Everybody has them. The littlest of things that just get on their nerves. There are people, for example, that have a problem with, say, the word “moist,” because it just sounds dirty. Okay, I get that, but I have no problem with much of any words. I do, however, have problems with how people may use words.

For me, it annoys me when people don’t know the differences between “there,” “their,” and “they’re.” It’s really not that hard to understand. I don’t want to sound like the English teacher that was upset with Alanis Morissette’s incorrect usage of the word “ironic,” (though I now question whether there is irony when people say it, but I’m not uptight about it), but these incorrect usage of “your” and “you’re” are just as annoying, if not more.

First off, “That’s the little flower that’s growing over there in their yard, and they’re pleased,” is a little example sentence using those three words, where “there” is pointing out a flower in a place, “their” is a possessive use clarifying that the yard belongs to a couple, and “they’re” is a contraction of “they are,” in this case, they are pleased with the blooming flower. Second one, “Your mom knows you’re lying.” “Your” is possessive, in this case, pointing out that this is someone’s mom, “you’re,” is the contraction of “you are,” as in “she knows you are lying.” See, not difficult.

Another one that annoys me, not knowing when to use “too.” “You’re going to go home too.” Basically, one person is going home, but the other is also going home, thus using “too.” It can also be used like this: “She was too tired to travel,” defining a degree to which she is tired.

I understand using some shorthands, such as “BTW” for “By the Way,” but replacing “to” with “2″ or “for” with “4″ annoys me. At some point, especially when people start using “8″ with words that end in an “ate” sound, such as “skate” becoming “sk8,” the really shortened message starts to look like a math formula. Again, I don’t want to sound like the stuffy English teacher, but maybe this is the reason for such bad grammar.

I’m not saying I am any better with proper sentence structure or whatever, but I don’t necessarily butcher the English language the way most people are.

It is not just words, but definitions, such as “tomato.” I hate it when people say it’s a vegetable, when it is, in fact, a fruit. (Here’s a link to Oxford Dictionary on this to explain the confusion, in case you don’t believe me).

What else annoys me, oh, I hate people who ask “how are you doing today?” or some variation of that. I don’t care how you’re doing, so don’t care about how I’m doing. It may seem mean, but I think it’s better that way. Just, never ask me how I am doing, ’cause I’m just gonna shrug it off and move on. This is a problem at work, I guess most people are raised to act like they care, it just disturbs me.

I guess this sort of stems from the previous, in terms of this “good manners” bullshit, but I hate being called “ma’am.” I don’t call people “sir” or “ma’am,” people may think it’s rude, but I find them pointless. They are useless words to my eyes. Plus, when I think “ma’am,” I think old lady. I’m not even 25 yet, so don’t call me “ma’am.”

I think that’s about it, maybe I’ll come up with another list of annoyances sometime in the future, until then, well, I’ll post when I post.

First and foremost, and I think anyone who has worked in retail really agrees that the usual saying “Customer is Always Right” is absolute BULLSHIT.  I’m gonna try to keep this post short (and warn, I have a potty mouth when I’m pissed), but given I am now working at a new store since the other one closed, I’ve been out of work for two months before landing a job at a certain bedding and bath gifting shit store.  At my previous job, I did almost everything (except major decisions and deposits, other than that, kind of dealt with it even if only once in the near four years employed).  Every retail store has the usual crazy customers, rude customers, as well as nice customers.  But certain retail stores, I have to think, are getting worse.

Currently, “Customer is Always Right,” and you must drop whatever you’re doing, even if you’re told you’re on a strict timeframe, to help a customer, which 90% of the times are gonna say “Nah, just looking.”  I know when I go into a store, if I want help, I’ll ask.  It’s simple. There’s also this complete trust in customers versus employees.  Bag checks (found out, certain arts and crafts store does it too, yes, employees steal, do this, they’ll find a way to screw the company over more, or at least, they despise the company and end up not giving even more of a rat’s ass about doing their job).  It’s bad enough they may work 5 hrs and 59 min straight, now they may get patted down to check for contraband.

Adding on to “customers are the best” mantra, the magical return policy.  I think it’s a certain clothing store (I’m refusing to use names, but you may know what I’m talking about) has a disturbing return policy of allowing returns for everything (and other stores do it too, with used items, even pillows, (ew!)).  I, as a customer, refuse to shop and buy stuff from a place with a lenient return policy, simply because, depending on the type of item, it can be gross.  Most places probably discard washed merchandise, but what if, they don’t?  What if a kid with lice tried a pillow, and the mother returned it, not with a care in the world?  And the store accepted it and put it back?  I believe in a semi-strict policy, a certain number of days and must always have a receipt.  Maybe that’s just me.  Also, customers should know what fuckin size bed they have, got a Full but thought you needed a queen, wash the sheets and find out they don’t fit.  It’s not our fault you don’t know the size of your own damn bed.  We don’t sleep on it, you do.  Then you have the balls to return it.  It should be a no-can-do.  Check it on the bed before you wash it, at least.  Keep your fuckin’ receipt and keep the fuckin’ packaging.  If you have doubts, ALWAYS, keep everything.  I hate these new ways to check if someone bought something on a credit card, they should keep the receipt, we shouldn’t be expected to do everything.

There’s also what I have to think is actually breaking labor laws, when the only break is for those working at least 6 hours to get a 30-min lunch.  Meaning, work 5.5 hours, there isn’t even a 5-min break.

Most retail jobs, the hourly wages ones, are minimum wage or close to, have to deal with rude people, annoying people, assholes for bosses, be on their feet all day, walk from point A to point B constantly.  We work shitty hours (this week I had a close shift ’til 11pm then a first thing in the morning at 7:30am shift the next day), and are now, probably not even full time.  We’re the cheap able bodies on a floor, and are among the under appreciated, and I WANT OUT NOW!

I hate doing rant posts, but sometimes you got to let out a little steam.  Title may be a little misleading, I already knew this shit.

Decided to go ahead and talk about what I think is one of the more annoying products advertised like crazy on the market. It’s been around for a while, but if you live in a bubble, here is the point to it: apparently there are people who have problems with regular blankets, that when reaching for something, their poor arms would have to be exposed in order to grab something. So, in comes the Snuggie, which to me, looks like a fleece night gown. Because it is a wearable blanket, more or less, it has arms, so your arms are never exposed. Now, maybe the way I put it makes it sound stupid…no, it’s pretty much a really dumb product. Save a few bucks, just get a goddamn blanket.

Oh, and what made me talk about this now? They have a new ad, to the tune of the “Macarena,” b/c we all want to remember such a low point in the 90s. And b/c no one should have to suffer through such a terrible ad, I’m not hunting it on YouTube and embedding it. If you want to ruin your eyesight and hearing, you can go to YouTube and search it. But, be warned: It’s stupid, plain and simple.

Not saying I’ll make a regular thing out of this, though I got some other products I find ridiculous, but I saw an ad for this one product last night (twice) on GSN, and it just baffles me people would waste money on this.  It’s that No-Touch Soap Dispenser by Lysol.  The ad tries to make a point in that a regular soap pump would harvest tons of icky bacteria.  Not a surprise, since you need to wash for hand of germs, so the first thing you touch is the top of that pump, so yeah, most likely germs are gonna have a party on it.  Okay, I get that.  But…here’s the thing.  You.  Are.  About.  To.  Wash.  Your.  Hands.  Anyway.  Sorry, for separating those out like that, but I was trying to make a valid point.  True, lots of germs, but unless you feel the need to touch the top of that pump after you washed your hands of all those germs, you don’t have a problem.

I had to go find video of this, so I hunted one on YouTube:

After watching it though, I though of something else.  They show the hand go to the No-Touch System, but not when they turn the faucet on.  Turning the faucet off, is the last thing you touch.  Think about that.

I think I’ll just stick with my regular old soap pump.  And after looking at the comments for the YouTube clip, I am not the only one who seems to acknowledge this.

I currently work at a small little (well, not small small, but just not a chain store of any kind) retail store. No, not saying what store and where (I’m not stupid), but it sells home decor stuff and bedding, but after 2008, along with actual merchandise, the owner acquired shit from like those liquidation people (stores have a bunch of shit people don’t buy for a reason, yet there are companies that buy off stuff from them and re-sell to dumbasses. These “seconds” aren’t always bad (such as the extra random fabric he got, or some decent mirrors, etc), but when it just random stuff thrown into boxes, you’re talking broken stuff, half-emptied bottles, or just completely leaked chemicals that got on everything, so nothing is even sell-able. The store has gone down the toilet. Now of course, it’s going out of business, since people with money decided to not buy stuff, causing people trying to work for a living, to either get laid off or have their hours cut (thanks, BTW).

Of course, we get these people who say, “oh, I’m so sorry you’re going out of business,” or even, “I like coming in here to look around,” which makes me want to say, “yeah, well, looking around doesn’t pay the bills.” It’s bad enough that I have been working in retail (and I know I’m not the only one who has to put up with the stupidity of customers, found a great little site nicely called Retail-Sucks.com). But what sucks, is that we’re going out of business, and it was decided months after he opened a similar, yet much smaller, and more beachier, store, only about a 15min drive from the “main” store. They did well in the summer, but, in the off-season, saw a few days where they did even make any money (had some sales, but more returns). They’re staying open. Now, it’s spring-time, and we’ve been going out of business for about 4 months now, and they have only just started to pick up decent numbers, yet he’s not hiring any extra help. I feel sorry for them, working 50-60 hours in a week, because there are only 2 full-timers there, and 2 part-timers. While at our store, there’s 4 of us full-timers, and 2 part-timers (one of which has really low hours, and the other who has to go pee a lot, seriously). We have a manager who doesn’t always show up on time, and another who talks on the phone A LOT (mostly on her own cell phone). The other one sometimes uses the store phone, and has to take a cig break at least every hour. Not saying I’ve always came into work on time (5-15 min late, not a morning person), but I take no breaks, and lately, with business seeing some busy days, I sometimes don’t even get a lunch break, and if I do, it’s 10-15 min, just enough to eat a sandwich.

But back to what is sucking, and that is trying to find a job. I’m trying to look for higher paying jobs, or at least those similar to what I make now (~20,000 a year), but come up empty. The problem, there are TOO MANY damn restaurants now in the area, not that many places to shop, so staying away from restaurant jobs (which I’m reluctant to go back to) and finding a possible retail store where I may do some of the same stuff I do now, is hard. So, as for higher paying jobs, I’ve been looking into government jobs, but experience is a factor (I have an Associates in Internet Technologies, so I was looking at some tech jobs, but typically, that doesn’t seem to be enough).

I thought of maybe adding an ad to this blog, but if anyone actually views this and clicked on it, it wouldn’t be enough (though still, I’ve considered LinkShare, since they do the affiliate links with iTunes). I hate ads, but I may need to start monetizing this blog (the main site has some affiliate links, as does this blog already, from Zazzle, but I am having a hard time thinking of something truly original for a design to go on shirts and mugs that people may actually want to buy). If I can finish writing my story ideas, I thought of seeing if I have a writing future, but, as evidence of this blog, I don’t think I’m much of a writer.

Come to think of it, I don’t know what it is I’m really good at, except for watching a bunch of different TV shows, but I feel there are enough TV bloggers out there, and I think I’ve been real good about lessening TV talk on this blog. Although, I’ve been using this blog less and less now.

Oh well, felt the need to vent a little, plus my arm is tired and I need to finish Legend of the Seeker from my beautiful DVR that makes it possible for me to watch the amount of shows I do.

Oh, did I mention that job sites like Monster and HotJobs are useless, since I live in a tech-challenged county that are least likely to post job openings online.

Press Release

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES, Jan. 15 — In response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti, MTV Networks is presenting “Hope for Haiti,” a global telethon to air commercial-free across ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1, and CMT on Friday, January 22, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT and 7:00 p.m. CT. “Hope for Haiti” will also be made available to MTV Networks International, CNN International and National Geographic channels worldwide.

Full article: the futon critic

Find out what you can do to help Haiti.

All new episodes scheduled for January 22nd (including the return of the CW’s Smallville and the series finale of FOX’s Dollhouse will air the following week on January 29th.

Sci-Fi Wire