Dumb things that annoy you

[Midnight Breeze]

People seem to have some misconception that evolution is some kind of ordered and regulated process like the quality assurance team in a factory. Questions like "Why does X species have X trait? It doesn't give them any advantage!" or "Why has evolution not fixed X problem?" are asked all the time.

The answer is that evolution is not magic. It's literally just the process of nature throwing things at the wall until something sticks. It's not like there's a team of engineers constantly going over the genomes of species and thinking "Hmm, how can I improve this?" There is no order behind it, it's trial-and-error or the grandest of scales.

Think of it this way: Imagine a deafblind man standing in the middle of a large room with an unlimited supply of darts. Somewhere in the room is a dart board, but he has no idea where it is. If he just stands there for millions of years throwing darts in random directions he's almost guaranteed to eventually hit the bulls-eye by shear luck alone. Obviously that's not an efficient system by any stretch of the imagination, but it will work given enough time. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and evolution is a broken clock.

However, if we remove all of the billions of missed darts, leaving only the one on the bulls-eye, and then bring someone in the room to see it and tell them "That man hit this bulls-eye", they're going to be thinking "Wow, that's amazing! That couldn't have happened at random, there's something supernatural at play with this guy!" That's an easy mistake to make when you are only seeing the successful result of something while not seeing all the failures. Nature as we know it today is the result of many millennia happy accidents. We don't see evolution's countless failures - i.e. the 99.9+% of species that were extinct before humans came into existence.

Heck, the human body is chock-full of redundant organs and inefficiencies. Evolution just brings you to "good enough" it doesn't guarantee optimal performance.

[Chromastone64]

I saw like TWO MINUTES of Mighty No. 9's final boss battle.
Good lord, I am SO happy I never backed this game.
And now for something not game related, I've come down with shingles now 

[Chishio Kunrin]

And now for something not game related, I've come down with shingles now 

Shingles!! I've had that before! It was horrible! I had it on my right shoulder and upper back, so I had to stay home from school until it healed up enough for wearing a backpack and sitting in a hard plastic chair all day to not be torture. Even wearing a shirt kind of hurt.

[Chromastone64]

Yeah, I've had it once before too, and I was SERIOUSLY lucky: back then, the type I got didn't hurt. Which was a very good thing, considering I had cancer at that time, AND it sprung up on the area where I had my medicine jabs. This time, however, it's REALLY itchy and stings. Can't actually wear a shirt for now.
Oh, explaining this to my college is gonna be FUUUUUUUUUUUN.

[FeverishPegasus]

Never had shingles before, but I've had rashes after visiting a public hot bath.

[Midnight Breeze]

Yeah, I've had it once before too, and I was SERIOUSLY lucky: back then, the type I got didn't hurt. Which was a very good thing, considering I had cancer at that time, AND it sprung up on the area where I had my medicine jabs. This time, however, it's REALLY itchy and stings. Can't actually wear a shirt for now.
Oh, explaining this to my college is gonna be FUUUUUUUUUUUN.

Its actually kind of a good thing youre getting it now rather than later. Most people dont get it until late in life,  and its way worse then.  Ive seen ww2 veterans crying from it.

I caught chicken pox in 1995, literally weeks before the vaccine came out, so im almost guaranteed to get shingles eventually.  I probably wouldnt have got it either if my mom hadnt given it to me on purpose.

Back before the vaccine was invent it was a right of passage for young kids,  almost everyone got it,  so parents would expose their children to it early on so they could 'get it and be done with it'.  Ironicly that kind of thinking was exactly what made the disease so widespread. Self-fulfilling prophecy ahoy.

[Chishio Kunrin]

Its actually kind of a good thing youre getting it now rather than later. Most people dont get it until late in life,  and its way worse then.  Ive seen ww2 veterans crying from it.

I caught chicken pox in 1995, literally weeks before the vaccine came out, so im almost guaranteed to get shingles eventually.  I probably wouldnt have got it either if my mom hadnt given it to me on purpose.

Back before the vaccine was invent it was a right of passage for young kids,  almost everyone got it,  so parents would expose their children to it early on so they could 'get it and be done with it'.  Ironicly that kind of thinking was exactly what made the disease so widespread. Self-fulfilling prophecy ahoy.

Well, isn't chicken pox really dangerous for adults? So, I guess it's kind of understandable. You only get chicken pox once in your life, so it's best to get it when you're young so you won't get it later when it'll do more than just give you itchy polka dots.

I was born in 1993, and I remember parents letting their kids play with other kids who had chicken pox so they'd get it. There was even a kid at my daycare who had it one week. I was fortunate enough to get it when I was a toddler, so young that I couldn't even properly scratch the spots and make them worse. I don't even remember having it.

Apparently, one thing that can bring shingles up is stress, which explains why I got it during high school. That year was especially stressful for me. Not only was I a teenager and in public high school, I also had some pretty bad things going on in my personal life.

I've seen a commercial about shingles before, where all these elderly people were talking about their experience with it. One of them was a retired fireman, and even he said that the burning from it was horrible, like hot coals. And then the commercial said that if you've had the chicken pox ("if" haha), the shingles virus could be in you.

[Chromastone64]

Apparently, one thing that can bring shingles up is stress,

Well, I did just have my exams while also finding out that my "two-year" course is actually THREE years, so I can kind of see how it happened now.
Oh and bad news, there's now a red, aching mark right under my eye.
JOY.

[Midnight Breeze]

I'd like to know why all of the cyber jobs in the Air Force are in the general aptitude rather than the electronics aptitude....like, wtf. The 2 jobs I really wanted were cyber surety or cyber systems operation. I'm getting placed into the electronics aptitude because I did particularly well on the electronics section of the ASVAB. Truth be told they originally tried to railroad me into the mechanical aptitude, but I refused. Technically I could turn down this slot and tell my recruiter I want to wait for a general aptitude slot, but it's not that simple...

The way the air force works with placing people into jobs is they use a "guaranteed aptitude" system for most recruits. When you ship to basic training you don't have a specific job and could get placed into any job in that aptitude. They try to give you one that you prefer, but really they will just stick you into whatever job is needed the most. So with that in mind, going into the general aptitude in hopes of getting a cyber job would be pretty risky. Cyber jobs are extremely popular with recruiters, not surprising considering the Air Force is pretty much the geek branch of the military. My general score isn't the best, so if I go into the general aptitude there's not a good chance I'd actually get a cyber job, it's more likely I'd end up as a clerk or a janitor or some other glorious job (okay, I'm exaggerating, but still...). With that in mind I think electronics would be a safer bet. It doesn't have the jobs I really want, but it also doesn't have any jobs that I'd really hate to get.

It's okay by me I guess, can't win them all. I'll cross my fingers for space systems operations, hopefully my 77 in electronics will be semi-competitive.

[Chromastone64]

I never really care about politics, but it looks like my country has messed up royally now...

[Chishio Kunrin]

[A THOUSAND BAFFLED NEIGHS]
Are there really still people in the RWBY fandom who don't understand the timeline of what happened with Yang's mother?!! Really?!! Even after later episodes have cleared things up a bit?!! AGH!!!

Spoiler: The correct story. Spoilers • show

Breakdown of the story Yang told in Volume 2:
- Yang and Ruby grew up on an island called Patch
- Dad (Taiyang) was a Huntsman who taught at an academy, and mom (Summer) was a Huntress who took on missions around the kingdom ("Her name was Summer Rose [...]")
- One day, Summer went on a mission and didn't come back home
- Taiyang became depressed and revealed to Yang that Summer actually was not her mother, just Ruby's mother
- Taiyang explains that Yang's mother (Raven) left her with him shortly after her birth, for unknown reasons. Everyone Yang asked claimed that no one had seen or heard from her since she left.
- Taiyang didn't tell her much, but he did tell her that he, Summer, Qrow (their uncle), and Raven were all on a team together
- Yang was desperate for more info, so one day, while Taiyang was teaching at the academy and Qrow was out, she took Ruby into the woods, following what she believed to be a lead. Grimm (monsters) showed up, but Qrow saved her and Ruby. That day, she learned not to let her search for answers be the only thing she thinks about because it could get her or someone she cares about hurt.

So, basically, the timeline of that story is:
- Summer, Taiyang, Raven, and Qrow were on a team together (revealed in Volume 3 to be Team STRQ (Stark))
- Taiyang and Raven become a couple
- Raven gives birth to Yang and then leaves for unknown reasons
- Taiyang and Summer become a couple, raising Yang together
- Summer gives birth to Ruby
- Years later, Summer goes on a mission and doesn't make it back home
- Taiyang explains to Yang the truth about her mother
- Yang takes Ruby with her into the woods, following a lead, and Qrow saves them from Grimm
Simple, right?

And then, late in Volume 2, a mysterious masked woman with a colorful sword saves Yang from Neo (one of the antagonists).

In Volume 3, Qrow shows off an old photograph of Team STRQ, and Yang recognizes the sword that Raven has in the photo. A little while later in Volume 3, Yang mentions this to Qrow and tells him that a woman with the same sword saved her, which reveals that, yes, the woman who saved Yang in Volume 2 was her mother, Raven. Qrow confirms this ("You're not crazy, Yang. That was your mother, alright."), mentions Raven is his sister, and says that Raven told him she saved Yang once but won't do it again.

^Okay, so that's the correct story, from what we've been told and shown by the show itself.
Here is a summary of the explanation I just saw a confused fan give:

Spoiler: Despite being incorrect, it does include spoilers • show

- Grimm attacked their home when Ruby and Yang were little, and Yang's mother went missing. (Already completely wrong! Where did you even get this idea from?!!)
- It is unknown for sure if Qrow said "She saved you once" to mean when the masked woman, whose identity is "unknown", saved her from Neo or if he meant she saved her when she was a kid. ( She outright said Qrow was the one who saved her and Ruby when they were kids!! And it was confirmed in Volume 3 that the masked woman was Raven!)
- Some kind of thing about Raven being placed under a curse to transform into a Grimm woman, wanting Yang to go save her from the curse because she has black hair and red eyes. (???? She has black hair and red eyes in the old photo! She's always had black hair and red eyes!)

Ugh...
I'm sorry, but the RWBY fandom bugs me sometimes because there are so many fans who make theories that make absolutely no sense within the context of canon and then expect their theory to actually be canon, despite evidence from the show disproving it. And then we have fans who don't pay any attention to the show.

I think I've said this before, but I'll say it again...
RWBY fandom: The show doesn't explain anything!! It needs to explain more!!
RWBY: *Makes entire scenes dedicated to exposition and explaining things clearly*
Half the RWBY fandom: *Only listens to somewhere between 5% and 50% of that. Makes half-baked theories based on misinformation, ignoring details from the explanation*

Spoiler: Example of said occurrence (Volume 3 spoilers) • show

RWBY: Only young women can become Maidens.
Tons of RWBY fans: Pyrrha is going to get the Fall Maiden powers, and then her thoughts are going to be of Jaune, and Jaune will become the next Fall Maiden!
.....
Jaune is a boy.

[Night Pony]

[A THOUSAND BAFFLED NEIGHS]
Are there really still people in the RWBY fandom who don't understand the timeline of what happened with Yang's mother?!! Really?!! Even after later episodes have cleared things up a bit?!! AGH!!!

Spoiler: The correct story. Spoilers • show

Breakdown of the story Yang told in Volume 2:
- Yang and Ruby grew up on an island called Patch
- Dad (Taiyang) was a Huntsman who taught at an academy, and mom (Summer) was a Huntress who took on missions around the kingdom ("Her name was Summer Rose [...]")
- One day, Summer went on a mission and didn't come back home
- Taiyang became depressed and revealed to Yang that Summer actually was not her mother, just Ruby's mother
- Taiyang explains that Yang's mother (Raven) left her with him shortly after her birth, for unknown reasons. Everyone Yang asked claimed that no one had seen or heard from her since she left.
- Taiyang didn't tell her much, but he did tell her that he, Summer, Qrow (their uncle), and Raven were all on a team together
- Yang was desperate for more info, so one day, while Taiyang was teaching at the academy and Qrow was out, she took Ruby into the woods, following what she believed to be a lead. Grimm (monsters) showed up, but Qrow saved her and Ruby. That day, she learned not to let her search for answers be the only thing she thinks about because it could get her or someone she cares about hurt.

So, basically, the timeline of that story is:
- Summer, Taiyang, Raven, and Qrow were on a team together (revealed in Volume 3 to be Team STRQ (Stark))
- Taiyang and Raven become a couple
- Raven gives birth to Yang and then leaves for unknown reasons
- Taiyang and Summer become a couple, raising Yang together
- Summer gives birth to Ruby
- Years later, Summer goes on a mission and doesn't make it back home
- Taiyang explains to Yang the truth about her mother
- Yang takes Ruby with her into the woods, following a lead, and Qrow saves them from Grimm
Simple, right?

And then, late in Volume 2, a mysterious masked woman with a colorful sword saves Yang from Neo (one of the antagonists).

In Volume 3, Qrow shows off an old photograph of Team STRQ, and Yang recognizes the sword that Raven has in the photo. A little while later in Volume 3, Yang mentions this to Qrow and tells him that a woman with the same sword saved her, which reveals that, yes, the woman who saved Yang in Volume 2 was her mother, Raven. Qrow confirms this ("You're not crazy, Yang. That was your mother, alright."), mentions Raven is his sister, and says that Raven told him she saved Yang once but won't do it again.

^Okay, so that's the correct story, from what we've been told and shown by the show itself.
Here is a summary of the explanation I just saw a confused fan give:

Spoiler: Despite being incorrect, it does include spoilers • show

- Grimm attacked their home when Ruby and Yang were little, and Yang's mother went missing. (Already completely wrong! Where did you even get this idea from?!!)
- It is unknown for sure if Qrow said "She saved you once" to mean when the masked woman, whose identity is "unknown", saved her from Neo or if he meant she saved her when she was a kid. ( She outright said Qrow was the one who saved her and Ruby when they were kids!! And it was confirmed in Volume 3 that the masked woman was Raven!)
- Some kind of thing about Raven being placed under a curse to transform into a Grimm woman, wanting Yang to go save her from the curse because she has black hair and red eyes. (???? She has black hair and red eyes in the old photo! She's always had black hair and red eyes!)

Ugh...
I'm sorry, but the RWBY fandom bugs me sometimes because there are so many fans who make theories that make absolutely no sense within the context of canon and then expect their theory to actually be canon, despite evidence from the show disproving it. And then we have fans who don't pay any attention to the show.

I think I've said this before, but I'll say it again...
RWBY fandom: The show doesn't explain anything!! It needs to explain more!!
RWBY: *Makes entire scenes dedicated to exposition and explaining things clearly*
Half the RWBY fandom: *Only listens to somewhere between 5% and 50% of that. Makes half-baked theories based on misinformation, ignoring details from the explanation*

Spoiler: Example of said occurrence (Volume 3 spoilers) • show

RWBY: Only young women can become Maidens.
Tons of RWBY fans: Pyrrha is going to get the Fall Maiden powers, and then her thoughts are going to be of Jaune, and Jaune will become the next Fall Maiden!
.....
Jaune is a boy.

Then plot twist, Jaune is a girl. 

[Chromastone64]

Then plot twist, Jaune is a girl. 

[Midnight Breeze]

I never really care about politics, but it looks like my country has messed up royally now...

Ba dum tss.

[Pipkin]

Steam's disgusting account restrictions.

Firstly, being locked out of the market for an entire month for buying a game.  Actually????
Secondly, trades being held for 15 days if you don't use mobile auth.  Does it even remotely occur to them that there are people who DON'T USE CELL PHONES?!?!
Thirdly, not being about to complete the Community badge if you don't own a cell phone.  Again, that's unfair to those without access to one.

I'm also annoyed that booster pack drop chances increase the HIGHER your level is.  Meaning if you are a low level and can't make badges to level up your account because you have no more card drops and need booster packs, you're chances are half as high of getting a booster as someone who's level 50.  How is that possibly fair?

So my situation right now is that i'm level 6, can't finish the only non-game badge I have left because I have no phone to add to my account.  I'm locked out of the market so I can't buy or sell cards, and my trades are on hold for weeks at a time, with 0 chance of getting a booster pack to increase my level.

So no wonder i'm in a horrible mood.

[Chishio Kunrin]

Secondly, trades being held for 15 days if you don't use mobile auth.  Does it even remotely occur to them that there are people who DON'T USE CELL PHONES?!?!
Thirdly, not being about to complete the Community badge if you don't own a cell phone.  Again, that's unfair to those without access to one.

^ Companies having this attitude of "It's 2016. Everyone has a cell phone! Everyone's cell phone is a smartphone! Everyone has perfect, flawless, high-speed internet!"

Not everyone.
Some people can't get a cell phone.
Some people, like me, can't get a smartphone.
Some people live in areas in the USA where it's pretty much impossible to get decent internet, or even internet at all. ("That's not my problem, don't buy Xbox One, then, peasants!" Shush, you greedy business person!)

Cough medicine!!!
Whenever I take some, it sends a convulsion up my spine! Not a shiver, a convulsion. The taste of cough medicine makes my body shake really hard, even when I'm holding my nose!

[Howitzer]

Secondly, trades being held for 15 days if you don't use mobile auth.  Does it even remotely occur to them that there are people who DON'T USE CELL PHONES?!?!
Thirdly, not being about to complete the Community badge if you don't own a cell phone.  Again, that's unfair to those without access to one.

>Windows Phone; the post.

[Midnight Breeze]

[Stardust Dragon]

Finally got my in-game bugs for that other game fixed by the programming staff on that 6-month old ticket, only to run face-first into a new bug that keeps me from progressing.  Seriously guys?  At least this one seems to be a player-wide problem, so I can hope they actually respond to this one without me having to call their offices. 

On that note, they asked for a survey for my customer service experience.  Strap in boys, this is gonna be rough.

"How long did it take to get a response to your ticket?
  1 day
  2 days
  3 days
  4+ days"

....

[Midnight Breeze]

Whatever you do never kick a trashcan as hard as you can only to realize too late that it's full.

As if I wasn't having enough problems with my knees.