Road Rage.. Again.

I was on my way to the bank. It was the very beginning of rush hour. Approaching an intersection with a left-turn only lane, the car in front of me happened to be the very last who could try to fit in this left-turn only lane. It's tail still stuck out on my lane, so, having common sense, I slowed to a stop and waited for the line to move, as the left arrow had just turned green. Someone honked as he passed me, looking at me. I didn't know why. I guess in this guy's little world everyone did things just to inconvenience him. Sure, I wasn't in a hurry, but why would I just stop dead in the middle of the road, if not for a good reason (i.e. avoiding an obvious collision.. that he could see, had he looked past the end of his nose). It was my time wasted too! (oh no! two whole seconds that I had to stand still and listen to my audiobook instead) Why do people need to be reminded of this?? I just raised my eyebrows at him, questioning expression, since I had no idea what I did wrong.
I got to where I needed to turn onto the interstate. I had to yield to oncoming traffic, since it was a left turn. I considered trying for a small window between cars, reasoning that I should be courteous to the people waiting behind me. I began to accelerate.. but then I heard a honk from behind.
Instantaneously, (yes, women thoughts do run this fast at times) I realized that in being courteous to those behind me, I would be rude to those I would be driving in front of. Thus, if I had to choose which group of people to be rude to, it would plainly be those that have not been rude to me first, so... having moved a whole of 3 inches into my acceleration, I stopped again.
And gave him the bird. I made sure it was against my windshield so he could see the silhouette clearly.
His hands began moving.. not just flipping me off back.. but more of some enraged form that I can only imagine the deaf would interpret as irate baby-talk. When he noticed I was looking in my rear-view mirror, he dramatically pointed to his phone.
That would be an interesting conversation. "Do you know why I pulled you over?" "No, officer." "Well, we got a complaint about someone breaking too much." "Yup, I've been avoiding accidents all day. Should I stop?"
So when we got on the interstate, he got up along side of me so he could lean way over into the passenger seat (would have been out the window, had his window been rolled down) with the most emphasis I've ever seen given to a hand gesture. I raised my eyebrows, smiled slightly and nodded, as I was humoring a very young child. I was thinking, "Yea, you think you're right. The world will end before you question this, which is what causes you to continue to be ignorant. Your mother must be so proud."
As I glanced at him, out of the corner of my eye I noticed the slumped-over figure of a youth, hiding his face. And in that youth, I saw myself wallowing in shame in my dad's car. I hope that youth sees the man for the ass I always saw my dad to be. I hope that youth grows up to be intolerant of road rage as I am, reacting to frustrating situations on the road with pity for those who will learn the meaning of darwinism soon enough.

Tough....... (insert word)

Tough... Times.

Yes, we are in the middle of a recession. No it wasnt W.'s fault. People are quick to point the finger at the other guy, but lets face facts.
Greedy bastards are why you cannot buy a gallon of milk for less than a gallon of gas. Greedy bastards are why farmers are told not to grow grain and why a loaf of bread costs $3.00. Greedy bastards are the reason why our gas prices are so high, they feel that the greedy Americans should finance their $60B luxury yacht. Greedy bastards would rather bail out a bank, than bail out a school district.

Tough.... Shit.

Its high time we stop using our voices to complain, and start using our votes. We need to let congress know that there should be term limits for the House and Senate. No more life terms. No more pork barrels. No more earmarks. No more bullshit. We need to tell our representatives to start putting out, or get out!

Tough..... Cookies.

Now hows this for bull. A girlscout in North Carolina is being told she cannot sell her cookies. The reason? She has an unfair advantage because her father is a web developer and made her a website where local people can order the cookies. Some schmuck who's daughters stopped being girlscouts some 10 years ago complained that this was unfair. I thought that selling girlscout cookies was supposed to teach the girls about economics and marketing? If e-commerce isnt 'fair' then maybe the hasbeen dad needs to learn HTML.

Tough.... Love.

My nephew was sent to my mom's for a few stunts he pulled in Texas. Sadly after promising not to do the things he did down there, he started getting involved with a few kids around here that are guiding him to do the very things he got in trouble down there. My mom, in an effort to provide a good home to the kid got him a cell phone, against my recommendation. When he came to Iowa, and I got to talk to him. I told him that as long as his grades were good and he did what he was told, and didnt have any bad marks against him he could hang out. He screwed up. BAD.. then had the audacity to tell mom that I was going to come get him to take him to see a movie. Bullshit I said. So it looks like this weekend I go down to moms and have a few words with my nephew. Hopefully I can control myself and not beat the living tar out of him. wish me luck.

Well... A mighty deep subject...

This particular thread is all about nothing in particular. When was the last time you called in for help, and was reluctant to actually help the person you called help you?

Last night I was having an issue with my phone, and I called support and we went thru the motions of getting my G1 fixed. At then end of the call, I thanked her for being there when I needed her. I think it threw her off. I honestly think that in the world of fast paced communications and tele-support, no one stops to think that we are humans just like you.

This is a copy of what I wanted to send to the Des Moines Register, they wouldnt print it because they wanted to include my name. Due to security reasons at work, I didnt want to get fired. so here is what I wrote.

Dear Des Moines,

From the bottom of my heart, I beg of you all to consider the following when you are attempting to contact customer support for your services. Whether its for your Internet provider, your mobile phone company, even your bank. The live person you are speaking to is just that, another living breathing human just like you that has a job, house notes, car payments, and screaming kids just like you. Yet, that impersonal device on your hand glued to your ear, your phone, grants you some unwritten permission that gives you authoriity to treat your customer service provider with the foulest attitudes, venomous words, and threats that you yourself wouldnt put up with from someone face to face, yet everyday you call us and sling these at us like they were beads at mardi gras. It truly bothers me that my polite bank teller is a raving lunatic on the phone when she calls me for support. I am not trash, I am your customer service provider. Remember, you called me for help, I didn't call you.

Now, mind you, I know lots of people in the customer service industry that feel like I do, why then cannot the paper publish it under an 'pen name?' I am pretty sure that other papers would be more than willing to alter the names to protect the innocent... Oh well. yet another attempt to educate these rotten brained foul mouth, lazy people shot down by a rotten brained foul mouth customer.