Math Is A Really Cool Thing....

Hey folks,

This is a little off topic from my usual rants, but I thought I would share it with you anyways. I found out this semester that in order to get into the education program at UNBC one of the requirements that I must meet is having at least 3 credits in any math course. So I decided to take the easiest math course at CNC that I could find, which turned out to be math 190 (Math for elementary teachers), and according to all the websites, and counselors I have spoken with, this math is perfectly legitimate. Well let me tell you, this IS NOT math that elementary students do! I have friends that are still in highschool, and this is equivalent to GRADE 10 MATH!! I was shocked.... But that isn't the point of this blog... It all goes back to grade 8.

I have always had a love/hate relationship with math ever since the early days of elementary school. I was never a fan of math until I got to grade five and had the phenomenal Mr. Chidiac teach me math it was awesome! Mr. Chidiac was able to explain the concepts in a manner that I would understand, and I loved it! Then in grade six, I wasn't a fan anymore, because for one more year I didn't understand, then in seven I had Mr. Chidiac again! and loved math... Grade eight I had a horrible teacher and got 60%.... Horrible, but in grade nine Mrs. Kozak made math fun again, and I did really well... Grade 10 Mr. Thomson taught math incredibly well, and that was my best year! In grade 11 Mr. Jawanda made another outstanding year for math, and really made me think that I might want to teach math! But then grade 12 math slapped me upside the face and made me rethink. Until now that is. This math course I'm taking is really cool, and we learn some really neat concepts from it, which I would like to share a few neat ones with you! Ready? AND GO!

This concept is called Gauss' sum, and really simple but neat problem. The problem posed is: Add the numbers one to one hundred inclusively without using a calculator. Now most of you are thinking, "that's stupid", or "that would take forever and a lot of space!" Most would think to do it like this: 1+2+3+4+5+.....+98+99+100, or 1+2=3, 3+4=7, 7+5=12 and so on. That would be a really long way of going about it, and this mathematician name Gauss proposed this solution: "We know that A+B=B+A, so what we do assign the sum of this equation the symbol Sn, so Sn=1+2+3+4+...+97+98+99+100 (... means I'm just leaving out all the numbers in-between), so we can also write the formula: Sn=100+99+98+97+...+4+3+2+1, then we can write the two formulas (which are essentially the same) as another addition problem:
Sn=1+2+3+4+...+97+98+99+100
Sn=100+99+98+97+...+4+3+2+1, So we get:

2Sn=101+101+101+101+...+101+101+101+101, and we know that there are 100 terms in this addition problem, and they all come out to 101, so we can write it like this:
2Sn=100(101), then to solve for Sn we simply divide both sides by 2:

Sn=100(101)
2

From this we can simplify to 50(101), which then we get the solution of 5050 by using simple multiplication!

Isn't math wonderful Folks? I love it! I'm excited about mathematics, now I am a true geek! Hope you all enjoyed this wonderful session, I look forward to posting more little tricks in the future.
Cheers
-Andrew-

Where Has All The Christmas Spirit Gone?

Well, I'm back due to popular demand hahaha, oh boy what a Christmas break it has been! Not only have there been stupid customers, but also we've jumped into the realm of stupid managers as well, and believe me folks, I'm not worried one bit if he sees this blog, he knows that I think he is the biggest boob on the face of this earth!

So, for the most part, this Christmas at Slave-On has been pretty good, most of the customers were pretty understanding, and really good about the long lines, and so on and so forth. BUT then Starting on the 22nd of December (3 days before Christmas) some stupid people started calling the store and asking if we had any Christmas trees left. So of course, because it is so close to Christmas I would have to tell them that unfortunately we don't, because we only got a limited stock in this year, because we have had many dead trees over the past years. Those stupid people would not accept this as an answer and say "well why don't you have any trees left?" and I would explain again... Then they would say "Well call another store and find out!" So I would put them on hold (the first stupid caller of the season) and called Parkwood, and Spruceland, and The Heart, and they were all out of trees of course... (ask me if I was surprised... NOOO!!!) so I pick up the line and tell them that none of the stores have anymore trees, then they would have the gall to ask "Well I need a tree, so where can I get one from!!!?" I was speechless so I said...I'm not too sure... And most people were alright with that..... BUT then on the 24... That's right... CHRISTMAS EVE! This lady comes into the store and asks for a tree, and I go the whole speech how we are out, and I've already called the other stores and I know for a fact that they are out of trees... The she gets all mad "You don't even care about the customer enough to get extra trees in??!!! And you wont even call the other stores!!??? I want to speak to your manager!" So I called our new manager (one of our cool managers) and he comes down and the lady tries telling how rude I was to her, and he tells her it's Christmas eve, of course there aren't any trees... Sorry for the inconvenience... And as she's walking out the store he picks up a stapler, and pretend to chuck it at her! That was awesome! HAHAHA. These calls for Christmas trees days before Christmas were numerous, and one of the head cashiers picked a call up and when the lady asked where she could find a tree the cashier said "You could try looking over your fence into your neighbor's yard... They might have a nice one you could cut down!" FRIGGEN AWESOME!!!! hee hee

Also, 15 minutes before I was finished my shift, I go to pack for one of the cashiers, and this lady goes running past me. When I got to the till there was another lady there and she was tsking, and rolling her eyes. What had happened was she put her debit card on the conveyor belt, and to move it out of the way (so it would get sucked under the belt) the cashier moved it to the side of the till with the pin pad. There was a gentleman there packing up the last few items, and he accidentally took the card. So the lady who ran past me went outside to find the man (who was apparently a friend of hers) who took her card... The lady at the till was mumbling curse words under her breath and said "YOU SHOULD BE RUNNING OUT THERE NOT HER!!" and I looked at her and said "excuse me ma'am? I just got to the till, I do not know what you are talking about" The cashier explained what happened and I understood. The lady who lost her card gets on her cell phone and says to the cashier and I "You better hope he has his phone on" and calls the guy but gets voice mail. Then she starts looking at people in the line telling them how this is what we get when we hire stupid little dumb girls... And saying how it was all the cashier's fault (which it wasn't) so the cashier was trying to explain how it was an accident but the lady wasn't listening and just kept on ranting... Finally I lost my patience and calmly said "ma'am it was an accident, next maybe just hold on to your card until we are done ringing through the order, but don't put your card onto he belt" then she get offended turns to the other people in the line and says "OH! HE'S SAYING IT'S MY FAULT!!! HEAR THAT??? IT'S MY FAULT NOW!!" and the I lost my patience all together with this lady and said "MA'AM I DID NOT SAY IT WAS YOUR FAULT, I SIMPLY SAID HOLD ON TO YOUR CARD!! THIS WAS AN ACCIDENT!!" then she starts sputtering off how she shouldn't have to look after her money, that's the cashier's job... (UM hello! You should keep an eye on your own card!!! Stupid lady) Then she demanded to speak to a manager because we are so rude and then I said "MA'AM IT IS CHRISTMAS EVE, AND IT'S FAR TOO BUSY IN HERE TO DEAL WITH SILLY THINGS LIKE THIS!" and I think I put her in shock, because she was speechless and just put her nose in the air and walked away! WOO HOO I WIN 1 to nothing! All the customers were really supportive too... One lady in the line even called out to the stupid cow and said "merry Christmas to you too you ol' bag!" hee hee!

So let me tell you what my boob manager (assistant store manager) has been doing. Just a few days before Christmas he hauls all the Service Clerks to the office to tell us that there has been too many complaints about us... We chat too much with the cashiers and ignore the customers... This isn't true... But whatever a customer says, must be right, right? Anyways, he tells us that we are not allowed to talk to the cashiers, all our focus must be on the customer. He said the only reason we should be talking to a cashier is to get clarification on an order they gave us, we aren't allowed to say hello or anything like that. All the focus goes to the customer. Now I think this new rule is a pile of BS because I don't give a rats ass what the customer has to say, so right after he said this, I ignored all customers... If I can't talk to the cashier I'm most certainly not talking to the customer either... And then I found out who the lady who complained was because she come throughout the till and says "Now this isn't what I meant! I want you to talk to me not each other... And I don't want you to ignore me either!" which we didn't' do, we said how are you, have you found everything you're looking for... All that stuff.. But her problem was we weren't conversing with her. Dumb old lady!!! So then, right after the lecture from our manager about not talking to each other, we got a customer at the service desk waiting to speak to a manager, and we tried paging him 3 times, so I got mad and went to look for him, and what do I find?? He's right around the corner standing in a circle with all the other managers joking around with each other and laughing!!! IGNORING THE CALLS!!! So now because of this I refuse to not talk to the cashiers... If our leader does then I will do it, and if he calls me to the office, then I will bring up this little incident. Also, one of my co-workers volunteers at the hospital until 4:30 on Fridays so she restricted Friday so she can only work AFTER 4:30, so what time does he go and schedule her for? That's right folks 4:30!!! IDIOT!

There was another Christmas story I was going to share with you folks, but I can't remember it anymore... So I hope this satisfy your minds hunger for "Stupid people at the grocery store" stories until the next update. Have a great week folks, and Happy New Year!

-Andrew-

*I apologize for the horrible spelling and grammar folks, but it's way past my bed time, so you'll just have to press on through these errors*