Ranting and raving

This is one of those incoherent posts of mine that has no real unifying theme. Basically I just want to write about some things that are annoying me and something that's made me very happy.

Thing That Annoys Me #1
On Sunday I went into my local Sainsbury's and found that they had replaced half the checkouts with self-service checkouts. This wasn't what made me angry. No, what made me incensed was the irate man shouting at the poor Sainsbury's worker about how useless the new checkouts were. I apologise to any people from the 'Pub reading this, because I've already ranted about this over there, but it absolutely drives me up the wall when people are rude to retail staff. Firstly, it is not the fault of the cashier that this Sainsbury's replaced the old checkouts with self-service ones. Those kind of decisions are made at a higher up level than that of the poor checkout chick. Secondly, the self-service checkouts are probably reducing the hours of people like the poor woman who was the subject of the man's ire. They're not going to be happy at the introduction of the new checkouts.

It's probably the fact that I worked in retail from 2000-2008 (the ages of 15-23), including a horrendous stint in a supermarket, that makes me want to slap people like that guy. Picking on retail staff who are not responsible for your problems, and cannot fight back, is a particularly vile form of cowardice.


Thing That Annoys Me #2
I gave up reading the book of a certain author whose blog I read. I'd never read any of her books - I discovered her through her blog, which I've enjoyed reading. But her book! Ugh, it was awful. It wasn't so much the complete dearth of believable characters, or the derivative, tedious world she created that caused me to give up. No, what did it for me was her complete inability to use commas correctly. When someone who doesn't even know the rules of grammar can get published, something in me dies.

Thing That Annoys Me #3
The complete inability of most 20th-century 'classic' (ie highly-regarded) fantasy authors to create believable female characters.

Thing That Is Making Me Very Happy
You might recall that I have very stern views on young-adult literature. Or, to be more accurate, I don't like it when ignorant people write about it. I even wrote angry blog post about it over on the Geata a little while ago. So when someone gets it right, I'm really, really thrilled. I knew I had a reason for liking John Scalzi. Scalzi makes the sensible point (in response to a reader's horror that *gasp* teenagers weren't reading Heinlein or Asimov) that we don't expect teenagers to enjoy the music of 50 years ago, so it's ridiculous to expect them to like the books of that time period. (He does note that this dislike of things past usually vanishes as teenagers become adults.) So, life goes on. The Youth of Today are just doing what teenagers have always done: creating their own culture. You can all calm down. The kids are all right.

Ranting and raving

This is one of those incoherent posts of mine that has no real unifying theme. Basically I just want to write about some things that are annoying me and something that's made me very happy.

Thing That Annoys Me #1
On Sunday I went into my local Sainsbury's and found that they had replaced half the checkouts with self-service checkouts. This wasn't what made me angry. No, what made me incensed was the irate man shouting at the poor Sainsbury's worker about how useless the new checkouts were. I apologise to any people from the 'Pub reading this, because I've already ranted about this over there, but it absolutely drives me up the wall when people are rude to retail staff. Firstly, it is not the fault of the cashier that this Sainsbury's replaced the old checkouts with self-service ones. Those kind of decisions are made at a higher up level than that of the poor checkout chick. Secondly, the self-service checkouts are probably reducing the hours of people like the poor woman who was the subject of the man's ire. They're not going to be happy at the introduction of the new checkouts.

It's probably the fact that I worked in retail from 2000-2008 (the ages of 15-23), including a horrendous stint in a supermarket, that makes me want to slap people like that guy. Picking on retail staff who are not responsible for your problems, and cannot fight back, is a particularly vile form of cowardice.


Thing That Annoys Me #2
I gave up reading the book of a certain author whose blog I read. I'd never read any of her books - I discovered her through her blog, which I've enjoyed reading. But her book! Ugh, it was awful. It wasn't so much the complete dearth of believable characters, or the derivative, tedious world she created that caused me to give up. No, what did it for me was her complete inability to use commas correctly. When someone who doesn't even know the rules of grammar can get published, something in me dies.

Thing That Annoys Me #3
The complete inability of most 20th-century 'classic' (ie highly-regarded) fantasy authors to create believable female characters.

Thing That Is Making Me Very Happy
You might recall that I have very stern views on young-adult literature. Or, to be more accurate, I don't like it when ignorant people write about it. I even wrote angry blog post about it over on the Geata a little while ago. So when someone gets it right, I'm really, really thrilled. I knew I had a reason for liking John Scalzi. Scalzi makes the sensible point (in response to a reader's horror that *gasp* teenagers weren't reading Heinlein or Asimov) that we don't expect teenagers to enjoy the music of 50 years ago, so it's ridiculous to expect them to like the books of that time period. (He does note that this dislike of things past usually vanishes as teenagers become adults.) So, life goes on. The Youth of Today are just doing what teenagers have always done: creating their own culture. You can all calm down. The kids are all right.