Random Rants Eighty-Four: Rants Gone Wild!!!!

[MaryKB]

I like talking to random people, it's one of the things I really love about living here in the US that drives me crazy when I go to Ontario.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

People really aren't as chatty up there? I don't know why but that surprises me.

 

[Farm Boy]

Highway 138 wouldn't serve for dog walking. For one thing, those roads winding down out of the canyons would involve a good couple hours on foot before you even get to the highway. For another, this is the desert. You and the pooch could just trample along on the hard pack a hundred yards off to the side and be just as comfortable. Scrub brush might prevent a dead straight line of travel, but not by much. There's far more space between than there is brush in our scrub.

Oh, I believe you. But the contextual point stands. I'm just wandering around with my dog or whatever I'm working on as per usual and now there are a lot more people rocketing around the road that cuts through everything. I'm not particularly sympathetic to the inconvenience of it all to anyone that isn't having to keep one eye peeled the entire time to stay on the quick side rather than the dead side.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Oh, I believe you. But the contextual point stands. I'm just wandering around with my dog or whatever I'm working on as per usual and now there are a lot more people rocketing around the road that cuts through everything. I'm not particularly sympathetic at all to the inconvenience of it all to anyone that isn't having to keep one eye peeled the entire time to stay on the quick side rather than the dead side.

Fair 'nuf. Mostly I was just concerned for the safety of your dog.




Kidding.

 

[Farm Boy]

Not a problem, you should be. Half beagle half terrier is almost entirely stupid.

 

[Truthy]

I like talking to strangers, but I don't find Americans are very talkative unless you're engaged in a common experience like hiking or skiing. But in the case of hiking, it seems to me people mostly just say "hey" and "what's up", but aren't trying to chat... unless I'm just oblivious to their overtures. On the other hand, everyone is very chatty on chairlifts/gondolas if you go skiing. And that also includes Canadians visiting the US, who seem even more talkative than Americans.

Aside - on a hike 2 weeks ago, I met an old German lady who told me about growing up in the American sector of West Berlin. The chance to hear things like that are why I like talking to randos.

I haven't spent much time outside of the US. Though Japanese seemed the most talkative. Pretty much everywhere, Japanese people would approach me to to ask if I was American, what part of the US I was from, if I liked Japan, and so on.

 

[civvver]

I like talking to random people, it's one of the things I really love about living here in the US that drives me crazy when I go to Ontario.

That's it! I'm moving to Canada!

My wife is one of those chatty people that drives me nuts. The worst is we'll be dining and she'll think the person at the next table looks similar to some celebrity and she'll actually talk to them and say hey do people say you look like so and so? And half the time it's someone really small time and they won't even know who it is so they'll try to be fake nice back and be like oh no? really? thanks! It's so ridiculous, just let them eat in peace. But she thinks she's being nice and I'm a grouchy old man.

Or when people turn chats into something about them like oh you're kid has nice shoes, my kid has the same ones, we love them! I don't give a rats butt about your kid's shoe preferences.

 

[Birdjaguar]

That's it! I'm moving to Canada!

My wife is one of those chatty people that drives me nuts. The worst is we'll be dining and she'll think the person at the next table looks similar to some celebrity and she'll actually talk to them and say hey do people say you look like so and so? And half the time it's someone really small time and they won't even know who it is so they'll try to be fake nice back and be like oh no? really? thanks! It's so ridiculous, just let them eat in peace. But she thinks she's being nice and I'm a grouchy old man.

Or when people turn chats into something about them like oh you're kid has nice shoes, my kid has the same ones, we love them! I don't give a rats butt about your kid's shoe preferences.

That is married life. Get over it.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Married life is also grumbling about it.

 

[Truthy]

There's a tension I have with family members and girlfriends with respect to randos. Which is that I'm happy to talk to randos, but I usually don't want to talk to them about the same things my family, gf, or whoever does. Like I won't bother to talk about sports or shoes, so if whoever I'm with wants to talk about those, I'll voluntarily be sidelined while I wait for the conversation to end. But then I start to become a grouchy old man if the conversation isn't wrapping up in a timely manner.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I like talking to strangers, but I don't find Americans are very talkative unless you're engaged in a common experience like hiking or skiing. But in the case of hiking, it seems to me people mostly just say "hey" and "what's up", but aren't trying to chat... unless I'm just oblivious to their overtures. On the other hand, everyone is very chatty on chairlifts/gondolas if you go skiing. And that also includes Canadians visiting the US, who seem even more talkative than Americans.

Aside - on a hike 2 weeks ago, I met an old German lady who told me about growing up in the American sector of West Berlin. The chance to hear things like that are why I like talking to randos.

I haven't spent much time outside of the US. Though Japanese seemed the most talkative. Pretty much everywhere, Japanese people would approach me to to ask if I was American, what part of the US I was from, if I liked Japan, and so on.

You're just picking the wrong common experiences, as shown by "skiing." People aren't talkative at all while skiing, they are talkative on the chair lift because the common experience is actually riding. Talkative happens during quiet, sedate activities of limited mobility. I chat up people in the supermarket checkout line all the time. Waiting for the next counter clerk at the auto parts store? By the time I make it through that line I know what every single person is working on, and what's wrong with it, and have shared cell numbers with most of them. If I were ever to decide to launch a revolution I would start at the DMV. Every time those clowns keep me sitting around for two hours I raise a score or more of loyal followers who would cheer me on if I lit the place on fire.

 

[Truthy]

You're just picking the wrong common experiences, as shown by "skiing." People aren't talkative at all while skiing, they are talkative on the chair lift because the common experience is actually riding. Talkative happens during quiet, sedate activities of limited mobility. I chat up people in the supermarket checkout line all the time. Waiting for the next counter clerk at the auto parts store? By the time I make it through that line I know what every single person is working on, and what's wrong with it, and have shared cell numbers with most of them. If I were ever to decide to launch a revolution I would start at the DMV. Every time those clowns keep me sitting around for two hours I raise a score or more of loyal followers who would cheer me on if I lit the place on fire.

I could be suffering from a "fish can't see water" thing and just not noticing how talkative Americans are because it's normal to me

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I bought some liquid bandaid to help stop me from biting my nails. I have used it for this before because it forms a noticeable barrier on your skin so that when I go to chew, I feel it, think about what I'm doing and stop.

Well the liquid bandaid I just bought is so thin that you can't feel it. It's practically invisible as well. This is great from a bandaid utility standpoint but pretty terrible for a stop-nail-biting perspective.

 

[Synobun]

I bought some liquid bandaid to help stop me from biting my nails. I have used it for this before because it forms a noticeable barrier on your skin so that when I go to chew, I feel it, think about what I'm doing and stop.

Well the liquid bandaid I just bought is so thin that you can't feel it. It's practically invisible as well. This is great from a bandaid utility standpoint but pretty terrible for a stop-nail-biting perspective.

Use a bitter agent?

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Use a bitter agent?

I've used that before and if I am not absolutely diligent in thoroughly scrubbing my hands before I cook or eat, I end up with it in my food. Regular washing isn't enough, you have to really scrub it off.

I'm pretty sure they sell the old-style goopy/thick liquid bandaid still, I just have to look for it.

 

[Synobun]

I've used that before and if I am not absolutely diligent in thoroughly scrubbing my hands before I cook or eat, I end up with it in my food. Regular washing isn't enough, you have to really scrub it off.

I'm pretty sure they sell the old-style goopy/thick liquid bandaid still, I just have to look for it.

If I were you, I would simply not bite my nails

 

[hobbsyoyo]

If it was something I was consciously doing then yeah I'd stop but instead I don't even think about it, it's a compulsion. Apparently it's an OCD-linked trait.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Whenever you catch yourself, put a hard, blood drawing bite on somewhere further up your finger. Self inflicted aversion therapy works.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Whenever you catch yourself, put a hard, blood drawing bite on somewhere further up your finger. Self inflicted aversion therapy works.

I bite off the skin around my nails which is frequently bloody and very painful and that does not stop me.

 

[MaryKB]

I could be suffering from a "fish can't see water" thing and just not noticing how talkative Americans are because it's normal to me

Travel to Ontario for a week and you'll suddenly realize what you've been taking for granted