First World Problems: Share the Silliest Things That Bug You!

[RonL]

Yesterday my wife was on a phone menu with the drug store. Just at the point where she needed to say "yes" to continue, I yelled "no" at the dog. She had to call back. :(

 

[Danger]

Just at the point where she needed to say "yes" to continue, I yelled "no" at the dog. She had to call back. :(

My condolences. I had a mildly similar experience a few years ago when roboreceptionists were less sophisticated. After about 20 minutes on hold, I coughed at exactly the wrong time. The computer said something to the effect of "I'm sorry, but that option is not on our menu," and hung up on me.

edit: Oh, a new one has brought itself to my attention just when I'd begun to forget about it. If I accidentally have 2 fingertips rather than 1 touching the trackpad and try to move the cursor, it fires my page off of the screen.

2nd edit: Static electricity. Although I've become familiar with how to avoid shocks when I know that it's apt to be present, I still occasionally get zapped with no warning. I live in a dry environment and don't move much, but it still gets me once in a while.

 

[Danger]

"Reality" shows that are anything but. It's just a brain-dead way to fill up bandwidth. When I first heard about the concept of "Survivor", I figured that it would be worth watching. Then I watched it, for about 3 weeks... I still think that I should remake that one the way that it should have been done the first time: An unclaimed island in international waters, with hidden cameras and mikes covering every inch of it. Half a dozen people are dropped buck-naked one kilometre offshore at equidistant angles assigned at random. When one person remains alive, the show is over and someone has won.
Things like Big Brother or the Bachelor are just too stupid to even be thought of.
I do like honest skill shows, though, like Face Off, Monster Makers, etc.. (But none of the made-up drama of cooking contests or Top Shot or Sons of Guns. The producers do that on purpose to heighten viewer suspense/interest.)

edit: Come on folks... are Lewis Black and I the only people who are pissed off by everything? :D

2nd edit: Oops! I forgot to mention that the prize is $10,000 tax-free.

 

[B. Elliott]

Going to Harbor Freight to pick up a new 20gal oil drain tank and they're out of stock. I then ask if they will sell the display model to which the lady responds, "No, we can't sell the display model". I even said I would pay full price, and she refused! Alas, I ordered it off their website and had it shipped to my door for only $6 more than the in-store price. I almost spent more money driving to the store to buy one than it did to have it shipped directly to me. It's definitely 2014.

 

[OmCheeto]

Since I've retired, it is the sound of the phone ringing.
My fellow retirees seem to think I retired early so I could sit on the phone and listen to their blather.
It only got worse once the election robocalls started.
I have not answered my phone in 2 months.

Not to worry though, they're all friends on Facebook. Though, for some reason, they don't share the love of their own voices talking via that medium.

hmmm...

"Hi Om, how you do'in? I'm watching NASCAR, and Fred Ziffel* is in first place. Do you know Fred Ziffel is from Vancouver? That's were I live. Oh! They just made another left turn, going really fast, and all the cars are making zoomy noises. I love NASCAR......"

*ok. His name is actually Greg Biffle. But if I hear that guys name one more time... To the moon Bob! To the moon!
ps. I think Fred Ziffel was a guy from Green Acres, and had a pig named Arnold.

 

[Danger]

Oh, man... I was just reminded of another huge one: the inability to print white. I have never in my life seen a white ink cartridge or a printer that would accept one. It's impossible to print decent graphics on a coloured surface. (Don't suggest printing the colour onto a white surface with the graphic on top, because I'm specifically designing logos for iron-on T-shirt transfers. "White" areas come out transparent. It would be nice to put them on other than white shirts.)
I'm wondering if some of you computer geniuses could figure out a way to replace the "K" cartridge with white, use the "CMY" jets at 100% to print black, and trick the software into thinking that the "null (white)" area is actually a "K" signal. Of course, the trick there would be to make sure that it doesn't print white beyond the outline of the graphic onto the whole transfer sheet.

 

[mfb]

If you don't need black (no combination of CMY), this might be possible with a simple color transformation of the image. Dark parts get transparent, white parts get black. Otherwise the printer will need at least one unusual operation, I think, and then it can get tricky.
Looks like white ink is hard to do because typically printer colors are quite transparent.

 

[Danger]

Interesting thought, mfb. Unfortunately, I do need black extensively (for outlines as well as internal structures). The one that I'm currently working on has a bunch of bees (nice friendly bees, like the Cheeri-O's mascot) as well as various "realistic" tools that they're working with.
I'd certainly value any more input that you can come up with. I suspect that some serious "out of the box" thinking might be required, and I regret that I know next to nothing about computer stuff.

 

[lisab]

My commute home tonight -- from my job that pays fairly well and has good benefits, in my car alone with music playing...my warm and dry car with heated seats...my car that is insured and very highly rated for safety...my car with nearly-new tires...driving on roads that were designed by professional engineers -- my commute home tonight was long due to heavy rain.

 

[OmCheeto]

My commute home tonight -- from my job that pays fairly well and has good benefits, in my car alone with music playing...my warm and dry car with heated seats...my car that is insured and very highly rated for safety...my car with nearly-new tires...driving on roads that were designed by professional engineers -- my commute home tonight was long due to heavy rain.

I had another dream about work this morning. All of my ex-coworkers were sitting around doing nothing. I went up to the boss, and asked if there was anything to do. He was playing a video game on his smart phone, and told me to get lost.

Does anyone have the number for the Dream Police?

ps. Do not google "Dream Police". I just watched the first part of the video. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have debilitating nightmares tonight, and into the foreseeable future. :L

 

[dlgoff]

My commute home tonight -- from my job that pays fairly well and has good benefits, in my car alone with music playing...my warm and dry car with heated seats...my car that is insured and very highly rated for safety...my car with nearly-new tires...driving on roads that were designed by professional engineers -- my commute home tonight was long due to heavy rain.

After driving a '93 buick for 14 years (>260Kmiles) I got this and see what I've been missing all these years. Rainy night in Kansas.

 

[lisab]

After driving a '93 buick for 14 years (>260Kmiles) I got this and see what I've been missing all these years. Rainy night in Kansas.

Oh nice, Don! Let us know what it's like!

 

[dlgoff]

Oh nice, Don! Let us know what it's like!

I don't know how to act with such technology. It took me to Meet "The Man" is style.

 

[Danger]

Those new-fangled beer can pull-tabs that stay connected to the can with a rivet. Ever get your moustache caught in one of those? I break them off and toss them into a box as one of the few things that I can afford to collect.

 

[Lisa!]

Nowadays people are able to easily contact each other! It's really annoying when somebody from work calls me.

 

[Medicol]

Nowadays people are able to easily contact each other! It's really annoying when somebody from work calls me.

Totally agreed! I don't like it when people have to communicate via email when they just sit in front of or next to each other in a company.

 

[OmCheeto]

Totally agreed! I don't like it when people have to communicate via email when they just sit in front of or next to each other in a company.

Sometimes it's necessary for political reasons. I was manager for my last 10 years, and I was grooming one person in particular to be my replacement. Even though her desk was only 10 feet away from mine, I had to send her emails when I wanted to communicate. If I spoke to her in person, one of her co-workers would walk into my office 15 minutes later, and want to know; "So what were you two discussing? Was it about me? I know you were talking about me. etc, etc, etc."

Office politics.

hmmm... I wonder if MLK was ever a manager; "Free at last, free at last, thank god almighty, I'm free at last".

 

[edward]

With all of the high tech we sometimes still have to rely on low tech. Before they took my wife in for surgery on her broken ankle a nurse wrote the surgeon's name and "right ankle" my wife's right leg with a magic marker.

The surgeons name is Dr. Good, so it looked a bit strange to see "Good right ankle" just above the broken ankle. What if another surgeon had needed to step in at he last minute?? I might be overthinking this.

 

[Borg]

With all of the high tech we sometimes still have to rely on low tech. Before they took my wife in for surgery on her broken ankle a nurse wrote the surgeon's name and "right ankle" my wife's right leg with a magic marker.

The surgeons name is Dr. Good, so it looked a bit strange to see "Good right ankle" just above the broken ankle. What if another surgeon had needed to step in at he last minute?? I might be overthinking this.

I've heard of this before but I thought that they usually mark the one side that isn't supposed to be operated on - something like a wrong way sign.

 

[edward]

We got a new washing machine a couple of months ago. I am still trying to explain to my wife why the load selector dial no longer turns. I tell her just to look at the green light to see which stage of the wash cycle the machines is in. She says: "Oh I know that but it doesn't explain why the dial doesn't turn." <(@^@)>

 

[wukunlin]

ugh I hate offshore call centres. I find it difficult to communicate with them, and the people who work there are uncomfortable when we are not used to their accents. I wish they can train people to have BBC newsreader accents (I'm no Brit, but I imagine this is one of the most widely accepted English accents) for offshore call centres.

Edit: turned out accent training is a work in progress. Still some ways to go though...
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/feb/09/india-call-centres-accent-neutralisation

 

[Danger]

People who say "literally" when they mean exactly the opposite, and the twits writing dictionaries who altered the definition to fit the stupidity.
(To avoid insulting a particular member here, who I was attempting to assist with an engineering problem, I point out that he typed "I'm literally doing is as we speak". I jokingly pointed out that he was figuratively doing it as we speak, because we've never actually spoken. He was literally doing it as we typed. In that case, his use of "literally" was correct; his use of "speaking" was not. :D We all do that, though.)

 

[OmCheeto]

When the red button doesn't work, even after two days...

 

[edward]

When the red button doesn't work, even after two days... View attachment 75912

Did you remember to wind it up??

 

[RonL]

When the red button doesn't work, even after two days... View attachment 75912

You did put the bird in the oven, RIGHT ??:D

 

[Danger]

When the red button doesn't work, even after two days...

What the hell is that thing? A thermite charge initiator? Some new kind of bionic turkey? I've never seen an electronic bird before. You Yanks have some very peculiar quirks in your dietary habits.

 

[Borg]

What the hell is that thing? A thermite charge initiator? Some new kind of bionic turkey? I've never seen an electronic bird before. You Yanks have some very peculiar quirks in your dietary habits.

It's a pop-up turkey timer. Actually pretty useful to keep people from serving undercooked birds.

 

[Danger]

Amazing.
I see an opportunity to bugger up the life of a relative that you don't like but are forced to dine with. Visit ahead of time and replace his/her timer with one that you've Superglued down.

 

[mfb]

People who say "literally" when they mean exactly the opposite

Yes, and it is so much fun!

 

[Danger]

Oh, man, but I love that show! I regret that I didn't discover it years before I did. I do seriously consider it to be the best and most reliable US broadcast for political and social news, and never boring about it.