A funny dose of reality...

[Duthomhas]

So, I just got out of the hospital yesterday. (No one could figure out why I had gotten so ill, but as it is, any time a diabetic cannot keep food down things become dangerous for him.)

My wife was driving me home and we had stopped at a controlled intersection where the roadway fans out into separate lanes for turning left, straight, and right. The way the road is laid out there is only about seventy feet or so of space before cars stopped in the 'going straight' lane make it impossible to get over to the 'turn right' lane. And, as things were, my wife and I were in the car (going straight) that blocked the right turn lane.

We had only sat there, waiting for the light to change like everyone else, for literally about fifteen seconds, when a large white SUV came up on our right bumper and honked -- not a 'beep beep' or something like that, mind you, but a 'hooooonnnnnk'. Regardless, we had nowhere to go. We could not drive more forward than the car in front of us!

As we did not (could not!) move, the SUV again honked with two very long blasts.

At this point the cars in front of us inched forward some, so my wife, understandably disturbed by the apparent aggression directed at her, nevertheless inched forward as well.

(I was still feeling ill, so I had the window down half-way to let the cool air hit my head while the rest of me was bundled up in a blanket.)

Apparently that was enough to let the SUV through. But instead of simply driving by the SUV pulled up alongside us and stopped and rolled down the window. While this was happening my wife exclaimed, "Seriously? You've got to be kidding!"

The woman in the SUV leaned forward and proclaimed, "You people are very rude! I asked you to move forward!"

I looked the woman in the eye and said, "So you really want to get into a confrontation over this? Go home."

She blathered a little more and I again told her to go home, at which point she began to drive off and proclaimed, "You people are not very nice."

I suppose that explains why she was the one assaulting us!


How can people be so ignorant? Some people really do have their heads so far up their butts that they cannot see anything outside of their own selfish wants.

Even if we were trying to be total jerks and endeavoring to prevent her from moving forward to turn right, we had no legal obligation to do so. It is unreasonable to expect other people to put themselves out of their way so that you can turn right at a red light.

I don't suppose that I am really shocked that such people exist -- they always have and always will -- but every now and then you encounter them and it just makes you wonder how someone can live in such a bubble to believe that their own selfish, belligerent behavior counts as "nice".

Just thought I'd share the funny. LOL.



This was a story of the abusive side of people. (Sorry.)
If any one has stories of either abusive jerkiness OR the saintly goodness of others, feel free to post them. Both kinds would be good reads.

[Disch]

She was driving an SUV.

That about sums it up.

[Zhuge]

I'd like to know where exactly this lady expected you to move forward to. What exactly are people thinking in situations like this...?

[Duthomhas]

@Disch
Your post made me consider marking the topic as solved, LOL.

@Zhuge
I know, right?
I think she wanted me to move to somewhere out of her way. Because she so politely asked.

Personally, I only want my car to have a "beep beep" kind of horn. It is not aggressive and clearly a friendly "hey, look out" or "hey, what's up?" kind of thing.

But unfortunately, the horns that sell are the "<explicative!>" kind... Alas.

(I think that's an interesting observation about human interaction.)

[MiiNiPaa]

This is annoyingly common pattern of thinking: they have a problem, they notify you about their problem, now they think that it is your problem now and you should resolve it.
"Hey, we told you, right? Why didn't you do something about it?".

Personally, I only want my car to have a "beep beep" kind of horn. It is not aggressive and clearly a friendly "hey, look out" or "hey, what's up?" kind of thing.

But unfortunately, the horns that sell are the "<explicative!>" kind... Alas.

Sometimes I want to fix foghorn lying in storage shed, and bring it with me specially for those who think that louder and obnoxious = important.

Semi-revelant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/757/

[Duthomhas]

:O)

Also relevant to this thread: my own personal reporter has followed me here, but, interestingly, only reported my second posting...?

[z05DSL3A]

Duoas^*,

You seem to bring out the "best" in people. 😃

[* autocorrect wanted to put Dumas]

[LB]

If we didn't build cities so that monolithic high speed death machines were required to get anywhere, these kinds of people would just walk past you. (Or they'd yell at you for taking their spot on the subway, and publicly humiliate themselves.)

[Duthomhas]

Everywhere I go, apparently.

[Norm Gunderson]

Person me;
Person other;
if( Conflict( me.needs , other.needs ) )
{
   if( me.emotionalMaturity > spoilt5yrOld.emotionalMaturity )
   {
      if( me.needs > other.needs )
      {
         try
         {
            std::ConflictResolution( me , other );
         }
         catch( CONFLICT_ESCALATION )
         {
            me.FindAnotherWay();
         }
      }
      else // me.needs <= other.needs
      {
         me.FindAnotherWay();
      }
   }
   else // me.emotionalMaturity <= spoilt5yrOld.emotionalMaturity
   {
      assert( me.needs > other.needs );
      if( me.needs != 0 )
         throw TANTRUM;
   }
}

[TheIdeasMan]

Good Work Norm!!

Isn't it great how code with good variable names reads like a story :+D

[MiiNiPaa]

@Norm Gunderson This code has vulnerability: any person which throws CONFLICT_ESCALATION on any attempt of resolution gets more resources and generally has their way.

[Duthomhas]

Daily update:

I just got a robocall claiming that the IRS was making a 'final attempt' to contact me because they were initiating a lawsuit against me. The number they gave to call back was the one that made the call.

LOL. I reported it with the FTC Complaint Assistant.


Oh yeah, it was to my landline. I know! Who uses those anymore?

[MiiNiPaa]

it was to my landline

...I do not even have a landline...

[ResidentBiscuit]

I got a call from the FBI a few weeks ago saying that I have unpaid taxes and if I don't pay them right now, they'll have to arrest me. All I had to do was provide my bank account details and I would avoid any trouble.

[LB]

My grandmother almost fell victim to those people who call and say there is a problem with your computer. Thankfully she wisened up (she was previously asleep and unable to think well).

[Norm Gunderson]

MiiNiPaa wrote:

any person which throws CONFLICT_ESCALATION on any attempt of resolution gets more resources and generally has their way

LOL - yeah, society needs some serious refactoring

[Duthomhas]

Sometimes I go to the Beginner's section, where I know that users get presented with a text box that reads exactly thus:

    Write your question here.

    [code]
      Put the code you need help with here.
    [/code]

and my knee-jerk reaction is:

    Why should I read your 150 line mess of left-justified text when
    you cannot read the text you just deleted in order to post your question?

I never do that, though...

I do also wonder how said users managed to read enough to click the correct buttons, in the correct order, to create an account and post a new topic...?

[LB]

Duoas +1

I notice sometimes the very first include is indented by two spaces, because they just select the text in the code block without selecting the leading spaces.

[TheIdeasMan]

I do also wonder how said users managed to read enough to click the correct buttons, in the correct order, to create an account and post a new topic...?

We all know that in the past there have been a bunch of suggestions about what to do about the lack of code tag use. I wonder if some of those suggestions have been counter suggested as not being effective enough, so perhaps therefore not adopted. So maybe if they were implemented, each one on it's own may not be so effective, but as a sum they might achieve at least a reasonable partial effect.

So maybe the tags article could be stickied to all the forums, in big RED letters - the colour might make all the difference in terms of it being noticed. I know that no one seems to read the existing stickied topics, but one never knows, until it is actually given a try.

A lot of users don't seem to notice the Articles, Tutorials, Reference links either - maybe something could be done colour / size wise with them too.

Could it be possible to force a new user to read the tags article before they get to do their first post? Or maybe a short animation even?

http://www.cplusplus.com/articles/z13hAqkS/