There weren’t many customers, so we were seated quickly. The host gave us menus, someone else brought us chips and salsa, and…that’s it.
About 5-7 minutes later, the host that sat us asked, “Are you done looking at the menus?”
“Yes,” I replied.
He took them and walked away. There wasn’t an employee that offered us water or took our order. I counted at least twenty times where an employee or manager2 walked by our table. Nobody acknowledged us.
After being there for 23 minutes, we left. (I know the photo shows 18 minutes, but we were there for about five minutes before I started my stopwatch.)
I didn’t want to say anything because of principle. We waited until after the concert for In-N-Out (La Mirada) on our way home — six hours later.
We will never attempt to dine at Tortilla Jo’s again.
I haven’t given their food a chance, but after you finish reading this, can you blame me? ↩
I think he was the manager because he was wearing a long sleeve dress shirt. ↩
It doesn’t matter who you are. You need a calendar. (More specifically, Google Calendar. It’s free, you know.)
Do you truly respect people and their time?
While working at a law firm for last five years, I learned that everyone uses a physical and/or digital calendar. That calendar is sacred. If it’s not on there, it doesn’t happen.
I get annoyed when something gets planned or bumped at the last minute. I’m not talking about randomly, but on a regular basis.
I’m not calling you an idiot for not having a calendar. I just think you’re foolish to keep your schedule in your head. Additionally, if people rely on your calendar to schedule things involving you, what other incentive do you need to create and maintain a calendar accessible to others?
It’s alright. They can just text/call me and I’ll let them know.
What if you’re off the grid for a few hours, or your cell phone battery is dead? Do you really want the back-and-forth exchange one person has to undertake with several people?
How about if someone is asking me on the spot?
Tell them you’ll check your calendar and get back to them. Or, keep a paper copy on hand with the next few weeks.
Can’t I just keep it on my basic cell phone calendar?
What if your cell phone breaks or it’s lost? Where’s the backup?
Alright wise guy, so how do you keep your calendar?
I don’t have a smartphone (e.g. BlackBerry, iPhone), but I have a data plan, so viewing [a few weeks of] upcoming events through their mobile site is simple.
I can add items via SMS (text message).
Even though I check my calendar daily, I can choose to receive reminders via SMS.
Customers looking at my calendar shows when I’m busy – private, yet effective.
Tip: I can export my private ICAL (.ics) file2, then copy it onto my Apple iPod (3G). It’s not painful to do this every few days and it forces me to have a backup on my computer. If you have a newer iPod or iPod Touch, you could do this, too.
I still don’t know if it’s better to call them clients. ↩
How? On the left, click the dropbown arrow next to your calendar, then Calendar Settings. Under Private Address, right-click and save the ICAL file to your computer. ↩
My first name is my Twitter username (@bryan). I love that!
Downsides:
New users don’t realize that you need to input the exact username.
Spammers know they can flood your @replies tab. (Of course, you can easily block and report them as spam.)
Tip: I understand that many Twitter users have difficult names to spell. Don’t rely on your memory. On the website, hover over the message you want to reply to and click “reply.” (End tip.)
At the time of this writing, the last four pages of my @replies tab only has nineteen legitimate @replies to me. (Well, technically fourteen because five are mine.1)
Each page has twenty (20) Twitter updates. So, if I use fourteen in my math, 17.5% of 80 @replies are from Twitter users who don’t know how to @reply their friends correctly.
I’m leaning toward blocking repeat idiots offenders, but that’d take a lot of work. Maybe I should block anyone who can’t @reply properly. Is that too harsh?
How do you deal, if at all?
If you’re in your RSS reader, please click through to vote in my [unscientific] poll, and feel free to elaborate in the comments. (If your URL seems suspicious, I’ll remove it.)
Update 2010-07-07: Derek Powazek wrote “Press the Magic Button” the same day I wrote this. I feel like he was reading my mind.
