Okay, I’m weird. I work with psychiatric patients and, honestly and quite immodestly, I am the hardest to upset person I know. Phlegmatic was invented to describe me. I deal with open hostility, screaming confrontations, complete irrationality, destructive rampages and so forth multiple times each week. And I don’t lose my cool. Never. I rarely even have to fight for control, these ‘challenges’ just don’t get to me.
HOWEVER…
Every damn time I fill out a form on a web site, I feel like growling when I get to the ‘state’ line. There I am, happily typing along, tabbing between blanks…and then I have to reach for the mouse, click on the drop down, scroll down at least twice (my fault for living in a state that comes near the end, I guess), and finally click on VT. So, instead of typing two letters I have had take my hands off the keyboard and click at least four times.
Why the hell do they inflict this “assistance” on us??? Is there anyone who DOESN’T know their own state’s postal abbreviation?? Is there anyone who can type out their name & street address & city and yet be unable to hit two more keys???
Why? Why?? Why???
If the morons who set up these pages really wanted to help us, why not ask for our zip code after the street address? Then it could pop in the city & state for us, with an offer to let us override in case we mistyped the zip. That would genuinely save some time/effort. But, no. Their idea of ‘help’ is to make it more inconvenient for us. Grrrrrrrrrrr.
(Okay, I feel a tiny bit better now.)
So — what ridiculously minor things get your goat?
Tip: For most drop downs, click on the arrow and type in “V” (for Vermont) and it will scoot down the list to that spot. That will save you some scrolling anyways.
But I understand, it does seem like more of a hassle to click through instead of type two letters.
My trivial annoyance: I get junk mail for other people. I have the same first name as a person who formerly lived in this house, and I get her junk credit card offers. I often get her junk mail. I usually don’t look through my mail before I bring it in the house, and so I don’t know I have her junk mail until I bring it in. It annoys me that I have to make another trip out to the mailbox to bring her junk mail back out, so the postal lady can re-deliver it to the right person.
I’ve found that when filling in most forms, I can tab to it, type the first letter of my state, then arrow down to find the right one. Don’t have to reach for the mouse. Then, of course, I’m really annoyed when I encounter the rare drop-down I can’t navigate by keyboard.
If that is the only thing that bother you, then you are all set. Here is a handy little tip. Simply click on the state box and then hit “V”. It will immediately select Vermont for you because it is the first “V” state. If it selects Virgina first because its abbrevation is “VA” (some forms may be sorted this way) then just hit “V” one more time to select Vermont. Total time for whole process = 1/2 second. Is there anything else that we can help you with?
We Melancholies bear the weight of the world for you and instead of thanking us for our perseverence, our diligence, and our noble sacrifice, all you concern yourself with is much ado about something that you’re doing the wrong way.
Presumably, this was a rhetorical question, but I’m going to answer it, anyway. Maybe someone really wants to know. Maybe it will make it annoy you a little less. Especially now that you know you can manipulate the dropdown without a mouse.
The answers are, because it is often necessary to have the data in a particular format, because there really are people out there who are so dumb they don’t know the correct abbreviation for their own state, yet manage to get online, and because it has become a standard. And, we all know how powerful standards can be. It also serves to lessen the number of bogus deliberate entries.
My trivial annoyance? getting shampoo in your eyes while in the shower, you have to reach out for a towel to wipe your eyes, this soaks the floor. When you step out of the tub you slip in this water and sprain your butt, I HATE that.
My former (crazy) roommate has me listed on her friends list for LiveJournal. This really isn’t a huge deal, seeing as if there’s anything I particularly don’t want her to read, I can use the handy dandy “friends only” filter. Still, it bugs me. What annoys me even more is that she also has my ex-SO (who she has never met or even spoken to) on her friends list. I think this irritates me because it reminds me of how often she tried to vicariously live through my relationship with the ex-SO when he wasn’t an ex. Grr. Stupid roommate
Oh, dear – don’t know whether to be more thankful I now know The Secret to mouseless drop-downs (Thank you, Boscibo and Motorgirl and Shagnasty and Swimming Riddles!)or embarassed I didn’t know before. <blush>
Davebear, I think the ‘it’s become standard’ answer is the right one. Another sad case of the tyranny of habit.
Boscibo, I also get junk mail for other people – I just circular file it straight away. (Shhh! Don’t tell the MailCops!) Libertarian, now, be reasonable. It’s not that we The Even Tempered (‘Phlegs’ is a sensitive term, y’know. It’s okay for TETs to use among ourselves, but outsiders should beware)wanted to be all calm and placid. When God was handing out the emotions, those Sanguines rushed in and hogged all the happiness. And then the Cholerics elbowed them aside and snatched up the anger. Followed by the rush of Melancholics – not fast enough to get the good emotions, they nonetheless grabbed up the only strong emotion left.
We TETs were too polite to shove in, and so we got left with nothing.
