Q&A

Not all the questions need to be answered. I'd rather live with good questions than with bad answers.

People

Today I had some time to kill, so I decided to start off my list of people (let's say categories of people) that I like and people that I can't stand. If you are in the 'hate' list, don't take it too seriously :)

People that I hate:

• those who almost stop at speed bumps.
  
• those who leave their tray on the table at food courts.
  
• those who drink pops in the morning.
  
• those doing nothing for hours and then asking you: "What are you working on?" with a smile.
  
• those who put the space before the comma.
  
• those who keep a wool hat indoors, especially if all day long and if they wear headphones on top.

People that I like:

• those who finish all the food in their plates.
  
• those who say "How can I help you?" with a smile.
  
• those who speak quietly.
  
• those who mention my name when they say "Hello."
  
• those who say "Take care."
  
• those who care about what they eat.

What a big improvement!

Sometimes celebrating an achievement implies admitting defeat on a previous result. People should be more careful before saying: "This year we did things a lot better than last year."

Would it be nice to hear somebody announcing: "We regret to inform that the previous year's product wasn't as good as it was advertised, in fact this year's product is twice as good. Would all last year's customers please accept our apologies and bring their products in for a free upgrade." Or, even better: "Through the experience made by working on last year's product, this year we managed to do a way better job. Thanks to all the customers for financing our own training, we hope that next year we will be able to maintain the current level of quality."

And this also applies when referring to somebody else's job -- we should be more careful before saying: "Congratulations! your new result is a big improvements on your previous one." Sometimes it just means: "You're now on track, before you actually sucked."

Upsize your popcorns for 50 cents!

You can really surprise your customers if all you're selling is air! Oh yeah, and if you want butter, it costs you another 50 cents... that can't be air, but sure isn't butter either. And no, we don't have small size, only regular and large. Marketing will remain a mystery to me.

Season's Greetings

What the hell "Season's Greetings" means? I don't get it. Maybe because I'm particularly cranky these days, I always get cranky around the holidays. So I guess I will never really understand the "Season's Greetings".
Today I went to Save On Food to buy some stuff for Christmas, I also bought something for myself, like this figs jam. Well, the cashier, a nice looking woman around her thirties, probably trained to do so, asked me "What do figs taste like? they're sweet, right?" Yes they are, I replied, and then she said "Usually people buy apricot or strawberry jams... but I guess all jams taste the same..." They taste like jam! I thought, then I said that I like the figs more, meanwhile I was thinking "You would taste like any other jam, why are we having this conversation?" Why are people trained to be nice, there is nothing wrong to me in just being kind and professional. There I am, cranky again.

What am I doing?

I'm starting off this blog, just another of many. Why? Just because I'd like to say something every once in a while, I'd also like to remember more, sometimes. This blog isn't "public", in its common sense, but I guess that if you're reading it now, it's obviously public enough.
When I used to be a kid I had a diary, like most adolescents do. It was private but I remember that I always thought somebody could read it, so I always paid attention to what I was writing always thinking "would it make sense?", "would I look too weird?"
A diary was for me associated to not very easy periods of my life, and this is no exception. I won't talk here about any of my problems, though.
This time I'm writing in English, I don't know exactly why, probably because I'm thinking that I might eventually want to reach people from different parts of the world, and English happens to be fairly known all over the place. There will probably be some Italian too, some things just can't translate. Bear with me for my writing, and if you read something that doesn't make any sense, and you guess it's not proper English, I would appreciate if you would let me know.