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

That also reminds me to call my alderman again about repainting the cross walk lines at the corner where I cross the street to catch the bus every day.

They (who??) have been putting up highly visible signs in the middle of streets in some crosswalks, including the one in front of my apartment building. This is a really good thing. Motorists have very noticeably started slowing down and stopping far more since they put that one in.

They've been putting them up around Evanston lately and, while I'm generally for them (not least when I'm trying to get to the park with my son in his stroller across a busy road), a lot of people have absolutely no clue how to handle them. Evanston puts miniature stop signs all over them and a scary number of people treat them like regular stop signs, even when there are no pedestrians around. People will just stop at them and look around confused for awhile, its terribly annoying.

YES! I noticed those signs when n/a and I went to get your AC this weekend. I asked them to put up those signs. I was going to call, but they had an email form so I wrote a five paragraph, well-reasoned, impassioned plea for crosswalk lines and pedestrian signs in the middle of the crosswalk.

I am seriously concerned I'm going to get clobbered by a car one of these days, especially since I'm almost always running out to catch a bus that's due to arrive like three minutes (it can easily take five minutes to get across the street).

Then I remembered somebody stole one of our trashcans, but I didn't think I should immediately send another email and be like, "Oh yeah, can we have a new trash can, too? Thanks."

The signs:

http://www.trbimg.com/img-4ff38aa2/turbine/chi-city-begins-installing-stop-for-pedestrian-001/600

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-city-begins-installing-stop-for-pedestrians-within-crosswalk-signs-20120703,0,2613692.story

We've got signs like those. I think I've only hit one so far.

they should just put little signs that say "don't be a douche" everywhere, like literally everywhere

We can actually get 2 more recycling cans and 1 regular garbage one. Since there are 3 units in our building.

they should just put little signs that say "don't be a douche" everywhere, like literally everywhere

otm

The most frustrating thing about those signs is how many people still blow right through the crosswalks without even slowing down.

They have been slowing down a lot in front of my building! I have seen numerous people totally yield in ways they wouldn't have otherwise. Even cab drivers are doing it. Also at the one in front of the Brown line on Diversey (pictured above, I think.) The other nice thing about them is even if a driver doesn't yield, the sign is a good spot for the pedestrian to stand while the driver passes.

I want armed guards posted at crosswalks.

When n/a and I were driving around that way, I noticed cars definitely slowing/stopping in a way that they did not do... what was it the weekend before when I was there at the nail salon?

The Brown Line signs are awesome because that wasn't even really a crosswalk - just a place where people like to Frogger cross to try to get to the correct bus. It shows a certain amount of right thinking on the part of W@guesp@ck that he chose to use his crosswalk sign allotment in a place where people were crossing the street.

What is the thing called where engineers or designers plan walkways based on how pedestrians are already using them rather than trying to make people walk based on their designs? I like that approach. My urban geography prof said that Thomas Jefferson did that at the Univ of Virginia by basing sidewalks on trails worn over time.

Oh, here is that movie I was telling you about that talks about such things: http://urbanizedfilm.com/stream/

It's available on Netflix streaming.

I watched that.

They have those signs here. It's great watching drivers on cellphones blow right by them, especially when I'm in the middle of the crosswalk.

i am ia that you ppl have benefits at all, let alone transit benefits

I think that is more RA than IA.

My work situation is weird - I am the only employee of the solo-practitioner firm (Firm A (though it's a solo practice, it is still called a firm)) that employs me, but I work for Firm B, which shares office space w/ A, and A bills B for my time. Anyway, I am my only advocate for shit like transit benefits. I'm trying to learn how to administer a Flexible Spending Account, but I'm not sure it will work. (Advice welcome.) Not sure if I had a point, except that I am in a unique position of giving myself benefits.

Re the pedestrian crossing sign: I can't get over how effective it is! Jvc, I'm not trying to be contrary w/ you, but the one in front of my building is like a "Don't Be A Douchebag" behavior override for drivers. Tonight I watched traffic for a while while I stretched after running and people slowed down, and at the first sign of a person wanting to cross, they stopped. Especially for old people, even when the oldster pedestrians were crossing on the opposite side from the oncoming car.

I think that this whole thread is more RA than IA. The spirit of the OP was lost long ago

Anyways, the thing Jonathan Papelbon does with his mouth makes me IA

I BEG TO DIFFERZ

People who make that critical little lip-smacking noise when they eat something, then say with a rising tone "mmmmmmm, <insert nickpicking criticism of food just eaten here>".
YOU ARE NOT EGON RONAY. IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE FOOD, DON'T EAT IT. THERE IS ALWAYS A CHOICE HERE. YOU CAN A) TAKE IT, OR B) LEAVE IT. IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, DEEP FRY YOUR OWN TURDS AND EAT THEM INSTEAD.

they should just put little signs that say "don't be a douche" everywhere, like literally everywhere

Can this be like the "don't tread on me" flag except the snake is wearing sunglasses?

The fact that in 2012 we have to work hard to opt OUT of getting phonebooks, instead of opting IN if we for whatever crazy reason want one. Woke up this morning to, literally, the third phonebook on my doorstep this year. I DON'T NEED OR WANT ONE.

^^^ Except now the phonebook also comes in a plastic bag with information printed on it about how/where to recycle your phone book. I THINK I CAN SAVE YOU SOME WORK, GUYS.

lol, otm

I've probably posted this here before, but this happens more than once a year at my apartment building and most of them just sit there until the custodian throws them out. At my last apartment, they sat on the front porch and soaked up rain and snow until the ancient landlady lugged them to the Dumpster.

https://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/216281_1970052773553_6947670_n.jpg

Of course she only had 6 or 7 to lug, not ~90-some.

Dang, I can't believe you made her carry them to the trash. I leave our sodden phone books for our landlord, but he's younger than me.

I did throw out some of them, sometimes.

please tell me you tore at least a couple in two.

I wish I could tell you that truthfully.

- arranged to meet an interview subject at 10am today.
- interview subject is v nice says let's do interview in shade since it was outdoors & already 100 degrees.
- proceeds to walk & talk FROM the shade TO the sun where I stand with him for a good 20 minutes til I beg for shade
- I was wearing a light sundress but I could still feel the sweat pouring down my back, urgh my *thighs* everywhere the whole time it was so gross
- I sunblocked but STILL got fucking burned rraaaaagh

This transit thing is killing my will to live. (also I agree that mookie's anger is ra rather than ia). It was supposed to be fixed by now. Instead standing outside the subway in the hot sun with no shade nearby on hold with stupid stupid music aggg. How is it taking this long? Is she looking up paper files in the dewey decimal system and cross referencing with other paper files in a maze of filing cabinets?

She's crawling through file boxes piled in off site storage trailers.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tdiUcpjAGGs/TpLhBxzN0eI/AAAAAAAAArE/252mJGPR_oA/s1600/bugs.jpg

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/x486C5FmYe0/0.jpg

She has to decipher a cryptographic code before being allowed to proceed to the next stage in her papyrus investigation.

the fact that i don't have benefits is rational anger

it's irrational to be angry that you guys do, tho -- you're my dirtbike friends! but i wasn't serious about that anyway

It turns out that the lock on my card will be lifted at 11:59 pm on the 11th. Seems like they could have just fucking told me that it would be lifted on the 12th.

You might really need to leave at 11:59, though.

It's maybe not rational to be angry at other people with benefits, but it's also not innocuous that some people have benefits and some people don't.

A other transit peeve: when you reactivate a lapsed Chicago Card ( the CTA's RFI pass card), you have to wait 3 days from when you request activation before using it. If you try to use it before those 3 days have elapsed, it deactivates again and you have to reactivate online or in the phone and AGAIN wait 3 days or repeat the cycle of deactivation.

I know that there are many things I don't understand about the CTA's system, which things make the delay necessary, but I am very sure that those things are FLAWS, not insurmountable limitations of our current technology systems.

That the trees in the park near where i live don't get a chance to grow because kids keep intentionally breaking them. I just went into town to shop and on the way in I passed a group of girls breaking the lower branches of trees for some reason. Should have asked them why, didn't.
If they'd asked themselves maybe they've stopped?

On the way back here on the other side of the park there was a kid deliberately trying to snap the sprouting shoots that may at some point become bushes or small trees This time I did ask him to stop and asked him what was wrong with him.

Would be nice to see those trees/bushes etc grow to what they were intended to be. Been seeing snapped off saplings for the last couple of years and not liking it. have recently been having to take a shortcut through another location where a similar planting has been done. In this area where they have been allowed to grow and I've liked what I saw.
But I guess it's normal for disaffected teens and adolescents to be destructive? Just would be nice if they picked something else to do it to or somewhere else to redirect those energies to?

Common yes, normal maybe not?

When I'm walking on a sidewalk and someone walking behind me tries to gradually overtake me on the same side I'm about to turn. Obviously they don't know where I'm going, but it leaves me with three bad options: a) cut them off--if they wanted to pass me they should have been quicker about it, b) stop dead and let them go ahead before I turn--awkward and disruptive to the people behind us, c) walk faster--this usually causes the other person to speed up too.

the efforts of a lovely bunch called Freelotto to give me $2,000,000 for a lottery I haven't entered. Apparently they're going to ask me for money and then cause my emailbox to be filled with spam.
have found this site on them and fellow travellers
http://www.419scam.org/419scam.htm#what

Dear online shops, please don't make me register for an account just to see how much shipping is. This basically guarantees I am not buying the item from you, even if you're the only stockist, because it is a waste of my time and the brainpower required to think of a login and password, only to realise that shipping to my country is twice as much as the item and I'm never going to use the account

(and then probably get an email in 3 years saying that your password database has been hacked and to change my login on any sites I used the same pw for, which is great for throwaway accounts I can't even remember the password for - this happened last week with some web forum I registered for 5 years ago, posted one post, got no replies)

yeah, hate having to do that. Should be basic etiquette to have p+p rates in a clearly findable location with universal access.

Even Best Buy and Target do that sometimes. Something to do with the manufacturer's rules or something. Annoying, regardless.

Sponges left in the sink and not next to the sink/out of the sink.