start a victory garden and ration your IRRATIONALLY ANGRY feelings, part 3

there’s a guy who lives around the corner from me and he makes me so crazily IA. i hate his car. it’s shitty 80’s boxy bmw convertible that would be silver but is dun-colored-grey. it is dirty and gross and in desperate need of a tuneup. it is SO LOUD, louder than 4-stroke lawnmower. and he drives it top-down rain hail or shine so clearly it’s so busted that the top doesn’t work. it looks like it should be collecting rainwater & leaves in the frontyard. i hate it. and him. he is in his 30’s with long straggly dirty blonde hair & a beard & he looks like a deadbeat teacher’s assistant at a community college.

...i think i need an IA intervention, this shit is getting out of hand.

maintain your rage

If it is louder than a 4-stroke lawnmower it could be in violation of a local noise-abatement ordinance or state motor vehicle standards. You could make a phone or two inquiring about this, and casually add information about where the vehicle is normally parked, what time your neighbor tends to start it before driving away (especially if it is early morning hours), and its license plate number. Just to be neighborly, you know.

I've mentioned this before, and I hope it wasn't in this thread, but the amount of GIS results that lead to Pinterest is appalling. Presumably you either want a) to save the image, which is difficult to do on Pinterest, or b) to find more information about the image, or what it depicts, and you won't be able to do that at Pinterest either. In fact, if you're not registered at Pinterest, you'll just get an offer to join. This all makes a very common web activity, searching for images, a pain in the ass and Google knows it.

google is a fucking trashfire for searching for anything now.

Almost as annoying as the soundcloud links on Facebook that redirect you to download the SoundCloud app even if you already have it installed

Pinterest is a fucking travesty and should be wiped from this earth

Names for particular cycles of the moon in the sky:

Blood Moon
Snow Moon
Wolf Moon
Super Wolf Blood Moon

All that shit.

what about Keith tho?

If you ever look out a window and see a Keith Moon, better check yourself because you're Jerry Garcia and have been dead for the past 25 years.

I've had it up to here with charger cables and HDMI cables constantly crapping out on me.

No one in my neighborhood can walk their dog properly, they can't just walk past you on the sidewalk normally and keep going. They either cross the street right away (which I get that some people have aggro or unwell dogs); they wait half a block away to see if you cross the street and then when you don't, then they cross; a guy with a large dog literally shouts to anyone who is nearby that his dog can't be near their dog and they need to cross; or the people who want their dog to play with your dog even if you are on the phone, you are obviously turning away, your dog is pooping or you are walking fast with purpose.

Business websites that won't let you search for a location with anything other than a zip code.

I had to find a place in Malvern, Arkansas, yesterday, and the corporate site kept asking for a zip code. Finally had to look up the zip code and then go back to the site.

(And yes, I know I could've just Googled "McDonalds in Malvern" or whatever, but I was looking for something pretty specific.)

Gov't sites are just as bad. Say I'm looking for all the state senators who represent Little Rock:

https://i.imgur.com/GrbZ4vX.png

Nope.

Govtrack is a little like this, but at least they give you a map to pull and tug on.

yeah that drives me bananas.
why even HAVE a search function if it’s so specific as to be totally useless

beauty product company, why would you put a voucher for '20% off your first order' inside the packaging of my existing order?

Trees disappearing from all parts of town which I read yesterday was a policy being carried out by councils across Ireland.
Seems absurdly short sighted to get rid of a pretty vital part of the ecosystem to the extent I'm seeing.
I thought it was some far more local process that seemed to me to be misguided as I saw it happening for the last 6 months or so.
Now I see there's an online petition talkling about councils across the country doing this. Chopping down healthy tress for no good reason.

Which isn't irrationally angry, just deeply aggrovating. I thought there were supposed to be more trees being planted to help slow down climate change. Seems intentionally negative to do the opposite.

Ah, cutting down healthy trees for no reason (which includes bullshit reasons like them not fitting in with a new landscaping scheme) is the most infuriating thing to me! Moloch makes his coziest den in the brains of the bureaucrats who order such trees cut down and the slack-jawed chainsaw wielders who do the deed. To cut trees down needlessly really is a crime against nature.

You're right, the government should do something about people who cut down trees for no rea...

oh wait

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-news/about-a-dozen-trees-cut-dumped-into-potomac-river-at-trump-golf-club-in-va/2019/02/28/992ce89a-3a14-11e9-a06c-3ec8ed509d15_story.html

people who try to help

doubly so when i say “you’re not helping” and they keep trying

Accidentally clicking links/buttons with my right thumb when I'm scrolling on my phone.

I told my wife "helpful people are a nuisance" a few years ago and I'm pretty sure it irreparably damaged our relationship.

luke mcgregor

pedestrians who press the crossing button without checking if the road is clear anyway

?

Britishes things.

I do feel guilty if it clears before it turns green!

Me too! You feel kind of like you should wait just because you've pressed the thing, but of course it's better to cross and get the hell out of sight before a driver arrives.

I also feel guilty if a bike has to stop suddenly for the lights because I know cyclists hate that.

The crossing near my work used to change almost immediately after pressing the button, so I would wait until I couldn't see any cyclists (only a shortish stretch of road is visible), but they keep messing with the timing, i.e. now it mostly takes 30 seconds so there's no point in timing it, but about 1 time in 50 changes immediately just when I've carelessly pressed it and a bike is right there.

I'm looking forward to the days when (on quietish roads) lights are green for pedestrians by default and change when a car or bike is picked up by the sensors on the traffic light.

In my (American) experience pedestrian crossing buttons are useless things you push repeatedly to work out frustration over never getting a walk signal and finally having to sprint across the street between cars.

The UK is magical place.

https://i.imgur.com/cM9Q4vn.png

more like
https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article3610011.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/Road-signs.jpg

For our American readers, you don't have to press anything to make drivers stop at zebra crossings, you just need to have one foot on the crossing and they HAVE to stop. Which is why it annoys me when pedestrians thank drivers for stopping when all they're thanking them for is not breaking the law.

... and not leaving them on the road in a mangled heap of flesh, bones, brains aet al as a result. Of course.

Ah, there's nothing wrong with being nice. Enough drivers just keep going across zebras, after all.

I don't expect to be thanked for not breaking into someone's house or stabbing them in the face so I don't see why I should thank drivers for the achievement of not breaking the law.

You can tell this is a longstanding bee in my bonnet. So, perfect thread for it.

In Mexico, I was told the "thank you" gesture to be given to drivers letting you cross on the crosswalk was halfway curling your hand and bobbing the back of your fingers to them – which seemed to me like a patronizing thing to do, but ok.

near my house there's a crosswalk with blinking lights and a sign that reads "Cars Must Stop For Pedestrians in Crosswalk" but literally every time I've walked across it someone comes driving along and starts honking at me to get out of their way.

There's a pedestrian crossing that I cross almost daily while bringing my kids to daycare and school and I definitely make it a point to thank the drivers that stop because most of them don't.

Linked to this, the streets round here are a constant logjam and drivers seem to think this is a reason to stop their cars halfway across pedestrian crossings (or 'keep clear' boxes) - then the lights change and they expect pedestrians to squeeze round their car to get across the road. If I had my way the police would crush their car into a cube and force them to walk to work for the rest of their lives.

Last month I was driving to work and was in a queue behind a traffic light, left the 'keep clear' box in front of me empty, the car behind me drove around my car into the space! I was livid to the point of considering beeping my horn.

the streets round here are a constant logjam and drivers seem to think this is a reason to stop their cars halfway across pedestrian crossings

Yeah, whenever there's stop-start traffic drivers seem to pay attention only to the back of the car in front and forget about things like pedestrian crossings or red lights.

The junction near my flat now has a sign saying "do not block crossing" but it doesn't help (tbf the first time I saw it I wasn't sure if it meant the pedestrian crossing or the junction). And you can't even point at the sign as you squeeze past because by the time they're on the crossing they've already gone past it.

pplains' picture makes me anxious (and perhaps this was the point), making traffic stop on the roundabout for crossings immediately on the exits just seems wrong

I should start updating this thread while I'm cycling to work.

No wait, I shouldn't.

Opposite to wtev's post and entirely irrational because it would require mindreading, but as a pedestrian coming up to a crossing it's annoying when the person ahead of me goes across without pushing the button, when if they pushed it it would go green just in time for me to get there.

(the aforementioned crossing near my flat in particular I always seem to reach a second or two too late and have to wait through a whole cycle of traffic phases, which is sometimes 2 minutes long, which is a long time when you're 98% of the way home from work and looking forward very much to sitting on the sofa with a drink)

(ha, yes, I often compose about 16 imaginary updates to this thread as I walk or bus to work or back home, and then usually forget by the time I'm actually at a PC. you're getting some of them now I guess - must stop before it's all of them)

Last month I was driving to work and was in a queue behind a traffic light, left the 'keep clear' box in front of me empty, the car behind me drove around my car into the space! I was livid to the point of considering beeping my horn.

making traffic stop on the roundabout for crossings immediately on the exits just seems wrong

for no legal reason, Seattle drivers tend toward unnecessarily courteous, stopping for pedestrians on sight when no crossing is marked, they have the right of way, and it would be faster for both parties if they had carried on. I've become accustomed to waving politely whether they are stopping for law-abiding or for genial reasons. It's pleasant, if unsettling.

luke mcgregor

Luke is funny and nice.

I drive pretty early in the morning, and am constantly behind people who have clearly started driving before they are ready to drive. Like rolling through the neighborhood at 7 MPH, running Stop Signs or stopping at Stop Signs for ten full seconds, abruptly slamming on the brakes as they nearly weave into parked cars. Finish texting before you leave the driveway dum dums!

One guy in front of me just slowed down to a crawl and stopped in the middle of the road for no reason, making us both miss the green light right in front of us. I flashed my lights to signal I was going to drive around him and did so after the light changed. He started honking and tailgating me and when I pulled into a turn lane he screamed something at me. Probably about how nice I looked that day.

people who try to help

― seedy ron (Autumn Almanac), 2019年3月4日 星期一 下午 9:16 (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

doubly so when i say “you’re not helping” and they keep trying

― seedy ron (Autumn Almanac), 2019年3月4日 星期一 下午 9:16 (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

probably gauche to resurrect old ia but there are legitimately major life problems i’m having which i straight up refuse to talk about to anyone at all, because people’s tendency to try to help by essentially reminding me of all the solutions i’ve already tried and failed at makes already bad problems significantly worse. when you have an insoluble problem, nothing, NOTHING, helps less than people firing all your past solutions at you like you’re too fucking stupid to have tried them all in the preceding months/years.