I live in a dorm, and across the hall from me is a somewhat interesting character: he’s a junior who’s lived in the same room for three years trying to make it into an RA (or other hall official) position. Instead of reaching the obvious conclusion (“This hall apparently does not want me in an official position”) he just keeps sitting there trying and trying. He says he’ll move into an apartment if he doesn’t make RA next year, but I’m not entirely sure. Whatever–keep on dreaming, man, and if you do make it more power to you.
Anyway, he makes it a point to abstain from any behavior that might possibly violate a rule and thus take him out of the running. OK, dude. Again: Whatever, more power to you.
But there’s one thing he does that doesn’t quite fit with this behavior. He leaves his door open and plays his music so loud that you can hear it down our wing, probably on the next floor, in our hall’s main lobby (which is right next to his room!), and in the outdoor courtyard (he keeps his windows open too). And it’s particularly aggravating for someone in my position, because I have to live directly across the hall from him. I always like to keep my door open and be somewhat sociable, but when he plays his music I can’t, because if I do I have to listen to his loud, eccentric musical selections. When he does this his roommate (a close friend of mine) just has to leave the room and go hang out somewhere else.
Agh!
As another friend in our wing said yesterday, “He likes to jam, and when he jams we all have to jam with him.” How true.
What the hell is up with people who have to force their music on everyone else? I don’t give a shit what you listen to, but your musical taste may be different than mine, and I don’t want to hear your music. If I want to listen to music, I’ll put my music on–at a respectful volume level which doesn’t infringe on anybody else’s right to exercise their own listening choices. Grr.
This isn’t precisely related, but it’s in the spirit of your title.
We work in an office building; we are on the first floor. Across the hall is a cafe and an elevator. A service elevator, so people aren’t really even supposed to use it. There are two others about 20-30 feet away.
People will mill around the elevator and TALK really loudly. They don’t seem to respect that there is an office there, even when I look up at them and they see me busily working.
I have heard racist jokes, stupid comments, and some guy hitting on some girl. It’s a lack of respect, I think, that makes people constantly want to extend their space beyond their immediate area.
My RA did crap like that all the time last year. She’d leave her door open, blasting her music and practicing her speeches at the top of her voice. I was all the way at the opposite end of the hall from her, and I could still hear her with my door closed.
Where is your actual RA? Why can’t he talk to this guy?
I had a compulsive-noisemaker flatmate in my first year at uni. Fucking idiot. Clapping hands, shouting ‘oh YEAAAHhhh’, stamping as he ran upstairs, all of it. Any time of day or night. Shithead.
I lived with a couple of DJs in my second year, that was a real treat. Though, they were actually less annoying than th epeople across the hall who brought a full component stereo system with a massive sub-woofer to residence, and would sometimes play it very, very, very loudly late at night, with lots of extra-wall-shaking bass. We used to make up lines to use when we sent someone over to complain. My personal favourite was ‘You might want to turn down the fucking bass a little, because I’ve got a magic fingers vibrating bed thing happening over here, and I don’t remember inserting a quarter.’
When I was in the dorms, we shared a wall with a so-called ‘person’ who for some reason had to wake up at 6 a.m. Since he was not normally an early riser, the only way he could motivate himself to get his ass in gear that early was to play the Beastie Boys. At top volume. For fifteen minutes.
Every morning. Our common wall would vibrate.
BRASS MONKEY THUD THUD THAT FUNKY MONKEY THUD THUD (repeat until brain hemorrhage occurs)
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
I moved out of the dorms 3rd quarter.
In my office we have a few cubicle type spaces in the hall (long skinny building), and, of course, offices along the wall. I have two co-workers who carry on conversations by bellowing across the hall to each other while the rest of us are trying to work. :mad:
Come midnight, every dumbass on my floor that has no work to do in the morning (which is quite a few people) piles into the room next door, the room that shares the wall that my bed is up against. They all sit in there and shout at the top of their lungs until 3 AM. If I manage to get to sleep, their insane shouting will just wake me up again.
Once I found guys in the study lounge at 2 AM playing poker as if it were a contact sport. As I was leaving my room to tell them to quiet down, one guy ran out of the room and into the wall.
It is not uncommon to hear, on a quiet night, the guys next door yell something at the passing sorority girls (like “We love you!”) midway through the time I should be sleeping. It is also not uncommon to hear this: “Mitch… Mitch? Mitch. Mitchmitchmitchmitchmitchmitchmitch.” [dude running frantically up and down halls, repeat for ten minutes] “Mitch? Hey, Mitch! I’ve been looking all over for you!”
(I just now read the replies. Hope this thread isn’t too old to bring back–last post was yesterday at 7:45 at night, so I wouldn’t think so. If so, sorry.)
Our RA doesn’t intude much except for serious stuff (property damage, theft, etc.) and loud music at night. It’s only in the day that the wannabe-RA plays his music really loud, so he’s not breaking any rules.
(Realizing that this may only be half-serious…) This is a great idea, but he uses the same speakers for his music (which he plays at reasonable volumes) as does Mr. Wannabe-RA. Also, they get along well even though they’re completely different in every way, and I would imagine he wouldn’t want to jeopardize that.
I’d like to second this. When I was at uni up in Dallas, I stepped out one night for a smoke and heard faintly the sound of bagpipes. At first I thought I was imagining it, but decided to follow the sound and eventually (about 1/3 of a mile away) came across a friend of mine jamming on the bagpipes on his apartment balcony. Those suckers are loud; a cop eventually wandered by and told us to knock it off.
When I was at St. John’s (hi, NinjaChick!), there was one guy who whistled so loud, you could hear him outside the building. Claimed it was self-expression, and “for you to ask me to stop, Rilch, would be like me saying, could you please stop wearing your glasses.”
Fine, self-expression, whatever. But could you express yourself at a lower decibel? (FTR, no. Only one volume.)