General things that make your blood boil

The BBQ Pit
21

It’s funny, OP. I mean your point #4.

I’m a professor, I teach programming at a fairly high level. I’m trying to convey certain key topics, and I’ll stop and ask the class if they understand, if everything is clear, if there’s any questions.

There is nothing worse than silence.

You’ve got people in the middle of the lecture with their laptops open, playing computer games. They pretend like they’re working but I know, I’m not a dummy.

You’ve got people in the back of the lecture who are just talking amongst themselves. They may be pretending otherwise, but come on.

So sometimes I can stand there, and when I get crickets, I can ask myself, “What am I doing with my life?” Why bother giving a lecture when nobody’s listening?

So if somebody actually has good questions, and we wind up discussing those things… frankly, my friend, that’s awesome. They’re paying attention. That’s what I live for.

Now, if they have idiot questions because they weren’t paying attention, that’s another matter. But that’s still better than silence. Even if you just shake your head at your prof, like no, you don’t have questions, that’s better than just kind of looking like a deer in headlights. Oh, he’s stopped talking, better pretend to pay attention. Derp.

22

Clients who aren’t considerate when to make themselves available for group video meetings. Okay, maybe it’s convenient for you to end the meeting when your day ends at 5 pm CT, but dammit you’re making me extend my work day till 6 pm ET. Think of the other person once in a while.

Bozos who forget to unmute themselves in video calls when it’s their turn to speak. Usually after 15 seconds or so someone has to tell them “you’re on mute”. Jeez, get a clue.

Going to a site that instantly flashes “We notice you’re using an ad blocker” and refuse to show any content until you turn it off. So I copy the address, paste it into another browser that I don’t have ad block on, and the site loads and presents me with: an ad for an ad blocker. Criminy!

23

That guy doesn’t bother me half as much as the son of a bitch who in an effort to prove how he’s so fucking important that the place can’t run without him, shows up 10 minutes late because he couldn’t break away, then expects to be caught up on what came before. Get here on time; you piece of shit.

24

1, Another vote for tailgaters. There’s a road on my commute that is 35 mph, and then 25 mph for about a mile then back up to 35 mph. I often see cops ticketing people there. I drive around 40 and 30 through those zones and frequently get aggressive tailgaters obviously pissed at me. Fuckers.

  1. Password requirements for everything. I recently had to come up with a password and two level authentication to read a fucking PDF file because someone updated my adobe to adobe with bells and whistles. I only want to read pdf files, not transfer money to Switzerland.

  2. Repeating things more than two times. When a radio add repeats a phone number twice, fine. When they read it a third time, my head practically explodes. Not sure why my brain drew that particular line in the sand.

25

Back in the long long ago when classes were in person, I got a good remote and taught from the back of the lecture hall so I could see what was open on the laptops.

26

Getting submerged in liquids over 100 C.

hate that.

Or repeats a letter or I mean adds one. :wink:
Also, when repeating something twice, isn’t that, kinda, overload? Does that ultimately lead to four times over? Maybe Chronos or one of those math-type wonks can straighten me out here.

Brilliant.
The I.M.
(Invigilator Move)

27

We interviewed a writer for our ad agency who had written an articulate cover letter. But what really piqued our interest (and helped her get the job) was the way she ended it:

I’m available any afternoon. Give me a call at (608) 257-5250.
That number again, (608) 257-5250.

See, I can write radio ads as well.

28

Of the reverse (obverse? converse? free verse?): every time sometime wanders into a meeting late, the leader stops to recap everything that happened prior to them getting there.

29

Or idiots who leave a voice mail, rattling off their name and number so fast I have to go back and replay the message three times to figure out their name and number.

30

Or just people who, in general, speak in a way that the crucial information is hardest to decipher. All of the other words in the statement are clear and articulate well paced, but the important word is fast/quiet/jumbled/slurred. I heard you say “This is important, please write it down, the test results show that you have”, but then the next word sounds like fbehhgbryytt.

31

I once encountered this guy who was even worse. I didn’t get mad, more astonished at the breathtaking level of asshattery. It’s when I was working as a software engineer for 911 agencies, and we were onsite to upgrade an agency’s system. The second morning, the agency director wanted to start the day with a status meeting. No problemo, those are good to do for something of this scope/risk level.

So we all went into a meeting room and started. After three minutes, he looked at his phone, told us to keep going and walked out to take a call. When he came back after ten minutes, he took charge and made us recap from the beginning.

Ten minutes later, another call, another recap… from the BEGINNING.

Short time later, another reason to leave the room telling us to keep going and then forcing us to recap from the beginning when he got back.

Memory’s fading now, but I think he did that 4 or 5 times, turning a 15 minute status meeting into an hour and a half.

32

Those lame-ass TV shows, usually documentaries, that string you along and waste time after returning from a commercial break by repeating/recapping what was discussed before the commercial break occurred.

We all know it’s a matter of de-contenting and substituting filler, but apparently it’s to compensate for the viewers’ amnesia of the epochs of antiquity; ten, a dozen minutes ago.

33

That guy needed an assistant to either take the calls, or stay at the meeting and recap him at the end privately.

Work meetings in general are stupid, and should generally just be a detailed email. What annoys me, is after the introduction of a new work flow, there is always the person from super specialized department who doesn’t do anything the same way as the rest of us, who has to explain to us that they don’t do it that way because they are super specialized. Thanks for the update. Now can I get back to work?

34

Yeah, I once asked my boss: “Do you really want me to sit in those ‘Nitpick Update’ meetings? I’ve been thinking that since the work I do AT MY DESK is a major source of income for the company, wouldn’t you rather have me there, instead of listening to “Bradley JustifyMyPhD” take an hour to cover what I can learn in a 1-minute email afterwards?”

Luckily, the boss laughed… and I was excused from almost every meeting from then on.

35

It was all for show, actually. It’s hard to describe in writing and you kind of had to be there, but this guy was all about posturing. Sort of a small-town bureaucrat Napoleon type. As we first went into that meeting, I remember him walking over to the dispatch supervisor and telling her to grab a pen and pad to take notes in the meeting. Maybe he did write that into her job description, but I thought it was beyond rude. Typically (and I worked with a LOT of different dispatch agencies) the supervisors had other important work that kept them very busy, like helping new dispatchers, doing quality control, disciplinary and staff management tasks, and even dispatching if they were short-handed.

And it just occurred to me, he did have her taking notes so she could have recapped for him. But no. So yes, he was a total ass.

36

Look at that; I have a few more things!

  1. When you buy new shoes/socks online, but by the time they arrive, your feet have grown so much that they don’t fit at all (though this may be just for me since I’ve been going through growth spurts for months).
  2. When you’re at a resort trying to get to a specific area, but the family with 5 toddlers in front of you is taking all their damn time and making you go slower.
  3. When a person at school gets called on to read but they’re so fucking illiterate that it takes the whole period to go through one page (not counting people who have learning disabilities, of course).
  4. When you’re watching a YouTube video and they have a sponsored ad in the middle of the video. At the beginning and/or the end is perfectly fine, but having it in the middle completely ruins the flow of the video.

-Baleaf

37

Shoes I get, but socks? Sure, kids’ socks and adult socks are different, but I can’t remember ever having trouble with socks not fitting. At most, they just get shorter.

Sounds like you need Sponsorblock. Or, if you’re watching on Android, YouTube Vanced (which now includes Sponsorblock, though you may want to tweak the default settings.)

Sorry that I have nothing for Apple devices, but that’s the downside of a walled garden ecosystem. At least, not unless you jailbreak.

(Also, please support your favorite creators on Patreon [or even YouTube Membership, if that’s all they have] if you block all their ads. Mid-video sponsors are there because they pay more.)

38

Here’s one:

YouTube has now removed the option to toggle AutoPlay OFF. That’s right, you no longer have an option. You’re getting the next video the algorithm has in mind whether you want it or not. Screw you, viewers.

39

I still have that option on my ipad. It’s toggled to OFF by default, but it’s still there.

40

Yes, I hear iPhone users still have that option. Just two problems with that:

  1. I don’t own an iPhone
  2. I don’t listen/watch YouTube on a cell phone. I use a computer or my TV. Which no longer have the option to toggle it off.