I've ranted on airports on this blog before (I would link to it if I had the technological savvy of the great white or his sidekick). but I can't resist doing it again. I flew to Atlanta this weekend. I had a layover in Charlotte. kind of dumb but that was best we could do on short notice.
anyway, these are my observations of the good, the bad, the annoying, etc:
-WHY DO PEOPLE INSIST ON STOPPING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TERMINAL? these are the reasons that they do this:
1.) to check the ETA/departure board. this is a reasonable reason to stop. however, please move to the very side of the walkway so as to cause the least amount of backup.
2.) to check the directions of the gates (increase or decrease) and/or baggage claim direction...once again, I appreciate that people want to head in the proper direction, but stopping DIRECTLY IN THE MIDDLE of a very busy section of foot traffic is not ok. imagine if we did this in cars: we are heading down the road when we realize that we may be heading in the wrong direction. so we slam on the brakes and sit there a minute while we figure it all out. this would be disasterous.
3.) to watch playoff NFL football on television screens...this is noble and grand as brings people happiness and comraderie during an unusually lonely and sucky time (traveling), but still, we can think of others and get to a spot which causes the least amount of jam for those people wishing to get by to wherever it is they are going.
4.) for no apparent reason at all. people forget that the world does not revolve around them and act they are in their family room, bed room, kitchen, wherever...you are in an AIRPORT...get where you are going or get out of the way.
-The other RIDICULOUS phenomenon (which I've mentioned on this blog) is people sitting in my seat on planes. IT IS NOT THAT DIFFICULT TO GET TO THE CORRECT SEAT! I got to experience this on my first flight. all the seats in my row were taken. I informed the women sitting in my seat that it was my seat. She told me that someone was sitting in hers (???? how does this mean that she should sit in mine?!!?!??)...after a minute of the others in the row checking/etc, a man on his cell phone with his computer on his lap pipes up that he is in the wrong seat. he makes no effort to move and continues to work. the stewardess (who is pissed off for another reason) makes no effort to help except for telling me to sit in the open seat. This makes me angry because that is a window seat. not an aisle (which I was supposed to have). stuffing my frustration I sit down next to a nice women who compliments me on taking it nicely and not making a scene. that made me laugh. people are dumb. what can you do? except sit in the proper seat.
-lastly, I will end on a positive note: I like when people pick up on cues. like I don't want to talk. leave me alone. I want to sleep. or yes, I will talk for a bit. but now I don't want to. I had good travel partners.
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9 months ago
6 comments:
In all my travels, I found that the best way to encourage your travel partner to not talk with you is by reading a book.
But you must be careful if you are reading the Bible you may have someone sit next to you who is "on the team" and will want to talk all about the team with you.
Also if you are reading a "controversial" book you run the risk of someone judging you before they even sit.
I too become very frustrated at "the stoppers", however I have grown accustomed to it by observing human adolescents in thier native habitat.
I believe that human beings learn this behavior while in an age classified by many as "middlus schoolus". In an act to gain social acceptance many young humans tend to gather in one spot, usually in a public place as most mature humans abhor the thought of bringing more that 3 middle schoolers into their home.
The behavior mainly consists of standing around until they become bored or a larger adult asks them to leave.
Many feel that in the age "highus schoolus" that these tendencies would be weeded out, but despite the instructor's best efforts many escape into the wild without being rid of this horrible trait. They breed and this trait grows and spreads like an infectious disease.
Walk the halls of any educational institution and you will observe the congregating in the halls as many will stop in the middle of the hall to attempt to engage in social interaction or engage in the early stages of the mating ritual.
Some proponents have urged that a test be administerd and if you pass the "Walking without Stopping test you are given a cattleprod in an effort to break the pattern in those who continue to show signs.
Others have proposed floors of hot coals in which to stop would cause severe harm and pain. They argue that although it may be inhumane, many of the affected would lose feet and thus begin to remove them from society and further, the gene pool.
What will become of the Stopper, only time will tell.
I say run over the stoppers. If you're rude enough to stop in the middle of Hartsfield International to feel the world revolving around your tiny existence, then you should be introduced to the cold harsh relaity of Newton's Law (something about objects in motion and objects at rest...and maybe something about fig filled cookies).
On another note,and of further interest (assuming you are interested), here's a technique that works: try purchasing an innocuous title (with a jacket cover) and use it to wrap your controversial title, thus eliminating the fear of bothersome conversation.
By the way, if you are tired of people sitting in your seat then just fly Southwest, it is like a mad dash for the close seats.
But along the same topic, one of my biggest pet peeves is the passenger that takes up a whole storage compartment with just their luggage when it could be arranged to fit in just half the space.
Also, the people that put their things in the front storage when their seat is in the back of the plane. I think that if you are sitting in the seat you should have the right to throw the offending luggage on the ground if it is in your space.
The lines while traveling were getting to me last year. Hurry up and wait all day. I find that people like the sense of moving ahead in line, anticipating being next. Being next is much better than actually being helped.
I like to let the line ahead of me shrink, let more space grow ahead of me and remain still. It usually takes a few minutes before some agro traveler tells you to move ahead and close the gap. If there are 20+ people ahead and 20+ people behind, there makes no real difference if I leave a gap between me and the person in front of me. No harm done to anyone. Watch your long line shuffle a few paces at a time on your next trip. Give the guy ahead of you a little space, keep giving until you feel uncomfortable or get yelled at.
neal is funny.
and this isn't surprising that nealio would do this.
oh. and welcome back to the blog.
dude, where to start.
what jar has described is a very minute glimpse in the never ending pain in the ass series of lines and stupid people i must overcome in my quest to simply get paid. i feel your pain.
lines are everywhere of course, but the airport seems to bring out the best line tactics that the human race can produce. i wish for one day you could all don my uniform and head for the front, cutting in on even the most first of first class passengers. while taking my rightfull place, im sure to take my time and very deliberately take off all my metal accessories and make the guy behind me feel really small while he stands there in his thousand dollar suit with no shoes on. the looks and comments span the spectrum of polite (its just one more person) to rage (how dare you do this to me, do you know who i am). sometimes its like those twins in the bible when one had his hand sticing out and the other grabbed him back in and then crawled out first. thats me. i pull the guy back. its such a great feeling.
my favorite heckel has been a very loud attention grabbing "THIS IS REDICULOUS!!!" to which i retort in a curt yet customer servicey as i can way while shutting her up, "YES, I AGREE, its rediculous i have to go through this just to get to work, can you believe it, please write your congressman an tell him that flight crews should be exempt from security". to which she scoffs realizing the futility of her struggle and then tries, with no luck, to gain the support from the strangers behind her who for some reason dont feel as slighted. perhaps they too see the act of pilots being scrutinized for carring the wrong size toothpaste a bit too much of a knee jerk reaction by the tsa in an attempt to have our airports appear secure in their puppet show of an existance. i have no love for the tsa. i would say that they could all eat poop, but thats perhaps a little too harsh, but not really.
out of uniform though its a totally different story. i thought i was the only one who played sociology experiemnts on the people standing behind me. i have had one guy actually inch up shoulder to shoulder with me until i finally at the last second moved up to regain my origional positon, we were tied there for a bit, it could have gone either way. ive actually gone as far as letting a guy who was obviously more important than me in front. my comment to his face that he obviously thought he was more important than me and should go ahead was either completely ignored or it had the desired effect of making him feel really stupid. its really funny to see someone whos clearly behind you in line try to snake ahead due to the gap effect. its a solid game to play in a really long slow moving line. in shorter quicker lines the gap cant be too big or the heckeling will really begin.
for years the american tourist has been known as the bane of traveling nicely. might i suggest that the chinese and japanese have taken over the ranks of most annoying traveling huminoid. the "me first" attitude never fails to exist among those of the pacific rim. i think its a ring of fire thing.
but perhaps the most fun i ever had in line was at disneyland with mike tuton. at said amusement part there exists an item called "Fast Pass" which enables the holder to jump to the front of the line on rides theyve already ridden before. to which mike felt deserved severe heckeling. which was true of course. this concept was revolutionary and unheard of at the time and we just wernt ready to accept its priority system. thus the heckeling of strangers. always a good idea.
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