Little things that annoy the hell out of you

[mamboFoxtrot]

I know I brought up the Weird People Who Capitalize Every Word here like 4 years ago but I still want answers dammit! I just wanna know WHY!!
(there's a part of me that wants to say its from people not using phones correctly but there's no way that accounts for all of it)
also, reposting Null's response from back then:

These people are undeserving of life, yet death is too merciful. .

[null1024]

I know I brought up the Weird People Who Capitalize Every Word here like 4 years ago but I still want answers dammit! I just wanna know WHY!!
(there's a part of me that wants to say its from people not using phones correctly but there's no way that accounts for all of it)
also, reposting Null's response from back then:

These people are undeserving of life, yet death is too merciful. .

Blast from the past.

[mamboFoxtrot]

I was bored and decided to try Googling it.
Not a lot of responses from the actual people who do it, but the most common answers I saw were:

Phones really do be like that sometimes
OCD-related habit; or sometimes non-pathological habit picked up for some other reason, like entering song titles a lot or just really struggled to learn to use a keyboard
Really young kids think it makes them look older or "more professional"
and finally there's "I Think It Looks Nicer I See Nothing Wrong With This Stop Acting Like My 5th Grade Teacher" aka SOCIOPATHS

[BulletMagnet]

I vaguely recall that certain languages, specifically German, require more frequent capitalization than English does, so perhaps something like that seeped in there someplace.

[ED-057]

I thought it was a management/HR thing. At previous jobs I observed that any kind of notice posted on a bulletin board or door was always written With Special Capitalization For Special People. They were also prone to spelling/grammar mistakes. At one place I would take a pen out of my pocket and make corrections, until one day I happened to overhear one of the bosses telling somebody how annoyed they were by this

[BIL]

Capitalisation For Dramatic Emphasis is Very Useful Indeed, being a reliable method of Detecting Chris Chan.

It is a fact that individuals who were unable to find their opposite-gender Sweetheart or crushes and get lucky before adulthood are likely tempted to turn homo… A dismal future NO God-Loving Individual, including myself; I swear on my Holy Bible as I type this essay with every keystroke I make with my keyboard resting on my Bible, would ever want to see occur. :[ The Dating Education Classes can best enforce the Natural Man-and-Woman Pairings/Couples; the homosexual count would be reduced.

If my essay is selected, I would give the money to our local High Schools to begin the Long-Necessary and Required Dating Education Class Trend within these United States, and then Worldwide, for a Better, Bright Future for All.

^ this is possibly Chris Chan

[namcokid47]

People Who Type Out Everything Like This.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Shipping costs from Japan.

[Sumez]

Shipping costs and customs from the US

[Steamflogger Boss]

Shipping costs and customs from the US

The problem is your customs right? I never pay tariffs on anything lol. But yeah international shipping sucks across the board now. Costs $50 to ship anything. Just paid $70 to EMS 17 volumes of manga.

[Sumez]

Customs are bad, but it's really mostly the shipping. If I want a $10 game there's a good chance I can't find it with less than $37 in shipping.

You can buy stuff from Japan at shipping prices of $0-$10 usually. And if you're lucky they'll send it untracked (which I touched on before in the context of customs). Americans refuse to do that.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Customs are bad, but it's really mostly the shipping. If I want a $10 game there's a good chance I can't find it with less than $37 in shipping.

You can buy stuff from Japan at shipping prices of $0-$10 usually. And if you're lucky they'll send it untracked (which I touched on before in the context of customs). Americans refuse to do that.

I will say it's definitely worse out of the US for small items like a single jewel case game. I'm getting mostly LD, books and figures so that's never been cheap, but it's kind of outrageous now. I am going to find out how much 24 LD (couple box sets and 5 individual releases) cost to ship in 2020, should be fun. I have no doubt it will be better to consolidate though.

There is not an untracked option out of the US anymore. There used to be but it's been some years.

[orange808]

All shipping with the USPS is annoying. I don't want to ship anything cheap or internationally, because it takes too long.

The United States is trying to kill the post service. It takes me 45 minutes to go to the USPS station. I can't get free for almost an hour to send a package along.

There used to be satellite locations around. Not anymore. As usual, wealthy people got involved with the government and starved their competition for funds.

The satellite locations are gone. There are still mail slot drop boxes, but you can't shove a package through a slot. I could schedule a pickup online with my post route person, but that means staying home all day waiting to personally hand it over. That's not convenient.

On the other hand, there are UPS and FedEx locations everywhere. It's quick and convenient, just like mailing a package used to be (when the post service had local stations around nearby).

[Steamflogger Boss]

All shipping with the USPS is annoying. I don't want to ship anything cheap or internationally, because it takes too long.

The United States is trying to kill the post service. It takes me 45 minutes to go to the USPS station. I can't get free for almost an hour to send a package along.

There used to be satellite locations around. Not anymore. As usual, wealthy people got involved with the government and starved their competition for funds.

The satellite locations are gone. There are still mail slot drop boxes, but you can't shove a package through a slot. I could schedule a pickup online with my post route person, but that means staying home all day waiting to personally hand it over. That's not convenient.

On the other hand, there are UPS and FedEx locations everywhere. It's quick and convenient, just like mailing a package used to be (when the post service had local stations around nearby).

Cripes, where are you? I am guessing a bigger city where they have far too few locations. The hole in the wall town I am in has a PO and Topeka has multiple locations (sometimes more convenient) so I'm able to just prepare my stuff in advance, drop it off and leave. So it's just convenient for me to use USPS. UPS has a couple locations, both are out of the way and I have no idea about Fedex since I almost never deal with them sending or receiving. Every time I have to deal with UPS I have to go to an industrial part of town and it's gross. Did a quick google search and this is still by far the closest location out of three total. USPS shows over 10.

Not really meaning to defend USPS because they do suck, it's just the opposite situation for me.

I agree they are trying to kill the USPS. They closed the sorting facility in Topeka some years back and it really fucked things up. I get so many more errors now, miss sent packages to slightly wrong zip codes which NEVER used to happen when there was that extra layer of sorting. All the new employees are part time now (to fuck them over) so they can't be bothered to care much and I don't really blame them.

[Sumez]

Exactly the same shitty situation with the postal services around here.

What's even the purpose of multiple competing delivery services when the service they need to provide is exactly the same? Feels like an absurd waste with so much redundancy.

[BulletMagnet]

What's even the purpose of multiple competing delivery services when the service they need to provide is exactly the same? Feels like an absurd waste with so much redundancy.

The theory, at least around here, is that competition will encourage each player to improve services, efficiency, etc. to get a leg up, which will benefit the consumer, and there's surely some truth to that, but unfortunately far too little has been done to prohibit these companies from taking actions which benefit them but blatantly reduce the potential for competition, the main one here being the private-sector-supported legislation passed 20 or so years ago which requires the postal service to fully fund its retirement obligations nearly a century in advance, and thus forces them to both cut back on services and lose money every year - while the aforementioned private sector and its "pro-business" politicians, along with much of the media, complains "why should we keep such an inefficient entity around at all, just privatize everything" in hopes that most people don't remember how this all came to pass.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

while the aforementioned private sector and its "pro-business" politicians, along with much of the media, complains "why should we keep such an inefficient entity around at all, just privatize everything" in hopes that most people don't remember how this all came to pass.

And most people don't remember or even care, let alone know how to make educated, nuanced voting decisions. Hence why there's a good chance we'll see a Trump "flu vaccines stop COVID-19, right?" 2020 election.

Capitalist interests constantly do this to healthcare as well as schooling; strip public-sector services of the funding or the ability to do their job properly, then point at them and claim it's entirely their fault while encouraging people to use for-profit private providers. For-profit providers get rich off the public and get to be made out to be saviours when their lobbyists are the reason the public systems aren't properly funded and supported like in competent socialist capitalism European models. It's especially egregious in the cases of for-profit systems that are demonstrably shown to perform much worse than public models such as for-profit prisons or private (and often unaccredited) schools.

Also ties into this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast

[Steamflogger Boss]

while the aforementioned private sector and its "pro-business" politicians, along with much of the media, complains "why should we keep such an inefficient entity around at all, just privatize everything" in hopes that most people don't remember how this all came to pass.

And most people don't remember or even care, let alone know how to make educated, nuanced voting decisions. Hence why there's a good chance we'll see a Trump "flu vaccines stop COVID-19, right?" 2020 election.

Capitalist interests constantly do this to healthcare as well as schooling; strip public-sector services of the funding or the ability to do their job properly, then point at them and claim it's entirely their fault while encouraging people to use for-profit private providers. For-profit providers get rich off the public and get to be made out to be saviours when their lobbyists are the reason the public systems aren't properly funded and supported like in competent socialist capitalism European models. It's especially egregious in the cases of for-profit systems that are demonstrably shown to perform much worse than public models such as for-profit prisons or private (and often unaccredited) schools.

Also ties into this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast

I'm convinced if we didn't already have free public schools already people would be making the same claims they are about health care.

[BIL]

I really liked that top headline, particularly the use of the word "vile." Expected a story about some maverick inventor's ingenious yet dangerously unregulated and moreover disgusting battery technology. Some Thunderdome stuff! Turns out it was just Florida Man up to his usual antics. Throwing shit on someone. Cow manure battery! Geddit?! Bwaaa!

[BulletMagnet]

I know there have been a lot of "not so little" annoyances in the thread lately, but this recent experience really grinds my gears...I'll try to keep it short-ish.

So my father was diagnosed with a deformed heart valve, which he'll be having surgery on sometime this year; the cardiologist told him that the condition can be hereditary, and advised that I and my siblings get tested for it. I make an appointment with my "regular" doctor, pass the story along to him, he writes me a prescription, and I pay 150 bucks for the consultation.

I call up a cardiologist he recommends to set up an appointment, and am told I can't do so until it's been confirmed that my insurance is on board with the procedure; after an ambiguous phone call or two with the doctor's office as to the proper path forward for this, I'm told to just sit back and wait. A week or two later I receive a letter in the mail from a third party working for the insurance company, stating that they require more information before making a decision; specifically, they ask for symptoms, prior treatments, and other info that doesn't actually apply to me. I should also note that the insurance wouldn't actually have to pay for the test, since I'm nowhere near meeting their 2,500-dollar annual deductible, they would just be applying a negotiated rate.

I call the company myself and give them the whole spiel; their response is that they need to hear the same thing from the doctor, and have sent his office a similar request to mine. Having not heard anything a week or so later, I call the doctor, to be told that they haven't received anything; this sets off another week or two-long series of calls back and forth between the company and the doctor's office (most of them taken during my lunch break at work, the only time I can consistently catch both of them open), until I'm finally told they've gotten on the same page. A few days later I'm told the procedure will not be covered, because it's not for anything I'm currently being treated for.

In summary, what I get for attempting to be, as the finger-waggers always insist, proactive about my own health, is a month and a half of wasted time, a preventative prescription I can't afford to fill, and a wallet 150 bucks lighter. God help me if I ever actually find myself in need of unexpected and/or vital care; thanks, employer-provided coverage!

[BareKnuckleRoo]

typical american healthcare experience

Your country really needs to save itself from the death grip of its for-profit healthcare systems and the lobbyists who will do anything to ensure its continued existence. Healthcare isn't supposed to bankrupt you, and proactive healthcare in normal, sane nations is encouraged because it costs less than waiting until healthcare problems escalate.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Wish I could come give you a hug bulletmagnet.

typical american healthcare experience

Your country really needs to save itself from the death grip of its for-profit healthcare systems and the lobbyists who will do anything to ensure its continued existence. Healthcare isn't supposed to bankrupt you, and proactive healthcare in normal, sane nations is encouraged because it costs less than waiting until healthcare problems escalate.

It upsets me. My mom some years back broke her ankle and the bills were outrageous! Like I said previously it's incredible how people including poor folks believe it's a good system...

[Randorama]

What you people are going on about?! This strikes me as a feeble price to pay, to avoid the onslaught of Godless communism in the holy land of US of A.

Besides, I lived in socialist countries (Sweden, NL), not so socialist but still EU countries (Italy, Germany, Hungary) and well, Australia (a EU country detached from the continent, administration-wise), and I am currently living in the Republic of China (Quick! Burn the monitor and pray to the Lord to avoid getting Communism and Co-VID19!).

The horrors I had to witness when dealing with a system paid by my own taxes are indescrivable, I daresay!

Briefly: six countries out of six usually charge you the same price for a quick visit to the GP or some serious health business, may have long waiting lists if it is not an emergency, and may offer other channels if you are in a hurry and you are willing to pay extra money (yes, China too, PUBLIC hospitals have VIP channels, because money makes the world go round, folks).

And no, if you want to stuff yourself with medication you do not absolutely need, you pay by yourself (I am sure that GPs in China can even report patients to the police if they insist on asking for medications they do not need).

I wanted to make some jokes in this latter part of the post, but I would say that for 0.15% of my salary (on average: in Sweden it was 0.3%, as per tax declaration) I *clearly* deserve docs and nurses with absurdly hot bodies to monitor my health 24/7, dammit. Clearly, the system is broken, somehow!

[orange808]

The media intentionally isn't reporting that boomers are the only age group that faces any significant or real danger from Covid-9. They are telling you to stay home, but the death rate for Millennials is .02%. That's almost certainly overstated, because that 02% is among the very small rare fraction of millennials that ended up in hospital (got very sick). It's not dangerous to young people. It's no worse than the flu.

This is all about protecting olds. But, would they do the same for you?

[BulletMagnet]

It's not dangerous to young people. It's no worse than the flu.

From what I've read that's actually part of the problem; because Covid-19 isn't nasty enough to put pretty much anyone who contracts it into a dangerous place, people who only get mild symptoms might not bother to change their behavior (especially within a country with prohibitively expensive health care and little guaranteed time off from work) and thus spread it around much farther than if they'd taken it seriously, which means that many more of the people who are at risk from the disease will end up more likely to encounter it.

[orange808]

It's not dangerous to young people. It's no worse than the flu.

From what I've read that's actually part of the problem; because Covid-19 isn't nasty enough to put pretty much anyone who contracts it into a dangerous place, people who only get mild symptoms might not bother to change their behavior (especially within a country with prohibitively expensive health care and little guaranteed time off from work) and thus spread it around much farther than if they'd taken it seriously, which means that many more of the people who are at risk from the disease will end up more likely to encounter it.

Well, those people shaped this landscape. So, it's dirt nap time.

Also, given the age of our congresspeople, their quick action is more about self-preservation than helping others. Just like that time they hated war because they might die.

[BulletMagnet]

Also, given the age of our congresspeople, their quick action is more about self-preservation than helping others.

You call that response "quick action"? Not to mention refusing to make getting tested for the thing free, which will itself lead to more people unintentionally putting others at risk. And initially saying it was all made up.

[Sumez]

What the fuck?

[orange808]

Also, given the age of our congresspeople, their quick action is more about self-preservation than helping others.

You call that response "quick action"? Not to mention refusing to make getting tested for the thing free, which will itself lead to more people unintentionally putting others at risk. And initially saying it was all made up.

Let's put it this way. They wouldn't have thrown around billions of dollars so quickly if they weren't in immediate fear for their own feeble old lives.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Another $3400 in dental. This is partially my fault but fuck.