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orangecat92

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  1. "no work is expected"...? I was expected to work 14.5 hours, which made sense from the company point of view. They wanted potential mgt. employees to feel what it was like to work from open to close. I never saw anybody do a free day at any of the stores I worked, so I think the company may have stopped the practice at some point.
  2. New Braunfels! I worked there one day. It was required that before you took the employment offer you had to work a "free day". Purely illegal of course. I was interested in New Braunfels because the rising star in the company was the manager, Linda Seubert . She was one of the first lady managers, and her bio made the company annual report the year I was interviewing. I drove to New Braunfels to work my free day, and the asst. manager gave the vibe that she was very tough, which appeared to be correct. She didn't mind working as hard as anybody. Of course I didn't understand anything that was going on, but when she told me I could go home and it was about 9:45 p.m. I had the feeling she was about to tell the asst. manager everything he did wrong that day.
  3. I worked at several places in SA. I started at Old Bandera, then Las Palmas, South Park Mall, North Star Mall, Central Park Mall, Walzem Road, then Corpus - the mall. Then got promoted to Associate Manager in Sherman. Then I agreed to take a transfer without consulting my wife, dumb move, to El Paso. We were there for only two months. Her mother was very sick, in south Texas, so we got to go back to Corpus, this time associate Manager at Corpus #3, which was a free-standing location. By then the company had ditched the 60/40 compensation model, but it was still better to be i a high volume store. I got to make more money working in Richardson. Then I went back to Sherman to close out my career. By this time, early 2001, the Pappas brothers were in control and the stock price was plummeting to a very low amount. I thought there was a chance the company would go bankrupt, and nobody was happy.
  4. I don't know what happened to Copeland. The Old Bandera store was inside the loop, in a very old shopping center, and the store was tiny, so I don't think it was Leon Valley. it was sometimes called Little Bandera. South Park Mall was a great location for the company. It seemed like all of the mall stores did well.
  5. There is so much stupid stuff that is hard to believe. So, as you may know assistant mgrs. worked the most hours - 7 a.m. to 9:45 p.m. on average. I felt like I was getting close to getting promoted to associate manager, and the company wanted to find out if I could handle some pressure, so they sent me to Corpus - in the mall - to work for the tightest old ex-Navy man they had. The man was rich, worked two days per week. The associate manager worked the other 5 days. But this store was different. I had to come in at 6:30 a.m. and work until close. Ok, so I can do this. But then the associate manager refused to let me lock the door at the closing time, 8:00 p.m. on a Friday night. He wanted to see if he could sell some more of that old food laying on the counter. I quickly learned to keep the amount of food on the counter nice and low, so the Associate manager could not say we needed to stay open later. Dumb tug-of-war, and then a bigshot came into the store one night with the counter down nice and low, and he was NOT happy. Mr. Jimmy Wolliver, an officer in the company, not known as a nice guy. The associate manager got in trouble and the senior manager told me I didn't exactly come out of it smelling like a rose. I think I won that little tug-of-war. Oh and the money. One month at Corpus - the mall - we netted 36% on about $260,000 volume, $93,600 net. This was during the 60/40 split. The store management received 40% of the net profit. 40% of net profit = $37440. First they paid any assistant managers- me- I was the only assistant. I was paid $2450. That left almost exactly $35,000 to split between the top two managers. The senior manager received 67% and the associate manager 33%. Senior manager made $23450 and the associate manager made $11550. The old man worked Sunday and Monday, and he did come in to count inventory-maybe 4 hours on the last day of the month. That was the highest net month I experienced. A normal net at that store was about 32%. The old man cried all of the way to the bank every month. That old ex-Navy man held the company record for salary in one year. We were told during training that he netted 42% one month, and that his company record salary of $300,000 happened in 1985, just seven years before I started work. I was promoted after working in the mall for a year. My promotion came as a result of the infamous Wyatt's transaction, when Luby's opened a bunch of old Wyatt's in one day. September 1996 I was promoted and working in paradise, aka Sherman TX. Mr. Barry Bell was awesome. Finally, a young man to work for, and I got a tiny piece of the pie before Luby's changed the compensation plan.
  6. Luby's from both perspectives, as a customer and then a manager. The Killeen massacre happened exactly one week before my first interview with Luby's, in fall 1991. I was an older college student finishing a no-name degree paid for by a state agency in Austin. I grew up eating at various cafeterias on Sundays after church. Luby's gradually became my parents' favorite- grew up in Austin area. The item I knew as CFS was actually a breaded beef cutlet I found out later. Breaded with cracker crumbs. The actual chicken fried steak was even better and hardly ever served, flour batter flour batter flour. Too much labor. Tasted fantastic! Many strange moments and even dumber decisions by the company made this whole thing very predictable. The management training program consisted of so much propaganda that it made all of us know this thing was a sinking ship, if consistency in quality was not maintained. All the company had to do was follow DKR's advice and "dance with the one who brung ya". One example. The company decided let managers have control - turned out too much control. Order cheaper fish? These were frozen blocks of fish, then cut the fish on the bandsaw. A boss of mine ordered Pollock instead of Haddock because of price. So I am standing there one day behind the counter as we open and I smell the strange fish smell. Customers knew something was different as well. Was not a good smell. Another bit of stupidity- Old assholes were everywhere in the senior manager position. The dumbass in El Paso refused to use real milk and butter in his mashed potatoes. He used powdered milk and margarine. Interesting/strange things 1. learning to make fried chicken from old lady cook at "Old Bandera" in San Antonio - Nellie- I think. 2. Sold 100 steaks at South Park Mall in San Antonio one Father's Day - T-Bone and Ribeye 3. Strange chopped steak recipe one old manager - Jim Copeland - had in San Antonio - "Luby's Special Chopped Steak" - had a special charbroil sauce in the middle and was nearly twice as big as a regular chopped steak. We sold those every Sunday. 4. The interview with the super-cute TV reporter in Sherman parking lot Thanksgiving Day 1996. Most beautiful skin on that tiny little girl. And our Area Vice President - Mr. Eldridge calling me to say thank you for doing the interview. I had that interview on VHS for a long time. 5. Eating free as a manager - every day - even days off- at any Luby's. 6. The taste of so many foods. My boss in Corpus-David Rice - made a fabulous Shrimp Etoufee. It was awesome. 7. When I made those three leftover ribeyes into chicken fried ribeye the next day in Sherman - That was the best chicken fried steak I ever had. 8. S E S O V D M - ingredients to make mayonnaise. Salt Eggs Sugar Oil Vinegar Dry Mustard. 9. The dessert I modified. Our Area Vice President - Kent Weaver - son of the rich Mr. Kenneth Weaver - challenged us assistant managers to modify an item and run a food cost. I chose dessert . I took an existing lemon cake recipe and asked the pastry lady to put cream cheese icing on top instead of the usual lemon drizzle. Tasted much better, imo. 10. Sauteed mushrooms with Sherry Wine....Provencale sauce with wine...Dill sauce.....Tampico Sauce....almost any kind of sauce, except for stuffed bell pepper sauce. 11. Meeting Dave Cowens at Walzem Road - San Antonio, and Randy Travis at Central Park Mall - San Antonio. The funny part about Travis was there was an Express-News gossip columnist who wanted the scoop on stuff so I called her and told her Randy Travis and wife are here and how nice he was etc. and the lady asked me if the wife was pretty. Hell no she wasn't so I just said ''uhhh, yeah". My boss wasn't exactly thrilled when he read about his cafeteria in the newspaper the next day, but those old guys were pretty hard to please.
  7. thanks a bunch, twice. I don't think I will be upgrading anytime soon. And it looks like all systems are go for the Line.
  8. Last question for now: Here is a response from Diamondback about the Line vs. the Hook. "Hello, the Line and Hook share the same frame. However the Line gets a slightly nicer drive train and hydraulic brakes. Otherwise not much else. The warranty is 5 years on the frame one year on the parts due to manufacturing defects, when you order one or the other it will be the 2020 season model." So, I am leaning towards the more expensive model, which has 9 speeds, vs. 8 speeds, and the hydraulic brakes vs. the regular disc brakes. Is there additional maintenance to be done for the hydraulic brakes vs. the regular disc brakes? $100 more for the Line. Appreciate any opinions.
  9. Thanks for the recommendations. I went to a bike shop in San Antonio just now, and called another. They say 0 bikes in stock, and I ended up having a conversation with one pretty informative guy who said he could order a Diamondback, but his computer indicated nothing available. I told him I had emailed them and they had some bikes. He offered to call to see if they were just predicting they would have them in a month or so. He called back and told me they told him they do have bikes for customers directly, but not for bike shops. Looks like I am going for the slightly higher priced Line, and one question for you guys. The shop I went to this morning said I should buy dry lubricant. I didn't want to ask him for an internet source- it would be competing with him. Which online source do you guys recommend for the dry lube, and how much do you buy at one time?
  10. What are annoying things about Diamondback bikes? I have decided I like the hook and the line. The attraction is the 1 X system and the durability. I plan on taking good care of the bike. Also, I am going where there is no hint of a bike shop, so if you had one thing to put in your suitcase for your bike, what would it be? Of course there is Amazon, but sometimes Amazon takes 3 weeks or more. My neighbor already has a good toolkit.
  11. San Antonio for four weeks, then HEB area for 3 weeks, then back to rural Alaska. Looking for something I can ship. Back up plan is to walk into a bike shop in Anchorage, pay for it in late July, have it shipped to the teacher compound where I live. Yes, I picked literally the worst time in history to become interested in bikes. At least I am aware of that fact. The positive is I know pretty much what I want. I want a 1 X system, and I will not be jumping. The roads in the area are combination rocks/gravel. I figure a mtb will hold up pretty well. I am not young or light and will go easy on the bike. My neighbor in Alaska is good at maintaining bikes, so he will help me with that.
  12. New to mtb world. Would like to buy entry-level mtb. perfectly wrong timing, as there are no bikes anywhere. Any fearless forecasters willing to say about how long until i should expect to wait until there are bikes available to purchase?
  13. I cannot resist. You mean top 3 in the state? Top 3 in the conference? I don't even think we're in the top 3 in the state, conference, anything!!! Maybe top 3 in Austin TX? Let's see there is St. Edwards, Concordia, ACC, yep, I think we're top 3 in Austin.
  14. What is the benefit of the flour?
  15. The 2009 team deserved better. I was a "first-guesser" all of the way through the year. Probably most of us knew that because of Colt's injury history he wasn't going to make it through the year without injury. I wanted to vomit when I watched Gilbert hand-off game after game in relief of Colt. The golden opportunity occurred the week we played that Florida directional school, in probably November. We were up something like 35 to 0 at half. All GG needed was some real game time experience throwing to the first team receivers. That was the ultimate chance. Two or three series in the second half of throwing. That's all he needed. Bottom line, it should have been two NCs.
  16. so, they have equal dementia? just curious.
  17. new to this discussion; used to be a democrat, was a democratic delegate to the Collin County democratic convention one year, the year I saw the beautiful actress Heather Tom. Voted for Obama once. Biden's major weakness: Inability to speak clearly, inability to know where he is- just listen to parts of his roundtable with governors yesterday. Didn't know who briefs him for an hour per day. He tried to call the Doctor's name, gave up and said "Docs" He thought the country had lost 86,000 jobs and millions of people killed! And this was a roundtable he organized. How does the democratic party deal with Biden exposed during debates? Maybe they refuse to debate?
  18. Yes, this is one of the things that gets me in general, not just sports. How do you have a multi-billion dollar company and you let the face of your organization decide when he wants to retire, instead of making an objective decision that the skills have deteriorated to the point where it becomes a situation that hurts your product? The best example was Dick Clark. The man could not count down to 0 for his New Year's Eve special. I guess he might have been a guest host or something. But ABC wanted him to count down to 0 and he couldn't do it. I think he was a victim of a stroke previously. Dumbest move ever ABC. I like the philosophy of leave them wanting more.
  19. Shula was a part of one of the best MNF games ever, the year the undefeated Bears came into Miami, without McMahon starting. The game was huge. To say Miami was jazzed for this game would be a severe understatement. Marino, Super Duper and Clayton, wow! Bears were not the same without McMahon. One of the biggest what ifs in the history of the league. What if McMahon had been healthy his entire season? Would Chicago have been the second undefeated team? Probably yes. 15-1 and winning the super bowl, crushing the Patriots.
  20. The RB named Walker, John Walker, I think, from Killeen HS? He was very successful at Texas, late 70s, early 80s. He flew over the goal line. He looked like he had jumped on a trampoline in the backfield. He was almost a guarantee to get that last yard.
  21. I will play the forecast game. losses....8 in conference, 1 in Maui, losses to Villanova and Gonzaga, one in SEC challenge.....total losses 12. That leaves the team with 19 wins? That is before the conference tourney. Then 2 wins in the tourney and the team is a 12 seed in the big dance. Win one for sure. Progress? yes, enough to merit a long-term extension, I don't think so.
  22. Shaka agent is the best agent ever? Can’t believe he was top 2 choice for ACC team.
  23. I am pretty confident he can f this up by utilizing last years offense. He tells gb he needs to work on his threes for the next level, and keeps him out there on the three point line through end of January. He also has Baker and gb split time starting through end of February. March arrives and by then shaka has gb in a mind melt, not knowing his capabilities. Team finishes 10 and 8 in conference, gets on a roll postseason, makes it to round of 32, and CDC gives Shaka a 3 year extension. congratulations team, you won a tournament game.
  24. Woah, makes me think about that $70 million stadium I voted against in Mckinney couple of years ago.
  25. Here is a 100% guaranteed correct answer. We can all agree the physical life of a b-ball player is limited to x number of years, say average of 10. What should be number one is the development of the player. Which scenario gives the player the best development? 1. Limited practice with Shaka and company? 2. Limited practice with some other powerful college team? 3. Unlimited practice with G league team? If we can answer this question to a 95% or higher degree, that becomes the correct answer, because: a. If there is a college b-ball coach who can develop the player better than g-league, the player should move up in the draft to the top few spots, thus making up the 500k easily. b. If the player works for a g-league coach that is superior or equal to colleges, the player gets drafted and makes same money he would have made or more + the 500k. Player can always go to college later if he wishes. If there is not a 95% certainty answer to the development question, then the players family hasn’t done their homework, IMO. I don’t know anything about g league coaches, but I bet the Browns have done their homework. I also lay down money the Browns know which college has the best potential for development.
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