Here’s another thing you may not know about me. I have been collecting business cards for a number of years. Business cards of the people who run the hotel. I have a nice collection going. It started out as a simple thing. I would pick up one here or there. And they would all sit in a pile some where.

The collecting of these business cards didn’t take on a deeper meaning until later in my life as a hotel employee. It wasn’t until I noticed I had a problem with authority. This was around the same time I started to notice that some of these managers were as dumb as a box of rocks. My collection of business cards then took on another meaning.

All of these cards I kept were ways for me to remember all of the assholes who came and went while I was still a peon at the hotel. It’s kind of a game. I don’t ask for a business card or just pick one up until I figure the cards owner has ran out of time at the hotel. It’s kind of like my own way of maintaining a management deadpool.

On occasion I like to look at all of them and note that I’m still at the hotel and they are not. It’s a small personal victory being able to remind myself that I have outlasted all of these people. And with this new bunch of owners/managers I grab these business cards as quick as I can. Sometimes I get lucky and a poor fool just gives me one.

Of course to be fair with this business card deadpool I have going, I always chuck my own business card into the pile whenever I get some. Since I have two in the pile and the rest have one each, I guess my odds are higher. Except I don’t worry about that anymore.

Here is a funny one my Mom sent me.

Dear Employee:

As a result of the reduction of money budgeted for department areas, we are forced to cut down on our number of personnel.

Under this plan, older employees will be asked to take early retirement, thus permitting the retention of younger people who represent our future. Therefore, a program to phase out older personnel by the end of the current fiscal year, via retirement, will be placed into effect immediately.

This program will be known as SLAP (Sever Late-Aged Personnel). Employees who are SLAPPED will be given the opportunity to look for jobs outside the company.

SLAPPED employees can request a review of their employment records before actual retirement takes place. This review phase of the program is called SCREW.

SCREW (Survey of Capabilities of Retired Early Workers). All employees who have been SLAPPED and SCREWED may file an appeal with upper management.

This appeal is called SHAFT (Study by Higher Authority Following Termination).

Under the terms of the new policy, an employee may be SLAPPED once, SCREWED twice, but may be SHAFTED as many times as the company deems appropriate.

If an employee follows the above procedure, he/she will be entitled to get: HERPES (Half Earnings for Retired Personnel’s Early Severance) or CLAP (Combined Lump sum Assistance Payment).

As HERPES and CLAP are considered benefit plans, any employee who has received HERPES or CLAP will no longer be SLAPPED or SCREWED by the company.

Management wishes to assure the younger employees who remain on board that the company will continue its policy of training employees through our:

Special High Intensity Training (SHIT). We take pride in the amount of SHIT our employees receive. We have given our employees more SHIT than any company in this area. If any employee feels they do not receive enough SHIT on the job, see your immediate supervisor.

Your supervisor is specially trained to make sure you receive all the SHIT you can stand.

And, once again, thanks for all your years of service with us.

The funny thing is I bet the hotel would come up with stupid shit like this.

It’s funny how certain subjects come up more than once. A recent rumor floating around the hotel says that “they” are going to get uniforms for the employees and then take the cost out of the paychecks of the employees. Now this topic was brought to my attention by a few people. I was asked if “they” could do this.

The simple answer is no “they” can’t. The Illinois Department of Labor’s WAGE PAYMENT AND COLLECTION ACT say thats against the law:

Section 300.840 Uniforms Required by an Employer

An employer shall not deduct the cost of purchasing and/or of cleaning uniforms required by the employer from an employee’s wages or final compensation, unless the employee’s express written consent is given freely at the time the deduction is made. Distinctive outfits or accessories, or both, intended to identify the employee with a specific employer shall be considered a uniform. If an employer requires a general type of ordinary basic street clothing to be worn, but permits variations in the detail of dress, this shall not be considered a uniform. However, when an employer requires that an employee purchase street clothes either from the employer or from a third party designated by the employer, the clothing shall be considered a uniform.

So as you can see “they” can’t do this. I want to draw your attention to that last bit there, were it says:

when an employer requires that an employee purchase street clothes either from the employer or from a third party designated by the employer, the clothing shall be considered a uniform.

I bring this up because I asked the Assistant GM about this rumor. She told me this rumor wasn’t true. She said “they” will purchase one uniform for the employee. After that it’s up to us. But this above bit of text here is important. The part were it says “from the employer or from a third party designated by the employer” is something to remember.

If for whatever reason say you need a second uniform and “they” say you have to buy it from So & So Inc. Well guess what? “They” will be purchasing the second uniform as well. And you got to remember to stand up for yourselves. You have to make sure that “they” know that you won’t stand for this bullshit.

To make it easy for you later on when you decide you want to file a complaint against the hotel, I have found the link to the the page with info such as phone number and even the required forms to fill out. Bookmark this page for future reference.

I don’t care what you hear. I don’t care what you think. I just wanted to be clear on these two things. I made the mistake with the Hulk movie of trying to be clever in telling you it sucked. I’m not doing that this time. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was shit. It should have been called Terminator 3: The Same Old Thing. Because this piece of shit was a cheap imitation of Cameron’s second Terminator movie. And that’s being polite.

Avoid this movie. Avoid this movie if you liked the first two. This third flick is the work of a cheap no talent fuck. Is it any surprise that Cameron didn’t have anything to do with it? No, because it’s utter shit. T3 was predictable from the beginning. I’m not talking about the beginning of the flick. Since the first trailer I knew this movie was going to suck.

The worst thing about it seeing this movie was the fact I had said to myself “I’m not going to go see this piece of shit”, somewhere along that thought process I made a mistake. I suppose I shouldn’t get so bent of out of shape about a bad movie. But I do. And here’s the thing. I think the people involved with T3 need to pay a heavy price. They all need to pay for cheapening the great finish of T2. I’m not talking about monetary payment. All though being able to sue over bad movie is a good idea and may need to be explored as an option at a later date.

No I’m saying these people need to pay the ultimate price. Death. Death in a number of different ways. The young people in the flick can be spared. They are young and may not understand about the artistic roll call. So I’m willing to over look it this time. But the director and the producers, they need to be put down. For the sake of future movies. These people shouldn’t be allowed to continue. Whether it be a ban from making movies or maybe they just need to be took out back and be shot. And I’m willing to let them have a clean death. A nice shot right to the back of the head.

I mean what was Schwarzenegger thinking? Does he need the paycheck that bad? Shit if he’s hurting for money, I would be willing to send him what I can. Do these people who make these movies even like the movies themselves? How could they be fans of this series? How could they be fans of this series when they make a movie like T3? I just don’t understand it. It’s to bad Schwarzenegger wasn’t born here in America. Because he would be the perfect bad actor to bad politician since Reagan.

Now you will have to excuse me, I need to exorcise this movie from my system. I think a T2 multiple viewing will help. In time my pain will pass, I hope.

It’s been a while again since I posted. I had a reason for a little bit. The MySql database was acting funky the first week of this month. Then I had six glorious days off. I didn’t do dick on my time off. Well I did play a lot of Dark Age of Camelot. Well I played a lot for me.

Since then I’ve been busy with work. We are getting a new computer system. Encore is going bye bye. The new system is a Windows based os and is a lot more user friendly. So I have been working my usual 3rd shift and on top of that I’ve had training for the new computer.

The system that is replacing Encore is called WinPM and it is produced by Multi-Systems, Inc. It really is better than the old Unix based Encore. The guy training us on it is also pretty cool. So Let me give a shout out to Mike the MSI Trainer.

Other than this stuff, I don’t have much else going on. I have a community service announcement I have to put up. But I’ll get to that later.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a game that I must have. It is a game I want. It is a game I need. Yeah I’m a geek. More to the point I’m a Star Wars Geek. But this game has what a Star Wars fan wants and needs in a rpg. Forget the mmorpg based Star Wars game. Buy this one.

If you don’t believe me read this. Yeah it’s just an IGN review. But if what this guy writes is true, well I will find myself very busy with this game.

And it looks great. I just can’t wait to get it. It’s in stores today. And I will be camping out the local Gamestop if I have to. I may even need to take a break from Dark Age of Camelot for this one. But not for to long of course.

It appears the isp provided to the hotel is picky about what you try to view.

Funny how it lets my site get past it’s blocking filter. I wonder how long it will take for my domain to be blocked?