Your Biggest Pet Peeves

[Trippy]

Now, the new thing is for people to bring in the recyclables that they don't feel like dealing with at home, and throwing them all into the bag, unwashed. Even stuff that can just go into the bins at their own homes. I spent this morning washing someone else's moldy, rotten Toby's tofu spread out of a tub so it could be recycled.

Are you sure they can recycle them at home? Over here in California cities have different recycling policies depending on who is doing the pick up for them. E.g. at my last place for plastic containers only #1 & #2 could be recycled. At my current place they collect plastic containers #1 - 7. And they even collect polystyrene foam (aka Styrofoam)! (Have to put it in a separate clear plastic bag though).

[Trippy]

01001001010101whateever: The human race will not advance very far until we can wean ourselves off capitalism.

Just call him Bar Code.

Also my latest Pet Peeve is people here who fucking use "@" in their replies. This isn't fucking Twitters fuckers. Using the fucking Quote button!

[voodoolily]

Are you sure they can recycle them at home? Over here in California cities have different recycling policies depending on who is doing the pick up for them. E.g. at my last place for plastic containers only #1 & #2 could be recycled. At my current place they collect plastic containers #1 - 7. And they even collect polystyrene foam (aka Styrofoam)! (Have to put it in a separate clear plastic bag though).

Yes, I'm sure. All waste haulers in Portland are assigned to specific zip codes and are required to pick up the same items. The City provides the recycling bins (a rolllcart) and an additional rollcart for yard debris. The two transfer stations are owned and run by Metro, our tri-county regional government. I wouldn't complain about it (or attempt to run the office recycling program) without having done at least a cursory amount of research!  

Add: The additional items like plastic lids, bags, wrappers, batteries, etc. I collect separately since they are not picked up by the City. I take these home with me and then pay a few bucks of my own money to recycle them at a special recycling facility. This is why I get so pissy - I'm doing the office a favor and helping us reduce our waste, and people don't give a shit. Why even bother working in this field if you don't give a shit about the environment? Go work for a fucking engineering firm.

[Sky]

You do have a point. There is a schism in the library world, the "professional" staff (the librarians and I, educated folks) and the "support" staff (maintenance, clerical). Few of the support folks actually read books regularly. I've never been able to figure that one out. You work in a library with an embarrassment of knowledge under your fingers every day and you never take advantage of it? I'd call it the book/magazine divide, but we voraciously devour periodicals, too.

Anyway, I've thought an interesting line of work would be improving garbage collection and storage technology, you would certainly never lack for work. Driving past an old dump that's just venting out those gasses makes me crazy, that's money dissipating into the air!

[voodoolily]

Waste Management is one of my clients, and their projects are some of the most interesting and environmentally-innovative that I've had the pleasure of working on. Two of their landfills let me design a native wildflower garden to provide habitat to pollinators, which will reduce their need to mow the retired/capped landfill cells (this was my idea, but they went for it, which is rare among clients). This will also create a segue from the developed parts of the landfill (e.g., roads, weigh station, etc.) to the wetland and forested (upland and riparian) habitat portions of their property where I do most of my work.

Waste is huge right now. Singapore is also doing some really cool shit with methane recapture and using the heat generated by burning landfill gas to power their plants.

[FatuousTwat]

Why is it that 90% of the populations brain shuts off when they get within 100 yards of CostCo?

THE FUCKING SAMPLE TABLE IS NOT A GATHERING AREA, GET YOUR FUCKING CARTS OUT OF THE MIDDLE OF THE ISLE WHILE YOU WANDER OFF AND QUIT WAITING 15 MINUTES WHILE BLOCKING THE ENTIRE LANE SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO WALK THE EXTRA 20 FEET! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!

[Sky]

You could go to walmart where 99% of the population has never even turned their brains on.

It's very difficult for us to shop there, between the genetic mishaps, the general squalor of the customers, and the behaviour....it really lets you see the LCD of your community (and we see them every day using myspace at the library). I just watched Wall-E last night and the bit where humanity rides around in chairs was a little too real to be funny.

[Draegan]

I hate costco.

[rattran]

I love costco, but yeah, the people waiting for samples drive me nuts. I've found just taking their carts and abandoning them in another part of the store makes up for it.

[Sky]

One of my fiancee's pet peeves is the fact that I often take other people's carts by mistake.

A peeve of mine is we don't have a costco. Also, park your cart away from the meat bunkers and browse. My fiancee still isn't used to how long I park the cart for, it's just easier to find a good parking spot and walk to the items.

[IainC]

[voodoolily]

I love costco, but yeah, the people waiting for samples drive me nuts. I've found just taking their carts and abandoning them in another part of the store makes up for it.

 

I try to never use a cart, and just see how awesome my biceps can look carrying a giant heavy basket of shit.

[Yegolev]

cat filename | grep pattern

[Signe]

I always have a cart in the grocery store but I only use it as a last line of defense.

[Yegolev]

All these "white pride" emails from my parents.  Maybe that's more than a peeve.

[naum]

web articles split into 3+ pages… …yes, often there's a "single page" or "printer format" (though this one also sometimes serves a printer popup you must cancel out of)…

[Khaldun]

All driving edition!

People talking on cellphones in their cars, especially when they're driving even more submoronically than the average driver around here while they do so. It's the same as watching someone down a fifth of Jack Daniels while driving.

Pre-emptive strike left-turning cars that try to make their turn the moment the light goes green across oncoming traffic. Someday I'm going to ram one of those fuckers.

Dumbshits that drive well below the speed of the traffic flow in the lefthand lane of a highway.

Assholes who weave compulsively in and out of lanes, usually getting to wherever they're going about 2 minutes  before someone only making necessary lane changes would have.

People who pass to the right on a three or more lane highway when the left-hand passing lane is perfectly clear.

Morons who get in a mandatory right or left-hand turn lane, ride it all the way to the top, suddenly notice it's a turn lane and just go ahead and force merge into the straight-ahead traffic flow in the middle of the intersection.

Crazy assholes who make a left turn on a four-lane road from the right-hand lane *with* traffic coming up behind them in both lanes. I see this at least once a week around here.

People who realize they've passed the address they were going to on a busy two-lane street who then slow down, stop and do a three-point (or more) turn to go back in the other direction, rather than wait for a side street where they can turn around. Again, I see it regularly on a road right near my house.

[Sky]

Pre-emptive strike left-turning cars that try to make their turn the moment the light goes green across oncoming traffic. Someday I'm going to ram one of those fuckers.

WC Fields agrees.

I'll add in people who cut around the shoulder when a car is waiting to make a left-hand turn. Because if you're going in the opposite direction and making a left, you have the right-of-way (both cars making a left into a 4-way intersection have right of way unless there are multiple lanes). But in reality, you'll probably be t-boned by some asshole breaking the law. On a cell phone.

Last night coming back from the mountains we had someone try to pass on the left. I was coming off a single lane highway offramp, merging into a single lane. They went onto the offramp shoulder and almost slammed head-first into an oncoming car in the opposite lane on the road we were merging into. Then tailgated my 5mph-over ass until we got into a village, then I notice they're not in my mirrors. I look around, because he's driving like a fucking moron likely to kill someone and he's passing me by cutting across parking lots on the left-hand side of the road. Not in the road, he's in the actual parking lots. We turned off that road just then, luckily. Worst I've seen in a while.

[voodoolily]

People turning left do not have the right of way, they have to yield to oncoming traffic. Therefore, my pet peeve is assholes who do not pull into the intersection to wait to turn left, but hold up everybody behind them who want to go straight unimpeded.

Morons who get in a mandatory right or left-hand turn lane, ride it all the way to the top, suddenly notice it's a turn lane and just go ahead and force merge into the straight-ahead traffic flow in the middle of the intersection.

They don't "suddenly notice", they are trying to cut in front by skipping ahead and then changing lanes. I do this sometimes if I'm 99% certain the person at the light is going to be too busy taking bong hits to hit the gas when the light turns green (in Portland, >75% of drivers).

[Khaldun]

Oh, yes, that adds two to the list.

Fuckwads who tailgate in the middle or right lane of a six (or more)-lane highway when the left passing lane is open, when you're driving at the average traffic flow speed or faster. There is nothing that makes me feel more like following someone to their destination and lighting them on fire than that kind of behavior. It's especially bad when it's not someone doing it with deliberate malice or aggression (e.g., when you look back, it's some giggling 19-year old psychotic and his filthy little buddies getting their jollies off: I take consolation when it's something like that knowing that they'll probably run off the roadway in a drunken stupor at 3am in the next two years). It's the worst when it's some sheep-like suburban woman in an giant SUV who doesn't even *know* she's tailgating you.

Unbelievable goatfuckers who cut through parking lots or gas stations at high speed as a way of making a right turn at an intersection where right-turning traffic can't go right on red. This is especially bad if the reason that traffic isn't going right on red is the heavy flow at the cross street, because the parking lot cheater is probably going to plow right on out into the heavy traffic. I saw a really bad accident at a local gas station the other day that was caused by precisely this kind of bullshit--the guy pulled into the gas station just before the intersection back-up, couldn't control his speed, and slammed right into a car that was filling up, which was then knocked into the pumps.

And speaking of parking lots, let's add a third: drivers who out of stupidity or mindless aggression feel compelled to drive through crowded parking lots at 35+ miles an hour. There's this one older guy I've spotted several times at the local supermarket who has come close to running over people on multiple occasions as he tears through the parking lot like he's at the Indy 500.

[Sky]

People turning left do not have the right of way, they have to yield to oncoming traffic. Therefore, my pet peeve is assholes who do not pull into the intersection to wait to turn left, but hold up everybody behind them who want to go straight unimpeded.

You're right and wrong.

People turning left don't have right of way over people going straight in the opposite direction (I'm talking simple two-lane roads, 4-way intersections, no turn lanes, etc). But if someone in the opposite direction is making a left, both cars have right-of-way to make their turns.

If you go around a left-turning car on the right side without a lane dedicated to that maneuver, it's illegal and arrogates the legal right-of-way for the person who would like to turn left in the opposite direction.

edit: Actually, you should check your state laws. Passing on a shoulder is allowed in some states. It's illegal in NY for most purposes.

[Khaldun]

People turning left do not have the right of way, they have to yield to oncoming traffic. Therefore, my pet peeve is assholes who do not pull into the intersection to wait to turn left, but hold up everybody behind them who want to go straight unimpeded.

Yes, this also pisses me off.

They don't "suddenly notice", they are trying to cut in front by skipping ahead and then changing lanes. I do this sometimes if I'm 99% certain the person at the light is going to be too busy taking bong hits to hit the gas when the light turns green (in Portland, >75% of drivers).

That's actually a different kind of driver. I feel like I can tell the difference between the skipper and the clueless idiot. The skipper pisses me off, but because they're somewhat aware of what they're doing, they at least tend to time their re-merge better. There's a light near us heading into a suburban CBD where a four-lane road narrows to two lanes and the right lane is a mandatory right at the intersection before the narrowing. It's not especially well-signed, but most of the locals know it well, and so folks tend to shift left pretty early in anticipation. Pretty much about half the time I approach it, there's going to be someone in the mandatory right who merges in the intersection. The skippers tend to gun ahead hard and slot into any gap between cars going straight. The clueless people kind of drift forward and suddenly notice that they're going to go straight into the sidewalk if they go straight and so they drift unpredictably left, more or less forgetting that there's another lane of traffic because the only thing they're paying attention to is the sudden imminence of collision-with-sidewalk.

[voodoolily]

If you go around a left-turning car on the right side without a lane dedicated to that maneuver, it's illegal and arrogates the legal right-of-way for the person who would like to turn left in the opposite direction.

edit: Actually, you should check your state laws. Passing on a shoulder is allowed in some states. It's illegal in NY for most purposes.

I'm specifically thinking of cases at intersections where there is no left turn signal, so there is no right of way to the turner. If the person turning pulls into the intersection, the traffic behind him/her can continue to flow while the turner waits for a break in oncoming traffic. This way they can also sneak their turn in when the light changes to yellow (if there was no break in oncoming traffic). If the person is just turning onto a side street or something, I pass on the right in the bike lane (if there are no cyclists). Pretty much everyone does that here except pussies and grannies.

[Sky]

Yeah, laws are for pussies. An odd day when you and doucheomatic are on the same page.

My point is that the person turning does get right of way when someone going the other way wants to make a left. In you scenario, they have to sit in the intersection and wait for the yellow, meaning only one person gets to turn left for that cycle, and everyone going straight in either direction is breaking the law (in many states).

[Khaldun]

E.g., first left turner has right of way, not left turn on a two-lane road has right-of-way over person continuing through the intersection. I thought voodoolilly was talking about a four-lane road that doesn't have a left turn signal where a left-turner fails to get into the intersection so that if there is no break in oncoming traffic, at least one or two cars get through on the yellow. That drives me nuts, when someone doesn't do that in a four-lane road with no left turn signal.

[Samwise]

I agree with VDL.  I have spent entire green lights sitting behind one motherfucker who spends the entire light behind the crosswalk with his left blinker on.  For bonus points, he will only scoot through the yellow light at the last possible second, ensuring that if there was anyone behind him who also wanted to turn left, they'll have to wait for the next green.

(edit) I'd like to add another peeve that's somewhat similar.  People standing slackjawed in front of vending/arcade/ticket machines.  Ticket machines especially.  I understand it's very hard to figure out how to put money in the slot and push the button, but maybe you could stand off to the side and watch someone else do it, or read the directions before stepping up to block access to the dozen people behind you who just need a goddamn ticket and will take three seconds at it and FUCK THERE'S A TRAIN COMING NOW I CAN HEAR IT JUST PUSH THE BUTTON GLAKJSLFJLSKDJFLKSDJFLKJSDF

[Segoris]

With the turn lane thing peeve, I'll go the opposite of people turning out of the turn lanes and say those who use the straight forward traffic lane to jump ahead in line of the turn lane. Most notably during rush hour when the turn lanes are backed up about 50 cars, and the asshole feels it's fine if they just drive up and be 3rd or 4th in line saving them the time of having to wait for a few turn signal cycles. Fuck those people unless it's me of course

[voodoolily]

E.g., first left turner has right of way, not left turn on a two-lane road has right-of-way over person continuing through the intersection. I thought voodoolilly was talking about a four-lane road that doesn't have a left turn signal where a left-turner fails to get into the intersection so that if there is no break in oncoming traffic, at least one or two cars get through on the yellow. That drives me nuts, when someone doesn't do that in a four-lane road with no left turn signal.

Yeah, this is what I meant. I, like Samwise, have spent many a green light just waiting behind the timid and stoned. I get ragey when it happens.

Fuck those people unless it's me of course

This is how I feel about most asshole driving moves. I drive aggressively, but flash my brights at others who do the same shit I do.

What, I never said I wasn't a hypocrite. 

[Khaldun]

With the turn lane thing peeve, I'll go the opposite of people turning out of the turn lanes and say those who use the straight forward traffic lane to jump ahead in line of the turn lane. Most notably during rush hour when the turn lanes are backed up about 50 cars, and the asshole feels it's fine if they just drive up and be 3rd or 4th in line saving them the time of having to wait for a few turn signal cycles. Fuck those people unless it's me of course

If I understand you right, up yours. It's not my problem if a city or township fails to accomodate heavy demand for a privileged left turn signal/left turn lane or with a staggered green that goes off first on one side of an intersection to let a few left turners through. It's real simple: the left turner does NOT have the right-of-way against oncoming traffic when the lights turn green if they both go green at the same time. It's simple. Get out into the intersection, wait for an opening or a yellow light. Don't decide to gun ahead of the people with a right-of-way, because then you're putting me and yourself at risk. Not bowing to right-of-way, no matter how impatient or frustrated you are with shitty traffic engineering or congestion, is a guaranteed ticket to collision eventually, because it puts me in a position of having to read your mind rather than make a default assumption that you and I understand the same rules.

[Segoris]

With the turn lane thing peeve, I'll go the opposite of people turning out of the turn lanes and say those who use the straight forward traffic lane to jump ahead in line of the turn lane. Most notably during rush hour when the turn lanes are backed up about 50 cars, and the asshole feels it's fine if they just drive up and be 3rd or 4th in line saving them the time of having to wait for a few turn signal cycles. Fuck those people unless it's me of course

If I understand you right, up yours. It's not my problem if a city or township fails to accomodate heavy demand for a privileged left turn signal/left turn lane or with a staggered green that goes off first on one side of an intersection to let a few left turners through. It's real simple: the left turner does NOT have the right-of-way against oncoming traffic when the lights turn green if they both go green at the same time. It's simple. Get out into the intersection, wait for an opening or a yellow light. Don't decide to gun ahead of the people with a right-of-way, because then you're putting me and yourself at risk. Not bowing to right-of-way, no matter how impatient or frustrated you are with shitty traffic engineering or congestion, is a guaranteed ticket to collision eventually, because it puts me in a position of having to read your mind rather than make a default assumption that you and I understand the same rules.

Yeah, I'm not sure we're thinking the same thing here. I'm not talking about right of way and people who ignore it and endanger themselves and others. I'm talking about people who feel entitled to cut in line in the left turn lane because they don't want to be in the back of the line. To do that they use the other lanes inappropriately and skip a lot of the other cars that have waited, or are waiting, properly and force themselves into the left turn lane after now having skipped almost the whole line. This holds up traffic in other lanes as they now have to wait for these people to merge into the left turn lane and pisses off people already in the left turn lane who properly waited, who now really don't have much of a choice but to let these assholes in line.

[Khaldun]

Oh, yeah, that's what I was talking about with "skippers", to some extent. Not the same thing as preemptive strike left-turners--people who turn left ahead of oncoming traffic when the light changes, basically daring the oncoming cars to hit them.

[Yegolev]

"No, you, my employee on the UNIX team with the hands-on experience cannot write Version 1 of that script, I want the Architect who reports to someone else entirely to write it."

 

[Yegolev]

Windows that look like they have focus but do not.  Related: programmers that write this code.

[Murgos]

Windows that look like they have focus but do not.  Related: programmers that write this code.

The corollary being windows that keep giving themselves focus when you don't want to actively use them.

--

I'm pretty annoyed at the trend to '13 year old boy doodling on his notebook in class' style of art direction getting pushed in games lately.  GWAR shoulder pads, super-freak out of proportion arms/muscles, those retarded 3 foot wide and 12 foot long swords with jagged shark-tooth edges and hilts out of some post-modern torture fiends sculpture collection, etc...

[Jeff Kelly]

Employers that always look for the 25 year old superman fluent in every programming language from Ada to Whitespace and familiar with every fleeting architecture paradigma of the last 15 years when all they need is someone who is good in C++ and doesn't fall over when confronted with an UML diagram.

Companies that think they are Google or Microsoft and have to develop according to their standards when their development team consists of ten people of whom five have never even heard about UML, patterns and unit tests.

Employers that look for people familiar with design patterns, model driven development paradigms and OOD/OOA experience that haven't even heard of agile development and still do big design upfront kind a jobs.

Employers that are perpetually waiting for that one prince charming developer that fits exactly to their obscure job profile and doesn't need any training at all, while dismissing other capable applicants.

If you haven't figured it out already I am currently looking for work ;-) which is as frustrating as ever regardless of the current economy.