close encounters of the stupid kind

[everance]

it seems that as the holidays get closer, decency is pushed off to the side.  namely in the way of shopping and driving.  christmas brings the idiots out for a short time and these people enjoy killing the christmas spirit as well as our moods.  namely, mine.  it's as though every stupid driver insits on trying to run me off of the road. 

if anyone else has had their day ruined by the antics of a degenerate imbecile, an indecent moron, or someone who just had no common sense, please share your story here.  i would like to know i'm not the only one to have had a close encounter of the stupid kind.

[Helena]

Christmas is ruined for me...haha...o.o; Yeah, I agree with your theory, most people are like that now.

Mine is ruined because of the 10th. My car got t-boned. The lady was speeding and she decided to run into me...the whole passenger side got smashed in that the frame-seats bent in. The only way to get out of the car was the back driver's side. And, because of a certain loophole law in my state, its automatically my fault....so...I can't buy gifts for anyone, and I'm having to go to court in 2008...yay for me...

[Netrogo]

How is it your fault? Unless you were running a red light/stop sign that'd make it her fault.

[Omega]

I guess that's why it's called a loophole.


And that's only one of the reasons why I like to use my bicycle. Cars are just too much of annoyance, expensive, harmful, polluting etc...

[Feroluce]

we have a similar loophole here. If your car runs into the back of another car, its your fault, as long as you are in your car.

This means if you are sitting in your car, on the side of the road, close to a corner, and someone reverses around said corner and crashes into your car, its somehow still your fault.

Your fault if you get T-boned is new on me, tho.

no morons have ruined my christmas yet, tho ^^

[Alondro]

I've heard of people trampling each other to get the latest toys for Christmas.  Stupid humans.  Not so far from the smelly monkeys they evolved from.  Thankfully, I'm a direct descendent of fungi!   

[Ryudo Lee]

I don't know why people always complain about christmas shopping.  I did all my christmas shopping in less than an hour yesterday without any hangups.

[everance]

Buying gifts before the rush is always the smart thing to do, however, not everyone has common sense.  I personally finish my shopping the first week of December, so i have no problems.  But to watch people whine and throw a fit when they think Christmas is ruined because they couldn't get their gift in time is absolutely hilarious.  It's also petty

[Tapewolf]

Buying gifts before the rush is always the smart thing to do, however, not everyone has common sense.

I would have done, but no-one (including me) knew what they wanted which made things a bit of a problem 

[everance]

well, that can't be helped.  there's always online shopping though.  a lot of people are using that now and it's almost working.  Hope you get your orders before Christmas though. 

[Alondro]

My family doesn't really celebrate Christmas anymore.  We're too poor to buy gifts anyway.

We just decorate my coffee tree in the living room and buy each other underwear.  The gift that keeps on giving!  And taking, if you have incontinence problems... 

[xHaZxMaTx]

I went to Best Buy, yesterday, to buy my brother some stuff for Christmas, and the line was actually the shortest I remember seeing it.

[Netrogo]

underwear.  The gift that keeps on giving!  And taking, if you have incontinence problems... 

This had me actually rolling and laughing for some reason

[everance]

i actually work at a Best Buy.  it's one of the few places that is really good with lines and crowds, believe it or not.  even then, i still see people making life hard for me and others because they didn't plan ahead and get a gift before the rush.

[Reese Tora]

It may be taht I find myself in the small minority of people who buy gifts for friends and family as I come by them.  Small minority in that I tend to give them right away unless the birthday or holiday is just around the corner.

I find that buying gifts for someone when you see somehting and think "that's perfect for them" leads to more thoughtful gifting than setting aside a time to buy gifts for everyone you know.

Of course, this leads to a shortage of gifts to those who I don't know well or see often.

[Alondro]

underwear.  The gift that keeps on giving!  And taking, if you have incontinence problems... 

This had me actually rolling and laughing for some reason

My work here is done...   

[Brunhidden]

i used to have a habit of buying all my shiny tree day gifts around july or august, but more recently its so hard to find a gift for my wife that i have to wait for holiday displays to tempt me.

however gifts for my daughter Eowyn are still bought in advance, my closet at one time had bags labeled 'Christmas age 2', '3rd birthday', 'Christmas age 3', '4th birthday', and 'miscellaneous gifts'


despite that i occasionally shop during the rush so many do it stupidly. for instance the day after thanksgiving at 4:20 AM i drove past menards and saw it packed.... if you were going to buy a gift from a hardware store you could have bought it months ago. even more stupid is those who expect the hottest toy to still be out the week before C-day, or even the day before.


on a side note this year for shiny tree day i am getting one pair of sleep/lounge pants. thats all, and i was surprised it wasn't forgotten as my wife forgot my birthday

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

My son is somewhat proud of the fact that he's getting more presents than I am.

I'm not sure why... ;-]

[Valynth]

My son is somewhat proud of the fact that he's getting more presents than I am.

I'm not sure why... ;-]

Coal is a present?...  Actually given the current energy atmosphere that's a fairly expensive gift.  *remembers when coal was a bad thing to get for Christmas*

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

He hasn't opened them yet - which is probably why he's proud of it. ;-]

[Brunhidden]

coal is useful for people who still have fireplaces or stoves.

then again i remember waaaay back when a typical shiny tree day the spotlight present was a burlap sack of oranges and peanuts

[Toric]

Stupid humans.  Not so far from the smelly monkeys they evolved from.

[PetPeeve]Evolution does not state that humans descended from monkeys! [/PetPeeve] Of course, if this is your own, different theory, go right ahead in saying it.

[rabid_fox]

I love Christmas. It's blingin', yo.

[Alondro]

More stupidity...

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20071218_Moorestown_High_grieves_a_2d_student.html

What is not told in this story, or in any others I've found so far, is that the driver of the other car, Jesse J. Johns, has had his license suspended 20 times, at least 5 of which were for drug and alcohol use while driving!

And the stupid DMV kept giving him his license back!  All he did was pay a little fine, and he was back on the road.  Now a kid is dead because nobody had the spine to tell this guy his driving days were over.

It's not just in NJ.  In searching for this story, I found similar cases in a dozen other states. 

People that continue to abuse driving priviledges should have them revoked, especially when multiple counts of intoxication and drug use are involved!  No exceptions!

There is NO RIGHT TO DRIVE!!  If you keep endangering other people, you should not be allowed on the road!

[Cvstos]

I don't always agree with Alondro, but this is one time when I do, 100%.  I'm personally all for taking away someone's license on the very first DUI.  You drive drunk/high, you go to jail, you lose your license.  Period.  "Oh, but I need to drive to go to work and get groceries and..." TOUGH!  You should've thought of that before you got behind the wheel intoxicated.

[techmaster-glitch]

I agree wholeheartedly as well. So do some of my friends when we were talking about this once. The punishments need to be toughend, a LOT.

[Brunhidden]

is that not the whole point of a punishment?

they were warned, if they're too stupid to understand the word 'no' they are too stupid to drive a large and heavy item at breakneck speeds in situations that can kill people in a snap.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Driving is a privilege, not a right. Nuff said.

[Reese Tora]

I wholeheartedly agree with that.

Unfortunately, from what I understand, the reason behind this is because they assume those guys will drive anyway, so might as well give them a license to keep tabs on them.

Which is even more dumb, IMO, because it makes it seem like they're endorsing bad driving.

[xHaZxMaTx]

This reminds me of something my dad told me, the other day:  There was a police check-point downtown about a week ago, checking random cars for license/registration, and 30 cars were impounded in 2 hours due to lack of either/or.