Three Part Single Entry here, folks …

I: Jen G’vmt

Last night I read Jennifer Government, which was another sci-fi punk attempt at a future world where the government has little power compared to the big, powerful corporations. The tale was interesting enough - in a future where people take as their last name the company they work for, Hack Nike gets stuck with a difficult marketing assignment - assassinating ten random buyers of a new sneaker. His attempt to go to the police results in contracting the job to them, who wind up contracting it out to the NRA … and from there, everything winds up going to hell in a handbasket.

It’s an entertaining enough read, but not very thought provoking. None of the characters really grow through the story, in fact, they all seem to be the same character at various stages of cynacism with the “way things are”, starting with John Nike - the antagonist plotting corporate war - and ending with Jennifer Government, the former marketing exec who is now a special agent for the Feds.

So, to sum it up, enjoyable, on the light side, Snow Crash makes for a better read.

(Side note: it would seem that the book was popular enough to inspire an online game).

II: Noah

Noah showed up. Which, uh, really surprised Gary and me. What didn’t surprise me was that instead of coming in early - y’know, because he didn’t show up at all yesterday (er, two days ago, now) - was that he came in right at eleven. Once again, I had the entire prep list pretty much done for his slack ass.

Gary’s pretty pissed at him, and will be for awhile, and does he ever know it - I’ve never seen Noah this quiet, even when we had him handcuffed to the boiler and gagged. He sort of reminded me of a cat after a splash in the bathtub … just sort of happy to be on dry land and in one piece.

Noah didn’t park his car near the store, so it was hard to get a look at it to see the damage from the alledged break-in. Finally, coming in from a run, I was forced to park two stores down, and there it was (sadly, I’d been unable to convince Gary to keep Noah inside, and thus, he was driving as well … grrrrr). I didn’t see any obvious signs of a break-in, his windows were still intact, anyway. As for the interior of the car … well, it’s always so damn messy I wouldn’t know if it had been broken into or not.

Gary left Noah a long list of shit to do, and of course, me being the moron I am, I did half the stuff on that list without realizing it was part of Noah’s punishment. That fucker left without mopping the bathroom floor, but I’m sure he’ll wind up doing it tomorrow. Whatever, he’s not getting off Gary’s shit list for awhile.

Oh! Oh! Tomorrow, Noah’s in at ten, and I’m in at eleven. Usually when I’m scheduled at eleven, I show up anywhere from an hour to half an hour early. Tomorrow I’m coming in at 10:59, and if Noah doesn’t have 4/5ths of that prep list done, goddamn is he gonna hear about it … what rhymes with, “my shit don’t stink, but yours sure does!”

III - The Bluff

The part-time job has been getting kind of hard nosed about some attitudes it has previously been lax on. Two other p/t guys got taken off the schedule for the next two weeks because they like to call out five minutes before they’re supposed to show up (that’s fair, they’re slack-asses). After rush tonight, Steve told me that if I didn’t change my attitude - I’ve been bitchin’ about how he routes (his sister and his lover both drive here — and sometimes I wonder why I’m taking the single way out to the boonies?) and about how mileage compensation is going to need to increase if gas prices continue to - I’d see my schedule cut to Mondays and Wednesdays.

Oh, also, I lent him a DVD, he lost it, and I ragged on him for a month before he coughed up the cash to pay for it, so I think that might’ve had something to do with it.

Right now, I work there five nights a week, twenty-five or so hours a week. Right away, I knew Steve was bluffing. Steve’s never been a driver, so he figures that threatening to take away Tuesdays and Fridays would be a deterent - Tuesday is our “Buy one get one free” weekly special (read = busy), and Friday is usually always busy, and what he doesn’t realize is that usually only the cheap asses order those nights and the tip average is down nearly two bucks. Hey, he’s doing me a favor - I’ve been trying to cut my hours those nights, anyway. And as far as Sunday goes … hey, I could use a day off each week.

So I said, “Monday and Wednesday then, eh? Starting next week?”

Without even looking at me, he said, “Yep.”

So I scratched myself off Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday. See, here’s where I’m talking about the bluff — he’s now only got three drivers on for Tuesday, and three on for Friday — seriously understaffed both days, in other words (tonight we had six drivers, and were heading out the door with some orders over an hour old). Which means tomorrow, either he or Greg (the franchisee), will ask me if I can work those days.

At which point they get the ole’, “You may need me, but I don’t need you” speech, because I can pick those hours up at my full-time job (and get overtime for ‘em, to boot).

Hey, if they want to do me a favor, who am I to bitch?