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April 28, 2008
Driving Pet Peeves
I hate driving. I really do, but it's one of those really necessary evils in life. I figure I've done SO much driving in my lifetime (hell, these days, I rack 500 miles a week and have to fill up every 4 business days), that it's time for a list of my most irritating driving pet peeves. Keep in mind, all of these except the last one are all about highway driving.
1. Tailgaters. Easily number one on my list! I hate people who tailgate me, especially when there's so much congestion that no one can go anywhere anyway. I always give multiple hints (spraying my windshield so it sprays them--twice, turning on my hazard lights, flashing my brake lights) that they shouldn't be so close. If they don't back off, then they're jerks & they can kiss my ass for all I care 'cause it won't be me the officer will be giving a ticket to! And for those of you saying, "Well, why don't you just move over?" Answer? If they're going to drive like idiots, then they deserve to be behind me. They can go around me if they really want to get ahead of me. But I shouldn't have to move because this guy's got his nose up my tailpipe. The fun part is when I keep driving like nothing's going on and ignore them (sometimes I act as if I'm completely oblivious) as they flip me off and scream at me through their window as they go by. HAHA!!
2. People driving 60 mph in the fast lane, well-below the posted 70 mph speed limit & they're oblivious to the 80 people behind them who want to actually get where we're going but no one can pass because he's going the same speed as the guy on his right and it's only 2 lanes. Actually, this kind of applies to all-around driving. Seems everywhere I go, people are driving 10 mph below the speed limit. If it's 70, they're going 60. If it's 45, they're going 35. Um, hello? If it weren't safe to drive 45, they wouldn't post it that high.
3. People who don't keep to their lane or don't know which lane they should be in. Similar to this, people who cut from the far left lane and shoot over to the exit ramp on the right because they were too stupid to be in that lane a mile ago.
4. Getting cut off. I usually have really good instincts about when someone's about to cut me off even if they don't know it themselves. Unfortunately, it still happens to me.
5. Getting cut off then getting the finger or a dirty look from the guy who cut me off when I honk because I just about collided with him. Hellooooo?? That was YOUR fault!
6. People who are completely oblivious to the act of driving because they're too busy chatting with their manicurist on the phone about Paris Hilton's newest hair style & therefore you can't get around them at all. I understand having to use the phone for business and such but if you can't drive & pay reasonable attention to what you're doing, GET OFF THE PHONE AND DRIVE! I mean, come ON...you're operating a 3,000-4,000 pound death machine. You'd think you'd want to pay attention to what you're doing so you don't KILL ME!
7. People who can't drive even a relatively consistent speed because they're not paying attention to the act of driving their car. I've been behind people who, because of the way they drive I can't pass. They fluctuate wildly between 60 and 85 mph. If they would just go a relative 70-75 mph, I'd be happy.
8. Drunk people. Never been involved in any drunk driving accident, thank goodness, but came close. One lady who actually kept swerving between THREE lanes for miles. THEN she had the nerve to act like she wasn't doing anything wrong! People would honk at her because she'd nearly sideswipe them and then she'd give them all puzzled looks. Naive me, didn't occur to me at the time she was likely wasted. Should have called cops on her. She gave me a dirty look when I honked at her for nearly running me into the cement barrier at 65 mph. WTF?
9. People who actually try to goad you into a road rage fight. You've done absolutely nothing to them except to be where you are and even when you do anything possible to get the frack AWAY from them, they still want to pick a fight.
10. Truckers who take about 20 miles to pass another truck on a 2 lane highway, both of them are going well below the posted speed limit and NO one can pass them. I think they do this to torment us non-truck drivers.
11. Most women in SUVs & minivans. Not all, mind you, but a lot of them don't know how to drive their SUVs or minivans properly. They think it's the same as driving a small sedan without realizing an SUV or minivan is MUCH heavier, therefore requires more stopping time; it's less maneuverable than a small sedan, though they try to drive it like they're in the Indy 500; and there are bigger blind spots which they don't pay attention to. And oddly, I'm a woman, but I have to say I think there are a lot of bad women drivers out there because they're so ditzy, they have no clue about being aware of what's around them 360 degrees or they're just clueless about driving in the first place. I tell you, I've seen some really dumb women out there. And some are just scared to death altogether which makes for a bad combination--it's like putting a weapon in the hand of someone who's afraid to shoot and doesn't know the first thing about weapon safety. BAAAAAD idea, folks!
12. Lastly, people who take a million years to turn. I'm not talking about them sitting there and waiting for traffic to clear, I'm talking about they've already started moving into the turn but it takes them like 5 minutes to complete the turn. JUST GOOOOOOO & GET OUT OF MY WAYYYYY!!
Posted by Amy at 10:28 PM | Comments (0)
April 24, 2008
Bill Gates and Microsoft are Evil
Ok, normally I would never blog about work stuff because I've heard too many horror stories about people getting fired and sued for doing so. And in fact, I've been in trouble for saying the wrong thing before. But this isn't really about work, it's more about how much I HATE Microsoft and, by extension, Bill Gates.
For the past two weeks, I've been assigned many, many, many, many, many projects involving me having to write paid search text ads for different clients. It's kind of a paid search hell, if you will. For those of you who don't know what a paid search text ad is, go to Google, search for something (say "coffee") and look on the right side of the screen. Those ads you see are paid search text ads that companies pay for so that when people search for a particular term, your ad will show up. They tend to be tricky to write because the title can only be 25 characters long and each description line is 35 characters. There are also certain rules you have to follow or Google & Yahoo will reject them.
Because of this, I use Excel spreadsheets to do my work. Depending on what the client wants, it can be anywhere from a couple of ads to many many many ads. The project I've been working on for Serta meant I had to write about 60+ ads.
Here's the thing...I could SWEAR I hit save before I closed the file and sent it off to the account team and the paid search guy who I'm teamed with. Now, admittedly, there is a slight chance that I may not have. But I'm pretty sure I did. And even so, I'd rather blame Microsoft and Bill Gates.
Just after I'd sent the file off, the paid search guy emailed me back pointing out that some of my description lines were off. When I re-opened the file, I saw that he was correct and quickly realized the work I did (which took me about 2 1/2 hours to do) was GONE! OMG, I could have screamed!! In fact, I nearly did. So I had to go back and try to remember what I wrote and try to reproduce it because I wasn't smart enough to have printed it out before I closed the file and lost my work. This is the second time this week that's happened to me and the third time in two weeks! How FRACKING annoying!!! I have absolutely no idea how this could happen so often, but leave it to Microsoft to produce a product that has a glitch like this.
Moral of the story? SAVE OFTEN and DON'T close the file until you're 100% SURE you hit save!!!
Posted by Amy at 11:45 AM | Comments (1)
April 07, 2008
It's a Beautiful Day
Today was so beautiful...so beautiful that I actually got to eat outside today. We sat out on the bench eating and talking for the entire hour, soaking up the sun--oh, it felt SO good! In fact, you can see to the left a picture of my dashboard reading a balmy 74 degrees on my way home! (I literally cried out loud, "HOLY CRAP!!) I hated having to go back in where I don't have a window view at all in my cube.
Not only was it a beautiful day, it was a good day. I got an email from a friend of a co-worker who will most likely need my freelancing services--my first one! I've been getting advice from Adina who's been freelancing for many years now.
But I tell you, the warmest day of the year so far and the cops are out to catch speeders who are on an adrenaline high from the beautiful weather. But those frakkers weren't going to get me. First, I wasn't speeding. Second, I saw the frakker sitting in the median of M-14 right where it drops to 55mph. I saw him way before I got to the speed limit sign which, as I understand the law, is the point at which you have to comply with the speed posted. I dropped to 53mph and pulled into the right lane just to be sure but he pulled out anyway. I thought he had to be kidding! He couldn't pull me over for speeding because I wasn't. As he followed, I saw him talking on his cell probably calling in my plate number to the station to find out my record, which he would have found has been clean for 3+ years. He eventually turned away, but not before I yelled at him for suspecting me of infractions I was NOT going to commit. I've been on a ticket-free streak for 3 years and I am NOT going to break that streak!
Posted by Amy at 08:22 PM | Comments (6)