Currently in the browser: lovely Melbourne pictures by Bonni Hall. (Oh, and that noise you hear is an ex-pat squeaking into her pillow, trying not to think too much about home.)

The remedy: wasting plenty of time at Popcap, reading about how much customers suck, and dragging oneself into the livingroom to do some exercise.

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Edited to add one of the very few pics I personally have of Melbourne - this was "back in the day" before I had a digital camera, so it's a pretty dodgy scan, but it's of Spencer Street Station, which I saw five days a week during a stint of work at an ISP in the city, 1999 - 2000.

Uh-oh. I'm addicted to PopCap games again (*shakes fist at the gyrl who hooked me up*). First it was Bookworm and Wordstalk*, and now - the Word Shark game. I saw the words "Mavis Beacon" and was instantly riveted - I'm a typing nerd, I love to type and challenge myself with typing-related games and use the Mavis Beacon program for FUN! (And I had immense troubles typing the word "challenge" just now - the backspace key is my friend.) So check it out.

For those who like a little bit of minutae on the side: I'm drinking diet Coke from a 1-litre bottle (I prefer the taste of it to "regular" Coke, isn't that crazy? Nathan thinks I'm insane), I'm listening to and downloading house music (currently: "Nowhere" by Aquanote, Speakeasy remix), and I am currently considering some exercise, although I don't see it happening in the next hour or so, because I am feeling particularly lazy.

I am boring.

*I suck at Wordstalk. Seriously.

Via the Customers Suck LJ community (in itself quite an amusing read, and cathartic to boot - I give it the Sammich-Maker Seal of Approval), I found The Stained Apron. Some of the rants don't come across as particularly well-thought-out or intelligent, but there's something in there for everyone and, once in a while, a nugget of truth that most people will agree on.

And here's my $0.02 (heh) on tips: I come from a culture that doesn't really nurture the concept and execution of the tip. This is mostly because our food service people are paid fairly well for their work. I once waitressed and washed dishes at a theatre restaurant and on weekends I got $12.00 an hour - damn good money and well-deserved for the kind of treatment we had to put up with at times. Here in the U.S, though, it seems like wait-service people get crap-all wages and rely on tips to pay the bills. Some people ask, then why can't the restaurants pay them more? You would think that's a great solution, except - from what I've seen - franchise owners can put restaurant managers in a bit of a bind. I know a woman who manages a restaurant in a popular chain, and she gets paid a salary instead of an hourly wage. She has to make do with as little hired help as possible because most of her money comes from bonuses - if she saves enough on food costs and labour costs and passes every random inspection, then she'll come close to being paid well. In order to keep her labour costs down she often works 50 - 60 hours a week, and then the franchise owners still screw her out of bonuses based on ridiculous claims (often fabricated, IMHO). I could say more but it would make for a looong rant. This is the sort of back-room thing that leads to crap wages for the everyperson just trying to make a living in the food-service industry, and the need for tips. (I was honestly shocked to realise that my favourite waitress at a certain pancake restaurant was earning somewhere under $3.00 an hour... she did an awesome job and we always made sure to tip her extremely well.) Anyway, just a thought or two...