Tag Archives: angry rant

August 16, 2021 · 5:47 am

Dear Robocalls: Either Get Smarter Or Piss Off

FTC launches new initiative to combat robocalls - CNET

I hate robocalls.

I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t hate them with the passion of an exploding sun.

You could be having a wonderful day with your friends and family, feeling as happy as you’ve ever felt. Then, your phone rings, you check the number, you think it’s someone local, and you answer it, only to find out it’s some bullshit robocall about a warranty to a car that you haven’t owned in 10 years. Naturally, you’re going to be pissed. It won’t ruin your day, but it will kill your good mood.

Fuck robocalls. I don’t care how adverse you are to profanity. You probably agree with that sentiment. Fuck these robocalls and everything about them.

Now, why am I bringing them up? I promise it’s not just to share my abject hatred of these wasteful bits of frustration. I actually bring it up to share a story that I hope conveys just how stupid these calls can be.

It happened very recently while I was visiting my dad. For a bit of context, my dad is awesome. I’ve already made that clear in previous posts. He’s also in his late 60s and has mostly retired from work. He’s still active, but he hasn’t worked a full-time job for years and he’s more than earned that. He worked his ass off for decades and he earned the right to settle into a less stressful lifestyle.

I bring this up because it’s a critical detail for what happened. Shortly before I arrived for my visit, he got a robocall that was almost too dumb to believe. Apparently, this call actually tried to warn my dad that his student loans needed to be refinanced and they were offering some sort of debt restructuring relief.

Again, my dad is semi-retired.

He hasn’t worked a full time job in years.

He hasn’t been to school since the 1970s.

He does not have any student loans, has never needed them, and his work history has never required anything like them.

Somehow, this robocall was too dumb to surmise that. Something tells me didn’t surmise anything. It just picked a random number and it happened to be my dad’s. I get that these robocall scams aren’t that sophisticated, but there’s a big difference between being unsophisticated and being just plain fucking stupid.

My dad and I still laughed about it. The idea that anyone would call him about student loan debts is hilarious in concept. At the same time, it makes me hate these robocall scams even more. If they’re so dumb that they call my dad about student loan debts, then they’re too dumb to exist. They either need to do a bare minimum amount of research or just fuck off entirely.

Personally, I prefer the latter.

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December 28, 2020 · 10:19 am

PSA: If You Cut In Line To Get The COVID-19 Vaccine, You’re An Asshole

Some things really shouldn’t have to be said. They’re so obvious, both in terms of common sense and basic human decency, that nobody should have to be reminded in any capacity. If you have a functioning brain and a simple understanding of a situation, you have no excuse.

Sadly, there are some people in this world who are just a special kind of asshole.

They don’t care what makes sense or what’s generally decent. They’ll just find a way to serve themselves, even if it causes legitimate harm to others.

This brings me to the assholes that the ongoing global pandemic has exposed. Now, this pandemic has already exposed plenty of assholes of a certain variety. The people who downplayed the pandemic and refused to take precautions are already deplorable human beings by any measure.

However, now that there are two vaccines available to end this pandemic, more assholes are being exposed in the most hypocritical way possible. Now, it should go without saying that, given the state of the pandemic, the first people who should get this treatment are the front line health care workers.

These people are the legitimate heroes of this pandemic. They need this vaccine. They deserve it. More lives will be saved because of them.

Even so, some people who are not front line health care workers are attempting to get this vaccine. Some are powerful people with powerful connections. Some are just well-connected, in general. Whatever their reason, if they’re not a front line health care worker, they’re still a special kind of asshole for cutting in line to get this vaccine.

I can’t be subtle or tactful about this.

I can’t be polite about it, either.

I’m just going to say what I feel as someone who has witnessed the damage and suffering that this pandemic has caused like so many others. It shouldn’t have to be said, but I’ll say it anyways.

If you’re a politician who uses their power and influence to get the vaccine before a single front line health care worker, you’re an asshole.

If you’re a rich, well-connected business type who uses their money and connection to get the vaccine before a single front line health care worker, you’re an asshole.

If you’re the friend or spouse of a billionaire or politician who uses that friendship to get the vaccine before a single front line health care worker, you’re an asshole.

If you’re someone who downplayed the pandemic or scoffed at basic health guidelines when it began and still attempt to get the vaccine, you’re an asshole.

If you’re an anti-evolution religious zealot who encouraged congregates to ignore the advice of doctors during the pandemic and still try to get the vaccine, you’re an asshole.

If you’re a just liar, cheater, or con-artist who uses those skills to get the vaccine before a single front line health care worker, you’re an asshole of the highest order.

In essence, if you’re trying to jump ahead in the line to get this vaccine for any reason, even if you’re among those who didn’t take the pandemic seriously in the beginning, you are an asshole in the highest order. You are just one of the reasons why people lose faith in humanity and the future.

I would tell these people to knock it off, apologize, or show some basic human decency, but I have a feeling they’ll either ignore me or just make an excuse. I doubt those people would ever read this. I still think this is worth saying, if only to share that angry sentiment that many feel when they hear about people cutting in line to get this life-saving treatment.

The world is still in a precarious place right now. The pandemic isn’t over. There’s still a lot of work to be done and, as has been the case since the beginning, the front line health care workers who have been nothing short of superhuman, will bear the brunt of it. Anyone who cuts in front of them to get this treatment deserves nothing but the utmost scorn.

We will eventually emerge from this. Hopefully, there will come a point in 2021 where we can definitively say that this horrible pandemic is over. However, even after that fateful moment, let’s not forget about the assholes who did everything to help themselves when others were suffering.

They’ll still be assholes.

They’ll keep being assholes, no matter what the state of the world.

We can’t always avoid them, but we can expose them for the level asshole they are.

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February 13, 2020 · 6:01 am

A Rant About Going To The Dentist

I hate going to the dentist.

I know that’s not a very controversial statement. Most people who go the dentist don’t go because they want to. They go because they have to. It’s about as fun as getting a colonoscopy, although I would argue a colonoscopy is preferable. At least you’re not expected to undergo that literal shit show at least twice a year.

I say this after having just come back from my latest six-month checkup. While going to the dentist has never been an overly pleasant experience, this was more frustrating than usual. It’s not just because it’s inconvenient, uncomfortable, and distressing, although that is a big part of it. This trip was a special kind of annoying.

It’s an annoyance that has been building and compounding over the past several years. In the past, going to the dentist was just a formality. I’d go, get my teeth cleaned, and make an appointment for six months later. It’s still never a pleasant feeling, having a hygienist poke your teeth with metal for a half-hour. It was still bearable, at the very least.

These past few trips have changed things up and not in a good way. Now, every time I go, both the dentist and the hygienist seem to find something wrong with my teeth or come up with some new, exceedingly uncomfortable procedure.

Last time, it was X-rays. I’ve had them done before, but something must have changed because I swear the hygienist tried to X-ray every individual tooth. Doing so required me to bite down on this uncomfortable contraption that made my mouth feel like someone was punching it from the inside. It didn’t help that the hygienist seemed unfamiliar with the technology.

Then, there was the exam itself. For the past several years, this dentist has been telling me to do all these elaborate things to prevent cavities, tooth decay, and gum recession. As a result, I’ve tried to be responsible and follow his professional recommendations. That includes the following:

  • Buying an expensive electronic toothbrush that has equally expensive replacement heads
  • Switching toothpaste to a pricier brand
  • Flossing more regularly, both with regular floss and an expensive water floss pick
  • Regularly using special mouth wash to prevent cavities
  • Undergoing gum graft surgery that was so uncomfortable that I would not wish it on my worst enemy

I did all of this over the span of the past five years. I’ve invested time and money to ensure that I maintain proper dental care, just as he asked. It should pay off, shouldn’t it?

Apparently, all that money and time was totally wasted. At my last appointment, the dentist tells me I still got a cavity. On top of that, he didn’t even make clear that it was a cavity.

He used some weird dentist jargon that I didn’t understand. He never even told me I had to come back into the office, get my mouth numbed up again, and have it filled in a procedure that ruins at least half of your day. I didn’t find out until the receptionist asked when I wanted to schedule a filling.

I was pissed, to say the least. It took a great deal of restraint to keep myself from yelling at her and my dentist. At this point, it feels like they’re just plundering my dental insurance and seeing how much I can endure hours in an uncomfortable dental chair. I don’t know if it’s just my dentist, but if I keep having experiences like this, I’m going to find someone else.

I know it’s impossible to get around.

I know dental hygiene is important.

Even so, I’ll say it again.

I hate going to the dentist.

Fuck going to the dentist.

I just needed to get that off my chest.

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