Writer's Block: Peevish

[fajrdrako]

[Error: unknown template qotd]

Currently: a city without bus service. Unacceptible. Sadly, the striking bus drivers and the instransigent Mayor don't care in the least what I want to accept.

I have lots of pet peeves. Where is the dividing line between philosophical existentialism and a pet peeve? How trivial does a peeve have to be in order to be a pet? I could name the nationalist-capitalist world order, the mercantile economy, pollution destroying the habitable world, declining standard of living and quality of life, international (and national) warfare, and decaying urban infrastructures.

My dislike of hot-air hand-dryers in public washrooms is a pet peeve. What about my annoyance with rising food prices? Or the declining flavour in foods, and the consequent increase in the use of chemicals to enhance them? The fact that Peak Freen no longer makes my favourite kind of cookie?

American companies, especially book dealers, who won't sell to Canadians?

How about the loss of hope I see in the world? Cynicism everywhere I look, masquerading as realism? Obama might be reversing that. Hope, hope, hope!

My pet peeves tend to spill over into convictions that I usually don't talk about. Ads on television. Boring conversations. Judgementalism, prejudice, racism, homophobia, puns, overreliance on private transport, people who put their ego before their brains. People who would rather be right than kind. (That's a biggie. Maybe the biggest.) People who value dogma over common sense.

My list grows. Gad. I'm turning into a grouch.

Comments

[iclysdale.livejournal.com]

HA! That second and third paragraph are my manifesto for the day.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yay! Wave those banners high!

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

...people who would rather be right than kind.

There's another I strongly agree with. The internet just makes this unfortunate tendency worse.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The internet just makes this unfortunate tendency worse.

Makes for a different kind of communication... We are an imperfect species. But there's a lot of kindness around, too. Thank goodness.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

You don't like puns? I'm terrible at making them, and tend to be impressed by the clever ones ;)

My personal one is tiny, but drives me insane: People who, when giving you change as well as the thing you bought, put the note in your hand first, then drop the coins on top of it. Because you then have to put everything down so you can get the note out or you'll drop all the coins, but that holds up everyone behind you in the queue who start glaring at you.

...yeah, what can I say? I'm generally pretty easy-going. That and people who say "never mind" when clearly they mind a great deal are about it for me.

You still have no buses? Sheesh.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You don't like puns?

No. Though I do like multilingual puns, and occasionally historical puns, and even more rarely, visual puns.

People who, when giving you change as well as the thing you bought, put the note in your hand first, then drop the coins on top of it.

Oh, yes! Good one. It's especially bad if you're trying to carry or hold something in the other hand - like the thing you just purchased.

I'm generally pretty easy-going.

Me too. Just griping here because the prompt gave me the opportunity. These things mostly don't get to me. Maybe on a really bad day.

You still have no buses?

Ridiculous, isn't it?

[bright-lilim.livejournal.com]

"American companies, especially book dealers, who won't sell to Canadians?"

Or indeed, to anyone who doesn't live in US. Especially annoying when they are selling ebooks.

TV companies who only make region 1 DVDs...

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

DVD regions, period, IMHO.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

My goodness, yes. That is the most customer-unfriendly thing! - We live in an international world and they're trying to partition off provincial corners of it. I disapprove.

[bright-lilim.livejournal.com]

DVDs actually are customer-unfriendly. The people who produce them seem to think that *all* DVD buyer are also automatically thieves. I even have DVDs which are automatically stuck on the film or text that tells me that I shouldn't steal DVDs.

What other industry assumes that just because I've *legally bought a product* I've also of course illegally gotten similar products?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

What other industry assumes that just because I've *legally bought a product* I've also of course illegally gotten similar products?

Weird, isn't it? I am always amused by those FBI warnings we always get, because, in case no one has noticed, we are not in the jurisdiction of the FBI of of American law. Even if the FBI are hand-in-glove with the RCMP i some matters. And Canadian copyright laws aren't the same as the States. So it's all nonsense they're subjecting us to - because they can.

[bright-lilim.livejournal.com]

Or regional restrictions on any product at all.

I keep wondering what's going through their heads?? "We've already made too much money! Let's not make more!" or "Faugh! I hate those pesky non-USAians! I want to make them suffer!" or "Nah, everyone outside USA lives in mud houses and never uses money" or what??

I mean I can understand if it's about VAT. I've had to pay US VAT for some products when I buy on-line. But really, if VAT is a problem, then *fix* it. I'm sure there are enough pressure groups, er, I mean lobbyists to pressure countries to do that.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

If it makes you feel any better, those of us in Region 1 get bit by this, too. Esp. since it's all but impossible to find a regionless DVD player in the US.

Not sure what you mean by VAT, since we don't have a national sales tax. Individual states can and do levy sales taxes, though, so maybe that's what you got charged. It wouldn't surprise me at all.

[bright-lilim.livejournal.com]

"Not sure what you mean by VAT"

I put some audiobooks into the shopping cart, clicked confirm order and suddenly my total was higher by 5 dollars and next to it read VAT.

By the way, this was the same company that has regional restrictions on their products. So 1: they know I'm not from US and 2: they charge US tax from me.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

And they get away with it because it's the only way we can buy their product.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Fascinating. I think it may have been your country that required that, either that or the company was charging sales tax (which is never called VAT here, but may have translated it into your terms, although I can't think why it would do that) from the state in which it resides. Individual states (California, New York, etc., as opposed to the whole US) do charge sales tax. Because the US does not have a national VAT, not even for foreign purchases.

[bright-lilim.livejournal.com]

I went back and checked it. It actually says just "tax" not VAT. However, the Finnish VAT for books is 8%. This tax was over 20%. If it is my government's doing, it's wrong on at least two different levels: putting a national tax on a product not bought in Finland and massively overcharging.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That's awful.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Yikes. I wonder how you could get a breakdown of which government is charging what. It would be interesting, wouldn't it?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

"We've already made too much money! Let's not make more!"

Hmm. Doesn't sound convincing, does it?

"Faugh! I hate those pesky non-USAians! I want to make them suffer!"

Hee - you never know!

I can understand if it's about VAT.

I don't know about the US, but Canadian Customs and Canada Post are only too happy to slap duties, G.S.T., tarifs and taxes on anything that passes through their hands. It's annoying, but that can be a matter of letting the consumer decide, rather than making the product entirely unavailable.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

This whole conversation is bemusing me mightily. For one thing, we don't have a national sales tax (VAT is a tax on purchases, right?) here in the US. Individual states charge sales tax, and some of them are now charging taxes on sales made to people outside that state (which they weren't allowed to do until fairly recently), but I don't think that's what this is. I think Finland is charging Mervi VAT for something he bought in the US. Is that legal???

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I think Finland is charging Mervi VAT for something he bought in the US. Is that legal???

Well, I know nothing about Finnish law, but it's certainly legal in Canada - in fact, it's illegal not to pay it, once the fee is charged. Anything I buy in the US or outside Canada (whether by mail or in person) is subject to GST and this is charged at the border by Canada Customs. Packages that come by mail are held at the border until a person pays the ransom. Er, fee.

This is not charged on personal packages marked as gifts, but is normal practice on cross-border purchases.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Okay. That makes much more sense to me (er, not on that level, but you know what I mean). I just couldn't figure out how a country that doesn't have a VAT could be charging one [g].

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

This is why it's so expensive to buy things from the States. Even if the cost of the item looks good, and even if the exchange rate isn't bad, there's postage (and enough) and often GST on top of that. On, say, a book, it's often twice the price it's listed at in the end.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Yikes! My sympathies. And yet your government is always complaining to us about the reverse (I'm thinking about softwood lumber in particular). Is this in retaliation? If it is, it's backfiring...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Naw, this isn't in retaliation - it's just an attempt to get money out of Canadians. They have whole different strategies for getting money out of Americans! And it may be simply protectionist, to try to discourage Canadians from buying over the border, where prices are generally cheaper.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Protectionist. Yes. That one I get, if I don't think it makes a lot of sense.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I don't approve, but I can see why governments think that way.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Especially annoying when they are selling ebooks.

Oh, so true! Abritrary divisions. The high price of mailing something physically to Canada - arbitrary and annoying though that is - could simply be passed on to the consumer, but you can see the rationale. But to do soemthing electronically - and still refuse to sell out of the country - most objectionable to those of us left out in the cold!

Ditto for video-streaming that's only viewable in the country of origin. (It's pretty much guaranteed that the country of origin will not be mine.)

[bright-lilim.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. I was especially bitter about the free Galactica episodes. Only viewable for USAians...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

So annoying!

You know what's worse? I don't know if the BSG site did it, but the Heroes one did. You click on a video to see a free episode. You get a minute of an ad from their sponsor - okay, fair enough, they put the material up there so I wouldn't complain. But: after you watch their whole stupid commercial, then they tell you you can't watch the video because you're in the wrong "zone". By which they mean the wrong country. So I feel I was tricked or coerced into watching the ad with no possible payoff. Grr!

In 2007 I thoroughly enjoyed the Doctor Who Advent Calendar on the BBC website, which had clips of interviews, previews, puzzles, games, wallpapers, all sorts of wonderful things. In 2008 half the material was zone-restricted, and though I could sometimes see the games or pictures, it wasn't fun any more. I felt like the kid outside the locked fence, looking in.

[bright-lilim.livejournal.com]

"after you watch their whole stupid commercial, then they tell you you can't watch the video"

Yes, BSG did that, too. Of course, the product that was advertised isn't available here...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Of course, the product that was advertised isn't available here...

Well, of course not! Even if we should want it, we can't have it.

Very annoying, every way you look at it.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Except for Rick Mercer, who I can't get down here less than 200 miles south of the border [wry g]. Which is ptui. I like him, but I can't always remember to watch him on TV (I don't have DVR or TiVo, and while I do occasionally tape shows to watch later, he's not likely to be something I'd remember to do that for, either).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Rick Mercer, who I can't get down here less than 200 miles south of the border [wry g]

That doesn't seem fair. I suppose they think Americans won't want to see the show? Actually, I didn't even know it was on DVD. A lot of Canadian things aren't. But they're catching on, and more is available all the time.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Not on DVD. On streaming video, which won't work south of the border. He's so topical, I rather doubt he'd do all that well on DVD, actually. Kind of like Saturday Night Live that way [g].

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You may be right - he focuses so much on ephemeral current news and ideas.

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

People who would rather be right than kind

YES! I also hate that people don't THINK anymore before they speak. I see this in person and in cyber-land. I feel like we're in a temper tantrum, self-entitled society.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of that. Ego-driven talk and thought. It's ultimately hurtful - especially to the person doing it.

[filkferengi]

You have good taste in pet peeves.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

[g] - thank you!