Festivus Grievances

So Festivus is upon us and it is time for the airing of the grievances for 2009.

Job Hunting: I started out this wonderful year of 2009 by being laid off and having to hunt for a job. Talk about the worst month ever. Sitting at home on unemployment, not really being able to go anywhere or do anything because that would cost money. Trying to find a job. Having a Tech Recruiter take my resume that gave a very accurate portrait of what I have done at each of my previous jobs and adding fabricating more things that I supposedly did was certainly the highlight of that time.

TV Show Cancellations: I know this is a part of the reality of TV but do we really need American Idol season 800 or America's Got Talent season 30? We have some great shows that are truly brilliant that are getting canceled such as Dollhouse. I know Fox gave them a second season and that was a huge stretch for them to do that but I dont think Fox put much marketing effort into the show after Episode 1 of the first season aired. I will say thank you to NBC for not canceling Chuck just yet. Those of us IT guys of the world relate to Chuck and we all feel we could totally be Chuck if we were in the same situation.

TV Shows not available online after episode airs: In this day and age where hard drive space is getting to be ridiculously cheap is there any reason that some networks only put excerpts of popular TV Shows online? TV Networks you do realize that when you have a show that is as popular as say Big Bang Theory and all you put on your own website is a couple 30 seconds clips from the episode that aired last night, that you are driving us to alternative methods to watch your show such as piracy. I would LOVE to watch the show on your website and sit through the advertisements that you get paid to put into the episode but I cant do it because you dont post it on your website. Please post your content online.

The Whole AT&T vs Verizon Map ads: Yeah I get it that these are attack ads and are designed to get you to change your mind but please at least be comparing apples to apples. The original Verizon ads were talking about 3G DATA coverage around the United States, then AT&T comes out with a response ad that talks about being able to make a phone call in all these different places. Those arent the same thing there chuckles. 3G Data and Voice are two completely separate issues. Really we should even be comparing things as it is because a big part of this whole debate, the actual cell phone one uses, is completely different across networks. Sure there is some overlap with phones that have models that are GSM or CDMA but really until the iPhone is on Verizon or the Blackberry Storm and the Droid are on AT&T we need not have this discussion, Thanks.

$10 to upgrade my iPod Touch from 2.0 to 3.0: Really Apple, you already made me pay $10 to upgrade to 2.0 so that I could get applications but now you want to make me pay another $10 to upgrade to something that I cant take advantage of most of its functionality. Now granted I know you have since reduced the price to $5 but still stop nagging me about it every time i plug in my iPod touch.

Retarded Sports Fans: Ok I know when one goes to a sporting event some of this is to be expected. There is ALWAYS going to be a guy or two or 50 that have had way to many beers and are acting, to quote our President, stupidly. But this year I went to a college football game and sat 2 rows behind the bench. Now we were close enough to read names off the back of the jerseys (Unless of course you are trying to do so off the Oregon jerseys where the names are the same color as the jersey but thats a different grievance), but instead of saying names we had to listen to some jackass two people down the aisle from us yell at the Stanford players the entire game and refer to each of the by their number. "Quarterback sneaks number twelve, Quarterback sneaks number twelve, Quarterback sneaks number twelve." That is an exact quote. I am all for showing ones appreciation of your favorite team but please for the love, would you say a name when you can read it off their jerseys. "Quarterback sneaks Luck, Quarterback sneaks Luck, Quarterback sneaks Luck" would have been much more tolerable (Andrew Luck is the Quarterback for Stanford, he wears #12).

People who walk on paths and are in their own world: There has been multiple occasions this year when riding my bike on the wonderful paths here in Eugene that I have almost ran into someone or had to come to a complete stop because people arent paying attention at all. It doesnt matter if you call out that you are passing them on the left or the right they are oblivious. I had a group of four people one day basically fan out across the entire bike path just as i was getting to them, and I know that at least 1 saw me coming. Then there are the folks that you call out you are passing them on a certain side and the turn and look that way and steer they bike in that direction or end up walking that direction as well. So people for 2010 lets be more aware of our surroundings and you are liable to get run over by someone and it isnt gonna feel good.

These are my grievances for the year. What are yours?