Friday, September 28, 2007

Inconsiderate @55holes

I'm something of a people-watcher, and I've noticed that there are a lot of gonzos out there that seem to move about the planet with absolutely no concern about anyone else. To wit:

  • Gonzo tooling down the road, playing "What's my lane?" without taking the time to see if anyone else is wanting to use the same road he is. Oh, and he isn't bothering with that little stick thing-y on the left side of the steering column.
  • Doofus that doesn't seem to grasp the concept that the vehicle should be parked between the lines in the parking lot. Rather, said doofus opts to park the vehicle straddling the line.
  • Shitbird on a bicycle that elects to park the fscking thing IN FRONT OF the doors to the convenience store, rather than at the bicycle stand six feet away.
  • Twit that doesn't understand that there are little screws that let him adjust the direction his headlights point, leaving them aimed into the eyes of oncoming drivers so that everybody can see that he has high-intensity halogen headlights.
  • Moorons that tool around in inclement weather or dusk/dawn - sans headlights - in light blue and/or gray vehicles that do a simply wonderful job of blending into the background. After all, they can see just fine, so why should they concern themselves with being seen?
  • Dipstick with cellphone that feels obliged to share his half of the conversation with everybody within hearing distance. Bonus points for having an annoying ringtone that everyone gets to listen to a half-dozen times because the dipstick "can't find" his phone.
  • Shitheads (mostly young, but not always) that think it's perfectly reasonable to have a 1,000-watt stereo system with ultra-mega-bass in their car, and have the damn thing cranked up so you can hear them coming from a block away - forcing you to 'listen' to their 'music', whether you want to, or not.

Similarly, something I've seen in offices are those individuals that can't be troubled to consider the effects of their actions on the cleaning crew: having more wastebaskets than they really need, and using every last one of them; people overloading a wastebasket or trash can simply because they aren't the one that has to empty it; people that leave messes (large and small) behind only because they aren't the ones that have to clean up said mess. I'm not saying these folks should be doing the cleaning crews job - only that by showing even a little consideration, they could avoid making the cleaning crews job harder than it has to be. I know how much most cleaning crew people have to do, and every inconsiderate slob they have in their 'area' makes their jobs that much harder, and take that much longer. Myself, I operate under a simple rule: I don't make any more of a mess than I would want to deal with: if I'm emptying the hole-punch, I take the extra few seconds necessary to make sure I get all the little dots in the trash, instead of letting them scatter all over hell-and-gone; if a trash can or wastebasket is full, I'm not afraid or "too good" to pull the bag out, tie it off, and start using a new bag rather than try to cram 20 pounds of crap into a 10-pound bag, or balance a bunch of new crap on top of what's already present.

Sadly, there isn't really any way to even semi-politely tell someone "Yo! Asshole! You aren't the only person on the planet, and the entire fucking universe doesn't revolve around you. If it isn't asking too much, you could maybe get your head out of your ass and consider what's going on around you?" Either that, or we find a way to start installing plexiglass belly-buttons on people, so they can see what they're doing...

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