expand beyond manga/anime, because that genre is so overdone that to excel you must be REALLY good.

There are some performances that we stayed and watched. The Hakka rock and roll wasn't THAT bad; and the Ami tribal dances that some elementary school students performed were very excellent (yes, na-lu-wan). There were many non-Taiwanese people, so it was a pleasant surprise.

The "UN for Taiwan/Peace Forever" campaign people had a booth as well. I think they were collecting names for petition for Taiwan to be accepted into the United Nation, as an independent country, not part of China. Obviously, this is a political ruse thought up by the folks of President Chen to rally up the nationalist feelings to earn votes in the upcoming election. Because everyone know, no one is going to pay attention to a frigging petition. US doesn't care, because they prefer the status quo; China doesn't care, because Taiwanese people means nothing to them. But today dad said, "If China takes over, then there will be no more Taiwan." I wouldn't be surprised if that's the ultimate outcome, but it is still unacceptable, because Taiwan is part of my identity, and you just can't let something go like that.