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

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.

i had pants like that and my old nokia fit beautifully into the secondary pocket. however it would have been a useless pocket for much else

I have trousers with two tiny pointless pockets inside a pocket and they make me IA too.

- clicking on a trending topic on twitter (e.g. Grodon Brown, just now) and all of the recent tweets are either pr0n spam or people going "lol why is trending topic trending?"

Grodon!

not being able to hide hashtags on twitter.

you could maybe greasemonkey that (if you use the browser version)

dunno if this works?

http://userscripts.org/scripts/review/70481

Script Summary: Filters tweets containing the specified hashtag.

I had hash tags/keywords using tweetbot.

Hide

yeah i wanna do it in chrome, and just on twitter.com. allegedly greasemonkey scripts should work in chrome but that one isn't, can't be arsed to faff around figuring out why. but y'know it's just an innocuous irrational gripe.

I can't stand hash tags that are written more as an afterthought. #nootherpersonwouldeverusethishashsowhywouldyoupostit

#hashtagpunchlines

FUCK YOU IM A POCKET is classic

From the upcoming Schoolhouse Rock series on clothing.

people shitting up the movie title in movie thread with "comedy"

yeah people shitting up threads with obvious parody does get irritating

Forget about it, guys. It's ILX Town.

I know, and it's completely innocuous, and something I've done to other threads.

"Hi, it's me, your work colleague in another city who you never hear from when you're seeking content for our marketing efforts - do we have any collaterals or powerpoints supporting the messaging in an ad campaign we stopped using more than three years ago?"

Poorly designed figurines ragh

I have an awesome Iron Maiden figurine that's Eddie from the Killers cover, standing on a sewer thing but he is designed so badly that even when you plug his feet into the stand he doesn't stand so much as lean, and this stupid plastic thing that's attached to it has broken off so many times that I have to prop the whole thing against a wall so it will display properly.

Also I have a whole set of Christmas Story figures and NONE of them can stand unassisted. Do people not test these things?

Pretty sure this is the most innocuous and immaterial of all the ia's here. Sorry.

I get IA on my daughter's behalf when her toy animals don't stand up properly. Dinosaurs >>> mammals in that respect.

We've got a Wonder Pets flyboat at home with little pegs on the surface where you're supposed to set the animals on using holes in their feet. Never works.

I can't stand hash tags that are written more as an afterthought. #nootherpersonwouldeverusethishashsowhywouldyoupostit

― pplains, Friday, 15 February 2013 01:53 (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there are people in my feed who do this compulsively. they can't say anything at all without ramming a redundant comedy hashtag at the end of every single tweet.

Also I have a whole set of Christmas Story figures and NONE of them can stand unassisted. Do people not test these things?

I hear ya, VG. My Simpsons Mr. Burns and Moe figures are always falling down. Or rather, when Mr. Burns is holding Blinky, he falls down. Now Blinky sits at Mr. Burns' feet, and that's just not right.

Maybe they're meant to be held and waved around like toys

My poseable Dr Zoidberg stands up fine but is not actually in any way poseable (the arms move by like 4mm and then go back to where they were before) and can't hold the stethoscope he came with, which was lost within about 30 seconds of opening the box

with apologies to hardcore collectors who are right now crying at the concept of opening the box, never mind losing the accessories

if you're not making them talk and then "fight" by ramming the figures together then you're doing it wrong

The worst is Mrs Christmas Story, Ralphie's Mom. I think she's meant to lean against the Dad because they molded her to slant sideways slightly and she literally does not stand ever

And the Dad is supposed to hold the leg lamp, but lampshade is removeable and falls off when it's on its side

Like, CMON

Can you guys show me on the doll where you were made irrationally angry?

*throws doll at u*

http://www.luisescobarblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Lisa-vs-Malibu-Stacy-doll-throw.jpg

Eddie from the Killers cover

This is more "irrationally pleased" but the only other guy in my 7am yoga class was wearing this t-shirt today.

overuse of semicolons is driving me insane atm

one of the worst human beings i ever went out of my way to avoid at college had a semicolon tattoo