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It’s 12:00. I’m hungry, with $20 in my pocket. The choice between walking home to make a sandwich and stopping by to get some pizza really isn’t a choice.

I take the short walk to a pizza place across from campus. Never been there before, but I’ve heard good things about it. Might as well give it a try.

The place is packed. Food must not be too bad if this many people show up for lunch. I grab a booth, order a sausage pizza, and commence reading a book.

8 minutes later, my pizza arrives. It’s not the best pizza I’ve ever had, but it’s good. I scarf down the pie while enjoying my book. By the time I finish the place is even busier so I figure I ought not take up space longer than necessary.

I pack up my stuff, grab the ticket and head for the front cash register. Two people in front of me are picking up and ordering take out.

I wait patiently. The meal was good, and the service was acceptable.

The lady at the cash register asks how she can help me.

I’d like to pay for my meal, please.

You have to pay your waitress.

And that’s all she says. Not, I’m sorry for the inconvenience, or let me find your waitress for you so you can pay. Just, you have to pay your waitress.

This, my friends, is a perfect example of bad service. I am a guest in your restaurant. You have established a set of rules to help your business run smoothly. I understand this. But without me, your paying customer, you wouldn’t have a business to run. Little things like letting me pay for my meal when I’m ready to walk out the door instead of making ME go chase down my waitress to pay for my meal can really turn away customers. How can you do it better? Here’s an example:

A couple comes into my restaurant. She wants an ice tea, he wants a Sprite. I go back to get their drinks, but discover we’re out of Sprite. I ask the owner (also the main chef) if we have any Sprite. Instead of telling me to ask the customer to order something else, he says we will in just a few minutes. He flies out the back door leaving his assistant to work on meals he is in the middle of preparing. 3 minutes later he pops back in, two 20 ounce Sprites in hand he bought at the bar across the street. This, my friends, is GOOD service. The customer never needs to know your rules and regulations, only that he can get what he wants. Customers are happy. Servers are happy. Owner is happy. Amazing what can happen when you stop worrying about your rules and regulations and go out of your way to satisfy your customer.

I live in a decent size two bedroom apartment. It’s not the most exciting design, and only having windows on one side of the apartment is a drag. But I really have nothing to complain about. Nothing, that is, except for the bathroom.

First of all, the bathroom is entirely too small compared to the overall size of the apartment. My wife and I really can’t both be in there in the mornings to get our daily routine finished, and having a large litter box for our kitties doesn’t help. My biggest complaint, however, is not one unique to my bathroom, it is one I have had in every single bathroom I have ever had. The place in which I deficate is literally 8 inches away from the place I bathe myself. Other bathrooms may have the shittin’ spot a little further away from the showerin’ spot, but they are still in the same room, and most bathrooms are not overly spacious. (in fact, they are usually the opposite, thrown in, it seems, as an afterthought). Having grown up with this style of bathroom I never gave it much thought. My bathroom was like this, and so was every single other bathroom I ever used in a home. It wasn’t until I visited Japan with my wife that I realized how unsanitary our bathroom design really is.

There is no Japanese equivelant to the English word for ‘bathroom’. This is because they do not have bathrooms like we picture them in the U.S. ‘Furoba’ denotes the bathing room, in which you typically have a bathtub and shower. The shower is for cleaning yourself and the tub is for soaking. Which, btw, is incredbly relaxing, and I could actually fit my ENTIRE BODY in the bathtub. Try doing that with a typical American bathtub. I couldn’t even walk through doorways without ducking at my in-law’s house (i’m 6,1) but I could soak my entire body in the water in their bathtub. ‘Otearai’ is the word for the actual toilet room, which, again, at my in-law’s is a room about the size of a small walk-in closet with a toilet in it. That’s it. A toilet. But when you think about it, it really makes a lot more sense than the American bathroom. In Japan, you have a room which serves to only cleanse your body, and another room in which to deposit waste. Compare this to my bathroom, where I deposit my discarded foodstuffs not more than 8 inches way from where I clean myself.

Of course, I haven’t visited every bathroom in Japan, and I’m sure there are probably exceptions. But if as many Japanese have seperate rooms for cleaning and pooping as we have single rooms for pissing and bathing, then I imagine it is almost always this way. And though I would never have given it much thought before I actually experienced it, once I did, my bathroom at home just seems so. . icky. So the next time you jump in the shower, look and see just how close you are cleaning yourself to the spot you probably recently took a nice, big dump. Hard to feel really clean, isn’t it?

Can’t think of anything of interest to write, so have some lovely Samuel Barber instead. This is the last minute of the first movement of his violin concerto. It’s oh so yummy.

Download Audio: Samuel Barber – Violin Concerto

Two weeks ago, a problem we’ve had in the apartment went from bad to worse. We had been experiencing problems with the power in the apartment, in which the power in certain (or all) rooms of the apartment would dim and flicker for around 10 seconds at a time. This, of course, is annoying but also damaging to any electrical equipment I have plugged into the wall. It had done this off and on in very minor bouts basically since we moved in, but it continued to get worse and worse until it was noticeable all times of the day and interfering with normal usage of all things electrical. So I call up the good ole’ apartment manager:

Apartment Manager: “Thank you for calling Crappy Ass Apartments, how can I help you?”

Me: “Yes, I’ve been having a serious problem with the electricity in my apartment. I’ve had this problem for a while, but it’s gotten really, really bad lately”. . . I explain the problem

Apartment Manager: “Well, if it’s in the whole apartment, you’ll have to call the power company to get them to come out and fix it.”

Me: “Ummm.. okay, what’s their number?”

AP: “123-4567″

I hang up, and call the power company wondering why they would have to come out and fix it, and also wondering why it was MY responsibility to call someone to fix a problem with THEIR property. After a 5 minute hold, I explain the problem and am informed that a technician will be out today to look at the apartment. 10 minutes later I get a phone call from the power company.

Power Guy: “Yes, this is Bob with the power company, I’m afraid we can’t fix your problem. We checked the [insert technical jargon here] and there’s no problem on our end. This is a problem you need to get the apartment maintenence to fix. You’ll have to call them and get that taken care of.”

Me: “Okay. Actually, can you call them for me? Because I already talked to them, and they said to call you. Here’s their number.”

Power Guy: “Sure, no problem.”

I wait 30 minutes thinking the apartment manager will call me back to let me know what is going to be done about the problem. Nobody calls. So I call her back.

Me: “So I called the power company and they said it was a problem YOU had to fix. So are you gonna send a guy out today to fix it?”

AP: “Well, actually, the maintenance guy is on vacation this week [this is on a Thursday] and won’t be back until Monday.”

Me(thinking): So this is the reason I had to call the power company, because you didn’t want to tell me you couldn’t fix the problem today? And now you tell me I can’t get it fixed until NEXT WEEK? You’re assuming nothing will go wrong for an entire week for 100 apartments? Jesus Christ!

Me: “Umm.. okay, so the guy will be out Monday to fix it?”

AP: “Probably.”

Great. So I hang up and wait until Monday. Nobody comes. I call. She says he’s busy, maybe come on Wed. I wait. Wednesday comes and goes, no guy comes. I call. Says tommorow morning for sure. I wait. Finally, thursday afternoon somebody comes. He fixes it. It works. . . for two days. So now the problem comes back, only this time when the power fluctuates, I hear lovely popping and crackling sounds coming from the circuit box. Even better. So I call again.

Me: “Yes, you sent guys out to fix my problem, but after two days it came back worse than ever. I need you to send a guy out TODAY so the apartment doesn’t catch fire or something.”

AP: “Well, we should be able to send out somebody today to fix it.”

Me: “Okay, I’ll be expecting them later today.”

I wait. Nobody comes. It’s still screwed up. So now I have to call again tomorrow morning. Why can’t they just do it right the first time? Why can’t they at least try to care that I have a serious problem. Why do they think that if it doesn’t directly affect them, it’s really no big deal? Why do I have to call over and over and over and get more and more angry before the problem gets fixed? Why oh why are stupid people allowed to be in authority positions?

*Sigh*

But on the other hand, and least I have a nice apartment to call home. At least I have food stocked in the fridge. I have a nice warm futon to go curl up in and sleep comfortably. My family’s income is enough to pay the bills with some left over. All in all, I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much. My apartment manager may cause me a headache, but at least I have the freedom to choose where to live, where to work, and to speak critically about things I’m not happy about. Some things may irritate, but overall, my life is good.

I was skiming through the latest issue of PC World at the library and had some thoughts about their cover story on spyware/malware/internet security in general. The author(s) of the main stories did a fine job of describing the sad state of affairs when it comes to the prevalance of malware found on so many pc’s today. But after reading through an aritcle on the best spyware removal tools, I wondered why the authors didn’t bother to mention switching to a different platform. I know it is PC World after all, and Microsoft has their operating system on something like 95% of the world’s computers. Yet I wonder if many people give any serious thought to trying an alternative when it comes to home computing. I’m not an Apple user myself, but their products consistently get solid ratings of performance, reliability, support, and are much more free of malware than windows. And although some still debate the value of Linux for the mainstream, it is certainly more free from malware than Windows. Of course, if Windows didn’t have the 95% market share it does, you would certainly find more shady businesses trying to overtake your system in Mac OS and Linux. But even if they did, the architecture of these operating systems behave in a different way than Windows, perhaps in a way more favorable to the actual computer owner, rather than the malware creator.

I suppose the point I’m trying to make is this: Linux and Apple do not have virus and spyware proof systems, but compared to the current state of affairs in the Windows world, perhaps some people should give them a more in depth look. Why wait for Vista for better security? Why not try something else right now?