Annoyances: School Fund Raisers
At the beginning of each year, the local schools send home "fund raising" packets with the kids. The packets include catalogues of crappy products and information about how the kids can earn "prizes" while making the school some money at the same time.

I despise everything about these type of fundraisers.

However, I do admire the business savvy of the corporations (like Sally Foster) that run these schemes. Sucker in the kids with promises of cheap prizes if they sell overpriced products to their parents and neighbors. The companies have a very low cost of operation... to wit they don't have to maintain a paid sales force (the kids do all the footwork) and they can use the leverage of the "make money for the school" argument to guilt people into buying the crap the kids are peddling. It's a sweet gig... genius really... as long as there is a steady supply of gullible parents.

Watch this CBS Early Show exposé on the topic.

Annoyances: Rock Band Drums
It was just 5 months ago that we bought Rock Band 2 with the complete set of "instruments" that go with the game. Recently however, our set of Rock Band drums have not been working properly. The wireless connection will get "lost" in the middle of a song (all 4 of the red accessory lights will start blinking), will stop responding to any input, and will subsequently reconnect after about 10-15 seconds. This behavior makes the drums completely unplayable.

I hit the forums and found several threads filled with folks that have similar complaints, such as this very long thread (18 pages and counting). Frustrated Rock Band owners are trying everything... from re-seating batteries to direct wiring the controller to run on AC. Some are completely disassembling drum sets to re-solder poorly constructed connections. For a piece of electronics that costs almost $100 to replace, the fact that there are so many users with similar problems is outright ridiculous. The warranty is 60 days, and as such I am out of luck looking for an RMA'd replacement.

So, I started looking at buying new Rock Band equipment... specifically at the Beatles-branded stuff since we would get a 2nd microphone with the boxed set (for the harmony parts of the Beatles songs). However, folks that have purchased Rock Band Beatles drums (brand new mind you as Beatles Rock Band just came out on 9/9/9) are already posting to the forums that they are having the exact same problems as I am having ("my Beatles Rock Band drums are not responding", etc). So, it seems altogether pointless for me to replace a set of failed drums with another set that will have the exact same problems. Aargh. So frustrating and annoying. The Rock Band franchise is fun, but buyer beware - the equipment quality is terrible.

Annoyances: Luggage Charges Hurt Families
There are only two airlines left that do not charge for the luggage that you check when flying: Southwest and JetBlue. I do not fly that often, maybe just 3 or 4 times per year... and almost always with my family. When I fly by myself on business, it's easy to just carry on everything. But when flying with young kids, it is impossible to not check some luggage. The kids just simply cannot carry their luggage on, and we (the parents) can't carry it for them and carry the kids. Luggage charges, therefore, impact families traveling with young kids the hardest.

This is probably the most unfair business practice in all of America.

Which do you think costs more to fly? My 5-yr-old 40-lb little girl, her 5-lb backpack, and her 30-lb piece of checked luggage or a 200-lb adult and his (or her) 25-lb carry-on? On the one hand, the total weight of my little girl with her checked luggage and other items will be 75 pounds total, whereas the adult passenger will weigh in at 225 pounds (or more)! The airline will assess a fee for my little girl's checked bag, whereas the adult with a carry-on is not assessed a fee. I pay the same fare for my kids as adults that weigh 3 times as much. How is that fair?!

Airlines should be encouraging families with young kids to fly, not penalizing them. Fortunately, the two most family friendly airlines in the US - Southwest and Jet Blue - do not charge for checked luggage. (Well, not yet anyway.)

What really should happen is that airlines should have the ticketed passenger stand on a scale with his (or her) luggage. Anything over 300 lbs should be charged a penalty of $1/lb. Such a practice would create an outrage to be sure, but really - charging passengers per pound is the only fair way to go about it. If you send a package via UPS or Fedex overnight (via air), do you not presume that the charges for a 225-lb package would be considerably more than a 75-lb package?! Of course. Likewise, do you think that it costs the airlines more money to fly my little girl and her checked luggage (@ ~75 lbs) than it does to fly a full-grown adult and his (or her) carry-on (@ ~225 lbs). Of course not. It is absurd.

Charging for checked luggage is insulting to families everywhere that fly with young children and it is a practice that needs to be stopped. There should be an exemption for young kids from these outrageous fees.

Annoyances: The Necessity for Virus Scanning
I don't have a great deal of confidence with Microsoft's Windows operating system. In fact, but for the rare requirement placed on me by work (e.g. software platform testing), I never use the stuff. The wife, however, has loads of psychological testing software that is, and likely forever will be, available on Microsoft Windows only. So she's stuck with it and as a result has become quite adept at using it. Now, I could ween her off the stuff and run Windows inside of Parallels or WINE or something. But, meh, I don't want to go through the hassle... my operating system worldview is my own and hers is hers.

It seems that - out of necessity - the Microsoft Windows operating system and virus scanning software goes hand and hand. I don't have any virus scanning software running on my Linux desktop. In fact, I doubt that such software even exists for Linux. The same goes for Apple's Mac OS X. But you wouldn't dare run Microsoft's Windows OS on a machine without a virus scanner permanently running in the background... software that takes up CPU cycles and a relatively large memory footprint. Microsoft has built in software, the "Security Center" or some such, that will visibly complain if virus scanning software isn't installed.

Think about how absolutely rediculous such a scenario is... and yet it is widely accepted as the status quo. For example, let's say that I sold a locking file cabinet. I advertise that my locking file cabinet is easy to use and very secure. But I didn't really design the file cabinet all that well and the safeguards to prevent someone from opening the file cabinet without permission are easily circumvented. And not only that, once inside a file cabinet the intruder is able to scan all the documents and install some residual widget that will remotely scan anything put in my file cabinet in the future. Now rather than fix my file cabinet's design, other companies start selling tripwire systems that are only triggered when an intruder uses previously reported unauthorized access pathways. But the tripwires do not prevent all unauthorized access pathways, only the ones that have heretofore been discovered. Not to worry... when new pathways are discovered, new tripwire systems are deployed almost immediately... that is, if you are paying the tripwire manufacturers yearly subscription fees.

Now all things being equal, how successful do you think my file cabinet would be?

With that being said, the tandem of Microsoft Windows and virus scanning software is a farce. Even after you have paid hundreds of dollars to Microsoft for the OS, and even after you have paid for and continue to pay for (via a subscription model) virus scanning software... any one of an innumerable amount of yet-to-be-discovered exploits will circumvent the whole thing. Virus scanning on Microsoft Windows is based on a reactive model, not on a proactive one. It's an absolute joke.

You might have guessed that I spent part of my day figuring out what adware had surreptitiously installed itself on my wife's laptop (it was this one). But I don't blame my wife... she didn't design the operating system. My neighbors up in Redmond did.

(Update Sun May 3 20:45:08 PDT 2009 // changed categories from daily_journal -> annoyances)

Annoyances: DVD Previews
As most parents are aware, kids DVDs are always packed with previews before the DVD main menu. Some DVDs are less annoying about this than others... but many disable the "Main Menu" button during DVD Previews that would otherwise allow the viewer to skip them and actually watch the product that we paid to see. Some DVDs also disable the "skip chapter forward" button. Thus, in these instances, in order to skip over the previews I must resort to pushing the "fast forward" button enough times to tell my DVD player to play the DVD at 30x the normal rate. This makes quick work of the previews, but it is still annoying nonetheless.

Have you ever rented (or do you own) any Thomas the Train DVDs? Some of those not only disable the "main menu" and "skip chapter forward" buttons, but also the "fast forward" button as well! Every time someone wants to watch those certain DVDs, we must first subject ourselves to the nearly endless marketing segments that precede the main menu... on one DVD this drivel goes on for more than 5 minutes. Give me a break! Needless to say, after buying one or two Thomas the Train DVDs we learned our lesson and never did buy another. Congratulations Hit Entertainment... you trained me not to buy your product. Well done.

So... yeah.

Eliana is a big fan of Strawberry Shortcake. It used to be on TV on Saturday (or Sunday?) mornings, but I haven't seen it on TV for awhile. So - to get her fix - Eliana picks out Strawberry Shortcake movies at Blockbuster to rent (kids movies are just 99¢/week). Currently we have "Strawberry Shortcake: Dress Up Days" rented out. At the beginning of this DVD is a loud and somewhat belligerent (from a 4-yr-old's POV) public service announcement about downloading illegal copies of movies. First of all, are there really that many illegal electronic copies of Strawberry Shortcake DVDs floating around on the Internet?! OK, I admit that I really can't say for certain exactly how many preschool girls are out there downloading pirated movies (and Strawberry Shortcake movies in particular), but I'll bet dollars to pesos that it is less than the number of thumbs on one of my hands. And furthermore, this is absolutely not an appropriate place to put this kind of message. Educate the parents and then trust them with the responsibility to teach their kids to behave in an honest manner about respecting intellectual property and "fair use" rights of consumers. I don't know who originally authored this PSA (my guess is the MPAA) but this end-run around parents is not only annoying, but offensive as well.

Annoyances: Public Check Writing
I write a check now and again... but never in public. For example, my local water district will not accept credit cards for payment and does not offer on-line bill pay. I also pay my housekeeping service by check on the day they perform the service (I think they prefer it that way in order to keep the books "clean" - no pun intended). But, those rare check writing requirements occur in the privacy of my home - where they cannot inconvenience anyone but myself. I must meticulously write out the numeric and alphabetized representation of the amount, the date, the recipient, and then stuff the little colored piece of paper in a stamped envelope and send it on its way. If the check clears several days or sometimes a week later, I presume it made it safely to the destination.

I would personally be embarrassed (no... mortified!) to write a check for goods and/or services while in the checkout line at a grocery store, fast food dive, hardware store, etc. It just screams:

"Yes, I'm too dumb/old/paranoid to carry around a modern debit card. Instead I rely on this book of paper. Don't ask for my e-mail address, as I cannot be bothered to learn the simple skills required to send e-mail messages; I prefer writing letters with pen and paper instead.

Today while at the hardware store, I got caught behind a check writer. Not only are check writers slow, but usually they are hard of hearing:

"How much was the total again?"

Typically when I'm ready to pay for my goods/services at a place of business that offers multiple checkout lines, I'll look up and down the lines quickly and do a "check writing profile" of the persons currently waiting in the lines. The profile is based on several criteria that I use to gauge a person's check writing proclivities. These include (but are not limited to): age, hair style, type of clothing, and size of handbag. Older folks, people with dated hair styles and clothing, people with large handbags - these are all probable public check writers. Avoid in singles if possible; shun if grouped together.

Only after I profile the customers waiting in the lines will I then take an inventory of the amount of stuff each person has. This is because a suspected check writer with just a few items is going to take longer than a debit carder with twice the items. In general, I can avoid the check writers using these steps, but sometimes the system fails me... or there is only one checkout line available. Then, I'm subject only to dumb luck.

I think my mother is still a public check writer; but I love my mother so I would stand in line with her... anytime.

(Yes, my Mom reads my blog.)

Annoyances: Drugstores
I went to three different drugstores (Bartell's, Walgreen's, and Rite-Aid) tonight trying to find a specific over-the-counter item. I guess I was under the mistaken impression that a drugstore would have a better selection of over-the-counter items than my local grocery store. But they don't... in fact, my local grocery store's over-the-counter selection puts the over-the-counter selection at each of those "drugstores" to shame. What a joke.

Annoyances: Commercial TV
Kristy and I rarely watch TV. We are just too busy. But lately we have been sitting down together as a family and watching some of the holiday classics like Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and others. Tonight after Rudolph, I noticed that The Wizard of Oz was on. So the kids and I tuned in and watched it (Kristy turned in early, she's feeling pretty sick). The kids very much enjoyed Wizard of Oz - at least, while it was actually on. The show was interrupted every 15 minutes for literally almost 10 minutes worth of commercials. Seriously, I timed it once.

The kids watch some TV... they aren't deprived. But when they are watching TV, it is usually something like Sesame Street, Caillou, or other PBS favorites. Of course, PBS channels have no in-program commercials (the end-of-show sponsors can be harmlessly ignored by the kids). It was interesting to note their reaction during what must have been some of their first experiences with commercial interruption - they were quite simply bewildered. "Is the movie over Daddy?", Berkeley wondered. Eliana turned the TV on and off repeatedly, seeing if she could "fix" the problem.

On about the third or fourth commercial interruption of Wizard of Oz, the kids were no longer confused... they were getting mad and frustrated ("What happened to the movie?", Berkeley demanded once). I tried to explain to them that the show would be "right back on". They seemed to get it, but they acted as if the show was over by scampering about looking for something new to occupy their attention. When the show did come back on, I'd then have to corral them up and bring their focus back to bear on the movie.

After just a few commercials, I was pretty much fed up... commercial TV is just too annoying to watch. It is probably time to build my own MythTV box. A couple of my friends have built their own with great success.

(Update Mon Dec 19 07:51:33 PST 2005 // fixed a grammatical error)
(Update Mon Dec 19 08:16:31 PST 2005 // fixed MythTV URL... oops)

Annoyances: Door to Door Magazine Solicitors
Today a nice young person knocked on our door selling magazine subscriptions for "points". I feel sorry for anyone that has to make a living door knocking... I did enough door knocking on my mission to know that it ain't a fun way to spend a day. But these constant pleas to "renew" my subscriptions or to "donate a subscription" to a local charity are just getting ridiculous. Not more than two months ago we were door knocked for magazines... now again today. Even the Mormon missionaries don't come around that often! ;)

(Update Mon Dec 19 22:34:18 PST 2005 // moved from daily journal to new category)