Antisocial socializing

I can't believe that we are closing in on the one-year anniversary of TOR and we still have not addressed my NUMBER #1 Pet Peeve. Obviously we have written about large umbrellas, smokers who litter, people who use their Blue Tooth in the mall, the idiocy of having to take your shoes off at the airport etc. But there is a topic which must be addressed as I think it's part of the downfall of our civilization.

now before I begin, I must confess that years ago I was probably the biggest perpetrator of this offense, so before you give me any crap understand that I fully recognize the irony of me being the person who brings this to light.

I've done my research and have found there is nothing more antisocial than answering your cell-phone while at a dinner. I cannot imagine how this can ever be justified as I equate it to basically telling your dinner guests that they are a bunch of losers and that that the person on the phone is more interesting, they are more important to you or their stories more entertaining. The funny thing is that this isn't something that only happens with people who have questionable social skills because some of my more sophisticated friends are the biggest culprits.

Just yesterday a buddy answered the phone in the middle of dinner to talk about the Met game, honestly he may as well have taken out his little winkie and peed on the table because he was basically telling us that we were not worth his time. If you prefer to have a conversation with somebody on the phone then make plans with him or her. This is yet another example of how technology has stripped our society of decency.

I can't decide for sure but what is almost worst is people having a texting conversation while they are hanging out with you because nothing in a text can be all that important. I am the biggest proponent of texting, I prefer it to talking, emailing or any other way to communicate using technology but I there have to be fast-hard rules when you have to put the device away and having dinner with friends is one of those times

This thought that now it's socially acceptable to multitask through your relationships is reprehensible.

Now i am sure there are certain exceptions but they are few and far between, so don't give me any feedback about some emergency or exceptional situation, I'm well aware that this can't be a 100% rule but it should be about 99%.

Automatic Gratuity is unAmerican

I may have ranted against this before, but this is a scam on par with socialism. Sitting at a restaurant last night with my family, we were met with the unfortunate “an automatic gratuity of 20% will be added to parties of six or more”. Now I’m a good tipper, always have been and honestly don’t expect that much out of a waiter other than be prompt, be courteous and be attentive. Well the guy who served us last night was corny, late and then disappeared. I can’t stand a waiter or busboy who hovers over you, not allowing for a natural break in the conversation when he/she comes over to take an order or starts removing appetizer dishes half-eaten but there is nothing worse than a server who lets you sit hungry or thirsty.
We order our first round of beers at about 6:30, ten minutes later he comes back to tell us they are out of Stella and finally arrive at about 6:55 with our drinks. What the hell does it take 10 minutes to realize you are out of a crappy beer and how does it take another 15 minutes to get three beers and a Mojito out? Was he brewing his own beer down in the cellar because he sure as hell wasn’t out taking our appetizer order. So for 25 minutes we are all sitting there like a bunch of kids online to meet Britney Spears with menus in our laps, dying of thirst, no one even comes over to drop down a basket of stale bread.
This is the issue, when the guy knows he’s getting 20% why work at all? It’s the same question you can ask for a guy who makes minimum wage vs collecting welfare, at some point is it worth that guy getting out of bed? Well this ahole making way more than minimum wage just leaves us hanging there. He finally takes our order which arrives almost 45 minutes later but not once does he come over to take a second drink order. We are forced to use sign-language with the non-English speaking busboy to convey messages like “orange juice for the baby” or ‘more pita for the hummus appetizer” But the waiter never shows his face. The worst part is that I feel like I’m lost in the Sahara as I’m dying of thirst and desperately need another Miller Lite to quench my thirst.

When this guy doesn’t show up, I do what I hate to do but I march over to the manager and ask “did our waiter leave? He hasn’t been back here in almost an hour” making it clear that I’m not paying a 20% auto-gratuity, he gives me a bit of 'policy' crap but at the end of the night I leave 13% on the pre-tax check and walk away proud (Although probably still chewing on the loogie he invariably put in my quesadilla) .

the endless loop

My biggest Pet Peeve is an easy one.. It ranks above those circus tent umbrellas people carry, the fact that smokers litter their used buds without being reprimanded or fined and even above people who get into subways before other people have gotten off.
This pet-peeve trumps them all.

How often do I call some kind of 800 numbers and get thrown into a Being John Malkovich type loop of automated phone calls?
It usually goes something like this

Automated voice
Thank you for calling Time Warner Cable, the place to be, to better assist you please tell me what you are calling about today?

Righetti
my internet is down

Automated voice
I'm sorry I did not get that, please state your issue again?

Righetti
My internet is down

Automated voice
Let me get this right, you are having issues with your cable TV?

Righetti

(getting pissy)
No, my internet is down

Automated voice
I'm sorry we are having problems, can you state your problem again slowly?

Righetti
(Over annunciating every syllable)
NO IN -TER- NET

Automated Voice
I'm still not getting you.. Let's try this again, what
are you calling about

Righetti

(blood is starting to boil).

OPERATOR

Automated Voice
I understand you want to speak with a customer care
representative, in order to get you to the right place please state what you are
calling about

Righetti

(Fuming).
GIVE ME A FUCKING OPERATOR

Automated voice
we will connect you to
the next available operator, to better assist you please say or enter your
account number"

Etc. Etc.

Now I will be the first to tell you that I have no patience at all for customer service people, but I somehow have less for voice recognition customer service centers.

Even if you get through a portion of this exercise of stupidity unscathed you will inevitably be asked to give the live operator a bunch of the same information (like account number etc.) you have already put into the automated system.

I am convinced that these things are set up to frustrate the consumer to the point they just hang up... Or otherwise by the time they get a live person on the phone they are so flustered that they cannot make a decent point.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Take on the Blue Tooth

I stand online and all of a sudden some dude standing next to me starts asking about some way to pull equity out of his house in this market, I turn around and start to answer him and he looks at me like I am the guy who's got not clue about what's been happening since September.
I think he's some lunatic who is talking to himself and nobody's home, then realize he's got one of those stupid blinking earpieces and he's having a conversation with somebody else.

Is there anything more arrogant that some jackass standing around having a seemingly normal conversation with himself. I am sorry that you can't expend the energy to lift your arm up to your head but it wouldn't kill you to live within the confines of normal society. Now if your operating heavy machinery or driving a Hyundai Sonata than I can see the need to have two hands available but when you are standing on one of those security lines at the airport it's the equivalent of taking out your winky and peeing on the floor.

I am not anti-technology but I am anti anti-social and there is nothing more anti-social than this bluetooth revolution. Just look around, and anybody who has one of these things and isn't in a car is an absolute arrogant a-hole.

A Pet Peeve revival

Mass New Years text messages.. This is not considerate but actually inconsiderate. You are costing me $0.05 (or actually $0.50 when I am traveling in Egypt) for an impersonal message..



Not a lot of action on New Years Eve in Egypt, the city of Luxor felt a bit like Fort Lee on an average Tuesday night, no fun, no action


A new Righetti Bitch:

I gotta say that I hate walking into a hotel room after spending 3 days in the desert and finding stains on the sheets of you hotel room, mold-gunk on the shower curtain and yellow water to brush your teeth. It is like you actually are MORE dirty than before you shower.. There I am in a hotel room with a perfectly good bed, mumified in my desert sleeping bag.

Another complaint.. Haggling with these store keepers is such a dirty feeling as you try to get $0.80 off of a $10 scarf. You feel dirty for arguing to save the equivalent of a cup of coffee but are more annoyed you have to even do it. When a guy offers you a scarf for 100 pounds and drops down to 50 pounds immediately without you even asking, you know he has a lot of room

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Simply Having a wonderful Christmas Time.

Not sure when it happened, but at some point I got old..  Not yet 33, but standing at a crowded  bar last night I felt like I was 60.  This is not the first time I've been at a bar, let alone a crowded bar but I've never felt more like wanting to pull the fire alarm.

It's not that I hate bars, a specific ethnicity or crowds but I really hate crowded bars packed with 500 people of the same ethnicity.  Why in New York city on the cusp of 2009 somebody would seek out a place packed with only people of ones own ethic group makes me want to jab Kimchee in my eye

Not only do these bars suck cause they are so loud you feel hoarse from screaming all night and thirsty because you can't ever get close to the bar but you feel you are standing in a giant hot meat locker.
Again nothing against meat or lockers but when I feel like I'm in a car wash between some dipsh!t  22 year old dude with a fish-head and some fat thighed chick who smells like a fish, I long for the stability of an Irish pub packed with white people. With these two pressing start to rub up against each other (and inadvertently me) I analyze the situation in the same way I would when I first step onto an airplane.  What this is the easiest most direct beeline to an exit.

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I got a Gas issue

Although I don't own a car, and thus haven't been directly hit by the rising and falling gas prices, I do have an issue about gas stations which MUST be addressed..

Topping the gas off when paying with a credit card is completely nonsensical and an absolute jivejob. What the. Hell is the point to making sure my gas is divisible by$0.50 when it just gets thrown into a large pile of other credit card purchases...

This is almost as big a scam as the $0.0099 they add to the price of gas, 89 octane or the "fresh" coffee they sell in those station bodegas

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McDonalds discriminates against poor people, environmentally conscious people and people who work in NYC.

I walked up to the McDonalds on 4th Avenue and 1st Street tonight after a night of honest heavy drinking and was met with blatant discrimination. Although the front door was locked after 11pm, the sign said 24 hour drive through. I walk into the drive through lane and try to order two double cheeseburgers off the dollar menu.   The chick at the window then tells me that I am not allowed to order food because I am not in a car.

What?!!??! Because I don't own a car, I cannot order food??? I ask to speak with the manager to confront him on this blatant discrimination and am told that a without a car, they will not serve me a cheeseburger.  This manager couldn't give me a legitimate reason why I could not be served and I started to sense that this was their way of keeping the man down.  He claims it's store policy, so in other words this discrimination against pedestrians might go all the way to the top of the food-chain, the big honcho, the bigmac.
I called it as I saw it and told him that he was basically telling me that if you could either not afford.a car or was environmentally conscious or because you live in Park Slope and commute into WORK IN NYC you cannot get a burger, reverse racism I tell you.  I should have hailed a cab and had him drive me through the drivethrough so at least I can have two patties with cheese at 2am

Reasons I despise flying commercial

First of all everything in the flying experience is a gigantic schlep from getting to the airport, to getting through security, to getting out of the plane everything takes a year. Then add to it that they treat you like a goddam 10 year old by telling you what you can and cannot do. This is all the same kind of bull intimidation that bouncers get who stand behind the velvet rope, except I have to get on a plane to make a living.
The way I see it, it's the combo of the airlines and the FAA all get together to tell the business travelers to go screw themselves, although the business traveler is the one who keeps them alive especially when times are rough.

If you take everything into consideration, from start to finish, they have made the entire experience so unpleasant and so expensive that you just dread getting on a plane. Not only do we have to deal with delays and overcrowding but they have to go in expecting to be treated like a complete fool.
Just look at the progression of airline travel from just a few years ago.

First it was the fact you had to get there over an hour and a half early to basically stand around and pick your ass, when you get there you deal with those long lines specifically at security where you get strip searched because god forbid you have a bottle of water in your bag, then they add the wrinkle where you gotta remove not just your belt but also your shoes, then they charge you for a suitcase which only means that every ahole tries to squeeze 2 weeks worth of clothes into those overhead bins. Add to it that they charge you $5 for a can of miller lite and $1 for headphones which are probably covered in lead paint and you got yourself a royal business traveler ass-f•ck.
They have their reasons for everything but none of it has any logic to it.:

My Pet Peeves:
1) Taking you shoes off at security, I cannot bitch about this enough.

2) Having to put your goddamn shaving cream in some stupid ziplock bag and put it separately through the XRay machine. I have learned long ago to just keep everything in my bag cause everytime I actually have taken it out they make me toss my toothpaste or shaving cream. When I leave it tucked away I walk through with everything intact. Next time I should shove it into the front of my $129 jeans and you walk through with a COSCO size tube of Crest.
First of all how do they get the water bottles and toothpaste through security to sell it inside the terminal?? Answer: they don't do anything because their systems can't pick it up on the XRay machine.
Volunteering to take something out of your bag and being surprised they confiscate it is like taking something out of your pants in the sauna at the NYSC and being surprised it gets 'confiscated'.

3). Why the hell do they tell you that when you are about to taxi from the gate that you cannot use your cellphone because the doors are closed when you are departing BUT as soon as you land you can talk/text/email away? Doors are closed then to, this makes absolutely zero sense and it annoys the piss out of me.

4). All the Hot Stewardesses from the 80's are the same fat-kankled broads working there now.

Really, I am convinced that all of this is just the airlines and airport's methods of keeping the man down.

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An economic transfer of wealth worse than socialism

For all the name-calling and fear tactics from this last campaign season, there was a stone which was left unturned. After consulting a number of complex financial analysis and movements between economies of scale and analyzing how wealth from the private sector gets taken to be added into the social economic pool by the public sector I am ready to unveil my research on the transference of monies from the haves to the have-nots which is becoming more problematic than even endemic welfare.


People have never done less and gotten more, the issue is one of the largest transfers of wealth for virtually no work what so ever... my issue is the new Marxism......the 20% auto-gratuity.

On two separate occasions this weekend, I was hit with this Communist crap, the first time at some crappy ass bar who found it justifiable to add 20% to any credit card bill. What the F***, 20% to bring me three beers? You have to be kidding me!! how some bartender feels he is owed the same percentage as a "service charge" as a waiter, a masseuse or a barber, people who actually service you is beyond me.

There is no service in one of these busy bartenders what-so-ever,

no friendly smile,

no "how was your drink?",

no "can I get you something else?"

NOTHING.. this is complete horse-shit and I'm not standing for it anymore.



The second time was even worse after we sat down at an empty restaurant with a party of 10 late Sunday afternoon. Some waiter who looks like he fell out of RENT takes our order and subsequently forgets about us all together. Not one time does he come to ask us if we wanted another drink, some crushed pepper, another piece of bread anything.

Then comes the worse part, the reason you come to a restaurant.. here came the food.

The issues included

1) one out of the ten dishes ordered never comes out at all, something the waiter never acknowledges and only realizes when we complain to the bus-boy.

2) complete mistakes in food delivered, I got cooked salmon instead of the smoked salmon, a chicken sandwich down the table comes delivered sans chicken

3) the food quality, for those who actually got food, was piss-poor.

4) and worse yet my Bloody-Mary tasted like watered down tomato piss

But the biggest issue was not even the food but the fact that this sorry excuse for a human was completely AWOL.
No acknowledgment of the mistakes or the items he forgot, no apology from the management nothing plus to make a bad situation worse, I had to beg the busboy to refill my coffee and I get cranky when I haven't had at least a full liter of caffeine.

Then to add insult to injury, an hour after the first dish was served it becomes our obligation to track down this two-piece jack-off to ask him for a bill so that we can pay him for his crap food and of course we are met with another 20% auto gratuity.

What the hell is wrong with my life? I know that a large party usually has gratuity added but 20 percent for awful service and we're just supposed to bend over and take it. We've come to a point in this country when the waiter doesn't urinate in your coffee and wipe his ass with your hoagie you are thrilled. Since shitty service now basically requires 20%, what the hell does good service get.. felation from the customer?

There are only a few things I ask for in a stripper

I'm not that into fake cans, I'm not at all into most of the ugly ass tattoo's these chicks have,  I'm defintiely not into the zits these chicks get on their ass from rubbing up an down on that nasty ass floor and i'm not into the bad attitiude some of these chicks have but what really gets me annoyed is something much worse.  Why in God's name would you get on stage with a big nasty six inch cesarean scar.  Nothing turns a Big Righetti into a small righetti faster than a chick who's stomach looks like a road map.   You are in the turn-on business and this my friends is a huge turn off.   Either get some weird looking belly tattoo which is bad but not as bad as this thing or get a huge bandaid or in the name of JC wear a belt when you are dancing, cause honestly I don't like it.

Just to be clear, I'm not against the caesarean in general, just for a chick who works under a blacklight. 
I know these broads had some issues with not feeling like they were loved but this scar means that at least at some point you got some real loving and I like to believe my stripper is completely innocent..

Got an interesting comment to a TOR entry from a few days ago about the need to end a conversation before ending revolving doors.  First of all this revolving door piece was actually brought to my attention by The Ryan Express and in addition to the original theory, regular TOR reader and occasional Relief Bitcher 'The Bump' mentions that this is the same rule as walking into the bathroom to use a urinal, all conversation ceases once cock is in hand.

how do you end a text conversation

 










rant
Philthy makes the following point the other day, why a text message conversation can never end easily.    Seems to annoy the piss out of me too cause the conversation drags for no real reason.

R: "hey what was the name of that movie you were telling me about?"

J-  "Dark City"

R- "that's right, thanks"

J- "no problem"

R- "have a good weekend"

J-"you too"

R- "later"

J- "later"


at $0.05/message this seems like an awfully expensive way to drag on a conversation... I know we are moving into this tech world which is supposed to make communication easier but really do we have to be cordial in every possible setting?   This is why that blackberry messenger thing is so good, because the assumption there is that the conversation never 'ends' it just pauses.   You ask a question, get an answer and the next time you need something you start it back up again..

The reason that blackberry messenger works for me but AIM or MSN messenger doesn't has to do with the fact that the BB messenger is on your person and somehow the expectations are different that the CPU based messenger programs. People (at least of my generation) also don't expect you to hold a prolonged conversation over this thing.
This is primarily a problem when you get into a MSN messenger conversation with somebody you have no real interest in talking to.   I'm sitting at work, you know minding my own business when all of a sudden right on top of my excel sheet a window pops open with some inane message like
"what you doing?"

the rest of the conversation goes something like this
"not much, what's up?"
"nothing"
"cool....."
"what are you up to?"
"running you know, keeping busy"

I then minimize the window and go back to work when 2 minutes later the stupid window blinks orange again with the message 
"you are not very good at this"

WTF, i didn't ask to get into this conversation and I can't be asked to be a dancing monkey at a moment's notice.   I hate my life sometimes.


end rant

What is wrong with some people?

There is nothing more frustrating to me then this scenario.
A group of people go a top steak-house in New York city, everybody is enjoying the conversation, the drinks are cold, the bread is warm and the conversation is good. The waiter walks up to the table to explain the specials and the sides and begins to take orders. People order all types of cuts: filet's, rib-eye, flank etc and everything seems to be going swimmingly until the waiter gets to the one guy in the group who orders the Filet Mignon and when the waiter asks how to they would like it prepared they say.. "well done"..

This is basically when the rest of the table goes quiet, some people try to hide others pretend they are in deep conversation. The waiter confirms it with a disgusted look and walks away shaking his head.

what is wrong with you people? You are at a steak-house, where you will pay $40 for a piece of meat only to overcook it?

This like asking Beethoven to play chop-sticks, Shakespear to write for the NY Post, John Ritter to appear in Police AcademyVI, this is worse than starting Warrick Dunn over Adrian Peterson or on par with having a chance to meet Jenna Jameson and asking her for an arm massage.

Do yourself a favor and save yourself $30 and get the burger.


you people suck

You know what I hate?

As regular readers to TakeOnRighetti will tell you…the answer is many things.

But to give you a small sampling:

Mass Christmas Text messages

BCC's on Email Invitations

Tappas with a big group

The Three Pack

Those Blue Disposable Razors

BUT I just remembered another one...people who decide they need to take a golf umbrella out on the street of Manhattan when there is a drizzle out. "Hey Jackass you're not at Augusta, you near poked my eye with those bicycle spokes coming out of that thing!!!"

Yeah I get it, you don't want to get your crappy shirt wet but do you really need something the size of the thing they use to cover center-court at Arthur Ashe stadium?

Not only is this an invasion of private space (in a city where there is little of this to begin with) it is that when some idiot pops one of these open they lose all ability to properly walk on a crowded street. It's like the jackass who can't parallel park his SUV truck, if you can't operate the machinery you shouldn't be allowed to use it.

Like McCain's Cone of Silence, these beach umbrella's seem to act as a Cone of Stupidity

It is actually appropriate that these idiots prance around under a thing that looks like a circus tent because they maybe at some point they can get somebody to pay money to see these mental patients walk the street de-eyeing people.

The same ahole that carries one of these things is usually the same person who decide they need knee high rain-boots and a yellow rain-suit, You could just round these guys up and throw them right into the mental hospital at Ward's Island, although people might think it's Cirque de Soleil.

When Pet Peeves become Pet Projects

Part 4 in a continuing series.. (the first part can be found here)


Pet Peeve #4a

The open-ended question.

"Hey what are you doing next Thursday?". Is there anything more gruesome? This is how a perfectly nice afternoon turns into one of dread. This is like getting invited to go camping at Crystal Lake on Friday the 13th cause you just know it's going to end badly.. If you want me to help you move or want to invite me to see the Duran Duran, give me all the details up front, I need to be able to make an informed decision (and time to come up with an excuse)



Pet Peeve #4b

The BCC invite

I can't take the credit for this one but it is dead on. Getting invited by a person to do something but having all the other invitees not visible is a recipe for a disaster for me. Before I commit to what could be absolute hell, I need to be able to canvas the landscape. This is especially irritating if it is held at somebody's house like If you get an invite to a birthday party or a pot-luck dinner. The pot luck should be the meatloaf not that weird Austrian friend of yours who I can't ever understand. I go into these things with a mission and I gotta be mentally prepped in case I get stuck talking with your coworker Darryl with the lazy eye and who always talks about old episodes of Wings because you once told him you thought it was an OK show.


Not sure if this is going to be important enough but PetPeeve #4B could easily be the fact that somebody knows when you've seen their Evite. It is the reason that I won't log into an Evite unless I know its something I wouldn't poke my eye out for. Send me a card so at least you won't know if I've opened it.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Taking Out Anger, one day at a time

10 miles of running gives you a chance to think.. Sometimes about life, sometimes about love and sometimes about your pet peeves...

I've been slowly compiling them and they are ordered something like this



Pet Peeve#1.
Mass Text Messages on Holidays
this is when unlimitted text messages hurts society.
If you can't give me the time to write me a personal text message on Christmas then save the $0.05 and don't.. Have we become a society where I we haven't earned the honor of ANYTHING personal? Mass celebratory texts are the downfall of decency.



Pet Peeve #2
Littering Smokers..

Why is it that it is completely socially unacceptable for a person to throw a candy wrapper on the ground but in the same world some coughing dirtbag finds it perfectly OK to throw a used butt on the street? Am I missing something here? Why should somebody else have to clean up behind you? Who died and left you to disregard Al Gore? Were you born an arrogant a-hole or only play one on TV cause you have a nicotine addiction.

They do have ashtrays you know



Pet Peeve #3
People who don't let others off the subway car before they try to get on.

Why does the fact that you have an ass the size of a Honda Civic make you believe that there is any sense to this.. not only is it rude there is the issue of pure physics.. your oversized ass squeezing into a two doors while others are trying desperately to get off the same stinkin sardine can will only slow down the train and really THERE AREN'T ANY SEATS ANYWAY.







More to come I'm sure

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