Archive for the 'Mundanity' Category


Six Flags? More like … Zero Flags. Burn. Right?

In response to my super lengthy complaint letter to Six Flags Magic Mountain, I received the following letter from the park’s Senior Guest Relations Supervisor:

Dear Kevin,

Thank you for taking the time to forward your comments about the Ride Lockers and our Loose Article Policy.

Six Flags has identified several rides at each park where riders bringing loose articles onto the ride platform was slowing down the dispatch times significantly and making the ride wait times longer. At some of these rides, we have installed short-term lockers for the storage of articles. In an effort to increase capacity and shorten wait times, we are not allowing any items that can not be secured in a pocket to be brought onto the ride dock of these rides. Riders may choose to rent a locker, to leave the items with a non-rider, or place the items in their personal vehicle. We have tried to communicate this message to our Guests with signage, personnel stationed at the entrance to the rides, as well as updated text in the Park Map & Guide, and on our website.

Your letter gave us very valuable insight to your experience at the park regarding this policy. I want to assure you that I have forwarded your letter to our Senior Park Managment.

We hope you understand our only intent here is to minimize wait times for everyone. Again, we thank you for your comments, and hope to see you in one of our Park’s again soon. If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Sincerely,

Mr. B., Six Flags Magic Mountain Guest Relations

I do appreciate that Mr. B. took the time to write me back, but his letter reads more like an automated form letter than a thoughtful reply. Forgive my cynicism, but I’m not convinced that Six Flags’ main concern is “wait times”. If that were truly the only motivation for these temporary-use lockers, then why not make them free? Aside from that, I reject the premise that these lockers actually make the lines move faster. These locker checkpoints cause plenty of delay all on their own. Just because the bottleneck occurs somewhere other than the boarding platform, that doesn’t mean the line delay has magically disappeared.

Mr. B. also failed to address my complaint about the abusive manner in which the corporate Loose Articles Policy was being enforced. Was it absolutely necessary, for example, for the employee working on the Scream ride to throw away my souvenir cup? I guess corporate policy mandates that all employees act like absolute dicks, right?

I should also point out that some friends of mine recently visited Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, California. The locker policy is being strictly enforced there as well, which means that this bullshit is not exclusive to just the Valencia branch.

I’m done with Six Flags. I encourage everybody who reads this to think twice before patronizing your local Six Flags park. Every theme park shamelessly gouges you, but Six Flags is willing to stoop lower than most others out there. When your company values quick, ill-gotten revenue over customer satisfaction, then you don’t understand the first thing about making money, and you don’t deserve to stay in business. That’s not to say that I expect Six Flags to miss me very much, but I assure you the feeling is mutual.



Letter of Complaint to Six Flags Magic Mountain

Mr. B.,

My name is Kevin Zing, and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. My girlfriend and I went to a lot of trouble on the weekend of August 15, 2009 to drive down to Valencia to visit Magic Mountain. A one-way car trip takes a little under five hours from where we live. Given the amount of time and money that we invested into the trip, we were disappointed that our time spent in your park was characterized more by frustrating, unpleasant confrontations, than by fun and entertainment. I personally was greatly disappointed by the overall level of customer service and care offered at your park throughout the day. Mainly, I take issue with your park’s “loose articles” policy.

    The ”Loose Articles” Policy

    As I understand it, you have a policy that prohibits any and all loose articles from being placed on the boarding platforms of your rides. Loose articles such as backpacks and purses, for example, are technically not allowed anywhere near a roller coaster boarding platform. To “accommodate” guests who are carrying loose articles, you provide temporary storage lockers in front of most of your major rides and charge a $1 fee at each location. Alternatively, you provide locker storage space near the main entrance of the park for $11. I wouldn’t object to the locker prices if their use was voluntary, but I resent the fact that use of these lockers is mandatory for all loose articles, even including items such as your refillable souvenir soda cups, and shopping bags from your own gift shops.

      Summary of Events

      My girlfriend and I were confronted numerous times by park employees for merely walking through a line for a roller coaster with a gift bag and a souvenir cup in our hands. We were told time and again to either stow away our belongings in a $1 locker, or to get out of line. When we asked your employees why they wouldn’t allow us to simply set our belongings aside near the exit of the ride platform (as is custom practice at every other amusement park we’ve visited), your employees would invariably tell us that they were simply following “corporate policy”. For a while, we gave in and started using the temporary lockers at each ride.

      After a while, we decided to save ourselves some hassle by stowing away the gift bag in an $11 locker, but still opted to carry around the souvenir cup. It was a hot day, after all, as it often is in that valley. One of the most upsetting and frustrating confrontations of the day happened shortly afterwards in the line for Scream. As we were nearing the boarding platform, the employee tending to the line asked us to stow away the cup in a locker. It’s frustrating to me that I’m not allowed to carry a drink while waiting in line for a roller coaster in the sweltering heat of Valencia. After some argument with your employee, my girlfriend grabbed the cup and simply placed it on top of the lockers and started to walk away. At this, your employee called out, “Ma’am, if you leave that cup there, then I will throw it away.” Thoroughly frustrated, I told him that I wasn’t paying a dollar to store the cup, and that he should just throw it away. We left the cup behind, and indeed it was nowhere to be seen once our ride was over.

      Promptly afterwards, my girlfriend and I made a stop at your guest relations office. It was around 7pm when we decided to do this. At this point, I must mention that the young lady working behind the counter (her name is K) handled our complaint professionally, attentively, and with a much-needed dose of empathy. She listened to what we had to say and acknowledged our frustration. My girlfriend and I both commend K for being great at what she does.

      K’s manager, on the other hand, seemed curt and disinterested. He didn’t see anything wrong with the fact that the employee from the Scream ride bluntly threatened us with an ultimatum to either pay a dollar or to have our property thrown away in retaliation for leaving it unattended for 10 minutes. This manager (I regret that I didn’t catch his name) ended the conversation by stating that the only thing we could accomplish that night was to basically issue a formal complaint against any of those rides whose employees did not strictly enforce the locker rule. Naturally, my girlfriend and I declined to complain about not being harassed enough while we stood patiently in your lines. Afterwards, K redeemed your guest relations office by offering us some courtesy and providing us your contact information.

        Complaint

        Mr. B., I was compelled to write you this letter because I strongly believe that Six Flags’ “loose articles” policy is not only unfair and abusive to your customers, but it also can hurt your company’s profitability in the long run. I know how obnoxious it can be to receive a complaint letter from a presumptuous customer telling you how to run your business, but I ask you to please take note of my arguments and to objectively consider whether operations and policies at your park (or parks) could be improved. My arguments are as follows.

          1. Your “loose articles” policy deviates from industry standards in a way that falls well short of the common consumer’s expectations.

          Every amusement park out there abides by the same golden rule: “The park is not responsible for any lost, stolen, or damaged property.” At any given amusement park, when I leave my belongings aside while I board a ride, I am fully aware that a stranger could potentially steal my property, and that I would have no legal right to hold the park accountable. In basically every other amusement park that I’ve visited, aside from Magic Mountain, I have been allowed to set my belongings down somewhere near the exit of a boarding platform when it has been my turn to board a ride.

          I was both surprised and annoyed to learn that your park prohibits this very common practice. I resent being charged a dollar to stow away my belongings in a temporary-use locker each time I want to board a roller coaster. Yes, I do realize that there are $11 lockers available at the front of the park, but my preference would be to avoid that steep fee. In fact, it would be my preference to avoid all locker fees and to simply be allowed the option to gamble on the goodness of humanity when I leave my property unattended on a boarding platform. When I questioned your employees on why I was not allowed to leave my belongings unattended, I received one of two official answers: (1) “It’s for your own protection”, and (2) “It’s corporate policy”. I find neither answer acceptable.

          When the average consumer enters your amusement park, he or she expects to be given a choice on whether to use your storage lockers. As soon as those lockers become a burdensome obligation, the consumer begins to suspect that your organization is deviating from industry practices solely in an effort to gouge your captive audience. I consider myself a cynical consumer with low expectations. When I enter a place of business as a captive audience member (places like amusement parks or movie theaters), I expect to be overcharged for amenities. I don’t balk at $4 bottles of water or $6 hotdogs, because, I know that’s all just part of the game. But being forced to stow away my possessions for every ride is unacceptable, given that most other amusement parks out there allow you to opt for convenience over the safety of $1 lockers at the entrance of every major ride. While it may be safer to lock up your belongings every single time, it sure feels a lot less fun when you’re being told to either pay a dollar, get out of line, or else have your belongings thrown away if you decide to do neither.

          Your “Loose Articles” policy kills whatever joy there is to have in your amusement park.

            2. Your policy on loose articles discourages customers from spending money inside your park. Generally, the policy can and will lead to a loss of sales.

            The whole day, your employees hassled me for carrying around items that I had bought inside the park. I was told to stow away both my shopping bag full of souvenirs, and my refillable souvenir cup. Had I known ahead of time that your merchandise would become such a burden, I would never have bought them in the first place. Given how much grief I received very early on, I decided not to buy anything else aside from food strictly as a matter of principle. My girlfriend and I had intended to visit your park one more time on Sunday before driving back home, but we couldn’t stand the thought of paying your organization any more money than we already had. At the very least, parking would have cost us another $15. We decided instead to drive home first thing Sunday morning.

            What frustrates me about my experience in your park is that I suffered abuse due to corporate policies that frankly don’t make any good business sense. What’s the benefit of encouraging your customers to buy souvenirs, only to make them regret doing so for the rest of the day? Your policies discourage people from playing games with large stuffed animals as prizes. Your policies made me regret buying those t-shirts. Your policies made me think twice about buying all of those useless trinkets that I would have brought back to my friends at home. My girlfriend and I had intended to make it a yearly tradition to drive down to Valencia to visit your park. After this miserable experience, our plans to return are indefinitely on hold.

            I contrast my experience from last Saturday to my previous visit in 2008, which impressed me so much that I couldn’t wait to come back in 2009. Perhaps it’s not that distressing to you to lose business from an out-of-town tourist like myself, since you have the luxury to rely on a steady stream of local clientele. Please be advised that I spent all Saturday at Magic Mountain with two of my friends who live in Southern California, and they both were not very enthusiastic about returning to the park after everything we went through.

            Perhaps your locker policy succeeds in squeezing out some extra revenue from customers in the short run, but your consumers remember things, and we have common sense. When people like me leave your park, we feel ripped off and exploited. You are discouraging people like me from ever patronizing a Six Flags park again. Please step back and view your company policies. Can you truly and objectively say that your organization is on the right track?

              3. You are fostering a company culture in which employees think it is okay to issue ultimatums, throw away your customers’ property, and to cite “corporate policy” as an argument-stopper with frustrated customers.

              The level of customer service I experienced last Saturday was unsatisfactory. On one hand, I do understand that your employees have an obligation to enforce company policies, even when the rules are not popular with the customers. On the other hand, I didn’t appreciate the authoritarian vibe that all of your workers were sending off.

              I didn’t appreciate being issued ultimatums to either pay money or to step out of a line inside a park where I’ve already paid a steep admission fee. I also didn’t appreciate being told that my property was fair game for the garbage can if I refused to stow away my souvenir cup for a fee. Again, I stress the fact that Saturday the 15th was a hot day in Valencia. It’s irritating that I wasn’t allowed to carry my drink with me while I stood in your long lines in the oppressive heat. One of your workers even went so far as to throw away my $14 souvenir cup because I was too cheap to shell out that last dollar for the privilege to ride Scream.

              Finally, all but one of your employees failed to offer me any adequate explanation as to why I was not allowed to leave my belongings unattended as I boarded your rides. All day, I heard employees tell me that it was “corporate policy” for all customers to stow away their loose articles. All of your employees merely took it for granted that I would accept that as an adequate explanation. I don’t mean to come off as a snooty customer service know-it-all, but one of the most basic lessons that I learned from my days as a retail clerk is not to tell a customer that something has to be done merely because it is “corporate policy”. It’s a cold, impersonal thing for a company representative to say, and it almost never satisfies a frustrated customer.

              To your credit, you have found an able customer service representative in K. According to K’s explanation, in the past, too many customers were accusing Magic Mountain employees of stealing loose articles left on ride platforms, so the company decided to make lockers mandatory on all rides. If what K says is accurate, then I consider your new policy on loose articles to be a massive overcorrection. Regardless, I appreciated her taking the time to explain the policy to me. K’s manager, on the other hand, showed little interest in my concerns and ended the conversation without fully hearing me out. The company policy is what it is, and your manager on duty at guest relations wasn’t interested in fielding complaints about “corporate policy”.

              No consumer goes to an amusement park and expects first class customer service, but I was thoroughly disappointed by this kind of treatment.

                Conclusion

                In short, Mr. B., I feel ripped off. In order to visit your park, I drove 5 hours down from the Bay Area and 5 hours back up to return home. I paid for two nights’ stay at a local hotel, and for two full tanks of gas, and I even bought season passes so that I could visit your park twice in the same weekend visit. I paid your parking fee, and I bought your $14 souvenir cup which all of your drink vendors pushed so hard to sell to me. I even bought some souvenirs from your gift stores. Amid all of that ill-advised spending, I barely had an opportunity to have any fun.

                I went well out of my way to visit your park in Valencia, and I left for home unsatisfied. Although the rides at your park are unparalleled in the state, there are cheaper and more local alternatives available to me in Northern California. I probably would have had a much better time at Great America in Santa Clara, for instance, where they don’t hassle you for leaving your stuff aside to ride a two minute roller coaster.

                Your policies, and the way that your employees enforce them, suggest a troubling corporate culture in which your organization cynically views customers as dollar signs to be exploited rather than valued guests with common sense. It was my intention to visit Magic Mountain at least once a year. Your policies and your overall approach to customer service, however, have greatly discouraged me from coming back.

                I have to wonder whether your policy on loose articles is truly a corporate, nationwide rule for all Six Flags locations, or if it only applies to Magic Mountain in particular. I don’t know whether you have any control or say in the creation and enforcement of corporate policy, but I thought that you ought to know at least what’s happening in your own park.

                Thank you sincerely for taking the time to read my letter,
                Kevin Zing



                Disappointing visitors from around the globe

                This just broke my heart. I checked my blog’s visitor statistics from over the weekend and took note of visitor number 1001. Somebody in Saudi Arabia found my blog through a Google search for “arab booty and big dicks”. Piqued by curiosity, I clicked around and followed the referring URL. Visitor 1001 found my blog on page 51 of his Google search. I guess no matter who you are and where you’re from, sometimes the call for booty is just too loud to ignore. I assure you, though, there is none of that to be found around here. Whoever you are out there my Saudi Arabian friend, I hope you find what you’re looking for.



                A rant about Fox’s 24 by Keith Zahn

                I won’t bore you with the many reasons why I believe Fox’s 24 has degenerated over the years from a compelling action drama based on an interesting premise into a cartoon-like, farcical melodrama that parodies itself. No show is perfect. The fact is, for all of its ridiculous faults, I’m still a fan of the show. Jack Bauer shall never be forsaken.

                But there is one thing that’s been bothering me for quite a while. What the hell is up with all of the show’s oddly named Asian characters? I’m not even talking about Indian actors like Kal Penn who get cast to play Arab terrorists with names like Ahmed Amar, although I do admit that subject is worth it’s very own “WTF” post. No. I’m talking about dudes from East Asia — guys who look like me — playing characters with the most generic, white bread, Caucasian-sounding names ever.

                Here’s a breakdown of what I’ve seen so far.

                • Tom Baker

                  Seasons 2 and 3 have the Korean-American actor Daniel Dae Kim playing a CTU agent named Tom Baker. Tom Freaking Baker. What we have here is a bad-ass, federal counter-terrorist agent who is handy with a gun, invaluable during a rescue operation, and whose idea of a perfect meal is kimchi, bulgogi, and slices of baguettes and marzipan cakes. Seriously, 24 writers, how can you be this freaking lazy? Baker was a major minor player in the earlier seasons of 24. Daniel Dae Kim racked up a decent amount of face time during his stint on the show. Why would you disservice the guy by giving his character a name that very blatantly does not fit his profile?

                  In all likelihood, the writers of 24 probably give all of their minor characters generic names, and then subsequently leave the rest up to casting directors. Once in a while, an Asian guy will audition for a part and land the role, and then he’ll get stuck with some goofy, All-American name like Tom Freaking Baker. Would it have killed somebody on the writing staff to adjust the character name to sound at least vaguely Asian once Daniel Dae Kim was cast for the role? I’m willing to suspend my disbelief when Jack Bauer kills off an entire squadron of rifle-toting goons with nothing more than a pistol, but I have a hard time taking a Korean guy seriously with a name like Tom Baker.

                • Agent McCallan

                  In Season 4, actor Vic Chao plays a minor supporting role as a CTU agent mysteriously named Agent McCallan. McCallan is your generic CTU field agent who chases terrorists as a member of a mobile tactical SWAT team. He will occasionally sound off on the team radio to give status updates to Assistant Field Director Curtis Manning, or to resident bad-ass Jack Bauer. I must confess, I’m not certain about Vic Chao’s ethnic origin, but he doesn’t look a damn bit Scottish to me. Is this 24’s way of adding depth to an otherwise forgettable character? This is a man of Asian descent who bravely fights terrorism as an agent of the federal government — and, oh yeah: his Asian parents divorced when he was nine, and his mother later remarried a white guy named Arthur McCallan, who was kind enough to adopt our brave Agent McCallan when he was but a child. I mean, really … Agent McCallan? Why not name the guy Joe Everyman?

                • Mark Dornan

                  In Season 7, Vic Chao returns to the cast of 24 as FBI agent Mark Dornan. Mark Dornan is a stone faced Fed in a suit who sits in on tactical FBI meetings led by Larry Moss, and who will occasionally utter the obligatory, plot-advancing line of exposition. Frankly, this character amounts to nothing more than window dressing. There are tons of actors filling in as nameless office drones on the show, and the fans get along just fine without learning each of their names. I find it odd that Mark Dornan has a name at all. I find it doubly odd that Vic Chao has now played two characters on 24 with generic white guy names. Would it have been so hard to make a last minute script change to rename the character Mark Chao? Did Jack Bauer beat the yellow out of this guy or what?

                • Ranger Thompson

                  This final example from Season 7 had me swearing at the television set in disbelief. Between 7:00pm – 8:00pm in Season 7, we are briefly introduced to a law enforcement officer, played by Chase Kim, who is on camera for no longer than two minutes. He appears out of nowhere to come to the aid of distressed FBI agent Renee Walker, delivers a generic line to advance the plot, and then runs to his patrol car to send out a radio message. “This is Ranger Thompson,” he begins to say, before he is rudely interrupted by a wall of bullets sprayed across his chest. I guess the stakes are higher when characters with names start getting killed. I guess. Ranger Thompson is another one of those characters who could have easily been written out of the show. There was hardly a need to even give the guy a name. But if you’re a writer on 24, and if you’re going to such pains to personalize a doomed redshirt, couldn’t you at least try to give him an appropriate name? There’s a thin line between television production efficiency and a lazy disregard for the details.

                In general, American television shows have an annoying tendency to name their Asian characters either Lee, Kim, or Wong. It’s as if those are the only three Asian surnames that Hollywood writers know about. What’s peculiar about 24 is that the writers can’t even be bothered to give their supporting Asian characters stereotypical names, and they cynically slap on any generic, All-American white guy names that suit their fancy. Yes, I’m very much aware that there have been Chinese characters featured on the show with such names as Lee Jong, Koo Yin, or Cheng Zhi. I’m not mad about them. In fact, they baffle me even further, because their existence demonstrates that the writers of 24 realize that not all Asian people out there have names like Chad Smith or Reginald Bernard Caucasianton III.

                I’m just saying, you know? I still love you, Jack, but your Asian consorts have a bunch of wack names. Keith Zahn out.



                Retroactive self-loathing

                Sorry for the silence, friends. I haven’t been in the proper state of mind lately to post something worth reading up here. After this kind of dry spell lasts for more than two weeks, I start to get nervous. I feel like a desperate rent-a-clown at a children’s party scrambling to put on a show for an entire afternoon with only twenty minutes’ worth of material. Maybe I’ll just squeak this red rubber nose another dozen times and see how that goes.

                Anyhow, in an effort to keep my blog alive and interesting for anybody inclined to visit this sleepy patch of gray on the internet, I started digging back into my old writing journals for some previously forgotten gem. I didn’t come up with much this time around, but I did walk away from this exercise with a renewed sense of humility in the face of my undeniable lameness. I mean, goddamn, I actually used to write like that? I actually thought that sanctimonious load of crap I was working on was good when I wrote it ten years ago? I look back at my feeble attempts at poetry and prose from the past, and I just want to approach me in an alternate dimension and punch myself in the face.

                I hope I encounter myself as a five-year-old in this alternate dimension so that I can throw a punch without having to worry about any meaningful retaliation. That will teach me for wasting my own time with that unpublishable crap.



                Having a bad week

                Put simply, I’ve been a little down lately. Life is disconcerting when the authority figures and the so-called “adults” in your life conduct themselves like petty, petulant children.



                See? The flagpin on the lapel paid off…

                The surest way to attract derision on the internet is to express a strong opinion about politics. I’ve kept this blog fairly apolitical for a variety of reasons, but mainly because I just don’t feel like pissing off my friends and picking fights with strangers. To fully understand what I mean, I invite you to visit YouTube and do a word search on either “Obama”, “McCain”, “Biden” or “Palin” and browse all of the toxic, hateful user comments on the video of your choice. With that caveat out of the way, I couldn’t let this day go by without saying something about the election.

                When the race finally narrowed down to Barack Obama and John McCain, I was genuinely excited at the prospect of having a choice between two candidates whom I actually liked in nearly equal measure. There was plenty to like about both of these men, and I would have been proud to call either of them my president. To be frank, though, I was rooting for Obama all along — especially after the train wreck of a campaign that McCain was running in the final four months of the election season. The inclusion of Sarah Palin on the Republican ticket, for example, was a deal breaker all on its own for me.

                But that’s all beside the fact now, because Barack Obama is our new president. The national atmosphere is buzzing with expectation and renewed hope. For the first time in years, I am inspired by my country’s elected leadership. I’m excited by the prospect of a new American president who promises change — who promises to steer our country in a different direction after eight sloppy years of stewardship by George W. Bush. I only hope now that our man Obama can live up to the towering hype. There’s plenty of work to do, and plenty of chances to prove the skeptics right. Congratulations, President Obama. For everybody’s sake, I wish you well.



                Lamest Halloween Prop Ever

                I spent an afternoon helping my buddy, Josh, set up an animated Halloween prop outside his house. It’s a sound-activated Grim Reaper on a rope that makes creepy noises and travels back and forth across a chord.

                Sadly, we learned later that afternoon that the device is a piece of crap. It only reacts to relatively loud sounds (like clapping hands from a short distance), and it doesn’t move too well across the chord.

                I made this video to mock it.



                This blogger’s gone living

                Lack of creation does not necessarily indicate a lack of inspiration. Silence sucks, I know. But don’t you think for a second that KZ went and fell off. Please continue to believe, however, that KZ is a total asshole for not taking the time to read the meticulous updates on all of your respective blogs, and for failing to leave any constructive comments about your writing. It’s just way too easy to take your friends for granted when you’re separated by walls of virutal text.



                School’s out, kids

                My apologies for not establishing a stronger online presence this summer. I’ve been going through a large transitional period (to say the least). But I’m back now, and I’m happy to report that I haven’t run out of ideas yet.

                But more importantly, I wanted to let you all know that I finally have a legitimate office job. No, it’s not accounting, and no, it has nothing to do with law. All that I’d care to say is that it has something to do with e-commerce.

                You know, the odd thing about writing (and by default, the odd thing about blogging) is that you tend not to get much of it done until you find yourself stuck in a cyclical rut. A more graceful writer probably would have euphemized “rut” with “routine,” but I’m not in any mood to sound proper tonight. Some of my favorite blog entries were written while I was deep in the throes of academic procrastination. It seems as though creative inspiration thrives on mindless, dull-eyed repetition. That seems to apply in my case, anyhow. I can only hope that the repetition of a 9-5 work week will be enough to get my ass out of frivolous summer mode.

                It’s strange. To me, writing is no mere hobby, but a pressing necessity. There’s something that I’ve been dying to commit to the written page, but I haven’t yet figured out what it is that I want to say. And still, time goes on. People are dying through war, famine, disease, natural disasters, terrorist bombings, and plain old freak accidents. I’m not dead yet, but I very well could be tomorrow. What frightens me most about the prospect of death (aside from the whole theological afterlife thing) is the possibility that I’ll leave this world without having ever written something worthwhile enough to validate my existence. If that assertion strikes you as self-absorbed or pretentious, I won’t fault you for thinking so. But everybody has dreams, don’t they?

                I was upset about leaving law school, but I’m fortunate enough to say that life has afforded me a multitude of alternate avenues. No more education for a while. No more bullshit retail experience to flounder away my youth. I think I’ve finally found an occupation that’s worth my time. And if I find myself settling in a bit into another hapless routine, maybe that won’t be such a bad thing after all.


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