Mageer171's Blog

Mary Kay and No Fun

mageer171 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:58:25 +0000

The interesting factors in this essay was how it tells a story and how it educates the reader about the subject. When it tells the story the writer states that she simply went to help a person on the side of the road but then turns that opportunity into trying to make some money off of the woman by selling her the makeup. After this point in the story the author then educates the reader about the company and tells the history of Mary Kay. How the structure of this was made makes it a lot easier to read and shows that it is still interesting and it keeps the reader wanting to read more even though it is a boring part of the essay. In the essay No Fun in Strose Prose the author drags the reading on because the writing was forcing knowledge into the reader instead of telling a story. The author is teaching the reader but isn’t really doing it in an interesting way like the author of Mary Kay.

Juniors-Sports + Food = A Great Restaurant

mageer171 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:16:53 +0000

Ryan Magee, Jacob Goddard

Sports + Food = A Great Restaurant

Juniors Bar and Grill is located on Madison Avenue in Albany, New York. At Juniors you can go to have a great meal or just to go and enjoy a great sporting event shown on the big screen television. They have eight televisions located throughout the building and they show different games on each one.

About Us

We are Ryan Magee and Jacob Goddard and we are college freshman trying to do a project for English, well at least this is how it started. We then realized that this could be an interesting project if we like what we are doing. Juniors is one of my favorite restaurants to eat at and I don’t go there often but whenever I do it’s a great time. It started a few years ago when a person told Ryan’s mom about this place “and then it led to us going there when the Syracuse Orange was playing a big game and my father and I wanted to watch.” “I couldn’t wait to share this experience with Jacob.”

First Trip

The first time that we went there for the project we couldn’t go together because of schedule problems but we will share both of our experiences at Juniors.

Ryan’s Experience

Like I said earlier in the paper I have been there before so I kind of knew what to expect. When I first walked into the door I saw the waitress who welcomed me very politely with a nice and kind “Hello.” This action made it seem like she really wanted to have a conversation instead of just wanting to serve me food and get some tips. I ordered a “Western Burger”, which happens to be the best burger I have ever eaten. It is a burger with cheddar cheese, bacon, onion, lettuce, and BBQ sauce on it, simply amazing. I almost forgot, Juniors has the best fries ever. I don’t know what they do with them and the waitress seemed to be flirting a little because she told me “they would never tell” but it is so perfect that no one can be dissatisfied with their visit.

Jacob’s Experience

Visiting Junior’s for the first time I had no idea what to expect. When I walked in I was warmly welcomed by the waitress, and helped very quickly. She was polite, helpful, and the only one that appeared to be working at the time. Looking at the menu I decided to order a pastrami sandwich and a side of fries with gravy and cheese. I had heard that Junior’s fries were amazing, so I decided I had to try them. The waitress politely informed me that the sandwich came with fries, so she smiled and suggested both might be a little much. When the food came it was amazing, the sandwich was very good and very large too, not a small sandwich you get in many places. The fries by far were my favorite part of the meal, reminding me fondly of eating poutine, fries with gravy and special cheese that’s found in Quebec, Canada. These fries were good and very similar, so I was very happy to have ordered them. Leaving full, very full, I thanked the waitress very much and was definitely glad I hadn’t gotten a side of fries too.

What is Juniors

The building itself isn’t huge but it is very welcoming. The deep red color of the walls seems to calm you as soon as you walk through the door. They have many booths and a few tables that you can sit at. The big catch for Juniors is the bar.

Sports Galore

Many nights of the week you will see men and women going to enjoy a drink while the Yankees play in the big game. Don’t worry Juniors is all Yankee fans. People will show up and you can tell that they go there often because as soon as they walk through the door the waitress will call them by their first name and talk like they are friends.

Waitress

The waitress is one of the nicest people that we met there. She asked us if we wouldn’t use her name because she wasn’t sure where this interview was going to end up. When we asked her simple questions she seemed a little hesitant to answer us right away but she got there eventually.

One of the questions I asked was, “Where do you make the most money working here at Juniors.”

She responded with, “I work most of the jobs depending on what night it is because we are so small we all need to fill in for each other. I probably make the most money when I’m either the cocktail waitress or the bar tender. I feel that it is better for all of us because we are all women and it gets us better tips, especially when the men are sitting at the bar.”

We asked her, “Do you enjoy working here at Juniors and if so why?”

She responded with probably the best answer I could have wanted, “Yes I love working here because we get to meet amazing people like you boys and we get to have good laughs. I love meeting the guests that walk through the door because I feel like I am now their friend instead of just their waitress.”

More Visits

Well we determined that if every time we visited we would be out of money fast because as college students we don’t have much to begin with. The meals aren’t expensive but it’s around ten dollars for lunch. The people were always pleasant but we never did get a chance to interview anyone else that worked there. I tried to interview other people in the building even the customers but nobody stepped up to the challenge of listening to our questions. We felt a little bit bad about sitting there for hours and not ordering anything, so we did get an appetizer each visit whether it was fries or mozzarella sticks. No matter what we ordered it always came out great.
The End is Near

In our last visit we explained how grateful that everyone and everything that we did there was such a pleasant and enjoyable time. We especially thanked the waitress for everything that she did for us. On our way out it was like leaving a place that you know you want to return to because of the fond memories that we obtained through our visits.

Interesting Artifacts Of Writing

mageer171 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:20:26 +0000

Kb’s and Aerica’s was very interesting on how they used the terms that they would use talking to any of us outside of class in their Draft. I also liked how they enjoyed their interview.
I liked how Andrew and Jake made it seem like they were talking to you instead of having us read something. They really brought us there with how they talked in their writing.
Arleny and Emily’s most interesting part was how they talked about Ada and her business even though they couldn’t really get a good interview with her.
Caitlin, Tiffany, and Arbana’s draft showed a lot of interesting things but i feel as though the most interesting part was how they showed us a picture and then described it below so that we could see the picture too.

Joe Cool

mageer171 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:22:29 +0000

In “Joe Cool” the beginning of the piece it makes it seem like he brought you into the supermarket and you were there with him. It is almost as though it is a behind the scenes look at what happens when we arent there. The part that was the most interesting was when he explained how he got his knickname. In this part of the story he explains how he became a part of the culture.

A Sailor’s Life For Me

mageer171 — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 01:43:18 +0000

In “A Sailor’s Life For Me”, Elizabeth Ball describes everything about the crew and what she sees in depth. She explains the sights that go on around her and what people are saying that are on the crew. “The weather is dreary: the grey sky and dull ocean surface are in sharp contrast with the excitement and the adrenaline that are pumping through my veins.” This auto-ethnography has shown me that the writing about the point in time where you are there and you write it in the present has to be in depth or else the reader won’t really understand it. Ball writes, “The faint orange spot in the distance began to take definite form. I pull the sheet line in closer and yell ‘Jib ho!’” this part also showed me that as a reader there needs to be a small description of what the writer is writing about in the beginning or it won’t make since. As the writer the part of the auto- ethnography needs to be in both present time and past time at the same part. It said “began” but then in the next sentence it also said “pull” which shows that it is in the present.

What I want people to know

mageer171 — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 03:00:57 +0000

I wanted to write about being a waiter now because I feel as though it’s good to write about something at the time that you’re still living through the experience. I like how I can remember these things perfectly because they are still fresh in my mind since some of it happened this last summer. Most of the stories that I told either happened this past summer or a few summers before that.

What I want readers to learn is that working as a waiter is more difficult than it seems. As a waiter you need to know the menu by heart and that is difficult to remember sometimes. You also need to know how to communicate properly. People don’t realize that I do this for a job to make money and I enjoy working with the crew that I do and I enjoy working with the people who I serve.

Yarn

mageer171 — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:44:42 +0000

In “Yarn” the author is trying to make you feel as though the yarn to her is like a person. She also makes you feel as though the art of knitting is a passion that has gone through time. When she states the history of knitting to the reader and how early the artifacts of knitting was found, this happens to be intriguing because they have been finding things that are from Iraq and other countries. “Knitting is a young craft. The oldest surviving examples-blue and white cotton socks and fabric fragments discovered in an Egyptian tomb-are dated around A.D. 1200″ (pg. 69). When the author is discussing the projects that she has done she sounded depressed at first. As the story went along there was a certain passion that she shows. This is a very important part of her writing because passion makes stories interesting. The one part of the story that also makes this story interesting is how the author incorperates Greek gods and goddesses from they Odyssey into the history of knitting. “She says, ” In the Odyssey,Penelope weaves and unweaves a funeral cloth to ward off the suitors; in Greek mythology, Aracne is turned into a spider when she challenges Athena to a weaving contest and loses”(pg. 70). The one main passion that she left me with is, how do you find a passion that is so close to you and make it into your life.

autoethnography 2 things

mageer171 — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:23:24 +0000

One stereotype that being a waiter has is all of the guests come in thinking that you will be bad. Everytime the guests first have you they don’t expect you to be good because nobody remembers the good waiters that have ser ved them they only remember the bad ones.

Five minutes in my subculture will be bery hard to describe because there is so much that happens. So I’ve decided to focus on our breaks because that is when we have the most fun. All of the waitstaff this year invented some games that we play on our first break. The one game is call dead ball. In dead ball it is ping-pong but the ball doesn’t need to hit the table and you play it until it stops bouncing. We only play one point per game because you are running around so much that you will need a break. Another game that we invented is volly-pong. In volly pong you are in the great outdoors. We go on the vollyball court and play ping pong over the net. This game also gets very intense but it is a great work out.

Easter Everywhere 6-11

mageer171 — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:57:15 +0000

In chapters six through eleven the book was all about the bad things that happened to the family. The first thing that happened was they moved to a new place. At first the job that her father got was supposed to provide them with a home but as soon as they got there the man acted like he didn’t have a clue what the family was talking about. ”When we arrived at the Harlan hospital he’d seemed not to remember he’d promised my father to find us a place to live” (pg 62). Very frustrated the family found a place to stay. At the motel last night her mother and father were arguing about the place that they were at and how they had no more money. in the bedroom that the children were sleeping at they couldn’t help but laugh at what the mother was saying. The children were hiding their laughter by covering their mouths with their hands and their sheets. As the chapters went along Darcey was describing how the girls that she became friends with would beat her or pick on her during her sleep. One morning she awakened to the girls having put a sleeping bag on her head and repeatingly jumping on her head. these girls were being so cruel to her because of the studder that she had. This act had her make a vow to do anything to stop herself from stuttering. She ended up going to a speech clinic for three weeks and at first she was making no progress but then she kept on pushing herself to where she would barely studder at all.

Auto Ethonography About hard times and fun times at Baumann’s

mageer171 — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:53:41 +0000

In my subculture there are many things that I need to deal with. I need to deal with the plates and silverware that the guests use to eat their food. I also need to deal with the food that they eat because I’m the one bringing it out to them. I deal with pretty much everything that is on their table other than the drinks that they bring, because we cannot serve alcohol but they can bring their own. The uniforms consist of a green polo shirt and an apron. Guys wear tan shorts and girls wear tan skirts. We must also wear sneakers while working because it is more professional than flip-flops. I associate with the guests for the five days that I work. I also associate with my other employees on those days. I also associate with the ownership of the resort because since it is so small they are the ones talking to us not a boss. There are many places that I need to be during a meal. The first place is of course the dining room, where the guests eat. From there I go into the kitchen so that I can get them there food. Inside the kitchen there is a line of counters where the cooks put the food, so I can put it on my tray and go back into the dining room. Then later on in the meal we need to clear all of the plates off the table o e carry them into the kitchen and put them on the dishwasher’s counter. This process repeats itself numerous times throughout the meal. Some of the unspoken rules are just common sense. The first one is treat the customer with respect, and they are always right. The second and most important rule is do not curse in front of the guests. Some people have a problem with that but we just need to hold back the temptation from screaming at them. The last rule is to always suck up to the owners, they determine our fate at working at Baumann’s if we don’t suck up to them we will probably get fired. Some of the rituals are that I need to set up my section at every meal and I also need to clear everything at the end of the meal. Another ritual is a stupid saying that one of my friends made up it goes, “mighty morphan waiter rangers supercharged and ready for waitering.” The only reason that he made this up was so that we can make the owner’s four year old grandchild laugh. There are many stereotypes being a waiter because the guests are superior to us and they like to make me realize that. Some of the guests are worse than others but all of them feel like they are superior to you. I think it’s funny when they see me outside of work because then they don’t know what to say, and they tend to realize that I am a normal person too. There aren’t a lot of problems being a waiter but there is one large one. I need to deal with all of the guest’s problems even when I had nothing to do with what happened. The one huge benefit is the money. My paycheck is awful but the tips make up for it. I get paid $4.90 an hour but my tips usually put me around $500 a week so it makes up for it. When I think about being a waiter I think of a lot of the really great people that come to the resort, young and old. I’ve made so many friends since I started working there and some of them I talk to all the time. I think one of the funniest things is when one of the guests that I’ve served will friend request me on “facebook”. But I really enjoy being able to talk to all sorts of people at my job. I want the readers to understand that yes my job isn’t fun when I’m serving the people but when I’m not serving them all that we do is joke around with them and have a good time. The other thing I want them to know is the people you work with determines if you enjoy going to work. I look forward to some days because I can see all of my friend’s that are working that day.