Songue85

If you can post something positive, do it.

We all need the reminder that things can be better.

to have someone see all the worst possible parts of you after you repressed yourself for so long in fear of rejection. only to have the first thing they say in response be "i didn't know you could play the piano."

@post-brahminism check it

When i started as a dishwasher, i was trained by an old career dish pit man named Claudio. He'd spent his whole life washing dishes. It allowed him to move to just about any city in the world that he wanted to and get a job without having to deal with complex hiring processes or strict resumé requirements. Which was the main thing he wanted out of a career. I still think about him.

He'd seen a lot of people come through that station who either didn't consider it a real job or thought it was beneath them, on their way to "better" or "more important" things. And, in retrospect, those first two days he was sort of doing the minimum with me that he could do and still respect himself when he told the manager he'd trained me.

But, maybe it was because i was really interested in learning all the positions there were in a restaurant because i knew they were ALL important, or because i was a hard worker, or maybe it was because i tried to have real conversations with him in my broken spanish and did my best to not make him speak any english unless he wanted to, but after a couple days there was a big shift in the way he and i worked together, and he started to really teach me.

That place ran the dish pit with one dishwasher, so when he was done training me I was going to be doing the job on my own.

The thing that stuck with me the most, for the rest of my restaurant career, was this... and it wasn't just the actual things he was saying, but a completely new way of looking at what i was doing within the context of how the restaurant ran. I came in for my 3rd day and he said

"When you work alone, you want to go home by midnight?"

we clocked on at 3:30 and took a half hour lunch break and usually skipped our tens, so, yeah i absolutely did want to get off work by midnight

Then, even tho i already knew where most of everything was by that time, he took me around and showed me all the dishes, cups, pots and pans, spatulas, silverware, had me look at all of it. Then he told me to remember that almost every one of the dishes I was looking at would be used more than once by the end of our shift- we were clocking on to wash the entire building full of dishes multiple times.

Then he led me back over to the industrial dishwasher most restaurants have, which looks like this:

and then this 60 year old career dishwasher from Mexico City said the thing that changed how I looked at restaurant jobs forever

"This machine takes two full minutes to run a cycle. We are on the clock for 8 hours. That means we have a maximum of 240 times we can run this machine. If you want to wash all those dishes, clean your station, mop, and clock off by midnight? This machine has to be on and running every second of the shift.

If you don't have a full load of dishes collected, scraped, rinsed, stacked, and ready to go into the dishwasher the second it's done every single time? You can't do it. If, over the course of 8 hours, you let this machine lay idle for just one minute in between finishing each load and being turned on again? Instead of 240 loads, you'll do 160 loads.

[like, literally, he had done this math, he had these exact figures]

160 loads instead of 240 loads means you are doing 20 loads in an hour instead of 30 loads. That means the dishes are going to pile up. The cooks will run out of pots and pans and will have to stop and wait for you, the servers will run out of plates and cups and have to stop and wait for you, and your night is going to SUCK. Every part of how this restaurant works can grind to a halt because of that idle minute between dish loads, and if it does you'll have an entire building of people in a hurry and all waiting on you.

And it means you're going to be here until 2 am doing the 200+ loads of dishes this restaurant goes through every night.

For this to work, you MUST have this dishwasher on and running every minute of the shift. As soon as you turn it on you have two minutes to have the next load ready. See these large items i put to the side down here? One or two of them takes up all the space in the machine. I keep them here so that if the machine finishes and shuts off before i'm ready for it i can stick one of these in there and turn it on again immediately. You have to think like that to do this job without stress."

The way he was looking at how the whole restaurant ran, the way he was looking at how he'd spend each minute of the entire shift, the way he broke down what the physical limits were and how to max them out so he could do his job and go home on time without stressing out... The way this 60 year old guy, who had never had professional ambitions beyond being a dishwasher, was still such a competent and brilliant expert in his field.

It was all such an important lesson, and one that stayed with me through every position i went on to work in restaurants, dish pit, busser, server, cook, all the way up through manager before I finally got out of my restaurant career

Claudio never wanted to be anything but a dishwasher who didn't stay any later than he had to.

But he knew how that restaurant ran better than most of the other people in it. I never had a chance to truly thank him for the specific lesson he taught me, because while it had an immediate impact, I didn't really understand how valuable a lesson it was until much later.

In my younger years I worked at a medical office that managed both mental health and addiction recovery. The company had purchased an empty lot down the road from the building we rented to build a better facility with larger capacity. The CEO worked for months with the architect, and just as they were finalizing everything they happened to let me - who was the receptionist at that time - take a gander at the blueprints. It took all of three seconds for two major issues to jump out at me.

“The receptionist can’t see the waiting room from her desk with this layout.” I said. “It’s around the corner and blocked by a wall.”

“Is that important?” They asked.

“Do you want me to be able to keep track of the patients who are waiting?” I asked.

“Isn’t that what the sign-in sheet is for?” They asked me.

“Not everyone who comes here is signing in for an appointment, some are coming to check in, some people are here for the group therapy and need to be directed to the other side of the building, some people are painfully shy and if I don’t appear warm and inviting they won’t approach.” I explain.

“How often does that even happen?” They asked.

“Every day.” I explain.

“Bullshit.” They said.

“I’m not joking at all. Also, where is the chart room?” I asked.

“Oh, over here.” They said, pointing to a tiny closet on the far side of the building from the receptionist and check out desks. It was tucked neatly beside the CEO’s office. To get there the secretaries would have to go through two sets of security doors and it would be a five minute walk each way.

“Why isn’t it next to the front office, since that’s where the people who use it are?” I asked.

“We had concerns about people just going into the chart room to goof off and not do their work. It takes them away from their desks too much. You should only go in the chart room twice a day - once in the morning to pull the charts for the day, and once in the evening to put way the charts. It would remain locked and the CEO would have the key and let you in to supervise.” They said.

“We pull charts the day before so everything is ready to go and we can alert staff if a patient with additional needs is coming in. We have to go in the chart room every time a patient calls in that’s having a problem with their meds or is in crisis or otherwise has a question for the nurse. We have to go in there every time someone cancels and we are able to fit a waitlisted patient in. We go in there 20 - 30 times a day for legitimate reasons. The only reason any of us has ever gone in there to take a minute was when we got news that a patient had died and we were crying. And even then, we filed charts as we sobbed because no one in this office has free time.”

They stared at me.

“Sit with me for an hour and see what happens up here.” I said.

They took the blueprints away from me before I could keep looking at them, but they took me up on sitting with me. They didn’t last an hour. They changed the blueprints to fix both things I’d pointed out.

Unfortunately, they didn’t let me keep looking at it and they never asked the janitor what he thought, so no one caught the final fatal flaw in the design.

There were no closets in the entire building. Nowhere to put our supplies. And I’m not talking just a place for stationary and pens. I mean no janitorial closet. Nowhere to put paper towels and toilet paper or cleaning products. Nowhere to put holiday decorations or anything at all. They completely forgot about storage of any kind and immediately started eyeballing my hard-won chart room for it.

After Caine hands Jax and gun and modifies Jax's brain, Jax shows his true levels of untrustworthy-ness as he shoots Ragatha. She is flung all the way off-screen by the amount of force behind his intention to harm her. He gets a gun in his hand and his first thought was to shoot her...

As team bad guys stand in the hallway Pomni shoots her gun the first time. The bullet hits the target but the can stays where it is. It BARELY moves because she is thinking about having to do the same to those she calls friends.

Jax shoots with reckless abandon, not even looking at his target, and the can flies away. Of course he would want to hit it with ridiculous force to show off and to further his feelings and point of 'who cares?'

Pomni lets go of her thoughts on humanity and dips into her chaotic evil to just enjoy the game as Jax tells her. She effortlessly shoots again and the can flies away just as Jax's did.

When Zooble takes their shot at Kinger, it is not with malice. You can tell they are simply playing the game: cold and efficient. No emotion attached, knowing that no actual harm will come to Kinger.

When Kinger shoots back, it's just so him and Ragatha can move to a safer position. (You can argue that Zooble and Gangle were hidden well too, it doesn't change my point because neither of them were hit.) His shots are almost perfectly wrong... wouldn't hitting them through the bars be more likely than hitting the bars themselves?

Even the types of guns they pick up show their intent. The most obvious are the ones Ragatha picks up. She is first seen with the tiniest gun that is rendered useless when Jax blows off her hands.

Pomni follows Jax with a shot through Ragatha's head, bits of stuffing flying out. But as we see her on the ground her head is still intact. Pomni shot her to play along with the game, not to be cruel in any way. This is a common theme for Pomni- more on that later.

Kinger shoots a couple more shots, but just hits the barrel Pom and Jax hide behind to give Ragatha cover long enough to get to safety.

Rags finds a gun and turns it on Jax in time, but the gun is a toy prop. This happens to no other character in this episode and really shows that she has no intention of hurting anyone, even Jax whom she has told she hates when on the stupid sauce.

Jax leaps over Rags and shoots her in the head, and her WHOLE HEAD EXPLODES. This is a more cartoony display of a person getting shot, unlike Pomni's shot at Ragatha, and obviously a lot more aggressive. Oh and did I mention intent? Yeah. He has nothing but disdain for her and I would love the history behind it.

After Ragatha spreads her toxic thoughts to Jax like spores into the open air, she puts her finger in his gun and it backfires. Funny how she accidentally causes more harm by trying to protect someone...

Out of embarrassment that Rags somehow took one of his lives along with this new terrible thought of "Corrupting Pomni" that Jax now has swirling in his head, he shoots her with major overkill. Emptying the rounds and still trying to shoot more is wiiilld Jaxy boy. We don't see Ragatha's body much here, but that's a lot of stuffing and it can be assumed her head was completely blown off again.

Zooble keeps finding automatic rifles? I don't know what the correlation is, I just thought I'd make it and someone who actually knows anything about guns could make sense of it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

The scene in the dark hallway is slightly different because they can't see each other, so the mission of shooting somebody can still be fulfilled without necessarily aiming for that person.

Jax shooting Pomni on accident while hoping to hit Kinger (and him quickly apologizing omfg) could further Jax's fear or even STEM FROM THE FEAR of what Ragatha told him. He fears he might hurt her, even unintentionally. As he says later "everybody" already blames him for Kaufmo's abstraction (and probably Ribbit's), which simply has to include himself with how he wear guilt when unmasked. That worm Ragatha placed in Jax's brain that he is going to hurt Pomni could be wiggling around and skewing Jax's gunshots towards Pomni. You still following?

And then Kinger doing his "Ricochet super move" only to end up losing his last life to it. Kinger never hurt anybody? Duh. He is a girl-dad whose objective was protecting his first daughter and we forever love him for it.

In the tube with team unmasked Jax is very close to shooting poor Gangle, but she dodges in time of his bullets. This could be a nod to her being slightly less subservient towards him this episode and not just letting him win? And Zooble just shoots back as cover and concern for their lover teammate.

When Zooble turns to shoot at team bad guys, you can see again that they take few and calculated shots at them. Thinking of accuracy and bullet conservation to efficiently play the game, not of reckless behavior and causing others any pain.

Gangle gets her tommy gun and has the time of her life. Notice ONCE AGAIN that even though she has strong negative feelings towards Jax, she does not hit him once. In her craze she shoots at the tunnel where they all then fall out. She just wanted the feeling of power shooting the gun, seeing Jax being the one afraid for once, but not the feeling of satisfaction by hitting anybody.

While a determined Pomni struggles with the sniper to continue playing along with the game, a smiling and content Gangle picks up her tommy. Two gun shots, but only one of them goes down because Gangle never wished to hurt anyone.

Pomni's shot at Gangle is just like the one she made at Ragatha- realistically straight through the head to show she is still tied to others being human and to minimize any suffering. While still playing along with Jax as "evil" Pomni.

Pom shooting through both masks counting as two lives is a great bonus. Love that Gangle is smiling all the way through :)

Flashbang bombs (or whatever they are called??) being stashed in Zooble's room is interesting because Zooble has admitted to not liking their body and probably therefore doesn't like being perceived. A weapon that literally blinds others would be a perfect fit for them.

Also, they find more of those same automatic guns in their room. They shoot the bad guys in a way that disarms them and gives Zooble time to run away. There was a sweet taste of revenge in the air during this scene, but the two did just sing the song Zooble called creepy, Zooble hates Jax (as they alluded to in the bar adventure), and Pomni just shot Gangle. Hence the overkill I'm sure.

Pomni is purely having fun when she is getting back at Zooble. Honestly, good to see her having a good time because I was convinced for a while she was just a whiny b^%&#. Turns out she's just real and this is a crazy place to be.

Anyway, with delusional determination she spins the rounds to make it total chance if a bullet would even come out and shoots at the frickin' ceiling. She hits all four guns out of Zooble's hands AND hits Zooble in the back.

When the bullet hits Zooble in the back, I don't believe it took one of their lives? They fall over and make an exclamation that it hurt, but we don't see their hearts show up above their head nor a regeneration animation. Pomni was trying to pull a trick shot, and the final hit felt like a bonus.

Honestly not sure if Zooble got shot at all before this so lemme know if I missed something. Only two bangs are heard from team bad guys before Zooble disappears so maybe the one in the back counted I dunno. Not everything is animated, I get it. Just an observation.

Kinger being girl-dad. Precious.

It wouldn't show in a picture, but Pomni's hand is trembling slightly around the gun when Jax holds it up to his face. Mind you, Jax is also holding her arm steady. He can feel her shaking and is potentially shaking as well. This small detail shows it becomes real again to Pomni, their facade has dropped after Jax did not go along with her betrayal. Shooting him now would be shooting her friend who she is just finally learning about and bonding with.

On a personal level, she asks if shooting him would be so upsetting that it would end their friendship. This shows how insecure about the relationship she is. (Which is totally valid btw because we're talking about Jax who hides how he feels about others with cruel and unusual punishments.)

Jax physically poked Pomni and emotionally prods her as well during this argument. Even with her hate for physical touch and Jax getting in her space in anger, she does not point the gun at him.

We all were thinking the same thing after Jax's dastardly words towards Pomni and the distraught and perplexed look on her face when she turned away from him.. but ALSO, it is as if she is weighing out in her head why she hasn't shot him yet. If it's even worth shooting him?!

Same way Jax stared at his hand multiple times after he forced Pomni away from him.

The gun also represents the whole day they had on the same team. She let loose like he told her to and had fun. With. HIM. Now he wants to pretend and deny it happened and asks her to shoot him. The game is over, but Jax is always playing.

Instead of sliding in the sewer Pom throws the gun at him, literally choosing to fight for what she believes rather than give up on him or herself.

Also adding "You're not the funny one!" was interesting to me after earlier saying "What's your archetype then, the villain?" Calling him that indirectly at this moment is perfect.

Woof. Of course there are a trillion other things I could say about this show that has consumed my waking days, but that's all the gun appearances in the episode. Hope at least some of this made sense, haha.