What's bugging you? (2015)

[jerichoholicninja]

Who on God's green Earth is the one coming up with these lists of "Security Questions"??? I'm not married so the wedding questions are irrelevant, as are the questions about any children. How am I supposed to have favorite things when I like a lot of things? How are you supposed to choose favorites? Don't favorites change as you are exposed to more and new things? Who the hell remembers where they were on New Year's Eve in 2000, much less who their grade school teachers were? I can't decide which team I want to lose more, the Cubs or the Cardinals. Why can't you ask me questions whose answers are concrete and static - parent's/siblings middle names, grandparents first names, street I grew up on/lived on when I was five, elementary school I went to, height, or make of car I own?

 

I generally use part of the question as my answer so I can remember what my answer is. But, yes, security questions are really stupid.

 

PS: Please don't use this information to try and hack into any of my accounts.

[1992casey]

The worst part about security questions is that the whole concept is insecure. If you answer them honestly, a lot of people will have that information. If you fake the answers, you have to have a system where you'll remember them. I suppose that you can use a bunch of random answers and keep that information in your password manager, but that gets into a lot of bother.

 

Just as bad is when I have to confirm my identity by answering questions about myself based on publicly available information, such as a car I own or owned. I could answer those questions about several people and could easily pass myself off as being them.

[Patrick425]

So, I'm driving EB 94 through the Zoo Interchange construction on my way to work on Friday and I come across an orange construction barrel sitting in the lane (far left lane). I manage to swerve just in time to avoid it. However, about 1/3 of a mile later, there's another one. This one I clip and it takes out my side view driver's side mirror (about $375 worth of damage).

 

I contact the DOT. The person I talk to is very friendly and helpful and I get a feeling that there is a reasonable chance that I will be compensated for the damage to my car. There are 3 contractors on the project and she directs me to start calling them and explain the situation. When I call the first company, they transfer me to the company attorney who is also very friendly and helpful and tells me that there is a owner controlled insurance company that is handling all claims in regards to construction related accidents in the Zoo interchange. He gives me that number which I call. This is where the friendly,helpful stops. I basically told flat out, too bad, but they never cover driver collisions with orange barrels because all barrels are placed where they should be placed. OK...so barrels are supposed to be placed in traffic?

 

So, I once again call the original person that I spoke to at the DOT because she told me that if I run into any issues or need any additional assistance that I should call her back. She emails me a form to fill out and gives me another number to call. I call that person someone else takes my information and tells me that they will get back to me. About an hour or so later I get an email telling me to fill out the form that was sent to me (basically just an accident report form) and then I get another email telling me that I should talk directly to the company that rents the orange construction barrels. I call them and they direct me back to the OCIP (where they told me that don't cover incidents with construction barrels). I told them that I already spoke to them and he suggests that I call my insurance company and see if they can do anything for me. So, that's were I currently stand and I now have little faith that I will get one cent from anyone to help me cover the cost of the damage. I guess I'm just glad it wasn't worse, because it easily could have been.

[1992casey]

I had my mirror clipped off by a deer once. Unfortunately, I couldn't recover anything from the deer. I was just glad that the damage wasn't worse and that I wasn't hurt.

[jerichoholicninja]

I had my mirror clipped off by a deer once. Unfortunately, I couldn't recover anything from the deer. I was just glad that the damage wasn't worse and that I wasn't hurt.

 

[sarcasm]So the law that says you have to have insurance doesn't include deer as well?[/sarcasm]

[LouisEly]

Regarding deer - don't swerve into the ditch to avoid hitting one. If you miss the deer and do damage to your vehicle you cannot prove that you swerved to avoid hitting a deer - your claim may end up getting denied. Best to hit the deer the least amount possible, but make sure you hit it.

 

About 20 years ago I had coyote fur embedded into my bumper that helped prove that I hit one. Just cosmetic damage mostly, a cracked bumper and broken turn signal. Much better than hitting a deer.

[GAME05]

Better to hit a deer than a tree. Plus a lot of people hit their brakes when they swerve and that will only result in losing control of the vehicle.

[1992casey]

Pretty much all of your options suck. I knew one person who was killed by hitting a deer. And I know another who hit a deer, had it bounce over her vehicle, and kill the person in the car behind her.

 

The best solution I've found is to drive more slowly, especially at certain times of the year and especially at night. That gives you some time to react and opens up more options. On two lane roads at night, I've found that 45mph is a pretty good speed.

[nate82]

Well at least you don't have donkey's to worry about crossing the road.

[1992casey]

Yeah, you run into those in Mexico. And cows are known to lie down on the roads at night because they like the warmth of the pavement.

[logan82]

Well at least you don't have donkey's to worry about crossing the road.

Nope, just Amish and their horses.

[1992casey]

Spotting buggies at night has gotten a lot easier since the Amish started using battery operated taillights. Previously, you had to spot the reflection of a slow moving vehicle emblem. Local drivers tend to know the drill, but I can see buggies startling people who aren't used to it.

[logan82]

Spotting buggies at night has gotten a lot easier since the Amish started using battery operated taillights. Previously, you had to spot the reflection of a slow moving vehicle emblem. Local drivers tend to know the drill, but I can see buggies startling people who aren't used to it.

Doesn't help when their horses get loose and cross the road or when going over a hill. Slow moving vehicles on a road are a hazard.

[1992casey]

I've never seen a horse get loose, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. Yeah, slow moving vehicles are a hazard, and buggies are no exception to that. They're not a lot different than encountering a tractor, though.

 

Bicycles can make the road interesting too. On Sundays, they're all over the place west of Madison, and you need to figure that every time you encounter a hill, there'll be bicycles on the other side of the crest.

 

Up north, you have the added attraction of many roads not having shoulders. Bikes, buggies, and tractors are in the lane of traffic. All you can do is follow them until you have the opportunity to carefully go around them.

 

The bottom line is that tractors, buggies, and bicycles are legal and a fact of life. Unlike deer, at least they're operated by humans who are (usually) aware of their responsibilities. Deer like to do the opposite of what drivers expect; anything goes with them.

[hawing]

A holiday season shopping "bug":

 

The SO's family finally moved to a name drawing for Christmas gifts a few years back. For the last several of those years, I've offered to do the drawing, since we're rarely all in one place, people often want to start shopping before Thanksgiving, and it makes me feel a little more involved. I usually do this toward the end of October.

 

This year, one of the family members sends out an email to the family email group in early-mid October, saying I'm ready to shop. When are we getting our names? At that point I was preparing for a mid-month surgery - not worrisome, but it required six weeks of recuperation, so I had a zillion loose ends to tie up at work. So it wasn't until the week after surgery (by which time I had oodles of free time) to send a message saying "I'll get to this, here's why I was delayed."

 

So I got to the drawing soon after, sent the picks to everyone right away, and posted a list of gift ideas for myself and the SO. (This family insists on the name drawing being a surprise, so I can't just post the list.) This was like Halloween weekend - not terribly later than in past years, but several weeks after the semi-demanding email.

 

The person who was so eager to shop in early October? I drew her name, AND she didn't supply any ideas until this morning. I really wanted to get going on this before the shopping season got super crazy, and before my return to work. So OF COURSE I only get some ideas now.

Totally a first-world problem, but I reserve the right to still feel bugged by it.

 

(As an aside that longtime bf.netters will find hilarious, this person is the same one who began the relish-tray legend that so many of you remember fondly.)

[QuevedosTongue]

What is bugging me? The sorry state of my favorite sports teams right now

 

Packers - the most disappointing season in years and the first time in a long time that I have no confidence in them to come through when they need to.

 

Bucks - a very disappointing start. It feels like the end of the Skiles era now, with the coach preaching things to the team that they have no interest in doing. The lack of effort on defense on a regular basis so maddening.

 

Badgers FB - A disappointing season in terms of results and performance. I know a lot of it is injury related, but I'm really disappointed in the inability to make plays and the lack of progress shown by the offensive line. The O-line, traditionally a Badger strength, has been poor and doesn't seem to be improving.

 

Badgers BB - Disappointing in the sense that they were so good the last 2 years. I have low expectations, so the record doesn't matter much to me, but it's a step back from the recent teams.

 

Marquette BB - Wojo can recruit, but can he coach this young team to anything? They've shown signs the last 2 games, but I wouldn't say they are decent mid-major. Like UW, they need some young players to grow up fast.

 

Brewers - I probably feel better about them than anybody else on this list. I have no expectations for the ML team and can just enjoy the good, while waiting for Stearns to purge the remaining large contracts and getting on to the full rebuild. I have to admit, it's a long way away, but I'm as excited for this year's draft as I have been in years.

[AKCheesehead]

I didn't like seeing Klitschko lose that way today. Just a really passive fight, not really showing the will to win, against somebody he could have handily beaten with a different mindset and strategy.

[WV Brew]

QT--Whitewater still going strong.

 

Deer--take your foot off the brake if you have to hit it. Braking lowers the front end making it more likely the deer will be thrown up into the windshield.

[Patrick425]

Weighted GPA's - I don't see the point. Things were very different when I graduated from HS in 1984 and I don't recall any discussion about weighted vs. unweighted GPAs. When my son started HS over 3 years I was unaware that the weighted GPA would mean absolutely nothing in regards to what colleges look at. So, I don't understand why High Schools feel the need to have weighted GPAs. The school my son goes to bumps up each AP class grade by 1 (so, for example, if you get a B in a class, it becomes an A - a 3 turns into a 4, or 4 turns into a 5 for GPA purposes). However, they never explained that when it comes time to apply for college, that the schools don't look at or care about weighted GPA. They look at course rigor, but they want the unweighted GPA. So, I wish schools would stop weighting GPAs. Seems like a pointless exercise to make students (and the school) feel better about themselves....until they start applying for college.

[logan82]

It's so someone doing all shop classes isn't Validictorian

[zurch1818]

Yup...though it does help your class rank which universities do also look at. I'm guessing my class rank of 20 out of 420 got me into the UW because my 23 ACT score was low. I also did good in the engineering program and also earned my master's at the UW too...so I think they should get rid of the test because it is a terrible predictor. College is all about learning how to study.

[jerichoholicninja]

There's some couple that had quadruplet girls a few months ago and I guess they've become internet famous because of that. Every night my wife watches the new video they post and it's incredibly annoying. The videos are basically the mom filming the four babies crying while she talks in her very annoying voice about how hard it is to have four babies and occasionally random, boring, mundane day-to-day things that every human being does. Why do these people feel that their lives are so unique and interesting that they have to plaster it all over the internet and why do people find it so interesting that they watch it and encourage more of it? And why does this mom think that when her children are crying that filming it is the best thing to do?

 

Old guy rant over.

[jerichoholicninja]

My wife is trying to get her maternity leave set up. She went to HR and they told her she has to do it on the company's HR website. After spending many hours on the HR site we have no clue what to do because nothing on the site makes sense. So she is going to have to talk to the real people at work (again) about how to do something on a site that exists so the people she is going to be talking to don't actually have to do their job when she could have just skipped the middle man and talked with real people in the first place.

[DHonks]

People that don't use their turn signals when they make lane changes or turn. I wish they would get ticketed for this seriously selfish act that jeopardizes everyone else on the road's safety.

[LouisEly]

Well, one thing that isn't cheap in St. Louis is car insurance. My premium tripled from Madison.

 

Yes, tripled. My annual premium is now approximately 10% of the value of my vehicle minus the deductible (which is $1000). So much for buying that new vehicle for a while.

 

Basically every line item is tripled - liability, comprehensive, collision. I have a hard time believing there are that many accidents here to triple the collision rates. Do the high rates cause people to not get car insurance which increases the liability for uninsured/underinsured? Nice that I have to pay for that. There are a lot of vehicle break-ins and a fair amount of thefts, but those happen to vehicles parked on the street to idiots who leave stuff in their vehicle or who are too cheap to pay for parking. I park my vehicle in a secured indoor parking garage; I shouldn't have to pay for those idiots' broken windows and slashed tires/stolen wheels. Why do they not ask where you park your vehicle (street, lot, garage, etc.) and charge accordingly? Why not a higher deductible for things that happen to vehicles parked on the street vs. in a secured garage? That will get people to change their behavior.

 

And if this has anything to do with Ferguson... well, those comments are reserved for the Political Forum.