Nothing much to the day except I spent some time prepping for the big Red Machine and what it had in store for me.
Tag: Big Red Machine
Day #127 10/14/11: The new blood vs. the millonaires club Big red machine style…
I remember ten years ago in the dying days of WCW there was a feud between the new blood and the rich guys that made the most money. Now, for me it made no sense at the time as I was a fan and not an observer of the content. Now, looking back almost ten years later, I see how the new blood has a problem of mixing it up with the Millionaires club as we folks that have been at Big Red for a while back our words up with our workrate and the new ones probably don’t do much except complain about how they are not paid enough and they don’t get enough flexibility. My thing is: deal with it. The reason I say this is because I worked this day and I saw many of the new people that we have complaining about how they don’t have much time to get there work done but it can be done if we stop complaining that we can’t. I do my best and to make sure that I fit all of my work in one precise part. I cleaned up quite a bit this day and afterwords my mom decided that she wanted to go out somewhere so after we had taken care of our small journey, we hit up Yogurtland and before that I took this picture of my old stop light where I would go home after coming back from Mountain View or Palo Alto. A good day where I revisited an old place and a new place as well.
Day #123 10/10/11: They… who’s they anyway?
A crazy, fun filled day where the main story was that our truck for the Big Red Machine had arrived late and me and one of buddies at work got stuck doing it and we still had a shit ton of stuff of to do. It was crazy as to how we had to do so much work and people that had worked before us get stuck with less and less. I find it to be unfair yet we are paying for something that is our duty and it is our job as well. I had fun working with my friend today as we discussed the idea of a team that travels and they forget so much of what it’s like to play in the first place. I also remembered that this was the one year anniversary of the famous “they” storyline in TNA, now known as Impact Wrestling. Even though wrestling gets a bit silly sometimes, I find entertaining and wholesome to me as a person. This one led to a year long story arc that is almost ending and I have the enjoyed the ride throughout as I joke around a lot with my brother about it. I took this picture to remind me of the times that I used to drink coffee before I started having health issues and needless to say, it’s something that I can’t take back but I enjoyed it.
It’s like that…what Big Red has given me…
If you really think about it times aren’t that bad
The one that stretches for success will make you glad
Stop playing start praying, you won’t be sad
It’s like that (what?) and that’s the way it is
Huh!-
“It’s like that” by Run-DMC
I say it, I do it, and therefore I am it. I am amazed that for the past three years, I have worked for the Big Red Machine and it has been quite the ride. This past Monday, I watched one of the best wrestlers ever, Triple H, come out and say that he’s seen them all come and go but he’s outlasted them all. I kind of feel like a Triple H as I see no challenges but I still try my best to pass on the knowledge that I have gathered while being there. Whether they like it or not, the more mistakes you make the more experience you’ll gain. I still make my share of mistakes but I try the best to minimize them. I now think back that these past three years I have been with this company and I love the fact that I have learned so much from this place. When I first started working there, I was shy and really moody when it came to work. I believe the reason that I was like this was because I hadn’t really been in a working environment and I was trying my best to impress my peers and bosses. I tried my best to interact with people but I could see that only one guy would give me my chance. This guy was cool and sort of cocky but he took me under his wing. After a few months, I changed my tone and my working style as well. I tried my best to become less stressed and focus on becoming friendlier with people as well. The best gift that the Big Red Machine gave me was the ability to interact with a good pool of talent and observe anywhere from 20-50 different personalities in my time there. I’ve seen guys that love sports and when they love sports, I discuss sports with them as we did our best to get our work done as well as being able to discuss life problems, issues, pay, work, and gossip. I interacted with personalities that taught me a lot and I am thankful for that. I have had my mentors, my brother types, my buddies, and people I am indifferent towards. I am most thankful for the brother types and also my mentors. What I learned from each of these people was that no matter the circumstances, never change. Sometimes, it is necessary to have to change your personality for certain people but whenever I talk to somebody at Big Red, I have learned that it is best to stay relaxed and not to lose your cool. I have given the best I could almost every night, and it doesn’t matter who is working or who I’m working with, I have given it the best no matter the circumstances. Even though I do it less so now, I used to complain a lot that I didn’t have enough money to go hang out with my co-workers and my friends after work and I did end up spending tons of money on food, far trips away to cities here in the bay area, bowling, pool, crazy driving around to these random places, and so forth. I don’t regret many of those trips because I got to understand that some people are sent here to us for a reason, whether it be good or bad. I would get paid and then go deposit my check the next day, which would result on me spending anywhere from 10-40 dollars in one night or multiple nights. I would spend my money because my buddies had the money, so why shouldn’t I have the money. Other times, I would do so to fit in. I gave every last penny just so I could feel good about sharing food with somebody or compromising with a few co-workers in order to play poker or play monopoly. There is something about sharing food with somebody or playing a game with somebody that brings it together that is hard to imagine. I remember numerous times, I would share food with a co-worker of mine and early on when we were getting to know each other, we would go out to eat every night. That is one of the strongest gifts, big red has given me and I miss it at times but nothing is meant to last forever. Even playing poker taught me that these games are seen as nothing more than a money driven game, with the strive to be the best. I am glad I got to do these things because nothing beats learning and making mistakes. Working with older people, I gave them the benefit the doubt about who they were or what they were about. Two of my mentors there, one of whom still works there, I particularly saw them as sharp and very quick witted. I remember talking to both of them very much and I saw them as wise for the age that they were both doing the job. Here I am, at 20, 21, and 22 and I am hanging with this guy in his mid-30’s and another turning 50, learning every little thing I could. I learned that these guys had years of experience and the relationships I established with these guys had me feeling that human communication is essential in life. Nobody learns this world of experience from just sitting in a room as my friend said a month or two ago. I learned from the guy in his mid-30’s that no matter how old you are, it is never too late to get a new start in life and staying optimistic is a key to staying young and looking young. I learned from my other mentor that we were like father and son in another life (at least from my point of view). He told me how he had lost everything, his family, his daughters, his jobs, his flooded house here in this area, and most of all he told me some of the biggest mistakes I was making at work were serving as a lesson. We got along so well and we still do, as we are so alike in so many things as he still gives me advice, gives me his opinions, and we treat it like no other. Most of all I have learned about success and failure. My Economics teacher in high school said something that still sticks out in my mind and that is you have to realize when you have been beaten. My failures have ranged from failed attempts at trying to get with a number of women there, feuding with co-workers over petty issues, being cited for not performing for how I should have, being called out for small things, and many other things. What I learned from each of these experiences was that it matters a great deal how others perceive you but reaching out to others and asking for feedback is the most important thing you can do as it allows for a test of what you can do in the next time. I would ask people as to why I wouldn’t be recognized enough or why I wasn’t getting the accolades I thought I deserved at the time and I would never get a clear answer. But I asked myself, is it really worth it to keep asking why I wasn’t getting enough love at work? The first time I got my review there, I was discouraged easily as I didn’t get the raise I thought I deserved. I kept my head up and then I realized that giving all this effort had to involve me putting talent over, helping others, being a better communicator, being more of an asset, and also being there when I was needed. I was glad that I did this because working with all this new talent after about a year made me realize that teaching people is something we should all strive for. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Chris Jericho once said that if you teach somebody ten things and they take one of those and implement one of those then you’ve done your job. I’ve given advice to people, worked with people on different work styles, given motivation, and the energy has to be there for there to be any sort of interaction. I can say that is the one that I’ll take the most with me as I head into my time remaining at Big Red. To end this, I want to give a special shout out to my niece Jazmin as she gave me reason for hope as she is growing pretty fast and I recently saw that she has started doing some walking as she went walking towards my mom.
Stay tuned for the Next blog:
The Elimination Chamber from Oakland this past February 20, 2011
with Pictures:)
Are people at work your friends…?
Mama told me watch your friends–they can be enemies within quick to
pretend like they fit in. Get in, they bring it all to an
end.
-Krayzie Bone on the song “Friends” by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
Over the past two years or so I have worked for a company that I have kindly referred to as the “Big Red Machine”. Now, the company has had it’s share of ups and downs for me personally but I was sharing this thought in my head a few weeks back and one of my good friends also repeated what was in my head. Are people at work really, truly, sincerely, however you may put it, your friends? I remember when I first started working there, I was very shy and I didn’t want to leave a bad impression on anyone. I was trained by a guy who I refer to as Hall of Famer. I considered the guy to be my first, (or at least I thought), friend and he seemed to be a genuinely nice guy that cared about helping me succeed. However, after a while I saw the guy as someone who was really selfish and he didn’t care about making friends. I made an effort to get to know the guy but he seemed like a total tool who would backstab you the moment he could find the chance to do so. I don’t think he ever truly appreciated the effort that I made to at least talk to him because everyone there despised him to no end. I saw him trying to get to know me but he just complained a lot about work and the life he was living. He seemed intent on trying to put his own accomplishments over instead of his trying to help out others which is something that I see as being not only a helpful co-worker but as a friend as well. After a while, I figured that I was wrong about Famer and I should look for new friends at work. Now, Famer wasn’t the most popular guy yet his foe, if you will, was almost the exact opposite. Pitbull, as I would like to call him, was someone who helped me a lot when I first started, he taught me how to make things look good, how to impress the managers at work, and just some great tips overall. I found the guy to be a bit lazy, but I can understand since he had been there for almost 4 years when he got let go. I think the reason that I believed this person to be my friend was because we were both Mexican and he talked well enough to have me convinced he was all he said he was. From him, I learned a few things as to how and why we may not be truly friends with people at work. First, you only see these people at work, it isn’t always guaranteed that they will be there forever and when they are gone, it’s business as usual. For example, when multiple people have left due to career opportunities (cheap plug for the Clash!), financial reasons, finding out about yourself, or focusing on school people seem to only focus on the impact they had while they were there. I can remember when my friend, Rick, disappeared essentially from the company and I was really worried as to what happened. I was afraid he might have gotten sick, that he had an accident of some sort, and a part of me was in disgust that he just abandoned us. I remember people were just asking what happened to the guy and people were saying such things such as:
“What happened with Rick, did he just leave and bounce?”
“Job abandonment”
I was surprised because very few people took the chance to actually getting to know the guy. I can say that Rick, myself, JC, and Jason were a tight knit group for a while but I always felt that me and him had the ability to share more than just work. After talking to him some, I realized he had his own reasons for leaving the job and it made me realize that work isn’t the only thing in life. One of the main reasons I think friends may also not be your friends at work is because we all have our own lives and it’s very rare that we would actually take the chance to actually hang out with friends that we have at work. I also think it is strange that after someone leaves at the machine that they are soon forgotten about and people start getting sad when they are about to quit. I remember a few weeks ago, the cosmetics specialist, Taylor, was asking our security, Dillion, if he was leaving because she had overheard him talking about leaving but he was just making a joke. I personally believe that it is difficult to truly develop any real relationships when two or more people are working together, whatever it may be you are referring to. So, draw from this what you may but if you want to be friends with people at work, assume that they are ‘cool’ but after a while start getting to know and you’ll see how important it is to have friends that matter. Thank you for listening and good night!
What we remember…
Life is much different than it was 5 years ago for me. 5 Years ago I was still living in San Jose, CA starting my senior year of high school and I still remember those days and how much has changed since then. Ever since then, I don’t have the same friends as I used to, I have my own money, I live in a different area, I have a stable job, and most of all I am still the same person but with a different mindset. I remember when I used to hang with my buddies from High School from Homestead I would feel a little different from them because they had a different lifestyle than they did. Even when I hung out with my friends from Cupertino High, I felt that I was different from them as well. I felt a bit more mature and more sophistacated than them. One moment in particular that I felt that I was more mature than my friends from Homestead was when I would hear them talking about their experiences they had getting drunk or smoking which dissapointed me because they always seemed a bit better than that. I never felt any real resentment towards them for doing that but I was still proud of them because my friendships with them were unique. I’ll always remember the fun times when I would see them in those times bt I felt I was lucky to move away from those group of friends of mine that were slowly but surely falling into a path that I was not set for. However, I remember five years ago in high school, I had a group of friends I dubbed the “Magnficent Seven” which was me, Anand, Vinod, Mohammed, Manu, Jason, and Hong. We were a close bunch but what I remember the most was that we were all smart and we never really had any problems with each other. I considered Anand to be a good friend of mine and we always got along well even though we never really agreed on much. We did a lot together in those times including going to the movies, studying, writing papers, and even going to eat out as well. Vinod was someone I considered to be truly awesome at that time cause we never had a disagreement and we seemed to click on all cylinders when it came to certain things (girls, movies, music, and school.) Mohammed was new to Cupertino so I had a difficult time getting to know him at first but after a while we seemed to get along just fine and we were never ran out of things to talk about. Manu, Jason, and Hong were sort of backdrop to my friendships with the other guys but they all had a good sense of humor when the time was right. However, what I remember most about 5 years ago was that I didn’t have to worry about anything. These days, I have to worry about saving money, putting gas in my car, making time for family and friends, finishing school, continuing to remind myself at the Big Red Machine that it’s not about me anymore and I have to enahnce talent rather than putting myself over in my head. It’s difficult to explain but when I was 17 I had no plans to find myself fighting over the fact that maybe life would be different if this happened or if this person never met this person. The truth is life would be different if I got toegther with a girl at the end of my high school tenure, and of course I always the millions upon millions of “what if” questions and some of them are:
What if I never moved to San Jose in the first place?
What if my brother and his girlfriend never stay together?
What if my dad never bought his first car after getting his license?
What if we never bought a car in the first place?
What if I never had found a job at the Big Red Machine? Would my life be better or worse?
What if my mom’s family actually started talking to each other again?
What if my dad’s family didn’t treat him like him like garbage?
OK you get the point life would be much different if all these things had happened in this time frame. If I didn’t find a job I would probably had never met all the wonderful people that work with me or have worked with me including(but not limited to): Ricardo, JB, John S., Audrey, James K., Dustin, Phillip, Manut, Alex R., and Jimmy. I always wonder what would life be like if we didn’t own a car and the truth is maybe our lives would be different and we would actually be a lot closer as a family. Not to say that we aren’t close it’s just you create a lot more memories when you ride not in a car. It’s also pretty funny how my parent’s relationships with their brothers and sisters have changed over the past few years. My dad has been someone that I’ve admired ever since I saw how he sacrficed for me when I wasn’t working and he would pay for my books and my school. I owe him big time for that and it kills my spirit when I see how his family treats him. He doesn’t get the attention and he never will because the people that do the most get the the least because they aren’t appreciated in the end. My mom has also had a pretty strained relationship with her brothers and sisters but I think that’s mostly because she’s the middle child and she has to take care of the younger siblings. It’s as if they are divided and they will only side with each other if so and so agrees with them. But whatever family conflcit is common and even though I hear it through phone coversations I know one day they will relaize the error of their ways and they’ll reconcile their differences. What we remember most of these days is not if we did things right or whether we did things the wrong way but we remember the reason it happened was because it was meant to be. Yeah sometimes a series of unfortunate events may happen but things happen for a reaon and the reason I’m writing this is to remind people that no matter how bad our lives get always remember there are people that have worse lives than we do and we complain about a bad day or a bad week. I think sometimes we have to be fortunate for what we have and as a good friend of mine used to say “It’s not about having what you want, it’s about wanting what you have”. Things happen for a reaon and at this timein my life I think all the good things are happening for a reason and even though something bad may pop out once in a while we just brush it off to become stronger later on.
The Big Red Machine loses a good “Deputy”…
What I guess is breaking news is now reality and it just sunk in. The machine has lost another good one in one of our most trusted and likable deputies in Phillip East. Words can’t describe the shock when I heard that he was transferring to a different store because I had gotten so used to him being there on a frequent basis. I remember on my first day at the Machine, I had no idea where to go or what to do at the moment because I was new and I still had no clue as to what I would do. So, one of the operators call Phillip over to our clerical area and he directs me and I remember clearly asking him if it was always this busy on a Saturday and he said on weekends it always this way. He seemed to have a really cool and laid back tone when he said it and I felt relieved that he wasn’t some arrogant jerk that was just out for himself. Right away he put me with the right people to work with and I was happy that he was one of the first people there to greet me. Ever since then, he has been the level headed person among our deputies and he handles himself seriously but at the same time he knows how to get along with most people. He gets to know people and he gives himself just enough space so that people know that he has to do his job in a timely manner. I can honestly say him transferring is sort of the end of an era because the Machine had been riding high for a while but I’m guessing his decision to leave might have been because he felt the place was just crumbling at the seams. Who knows, maybe somebody didn’t care for the guy at our store but it’s amazing that the only deputies at our store still left from when I started are Jenny and Anele. I told Phillip when he told me one on one that he was leaving that he will be missed and I would still visit him at the Cupertino store because you never forget people like that. I am still grateful for him because he was the one that took over for the Grocery section in our store and he came up to me personally and offered me a position over in that area and right away I thought it would be better for my well being and my sanity(which of course it has been!) It was something new and it gave me an opportunity to do what I wanted to do: Work with people in one specific area instead of having to worry if they were going to stay consistent across the board. Once I got put there, I knew I had made the right choice and I told Phillip that this was sort of a peaceful setting and now I’m thinking this could be my last hurrah at the Big Red Machine. Let’s just say, I want to go out with a bang and his departure makes me think more about finding another job but for now I think I’ll settle for this till after Christmas… There is still one more mission left to accomplish.
Just Another Day... 