The little things that piss you off

[playwithfire]

Yeah what an asshole he is for making you do your job, fuck him

Do u live in trump tower

[Dra508]

Yet, we're definitely not coastal Atlantic old money (Edith Wharton)

Spoken just like a Flatlander, taken all the blue collar and dissing the east coast as all rich folk. Pfft.

We should be called "North Central U.S."

Agreed.

Oh and by the by, Texas doesn't think they are a part of the south or the west. I thought Massachusetts folks were self centered, self absorbed and self righteous, but geeeeze, this place takes the cake.

[allegro]

Spoken just like a Flatlander, taken all the blue collar and dissing the east coast as all rich folk. Pfft.

Illinois really IS flat, Jesus Christ.


Texans can be nice, too, though. I stood up in a wedding in Dallas back in the 90s and a whole bunch of us bridesmaids were in an SUV that was involved in a rather minor multi-car collision. In Chicago, they'd all be out in the street swearing at each other. In Dallas, we bridesmaids sat in the car waiting while the drivers calmly exchanged phone numbers and insurance info and then us northerner bridesmaids WITNESSED SOMETHING WE'D NEVER SEEN AT THE SCENE OF AN ACCIDENT: They all hugged each other and agreed that they'd all have lunch soon.

What the fuck.

[Dra508]

^^^^^ namaste

Piss me off: sat on buying a plane ticket and now the price has gone up like 40%. I'm an idiot.

[The_Prowler]

Today I read an open letter written by a psychiatrist urging people (especially impressionable women) not to see 50 Shades because the relationship is dangerous and unhealthy.

While I agree with that statement on the surface, the underlying message (she never comes right out and explicitly says it) seems to be that all BDSM is dangerous, sick and unhealthy and qualifies as abuse. One point she made is that "girls are supposed to dream about wedding dresses, not handcuffs"... well, I hate to rain on your parade, lady, but lots of women dream about both. When practiced safely and properly, BDSM relationships are just as healthy and loving as even the most chaste and "traditional" relationship, if not more so. True, the one in the books and movie is terribly unhealthy and dangerous, but that's not a real representation of the lifestyle practiced by professional Masters/Mistresses or devoted, loving couples who just happen to like being wailed on with a flog. You're a psychiatrist, you should know better than that. What your letter implies is that all men who like to dominate are chauvinistic woman beaters who are incapable of love and that all women who like to be dominated are weak and insecure and that any and all forms of BDSM are unnatural, sick and violent criminal acts of domestic abuse.

If anyone's read the letter in question but feels differently about its content, feel free to share your opinion if you think I got the wrong idea from what she said.

[Khrz]

Yeah, a lot of people are jumping on that bandwagon lately. While I agree that 50 Shades depicts a fundamentally unhealthy and dangerous relationship, the subtext in every criticism I've read is that young (and less young) women are fragile and impressionable little things who need to be protected against the dangers of fiction.
I completely understand why the Dom/Sub community is outraged at the twisted depiction of such relationship portrayed in the books and movie, but there's a line between being pedagogue and being patronizing.

[Sarah K]

We are worried about the safety of folks who enter thinking 50 SOG is a realistic depiction of a D/s relationship. Yes, in an ideal world, people will recognize that it is fantasy that isn't rooted in fact. But that isn't happening. Instead of getting involved in their communities, people are meeting up with self proclaimed DOMS who aren't vetted by ANYONE. It's a recipe for disaster.

It's also just insulting. Think of any other lifestyle, and imagine a massively popular book coming out about it that just shit all over everything factual. It's infuriating.

[Khrz]

No, as I said I understand, it happened time and time again, the media never bothers to portray any lifestyle properly, and this time it's the D/Ss turn.
And I agree, there's a lot of hungry guys who are too happy to self-appoint dom/daddys simply because the women's response to that is huge (well, to me who wasn't aware of this community two years ago, it is impressive). It is dangerous, because without proper education and guidance, some of them won't tell the difference between a proper dom and a guy who'll choke them to death because all he knows about D/S is that it got him laid, or who will treat them like shit because suddenly he thinks he's not an asshole, he's just kinky...
So yeah, I understand the outrage, and that the implications are beyond having lousy sex.

There is still a feeling I get from some people, who jump at the occasion to either denounce S/M and D/S, or who treat the women who simply want to read the books/watch the film like they aren't capable of reflection and distinction.

[Joy Prevention Hotline]

Damn this cold … I'm less temperature sensitive these days, but this is just too much.

I don't even wanna think about the Upper Midwest right now. >_<

Interesting theory, except Chicago and Detroit are surrounded by farmland but are also supported by blue collar middle class. You ask any lifetime Detroit or Chicago resident like myself and they will identify themselves as Midwest residents, mostly due to weather, seasons, good old-fashioned working class values, etc., but I doubt many if any of them will consider themselves East Coast. There are lots of northern Midwest areas that are farming Republicans: Northern WI, the Upper Peninsula of MI, lots of Michigan (despite the Union presence), lots of northern Minnesota, etc., are heavy Republican, right next to the Union Democrats.

I'm still in the colonial period at this point, but my impression so far is that he's talking about something other than socioeconomics or Republicans vs Democrats. This is his capsule summary of the "nation" he calls Yankeedom:

From the outset it was a culture that put great emphasis on education, local political control, and the pursuit of the “greater good” of the community, even if it required individual self-denial. Yankees have the greatest faith in the potential of government to improve people’s lives, tending to see it as an extension of the citizenry, and a vital bulwark against the schemes of grasping aristocrats, corporations, or outside powers. … Yankeedom has always had a middle-class ethos and considerable respect for intellectual achievement. Its religious zeal has waned over time, but not its underlying drive to improve the world and the set of moral and social values that scholars have sometimes described as “secular Puritanism.”

From its New England core, Yankee culture spread with its settlers across upper New York State; the northern strips of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa; parts of the eastern Dakotas; and on up into Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Canadian Maritimes. It has been locked in nearly perpetual combat with the Deep South for control of the federal government since the moment such a thing existed.

And this is his description of what we usually think of as the Midwest:

Arguably the most “American” of the nations, the Midlands was founded by English Quakers, who welcomed people of many nations and creeds to their utopian colonies on the shores of Delaware Bay. Pluralistic and organized around the middle class, the Midlands spawned the culture of Middle America and the Heartland, where ethnic and ideological purity have never been a priority, government has been seen as an unwelcome intrusion, and political opinion has been moderate, even apathetic. … Like Yankees, the Midlanders believe society should be organized to benefit ordinary people, but they are extremely skeptical of top-down governmental intervention, as many of their ancestors fled from European tyrannies.

This is the book I'm talking about, BTW: American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America.

And now let me reiterate that the cold is pissing me off.

[allegro]

By the way, there was a movie, in 2002, starring James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal, that got little to no attention from the media or the housewives but it's a great movie and most of us on the old ETS had seen it about 100 times:

[Swykk]

Secretary is a great movie.

[eversonpoe]

By the way, there was a movie, in 2002, starring James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal, that got little to no attention from the media or the housewives but it's a great movie and most of us on the old ETS had seen it about 100 times:

Secretary is a great movie.

secretary is, in part, a great movie because it shows a HEALTHY D/s relationship that helps her move away from self harm, with characters who actually communicate and consent to activities together.

[Sarah K]

I think that movie is part of the reason why I have a boner for James Spader still. He's not all that physically attractive to me. But there is SOMETHING.

[johnhenry]

Harris Wittels is dead from an overdose. I am mad at him, drugs, and death, in that order. RIP, man... you were great at funny.

[The_Prowler]

I really, really want to see Secretary.

I think that movie is part of the reason why I have a boner for James Spader still. He's not all that physically attractive to me. But there is SOMETHING.

I can probably tell you what it is...

Intelligence. To someone with a sharp mind of their own, intelligence matches, if not trumps, physical attractiveness.

[valiantsteed]

Do u live in trump tower

Naw I'm broke as fuck hahaha. I'm just not super savvy when it comes to technical troubleshooting. So I'd rather pay an expert to do it properly for me, then spend my small amount of free time stressing about it. If I could, you know, actually afford something that would need a universal remote. Maybe there was a problem with the remote itself, maybe it wasn't hooked up properly to begin with, or maybe the guy is just a total idiot. But even if he is, a) eversonpoe was still bitching about having to go down there without knowing for sure what the exact issue was and b) he didn't take any responsibility for the fact that if he hooked all that up to begin with he probably should have tutorialed him on it well enough so he wouldn't have to go back. Since you know, that's what you're paid to do (presumably).

I just know a lot of people who are struggling for work, so I don't like to hear people bitching when you have to go to a penthouse to show a rich person how to use a remote. There are plenty of worse jobs out there, or you know, no jobs. I don't know all the details and I'm not trying to pick on eversonpoe specifically, there are tons of factors/circumstances I'm not aware in terms of the situation (maybe he did teach him, maybe he's not getting paid, etc), so it's more of a general issue on my part that pisses me off when people bitch about their job. It's like "oh fuck my asshole boss, I had to clean up shit today, that's not my job!" Well did your boss tell you to do it? Then guess what? It is your job. And if you don't like it, find a new one and shut the fuck up. It's just this entitled generational attitude. For a large percentage of society, work is not supposed to be fun. Or easy. It's supposed to be shit. Now I'm not asking you to tolerate it, if you believe you are better than it then prove it, but is it so much to ask to keep your mouth shut and do your job well in the meantime? This is why customer service no longer exists in the world.

Instead of having someone show up saying "Hi sir how can I help you today? Let me fix that asap for you". You have someone showing up who is already pissed off before even saying hello who had to take 3 buses to get there and uncontrollably rolls his eyes everytime buddy asks a question. And this is the same person who will turn around and bitch out the Wal-Mart or McDonalds employee for giving them snark. Be the change you want to see in the world.

[theruiner]

Here's how today went.

So, I woke up at 1 in the morning, got up to get a drink of water, and realized, all of a sudden, oh SHIT, I don't think I can go to California after all.

Now, I'm supposed to be up at 4 AM to get ready and go to the airport. So I've got less than three hours until I have to be up when it hits me. I was going to rent a car and get a motel. But, thanks to having to close all my accounts this week and open new ones, I no longer have a credit card. Or a debit card with my name on it. The only debit card I have is a temporary one from the bank without any name on it.

I call Enterprise and ask them if there is any way they can possibly accept that. Nope. It has to be a credit card and it has to have my name.

So I start going through all the options in my head. Well, I could take a shuttle from the airport, but it is (I checked) $80 each way. Forget that. Plus, I'd have no way to get a motel (I don't stay with other people, EVER, for reasons, mostly related to my OCD).

At that point I thought, well, I'll go check the mail (at this point I've been up awhile and it's almost 2 now) on the off, off, OFF chance I got my card already. I go to the mailbox and there's a note that says something to the effect of, "Mailbox broken, all mail inside the office, sorry for the inconvenience." And the office doesn't open until 10. And my flight is at 8:30.

I got back to my apartment and checked the e-mail that said my debit card shipped- and saw the date. It was mailed yesterday from South Dakota. No way in hell I'm getting it today anyway.

So that's it. I could go with my brother who is driving but I won't for reasons. I could drive in but I'm running on three hours of sleep. By the time I got back to bed now, got enough sleep, hit the road, I wouldn't get to Cali until 6 or 7 at night, which would cut an already very, very short visit with my friend even shorter. Ultimately, this just became way, WAY too much of a headache for such a short trip. I'm going to have to miss my dad's headstone unveiling Sunday (which I wanted to go to but, ultimately, it's not the end of the world if I don't go- it IS out of state and I think it's reasonable to say I just can't make it). I can always go sometime next month to see my friend (that's my goal right now). And at least I won't be rushed then and I'll have my credit card and won't have to worry about any of this crap.

On the upside, I have Monday scheduled off as I was originally going to fly back that day. So at least I have a three day weekend.

[allegro]

Naw I'm broke as fuck hahaha. I'm just not super savvy when it comes to technical troubleshooting. So I'd rather pay an expert to do it properly for me, then spend my small amount of free time stressing about it. If I could, you know, actually afford something that would need a universal remote. Maybe there was a problem with the remote itself, maybe it wasn't hooked up properly to begin with, or maybe the guy is just a total idiot. But even if he is, a) eversonpoe was still bitching about having to go down there without knowing for sure what the exact issue was and b) he didn't take any responsibility for the fact that if he hooked all that up to begin with he probably should have tutorialed him on it well enough so he wouldn't have to go back. Since you know, that's what you're paid to do (presumably).

I just know a lot of people who are struggling for work, so I don't like to hear people bitching when you have to go to a penthouse to show a rich person how to use a remote. There are plenty of worse jobs out there, or you know, no jobs. I don't know all the details and I'm not trying to pick on eversonpoe specifically, there are tons of factors/circumstances I'm not aware in terms of the situation (maybe he did teach him, maybe he's not getting paid, etc), so it's more of a general issue on my part that pisses me off when people bitch about their job. It's like "oh fuck my asshole boss, I had to clean up shit today, that's not my job!" Well did your boss tell you to do it? Then guess what? It is your job. And if you don't like it, find a new one and shut the fuck up. It's just this entitled generational attitude. For a large percentage of society, work is not supposed to be fun. Or easy. It's supposed to be shit. Now I'm not asking you to tolerate it, if you believe you are better than it then prove it, but is it so much to ask to keep your mouth shut and do your job well in the meantime? This is why customer service no longer exists in the world.

Instead of having someone show up saying "Hi sir how can I help you today? Let me fix that asap for you". You have someone showing up who is already pissed off before even saying hello who had to take 3 buses to get there and uncontrollably rolls his eyes everytime buddy asks a question. And this is the same person who will turn around and bitch out the Wal-Mart or McDonalds employee for giving them snark. Be the change you want to see in the world.

To be fair, it WAS five below zero degrees outside that day. Also, from what I understand, he and his Dad run the business, a small tech consulting firm, a two-person operation, which he's said on here before.

And, despite my JOKING about him having to risk frostbite and take the train for one call (and one invoice that might not equal the risk that day, considering he'd woken up really sick that day, as he indicated in the one post just before that post, which you seemed to have missed), I imagine he probably did make that service call, anyway.

[Frozen Beach]

It's 2015, why do youtube comments still exist? It's like their sole purpose is to make everyone lose faith in humanity. I just had someone tell me that H.R. Giger was a nazi because he worried about overpopulation, which might be the dumbest thing I've ever heard this month.

[Khrz]

It's the internet, everyone's someone else's nazi !

[kel]

tapatalk katie.

[thelastdisciple]

Data caps.....

[Magtig]

Old people (and by old I mean 'old at heart') bitching about social media. All their whining voices of objection have blurred into a single voice that says, "Things are different now and that means everything is awful! WAH! Anyone can edit wikipedia! WAH! Anyone can say anything! WAH! Something something Warhol and 15 minutes! WAH! MY OVERACTIVE AMYGDALA! WAH!"

[Khrz]

Well, old people have a right to yell "fuck you" too, you know ?

[Dra508]

Old people (and by old I mean 'old at heart') bitching about social media. All their whining voices of objection have blurred into a single voice that says, "Things are different now and that means everything is awful! WAH! Anyone can edit wikipedia! WAH! Anyone can say anything! WAH! Something something Warhol and 15 minutes! WAH! MY OVERACTIVE AMYGDALA! WAH!"

Yeah, and young folk who do all the same sort of whining too.

[Joy Prevention Hotline]

Guh. Somebody has to come up with a better GPS for commuting. Don't tell me how to drive to work — learn how I drive to work, and be waiting with an alternate route when I need it.

I spent a half hour driving in random directions Friday night looking for a way around a closed off intersection, but the fucking GPS just wanted to take me back to the fucking closed road. Why the hell should I have to get totally lost before it'll give me a different route? Saying "alternate route" or "road closed" to Siri should be enough. Instead I end up screaming at an iPad that tells me to watch my language.

Or at least give me three routes to choose from every time, not just when you feel like it.

Software engineers: fuck your algorithm and the unicorn it rode in on. Stop talking at me and start listening.

[eversonpoe]

Naw I'm broke as fuck hahaha. I'm just not super savvy when it comes to technical troubleshooting. So I'd rather pay an expert to do it properly for me, then spend my small amount of free time stressing about it. If I could, you know, actually afford something that would need a universal remote. Maybe there was a problem with the remote itself, maybe it wasn't hooked up properly to begin with, or maybe the guy is just a total idiot. But even if he is, a) eversonpoe was still bitching about having to go down there without knowing for sure what the exact issue was and b) he didn't take any responsibility for the fact that if he hooked all that up to begin with he probably should have tutorialed him on it well enough so he wouldn't have to go back. Since you know, that's what you're paid to do (presumably).

I just know a lot of people who are struggling for work, so I don't like to hear people bitching when you have to go to a penthouse to show a rich person how to use a remote. There are plenty of worse jobs out there, or you know, no jobs. I don't know all the details and I'm not trying to pick on eversonpoe specifically, there are tons of factors/circumstances I'm not aware in terms of the situation (maybe he did teach him, maybe he's not getting paid, etc), so it's more of a general issue on my part that pisses me off when people bitch about their job. It's like "oh fuck my asshole boss, I had to clean up shit today, that's not my job!" Well did your boss tell you to do it? Then guess what? It is your job. And if you don't like it, find a new one and shut the fuck up. It's just this entitled generational attitude. For a large percentage of society, work is not supposed to be fun. Or easy. It's supposed to be shit. Now I'm not asking you to tolerate it, if you believe you are better than it then prove it, but is it so much to ask to keep your mouth shut and do your job well in the meantime? This is why customer service no longer exists in the world.

Instead of having someone show up saying "Hi sir how can I help you today? Let me fix that asap for you". You have someone showing up who is already pissed off before even saying hello who had to take 3 buses to get there and uncontrollably rolls his eyes everytime buddy asks a question. And this is the same person who will turn around and bitch out the Wal-Mart or McDonalds employee for giving them snark. Be the change you want to see in the world.

two things:

one: i am struggling for work. as allegro says, the business is just me and my dad (though we're A/V & electronics specialists, not technically tech consulting, but i do end up doing that sometimes), all spread via word of mouth, and work is very hit or miss. some weeks we get around 20-30 hours in a week (that's fantastic) and other weeks we get 3-5 hours, and that happened literally every week in december. so believe me, i understand the importance of going to work. but also, as allegro said, i woke up sick that morning, knowing i had a show to play that night in BOTH of my bands, and knowing i had to get up the next morning to drive my wife to an interview an hour away from our apartment. so forgive me for coming to the "little things that piss you off" thread to share my frustration about it. heaven forbid i have an emotion other than just unwavering appreciation and loyalty to my job.

and two: i had done everything right, and my customer caused literally every issue they were having except one. plus, the day i had originally programmed his remotes, i gave him a lesson on how to do everything, and had even written down instructions. and i spent an hour the night before, texting back and forth, trying to fix his issues, despite the fact that he started texting me at 8:30pm, which is most assuredly outside of business hours.

anyway, the first problem was that the comcast xfinity X1 whole-home DVR platform (something that is completely out of my control and that my customer didn't listen to me about being a terrible thing that has so many issues that it's still not ready for public use, despite being out in the world for a couple years now) kept dropping connectivity, and when his main DVR can't access all parts of the service, it just shows a black screen. no error message, nothing. the power light stays on on the front and it won't let you bring up any on screen menus.

because he has no idea what he's doing, rather than trying to power cycle it, which would have fixed the problem, he (for some unknown reason) unplugged the ethernet cord leading from his modem/router combo down to his network switch and didn't plug it back in all the way, so it knocked his apple tv and various other devices off of the network. that then caused his apple tv to not be able to access netflix or his phone to be able to stream/mirror to the apple tv.

the other problem was that he thought his remotes (one universal in the living room, one in the master bedroom) weren't pausing/rewinding/fast forwarding. the one in the living room was working fine, because that's where the main DVR is, so it was allowing the manipulation of both live TV and recorded shows. the one in the bedroom, because it's a secondary unit, can manipulate DVR'd shows, but not live TV, and he didn't understand that, because he didn't pay attention to my original instructions.

so, yeah, it was all stupid, and i really didn't want to have to go do it, but i did. and i showed up, freezing cold, with ice literally in my beard, coughing uncontrollably, but with a smile on my face, and i fixed/explained every single issue quickly, billed him appropriately, and then ventured back out into the tundra.

so don't give me shit about not being appreciative/dedicated to my job. many days, i have to do hard physical labor for people who wait six months to pay us because they don't take us seriously, i have to deal with my dad being an emotionally stunted a-hole, and then i come home to my wife who hates her job so much because people treat her like shit all day, and i have to do my best to try to help her feel better, despite having shitty days myself.

To be fair, it WAS five below zero degrees outside that day. Also, from what I understand, he and his Dad run the business, a small tech consulting firm, a two-person operation, which he's said on here before.

And, despite my JOKING about him having to risk frostbite and take the train for one call (and one invoice that might not equal the risk that day, considering he'd woken up really sick that day, as he indicated in the one post just before that post, which you seemed to have missed), I imagine he probably did make that service call, anyway.

[valiantsteed]

What part of;

I'm not trying to pick on eversonpoe specifically, there are tons of factors/circumstances I'm not aware in terms of his situation so it's more of a general issue on my part that pisses me off

...was not clear to you?

You bitched about something that pissed you off, I did the same. You didn't owe me an explanation, apology, or need to take it personally.

[DF118]

Working for a large software company == drowning in a sea of idiocy.

[allegro]

What part of;

"I'm not trying to pick on eversonpoe specifically, there are tons of factors/circumstances I'm not aware in terms of his situation so it's more of a general issue on my part that pisses me off"

...was not clear to you?

You bitched about something that pissed you off, I did the same. You didn't owe me an explanation, apology, or need to take it personally.

That all sounds kinda mean, there, dude. So was your comment "Yeah what an asshole he is for making you do your job, fuck him." Sounds like you have some kinda personal issues or something that you're taking out on a member of this board. You can bitch all you want, but taking it out on other members ain't cool e.g. "DO YOUR JOB." Everybody on the planet hates their job at some point in time, and it's perfectly healthy. This coming from someone whose family owned businesses for generations, and as somebody who was in a management-level position at 22; really, it's okay to bitch among friends on an online forum about your job, particularly when it's 5 below zero and you're sick. It doesn't mean you'll take it out on customers / clients, and it's not a sign of an epidemic of students who won't work for a living and want 6 figures right out of high school for no work blah blah blah. That's a different topic, with which I won't necessarily disagree. But knee-jerk reactions in against a sick person on a sub-zero day in a bitch thread where a fellow member (ME) instigated things in a joking manner... You can't candy-coat your rant with one snotty disclaimer, that just makes it worse.