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

Although living in Chicago, I am generally very appreciative when people who are able to use the revolving doors use the revolving doors. It's cold outside!!!

I get IA when people don't use the revolving door. Make me feel like an idiot for not using the fire exit like you.

In my building it makes me triply angry because there are signs posted on all the fire exit doors: PLEASE USE REVOLVING DOORS. My building is practically right on Lake Erie, and in the winter the area in front of my building is like a wind tunnel, so for obvious reasons they don't want those doors used.

And of course, people use the fire exit doors, because YOU'RE NOT MY REAL DAD, BUILDING MANAGER! YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!

And of course, they use the handicapped-assist button, meaning the door stays open longer than it otherwise would.

People are awful.

They changed the front door of the building where I do my evening class a year or two ago to have a wheelchair access button, and in the process they made it so heavy and resistant to normal pushing that I felt like maybe I was screwing up the mechanism by forcing it and for a while I pressed the button just in case, so I'm sympathetic to other people thinking the same.

Lately whenever anyone arrives the receptionist just presses their own door release button, so I guess it's been causing a lot of people confusion.

Also I often wait for people to get out of my work's revolving door but it's very small, only takes about a second to go all the way through, and gets stuck if you push with very slightly too much or too little force, so I don't trust it to cope with two people pushing different sections at once.

Doors where the wheelchair access mechanism makes them difficult to open by pulling the handle are, by my definition, broken. Providing an affordance for part of your audience isn't supposed to reduce functionality for the rest.

since moving to pdx i see what seems like an abnormally large amount of people driving around with one headlight out and it's come to be something that drives ne nuts.

Doors where the wheelchair access mechanism makes them difficult to open by pulling the handle are, by my definition, broken. Providing an affordance for part of your audience isn't supposed to reduce functionality for the rest.

It doesn't though. You can open the door with the button, too.

Well, if you define the functionality of a door with handle as "allows a user to easily open door, with handle, and close it in a timely manner so as to not let the cold weather in" then it fails miserably.

The library's door is like this. It's got a disabled button, and yet, even when you push it, it sort of opens itself like HAL. It definitely doesn't behave like a regular door anymore.

The good news is that the door leads to a vestibule (pod bay) with a final automatic radar sliding door. So no cold air.

People who open to door with the button but them grab it and yank it open manually anyway.

What if I pushed the button and then grabbed ahold of the handle, putting my feet on the bottom, for a cheap amusement ride?

Lols at Jeff Zucker being referred to as 'just some guy'

"just some 'annoying' guy"

whoever keeps planning social events at the art center somehow makes them all some sort of costume/dress-up thing

like, I can imagine looking nice and hope I don't offend anyone with my attire, but with the exception of a costume/theme ball thing yearly and halloween, do you need to make every event a costume thing? they seriously had a notice for an oscars-themed thing where they made some "dress like your favorite celebrity!" claim

I don't know, I generally hate costumes, which probably aligns with some sort of personality trait I have. I feel like it's hard enough being confident in how I present myself day-to-day, let alone having to come up with some sort of costume.

As a followup to my earlier complaint, yesterday I walked into my building behind one of the people I complained about above, who uses the wheelchair-assist button. This time she hit the button, then, frustrated that it wasn't opening quickly enough for her, strode forward and yanked it open by the handle. YOU MEAN IT'S FASTER TO JUST DO IT THE REGULAR WAY WHO COULD'VE GUESSED?

Dollar vans. Dollar vans drive me CRAZY. These are the loudly honking alternate bus service-type things that pull up at major intersections and will take you to certain un- or under-served areas for a buck or two. I know they meet a need AND provide income for the operators and I think that's great. Less great: THE INCESSANT HONKING AND MELODY HORNS. Even less great than that: They follow no traffic laws known to humankind, park anywhere, clog streets, make bus stops impassable, pull out unpredictably, and delay EVERYONE ELSE.

honking fines should just actually be enforced...as with every other traffic law

WHOA. I am officially fascinated by dollar vans. Do they have set routes and stops or do they go where you ask them to go? Are they legal or just quasi-legal? Are they regulated like public carriers, cabs, car services, or limousines? Are the vans identifiable as such beyond the honking/musical horns? Like, are they branded? And if so are the driver's independent contractors or employees of the van company? Or can anybody with their own van run an underground bus service in the streets of NYC?

FASCINATING.

Think I've done the wheelchair-assist door thing billions of times. It's just... see button, press it, ah man something's not right, push door. I couldn't give a fuck about doors but sorry it makes you mad.

ohhh man, I have a horrifying story to tell you guys about buses

Or can anybody with their own van run an underground bus service in the streets of NYC?

Yes as far as I can tell! Some are janky old panel vans (the kind with windows--do those have a catchy name??), some are nicer vans with running board lights and logos on the sides. Usually there's a driver and a guy who stands outside the door and advertises their services by yelling about them while his companion honks the horn every 7 seconds.

I'm pretty sure they must have set routes and you have to know which one to get on, which is the major reason I've never used one. At a fare of only $1-2 it makes no sense for them to take requests.

carl, they usually have set routes, they are quasi-legal tho sometimes via arrangement are less quasi-legal. think chinatown buses just within a city instead of between cities. drivers are probably paid in cash. you can't really run your own bus service w/ one van because customers require regularity on routes etc, that is the difference between a bus and a taxi.

Fucking suburbanites who can't wrap their minds around The Big Scary City, e.g., today at my work, the building handyman called to warn me that they were about to tow a car that was parked in a reserved spot. The car - a BMW SUV the size of my office - belonged to our visitor, who, instead of high-tailing it down to move her car, stood around and whined, "But where was I supposed to park? It was the only parking lot I saaaaw." Her head exploded when she found out that she would have to PAY parking ON THE STREET (!!) or in an hourly garage.

Previously: The visitor who told me he getting nervous waiting to be buzzed into the building because he felt "like a sitting duck." Did something happen? "No, but it's rough around here. You're liable to get caught in cross-fire." 0_o It's gentrification central around here - luxe loft condos, med-spas, a bridal gallery, kids, clean streets, an organic pet food store.

Fact: nobody gets shot within five blocks of an organic pet food store.*

*before I posted that, I confirmed that the organic pet food store on Broadway and Bryn Mawr is more than five blocks away from Broadway and Wilson.

Also, I'm from a podunk town in Delaware and I knew about parking meters so this lady is being an entitled twerp acting like paying to park on the street is some kind of crazy city thing.

While I'm bitching: I was in Bed Bath & Beyond yesterday and there was a woman on taking breaks from jabbering on her cell to go call out, over and over, "Hell-OOOOO? Does anyone work here? HELLO!?" then to the person on the phone, "I guess NOBODY WORKS HERE! because nobody will HELP ME!"

xp - I'm sure she knew parking meters existed, but she couldn't believe that she would have to use them b/c there wasn't a parking space for her.

The post office lost a package (NEW GLASSES, THOSE FUCKERS) and I am trying to call them and the phone just rings and rings and rings and rings and no one answers. Seriously, I've been letting the phone ring for four full minutes now just in the hope that it is annoying someone there as much as it's annoying me.

Postal workers are immune to annoyance. They're like Buckingham Palace guards. They will sit at their station and stare right at you through the glass, while eating a sandwich.

Haha I just talked to the head of the mail room here and he said he has eight different numbers and he tried to call them all and nobody answered. Then we bonded by talking about how the USPS wouldn't have so many problems if they would do their damn jobs.

SIGH.

also if they weren't forced to prefund their pension plan thru the next 100 years

I've mailed a few packages to people in Chicago and every time the people behind the counter here in my small town 2000 miles west of Illinois have said something like "Sending a package to Chicago? Good luck!".

A guy across from me right now on a packed tube train, trying to wrap a DVD up in pink wrapping paper balanced on his knees and there's packaging sliding all over the place the Sellotape keeps sticking to the back of the paper, it's so precarious and for some reason it's pinging my OCD and making me crazy.

The post office lost a package (NEW GLASSES, THOSE FUCKERS) and I am trying to call them and the phone just rings and rings and rings and rings and no one answers. Seriously, I've been letting the phone ring for four full minutes now just in the hope that it is annoying someone there as much as it's annoying me.

Yup, this is exactly what happened when they lost my package a few months ago. I called like seven different numbers and never got connected to anyone at any of them, they just rang and rang and rang. The only way I even got to speak someone was by calling the national 800 number and working from there. So ridiculous.

also if they weren't forced to prefund their pension plan thru the next 100 years

― Women, Fire, and Dangerous Zings (silby), Friday, February 8, 2013 6:32 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes, that too. It's hard to feel sorry for them about it when they don't answer their phone, though.

jon! Calling the 800 number is a good idea. I will do that.

FYI, calling the 800 number did not give me a direct answer or solution, but it did kick something into gear and it got resolved fairly quickly after that. Good luck!

I thought Chicago mail was a lost cause, but then again, everything I know about the subject comes from a Jonathan Franzen essay.

We're consistently the worst or one of the worst cities for mail delivery in the country. I will tell you my favorite terrible Chicago mail story (that I know I've told here more than once):

When friends of ours sent out their wedding invitations, they put their address on the RSVP cards AND put their home address as the return address. Something like ten of these cards made it to their mailbox marked "Return to sender - No such address."

BUT WAIT This is what I came in here to post because I believe in being fair: I called the 800 USPS number and after mashing the keypad with my palm in frustration at the automated voice prompter ("my package is lost in the post office and they won't answer their phone" is not a recognized request for some reason), I got a human and she apologized for the lost package and the lack of phone answering, checked my tracking number, took all my info and my complaint, and sent all the info to the post office!!! And they are supposed to call me within a day (LOLLOLOLOLOLLLLLL). But still, she was a delightful and pleasant (but no nonsense) person who seemed sincerely apologetic and capable. For her sake, I hope the USPS stays around until she can retire.

Last time I called that GD 800 number it was a Hurculean struggle to get through to a human.

I did a web search for "how to get a human at USPS 800 number." The trick is to press 0 at the main menu and keep pressing 0 until you get into the customer service queue.

http://gethuman.com

I called the Blue Cr055 Blue 5sh!3ld A55ociation's 800 number trying to find the number to their legal department. The agent listened to my request and said, "Do you qualify for Medicaid?"
I said, "What does that have to do with reaching your legal department?"
"I'm just required to ask that."
"No, I do not qualify for Medicaid."
"Okay. In which state will you need coverage?"
".... I don't need coverage. Do you happen to have the number to your legal department?"
"I'm really sorry, I have to ask those questions. Which state do you live in?"

Then he connected me with BCBS Illinois' claims department.

Just finding out that my street door is going to be securely shut with a key from th enear future on. Just been presented with the key to a new lock fitted to it. But so far no proviso has been made for mail delivery, the door itself has no letterbox in it. It is also 4 floors down from my actual front door and there si no means of communication between the 2.
Up to now that door has been open to the street, so people can come up to my actual front door if they need to deliver mail or get hold of me, if I'm home.

Now worried that even if I can get them to fit a mailbox downstairs it will leave my mail unsafe. Magazines, cds, books etc would have to go into it and the closest parallel to this situation I am seeing is my next door neighbour who has a metal postbox attached to the outside of the wall next to his street door. I'd be a bit worried that things wouldn't fit and would be likely to be stolen if they did.

Apparently the council have made it a proviso that these council flats have a lockable street door. But haven't looked into immediate side effects of that.
& on top of that I need to cross my fingers that I'm going to get a decent neighbour.

You're getting a key from the near future?

None of that seems irrational, it seems completely appropriate. If you rent your apartment(?) isn't the landlord responsible for arranging a way for MAIL TO ENTER THE BUILDING??

no, the recent past really, since it's been freshly cut to fit the lock they just fit innit?

& they told me when they left that they'd leave the door open only for me to notice the door shut to the street. Just been told by the landlord taht I can leave it on the latch as afr as they can see.
Bet taht's going to work, with that door banging as much as it does at th efirst sign of wind. & bet for the same reason that somebody woul d leave it off the latch without being reminded.

So been told that the idea of any kind of intercom or external letterbox is going to be reviewed if the council don't accept the lock being kept on latch. Maybe it'll work out ok, can just see a lot of ways that's unlikely though.

I don't know, landlord is pretty remote from here. Their office is in another town/city 100km from here or more. So their concept of this place is going to be different to the actuality.

Just a bit worried about future mail shenanigans.

• You don't have to tag the OP when commenting to an Instagram post.

• Yes, I'm sure that was my coffee cup. No, my name isn't on it.

• Turning left from the right lane (North America) of a two-lane one-way street is a bad idea. This is one of those things I was going to chalk up to uncommon occurrences, but I've seen it happen four or five times in the past three months.

last one is not innocuous but rather extremely dangerous

The ignorance of American motorists never ceases to amaze me.

I had one woman honk at me angrily after I honked at her, like I was passing her on the left to get in front of her. No, this is my lane. You can't have it, especially when we're driving side-by-side at rush hour.

Once, I had someone try to turn right from the inside lane while I was on the far right. He honked at me. The only thing I could figure is that was driving in the lane that had the trolley tracks, but it's not exclusive to the trolley. Maybe he thought it was.

the people who made the pockets in the business trousers i sometimes wear to work thought it'd be a GREAT idea to stitch a second pocket INSIDE the first pocket, but not like a top-aligned money pocket or anything—this pocket starts halfway down. it's just wide enough for a mobile phone but not deep enough, so what happens is you put your phone in your pocket, it catches on this stupid half-pocket, and you sit down and it falls out. on the ground. my phone is covered in dents and scratches because of these stupid fucking trousers. i do not know what the designers were thinking. and because of where the pocket-within-a-pocket sits, it's not so much 'hey i'm being helpful for the storage of money and other trinkets' so much as 'FUCK YOU I'M A POCKET'. i just attacked said dickish pocket with the fire of a thousand suns and some scissors.