Pet Peeves Part Two

[PhotonWrangler]

People who pull up RIGHT BEHIND other vehicles who are stopped on a hill. I do not own a single automatic transmission vehicle, if I am on a hill then I will be rolling back ever so slightly before going forward. Three pedals, two feet. If someone is three inches from my bumper, it is possible they will be bumped.

Also agree on this one, Diesel. I don't own a manual transmission but I used to and I'm always conscious of this issue. You never know when you're going to get behind someone who's driving a stick, and creeping up on their rear bumper on a hill is just asking for it.

 

[Dude Dudeson]

Tailgaters in general, and there's a rule I have here:

If you're riding to close to me and I'm in the fast lane I am guilty of "headgating".

If you're riding to close to me and I'm in the slow lane you're guilty of tailgating.

Simple and basic common sense that 90% of the population CANNOT GET.

 

[Monocrom]

My method for dealing with tailgaters . . . I slow down to a crawl, very slowly.

If they want a good view of my car's backside, I'll let them savor the view.

 

[Diesel_Bomber]

Tailgaters in general, and there's a rule I have here:

If you're riding to close to me and I'm in the fast lane I am guilty of "headgating".

If you're riding to close to me and I'm in the slow lane you're guilty of tailgating.

Simple and basic common sense that 90% of the population CANNOT GET.

Can't agree enough!

 

[JNieporte]

Teenagers with a chip on their shoulders. Seems like no matter where I am, there's some teenage kid who thinks being grounded is "hard time" and that he's some gangsta. Then starts arguing and threatening the other members of society around him (I say him, but it's both sexes) whether they did anything or not.

 

[JNieporte]

Teenagers with a chip on their shoulders. Seems like no matter where I am, there's some teenage kid who thinks being grounded is "hard time" and that he's some gangsta. Then starts arguing and threatening the other members of society around him (I say him, but it's both sexes) whether they did anything or not.

Then I get looked at weird when I suggest double-tapping :shakehead

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Teenagers with a chip on their shoulders. Seems like no matter where I am, there's some teenage kid who thinks being grounded is "hard time" and that he's some gangsta. Then starts arguing and threatening the other members of society around him (I say him, but it's both sexes) whether they did anything or not.

At this age they don't know what they don't know, nor do they realize how silly they look when they're acting like that. :shakehead

 

[Monocrom]

Going to any event that is presented as fun or exciting, and is actually a total let down because the vendors decided to phone it in.

Two examples: Street fairs and the International Auto Show.

Street fairs in NYC are common. They shut down about 8 city blocks. You go there excepting it to basically be a fun carnival. What you get is block after block of the exact same thing. Crappy Bar-B-Q stands selling substandard meat that is mostly fat for outragious amounts of money, Roasted corn on the cob stands (no butter or salt) for outragios amounts of money, Cheap costume jewelry stands . . . And then each block tends to have one stand that the others don't. Funnel cake stand, T-shirt stand, cheap EDC items stand, cheap knock-off bags stand, and an artist drawing your picture in a funny way. In 8 blocks, you'll likely find one game stand like a traditional carnival; and yes it's also crappy. That's your street fair. Didn't use to be that way. Used to be that if you wanted to see everything the fair had to offer you'd have to walk for several blocks, instead of just stopping at the first one.

First International Auto Show I attended was in 2002. And it was fantastic! Car companies used to really put on a show. Various shows all around. Back in 2002 the Hyundai portion downstairs was off-beat and fun. They didn't spend a lot to put on their show, but it was extremely enjoyable. After that, I went to the show hosted here in NYC every year. I stopped going about 4 years ago. Why? Because the show turned into a public showroom. There were lovely models, and of course you still had the cars. But everything else was gone! The creativity, the fun, the "show" element that everyone expected. Ironically, the one thing that didn't change was the Hyundai part of the show. Still low-budget, but extremely fun and enjoyable. It literally became the most enjoyable part of the show. Last time I attended, I spent hours at the Hyundai display. Not because the cars were fantastic, but because they literally were the only fun thing left at the suto show.

That's just two examples. I hate going to events that are crappy and pathetic.

 

[jtr1962]

Monocrom, I don't know if you remember the Queens Festival they used to have in Flushing Meadows Park each year. It started in the mid-1980s I think. When it first started, it was great. It focused mostly on entertainment rather than selling things. You had tents set up with martial arts, dancing, and lots of places sold different kinds of ethnic foods. By the early 1990s it started to be commercialized. Towards the end the fair ended up being a bunch of vendors selling pretty much the same crap any street vendor sold. Pretty much the same with food booths. They finally killed the event sometime in the late 1990s, or thereabouts, mercifully in my opinion. By then I had stopped going anyway. It just no longer had the magic.

Same with other events like the Fourth of July fireworks, and New Year's at Times Square (I never went to that). Until we got the bright idea to box in groups of people as they arrived, these events were great. They were spontaneous, you could walk around and mingle with the crowd. Then one day someone got the bright idea to pen people up like cattle as they arrived. If you left your spot for whatever reason, even to use the bathroom, you weren't let back in. Once again, any magic was gone. Part of the fun of big events is just walking around among the crowd, not being penned up with the same few dozen people, gated off from everyone else. Allegedly it was for "security", but I don't buy that. These events never had problems before. Most other cities don't do that kind of nonsense.

 

[Monocrom]

Sadly, the magic is indeed gone (along with the fun) from each of the events you mentioned.

 

[richpalm]

Sadly, the magic is indeed gone (along with the fun) from each of the events you mentioned.

The same with swap meets in the radio hobby. (hamfests) Used to be really good stuff years ago. I finally stopped wasting my energy, time and gas driving to them all over only to find refuse and junk computer parts that recyclers wouldn't take.

Ebay is no better because of the rampant greed.

Rich

 

[BriteIdea]

The same with swap meets in the radio hobby. (hamfests) Used to be really good stuff years ago. I finally stopped wasting my energy, time and gas driving to them all over only to find refuse and junk computer parts that recyclers wouldn't take.

Ebay is no better because of the rampant greed.

Rich

I go to several hamfests as well, I have to agree with you. One fellow ham referred to it as basment swapping. He's not that far off the mark.

Everyonce in a while you'll find a table with good stuff. But like most hams I tend to build my own antennas, mostly HF.

Neither Ebay nore Kijiji has anything but there's always good stuff on QRZ.com. Again it depends what you're looking for. Hey try one of ours. The Ontario swap net.

I'm half way through errecting a 40ft tower with multiple grounds for RF transients as well as lightning. One 10ft copper rod and two ground plates...
Maybe we should continue this on the ham page.

 

[RBR]

Jumping the queue, or better the loss of decency, is what can drive me mad.

You can watch this almost every day meanwhile when standing in a row, almost everywhere.

And what hits me worst is the fact that most of these guys are seniors who always claim for themselves to be treated with special respect.

My reaction on this is telling my neighbour in the row : "Hey, watch that old lady/gent, doesn´t seem to have much time left anymore."

Making sure to speak at a volume that the senior can understand of course.

Cheers

RBR

 

[PhotonWrangler]

RBR, this annoys me also, but have you considered that they might be in pain and anxious to get off their feet? Many seniors suffer silently from arthritis, bursitis and other maladies.

 

[BriteIdea]

RBR, this annoys me also, but have you considered that they might be in pain and anxious to get off their feet? Many seniors suffer silently from arthritis, bursitis and other maladies.

I would like to come to the defense of some seniors. I've had a soft spot for them for years. You guys are NOT wrong, but we must remember the life that some of them may have gone through. Am I making excuses? Possibly, but only in their defense.

Some can come across as crusty, no doubt. Some may have fought in some of our wars and got little in return from society or their local government. Coming from a strict discipline in the forces with their lives on the line only to be slightly ignored by the rest of us can put a hole in their thinking.

Others, too, just change their thinking as they get older. They may not be as sharp as they used to be. Others might find it difficult to go into retirement and out to pasture. They may have that feeling that they're no longer needed or required. that they think they've had their day and the end is near. yadi, yadi.

Some may have been boneheads during the younger days and only got worse when they got older.
So, bottom line be careful around seniors. They looked after us, now we need to look after them and at the very least be kind.

I find, also, that when I find myself behind a poky driver and he/she turns out to be a senior, I might still be frustrated but remind myself that I'm dealing with a senior and my day is coming and I can only hope the younger people will treat me with respect and kindness.

We need to be more tolerant.

In stark contrast we see some of these younger people that are the real goofs and seniors don't look so bad. JMHO

 

[RBR]

Don´t get me wrong, i do respect all people, everyone´s got the same bonus by me, no matter if old or young.

I would also help everyone in trouble or handicapped through the row asking other people to let them through.

BUT, guys smuggling themselves just to the front of the row, without asking because they think they might have the right to do so just because they´re old or any other selfish reason is just a lack of decency and respect for others to me, no matter how old one is.

I just expect the same respect from others that i pay to them so my equation is very simple.

Behave decently and treat others with respect = Getting treated with the same decency and respect.

Changing one of these input variables = Respectively changed output result.

No matter what age (exception are kids), colour, gender, nationality... one is.

Cheers

RBR

 

[Monocrom]

Some may have been boneheads during the younger days and only got worse when they got older.
So, bottom line be careful around seniors. They looked after us, now we need to look after them and at the very least be kind.

I find, also, that when I find myself behind a poky driver and he/she turns out to be a senior, I might still be frustrated but remind myself that I'm dealing with a senior and my day is coming and I can only hope the younger people will treat me with respect and kindness.

We need to be more tolerant.

These are the parts of your post I can't agree with.

The last obnoxious low-life I confronted was a senior who's behavior was so selfish, so disgusting, and with an attitude to match. So much so that had he behaved that way in front of someone else, he would have gotten knocked out or possibly even worse. I told him in no uncertain terms that he was acting like a little punk. He had a few choice words for me. But in the end, he walked out with his tail between his legs. True, not my finest moment. But you had to be there. I'm not exaggerating when I say that someone else would have just knocked him out, despite his age. And no, he was not drunk. A punk kid who never grows up in Life. Not in the ways that truly matter, that's just pathetic. You spend your entire life acting that way, up until you look like someone's grey-haired grand-pa . . . That's not worthy of respect. Some sorry punk kid who never learned a damn thing after 8 or 9 decades in this world?? Someone like that who never even learned the proper way to conduct themselves in public? That's not someone worthy of respect.

I still recall the story of a construction worker who lost his legs because an elderly lady who knew she shouldn't be driving, basically didn't care. Don't get me wrong, she was an otherwise decent human-being, and she felt horrible over what she did. Didn't change the fact that she knew she shouldn't be driving, but got behind the wheel anyway. Got confused. Police tried to pull her over for a minor infraction. She took off! She got scared. Slammed into a construction worker who was standing in front of his truck. Struck him at such a high rate of speed that his legs were completely crushed. Got so confused that she didn't even hit the brakes. Still, she was old enough to know better. She wasn't confused when she climbed behind that wheel. In a way, it's worse than what a drunk driver does. With a drunk, at least he honestly thinks he's perfectly fine to drive when he staggers over to his car.

There are times when less tolerance is needed.

 

[Empath]

Closed by a senior.

It would have been closed if it had targeted other groups too, like nationalities, race, religion, sexual orientation, youth, or whatever.

This is the second thread closed on this topic. It's suppose to be about pet peeves, but too many can't recognize the difference between pet peeves and ranting about some little occurrence that bugged them recently. We don't need a thread of rants.

Any additional need to enumerate rants can be handled in the Underground, where proper discussion toward the matter(s) can be discussed comfortably, by everyone effected.