Flip Flop reviews Drive

I've got a bone to pick with whoever was in charge of marketing.  I should never have wanted to see this movie.

Flip Flop reviews The Help

Despite how much I like Emma Stone, "The Help" still has one serious flaw that keeps me from liking it.

Flip Flop reviews "Rise of the Planet of the Apes"

Starting a new web series here at the Shoe called "Flip Flop." This film criticism series will look at Hollywood's money-makers in a fast-paced and (hopefully) more entertaining fashion than the actual movie.

You don't know, man!

I feel everyone should work for at least several months in a service position. It certainly gives you a good perspective on life.

In my time between college and my first steady job as a filmmaker, I have so far worked at two movie theaters. First, was that one place I mentioned before that had the one-drink-minimum, and I consider that training for having a difficult client, as my boss was constantly drunk and, inevitably, hard to work with on anything.

Presently, I'm at the theater that puts Job A to shame, since it has a real restaurant menu and full bar. Here, I work as a manager and a bartender. Bartending is great here, because it's just a service bar and I don't deal with customers directly. Managing is a different story, since I'm the first person that a difficult customer wants to see, usually because they think I will comp their tab if they cause enough of a stink.

And its been my time as a manager that has opened my eyes to this fact: The customer is NOT always right. Usually, he's just an asshole.

Case in point: I had a pair of customers demand to see me after a film. The first thing they said was "We want to explain why I didn't leave a tip."

For those of you unaware why this is a terrible thing to do, let me enlighten you.

First off, not leaving a tip is a mean thing to do. Servers only make $2.00/hour in salary, and most of that goes to taxes on the tips they earn, leaving them entirely dependent on the mere handful of coins you WERE going to leave for them as you left. And depending on the establishment, the server may have to tip out the bartender or food runner, meaning they LOSE money when you don't tip. It's an unfortunate reality of the restaurant business that business owners have become accustomed to tips coming by default that they realize they can save money by reducing the hourly rate of their servers while keeping their food affordable. I wish it wasn't the case, but there it is.

Now, not leaving a tip is one thing. Usually we just call you a jerk after you leave and go about the rest of our day having already vented our frustration, and by the time you come back we will have forgotten about it.

However, going to the manager and saying "This is why I didn't leave a tip," that's what elevates you to "Asshole Status."  You're just rubbing your rudeness in our faces at that point.

Lesson of the day: Don't be an asshole.

Life in the minority

I'm not talking about an ethnic minority, even though that would get me more hits because folks are always looking for some controversy.

No, I'm talking about my choice in a mobile operating system.

Now that you're no longer interested, let me tell you about the ups and downs of Windows Phone 7.

First off, let me say that the OS has been awesome. It's zippy, polished and well thought out. The problem I have has to do with Microsoft taking so long to release this.

I won't deny that Android and iOS have significant market share, and that installed user base makes them very attractive to developers. This results in lots of third-party software for those two platforms, and that becomes even more appealing to end-users, thus increasing the install base and drawing more developers, and so on and so forth. Its a self-sustaining vicious cycle that results in the larger platforms getting bigger and the smaller ones getting smaller in proportion to the rest of the market. And Windows Phone 7 is one of the smaller ones.

Big companies that are interested in making mobile applications, like banks and online retailers, don't see the existence of additional platforms as a problem. They usually have the resources to fire off an app just like the one for iPhone, only properly adjusted for the different programming language. The problem arises with the smaller companies.

Take, for instance, Squarespace. Its my blogging platform of choice here at Hold Your Shoe, and if I had an iPhone or Android device, I'd be able to use their critically acclaimed mobile app to manage the site. Trouble is that I'm on Windows Phone, and they don't have an app for me. This leaves me writing my posts via email, and publishing them when I get to a computer. Not exactly fluid.

But that's what I get for choosing a platform that's fighting for third place. Gotta wait for the good stuff, even if the basic OS features are miles ahead of the competition.