The little things that make you unhappy

[Hairy Chin]

All the production CD's we get are on...erm...CD. Be hard pushed to get a production CD on anything else.

I just do my production at home and bung it on MD - I use it for my music beds (background music) because I can always add more tracks on later or move them round...or accidentally wipe them all. *ahem*

I shall be making use of the write protect tab from now on.

Sadly the station I'm at doesn't have a MD cart-type thing, we've just got some godawful normal one, which is shite and hates me and just  about every MD I have.

Disc Error, my arse - you're just a fucking shit machine. At least it was something along those lines I was bellowing at said inanimate object today. Amongst other harsh things.

The station I used to be at (quite rightly) had separate faders from the computer playout system and the CD players (the MD deck was only wired up for record there). We had CD cart players there I thought they were a great Idea - stop you getting grubby fingerprints all over the discs...then they ditched the CD cart players in favour of a pair of rather nice looking drawer-loading ones. The new ones may look much sleeker, but you have to take CD's out of the box every time to use them, as opposed to limiting the scratching and mucky marks by keeping them in the cart boxes until they get put on the system or taken off the A, B or C list.

[Ambient Sheep]

Another annoyance I have to add is that I've just somehow chipped the underside of one of my upper teeth at the front. Bugger.

Probably by gritting it when you were thumping the MD player.  :-)

Once, back in about 1988/89 or so I, along with several other thousands of listeners, heard the GLR breakfast DJ completely and utterly lose it with his cart system live on air.  It wasn't the first time that week it had gone wrong, and every time he'd apologised politely.  By now it was Wednesday or Thursday, and after a jingle had failed to play for the second or third time that morning he completely went off on one - you heard the cart being thrown across the room with words along the lines of "Sorry about that going wrong once *again*, it'd be nice if somebody here could actually be bothered to *fix* this crappy cart machine properly..." and so on for about 30 seconds.

Strangely enough he wasn't on-air the next day...

I can't remember who it was now, I *think* it was Graham Dene, but I'm not sure.  Might have been Nick Abbot.  I remember being quite pissed off because I actually enjoyed his show, and didn't enjoy his replacement.

I wonder if some radio historian can tell me if I ask Google nicely?

[Munday's Chylde]

Me to some numpty on the phone: "Hello, 'X'"

polite inference for the purpose of establishing a telephonic dialogue

Person on the other end of the phone:"Oh Hello sproglette how you doing?"

unecessary question

Me: "Not's so bad"

Person on the end of the phone: "Good, Good, Good"


Aaaargghh... Why three times?

An echo? Perhaps x was standing near a yawning blue whale, don't be so quick to judge when you are not in full possession of the facts.

[Krang]

People who walk 3 a-breast down the pavement, really really slowly, even worse are the ones who make no effort to give you some room to walk past.

Public toilets.

Totally agree with blue jammer - Ring tones. I find it too embarrasing to have a custom one, the worst are those people who let it ring for about 15 seconds before they answer it, just because they want to listen to it.

[Hairy Chin]

["Sorry about that going wrong once *again*, it'd be nice if somebody here could actually be bothered to *fix* this crappy cart machine properly..." and so on for about 30 seconds.

Strangely enough he wasn't on-air the next day...

I can't remember who it was now, I *think* it was Graham Dene, but I'm not sure.  Might have been Nick Abbot.  I remember being quite pissed off because I actually enjoyed his show, and didn't enjoy his replacement.

I wonder if some radio historian can tell me if I ask Google nicely?

Heh - sounds like a sort of Nick Abbot losing-his-rag sort of thing.

I'll have a google as well, failing that' I'll email the contents of your post to someone I know who's a HUGE radio anorak - particularly Nick Abbot stuff, he might know.

EDIT:
Actually I used to share a regular caller with Nick, can't remember where she's from now...Vasilia (sp?) from I think Port Talbot. Always started her calls with "right then", and went off on strange monologues with huge tangents. From some Nick Abbot fansite:
"Her calls often end with Nick saying "What a nice lady". Recalls many stories, which end in stony silence"
The 'stony silence' is only too true...strange lady that she was. I'm sure I've got some audio of her somewhere on a minidisc.

[Ambient Sheep]

Most of this was originally an edit to my original post, but seeing as you've done a reply I'll make it a reply down here instead.

I wonder if some radio historian can tell me if I ask Google nicely?

Heh - sounds like a sort of Nick Abbot losing-his-rag sort of thing.

I'll have a google as well, failing that' I'll email the contents of your post to someone I know who's a HUGE radio anorak - particularly Nick Abbot stuff, he might know.

Well as you may have found by now, information is difficult to come by.  However it looks like it was probably Nick Abbot after all.  I was driving to work at the time up the M11 (I remember it quite vividly), and I only drove that particular route from October 1988 to June 1990.  Radio London didn't become GLR until October 25, 1988, and according to this site of his

...and latterly on Greater London Radio (GLR) in 1988, where [Nick Abbot] presented the breakfast slot. However he didnt stay long and soon left.

Also from here:

Before he moved to Virgin 1215, however, he hosted the breakfast show on GLR, before getting the sack for "being a grump sod".

A couple of newsgroup posters say how good he was in that slot, and that it was the best breakfast show that GLR ever did, which I agree with.  So probably him then, although I can't find any definite reference to the incident.  Pity, I'd love to hear it again.  I was hoping some radio nerd completist would have an MP3 of an old cassette, but sadly it seems not.  Maybe your friend?

From what I remember it was actually more abusive than I made out above, can't recall it exactly though, but general abuse hurled at the technical competence of the radio station and how they were a two-bit operation etc. etc...

[Hairy Chin]

I'm sure my mate will know something about it.

Didn't Nick get one of the biggest fines in radio history for one of his call-outs? I think it was LBC he phoned up after making a few bitchy (but funny) comments about their licence being about to expire and the management running round desperate for jobs. "LBC-ing you" I think was one comment he came out with while waiting for the phone to be answered there. Didn't he ring them from Virgin, and the lass in the control room of the station he was ringing also had Virgin on in the background INSTEAD of listening to the station she was working for. A verbal scuffle occured, she hung up, and Nick called her a bitch and the radio station he called a bunch of yellow-bellied bastards...and something about the woman who answered the phone not having had sex for about a year.

A transcript of that's still got to be online somewhere.

[Hairy Chin]

Nice one Sheepy - I just relaced the word 'glr' with 'fined' in your search - here's the fella about nick's fine at Virgin

Gotta laugh:

Mr. Abbot has previously by the authority for describing a journalist as
a "bitch" and threatening to "rip her arse".

EDIT:

Hang on - that one up there says £5000, this one says £1000 and has the transcript.

FURTHER EDIT:
I think it's a different incident.

[Ambient Sheep]

What an arsehole!  He wasn't like *that* on breakfast.

Sorry; I think the idea of ringing up other phone-ins is brilliant, but to go off on a nasty, childish and misogynistic rant just because the woman on the other end clearly got the better of him is pathetic.

I'm starting to wonder if it was the same bloke.  Still think it might have been Graham Dene, who was mainly known as a Capital DJ but I think did do a bit on GLR.  I'm confused now.

[Hairy Chin]

I think it's funny.

Well, to read as I wasn't listening to Nick back in '93...but if I do actually think about it, i'd agree with your comments on his reaction ^ ^ ^ up there ^ ^ ^, Sheepy.

Odd that LBC's control room was listening to Virgin instead of their own output, especially if she's stacking the call up for the bod on air, so she has some idea of what's being talked about on the show.

Anyhoo - I've emailed my anorak mate, he probably won't get back to me for a wee while.

[Ambient Sheep]

Odd that LBC's control room was listening to Virgin instead of their own output, especially if she's stacking the call up for the bod on air, so she has some idea of what's being talked about on the show.

Well I suspect they were tipped off, or perhaps they always tuned to his show every week just while he was doing this regular "ring a phone-in" slot just in case it was their turn.

Thanks for E-Mailing your mate anyway.

[Hairy Chin]

That's okay, as you can see in this thread, I clearly have nothing better to do, so I was grateful for the activity.

[post-Harrynewsmelonhipo]

Topics that don't stick to their original point...

Also, although the people involved in this one must know of the pain they caused, bus drivers who see you at the stop yet just drive on. I recently yelled 'BASTARDS!!' at the top of my voice at the passing bus the other day, frightening a nearby woman. I'd had enough, you see. And I was very late that day. Oh, asking people the time only for them to just show you their watch. If they can't decipher and vocally express the time displayed then they shouldn't be allowed to have watches. Although I do that sometimes, I must admit.

[Gazeuse]

To carry on about Nick Abbot for a bit...Did you know that Neil (The Guv'nor) was a regular caller to Nick Abbot shows (Wherever they were)??? Neil's catchphrase was "Dat Caum" for NI pronounciation reasons.

Check out www.nickabbot.com (That's www.nickabbot.dat.caum) for loads of info and just about every show he ever recorded at The Nick Abbot Depository Of Sound.

I wish he was back on air.

[Smackhead Kangaroo]

I don't understand the whingeing about things like not saying thankyou when you hold a door open for a person. Frankly you've just done something of your own choice. It wasn't an immense bother, and presumably the other party didn't demand you do it. It almost comes off as if you do it to demand people thank you for doing a rather trivial thing. If anything that adherence to a meaningless rule about supposed manners would any me more than not being thanked (WARNING NOT A PERSONAL ATTACK). I'd of course expect thanks for doing something genuinely good saving someones life? I dunno. Of course come to think of it -does the person who finds not being thanked annoying also find people who don't hold doors open for them annoying? Do you thank them?

[El Unicornio, mang]

Of course come to think of it -does the person who finds not being thanked annoying also find people who don't hold doors open for them annoying? Do you thank them?

I always thank them, and I find people who don't hold doors open really annoying. It's just common courtesy, and it makes life that little bit more bearable, rather than everyone just acting like Londoners.

[Hairy Chin]

It depends how close I am to the person who went through it before me - if they went through the door immediately ahead of me and then just let it slam in my face just as I'm about to walk through it - then yes, I would feel pissed off.

But if they're a fair way ahead of me when they go through, of course I wouldn't expect them to hold the door open and wait til I got there. But if they just went through as I'm about to go through, then yes - i would appreciate them holding the door for that fraction of a second, and I would thank them. If anyone goes out of their way to do me a favour, no matter how insignificant, then of course I'd thank them, it really is the least I can do.

[Blue Jam]

1. INT. CORRIDOR. DAY.

As a busy stressed person, YOU are carrying a huge stack of files, books and papers. YOU cannot see beyond the top of them, and quite obviously cannot stop to do anything else without putting them down. YOU are struggling a bit, and the file on top of the stack falls to the floor.

FX: LOUD CRASH, OBVIOUSLY THE SOUND OF A FILE FALLING AND HITTING THE GROUND.

IRRITATING ONLOOKER, BUSY DOING FUCK-ALL AND TOO STUPID TO REALISE THAT YOU CANNOT PICK THE FILE UP WITH YOUR HANDS FULL: You've dropped something.

YOU: (quite reasonably and understandably pissed off)I KNOW!

IOBDF-AATSTRTYCPTFUWYHF: (whiny, insincerely apologetic tone of  voice) I'm sorry- I was only telling you you'd dropped something.

People pointlessly telling you you've dropped something: officially the most irritating thing EVER.

[Hairy Chin]

EDIT:

Didn't read the above post properly!

Move along.

[chand's girlfriend]

1. i hate being titled. i may be making your website, but please dont reffer to me as your web designer. there's just something about it that makes me feel like, if i accept it, i am terribly pretentious. I never refer to myself as a web designer. I make pages for some firms, but id never call myself that. Its just like, when you say "I AM A WEBDESIGNER", it seems to imply that your whole life revolvs around that job and you are your job and your job is you and its in your blood.
and thats SO not the case with me.
to me its just some thing on the side that i may not even do for a long time.



2. I also hate being asked what kind of music i listen to. Most people dont understand why, its such a common getting-to-know-you question.  And surely you know what music you like.
but i cant bring mysef to answer it. Cos you cant answer it without sounding pretentious for one reason or another.
Like, if you list a bunch of  famous bands you like, it sounds narrow and pretentious, as if you think listing those bands will make you look cool.
If you list a bunch of obscure bands, it looks like youre trying to be strange on purpose.
If you name a certain genre, it looks like youre trying to categorize and limit yourself.
Even if you say "oh i listen to all kinds of stuff" it still sounds pretentious cos a lot of people say that  thinking it will make them look open minded. And sadly, in many of those cases "all kinds of things" means music ranging from marilyn manson to silverchair. Ooh the varierty.
So I just hate that question, i hate it with a passion.

[blue jammer]

1. i hate being titled. i may be making your website, but please dont reffer to me as your web designer.

I never refer to myself as a web designer.

>to me its just some thing on the side that i may not even do for a long time.

So what do you refer to yourself as 'doing' then?

Html architect
Java (the hut) guru
php squirrel?

:confused:

[fanny splendid]

I also hate being asked what kind of music i listen to.

I sometimes find that annoying. Especially when you are well aware that they are not interested in sitting down and scratching the surface for a couple of hours.

I have to say I am disappointed in you, though.

"What little things annoy you?"

The least you could have said was Chand...

;-)

[Frinky]

Java (the hut) guru

Matt: says:
  40mb? for a java update?

Matt says:
  seems a little odd

paul says:
  it does

Matt says:
  I would suggest that it is actually a Java Update Of Doom

paul says:
  it is Java lava

Matt says:
  Some Java's Do 'Ave 'Em

paul says:
  Java The Hutt

Matt says:
  Java Cakes

paul says:
  One Flew Java The Cucoos Nest

Matt says:
  Javathon Man

paul says:
  Java Coffee

Matt says:
  Java IV: The Revenge

paul says:
  Java-is Cocker

Matt says:
  Ricky Java-ise

paul says:
  Java-ssic Park

Matt says:
  F-Java Ted

paul says:
  Jar Var Superstar

Matt says:
  Star Trek: The Next Javaration

Matt says:
  We done?

paul says:
  i think so

Sorry, I'm bored.

[gazzyk1ns]

Whilst you and your "mate" are on MSN wasting time with your stupid conversation, people in Africa are dying of jarvation.

[DonkeyRods]

[*] When you think you've eaten all your cabbage, but then you find more under the mashed potato
[*] Finding the last person to feed from your cheese didn't cut it with a nice sharp knife, but hacked away with a blunt one, or just clawed their share off with their fingernails, leaving a meteorite shaped object completely unsuitable for sandwich assembly
[*] Standing people who dont move down the bus when others get on, so people at the front end up like well dressed sardines
[*] When today is the same as yesterday
[/list]

[chand's girlfriend]

DOUBLE TAPS.


the one thing i hate about england is that they have DOUBLE TAPS on sinks.
i hate double taps. what  practical reason could there  possibly ever BE to have a double tap? One is steaming hot one is freezing cold, you cant wash your hands normally in them.


oh and i also hate it when the taps are so fucking short you cant put your hand under it properly.  and then you happen to  brush your hands against the sink while washing them.
i hate that, especially while in public toilets. ugh

[chand's girlfriend]

oh yes and also - public toilet cubicles - when the doors or the walls between the cubicles don't reach the floor or ceeling.
i cant explain why, but i cant pee in such public toilets. i dont feel i have my privacy.

oh i have a whole range of peeves with public toilets.

i hate it when they have those towel machines where you have to pull out a bit of cloth and it rotates around and ugh, it just looks so unhygenic, i can never bring myself to touch it and i prefer to nick some toilet paper to dry my hands.

[bespoke]

I use 'alright?' quite often, it is a question hence a response is guaranteed.
A dour and staid 'hello'  is the world of the autist.

[butnut]

Ex-girlfriends who, when you don't respond to a text message within 3 hours, start ringing you up and wondering if you're ok. Er, yes. I was working, and I can manage very well with out needing to hear from you every day thanks. Do you imagine that I spend my evenings gazing at the shrine that I've built to you and hoping to hear from you in any way at all, and that if I don't instantly respond then I must have killed myself, such is my love for you? Fuck, I never loved you that much.

[european son]

oh yes and also - public toilet cubicles - when the doors or the walls between the cubicles don't reach the floor or ceeling.
i cant explain why, but i cant pee in such public toilets. i dont feel i have my privacy.

oh i have a whole range of peeves with public toilets.

i hate it when they have those towel machines where you have to pull out a bit of cloth and it rotates around and ugh, it just looks so unhygenic, i can never bring myself to touch it and i prefer to nick some toilet paper to dry my hands.

i think you should ask chand about what a boys toilet looks like.... and then stand back impressed that he can pee there at will.

welcome t'board by the way.