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I hate it when people don't listen. Listening is a skill that is as important as communicating. Today at work, someone decided that they were going to install a driver on a PC since this data acquisition board was not being recognized by the computer system. I told him, "I installed the driver already." What does he do? He ignores my statement and commences downloading the driver. I say, "I have the driver on this CD" (as I wave the CD in my hand). He doesn't listen to me and continues the download. What the heck? I say once again, in case he hasn't heard me, "Um...I already installed the driver...so I don't think the problem is with the driver." No response. So after he downloads the file and installs the driver, lo and behold, the system STILL doesn't recognize the ISA board. He's all surprised. Why? Didn't I tell him I had already installed the driver? Obviously, if I install the driver and it's not working, why should it work when YOU install the driver? Get a clue! What wasted time and effort! The problem, it turns out, was just as I said, having nothing to do with the driver. It had to do with the IRQ and DMA memory settings. Bite me.
What is up with people who have vanity plates bearing the name/brand of their car? I mean, if you are driving a Mercedes-Benz, is it really necessary to have a license plate that says "Benz" on it? If you are driving a Jaguar, is it really necessary to have a license plate that says "My Jag"? Frankly, this is overkill. The car already has the Mercedes logo. I'm not blind, you know. Are you so insecure or so egotistical that you need to stuff it down my throat? I got it already! You drive a nice car. You earn enough money (or your parents do) to afford a nice car. But you know what? By using that lame vanity plate, you just made your car lose points for classiness. Get a clue. Really classy people don't need to proclaim their classiness...they simply exude a classy vibe through the way they carry themselves.
I hate people who play mind games. Like the admissions committees of schools. Reading the admissions web sites of most schools is like reading a novel...you have to focus on what's not said, not what's said. My other gripe is with decision deadlines. If you are going to reject someone, I say that you should burst that bubble as soon as possible instead of delaying that decision and making them wait until the decision deadline. Just as some people are "clear admits," there must be some "clear rejects" as well. Why not let the clear rejects know as soon as possible so that they can move on with their lives and focus on other things? Why keep them hanging on to a sliver of hope that they might get in if they're not going to? I understand that the admissions process is difficult on both sides, but I have a hard time believing that the fates of 2,000 applicants are being debated among members of the admissions committees the day before they make the announcements...there have got to be some people in that group whose fates have been determined much earlier on. The other thing that I think is really important about decision deadlines is that schools should KEEP them. The applicants bust their butts to get the applications in on time...why can't schools extend that same courtesy to the applicants? That's all I'm asking for. And while I'm complaining about mind games, I think schools should stop screwing applicants around and leaving them twisting in the wind (i.e., on the waitlist). It's not so much the waitlist that angers me but the fact that many schools seem to be using the "waitlist" as some sort of filter or as a method of manipulating their yield numbers. If the waitlist is used as it is meant to be used, then I'm cool. But if you're just using the waitlist to manipulate numbers at the expense of the emotional health of the applicants...well, that's just plain cruel.
Who are these people who call you, wait for your answering machine to pick up, and then hang up after the tone? Seriously, unless you have been brought up in a developing country, you must have had some experience with answering machines and voicemail. Even if you haven't had experience with them, my answering machine and voicemail greetings always clearly provide directions on how to leave a message. Wait for the tone, then leave your message. It stands to reason that since you have to wait for the tone, the tone indicates the start of recording. If you don't want to leave a message, then hang up before the machine starts recording! You have the entire length of the greeting during which to hang up! It's a gift...Use it. Do you know how annoying it is to go home, see your answering machine flash "4," only to listen to silence and then the sound of someone hanging up? Four times? If you don't, I'll tell you: it's annoying. VERY ANNOYING.
It drives me nuts when perfectly healthy people ask me to carry heavy stuff for them. There are many words that could be used to describe me, but none of them include burly, well-muscled, or strong. I know plenty of healthy males who are at least a foot taller than me and can easily carry heavy boxes and equipment, but no, when they need something, they look at me and ask me to bring it to them. I'm not freaking UPS; I don't do deliveries! Once someone asked me to bring a computer to their office. I would have had to walk to another building, get a wheelcart, load the PC onto the cart, wheel the PC over to their office, return the wheelcart, and walk back to my building. I was all cold fury and decided to put the request on the "back burner," i.e. ignore it. Lo and behold, he got tired of waiting and got the PC himself. Being a strong guy, he was able to carry the PC in his arms without the aid of cart. It's always completely capable people like this that make these inane requests. It really, really ticks me off.
I can't stand it when people who are supposedly successful in life (i.e., well-educated, employed, whatever!) can't do things for themselves and mess up their own work, forcing their colleagues to pick up the slack, do their work, and lead them by the hand. You'd think that people who were able to successfully graduate from college and were on their way to a PhD would be able to do simple tasks and understand what it means to be "professional." But if you thought that, you would be WRONG.
Welcome to Relentless Fury. This blog is devoted ENTIRELY to things that annoy, bother, disturb, and provoke me. I am very easily annoyed, so I should have no problem keeping the content coming...
Annoying thing of the day: People who don't use their turn signal lights. You know, automobile manufacturers don't make turn signal bulbs and levers because they're stylish or because they've got extra plastic on their hands. They make them because you're supposed to use them. I can't stand people who don't use them because they endanger the lives of the drivers around them. Do these people think that the drivers around them are psychic and can somehow "sense" when they're going to turn? To make matters worse, people who shun the signal light are also usually the same people who (1) can't judge distances, forcing you to swerve to avoid getting swiped by them, or (2) can't think ahead of time and end up cutting across three lanes to reach the off-ramp, ignoring the cars that have to swerve or brake suddenly to avoid a collision. Words cannot express how I feel about these people. They suck to the nth degree.
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