One less customer...
I live and work in Loudoun county. I have approximately a 30 mile drive from my rural home to my office, and using the Dulles Greenway, it normally takes me about 30 minutes each way, and costs me 858 dollars a year (at a rate of 1.65 each way, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year) for the convenience. I used to think it was worth it, since any of the 'free' routes I use to drive to work, normally add up to 15 minutes to my commute time.
But they just raised the rates from 1.65 to 1.90 on my toll. That means instead of the gagging 858 dollars I have deducted from my pay check each year for transportation has increased to a confiscatory 988 dollars each year, just to save 15 minutes travel time. To hell with that. I'll take the 15 extra minutes, quit using the toll road, and save myself nearly 1000 dollars a year.
Showing posts with label Bitching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bitching. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 07, 2002
Welcome to the Department of Redundancy Department of Redundancy
It's 9pm at night and I'm at work. I don't have any real objection to working extra hours (although I can always find something better to do) but I'm a software tester, and I'm not testing software right now, I'm watching them install it.
This bugs me. I just spent nearly two months busting my ass and losing weekends to make sure that this stupid code is perfect. Then, we performed dry runs of the installation - TWICE - to make sure that the database and server folks can do their job correctly. I'm fine with watching those. But what's the point of doing all that testing in the first place if, here I am, on a Wednesday night, sitting around on my hands waiting for the chance to tell my database administrator "yep, that script you wrote two months ago, that I thoroughly tested out, and that we've installed twice already, well, yep, its worked for the zillionth time. Can I go home now?"
It's 9pm at night and I'm at work. I don't have any real objection to working extra hours (although I can always find something better to do) but I'm a software tester, and I'm not testing software right now, I'm watching them install it.
This bugs me. I just spent nearly two months busting my ass and losing weekends to make sure that this stupid code is perfect. Then, we performed dry runs of the installation - TWICE - to make sure that the database and server folks can do their job correctly. I'm fine with watching those. But what's the point of doing all that testing in the first place if, here I am, on a Wednesday night, sitting around on my hands waiting for the chance to tell my database administrator "yep, that script you wrote two months ago, that I thoroughly tested out, and that we've installed twice already, well, yep, its worked for the zillionth time. Can I go home now?"
Monday, June 24, 2002
Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
All my bitching today about rudeness reminded me of this excellent editorial by Linda Chavez I found in the Washington Times.
In it, she makes the obvious point that just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.
People seem to have forgotten this. It's called polite behaviour. It means that: because you know that millions of people died during WWII, and the symbol of the Nazi's homicidal cause was the swastika, you don't display it on your street, because this offends people.
This means that just because you have the time to redo your nails on an airplane, you don't, because the place is small and recycles the air, and you know the smell of nail polish remover in tight quarters can be nauseating.
This means that even though you might find putting your shoes up on the seat in front of you at the movies more comfortable than leaving them on the floor, you don't, because the person in front of you doesn't want your dirty soda-soaked, scum-laden shoe sticking to bits of the nice, clean hair on their head.
This means that even though its legal to fart in public, you don't, because it smells bad and offends other people.
I do not want any of these things to be made illegal. That's not the point. The point is that you shouldn't need to make laws that require you to take other people's or comfort into account. I sincerely wish courtesy would come back in style.
All my bitching today about rudeness reminded me of this excellent editorial by Linda Chavez I found in the Washington Times.
In it, she makes the obvious point that just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.
People seem to have forgotten this. It's called polite behaviour. It means that: because you know that millions of people died during WWII, and the symbol of the Nazi's homicidal cause was the swastika, you don't display it on your street, because this offends people.
This means that just because you have the time to redo your nails on an airplane, you don't, because the place is small and recycles the air, and you know the smell of nail polish remover in tight quarters can be nauseating.
This means that even though you might find putting your shoes up on the seat in front of you at the movies more comfortable than leaving them on the floor, you don't, because the person in front of you doesn't want your dirty soda-soaked, scum-laden shoe sticking to bits of the nice, clean hair on their head.
This means that even though its legal to fart in public, you don't, because it smells bad and offends other people.
I do not want any of these things to be made illegal. That's not the point. The point is that you shouldn't need to make laws that require you to take other people's or comfort into account. I sincerely wish courtesy would come back in style.
... and that reminds me
To whoever it was on the flight from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Dulles that decided "to hell with decorum, public decency, or respect for the fact that we are, in fact, in a small enclosed space... I'm going to take off my shoes and socks and stuff my sweaty toes up through the seat in front of me, directly into the armpit of the girl sitting in front of me, who is not riding for free"...
I hate you. I wish I'd yelled at you more when you did it, so hopefully you would have been embarrassed enough not to be so completely inconsiderate and tacky again. May you get corns, athlete's foot, and some nice painful bunions. And may you end up on a flight from Kansas to Beijing with a 450lb man with a perspiration problem sitting right next to you.
To whoever it was on the flight from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Dulles that decided "to hell with decorum, public decency, or respect for the fact that we are, in fact, in a small enclosed space... I'm going to take off my shoes and socks and stuff my sweaty toes up through the seat in front of me, directly into the armpit of the girl sitting in front of me, who is not riding for free"...
I hate you. I wish I'd yelled at you more when you did it, so hopefully you would have been embarrassed enough not to be so completely inconsiderate and tacky again. May you get corns, athlete's foot, and some nice painful bunions. And may you end up on a flight from Kansas to Beijing with a 450lb man with a perspiration problem sitting right next to you.