What grinds your gears?

[Cyberbob]

Originally Posted by QWERTY?

haha yeh they told my wife that, sure we'll just take a 20 hour flight just to close your account G G.

It's absolute bullcrap.. so the CSR at the kiwibank call center can't do it, but a post office worker with a little kiwibank name pin can?

[Ajax]

Originally Posted by chiQ

I've got a new treatment for people who tailgate me - engine-braking where I would usually brake-brake just for the sake of warning people behind me I'm slowing. It's working great so far. Two bumper-lickers backed off me pretty smartly yesterday after a dose of unforeseen slowing each.

This is just asking for trouble IMO. Sooner or later you'll get rear-ended by a tailgater who's not paying close attention.

[Gentl e]

Originally Posted by Ajax

...tailgaters.

These people are so far up their ego I doubt a chainsaw lobotomy would be enough to change their attitudes.

[buckies]

Originally Posted by Cyberbob

It's absolute bullcrap.. so the CSR at the kiwibank call center can't do it, but a post office worker with a little kiwibank name pin can?

It's standard banking practice. There is little value to the bank to implement an advanced online account closure process (i.e. you're already leaving the bank).

It could work in theory, on the proviso that you cancel all payments first, have the system calculate your final fees, and then ensure that you zero balance the account before closure.

As for those people overseas wanting to close their bank account, it's obvious that you can't do it from another country. Anyone with half a brain would have attached an ATO to the account that still resides in the country, in order to tie up any banking loose ends.

[dead goon]

That reminds me, I'm 30 squids overdrawn in my UK bank account.

I should really sort that out.

[Thomas Meatball]

Originally Posted by buckies

Anyone with half a brain

Your so smart!

[Trigga*happY]

Originally Posted by Ajax

This is just asking for trouble IMO. Sooner or later you'll get rear-ended by a tailgater who's not paying close attention.

That's kinda the point tho really... Provided you can handle being without a car for a few days (have access to a friend/relatives or a courtesy car), having someone rear end you is a win/win/win/win scenario.

You get revenge/you get any stonechips and marks repaired for free/they get a lesson in driving etiquette/and the panelbeater holds off making another bog monkey redundant for another week!

My favourite trick for tailgaters tho, was when i was borrowing my dads clapped out diesel toyota corolla... Drop it down into 2nd gear and rev the crap out of it. At night the person behind couldn't see ANYTHING through the cloud of noxious exhaust that it emitted.

[chiQ]

Originally Posted by Ajax

This is just asking for trouble IMO. Sooner or later you'll get rear-ended by a tailgater who's not paying close attention.

Yeah, hope he's insured.

[Ajax]

Originally Posted by Trigga*happY

That's kinda the point tho really..

Cause a deliberate accident and possibly risk your life to teach some moron a lesson they'll soon forget? What a cunning plan.

[Thomas Meatball]

Risk your life by being rear-ended? Uhhh... yeah, that's likely to happen.

[StN]

Originally Posted by Thomas Meatball

Risk your life by being rear-ended? Uhhh... yeah, that's likely to happen.

You've heard of bug hunters...

[A Corpse]

Originally Posted by Thomas Meatball

Risk your life by being rear-ended? Uhhh... yeah, that's likely to happen.

Tell that to the gay population over-represented in AIDS statistics...

[caffiend]

You're always too subtle, StN.

[devilmonkey]

We have received your semi urgent request to a see a specialist... waiting time is 2-6 months.. grr

[Markh]

Originally Posted by Spoon1

The ad for Wendy's where they're advertising a big fat burger with a "jolly" fat man who's so fat he can't even speak properly. And the music is "fat" sounding brass instruments.

Fail Wendy's, fail.

Using a skinny person to advertise their burgers would be a little dishonest IMO. Sure, skinny people do eat there, but they aren't very regular customers. Mostly the burger chains sell fatty food to fatty people.

[chiQ]

Originally Posted by Ajax

Cause a deliberate accident and possibly risk your life to teach some moron a lesson they'll soon forget? What a cunning plan.

Hehe, having been deliberately rammed multiple times, at speed, hard, by a moron in a much larger vehicle suffering from 'OMG my cock is so small' road rage with no damage to anyone in the car and minor repairs and paint needed for the car (at his insurer's expense) I'd have to say you're being a little melodramatic. There's also no question of deliberately causing an accident.

Besides, as someone who makes a point of brake-braking to warn those behind me when I have no obligation to I have no problem with engine-braking on particular occasions if I choose. I only flash my brake lights as a courtesy. I'm generally engine-braking anyway, simply because that's my preferred method of slowing my car when there's no need to decelerate quickly. Anyone following at a reasonable distance would have no trouble avoiding contact with my car under the circumstances I'm talking about.

If someone has the bad manners and sense to follow too closely and they damage my car they will pay for repairs or their insurer will, whether I flash my brake lights or not. I follow at a safe distance, increasing gaps on declines, as speed increases, and in the wet. It's not that hard to do. There is no excuse for tailgating and the law supports this.

The simple fact is that I'm generally slowing to increase the distance between me and the car in front, to negotiate a sharp corner, or approaching an intersection/road works/school area/crossing/etc., and anyone behind me, no matter how close they are to me, should be doing the same thing. You'd have to be a pretty shocking driver or wool-gathering in the worst way to rear-end someone outside of an emergency braking situation.

In an emergency braking situation the back of my car is all glowing red, so there's no question there being no warning in situations where a competent and safe driver might need to take really evasive action in response to my change of speed.

I'm talking about my one hour (each way) commute to work, mainly on open road, where people should be well-spaced along the lane, and those spacings grow and shrink regularly since it's a hilly route with lots of windy bits. Most people are really good, but sometimes you get someone on your tail who's really dangerous.

I actually double my following distance when I'm being tailgated, just in case I do get hit, so they end up slowing us both down even more. This is amusing when you consider that a lot of people seem to tailgate out of frustration at slow traffic flow. It's hellishly counter-productive.

[Thomas Meatball]

Do me a favour next time someone tailgates you. Slow right down and weave like you're drunk. Throw a beer bottle out the window at the car behind. Ought to be good for a laugh.

[Ajax]

Originally Posted by chiQ

The simple fact is that I'm generally slowing to increase the distance between me and the car in front, to negotiate a sharp corner, or approaching an intersection/road works/school area/crossing/etc., and anyone behind me, no matter how close they are to me, should be doing the same thing. You'd have to be a pretty shocking driver or wool-gathering in the worst way to rear-end someone outside of an emergency braking situation.

Yeah they probably should be, but some drivers are just easily distracted and do unpredictable shit - they might be texting, changing a CD, turning round to smack a kid, anything. They take their eyes off the road for a second at a critical moment. This is when accidents often happen. If you're cool with going through the stress of insurance and repairs etc, that's fine, but personally I'd rather just not get in an accident in the first place.

I don't think I'm being melodramatic, nose-to-tails do occasionally cause fatalities - for example when a pileup develops and a car gets sandwiched (I witnessed an extremely nasty accident of this type once - driver got his chest pierced by the steering column) - or a car gets shunted off the road. You can also get injuries like whiplash and brain trauma in surprisingly minor-looking accidents. Just saying.

[chiQ]

Yeah, well the whole pile-up thing is why I double my following distance when I'm being tailgated. I want lots of room should a queue of nose-to-tails develop in the traffic behind me, because if that's the case the more road ahead the better.

By the way, I think you're assuming the worst about the contexts in which I'm no longer flashing warnings. You can rest assured that I'm not a sociopath.

[Lightspeed]

Says the sociopath...

[Disinformation]

Originally Posted by chiQ

Yeah, well the whole pile-up thing is why I double my following distance when I'm being tailgated. I want lots of room should a queue of nose-to-tails develop in the traffic behind me, because if that's the case the more road ahead the better.

You should be more worried about being nudged into oncoming traffic - worst case being someone collects you side on. Yeah it wouldn't be your fault, but that's kinda irrelevant if you (or one of your passengers) is the who ends up maimed.

And as for your earlier post, i very much doubt you have not been rammed 'at speed, hard, by a moron in a much larger vehicle' - if you had the outcome would have been different to what you described. I'm guessing in your case the closing speeds were pretty low - you'd certainly know all about it if it was more than about 20kmh, and probably wind up with some structural damage to your vehicle.

[Thomas Meatball]

Ah the sage advice of timid nerds who are nervous about driving.

[Ajax]

Yeah and the usual trite commentary from the ubiquitous Thomas.

[Helious]

Just smacked over/dropped my best mate via self-defense

I hate drunk cunts that show up unannounced, don't know why they're angry.. make up a reason to justify their mood. Can't be talked down or reasoned with.

This dude is Dutch, maybe that's the problem :p ?

<--- completely sober.

[mr selfdestruct]

Originally Posted by Helious

Just smacked over/dropped my best mate via self-defense

I hate drunk cunts that show up unannounced, don't know why they're angry.. make up a reason to justify their mood. Can't be talked down or reasoned with.

This dude is Dutch, maybe that's the problem ?

<--- completely sober.

Your best mate attacked you for no reason? What the?

[StN]

So no chance of you sticking something somewhere you shouldn't have then?

[chiQ]

Originally Posted by Disinformation

You should be more worried about being nudged into oncoming traffic - worst case being someone collects you side on. Yeah it wouldn't be your fault, but that's kinda irrelevant if you (or one of your passengers) is the who ends up maimed.

And as for your earlier post, i very much doubt you have not been rammed 'at speed, hard, by a moron in a much larger vehicle' - if you had the outcome would have been different to what you described. I'm guessing in your case the closing speeds were pretty low - you'd certainly know all about it if it was more than about 20kmh, and probably wind up with some structural damage to your vehicle.

Being nudged into oncoming traffic would require the whole process to occur speeds at which I simply wouldn't do this. It's interesting how you and Ajax have assumed that I would engine-brake in situations where serious harm could result from it. The **worst-case** outcome that could follow from the situations in which I have not given a brake light flash (and am happy to repeat myself) is a minor shunt. This is about meeting discourtesy without my usual courtesy, not harming other people.

I think you may be right about the rear-ender speed though. We had been travelling at 100 kph, but now I think about it I think the queue had slowed to about half that when we were rammed. BaM would have a better idea, since he was driving at the time. The car in front braked hard, BaM braked, and the van that had been a couple of metres off our bumper all the way down the hill (when we were at full speed) didn't brake and hit us (to be expected but hard to avoid), then braked and rammed us again twice as we kept slowing (rather unexpected). He pushed us a fair way forwards, despite BaM having his foot hard on the brake by the last hit. We were pretty close to the car in front by the time the van laid off.

The bumper and two rear quarter panels needed work. We were both fine, though only because BaM had longer arms than the other driver and could hold him off.

[Rince]

what!?!?!?
he rear-ended you, and he wanted to fight you over it?

[Vrtigo]

When asking clients questions that would help us design their site, some clients have such a smug "OMG, why are you even ASKING us this question??? dont you KNOW what we do and what we want instinctively???" attitude. and im not even involved in the meeting.

[Torka]

Getting sunburned in fucking August

[BaM]

Originally Posted by Rince

what!?!?!?
he rear-ended you, and he wanted to fight you over it?

Yeah, he tried punching me out in the middle of the road. Also drove off before the cops turned up.

[Ab]

Got plate details, took photo, etc?

[BaM]

Yeah, this was a while ago, all sorted. He tried to deny fault but the police report pretty much said the opposite.

Decided not to do anything about him trying to deck me as he never actually connected - not worth chasing up.

[FireStorm]

Originally Posted by Torka

Getting sunburned in fucking August

Easiest way to tell if you're at risk from getting sunburnt is by the length of your shadow in sunlight. If your shadow is longer than you are tall, you're far less likely to get burnt. If your shadow is the same length as your height or less, then wear sunscreen. So at midday, on a hot summers day when your shadow is right underneath you, watch out.

[Ab]

pffft, obviously when your shadow is right underneath you, you just need to wear a hat. And shoulderpads.

[A Corpse]

Especially if you're Crocos.

[Thomas Meatball]

When the sun is directly above, crocos often finds people rubbing oil into his head and laying down some strips of bacon.

[^BITES^]

I hate it how people think because you have a "big car" you have a small penis.

Who the fuck conducted this study .. and how big was the sample group.

[Gentl e]

Originally Posted by ^BITES^

.. and how big was the sample group.

I'd say tiny, like the size of your penis lol.

[dead goon]

Getting frustrated at my current job.

Just need to get through a few more months.