Having allowed myself the opportunity to vent about the state of modern DRIVING, now I would like to offer up the topic of narcissicism. That means obsession with self ... there, I have saved some of you the trouble of googling.
First, social media is the perfect petrie dish for narcissicism. It begs for entries like, "Look at what I had for lunch" ... and "Too much to drink, off for a nap!" and "My vacation was the best ever!!" People seem to think that others really do, in fact, care about their own preoccupations and minutiae of daily living. Don't these people have anything really substantive to ponder? Why would I care about your lunch, or even your vacation, for that matter? How much nicer to have a real, live conversation with a friend. (Which reminds me, ever try to have a real conversation with anyone under the age of 35 nowadays?) All that sitting in front of a computer, typing 100 character lines, does little to develop the vocabulary or the ability to articulate. Another sad fact of life in the 21st century: the lost art of conversation. (Letter writing, that antiquity known only to those of us born before 1980, is almost obsolete. No more tattered love letters in the attic! You will have to settle for "favorite emails". )
It is interesting that religion does indeed seem to be fading away, or at the least, taking a back seat, while social media and self obsession are most assuredly on the rise. How sad. I suppose we are too busy worshiping ourselves to worship any other entity.This very subject has tapped me out, I am going to meditate now. A bientot.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Whatever Happened to the Rules of the Road?
Do you ever wonder why driving has become a microcosm of the work place, with more and more people doing "whatever it takes to get the job done" (translation: drive as if there are no rules of the road, and do so with moxie)?
Every day I drive to and from my job, each day witnessing increasingly dramatic maneuvers on the part of my fellow drivers. While running red lights may have decreased where there are cameras present, just about anything else seems to be fair game. Need to go left but find yourself in the right lane of a 3-lane road? No problem! Simply STOP and then proceed directly across the 3 lanes of traffic, causing the poor guy behind you to have to stop with you as traffic around you whizzes by... not to mention the cars in the other lanes who are NOT expecting a vehicle to be moving horizontally across the road ... the logic is: STOP! I NEED TO DO THIS SO EVERYBODY HAS TO ACCOMMODATE ME! In the "old days", the rule was, you continued on until you reached the next legal place to make a U-turn -- or even (I kid you not) -- exit the road and find the nearest turnaround to proceed back to where you wanted to go.
Then there are the people who simply cannot tolerate long lines of traffic in a turning lane. WHOA, no way Jose! They breeze down the adjacent traffic lane and then piggy-back someone in the legal turning lane. I figure these are the same people who cheat big-time on their taxes.
Of course, sooner or later you get stuck behind someone who is obviously having a VERY important conversation on their cell phone and simply cannot be bothered with making their driving the priority while behind the wheel ... these idiots simply don't care that they are breaking the law and endangering everyone else on the road too.
Then there are what I refer to as "the illegals"; people who maintain a constant speed that is 15mph less than the speed limit. Ever travel in a pack of them? My theory is that they don't have valid licenses for one of several nefarious reasons, and think if they drive extra slow, they won't get picked up for any infraction. Why else would anyone do 30 in a 45mph zone?
Last (for now) - can you tell me why people use their turning signals AS THEY ARE MAKING THE TURN, or -- in lanes where you HAVE to go left (or right) because the road straight-away ends -- or in a "must turn left/right" lane These same people NEVER use their signal BEFORE they make their turn, you know -- to let the guy behind them know they are going to turn -- when it matters. They simply don't understand the point of the signal is to give ADVANCE NOTICE in a multiple choice situation that you are going to make a turn in a particular direction. Got it? Probably not.
Oh, I almost forgot. The driver who thinks that by putting his signal on, he is entitled to change lanes, no matter what is in the lane into which he wishes to go. Kind of like "point and shoot" -- signal and GO! No judgment, no nothing.
Does anyone know that the guy turning RIGHT has the right of way over the guy turning left anymore?
Ah, the joys of the 21st century.
Every day I drive to and from my job, each day witnessing increasingly dramatic maneuvers on the part of my fellow drivers. While running red lights may have decreased where there are cameras present, just about anything else seems to be fair game. Need to go left but find yourself in the right lane of a 3-lane road? No problem! Simply STOP and then proceed directly across the 3 lanes of traffic, causing the poor guy behind you to have to stop with you as traffic around you whizzes by... not to mention the cars in the other lanes who are NOT expecting a vehicle to be moving horizontally across the road ... the logic is: STOP! I NEED TO DO THIS SO EVERYBODY HAS TO ACCOMMODATE ME! In the "old days", the rule was, you continued on until you reached the next legal place to make a U-turn -- or even (I kid you not) -- exit the road and find the nearest turnaround to proceed back to where you wanted to go.
Then there are the people who simply cannot tolerate long lines of traffic in a turning lane. WHOA, no way Jose! They breeze down the adjacent traffic lane and then piggy-back someone in the legal turning lane. I figure these are the same people who cheat big-time on their taxes.
Of course, sooner or later you get stuck behind someone who is obviously having a VERY important conversation on their cell phone and simply cannot be bothered with making their driving the priority while behind the wheel ... these idiots simply don't care that they are breaking the law and endangering everyone else on the road too.
Then there are what I refer to as "the illegals"; people who maintain a constant speed that is 15mph less than the speed limit. Ever travel in a pack of them? My theory is that they don't have valid licenses for one of several nefarious reasons, and think if they drive extra slow, they won't get picked up for any infraction. Why else would anyone do 30 in a 45mph zone?
Last (for now) - can you tell me why people use their turning signals AS THEY ARE MAKING THE TURN, or -- in lanes where you HAVE to go left (or right) because the road straight-away ends -- or in a "must turn left/right" lane These same people NEVER use their signal BEFORE they make their turn, you know -- to let the guy behind them know they are going to turn -- when it matters. They simply don't understand the point of the signal is to give ADVANCE NOTICE in a multiple choice situation that you are going to make a turn in a particular direction. Got it? Probably not.
Oh, I almost forgot. The driver who thinks that by putting his signal on, he is entitled to change lanes, no matter what is in the lane into which he wishes to go. Kind of like "point and shoot" -- signal and GO! No judgment, no nothing.
Does anyone know that the guy turning RIGHT has the right of way over the guy turning left anymore?
Ah, the joys of the 21st century.
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