What's bugging you? (2013)

[whizkid]

My son is a junior in college and my daughter a freshman so I've been through the high school years and the college admission process 2 times in recent years. A lot has changed in 25 years.

 

In the fall of my son's junior year in high school I found and started reading and asking questions on this website: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/

 

Your son is only a freshman but it's not too early to start understanding the college admissions process and especially the financial aspects of getting kids through college these days and even starting to implement financial strategies for it.

[rwa12]

Like what whizkid said. They look at an unweighted GPA, but they also consider the quality of classes. It is a whole student concept.

[Patrick425]

Thanks for the info Wizkid. Very helpful! I've actually been looking at and keeping up on tuition costs of various colleges for a long time now. We have been saving in a 529 plan since he was a baby and luckily for my son (in this regards anyways), he an only child, so we've been able to put away a decent amount for him and, barring any big market crashes in the next few years, he should be pretty set financially.

[1992casey]

I had reason to look at Windows 7's built-in help file for wireless networking over the weekend. It started out with a paragraph that said something like "Imagine yourself sitting on a couch or in bed…". In other words, it was a flowery pitch for WiFi.

 

That''s a bunch of unnecessary drivel that does nothing but get in the way when you're looking for the answer to a question. Besides, Windows 7 was released in 2009. WiFi had penetrated the market well beyond anything that needed "imagining" years before that.

[Godspeed]

Okay, okay, okay, I fully realize that when you enter a line behind a lady purchasing $124.57 worth of cat-related merchandise, you get what's coming to you. But seriously, taking 20 separate coupons, then signing her up for a store card without so much as a glance from the cashier warning me it was going to take, oh I don't know, 9 minutes from start to finish. Not ideal.

 

Indeed, I was there only to purchase four 12-packs of Pepsi (plus one 2L of Cherry Coke Zero) that were on sale, so what type of store-brought karmic retribution did this end result not satisfy?

 

And surely it was only due to my own laziness that I did not immediately withdraw from the line the second I saw those damn coupons, even after the initial sight of the kitty litter raised immediate suspicion not 60 seconds prior. (I mean, 643+ ounces of water, aspartame, and phenylalanine can be a bit heavy, right?)

 

So well played, Target. Your move to unleash a coupon-wielding, card-applying, CatLady on me almost worked. Almost. But my steely resolve to get explicitly what I came there for paid off in the end.

[1992casey]

I ran into a similar situation at Pick 'n Save about a year ago… except that in addition, the customer also needed several price checks. The person next in line was so frustrated that he gave up, leaving all of his items sitting on the conveyer belt. This was the only checkout open. The really annoying part of this was that there was a manager running around doing nothing about the situation. He could have called another checker or manned a checkout line himself.

 

Making this more frustrating was that I was just out of the oral surgeon's office. I had an hour to get pain medication, get some appropriate food, get home, eat food, and take medication before the Novocaine wore off.

[brwrsfan]

I hate it when people that I work with don't their jobs properly, and as a result, it makes my job more difficult and makes my work like a living hell sometimes.

 

It could all be avoided if people just simply followed the rules/instructions and did their jobs properly. Instead, I wind up getting more work, more stress and more everything else bad to make up for their ineptiness and still do my job effectively.

[JimH5]

In today's JS Sports section, they have a pretty substantial amount of space devoted to baseball. But in the Rookies to watch section, they're listing Travis D'Arnaud on the Blue Jays and Trevor Bauer on the D-Backs. Both were involved in pretty high profile trades this winter.

 

I expect some untimely info in the baseball preview magazines, with early publication deadlines. But with a daily paper, they should be getting it right.

[1992casey]

I'm sure that the writers are getting raked in the comments area on JSOnline.

[Jimbo]

Watching WTMJ this morning, I saw something new - the "Car Cam". The had a reporter driving around the back roads of Sheboygan County, "reporting" about how much of a mess it is. As if we didn't already know.

[1992casey]

TDS, my phone company and Internet provider, does very well with customer service and technical support of my Internet connection.

 

But when the twain meet, i.e. their web site, all suckitude breaks loose. Once in a blue moon, I have to do something on their web site. Generally, it's when they make a change to their automatic payment system and the old way can't be migrated to the new way.

 

Anyhoo, for the rare times that I've needed to log into their site, I've almost always had to call and get help from someone in order to do it. Since I started using 1Password recently, I figured I'd sign into their site and store the login information so I'd be prepared the next time I'd have to do it.

 

It wasn't easy. I couldn't log in at all in Chrome and Firefox. The guru said that those browsers don't work well with their site. The funny thing is that their e-mail uses Gmail; you'd think that Chrome would be the best choice. The dude recommended IE, but being on a Mac, I don't have that. Safari ended up working. They really need to do better in this regard. Everything else about the company has been good for me.

[razzzorsharp]

Not so much bugging me but...

 

I was at a fundraiser where we are soliciting for a local school. When going through past donors one woman claimed that one of the donors had passed away recently. Without pause, in my snarky voice, I proclaimed, "Well, cross her off then." Unfortunately, there was mostly disgust as nobody seemed to get the Major League reference. Damn pop culture.

[logan82]

I find that funny. My friends would find that funny. People in general would not find that funny. People suck.

[MJLiverock]

I hear Casey, in general I have no problems with TDS for internet and phone but logging into the website on those rare occasions is always a pain. I can never remember the password because it is one of those ridiculous x number o letter, with a number, maybe a capital letter, some special characters but not all are eligible passwords that doesn't work with any of my other passwords. Not to mention their stupid PIN requirement to make any changes on service. They act like your phone information is the most critical info in the world and make it harder to obtain than my financial records. I asked them once about it and they claimed customer love how it protects them from having their long distance company switched or service changed without their knowledge. Really are people still unlawfully switching long distance carriers? There is zero money to be made in long distance carriage and if someone changed my internet service to a slower speed I'd probably notice.

 

As part of my internet service they gave me 100 minutes of long distance a month for free, they already give me landline for virtually nothing so I said sure, give me the 100 minutes of long distance. I have never once used this long distance because they also require another PIN before making the connection. I have no idea what this PIN is and they won't tell me over the phone since it is such sensitive information. Really? Being able to make long distance phone calls on my land line is worth this much security effort?

[Blancofan1]

I have a similar complaint about the HughesNet website. Overall I am very satisfied with the service that the company provides, but having to log in to their website to make account changes or view bills is a major chore. Overall their website is the least user-friendly website I have used in the past decade. Links are no longer active all over their main page and it literally opens 4 windows during the log in process just to get to your account information.

 

In this day and age where a significant number of major companies are developing smartphone apps and streamlining customer service it amazes me that the sites that lag behind the most on technology are for companies that claim to be the most important step to connecting to the internet.

[JohnBriggs12]

What's bugging me is Steve Stricker giving a putting lesson to Tiger Woods, who promptly uses it go beat him. What kind of a competitor gives advice to his opponents? Stricker is too nice a guy. He's star struck by Tiger apparently.

[splitterpfj]

Almost all of our neighbors from my childhood are gone now, I just learned of another death...a really sweet lady who always had a smile for me.

 

It comes with living...but I hate it.

[MJLiverock]

What's bugging me is Steve Stricker giving a putting lesson to Tiger Woods, who promptly uses it go beat him. What kind of a competitor gives advice to his opponents? Stricker is too nice a guy. He's star struck by Tiger apparently.

Haven't Stricker and Tiger been buddies for a long time? I seem to remember something about Stricker being one of the only guys from the tour Tiger really hung out with prior to the whole tabloid mess. I saw Stricker speak at a UW function last year and I know he got a lot of questions about how Tiger was handling the scrutiny/tabloids and divorce, etc.

[RobDeer 45]

What's bugging me is Steve Stricker giving a putting lesson to Tiger Woods, who promptly uses it go beat him. What kind of a competitor gives advice to his opponents? Stricker is too nice a guy. He's star struck by Tiger apparently.

Haven't Stricker and Tiger been buddies for a long time? I seem to remember something about Stricker being one of the only guys from the tour Tiger really hung out with prior to the whole tabloid mess. I saw Stricker speak at a UW function last year and I know he got a lot of questions about how Tiger was handling the scrutiny/tabloids and divorce, etc.

 

Ya they are really good friends, that's why he did it. Stricker is always said to be the nicest guy on tour, maybe the planet! Ha. Lost out on some serious cash because of that, but I bet he sleeps well at night.

[NeedMoreFans]

Our softball sponsor for the past 5 years decided that they did not want to pay as much in sponsor fees this year. They told me that they may not sponsor us at all, largely because they were sponsoring other teams (they do every year), and we played at diamonds that were too far away. They reluctantly agreed to sponsor us, but only after limiting how much they were going to pay...$35 below the full fee. They claim this is what every other team they are sponsoring needs, which I don't understand at all. I'll be looking for a new sponsor next year.

[RobDeer 45]

Our softball sponsor for the past 5 years decided that they did not want to pay as much in sponsor fees this year. They told me that they may not sponsor us at all, largely because they were sponsoring other teams (they do every year), and we played at diamonds that were too far away. They reluctantly agreed to sponsor us, but only after limiting how much they were going to pay...$35 below the full fee. They claim this is what every other team they are sponsoring needs, which I don't understand at all. I'll be looking for a new sponsor next year.

 

Is it a bar/restaurant? Just playing devil's advocate, but if it is, do you guys go there after games? Usually being a sponsor is an investment. Either advertising or expectation that you'll frequent their establishment and therefore return a profit on the investment.

[Patrick425]

At one point I think there was a thread dedicated to things that bug you while driving. It was an interesting thread. I would say that 90% of things that bug me throughout the day occur as I am driving. So much so that I probably bring it up in this forum once every year or two. Probably my biggest pet peeve is left hand turns and how so many people do not know how to properly execute them. Four biggest things I see:

 

1) Light turns green without an arrow. Person making a left hand turn does not get into the intersection to wait for the traffic to flow through instead they stay back behind the crosswalk and do not pull into the intersection at all (until oncoming traffic has cleared). Sometimes, because of this, they are the only car making a left hand turn that is able to get through before the light turns red. I have seen more and more of this. Is this something new that they are teaching in drivers school?...not to pull into the intersection when making a left hand turn?? You are turning into the right hand lane, not the left hand lane. It just makes sense that you would pull out far enough so that when you actually complete your turn, you are in the correct lane.

 

2) This is somewhat related to #1 above, but people who cut their left hand turns and basically turn into oncoming traffic. How hard is it to round off your turn so that you are in the correct lane as you are completing your turn? I see this mostly on side streets. I'll be coming to the end of the street and a car will be making a left hand turn on to the street in such a manner that I basically have to come to a hard stop to avoid getting hit by this person who does not apparently have the coordination and/or sensibilities to make a proper left hand turn.

 

3) People who do not maneuver around cars that are waiting for oncoming traffic to clear as they make a left hand turn.

 

4) I'm in a line of cars waiting to make a left hand turn. The light turns green with a green arrow. Sometimes, I can literally count to 6 or 7 slowly before I finally see the first car making it's turn. Also, some of the gaps between cars that are turning (with an arrow!!) are way too big. Do people have any concept that there is a whole line of cars behind them that are also hoping to get through the green arrow?

 

While left hand turning really bothers me it is slowly being overtaken by people texting while driving. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person on the road not doing it.

[1992casey]

People who do not maneuver around cars that are waiting for oncoming traffic to clear as they make a left hand turn.

 

I'm not sure what you mean here.

 

I think a good share of my traffic complaints have to do with left turns. People are supposed to turn into the closest available lane, and many don't.

 

And as Patrick mentions, drivers need to consider the fact that the green arrow doesn't last forever. Drivers should get into the intersection unless there's a reason not to.

 

Another left turn annoyance is when cars continue to turn after their arrow has ended. I'm not talking borderline, but rather, well after the arrow has gone away.

 

Freeway drivers who can't decide what speed they'd like bother me too. Recently, I got close to a car in the right lane who was going a little under the 65mph limit. Fair enough; I moved to the left lane. As I passed him, he must have decided that he could go faster, making it tougher for me to go by him. When I eventually got ahead of him and moved back to the right lane, suddenly he was in the left lane passing me. After that, he moved back to the right lane and started driving below the speed limit again, so it was rinse and repeat.

[fondybrewfan]

I will echo the left turn vent. If a car is waiting behind a car turning left (Not at a stop light or sign) and there is room to pass on the right just do it. Especially if there is a lot of oncoming traffic.

[logan82]

I hate drivers who don't use their turn signals. Also people who don't use the on ramp to get up to highway speed. Merging with traffic when you are going 10+MPH slower than traffic is very dangerous.