there's a war on.
continued from:Yippee-IA, Motherf***ers! IRRATIONALLY ANGRY PT. 2: Irrationally Angrier
― Bill Nighy the Science Gighy (get bent), Saturday, 3 January 2015 05:18 (eleven years ago)
this is definitely an innocuous thing and it makes me more mildly annoyed than IA, but i don't like when people's facebook comments are nothing more than them tagging other people. put it on your friend's wall or send a private message. comment threads are for actual comments.
― Bill Nighy the Science Gighy (get bent), Saturday, 3 January 2015 05:22 (eleven years ago)
Tweets from highly and justly esteemed writers which are noting but their next bookstore signing, and (barf) the most asskissing, "now blurb meee" kind of blurbs (retweeted by blurbee of course) Cmon gimmee freebie culture dammit! Comedians even worse but ft
― dow, Saturday, 3 January 2015 05:45 (eleven years ago)
Musicians not as bad except some are stupid, tweetwise anyway
― dow, Saturday, 3 January 2015 05:47 (eleven years ago)
i find myself getting very ia at people who dont interrogate conversation, who just wait to talk and continue to talk talk talk and barely acknowledge other contributions
i like conversation when it is like a game of tennis. i do not enjoy being the backyard wall against which you repeatedly smash your 'conversation'
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 3 January 2015 05:49 (eleven years ago)
a) never ever go on facebook; it is the absolute worst
b) unless you are drunk and desperately seeking human contact; even then it will be a mistake
c) would totally become unhelpfully drunk with jbr/dow/veg tho!
d) first round's on veg
― mookieproof, Saturday, 3 January 2015 06:49 (eleven years ago)
all round to my place for fap :D
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 3 January 2015 07:22 (eleven years ago)
annual rolling threads that needn't be annual
― mookieproof, Saturday, 10 January 2015 02:41 (eleven years ago)
-pizza places that don't sell pizza by the slice
(I politely walked out of two pizza places in one day because the first one didn't sell slices after 6 pm and the second one told me there'd be a 15 minute wait because "our slicing pizza is still in the oven.' this was the one time in my life I was tempted to get on Yelp and write some irate reviews)
― please login or register if you are (unregistered), Saturday, 10 January 2015 02:50 (eleven years ago)
overly tailored tshirts on casual friday (ie neatly rolled up sleeves, tucked in etc)
just relax and wear a damn tshirt.
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 10 January 2015 06:02 (eleven years ago)
Needing to work out if the zip I used in the construction of a pair of jeans last year that I wear regularly or if I just keep forgetting to zip it up. Keep finding it down anyway. So just wondering if it's the zip or my memory.& it would be the pair of jeans that needs a special needle to sew the fabric.
Wondering how long I'll have to wait until I can comfortably collect a shelving unit without being absolutely p-ed on trying to get it home. Weather is atrocious for last few days and I need to transport this flat pack I bought. Waiting for an actual break in bad weather.
― Stevolende, Sunday, 11 January 2015 10:52 (eleven years ago)
That was supposed to say about whether a zip needed replacing or if my memory was going. Looks like the latter if I forgot to put in the bit about replacing. & i only made the jeans about 3 or 4 months ago so it should hopefully not mean a zip needed replacing yet. Keep finding myself flying low though.
Also trying to work out which side of the fabric i'm using for a pair of tartan jeans should be the outside/inside since they look very similar. & I don't want to get it wrong throughout. Guess that would at least be consistent though.
― Stevolende, Sunday, 11 January 2015 11:05 (eleven years ago)
Stevolende, I have a question about jeans fly covers. Mine constantly bunch up, exposing the top part of the zipper. I have considered that the reasons might be: - waist is too tight (but it happens on looser waists, too)- my gut is pushing down on the waistband- the button hole has gotten loose, allowing the top flap to sag (though I have tried sewing up the button hole without success, possibly due to my lack of skill and understanding)
Any advice on how to treat this problem? Some kind of insert to stiffen the flap?
Here is a pic of the problem.
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8569/16069669409_693c9d1c35.jpg
― Je55e, Sunday, 11 January 2015 17:31 (eleven years ago)
And so it's on topic: this folded flap makes me SO IRRATIONALLY ANGRY
― Je55e, Sunday, 11 January 2015 17:32 (eleven years ago)
I think I just tend to wear shirts outside my jeans so it's covered up. Will think about it but not sure offhand.
Might be that you need to make sure you've ironed the fly flap. BUt probably not. I don't know if I know enough about construction and subsequent pressures to answer. But could be that it would be good for me to be aware of that for future knowledge.
I've made like 10 pairs of jeans so far so it's still early days. & I'm not sure how successful they all are. Found out that some I'd made some months back really were too large at the waistband. Being largely self-taught I'm not 100% sure what solutions are.
― Stevolende, Sunday, 11 January 2015 18:58 (eleven years ago)
i don't like when people's facebook comments are nothing more than them tagging other people. put it on your friend's wall or send a private message. comment threads are for actual comments.
THIS. When the hell did this kick off? It is irritating. Ive clicked on comments threads that are nowt but tag-ins. Ive even had friends of mine tag me in some other random persons thread. I ignored the callout. PM me or GTFO.
― I checked Snoops , and it is for real (Trayce), Monday, 12 January 2015 02:23 (eleven years ago)
start a victory garden and ration your IRRATIONALLY ANGRY feelings, part 3">Karl Malone
― pplains, Monday, 12 January 2015 02:27 (eleven years ago)
Online sellers who aren't satisfied with the fact that you purchased a product from them and did not try to return it or complaint about it, but hassle you RELENTLESSLY to leave feedback, tell us what you think, post about us on social media, blah blah blah
FUCK YOU I gave you money. You gave me a product. We're not married now. I don't owe you anything. I don't have to go to your parents' house for Thanksgiving and I don't have to write a review of your GOD DAMN cocktail shaker. Fuck.
― carl agatha, Monday, 12 January 2015 17:24 (eleven years ago)
Also:
I was printing out my parents boarding passes from Spirit Airlines last night and they offered the normal nickel-and-dime-you-to-death services and the option to voluntarily pay an additional $1 or $5 to help the airline be more green.
So not a service, just some random fucking guilty bullshit about how if we want this airline to be more environmentally friendly, give us extra money. We're already paying extra money to check a bag and have more leg room than a chicken a 12-by-12 factory farming crate, and now these fuckers have the nerve to try to extort money for their environmental initiative? I'm still so angry about that I can barely form a coherent objection to it.
― carl agatha, Monday, 12 January 2015 17:27 (eleven years ago)
I'm underemployed right now working as a temp in a law firm.. I got a ton of overtime last week but I am FUCKING FURIOUS because I HATE overtime and I hate my line of work because Im subject to the whims of capricious lawyers who dont give a fuck about my life or free time (or common sense/decency). The irony being I'm making time and a half and have a bunch more money than I would yet I am still FUCKING FURIOUS because theres a lot more overtime in the future.
It also doesnt help that because I'm a temp I'm realizing about 2/3ds of what my employer is paying the temp agency, which is basically the same amont of money I used to make like ten fucking years ago.
thanks obama
― panettone for the painfully alone (mayor jingleberries), Monday, 12 January 2015 17:33 (eleven years ago)
^^^great CSR, there, carl. *screams*
I was a participant in the following exchange last week:
Cashier: 'Thanks for shopping with us. Can I take your e-mail address?'Me: 'No...'
― camp event (suzy), Monday, 12 January 2015 17:36 (eleven years ago)
Hate it when I'm too fast for a website. Site loads, I put the cursor on something like "SEARCH" and click, but in that split second between those two actions, the site has loaded up just a little bit more and I wind up clicking on something like "CONTACT US".
― pplains, Monday, 12 January 2015 17:40 (eleven years ago)
When I started at TCS they encouraged us to ask ppl for their email addresses at the register. At first they said it like, "Hey, people might want to know when we have sales! Just ask, if they say no, that's fine obvs." By the time I left they were offering positive incentives to workers who got the highest percentages of ppl to give them an email. I got the feeling negative incentives were right around the corner.
― Orson Wellies (in orbit), Monday, 12 January 2015 17:41 (eleven years ago)
Radio Shack has been really obnoxious about the email stuff for years
― Nhex, Monday, 12 January 2015 17:47 (eleven years ago)
lol Radio Shack was way ahead of the curve, they used to ask for your address years ago
― valleys of your mind (mh), Monday, 12 January 2015 19:54 (eleven years ago)
I just had one of those, cash purchase of an overpriced-yet-undeniably-effective hair care product for one of my daughters from a salon I visit for no other purpose.
"What's your last name?" "Is it 'Dusty' Perry?" "I'm supposed to ask." "How do you spell your last name?" "Who normally does your hair here?" Ha ha ha, who does my greying, thinning hair.
― Vic Perry, Monday, 12 January 2015 20:42 (eleven years ago)
Canada Goose Parkas
― walid foster dulles (man alive), Monday, 12 January 2015 20:45 (eleven years ago)
It also doesnt help that because I'm a temp I'm realizing about 2/3ds of what my employer is paying the temp agency
Not to stoke any further IA, but it's possible that you are grossly overestimating the cut that your temp agency is willing to part with.
― Smoothie Operator (Old Lunch), Monday, 12 January 2015 20:54 (eleven years ago)
Very true. I used to be temped for Accounts Payable jobs, so the most hilarious thing to me was knowing the 'big secret' of exactly how much the company was paying for my services because I was the one processing the bill! (Of course temp agencies never ever want their temps to know this stuff).
I recall more than one job where I got hourly $13, and the agency was getting $22, and that this ratio was pretty usual, so, I got more than half, but less than 2/3 of the payout.
However, and this really ticked me off, one job that was largely funded by taxpayer dollars paid me way less than half of the outrageous sum the temp agency got! I think I got $9 out of $25 bucks on that one! No business like soaking the people.
― Vic Perry, Monday, 12 January 2015 21:03 (eleven years ago)
temp agencies take that much?! damn.
― Nhex, Monday, 12 January 2015 21:04 (eleven years ago)
i guess companies will pay to screw people out of benefits
Most of the times I was ever offered to 'go perm' it was usually with a pay cut from what I had been getting as a temp ('but you'll get benefits') so, no, thanks.
One reason I did temp for a long time was that the pay rates had at least something to do with demand, whereas permanent positions tended to be successfully squashed. While it was humiliating in some ways to have the agency taking a lot of money for doing nothing but landing me the spot, that did save me a lot of dreadful human resources interviews and frankly, I just wouldn't have found those positions on my own. I also used to see the most interesting trainwrecks: places where I'd take over the suddenly vacated position of an embezzler, a revenge case, a blazing incompetent. Whole little histories there. The work of course was more boring than not so regular changes of scenery were helpful as well.
― Vic Perry, Monday, 12 January 2015 21:31 (eleven years ago)
That reminds me of this collection of anecdotes (I thought it mentioned the hassling-for-address thing but it doesn't seem to):http://www.ihateworkinginretail.com/tag/i-hate-radioshack/
I particularly enjoyed VIII and XV, if you've got better things to do than read the whole collection of longwinded rants. But who would have better things to do than that?
― club mate martyr (a passing spacecadet), Monday, 12 January 2015 21:49 (eleven years ago)
omg XV is amazing, I have no idea what that is
― valleys of your mind (mh), Monday, 12 January 2015 21:53 (eleven years ago)
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t53/baldie0522/doin-brum.gif
― they TRY to look like GOOD people (soref), Monday, 12 January 2015 21:58 (eleven years ago)
baldie doin-brum.gif
― they TRY to look like GOOD people (soref), Monday, 12 January 2015 21:59 (eleven years ago)
ia: egregiously bad service in restaurants. i'm sooooo chill and forgiving about minor food service slip-ups. i don't care if you smile. i don't care if you refill my water without me having to ask. if i don't say when i'm ordering that i'm allergic to XYZ food item (which would be a gross overstatement, since my food allergies are really trivial), it's a minor inconvenience but not the end of the world if the kitchen forgets to leave it off. i just want a baseline level of transactional ease if i'm gonna choose your place over other places. i had work to do last night and i ran out to get a quick takeout order so i could scarf down some food and meet my midnight deadline. i ended up waiting probably 40 minutes for a dish that at most would take ten minutes to cook from pre-prepped ingredients and assemble in a styrofoam box. and the restaurant was busy, but not slammed. it just made me very stressed out. which is my problem, not theirs. i don't handle stress well. 40 minutes is a long time to wait though.
― mitt fleekwood (get bent), Tuesday, 13 January 2015 02:45 (eleven years ago)
no i in yr a
so to speak
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 13 January 2015 02:48 (eleven years ago)
the level of stress made my a feel i
― mitt fleekwood (get bent), Tuesday, 13 January 2015 02:49 (eleven years ago)
_lol Radio Shack was way ahead of the curve, they used to ask for your address years ago_That reminds me of this collection of anecdotes (I thought it mentioned the hassling-for-address thing but it doesn't seem to):http://www.ihateworkinginretail.com/tag/i-hate-radioshack/I particularly enjoyed VIII and XV, if you've got better things to do than read the whole collection of longwinded rants. But who would have better things to do than that?
That reminds me of this collection of anecdotes (I thought it mentioned the hassling-for-address thing but it doesn't seem to):http://www.ihateworkinginretail.com/tag/i-hate-radioshack/
Whoa thank you, aps! I read the first few of those when it was first posted, but missed the great ones you pointed out plus my favorite, the one w/ Stoned Craig going "I'm hungry, Paw." (Which I've said a lot to various people over decades for no reason I can discern, so maybe it's just part of the collective human drive to say it.)
― Je55e, Tuesday, 13 January 2015 05:32 (eleven years ago)
Stoned Je55e
― valleys of your mind (mh), Tuesday, 13 January 2015 14:49 (eleven years ago)
OK that Brum story loooolOriginal Brum theme was instrumental but TIL there is an extremely lengthy modern version
― kinder, Tuesday, 13 January 2015 15:00 (eleven years ago)
bill gates the spider
― kinder, Tuesday, 13 January 2015 15:04 (eleven years ago)
News sites showing handheld video but blurring out the edges? I feel like I see something like this every week or two. Sorry, this is some really traumatic video.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/dying-among-strangers-metro-victim-found-fellow-riders-who-tried-to-save-her-life/2015/01/13/98f6c37e-9b7a-11e4-bcfb-059ec7a93ddc_story.html?hpid=z3
― how's life, Wednesday, 14 January 2015 20:43 (eleven years ago)
lately every time i watch some crappy viral video prank, i get IA imagining myself just out and about trying to run an errand and getting trapped in a viral video prank. like that dumb telekinesis coffee shop thing.*
*maybe the reactions are fake, idk.
― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Wednesday, 14 January 2015 20:49 (eleven years ago)
It's very likely my last dying words will be "Turn your phone sideways if you insist on recording this."
― pplains, Wednesday, 14 January 2015 20:59 (eleven years ago)
Yeah, it's not because something is being blurred out, it's because people don't shoot in landscape and for some reason news organizations have chosen to present it like that. I think they should just reject all portrait videos.
― Jeff, Wednesday, 14 January 2015 21:26 (eleven years ago)
Why can't phones just format videos in landscape regardless of the position of the phone?
― Je55e, Wednesday, 14 January 2015 21:29 (eleven years ago)
camera sensor orientation? the actual sensor isn't square iirc, I may be wrong
― valleys of your mind (mh), Wednesday, 14 January 2015 21:32 (eleven years ago)
those takeout containers with interlocking flaps - eating from them makes me ia bcz the flaps get in the way
i usually dump it out onto a plate of something but sometimes you can't & raaaaage
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 14 January 2015 21:33 (eleven years ago)
Hahaha. That's some real "wet streets cause rain" logic
― Bertolt Blecch (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 4 February 2026 21:26 (five months ago)
Last time I got blood drawn the nurse was all but drooling over the size and prominence of my veins; it was like something out of Naked Lunch. Going in for one next week; hope whoever I get is competent.
― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Wednesday, 4 February 2026 21:26 (five months ago)
I really can't stand someone walking into a room talking to me without making any effort to see if I'm even in a position to listen.
There was one instance recently when I was reading up on something extremely important and then got mad almost immediately that I wasn't listening, to which I snapped "i was in the middle of something important and you walked in and flooded me with an paragraphs worth of information before I could even look up to tell you 'please give me a minute'"
― Strawmandalorian (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 10 March 2026 23:06 (four months ago)
yes unfortunately been seeing someone who murmurs quietly in the other room and then expects me (hard of hearing from ROCK) to have comprehended everything that was said
― Andy the Grasshopper, Tuesday, 10 March 2026 23:18 (four months ago)
notification that you have a (yet another) D3ll software update. click link, open app whatever = then it spins around “checking” for updates forever
YOU WERE THE ONE WHO TOLD ME THERE WAS ONE!
YOU DONT GOT IT READY TO GO?
so annoying
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 12 March 2026 00:26 (four months ago)
i mean nevermind that it reminded me 3 times TODAY that there was an update
fkn thing
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 12 March 2026 00:27 (four months ago)
My wife does this. She's also one of those people who restarts a conversation that ended two or three days earlier, making no attempt to remind me of the context for her new remarks. I'm just supposed to remember and tag back in.
― wipes chooser (unperson), Thursday, 12 March 2026 00:37 (four months ago)
My dad texted me the other day, "Got a minute?"
I texted back, "Sure. What's up?"
No response.
Ten minutes later, he rings the doorbell. He's been sitting in my driveway, where's he's been waiting for me to come out for a minute.
― pplains, Thursday, 12 March 2026 02:52 (four months ago)
haha!
― kinder, Thursday, 12 March 2026 08:25 (four months ago)
most annoying in this day and age: websites that ask you to enter your email address or postcode and clearly have some constant validation going on because you type ~the first letter~ and red text pops up THAT DOESN'T LOOK RIGHT. PLEASE ENTER A VALID POSTCODE/EMAIL ADDRESS my energy company does this when you log in and it makes me so mad
― kinder, Thursday, 12 March 2026 08:27 (four months ago)
I was buying tickets to my son's play yesterday and it said I needed to switch to my bank app to confirm, so I did that, then after approving I switched tasks back to the browser, which had refreshed and lost the transaction. this happens all the fucking time, the worst is the hospital app, which asks me to confirm via an email, and of course it refreshes and I'm back to stage one. I have tried fixing phone settings to prioritise the browser app and stop it refreshing but it doesn't seem to care.
― Francis Fuck Coprolalia (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Thursday, 12 March 2026 09:06 (four months ago)
― wipes chooser (unperson), Wednesday, March 11, 2026 8:37 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
My dad and I talk on the phone, on average, once every two months or so. I have a theory that he believes that when we hang up, I stand there like a statue for roughly eight weeks until we talk again, at which point he acts like he is a Netflix show and I am the fan who has been waiting with baited breath between seasons to find out which windshield wipers he thinks I should buy
― Paul Ponzi, Thursday, 12 March 2026 09:07 (four months ago)
there's a post-2005 horror film thread and a pre-2006 horror film thread. they overlap. 2005 films can go on either.
also, two active irrationally angry threads.
― koogs, Sunday, 22 March 2026 03:59 (three months ago)
An Post the Irish postal service having a growing Service charge on top of whatever fee for whatever e.g. unpaid VAT etc. Fee is normally a couple of € but now standing charge is 6.95. It used to be a couple of € less but already a pain. & it seems to pop up randomly when you're expecting it to be covered since firm should be doing business outside UK already. Yeah tends to be dealing with UK firms post Brexit.
Has turned up apparently completely randomly calculated, nothing to do with value quoted on the package.& it's an absolute pain.
Post Office first against the wall come the revolution. Or at least customs dept.
― Stevo, Monday, 23 March 2026 06:56 (three months ago)
Maybe not angry, but I'm irrationally annoyed by car indicator lights that light up left-to-right or right-to-left instead of just having the whole light come on.
― kinder, Friday, 10 April 2026 13:39 (three months ago)
I recently saw a car with an led screen at the bottom of their windshield which displayed eyes looking around, like Pixar’s Cars. Fucking distracting and stupid.
― Cow_Art, Friday, 10 April 2026 13:43 (three months ago)
it annoys me when The Repair Shop shows little scenes of people working on things that aren't featured in this week's episode.
― koogs, Wednesday, 22 April 2026 20:24 (two months ago)
Similar thing: I pretty much don't like any of these stupid Discogs listicles, but in this instance the cover art on the top left (blue and white, says "PATTERNS REPEAT") caught my eye and I was curious who the artist was and what the music sounded like. So I click the article and it's not mentioned at all! Soooo stupid
https://i.postimg.cc/DyRzz6ZM/di.png
― Cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria de Episcopio, Wednesday, 22 April 2026 20:30 (two months ago)
It's Laura Marling
― wmlynch, Wednesday, 22 April 2026 20:35 (two months ago)
These search field boxes that endlessly rotate through suggestions like "Try great deals under 20K," "Try SUVs with car play," Try 3 bedrooms with wooden floor," "Try fenced yard with a chef's kitchen," etc.
All the while, I'm just browsing and trying to narrow shit down on my own, but it's difficult to do with this endless animation repeating itself. You can't even scroll down since it follows you.
(I do just type an X in the field to shut it up, but I shouldn't have to do that.)
― pplains, Friday, 24 April 2026 00:13 (two months ago)
ASMR restaurant videos where cooks use metal utensils on nonstick cookware, scraping the shit out of the pans and presumably putting bits of nonstick coatings into the food.
― scarce due to allocated reason (WmC), Friday, 15 May 2026 16:22 (one month ago)
Professional interactions with other human beings is kind of a textbook example of something that makes me irrationally angry. My Internet is out for the second time in a ten days. This materially affects me. I could get upset about it. Getting upset is not effective. I have some measure of control over this situation. There is a process to follow when something like this happens. I find the technical support number. I call the technical support number. There is a brief automated message, no more than 15 seconds or so, thanking me for calling (provider). I press "2" to specify that I am seeking technical support, rather than sales. I press "1" to confirm that I am calling about the account linked to (phone number). It is good design that the support system can tell what phone number I am calling from. I do not press "Nueve" por Espanol. A machine voice says "At the tone, state your problem. For example, 'Fix my Internet'." I say "Fix my Internet" at the tone. The machine understands me. Five years ago the machine did not understand me, because I have a lisp. Technology has advanced in ways that benefit me.
The service for my current provider is much better than the service for my former Internet provider, Comcast. The call is immediately transferred to a professional woman fluent in English. She has a strong Indian accent, but her accent causes me no difficulty in understanding her. I can hear a number of voices speaking in the background which are not filtered out by the phone technology. This causes me some trouble understanding her. I am using speaker phone on a telephone which is probably eight years or so old. She does not ask me to clarify anything I am saying despite this.
I try to be pleasant on the phone. However, since this is the second time in ten days I have had this problem, my displeasure is audible in my voice. I am unhappy about this, and I am doing my best. It can't be helped. The tech support operator is a professional. I am sure that she has heard worse. I know that a great deal of tech support consists of managing the emotions of upset customers, particularly the emotions of fragile white people. I work very hard to manage my own emotions.
The tech support operator asks me to verify my phone number, my physical address, and my email address. I say all of these things out loud. I do not spell out my email address using the NATO phonetic alphabet, because I know this is to verify my identity, and that they already have the information they're asking me for on file.
I tell the tech support operator, whose name I do not understand, that I do not have Internet service and that the light on my modem is blinking blue. I tell her that this has been the case since yesterday afternoon. I tell her that the modem periodically makes a "clicking" sound. I tell her that the lights next to my network cables are orange, not green like they usually are. I have talked to tech support often enough to know that this is the basic information they need to know. I answer tech support questions as if I am being put on the stand. I answer the question she asks. I do not provide additional information. I wait for her to ask something else.
She asks me to help her diagnose the problem. This is part of the emotional management good tech support operators are trained to do. I say I will be happy to help her. She asks me to unplug the modem, wait ten seconds, and plug it back in again. This is the single most effective procedure, by far, one can perform when attempting to fix errors in electronic machines. I have performed this procedure several times before calling technical support. I would prefer not to call technical support if I can avoid it. I am happy to perform the procedure again. It is a simple, routine act that does not take very long to perform. I unplug the modem, count to ten, using the (presumably American?) "one-Mississippi" method, before plugging the modem back in. "I have waited ten seconds and plugged the modem back in," I say to the support operator. "The light on the modem is now solid red." She asks me to let her know when the light changes color. I wait two minutes or so and it changes color. "It is now solid blue," I say. For a second I am hopeful. Perhaps this time it worked. "No, no," I say after a second. "It's flashing blue."
She asks me to use a paperclip to push the reset button on the back of the modem. I do not use paperclips for anything else. When I changed my phone plan, it came with something that is made of the same material as a paperclip, but is not a paperclip. It is purpose-built for pressing reset buttons on machines that require a paperclip. I keep it by my modem. I do not use paperclips or staples in the home. "I have used a paperclip to push the reset button on the back of the modem," I say. "The light on the modem is now solid red."
The tech support operator tells me that if this procedure does not work, the next step will be to schedule a technician to come to my house. I tell her this is acceptable. I know that this is the standard process because I went through it last Wednesday, the last time my Internet went out. The morning after I scheduled a technician call, the Internet started working again, and I therefore cancelled the appointment through text message. I received an automated response telling me that they were unable to cancel my appointment. The message was misleading. They were, in fact, able to cancel my appointment.
The light on the modem goes back to flashing blue. I inform the support operator of this. She tells me again that the next step is to schedule a technician to come to my house. I say "Yes, I would like to do this." I would like to use precise, accurate verbiage on these calls. The support operator does not necessarily ask direct questions, I notice. This is probably another technique to manage the emotions of upset customers. I say "Yes" a lot, on the assumption that saying "yes" is more likely to advance the process.
"Yes, I would like you to send a technician out. Yes, I will wait for you to find the next available appointment. Yes, I am still at (address). Yes, my phone number is still (phone)." I am not annoyed at being asked to verify information I have already verified with her. She is asking these questions for a reason. It reduces the rate of errors in communication. Errors in communication are one of the chief causes of customer dissatisfaction.
"Yes, Tuesday, (date) between (time) and (time) will work for me." Of course I am not happy that my Internet will be out for another two days. It is an inconvenience that I am able to work around. I have Internet through my phone. Having an Internet outage will disrupt my routine of mindlessly scrolling on the Internet. I don't think this is entirely to my detriment. There are all kinds of productive, useful things I avoid doing by mindlessly scrolling on the Internet. I don't like being reminded of all of these productive, useful things. Doing them is exhausting. Often doing them is not effective, for reasons that are outside of my control. I wouldn't say that I don't live in reality, precisely, but I do often find it effective to hold reality at arm's length.
"Yes, I would like to receive text reminders. Yes, I understand that there may be a fee. Yes, I understand that if my service starts working, I can cancel my appointment via your app or via text message. Is there anything else you require from me? No, there is nothing else I require from you. Thank you very much. I greatly appreciate your service. I am going to hang up the phone now."
This entire process was routine and unproblematic. The phone call lasted precisely 14 minutes and 1 second, a far shorter length of time than it took me to document the interaction. I would consider it to be a completely successful professional interaction.
Is there an equivalent of "ennui" for anger? That's what inspired me to write all of this up. It's not just that I feel irrationally angry. It's that this particular irrational anger is the most anodyne, superficial sort of anger I can possible imagine. It's not anger, not boredom, but some emotion I can't name, an emotion that combines both those emotions. A pallid anger.
I am going to take a shower now.
― Kate (rushomancy), Sunday, 24 May 2026 20:52 (one month ago)
FTR, I had this problem a few months ago. When the modem light is blinking blue like that it could mean that the problem is not with your modem, it's somewhere higher up the ladder.
I recommend signing up for AT&T Air. It's very cheap - I pay $47 a month - and very fast. Also, it has some weird VPN-ish qualities; my browser thinks I'm in Phoenix, AZ, or sometimes in Oregon or Washington State. I have had no problems with outages (unless I lose power entirely, which happens sometimes) since dumping CenturyLink in favor of AT&T.
― wipes chooser (unperson), Sunday, 24 May 2026 22:15 (one month ago)
I honestly wish most interactions with tech support went as smoothly as what is described above. The last time I had an issue with my cell phone provider it took me about half an hour to get past the chatbot in order to schedule a call (which included looking up reddit threads to check what specifically I needed to type in order to get to the "schedule a call" function of the chatbot), once I talked to an actual person it all went well, but they really make it difficult to get there.
― silverfish, Monday, 25 May 2026 14:47 (one month ago)
I am so glad I nolonger work in frontline tech support. The reason they make you go thru all those hoops is because a migraine-inducing amount of people swear they already did all the troubleshooting and didn't. (we can see when you havent rebooted the router! It shows a 3 month uptime!).
But yes, the incessant push to AI/bot responses and chat assistants is real frustrating. Oh, the beancounters insist, this tech is way better than it used to be!
Doesn't change the fact it renders all callers purple with rage so when and if they ever DO get to an actual person, they're so angry they become impossible to deal with. And when thats the caller you have on Every Single Call, your day becomes pretty grim.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Monday, 25 May 2026 23:09 (one month ago)
I'm exiting the movies last night and I walk outside. This dude and his girlfriend are approaching swiftly from a good distance away. The guy yells "What the fuck?" at me because he expected me to hold the door for him, despite it being a clearly labeled Exit Only door.
He and his girlfriend then see someone leaving out the Exit door to my right and melodramatically sprint to get through it before it shuts. To their immediate right is the Entrance door, clearly labeled and naturally ignored.
The irrationally angry bit is how I keep thinking about it a day later due to my fascination with the thought process. They obviously knew they were exit doors, otherwise they would have had exterior handles and wouldn't have needed someone to hold the door.
So I'm stuck wondering if they thought this was the world's first gated community movie theater, where you can only get in if you tailgate someone leaving
― If your ass is a Bible, 213 will regulate (Neanderthal), Sunday, 31 May 2026 15:49 (one month ago)
They're prob the kind of people who would also get mad if you didnt let them in with you in a security doored apartment. Like fuck I'm letting you come in with me, person I have never seen before!
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Monday, 1 June 2026 05:02 (one month ago)
"Thank you for calling (our company, doctor's office, etc). Please listen carefully as our menu options have recently changed"
LIARS! Your menu options have NOT recently changed. The last time your menu options changed was 20 years ago when you finally stopped giving instructions for what to do if you have a rotary-dial phone. Why does nearly every place I call lie about having new and different menu options?
― Lee626, Sunday, 14 June 2026 02:00 (one month ago)
I think it’s a psychological technique to get you to listen.
― The Immortal Bird of Avon (Boring, Maryland), Sunday, 14 June 2026 02:54 (one month ago)
They clearly want you to listen through all of the options before pressing a key to reduce misdirected calls, but they could do that without lying to me and saying they've recently changed the voicemail menu.
― Lee626, Sunday, 14 June 2026 04:19 (one month ago)
I'd probably be more likely to listen if the messages were more insulting
― If your ass is a Bible, 213 will regulate (Neanderthal), Sunday, 14 June 2026 04:20 (one month ago)
world cup. annoyed by the way the itv dog in the top right is the exact same colour as the sky and just keeps disappearing leaving only the trophy and FIFA in tiny letters
― Bog Dork (koogs), Sunday, 14 June 2026 19:31 (one month ago)
My mom has been sending text messages to my email address instead of my phone number for almost ten years now, whenever she tries to text my brother and I simultaneously.
I am guessing she has separate contacts for me in her phone, one my number, one my email, and one day back in 2018, she mistakenly chose the wrong one.
I kept telling her about it because she'd ask if I saw her message and I didn't because it would show in my email box as a text file (including EVERY REPLY) so I'd never get an alert. I'd keep telling her and she'd insist she wasn't doing that.
Then I moved in with her and showed her what she was doing and texted her and my brother, saying "send all family messages here".
Problem stopped for a few years, then she started doing it again. Texted the group again..."send the messages HERE".
Stopped for multiple years. I think it's over.
Today I get a text from her in my email box.
Omggggg
― If your ass is a Bible, 213 will regulate (Neanderthal), Monday, 15 June 2026 00:11 (four weeks ago)
My mom has a habit of texting my ex-wife instead of me. Love getting the "uh, I think your mom meant to send this to you" texts.
― whimsical skeedaddler (Moodles), Monday, 15 June 2026 00:15 (four weeks ago)
Oh mega awkward
― If your ass is a Bible, 213 will regulate (Neanderthal), Monday, 15 June 2026 00:18 (four weeks ago)
My mom texts me and my wife separately, discussing different subjects. I don't know why she thinks only my wife wants to see photos of flowers she took, and only I want to know about the dead mouse she found under her refrigerator, but that's how it goes.
― wipes chooser (unperson), Monday, 15 June 2026 00:51 (four weeks ago)
haha...I message my brother to find out if he's getting my mum the DVD box set she asked for for her birthday. He tells me to 'ask Sarah'. His wife. Who is in the same house, if not the same room, as him.
― kinder, Monday, 15 June 2026 15:06 (four weeks ago)
Across the street dirtbag neighbors have a demon-spawn son who is now old enough to drive his mom’s circa 2000 model Mercedes
Cut to: every. single. day. he pulls up in the car with the shitty soundsystem as loud as it can go, subwoofer rattling the car’s trunk so that the rattling of his car is ~louder~ than the music. you can hear him coming because you hear the rattling before the music. But what’s worse is my house 100 years old & even with double-glazed widows this shit so fucking loud it rattles the walls of ~our house~ from across the street! you can feel it in the floor! The pictures on the wall vibrate!
Loud music bumping from cars is part of our neighborhood & i actually enjoy it but this little dickhead just INFURIATES me.
I have never wished violence on anyone more than this child.
And I hate it because I know i sound like the oldest old lady on earth
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 28 June 2026 20:53 (two weeks ago)
I'm sorry but you can't be rationally angry on the IRRATIONALLY ANGRY thread.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Sunday, 28 June 2026 20:55 (two weeks ago)
It feels irrational because it’s just loud music
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 28 June 2026 21:43 (two weeks ago)
If there were an "irrationally not angry" thread then my entry would probably be something about people playing loud music in public
― Here is the mentioned donkey, (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Sunday, 28 June 2026 21:47 (two weeks ago)
just loud music
According to your description, it's far more than that. For example, "the rattling of his car is ~louder~ than the music. you can hear him coming because you hear the rattling before the music" and "it rattles the walls of ~our house~ from across the street! you can feel it in the floor! The pictures on the wall vibrate!"
Nothing about that seems musical. Any rational adult would want to remove that from their lives at once and forever.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Sunday, 28 June 2026 21:54 (two weeks ago)
Sorta cross posting with the innocuously embarrassing thread, but I hate being subjected to other people’s music when I can’t get away from it.
If I’m walking on the street and there’s a busker with an amplifier banging away, I’m ok with that because it’s a passing thing. If I hear music passing by from in my house, it’s ok. When I’m stuck in a restaurant with a dorkus malorkus playing amplified Hooty covers, that is not ok. Parking outside of my house and blasting for a length of time is not ok. Stop forcing shit on other people.
Oh, people bringing their portable speakers to the beach. I want to hear the ocean, not Morgan Waller. Go kick rocks.
― Cow_Art, Sunday, 28 June 2026 23:56 (two weeks ago)
Yeah I guess that’s the other part - he’s just staying put blasting crappy music all over everyone rather than merely passing by
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 29 June 2026 01:04 (two weeks ago)
Its a good thing I've never encountered the speaker-on-the-beach/in-the-pool thing because I can't tell you if I could supress the urge to dropkick the speaker into the nearest body of water.
...which now I think about it would do bugger all as those things are waterproof arent they, arrrrg.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Monday, 29 June 2026 05:52 (two weeks ago)
My mom texts me and my wife separately, discussing different subjects. I don't know why she thinks only my wife wants to see photos of flowers she took, and only I want to know about the dead mouse she found under her refrigerator, but that's how it goes.― wipes chooser (unperson), Sunday, June 14, 2026 8:51 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink
― wipes chooser (unperson), Sunday, June 14, 2026 8:51 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink
i've found this very irritating as of late, more because there have been other questions in the family about her overall health.
― My homies buttthole surfers' record sounds like a f (Western® with Bacon Flavor), Monday, 29 June 2026 06:21 (two weeks ago)
The abandoned scooters blocking sidewalks already annoyed me, but the new twist of 14 Doordash delivery bikes with comically large wheels strewn across the sidewalk in front of every lunch place is starting to make me wonder if I'd just be better off walking in the street instead.
― better than ezra collective soul asylum (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 1 July 2026 19:36 (one week ago)
those ones with the large whees are ebikes and almost invariably ridden at full speed on the sidewalk.
― Illegal Algae (Boring, Maryland), Wednesday, 1 July 2026 19:38 (one week ago)
Yeah, my autocorrect dropped out the "e" on my post, but yes, another hazard.
― better than ezra collective soul asylum (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 1 July 2026 19:40 (one week ago)
i'm doing 2 short 10-minute plays in a production featuring short plays, one of which one of my best friends is directing. i'm also supposed to appear in a production next March that he's directing, and he wants to do an early read *now* to help tighten up the script. so he asked the cast for that play for availability and I gave it, and he gave us two dates, one the scheduled read date, the other the 'backup' date. I thought this was a placeholder until everyone committed to the primary date, but no, even then he wanted us to hold BOTH dates open in case the first date fell through.
well, problem is, one of my short plays likes to rehearse Wednesdays, and the backup date is a Wednesday, and it's not really fair for me to tell them "sorry we can't rehearse that day, I might not be available, and I won't know until 2 days prior". but also - I know how actors work, and the moment you give someone a 'backup' date, they think they can flake on the primary date. "oh, someone offered me tickets to xxx event? well I said I'd do a read today, but fuck that, there's a backup date, I'll call out". Not to mention also...THIS IS A READING for something we're not doing for 8 months.
so I told him "well I'll commit to the primary date but I can't do that with the secondary date, we have a rehearsal that date and it's not fair for me to tell them I can't do it because I *might* be busy", and he's kind of annoyed, but...why should I have to leave two days open on my calendar for an event that takes one night? not to mention....someone is going to call out, they always do. it's a reading. we do what we always do - we fill it in with someone else for a night.
― If your ass is a Bible, 213 will regulate (Neanderthal), Thursday, 9 July 2026 14:57 (five days ago)