Monthly Archives: April 2008

Tired of Election!

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Aren’t you tired of the Presidential elections? I am! To think that we feel like this in April, while still going through primaries! What will we be feeling by the time general election voting takes place in November?

Yes, I know this is democracy and we should take pride in competitive elections. I know that lot of people around the world, living under authoritarian regimes are envying us. I certainly do not want to live under some dictator just to avoid annoyances of a democratic election.

However a lot can be said in praise of moderation. That goes for elections as well.

Do we need all those political ads day in and day out? One cannot but feel that all that money used to buy ads be better used elsewhere.

Then there is the “news”. One cannot turn on news without getting inundated by a torrent of election stories to almost total exclusion of all other news. Do we really need to hear TV talking heads endlessly parsing every sentence of candidates and their surrogates? Please let people make up their own minds in their own time.

What makes all this wall to wall coverage nauseating is its triviality. Most of it does not concern the real issues and platforms of the candidates, but peripheral issues about candidates’ personality or associations. Political junkies may care about all that, but most of us ordinary folk do not.

If political junkies do not believe we are tired of election, they should listen to people they trust; pollsters. Polls have consistently indicated that election fatigues is rising all round the country. Take heed!

Don’t You Hate Traffic Jams?

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I certainly do hate traffic jams. I simply cannot understand them. Why do they ever exist? Most of the time you spend hours stuck in a traffic jam but at the end you find there was hardly any reason for one anyway.

One can understand traffic congestion caused by accidents or road maintenance, though perhaps not when one is behind thousand or so cars. Given some down time one can understand such a situation, especially after a good tirade against the drivers or the road maintenance authorities responsible, but most traffic jams are caused not by accidents or sudden damages to road.

In fact nobody knows why they are caused. Some say they are due to small traffic incidents slowing down traffic and then accumulating through a chain reaction. Others believe that they are caused due to temporary bottlenecks snowballing, yet others put the blame on bad weather, poor signaling, etc. etc.

Why can’t all the scientists and researchers find out for certain? After all they are costing economy and everyone involved, meaning you and I, lot of money for gods’ sake!

What I can gather from all the causes counted above is that they are due to people reacting stupidly and acting like a herd. This is in line with what I have seen of other drivers’ behavior from inside traffic logjams.

When you drive a car you cannot act like a herded animal doing what other people are doing. Be independent! Think! If everyone does that, these traffic jams will unresolve themselves in no time. That is my opinion anyway.

Retail Store Annoyances

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Don’t you hate going to retail stores? There are so many annoying things about them that one wants to throw every thing down and return home. There are in fact so many, that I don’t know where to begin.

I shall begin with crowds. These days there so many people at stores that you cannot move or stand still without literally bumping into some person or other. Most of them seem to be utterly clueless why they are there, and what they are supposed to be doing. They seem to be there only to disrupt people who are going about their purchases; you and me.

Then there are the children. If adults are bad, children in retail stores are an absolute menace. Enough said!

Related annoyance is the lines at checkout that crowds create. There is nothing worse than standing at basically the same spot staring at other people’s backs for half an hour or so. Can’t these multi billion dollar revenue generating retail stores increase the number of checkout people?

It is unbelievable, but true; sometimes these checkout people get their sums and product details wrong even with all those computerized checkout machine to help them. Always check your bill.

Why can’t people put their shopping carts in proper holding cages after use? And why is it that store employees never seem to do that? One is almost always forced to look for one and maneuver it back into store to get started.

Most of the salespeople loitering around a retail store are perfectly useless. They are unable to give you a straight answer or recommend products, but stare at you blankly if you ask them a question. Stores seem to recruit the most uneducated people around because they are cheap.

Don’t even think about returning any defective goods, all the trouble and bad blood generated will make it not worth the while even if you succeed in getting a replacement.

That is not all, but for now I will stop at that. Those damn retailers!

Annoying Coworkers

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Now that we are well on the way to getting things off our chest, I am going to mouth off on some annoying habits of my coworkers. I am sure lot of you would have encountered similar habits.

First up are people who are always not prepared. People who cannot come prepared to a long arranged business meeting should not be there, or in any workplace, in my opinion.

Another group of coworkers who should not work in a modern office are people who cannot work in a team. What can be more annoying than people who only care about their particular limited area, when everyone else is working their hearts off for the team?

Then there are people who expect others to fix, complete, and help out, with the work, not once, mind you, but every time.

A person who cannot give a firm handshake always sends wrong signals. If a person cannot look one in the eye and has a hand that feels like a fish, that makes the whole atmosphere unpleasant

We also cannot help getting annoyed at people with, shall we say, less than perfect hygiene. Smell, body generated or through smoking or alcohol consumption, really turns me off for sure. People, who use too much fragrance, as a habit or to cover-up other smells, also annoy me. Office is not a place for strong smells. Period

Bad phone etiquette especially mobile phone etiquette is a big no-no. This is a so common an annoyance that I hardly need to explain it.

Where is the off button?

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Is there anything more annoying than mobile phones ringing on season and off? They certainly annoy me! That is why I am mouthing off here.

Yes I know they are essential to modern lifestyle. And I know that we should make considerable allowances for everyone’s desire to be in touch in this ultra connected world. However there must be limits somewhere

So where are the limits?

That is a work in progress. As with all new technology new limits and new rules of etiquette will have to evolve. For instance, nowadays it is bad form to write emails in ALL CAPS because that is considered shouting. Unfortunately mobile phone etiquette seems to change from place to place. For example some restaurants ban mobiles altogether, while others are full of patrons talking on the phone while their lunch companions are kicking their heels.

To me basic rule should be simple; respect the other person. In most social contexts person right in front of you should deserve the priority. After all we do not cut in on normal conversation but await our turn, but we think nothing about cutting in through a phone.

Going by that simple rule we should not answer phones while focusing on anything on a social context whether it is a person or a play. We must have a way to shut off the phone when we enter in to such situation automatically. Unfortunately mobile manufacturers so quick to cater to our every need have not been prompt with this.

I know all this is perhaps too much, but then those damn phones are so annoying.

Spell! For God’s sake!

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Talking of things that irritates me, top of the line are people who do not take the trouble to spell words correctly. Don’t take me wrong, I can stand and excuse people new to the language or children, who make mistakes while spelling. They are after all just learning.

What I cannot stand are people who should know better.

Forget about others, number of college educated native English speakers who cannot write one sentence without making at least one mistake is simply mind bogglingly high. I know that from personal experience. For the life of me I cannot make out why they should be making mistakes. They have seen and read those words all their life.

When I see such writing I just want to scream my head off sometimes. I mean, even if they cannot spell, can’t they use spell checkers that are standard issue for word processors these days? Why do they not take the trouble of making few more clicks?

In fact such mistakes indicate that these people simply do not care how they treat others and how they themselves want to be treated. It is simply bad manners. They simply do not care and are sloppy, in the same way that people who litter or wipe their hands on upholstery, do not care about all the unpleasantness they are creating.

To an extent we are all responsible for this devil may care attitude in that we do not remind and caution people about their sloppiness when we observe it.