Sometimes People Get the Wrong Wrong

So I was reading this post on one of my favorite blogs, Not Always Right, and all I could think about after I'd finished was Huh? Why was this even submitted? I was as confused as the customer. I was especially thrown by the cashier saying the customer didn't need to write out the check unless she needed to. Why didn't the cashier just explain right upfront that the check would be handled electronically, so a blank one could be used, unless the customer needed it filled out for her files? Simple and it would have saved time and trouble. But then there wouldn't be a funny post for that blog, right?

I worked in public service for 30 years and sometimes, what you know and what is clear to you is in no way clear to the person you're talking to. If they don't understand the first time, then explain, don't keep repeating the same thing. Sheesh. File this under Pet Peeves.

Feeling: peeved, natch.

~~~o0o~~~

Street Menace

I'd thought the only things I had to watch out for while walking along the streets of my fair city was doggie poo and idiots yakking on cellphones. I was wrong. Now I have to watch out for people walking and texting at the same time! At least the people chatting on phones are looking ahead of them, even if they don't pay all that much attention to other people. It seems they mostly are keeping an eye out for their destination. But the texters? They might glance up from the teeny screen in their hands once or twice a block. This is a big city, with 8 million or so people -- more in tourist season -- and it seems as if half of those are on the sidewalk on any given day. What possesses someone to stroll along and text at the same time? How could they not notice they're not the only ones on the street? I have to conclude they don't care, and this in a neighborhood with a residence for blind people.

Feeling: annoyed



~~~o0o~~~Technorati Tags: pet peeves

Notes from the Short Work Week

I worked Thursday and today. Not much time and yet, nonsense happened.

First, I spent most of the time going through emails. And doing telephone reference. It's the latter that yielded the following bits of nonsense.

Thursday night, a patron calls and asks to register for the computer training program on Saturday. I've been away, so thought something new had been scheduled, but no, there's nothing. The rest is paraphrased and shortened from the original.
Me: Do you mean the one on Nov. 7? That was last Saturday.
She: Yes. The 7th. I'd like to register for it.
Me: It happened already.
She: So, can I register for it?
Me: We had it last week. It's over. We don't have another session scheduled, but we might in the future.
She: So I can't register for it?
Me: No.

(It's a longshot, but I've submitted the above to Not Always Right, one of my favorite blogs.)

And then, today, from one of our regulars, a pleasant woman who should've known better: "Don't mind me munching in your ear." Did she ask if I'd mind? No. She just said it. And did it. And I did mind. And it was hard to understand her over the munching. So. Very. Rude.

Feeling: in need of another vacation! :)

~~~o0o~~~
Technorati Tags: libraries

I Have a Cold

Well, either a cold or allergies run amok. I'm so congested and I can't get this f'in child-proof bottle open. I'm waiting for hubby to come home from the ballgame, which went into extra innings. It really serves no purpose if the sick person can't access the damn meds. So, I'm sick and I'm frustrated and I'm annoyed.

Feeling: yucky

~~~o0o~~~
Technorati Tags: health

Idiots Day

 Today must've been Idiots' Day and no one told me. I was encountering them everywhere. They were out driving. They were riding bikes on the sidewalk. They were walking. And they weren't watching where they were going.

Otherwise, it was an okay hump day.

Feeling: okay

~~~o0o~~~
Technorati Tags: peeves

Thoughts that Dropped Out of My Head

So, folks, it's time to start practicing defensive walking. It's like defensive driving, only with the car. We need to do this because, not only do a lot of pedestrians not pay attention to where they're going because they're busy talking on their cellphones, they're also texting. Yes, texting while crossing the street. It's my latest pet peeve. I saw this odd behavior twice today. A woman this morning, a man lunchtime. Neither seemed in any way aware or bothered that they were surrounded by people who had to dodge out of their way and that there were cars revving their engines in anticipation of the light turning green. Although the guy walking through the subway station on my way home while reading a newspaper wasn't much better.

I have managed to finally activate mobile blogging, as you may have noticed from my sparse test post. I will not be doing that while walking and especially not while crossing busy intersections.

Been playing on Facebook and reconnecting with some old school friends. A couple aren't online that we can find, so we'll have to resort to something a bit more old-fashioned: a letter. On paper. The mind boggles. Still, it's been fun and we hope we can work out an in-person reunion.

Feeling:

~~~o0o~~~
Technorati Tags: peeves

Personal Lists

3 Guaranteed Ways to Piss Me Off

• Tell me what I think.
• Tell me what to think.
• Assume you know what I'm thinking.

3 Urges I Have that I Must Resist

• The urge to grab a French fry off the plate of someone dining at restaurant with outside seating as I walk by.
• The urge to trip someone walking down the street and paying more attention to his/her iPod or cellphone than where he/she is going.
• The urge to kick someone in the shins when they block the subway doors as I'm trying to exit the train.
  

Feeling:

~~~o0o~~~
Technorati Tags: lists

Tastes Like a Monday

A friend went to the Chocolate Show on Saturday and brought me back these goodies. The mice were yummy. Ganache inside, different flavors. White chocolate mouse was kinda musky and dark chocolate mouse was fruity.

Also on the weekend, hubby went shopping and brought home this set of Homicide DVDs, the entire series. I love the packaging. It's a file cabinet, and there are file dividers inside by season, with episode info. Very cool.

Here's an annoyance from this morning: Woman in the elevator with her 2 kids when I get on. They're standing a foot or so back from the door and she doesn't move them to the side, as would be considerate, to let someone in. Space was tight and someone got on a floor after me. We both had to step around the little family group. Which wasn't what annoyed me. Okay, she's inconsiderate. What annoyed me is that she's teaching her kids to be inconsiderate, too.


Meanwhile, the day was hardly what one hopes for on the first day back to work after a vacation. Aside from forgetting to dial 9 for outside calls, there were all sorts of crazy and/or irate patron nonsense to put up with. I sure wish I could blog about that sort of stuff. It was a relief to get out of there, with my chocolate. The chocomice really helped smooth things over tonight. ;)

I'll end with this fortune cookie fortune from dinner last night:

"Discontent is the first necessity of progress."

Well, we've certainly got discontent in this country, and maybe the election results mean progress is coming.

Feeling:

~~~o0o~~~
Technorati Tags: chocolate, miscellany

Notes from a Day

Old lady ticked me off before I'd gotten far today. I really hate when people press the elevator button before they're actually ready to board it when it arrives. And of course, she was on the second floor, one stop from the lobby. Then, after holding me up, she actually asks if I'm going down. Even if she couldn't see the down arrow lit, she must've pressed the down button to get the elevator to stop. Unless, like half the other clueless in my apartment building, she pressed both buttons. Sometimes, I think elevators should come with instruction manuals that are handed out when you sign your lease.

On my way to the subway, an old man stops to rest a bit, in the f'in middle of the street. People don't have brake lights. Good thing, even with my poor depth perception, I was able to detour around him at the last second, or I would've knocked him down. At his age, that would've meant some broken bones, I'm sure.

In the waiting room of my opthalmologist, two older women were discussing their daughters' divorces. bleh. Turns out though, that they were old friends who ran into each other there after not seeing each other for a while, which was pretty cool.

My eyes are fine, tho a bit dry. I should use artificial tears. Doc gave me a couple of samples.

Went to the gym, did a half hour on the treadmill, first time on one since my nuclear stress test. Put on about 5 lbs since August. feh.

Went to the drugstore next for Nexcare foam adhesive strips from 3M. Tried them at my best friend's over the weekend and they're much better for bruised, bashed, cut fingers where both sides hurt, than Bandaids. I tend to be brand loyal, but I can be convinced something is better, if it really is better.

Voted. Took all of 2 minutes. Not bad at all. No line or anything. Maybe after lunch is better than mid-morning when I usually vote.


Feeling:

~~~o0o~~~
Technorati Tags: personal

Couldn't Care Less

First, the expression is "I couldn't care less." Not "I could care less." If you say the latter, you're saying, "Yes, I could care less if I really tried." Which isn't much of an insult, when you think of it. But when you "couldn't care less," no matter how hard you try, you can't dredge up an iota of caring. Got it? Okay. That's one misunderstood expression that really annoys me when I hear it said wrong.

At the risk of offending someone by naming one of their favorite celebrities or whatever, I offer, in no particular order, my current list of "Things/People I Couldn't Care Less About."

• Howard Stern
• Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
• American Idol
• Desperate Housewives
• The Sopranos
• Lost
• The Apprentice
• Donald Trump
• All the other reality TV shows (or as some critics call them, "unscripted shows."
• Paris Hilton (Does anyone care about her, anymore?)

There might be others. These are the ones that came immediately to mind.

What about you? Got a list you'd like to share?

Feeling:

~~~o0o~~~
lists

A Couple of Peeves

People who can't count. A patron calls, says she has a couple of books to order. We do most of our service by phone and through the mail. "A couple" usually means 5 or 6 titles because people underestimate. However, in her case, it meant 27. And I was silly thinking "couple" means "two." When I'd run out of room on the sheet of paper I was using to jot all this down, I told her we were supposed to take no more than 10 titles over the phone. She said she's been given special permission to give more. I told her I'm the supervisor (true) and the rule is 10. She said she was finished, anyway. (yeah, sure) And lest you think I'm being rude and unfair, the longer the list, the more likely I'll make a mistake or enter the data incorrectly later, and it was forcing someone else to wait on hold while I finished with her.

People who waste time: The culprit: The woman ahead of me in the little grocery by the subway station. I stopped in to get a quart of milk. I have the exact price. In my hand. There's an older man between us. I missed the beginning of the transaction where somehow some of her things got rung up with the person ahead of her. No problem. The cashier fixes it and apparently rang up just those items. Turns out there was more, so after the woman pays for that, the cashier rings up the rest of her order. She pays. The cashier starts to ring up the older man's order, what looks like 2 apples, 2 oranges (I don't recall what, but 2 each of 2 different fruit). He says nothing. The woman who supposedly is finished, after a full 5 minutes of fiddling and paying, now notices that the oranges are hers, too, and weren't rung up for her. The old guy also has no clue what he's buying because he says nothing. I'm starting to get annoyed. People lining up behind me are getting very annoyed. The cashier is getting annoyed and has to void what she just rung up,which was all 4 fruit. The woman customer is actually laughing (at her own inability to remember what she's buying, I guess). The woman grabs up her groceries, now in 3 bags for 3 separate transactions, while the cashier mutters in Korean (at least, that's what I think it was). The guy pays, leaves. I pay, and leave like a bat out of hell. It was getting very stuffy in that store.

Feeling:

peeves

Miscellany

...Because I haven't posted random verbiage for a while (no, really, I haven't, heh).

Here's a photo (well, cropped from a photo) I meant to post earlier this week. The outfit I wore to the party at the miniatures show. I'm sure you'll easily recognize me on the street if you see me now. heh

Something I'd normally post over on Presto Speaks! where I blog about blogging, but it'll reach a larger audience here: People, people, people, fellow bloggers all; if you want me to click your links, give me a clue what they are. This is fun, where "this" is the link, just won't cut it, okay. This new game is fun, with "This new game" being the link, is much better.

And while I'm on the subject of blogging pet peeves, I mostly read via Bloglines (and Brian McC, I'd still visit your blog if you had an rss feed, so why don't you have one, at least one Bloglines can find? Huh?), along with my LJ Friends List, and the blogs I follow total 250 or so, with many being photoblogs, plus some news services. So, if you all are blogging like fiends, and I'm on time constraints, I'm more likely to read what you have to say if you allow full entries in your rss feeds, not partials or headlines. I don't always have the time to click through to the full entry and do so only when I think I'll want to comment. So either I don't read the partials or I drop them and I don't want to drop anyone. Just thought I'd let those of you with no better than partial feeds know that I don't always read the full entry and why.

Meanwhile, Candy Addict points us to a video on making chocolate, From Bean to Bar.

Did I post this link before? If so, it's worth repeating: Bee Dogs. Link from Gothamist.

In TV news, "How I Met Your Mother" was greenlighted for the rest of the season, while its competition, "Kitchen Confidential" just got cancelled, which means, for Buffyverse alums, Allyson Hannigan beat out Nicholas Brendon. Here's hoping the former "Xander" lands a new gig soon.

And while I like the new people on Alias, it's not the same without Vaughn and with Sidney in a diminished role due to her pregnancy. Word is that Michael Vartan was back on the set, filming more Alias episodes to air in December. I hope that's true and can't wait to see if I guessed right what really happened with Vaughn.

And will those of you who are regular readers who haven't signed the f'in Frappr map do so already. You know who you are. Sheesh. I thought you'd be proud to proclaim your membership in Cyber Chocolate Realm.

I finished the two books I was reading, so reviews are now up on Shelly's Book Shelf. Once again, I've guaranteed that I'll have read at least one book a month this year. Go me!

Feeling:

miscellany

Peeved Again

Okay, another concept that eludes a lot of folks these days.

Doorways, Defined

Denotation, The Good Old Days: an access point, an opening with a door that swings or slides or turns to open and close the access point, to allow entrance and exit from a structure, aka a building or perhaps a room.

Connotation, Today: A place to hang out in front of in order to make sure no one can get past or through without bumping someone or saying "Excuse me," which used to be a magic expression that got people to move, but is now mostly ignored.

People of the world, or at least, those of NYC, let's all try to stick with the actual definition, okay? Thank you.

Still Feeling:

Peeved

To the idiot guy on the bike who nearly ran me down during my lunch hour, here are the 3 traffic laws, off the top of my head, that you broke:

1. Going the wrong way on a one-way street.
2. Going against the light.
3. Not yielding to a pedestrian in a crosswalk.

Don't do it again.

ATTENTION, BLOGOSPHERE: The contraction "you're" is to be used in place of "you are." The possessive "your" is to be used, well, when the possessive is intended. If you don't know the difference, possessive means, owning something, even if immaterial. Ie. Your use of your when you are is required really irritates me. "You are" uses a verb, "are," which is a conjugated form of the "to be" verb. Thus, "you're" should be followed by what that person is, as in I am; you are; he, she, or it is." Which brings us to....

When you've mastered the difference between your and you are, you might want to check on the difference between the contraction it's and the possessive its.

Yes, it's been that kind of day, week, month, year, life, choose one; why do you ask?

Feeling:

Things that Make Me Go Argh!

If the phrase "I'm an idiot, what's your excuse?" hadn't already been taken by Brian (well, I'm mostly interested in the first half of it, anyway), I'd grab it for myself.

I'm sick and tired of shoelaces that keep opening when I walk or exercise. You know the ones. Round, slippery. Keep coming ondone. Only laces I could find were thin, cheap ones in drugstores. Then, when I was in Sports Authority buying gym shorts Monday, I saw them. Nice, thick, flat, unslippery laces. I bought a pair and prepared to replace the slippery ones on my favorite sneakers with them. They threaded fine, if a bit tight, but the damn ends wouldn't go through the eyeholes at the end, where the laces are to be tied. Grrrrrr.... The ends are an itty fraction wider than the f'in laces the sneakers came with. So I had to put the old ones back in and will have to continue my practice of double knotting them to keep them tied any responsible amount of time. Can't these things be standardized?

And last night I dreamed I was going bald. WTF is up with that? I never dreamed anything like that before. It was... disturbing, to say the least. A balding, middle-aged woman. Not a pretty sight. I was relieved to discover this morning all my hair, dark brown and white, were all still in place. Well, I didn't count them all, but they seemed to all be there.

Maybe It's Me, But...

It's bad enough so many bloggers don't know the difference between your and you're and their, there, and they're, but now I've been seeing people using I when they should be using my or me. As in what I saw tonight: (Name) and I's (object).... Now seriously, people, does anyone say I's coat or I's blog or whatever? No, nope, not at all. We say My coat, my blog. That's how you figure out what word to use. You take out the other part of the compound subject and see if it makes sense without that name.

But what really bugs me are the folks who seem proud of their near-illiteracy. You know the ones I mean. Folks who proudly, in their blog's sidebar or worse, in the description right at the top, proclaim that they are poor spellers. They announce that that readers will find poor grammar, or as a blog I saw tonight via BE, called it: grammer. And right below in the sidebar was a Please rate me link. Yeah, right. You don't want me to rate you, Mr. Poor Speller. Really. Given that I have no intention of struggling to read your pearls of wisdom. Sheesh. And no, I didn't sense facetiousness in that blog.

And I've given up on seeing properly placed commas, or even seeing commas at all when needed.

Meanwhile, if MI5 (Spooks to any Brits surfing through) isn't the more intense show on TV, I don't know what is. I feel exhausted after watching season 3's finale. And all I can say, without spoiling things is, Wow. Just Wow.

I'm Tired of Winter

I'm tired of wearing my heavy winter coat.

I'm tired of scarves and gloves.

I'm tired of snow and needing to wear snow boots.

I'm tired of hat hair.

I'm tired of having to lather onto my hands cream for extra dry skin a dozen times a day.

I'm tired of wearing fuzzy socks. (Okay, I actually like wearing them.)

I'm tired of wearing tights.

I'm tired of flannel lined jeans.

I'm tired of naked trees.

I'm tired of howling wind and wind chill factors.

I'M TIRED OF WINTER.

That is all.