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More Annoyances

March 4, 2008 -

Needing to rant, I've written once before about daily annoyances. Since then, I've been collecting more, and today is vent day.

  • Earbuds that fall out of my ears: When I'm sitting at work listening to music, and I turn my head to look at something, I'd really prefer it if these earbuds didn't fall out every damn time.
  • Impenetrable plastic packaging: We've all bought electronics entombed in that plexiglass-like razor-edged hard plastic packaging. What the hell is the point of that stuff if not to injure consumers and piss us off?
  • Microsoft Office applications that don't close properly: I'm talking here about Office Automation, which I know most people don't work with. But why on Earth is it so impossible to write code to close an office application without leaving the process secretly running in the background?
  • Low calories packs of food: If you take any food and put it in a package small enough, you can claim "Only 100 calories!"
  • 30-year-old actors in movies playing the parts of high-schoolers: Ferris Bueller wasn't a teenager, and neither was Marty McFly.
  • USB ports so close together than you can't use them: When I want to plug my mp3 player and camera in at the same time, I just can't do it.
  • EBay sellers who price shipping for small items at $17: This isn't even an exaggeration. It's also why I don't currently own a copy of Lunar Knights.
  • Products that explode at high altitude: Linda and I first noticed this when we moved to Colorado. We'd open a bottle of hand lotion or tube of toothpaste that we'd last opened at sea level, and due to the decreased atmospheric pressure of our 5300 foot altitude, the stuff would start squirting out uncontrollably. This happens now with baby food containers. They blow up like shaken cans of soda. What a pain.
Comments on More Annoyances
 
Comment Tue, March 4 - 11:53 AM by Frank
Holy cow you read my mind about earbuds and eBay shipping fees. It took me two weeks to find a copy of Street Fighter Alpha Max for PSP because everyone wanted $12.00 to ship it. Priority mail is like $4.95, they must really think people are stupid.

As for earbuds, if you find a comfortable pair let me know, the ones I have now are almost unbearable.
 
Comment Wed, March 5 - 7:09 AM by The Dock
I feel you on the plastic packaging thing. Its not limited to electronics. I just purchased a new faucet for our kitchen and nearly slit my wrist in the protracted process of prising the petulent piece of pragmatic plumbing from its perilous plastic packaging(inspired by Hugo Weaving from V for Vendetta). I thought of writing to the Moen company a many paged missive that would have such words and phrases as "...sadistic .." "..opening this thing is tantamount to suicide.." highlighted, underlined and emphasized with asterisks and bloody daggers. In short OUCH!!!
 
Comment Thu, March 6 - 10:03 PM by Kris Johnson
Don't be harshing on Ferris and Marty! Broderick was only 24 when he played B ueller, ditto for Fox when he first played McFly.