Monday, August 18, 2008
Palmer in LA
Friday, August 8, 2008
What?!
Yesterday, the Director emailed me and B. He told B that he will work the morning of the 12th. That will give B 23 hours that week! A record! He is the only teacher that works 20 hours; the rest of us are 29 or 30 hours a week. All of us are maxed out in hours? Huh?!
In his latest email I will work the am of the 11th only and have my regular Tuesday (Aug 12th) schedule. I get to do my banking and say good bye to my kids with an official party! It's still not clear if I am to work the lunch hour on the 11th! WTF!!
The Director is never clear in his emails. He writes well but is purposely ambiguous. It's very frustrating. Even in person he evades answers or goes around the subject. He has a military background in "intelligence", nice training, eh?
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Old posts wither away, as clouds disperse on a cloudy day
I feel okay since we broke up in August 13, 2009, a year later. We learned our lesson, finally. After a few tries and tribulations, we have and for good, broken up. If any of my or her friends read this, please remind us of the lessons gleamed. Thank you.
I will be in another intimate relationship and I wonder if my future gf will be freaked out by this blog entry? Will she be mature enough to realize that my heart has loved before she was in my life? That peanut butter and music are part of my soul? Or will she be too insecure and think negative thoughts and ask that it be taken down from blogger? How will I feel about that?
Old post from August 6, 2008:
...As many of you know, I love my GF. She's the most beautiful woman in the world! She's my music, my peanut butter. Huh? For those of you who don't know my love for music and peanut butter, let it be known that these three things I love and cannot do without!
The day of my arrival is fast approaching. I am giddy. Happy. I can't wait to be in her sweet arms to hold and hug her tight! Hmm.
Letter about my employment and replacement
Dear (Enter your favority language institute here) Family,
Mr. Matthew’s last day is fast approaching. He has agreed to stay until August 12, before returning to his home and future employment. His classes will be taught by Mr. A from Canada. He is a writer and has a high interest in running. He has been getting to know some of the students in the school and is already well liked by them. I am confident that Mr. A will be a great teacher for our students.
Sincerely,
Director
*****************************************
Hello blog readers. You've just read the letter I received on official letter head yesterday from the Director. I've edited the name of the new teacher. The Director wanted me to distribute this letter to my EAS 3 class. I don't know if the same letter or equivalent went out via mail for my other classes, IKP and IEP3. This is how business is done here. Not a very good introduction to Mr. A. Does he even have teaching experience? What does running have to do with taking over my classes? Hmm.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Drinking beer with a straw while watching "Mummy 3"
My last week at this Canadian Maple Leaf Hogwan
Of course I get paid for my time working. I am helping them out because they need me and I feel okay about doing that. Plus, I get to see my favorite class one last time. Oh, those stinky little kids! By helping the school out, I am also helping Bernard and others who may be asked to work more hours and since I was planning on spending money in Seoul for two days shopping, I figure I could save some cash, earn some cash and help out my fellow prisoners!
All the teachers and teacher assistants, who are Korean, filled out these anonymous surveys two months ago and sent them to HQ. This hogwan is a Canadian franchise, BTW. Did they ever read the complaints and comments about management? I talked to a lot of teachers here and they unloaded on paper a host of things that should make HQ raise their eyebrows and take some action!
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Marketing Starbuck Nation and the socialization of consumers
I'm reading a book called The Starbucks Experience, written by Joseph Michelli, a PhD in organization psychology and published last year (2007). As some of you know, I am a big coffee and tea drinker and at one time, wanted to open my own coffee shop. After working at a major coffee chain and an independent, it was a nice idea and dream. A romantic notion of the sexiness of coffee and the cool seduction of a beautiful product mixed with music and roasted beans.
Starbuck Nation is the world we live in today. They care about their employees by offering stock options, medical for part timers (20 hours of more), they use an independent agency to verify their CAFE standards of growing and trading in foreign countries, they are meticulous about coffee quality. I don't think their coffee is as good as Peets, by that doesn't matter. The blog entry is not about coffee or how wonderful Starbucks is as an corporate entity. Starbucks, a most visible and progressive corporation, has uncovered a bunch of thoughts and feelings I have that make me think that there is something intrinsically wrong with our society where corporations continually look for ways to motivate and inspire employees and to create a Third Place where people are connecting by monetary transactions.
Starbucks uses five principles, outlined in a green pamphlet, that are simple to use and execute in order to make customers happy. It's like Mao's Little Red Book; each employee carries it with him or her, reading the simple, almost folk-like guiding principles which give the employee the power to make every customer's experience consistently good and expected in any Starbucks anywhere in the world. Wow! It bothers me that people connect during a transaction in a corporate setting.
The Starbucks Experience, that the author raves about, has created an emotional feeling and attachment that customers and employees feel and act upon. The book is full of testimonials of real and regular people who seek out this Experience, to duplicate everywhere and talk about it like Starbucks is a friend or a comfort in their hectic lives. This is corporate marketing genius and synthesis: creating a Third Place where people know your drink preferences, your name perhaps and an intimate setting for bonding the customer to the product. On a basic level, Starbucks is one of the most visible and viable drug dealers in the world. Their caffeine delivery system vis a vis coffee is helping to create and condone addict behavior. On another level, their Five Priniciples for creating an intimate customer experience is changing people's attitudes about corporations being our friends.
Starbucks, like other corporations such as Apple, have created an emotional bond between customer and product. We should not have a connection with a corporation or it's product because it's based upon a paid transaction that is not a real or genuine experience. We think it's real, of course, we know that the sales person is not our friend, we also know that the product brings us joy but we are forgetting, I think, that this bond is transparent and only in the name of profit. We are being misguided and mislead to a point where we become acclimated to corporations buying up real estate and planting their seeds (products) in convenient locations for us to buy and enjoy. I am not against Starbucks or their seemingly good corporate practices. I am against creating false transactions which allow a soulless corporation to become one that has a "heart" and conscious. If this is the case, as it has been for a time, then we should hold corporations and their stakeholders (Board of Directors, shareholders) personally and legally responsible for any ill will and bad behaviors. Corporations are soulless places, entities governed and protected socially and legally and operate in a vacuum. If we change the standing of a corporation, then a customer, who is "craving" their pretentious latte with add ons, can feel great that the people who are practicing the Starbucks Experience are doing good in the world and not some marketing plan to make employees and customers zombies.
Today, we must empower employees to enable them to have control and authority so that they can provide a great experience to customers. Most companies figured this out and since this translates into more profit, it is almost expected of progressive corporations. Organizations are still vertical but this top-down authority has changed allowing happy employees to serve their hopefully happier customers. Cha-ching go the registers. Work has never been more fun! Ping-pong, 15 minute messages, dry cleaning on the premises, child care and the like. Is it ever about empowering people or is it just management finding more ways to make more money?
Before Starbucks instituted their five principles to their front line proletariat, were their owners in HQ wondering around aimlessly in Seattle, without some corporate philosophy to inspire them to feel good about or were they worried about high turnover and keeping costs down? The book interviews slews of upper management; I've never read about so many corporate layers and departments. It's worse than UCLA! Are people really sheep and must rally behind some pseudo corporate principles/philosophy? What were these managers thinking and doing before they got hooked on Starbucks rhetoric? Were they spewing and spouting their former companies philosophy in also a zealous way? Have they've changed philosophies like a hooker has changed pimps?
The author makes it seem that every body interviewed, from management to the barista, can smoothly articulate the Starbucks Experience for a thirty second sound bite. That's a wonderful accomplishment, I guess. However, this is One Corporate Mind. Is this how marketing hooks people and "brain wash" them into some sort of corporate belief system? The Five Prinicples are like the Tao De Ching or is is Register de Ching? Sorry, I couldn't resist!
The book uses a lot of real testimonials from inside and outside Starbucks. Regular, real people who speak reverently about Starbucks like it's their friend. It's marketing brilliance, really. There are thousands of people who feel wonderful about this company like a good and loyal friend. Am I missing something here? I don't have these feelings for any company. I like Peet's Coffee. I like Coffee Bean's coffee and tea. I like Toyota cars. Has Starbucks marketing created zombies out of people? Are we now going to have coffee World Wars now? The Allies are Starbucks and Peets and the Axis Powers are Coffee Bean and Doutor?
On page 92 the author wrote about how Starbucks gave away coffee for a citywide coffee break to train commuters. The author makes it seem that the main goal was to celebrate and surprise commuters and was not a gimmick to get customers into a Starbucks. This citywide coffee break was coordinated with Starbucks celebrating their Fair Trade Certification of coffee and got much attention. Michelli, the author, spoke enthusiastically about management wanting to surprise their customers, as part of their five principles. He made it seem that surprising customers was the only priority of the free coffee day and not the announcement of their good Fair Trade advocacy. Stupid. I'm not naive. Maybe it was poor editing but it was a marketing gimmick which surprised many but did not surprise the naive. In other words, amid the upper managers professing how making a customers' day is important for Starbucks, they are busy preening and coiffing their corporate image to be do-gooders. It's disgusting. It's fakery. They do want to make a difference in the lives of farmers but their smooth marketing tactics don't fake me out.
Another problem I have is that the author approached Starbucks to write a book when management is figuring out that thier business and that of the coffee industry is heading towards a recession. Starbucks is probably being proactive by allowing the author to research and interview people of Starbuck Nation because they will need to close stores and also cut back on building new ones. How can you continue to grow at five new stores a day? Starbucks has reached their growth in real estate terms and the book's magic is to market their corporate philosophy in order to help guide it to a smooth financial landing. It's imagery. Of course they are only 5 percent of all coffee buyers but they, like the author deftly points out, are the big name in coffee and most watched and criticised.
We want our employers to pay well, offer medical and financial benefits and allow us the freedom to create a work space that allows personal and professional growth. Why do we need to have personal growth from our jobs? It's a job or career. How can I get personal growth from an in-adamant object such as a corporation? Personal growth encapsulated in the setting of building and maintaining a business? The corporation cares about profit. It's a legal entity with no responsibility. Would I get personal growth living with a robot? No.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
My relative funk
Today's daily dose is like a sour smelling kim chi smack on your cheek! (Please make your own kung fu sound here! Oi, ya!) Yes, my relative funk. No, I am not in a funk but my relative is. It seems that another relative's birthday is coming up and she doesn't want to cook that day but instead have her family and friends pot luck it or bring some take out. I can understand that, blog reader. Who wants to clean or cook on your birthday? Not Palmer.
The real source of ire is that my relative funk is funky about the time her birthday was forgotten by the other relatives who are close in proximity and in blood. So my relative is feeling angry about that still and has been getting the stink eye a lot from the other relative (are you following or falling asleep?) when she makes her wonderful, delicious food and brings it over. In all fairness, blog reader, only one gives the stink eye and the other just eats and enjoys. Oh, such grievances between the bloods. Good thing she is not a crip, blog reader. If you're not understanding the slang, no worries. Keep reading.
Okay: here are the list of grievances, not in any order, done by Party A (two defendants) to Party B (my relative funk--the title of this entry--or one plaintiff):
1. Party A forgot Party B's B-day and took over one week to realize that (minus 100 score). Duh!
2. Party A forgot to call Party B and say "yes" or "no" to a home cook meal on a big important day (-10)
3. Party A continually makes the stink eye towards Party B's food on most occasions (-10)
4. Party A did not ask Party B about a culinary school for Party A's son nor did that son ask Party B for her thoughts on going to said institute when knowing that Party B is a foodie, etc (-7)
5. Party A lives in their own world (-2. I think we all do)
7. Party A only thinks about their own needs, all the time (-10)
Who's keeping score? Not me--I can't add.
I talked to Party B about talking to Party A about her feelings and grievances. I hope she does. Maybe Party B would be better and healthier (emotionally) not holding a gripe for such a long time against Party A. Not that Party A does not deserve some straightening out. They do. One of Party A's long term issue is the absence of communication of two of his four kids! Wow!
Party A (only one person out of two) may feel insecure about her own cooking and attack Party B's cooking by finding fault. Party A has this lame philosophy, or mabye they don't practice it anymore, where they say, "It's not what I say but how you take what I said." I may have paraphrased it wrong but personally, that's bullshit. When someone gives you the stink eye and makes comments about your cooking--and believe me blog reader--Party B's cooking is wonderful, Party A being a jerk. Or when Party A declares that Party B's soup was a bit off in taste...why volunteer your displeasure? Is that really going to "help" Party B's soup? It's like someone getting a bad haircut (like me in Korea--it's tough cutting curly hair in the land of straight hair) and saying to that person: your hair is really bad. Well, duh! I know my hair is bad. Look: Just don't say anything if you don't like my hair or soup. That's the best method to get along with any Party. Otherwise, you hurt people's feelings which Party B is feeling.
Friday, August 1, 2008
White people are not made for tropical countries
Today, I went to Seoul. It was a hot and humid summer day, typical for August. The only time I stopped sweating was inside the Mesa Fashion Mall eating my pork cutlet and talking to Yanne on the phone and on the $2.00 express bus to Seoul. The rest of the time, I sweated like a pig. I sweated walking to the bus stop; I sweated sitting at the bus stop; I sweated leaving the bus. I sweated walking to Gangnam subway entrance (green line); I sweated going to Coffee Bean in Namdamun Market; I sweated at Namdamun Market; I sweated...
White people sweat horribly here in Korea. Koreans don't sweat like whites and when they do, they don't look dreadful. White people are not made for tropical countries. Our shirts stick to our bodies, our hair becomes matted, we stink. Its embarrassing when we raise our arms and uncover our arm stains. We are fat and out of shape and because a lot of us are big people, we seem out of proportion and a direct contrast to the homogeneous Korean of black hair, average height and same style hair cuts. We are like walls of sweat, moving like bovine beasts on the streets of Itaewon. The Korean street vendors sit there, slowly moving their fans to their faces, not a sweat drip on their brows or lips.
White people look like they are going to die in this weather. We are pale and sickly and can barely walk through the lagoon of humidity that lays here all day and night. Koreans never get that shiny, oily gloss that I had all day, on my body. I looked like a red man with my sweaty forehead and arms; my shirt stuck to my chest, my back pack straps making an "X" when I removed it; my eye glasses slipping down my nose, constantly. Koreans' faces don't turn red when in the sun; they don't sweat the kind of sweat where it falls from your shoulders, down your back, following your spine down to your butt crack, creating a reservoir so when you get up to leave your seat, there's a sweat track! Yuck!
White people in Korea are dressed correctly for this tropical heat but they never manage to adjust to it. I haven't yet. It's been six months of a steady diet of kim chi and I still manage to over produce sweat that makes my shirts stink for days. We need to take two or three showers and change our clothes just as often. Koreans take one shower. I haven't become acclimated and there's no magic code to un-sweat genetics.