A list of peeves (I haven’t gone off in a while. Buckle up.)

1. Driving 70+ in the far-right lane. Fast lane is on the left. Hold your arms out, hands bent back, with palms facing away from you (like you’re leaning against a wall being arrested). With fingers straight up, point your thumbs at each other. You’ll notice that your left hand forms an “L” with the index finger/thumb arrangement. That’s your left. That’s the lane you go fast in.

2. Driving <65 in the left lane. Even more annoying than the speeder in the right. I’m going to get a megaphone/speaker system in my hamster-driven Scion that will announce your ineptitude of driving. If you’re being tailgated by a Scion, pull the F#$% over.

3. Smart cars. They DO NOT belong on a freeway. Sure, crash “tests” may prove safe due to the data collected by the test dummy, but he’s in better shape than you. 300 pounds of fat collapsing on itself will kill you.

4. People who think the “Soup Nazi” from Seinfeld is a funny exaggeration of a quirky guy. It’s not. People are busy. Food joints make money on volume. So don’t chit-chat in a mile-long line then finally get asked what you want and then read the menu. Don’t change your order five times, deciding if you want turkey or go vegan for the day. You’re going out to lunch, so obviously you’re there for food; it’s not like it was a surprise survey outside a grocery store. Order, pay, and most importantly- MOVE. Go to the end of the line where the food is going to be. And keep your personal bubble. Don’t touch the person in front of you or behind you. Some people are aware of the “Soup Nazi” system and are so afraid of messing it up that someone entering their own little bubble might just send them over the edge.

5. Internet trolls posing as bastions of truth and unbiased opinion. Bonus points for those idiots who spout off an ignorant and profanity-laced tirade that covers none of the points of contention, and conclude their “opinion” with the infamous Internet phrase: “Your a idiot.” I would accept “ur an idiot,” even with the shorthand. But to completely mess up a simple 3-word sentence, you’ve completely invalidated your argument. Not that you really had one, because your seeing-red fingers just typed some nonsensical, all-caps-laden, punctuation-deficient post on how Apple products are far superior to Microsoft’s, even though the mountain of data against your position is verified and accepted by other Apple owners, effectively defeating your opinion.

6. XBox Live players who think they are completely anonymous and forget they’re playing a game. And not realizing they suck at the game. When little Johnny’s world comes crashing down when he realizes just because he beats the game on co-op with his friend, he can’t actually keep up with the Live group. And then he ends up being a vocal version of #5, instantly becoming the funniest thing, and sadly the saddest, when his alto voice is screaming how everyone targets him, everyone is cheaters, all the while inserting words that no 10 year old should (way to go, parents). Kid, maybe you just suck at the game.

Supposedly:

sup·posed adj.

1. Presumed to be true or real without conclusive evidence.
2. Intended: medication that is supposed to relieve pain.
3. 1. Required: He is supposed to go to the store.
   2. Permitted: We are not supposed to smoke here.
   3. Firmly believed; expected: You’re supposed to be my friend.

sup·pos’ed·ly (-pō’zĭd-lē) adv.

Supposably:

sup·pos·a·ble adj.
That can be supposed or conjectured: a supposable outcome.
sup·pos’a·bly adv.

In looking at these words, they look pretty similar. However, a little deeper look shows that the word “supposably” is pretty much an American English word. Meaning only Americans use it. It doesn’t “exist” in other English-speaking regions. Not only that, it just sounds kinda dumb. Like a 5-year-old trying to say “supposedly.” There is only one instance where “supposably” is to be used (and you can substitute it for “supposedly” and still be correct), which I can’t really come up with an example. Mainly I don’t want to, as the word is pointless. Heck, even people at WSU know better: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/supposably.html.

Luckily, I know few people who use this word “supposably” and just assumed they were kind of an idiot for mispronouncing it. Not like I’ve ever mispronounced anything, like on an instructional video for software developers. No, never.

So if you use “supposably” come back to the proper side of English and stop using it.

Watching an episode of TopGear (FANTASTIC show, btw) where they traveled to Finland. One of the hosts, James May, competed against people in a little local rally, which included a 12-year-old driver. The segment also touched on why Finnish drivers are so good (specifically related to racing championships), and they had some footage of driver’s training. Which included skid pad training, learning how to handle a car that snaps around in the wet, and on and on. All the stuff that kinda looks cool on TV. In driver’s ed. When they’re 12. What a novel concept.

Driver training in Finland takes 3 years to go through. That is awesome. We need that type of program in the States. Most accidents happen because someone does something stupid. And it would be nice if new drivers could experience the danger threshold of situations, rather than going past it and not recognizing when they’re in trouble.

Related- the other day I noticed that a lot of carpoolers dash across the lanes of traffic, trying to get to HOV as soon as possible. Now, I’m not saying all carpoolers do this, but obviously the ones that do stick out to me. These drivers end up messing up traffic even more, because instead of waiting for an opening, they push into the lane, making the new lane stop. This ends up snarling traffic and irritating drivers. If it wasn’t such a pain in the ass from an insurance perspective, I would drive a beauty- 1970′s Monte Carlo- that could handle a not-so-gentle bump. I’m not saying I’d purposely hit these idiots on the road. I just wouldn’t slam on my brakes when they decided to drive with their head up, you know.

I would totally tweet "Haha! Twitter's over capacity!" but that would be redundant and moot, since the tweet wouldn't be seen by anyone. Shucks.

Of Awesomeness! Actually, being awesome doesn't require a test, does it? Great- fail at awesomness. But really, this post is just a test to utilize the Postie plug-in for WordPress, so I can throw up posts from anywheres via email. You can do it, too. The email to send posts directly to my blog is: youthinkimthatstupid@seriously.com. Post away!

Wow. It’s been awhile since I’ve posted. Life kinda busy right now, and all those season finales on TV. Ha. I have a few topics mulling about, just need a few minutes to construct the post (then run away for a few weeks/months, what have you).

So here’s an issue I ran across while looking up something on Craigslist. Now, I am by no means someone who knows exactly what they want, but are just looking for a good deal, for the product I’m looking for. I kinda know what I’m looking for, but I’m not confined to a particular model and specific specifications.

So when I search for something, I want the general product type. Then I’ll sort through the “numerous” posts (maybe 100 results, or inexplicitly, a massive 133 results!) looking for what I want. Simple browsing. And then something catches my eye. And I take a gander at the listing and notice at the bottom a ridiculously placed effort for SEO. None of the “search terms” apply to the product at hand. In fact, if someone was looking for a specific product, the said listing would come up, which is exactly what the user didn’t want.

And it’s not just Craigslist. Ebay and numerous sites have SEO which really isn’t SEO- since that stands for Search Engine Optimization- more like Search Engine Inundation From The Depths of Hell. The abuse of the idiotic theory of SEO creates more wasted time, and annoys users (well, at least me). If I wanted that product that was related to the one I was looking for only by a sheer glimmer of name similarities, I would be looking for that. Rather than my original object of searching.

So instead of taking a quick peek, I’m now left frustrated and angry at people that think wasting time is funny.

I found, through a little unofficial challenge, a home of an Internet user, based only on pictures from his car’s dashboard.

Cue the Geico song…

I don’t think every company should be active Facebook or MySpace, or whatever current hot social media site is out there. Twitter is hit-and-miss, since sometimes it’s hard to find value.

I can see companies having a Facebook page, but I think it should be have a static, direct-to-here function to drive traffic to the main web portal. On the business resource side, I think it’s too much effort for a company to try to manage Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, in addition to all the other business goings on. Especially for small companies, and goes double for the current economic climate. Spend time getting customers, not entertaining people with nothing to do (gasp!!!! did I just say that?).

This isn’t a broad, everything-goes statement. Some companies will find some value, other won’t. But here’s why I am cautious- it’s the Internet. For the most part, anonymous and ambiguous, the Internet caters to the lowest common denominator. Just like in real life, you mostly see things that are negative, rather than positive.

Overall, Facebook is personal, meant for connecting with friends, etc. I believe that personal should be kept separate from work. Actually, this is impossible to do, but for the most part I don’t think everything you do needs to be online.  So a company can make a decision not to be active online, where it’s clients/fans/etc. are safe to be themselves without having conflicting incidents. Prevent embarrassing moments from happening by eliminating the forum for them.

What’s so great about vision? Maybe because it helps people head in the right direction? True vision creates a feeling that people can connect with, and aim towards without becoming overwhelmed. A vision that no one wants or can comprehend isn’t vision.

Management books and teachings all pretty much agree that to have a successful team/project, everyone needs buy-in. All involved need to agree with the vision on some level. Not everyone has to be gung-ho for it, but as long as people will accept it and agree with it, the vision can be a success.

Take JFK’s promise to put a man on the moon by the end of the 60′s. Audacious, visible, and ultimately obtainable. While it was before my time, I don’t presume to think everyone was for it. But I can probably guess that the propaganda machine made the majority buy into the vision, for those that were on the fence.

It’s magical to accomplish something that seems out of reach. Noble, in fact, to achieve the vision, especially when the proclaimer is unable to see the completion.

On the flip side, vision without buy-in is futile. Take for instance the current health care plan. Did everyone want it? Is it obtainable? Is it something that has never been done before? There’s no reason for people to get behind it. No cohesive purpose. Yes, it would be great if people could get affordable insurance. Should individuals not covered be penalized? No. Is this ground breaking? Hardly. But some people want cake and they want to eat it, too.

Before the federal government begins mandating things the people don’t want, why not try to fix the government first? Trim the fat, so to say, and eliminate wasteful programs and offices. A government is to govern, serve and protect its citizens. Find out what the people want, and find a vision that fits that desire, making it easy and worthwhile to support the vision. Create a vision of high-speed rail and mass transit in every major city and metro area. Put a deadline to remove internal combustion engines from the roadways. Build solar energy farms to support a major city like Chicago or Charlotte. Of course, these example aren’t popular opinion, since most Americans would likely sell their children before getting rid of the family car. How about a vision where the federal tax was lowered to 10%? I think most everyone would be on board with that one.