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I’m chronically ill, poor, alone and exhausted…

2023.06.04 20:54 venusfawn I’m chronically ill, poor, alone and exhausted…

I (25F) have a little child who soon turns 4. I’m a single mom, in a foreign country, divorced and poor.
Almost 3 years ago I got sick, and basically never recovered. It started with me being very tired and I never got better (Epstein barr virus). Now I live with chronic fatigue everyday and experience allot of flares and post exertional malaise. Since my daughter started kindergarten I’m completely gone. Household? I barely manage. I barely have money or energy to cook good food, so it has to be something quick and easy. Best case, something in the oven or one pot. I feel like such a bad mother. I always wanted (and was in the beginning) more like a crunchy mom. Not fully but it went into the direction. Now I let her watch too much tv, let her eat too much candy and fast food. I’m sorry, I just don’t manage. Since we live in an apartment, i only ever walked my elderly dog, because i never had the energy to take long walks to the playground with my daughter. For the first few months we never really went out. Maybe a few times a month. Most of the time I would just lie in bed or on the couch and watch my phone. Or sleep. I hate that this is what my daughter will remember me by. I often regret leaving her abusive father for my safety, because I robbed her of a childhood on the countryside as a farmers child, driving tractor and eating fresh tomatoes out of the greenhouse and oh, all the bunnies and chicken we had. I robbed her of this. It’s easier to put away the phone, if I can be in nature with her. But now nature isn’t in front of my door anymore. I’m all alone in this. No one to help me out, no mobility aid to support me.
I only this year started to take care of my health, two years after the break up. Possibly CFS/ME? Maybe. For my mental problems I finally take medication. Oh, my muscles are getting weaker and hurt much more easily and often since 6-7 years? Muscular Dystrophy? Maybe. My blood work is fine tho, says my doctor, so he doesn’t take more steps. So just forget it, it’s in my head. So I hurt myself again because I do more than I can and should. Get more post exertional malaise. People started talking to me, saying how I look extremely exhausted or like I’m in allot of pain. I am, so easily. So I changed to another doctors office now, new doctor, hope they help me better. Send a request to the neurologist myself. And I feel like it will take so long until I can even see a specialist.
Without diagnosis I can’t get more money. Which I need. I can’t work, because I’m too unwell. Physically and mentally. But invisible.
I so wish I could afford to pay my bills and healthy food. I so wish I could rent a tiny house with a big kitchen so I don’t have to reach over my head for things, in my tiny apartment, and that don’t have to walk my dog so often because she had a garden. I wish I had money to buy a wheelchair, so I could still be able to go out on family trips on the weekends and not need to stay at home from the 4km i have to walk everyday with my daughter for kindergarten.
Today my daughter cried allot, telling me that I don’t watch a film with her. I’m sorry, i just don’t have energy for you. I want to distract myself with my phone and the stress cigarettes I got from my neighbor. I don’t know why I wanna hurt myself with these nasty smoke sticks again... I just need a distraction from how drained I am, how I’m already in pain by lunch and I know I can’t fix my hair roots because i can’t hold up my arms for long. I know it’ll give me muscle soars for days if I do. So on top of that I look musty with my outgrown roots. I wish I had money for a hair dresser to do it…
Whatever I do, i have to pay for it. A sathurday one hour walk? One week extreme fatigue, muscle pains and soars as if I ran a 3 day marathon. Having a child on a farm? Getting an abusive cheating SAing husband. Wanting a hobby? Too tired to do it. Wasted money. Wanting some clothing that fit and I feel good in? Struggling with food for a month.
I so want to date again, but I never have energy, and if I do they don’t have time. But it’s ok, because i never met a good man since right after I left my ex. That man is still in my mind, top tier, no man came even remotely close with the way he communicated, looked, lived. It’s so hard to find someone, who checks of all. I long for love and intimacy but who would want someone like me anyway? A single overweight mom with possibly a disability?
I’m overweight bc eating gives me 15min of acute energy, but then I can’t move allot because of my illness. Working out? Absolutely not possible. My treadmill is for sale, even tho wanted it for so long but now I can’t use it anymore…
I’m so blessed I didn’t got pregnant with a second child. I’m so blessed my child is so easy and calm in her personality. I’m pretty sure I did allot right, but I just can’t give her more than my openness, empathy and deep cuddles at night. I wouldn’t survive with a child that always needs more, protests allot or just having two instead of one.
But still, I’m sad she’ll remember me like this. And I’m also sad I don’t even remember her first years. Everything before 3 is such a blurr to me. So less videos and pictures. And only a handful with me in it.
I’m embarrassed by my situation. And I feel lonely. I don’t have energy to make friends. Or to find a partner. I’m poor because I can’t work. I don’t wanna go to the socials and ask for complete financial support either because i won’t have the energy to do what they ask me for. I’m embarrassed my next doctor is gonna put it on my mental health and I’m never gonna get a wheelchair. I could go in so much more into details, of my illness, my finances, my parenting. But this is enough for me.
I now have to clean as much as i can so I can sleep tomorrow if I manage it to my appointment and the kindergarten… I promised my daughter, that I’ll watch a movie with her before bed. No phone allowed. And I’ll keep it.
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2023.06.04 13:39 icecreamlifters Figuring out my future

I want to have land for my own garden/farm with chickens and fruit trees and vegetables so I’m thinking I need to be somewhere more southern because of the warmer weather. I want to grow citrus and berries and all kinds of stuff. But I also want to live in a more left-winged area and be near farmers markets and gyms and shopping areas. I am thinking about Durham suburbs of NC, Austin TX, florida (maybe), but I don’t want somewhere super expensive.
Any recommendations for where I should live? I do not plan on having kids, love the ocean and love the mountains and hiking!
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2023.06.04 11:55 tiredguineapig E/INFP 28F looking for 25-30M INTP, INTJ, ENTJ or E/INFP.

So this frustratingly narrows it down too much but I’m specifically looking for someone who is open to living in Japan.
I am Japanese and Filipino, golden skin (when stood next to a white person; when standing next to a Japanese person I can’t tell the difference lol) with straight black hair and brown eyes. 5’3” 118lb. Born and raised mostly in Japan.
I prefer someone who is neutral about Japan.
Oh but I’ll move to a place with a good education system and students that care about learning.
Currently located in Seattle.
If you’re still wanting to know more, look below:3
One of the personality traits I have is that im strong willed. But then it doesn’t come off like that I think. I tend to not mind what other people think unless they influence me at work or something. But im also really laid back.

What I'm Into

What I'm Looking For

One would say that I am submissive seeming, listening quietly and patiently but I also walk away doing the opposite of what I was listening to without saying anything (I’m also very oblivious to this lol) I guess I like to consider what others think or know but if with all the information I have, mine fits my life better I will take my path regardless. He found this humorous. And I appreciated that.
Someone with a huge ego would not be the right person for me. I’m looking for someone who can manage that wisely. Or who bends for me (if I can do that effortlessly).
If you’re interested, before anything, I’d like to trade pictures. Getting rejected or having to reject someone after getting to know someone is so sad…🥺
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2023.06.04 11:02 DaSud Foods that have no business having onions in them that people STILL try to shoehorn them into

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2023.06.04 07:42 Edwardthecrazyman Hiraeth or Where the Children Play: Dog-meat and the Whipping Boy [6]

Previous
If I were to guess, I’d imagine they took Andrew to Boss Harold before anyone else and the rumors around Golgotha seemed to support this supposition; the Bosses enjoyed their personal retribution away from the eyes of citizens, maybe it was talking or maybe more, and although there were whispers of the boy being strung up on the wall or maybe he’d be violated in the stocks for all to see, I imagined that the council I held with Boss Harold might’ve had something to do with that never materializing. When I was allowed to the boy’s cell, it was dark, and his face was bruised and the bandaging I’d applied to his severed wrist had been removed probably for amusement. The room was small and there were no windows and only a single doorway let out into the hallway which contained other cells and further, near the exit, there was the office of wall men. The guard that’d let me in locked the door behind me and Andrew sat on a metallic cot without cushioning, and he stared at the grimy floor through swollen eyes.
“Hello,” he said. And I was taken aback by the comment because he spoke it as quickly as he might passing a person in the street. He'd been through so much that the word was abrupt, skittish. I nodded and moved to him, reaching for his arm where he’d been nearly fatally wounded. It was infected. Without fighting me, he allowed me to tend to it without even a question; I wiped it and applied salve. Once it was cleaned and rewrapped and only after I’d settled on the cot beside him, he spoke again, “I heard stories about the cells, but I never thought they’d smell.”
I withdrew a handful of antibiotics, and he took them without putting them to his mouth. “You should have them,” I said, “You might lose the whole arm if not.”
“I might lose my life.”
“Maybe not,” I offered a grim smile and water with for the pills. “You’re alive still.”
“How much longer though?” He took the medicine and grimaced hard. The boy looked older than he was. “It smells like blood here. I can smell the people that’ve been here before.”
I patted him on the back and removed myself from the cell and he did not call after me, not even to ask for the return of his hand and I hoped that I could stave off whatever tortures the Bosses might have in store for him.
It’d been two days since I’d returned with Dave and Andrew and quickly after our arrival, I’d tried departing from the man and hoped he’d drop whatever revenge he believed I could assist him with, but it was to no avail for he attended everywhere with me since our return to Golgotha. Although he’d not been allowed to enter the cells alongside me, he was waiting for me outside as I stepped through the wall men’s office and into the noonday sun; I deftly plucked a pre-rolled cigarette from my pocket and tried at lighting it but before I’d even gotten the chance, he was there at the stoop of the office, pestering, “We should go somewhere quiet,” he said.
“What do you take me for exactly?” I asked while maintaining eye contact with the flame off a match.
“You’re capable enough. You could be a hero. I’d do it with you. We could scrounge up a handful of people and change things. We really could.” Dave was casting sidelong glances at those that passed us in the dirt street just off the stoop, but nary one seemed to care about our conversation.
“Leave it.”
“I won’t.”
I sighed.
He put a hand on my shoulder, but I shrugged it off.
Felina’s was a structure partially built from ancient shipping containers directly in the heart of the hydroponics towers in the center of town; the chicken shit smell from the base of the towers came with nauseating stagnation and could make a passerby sick, but upon entering Felina’s, the smell subsided and was replaced with the smell of body sweat. The older barwoman stood behind the counter and me and Dave took up on the far corner where we sat around an old card table, using crates as chairs; no one else was there—the smell of the hydro towers probably had some hand in that.
Dave took in close to me so that I could feel the moisture off his breath, “I’ve been talking to a few others over at the towers and they feel the same way I feel—but with you—well without you I don’t think I’d want to do it.”
“No, please go on without me,” I slanted my body across the table to push my face away from Dave’s; with me positioned with my back against the wall, I spied Felina beyond the counter, arms across her chest and watching us with an air of suspicion. She came to our table, slowly with her club foot and upon reaching us, she used our table for mild support with her big hands and greeted us without excitement.
Dave asked for water and her gaze shifted to me and I dismissed her, and we were alone till she limped back over with a pitcher and glass and Dave drank it greedily while Felina watched on from beyond the counter—her eyes suspicious but pretty blue too. She kept the haft from a dismembered axe behind the counter and was known to throttle unruly patrons with it.
Although some might have called Felina’s a bar, it was just short of it because of the rarity of spirits—besides, it was the upstairs brothel portion that the establishment owed to its popularity. Anyone might brave the smell from the street for companionship and if the noises from the rusted overhead support beams were anything to measure, the clientele was content indeed. A man descended from the stairs by the bar, gave a brief nod to Felina then to us and disappeared through the front door; a waft of the outside air rushed in, and Dave scrunched his nose.
“It’s a funny thing, I’ve passed by here all the time, but I don’t think I’ve been inside since before—” he paused, “Well, since before anyway.” He took a drink of water and rubbed his palms against his cheeks. “I know someone that works underground and could get us some gunpowder.”
I merely laughed at this. “Gunpowder, huh?”
“Well sure. The Bosses have reserves in the basements. We could blow them sky high.”
“More likely that you’d blow your hands off.”
“What’s it going to take to convince you?”
I thought, “Could you promise no one would die?”
Dave seemed baffled at the question. “Who cares?”
“These things hardly ever happen quietly—or without collateral. How’s this? Could you promise that no innocents get caught in stray fire?”
“Yes.”
“Then you are as ill prepared as I’d imagined.”
“What’s that mean?”
“The meek are intended to inherit, but many will die before all that.”
“What?”
“Nothing. I wish you’d leave it be.”
Another patron stumbled down the stairs, a scrawny tall man with a thin beard came charging into the chamber without clothes and a voice followed him, crying loudly, “Sonofabitch tried choking me!” A pair of arms and legs came stumbling down after—the source of the cries. There was a topless woman, a belt secured around one of her wrists and a pink mark around her throat. The naked man protested and put up his hands as the woman swung the arm with the belt and whipped at him with it, striking across the forearm he’d shielded himself with.
Felina moved carefully from around the counter, raised the haft, then brought it down across the man’s back. He stumbled to his knees, pleading. The barwoman raised the weapon once more and the sound was like wood against wood as it met the man’s head and his body was taken to the ground completely, perhaps dead, perhaps unconscious. The two women lifted the man out the door and Felina spat through the opening. Outside wind came again and Dave scrunched his nose once more before the door shut. The topless woman removed the belt from around her wrist, tossed it to the floor, then secured an arm across her chest before hurrying upstairs.
“So, gunpowder?” I asked Dave.
He nodded and took another drink of water while eyeing Felina as she took herself back to the counter and stowed the makeshift club into whatever place she kept it. “Yeah.”
“Go for it then and leave me out of it.” I fiddled with my thumbs across the table. “I’ll even make you a deal for when you come running to me for help later. If you blow your fingers off, I’ll try and help you find them. How’s about that?”
“I’ll wear you down.”
Another gust of wind came from the far door and I half expected to see the man that’d been removed there in the doorway, standing on his feet and ready for another round of punishment, but there was no one there in the hollow spot; as my gaze drifted from person-face level, I saw a medium sized mutt there in gray fur, pushing the door in with its nose and then sliding the rest of its starved body through—each of its yellowy sad eyes peered in and I could not tell the breed but Dave lifted himself from his seat and Felina went to the dog too.
“No dogs,” stated the woman.
Dave, the indomitable sweetheart that he was knelt to the dog’s face and touched its snout; it licked his hand and Dave said to Felina, “He’s not mine, but have you got some water for him?”
“No dogs inside. I don’t like repeating it.”
“Fair enough,” said Dave, “I don’t know who he—” he froze and then examined the rear of the dog before petting the dog on the head, “She belongs to, but I’ll take her outside. Just. Please some water, won’t you?”
The barwoman first drummed her fingers against her leg then went to the counter and I noticed Dave flinch as she reached under there, but she came back with a bowl and he took it and ushered the dog out; as he exited, he called to me, and I sighed and moved with him.
Remaining in the street was the man that’d been tossed out, face up, half-opened eyes, and flies buzzed about, and I touched him with my foot, but he didn’t move. Blood leaked from his ears. “Dead,” I said.
Dave took the dog from the body around to the side of the building and the feces smell was strong with the hydro towers, but he sat the water down and the dog went at it quickly, without restraint and spilt half before the man went to steady it with his hand; he knelt by the dog and pushed a shoulder against the wall of the brothel.
“There you go,” I told him, “You’ve found someone dumb enough and maybe loyal enough to follow through with your little gunpowder plan. Strap a handful of dynamite to him and watch him go boom in the Boss’s faces.” I genuinely did try it as a joke.
“You can be very mean,” said Dave.
Once the bowl was dry besides dog spit, he returned it to Felina, reentering briefly, and it was just me and the dog and the dog looked up at me and I turned away while its voice whined in the back of its throat and I took a piece of hardtack from my pocket and tossed it on the ground—the dog went after it, assuredly snapping up dirt in the process. Then the creature made a dry and throaty sound from swallowing too quickly, but moments after the thick cracker was gone. It licked my hand gently, and I scratched its chin and Dave returned and upon seeing me with the dog, he gave me a look and then brought himself to the height of the dog in a hunker.
“Hey there,” he said to it, “Someone’s beat you up pretty bad, huh?” It was true; scars stood out in places where the dog had no fur.
In response, the weathered mutt hoisted its forepaws onto his knees and pushed its nose into his.
“Yeah, girl,” he took one of the dog’s ears between his forefinger and thumb and rubbed it gently and the animal looked up, sad eyed, “What’s a good name for you?”
“Dog-meat?” I proposed.
Dave shook his head. “What sort of sick joke is that?” but he was smiling, “No. I’ll come up with something to call her. Isn’t that right?” He asked the dog, massaging the face of the animal with his thumbs; the dog stared dumbly at him. “Maybe a Beth or a Patty might suit you. How do you like them?”
The dog licked his face but couldn’t speak.
“Well,” I said, “It’s a shame it got you, you’ll pick a person name for it and that’s strange. Why not call her Mary if you want a person name?”
“Bah,” said Dave, rising to a full stand; momentarily, even with the other folks passing us in the street, he took a moment to see the dead man we’d passed on our way out of Felina’s and for a moment he remained quiet. “I’ll come to you again Harlan. Maybe when I’ve got more of a plan. I only hope you’ll listen to the stuff I’ve said about it. I really do. I really hope you’ll be on the right side of this thing.”
“Sides are overrated.”
Dave put a hand on my shoulder, “Of course,” he nodded, “Whatever you say.”
He left with his new friend—the dog following him traced from left to right close behind Dave and I watched him take off and around the nearest hydro tower and I was alone on the street and evening wouldn’t be far away, so I took to home while staring at my moving feet and speaking to no one. A few people along the way tried nodding at me or saying a small greeting here or there, but I was absorbed in my own head, and nothing took me from it once I got going. Maybe that was one of the reasons I enjoyed the wastes; there were no pretenses out there and with the constant thought of death there was no other thing to think about than each passing moment. I could not shut my thoughts up. I could ramble more about the motivations of a scavver, but I don’t think I should—leave that for someone that cares.
Upon taking the catwalks where I could look out on a swatch of Golgotha with the sun beating down and the constant hum of people going about their business, I was frozen on the railing and wishing I’d taken my own life and wishing that Dave had not found me out there; maybe if I was faster or smarter or better in whatever way that mattered.
I pushed into the door into my small abode and cool blood pushed through my body on seeing the robed girl there on my mattress, holding a shotgun with its barrel angled directly at me; she donned a flowy mess of dresses and kept her head wrapped in garb so that only her eyes shone through, but her arms stuck from the mess of cloth and I could see they were skinny with long scab marks like a blade had drawn across the flesh.
“Harlan?” asked the girl.
“Is that mine?” I nodded at the pump-shotgun in her hands. The slowness of the world was gone, and I could think again; if things were different, I’d have been a dead man, but it was unloaded, and I knew it.
“It was hanging on the wall—I don’t know how to use the thing anyway. I don’t know what I was doing with it,” she said, “You just scared me, and I didn’t know who you might’ve been.”
“This is my place.”
She laid the shotgun on the bed and unwrapped her face; it was Gemma, “You were with Andrew.”
“I was.”
“You said he was dead.”
I brought in air slowly through my nose. “I did.”
“You lied.”
I nodded, letting the air come out.
“Why?”
“I needed to find you.”
“But you found us both then, I guess.”
“Not on purpose.” A thought occurred to me, “Does you father know where you are right now?”
She shook her head; although rest had done her good, there was still a fair amount of fatigue present on her. “I snuck out.”
“Would’a though you learned your lesson on that front.”
“Is Andrew okay? No one will tell me anything about it.”
“He’s locked up right now, but he is alive. For how long? I don’t know. I figured your pop paid a visit to him already—wouldn’t you know about that?”
She shook her head again. “Woo,” Gemma slumped onto the side of my mattress and gathered the robes around her, “I’m feeling faint.”
I moved to the bed and gathered the shotgun, putting it back on the hooks in the wall. “You shouldn’t break into people’s homes.”
Cupping her brow in a hand so that I could only see her mouth and the bottom of her nose, she said, “I just needed to know he was alive. These past days I’ve been so worried about him. I knew you told me he was dead, but I knew you were a liar too. So, I had bad thoughts about what might’ve happened to him out there. If what happened to me was anything to go off.” Her voice broke for a moment and then she pulled her hand from her face and blinked a few sudden times. “I just.”
“I get it. You love the boy.”
She nodded without looking at me.
“So, beg your dad to let him go.”
“Everyone’s so mad at him. It’s funny that everyone’s so mad at him, but it was my idea, and they all treat me like a darling little flower. Like I couldn’t have been the one with the idea of running away. I had more reason to run than he ever did.”
“You should leave.”
“I don’t want to. Can’t you see that’s what I’ve been saying? Judge all you like. Call me rich all you like, but I can tell you this: I don’t feel like it.” Gemma grabbed the edge of the bed as her head wavered on her shoulders. “Dizzy spells are awful.” She shook her head. “Like no sickness ever.” Her eyes locked on mine. “Help me.”
“I’ve already tried convincing them not to kill him.” Taking a pause, I thought to add, “And I personally saw to his injuries. Please go and leave me be.”
“Oh, but you’ve asked for it,” she said, “You put yourself in the business of it.”
“Look. All’s I wanted was to save you if I could and get the water running again. That’s it. Now go.” I put my arm up to wave her out the door and she stood to make her way there, catching herself on the frame, then out on the catwalk railing before turning and looking at me over her shoulder.
“Bastard.” she said.
“Yes.” The door shut between us, and I took myself to sitting on the bed’s edge and reminiscing over how Dave reminded me so much of Jackson. Jackson was a real tough one; whatever happened he always kept a cool head (so I reckon him and Dave would be different in that way) and the idea of being a hero was so big for him. It’s a curious thought: whether Dave would have such ideas if hadn’t been for the tragic loss of his family.
The shotgun sat on there on the wall, and I took it and looked over it, putting the stock in my left hand then my right and laid it across my legs; the woven strap on it had gone thin so that the place I’d once worn it over my shoulder was mostly threadbare. I moved to the cabinet by the sink where I kept a few essentials and in the very back there was an old box of shells—it was a surprise they still seemed good, but with old ammo you never could tell, and the shells were just as likely to fire true as they might be to never send pellets from the barrel. I took a knife and began whittling into a shell I’d plucked from the box. Pellets spilled between my feet as I sat on the bed and they rolled across the floor and then I found the gunpowder and rose again, sprinkling it onto the cabinet top into a neat pile. Dave said he had a fella’ he knew that worked in the underground—the sort of person that could get him all the gunpowder he needed. Was he familiar with its destructive force; had he ever fired a gun? He promised me no one innocent would die and I knew that was a lie and there’s surely a piece of him that knew it was a lie just as well.
It was just then as I took a forefinger and thumb and pinched up a bit from the gunpowder splat that I remembered a thing that Jackson told me all the time when he thought none of the others were listening. The gunpowder rained from my fingertips as I rubbed them together and I sniffed the place where they’d become sooty, taking in a smell I’d not smelled in a long time. Jackson would say, “Whoever fights monsters should be sure that he don’t become a monster.” It wouldn’t be for a long time—after I’d visited the libraries in Alexandria or Babylon (take your preference)—till I realized it was a quote that Jackson stole from some guy named Neet-chee. It seemed like a good thing to adhere to, and it was certainly something I wasn’t good at keeping with and if I couldn’t then there was little certainty that Dave would keep to it either. Maybe I had become a monster; morally dubious anyway.
Jackson was a hero, and he was dead as was Sibylle as was Billy as was John and all of them. We’d tried heroing and it got all of us dead. Almost all of us.
I hung the shotgun on the wall and left it there and swept the gunpowder into the floor with a flat palm where the pellets were and chucked the box of old shells into the cabinet again.
Ringing of bells came from the hall of the Bosses and it was time for a display. Denizens gathered in the front square by the gates and awaited while they trotted out Andrew; perhaps the words I’d passed to Boss Harold rang hollow after all. The Bosses were there just as always, drinking their wine on the platform, and Maron was out front with his wall men in the semicircle of gathered Golgotha residents. Of the population, only a hundred or two gathered for this poor boy’s execution. The guards had, at some point after my departure, removed the bandage on his empty wrist and he looked more sickly in the face than before and his cheeks were swollen and he wept, seemingly not from the terror of it but from the skin around his eyes having been so damaged; tears came through swelled eyelids and a wall man kept him by the elbow and Maron marched to the boy and lifted the boy’s face with his hand to look into it and maybe he whispered something to him.
I weaved through the crowd, moving to the steps that led to the stage where the Bosses stood with their foods and wines and their plenty and upon approach, I was stopped by a wall men, but upon catching Boss Harold’s eye, he told the guard to let me through and I took the stairs and from the platform, I could see over the crowd—Dave was far in the rear of those gathered, totally disconnected from the others for he hunkered by a set of crates, patting the head of the dog we’d found just earlier in the day. For a moment, I wished I was there with him and not on the stage at all.
“Dear boy!” Boss Harold shouted at me over the excited jeers of the others, “It’s so good to see you again. You are quite the hero, and it’s always good to be in the company of those.”
I nodded at him and within a flash, he’d slammed his cup of wine into my hand, telling me to drink, and only moments passed before his own cup was replaced by a nearby servant. “We spoke about this?” I tried.
His face was red, and I could just make out the miniscule veins vibrant along the corners of his nose; the man was far gone drunk. “That boy’s been a thorn in my side for too long, so I know you understand it when I say that he needs punishment. I took all that you said into account,” his words slurred, and the sweet sick came off him in a breath of hot air when he pulled me in, resting his ear on my shoulder. “Nobody dies today, but ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’,” the Boss paused. “You’re not a father yourself, are you?”
I shook my head.
“Ah! Then you might not be familiar with that proverb required in bringing a child up in this world.” Boss Harold laughed. “I’d never take my sweet Gemma out in the square like this, but God there’s been times I’ve wanted it. ‘Spare the rod’.” He repeated. “But we’ve something a fair bit more interesting than a rod for that boy.” Boss Harold swayed on his feet and took the fist containing his cup of wine, pointing with his index finger at the open place by the wall where Maron and Andrew and the wall men were. “Speaking of!” Boss Harold was giddy, and he took a magnificent gulp from his cup, throwing his head far back. “You’re a learned man, yes?”
“What?”
“You know how to read? Maron said something about your reading. That’s a rare quality! I’d love to talk about books with you sometime. I’ve my own personal collection.”
The wall men stripped Andrew of his clothes then threw them to the ground and a gasp escaped the audience and the boy shouted and Maron moved to a nearby bucket and reached into the mouth of the container, coming back to a full stand; a whip was coiled around his arm. The Bosses didn’t even look on. The punishment was for the benefit of Boss Harold, and not even he looked on. He jabbered on about how he’d like to speak with me over an old philosophy called Objectivism then he went on about how he’d learned long ago the greatest achievement of man was his own happiness and I listened to the drunk man and when the whip broke skin the first time, I’m sure Andrew felt every bit.
Blood exploded in violent dew off his back and the crack of the whip struck the boy till he couldn’t stand and then several times more. Splatter reached onlookers each time Maron lifted the whip over his head, and it was only once the boy stopped moving that the Boss Sheriff swaggered over to inspect him; Andrew had fallen face down and Maron took his boot to the boy’s side so that the boy rolled onto his back and seconds passed without movement and even Boss Harold quit with his talking. The prone body just lay there and for a moment Andrew looked like the body I’d seen earlier out front of Felina’s. Then the boy spasmed and gasped air and Maron shouted about how he was still alive before giving the toe of his boot to Andrew’s ribs.
“What a show,” said the Bosses—what a show indeed.
The crowd dispersed in clumps, taking back to their jobs or leisure and I left the platform only after agreeing that Objectivism sounded good and Boss Harold laughed and stumbled in pivoting to take on in conversation with the other Bosses and I briefly imagined giving him a nudge, so he’d fall off the stage, but refrained from doing so.
When I met the boy lying in the dirt there, there was me and Dave moved in too and Maron had taken to his station where there was a table by sandbags, and he was engrossed in a game of solitaire; it seemed the man was totally unfazed by the justice he’d dealt. There was a time when that body could’ve been a hero and yet there he was, poisoned.
I called out to the Boss Sheriff, “Ain’t you going to put him back to his cell?”
Without even looking over, Maron swept his mustache with his fingers and waved me off, “Harold was real clear on letting the boy out of custody once it was done.” He lifted his cowboy hat and scratched his head while looking at the cards on the table then he laughed. “He’s a free man. I’ve heard that was your meddlin’ that did it.”
I moved to the boy and snatched up the clothes they ripped from him and Dave, not saying a word with his new mutt by his side, helped me to return some dignity to the boy.
We took him to my small apartment and washed him and tended over him while he lay in my bed.
Gemma came soon after Andrew had been draped in a sheet—she was there in disguise as she’d been earlier and upon me opening the doorway, she began to ask me if the boy was with me. I merely stepped aside, and she rushed to Andrew’s side; if he was aware of her presence, there was no way to tell.
“They killed him.” She’d taken to her knees to be nearer his level. “Oh. Oh, he’s dead.” She touched him and he shivered at the touch. Gemma removed the wrappings of cloth around her head and looked at her sweetie closer and she put a hand to her mouth. “They took his hand!”
“No,” said Dave, “He’s going to live.” The man looked to me and I shrugged. “Yeah,” his voice didn’t sound sure, “He’ll live.”
I moved to the catwalk and Dave came with me, the dog following behind him—the timid mutt looked over the edge of the catwalk to the city below then stepped away and returned to my room. When Dave took up beside me, leaning over the railing, and the sun hit his face just so, he looked exactly like Jackson and maybe that was why when he raised eyebrows then cut his eyes at me with a question—the question was everything and I finally nodded.
Previous
RoyalRoad
Neovel
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2023.06.04 05:19 HonoredChain23 Things for Housewives to Do

You just take your time with this stuff. You don’t do them like a checklist of things that need to get done on a deadline. Take your time with it all and enjoy the process of everything and let your mind wander. Relax. No need to overthink things.
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2023.06.03 16:26 westside1931 The Gambino Crime Family - 1963

Me and fellow reddit user Nasabeak have, for the past 7 months, been working on crewing up as many soldiers in the Gambino family during 1963.
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We have received the FOIAs of almost all the family captains, and presented is what we have so far. There may be additions added later, but likely no major progress.
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Administration
Boss: Carlo ‘Don Carlo’ Gambino (61y)
Underboss: Joseph ‘Joe Bandi’ Biondo (66y)
Consigliere: Joseph ‘Staten Island Joe’ Riccobono (69y)
Acting Consigliere: Offered to Joseph Zingaro (51y)
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Capidecina
  1. David ‘Papa Dave’ Amodeo (70y) (Crew totaling ~15 - 20 men) (The Bronx)
Soldiers
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  1. Anthony ‘Tough Tony’ Anastasio (57y) (Crew totaling ~35 men) (Brooklyn)
Soldiers
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  1. Domenico ‘Mike’ Arcuri (77y) (Crew totaling ~20 men) (Manhattan / CT)
Connecticut Crew reported to Arcuri
Soldiers
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  1. Paul Castellano (48y) (Crew totaling ~30 - 35 men) (Brooklyn)
Soldiers
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  1. Joseph ‘Gus’ Colozzo (58y) (Crew totaling ~30 - 35 men) (Brooklyn)
Soldiers
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  1. Pasquale ‘Patsy’ Conte (38y) (Queens)
Soldiers
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  1. Aniello ‘Neil’ Dellacroce (49y) (Crew Totaling ~18 men) (Manhattan / Queens)
Soldiers
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  1. Charles Dongarra (67y) (Crew totaling ~35 men) (Manhattan)
Acting Capodecina: Joseph Gallo (51y)
Soldiers
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  1. Alfred ‘Freddy’ Eppolito (44y) (Crew totaling ~30 men) (Brooklyn)
Soldiers
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  1. Peter ‘Little Pete’ Ferrara (52y) (Crew totaling ~40 men) (Brooklyn / NJ)
Soldiers
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  1. Joseph Gambino (55y) (Brooklyn)
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  1. Olympio ‘Lilo’ Garofalo (59y) (Crew totaling ~10 old men) (Manhattan)
Soldiers
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  1. Arthur Leo (39y) (Crew totaling ~30 men) (East Harlem / Queens)
Soldiers
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  1. Carmine Lombardozzi (50y) (Crew totaling ~40 men) (Brooklyn / Manhattan)
Acting Capodecina: Michael Scandifia (44y)
Acting Capodecina? Joseph Gennaro (55y)
Soldiers
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  1. Angelo Mascia (54y) (Crew totaling ~20 men) (The Bronx)
Soldiers
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  1. Rocco ‘Rogie’ Mazzie (47y) (Crew totaling ~30 men) (The Bronx)
Soldiers
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  1. Luigi ‘Don Luigi’ Morici (67y) (Baltimore)
Soldiers
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  1. Joseph Paterno (40y) (Crew totaling ~35 men) (NJ)
Soldiers
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  1. Frank Perrone (54y) (NJ)
Soldiers
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  1. Gaetano Russo (72y) (Crew totaling ~9 men) (Brooklyn)
Soldiers
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  1. Joseph ‘Joe Rivers’ Silesi (67y) (FL)
Soldiers
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  1. Peter Stincone (66y) (Crew totaling ~10 old men) (Manhattan / Queens)
Soldiers
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  1. Giuseppe Traina (80y) (Crew totaling ~40 men) (Brooklyn / Staten Island)
Soldiers
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  1. Ettore 'Terry’ Zappi (59y) (Crew totaling ~25 men) (Brooklyn)
Soldiers
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  1. Joseph Zingaro (51y) (Crew totaling ~20 men) (The Bronx / Westchester)
Soldiers
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Notes:
Note 1: Mascia identified by Santantonio as Capodecina in January 1963. Later that year identified as soldier under Joseph Zingaro. Probable that Mascia stepped down and was replaced by Sedotto sometime later in 1963.
Soldiers (Crew Unknown)
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Estimated total membership ~400
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Possible Members
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Bonanno (1979) and Lucchese (1983) next
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2023.06.03 10:02 tidderscot Science, technology, engineering and mathematics learning through the lens of Te whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum

Julia Holdom New Zealand Tertiary College

Practitioner Research： Vol 5, No 3 - May 2018

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A personal reflection

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Figure 1: Children at Little Einstein’s Educare in Cambridge lead the design, planning, and execution of the construction of a hut made out of tree branches after recent stormy weather.
When introduced to the acronym STEM (which stood for science, technology, engineering and mathematics) learning in early childhood education (ECE), I was immediately intrigued. Having been a kaiako (teacher) in rural New Zealand and growing up on a dairy farm, natural, hands-on, child-lead, and inquiry-based learning was my passion. It always sat well with me that Te Whāriki: He Whāriki Mātauranga mō ngā Mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early Childhood Curriculum (Te Whāriki) (Ministry of Education [MoE], 2017) backed by decades of research and literature supports a play-based approach to learning in the early years in New Zealand. It did not come as a surprise to me then that STEM learning, a term for the learning areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, a buzz phrase making its way around the international academic world, was something I recognised as intrinsically woven throughout early childhood curriculum and programs in Aotearoa/New Zealand. As a result, I presented on STEM learning in ECE with Fiona Woodgate, at the 2017 New Zealand Tertiary College symposium and have since been speaking with kaiako from different regions in New Zealand to get a broader idea of how STEM learning is integrated into their ECE programs.
Due to a rapidly evolving, complex and technologically advancing society, it is now well recognised that future societies are going to need to be equipped with a range of problem solving and creative thinking dispositions, rather than specific skill sets (Allen, 2016; Smith, 2016; Rodriguez, 2016; Wise Lindeman & McKendry Anderson, 2015). The young children of today need to be involved in real world, contextually relevant learning, in order to support their communities, preparing them for educational opportunities in the future, as well as a wide range of careers that may not currently exist (Allen, 2016; Draper & Wood, 2017). This realisation has resulted in a strong international focus on the concept of STEM learning in today’s varying education settings. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), whilst a relatively new term in the early childhood education sector in New Zealand, is not a new concept. Its focus is to support children in learning problem solving, creative thinking, investigation skills and design, through multi-content curricula (Sharapan, 2012; Boston Children’s Museum, n.d.; Gartrell, 2016).
This reflective article begins to explore the concept of STEM through the lens of Te Whāriki (MoE, 2017). The world renowned curriculum document is well known for its focus on dispositional, play-based learning, and the weaving of multiple curriculum content areas throughout daily and ongoing learning experiences. Te Whāriki (MoE, 2017) not only focuses on skill acquisition, but on dispositions and attitudes that support learning throughout a lifetime. This article presents an explanation of how teachers can support STEM concepts and experiences from ECE settings inAotearoa/New Zealand are shared to provoke thinking and reflection.

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics – An introduction

In ECE, recognising individual aspects of STEM learning can be relatively simple. Children are naturally curious, and begin to explore the world around them from infancy, developing their own working theories about how the world works through the people, places and things that they interact with (MoE, 2017). In this sense, they are natural born scientists, investigating, questioning, exploring, and experimenting. As they explore, they are often confronted with simple scientific and mathematical concepts, such as learning about gravity, force and motion, quantity, number, weight, space, and time through play (Boston Children’s Museum, n.d.; Sharapan, 2012; Hamlin & Wisneski, 2012; Bosse, Jacobs & Anderson, 2009).
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Figure 2: Building a relationship with Papatūānuku (Mother Earth) is seen as an essential aspect of early childhood in Aotearoa/New Zealand, which can lead to increased environmentalism and sustainability in years to come. Children are encouraged to be involved in the care of the natural environment, and here, they are engaged with centre family members in exploring the garden, utilising and leaning valuable STEM concepts in the process.
Working theories are the evolving ideas and understandings that children develop as they use their existing knowledge to try to make sense of new experiences. Children are most likely to generate and refine working theories in learning environments where uncertainty is valued, inquiry is modelled, and making meaning is the goal” (MoE, 2017, p. 23).
Often within children’s play arises the opportunity to use varying tools to support their learning. Utilising tools with a purpose for design or problem solving can be understood as technology (Dietze & Kashin, 2012; Young & Elliot, 2003). Technology in ECE is often viewed by kaiako as digital technology, and the use of information communication technology (ICT) (Wise Lindeman & McKendry Anderson, 2015), however it is imperative to recognise that technology is anything that has been designed for and is used for a purpose, generally being to make a task easier, quicker, or more productive (Young & Elliot, 2003; Fleer & Jane, 2011). In my experience, engineering is perhaps the more challenging notion to identify as part of young children’s learning and development, in part due to some teachers’ lack of content knowledge in this area, but also the complexities of this concept for children in the early years. Much of the literature on STEM learning focuses on engineering for children from preschool age onwards (3+) without mentioning the infant and toddler years. Perhaps this is due to the perception of what design and engineering is for differing ages. Is a toddler not engineering when they are constructing with sand in the sandpit? Is an infant not designing when creating art with finger paints or food on different surfaces during experiences every day?
“The day-to-day programme and environment are organised in such a way that children can initiate purposeful, problem-solving activities and devise and solve problems to their own satisfaction using a variety of materials and equipment” (MoE, 2017, p. 49).
Science is a way of investigating, understanding, and explaining our natural, physical world and the wider universe. It involves generating and testing ideas, gathering evidence – including by making observations, carrying out investigations and modelling, and communicating and debating with others – in order to develop scientific knowledge, understanding, and explanations (MoE, 2007, p. 26).Technology is intervention by design: the use of practical and intellectual resources to develop products and systems (technological outcomes) that expand human possibilities by addressing needs and realising opportunities. Adaptation and innovation are at the heart of technological practice. Quality outcomes result from thinking and practices that are informed, critical, and creative.... Technology is never static. It is influenced by and in turn impacts on the cultural, ethical, environmental, political, and economic conditions of the day (MoE, 2007, p. 26).Engineers design technology using a combination of science and math (Pantoya, Aguirre-Munoz & Hunt, 2015, p. 61). Engineering is solving problems, using a variety of materials, designing and creating, and building things that work (Boston Children’s Museum, 2013, p. 3).Mathematics is the exploration and use of patterns and relationships in quantities, space, and time. Statistics is the exploration and use of patterns and relationships in data. These two disciplines are related but different ways of thinking and of solving problems. Both equip students with effective means for investigating, interpreting, explaining, and making sense of the world in which they live (MoE, 2007, p. 26).
Whilst internationally, the concept of STEM focuses on inquiry and project-based learning, often planned for, facilitated and led by adults, I see this concept being represented in a range of educational settings, woven through a range of pedagogical approaches and philosophies of teaching in New Zealand. In line with the vision of Te Whāriki (MoE, 2017), STEM learning occurs naturally in children’s play, need not be teacher-led or project focused (Gartrell, 2016; Draper & Wood, 2017) and can effectively be supported in a socioculturally relevant context for individual learners and their learning communities (Hamlin & Wisneski, 2012; Moomaw & Davis, 2010; Neill, 2009).
Science, technology, engineering and mathematics learning is important for all children, individually, and within social groups of learners. The common theme within the four STEM concepts, is that they are all content areas that occur naturally through play. When children are natural learners, curious in nature, they do not require adults to give them answers to questions, and do not benefit greatly from this method of teaching (Allen, 2016; Sharapan, 2012). Instead, children develop life-long dispositions of inquiry, curiosity and independent thinking by having inquiry skills scaffolded or modelled to them. Often children embrace the opportunity to investigate for themselves, experimenting, exploring, making mistakes, and using trial and error. In this sense, STEM learning is a way of being, a way of playing and a way of learning (Boston Children’s Museum, n.d.). So where do kaiako fit into STEM learning?
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Figure 3: Through their natural urges, infants and toddlers explore mathematic and scientific concepts through play with the support of their kaiako, as well as through environmental prompts, provocations and play invitations.

The science, technology, engineering and mathematics environment

There are a number of areas worth considering when planning for and facilitating learning in diverse and unique education settings. One of the most obvious in play-based, child-led settings is the physical environment. Those familiar with the Reggio Emilio approach will have heard of the notion of the environment as the third teacher (Delany, 2011) and providing opportunities for child-led learning through the design of and resources available in the child’s physical learning environment. It is imperative that the environment supports STEM learning so that children may engage in STEM learning experiences both independently, as well as with peers and kaiako (Hamlin & Wisneski, 2012). Long gone are the days of including a science, mathematics or technology corner in your classroom or setting (Neill, 2009; Delany, 2011), instead the emphasis is on saturating the environment in resources that encourage authentic, real-world, familiar and culturally relevant ways of exploring. These resources do not need to be expensive and single purpose, and can easily be found in our natural environments. As New Zealand makes more of a move towards environmental sustainability, and eco-schools become more popular (Vincent-Snow, 2017; Enviroschools, n.d.), reusing and recycling materials becomes an exciting way to make the most of what we have available to us, and supports children’s creativity.
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Figure 4: Uninterrupted play allows these tamariki time to work together to create, design, problem solve, and imagine. Here, children in the Tui room of Little Einstein’s Educare have created a structure to protect themselves from the ‘Lava’ beneath.
Another popular move in recent years appears to be the inclination to get out into nature to support real life, hands on learning. Emphasis has been made on preventing a generation of children with Nature Deficit Disorder, a term coined by Richard Louv (2005) in his book Last Child in the Woods. Kaiako and children are venturing out into whatever natural environments they have available to them, such as local parks, reserves or forests to make the most of natural learning that occurs when children are empowered to explore, question, and discover. science, technology, engineering and mathematics learning could not be more evident in these opportunities to explore and build a relationship with Papatūānuku.
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Figure 5: Nature Days are becoming increasingly popular in ECE settings that can accommodate such expeditions. Children are empowered to use a variety of tools to explore, create and design, and developing working theories through the relationship they are building with the natural world around them.

Reflective Prompts

Consider the ECE settings and environments you are familiar with.Does your environment invite exploration? Are there spaces, in which children can taste, touch, smell, listen and look?Are there gardens and natural spaces for children to independently explore nature science, earth science and opportunities for children to play with different matter to build working theories about the natural and physical world?Are there loose parts provided both inside and out for children to construct, build, design, create and begin to develop theories around science and mathematics through size, weight, height, gravity, momentum, trajectory and more?Do you have pen, paper, clipboards, scissors, cameras and other technological tools available to children in different areas that they can easily access and use to document, plan, take notes and draw about their learning and discoveries – inviting engagement in the concept of engineering?
“Children have opportunities to explore how things move and how they can be moved by, for example, blowing, throwing, pushing, pulling, rolling, swinging and sinking. Children have access to technology that enables them to explore movement, for example, wheels, pulleys, magnets and swings. Children have opportunities to develop spatial understandings by fitting things together and taking things apart, rearranging and reshaping objects and materials, seeing things from different spatial viewpoints and using a magnifying glass” (MoE, 2017, p. 49).

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics books

Books are an essential resource for any STEM learning environment (Bosse, Jacobs & Anderson, 2009; Boston Children’s Museum, n.d.). Not only is it important for children to access reference books with correct images and names of items, something Fred Rogers found instrumental in supporting children’s language acquisition and development (Sharapan, 2012), but also fictional and non-fiction story books about people and characters whom are investigators, explorers, inventors, designers and problem solvers themselves (Pantoya, Aguirre-Munoz & Hunt, 2015). Children’s scientific and engineering identities are supported as they explore literature that introduces concepts, dispositions and attitudes children recognise within themselves, and they are able to develop deeper understanding of STEM concepts as they explore these in context through stories, characters and the arts (McLean, Jones & Schaper, 2015; Sackes, Trundle & Flevares, 2009).
In addition to this, Kathy Trundle’s work on inquiry-based learning emphasises the opportunities that arise through purposeful interactions between kaiako, children and books to scaffold children’s inquiry skills.
Fictional children’s books to support STEM learning and identity in the early years:Inventor McGregor by Kathleen T. PelleyThe Grandma McGarvey series by Jenny HessellOh the Things they Invented by Dr SeussRosie Revere, Engineer; and Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beatty and David RobertsAnything is Possible by Giulia Belloni

Risk taking

Wise Lindeman and McKendry Anderson (2015) emphasise that children need real-world experience and real-world problems in order to have a chance at developing solutions to these. Pawlina and Stanford ( as cited in Wise Lindeman & McKendry Anderson, 2015) add that educators must view mistakes as opportunities to grow children’s brains. Here, teachers must consider both physical risk taking, as well as emotional and mental risk taking. In today’s society, maintaining the physical health and safety of the children in our care settings seems to have counterbalanced the human need to take risks in order to learn. Kaiako are finding themselves challenged beyond comfort when it comes to children’s safety, and the balance between safe and calculated risks, children learning from experience, and adults protecting children from physical injury is out of sync. However, research shows that children need these experiences to learn for themselves, and that without these risk-taking experiences, children will not be adequately prepared for challenges they will face in the future, both physically and mentally (Brynes-Swiatek, 2017; Curtis, 2010; Gramling, 2010; Warden, 2010). When it comes to emotional and mental risk taking, we must consider how we are supporting children to try new things, supporting them to push themselves out of their comfort zones, and risk making mistakes and being wrong, all whilst remaining confident that their holistic wellbeing needs are being met to maintain a safe learning environment.
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Figure 6: When the tolerance for risk is zero, children don’t really risk loss of life or limb, but more often than not, they risk losing valuable experiences with the world they inhabit. (Gramling, 2010, p. 51).
Te Whāriki (MoE, 2017) supports this through its sociocultural approach to learning, outlining the need for children to learn in culturally and socially relevant contexts. In addition to this, aspects of dispositional learning such as perseverance, persisting with difficulty, and facing challenges or uncertainty (MoE, 2017), are outlined as important for life-long learning. Risk taking is highlighted as a desirable learning outcome throughout the Exploration strand of Te Whāriki (MoE, 2017), particularly for toddlers and young children. Risk taking, mistakes, failure, trial and error are all significantly important in STEM learning and developing perseverance, inquiry skills, attitudes towards exploration and creative thinking.

Reflective Questions

Does your learning environment, both material and otherwise, provide opportunities for children to take risks physically, cognitively and emotionally?Are children encouraged and supported to experiment, to trial, to make mistakes, to fail or succeed, and to revisit their learning?Do your environments allow for independent and group creative thinking and problem solving?

Time

Providing children with not only the space and resources needed for exploration and enquiry learning, but the time to discover at their own pace, and the opportunity to document or revisit their learning is crucial. Gifting children the time to figure things out for themselves, without interrupting their learning with a quick answer, supports an attitude and disposition towards creative thinking and problem solving. Dr. Emmi Pikler (as cited in Christie, 2012) emphasised the importance of slowing down one’s practice and interactions to deeply engage with the children during interactions. Toni Christie (2012) states that the practice of taking adequate time deepens teachers’ awareness and knowledge of each child. The same concept can be applied to children’s interactions with the world around them. Can giving children the time to explore, think and discover deepen their awareness and knowledge of the world around them, teaching them more about science, mathematics, engineering and technology in real-world, contextually relevant and authentic ways?
“The learning outcomes in each strand are broad statements that encompass valued knowledge, skills, attitudes and dispositions that children develop over time” (MoE, 2017, p. 22).
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Figure 7: Hands on Science in action! Many New Zealand ECE settings are making a move to embrace children’s natural inclination to get messy during their exploratory play. Science occurs in many forms, why not through mud and water play?
In addition to giving children the time needed to learn, do teachers support children to stay on task and be focused on the interest they have taken, or do they interrupt this learning with routines? In Carr and Lee’s (2011) research on children’s learning wisdom, they highlight the importance of teachers adopting strategies to support children to revisit their learning. One strategy suggested is that “Teachers can document the changes in children’s understanding” (Fleer, 2008 as cited in Hamlin & Wisneski, 2012, p. 85). This allows children to deepen their engagement, and develop an openness to experiences and a capacity to reflect, in order to make sense of their learning.
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Figure 8: Working together as a team to solve problems, think creatively and develop theories about how things work. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics all evident through child initiated play experiences.
Reflective Questions:Are children gifted the time needed to explore, design, create and learn in uninterrupted environments?Do the routines of the day disrupt this learning or do they support busy learners to continue their work?Are children given the tools and strategies required to support them to document and revisit their learning? Are kaiako skilled in the art of observation, knowing when to step in, and when to step back?Are kaiako gifted the time to support children’s learning in this way, or are they too busy with the organisational tasks of the day?Do teacher - child ratios support quality STEM interactions?

Purposeful, intentional teaching

Once we have decided as kaiako whether we should step back to observe, or step in to add value to the child’s learning experience, the responses we provide must consist of high quality, purposeful, thoughtful interactions with children (MoE, 2017). In these moments, teachers need to be highly sensitive and aware of what the child needs from them – more often than not, it is not an answer they need, but stimulating investigation habits and behaviours being modelled to them (Sharapan, 2012). Kaiako must embrace opportunities to model moments of wonder, using questions that may prompt curiosity within children, and the opportunity to co-construct ideas and working theories in collaborative settings (Allen, 2016; Boston Children’s Museum, n.d.; Sharapan, 2012).
The key to these experiences is not to make the mistake of answering children’s questions with an answer, but to provide intentional, open-ended questions and comments that get the children thinking (Boston Children’s Museum, n.d.; Sharapan, 2012). Equally as important, is the need to model and introduce the use of varying tools to support their enquiry, so that they may seek their own answers independently in future.
Modelling STEM language is crucial to a child’s ability to learn STEM enquiry and thinking themselves. In addition to questions, modelling scientific, mathematical and investigative language is important to support children’s inclination to develop their own working theories. Supporting children by modelling language, describing using scientific, mathematical and technological words will give them the tools to use to do the same in future experiences. This will also normalise STEM concepts and learning for children (Sharapan, 2012).
It is important to support children’s scientific enquiry in new ways too – perhaps in ways they had not thought of themselves. This is where we are scaffolding their learning, in that they are learning new ideas and knowledge in a social situation from others. Part of STEM learning is how children understand investigative thinking and processes. Imperative to science, engineering and design are STEM process skills (Neill, 2009). The Ministry of Education supports this by adding that children should have opportunities to demonstrate “curiosity and the ability to enquire into, research, explore, generate and modify working theories about the natural, social, physical, spiritual and man-made worlds… [and the] ability to represent [these] discoveries using expressive media, including digital media” (2017, p. 47).
“Kaiako are the key resource in any ECE service. Their primary responsibility is to facilitate children’s learning and development through thoughtful and intentional pedagogy. This means they require a wide range of capabilities [including being] knowledgeable about play-based curriculum and pedagogy and able to conceptualise, plan and enact curriculum that is motivating, enjoyable and accessible for all children, [and] able to integrate domain knowledge (for example science and arts knowledge) into the curriculum” (MoE, 2017, p. 59).

Conclusion

The rapidly changing world that we live in, is providing us with many new and exciting technologies that make our lives easier, more enjoyable, and enable quick access to new information at a rate never seen before. However, with these new and exciting changes, also come challenges for children’s natural, enquiry learning. More and more ECE centres, particularly in city environments are designing spaces with little-to-no large open natural spaces for children in the outdoors, and are resorting to man-made environments of turf, concrete and other year-round, all-weather materials to support indoooutdoor play. Does this mean that these children miss out on the opportunity to learn natural science? Or can nature be woven through the environment and program in other ways? Children are also more inclined to want to be engaged with digital media, as their parents and society are modelling the use of these in everyday interactions. Is this cause for concern in the ECE setting, or can children be empowered to use technology in constructive ways? Are kaiako equipped with the understanding of STEM learning and child development that they need to support life-long learning dispositions of enquiry, problem solving, risk taking and perseverance, or are current pedagogies failing tamariki (children)? As learning and information consumption grows exponentially to the highest it has even been, it is now more than ever that children need teachers to be the facilitators of learning, the models of curiosity, the inspiration to learn, explore, discover, think, design and to be leaders of the future. Dispositions, rather than skills, are what tamariki need to succeed in the future. A final question for reflection therefore asks are educators preparing tamariki adequately for life-long success?

Acknowledgement

Special thanks to Jo, Jade and the entire learning community at Little Einstein’s Educare Ltd in Cambridge for giving permission to publish their inspirational photographs, and shared understanding of STEM learning in action. Special thanks also to Catherine at Hobsonville Point ELC, and Jen at Changepoint ELC, Tauranga for your wisdom and input on STEM learning in your ECE learning communities.
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2023.06.03 03:22 Complex_Violinist808 About to turn 19 and looking for my first job. Which route should I take to get started?

So I’ve been home for a few years and I’m kind of afraid of having a job. I’m very reserved and the idea of bussing tables or working a register absolutely TERRIFIES ME. I’ve basically been self employed as I’m a creative and I sell my craft from time to time. I finally found a job I’m interested, its in the farming field and involves working with chickens. I have 0 experience or training in this industry (and I droppped out so I don’t even have a diploma) my question is, should I even bother applying? The job doesn’t seem to require any qualifications for applying.
Im in a position that I can volunteer time to a local ranch down the road and learn about taking care of all sorts of livestock, possibly get my resume started, and decide if I actually enjoy working with farm animals. So should I do some volunteer work before considering this job or jump in and apply?
I also have a busy month ahead of me in which case I’ll wait before making a move. Reddit pls do your thing, I’m young and I want to get some life experience under my belt
submitted by Complex_Violinist808 to careeradvice [link] [comments]

2023.06.02 23:49 AkaneaTenryu [GILGAMESH] [FC] [LFM] [CASUAL] Gobbiebag Treasures looking to make friends!

Check out our Recruitment video ----- https://youtu.be/A\_XtiPdNt-s
Who we are:
We’re a ragtag group of people who all come from a variety of backgrounds & have a variety of careers, family lives, and hobbies! Having fun and being casual/social is what we pride ourselves for and that’s just how we play. Some of us have met through FF14 and may or may not have previous MMO experience.
What we’re about:
We enjoy running old content whether it’s for mounts, achievements, titles, or just for clears. We’re currently actively running Treasure Maps every Friday and EX Mount farms on Saturdays! We have other events we do as well, such as Glam contests, Hide & Seek, and Blue Mage spell farms/leveling. We love helping new and returning players catch up and get to the good stuff! When someone gets that mount that’s been eluding them or just having some other nice people to help speed along your duty finder queues, that’s what we enjoy! We’re also couple friendly, with a lot of couples regularly playing together! We have a few groups waiting for the next Savage Tier, but that is not a focus of the FC as a whole. ^^b Furthermore, we don’t always want to play FF14 do we?! Well some do. The point is we also play other games! Xbox, PS5, Switch, and PC friendly! Always looking for more ways to interact with one another! Golf With Friends, Phasmophobia, Among Us, 7 Days to Die, and Mario Kart are some games we play on the side!
FC Features:
The FC currently has a Medium sized house located in the 3rd Ward of The Mists, plot 60. Right on the beach and close to the markets and summoning bells! Several of our members have even purchased their own personal housing down the street from the main FC! We are Rank 30 and have 4 submarines. We have gardens available for use (upon request) and of course chocobo stables for your favorite chickens! We supply glamour prisms, dyes, chocobo foddedye as well to our members if needed. We will also craft gear for you on request if you need help gearing up a job or just trying to reach that next ilevel for a dungeon! We have FC buffs up 24/7 and they are usually EXP and Teleport Rates. We always have the FC decked out in the most recent holiday decorations and always looking for feedback and assistance/recommendations to how the house should look and be decorated.
What we’re looking for:
We love meeting new people and have met some great people throughout our history, going back to 2013 when we formed. We would like to find active players to populate our FC and Discord with. With 6.4 right around the corner, there is a lull in activity, so we're hoping for some new social members! Life happens and people have to take breaks., that’s fine, we all have our responsibilities. Nobody will be kicked because of life! We’re most active during evenings and late nights during the week. Our weekly events start at 5pm PST / 8pm EST and usually run around 2 hours. FC members come from all time zones, PST, EST, even a few in Europe and Japan! Also looking for those who want to help build a more fun and social community! Anyone interested in helping organise events and prizes, please apply and drop me a message!
How to apply:
Firstly, you do it in game! If you see a member with the tag, just apply through them! You could also check the Party Finder (occasionally) and Fellowship Finder. Our Fellowship is reposted frequently, but remember, we’re a Gilgamesh Free Company! Lots of love from other servers, but you can’t join unless you’re on Gilgamesh! :D We can still be friends though, no worries! You could also find one of our officers:
Akanea Tenryu
Exodius King
Vivi Zerusa
Finally, you can drop me a message through Reddit or via Discord if you’re checking this out at work or while doing something else away from game! My tag on there is Akanea#9251 or look for Omega#7610. Hope to hear from everyone soon! :D
submitted by AkaneaTenryu to FFXIVRECRUITMENT [link] [comments]

2023.06.02 20:56 LIS1050010 Guide: How to Grow Your Own Food

For all of human history, people have managed to feed themselves, either by fishing, hunting, gathering, or subsistence farming. Nowadays, we can simply head to the grocery store to buy our meals. However, growing your own food is both rewarding and money-saving. If you’d like to grow your own food, make sure you research the climate in your region, create rows for your crops, and harvest when your food is ripe to enjoy the food from your garden.
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Growing Food in Your Climate

Grow most leafy greens and vegetables during a warm summer. If you have temperatures above 75 °F (24 °C) during the summer, plant your vegetable crops in May or June. Make sure they are planted after the threat of frost is over.
Tip: Legumes do well in a temperate rainforest and are a great source of protein.
Plant fruit in the early spring in a moderate climate. Most fruit, like apples, oranges, lemons, and limes can be grown on trees in a 12,000 square feet (1,100 m2) area. Start with planting a fruit tree in a pot to monitor the soil and water intake, and then transfer it to the ground after 1 year during the early spring. Most fruit trees will not start bearing fruit until they are 2 to 3 years old.
Grow winter grains in a cold, wet climate. If you live in an area that gets below freezing and has a lot of precipitation, plant grains like rye. Rye is able to withstand the cold temperatures and the heavy rainfall that will happen in many areas of the world. Plant your rye in the early fall before the first frost hits.
Farm summer grains in a warm, moderate climate. Summer grains, like corn, do best during warm weather. If your summers get hot, plant corn in May or June and let it grow over the summer months. Corn does especially well in the midwest area of the United States.
Let root vegetables mature during the fall. Potatoes, beets, radishes, and other vegetables that grow underground prefer to grow during the colder months. Plant root vegetables in July or August to prepare for a fall harvest. You can grow these even if the threat of frost is near, since they are hearty enough to withstand it.
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Planting Crops

Make sure your soil pH is between 5.5 and 7.0. Test the pH of your soil by using a test probe or paper strips to determine the acidity or alkalinity of your soil. Most food grows at a pH of 5.5 and 7.0. If your soil is below 5.5, add dolomite, a type of crushed mineral, to make it more basic. If it is higher than 7.0, use pine needles or peat moss to make it more acidic.
Break the ground with a plow or a tiller. Clear away any large stones, roots and limbs, heavy accumulation of vegetation, and other debris before tilling. Use a rototiller or a plow to disrupt your soil and turn over the top layer. This will make the nutrients in your soil more readily available and allow the top layer of soil to refresh itself.
Tip: On a small plot of land, you can use a pick, shovel, and hoe to till your land instead.
Lay rows with a hoe or a plow. Mark out the area you intend to plant. Use a hoe or plow to create a slightly raised bed in the loose soil in a line across the length of the plot. Next, make a shallow groove cut in the soil with your rototiller and a furrow attachment. Do this until your growing area is covered in rows.
Place your seeds in the furrows at the depth they require. The depth of planting may vary according to your choice of plants. Check on the back of your seed packet to find out the best depth for your plant. Make a small hole with your fingers and place 2 to 3 seeds in each hole.
Cover the seeds in soil and gently pack down the dirt. This will prevent the seed bed from drying out in the sun. Use the palm of your hand to press down on top of the seeds you planted. Make sure they are covered all the way so they don’t get eaten by animals. Continue this process until you have the number of rows you planned on planting.
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Managing and Harvesting Your Crops

Water your garden every day during the summer. The sun can dry out and kill your crops if they do not have enough water to replenish themselves. Use a garden hose or a sprinkler system to water your crops thoroughly every day from May to September. If the temperature reaches above 90 °F (32 °C), water your crops twice a day.
Weed your garden if it is getting overrun. Because you are planting this crop in rows, you will be able to walk the center area between rows. Remove any weeds by hand that sprout up during your growing season. Make sure you get the root of the weed when you pull it so that it doesn’t grow back.
Deter pests with fences and natural sprays. If you see leaves that have been eaten, it could be a sign of insects or vermin. Use a chicken-wire fence to keep out small animals like mice and rabbits. Remove and kill insects as you find them, or use a natural deterrent like peppermint oil to keep pests away.
Tip: Make a peppermint spray by combining 2 drops of peppermint essential oil and 1 gallon (3,800 mL) of water. Mist the leaves of your crops once a day to keep common insects away.
Harvest your crops when they are ripe. Many common garden vegetables are harvested as they become ripe, and continue to produce throughout the growing season with proper care. Grains, on the other hand, are most often harvested when they are fully ripened and dry on the plant. Use sharp, clean gardening tools to pick or cut your crops so you don’t damage the plants.
Preserve your food if you can’t eat it all. If you have grown grains, use barns which will keep your stored harvest dry and safe from insects and vermin. A combination of storage and preservation methods are the best way to reduce food waste. Drying, canning, freezing, and bedding are all viable options for storing food.
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Article Source
submitted by LIS1050010 to selfreliance [link] [comments]

2023.06.02 12:14 JSykezz Me and my partner are starting the carnivore diet. Have access to a farm and just have a few questions :)

Hey everyone! Me and my partner are looking to start the carnivore diet obviously lol
We’re doing as much research as possible and have spoken to family and friends who are doing the diet or a similar one, animal based etc. so don’t want to sound silly in the questions we’re asking.
There’s just a couple of things wanted to ask before we started to make sure we understand the parts that aren’t making full sense to us right now so all the help would be amazing!
My questions are:
  1. Im very lucky that my family own a small holding farm so I have access to this. I can get access to beef, pork, chicken, lamb and eggs. All organs and bones too. Which of these are the best to be consuming the most of and daily?
  2. I currently drink 4 UK pints of water a day. Would this change? Or is it just as much as you feel you should drink?
  3. I don’t think this question is relevant but I saw something about fasting? Is that something we need to do or do we just eat when hungry and don’t when not?
  4. Are there different salt types we should have, like a selection? And use them throughout the day?
  5. I’ve noticed people saying that the meat should be as fatty as possible and that some people feel lethargic sometimes and that’s due to not eating enough fat. If this is the case, should we be eating as much fat as possible during meals?
  6. When frying the meat, I’ve seen some people say to add fat in after cooking, even if the meat is cooked in butter or tallow, is this always necessary?
  7. I’ve seen things about histamines when cooking, is this to be avoided and if so how do you do so?
  8. Last question. Is there any difference in using salted or unsalted butter, other than the salt obviously lol as will be adding it either way?
Thank you so much for reading this, I apologise if these questions sound silly, we just really want to learn and know as much as we can! Thank you all so much in advance!
submitted by JSykezz to carnivore [link] [comments]

2023.06.01 23:18 RainbowSupernova8196 Hell's Kitchen Season 12, Episode 2

Recap of last episode
Theme Song Plays
Deliberations: Akira is shaken up about her almost-elimination. The Red Team is discussing their horrendous service and plan to bounce back. Dylan makes enemies in the dorms by making the service win all about him, despite having an alright service.
Challenge: The chefs are awoken by the sound of mooing cows over the intercom. After going downstairs, they are driven to a barn with a pen full of cows. The chefs are initially led to believe they have to cut up the cows, but Gordon informs them of the Challenge. They have to chase cows with names of ingredients, and a certain cut of beef painted on them around and they have to come up with a dish containing those ingredients. They are brought back to Hell's Kitchen, and cook their dishes. 16 dishes, 8 from each team will be judged.
First Pairing: Akira and Dylan.
Akira scores. 1-0 Red Team.
Second Pairing: Trish and Bryce.
Bryce scores. 1-1 tie.
Third Pairing: Lauryn and Glenn.
Glenn scores. 2-1 Blue Team.
Fourth Pairing: Maddie and Tyrone.
Neither score. 2-1 Blue Team.
Fifth Pairing: Kelsie and James.
Kelsie scores. 2-2 tie.
Sixth Pairing: Martina and Don.
Martina scores. Red Team win 3-2.
Reward: The Red Team are taken to San Francisco and go to a vineyard for wine tasting.
Punishment: The Blue Team are brought back to the farm to bathe the cows and clean the cowpen.
Before service: Both teams prep the kitchen.
During service: Martina's challenge-winning dish is served tableside by Bella and Tyrone. Bella did a good job on tableside, while Tyrone literally forgot his first table and dropped some of the garnish. In the kitchens, the Blue Team gets off to a bad start, with James serving raw shrimp, Dylan burning the risotto, and Tyrone starting a fire by accident. By a miracle, they made it to entrées 27 minutes in. The Red Team had an amazing start, with Lauryn putting out a perfect risotto, Kelsie beautifully cooking the scallops, and Trish finding her voice. They made it to entrées 13 minutes in. The Blue Team would struggle horrendously the rest of the night, getting kicked out after Don served a raw chicken. The Red Team would struggle as well, with Martina destroying the garnish, and Akira ruining the meat, and getting the Red Team kicked out as well. Gordon reminds both teams that they lost and needed to discuss nominees. The Red Team, with Lauryn as the announcer, nominated Maddie for underperforming on the Appetizers, and Akira for the disaster on Meat. The Blue Team, with Glenn as the announcer, nominated Don for the raw chicken, and Maurice, for a crap performance on Fish. Gordon sent Akira and Don back in line, believing both could fight back, calling up James as well. Maurice was eliminated and was mad at his team for "backstabbing him" and said he was rooting against them from now on.
Gordon's comment: "Mo Maurice, Mo Problems. I was glad to let him go."
submitted by RainbowSupernova8196 to HellsKitchen [link] [comments]

2023.06.01 22:09 clearliquidclearjar TALLAHASSEE WEEKLY EVENTS, 6/1 – 6/7

Events are listed by the day. Events that happen every week appear first, one time stuff after that. If you have anything you’d like people to know about, comment here or message me and I’ll add it in. If you’d like further info about any of the events, look it up! I usually don’t have any extra to add.
Large Scale, Ongoing, and Multi-Day Events
Local Running, Walking, and Biking Info: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/
OutdooFarmer’s Markets:
THURSDAY, 6/1
  • Blue Tavern: Bluegrass Jam with Dennis Hardin. 5pm
  • Blue Tavern: Wasted Potential Brass Band. 8pm
  • House of Music: Steeln’ Peaches: The Music of the Allman Brothers Band. 8pm
FRIDAY, 6/2
  • Lake Tribe: Flannel Friday. Flannel Fridays will be featuring a wide range of fall themed 'Pop-up' activities such as food trucks, live music, campfires, s'mores roasting, new seasonal brews, and more! Come dawn your flannel and cozy up to the simpler things in life. Our beers taste like the outdoors feel, let our tasting room be your Friday cabin retreat. 4pm
  • Gamescape: MTG Friday Night Magic. FORMAT: Standard Constructed. Swiss rounds as determined by the number of players with a maximum of 5 rounds. 7pm/$5
  • Hobbit West: Friday Night Dart Tournament. Anyone can Enter! Sign ups at 7:30, Darts fly at 8:00/$10 entry fee
  • Ouzts Too: Karaoke with DJ Nathan. Best karaoke DJ in town. 8pm
  • Club Downunder: CDU X Hip Hop Club Presents Freestyle Friday. Show off your freestyle rap or poetry skills at Freestyle Friday! Doors are at 7:30 with the show starting at 8:00 in Club Downunder! Send an email to [email protected] to sign up! 8pm
  • The Bar at La Casa: Karaoke with DJ FUSION. 9pm
  • Just One More: Karaoke with DJ Rah. 9pm-11pm/21+
  • 926: The Hot Friday Night Party and Drag Show. 9pm/$5/18+
  • Pixels and Pigments: First Friday PRIDE. 2pm
  • Blue Tavern: Everett Young. 5pm
  • Pedro’s: Billy Rigsby. 5:30pm
  • Square Mug: Jordie Hendrix. 6pm
  • Common Ground Books: Artist Workshop Series June Crochet Workshop. * Join us as we crochet the night away! Friday June 2, 2023 from 6-8pm for our Monthly Crochet Workshop taught by Peter's Crochet Array! Beginner and intermediate crocheters welcome. No crochet knowledge is needed before attending this class. Space is limited. All ages welcome. All participants will need a crochet hook (between size 4-6mm) and a skein of yarn. Participants can bring their own supplies, or we will be happy to provide them at cost. Space is limited. Make sure to sign up on our website to save your spot!* 6pm/$20 per person, (Optional) Supply fee: $8.00
  • The Plant: Maker’s Market featuring local artists selling handmade items and live music by Bad Weather, High Speed Suicide, Speed Runner, ArsonGender, and Computer Man. 6:30pm
  • Lake Tribe: Jonathan Reid Project. 6:30pm
  • Ology Midtown: Kanise featuring Facey. 7pm
  • Mickee Faust Club: First Friday Queer As Faust Kickoff. Bring your Pride to First Friday at Railroad Square's Art Walk. We'll be kicking off our month-long festival of Queer events, culminating in our 16th annual Queer As Faust Cabaret live show. While you enjoy the many shops and events Railroad Square Art Park has to offer, be sure to stop by our theater for some fun and festive activities including community art canvas, kids bubble zone, and music by our house band, Rodentia Preharmonium! 7pm
  • Oyster City Brewing Co: Brett Wellman and the Stone Cold Blues Band! 7pm
  • Island Wings: Lee C Payton performs a tribute to Kathryn Belle Long. 7pm
  • The Wine House on Market Street: Midnight Caravan. 7pm
  • Fire Bettys: Groove Merchants. 8pm/21+
  • Duke’s and Dottie’s: Jared Walker. 8pm
  • Barrel Proof: Kade Williamson. 8pm
  • The Bark: Saturnalia, Gangs of Paris, Headfoam, and Wojtek. 8pm
SATURDAY, 6/3
  • Brinkley Glen Park: Invasive Plant Removal. Join Master Gardener Volunteers at this weekly invasive plant removal event. This is a great way to learn to ID our invasive plant species and how to remove them. We recommend wearing long pants and sleeves, closed-toed shoes, gloves, a hat and mosquito spray. Bring gardening tools such as hand clippers, loppers, trowels, etc. if you have them. We are removing coral ardisia bushes and berries, nandina, tung trees, Tradescantia flumenensis, cat's claw vine, winged yam, Japanese climbing fern, skunkvine and more. Directions: The best way to get there is to take Meridian Rd to Waverly Rd, go to the next intersection and turn left onto Abbotsford Way, then turn left at the next road called Woodside Dr. At the stop sign turn left onto Lothian. Lothian ends in a cul-de-sac and there is a sign that says Brinkley Glen Park. 8:30am-11:30am
  • The Rose Room: The Rose Revue. Performances by your favorite entertainers and special guests! Shows at 8pm, 10pm, & Midnight! A unique cast EACH show! 7pm
  • Duke’s and Dottie’s: Line Dancing Plus Lessons. 7pm/21+
  • Bird’s Oyster Shack: Laughterday Night Fever. This week: Five Year Anniversary Laughterday Night Fever! Join us every Saturday at Bird's Aphrodisiac Oyster Shack for a free comedy show! 8:30pm
  • La Casa Bar: Karaoke With Nathan. 9pm-1am
  • The Bark: Sickening Saturday Drag Show. 10:30/$10/18+
  • Civic Center: Leon County Press the Chest. The annual Press the Chest community CPR training event is back on Saturday, June 3! Hosted by Leon County EMS, people of all ages are invited to learn the lifesaving skills of adult hands-only CPR, child CPR with breaths, adult and child choking relief, and AED awareness. Each participant will receive an American Heart Association CPR Anytime Kit containing a CPR manikin, DVD, and educational materials. Participants can take these personal CPR kits home to train family and friends. Register and learn to save lives at LeonCountyFL.gov/PressTheChest. 10am
  • Midtown Reader: Donut Day Kidtown. Celebrate National Donut Day with us! We will be reading a fun donut-themed story and decorating donut holes! 11am
  • Big D BBQ: Tally Bounce Fest. 11am/ages 12 and under to bounce
  • Ology Powermill: Smoke Fest 2023. It’s going be a good time with BBQ, Cigars, Live Music, and Outdoor Festivities. We can’t wait to see everyone! Noon to close
  • Mickee Faust Club: Basics of Burlesque Workshop. Join Sally B. Dash for a 75-minute workshop where you will learn a classic strip-tease routine with various options to make it your own! No previous dance or burlesque experience is necessary to have a great time! What to Bring: 1. A Button up shirt, robe, or another garment that opens from the front. 2. Wear clothing that you can move in but that also makes you feel good. 3. Wear shoes that will securely stay on your feet, heels if you want! Sally B. Dash is Florida’s Countess of Caricature, bringing her brand of funny to the fine art of striptease! A bawdy, boobalicious burlesquer, she has been tickling Gainesville’s fancy (and funny bone!) since 2013. 2pm/18+
  • Rising Om Yoga: Emo Yoga Flow. 3:15pm/$20
  • Midtown Reader: MEET AND GREET: Anne P. DePrince w/ Every 90 Seconds. 3:30pm
  • Blue Tavern: First Saturday Swim with Bluegill Bill. 5pm
  • Tally Print Studio (225 E Pershing St): Grand Opening featuring local printmakers, food vendors, live screen printing, clothing swap, and live music from DJ Enigumatic, Danitza, Rachel Hillman, and Sleep John B. 5pm-10pm
  • Common Ground Books: Perfectly Queer- Interview and Q&A with Author Jillian Abby. 6:30pm
  • Oyster City Brewing Co: Mechanical Lincoln. 7pm
  • The Bark: Boy Named Sue, Teens In Trouble, and Copyright Claim. 7:30pm
  • Square Mug: Suddenly, Bench Warmer, and Sarah Morrison. 8pm
  • Mickee Faust Club: Queerlesque. Weirdos unite for an unforgettable evening of burlesque entertainment featuring an all-star cast from around the state! 8pm/18+
  • Blue Tavern: Prine Time: Local Songwriters cover the music of John Prine. 8pm
  • House of Music: The Funky ‘Taters featuring Lili Forbes and friends. 8pm
  • Fire Bettys: Pop Punk & Emo Night. 10pm/$10
SUNDAY, 6/4
  • Bicycle House: Sunday Ride. Ride at 10:30 AM from Bicycle House. We will ride the Cascades trail to the St Marks trail and down to Wakulla station and return, about 31 miles. Ride speed is 12 to 14 mph, with periodic regroups. Vernon Bailey is the ride leader. Vernon is a new CCC member who’s been biking for 50 years enjoys riding with small groups and weekend touring. 10am
  • Gamescape: Pokémon League. Come learn, play, and trade with the Pokémon Trading Card Game and the Pokémon video games! We LOVE seeing new players, so come learn how to play! We play both the Trading Card Game and the Video Game casually and competitively. The store offers lots of different seating arrangements to meet our group's needs, as well as food, drinks, and Pokémon products for purchase. We are also hold regular, officially sanctioned tournaments for Pokémon Trading Card Game and Video Game Competitions! 2-4pm
  • Lake Tribe: Colby Scheib. 3pm
  • House of Music: Songwriter Sunday. Songwriters of Tallahassee hosted by Rachel Hillman. Bring your original songs on Sunday - sign up is at 4:30. No Cover Songs please - this is an event celebrating original music. Accompanists and Bands Welcome - you must be able to set up within two minutes, so no crazy pedals or amp shenanigans. No Backing Tracks - Please find someone to play your song with you. 5pm
  • The Plant: Open Jam. All instruments, all players welcome. 5pm-9pm
  • House of Music: Perkins Street Pickers. 5pm
  • Oyster City Brewing: Comedy Night. Come have some laughs with us on Sunday nights! If you are interested in participating in the show, reach out to [email protected] 7:30pm
  • The Rose Room: Synful Sunday. 8pm
  • Common Ground Books: Clothing Swap. Clothing Swap! This event will take place the first Sunday of every month (unless otherwise noted). Bring your clothes you no longer want, fit, or no longer feel like "you", and switch them out or just donate them to others. Clothing for all ages welcome. Please bring clothes in a bin or box so they can be easily browsed. Any clothing left will be considered a donation and held for the next swap or be made available for those in need. 2pm
  • Red Shed: First Sunday Blues Jam. 3pm
MONDAY, 6/5
  • Just One More: Bingo. 5pm-6:30pm
  • American Legion Hall: Cha Cha - Weekly Lessons. 6:15pm/$5
  • Hangar 38: Bingo. 6:45pm
  • Vino Beano: Tipsy Trivia. 7pm
  • The Rose Room: Karaoke Night. 8pm
  • Oyster City Brewing: The Bachelor Watch Party! 8pm
TUESDAY, 6/6
  • Blue Tavern: Happy Hour with Paddy League. 5pm
  • World of Beer: Poker Night. 6pm
  • The Rose Room: Drag Bingo and Open Stage Night ft. Britney T. Foxx! 6pm
  • Crafty Crab: BOOMIN' Karaoke. 7pm
  • Ology Midtown: Jazz Jam Sessions. 7pm
  • Island Wings: Trivia. 7pm
  • House of Music: Tuesday Trivia & Karaoke. 7pm
  • Burrito Boarder: Karaoke with DJ Roldus. 8pm
  • Blue Tavern: Tuesday is Blues Day. Every Tuesday is Blues Day @ the Blue Tavern and Blues Meets Girl is a Tallahassee favorite. This perfect, intimate venue provides just what you need for both a mid-week break and authentic blues music experience. 8pm
  • 4th Quarter: Professor Jim's Tuesday Night Trivia. Popular for a reason! 8pm
  • Argonaut Coffee: Trivia Tuesday. 8pm
  • 926: Tacos and Trivia. 9pm
  • Fire Betty’s: Comedy Show. 9pm/21+
  • Retrofit Records: Janelle Monáe “The Age Of Pleasure” Album Listening Party. 8pm
WEDNESDAY, 6/7
  • Rose Room: Women's Wednesday. Featuring Our Rose Roulettes and drink specials all night long. A night for all of our female-identifying friends to enjoy a safe space and an awesome happy hour! 5pm-2am
  • Blue Tavern: The Wednesday Night Lab Session. 5pm
  • Sugar and Spice Tally: Game Night. Join us every Wednesday Night for community game night. Bring your own or use ours! Let me know if you need to reserve space for a large group. Free to attend! 5pm
  • Tara Angel’s Magic: D&D Experience - Adult (18+) Group. Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition - Candlekeep Mysteries. A one-shot is a D&D event that starts and finishes in the same session, typically lasting 3 - 4 hours. We have pre-generated characters for players to choose from. WHAT TO BRING: Pencils, Dice (can be purchased in store), Mask (encouraged for unvaccinated participants), Enthusiasm! Please sign up in advance to reserve a spot in this campaign. Tickets can be purchased in-store, over the phone, or on the website. For more information, please email [email protected], or call: (850) 878-4555 6pm-9pm
  • Goodwood: Wonderful Wednesday. 6pm/$5
  • Level 8 Rooftop Lounge: Trivia. 6pm
  • The Great Games Library: Open Game Night. 6pm/free
  • American Legion Hall: Sue Boyd Country Western and More Dance Class. Session 2 - Beginner 6:30 to 7:45 pm What: East Coast Swing and Waltz. Cost: $8.00 per person. Wear comfortable shoes you can turn in. 7:45 to 8:15 - Practice dance with paid admission. 8:15 to 9:30: Intermediate - 2 Step and WCS. $8.00 per person or $13.00 for both classes. Vaccines are required. Face masks are optional. Changing partners is optional. 6:30pm
  • Perry Lynn’s Smokehouse in Quincy: Wed Night Open Mic w/ Steven Ritter and Friends. 6:30pm
  • Hangar 38: Trivia. 6:45pm
  • Oyster City Brewing Tallahassee: Trivia. Teams up to 6 players for three rounds with 10 questions and a tie breaker each round. Winners are by round so don’t worry if you need to come late or can’t stay the whole time! Prizes include a round of beer, a 6 pack and a gift card! 7pm
  • Proof: Trivia. 7pm
  • Vino Beano: Wine Bingo. 7pm
  • Fermentation Lounge: Trivia. 7pm
  • House of Music: Open Mic at House of Music. Join us Wednesday nights for open mic in the bar with host Mike Ingram of The Brown Goose. Come early for Happy Hour and dinner! 8pm
  • Blue Tavern: Warehouse Wednesdays Open Mic Night. The open mic night that has run continuously for almost 20 years, once housed at the Warehouse, lives on at the Blue Tavern. Doc Russell continues as the host with the most. Sign up starts at 8pm/free to attend
  • Fire Betty’s: Karaoke! 8pm/21+/free
  • Dukes and Dotties: College Night and Line Dancing Lessons. 8pm
  • The Bark: Karaoke with DJ Nathan. Best karaoke DJ in town. 9pm
  • 926: Dragged Out Wednesday. 10pm
  • The Bark: Dikembe, Glazed, and Professional Businessman. 7:15pm
submitted by clearliquidclearjar to Tallahassee [link] [comments]

2023.06.01 21:31 Clay_Bricks Every retiring LEGO set (June 2023 update)

Another month, another retirement update! A lot of sets changed dates this month, and even more new sets got added! Which reminds me, I'm considering making a /legoleak Discord server in order to expand more on leaks, answer questions, and provide daily retirement updates. If there's interest in that, I'll work on having it done before the next list!
As always, we owe a massive thanks to ZombieYeti from the BrickHound Discord for providing this valuable data. If you're looking for real-time in-stock/deal alerts for Lego.com and other sites, make sure to check out his server: https://discord.gg/BwezK2t5qf
This information is scraped directly from Lego's website, and all dates are subject to change. ZombieYeti is currently developing a website to host this data and offer real-time updates. In the meantime, here is a list of every set and their corresponding retirement date as per LEGO's system!
FULL LIST ON GOOGLE SHEETS HERE <--
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Due to Reddit's character limits, we can't include everything here, but the full spreadsheet contains every set.
CHANGES IN JUNE:
Theme Set # Set Name Old Date New Date Change
Avatar 75577 Mako Submarine Dec 31, 2024 Dec 31, 2023 -1 year
Avatar 75578 Metkayina Reef Home Dec 31, 2024 Dec 31, 2023 -1 year
Classic 11020 Build Together Dec 31, 2024 Dec 31, 2023 -1 year
Duplo 10966 Bath Time Fun: Floating Animal Island Dec 31, 2024 Dec 31, 2023 -1 year
City 60388 Gaming Tournament Truck Dec 31, 2023 Dec 31, 2024 +1 year
Creator 31143 Birdhouse Dec 31, 2023 Dec 31, 2024 +1 year
Friends 41735 Mobile Tiny House Dec 31, 2023 Dec 31, 2024 +1 year
Harry Potter 75969 Hogwarts Astronomy Tower Dec 31, 2023 Dec 31, 2024 +1 year
Icons 10306 Atari 2600 Dec 31, 2023 Dec 31, 2024 +1 year
Ideas 21331 Sonic the Hedgehog - Green Hill Zone Dec 31, 2023 Dec 31, 2024 +1 year
Jurassic Park / World 76946 Blue & Beta Velociraptor Capture Dec 31, 2023 Dec 31, 2024 +1 year
Jurassic Park / World 76951 Pyroraptor & Dilophosaurus Transport Dec 31, 2023 Dec 31, 2024 +1 year
Marvel 76226 Spider-Man Figure Dec 31, 2023 Dec 31, 2024 +1 year
Marvel 76241 Hulk Mech Armor Dec 31, 2023 Dec 31, 2024 +1 year
Marvel 76243 Rocket Mech Armor Dec 31, 2023 Dec 31, 2024 +1 year
Marvel 76245 Ghost Rider Mech & Bike Dec 31, 2023 Dec 31, 2024 +1 year
Marvel 76256 Ant-Man Construction Figure Dec 31, 2023 Dec 31, 2024 +1 year
Speed Champions 76906 1970 Ferrari 512 M Dec 31, 2023 Dec 31, 2024 +1 year
Speed Champions 76907 Lotus Evija Dec 31, 2023 Dec 31, 2024 +1 year
Star Wars 75333 Obi-Wan Kenobi's Jedi Starfighter Dec 31, 2023 Dec 31, 2024 +1 year
Star Wars 75344 Boba Fett's Starship Microfighter Dec 31, 2023 Dec 31, 2024 +1 year
Technic 42138 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Dec 31, 2023 Dec 31, 2024 +1 year
​
NEW SETS ADDED:
Theme Set # Set Name Retirement Date
Holiday / City 60381 City Advent Calendar 2023 Dec 31, 2023
Holiday / Friends 41758 Friends Advent Calendar 2023 Dec 31, 2023
Holiday / Harry Potter 76418 Harry Potter Advent Calendar 2023 Dec 31, 2023
Holiday / Marvel 76267 Marvel Advent Calendar 2023 Dec 31, 2023
Holiday / Star Wars 75366 Star Wars Advent Calendar 2023 Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71777 Kai's Dragon Power Flip Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71778 Nya's Dragon Power Drift Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71779 Lloyd's Dragon Power Spin Dec 31, 2023
Batman 30653 Batman 1992 Polybag Dec 31, 2024
Batman 76224 Batmobile: Batman vs. The Joker Chase Dec 31, 2024
Batman 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box Dec 31, 2024
Batman 76264 Batmobile Pursuit: Batman vs. The Joker (4+) Dec 31, 2024
Batman 76265 Batwing: Batman vs. The Joker Dec 31, 2024
City 60367 Passenger Airplane Dec 31, 2024
City / 2K Drive 60395 Combo Race Pack Dec 31, 2024
City / 2K Drive 60396 Modified Race Cars Dec 31, 2024
City / 2K Drive 60397 Monster Truck Race Dec 31, 2024
Creator 31144 Exotic Pink Parrot Dec 31, 2024
DREAMZzz 40657 Dream Village Dec 31, 2024
Friends 41756 Holiday Ski Slope and Café Dec 31, 2024
Friends 41760 Igloo Holiday Adventure Dec 31, 2024
Harry Potter 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds Dec 31, 2024
Harry Potter 76421 Dobby the House-Elf Dec 31, 2024
Icons 40634 Icons of Play Dec 31, 2024
Mario 71422 Picnic at Mario's House Dec 31, 2024
Marvel 76249 Venomised Groot Dec 31, 2024
Marvel 76261 Spider-Man Final Battle Dec 31, 2024
Marvel 76262 Captain America's Shield Dec 31, 2024
Marvel 76263 Iron Man Hulkbuster vs. Thanos (4+) Dec 31, 2024
Marvel 76266 Endgame Final Battle Dec 31, 2024
Minecraft 21247 The Axolotl House Dec 31, 2024
Minecraft 21248 The Pumpkin Farm Dec 31, 2024
Minecraft 21249 The Crafting Box 4.0 Dec 31, 2024
Minecraft 21250 The Iron Golem Fortress Dec 31, 2024
Ninjago 71789 Kai and Ras's Car and Bike Battle (4+) Dec 31, 2024
Ninjago 71790 Imperium Dragon Hunter Hound Dec 31, 2024
Ninjago 71791 Zane's Dragon Power Spinjitzu Race Car Dec 31, 2024
Ninjago 71792 Sora's Transforming Mech Bike Racer Dec 31, 2024
Ninjago 71793 Heatwave Transforming Lava Dragon Dec 31, 2024
Ninjago 71794 Lloyd and Arin's Ninja Team Mechs Dec 31, 2024
Ninjago 71795 Temple of the Dragon Energy Cores Dec 31, 2024
Ninjago 71796 Elemental Dragon vs. The Empress Mech Dec 31, 2024
Ninjago 71797 Destiny's Bounty - Race Against Time Dec 31, 2024
Ninjago 71798 Nya and Arin's Baby Dragon Battle (4+) Dec 31, 2024
Sonic 76993 Sonic vs. Dr. Eggman's Death Egg Robot Dec 31, 2024
Star Wars 75359 332nd Ahsoka's Clone Trooper Battle Pack Dec 31, 2024
Star Wars 75360 Yoda's Jedi Starfighter Dec 31, 2024
Star Wars 75365 Yavin 4 Rebel Base Dec 31, 2024
Star Wars 75368 Darth Vader Mech Dec 31, 2024
Star Wars 75369 Boba Fett Mech Dec 31, 2024
Star Wars 75370 Stormtrooper Mech Dec 31, 2024
Duplo 10987 Recycling Truck Dec 31, 2025
Duplo 10994 3-in-1 Family House Dec 31, 2025
Duplo 10997 Camping Adventure Dec 31, 2025
Ninjago 71799 NINJAGO City Markets Dec 31, 2025
Technic 42161 Lamborghini Huracán Tecnica Dec 31, 2025
Icons 10323 PAC-MAN Arcade Dec 31, 2026
Technic 42160 Audi RS Q e-tron Dec 31, 2026
​
SETS RETIRING IN 2023:
Theme Set # Set Name Retirement Date
Classic 11015 Around the World Jul 31, 2023
Creator 31123 Off-Road Buggy Jul 31, 2023
Disney 10780 Mickey and Friends Castle Defenders Jul 31, 2023
Disney 43203 Aurora, Merida and Tiana's Enchanted Creations Jul 31, 2023
Dots 41962 Unicorn Creative Family Pack Jul 31, 2023
Mario 71404 Goomba's Shoe Jul 31, 2023
Mario 71407 Cat Peach Suit and Frozen Tower Jul 31, 2023
Mario 71409 Big Spike's Cloudtop Challenge Jul 31, 2023
Mario 71412 Big Bad Island Jul 31, 2023
Mindstorms 51515 Robot Inventor Jul 31, 2023
Minecraft 21187 The Red Barn Jul 31, 2023
Ninjago 71738 Zane's Titan Mech Battle Jul 31, 2023
Ninjago 71754 Water Dragon Jul 31, 2023
Ninjago 71756 Hydro Bounty Jul 31, 2023
Ninjago 71759 Ninja Dragon Temple (4+) Jul 31, 2023
Ninjago 71762 Kai's Fire Dragon EVO Jul 31, 2023
Ninjago 71770 Zane's Golden Dragon Jet Jul 31, 2023
Ninjago 71773 Kai's Golden Dragon Raider Jul 31, 2023
Technic 42129 4x4 Mercedes-Benz Zetros Trial Truck Jul 31, 2023
Minifigures 71038 LEGO® Minifigures Disney 100 Aug 31, 2023
Architecture 21054 The White House Dec 31, 2023
Art 31203 World Map Dec 31, 2023
Art 31205 Jim Lee Batman Collection Dec 31, 2023
Art 31206 The Rolling Stones Dec 31, 2023
Art 31207 Floral Art Dec 31, 2023
Avatar 75571 Neytiri & Thanator vs. AMP Suit Quaritch Dec 31, 2023
Avatar 75573 Floating Mountains: Site 26 & RDA Samson Dec 31, 2023
Avatar 75577 Mako Submarine Dec 31, 2023
Avatar 75578 Metkayina Reef Home Dec 31, 2023
Batman 76181 Batmobile: The Penguin Chase Dec 31, 2023
Batman 76220 Batman versus Harley Quinn (4+) Dec 31, 2023
Brickheadz 40540 Lion Dance Guy Dec 31, 2023
Brickheadz 40541 Manchester United Go Brick Me Dec 31, 2023
Brickheadz 40542 FC Barcelona Go Brick Me Dec 31, 2023
Brickheadz / Avatar 40554 Jake Sully & his Avatar Dec 31, 2023
BrickHeadz / Disney 40377 Donald Duck Dec 31, 2023
BrickHeadz / Disney 40378 Goofy & Pluto Dec 31, 2023
BrickHeadz / Disney 40476 Daisy Duck Dec 31, 2023
BrickHeadz / Disney 40477 Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Dewey & Louie Dec 31, 2023
BrickHeadz / Disney 40550 Chip & Dale Dec 31, 2023
BrickHeadz / Disney 40553 Woody and Bo Peep Dec 31, 2023
BrickHeadz / Disney 40622 Disney 100th Celebration (Oswald, Mickey, Snow White, Tinker Bell) Dec 31, 2023
BrickHeadz / Harry Potter 40495 Harry, Hermione, Ron & Hagrid Dec 31, 2023
BrickHeadz / Harry Potter 40560 Professors of Hogwarts Dec 31, 2023
BrickHeadz / Minecraft 40624 Alex Dec 31, 2023
BrickHeadz / Minecraft 40625 Llama Dec 31, 2023
BrickHeadz / Minecraft 40626 Zombie Dec 31, 2023
BrickHeadz / Star Wars 40539 Ahsoka Tano Dec 31, 2023
BrickHeadz / Star Wars 40623 Battle of Endor Heroes Dec 31, 2023
City 30590 Farm Garden & Scarecrow Polybag Dec 31, 2023
City 30638 Police Bike Training Polybag Dec 31, 2023
City 30639 Dog Park and Scooter Polybag Dec 31, 2023
City 41723 Donut Shop Dec 31, 2023
City 41726 Holiday Camping Trip Dec 31, 2023
City 60253 Ice-Cream Truck Dec 31, 2023
City 60313 Space Ride Amusement Truck Dec 31, 2023
City 60314 Ice Cream Truck Police Chase Dec 31, 2023
City 60315 Police Mobile Command Truck Dec 31, 2023
City 60317 Police Chase at the Bank Dec 31, 2023
City 60318 Fire Helicopter Dec 31, 2023
City 60319 Fire Rescue & Police Chase Dec 31, 2023
City 60320 Fire Station Dec 31, 2023
City 60321 Fire Brigade Dec 31, 2023
City 60322 Race Car Polybag Dec 31, 2023
City 60323 Stunt Plane Dec 31, 2023
City 60324 Mobile Crane Dec 31, 2023
City 60325 Cement Mixer Truck Dec 31, 2023
City 60327 Horse Transporter Dec 31, 2023
City 60330 Hospital Dec 31, 2023
City 60332 Reckless Scorpion Stunt Bike Dec 31, 2023
City 60333 Bathtub Stunt Bike Dec 31, 2023
City 60335 Train Station Dec 31, 2023
City 60338 Chimpanzee Smash Stunt Loop Dec 31, 2023
City 60339 Double Loop Stunt Arena Dec 31, 2023
City 60341 The Knockdown Stunt Challenge Dec 31, 2023
City 60342 The Shark Attack Stunt Challenge Dec 31, 2023
City 60343 Rescue Helicopter Transporter Dec 31, 2023
City 60346 Barn & Farm Animals Dec 31, 2023
City 60348 Lunar Roving Vehicle Dec 31, 2023
City 60349 Lunar Space Station Dec 31, 2023
City 60350 Lunar Research Base Dec 31, 2023
City 60351 Rocket Launch Centre Dec 31, 2023
City 60353 Wild Animal Rescue Missions Dec 31, 2023
City 60354 Mars Spacecraft Exploration Missions Dec 31, 2023
City 60355 Water Police Detective Missions Dec 31, 2023
City 60356 Bear Stunt Bike Dec 31, 2023
City 60357 Stunt Truck & Ring of Fire Challenge Dec 31, 2023
City 60358 Cyber Stunt Bike Dec 31, 2023
City 60359 Dunk Stunt Ramp Challenge Dec 31, 2023
City 60360 Spinning Stunt Challenge Dec 31, 2023
City 60361 Ultimate Stunt Riders Challenge Dec 31, 2023
City 60371 Emergency Vehicles HQ Dec 31, 2023
City 60382 Vet Van Rescue Dec 31, 2023
City 60385 Construction Digger Dec 31, 2023
City 60390 Park Tractor Dec 31, 2023
City 60393 4x4 Fire Truck Rescue Dec 31, 2023
City 60394 ATV and Otter Habitat Dec 31, 2023
City 60398 Family House and Electric Car Dec 31, 2023
Classic 11014 Bricks and Wheels Dec 31, 2023
Classic 11018 Creative Ocean Fun Dec 31, 2023
Classic 11019 Bricks and Functions Dec 31, 2023
Classic 11020 Build Together Dec 31, 2023
Classic 11021 90 Years of Play Dec 31, 2023
Classic 11022 Space Mission Dec 31, 2023
Classic 11031 Creative Monkey Fun Dec 31, 2023
Classic 30510 90 Years of Cars Polybag Dec 31, 2023
Creator 30641 Panda Bear Polybag Dec 31, 2023
Creator 30644 Vintage Car Polybag Dec 31, 2023
Creator 31111 Cyber Drone Dec 31, 2023
Creator 31118 Surfer Beach House Dec 31, 2023
Creator 31127 Street Racer Dec 31, 2023
Creator 31128 Dolphin and Turtle Dec 31, 2023
Creator 31130 Sunken Treasure Mission Dec 31, 2023
Creator 31131 Downtown Noodle Shop Dec 31, 2023
Creator 31132 Viking Ship and the Midgard Serpent Dec 31, 2023
Creator 40461 Tulips Dec 31, 2023
Creator 40469 Tuk Tuk Dec 31, 2023
Creator 40568 Paris Postcard Dec 31, 2023
Creator 40646 Daffodils Dec 31, 2023
Disney 10777 Mickey and Minnie's Camping Trip Dec 31, 2023
Disney 30646 Moana's Dolphin Cove Polybag Dec 31, 2023
Disney 40521 Mini Disney The Haunted Mansion Dec 31, 2023
Disney 41168 Elsa's Jewellery Box Dec 31, 2023
Disney 43187 Rapunzel's Tower Dec 31, 2023
Disney 43189 Elsa and the Nokk Storybook Adventures Dec 31, 2023
Disney 43194 Anna and Elsa's Frozen Wonderland Dec 31, 2023
Disney 43196 Belle and the Beast's Castle Dec 31, 2023
Disney 43197 The Ice Castle Dec 31, 2023
Disney 43198 Anna's Castle Courtyard Dec 31, 2023
Disney 43199 Elsa's Castle Courtyard Dec 31, 2023
Disney 43202 The Madrigal House Dec 31, 2023
Disney 43204 Anna and Olaf's Castle Fun Dec 31, 2023
Disney 43207 Ariel's Underwater Palace Dec 31, 2023
Disney 43208 Jasmine and Mulan's Adventure Dec 31, 2023
Disney 43209 Elsa and the Nokk's Ice Stable Dec 31, 2023
Dots 30560 Pineapple Photo Holder & Mini Board Polybag Dec 31, 2023
Dots 41801 My Pets Bracelet Dec 31, 2023
Dots 41802 Unicorns Forever Bracelet Dec 31, 2023
Dots 41803 Extra Dots series 8 Dec 31, 2023
Dots 41805 Creative Animal Drawer Dec 31, 2023
Dots 41806 Ultimate Party Kit Dec 31, 2023
Dots 41807 Bracelet Designer Mega Pack Dec 31, 2023
Dots 41947 Mickey and Friends Bracelets Mega Pack Dec 31, 2023
Dots 41948 Cute Banana Pen Holder Dec 31, 2023
Dots 41950 Lots of DOTS - Lettering Dec 31, 2023
Dots 41951 Message Board Dec 31, 2023
Dots 41957 Adhesive Patches Mega Pack Dec 31, 2023
Dots 41959 Cute Panda Tray Dec 31, 2023
Dots 41960 Big Box Dec 31, 2023
Dots 41961 Designer Toolkit - Patterns Dec 31, 2023
Dots / Disney 41963 Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse Stitch-on Patch Dec 31, 2023
Dots / Disney 41964 Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse Back-to-School Project Box Dec 31, 2023
Dots / Harry Potter 41808 Hogwarts Accessories Pack Dec 31, 2023
Dots / Harry Potter 41809 Hedwig Pencil Holder Dec 31, 2023
Dots / Harry Potter 41811 Hogwarts Desktop Kit Dec 31, 2023
Duplo 10411 Learn About Chinese Culture Dec 31, 2023
Duplo 10872 Train Bridge and Tracks Dec 31, 2023
Duplo 10882 Train Tracks Dec 31, 2023
Duplo 10930 Bulldozer Dec 31, 2023
Duplo 10938 Dinosaur Nursery Dec 31, 2023
Duplo 10944 Space Shuttle Mission Dec 31, 2023
Duplo 10948 Parking Garage and Car Wash Dec 31, 2023
Duplo 10949 Farm Animal Care Dec 31, 2023
Duplo 10955 Animal Train Dec 31, 2023
Duplo 10956 Amusement Park Dec 31, 2023
Duplo 10964 Bath Time Fun: Floating Red Panda Dec 31, 2023
Duplo 10966 Bath Time Fun: Floating Animal Island Dec 31, 2023
Duplo 10968 Doctor Visit Dec 31, 2023
Duplo 10972 Wild Animals of the Ocean Dec 31, 2023
Duplo 10973 Wild Animals of South America Dec 31, 2023
Duplo 10974 Wild Animals of Asia Dec 31, 2023
Duplo 10977 My First Puppy & Kitten with Sounds Dec 31, 2023
Duplo 10978 Creative Building Time Dec 31, 2023
Duplo 10979 Wild Animals of Europe Dec 31, 2023
Duplo 30648 Whale Polybag Dec 31, 2023
Duplo / Disney 10899 Frozen Ice Castle Dec 31, 2023
Duplo / Disney 10960 Belle's Ballroom Dec 31, 2023
Duplo / Disney 10962 Buzz Lightyear's Planetary Mission Dec 31, 2023
Duplo / Holiday 10976 Santa's Gingerbread House Dec 31, 2023
Duplo / Marvel 10963 Spider-Man & Friends: Funfair Adventure Dec 31, 2023
Friends 30633 Skate Ramp Dec 31, 2023
Friends 30634 Friendship Flowers Polybag Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41443 Olivia's Electric Car Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41677 Forest Waterfall Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41696 Pony-Washing Stable Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41697 Turtle Protection Vehicle Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41699 Pet Adoption Café Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41703 Friendship Tree House Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41704 Main Street Building Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41705 Heartlake City Pizzeria Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41707 Tree-Planting Vehicle Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41708 Roller Disco Arcade Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41711 Emma's Art School Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41712 Recycling Truck Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41713 Olivia's Space Academy Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41714 Andrea's Theatre School Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41715 Ice Cream Truck Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41716 Stephanie's Sailing Adventure Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41717 Mia's Wildlife Rescue Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41718 Pet Day-Care Center Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41719 Mobile Fashion Boutique Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41720 Water Park Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41721 Organic Farm Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41722 Horse Show Trailer Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41729 Organic Grocery Store Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41732 Downtown Flower and Design Stores Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41733 Mobile Bubble Tea Shop Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41741 Dog Rescue Van Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41742 Cat Hotel Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41743 Hair Salon Dec 31, 2023
Friends 41751 Skate Park Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter 30435 Build Your Own Hogwarts Castle Polybag Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter 30651 Quidditch Practice Polybag Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter 75968 4 Privet Drive Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter 75979 Hedwig Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter 76386 Hogwarts: Polyjuice Potion Mistake Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter 76398 Hogwarts Hospital Wing Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter 76399 Hogwarts Magical Trunk Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter 76400 Hogwarts Carriage and Thestrals Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter 76401 Hogwarts Courtyard: Sirius's Rescue Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter 76403 The Ministry of Magic Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter 76406 Hungarian Horntail Dragon Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter 76408 12 Grimmauld Place Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter 76409 Gryffindor House Banner Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter 76410 Slytherin House Banner Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter 76411 Ravenclaw House Banner Dec 31, 2023
Harry Potter 76412 Hufflepuff House Banner Dec 31, 2023
Holiday 40426 Christmas Wreath 2-in-1 Dec 31, 2023
Holiday 40522 Valentine Lovebirds Dec 31, 2023
Holiday 40523 Easter Rabbits Display Dec 31, 2023
Holiday 40570 Halloween Cat and Mouse Dec 31, 2023
Holiday 40571 Wintertime Polar Bears Dec 31, 2023
Holiday 80110 Lunar New Year Display Dec 31, 2023
Holiday 80111 Lunar New Year Parade Dec 31, 2023
Holiday / City 60381 City Advent Calendar 2023 Dec 31, 2023
Holiday / Creator 30584 Winter Holiday Train Polybag Dec 31, 2023
Holiday / Creator 30642 Birthday Train Polybag Dec 31, 2023
Holiday / Creator 30643 Easter Chickens Polybag Dec 31, 2023
Holiday / Friends 41758 Friends Advent Calendar 2023 Dec 31, 2023
Holiday / Harry Potter 76418 Harry Potter Advent Calendar 2023 Dec 31, 2023
Holiday / Icons 10293 Santa's Visit Dec 31, 2023
Holiday / Marvel 76267 Marvel Advent Calendar 2023 Dec 31, 2023
Holiday / Star Wars 75366 Star Wars Advent Calendar 2023 Dec 31, 2023
Icons 10265 Ford Mustang Dec 31, 2023
Icons 10266 NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander Dec 31, 2023
Icons 10273 Haunted House Dec 31, 2023
Icons 10276 Colosseum Dec 31, 2023
Icons 10289 Bird of Paradise Dec 31, 2023
Icons 10290 Pickup Truck Dec 31, 2023
Icons 10292 The Friends Apartments Dec 31, 2023
Icons 10299 Real Madrid - Santiago Bernabéu Stadium Dec 31, 2023
Icons 10497 Galaxy Explorer Dec 31, 2023
Icons 76989 Horizon Forbidden West: Tallneck Dec 31, 2023
Icons / Modular 10255 Assembly Square Dec 31, 2023
Icons / Modular 10270 Bookshop Dec 31, 2023
Icons / Modular 10278 Police Station Dec 31, 2023
Ideas 21325 Medieval Blacksmith Dec 31, 2023
Ideas 21326 Winnie the Pooh Dec 31, 2023
Ideas 21329 Fender Stratocaster Dec 31, 2023
Ideas 21337 Table Football Dec 31, 2023
Jurassic Park / World 76943 Pteranodon Chase (4+) Dec 31, 2023
Jurassic Park / World 76945 Atrociraptor Dinosaur: Bike Chase Dec 31, 2023
Jurassic Park / World 76947 Quetzalcoatlus Plane Ambush Dec 31, 2023
Jurassic Park / World 76948 T. rex & Atrociraptor Dinosaur Breakout Dec 31, 2023
Jurassic Park / World 76950 Triceratops Pickup Truck Ambush Dec 31, 2023
Jurassic Park / World 76956 T. rex Breakout Dec 31, 2023
Lightyear 76830 Zyclops Chase (4+) Dec 31, 2023
Lightyear 76831 Zurg Battle Dec 31, 2023
Lightyear 76832 XL-15 Spaceship Dec 31, 2023
Mario 30509 Yellow Yoshi's Fruit Tree Polybag Dec 31, 2023
Mario 71406 Yoshi's Gift House Dec 31, 2023
Mario 71413 Character Packs Series 6 Dec 31, 2023
Mario 71414 Conkdor's Noggin Bopper Dec 31, 2023
Mario 71415 Ice Mario Suit and Frozen World Dec 31, 2023
Mario 71416 Lava Wave Ride Dec 31, 2023
Mario 71417 Fliprus Snow Adventure Dec 31, 2023
Mario 71418 Creativity Toolbox Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 10781 Spider-Man's Techno Trike (4+) Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 10784 Spider-Man Webquarters Hangout (4+) Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 10790 Team Spidey at Green Goblin's Lighthouse (4+) Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 30652 Doctor Strange's Interdimensional Portal Polybag Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 76187 Venom Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 76193 The Guardians' Ship Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 76206 Iron Man Figure Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 76207 Attack on New Asgard Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 76208 The Goat Boat Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 76209 Thor's Hammer Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 76211 Shuri's Sunbird Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 76212 Shuri's Lab (4+) Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 76213 King Namor's Throne Room Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 76214 Black Panther: War on the Water Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 76215 Black Panther Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 76216 Iron Man Armory Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 76225 Miles Morales Figure Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 76230 Venom Figure Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 76242 Thanos Mech Armor Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 76253 Guardians of the Galaxy Headquarters Dec 31, 2023
Marvel 76255 The New Guardians' Ship Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft 21164 The Coral Reef Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft 21170 The Pig House Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft 21172 The Ruined Portal Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft 21177 The Creeper Ambush Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft 21180 The Guardian Battle Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft 21181 The Rabbit Ranch Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft 21183 The Training Grounds Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft 21184 The Bakery Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft 21185 The Nether Bastion Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft 21186 The Ice Castle Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft 21188 The Llama Village Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft 21190 The Abandoned Village Dec 31, 2023
Minecraft 30647 The Dripstone Cavern/The Stalactite Cave Polybag Dec 31, 2023
Miscellaneous 40174 LEGO Chess Dec 31, 2023
Miscellaneous 40382 Birthday Set Dec 31, 2023
Miscellaneous 40393 LEGOLAND Fire Academy Dec 31, 2023
Miscellaneous 40584 Birthday Diorama Dec 31, 2023
Monkie Kid 30656 Monkey King Marketplace Polybag Dec 31, 2023
Monkie Kid 80008 Monkie Kid's Cloud Jet Dec 31, 2023
Monkie Kid 80030 Monkie Kid's Staff Creations Dec 31, 2023
Monkie Kid 80032 Chang'e Moon Cake Factory Dec 31, 2023
Monkie Kid 80033 Evil Macaque's Mech Dec 31, 2023
Monkie Kid 80034 Nezha's Fire Ring Dec 31, 2023
Monkie Kid 80035 Monkie Kid's Galactic Explorer Dec 31, 2023
Monkie Kid 80037 Dragon of the East Dec 31, 2023
Monkie Kid 80038 Monkie Kid's Team Van Dec 31, 2023
Monkie Kid 80039 The Heavenly Realms Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 30649 Ice Dragon Creature Polybag Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71757 Lloyd's Ninja Mech (4+) Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71760 Jay's Thunder Dragon EVO Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71761 Zane's Power Up Mech EVO Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71763 Lloyd's Race Car EVO Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71765 Ninja Ultra Combo Mech Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71766 Lloyd's Legendary Dragon Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71767 Ninja Dojo Temple Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71768 Jay's Golden Dragon Motorbike Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71769 Cole's Dragon Cruiser Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71771 The Crystal King Temple Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71772 The Crystal King Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71774 Lloyd's Golden Ultra Dragon Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71775 Nya's Samurai X MECH Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71776 Jay and Nya's Race Car EVO Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71777 Kai's Dragon Power Flip Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71778 Nya's Dragon Power Drift Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71779 Lloyd's Dragon Power Spin Dec 31, 2023
Ninjago 71781 Lloyd's Mech Battle EVO Dec 31, 2023
Speed Champions 30657 McLaren Solus GT Polybag Dec 31, 2023
Speed Champions 76900 Koenigsegg Jesko Dec 31, 2023
Speed Champions 76901 Toyota GR Supra Dec 31, 2023
Speed Champions 76910 Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro and Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Dec 31, 2023
Speed Champions 76911 007 Aston Martin DB5 Dec 31, 2023
Speed Champions 76912 Fast & Furious 1970 Dodge Charger T Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 30654 X-wing Starfighter Polybag Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75288 AT-AT Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75292 The Razor Crest Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75300 Imperial TIE Fighter Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75301 Luke Skywalker's X-wing Fighter Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75309 Republic Gunship (Ultimate Collector Series) Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75312 Boba Fett's Starship Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75317 The Mandalorian & The Child Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75318 The Child Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75320 Snowtrooper Battle Pack Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75322 Hoth AT-ST Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75323 The Justifier Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75324 Dark Trooper Attack Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75326 Boba Fett's Throne Room Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75327 Luke Skywalker (Red Five) Helmet Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75329 Death Star Trench Run Diorama Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75330 Dagobah Jedi Training Diorama Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75332 AT-ST (4+) Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75334 Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Darth Vader Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75335 BD-1 Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75336 Inquisitor Transport Scythe Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75338 Ambush on Ferrix Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75339 Death Star Trash Compactor Diorama Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75342 Republic Fighter Tank Dec 31, 2023
Star Wars 75343 Dark Trooper Helmet Dec 31, 2023
Technic 30655 Forklift with Pallet Polybag Dec 31, 2023
Technic 42096 Porsche 911 RSR Dec 31, 2023
Technic 42107 Ducati Panigale V4 R Dec 31, 2023
Technic 42111 Dom's Dodge Charger Dec 31, 2023
Technic 42117 Race Plane Dec 31, 2023
Technic 42118 Monster Jam Grave Digger Dec 31, 2023
Technic 42122 Jeep Wrangler Dec 31, 2023
Technic 42123 McLaren Senna GTR Dec 31, 2023
Technic 42125 Ferrari 488 GTE 'AF Corse #51' Dec 31, 2023
Technic 42127 The Batman - Batmobile Dec 31, 2023
Technic 42128 Heavy-Duty Tow Truck Dec 31, 2023
Technic 42131 Cat D11 Bulldozer Dec 31, 2023
Technic 42132 Chopper Dec 31, 2023
Technic 42133 Telehandler Dec 31, 2023
Technic 42134 Monster Jam Megalodon Dec 31, 2023
Technic 42135 Monster Jam El Toro Loco Dec 31, 2023
Technic 42137 Formula E Porsche 99x Electric Dec 31, 2023
Technic 42139 All-Terrain Vehicle Dec 31, 2023
Technic 42140 App-Controlled Transformation Vehicle Dec 31, 2023
Technic 42144 Material Handler Dec 31, 2023
submitted by Clay_Bricks to Legoleak [link] [comments]

2023.06.01 18:53 leoleoleo555 I have no idea what to feed my 11 month olds

My twins are almost 11 months old and I’m still struggling with the fear of feeding them anything but mush. I have ventured out a few times and fed them tortilla, bread, eggs and waffles and then PPA took over (I’m currently on medication and in therapy for this) and went back to mush banana and oatmeal. Lately they’ve been rejecting their mush food and I don’t blame them. It looks gross lol. They are almost toddlers and I know it’s time. I’m also only feeding them solids twice a day, I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be doing it 3 times? I do feed them snacks of puffs, cheerios and waifers several times a day. Any suggestions for meals? :(
If it helps, I eat the same food every day - Eggs or homemade protein pancakes for breakfast, hamburger patty or homemade protein pizza for lunch and chicken thigh and potato of some sort for dinner.
submitted by leoleoleo555 to BabyLedWeaning [link] [comments]

2023.06.01 18:24 BayouDeSaird Self Checkout Didn’t Allow Me to Proceed Because of Missed Item in Cart. How did it know?

I recently went through self checkout with the handheld scanner) at my local North Texas Costco, and accidentally forgot to scan one of my items (honestly). For some reason, the light at the register started blinking and it would not allow me to proceed with payment until an employee came by and pointed out the discrepancy. I scanned the last item after that and it let me proceed with payment.
How did the self checkout register know I neglected to scan the single item (it was grilled chicken patties by the way).
submitted by BayouDeSaird to Costco [link] [comments]

2023.06.01 17:38 DillonFromSomewhere Resignation Letter in Academic Essay Format

I know quitting your job as a cook usually simply comes with two weeks notice or a ragequit walkout, but for eleven months I worked at a new franchise that had such potential which was being squandered by the incompetence of upper management. I present the nearly 6000 word thesis I turned in on my last day. Locations and names have been changed to cartoon references. Brackets represent ambiguous information in place of specific details.
Krusty Krab Careers Jobs
Opening in [Month/Year], Krusty Krab (KK) Bikini Bottom is on its 4th kitchen manager in less than a year. Krusty Krab O-Town has recently let go its inaugural kitchen manager and sous chef. Almost no member of the Bikini Bottom opening management team remains employed by KK. There is a pattern developing where one must question both the choice of employee and the directive given to new franchises. These lingering issues I brought concerns about in the first weeks of opening but was disregarded at every turn despite my experience with festival traffic. As a result I decided this was not a place I wanted to advance, but with a good-enough paycheck I’d be a lowly grunt in the kitchen four days a week, at five days a week I would have quit or been fired over a public outburst long ago. If Krusty Krab alters course slightly while being true to the brand this could be a successful chain.
My unique employment history in brick and mortar restaurants, food trucks, pop up culinary concepts, trade shows/conventions, and the film industry make me an ideal candidate to be on the opening team for new KK locations. My outgoing nature and foresight are valuable assets. For example, on training week before opening when I was standing around idly without a task I took it upon myself to organize the disarray that was dry storage. Overhearing Krabs tell another manager where he wanted the cleaning products placed, I had a jumping off point and the organization I created nine months ago is still largely in place. Since returning from my vacation in early February I have made it my mission to keep the storage area organized because it was again starting to resemble a hoarder’s house rather than a commercial kitchen. This is now part of my weekly routines because every time I turn my back there is more product being placed haphazardly just anywhere with little regard. I also recently reorganized the walk-in cooler because of problematic stocking with items being placed on the same shelf or below raw proteins. I also simply put all the like products together such as cheeses or fruits that were scattered amongst several shelves. With recent overordering I cannot keep up with the organization of the walk in cooler. The pattern recognition of food types and even simple shapes appears to be lost on the Bikini Bottom crew. My daily reorganization of containers is proof of this. Most days I’ll take a few minutes to put all cylinders together, all cambros together in descending volume, all deep and shallow pans next to each other rather than intermixed. My decision to be a kitchen manager at age 19 from 2005 thru 2008 and rarely enter restaurant management since is very calculated.
With my prior knowledge of professional kitchens I was becoming Bikini Bottom’s resident nag to coworkers as I made note of health department violations on a daily basis. I stopped after being largely ignored for two weeks. My regular health department nags include; a battle with jackets and hats being placed only in the designated area (a designated area that did not exist until I created a place for personal items a in January by neatly organizing the dry storage area again), waiting until prepped items are cooled before a cover is placed on top, placement of raw seafood, open containers (very often sugar, flour, and pancake mix bags ripped open and left), and dirty dishes/containers placed back in rotation. The dirty dishes and containers in rotation with the clean ones are at an atrociously high number. I have given up on making the 4th fryer seafood allergy safe too. With the low volume of seafood allergy safe items Bikini Bottom should purchase smaller baskets to visually discourage cross contamination with the other fryers and baskets. My skills to organize the kitchen do not end with simply where to store products to meet minimal health department standards.
Half of the space in the Bikini Bottom kitchen is completely wasted on an ill-advised walkway to the dishpit. An intelligent design would place a second doorway directly to the dishpit connected to the bar or where the bathrooms reside. Numerous times during the opening week of KK Bikini Bottom I said, yelled, sang, and muttered that we have too many food items for the amount of space we have. Icus stated that there was more space than Bluffington. Is Bluffington intelligently designed? Because Bikini Bottom most certainly isn’t. So Bikini Bottom actually has less space even if there is more square footage. See the attached diagram for an intelligent design that could potentially house a menu of this size. Bikini Bottom forces a line design on this kitchen when an open concept is needed for this menu. It’s as if this floorplan was created by a person who had only ever seen one commercial kitchen previously and couldn’t think 4th dimensionally to understand the needs of the workers to smoothly serve customers.
There is not enough counter space for pizzas without getting off the line, the microwave is placed completely out of the way, the freezer’s curved design is a waste of potential counter space and a falling hazard for containers stored on top of it, the toaster is an overcomplicated and overexpensive piece of machinery that serves exactly one purpose when a flat top could be used to toast bread and other purposes like a quesadilla special, sautee was designed without an overhang for spices, the pantry station lacks the counter space to have two containers of flour and two containers of batter for seafood allergies, there are no Frialator fryers which I have worked with at every single kitchen job previously instead we got the cheap Vulcan model (is that logical), the cheap low boy in pantry that doesn’t drain excess water anywhere it’s just supposed to evaporate somehow but doesn’t, the grill and fryer should be placed next to each other (with a higher volume of crossover than other stations), the floors are flat instead on having a mild decline towards the drains (just look at the standing water residing behind the oven right now), in the dishpit the spraying area and the filled sinks are backwards of a logical dipshit, the ramp to the back door is on the wrong side, there is no refrigerated place downstairs to stage extra food for busy shifts (the beer cooler is once again used for such food items because of this massive oversight), the prep station is an afterthought and miniscule, the dishes on the line are difficult to grab for anyone under 5’11” and inaccessible for anyone under 5’6” (instead of putting them underneath tables that also give that desperately needed counterspace I spoke of), there is not enough space to store to-go containers or boats behind the line, expo is lacking a low boy for the numerous items that are supposed to be cold but are instead kept at room temperature all day long, no one in management thought about buying shelves until right before Bikini Bottom opened as a result the clean full sheets sat on the floor for days, we had only the exact amount of 1⁄6 pans for an absurd amount of time making it impossible to rotate and clean them when necessary (which is daily), we still struggle with 1/9 pan supply. And just when I thought I documented all the poor design choices possible I stumbled upon a person whose office holiday party was booked at KK Bikini Bottom. The deck space works just fine as a deck. It does not double well as a gathering space. The space is too long and narrow for parties, it promotes little splitoff groups rather than a coming together of a larger gathering. It may be advantageous to contact a social psychologist for help designing a private party space that promotes intermingling rather than enforcing small pockets to form. The reorganization of the physical kitchen isn’t all that screams for an overhaul.
There are six positions on the line at the Krusty Krab; expo, oven, grill, sautee, fryer, and pantry. But the pantry and fryer positions are forced together like a bad remix. Everyone who mainly works pantry deserves a $6 raise immediately because it is a station and a half. Both Icus and Krumm, while kitchen manager, kind of acknowledged the pantry is too big for one station without outright mentioning the lopsided distribution of work. I imagine in the only location where this works, Bluffington, a second person joins the pantry at noon because of the unreasonable amount of items one person is tasked with. Bikini Bottom only has one person in this position at all times, maybe modify it for one person? The excess of items on the pantry position largely resembles a position I would call “set-up” or “build” at a previous job that made sensible choices. This build position should have tostadas, tacos, butcher’s blocks, toast, salads, lettuce wrap set ups, and preparing plating for whichever station is most bogged down. I have absolutely lost my mind yelling about salads at least once a month, ranting that they do not belong on the fryer position because of how illogical it is that five salads are included on the mountain of other items the pantry has. I have always considered working in a kitchen a kind of dance, and the pantry station demands an unnecessarily convoluted dance to keep up with the demand. Without the salads, tostadas, and tacos the station is already the busiest. Do we really need to combine ballet and swing by including these extra awkward dance steps in this single station? For a kitchen designed this poorly I suppose it is. Again, see attached document for an intelligently designed kitchen that might be able to accommodate this menu. Unless Bikini Bottom is going to close for a month to fix the baffling floor plan design the menu is shouting to be reduced to 30-36 items.
The menu is too big. Krusty Krab is the jack of all foods, master of none. In general I believe individual locations should be allowed 18% omissions, and 18% unique items to this wildly unwieldy menu sitting around 50 food items including sides. The insistence on keeping menu items that don’t sell at Bikini Bottom because of Bluffington is mind boggling. Chicken tenders do not sell at Bikini Bottom. fried sushi does not sell at Bikini Bottom, not enough to justify their place on the line. I don’t care how well these items work in Bluffinton. They. Do. Not. Work. At. Bikini. Bottom. If the KK location in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean sells an incredible amount of live krill does that mean Bikini Bottom and O-Town must sell live krill too? Take the fried sushi off the menu. I had a complete meltdown about this during a Dimmadome service and my valid point was met with indifference. Replace the kid’s tenders with a kid’s fish sticks. We already have the tilapia fish sticks on the line for tacos. Or make the kid’s fish sticks cod. We cut cod to order for fish tacos in spite of health code violations because it is too rare of an order to make beforehand. Saffron in mashed potatoes? If you must. Why are green tomatoes only on the menu during lunch? Bikini Bottom throws away a sizable amount of spoiled green tomatoes each week. Have green tomatoes on the menu all day long or don’t have them at all. The smoked salmon could go on salads or a special taco to justify its place on the line. The corn pico’s place on the line is unjustified. It only goes on one item, tostadas, which are not particularly popular. If we had a taco salad we could throw the corn pico on there. We also have unreasonable waste from unusable taco shells, smash up those imperfect taco shells and throw them on said taco salad. But before we add salads, let's get rid of the pear and kale salads. The pears' position on the line are unjustified, if we threw them on a taco variation maybe their place on the Bikini Bottom line could be argued but for now they only go on a salad that isn’t particularly popular. The kale salad is an issue of space for a 4th green for salads is too much. The krusty salad is my most hated house salad of all time. And it comes down to the toast with goat cheese. This ancillary step of spreading goat cheese on a cracker is an unnecessary step for an overly complicated dance and should be part of the expo dance if expo wasn’t a shoddily designed afterthought lacking a low boy.
There are a plethora of squeeze bottles on the pantry station that have no place on the overloaded station. They belong to an expo station with a low boy to keep them cold. Pantry has an overwhelming ten squeeze bottles: chipotle crema, sweet chili vinaigrette, buffalo, korean bbq, ranch, caesar, wine vinaigrette, lemon vinaigrette, honey mustard, and lemon aioli. Only the first four are justified on an intelligently designed fryer section, the second four belong on the build station, the last two have no place anywhere but expo. With this extra space sautee could keep their bottles and two purees cold in the fryer's lowboy instead of leaving them at room temperature all day inviting a pathogen party. This theorized intelligently designed expo would have room to keep these four squeeze bottles and a double of every sauce chilled to pour them into ramekins, a move that is highly common in the expo dance. The fact that expo doesn’t have a double of all squeeze bottles is foolish. Expo has to bother an overloaded station to pour these side sauces instead.
How many gallons of basil aioli has Bikini Bottom thrown away in 11 months? Four aiolis in general is way too many and most go on a single item; basil aioli on the incredibly unpopular veggie burger, lemon aioli for calamari, sweet chili aioli for the BLT that is only served half of the day, and garlic aioli actually goes on two items…I believe. What a colossal waste of precious little space, lose two aiolis and then you can sing the logical song with me. Perhaps we can put garlic aioli and sweet chili vinaigrette on the BLT separately and accomplish the exact same thing the sweet chili aioli does. The wings too have unneeded complications. Having worked at a sports bar specializing in wings for the better part of a decade I find KK’s plating of wings to be overly pretentious. The carrots, celery, and blue cheese have lost function. Heffer Wolf always said no one eats the carrot/celery julienne with blue cheese. It’s a complete waste of all the ingredients because you’ve gone too far with the presentation. Wings aren’t fancy. Wings are supposed to have a small pool of sauce and be sloppy. It’s like a sloppy joe that’s not sloppy, an unsloppy joe is a failure to sloppy joes just as the KK presentation of wings is a disparagement to the dish. Ever since training week back in 2022 I have used a scale to give Bikini Bottom a passing or failing grade.
Chokey Chicken to Chum Bucket is the scale I use to judge efficiency and sanity at Bikini Bottom. Both establishments are upscale casual dining experiences in Capitol City in the same vein as KK. Chokey had high employee retention and relatively smooth openings for new locations. Chum Bucket’s employee turnover was high and every location opening was chaotic. Which one sounds closer to KK? Chokey Chicken was filled with chefs I respect including Chef Ren Hoek who remains a close friend to this day. Ren lost his lifelong passion for kitchen work after working management at Chum Bucket. He’s actually seeking work in Bikini Bottom. Call him up at [phone number], but KK will give him Nam’ flashbacks of why he chose driving for a living rather than cooking for five years. The pair of us together helming Bikini Bottom with the ability to omit and create 18% of the overloaded menu can bring success to this franchise. We have worked well numerous times in the past on various concepts in the past including creating The Attack of the Pickled Tomatoes Burger for [Promotional live performance of a TV show] at the Capitol City Theater. We served 100 people in 60 at the [sitcom filming] lunch. That’s physically impossible but somehow we did it quite a few times.
A fun anecdote about Ren Hoek’s KK experience from the soft launch; on training week numerous times I brought concerns about being seafood allergy safe that were dismissed. As mentioned earlier the pantry station lacks the counter space to have two containers of flour and two containers of batter, one each of which seafood never touches. Before the soft launch Chef Stimpy from Bluffington insisted all customers just kind of know everything is prone to be seafood contaminated. Well, chef Ren was a customer that night and this absolutely was not communicated to customers. He claimed to have a slight seafood allergy and was not informed of what the crab soup was. In reality he does not have a seafood allergy. I didn’t discuss the seafood issue with Ren, separately we noticed egregious violations of food safety standards and we each responded in our own way. The soft launch service was so awful that night Chef Ren walked out of a free meal to pay for some ramen, never to return to Bikini Bottom. I attribute this oversight, and many of Bikini Bottom’s (and probably O-Town’s) problems to hubris over the Bluffington location.
Chef Chokey would also be hesitant to join the KK team. It will cost a finder’s fee just for me to reveal Chef Chokey’s name. Chef Chokey was a lead in the rapid expansion of Chokey Chicken restaurants. He opened numerous restaurants and was big on the philosophy that each restaurant must have its own personality in order to fit the unique local culture and the variety of working spaces. This is in direct conflict with the KK way that everything must be exactly like the Bluffington location no matter what. There was only one Chokey Chicken location that had the full menu, Chokey Springfield. Chokey Springfield had a large space which was intelligently designed to accommodate such a large menu. The KK menu is all over the place, closing in on 50 menu items which comes up as a failure on the Chokey Chicken/Chum Bucket scale. This is not the only area KK comes up as a major failure on the Chokey Chicken/Chum Bucket scale.
Has anyone in this company ever worked festival traffic before? Does anyone have the experience of working next to a major venue with 8000 seats before this one? The way Bikini Bottom handles Dimmadome services it certainly appears that the decision-makers fall on the wrong side of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Having all 50 items available during such massive traffic is completely asinine. An unwillingness to serve a partial menu is hindering the Bikini Bottom kitchen staff. I have worked festival traffic before, and Dimmadome events bring in festival traffic. I’ve worked inside a festival whose line never ended but every customer got their order in 5 minutes or less because the line kept flowing with only four items on the menu as that’s what was warranted at the B-Sharps Music Festival. I refuse to be set up for failure the way Bikini Bottom sets up Dimmadome services for failure. The entire week of concerts in [summer] 2022 I was set up for failure every day (it was after this I modified my availability to keep my sanity and my paycheck). When I brought my concerns about running efficiently during Dimmadome services I was labeled a B-worker for the first time in my employment history by Icus and Krabs. It is that moment which I was either going to holler at them both for being 2-dimensional thinkers who were obviously unqualified for the positions they accepted in this company, or just put my head down. If Bikini Bottom has a successful concert day service, hail your team because they snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. They swam with concrete shoes. I often wonder how many customers had bad experiences and never returned after concert days. A Dimmadome service should have no more than 25 items and have one or two specials to divert traffic towards an area the kitchen can keep moving. An Open Cup Open Plate (OCOP) special for foot traffic is absolutely needed. When I suggested OCOP special, Heffer was intrigued by this idea and immediately named burgers as the special to keep foot traffic flowing. Smithers wouldn’t hear this idea, babbling on about what’s advertised instead of hearing out a sound idea. This prattle despite radio commercials having inaccurate hours and social media promoting Bikini Bottom’s steak tacos to this day. I always found Smithers to be a better fit as a middle management office pencil pusher than as a hands-on restaurant manager. Overall I find KK managers are selected to be automatons not to question their orders rather than critical thinkers who could take the restaurant to the next level. During brunch service is another period of time that must be modified to lessen the heft of items. Having a full menu that barely works plus brunch is so deep into Chum Bucket territory, in my opinion we now have to use the Tropic Thunder scale of full [R-word censored by jobs] to describe a 60-plus-item brunch. Chef Ren hired back a Chum Bucket cook who had a mental breakdown and stormed out during brunch (plus full menu) service because Ren knew the employee was justified and upper management was completely unreasonable in their brunch requests. It’s not just questionable decisions that hinder KK staff but improper equipment as well.
This is the first restaurant I have worked at which uses a touch screen on the line rather than tickets. From day one I found this to be technology for technology’s sake inferior to tickets. Chef Ren forced a new Chum Bucket location to rip out touch screens from the line and bring in ticket printers because of the higher efficiency. The touch screen is a great idea for expo, not the entire line. My biggest gripe is that each station does not get all the information. Early on I was regularly yelled at for not staggering my items, well I can’t see the rest of the order; a problem I have never had with a ticket system. Touchscreen software is also much more prone to errors and glitches. When I reported an error during a heavy service Icus and Krabs blamed my skills on the line without looking into the malfunctioning screen further. It was glitchy for weeks before the two finally investigated and corrected the issue I brought to their attention long before. Those two gave me an immense amount of ammunition to dislike them in the opening weeks until I stopped caring. The issue I had with being unable to scroll beyond the bottom of a completely filled screen has returned and is still there as of [my last day]. There are also important details that get buried. A frequent meltdown I have is that sauce on side requests and other important modifications are not capitalized or in red to catch the eye as they have been at jobs with tickets. These details get lost on Bikini Bottom’s touchscreens. A sauce on side salad made by me will be wrong 50% of the time because of the instructions being camouflaged in a word salad. This goes for coleslaw on the side and drizzle on the side too. Drizzle in general I dislike because of the pretentiousness, but whatever, drizzle it on top rather than putting it in a ramekin if you must. There are numerous places where Bikini Bottom overcomplicates matters for reasons I cannot ascertain.
Why is there such a large variety of plates? Why do we have a medium circular plate for salads and a large bowl for salads with protein? This just confuses the simplest of matters. I was told this is done because of the high price hike with protein, a larger presentation was desired. But that price hike is the price of protein in 2023. Bikini Bottom should put all salads in the large bowls and use all the circular salad plates in a skeet shooting promotion. I understand why we have both a circular platter plate and a pizza plate but in my restaurant the circular platter plates must go...or maybe the large platter plate instead. Is the large platter used for anything besides fish and chips? That extra space on fish and chips plates are only used for side sauces which can easily be delivered to customers on small circular plates. What is the medium oval plate doing that the medium rectangular plate isn’t? And vice versa. Why do they both exist when they are approximately the same size? Let me write an internet commercial where we break a lot of plates so we can get some logical use out of the superfluous plates. I don’t care which one is destroyed, the ovals or the rectangles but one of them is an unnecessary redundancy in excess done again. Speaking of commercials, the unimaginative radio advertisements for Bikini Bottom are doing little to lure new customers to the restaurant.
The three radio spots I have heard on KBBL all sound like they were produced by a marketing 101 student who wasn’t a natural in the field. The voiceover actor was so uncharismatic I was certain someone from the office was chosen at random to read the copy. Then I heard that same voiceover actor selling pool supplies on another radio station so I concluded that Bikini Bottom must have hired the cheapest guy in town to produce the most basic of commercials. Perhaps there is someone else you could hire more qualified to voiceover these commercials, an actor with experience on an Emmy award winning cable program whose unique place in the film industry was written about on [website] would be a much wiser choice to be the voice of the KK? (See external link). In the ad there was no catchphrase, no jingle, no music whatsoever. This simple approach to commercials lacks the pizazz to catch the attention of radio listeners. The first two commercials I heard would get a C in marketing 101 as they were nearly the exact same and accomplished the bare minimum to sell wares, the third one would maybe get a B- because there was some sort of attempted gimmick with the voiceover whispering to represent thinking inside his head about what he was going to eat later at KK. Not only does this commercial give no reason for the man to think inside his head, the outside world still and unpopulated. To see what a creative person would do with this concept see the attached script. There is an attempted slogan that could become part of an ad campaign. Commercials aren’t the only lost opportunities in promotions.
There are numerous promotional celebrity tie-ins at Bikini Bottom’s fingertips with Dimmadome performers. The restaurant could have a Phish sandwich as a OCOP special on [Phish performance dates], or a pretentious Jelly Roll on [Jelly Roll performance date]. Has anyone reached out to the Dimmadome theater or talent management for approved special menu items to be promoted inside the dome? Perhaps a special 20% discount to ticket holders? Is Bikini Bottom capable of getting permits to extend Open Container hours beyond [cutoff time] for an afterparty or block party throughout a Dimmadome concert? I see additional marketing opportunities left on the table for all new locations.
I believe new KK locations are missing out on a marketing campaign by opening with the entire cumbersome 50 item menu. This is a staggering amount of menu items which is too much to ask new staffers to perfect all at once. After a few months expanding the menu by approximately ten items is catching to customers who haven’t returned after a single visit or infrequently stop into KK. There are ten new food items that might appeal to them. Just like it appears KK doesn’t know what it’s looking for in a good commercial spot, this company doesn’t appear to recognize a talented from an untalented worker until it’s too late.
It is my understanding that KK had a headhunter to find Icus, the first Bikini Bottom kitchen manager. If it were up to me I’d hire someone to break the legs of that headhunter for bringing in a subpar kitchen lead. We are still attempting to recover from the lousy choices she made in the floor plan. If anybody responsible for Bikini Bottom’s floor plan is still giving input, stop them immediately. Once the doors were open to the public Icus had his head in the clouds to a point where I questioned if he saw the writing on the walls of an imminent demotion and stopped trying as a result. I had a full deck of 3x5 cards in an archaic powerpoint presentation bringing numerous concerns to light that he kept putting off listening to until he was fired. Those same cards were broken out for this essay. The second kitchen manager, Krumm, is a good lesson in honesty. According to Heffer, Krumm was given a bill of goods about how smoothly KK Bikini Bottom was running. Since Krumm stepped into a latrine pit which he was led to believe was a heated pool, he left in short time. Krumm also had plans to modify the menu but when his bosses told him to be a rodeo clown rather than a cowboy Krumm didn’t take too kindly to that. Meanwhile Heffer was the savior of the Bikini Bottom kitchen. I didn’t agree with every single decision he made, but I did with a majority of them. Heffer’s overhaul was such a blessing so I didn’t have to fiddle with the organization of 60% of the equipment anymore, only about 20% now. Too bad Heffer’s crippling depression came back after bashing his head into the wall out of frustration with the shackles KK restrained him with.
The current management team is enthusiastic but inexperienced. I see an accumulation of small infractions that might bring down Bikini Bottom’s health department rating significantly. I see the entire management team being inattentive or unaware about organizational issues. Whatever bureaucratic nonsense corporate tasks everyone with from the original sous chef Skeeter to Patty Mayonnaise that makes them walk away from the line between 11am and 1pm especially is infuriating. I have never been left alone on a multi-person line during peak hours so regularly, and I won’t tolerate it anymore. As much as I believe in his drive, I imagine our current kitchen manager SpongeBob will be let go after a disastrous service during the Dimmadome concert season that someone has to take the fall for. Chef Ren and I could help bring experience in management and dealing with festival traffic...if corporate does not force us to follow a failing strategy.
After working nearly a year at KK you may ask why I’m not proficient on more than one station. Excellent question. First, when I move over to another station the squeeze bottles are never labeled (until Stu Pickles was hired, now they’re sometimes labeled), so I always looked at the glut of unlabeled sauces and I’d go back to my station because the basic information is missing (also a health department violation for having numerous unlabeled, unchilled bottles). In his first week the new general manager Stu Pickles pulled out 90% of the containers under the grill station because they were lacking labels despite an expected health department visit. The second reason for my menu ignorance is the mountain of prep for my own and upcoming shifts I have piled up on my station throughout service. My attention to detail appears to be next level with my ability to anticipate stocking all items for all shifts including the weeknd. The third reason I wouldn’t learn multiple stations is a defense against the afternoon conference calls. In [month] the Bikini Bottom line was unprepared for a busy post lunch because one cook was cut and our expo person was busy with a conference call. The two of us remaining on the line had a miserable slog through an unexpectedly busy afternoon. When I brought this up to Krabs he disregarded me, being a good bean counter he quoted the cost percentage. What he didn’t take into account was the missing expo person who could have jumped on the line and expo to help the understaffed two man team. That person was stuck on a conference call. Just recently I saw the company actively lose money because of this poorly thought-out meeting during business hours. A customer wanted to order a dessert that was 86ed but had been restocked by our prep cook an hour before. The server was unable to sell them their dessert because the only person in the building who could help un-86 an item was on a conference call. This conference call calamity is another bone-headed choice that speaks to a larger decision-making problem within the corporate structure. Finish the conference calls by 10:45 am eastern.
In conclusion, I quit my position as a lowly grunt for this company because of its unwarranted perplexing dance steps and below average management. I don’t care how much varnish and lacquer is supplied, I refuse to polish this Bikini Bottom turd as a manager or full-time employee under the current circumstances. You would have to take a pickaxe to the floor, possibly relocate the bathrooms to add a door to the dishpit, get rid of the cheap low boy that doesn’t properly drain excess water, and Mr Gorbachov knock down that wall in the middle of the kitchen to give the proper amount of space to work. Or simply reduce the menu to 36 items (including sides) because that’s the amount of space this dreadful design can comfortably output. Would Gordon Ramsay compliment KK for all the unnecessary convoluted complications abound, or would Chef Ramsay yell about keeping it simple and demand KK chuck it in the flip? Thanks to the numerous pop up restaurants I have been a part of and the hectic world of trade shows/conventions, I may have more experience than anyone else employed by KK in smoothly opening a new location. I would enjoy being part of the opening team to ensure new locations have an efficiency Bikini Bottom lacks, and to keep upper management away from their worst instincts. Work with me and Chef Ren and we will help you become a well oiled machine like Chokey Chicken instead of the Chum Bucket cesspit Bikini Bottom currently embodies.
submitted by DillonFromSomewhere to jobs [link] [comments]

2023.06.01 17:29 DillonFromSomewhere Resignation Letter in Academic Essay Format

I know quitting your job as a cook usually simply comes with two weeks notice or a ragequit walkout, but for eleven months I worked at a new franchise that had such potential which was being squandered by the incompetence of upper management. I present the nearly 6000 word thesis I turned in on my last day. Locations and names have been changed to cartoon references. Brackets represent ambiguous information in place of specific details.
Krusty Krab Careers Jobs
Opening in [Month/Year], Krusty Krab (KK) Bikini Bottom is on its 4th kitchen manager in less than a year. Krusty Krab O-Town has recently let go its inaugural kitchen manager and sous chef. Almost no member of the Bikini Bottom opening management team remains employed by KK. There is a pattern developing where one must question both the choice of employee and the directive given to new franchises. These lingering issues I brought concerns about in the first weeks of opening but was disregarded at every turn despite my experience with festival traffic. As a result I decided this was not a place I wanted to advance, but with a good-enough paycheck I’d be a lowly grunt in the kitchen four days a week, at five days a week I would have quit or been fired over a public outburst long ago. If Krusty Krab alters course slightly while being true to the brand this could be a successful chain.
My unique employment history in brick and mortar restaurants, food trucks, pop up culinary concepts, trade shows/conventions, and the film industry make me an ideal candidate to be on the opening team for new KK locations. My outgoing nature and foresight are valuable assets. For example, on training week before opening when I was standing around idly without a task I took it upon myself to organize the disarray that was dry storage. Overhearing Krabs tell another manager where he wanted the cleaning products placed, I had a jumping off point and the organization I created nine months ago is still largely in place. Since returning from my vacation in early February I have made it my mission to keep the storage area organized because it was again starting to resemble a hoarder’s house rather than a commercial kitchen. This is now part of my weekly routines because every time I turn my back there is more product being placed haphazardly just anywhere with little regard. I also recently reorganized the walk-in cooler because of problematic stocking with items being placed on the same shelf or below raw proteins. I also simply put all the like products together such as cheeses or fruits that were scattered amongst several shelves. With recent overordering I cannot keep up with the organization of the walk in cooler. The pattern recognition of food types and even simple shapes appears to be lost on the Bikini Bottom crew. My daily reorganization of containers is proof of this. Most days I’ll take a few minutes to put all cylinders together, all cambros together in descending volume, all deep and shallow pans next to each other rather than intermixed. My decision to be a kitchen manager at age 19 from 2005 thru 2008 and rarely enter restaurant management since is very calculated.
With my prior knowledge of professional kitchens I was becoming Bikini Bottom’s resident nag to coworkers as I made note of health department violations on a daily basis. I stopped after being largely ignored for two weeks. My regular health department nags include; a battle with jackets and hats being placed only in the designated area (a designated area that did not exist until I created a place for personal items a in January by neatly organizing the dry storage area again), waiting until prepped items are cooled before a cover is placed on top, placement of raw seafood, open containers (very often sugar, flour, and pancake mix bags ripped open and left), and dirty dishes/containers placed back in rotation. The dirty dishes and containers in rotation with the clean ones are at an atrociously high number. I have given up on making the 4th fryer seafood allergy safe too. With the low volume of seafood allergy safe items Bikini Bottom should purchase smaller baskets to visually discourage cross contamination with the other fryers and baskets. My skills to organize the kitchen do not end with simply where to store products to meet minimal health department standards.
Half of the space in the Bikini Bottom kitchen is completely wasted on an ill-advised walkway to the dishpit. An intelligent design would place a second doorway directly to the dishpit connected to the bar or where the bathrooms reside. Numerous times during the opening week of KK Bikini Bottom I said, yelled, sang, and muttered that we have too many food items for the amount of space we have. Icus stated that there was more space than Bluffington. Is Bluffington intelligently designed? Because Bikini Bottom most certainly isn’t. So Bikini Bottom actually has less space even if there is more square footage. See the attached diagram for an intelligent design that could potentially house a menu of this size. Bikini Bottom forces a line design on this kitchen when an open concept is needed for this menu. It’s as if this floorplan was created by a person who had only ever seen one commercial kitchen previously and couldn’t think 4th dimensionally to understand the needs of the workers to smoothly serve customers.
There is not enough counter space for pizzas without getting off the line, the microwave is placed completely out of the way, the freezer’s curved design is a waste of potential counter space and a falling hazard for containers stored on top of it, the toaster is an overcomplicated and overexpensive piece of machinery that serves exactly one purpose when a flat top could be used to toast bread and other purposes like a quesadilla special, sautee was designed without an overhang for spices, the pantry station lacks the counter space to have two containers of flour and two containers of batter for seafood allergies, there are no Frialator fryers which I have worked with at every single kitchen job previously instead we got the cheap Vulcan model (is that logical), the cheap low boy in pantry that doesn’t drain excess water anywhere it’s just supposed to evaporate somehow but doesn’t, the grill and fryer should be placed next to each other (with a higher volume of crossover than other stations), the floors are flat instead on having a mild decline towards the drains (just look at the standing water residing behind the oven right now), in the dishpit the spraying area and the filled sinks are backwards of a logical dipshit, the ramp to the back door is on the wrong side, there is no refrigerated place downstairs to stage extra food for busy shifts (the beer cooler is once again used for such food items because of this massive oversight), the prep station is an afterthought and miniscule, the dishes on the line are difficult to grab for anyone under 5’11” and inaccessible for anyone under 5’6” (instead of putting them underneath tables that also give that desperately needed counterspace I spoke of), there is not enough space to store to-go containers or boats behind the line, expo is lacking a low boy for the numerous items that are supposed to be cold but are instead kept at room temperature all day long, no one in management thought about buying shelves until right before Bikini Bottom opened as a result the clean full sheets sat on the floor for days, we had only the exact amount of 1⁄6 pans for an absurd amount of time making it impossible to rotate and clean them when necessary (which is daily), we still struggle with 1/9 pan supply. And just when I thought I documented all the poor design choices possible I stumbled upon a person whose office holiday party was booked at KK Bikini Bottom. The deck space works just fine as a deck. It does not double well as a gathering space. The space is too long and narrow for parties, it promotes little splitoff groups rather than a coming together of a larger gathering. It may be advantageous to contact a social psychologist for help designing a private party space that promotes intermingling rather than enforcing small pockets to form. The reorganization of the physical kitchen isn’t all that screams for an overhaul.
There are six positions on the line at the Krusty Krab; expo, oven, grill, sautee, fryer, and pantry. But the pantry and fryer positions are forced together like a bad remix. Everyone who mainly works pantry deserves a $6 raise immediately because it is a station and a half. Both Icus and Krumm, while kitchen manager, kind of acknowledged the pantry is too big for one station without outright mentioning the lopsided distribution of work. I imagine in the only location where this works, Bluffington, a second person joins the pantry at noon because of the unreasonable amount of items one person is tasked with. Bikini Bottom only has one person in this position at all times, maybe modify it for one person? The excess of items on the pantry position largely resembles a position I would call “set-up” or “build” at a previous job that made sensible choices. This build position should have tostadas, tacos, butcher’s blocks, toast, salads, lettuce wrap set ups, and preparing plating for whichever station is most bogged down. I have absolutely lost my mind yelling about salads at least once a month, ranting that they do not belong on the fryer position because of how illogical it is that five salads are included on the mountain of other items the pantry has. I have always considered working in a kitchen a kind of dance, and the pantry station demands an unnecessarily convoluted dance to keep up with the demand. Without the salads, tostadas, and tacos the station is already the busiest. Do we really need to combine ballet and swing by including these extra awkward dance steps in this single station? For a kitchen designed this poorly I suppose it is. Again, see attached document for an intelligently designed kitchen that might be able to accommodate this menu. Unless Bikini Bottom is going to close for a month to fix the baffling floor plan design the menu is shouting to be reduced to 30-36 items.
The menu is too big. Krusty Krab is the jack of all foods, master of none. In general I believe individual locations should be allowed 18% omissions, and 18% unique items to this wildly unwieldy menu sitting around 50 food items including sides. The insistence on keeping menu items that don’t sell at Bikini Bottom because of Bluffington is mind boggling. Chicken tenders do not sell at Bikini Bottom. fried sushi does not sell at Bikini Bottom, not enough to justify their place on the line. I don’t care how well these items work in Bluffinton. They. Do. Not. Work. At. Bikini. Bottom. If the KK location in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean sells an incredible amount of live krill does that mean Bikini Bottom and O-Town must sell live krill too? Take the fried sushi off the menu. I had a complete meltdown about this during a Dimmadome service and my valid point was met with indifference. Replace the kid’s tenders with a kid’s fish sticks. We already have the tilapia fish sticks on the line for tacos. Or make the kid’s fish sticks cod. We cut cod to order for fish tacos in spite of health code violations because it is too rare of an order to make beforehand. Saffron in mashed potatoes? If you must. Why are green tomatoes only on the menu during lunch? Bikini Bottom throws away a sizable amount of spoiled green tomatoes each week. Have green tomatoes on the menu all day long or don’t have them at all. The smoked salmon could go on salads or a special taco to justify its place on the line. The corn pico’s place on the line is unjustified. It only goes on one item, tostadas, which are not particularly popular. If we had a taco salad we could throw the corn pico on there. We also have unreasonable waste from unusable taco shells, smash up those imperfect taco shells and throw them on said taco salad. But before we add salads, let's get rid of the pear and kale salads. The pears' position on the line are unjustified, if we threw them on a taco variation maybe their place on the Bikini Bottom line could be argued but for now they only go on a salad that isn’t particularly popular. The kale salad is an issue of space for a 4th green for salads is too much. The krusty salad is my most hated house salad of all time. And it comes down to the toast with goat cheese. This ancillary step of spreading goat cheese on a cracker is an unnecessary step for an overly complicated dance and should be part of the expo dance if expo wasn’t a shoddily designed afterthought lacking a low boy.
There are a plethora of squeeze bottles on the pantry station that have no place on the overloaded station. They belong to an expo station with a low boy to keep them cold. Pantry has an overwhelming ten squeeze bottles: chipotle crema, sweet chili vinaigrette, buffalo, korean bbq, ranch, caesar, wine vinaigrette, lemon vinaigrette, honey mustard, and lemon aioli. Only the first four are justified on an intelligently designed fryer section, the second four belong on the build station, the last two have no place anywhere but expo. With this extra space sautee could keep their bottles and two purees cold in the fryer's lowboy instead of leaving them at room temperature all day inviting a pathogen party. This theorized intelligently designed expo would have room to keep these four squeeze bottles and a double of every sauce chilled to pour them into ramekins, a move that is highly common in the expo dance. The fact that expo doesn’t have a double of all squeeze bottles is foolish. Expo has to bother an overloaded station to pour these side sauces instead.
How many gallons of basil aioli has Bikini Bottom thrown away in 11 months? Four aiolis in general is way too many and most go on a single item; basil aioli on the incredibly unpopular veggie burger, lemon aioli for calamari, sweet chili aioli for the BLT that is only served half of the day, and garlic aioli actually goes on two items…I believe. What a colossal waste of precious little space, lose two aiolis and then you can sing the logical song with me. Perhaps we can put garlic aioli and sweet chili vinaigrette on the BLT separately and accomplish the exact same thing the sweet chili aioli does. The wings too have unneeded complications. Having worked at a sports bar specializing in wings for the better part of a decade I find KK’s plating of wings to be overly pretentious. The carrots, celery, and blue cheese have lost function. Heffer Wolf always said no one eats the carrot/celery julienne with blue cheese. It’s a complete waste of all the ingredients because you’ve gone too far with the presentation. Wings aren’t fancy. Wings are supposed to have a small pool of sauce and be sloppy. It’s like a sloppy joe that’s not sloppy, an unsloppy joe is a failure to sloppy joes just as the KK presentation of wings is a disparagement to the dish. Ever since training week back in 2022 I have used a scale to give Bikini Bottom a passing or failing grade.
Chokey Chicken to Chum Bucket is the scale I use to judge efficiency and sanity at Bikini Bottom. Both establishments are upscale casual dining experiences in Capitol City in the same vein as KK. Chokey had high employee retention and relatively smooth openings for new locations. Chum Bucket’s employee turnover was high and every location opening was chaotic. Which one sounds closer to KK? Chokey Chicken was filled with chefs I respect including Chef Ren Hoek who remains a close friend to this day. Ren lost his lifelong passion for kitchen work after working management at Chum Bucket. He’s actually seeking work in Bikini Bottom. Call him up at [phone number], but KK will give him Nam’ flashbacks of why he chose driving for a living rather than cooking for five years. The pair of us together helming Bikini Bottom with the ability to omit and create 18% of the overloaded menu can bring success to this franchise. We have worked well numerous times in the past on various concepts in the past including creating The Attack of the Pickled Tomatoes Burger for [Promotional live performance of a TV show] at the Capitol City Theater. We served 100 people in 60 at the [sitcom filming] lunch. That’s physically impossible but somehow we did it quite a few times.
A fun anecdote about Ren Hoek’s KK experience from the soft launch; on training week numerous times I brought concerns about being seafood allergy safe that were dismissed. As mentioned earlier the pantry station lacks the counter space to have two containers of flour and two containers of batter, one each of which seafood never touches. Before the soft launch Chef Stimpy from Bluffington insisted all customers just kind of know everything is prone to be seafood contaminated. Well, chef Ren was a customer that night and this absolutely was not communicated to customers. He claimed to have a slight seafood allergy and was not informed of what the crab soup was. In reality he does not have a seafood allergy. I didn’t discuss the seafood issue with Ren, separately we noticed egregious violations of food safety standards and we each responded in our own way. The soft launch service was so awful that night Chef Ren walked out of a free meal to pay for some ramen, never to return to Bikini Bottom. I attribute this oversight, and many of Bikini Bottom’s (and probably O-Town’s) problems to hubris over the Bluffington location.
Chef Chokey would also be hesitant to join the KK team. It will cost a finder’s fee just for me to reveal Chef Chokey’s name. Chef Chokey was a lead in the rapid expansion of Chokey Chicken restaurants. He opened numerous restaurants and was big on the philosophy that each restaurant must have its own personality in order to fit the unique local culture and the variety of working spaces. This is in direct conflict with the KK way that everything must be exactly like the Bluffington location no matter what. There was only one Chokey Chicken location that had the full menu, Chokey Springfield. Chokey Springfield had a large space which was intelligently designed to accommodate such a large menu. The KK menu is all over the place, closing in on 50 menu items which comes up as a failure on the Chokey Chicken/Chum Bucket scale. This is not the only area KK comes up as a major failure on the Chokey Chicken/Chum Bucket scale.
Has anyone in this company ever worked festival traffic before? Does anyone have the experience of working next to a major venue with 8000 seats before this one? The way Bikini Bottom handles Dimmadome services it certainly appears that the decision-makers fall on the wrong side of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Having all 50 items available during such massive traffic is completely asinine. An unwillingness to serve a partial menu is hindering the Bikini Bottom kitchen staff. I have worked festival traffic before, and Dimmadome events bring in festival traffic. I’ve worked inside a festival whose line never ended but every customer got their order in 5 minutes or less because the line kept flowing with only four items on the menu as that’s what was warranted at the B-Sharps Music Festival. I refuse to be set up for failure the way Bikini Bottom sets up Dimmadome services for failure. The entire week of concerts in [summer] 2022 I was set up for failure every day (it was after this I modified my availability to keep my sanity and my paycheck). When I brought my concerns about running efficiently during Dimmadome services I was labeled a B-worker for the first time in my employment history by Icus and Krabs. It is that moment which I was either going to holler at them both for being 2-dimensional thinkers who were obviously unqualified for the positions they accepted in this company, or just put my head down. If Bikini Bottom has a successful concert day service, hail your team because they snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. They swam with concrete shoes. I often wonder how many customers had bad experiences and never returned after concert days. A Dimmadome service should have no more than 25 items and have one or two specials to divert traffic towards an area the kitchen can keep moving. An Open Cup Open Plate (OCOP) special for foot traffic is absolutely needed. When I suggested OCOP special, Heffer was intrigued by this idea and immediately named burgers as the special to keep foot traffic flowing. Smithers wouldn’t hear this idea, babbling on about what’s advertised instead of hearing out a sound idea. This prattle despite radio commercials having inaccurate hours and social media promoting Bikini Bottom’s steak tacos to this day. I always found Smithers to be a better fit as a middle management office pencil pusher than as a hands-on restaurant manager. Overall I find KK managers are selected to be automatons not to question their orders rather than critical thinkers who could take the restaurant to the next level. During brunch service is another period of time that must be modified to lessen the heft of items. Having a full menu that barely works plus brunch is so deep into Chum Bucket territory, in my opinion we now have to use the Tropic Thunder scale of full retard to describe a 60-plus-item brunch. Chef Ren hired back a Chum Bucket cook who had a mental breakdown and stormed out during brunch (plus full menu) service because Ren knew the employee was justified and upper management was completely unreasonable in their brunch requests. It’s not just questionable decisions that hinder KK staff but improper equipment as well.
This is the first restaurant I have worked at which uses a touch screen on the line rather than tickets. From day one I found this to be technology for technology’s sake inferior to tickets. Chef Ren forced a new Chum Bucket location to rip out touch screens from the line and bring in ticket printers because of the higher efficiency. The touch screen is a great idea for expo, not the entire line. My biggest gripe is that each station does not get all the information. Early on I was regularly yelled at for not staggering my items, well I can’t see the rest of the order; a problem I have never had with a ticket system. Touchscreen software is also much more prone to errors and glitches. When I reported an error during a heavy service Icus and Krabs blamed my skills on the line without looking into the malfunctioning screen further. It was glitchy for weeks before the two finally investigated and corrected the issue I brought to their attention long before. Those two gave me an immense amount of ammunition to dislike them in the opening weeks until I stopped caring. The issue I had with being unable to scroll beyond the bottom of a completely filled screen has returned and is still there as of [my last day]. There are also important details that get buried. A frequent meltdown I have is that sauce on side requests and other important modifications are not capitalized or in red to catch the eye as they have been at jobs with tickets. These details get lost on Bikini Bottom’s touchscreens. A sauce on side salad made by me will be wrong 50% of the time because of the instructions being camouflaged in a word salad. This goes for coleslaw on the side and drizzle on the side too. Drizzle in general I dislike because of the pretentiousness, but whatever, drizzle it on top rather than putting it in a ramekin if you must. There are numerous places where Bikini Bottom overcomplicates matters for reasons I cannot ascertain.
Why is there such a large variety of plates? Why do we have a medium circular plate for salads and a large bowl for salads with protein? This just confuses the simplest of matters. I was told this is done because of the high price hike with protein, a larger presentation was desired. But that price hike is the price of protein in 2023. Bikini Bottom should put all salads in the large bowls and use all the circular salad plates in a skeet shooting promotion. I understand why we have both a circular platter plate and a pizza plate but in my restaurant the circular platter plates must go...or maybe the large platter plate instead. Is the large platter used for anything besides fish and chips? That extra space on fish and chips plates are only used for side sauces which can easily be delivered to customers on small circular plates. What is the medium oval plate doing that the medium rectangular plate isn’t? And vice versa. Why do they both exist when they are approximately the same size? Let me write an internet commercial where we break a lot of plates so we can get some logical use out of the superfluous plates. I don’t care which one is destroyed, the ovals or the rectangles but one of them is an unnecessary redundancy in excess done again. Speaking of commercials, the unimaginative radio advertisements for Bikini Bottom are doing little to lure new customers to the restaurant.
The three radio spots I have heard on KBBL all sound like they were produced by a marketing 101 student who wasn’t a natural in the field. The voiceover actor was so uncharismatic I was certain someone from the office was chosen at random to read the copy. Then I heard that same voiceover actor selling pool supplies on another radio station so I concluded that Bikini Bottom must have hired the cheapest guy in town to produce the most basic of commercials. Perhaps there is someone else you could hire more qualified to voiceover these commercials, an actor with experience on an Emmy award winning cable program whose unique place in the film industry was written about on [website] would be a much wiser choice to be the voice of the KK? (See external link). In the ad there was no catchphrase, no jingle, no music whatsoever. This simple approach to commercials lacks the pizazz to catch the attention of radio listeners. The first two commercials I heard would get a C in marketing 101 as they were nearly the exact same and accomplished the bare minimum to sell wares, the third one would maybe get a B- because there was some sort of attempted gimmick with the voiceover whispering to represent thinking inside his head about what he was going to eat later at KK. Not only does this commercial give no reason for the man to think inside his head, the outside world still and unpopulated. To see what a creative person would do with this concept see the attached script. There is an attempted slogan that could become part of an ad campaign. Commercials aren’t the only lost opportunities in promotions.
There are numerous promotional celebrity tie-ins at Bikini Bottom’s fingertips with Dimmadome performers. The restaurant could have a Phish sandwich as a OCOP special on [Phish performance dates], or a pretentious Jelly Roll on [Jelly Roll performance date]. Has anyone reached out to the Dimmadome theater or talent management for approved special menu items to be promoted inside the dome? Perhaps a special 20% discount to ticket holders? Is Bikini Bottom capable of getting permits to extend Open Container hours beyond [cutoff time] for an afterparty or block party throughout a Dimmadome concert? I see additional marketing opportunities left on the table for all new locations.
I believe new KK locations are missing out on a marketing campaign by opening with the entire cumbersome 50 item menu. This is a staggering amount of menu items which is too much to ask new staffers to perfect all at once. After a few months expanding the menu by approximately ten items is catching to customers who haven’t returned after a single visit or infrequently stop into KK. There are ten new food items that might appeal to them. Just like it appears KK doesn’t know what it’s looking for in a good commercial spot, this company doesn’t appear to recognize a talented from an untalented worker until it’s too late.
It is my understanding that KK had a headhunter to find Icus, the first Bikini Bottom kitchen manager. If it were up to me I’d hire someone to break the legs of that headhunter for bringing in a subpar kitchen lead. We are still attempting to recover from the lousy choices she made in the floor plan. If anybody responsible for Bikini Bottom’s floor plan is still giving input, stop them immediately. Once the doors were open to the public Icus had his head in the clouds to a point where I questioned if he saw the writing on the walls of an imminent demotion and stopped trying as a result. I had a full deck of 3x5 cards in an archaic powerpoint presentation bringing numerous concerns to light that he kept putting off listening to until he was fired. Those same cards were broken out for this essay. The second kitchen manager, Krumm, is a good lesson in honesty. According to Heffer, Krumm was given a bill of goods about how smoothly KK Bikini Bottom was running. Since Krumm stepped into a latrine pit which he was led to believe was a heated pool, he left in short time. Krumm also had plans to modify the menu but when his bosses told him to be a rodeo clown rather than a cowboy Krumm didn’t take too kindly to that. Meanwhile Heffer was the savior of the Bikini Bottom kitchen. I didn’t agree with every single decision he made, but I did with a majority of them. Heffer’s overhaul was such a blessing so I didn’t have to fiddle with the organization of 60% of the equipment anymore, only about 20% now. Too bad Heffer’s crippling depression came back after bashing his head into the wall out of frustration with the shackles KK restrained him with.
The current management team is enthusiastic but inexperienced. I see an accumulation of small infractions that might bring down Bikini Bottom’s health department rating significantly. I see the entire management team being inattentive or unaware about organizational issues. Whatever bureaucratic nonsense corporate tasks everyone with from the original sous chef Skeeter to Patty Mayonnaise that makes them walk away from the line between 11am and 1pm especially is infuriating. I have never been left alone on a multi-person line during peak hours so regularly, and I won’t tolerate it anymore. As much as I believe in his drive, I imagine our current kitchen manager SpongeBob will be let go after a disastrous service during the Dimmadome concert season that someone has to take the fall for. Chef Ren and I could help bring experience in management and dealing with festival traffic...if corporate does not force us to follow a failing strategy.
After working nearly a year at KK you may ask why I’m not proficient on more than one station. Excellent question. First, when I move over to another station the squeeze bottles are never labeled (until Stu Pickles was hired, now they’re sometimes labeled), so I always looked at the glut of unlabeled sauces and I’d go back to my station because the basic information is missing (also a health department violation for having numerous unlabeled, unchilled bottles). In his first week the new general manager Stu Pickles pulled out 90% of the containers under the grill station because they were lacking labels despite an expected health department visit. The second reason for my menu ignorance is the mountain of prep for my own and upcoming shifts I have piled up on my station throughout service. My attention to detail appears to be next level with my ability to anticipate stocking all items for all shifts including the weeknd. The third reason I wouldn’t learn multiple stations is a defense against the afternoon conference calls. In [month] the Bikini Bottom line was unprepared for a busy post lunch because one cook was cut and our expo person was busy with a conference call. The two of us remaining on the line had a miserable slog through an unexpectedly busy afternoon. When I brought this up to Krabs he disregarded me, being a good bean counter he quoted the cost percentage. What he didn’t take into account was the missing expo person who could have jumped on the line and expo to help the understaffed two man team. That person was stuck on a conference call. Just recently I saw the company actively lose money because of this poorly thought-out meeting during business hours. A customer wanted to order a dessert that was 86ed but had been restocked by our prep cook an hour before. The server was unable to sell them their dessert because the only person in the building who could help un-86 an item was on a conference call. This conference call calamity is another bone-headed choice that speaks to a larger decision-making problem within the corporate structure. Finish the conference calls by 10:45 am eastern.
In conclusion, I quit my position as a lowly grunt for this company because of its unwarranted perplexing dance steps and below average management. I don’t care how much varnish and lacquer is supplied, I refuse to polish this Bikini Bottom turd as a manager or full-time employee under the current circumstances. You would have to take a pickaxe to the floor, possibly relocate the bathrooms to add a door to the dishpit, get rid of the cheap low boy that doesn’t properly drain excess water, and Mr Gorbachov knock down that wall in the middle of the kitchen to give the proper amount of space to work. Or simply reduce the menu to 36 items (including sides) because that’s the amount of space this dreadful design can comfortably output. Would Gordon Ramsay compliment KK for all the unnecessary convoluted complications abound, or would Chef Ramsay yell about keeping it simple and demand KK chuck it in the flip? Thanks to the numerous pop up restaurants I have been a part of and the hectic world of trade shows/conventions, I may have more experience than anyone else employed by KK in smoothly opening a new location. I would enjoy being part of the opening team to ensure new locations have an efficiency Bikini Bottom lacks, and to keep upper management away from their worst instincts. Work with me and Chef Ren and we will help you become a well oiled machine like Chokey Chicken instead of the Chum Bucket cesspit Bikini Bottom currently embodies.
submitted by DillonFromSomewhere to iQuit [link] [comments]

2023.06.01 17:20 DillonFromSomewhere Restaurant Resignation Letter in Academic Essay Format

I know quitting your job as a cook usually simply comes with two weeks notice or a ragequit walkout, but for eleven months I worked at a new franchise that had such potential which was being squandered by the incompetence of upper management. I present the nearly 6000 word thesis I turned in on my last day. Locations and names have been changed to cartoon references. Brackets represent ambiguous information in place of specific details.
Krusty Krab Careers Jobs
Opening in [Month/Year], Krusty Krab (KK) Bikini Bottom is on its 4th kitchen manager in less than a year. Krusty Krab O-Town has recently let go its inaugural kitchen manager and sous chef. Almost no member of the Bikini Bottom opening management team remains employed by KK. There is a pattern developing where one must question both the choice of employee and the directive given to new franchises. These lingering issues I brought concerns about in the first weeks of opening but was disregarded at every turn despite my experience with festival traffic. As a result I decided this was not a place I wanted to advance, but with a good-enough paycheck I’d be a lowly grunt in the kitchen four days a week, at five days a week I would have quit or been fired over a public outburst long ago. If Krusty Krab alters course slightly while being true to the brand this could be a successful chain.
My unique employment history in brick and mortar restaurants, food trucks, pop up culinary concepts, trade shows/conventions, and the film industry make me an ideal candidate to be on the opening team for new KK locations. My outgoing nature and foresight are valuable assets. For example, on training week before opening when I was standing around idly without a task I took it upon myself to organize the disarray that was dry storage. Overhearing Krabs tell another manager where he wanted the cleaning products placed, I had a jumping off point and the organization I created nine months ago is still largely in place. Since returning from my vacation in early February I have made it my mission to keep the storage area organized because it was again starting to resemble a hoarder’s house rather than a commercial kitchen. This is now part of my weekly routines because every time I turn my back there is more product being placed haphazardly just anywhere with little regard. I also recently reorganized the walk-in cooler because of problematic stocking with items being placed on the same shelf or below raw proteins. I also simply put all the like products together such as cheeses or fruits that were scattered amongst several shelves. With recent overordering I cannot keep up with the organization of the walk in cooler. The pattern recognition of food types and even simple shapes appears to be lost on the Bikini Bottom crew. My daily reorganization of containers is proof of this. Most days I’ll take a few minutes to put all cylinders together, all cambros together in descending volume, all deep and shallow pans next to each other rather than intermixed. My decision to be a kitchen manager at age 19 from 2005 thru 2008 and rarely enter restaurant management since is very calculated.
With my prior knowledge of professional kitchens I was becoming Bikini Bottom’s resident nag to coworkers as I made note of health department violations on a daily basis. I stopped after being largely ignored for two weeks. My regular health department nags include; a battle with jackets and hats being placed only in the designated area (a designated area that did not exist until I created a place for personal items a in January by neatly organizing the dry storage area again), waiting until prepped items are cooled before a cover is placed on top, placement of raw seafood, open containers (very often sugar, flour, and pancake mix bags ripped open and left), and dirty dishes/containers placed back in rotation. The dirty dishes and containers in rotation with the clean ones are at an atrociously high number. I have given up on making the 4th fryer seafood allergy safe too. With the low volume of seafood allergy safe items Bikini Bottom should purchase smaller baskets to visually discourage cross contamination with the other fryers and baskets. My skills to organize the kitchen do not end with simply where to store products to meet minimal health department standards.
Half of the space in the Bikini Bottom kitchen is completely wasted on an ill-advised walkway to the dishpit. An intelligent design would place a second doorway directly to the dishpit connected to the bar or where the bathrooms reside. Numerous times during the opening week of KK Bikini Bottom I said, yelled, sang, and muttered that we have too many food items for the amount of space we have. Icus stated that there was more space than Bluffington. Is Bluffington intelligently designed? Because Bikini Bottom most certainly isn’t. So Bikini Bottom actually has less space even if there is more square footage. See the attached diagram for an intelligent design that could potentially house a menu of this size. Bikini Bottom forces a line design on this kitchen when an open concept is needed for this menu. It’s as if this floorplan was created by a person who had only ever seen one commercial kitchen previously and couldn’t think 4th dimensionally to understand the needs of the workers to smoothly serve customers.
There is not enough counter space for pizzas without getting off the line, the microwave is placed completely out of the way, the freezer’s curved design is a waste of potential counter space and a falling hazard for containers stored on top of it, the toaster is an overcomplicated and overexpensive piece of machinery that serves exactly one purpose when a flat top could be used to toast bread and other purposes like a quesadilla special, sautee was designed without an overhang for spices, the pantry station lacks the counter space to have two containers of flour and two containers of batter for seafood allergies, there are no Frialator fryers which I have worked with at every single kitchen job previously instead we got the cheap Vulcan model (is that logical), the cheap low boy in pantry that doesn’t drain excess water anywhere it’s just supposed to evaporate somehow but doesn’t, the grill and fryer should be placed next to each other (with a higher volume of crossover than other stations), the floors are flat instead on having a mild decline towards the drains (just look at the standing water residing behind the oven right now), in the dishpit the spraying area and the filled sinks are backwards of a logical dipshit, the ramp to the back door is on the wrong side, there is no refrigerated place downstairs to stage extra food for busy shifts (the beer cooler is once again used for such food items because of this massive oversight), the prep station is an afterthought and miniscule, the dishes on the line are difficult to grab for anyone under 5’11” and inaccessible for anyone under 5’6” (instead of putting them underneath tables that also give that desperately needed counterspace I spoke of), there is not enough space to store to-go containers or boats behind the line, expo is lacking a low boy for the numerous items that are supposed to be cold but are instead kept at room temperature all day long, no one in management thought about buying shelves until right before Bikini Bottom opened as a result the clean full sheets sat on the floor for days, we had only the exact amount of 1⁄6 pans for an absurd amount of time making it impossible to rotate and clean them when necessary (which is daily), we still struggle with 1/9 pan supply. And just when I thought I documented all the poor design choices possible I stumbled upon a person whose office holiday party was booked at KK Bikini Bottom. The deck space works just fine as a deck. It does not double well as a gathering space. The space is too long and narrow for parties, it promotes little splitoff groups rather than a coming together of a larger gathering. It may be advantageous to contact a social psychologist for help designing a private party space that promotes intermingling rather than enforcing small pockets to form. The reorganization of the physical kitchen isn’t all that screams for an overhaul.
There are six positions on the line at the Krusty Krab; expo, oven, grill, sautee, fryer, and pantry. But the pantry and fryer positions are forced together like a bad remix. Everyone who mainly works pantry deserves a $6 raise immediately because it is a station and a half. Both Icus and Krumm, while kitchen manager, kind of acknowledged the pantry is too big for one station without outright mentioning the lopsided distribution of work. I imagine in the only location where this works, Bluffington, a second person joins the pantry at noon because of the unreasonable amount of items one person is tasked with. Bikini Bottom only has one person in this position at all times, maybe modify it for one person? The excess of items on the pantry position largely resembles a position I would call “set-up” or “build” at a previous job that made sensible choices. This build position should have tostadas, tacos, butcher’s blocks, toast, salads, lettuce wrap set ups, and preparing plating for whichever station is most bogged down. I have absolutely lost my mind yelling about salads at least once a month, ranting that they do not belong on the fryer position because of how illogical it is that five salads are included on the mountain of other items the pantry has. I have always considered working in a kitchen a kind of dance, and the pantry station demands an unnecessarily convoluted dance to keep up with the demand. Without the salads, tostadas, and tacos the station is already the busiest. Do we really need to combine ballet and swing by including these extra awkward dance steps in this single station? For a kitchen designed this poorly I suppose it is. Again, see attached document for an intelligently designed kitchen that might be able to accommodate this menu. Unless Bikini Bottom is going to close for a month to fix the baffling floor plan design the menu is shouting to be reduced to 30-36 items.
The menu is too big. Krusty Krab is the jack of all foods, master of none. In general I believe individual locations should be allowed 18% omissions, and 18% unique items to this wildly unwieldy menu sitting around 50 food items including sides. The insistence on keeping menu items that don’t sell at Bikini Bottom because of Bluffington is mind boggling. Chicken tenders do not sell at Bikini Bottom. fried sushi does not sell at Bikini Bottom, not enough to justify their place on the line. I don’t care how well these items work in Bluffinton. They. Do. Not. Work. At. Bikini. Bottom. If the KK location in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean sells an incredible amount of live krill does that mean Bikini Bottom and O-Town must sell live krill too? Take the fried sushi off the menu. I had a complete meltdown about this during a Dimmadome service and my valid point was met with indifference. Replace the kid’s tenders with a kid’s fish sticks. We already have the tilapia fish sticks on the line for tacos. Or make the kid’s fish sticks cod. We cut cod to order for fish tacos in spite of health code violations because it is too rare of an order to make beforehand. Saffron in mashed potatoes? If you must. Why are green tomatoes only on the menu during lunch? Bikini Bottom throws away a sizable amount of spoiled green tomatoes each week. Have green tomatoes on the menu all day long or don’t have them at all. The smoked salmon could go on salads or a special taco to justify its place on the line. The corn pico’s place on the line is unjustified. It only goes on one item, tostadas, which are not particularly popular. If we had a taco salad we could throw the corn pico on there. We also have unreasonable waste from unusable taco shells, smash up those imperfect taco shells and throw them on said taco salad. But before we add salads, let's get rid of the pear and kale salads. The pears' position on the line are unjustified, if we threw them on a taco variation maybe their place on the Bikini Bottom line could be argued but for now they only go on a salad that isn’t particularly popular. The kale salad is an issue of space for a 4th green for salads is too much. The krusty salad is my most hated house salad of all time. And it comes down to the toast with goat cheese. This ancillary step of spreading goat cheese on a cracker is an unnecessary step for an overly complicated dance and should be part of the expo dance if expo wasn’t a shoddily designed afterthought lacking a low boy.
There are a plethora of squeeze bottles on the pantry station that have no place on the overloaded station. They belong to an expo station with a low boy to keep them cold. Pantry has an overwhelming ten squeeze bottles: chipotle crema, sweet chili vinaigrette, buffalo, korean bbq, ranch, caesar, wine vinaigrette, lemon vinaigrette, honey mustard, and lemon aioli. Only the first four are justified on an intelligently designed fryer section, the second four belong on the build station, the last two have no place anywhere but expo. With this extra space sautee could keep their bottles and two purees cold in the fryer's lowboy instead of leaving them at room temperature all day inviting a pathogen party. This theorized intelligently designed expo would have room to keep these four squeeze bottles and a double of every sauce chilled to pour them into ramekins, a move that is highly common in the expo dance. The fact that expo doesn’t have a double of all squeeze bottles is foolish. Expo has to bother an overloaded station to pour these side sauces instead.
How many gallons of basil aioli has Bikini Bottom thrown away in 11 months? Four aiolis in general is way too many and most go on a single item; basil aioli on the incredibly unpopular veggie burger, lemon aioli for calamari, sweet chili aioli for the BLT that is only served half of the day, and garlic aioli actually goes on two items…I believe. What a colossal waste of precious little space, lose two aiolis and then you can sing the logical song with me. Perhaps we can put garlic aioli and sweet chili vinaigrette on the BLT separately and accomplish the exact same thing the sweet chili aioli does. The wings too have unneeded complications. Having worked at a sports bar specializing in wings for the better part of a decade I find KK’s plating of wings to be overly pretentious. The carrots, celery, and blue cheese have lost function. Heffer Wolf always said no one eats the carrot/celery julienne with blue cheese. It’s a complete waste of all the ingredients because you’ve gone too far with the presentation. Wings aren’t fancy. Wings are supposed to have a small pool of sauce and be sloppy. It’s like a sloppy joe that’s not sloppy, an unsloppy joe is a failure to sloppy joes just as the KK presentation of wings is a disparagement to the dish. Ever since training week back in 2022 I have used a scale to give Bikini Bottom a passing or failing grade.
Chokey Chicken to Chum Bucket is the scale I use to judge efficiency and sanity at Bikini Bottom. Both establishments are upscale casual dining experiences in Capitol City in the same vein as KK. Chokey had high employee retention and relatively smooth openings for new locations. Chum Bucket’s employee turnover was high and every location opening was chaotic. Which one sounds closer to KK? Chokey Chicken was filled with chefs I respect including Chef Ren Hoek who remains a close friend to this day. Ren lost his lifelong passion for kitchen work after working management at Chum Bucket. He’s actually seeking work in Bikini Bottom. Call him up at [phone number], but KK will give him Nam’ flashbacks of why he chose driving for a living rather than cooking for five years. The pair of us together helming Bikini Bottom with the ability to omit and create 18% of the overloaded menu can bring success to this franchise. We have worked well numerous times in the past on various concepts in the past including creating The Attack of the Pickled Tomatoes Burger for [Promotional live performance of a TV show] at the Capitol City Theater. We served 100 people in 60 at the [sitcom filming] lunch. That’s physically impossible but somehow we did it quite a few times.
A fun anecdote about Ren Hoek’s KK experience from the soft launch; on training week numerous times I brought concerns about being seafood allergy safe that were dismissed. As mentioned earlier the pantry station lacks the counter space to have two containers of flour and two containers of batter, one each of which seafood never touches. Before the soft launch Chef Stimpy from Bluffington insisted all customers just kind of know everything is prone to be seafood contaminated. Well, chef Ren was a customer that night and this absolutely was not communicated to customers. He claimed to have a slight seafood allergy and was not informed of what the crab soup was. In reality he does not have a seafood allergy. I didn’t discuss the seafood issue with Ren, separately we noticed egregious violations of food safety standards and we each responded in our own way. The soft launch service was so awful that night Chef Ren walked out of a free meal to pay for some ramen, never to return to Bikini Bottom. I attribute this oversight, and many of Bikini Bottom’s (and probably O-Town’s) problems to hubris over the Bluffington location.
Chef Chokey would also be hesitant to join the KK team. It will cost a finder’s fee just for me to reveal Chef Chokey’s name. Chef Chokey was a lead in the rapid expansion of Chokey Chicken restaurants. He opened numerous restaurants and was big on the philosophy that each restaurant must have its own personality in order to fit the unique local culture and the variety of working spaces. This is in direct conflict with the KK way that everything must be exactly like the Bluffington location no matter what. There was only one Chokey Chicken location that had the full menu, Chokey Springfield. Chokey Springfield had a large space which was intelligently designed to accommodate such a large menu. The KK menu is all over the place, closing in on 50 menu items which comes up as a failure on the Chokey Chicken/Chum Bucket scale. This is not the only area KK comes up as a major failure on the Chokey Chicken/Chum Bucket scale.
Has anyone in this company ever worked festival traffic before? Does anyone have the experience of working next to a major venue with 8000 seats before this one? The way Bikini Bottom handles Dimmadome services it certainly appears that the decision-makers fall on the wrong side of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Having all 50 items available during such massive traffic is completely asinine. An unwillingness to serve a partial menu is hindering the Bikini Bottom kitchen staff. I have worked festival traffic before, and Dimmadome events bring in festival traffic. I’ve worked inside a festival whose line never ended but every customer got their order in 5 minutes or less because the line kept flowing with only four items on the menu as that’s what was warranted at the B-Sharps Music Festival. I refuse to be set up for failure the way Bikini Bottom sets up Dimmadome services for failure. The entire week of concerts in [summer] 2022 I was set up for failure every day (it was after this I modified my availability to keep my sanity and my paycheck). When I brought my concerns about running efficiently during Dimmadome services I was labeled a B-worker for the first time in my employment history by Icus and Krabs. It is that moment which I was either going to holler at them both for being 2-dimensional thinkers who were obviously unqualified for the positions they accepted in this company, or just put my head down. If Bikini Bottom has a successful concert day service, hail your team because they snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. They swam with concrete shoes. I often wonder how many customers had bad experiences and never returned after concert days. A Dimmadome service should have no more than 25 items and have one or two specials to divert traffic towards an area the kitchen can keep moving. An Open Cup Open Plate (OCOP) special for foot traffic is absolutely needed. When I suggested OCOP special, Heffer was intrigued by this idea and immediately named burgers as the special to keep foot traffic flowing. Smithers wouldn’t hear this idea, babbling on about what’s advertised instead of hearing out a sound idea. This prattle despite radio commercials having inaccurate hours and social media promoting Bikini Bottom’s steak tacos to this day. I always found Smithers to be a better fit as a middle management office pencil pusher than as a hands-on restaurant manager. Overall I find KK managers are selected to be automatons not to question their orders rather than critical thinkers who could take the restaurant to the next level. During brunch service is another period of time that must be modified to lessen the heft of items. Having a full menu that barely works plus brunch is so deep into Chum Bucket territory, in my opinion we now have to use the Tropic Thunder scale of full retard to describe a 60-plus-item brunch. Chef Ren hired back a Chum Bucket cook who had a mental breakdown and stormed out during brunch (plus full menu) service because Ren knew the employee was justified and upper management was completely unreasonable in their brunch requests. It’s not just questionable decisions that hinder KK staff but improper equipment as well.
This is the first restaurant I have worked at which uses a touch screen on the line rather than tickets. From day one I found this to be technology for technology’s sake inferior to tickets. Chef Ren forced a new Chum Bucket location to rip out touch screens from the line and bring in ticket printers because of the higher efficiency. The touch screen is a great idea for expo, not the entire line. My biggest gripe is that each station does not get all the information. Early on I was regularly yelled at for not staggering my items, well I can’t see the rest of the order; a problem I have never had with a ticket system. Touchscreen software is also much more prone to errors and glitches. When I reported an error during a heavy service Icus and Krabs blamed my skills on the line without looking into the malfunctioning screen further. It was glitchy for weeks before the two finally investigated and corrected the issue I brought to their attention long before. Those two gave me an immense amount of ammunition to dislike them in the opening weeks until I stopped caring. The issue I had with being unable to scroll beyond the bottom of a completely filled screen has returned and is still there as of [my last day]. There are also important details that get buried. A frequent meltdown I have is that sauce on side requests and other important modifications are not capitalized or in red to catch the eye as they have been at jobs with tickets. These details get lost on Bikini Bottom’s touchscreens. A sauce on side salad made by me will be wrong 50% of the time because of the instructions being camouflaged in a word salad. This goes for coleslaw on the side and drizzle on the side too. Drizzle in general I dislike because of the pretentiousness, but whatever, drizzle it on top rather than putting it in a ramekin if you must. There are numerous places where Bikini Bottom overcomplicates matters for reasons I cannot ascertain.
Why is there such a large variety of plates? Why do we have a medium circular plate for salads and a large bowl for salads with protein? This just confuses the simplest of matters. I was told this is done because of the high price hike with protein, a larger presentation was desired. But that price hike is the price of protein in 2023. Bikini Bottom should put all salads in the large bowls and use all the circular salad plates in a skeet shooting promotion. I understand why we have both a circular platter plate and a pizza plate but in my restaurant the circular platter plates must go...or maybe the large platter plate instead. Is the large platter used for anything besides fish and chips? That extra space on fish and chips plates are only used for side sauces which can easily be delivered to customers on small circular plates. What is the medium oval plate doing that the medium rectangular plate isn’t? And vice versa. Why do they both exist when they are approximately the same size? Let me write an internet commercial where we break a lot of plates so we can get some logical use out of the superfluous plates. I don’t care which one is destroyed, the ovals or the rectangles but one of them is an unnecessary redundancy in excess done again. Speaking of commercials, the unimaginative radio advertisements for Bikini Bottom are doing little to lure new customers to the restaurant.
The three radio spots I have heard on KBBL all sound like they were produced by a marketing 101 student who wasn’t a natural in the field. The voiceover actor was so uncharismatic I was certain someone from the office was chosen at random to read the copy. Then I heard that same voiceover actor selling pool supplies on another radio station so I concluded that Bikini Bottom must have hired the cheapest guy in town to produce the most basic of commercials. Perhaps there is someone else you could hire more qualified to voiceover these commercials, an actor with experience on an Emmy award winning cable program whose unique place in the film industry was written about on [website] would be a much wiser choice to be the voice of the KK? (See external link). In the ad there was no catchphrase, no jingle, no music whatsoever. This simple approach to commercials lacks the pizazz to catch the attention of radio listeners. The first two commercials I heard would get a C in marketing 101 as they were nearly the exact same and accomplished the bare minimum to sell wares, the third one would maybe get a B- because there was some sort of attempted gimmick with the voiceover whispering to represent thinking inside his head about what he was going to eat later at KK. Not only does this commercial give no reason for the man to think inside his head, the outside world still and unpopulated. To see what a creative person would do with this concept see the attached script. There is an attempted slogan that could become part of an ad campaign. Commercials aren’t the only lost opportunities in promotions.
There are numerous promotional celebrity tie-ins at Bikini Bottom’s fingertips with Dimmadome performers. The restaurant could have a Phish sandwich as a OCOP special on [Phish performance dates], or a pretentious Jelly Roll on [Jelly Roll performance date]. Has anyone reached out to the Dimmadome theater or talent management for approved special menu items to be promoted inside the dome? Perhaps a special 20% discount to ticket holders? Is Bikini Bottom capable of getting permits to extend Open Container hours beyond [cutoff time] for an afterparty or block party throughout a Dimmadome concert? I see additional marketing opportunities left on the table for all new locations.
I believe new KK locations are missing out on a marketing campaign by opening with the entire cumbersome 50 item menu. This is a staggering amount of menu items which is too much to ask new staffers to perfect all at once. After a few months expanding the menu by approximately ten items is catching to customers who haven’t returned after a single visit or infrequently stop into KK. There are ten new food items that might appeal to them. Just like it appears KK doesn’t know what it’s looking for in a good commercial spot, this company doesn’t appear to recognize a talented from an untalented worker until it’s too late.
It is my understanding that KK had a headhunter to find Icus, the first Bikini Bottom kitchen manager. If it were up to me I’d hire someone to break the legs of that headhunter for bringing in a subpar kitchen lead. We are still attempting to recover from the lousy choices she made in the floor plan. If anybody responsible for Bikini Bottom’s floor plan is still giving input, stop them immediately. Once the doors were open to the public Icus had his head in the clouds to a point where I questioned if he saw the writing on the walls of an imminent demotion and stopped trying as a result. I had a full deck of 3x5 cards in an archaic powerpoint presentation bringing numerous concerns to light that he kept putting off listening to until he was fired. Those same cards were broken out for this essay. The second kitchen manager, Krumm, is a good lesson in honesty. According to Heffer, Krumm was given a bill of goods about how smoothly KK Bikini Bottom was running. Since Krumm stepped into a latrine pit which he was led to believe was a heated pool, he left in short time. Krumm also had plans to modify the menu but when his bosses told him to be a rodeo clown rather than a cowboy Krumm didn’t take too kindly to that. Meanwhile Heffer was the savior of the Bikini Bottom kitchen. I didn’t agree with every single decision he made, but I did with a majority of them. Heffer’s overhaul was such a blessing so I didn’t have to fiddle with the organization of 60% of the equipment anymore, only about 20% now. Too bad Heffer’s crippling depression came back after bashing his head into the wall out of frustration with the shackles KK restrained him with.
The current management team is enthusiastic but inexperienced. I see an accumulation of small infractions that might bring down Bikini Bottom’s health department rating significantly. I see the entire management team being inattentive or unaware about organizational issues. Whatever bureaucratic nonsense corporate tasks everyone with from the original sous chef Skeeter to Patty Mayonnaise that makes them walk away from the line between 11am and 1pm especially is infuriating. I have never been left alone on a multi-person line during peak hours so regularly, and I won’t tolerate it anymore. As much as I believe in his drive, I imagine our current kitchen manager SpongeBob will be let go after a disastrous service during the Dimmadome concert season that someone has to take the fall for. Chef Ren and I could help bring experience in management and dealing with festival traffic...if corporate does not force us to follow a failing strategy.
After working nearly a year at KK you may ask why I’m not proficient on more than one station. Excellent question. First, when I move over to another station the squeeze bottles are never labeled (until Stu Pickles was hired, now they’re sometimes labeled), so I always looked at the glut of unlabeled sauces and I’d go back to my station because the basic information is missing (also a health department violation for having numerous unlabeled, unchilled bottles). In his first week the new general manager Stu Pickles pulled out 90% of the containers under the grill station because they were lacking labels despite an expected health department visit. The second reason for my menu ignorance is the mountain of prep for my own and upcoming shifts I have piled up on my station throughout service. My attention to detail appears to be next level with my ability to anticipate stocking all items for all shifts including the weeknd. The third reason I wouldn’t learn multiple stations is a defense against the afternoon conference calls. In [month] the Bikini Bottom line was unprepared for a busy post lunch because one cook was cut and our expo person was busy with a conference call. The two of us remaining on the line had a miserable slog through an unexpectedly busy afternoon. When I brought this up to Krabs he disregarded me, being a good bean counter he quoted the cost percentage. What he didn’t take into account was the missing expo person who could have jumped on the line and expo to help the understaffed two man team. That person was stuck on a conference call. Just recently I saw the company actively lose money because of this poorly thought-out meeting during business hours. A customer wanted to order a dessert that was 86ed but had been restocked by our prep cook an hour before. The server was unable to sell them their dessert because the only person in the building who could help un-86 an item was on a conference call. This conference call calamity is another bone-headed choice that speaks to a larger decision-making problem within the corporate structure. Finish the conference calls by 10:45 am eastern.
In conclusion, I quit my position as a lowly grunt for this company because of its unwarranted perplexing dance steps and below average management. I don’t care how much varnish and lacquer is supplied, I refuse to polish this Bikini Bottom turd as a manager or full-time employee under the current circumstances. You would have to take a pickaxe to the floor, possibly relocate the bathrooms to add a door to the dishpit, get rid of the cheap low boy that doesn’t properly drain excess water, and Mr Gorbachov knock down that wall in the middle of the kitchen to give the proper amount of space to work. Or simply reduce the menu to 36 items (including sides) because that’s the amount of space this dreadful design can comfortably output. Would Gordon Ramsay compliment KK for all the unnecessary convoluted complications abound, or would Chef Ramsay yell about keeping it simple and demand KK chuck it in the flip? Thanks to the numerous pop up restaurants I have been a part of and the hectic world of trade shows/conventions, I may have more experience than anyone else employed by KK in smoothly opening a new location. I would enjoy being part of the opening team to ensure new locations have an efficiency Bikini Bottom lacks, and to keep upper management away from their worst instincts. Work with me and Chef Ren and we will help you become a well oiled machine like Chokey Chicken instead of the Chum Bucket cesspit Bikini Bottom currently embodies.
submitted by DillonFromSomewhere to restaurant [link] [comments]

2023.06.01 17:17 DillonFromSomewhere Resignation Letter in Academic Essay Format

I know quitting your job as a cook usually simply comes with two weeks notice or a ragequit walkout, but for eleven months I worked at a new franchise that had such potential which was being squandered by the incompetence of upper management. I present the nearly 6000 word thesis I turned in on my last day. Locations and names have been changed to cartoon references. Brackets represent ambiguous information in place of specific details.
Krusty Krab Careers Jobs
Opening in [Month/Year], Krusty Krab (KK) Bikini Bottom is on its 4th kitchen manager in less than a year. Krusty Krab O-Town has recently let go its inaugural kitchen manager and sous chef. Almost no member of the Bikini Bottom opening management team remains employed by KK. There is a pattern developing where one must question both the choice of employee and the directive given to new franchises. These lingering issues I brought concerns about in the first weeks of opening but was disregarded at every turn despite my experience with festival traffic. As a result I decided this was not a place I wanted to advance, but with a good-enough paycheck I’d be a lowly grunt in the kitchen four days a week, at five days a week I would have quit or been fired over a public outburst long ago. If Krusty Krab alters course slightly while being true to the brand this could be a successful chain.
My unique employment history in brick and mortar restaurants, food trucks, pop up culinary concepts, trade shows/conventions, and the film industry make me an ideal candidate to be on the opening team for new KK locations. My outgoing nature and foresight are valuable assets. For example, on training week before opening when I was standing around idly without a task I took it upon myself to organize the disarray that was dry storage. Overhearing Krabs tell another manager where he wanted the cleaning products placed, I had a jumping off point and the organization I created nine months ago is still largely in place. Since returning from my vacation in early February I have made it my mission to keep the storage area organized because it was again starting to resemble a hoarder’s house rather than a commercial kitchen. This is now part of my weekly routines because every time I turn my back there is more product being placed haphazardly just anywhere with little regard. I also recently reorganized the walk-in cooler because of problematic stocking with items being placed on the same shelf or below raw proteins. I also simply put all the like products together such as cheeses or fruits that were scattered amongst several shelves. With recent overordering I cannot keep up with the organization of the walk in cooler. The pattern recognition of food types and even simple shapes appears to be lost on the Bikini Bottom crew. My daily reorganization of containers is proof of this. Most days I’ll take a few minutes to put all cylinders together, all cambros together in descending volume, all deep and shallow pans next to each other rather than intermixed. My decision to be a kitchen manager at age 19 from 2005 thru 2008 and rarely enter restaurant management since is very calculated.
With my prior knowledge of professional kitchens I was becoming Bikini Bottom’s resident nag to coworkers as I made note of health department violations on a daily basis. I stopped after being largely ignored for two weeks. My regular health department nags include; a battle with jackets and hats being placed only in the designated area (a designated area that did not exist until I created a place for personal items a in January by neatly organizing the dry storage area again), waiting until prepped items are cooled before a cover is placed on top, placement of raw seafood, open containers (very often sugar, flour, and pancake mix bags ripped open and left), and dirty dishes/containers placed back in rotation. The dirty dishes and containers in rotation with the clean ones are at an atrociously high number. I have given up on making the 4th fryer seafood allergy safe too. With the low volume of seafood allergy safe items Bikini Bottom should purchase smaller baskets to visually discourage cross contamination with the other fryers and baskets. My skills to organize the kitchen do not end with simply where to store products to meet minimal health department standards.
Half of the space in the Bikini Bottom kitchen is completely wasted on an ill-advised walkway to the dishpit. An intelligent design would place a second doorway directly to the dishpit connected to the bar or where the bathrooms reside. Numerous times during the opening week of KK Bikini Bottom I said, yelled, sang, and muttered that we have too many food items for the amount of space we have. Icus stated that there was more space than Bluffington. Is Bluffington intelligently designed? Because Bikini Bottom most certainly isn’t. So Bikini Bottom actually has less space even if there is more square footage. See the attached diagram for an intelligent design that could potentially house a menu of this size. Bikini Bottom forces a line design on this kitchen when an open concept is needed for this menu. It’s as if this floorplan was created by a person who had only ever seen one commercial kitchen previously and couldn’t think 4th dimensionally to understand the needs of the workers to smoothly serve customers.
There is not enough counter space for pizzas without getting off the line, the microwave is placed completely out of the way, the freezer’s curved design is a waste of potential counter space and a falling hazard for containers stored on top of it, the toaster is an overcomplicated and overexpensive piece of machinery that serves exactly one purpose when a flat top could be used to toast bread and other purposes like a quesadilla special, sautee was designed without an overhang for spices, the pantry station lacks the counter space to have two containers of flour and two containers of batter for seafood allergies, there are no Frialator fryers which I have worked with at every single kitchen job previously instead we got the cheap Vulcan model (is that logical), the cheap low boy in pantry that doesn’t drain excess water anywhere it’s just supposed to evaporate somehow but doesn’t, the grill and fryer should be placed next to each other (with a higher volume of crossover than other stations), the floors are flat instead on having a mild decline towards the drains (just look at the standing water residing behind the oven right now), in the dishpit the spraying area and the filled sinks are backwards of a logical dipshit, the ramp to the back door is on the wrong side, there is no refrigerated place downstairs to stage extra food for busy shifts (the beer cooler is once again used for such food items because of this massive oversight), the prep station is an afterthought and miniscule, the dishes on the line are difficult to grab for anyone under 5’11” and inaccessible for anyone under 5’6” (instead of putting them underneath tables that also give that desperately needed counterspace I spoke of), there is not enough space to store to-go containers or boats behind the line, expo is lacking a low boy for the numerous items that are supposed to be cold but are instead kept at room temperature all day long, no one in management thought about buying shelves until right before Bikini Bottom opened as a result the clean full sheets sat on the floor for days, we had only the exact amount of 1⁄6 pans for an absurd amount of time making it impossible to rotate and clean them when necessary (which is daily), we still struggle with 1/9 pan supply. And just when I thought I documented all the poor design choices possible I stumbled upon a person whose office holiday party was booked at KK Bikini Bottom. The deck space works just fine as a deck. It does not double well as a gathering space. The space is too long and narrow for parties, it promotes little splitoff groups rather than a coming together of a larger gathering. It may be advantageous to contact a social psychologist for help designing a private party space that promotes intermingling rather than enforcing small pockets to form. The reorganization of the physical kitchen isn’t all that screams for an overhaul.
There are six positions on the line at the Krusty Krab; expo, oven, grill, sautee, fryer, and pantry. But the pantry and fryer positions are forced together like a bad remix. Everyone who mainly works pantry deserves a $6 raise immediately because it is a station and a half. Both Icus and Krumm, while kitchen manager, kind of acknowledged the pantry is too big for one station without outright mentioning the lopsided distribution of work. I imagine in the only location where this works, Bluffington, a second person joins the pantry at noon because of the unreasonable amount of items one person is tasked with. Bikini Bottom only has one person in this position at all times, maybe modify it for one person? The excess of items on the pantry position largely resembles a position I would call “set-up” or “build” at a previous job that made sensible choices. This build position should have tostadas, tacos, butcher’s blocks, toast, salads, lettuce wrap set ups, and preparing plating for whichever station is most bogged down. I have absolutely lost my mind yelling about salads at least once a month, ranting that they do not belong on the fryer position because of how illogical it is that five salads are included on the mountain of other items the pantry has. I have always considered working in a kitchen a kind of dance, and the pantry station demands an unnecessarily convoluted dance to keep up with the demand. Without the salads, tostadas, and tacos the station is already the busiest. Do we really need to combine ballet and swing by including these extra awkward dance steps in this single station? For a kitchen designed this poorly I suppose it is. Again, see attached document for an intelligently designed kitchen that might be able to accommodate this menu. Unless Bikini Bottom is going to close for a month to fix the baffling floor plan design the menu is shouting to be reduced to 30-36 items.
The menu is too big. Krusty Krab is the jack of all foods, master of none. In general I believe individual locations should be allowed 18% omissions, and 18% unique items to this wildly unwieldy menu sitting around 50 food items including sides. The insistence on keeping menu items that don’t sell at Bikini Bottom because of Bluffington is mind boggling. Chicken tenders do not sell at Bikini Bottom. fried sushi does not sell at Bikini Bottom, not enough to justify their place on the line. I don’t care how well these items work in Bluffinton. They. Do. Not. Work. At. Bikini. Bottom. If the KK location in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean sells an incredible amount of live krill does that mean Bikini Bottom and O-Town must sell live krill too? Take the fried sushi off the menu. I had a complete meltdown about this during a Dimmadome service and my valid point was met with indifference. Replace the kid’s tenders with a kid’s fish sticks. We already have the tilapia fish sticks on the line for tacos. Or make the kid’s fish sticks cod. We cut cod to order for fish tacos in spite of health code violations because it is too rare of an order to make beforehand. Saffron in mashed potatoes? If you must. Why are green tomatoes only on the menu during lunch? Bikini Bottom throws away a sizable amount of spoiled green tomatoes each week. Have green tomatoes on the menu all day long or don’t have them at all. The smoked salmon could go on salads or a special taco to justify its place on the line. The corn pico’s place on the line is unjustified. It only goes on one item, tostadas, which are not particularly popular. If we had a taco salad we could throw the corn pico on there. We also have unreasonable waste from unusable taco shells, smash up those imperfect taco shells and throw them on said taco salad. But before we add salads, let's get rid of the pear and kale salads. The pears' position on the line are unjustified, if we threw them on a taco variation maybe their place on the Bikini Bottom line could be argued but for now they only go on a salad that isn’t particularly popular. The kale salad is an issue of space for a 4th green for salads is too much. The krusty salad is my most hated house salad of all time. And it comes down to the toast with goat cheese. This ancillary step of spreading goat cheese on a cracker is an unnecessary step for an overly complicated dance and should be part of the expo dance if expo wasn’t a shoddily designed afterthought lacking a low boy.
There are a plethora of squeeze bottles on the pantry station that have no place on the overloaded station. They belong to an expo station with a low boy to keep them cold. Pantry has an overwhelming ten squeeze bottles: chipotle crema, sweet chili vinaigrette, buffalo, korean bbq, ranch, caesar, wine vinaigrette, lemon vinaigrette, honey mustard, and lemon aioli. Only the first four are justified on an intelligently designed fryer section, the second four belong on the build station, the last two have no place anywhere but expo. With this extra space sautee could keep their bottles and two purees cold in the fryer's lowboy instead of leaving them at room temperature all day inviting a pathogen party. This theorized intelligently designed expo would have room to keep these four squeeze bottles and a double of every sauce chilled to pour them into ramekins, a move that is highly common in the expo dance. The fact that expo doesn’t have a double of all squeeze bottles is foolish. Expo has to bother an overloaded station to pour these side sauces instead.
How many gallons of basil aioli has Bikini Bottom thrown away in 11 months? Four aiolis in general is way too many and most go on a single item; basil aioli on the incredibly unpopular veggie burger, lemon aioli for calamari, sweet chili aioli for the BLT that is only served half of the day, and garlic aioli actually goes on two items…I believe. What a colossal waste of precious little space, lose two aiolis and then you can sing the logical song with me. Perhaps we can put garlic aioli and sweet chili vinaigrette on the BLT separately and accomplish the exact same thing the sweet chili aioli does. The wings too have unneeded complications. Having worked at a sports bar specializing in wings for the better part of a decade I find KK’s plating of wings to be overly pretentious. The carrots, celery, and blue cheese have lost function. Heffer Wolf always said no one eats the carrot/celery julienne with blue cheese. It’s a complete waste of all the ingredients because you’ve gone too far with the presentation. Wings aren’t fancy. Wings are supposed to have a small pool of sauce and be sloppy. It’s like a sloppy joe that’s not sloppy, an unsloppy joe is a failure to sloppy joes just as the KK presentation of wings is a disparagement to the dish. Ever since training week back in 2022 I have used a scale to give Bikini Bottom a passing or failing grade.
Chokey Chicken to Chum Bucket is the scale I use to judge efficiency and sanity at Bikini Bottom. Both establishments are upscale casual dining experiences in Capitol City in the same vein as KK. Chokey had high employee retention and relatively smooth openings for new locations. Chum Bucket’s employee turnover was high and every location opening was chaotic. Which one sounds closer to KK? Chokey Chicken was filled with chefs I respect including Chef Ren Hoek who remains a close friend to this day. Ren lost his lifelong passion for kitchen work after working management at Chum Bucket. He’s actually seeking work in Bikini Bottom. Call him up at [phone number], but KK will give him Nam’ flashbacks of why he chose driving for a living rather than cooking for five years. The pair of us together helming Bikini Bottom with the ability to omit and create 18% of the overloaded menu can bring success to this franchise. We have worked well numerous times in the past on various concepts in the past including creating The Attack of the Pickled Tomatoes Burger for [Promotional live performance of a TV show] at the Capitol City Theater. We served 100 people in 60 at the [sitcom filming] lunch. That’s physically impossible but somehow we did it quite a few times.
A fun anecdote about Ren Hoek’s KK experience from the soft launch; on training week numerous times I brought concerns about being seafood allergy safe that were dismissed. As mentioned earlier the pantry station lacks the counter space to have two containers of flour and two containers of batter, one each of which seafood never touches. Before the soft launch Chef Stimpy from Bluffington insisted all customers just kind of know everything is prone to be seafood contaminated. Well, chef Ren was a customer that night and this absolutely was not communicated to customers. He claimed to have a slight seafood allergy and was not informed of what the crab soup was. In reality he does not have a seafood allergy. I didn’t discuss the seafood issue with Ren, separately we noticed egregious violations of food safety standards and we each responded in our own way. The soft launch service was so awful that night Chef Ren walked out of a free meal to pay for some ramen, never to return to Bikini Bottom. I attribute this oversight, and many of Bikini Bottom’s (and probably O-Town’s) problems to hubris over the Bluffington location.
Chef Chokey would also be hesitant to join the KK team. It will cost a finder’s fee just for me to reveal Chef Chokey’s name. Chef Chokey was a lead in the rapid expansion of Chokey Chicken restaurants. He opened numerous restaurants and was big on the philosophy that each restaurant must have its own personality in order to fit the unique local culture and the variety of working spaces. This is in direct conflict with the KK way that everything must be exactly like the Bluffington location no matter what. There was only one Chokey Chicken location that had the full menu, Chokey Springfield. Chokey Springfield had a large space which was intelligently designed to accommodate such a large menu. The KK menu is all over the place, closing in on 50 menu items which comes up as a failure on the Chokey Chicken/Chum Bucket scale. This is not the only area KK comes up as a major failure on the Chokey Chicken/Chum Bucket scale.
Has anyone in this company ever worked festival traffic before? Does anyone have the experience of working next to a major venue with 8000 seats before this one? The way Bikini Bottom handles Dimmadome services it certainly appears that the decision-makers fall on the wrong side of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Having all 50 items available during such massive traffic is completely asinine. An unwillingness to serve a partial menu is hindering the Bikini Bottom kitchen staff. I have worked festival traffic before, and Dimmadome events bring in festival traffic. I’ve worked inside a festival whose line never ended but every customer got their order in 5 minutes or less because the line kept flowing with only four items on the menu as that’s what was warranted at the B-Sharps Music Festival. I refuse to be set up for failure the way Bikini Bottom sets up Dimmadome services for failure. The entire week of concerts in [summer] 2022 I was set up for failure every day (it was after this I modified my availability to keep my sanity and my paycheck). When I brought my concerns about running efficiently during Dimmadome services I was labeled a B-worker for the first time in my employment history by Icus and Krabs. It is that moment which I was either going to holler at them both for being 2-dimensional thinkers who were obviously unqualified for the positions they accepted in this company, or just put my head down. If Bikini Bottom has a successful concert day service, hail your team because they snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. They swam with concrete shoes. I often wonder how many customers had bad experiences and never returned after concert days. A Dimmadome service should have no more than 25 items and have one or two specials to divert traffic towards an area the kitchen can keep moving. An Open Cup Open Plate (OCOP) special for foot traffic is absolutely needed. When I suggested OCOP special, Heffer was intrigued by this idea and immediately named burgers as the special to keep foot traffic flowing. Smithers wouldn’t hear this idea, babbling on about what’s advertised instead of hearing out a sound idea. This prattle despite radio commercials having inaccurate hours and social media promoting Bikini Bottom’s steak tacos to this day. I always found Smithers to be a better fit as a middle management office pencil pusher than as a hands-on restaurant manager. Overall I find KK managers are selected to be automatons not to question their orders rather than critical thinkers who could take the restaurant to the next level. During brunch service is another period of time that must be modified to lessen the heft of items. Having a full menu that barely works plus brunch is so deep into Chum Bucket territory, in my opinion we now have to use the Tropic Thunder scale of full retard to describe a 60-plus-item brunch. Chef Ren hired back a Chum Bucket cook who had a mental breakdown and stormed out during brunch (plus full menu) service because Ren knew the employee was justified and upper management was completely unreasonable in their brunch requests. It’s not just questionable decisions that hinder KK staff but improper equipment as well.
This is the first restaurant I have worked at which uses a touch screen on the line rather than tickets. From day one I found this to be technology for technology’s sake inferior to tickets. Chef Ren forced a new Chum Bucket location to rip out touch screens from the line and bring in ticket printers because of the higher efficiency. The touch screen is a great idea for expo, not the entire line. My biggest gripe is that each station does not get all the information. Early on I was regularly yelled at for not staggering my items, well I can’t see the rest of the order; a problem I have never had with a ticket system. Touchscreen software is also much more prone to errors and glitches. When I reported an error during a heavy service Icus and Krabs blamed my skills on the line without looking into the malfunctioning screen further. It was glitchy for weeks before the two finally investigated and corrected the issue I brought to their attention long before. Those two gave me an immense amount of ammunition to dislike them in the opening weeks until I stopped caring. The issue I had with being unable to scroll beyond the bottom of a completely filled screen has returned and is still there as of [my last day]. There are also important details that get buried. A frequent meltdown I have is that sauce on side requests and other important modifications are not capitalized or in red to catch the eye as they have been at jobs with tickets. These details get lost on Bikini Bottom’s touchscreens. A sauce on side salad made by me will be wrong 50% of the time because of the instructions being camouflaged in a word salad. This goes for coleslaw on the side and drizzle on the side too. Drizzle in general I dislike because of the pretentiousness, but whatever, drizzle it on top rather than putting it in a ramekin if you must. There are numerous places where Bikini Bottom overcomplicates matters for reasons I cannot ascertain.
Why is there such a large variety of plates? Why do we have a medium circular plate for salads and a large bowl for salads with protein? This just confuses the simplest of matters. I was told this is done because of the high price hike with protein, a larger presentation was desired. But that price hike is the price of protein in 2023. Bikini Bottom should put all salads in the large bowls and use all the circular salad plates in a skeet shooting promotion. I understand why we have both a circular platter plate and a pizza plate but in my restaurant the circular platter plates must go...or maybe the large platter plate instead. Is the large platter used for anything besides fish and chips? That extra space on fish and chips plates are only used for side sauces which can easily be delivered to customers on small circular plates. What is the medium oval plate doing that the medium rectangular plate isn’t? And vice versa. Why do they both exist when they are approximately the same size? Let me write an internet commercial where we break a lot of plates so we can get some logical use out of the superfluous plates. I don’t care which one is destroyed, the ovals or the rectangles but one of them is an unnecessary redundancy in excess done again. Speaking of commercials, the unimaginative radio advertisements for Bikini Bottom are doing little to lure new customers to the restaurant.
The three radio spots I have heard on KBBL all sound like they were produced by a marketing 101 student who wasn’t a natural in the field. The voiceover actor was so uncharismatic I was certain someone from the office was chosen at random to read the copy. Then I heard that same voiceover actor selling pool supplies on another radio station so I concluded that Bikini Bottom must have hired the cheapest guy in town to produce the most basic of commercials. Perhaps there is someone else you could hire more qualified to voiceover these commercials, an actor with experience on an Emmy award winning cable program whose unique place in the film industry was written about on [website] would be a much wiser choice to be the voice of the KK? (See external link). In the ad there was no catchphrase, no jingle, no music whatsoever. This simple approach to commercials lacks the pizazz to catch the attention of radio listeners. The first two commercials I heard would get a C in marketing 101 as they were nearly the exact same and accomplished the bare minimum to sell wares, the third one would maybe get a B- because there was some sort of attempted gimmick with the voiceover whispering to represent thinking inside his head about what he was going to eat later at KK. Not only does this commercial give no reason for the man to think inside his head, the outside world still and unpopulated. To see what a creative person would do with this concept see the attached script. There is an attempted slogan that could become part of an ad campaign. Commercials aren’t the only lost opportunities in promotions.
There are numerous promotional celebrity tie-ins at Bikini Bottom’s fingertips with Dimmadome performers. The restaurant could have a Phish sandwich as a OCOP special on [Phish performance dates], or a pretentious Jelly Roll on [Jelly Roll performance date]. Has anyone reached out to the Dimmadome theater or talent management for approved special menu items to be promoted inside the dome? Perhaps a special 20% discount to ticket holders? Is Bikini Bottom capable of getting permits to extend Open Container hours beyond [cutoff time] for an afterparty or block party throughout a Dimmadome concert? I see additional marketing opportunities left on the table for all new locations.
I believe new KK locations are missing out on a marketing campaign by opening with the entire cumbersome 50 item menu. This is a staggering amount of menu items which is too much to ask new staffers to perfect all at once. After a few months expanding the menu by approximately ten items is catching to customers who haven’t returned after a single visit or infrequently stop into KK. There are ten new food items that might appeal to them. Just like it appears KK doesn’t know what it’s looking for in a good commercial spot, this company doesn’t appear to recognize a talented from an untalented worker until it’s too late.
It is my understanding that KK had a headhunter to find Icus, the first Bikini Bottom kitchen manager. If it were up to me I’d hire someone to break the legs of that headhunter for bringing in a subpar kitchen lead. We are still attempting to recover from the lousy choices she made in the floor plan. If anybody responsible for Bikini Bottom’s floor plan is still giving input, stop them immediately. Once the doors were open to the public Icus had his head in the clouds to a point where I questioned if he saw the writing on the walls of an imminent demotion and stopped trying as a result. I had a full deck of 3x5 cards in an archaic powerpoint presentation bringing numerous concerns to light that he kept putting off listening to until he was fired. Those same cards were broken out for this essay. The second kitchen manager, Krumm, is a good lesson in honesty. According to Heffer, Krumm was given a bill of goods about how smoothly KK Bikini Bottom was running. Since Krumm stepped into a latrine pit which he was led to believe was a heated pool, he left in short time. Krumm also had plans to modify the menu but when his bosses told him to be a rodeo clown rather than a cowboy Krumm didn’t take too kindly to that. Meanwhile Heffer was the savior of the Bikini Bottom kitchen. I didn’t agree with every single decision he made, but I did with a majority of them. Heffer’s overhaul was such a blessing so I didn’t have to fiddle with the organization of 60% of the equipment anymore, only about 20% now. Too bad Heffer’s crippling depression came back after bashing his head into the wall out of frustration with the shackles KK restrained him with.
The current management team is enthusiastic but inexperienced. I see an accumulation of small infractions that might bring down Bikini Bottom’s health department rating significantly. I see the entire management team being inattentive or unaware about organizational issues. Whatever bureaucratic nonsense corporate tasks everyone with from the original sous chef Skeeter to Patty Mayonnaise that makes them walk away from the line between 11am and 1pm especially is infuriating. I have never been left alone on a multi-person line during peak hours so regularly, and I won’t tolerate it anymore. As much as I believe in his drive, I imagine our current kitchen manager SpongeBob will be let go after a disastrous service during the Dimmadome concert season that someone has to take the fall for. Chef Ren and I could help bring experience in management and dealing with festival traffic...if corporate does not force us to follow a failing strategy.
After working nearly a year at KK you may ask why I’m not proficient on more than one station. Excellent question. First, when I move over to another station the squeeze bottles are never labeled (until Stu Pickles was hired, now they’re sometimes labeled), so I always looked at the glut of unlabeled sauces and I’d go back to my station because the basic information is missing (also a health department violation for having numerous unlabeled, unchilled bottles). In his first week the new general manager Stu Pickles pulled out 90% of the containers under the grill station because they were lacking labels despite an expected health department visit. The second reason for my menu ignorance is the mountain of prep for my own and upcoming shifts I have piled up on my station throughout service. My attention to detail appears to be next level with my ability to anticipate stocking all items for all shifts including the weeknd. The third reason I wouldn’t learn multiple stations is a defense against the afternoon conference calls. In [month] the Bikini Bottom line was unprepared for a busy post lunch because one cook was cut and our expo person was busy with a conference call. The two of us remaining on the line had a miserable slog through an unexpectedly busy afternoon. When I brought this up to Krabs he disregarded me, being a good bean counter he quoted the cost percentage. What he didn’t take into account was the missing expo person who could have jumped on the line and expo to help the understaffed two man team. That person was stuck on a conference call. Just recently I saw the company actively lose money because of this poorly thought-out meeting during business hours. A customer wanted to order a dessert that was 86ed but had been restocked by our prep cook an hour before. The server was unable to sell them their dessert because the only person in the building who could help un-86 an item was on a conference call. This conference call calamity is another bone-headed choice that speaks to a larger decision-making problem within the corporate structure. Finish the conference calls by 10:45 am eastern.
In conclusion, I quit my position as a lowly grunt for this company because of its unwarranted perplexing dance steps and below average management. I don’t care how much varnish and lacquer is supplied, I refuse to polish this Bikini Bottom turd as a manager or full-time employee under the current circumstances. You would have to take a pickaxe to the floor, possibly relocate the bathrooms to add a door to the dishpit, get rid of the cheap low boy that doesn’t properly drain excess water, and Mr Gorbachov knock down that wall in the middle of the kitchen to give the proper amount of space to work. Or simply reduce the menu to 36 items (including sides) because that’s the amount of space this dreadful design can comfortably output. Would Gordon Ramsay compliment KK for all the unnecessary convoluted complications abound, or would Chef Ramsay yell about keeping it simple and demand KK chuck it in the flip? Thanks to the numerous pop up restaurants I have been a part of and the hectic world of trade shows/conventions, I may have more experience than anyone else employed by KK in smoothly opening a new location. I would enjoy being part of the opening team to ensure new locations have an efficiency Bikini Bottom lacks, and to keep upper management away from their worst instincts. Work with me and Chef Ren and we will help you become a well oiled machine like Chokey Chicken instead of the Chum Bucket cesspit Bikini Bottom currently embodies.
submitted by DillonFromSomewhere to anti_restaurant_work [link] [comments]

2023.06.01 16:49 SlowhandAN HIDIVE to Stream English Dub for Farming Life in Another World

FARMING LIFE IN ANOTHER WORLD: ENGLISH DUB PREMIERE ON HIDIVE - DON'T MISS IT!
Why not take a break from high-octane adventures and high school dramas and plunge into a wholesome world of farming instead? If you’ve enjoyed Farming Life in Another World (Isekai Nonbiri Nouka), then we’re here to tell you it’s about to get even more enjoyable! The English DUBCAST℠ Edition is coming to HIDIVE on Thursday, June 8, 2023 at 12:00 PM EDT (16:00 UTC) so sign up for HIDIVE today!
WHAT IS FARMING LIFE IN ANOTHER WORLD?
Synopsis: Life cut short by illness at just 39 years old, Machio Hiraku knows not to take simple blessings for granted. When a godlike figure gives him a chance to live again, Hiraku has only the simplest of wishes for his new life: to be healthy, to live peacefully, and to spend his days on an idyllic farm. Fresh air, sunshine, honest work, and good company combine to form the peaceful existence Hiraku has always dreamed of.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/hXIavkzdt4Y
Studio - Zero-G (Grand Blue)
Japanese Director - Ryoichi Kuraya (Tsugumomo)
Original Creator - Kinosuke Naito
Originating Work - Light Novel
English Director - John Swasey (I’m Quitting Heroing)
English Cast
Hiraku - Blake Shepard
Lu Lulucy - Luci Christian
Tia - Monica Rial
Lea - Katelyn Barr
Anne - Shannon Emerick
Beezel - Joe Daniels
Corone - Raven Troup
Daga - Jeremy Gee
Donovan - Louis Gallindo
Dryme - Andrew Love
Flora - Annie Wild
Flowrem - Allison Sumrall
Galgardo - Chris Hutchison
Garf - Brandon Hearnsberger
God - David Wald
Goddess, Junea - Skyler Sinclair
Graffaloon - Shelley Calene-Black
Granmaria - Liz Arends
Grattz - Adam Gibbs
Gucci - Jack Stansbury
Hakuren - Chelsea McCurdy
Klakkase - Mai Le
Kudel, Lasa - Olivia Swasey
Kuro - John Gremillion
Lafa - Brianna Roberts
Lalasha - Dominique Meyer
Lalu - Elissa Cuellar
Lami - Kara Greenberg
Lamulias - Christina Kelly
Lastismoon - Donna Bella Litton
Lecott - Juliet Simmons
Leef - Alyssa Marek
Leely - Kira Vincent Davis
Lees - Brittney Karbowski
Leeta - Carli Mosier
Leezay - Hilary Haag
Michael - Jay Hickman
Randan - Mark Laskowski
Roaju - Maggie Flecknoe
Rosalind - Brittany Lauda
Sena - Cat Thomas
Vargryfe - Chris Patton
Ya - Genevieve Simmons
Yuri - Emi Lo
​
Demographic - Shonen
Rating - TV-14
Genres - Slice of Life, Fantasy, Isekai
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH THE FARMING LIFE IN ANOTHER WORLD DUB
- A fantastic blend of isekai and iyashikei for when you’ve had a long day and just want to decompress.
- Don’t write the Farming Life in Another World anime off. It’s actually one of the most popular anime on HIDIVE, so now’s your chance to see what you’ve been missing!
- Recommended for viewers who loved: I've Somehow Gotten Stronger When I Improved My Farm-Related Skills, Flying Witch, Non Non Biyori, Tamako Market, Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill
TUNE IN FOR THE FARMING LIFE IN ANOTHER WORLD ENGLISH DUB ON HIDIVE!
Date: Thursday, June 8, 2023
Time: 12:00 PM EDT (16:00 UTC)
submitted by SlowhandAN to Hidive [link] [comments]