2 Short Rants

Number One: Forum Imbiciles

I browse forums on a frequent basis. Yes, I have no friends. I’m struck by the sheer amount of people who do two things:

1. Refuse to use Google

2. Ask about obscure ideas on these forums.

On one forum, there’s one member there who combines these two traits. I should save this person a little humiliation, because my blog is linked from there. But let’s call him “Shmantom_Ford”. Yeah, I couldn’t think of a name.

This member asks about the most obscure things that nobody would ever think of trying. It’s not because the ideas are particularly dangerous, it’s just that nobody cares. For example, two of this user’s most recent threads are: “Make backlit keyboard flash on new IM”  and “Two Mice = Two Cursors”. He’s the only one who I can think of that would actually run these sorts of configurations. He’s the sort of person who would ask “can I run the original Mac OS, but on an Intel machine, and still run Photoshop CS3 in it?”.

The problem is that he occasionally asks intelligent(ish) questions. Like “can I shut the lid of my PowerBook and still keep it running”. All that would require is a simple Google search. But, for whatever reason, those six letters (OK… 10 if you include .com) are much too difficult to type when he requires a question to be answered.

Grr.

Number Two: Chicken Is Not A Vegetable

I’m sick and tired of ignorance. I’m vegetarian (because I’m awesome that way – if you want a real reason, I can’t be bothered). I don’t really expect to be “catered to”, but I’d like a vegetarian option in a restaurant. I mean, a salad or something. But it never fails to surprise me how many people think chicken is a vegetable. The conversation goes something like this:

Me: “Could I please have the salad, but without the bacon on top?”

Waiter: “Sorry, we can’t do that.”

Me: “OK… do you have a vegetarian option for the salad?”

Waiter: “Sure do.”

Me: “Sounds good.”

/* The food arrives */ (I needed to insert a comment… and that was the only way I could think of at the moment. How sad.)

Me: “Sorry, but I think I asked for the vegetarian salad.”

Waiter: “That’s what it is.”

Me: “It has chicken in it.”

Waiter: “I don’t see the problem.”

For once and forever: chicken isn’t a vegetable. Never has been, never will be.

I Am Suddenly Miserable And Happy At The Same Time

Why I’m miserable:

Apple just added a 32GB version of the iPod Touch for $519. I have the 16GB. I bought it 2 months ago for $449. They lowered the price on the 16GB to $419. I think you can see why I’m grumpy.

Also, new iPhone in 16GB. Still no iPhone in Canada. See last post.

Why I’m happy:

Another  episode of House is airing tonight. That’s 3 episodes in 2 weeks. How rad is that?

DAMMIT!!!

So, as I mentioned last time, I forgot to back up bookmarks and IM convos. Guess what else I didn’t back up?

My Photoshop work.

I no longer have some of my wallpapers (works in progress), some old work that I use, patterns, and other crap.

DAMMIT!

Ripoff

A guy messaged me on Aqua Soft a couple of weeks ago. He told me he liked my splash screen on my site, and asked if I wouldn’t mind letting him use a similar one on his. I checked his out (it’s linked here, for reference). Now, right now, it’s quite a bit different. It has a holiday theme applied. However, when the holidays are over, it should revert back to its original form. The splash of that site is basically a blue version of the one on my site, however (and I must say this), less well done.Anyway, I told him he could keep the splash screen so long as he linked to my site as inspiration on his site somewhere. In 2 weeks, he has failed to do so.Spam the hell out of him. 

UPDATE: It’s been resolved now. It’s all good.

UPS – “Your Call Is Important To Us… Please Hold”

So, in case you haven’t been following, an important parcel was supposed to arrive yesterday. UPS was (and still is) the shipper, and is ruddy incompetent.Today, I witnessed this raw uselessness.
My package had a scheduled delivery date of yesterday, but it didn’t happen. Apparently, it’s easy to find our house when my dad is getting something shipped, but when it’s my package, they get lost.Anyhow, today rolled around. I phoned at lunch to ensure that my package would be home today. The customer service person apologized for the lack of delivery the previous day and ensured I would get it by noon or just after today. I said “alright” and stupidly decided to go home. I went to my last class of the day, then I left school early (during my spare at 2:00 PM) and walked home in the bloody cold weather. I hate the cold. But that’s another blog story, for another day. I got home at around 2:30 PM, expecting a package. But, lo and behold, there was none to be found. I waited until 5:15, and there was still no parcel.
So I phoned the customer service line again to see if they could tell me where the hell my package was. They couldn’t but assured me that they would forward my concerns to the local distribution centre with a “high priority” rank. They also told me that someone would phone back to me within the next hour.
An hour passed.
Then an hour and a half.
Still, no phone call. I then telephoned UPS back and asked what was up. They said that there was nothing they could do at night, and they assured me that someone would phone me at noon tomorrow.
Isn’t that fantastic?
I don’t recall rescheduling my delivery for 2 days late.