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Tuesday Hatred: Why so hale and strong, fond blogger?

See, the joke is, blogger-stereotypedom has it that the normal condition is of pealth and wanth, rather than health and strength, so, well, whatever. That doesn’t even have anything to do with the Tuesday Hatred.

I hate uninformative street signs particularly as they pertain to freeways. The other day as I was driving home after having dropped off my partner in hiking after having hiked, I needed to take the freeway to a different freeway to a different freeway to get home. The first freeway I knew basically how to get to but when I neared the fatal moment (I mean the fateful moment) I saw that there was one sign, accompanying a leftward veer, reading “Oakland”. “But amn’t I already in Oakland?”, I thought, continuing along, only to find myself in short order forced onto the freeway in exactly the wrong direction, causing me to go several miles out of my way. Street signs of this ilk seem to me to be designed for locals who basically know their way about the territory but need occasional reminders. Well, that may work for philosophy but it’s a hell of a way to do urban planning.

I hate how pokey WordPress is being. That’s about it, I guess. I have a headache and I don’t really want to direct my eyes towards a computer screen or think very much right now. Maybe I’ll have more to hate about later. WHO CAN SAY? Not me, my jaw hurts too much.

January 13, 2009 - Posted by ben | Tuesday Hatred | | 20 Comments

20 Comments

  1. Why has this already posted? I have no idea.

    Comment by ben | January 13, 2009

  2. I hate it when the DVR malfunctions, particularly when people came over specifically to watch the show recorded. I hate it when I download the show via “unconventional means” as a backup, only to find that my migration to a new computer means that the relevant Windows Media Player is in a codec-poor state. I hate the AVI file format and also hate Windows Media Player’s apparent inability to figure out on its own when it doesn’t have the proper codecs and install them as needed.

    Comment by Adam Kotsko | January 13, 2009

  3. Sometimes it will happen that I am puttering about on the internet and discover myself starting to play a game, say Desktop Tower Defense, to take a recent example. I’ll play, and then I’ll play again, and then again, and then again. At some point, I may stop and say to myself, “Self, you don’t have to play this game. You could do something else.” And I’ll be literally quite surprised and relieved by this realization. But sometimes this realization doesn’t come to me, or if it does, I disbelieve it, with the result that I find myself, in the wee hours, blearily grinding away at my nth game of Desktop Tower Defense or what have you, and depriving myself of sleep. I hate that. I hate that the broccoli that I just cooked and ate seems to have been slightly rotten. My tongue feels like it is burning.

    Comment by jms | January 13, 2009

  4. I hate that I’m supposed to be capable of teaching all of the following: Ancient Philosophy, History and Philosophy of Human Rights, Modern Philosophy, Continental Philosophy, Philosophy, Film & Literature, Kant’s First Critique, German Idealism, Eastern Philosophy, Introduction to Humanities, Aesthetics, Metaphysics, Mind & Meaning and Sartre’s Being and Nothingness. I hate that I just about can, but that every hastily scrimped together lecture takes about six months off my life. I hate that I’m not allowed to complain about my job, by virtue of the fact that at least I still have one. I hate that I also have nine articles to write this month, which is making me wake up at 5am in a sweaty kind of terror.

    Comment by infinite thought | January 13, 2009

  5. I hate that all the articles I’ve written have been rejected, largely for reasons I find either stupid, at worst, or nit-picky, at best. I hate that this likely means I’m very vain and deluded.

    I hate that my film and theology class isn’t a philosophy and film class.

    Comment by Anthony Paul Smith | January 13, 2009

  6. I, too, have long hated Oakland’s inability to provide decent road signs. Were you caught in the McCarthur Maze? I hate that I don’t know where Hayward is, because so many of the signs around here direct me there, versus anywhere I’d actually like to go.

    I hate that a world-class head cold has replaced my pneumonia.

    I hate that it took me so long to get into writing rhythm yesterday. It is official: I am out of shape mentally as well as physically.

    Comment by Brad | January 13, 2009

  7. Infinite thought’s post reminded me of a long-standing hate. It’s the hatred of the person who is so quick to scold me for complaining about some aspect of my life because some other person clearly has it so much worse.

    By complaining, I’m not trying to say no human being in history has ever had it worse than I currently do right now. I’m just saying this one thing is kind of bothering me at the moment.

    Comment by Matt in Toledo | January 13, 2009

  8. I believe the standard practice is that if a sign says the name of the city you are already effectively “in,” the sign means “towards downtown”; that is, *more* into the city.

    I hate that otherwise intelligent people do not realize this.

    I hate that I’m not making the phone calls that must be made today. I hate that my fingernails are so long that typing is a pain in the ass. I am going to rectify both of those things immediately after submitting this comment. I hate that this kind of decisive action is so rare for me.

    Comment by bitchphd | January 13, 2009

  9. I hate that this state still doesn’t have a budget. I hate that Arnold Schwarzenegger had greater ambitions than continuing to pretend he got sent back from the future to save John Connor. I hate our rat’s nest of ballot proposition-spawned budgeting constraints.

    On a more personal level, I hate the tedium of it all. I hate the length of the road ahead. I hate that I’m the only one in this office. I hate that I don’t get to “work on a team” more regularly.

    Comment by transportinburma | January 13, 2009

  10. I hate that I can’t find a way to construct an “I hate” sentence suggesting that I’m all for using “amn’t.” I suppose “I hate that more people don’t use amn’t,” does the trick. My six year old daughter started persistently using this construction when she was two (for unique ways of saying things, it’s only second most popular to her “bescept” for except). Even though it’s Tuesday, I must confess that my mental image of Ben has always been over determined by a Ben I once knew who is about 6′2″ and was lightly tanned, perfectly groomed, nattily dressed, slightly granolaish etc., etc. Envisioning that Ben saying ‘amn’t I already in Oakland’ in the voice of a six year old girl is giving me the chuckles. I hate that I can’t for the life of me remember where it was that I knew that Ben.

    Comment by old | January 13, 2009

  11. I hate that I so rarely have a reason to use the word “pantywaist.”

    Comment by transportinburma | January 13, 2009

  12. I hate that all the articles I’ve written have been rejected, largely for reasons I find either stupid, at worst, or nit-picky, at best. I hate that this likely means I’m very vain and deluded.

    I hate that Anthony’s not actually vain or deluded, and that most articles are rejected largely for reasons that are stupid or nit-picky.

    Comment by SEK | January 13, 2009

  13. I also hate that every time I lilt glum iTunes coughs up “Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros.” Ain’t Genius bright enough to know that I’m not feeling Kiwi when I click on Okkervil River?

    Comment by SEK | January 13, 2009

  14. Now now, Scott. Maybe both you and Anthony are vain or deluded.

    Comment by ben wolfson | January 13, 2009

  15. ben, we can’t all be scions of wealth/intellectual capital.

    Comment by SEK | January 14, 2009

  16. Are you calling me vain or deluded, pal?

    Comment by ben | January 14, 2009

  17. As much as I hate to admit it, Ben is right to point out that we may both be deluded. Or vain. Probably vain. Which is worse?

    Comment by Anthony Paul Smith | January 14, 2009

  18. I hate that things that I hate are so much more hopelessly unsolvable than y’all’s pet peeves. Piece of cake: a GPS navigator? Glue-on fingernails? Not writing articles?

    I must say, I do sympathize with Matt in Toledo, though.

    Comment by abb1 | January 14, 2009

  19. transportinburma – I’ve called people “pantywaist” before, only to find somebody in earshot was unfamiliar with the term and very grossed out because they think I’m calling somebody, “panty waste”. I must admit the term they thought I was uttering is pretty repulsive.

    Comment by Matt in Toledo | January 14, 2009

  20. Vain is totally good. Deluded isn’t so bad, either. In short, ignore Ben.

    Comment by bitchphd | January 14, 2009


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