Innocuous things that make you irrationally angry (a list thread)

Spread-leg sitters suck and I don't remember a single one who closed them when I sat down next to him. I've tried weak nudging, but it has never had any effect, ever. I always want to press my legs against the other person's so he gets the hint, but I don't want to fucking touch other people's legs on the bus or train.

People should just be aware of the space they're occupying!

OTOH, people who get shitty when others get too close to them on full buses or trains are also no treat. E.g., the woman on my *packed* bus this morning. I was standing in the aisle and she was seated facing me. I (and other standing passengers) kept having to move aside to let others squeeze toward the door, and this woman loudly sighed and scowled at me every time. Should have drooled on her.

wide-stance her

--people not moving into the subway car also drives me nuts. last week or something, i had to let 3 subway trains go past during rush hour because i (and a ton of others) couldn't get in, and as each one rolled away, i could see that in the middle, there was totally room

--people who lean on the metal posts even though there are other people who are holding onto it. super annoying.

--people who make the "i'm getting off the train" motions and head for the doors before the train has even stopped, esp when it's a central location that EVERYONE gets off at...everyone is getting off at the next stop, stop trying to push your way to the front when the doors aren't even open!!

apparently i have a lot of subway rage

People from the other company on my building's floor who stand in the hallway outside our office door making "private" calls on their cellphones, then giving me the stink eye like I'm fucking eavesdropping.

Oh I full on stare at people who do that. People who have loud, obviously personal phone convos in public? Yeah I'm listening and I'm gonna make it obvious.

man there was a guy on the train going on very loudly into his phone about some "shiksa". he was kinda loopy, i could tell, and i felt deeply embarrassed.

--people not moving into the subway car also drives me nuts.

Arghh, on the Muni there's a row of people waiting against the wall and a row of people waiting a step closer to the platform, so there's room between the two rows for people to move around. You'd think the people who step forward when they see which train is arriving are doing so because they want to get on the train, right? No, they're just waiting right at the edge of the platform so when you politely wait behind them for them to get on and then they don't you are STUCK and everyone else has gotten on and gotten a seat.

rayuela is *fully* otm

i would add ppl sporting massive backpacks who act like they are extensions of themselves. put that shit on the floor -- i don't care if your backpack encroaches on my shins, but i don't want it in my face

We have new, open subway trains where people can walk the entire length to spread out the bunching a bit, but it still gets jammed at rush hour. The other day I had the misfortune of riding it at 5:05, and there was a university student squished in amongst all us tired office workers, sitting cross legged on the ground, playing a computer game. It made me very IS. maybe A.

*IA :P

That person needs to be stomped.

that kind of..."spatial selfishness" (?) makes me crazy.

I'm judging that person based on some prejudices against crusty burn-out hippie types I went to college with who would do shit like sit cross-legged in inappropriate places or eat full meals without utensils.

I don't remember how odds work, but they are strongly in favor of my saying some harsh words to that person, possibly preceded by a knee to his or her empty head.

Haha I got IA like that towards ppl who would sit cross legged on the floor at shows. It's not story time! Stand up like grow ups!

^otm.

This mouse keeps scrolling back every time it's scrolled down. Not sure if it's a faulty unit, the batteries in it, or the computer but it is really vexing. Trying to read comics on the computer or scroll down through messages both find me having to stop the thing & rescroll.

The little publicity that's been given to the changeover in the local bus service which is happening next Sunday. Up to yesterday there were a few small signs on the back of the driver compartment on the buses and yesterday and today there are full page adverts in the free local papers. But I don't think I would have noticed any of those if I hadn't been looking for them.
Saw mention of this complete cross-service overhaul on a site online beforehand. Don't think many people around town are going to be aware of it until it's happened. Routes and timetables are being overhauled. You'd think there would be more prior publicity but no.
Doesn't the public have a right to know?

i get IA when my coworkers throw away pieces of paper that are only used on one side, of which there are TONS, because somehow people here hate duplex printing and would prefer to waste swathes of paper.

sometimes they even toss completely blank pieces of paper if it comes out in their print job.

The bypass tray for one of our printers has a stack of used paper that people can use to print on the back of -- just put the paper there! not in the trash!

on occasion someone takes it upon themselves to dump this stack of used paper in the recycling bin. i do not get it.

This fucking cab driver has been crunching on Tostitos, one every minute or so, for 10 minutes.

Is it OK to tell him to turn in the radio or is that just being a dick? Please advise ASAP. Thx.

how long is the cab ride? he wouldn't necessarily associate you asking to turn on the radio with his tostitos crunching, i don't think.

Punch him in the back of the tostito head.

Let a man have his Tostitos, jesus. If you're IA about that you've got too much energy pent up. Run around the block a few times.

or better yet, run to the place you were taking the taxi to. kill two birds with one stone.

I hate public transport/bench spread-leg types bcz I am a fat woman and every time I get into a seat I have to spend a bit of effort on folding myself up and pressing myself into the wall and making sure my coat isn't trailing onto the next seat and etc, and then some dude just flops down next to me and puts his knees six miles apart

and I bet that if his thighs meet mine he'll probably still tell all his mates how disgusting it was that he was sat next to some fat bird who was taking up all the room, or maybe I just wanted him so badly that I had to touch him and forgot that I was unworthy to even be in the same universe as him

</giantburstofinsecurity>

^^^ 100% solidarity with you re: that insecurity

I'm amazing to sit next to on the train. I basically try and take up half a seat at all times, never encroaching on my seat mate. I will make all reasonable efforts to avoid touching you. I try and sit beside people who can do the same.

world needs more Jeffs

cute lols @ "I'm amazing to sit next to on the train"

I consider if the dividing line between the seats carried upward, would it bisect my leg/arm, or theirs. If that can't be clearly determined, then fair enough--I don't mind basic contact if the space is somewhat equitably shared.

But if my neighbor is noticeably over that line...IA.

Years ago when I was all IA about this, I was living in a poor part of the city that was also a food desert, and way more than the average (for NYC) number of fellow passengers were people of size. Ranging from "curvy," all the way up to "cannot stand unassisted." I've lived a few other places since then, but never again have I been so IA about this thing because no other place has had such a high percentage of obvious obesity. :(

So Jimmy Goddamn Buffett is in town tonight and this

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/s720x720/425809_10150712104133552_765268551_11189956_1777245818_n.jpg

fix bayonets

fuck
that
bullshit

Another transit one: people who bolt down the stairs to get onto a jammed rush hour subway that's about to depart and then stuff themselves halfway in with their shoudler sticking out the door, as though being considered "on" the train were the equivalent of getting only the ball across the end zone line.

What follows is either the doors repeatedly closing and opening on their arm as they try to contort their body (holding up the whole train) or that person forcibly shoving another person into a third person. Meanwhile there's usually another train a few minutes behind. It's not our fucking fault if you're late for work buddy!

Ragh this happened twice in 2 days:

Zooming along in the carpool lane, and in the rearview someone is bearing down at supersonic speeds. I start looking for a spot in the traffic to switch lanes. Both times these cars have been doing at least 90+. I switch lanes. The car flies past. AND THEN MOMENTS LATER THE MOTHEFUCKER PULLS ACROSS FOUR LANES OF TRAFFIC TO GET OFF AT THE NEXT EXIT.

I will hunt you down you sonsabitches

Just posting in solidarity w/ a passing space cadet. I also select seats based on my ability to extend out into the aisle if need be (which means I get whapped in the head with bags a lot but HEY it beats having to inconvenience the other person in the seat and risk having that person post angry screeds on the internet about how horrible it is to share space w/ a fatso).

Back to the Tostitos-munching cabbie: I just sat and suffered the crunching. But I got my revenge I guess b/c I didn't realize I didn't have cash, so I had to pay with plastic.

WmC is sort of right - a cabbie's gotta munch, but OTOH, it's kind of rude and he could munch his breakfast (of TOSTITOS?) in between fares. It was worst b/c the cab didn't have a divider between front and back, so I got the full cronch cronch cronch.

You live in the third largest city in America and the sound of Tostitos crunching is what got to you?

Everything that can be bad about public transportation was encapsulated by a single scene on The Simpsons:

% Lisa gets onto the bus and looks for a seat.

Lisa: May I sit there?

Agnes: Of course not, honey! That seats for my coin purse. [She puts her
coin purse down. After Lisa leaves she picks it back up.]

% She tries somewhere else.
Lisa: May I have that seat?

Comic Book Guy: Yes! If you can answer me these questions three. Question the first!

Lisa: Never mind. [walks away]

Lol

You live in the third largest city in America and the sound of Tostitos crunching is what got to you?

Achilles heel!

I feel bad because I realized my IA posts sounded shitty to fat people, when I was thinking about two issues that didn't get clearly expressed:

1) When I said that my neighbors' body parts shouldn't pass the dividing line of the seats if it went upward or outward, I was thinking of men who move their legs/knees outward until they have crossed into your space, and men who don't care where their broader shoulders are going to go so I end up hunched in the middle unable to move my arms.

2) The memory of living in a poor neighborhood with no good grocery stores is mostly sad. A lot of the people who made me IA on trains were unable to wear anything but old stained sweatpants and could barely climb the stairs of the subway. That is both sad for them personally and sad for our whole society, that we don't have hardly anything to offer people to make it easier to not be unhealthy/incapable of normal things.

I got IA this morning when I revived the Andrew Breitbart thread to post that he'd died, and then for more than an hour (basically until I said "AHEM") people ignored it and posted their reactions on other threads.

I was on the muni to the office, where we would be interviewing people for a job, and there was this one woman putting her small handbag on the seat next to her and holding it there, while people were standing. I was actually kind of hoping she'd turn out to be the candidate so I could DENY her the job based on bad public transit etiquette.

people who see multiple signs indicating that they need to merge into the lane next to theirs, and instead of doing so immediately, continuing to drive in their lane even as it evaporated and then cutting you off last minute, as if they were oblivious to all of the signs/merge arrows in the street.

tbf the correct way to handle lane merging is by "zippering" where traffic speed slows down slightly and enough space opens in both lanes for them to merge without incident.

However, no one understands this and there's a stigma against actually letting someone into your lane in front of you so we're stuck with very-early mergers that slow things down and last-second mergers that make things come to a sudden stop

yeah I'm fine with that. Not fine with the guy tonight who was driving in front of me on a road where we were the only two vehicles, and he had plenty of room to merge in front of me, didn't, then curiously jumped into the left turn lane while I stayed in the straight lane. He then for whatever reason didn't make a left, but proceeded to keep going straight despite being in the left turn lane, and as a result, almost drove straight into my driver's side door.

- when Levar Burton ends his tweets with #bydhttmwfi even when that doesn't make sense, ie "We've gotta get de-iced before we take off for LA...#bydhttmwfi"

Of course I want to take your word for that. Why wouldn't I?

I hated it when he said it on Reading Rainbow too

oh man, I had no idea what that stood for until you mentioned Reading Rainbow and it was instant recognition

There are a handful of people who work on this floor, who I don't really know and haven't worked directly with, who irritate me. I don't know why because I haven't really interacted with them and most seem to be well-liked, but I walk by them talking to their coworkers and think to myself, "Are you fucking kidding me?"

Am I biased against their appearances? Did I overhear or see something I disliked that I've forgotten?