R e – P e t e

What’s the deal with…People!

This blog enty is really two stories. One is a story that took place in Walmart 2 weeks ago and the second is a general gripe about humanity and how it annoys me. Whoever can stand reading my whole rant needs more help than I do. 

Part 1: Walmart Manners

2 weeks ago I was at Walmart buying a couple items during my lunch hour (my work is close to a Walmart). I was picking up a couple items, mostly toiletries. After I gathered about 10 items, I walked by the food aisles and saw some cereal on sale. Navigating the shopping cart was annoying me so I left it in the middle of an aisle while I walked around that aisle to the next and then back. The loop must’ve taken me a minute at most but when I came back I couldn’t find my cart. I realized that a lady was EMPTYING my cart. There she was with body wash, shampoo, Purell, face wash and a couple of other items in her arms shoving boxes of cereal aside so she could dump the stuff right there!

I said, “Excuse me. That’s mine.” She was caught a bit off guard as I started putting MY items back into MY cart. She THEN says, “Well you left your cart here.” I left MY cart here??? So is there a policy now that when you leave you cart unattended it suddenly becomes open game for anybody to take? She said this in an accusatory way to me. Oh the gall!!

I didn’t say anything because I just saw it exploding into an unnecessary situation. I was content with thinking her an idiot.

Part 2: The nerve of (some) people!

I mean, c’mon people, what is up with some of you?! I’m surprised at the gall of guilty people. I had this same experience at 24 Hour Fitness that most of you know. Basically some woman wouldn’t get off the machine after being on it for over 20 minutes even AFTER I asked kindly. When a staff person helped me get her off, she told ME, “Karma’s a bitch.” C’mon LADY. The staff only announces it 3 times EVERYDAY: “Cardio machines have 20 minute time limit during peak usage hours.”

And while I’m ranting about this, here are some other annoying things I face on a daily basis that prove that so many people in this world are either “lazies” or looking to “get theirs before you get yours.”

1) Freeway Cutters: The 880 to 238 interchange is one lane. If I wait, you wait. Don’t cut. Don’t go all the way up and then literally STOP holding up ALL traffic behind you so you can cut up front ONLY to proceed to let other cutters in front of you. Screw the cutters club.

2) Cardio machine users: 20 mins means 20 mins. It doesn’t mean ‘Cover the time limit with your towel’ or ‘Ignore those that are visibly waiting while you work out an extra 20 minutes’. What is wrong with you people?

3) My mailman. This freaking guy won’t put mail in our mailbox if a car is parked in front of it. His reasoning (and we’ve talked to him about this) is that if a car is there then he can’t drive his mailman car right up to the box without getting out. And since he’s unwilling to get out of his car, he won’t deliver our mail. Just last week I didn’t get mail for a couple days because the neighbor parked in front of my mailbox. SHAME ON YOU MAILMAN! May you step on dog poo.

4) Berkeley Bowl. Love the produce, love the prices of the produce, HATE THE CROWD. It’s impossible to navigate if you have a cart because the aisles are too skinny and people are rarely willing to cooperate unless you aggressively use your shopping cart. I hate HIPPIES!

Big Brother

I’ve always thought that conspiracy theorists, for the most part, were full of it. I’ve read 1984 and have seen (and enjoyed) Conspiracy Theory (with Mel Gibson), but it’s always something you find hard to believe.

Interestingly, it was has recently been discovered that many color laser printers (from manufacturers like Canon and Xerox) actually print nearly invisible codes onto each printout. They consist of a series of dots that can only be seen with special lighting and a magnifying glass.

Here’s an excerpt from an article:

Xerox previously admitted that it provided these tracking dots to the government, but indicated that only the Secret Service had the ability to read the code. The Secret Service maintains that it only uses the information for criminal counterfeit investigations. However, there are no laws to prevent the government from abusing this information.

The Slasdot Article
The EFF Press release

Submit a caption.

Ok guys. It’s that time again. Submit a caption!

The streak is over

Cal (5-1) loses to UCLA (5-0) 47-40.

We were so close. We were ahead the whole game until the end. So many what-ifs. Kudos to the Bruins for a good game. Their defense really came through. They just better hope that Drew doesn’t get injured, given he scores 5 touchdowns for them.

What’s the deal with… nice cars in handicap spots?

First and foremost let me say that I have a few reservations over writing about this. I have a feeling in the back of my mind that this is being, in some ways, discriminatory.

But what is the deal with nice cars in handicap spots??? I was at the client site today and in the parking lot I noticed thiis sweet Audi TT with a rear fin and nice trim that was parked in the handicap spot. My initial response was wonderment. I tried to imagine a person in a wheelchair squeezing into this tiny TT and then putting their wheelchair.. putting their wheelchair where?! There’s no more room.

Now I know that not every handicap person is paraplegic, but what sort of other handicap does this person suffer from? Is it something mental? Do I want mental people on the road? Imagine the road rage in that person.

I suppose it’s wrong to expect every handicap person to drive a minivan, but I’m always weirded out when I see people in really nice cars (like nice benzes) with handicap signs. Maybe it’s conflicting meanings in status that are historically prevalent: nice cars == rich and upper crust, handicap == physically lame, weak, low.

I think the thing that gets me is the one time I saw a person in a nice car with a handicap card, but they didn’t look handicap whatsoever. I have a hard time remember exactly where, when and what the situation was.