The place seems to be doing some remodeling, but before that I went in a few times for lunch/drinks, etc. It’s a pretty nice atmosphere but tends to attract large groups of students (from Min Chuan uni I guess) planning weekend trips and such.
One very very nice touch is the ample number of wall outlets. This makes it one of the few coffee shops in Taiwan that are notebook user friendly.
Oh, the sandwiches are very good, BTW, and the pasta is not bad.
Plus, one time the staff made a friend and me move to accommodate a large group of students. They gave us each free drinks for the hassle. Pretty nice of them.
About their language teaching wing, I have no clue. I met one of the managers (ex lawyer, I believe) in the coffee shop, and he was rather friendly, though befuddled to see a foreigner in the shop not affiliated with the school.
I think you need to find out what bizzarre reason made you mis-spell Minquan. Need to avoid having it happen again, and keep this site resolutely pro-pinyin so that we don’t start referring to the capital of China as pee-cking.
Of course, the dipsticks at the university might not be aware yet that all those stupid old spellings are not acceptable any more. In which case you are potentially correct in your spelling endeavours, but our auto-pinyiniser doesn’t care about that.
Personally I hate it when machines make my decisions for me.
He’s not. He is an insuffereable kiss-ass who has fucked up everyone’s bonus by implementing some very complicated appraisal system. He is a drunk and as lecherous as the rest of upper management at WSI. He used to gross me out with his classes, constantly talking about sex with students, barely disguising his desperation. Really a greasy bastard.
Don’t you think those sandwiches barely pass for canapes?
Bad news, folks. Chit Chat has reopened after being redecorated. The prices have risen some 50% or more. What was once a pretty nice place to have a meal and hang out at has jumped up in price. For the very basic menu the place has, and the very standard pasta (though fairly decent sandwiches), it’s hard to justify the amt they want. Oh well…
I totally understand SB and CQ’s confusion over my Kerrying re: ChitChat. Yes, I flipflopped. But I never lied.
But there are things known and things unknown to this community at large. One such unknown is that 6 months ago, I was in a motorcycle accident and for legal reasons, I didn’t come out and name names. The settlement for my accident is being wired to my account in less than an hour and I now can spill the beans.
ChitChat was my idea. It was usurped by a greasy, snaky, manipulative liar in the person of my immediate super. WSI is really trying to be corpo johnnies and ideas were supposed to be shuffled up the chain of command. Therefore I had to go thru PF (we’ll call him for now).
About PF: He was my training teacher for my first couple of days with WSI. While observing his class, I quickly realized what a total tard this was. Example: He is trying to demonstrate the diff between sympathetic and empathetic. He gets close to decent enough definitions, not quite, but close. But he has assigned his attributes to the wrong adjectives. He had it backwards. As an “observer” I keep my mouth shut and jot it down in my notes to discuss with him later. But then snake-boy turns to me and asks, “Do I have this right?”
I umm and ahhh, and quietly inform him it’s actually the other way around. That’s when it began. If I had a cigar, I could have lit it off his glowing snake-like face. (To paraphrase Tom Robbins)
So what does mutt-boy do? Sends me for a dictionary in very a condescending manner to check it out. Sure enough, ToePrevails.
After the students leave, we have our first “feedback” session. (Guys, it’s making me sick remembering it here to write it for you. Why you make me do this? :raspberry:
So, he goes nuclear. Don’t you ever dare to interrupt or correct me again and a bunch of shit like this. I say as calm as can be, “You asked me.”
So he calms down. But I am thinking.YEEEUCK.
But I really liked the feel of WSI…thought it was a fit for me.
So anyway…that’s one of many greasy examples of my year with PF.
And this is the guy I have to go thru to get my ideas kicked upstairs…get my point yet?
He usurps it and gets himself put in charge of the project. He tries to convince me to work for him and I decline. The project hits the skids. The owner of WSI calls me to his office. He says he understands that I don’t see eye to eye with PF, but asks me to put aside my personal differences with the clown for the good of the project. My biggest mistake yet. I agreed.
At this point PF goes on some 10 day vow of silence retreat and holes himself up in his apartment, assigns me two foreign teachers recently hired by WSI and tells me to create ChitChat. What a schmuck…he is such a liar…he was seen around town all over the place during his “retreat”…anyway…
I lead these guys into a plan of action, I spill a bunch of ideas on them, but once bitten, twice shy, I guide the project in such a way that without me, it would fail. I am a unique energy, those that know me can attest to this. I knew fuckface would smear his tentacles all over it and ruin it eventually, so I never put heart and soul into it.
Listen, there is so much more to say on this…and I will…but it’ll just sound like whining and I am on to bigger and better things now and don’t want to dwell. Suffice it to say, I brought the project as far as I could. I was being paid to sit on my ass and wait for students. They still ha no idea how to operate it and all my advice was being dismissed. So I asked to transfer back to WSI and resume teaching.
I asked for a transfer and all this PF fuck would say is “I accept your resignation”…and I would say, “I am not resigning, I am asking for a transfer”, and he would say, I accept…you get the idea…he drummed me out of there but I was happy to go. When I brought up the idea of transfer, I told them transfer me or I resign, so, I guess I made my own bed…but did so willlingly and knowingly.
Please note, however, that I did actually manage to bring the attention of ChitChat to all here. And with a minimum of effort. Likewise, note the amount of energy I am putting into my new posting.
To PF, Supreme OverLord of all things Wall Street,
I would not play Paul-itics with you so you kicked me outta your little club. Boo Hoo Hoo! The best revenge is living right. Thank you for helping me out of a dead end situation thus allowing me to be in a position to accept my destiny. All your karma will come back to you. You preach Buddha but have no idea what detachment means. Were you really that jealous of my potential that you and your fat lacky had to try to get me fired by trying to set me up with false charges of sexual impropriety? I laugh in your general direction. Others u used in your duplicity are not so amused however. Still hiding behind your girlfriend?
toe…this forum is not the place for airing your personal vendetta’s against the bosses of WSI; that last paragraph is ill-advised; suggest you edit it out…at the very least if you’re gunna fling peoples real names around in a forum you need to put your own name at the bottom of the post…
As my character has been called into question based on not having all the facts, and as I started this thread, I feel it is the very place to bring the truth to light. But, you are right. I should sign my own name. Thus edited.
ToeInsists
ToeRedits:
What threats? I was warning him. These are things I have heard may happen. I made no threats, quite the opposite. I said I didn’t want to bother with him. Fine if you want to take out the name, but why is it okay to out James Dean Lloyd? Is this more of the hypocrisy that TMTM so oft speaks about.
And seeing as you took his name out, I refure to use my name as well. I had actually signed it before noticing the hypocratic editing. Would the mod responsible please PM me so we may discuss your decision in private?
Welcome aboard the 'umosan express SA. No threat, friendly advice, stay outta this thread, it may get nasty. Try my 4:20 thread as a training ground, k?
Sorry TS. You addressed your “warnings” to Supreme Overlord, so I thought you were talking to me. I don’t know what you guys are talking about posting names. As a result of my advanced level of enlightenment, I am no longer able to see the names or faces of nonentities, so as to prevent any transfer of energy. For those who were able to see the name, see me in the 4:20 thread for assistance.Especially TS. You claim to have “seen this coming”. However, it is always much better to never seen it at all. It seems as though this owner wanted you on this project pretty bad. And from the “success” of this project so far, he knew he needed you pretty bad. Bad enough you could have held out until he agreed to put you in charge of your so-called brainchild, if that’s truly what it was. Sounds like you allowed this nonentity to drain you of your energy and toss you like a used battery. Let’s hope you Toe Saved some energy to startup this seemingly monster of a machine you are trying to create. But thats another thread, isn’t it? Let me know if you need a jump.
I am impressed. I thought I knew who you were, but apparently I don’t. You have chosen an apt name, for your insight is truly god-like. I further see how you may have thought you were being threatened. No, you are the true One apparently, and the other is some imposter to your throne.
What you say is true. He sucked up my energy. As you may have read above, I turned down the original request to work with him. I tried to not seen (sic) him. But the owner ripped my blinders off and forced me to face that pasty, oily, eerily eely excuse for a face everyday. Its more than a Toe could bear. I hazard to say that even Your Heavenly Patience would be tried.
But thank you for acknowleding that maybe the success, or lack thereof, only proves how intricate my involvement was.
Some examples:
The system was designed to be controlled by a multi-phase website I envisioned. I constantly advised that this had to be the backbone of programming, scheduling, e-commerce, research and marketing. Other aspects too.
The website is still not functioning. Oddly enough nor is ChitChat.
I since took a consulting job to set up a mini-version of this website, and within two phonecalls to prominent 'Umosans (none so prominent as Thou, SA), had it up in running in 2 weeks…it would have been 1, but my programmer had boiling stomach and his keyboard didn’t stretch that far.
Another basic principle that I designed “the big picture” to require was that the students would tell us what they wanted to discuss. True to his nature, the “manager” tried (and continues to try as far as I’ve heard) to cram subject matter down the throats of his students like so much of his buddhist claptrap. (Not that Buddhism is claptrap, but in his mouth…well).
So, when the day came that he told me that I was to write 100 lesson plans in a month in order to get my bonus, I told him to take a flyer. This was not an emotional decision, it was a professional one. He was not leading the project in the way I designed it, not sticking to the plan…and as any entrepeneur will tell you, there are a million ways a plan can fail or succeed, but one sure way to fail is to go off the plan. In Ick-boy’s control, the ship[ was sinking…just call me the first rat to flee. And I was not the only one…and more will soon.
When you build a million dollar (USD) facility, one question you should ask yourself before putting shovel to dirt would be “Who am I building this for?”
SA, I don’t know who you are, but if you do know anyone still involved with ChitChat, ask them that question. They have been open since, what…April? And they still don’t know who or why they are there.
So, anyone out there still doubting my ability to lead a project? The fact of the matter is that in Taiwan, I have never had the lead on a project.
In Canada, I had the lead on many projects. Some failed, most were unheralded successes, each one more successful than its predecessor.
I had no idea there was so much bad karma going on at WSI. What an eye opener! If nothing else, thanks for the entertainment Toesave, your transformation from shameless promoter of Chit-Chat to disgruntled former employee and renegade Buddhist has redifined irony and hubris.
