# March Minirant Madness **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 1, 2011, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063 "2011-03-01T15:03:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 30
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063/581 "2011-04-04T00:44:34Z")
Are World of Warcraft accounts really so valuable that I’m getting almost as much phishing spam from “Blizzard Account Security” as I do ads for v!4gr4. We really need to reconsider list of offenses qualifying for capital punishment. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063/582 "2011-04-04T01:23:07Z")
You know, you’d only have to make an example of one or two spammers… ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063/583 "2011-04-04T03:08:06Z")
Per day ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063/584 "2011-04-04T03:41:44Z")
I say we use the old “mob with pitchforks and torches” method. Crude, but terrifying. As it happens, I have a pitchfork I’m not using right now. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063/585 "2011-04-04T05:03:36Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Per day No, you’d only have to make an example of one or two to get the rest to smarten up. Killing one or two per day would just be for fun after that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063/586 "2011-04-04T07:29:47Z")
I’m surprised **Chimera** ’s story didn’t include a harrumped “young people nowadays!” as that seems to be _de rigueur_. Dear males of the species: Us females do know and often appreciate the fact that you are stronger than we are. It comes in handy when we need a jar opened. But, will those of you who work as gas station attendants kindly refrain from closing gas deposits as tightly as you can? The attendants on duty this morning were both women as am I, we ended up having to call the cashier to come open my car’s deposit and he needed to use both hands. Thank you, your customers and coworkers. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063/587 "2011-04-04T14:25:21Z")
A serious storm rolled through last night. \ We needed the rain, we needed the rain, we REALLY needed the rain.\ Good Christ, we needed that rainfall. Still. I’ve been awake since three a.m. after an exhausting coupla weeks. It was like trying to sleep through a Pink Floyd laser light show… until I finally drifted back off and then fell asleep _hard._ I honest-to-og cried when it woke up enough to process that I had to come in to work. It was all I could do to drive in to work safely. Now I’m **here**. That’s … probably all you’re gonna hear from me today. \ \*\* hoping today is an easy, repetitive, automaton day \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_of\_the\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@Lady\_of\_the\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_of_the_Lake)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063/588 "2011-04-04T14:55:18Z")
> [@anya\_marie](#): > > Why can’t you empty the dishwasher completely instead of just taking cups and leaving the rest for the dishwasher fairy? > > THERE IS NO DISHWASHER FAIRY THAT WORKS HERE. AND SCRAPE YOUR DISH INTO THE TRASH WHEN YOU’RE DONE. Oh yeah. We have someone at work who forgets they have half full coffee cups sitting around Every now and then she gathers them up and leaves the lot in the work kitchen sink (STILL HALF FULL WITH GUNK - seriously, why not rinse, or at least dump the gunk out??). ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063/589 "2011-04-04T14:58:19Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > A serious storm rolled through last night. […] It was like trying to sleep through a Pink Floyd laser light show Keep around some earplugs. I use them pretty much all summer when I sleep with my windows open. (Personally, I use [these](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001F5VDVE). There are some negative reviews from people accidentally getting the NRR 31 ones, but I didn’t have a problem getting the 33s.) It looks like [these NRR 32 earplugs](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EPQ3H4/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk) may be even better. More reviews: [Quiet, please! Finding the best ear plugs.](http://www.slate.com/id/2118800/) ---
**Author:** ![Time\_Stranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@Time\_Stranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Time_Stranger)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063/590 "2011-04-04T15:16:43Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Keep around some earplugs. I use them pretty much all summer when I sleep with my windows open. This is possibly a really stupid question, but here goes: Can you still hear your alarm clock with earplugs in? I am looking into getting some, but I am already a pretty hard sleeper once I actually manage to fall asleep, so I didn’t know if earplugs would make it that much harder to hear the alarm. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063/591 "2011-04-04T15:49:42Z")
> [@Time\_Stranger](#): > > This is possibly a really stupid question, but here goes: Can you still hear your alarm clock with earplugs in? I guess my question is, how attuned are you to the sound of your alarm? The earplugs do cut most of the sound of my alarm, but I can still hear it very faintly, and my brain recognizes that alarm sound instantly. I also have an internal clock that tends to wake me up right around the time when my alarm would be going off. If you don’t have a problem waking up to an alarm now, I’d say you’d probably be fine with earplugs. (You might want to test it by wearing earplugs on a day you don’t work but setting an alarm anyway.) But if you already have a tendency to sleep through it, earplugs might not be your best bet. ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063/592 "2011-04-04T15:56:41Z")
The VA has informed me that due to a paperwork snafu dating from about three years ago, they’re taking away two entire months’ worth of benefits, which is what I live on while I try and get them to provide care. This dates to the good old days when the VA said I was only 10% disabled—burgeoning panic attacks----yet the panic attacks made me lose my job and slowly my ability to function. I thought I was having some kind of cardiac seizure and I passed out from it. You know that moment in nightmares, where just before the bad thing or bad guy catches you, you experience horrible, almost unbearable terror? That’s what a panic attack feels like. I’d been fighting them for months when I had one at work and am ambulance had to be called. After that, no more work, and the VA’s 10% rating came about 10% care, so the panic attacks got worse and worse because they weren’t treating them at a 100% level, if that makes sense. The VA says I’m mildly impaired, but in reality, it’s bad enough to prevent me from working and from leaving the house. ``` For this they gave me $100.00 a month. I managed to go to drill with my reserve unit for a while, which brought my monthly income up to $300 a month, total. Some friends helped me out when they could, but that was it, and I have no idea how i got through this. "Well, you have took that money," said the snippy operator I just spoke to. "Now you need to pay it back." I have no objection to that, but all at once? No house payment that month, no electric bill, no phone bill, no internet, zippo. I have spoken to some of the most callous people you can imagine. They just don't care. ``` The VA holds the note on my house, too. I just read an article about how the VA is delaying offering benefits to injured veterans—the claims process is very slow----while speedily moving to seize VA loan homes. Win! They don’t have to pay the vet _and_ they get the property back. Well, it’s a win for everyone but the veteran, that is, and who cares about them? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063/593 "2011-04-04T16:20:11Z")
Forgive me if I’m belaboring the obvious, but have you looked into appealing the recovery (of the “overpayment”) based on extreme financial hardship? ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063/594 "2011-04-04T16:22:43Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Forgive me if I’m belaboring the obvious, but have you looked into appealing the recovery (of the “overpayment”) based on extreme financial hardship? I went to my congress critter for exactly that, but she said that it’s the DOD’s money, the DOD won’t accept any appeal whatsoever, and the VA says the same. Sucks to you, they say. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063/595 "2011-04-04T16:23:31Z")
The next person I have to listen to who is describing in excruciating detail every fucking “app” that he has on his precious fucking iPhone to his terminally bored spouse is gonna have to see a proctologist to have it removed. “And look, see, I can find out what the weather is by touching this app!” Me too: it’s called “looking out the window.” Try it sometime. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063/596 "2011-04-04T18:22:51Z")
Og, but I hate forced password chages every 90 days. It takes a week before my fingers learn to automatically type the new one. How’s that for mini? ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063/597 "2011-04-04T18:35:47Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Og, but I hate forced password chages every 90 days. It takes a week before my fingers learn to automatically type the new one. > > How’s that for mini? Very mini. 90 days is a fantasy ☹ Ours is every 30 days and the stupid “Your password will expire in “x” days” messages start 14 days before it expires. ---
**Author:** ![black\_rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063/598 "2011-04-04T18:48:00Z")
One would think that after years of tomcatting around with nary a hint of any kind social disease, I’d have a totally clean bill of health after close to two years of monogamy. But noooo… the cold sores that first reared their heads six months ago (along with a 103-degree fever) are back, two weeks after a bit of dental work, in all of their itchy, oozing, scabby glory. I’m too old to get herpes, dammit. And the Valtrex is making me want to puke. ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063/599 "2011-04-04T18:56:43Z")
> [@lindsaybluth](#): > > I wish when I went house/apartment hunting that people would just be honest. Yes, I realize that some people liberally use the word “bedroom” when they mean “large walk in closet”, but either you have a dishwasher or you don’t. There’s really no beating around the bush with that one. Preach it. Sellers, “bathroom” has a rather specific meaning in the developed world. At a minimum, it involves a toilet connected to a water supply and a waste pipe. Merely placing a toilet in an unfinished, unplumbed room doesn’t cut it. Why yes, I did look at a property where the advertised “upstairs bathroom” was an unfinished room with a toilet (unplumbed) and fiberglass shower surround (also unplumbed) sitting on the plywood subfloor. Why do you ask? ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063/600 "2011-04-04T19:35:23Z")
> [@black\_rabbit](#): > > I’m too old to get herpes, dammit. > > And the Valtrex is making me want to puke. This isn’t a post many would respond to, but you do have my sympathies. A dear friend of mine has herpes and Valtrex makes her want to puke as well :(. > [@cwthree](#): > > Why yes, I did look at a property where the advertised “upstairs bathroom” was an unfinished room with a toilet (unplumbed) and fiberglass shower surround (also unplumbed) sitting on the plywood subfloor. Why do you ask? That’s…wow. I don’t actually have a response for that, you’ll have to settle for a story. I had a landlord showing me a place tell me “I was certainly too pretty for him” right in front of my boyfriend. That’s okay, since the day before when I asked him over the phone about showing dates with “How flexible are you?” and he responded “I can put my legs behind my head!” I wasn’t offended just…really surprised. Anyways, today was surprisingly good after yesterday, in which I showered and shaved my underarms, bikini line and legs. Err, oops, just leg, singular :smack:. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063.md?page=29) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-minirant-madness/573063.md?page=31)