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

why is there always one person on a transatlantic flight who does a continuous walking loop of the aisles, interspersed with enigmatic standing at the front of the plane scanning the crowd of seated passengers....want to hurl my terrible plate of airline food at them

Just had a camera given to me and tried to install the programme to get it to work on my computer only to be told that the program needs a computer resolution higher than the one on my computer.
I think it's the same thing resolution that photoshop's most recent versions have wanted. So where do I go from here. Do I need to buy a new graphics card or something?
This is really stupid, surely it can't dictate that the computer isn't good enough to use with a point & shoot camera can it?
Not sure if I can actually use photos until I can get this software to upload. Bollox.

What resolution is your desktop set to? Is it possible you just have it set at a lower res than possible?

I don't seem to be able to get it to go higher than 800 by 600 pixels and it's asking for 1028 by 768.
Is that a graphics card thing, a screen thing or a type of Windows thing.
I'm still running XP but the camera says it can be run on XP as long as it's service pack 3 which I think I have.

I can't imagine any computer sold that could run XP would max out at that. Do you have an amazingly tiny screen? If not, more than likely you do not have the right graphics card driver installed for your computer.

& my screen is a flatscreen, not the old CRT. So I'm just wondering what I'd need to reset. Could be that I just need to reset something? Or alternatively get a new graphics card.
The graphics card I have was installed when I did still have a box like monitor, which I'd assume was CRT. So I'm just wondering if it is out of date or could be further adjusted.

Do you really need the programme that came with the camera? I had a similar thing and the programme just got in the way. I ended up just moving the picture files using My Computer

I'm not sure, I did just move a few photos that way but i would prefer to have the thing synching right if possible.

Just seen that my computer has monitor listed as default instead of having any reference to what the make is or anything. So I'm wondering if it's just not detecting what size the thing is. Would think it was pretty standard sized flatscreen so should be capable of getting higher resolution. Did buy it 2nd hand but wouldn't have thought that would directly lead to something like this.

I hate giant, soulless big box stores that have room to sell everything year 'round yet who still designate certain goods "seasonal" and don't stock them in the purported off-season. I went to a Menard's today looking for a large pot and some soil to transplant an indoor plant, and lo and behold, the selection was paltry and picked over. See also: stores like Old Navy that stop selling summer stuff mid-summer - or winter stuff mid-winter. As if no one ever has a reason to buy hats in the actual winter or flip-flops in the actual summer. Screw these places.

Yeah that really wound me up with old navy. I wanted to stock up on pj pants and they only sold the ones I wanted for two weeks a year.

I tend to lose gloves in early March and the only place I can find new ones is the drugstore.

why is there always one person on a transatlantic flight who does a continuous walking loop of the aisles, interspersed with enigmatic standing at the front of the plane scanning the crowd of seated passengers....want to hurl my terrible plate of airline food at them

― Iago Galdston, Sunday, November 18, 2012 8:45 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Honestly everything about air travel makes me irrationally angry. Having to remove my shoes AND belt AND take my laptop out of the bag AND put my jacket AND empty the contents of my pockets while in a moving line makes me irrationally angry, as does having to scramble to put all of those items back on in an area not set up for it. The smallness of the seats -- and I'm not even a big guy, how hot and stuffy it gets, the ear-popping feeling. The fact that a 1.5 hr flight requires like 4 hrs of travel to and from airports and waiting.

"eargasm"

It's rational enough that the word would make me angry but I had no idea it'd make me so angry, when a smiling girl said it over and over to me about how much she liked something

Also gross: the infantile flirting technique of referencing sex terms, supposedly innocently, as often as possible.

xp I know we're beyond this here, but your anger is entirely and completely rational.

A woman on the elliptical machine this morning had three hardback books, but I couldn't really get angry at that because 1) damn girl, that's a lot of reading, good for you; 2) how long were on you ellipticalling, anyway?; and 3) she did not also have the television on.

people who read in the gym while not working out very hard don't exactly make me irrationally angry, but I do kind of scoff at them inside for their silly, lazy/passive-aggressive display.

they're exercising their ~minds~

three hardback books is good resistance training imo, maybe she's working her way up to the full set of encyclopedias?

I have a hard time reading at the gym unless it is gossip trash. I mean how can you read a book on the elliptical?

Geez, get an mp3 player already.

people using "self-confessed" as a prefix for something that is closer to a brag than a confession. eg "self-confessed music obsessive" which I just crossed out of someone's copy. stop it imo

dude all blushing and getting shy when asked about his interests then finally saying, don't laugh but I'm really into... music

I once saw a woman sitting on one of those HIP ABDUCTOR machines (with the resistance weight plate on the absolute lightest setting, of course) reading a novel. Like, how many half-hearted, no-weight reps of that do you think it's going to take to get results, and how long do you plan to sit there in order to actually get more than a paragraph of reading done?

On a related note, during bar study there was this dude I'd see at the gym who'd bring his bar books in and, like, read them in between sets. Dude was actually working out, but the studying efficacy seemed questionable at best.

something to be said for doing one thing at a time

That almost makes sense to me. Not that it would be an effective study method, but that I would need/want to work out but feel like I was doomed to fail if I wasn't spending that time brushing up on the holder in due course rule, so I'd bring my books to the gym.

I mean, Bar Exam Psychosis being what it is and all.

People still screwing up the ripping/burning terminology in 2012, even though few people still do either.

You're not burning a CD if you're copying the audio from it to your computer, damn it. That was when you put stuff ON TO a CD.

Exercising is mind-blowingly boring, to me, so I'm totes down with the books. Playing music doesn't count or help, it doesn't occupy my attention in the right way at all, it only engages a feeling side of me, not a thinking side? I need books to lose myself and lose track of time.

I used to use the recumbent stationary bikes so I could hold the book still. Eh.

idgi, bar is the most over-inflated exam of all time. Pass/fail where failure is extremely unlikely for a first-time, native-english speaker from an accredited law school. And you can retake! And if you have a job lined up, most jobs won't even fire you for failing!

I went to the gym like 2 hours a day during bar study. Was in the best shape of my life.

i dunno, i'm kind of in solidarity with people who acknowledge working out is generally unpleasant, like waiting at airports, and have prepped accordingly. (terrible/great idea: replace all seating at airports with ellipticals)

Exercising is mind-blowingly boring, to me, so I'm totes down with the books. Playing music doesn't count or help, it doesn't occupy my attention in the right way at all, it only engages a feeling side of me, not a thinking side? I need books to lose myself and lose track of time.

I used to use the recumbent stationary bikes so I could hold the book still. Eh.

― grossly incorrect register (in orbit), Monday, November 19, 2012 4:37 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The solution to this is finding exercise that isn't boring, or finding ways to make it less boring. For me this was basketball, which I suck at, but enjoy playing. I started designing workouts around basketball (drills and such) with motivation to get better at it. Then once I was in the gym and warmed up I could get myself to do some weights and such.

Another way to make it less boring is actually to push yourself hard and set difficult goals.

Anyone over 35 (really 30, but I'm being lenient here) who begins any sentence with "When I grow up…"

iirc in orbit does a style of dancing that takes non-trivial amounts of energy and bikes all the time, so she's probably supplementing that with the boring shit

Yes that's why I take 2 dance classes a week and ride my bike, I'm just saying, if you have to go to a gym because it's winter or you can't dance or hit a ball or catch or throw or have sporty skills, and the treadmill is the easiest way to knock out your fitness needs, I sympathize with anything that eases the drudgery.

xp obvs

I joined a gym a few years ago that had little televisions on the elliptical and stationary bike machines. Kind of nice.

I wasn't commenting on l's personal exercise routines/habits in any way, ftr

By reading a book?? To me, books are something you keep on your bedstead at night. Or take on vacation.

"self-" anything! I have never used "soi disant" in all my life!

I like to dance so I incorporate dance music into my exercise. You exercise to feel good and graceful!

I saw someone watching a DVD at the gym on one of those little players...that was a cool idea! But I like to close my eyes and concentrate on my speed.

people using "self-confessed" as a prefix for something that is closer to a brag than a confession. eg "self-confessed music obsessive" which I just crossed out of someone's copy. stop it imo

a usage pet peeve i mentioned on twitter last night: when writers who are explaining what a thing is say "in case you don't know" or "for those who don't know." explain the thing regardless and let the readers who *do* know deal with having to go over it again for a few seconds.

The other thing is that when I do use an eliptical or treadmill I manage to find little aspie ways of watching the numbers or playing with the resistance to keep my brain from going completely numb, but that's probably not a sign of mental health

self-confessed mansplainer

Hurting I do that! I need to be distracted in 100 different ways or i.ll just go home

idgi, bar is the most over-inflated exam of all time. Pass/fail where failure is extremely unlikely for a first-time, native-english speaker from an accredited law school. And you can retake! And if you have a job lined up, most jobs won't even fire you for failing!

Yeah, we can say that now but in the heat of the moment when it feels like everything - your future, your self worth, your financial well being - is riding on this one test, it doesn't feel quite so casual. I use the term "bar exam psychosis" jokingly, but but it really is a specific type of break from reality (reality being that the bar is the most over-inflated exam of all time).

I've got no beef with people reading while working out, other than thinking about it makes me motion sick. It's mostly the people who have to bring so many things with them, like toddlers on a long car ride. But I guess I'm pretty lucky in that appropriate music and the delightful company of my own brain is generally enough to get me through however much cardio is happening that day.

in orbit otm. I used to sit on the exercise bike playing some mindless drop-the-blocks puzzle game and I wasn't doing particularly great at either but it was better than the nothing I do if I convince myself I totes have to put all my effort into working out (currently kinda stuck in the doing nothing stage because I hate all forms of exercise ever invented)

I've already mentioned cars with lights that turn themselves off, putting me in a position of either getting an answer of "Oh you silly, they turn THEMSELVES off!" if I say anything or a family of four being murdered one night because their battery died and I could've done something about it.

But my latest ITTMYIA appeared yesterday. WHY WOULD SOMEONE'S REVERSE LIGHTS COME ON WHEN THEY LOCK THE DOOR? I sat behind a car waiting for them to back out of a space yesterday before realizing that the lady who had just walked past me had turned them on just by going eep-eep with her keychain fob.

Reverse lights are only for reversing. Did I really just have to type that?

I pointed out maybe 4 cars with lights on to people before I realized it was some newfangled dealie. A newfangled dealie that makes no sense whatsoever. Somewhere, someone decided that a car's lights turning themselves off after five minutes was preferable to a car's lights turning off when the car is turned off. I hate that person.

"Not only will your lights stay on for five minutes after you close the car door, but you get to be a dick to anyone who points this out to you!"

Haven't seen any empty cars with lights on over here yet, but I hate it when I have to walk past the entrance of a car park and there's someone sitting at the wheel of a car with the engine and lights on, car diagonally hanging out of a space and into the exit route, looking totally like they're going to move any second and may not bother looking up first, except they're just... sitting.

It's not so bad in daylight but in the dark it's hard to see if the driver's just getting ready to move off or sitting there to eat a McDonald's while blocking the way out with the engine going.

This morning a bike came towards me so I moved over but skidded slightly even further away from the cyclist on some sodden leaf mulch, and the cyclist rang his bell at me. Which annoyed me, because I had already quite obviously seen him and moved out of his way, and also what am I meant to do, think "gee, I was having such a good time sliding around, but since that guy rang his bell I had better spontaneously regain control of all my limbs"?

(there was no chance of me falling back into his path, and even if I had I don't think having a bell rung at me before uncontrollably getting smacked by a bike would have helped)

the OCCUPANT of the OFFICE down the HALL only CLOSES the DOOR by BANGING IT SHUT and he opens and closes his door roughly FOUR HUNDRED TIMES on any given day for no obvious reason i am not even sure what he is doing in there since he never has a chance to sit down between all the banging and think for a goddamn second like the rest of us ARE TRYING TO DO

reading in the gym is morally wrong

still better than READING + WALKING