Category — Rant

Here are some things that have been bothering me:

1. If you’re walking down a sidewalk, keep to one side or the other. DON’T walk in the middle - it’s hard to pass. Would you drive down the middle of the road?
2. Hang up your f-ing cell phone. They should be banned in all public places.
3. Keep away from me when you’re behind me in line. You won’t get to the front any faster by breathing down my neck you slob.
4. If you send me an instant message and then I respond answer back immediately. Don’t keep me waiting for your response. This is like you calling me on the phone, saying “Hello” and then staying silent for the next 10 minutes. If you’re busy, tell me or better yet don’t bother me in the first place.
5. Do all those people filling up the handicap spaces at work really need to park there? I doubt it.
6. Never, never, never take the elevator just one floor.
7. No. I won’t fix your home computer.
8. Cable company: why do you extort so much money for your services?
9. Gas company: billions in profits? I hate that.
10. Ask me for help ONCE. Don’t nag me, you’ll never get help.

Suppose you have a trash can that gets filled up. What do you do? That’s right, you empty it.

So why is it so hard for people to do that with their email? Here at work we have 125 MB limit on the size of your mail file. When you pass the limit, you can’t send mail. I constantly get calls from people in a panic saying they can’t send any email.

My answer is always “then start deleting.” It’s an extremely simple thing that very few people seem to understand. Delete, delete, delete.

I had to find a new drugstore to use since we moved. I picked a CVS near the apartment when I needed to get a prescription filled last week. The visit was like an interview, I wanted to see how well I was treated and to check the condition of the store. Then I would decide if we would be using them from now on. The clerk at the back pharmacy was very friendly and helpful. The prescription was filled on time and without any problems transferring from the old drugstore. They got the job as far as I was concerned. That is until I returned the next day for some shaving cream.

There was a long line at the front register with only one register open. After waiting a few minutes, another cashier was called to the front to help out. The young man came up right away and opened another register. The line started moving again. When I finally got up to the register, with the cash in my hand ready to move, the phone rang. The kid said to me “excuse me, I have to get this.” When he answered the phone he said “Thank you for calling CVS, where the customer always comes first.” Of course I couldn’t let that go, I immediately said to him, “yes as long as you’re a phone customer.” He didn’t like my comment but he could see I was irritated after waiting for a long time only to be cut off by someone that wasn’t even in the store. Maybe he learned his lesson from me but I doubt it.

After a terrible slump, I’m finally back updating my weblog. The house sale, packing and moving kept me busy and I let the weblog go for a long while. They say selling your house is one of the most stressful things you can do in your life. I agree. But I’m back, and I have plenty to bitch about, so let’s get started.

What’s the deal with that new movie about the World Trade Center? I really hate these people using that terrible tragedy to make money. They may claim their reasons are to help us remember the “fallen heroes” but I know the bottom line is money. I didn’t like the idea of the other movie about Flight 93 where the passengers stopped the terrorists from reaching their target. And I certainly don’t like this new one that exploits the events of the WTC attack. I plan on skipping this one and all others that these bloodsuckers produce.

A friend of mine rarely, if ever gets angry. He admits getting annoyed at people once in a while, but never angry with them. I greatly admire my friend’s attitude and I wish I could practice it myself. He has a relaxed style and demeanor that makes him a great person.

With me, I get angry all the time. The idiot who cuts me off on the road, the moron neighbor who lets their dog crap on our lawn or the buffoon in front of me at the salad bar, carefully deciding (and deciding) which items to put on her plate easily set me off.

My friend is right though. There is nothing I can do about these people so why bother getting angry. Why should I work myself up and get upset about something so trivial? Stay relaxed and focus my energy on more positive thoughts and forget about the losers who I encounter, my friend tells me. It’s a great philosophy and the determination and self-disipline he exhibits should be a model for all of us.

But I’m not that way. I take great pleasure of reminding my moron neighbor that his dog is crapping on our lawn. The other day he says “Good Morning, Mike. It’s a beautiful day outside today, isn’t it? To which I replied, “Hey moron, your f-cking dog is crappy on my lawn again.” The astonished look on his face gave me a great sense of joy.

How about that lady at the salad bar? I remind her that this isn’t rocket science and that taking so much time to make a decision is ridiculous. Just plop it on the plate and get moving I tell her. I view this as a courtesy and by pointing out her shortcomings she can improve behavior the next time. Without me screaming at the poor woman, she wouldn’t never realize what a pain she was being.

So the next time another driver cuts me off on the road, and I scream and yell at them you’ll know it’s my way of making myself feel better. Bottling up these primal emotions is not good for me. My therapist and I have discussed this many times. Because of his help, I’m the well-rounded and emotionally balanced person I am today.

I cancelled our account with Netflix this morning. For the past several months, huge delays in shipping were bringing the cost per DVD up to that of renting them at the video store. In the past I could return movies on Monday and have three new ones by Thursday or Friday. The cycle of getting three movies per week made their service worthwhile and cost-effective.

Then I read about how Netflix “throttles” customers who are cycling through movies too fast. To slow things down, they delay shipments in the customers queue. I’m not sure if this is true but my rentals have slowed down considerably in the past few months.

From Netflix customer service:

“In determining priority for shipping and inventory allocation, we give priority to those members who receive the fewest DVDs through our service. As a result, those members who receive the most movies may experience next-day shipping and receive movies lower in their Queue more often than our other members.

By prioritizing in this way, we help assure a balanced experience for all our members. Those that rent a lot of movies get a great value and those with lighter viewing habits are able to count on our service to meet their limited needs.”

Their unlimited rental offer is not what it seems. As a power user, I’m not able to rent, watch and return movies as fast as I want. Instead of my usual 12 movies per month, I get throttled down to about 9 per month.

Receiving popular movies right after they are released is another problem. If I really want a movie, I save it to my queue months before its release on DVD. Then I prioritize my popular choices to the top of the list. When the DVD is finally available, I figure it should be mailed to me within a few weeks. This rarely happens. Instead my queue showed “very long wait” and I often waited months before getting the DVD.

I also read Neflix gives new customers preferential treatment. They are the ones to get new, popular movies first. To test this, I signed up for a no obligation 2 week free trial under a dummy name with a different credit card. Next I placed a newly released movie, one with a “very long wait” in my regular queue, to the top of the list in my dummy queue. The movie was shipped the very next day.

So I cancelled the dummy account and also my regular account of many years. Neflix is a great service with a huge selection of movies from which to choose. Maybe they’ve grown too popular and can’t keep up with their customer’s requests. We decided to separate from each other for a while, maybe things will improve and we can get back together.

For now, we’ve moved to Blockbuster. For about the same price we get three movies to rent plus 2 in-store rentals. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Waiter/Waitress: after you take away our plates, and ask if we would like anything else and we say “no,” please return promptly with the check. Don’t go on your break in the back while we’re wondering what happened to you.

The idiots on the road after the first snowfall: SLOW DOWN

Couple with infant at the new Harry Potter movie: leave them home. What can they possibly get out of that movie?

Engineering student that sits near me: try not to look so busy all the time, even if it is personal business. You’re making the rest of us look bad.

Restaurant cashier: stop asking if everything with our dinner was OK. We both know you could care less.

Computer users that I help: when you forget your password, just admit it. Don’t blame the computer for your memory problems. I hear that all the time and think to myself, “what a dumbass.”

Breaking News Alert. In a Channel Z exclusive we are the first to break this story that you will see only here on Channel Z. When we return we will show you the shocking news that you have been waiting to see. It’s a story you don’t want to miss and will continue later in the broadcast. After the break we’ll talk about this very important 6-part exclusive investigation only on Channel Z that is developing right now in your area. And it’s only on Channel Z Action News that works for you where local news comes first.

I hate local news. If their shameless self-promotions were removed, the broadcast with the real news would only last 10 minutes. I much rather get my news from online sources where I can quickly scan items of interest and bypass all the fluff. My intelligence is being insulted each time I watch any of the local news stations and I’ve had enough.

The overused “Breaking News Alerts” are like a kid crying wolf. Too many stories are “breaking news” so I don’t bother to pay attention to the important ones. Also, the ridiculous gimmicks that force us to stay tuned after the commercials are stupid and try my patience.

Just report the news, stop making us wait to hear the story and only call it Breaking News if its something really important. This morning’s breaking news involved some tree that fell over from the strong winds. Sheesh. I’m done with them.

Like everyone else, I get a huge amount of email. Many of these messages have signature files at the bottom. Most of the time they are simple one or two line paragraphs that include the person’s name and phone number.

Every once in a while I’ll get one with a famous quote or clever saying. These are nice but some senders feel the need to add paragraphs of information including their email address (I know what it is because you just sent me an email), fax number, home address, names of their children and a bunch of useless data.

In the early days of email, signature files (and .plan files) in the Unix environment were unique and fun. Now they are becoming increasingly annoying.

Some emailers with too much time on their hands, create these elaborate signature files with animated GIF files that couldn’t be more irritating. I’m sure these people think they’re being clever but these signature files are about as tacky as pink flamingo or roaming gnome lawn ornaments.

Have you seen the ones with the name in a tacky neon green 72pt script font that’s barely legible but nonetheless extremely gaudy? How about the ones where an image is pasted into the signature box and stretched out of proportion making it blurry and illigible.

My philosophy for email: keep it short and simple. Don’t waste bandwith on stupid signature files that take up more disk space than the message itself. And get to the point with your message too, I won’t sift through a bunch of dribble just to get to your one line of useful information. You’ll be wasting your time emailing me such crap as I won’t read it.

And please no animated GIF’s of hopping bunnies in your SIG file.

For some good examples of annoying signature files, visit The Gallery of Annoying Email Signatures.

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t care for the inconsiderate bozos who yak on their cell phones in public. Now there’s another annoyance that has been bothering me more and more - speakerphones. Around the office these self-proclaimed big shots shout into their speakerphone and EVERYBODY can hear their conversation. Then you go into their offices, start talking about something else and discover they are on the phone talking to someone. It’s embarassing.

Scotty (James Doohan) has beamed up for the last time. I have very fond memories of him when the Star Trek series originally ran. I hear his wish is to have his ashes taken up into space to join his friend, Gene Roddenberry.