The $%*! frustration thread

[Radical_Dreamer]

Having driven extensively in both Southern California and the Pacific Northwest, I'll take Southern California driving over PNW driving any day. Sure, Southern Californians are hyper-aggressive assholes on the road, but they are predictable and know how to merge. This is in contrast to the passive-aggressive driving exhibited by drivers in the Pacific Northwest, who demonstrate a lack of understanding both of on-ramps and zippers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fn34wfVfZk

[Kodokami]

Damn Texas drivers don't know how to use blinkers...

[Lord J Esq]

"Sending your Congressperson a letter in just a few easy clicks" is a sham. It simply does not work. Mass e-mailings in which people participate at the click of a button fall on deaf ears. Congress does not care. Sorry, but you're wasting your time. You're also setting yourself up for disappointment when Congress inevitably ignores you. If you want to change things, you'll have to do better than add your name to a prewritten form letter.

[tushantin]

Since we're on a topic about horrible drivers, I'd like to add something.

I was on my way to a party this evening, wearing my good shirt. Waited for the signal to turn green. Before I moved, some idiot on a motorbike cut in like he owned the road and bumped into me. I fell hard and hit a sideways pole, injuring my left shoulder.

Good thing I delayed my movements by a couple of seconds, otherwise I would have hit the street instead, having my head crushed under a nearby truck. I could have died like my Grandpa did. Also, did I mention the guy was on the phone while he rode his motorbike? And the cellphone was inside his helmet? To top it off, he turned tail and ran.

Also, it's pretty embarrassing to show up to a party with a stain on your good shirt.

[Lord J Esq]

Traffic incidents are scary. I hope you feel better soon. The shirt is replaceable.

On a related note, it frustrates me that many motorists fail to take seriously their mortal responsibility of operating a vehicle. Somebody mentioned preferring Southern Californian "aggressive-aggressive" drivers to the Pacific Northwest's "passive-aggressive" ones. Personally, I disagree. Washington drivers will typically leave you alone; growing up in Southern California, I know very well what a battle it is to use the freeways. However, the fatality statistics don't seem to suggest all that much difference between the states, after adjusting for population.

[Katie Skyye]

Just from my personal experience and the experiences of my family: Texas drivers are kind of insane, but New Jersey drivers are far worse. Where in Texas  you have 3-4-car pileups, in good ol NJ you get 6-7-car pileups. My aunt lived there a year for work and said on the highway she "had to go 70 mph or above just to avoid getting run over" even though the speed limit was at that time 60. Who knows what it is now...

Though I know that Houston bus drivers were notorious for being careless and there were like 10 fatalities of people getting hit by buses in X amount of years...

And Washington drivers are awesome. They have no idea what they're doing in parking lots, but on the road they are nearly always considerate. I can't speak for the entire PNW since I haven't been to all of it.

[Truthordeal]

I think I'm just gonna move to Montana. There's no speed limit because no one ever goes there, so there aren't enough people to make driving too much of an ordeal. Though I remember hearing that Montana has the highest per capita rate of accidents, but, then again, if one person gets into an accident in Montana that accounts for about 45% of the non-bovine population.

[skylark]

And Washington drivers are awesome. They have no idea what they're doing in parking lots, but on the road they are nearly always considerate. I can't speak for the entire PNW since I haven't been to all of it.

I... take it you've never been to Lakewood, then.

Then again, the jackasses and douchebags always seem to come out whenever I'm driving. Hmmmmm.......

The Safeway parking lot in the Town Center is the worst, if you ask me... >_<

Edit: Missed the part about parking lots. Whoops.

[tushantin]

Something needs to be done about traffic security -- not from the Government's side, but in the more social one. Why do drivers in some states (or any state for that matter) act like kids "wanting to get their ice cream first"? Traffic fatalities are far worse in such cases. When I went to Mumbai once I was sickened by its density of traffic: the jam went on for miles, and there was no place for movement for a whole forty minutes. An Ambulance nearby had an emergency case, but was stuck in the traffic, incapable of rushing to the Hospital.

Also, some truck-owner's immature drunk driving took the life of my Grandfather, and a half-asleep bus-driver killed two good friends on mine. On the sidewalks I frequently see dogs, cats, birds and other animals crushed under heavily vehicles. Even yesterday I had a similar brush against death. Such horrid events have made me despise vehicles.

...I'd rather buy a horse. It'd be fun to go to work, or movies, or stuff on a horse.

[ZeaLitY]

Fuck companies that don't have the fucking professionalism to tell you if you've gotten a job or not, though they've promised to contact you. I already know I didn't fucking get it, but I'm obligated to confirm. I sent an e-mail to my HR contact yesterday, and they still haven't replied. It's going to be time soon for a righteous indignation phone call. I wish I could verbally abuse them all on the phone.

What a world. I was treasurer at my university's accounting society; have a Master's degree in Accountancy with a focus in audit; 3.8 GPA; Eagle Scout; laundry list of strengths. And I can't get one fucking job in public accounting. Half of all Europeans under 34 live with at least one parent, and much of the Occupy people in the US and the protesters in Europe (like the ones in Madrid) are young people with fucking Master's degrees who can't get a fucking job. We're finally reaping the true outcome of borrowing from the future and using up the fucking earth at a pace technology can't match. We're finally inheriting the wind of a system that demands perpetual growth in a finite world.

I can't wait to see what happens when the bubble of education bursts. Surprise! Go to college, work hard, and enjoy a life of student debt and unemployment, because there are too many fucking people in a world too technologically advanced to require all their labor, based on a system that requires too much growth for this taxed, ailing earth to support (not to mention a patriarchal, avaricious global assembly line)! Welcome to the rest of your life!

It's already such a giant fucking ethical problem for me to accept working in public accounting (although it's balanced by hte fact that auditors—in theory, at least, since at the higher levels it becomes retaining clients and pleasing them—keep the excesses of private firms and their fraud in check). I could not ethically work in marketing, or defense. Or to help manage a hedge fund? Haha. There are some things far too impure to stain one's hands with. May the ghost of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis descend upon all the corrupt—all the people who interpret "caveat emptor" as a free license to exploit people without regret—and bring them to unrelenting justice. His ghost exacting vengeance is at least more likely than some God or karma doing it.

[Syna]

FOR THE SAKE OF THE GODS, LIFE

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE SLOW DOWN

PLEASE

... waaaaay too much happening at once. I normally thrive when my life is tumultuous and shifting, but after three months of this lord I just need time for a breath or two...

[tushantin]

His ghost exacting vengeance is at least more likely than some God or karma doing it.

Actually, "Karma" is more likely than the ghost (not the Karma most foreigners think about, but the actual definition of Karma). Still, may the fruits of Karma be with you!

Hope you succeed, Z. Hang in there, pal!

FOR THE SAKE OF THE GODS, LIFE

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE SLOW DOWN

PLEASE

... waaaaay too much happening at once. I normally thrive when my life is tumultuous and shifting, but after three months of this lord I just need time for a breath or two...

KEEP VIGILANCE! Don't jump off the plane yet, you need this! *hands her oxygen mask and cylinder*

[Lord J Esq]

I've spent much of the last four days doing the author's equivalent of filekeeping, organizing a jumbled old collection of notes into a new file folder family. When the task is complete I will be able to reference my notes much more effectively and quickly.

That's not a frustration; that's a pleasure. And I have enjoyed doing the work itself--a sure sign I have a writer's mind.

No, the frustration is that I get these little spurts of productivity usually because I am procrastinating from doing something even more important. In this case, I have something much more pressing and important to be working on over the next week. That's how it goes with me. If Item A is really pressing, I'll work on Item B. If Item B is really pressing, I'll work on Item A. The best outcome of such a system is to get importance things done by happy coincidence, out of order.

John Perry, of Stanford University, won the 2011 Ig Nobel Prize in Literature for his Theory of Structured Procrastination, which states that "To be a high achiever, always work on something important, using it as a way to avoid doing something that's even more important."

Oh, what an ignoble perch atop to light! And, yet, it describes me pretty well. 

[ZeaLitY]

Fucking bullshit. Fuck that cop, and fuck the Chancellor of that university. Fuck the people responsible for the situation that necessitates these protests.

[Lord J Esq]

Indeed. The picture seen 'round the world. It looks so bad for that police officer that I can't help but wonder if the still photo missed some kind of fluid commotion in the situation. If not, then he probably committed a felony.