Minor things that bother you

[Scott5114]

I rather like the term "sea change", for that matter; it's vague enough to imply a gentle erosion of habits or a vast transformation, which really leaves no in-between.

Is sea change what you get back when you break a sand dollar?

[hotdogPi]

Because it's a new concept, so it needed a new term to make it easier to discuss? Same reason we have pronouns, really. Imagine reading a news article describing a study about covid case rates in cities following social distancing rules compared to whose that do not. How much longer do you think the article would be if every single sentence had to use the phrase "keeping a safe space between yourself and other people who are not from your household"?

"Staying apart" is simple enough and not a buzzword.

[1995hoo]

Using 555 as the prefix for a number in a movie.  Everyone knows that's a fake number, so it takes me out of the movie.

Problem is, we can't assign tons of fake prefixes to make them look less fake (we're already running out of phone numbers in a bunch of area codes), and if you use a real prefix it causes problems. (405) 867-5309 goes to the school library in Maysville, Oklahoma, for instance. Can't imagine that librarian is too happy fielding calls from people who just discovered Tommy Tutone.

Area codes can't have a 9 as a middle digit. Those could be used.

In that case, people will just dial the seven-digit number in their own area code. Another possibility is to start the seven-digit number with 1, since that's not allowed either. Or just go the Futurama route and give a number like 784-36λ9.

You're assuming people can make a phone call by dialling just seven digits. That's no longer the case in many places. Can't do that where I live, for example, because of the 571 "overlay" area code–that is, they divided 703 in the 1990s by splitting off 540, and then when 703 was running out of numbers again they decided that instead of splitting 703 into an even smaller area, it would make more sense just to have a second area code for the same area and to require everyone to dial the area code for every call–if I want to call our next-door neighbor, I have to dial 703 plus the seven-digit number regardless of the fact that my number is also a 703. (But we don't have to dial "1" first.)

[CtrlAltDel]

You’re assuming people can make a phone call by dialling just seven digits.

Well, no. My assumption is that if people have to dial an area code to call a 7 digit number that they see in a movie, they are more likely to use their own area code than another one. Or, if there is already an area code in this number, they are also somewhat likely to try the same number with their own area code as well.

[1995hoo]

You're assuming people can make a phone call by dialling just seven digits.

I'm curious why you would think that, to be honest. From where I'm standing, everything I wrote seems equally true whether you use 7- or 10-digit dialing.

Because that's how I interpreted the following sentence:

In that case, people will just dial the seven-digit number in their own area code.

That is, I understood your comment as assuming that someone hearing the song for the first time would pick up the phone and dial 867-5309, just like in the song.

[CtrlAltDel]

You're assuming people can make a phone call by dialling just seven digits.

I'm curious why you would think that, to be honest. From where I'm standing, everything I wrote seems equally true whether you use 7- or 10-digit dialing.

Because that's how I interpreted the following sentence:

In that case, people will just dial the seven-digit number in their own area code.

That is, I understood your comment as assuming that someone hearing the song for the first time would pick up the phone and dial 867-5309, just like in the song.

Ah, I clarified what I meant by "in their own area code" in the edit I made to my post, which, incidentally I did before reading your most recent comment. So, if we weren't on the same page before, I'm pretty sure we are now.

[SSOWorld]

It was "real quick" but now it's "reach out". For God's sakes....tell me to call them, email them, contact them, but "reaching out" is stupid.

Didn't we have this conversation?

[noelbotevera]

Ah, old people. Can't wait to look back at my teenage years, saying, "Man, I loved piloting a two ton death machine, having to compete with other idiots piloting two ton death machines. Makes me want to do it again."

To be fair, there's a saying along the lines of "you want to grow up as a child to become an adult, while adults grow up to become children again (i.e. retirement)". Maybe I'm in my rebellious phase or something.

[ethanhopkin14]

I do like that I can order things I could never get before because Sears didn't carry it, but the trade off is everyone has the same crap now.  Nothing is unique anymore because anyone can look it up at anytime, and can tell 20 of their friends over social media in an instant and then all of them have it.  Then, in the course of 3 days, a whole town has it.  Like a lot of things, the internet was a great invention, but it brought on many many more annoyances as a result. 


Yes, I do miss the days of missing prime time shows if you had something else to do.  It kinda taught you a lesson in life that nothing is guaranteed in life, an that you need to get over the trivial stuff and focus on what's really important.  Now everyone seems to have an entitled attitude to everything because they have total access to everything all the time.  Let me solve a debate by "googling" what you two are fighting about instead of using your brains.  It is, in my opinion, one of the many things that has made us a very spoiled society.  There were lessons to be learned when you didn't get your way in the old days because you couldn't get your way.  Now, it seems like with the availability of everything, you can have literally, everything, and there is no reward.  No one learns any hard lessons anymore.  Everything is instantaneous.  Its great for somethings, but I see it spoils people.

It sounds like the real issue that you have is that for some reason situations where everyone has equal access to something bothers you. There's a product you like, someone has to be unable to buy it. There's a TV show, someone has to miss it. There's knowledge, so someone has to know it and someone has to not know it. Given that equal access generally benefits everyone, I haven't the foggiest idea why you'd think the technical solutions to grant it are bothersome.

It should be noted–whenever there's a system of inequality in play, someone somewhere will have an incentive to make sure that you are the one who gets left out.

My point to the term social distancing was why does everything have to have a buzz word?  Why do we have to market everything?  Why is everything for sale?

Because it's a new concept, so it needed a new term to make it easier to discuss? Same reason we have pronouns, really. Imagine reading a news article describing a study about covid case rates in cities following social distancing rules compared to whose that do not. How much longer do you think the article would be if every single sentence had to use the phrase "keeping a safe space between yourself and other people who are not from your household"?

I hate the term googling too.  I hate that it is a broad term for internet activity.

Genericized trademarks suck for everyone, especially the owner of the trademarks. Unfortunately, once there's inertia behind a term, it's practically impossible to change. Just ask the Kleenex people.

I was the one that got left out.  It wasn't fun at the time, but it taught me to get over stuff that wasn't that important.  I liked it.  It was a simpler time.  I miss that.  Like the title to this thread, it bothers me that generations will grow up with access to everything.  There really should be somethings that you have to earn, or they should be unattainable.  Just like capitalism needs unemployment in order to work. 

It sounds like a great thing on paper for everyone to have everything.  If I think about it, and it has been invented, I can have it.  The trade off is it makes us spoiled.  That bothers me. 

[ethanhopkin14]

I thought this thread was some place you could air your issues with things, not get admonished for the things that bug you.  I read a lot of the post here, didn't agree with some of them, but I didn't tell those people they were wrong.  That was their opinion and their issues, and that's the way it is. 

I miss a lot of things that have gone out of business or out of fashion in lieu of something more convenient.  I miss Blockbuster Video.  I miss going there on a Friday night because you might see someone you knew.  You also have been going to Blockbuster for 4 Fridays and this is the first Friday they have the movie you want.  There was a feeling like none other when it was there.  In the VHS days you had to make sure you rewound the tape before returning it, and you had to give it back at a certain date so yes, way less convenient than the streaming we do now.  I am sorry if everyone doesn't agree, but it annoys me that that whole experience is now completely removed from our culture.  It just does annoy me; sorry that it does.

Just like I liked it better when you needed talent to be on a TV show.  Now with social media platforms, all you need is a camera to be famous. 

I hate self checkout lines.  I love them when I am in a hurry because I am impatient, but I hate them because it take one worker to watch five machines when that would be work for five people before.  Also, I miss the human interactions.  Yes the old lines were slower and more tedious, but also you paid those people to know the register.  I don't understand the register, so when there is a problem I have to wait around for someone to fix it for me.  I am not someone who is constantly glued to their phone anymore.  In fact, I am making a consorted effort to dial down my phone usage, so I am someone that really prefers the human to human interaction.  That's another reason why I miss Blockbuster.

[J N Winkler]

I was the one that got left out.  It wasn't fun at the time, but it taught me to get over stuff that wasn't that important.  I liked it.  It was a simpler time.  I miss that.  Like the title to this thread, it bothers me that generations will grow up with access to everything.  There really should be some things that you have to earn, or they should be unattainable.  Just like capitalism needs unemployment in order to work.

My perspective on this is that the economy we have now is not the one we had in, say, 1975, where things worth having--like a college degree and your own house--still required you to work hard if you were not born into money, but were easier to get than they are now, owing to income inequality being significantly lower.

Typical mid-1970's examples of consumer durables that were considered status symbols included color televisions, good-quality brown furniture (with real wood), and record players that were as big as living-room couches.  Nowadays you can barely give any of those things away; the brown furniture has come the closest to retaining its value, but as any estate sale consultant will tell you, it goes for pennies on the dollar because millennials are all about the color-coordinated look and most of them can't tell quality wood from pressed-sawdust garbage.

In our current society, sawdust furniture and cheap electronics have made it easier to create the illusion of having arrived if you are poor.  In the 1970's, burglars would steal color TVs because they had real value in the economy of the time; nowadays they turn up their noses even at flat-panel LCD TVs because they are hardly worth the trouble to fence.  The flip sides are that upward mobility is a lot less and the prevalence of subscription models for audiovisual content means the durable components of the system--the screen, speakers, etc.--function like razor holders for Gillette blades or printers for printer manufacturers:  just as Gillette sticks it to you for the blades, and the printer makers charge the earth for refill cartridges, the entertainment conglomerates suck you dry with streaming fees.

I think that, at some level, our culture of "I want it and I want it NOW" is a response to diminished prospects for advancing economically.

[ethanhopkin14]

I was the one that got left out.  It wasn't fun at the time, but it taught me to get over stuff that wasn't that important.  I liked it.  It was a simpler time.  I miss that.  Like the title to this thread, it bothers me that generations will grow up with access to everything.  There really should be some things that you have to earn, or they should be unattainable.  Just like capitalism needs unemployment in order to work.

My perspective on this is that the economy we have now is not the one we had in, say, 1975, where things worth having--like a college degree and your own house--still required you to work hard if you were not born into money, but were easier to get than they are now, owing to income inequality being significantly lower.

Typical mid-1970's examples of consumer durables that were considered status symbols included color televisions, good-quality brown furniture (with real wood), and record players that were as big as living-room couches.  Nowadays you can barely give any of those things away; the brown furniture has come the closest to retaining its value, but as any estate sale consultant will tell you, it goes for pennies on the dollar because millennials are all about the color-coordinated look and most of them can't tell quality wood from pressed-sawdust garbage.

In our current society, sawdust furniture and cheap electronics have made it easier to create the illusion of having arrived if you are poor.  In the 1970's, burglars would steal color TVs because they had real value in the economy of the time; nowadays they turn up their noses even at flat-panel LCD TVs because they are hardly worth the trouble to fence.  The flip sides are that upward mobility is a lot less and the prevalence of subscription models for audiovisual content means the durable components of the system--the screen, speakers, etc.--function like razor holders for Gillette blades or printers for printer manufacturers:  just as Gillette sticks it to you for the blades, and the printer makers charge the earth for refill cartridges, the entertainment conglomerates suck you dry with streaming fees.

I think that, at some level, our culture of "I want it and I want it NOW" is a response to diminished prospects for advancing economically.

Word to that.  There is a lot of truth to what you said of making things so cheap it looks like everyone now has arrived.  There is no lower middle class anymore.  It's like you are poor, middle class or rich, and the material goods are the only things that draws the line between the middle and the poor, and barely at that.  You may have the latest iPhone if you are middle class as opposed to a few versions before if you are poor, but you're both getting the hose the same way.  A long time ago, there was like 1 type of color TV you could buy, and it was expensive.  Now, a flat screen can cost you pretty much as much as you are willing to pay because they make all different versions of the same thing.  The expensive one and the cheep one and the ones in between. 

That brings me to another thing that bugs me.  Our society of products that have now become more expensive to repair than to just out right replace.  Not mentioning what it does to our environment to have all this useless junk lying around that "can't" be fixed, but you can't tell me you can't fix something.  You just are being greedy like everything else and you want to charge way to much to fix it, and if you are the manufacturer, it looks better that you sell more, and not fix the ones you already sold. 

[wanderer2575]

On a roadgeek theme, I'm annoyed when BGSs and signals are centered over a lane(s) in a curve and therefore not centered as seen on approach.  For example:

Westbound I-94 ramp to I-96 in Detroit:  The BGS for eastbound I-96 is too far to the left.

Westbound I-96 ramp to Wixom Road in Novi  The traffic signals are way too far to the left.

[ethanhopkin14]

On a roadgeek theme, I'm annoyed when BGSs and signals are centered over a lane(s) in a curve and therefore not centered as seen on approach.  For example:

Westbound I-94 ramp to I-96 in Detroit:  The BGS for eastbound I-96 is too far to the left.

Westbound I-96 ramp to Wixom Road in Novi  The traffic signals are way too far to the left.

Whoa.  Sorry if I am new to the block on this one, but I have never seen a control "city" of Canada. 

[Scott5114]

That brings me to another thing that bugs me.  Our society of products that have now become more expensive to repair than to just out right replace.  Not mentioning what it does to our environment to have all this useless junk lying around that "can't" be fixed, but you can't tell me you can't fix something.  You just are being greedy like everything else and you want to charge way to much to fix it, and if you are the manufacturer, it looks better that you sell more, and not fix the ones you already sold. 

It's not so much greed but getting bit in the ass by economies of scale.

Making new TVs is cheap and easy because you just take twenty chips, load them into a machine that solders them onto a circuit board, then put the circuit board into a machine that hooks it up to the monitor, then another machine puts the plastic bezel on, boom, you have a TV. You can crank out hundreds of them an hour.

Then the TV breaks. Someone has to go in and open it up and diagnose which part is acting up, track down a replacement part (which is likely to be more expensive, because you need just one, instead of the factory that's buying them by the pallet), pull it out by hand, replace it by hand, close it back up. None of the machines that were making the new TV are being used for this, and they couldn't be, because what is wrong with this TV isn't going to be the same thing that's wrong with the next one, and a repairman usually has to deal with a whole bunch of different models, whereas the factory is making big batches of one model at a time. And then you have the "consumer labor" of tracking down a trustworthy repairman that is willing to do the job. With the labor time and the parts, it can end up being more expensive to fix a broken TV than to just buy a new one.

[hbelkins]

Because it's a new concept, so it needed a new term to make it easier to discuss? Same reason we have pronouns, really. Imagine reading a news article describing a study about covid case rates in cities following social distancing rules compared to whose that do not. How much longer do you think the article would be if every single sentence had to use the phrase "keeping a safe space between yourself and other people who are not from your household"?

"Staying apart" is simple enough and not a buzzword.

I think I've said before that I hate the term "social distancing." And that phrase has popped up everywhere. How about "physical distancing" or "wider spacing" or other words that convey the same thing but aren't an invented term? Or even just "distancing" or "separation?"

Instead of "people are urged to follow social distancing guidelines," just leave out "social" and say "people are urged to follow distancing guidelines." After all, we don't caution against keeping a two-car-length social distance between cars to prevent tailgating or rear-end collisions.

[ethanhopkin14]

Because it's a new concept, so it needed a new term to make it easier to discuss? Same reason we have pronouns, really. Imagine reading a news article describing a study about covid case rates in cities following social distancing rules compared to whose that do not. How much longer do you think the article would be if every single sentence had to use the phrase "keeping a safe space between yourself and other people who are not from your household"?

"Staying apart" is simple enough and not a buzzword.

I think I've said before that I hate the term "social distancing." And that phrase has popped up everywhere. How about "physical distancing" or "wider spacing" or other words that convey the same thing but aren't an invented term? Or even just "distancing" or "separation?"

Instead of "people are urged to follow social distancing guidelines," just leave out "social" and say "people are urged to follow distancing guidelines." After all, we don't caution against keeping a two-car-length social distance between cars to prevent tailgating or rear-end collisions.

To me the term "social distancing" feels more like a term a bunch of marketing egg heads at a conference table came up with.  When this virus stuff started, you heard that term, "fluid situation" and "self quarantine" over and over again, like these words were for sale that a marketing group came up with and someone was capitalizing on a horrible situation we were living through.  Self Quarantine made no sense because quarantine by definition means you are by "yourself".  They were trying to say you chose to quarantine, but the term would be "voluntary quarantine".  Same with social distancing.  If you are keeping distance from everybody, by definition you are terminating any socializing.  Keeping distance feels more like something that was what we were doing.   Making a brand new invented term just feels like a cash grab. 

[tdindy88]

It should be "physical distancing." There's no reason you can't be socially distant with people, just keep your physical distance. I think by the point people realized this it was already too late. It seemed like "social distancing" took hold over the matter of days and it's just a name that stuck.

There was also a lot of fluidity with terms like "staying at home," "lockdown," and "quarantine." Staying at home and only going out for essential business and work is not in my opinion "quarantine." And unless you were in a nursing home you weren't ever really under "lockdown." Yet everyone seemed to treat the situation as if they were under quarantine. If I am looking at it right, only if you were sick or in recent contact with someone who was were you really supposed to be under quarantine. There you didn't leave your home unless it was an emergency. Going out to get takeout and still working is not quarantine.

[wanderer2575]

On a roadgeek theme, I'm annoyed when BGSs and signals are centered over a lane(s) in a curve and therefore not centered as seen on approach.  For example:

Westbound I-94 ramp to I-96 in Detroit:  The BGS for eastbound I-96 is too far to the left.

Westbound I-96 ramp to Wixom Road in Novi  The traffic signals are way too far to the left.

Whoa.  Sorry if I am new to the block on this one, but I have never seen a control "city" of Canada.

Yep.  I-96 terminates at the exit to the Ambassador Bridge to Windsor, Ontario.  It merges into southbound I-75 so the sign also could have shown a control city of Toledo, but none do. 

Another example:  Once you're in Port Huron, the control "city" for eastbound I-69 and I-94 is Canada.

[kphoger]

For COVID-related terms...

I dislike people using the word 'quarantine' to mean any restrictions.  Sorry, but your having to work from home because your office is open doesn't mean you're quarantined.  When I got back from Mexico in March, I was under state order to stay in my house for two weeks.  I couldn't pick up my computer from work, friends had to buy us groceries, couldn't take the remaining trip money to the church secretary.  That's what 'quarantine' means.

I dislike the phrase 'social distancing' to mean only physical distancing.  To me, social distancing is arranging things so that you don't have in-person interactions.  It means canceling activities, doing meetings by phone instead of in the conference room, not having company over, that kind of thing.  On the other hand, physical distancing means that, when you do have interactions with other people, you don't get close to each other.  So, for example, a teacher moving desks around so they're six feet apart isn't doing so for reasons of social distancing:  it's the same students interacting socially either way, just the physical separation is different.

[GaryV]

On a roadgeek theme, I'm annoyed when BGSs and signals are centered over a lane(s) in a curve and therefore not centered as seen on approach.  For example:

Westbound I-94 ramp to I-96 in Detroit:  The BGS for eastbound I-96 is too far to the left.

Westbound I-96 ramp to Wixom Road in Novi  The traffic signals are way too far to the left.

Whoa.  Sorry if I am new to the block on this one, but I have never seen a control "city" of Canada.

Yep.  I-96 terminates at the exit to the Ambassador Bridge to Windsor, Ontario.  It merges into southbound I-75 so the sign also could have shown a control city of Toledo, but none do. 

Another example:  Once you're in Port Huron, the control "city" for eastbound I-69 and I-94 is Canada.

Also at the Soo:  BR I-75 near I-75

[1995hoo]

On a roadgeek theme, I'm annoyed when BGSs and signals are centered over a lane(s) in a curve and therefore not centered as seen on approach.  For example:

Westbound I-94 ramp to I-96 in Detroit:  The BGS for eastbound I-96 is too far to the left.

Westbound I-96 ramp to Wixom Road in Novi  The traffic signals are way too far to the left.

Whoa.  Sorry if I am new to the block on this one, but I have never seen a control "city" of Canada. 

Portions of I-81 in New York use "Canada." The last time I was northbound on that road, in June 2019, I only used it for the short distance from I-781 to the border, but I seem to recall from prior trips many years earlier that "Canada" is the northbound "control country" once you're north of Watertown, as at that point there isn't really anywhere else notable in the USA on that road. There isn't really any good Canadian city to use, either, especially because after you cross the border you have to head either west or east to get somewhere significant enough to merit control city status. Kingston is a good one to use on 401, but it wouldn't really work well on I-81 because plenty of traffic will head in the other direction.

[ethanhopkin14]

On a roadgeek theme, I'm annoyed when BGSs and signals are centered over a lane(s) in a curve and therefore not centered as seen on approach.  For example:

Westbound I-94 ramp to I-96 in Detroit:  The BGS for eastbound I-96 is too far to the left.

Westbound I-96 ramp to Wixom Road in Novi  The traffic signals are way too far to the left.

Whoa.  Sorry if I am new to the block on this one, but I have never seen a control "city" of Canada.

Yep.  I-96 terminates at the exit to the Ambassador Bridge to Windsor, Ontario.  It merges into southbound I-75 so the sign also could have shown a control city of Toledo, but none do. 

Another example:  Once you're in Port Huron, the control "city" for eastbound I-69 and I-94 is Canada.

Also at the Soo:  BR I-75 near I-75

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.7780005,-106.4544006,3a,22y,94.82h,99.3t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1syJIZpyQ-FurbMvBNCvyExw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

I am used to the foreign city actually being mentioned.  Not just the entire country. 

[jmacswimmer]

On a roadgeek theme, I'm annoyed when BGSs and signals are centered over a lane(s) in a curve and therefore not centered as seen on approach.  For example:
Westbound I-94 ramp to I-96 in Detroit:  The BGS for eastbound I-96 is too far to the left.
Westbound I-96 ramp to Wixom Road in Novi  The traffic signals are way too far to the left.

Whoa.  Sorry if I am new to the block on this one, but I have never seen a control "city" of Canada. 

Portions of I-81 in New York use "Canada." The last time I was northbound on that road, in June 2019, I only used it for the short distance from I-781 to the border, but I seem to recall from prior trips many years earlier that "Canada" is the northbound "control country" once you're north of Watertown, as at that point there isn't really anywhere else notable in the USA on that road. There isn't really any good Canadian city to use, either, especially because after you cross the border you have to head either west or east to get somewhere significant enough to merit control city status. Kingston is a good one to use on 401, but it wouldn't really work well on I-81 because plenty of traffic will head in the other direction.

Canada also makes an appearance at the I-90/I-190 interchange near Buffalo.

[texaskdog]

It was "real quick" but now it's "reach out". For God's sakes....tell me to call them, email them, contact them, but "reaching out" is stupid.

Didn't we have this conversation?

Probably.  Some of these pages go on for years.