Random Thought #50 - Comments

Yes today's random thought is about comments.

But I'm not talking about comments on a blog. No I'm ranting talking about the comment boxes on surveys.

You know you use a store card or buy something online and they want to know what you think - fair enough they want feedback.

And some feedback/surveys are simple - you put what you want to put and they say 'thanks for taking the time to leave feedback'.

In some surveys you get those comment boxes that ask you why you said what you said or ask if you have any comments.

And sometimes I don't know what to put... so I leave that bit blank and try to move on to the next bit.

But in some surveys you can't do that - you have to put something in that box or you can't move on.

And that irritates me... to the point that in one such survey I put in the comment box that I found such comment boxes annoying. Now I just put a full stop.

But it looks as though that won't be enough soon. 

I recently went to leave feedback for a product I had bought. And I just wanted to leave some standard feedback - something along the lines of 'as described, quick delivery'.

But I was informed that that wasn't enough - they wanted more. And I almost left them a scathing comment on how my original feedback wasn't good enough for them. But it wasn't the seller's fault it was the host website's fault.

 Comment boxes annoy me... end of rant.

  (please feel free to comment :) )

Random Thought #46 - In Which Chippy Throws A Tantrum

I was looking through my emails this morning when I came across one from Nectar. Now for those of you who are unaware, the Nectar card is something that was originally associated with Sainsburys. Like most points cards you swipe it when you shop (in various different shops) and collect points. Which you can then spend on stuff.

You can also collect and spend with some online retailers.

I tend to save mine up (mainly on Amazon) and then buy Amazon gift certificates and spend them on Amazon… and so the circle continues. It seems one of the easiest ways to spend points.

Well the aforementioned email was to inform me that after January there will be no more collecting and spending on Amazon… they broke my circle!

Waaaaahhhhh!!!!

Cyclists: A Pedestrian’s Point Of View

Ever since Olympic cyclist Bradley Wiggins was knocked off his bike recently there has been a lot of talk in the UK of how to keep cyclists safe.


Now I do have a driving licence but I tend to be a pedestrian (or a passenger) more often than a driver. When driving and I approach a cyclist I become very cautious as though they might suddenly veer inexplicably in to my path. Given that I have approached junctions before and cyclists have pulled straight across in front of me without even looking.

But I’ve had more experience with cyclists as a pedestrian. And I thought I’d share some of my war stories with you – mainly things I’ve seen.

Now I’m sure that Mr Wiggins and a great many cyclists are actually very good road users. I’m sure they all wear helmets, have working lights, follow the rules of the road etc.

But there are some of you out there who do not. You know who you are. Yes I do mean you.

I’ve seen cyclists going the wrong way down one way streets. Speeding through pedestrianised areas. Speeding along with one or sometimes both hands in their pockets – it’s a bike - it is controlled by you but not telekinetically! I’ve seen them going down alleys (or ginnels or snickets or snickelways - whatever you want to call them*) when there is a perfectly visible sign telling them not to go down there on their bikes.

Riding of pedal cycles prohibited

The round white sign with a red ring around it and a picture of a bike means 'riding of pedal cycles prohibited'. That means either get off the bike and walk or go another way round.

One of my pet hates is the cyclist who approaches a lights controlled crossing that are on red (so we pedestrians can cross ‘safely’), and decide they are suddenly a bike-human hybrid. They go up on to the pavement over the crossing and then back on to the road.

My most physical experience with a cyclist was when I was at university. It was dark and I was walking on the pavement. As I turned the corner there was a bike coming towards me, also on the pavement.

I panicked. I was like a deer caught in headlights. Only I wasn’t because he had no lights for me to be caught in. He definitely saw me because he spoke to me. But he didn’t really slow down until he was about to hit me. He ran over my foot and the only reason he didn’t flatten me was because I put my hands out and put them on his handlebars to stop him.

As he then cycled away (after not asking me if I was alright) I was told that I had a ‘bloody cheek’ (he thought I was being rude not that I was injured).

It was hours later that I realised I should have pointed out the errors of his ways – no lights, cycling on the pavement – he didn’t even have a helmet on.

I appreciate that the roads are scary places and that drivers don’t always look out for you – but that doesn’t mean to say you should invade the pavement and act as though the pedestrians shouldn’t be there. The Highway Code applies to you too you know.

Although pedestrians can be just as bad sometimes.

I think everyone needs teaching how to look out for each other – not just drivers but everyone.

Maybe there should be sections in the Highway Code – How To Deal With: 1. Idiots In Vehicles (a) Pedestrians (b) Cyclists, 2. Idiots On Bikes (a) Drivers (b) Pedestrians, 3. Idiots On Foot (a) Drivers (b) Cyclists.

It probably wouldn’t help though…

Here endeth the rant!


*I personally tend to say ginnel and occasionally snicket

This Morning Was Not Grand...

My morning was not a good one for a number of reasons:


1) My blood sugar had dipped – not enough for me to actually go hypo but enough for me to have a headache.

2) The new hay fever spray I am using appeared to be doing f**k all to alleviate my symptoms (I think I may go back to my old brand).

3) The bus driver was blind. There was me, turquoise jacket, orange carrier bag on my arm, umbrella and waving my arm at him to signal that I wanted him to stop so I could get on the bus. And what does he do? Drives straight past me. My own fault really – I didn’t realise that there was a type of hedge that waves and has an umbrella. I probably blended right in. So I then had to pay 40p more in bus fare as I walked over to another road and got a bus on a different route so I wouldn’t be late.


So not the best morning if I’m honest…

Dear DVD Releasing People...

...I am writing to ask you a very important question.

Why oh why oh why do you keep refusing to release certain DVDs in the UK? There are some really cool series out there that I would love to be able to watch again and again but you seem to avoid releasing them here.

In one instance you have actually released the first season in the UK but then decided against a UK release for season 2. That's a bit daft isn't it?

Oh yes there are region 2 versions out there but in order to get them I would have to fork out £50 a time and the cover would be in Dutch, which is a language that I do not speak.

It looks as though I am going to be forced to buy a new DVD player and get the Region 1 versions imported. Even with the cost of a new DVD player included, importing Region 1s from USA still works out cheaper than buying the Region 2 Dutch versions.

It makes no sense to me.

Do you think that they wouldn't sell in the UK? If that is the case then I suggest that you speak to the television channels and have them stop showing these series in the UK. Especially if you have no intention whatsoever of releasing them on DVD there.

You get us enthralled and then leave us disappointed when we cannot own them on DVD (even a Blu-ray release would be an improvement).

Yours faithfully

An Irritated Consumer

M is For... Morons

*WARNING! THIS IS A RANT. I REPEAT: THIS IS A RANT*

A moron is defined as someone who is notably stupid or lacking in good judgement.

It's a term that I tend to use to refer to people that I see doing something very stupid. I am now going to give you three examples of what I see as moronic behaviour.

1. Buses - these morons tend to be schoolchildren. They stand at the bus stop waiting for the school bus to arrive. The normal non school bus pulls up. Picks up the non schoolchildren and prepares to pull away from the bus stop. And a lot of the time there will be a child who feels that they have to wait until  the bus doors close and then press the emergency button on the outside of the bus. So the doors open again.
Why? I can't understand why anyone would want to do that. It's dangerous for the people on the bus and the idiot on the outside of the bus. Although the other day I did see a girl stopping a boy from doing this - one up for the anti moron party!  

2. Email scams - granted I don't actually see these people. But I have received these emails. I get them supposedly from various banks that I don't have an account with, supposedly HMRC and even a share company (I must be going up in the world if I'm getting fake share companies trying to scam money out of me).
Again why? Your life must be pathetic for you to sit there making up emails to send out to people to try and illegally part people with their money. Or even worse unleash a virus on their computers.
Some of these idiots can't even spell! I once received an email supposedly from my bank about a 'possible account theft'. Only they had put 'posibile'... 

3. Haters - I have only ever come across these on Youtube but I have to say that they are morons. If they thought about it they would realise that they are in fact making themselves look like complete idiots. They tend to hang around the make-up 'gurus' (and usually the ones that are actually really nice in their videos), leaving hateful and nasty comments.
So let me get this straight. You hate this person so much that you sit and watch their videos just so you can say something nasty about their hair, make-up, face, family etc.
Their lives must be so empty to do something like that. What is the point? If I do not like someone on Youtube I do something astonishing... I don't watch their videos - I know it's extreme isn't it?

Maybe it's just me - maybe I'm the moron for thinking that the above behaviour is ridiculous and stupid.

F is For... Fragment (Consider Revising)

That is one of the most annoying things I find when writing. You write a sentence, a squiggly green line appears underneath it to say that there is something grammatically incorrect about it.

So you click on it and instead of telling you what exactly is grammatically incorrect with it all you get is 'fragment (consider revising)'.

If it is so clever that it can point out to me that it is not right then why can't it tell me how to correct it?

This is the reason why when I took part in NaNoWriMo last year that I switched off the spelling and grammar checker - otherwise it would have driven me insane! I was probably insane to start with, to say that I would write 50k words in a month but that would have tipped me over the edge!

Random (Extended) Thought #17 - Giving Students a Bad Name

This random thought is going to be an extended random thought, actually it is a minor rant.

Yesterday the government decided that they would be raising tuition fees. Naturally most of the students were not pleased about this.
If it had happened when I was a student I wouldn't have been very happy either. Now for the peaceful protesters out there - well done for being peaceful and going about things in a civilised, intelligent manner.

As for the more violent student protesters out there well...they aren't going to really accomplish a lot are they? I would have thought that they are going to be unlikely to get a degree of any kind if they think attacking the car that belongs to the next in line to the throne would achieve anything other than them being arrested.

If they had used their brains - the things that they should use during their studies - they would have realised almost immediately that the tuition fees debate has nothing to do with Prince Charles or any of the Royal family. I could understand, although I wouldn't condone it, if it had been the car of an MP.

So the students out there that have been peacefully protesting will now be tarred with the same brush as the few who decided to turn violent, resorting to graffiti and vandalism.

And really the violent few ought to be more than a little ashamed of themselves for letting the side down.

I now declare this minor rant over!

Snowpocalypse!

I got up on the 1st December 2010 to discover everywhere had turned in to a winter wonderland. Well more winter than wonder really.

I quickly found out that I would have to walk to work as all the buses in the area had been suspended. So on the 1st of December I set off just before eight in the morning and walked to work. The snow was so deep in places it almost came to the top of my wellies. And I measured them and my boots are 14 inches high.

It took me 45 minutes to walk to work in which time my feet had gone numb. Which was good in a way as it meant I couldn't really feel the two large blisters on my heels developing. However once I arrived at work and I began to heat up I soon knew that they were there.
And then I had to limp all the way home again a few hours later. My place of work closed at midday as there were few of us who had actually managed to get to work.

I awoke on 2nd December to find out that once again I would have to walk to work again. But my wellies didn't come with me this time. Oh no, not again. So this time I wore my shorter but more comfortable walking boots to work.
The previous night a snow plough had gone down our road and so there was now a thin strip of road that was more or less free of snow. As the pavement was still a foot deep with snow I decided to walk down the middle of the road.
And so there I was before eight in the morning. Walking down the middle of the road, with not a single person in sight. I felt like I was in a disaster movie of some sort. It was ten minutes later when I hit the main road before I saw another person.
And then as I got closer to the town centre the more 'survivors' appeared as we all seemed to drift towards where the last of the population was gathering.

Now I have told you about my encounter with near apocalypse I have two things I wish to mention.

1) Compeed blister plasters are fantastic - the regular plasters I was using did nothing to help, I might as well not have bothered. But the Compeed ones are great - they do exactly as they say on the tin...and I haven't been paid or given anything to say that it is just my opinion.

2) Now this is just a minor rant at how stupid some people can be. The snow may have been dispersed a little so it isn't quite as deep on the pavement however it is still almost impossible to walk on the pavement so you have to risk your life walking down the road now that there is more traffic about again.
Why?
Some of my neighbours have decided to clear their driveways to get their cars out. What is wrong with that I hear you say?
Well they have cleared the snow by shovelling the snow to the sides. So you walk along the pavement and then suddenly you are faced with a wall of snow that is almost two feet high!
So you manage to navigate your way around that one...and then you come across another one, and another.
Some people have no common sense whatsoever. Just as long as they are OK everyone else can go to hell. Now I saw some people who cleared their drives who were putting the snow behind the driveway gates - that is a good idea as you have cleared the drive but not built an obstacle course in the process.

End of rant!

Suicidal Pedestrians!

Why do some people not look before they step in to the road? Do they all have a death wish? Or were they absent when the 'Green Cross Code' was taught at school.

Yesterday I went to pick up my sister and on the way home three different people decided that getting hit by a car might be fun. By the way I did not hit any of the people involved.

The first was an elderly man who decided to step in front of me as I turned a corner. I saw him walking down the road, I slowed down, indicated, got to the turn before he did and started to turn when he stepped in to the road and then saw me. He glared at me as though it was all my fault. As though I wasn't indicating, as though I was doing 100mph, as though I had rolled down the window and shouted '10 points, Grand Theft Auto' at him.

Yes I appreciate that being elderly he may have been deaf...but he wasn't wearing glasses. He didn't have a white stick or a guide dog with him. If he had looked before he stepped in to the road then he would have seen me.

Second incident was as I came down a hill approaching a main road. I saw two cyclists begin to cross to the island in the middle of the road. But rather than stopping there until I had gone past, or even slowing down and checking to see if anything was coming, they decided to just cycle straight out in front of me. I can only be glad that I was approaching a junction and was therefore slowing down.

One of the cyclists was a friend of my sister, who when my sister mentioned it to her said 'sorry but I couldn't stop'. My sister is not as sarcastic as me. Had it been me I would have been very tempted to say 'it is a shame that they haven't come up with something for bikes that slows them down, maybe even stops them kind of like a brake on a car'.

The final incident occurred as I came round the corner on my street. A woman with a push chair was crossing the road diagonally so it took longer for her to get across. I had to slow down so that I wouldn't get too close. And not once did she look to see if there was anything coming. She may have been deaf, however a lack of road safety knowledge is more probable, and if I had nearly hit her she would have given me a mouthful of abuse.

It's not difficult - stand on the side of the road. Listen for traffic, look left, look right. Then start crossing IF it is safe, whilst still looking and listening. I can't see what is hard about that.

I now declare this rant over - just remember to look next time you cross the road!


image is a wallpaper from http://talesoftheroad.direct.gov.uk/hedgehogs/html/hedgehog-downloads.html