Non-ragey photos from my life on the TTC

This guy always wore cut-off jean shorts during the summer. With a dress shirt and running shoes. I saw him maybe a dozen times during the summer in variations of this outfit. Loved it.

I don't know what is happening here. Also, he had a mullet.

Gold jackets for men. Is this, like, in now?

Various public transit/TTC grievances

People who sit in the seat next to you and put their bag onto your seat. Just because I don't fill out the whole seat doesn't mean you can put your stuff ON MY SEAT!!

People sleeping on other people.

Holding onto the pole for dear life... while sitting. What??

 

Shoes on the seat! And this is the worst, a TTC EMPLOYEE WHO HAS THEIR FEET ON THE SEAT!

This girl decided to paint her nails on the subway. Really? No other place to do your nails but on the subway? So the whole train smelled like nail polish.

Hogging up two seats with crap and oblivious to people (on the crowded bus) who want to sit.

Also, this guy turned out to be crazy because in those bags was trash and he started offering random people on the bus trash.

Update to the crazy person who tried to stab me [with an umbrella] on a TTC bus

From this post in 2011.

I saw this man again on the same bus line. At first, I just automatically felt a lot of hate towards him but wasn't sure why. He was taking off his shoes and putting his gnarly feet out.

Then I looked at his goggle-looking glasses and it triggered my memory! It was the crazy guy who tried to poke my eyeballs out with his pointy umbrella!

See photographic evidence below.

The seat beside him is empty because he put his drink on it and didn't move it when people started crowding the bus.

It's Yonge, not Young or Younge

When people have been living in or around Toronto their whole lives and still mess up the spelling of this iconic street, I just don't get it.

When there's a big gap of space and people insist on brushing up beside you as they walk by

To get rejected from a job opportunity

Two sucky parts:

1) Not even the courtesy of a "sorry we went with another candidate". The person took the effort to actually come in, possibly raising suspicion at work for disappearing, and meet with you. The least you can do is write a short email to inform them you didn't choose them.

2) When they CALL TO REJECT YOU! And then also send an email to say "hey I couldn't reach you, can we talk tomorrow morning" and you think it's an offer. But no, just calling to tell you you were rejected.

Thanks. A lot.

Okay 3 things I hate.

3) When you get rejected for "fit" vs the other final candidate. If the other candidate had more experience, or certain required skills, etc, I get it - I can work on honing those skills or what have you. But I can't change "fit" and that basically says there's something inherently wrong with your personality to get the job, even though you were qualified in every other aspect.

Excuse me while I cry as I listen to Skyscraper.

The most annoying (though nice) roommate

If I had live blogged this, it would probably be a bigger list.

• She kept saying 'interesting'. This experience was interesting, the food was interesting, the room was interesting, the subway was interesting. Girl, learn some new adjectives.

• She said shit like 'my friends were all Facebooking me messages to have a good trip!', 'I updated my Facebook cover photo and all my friends are already leaving me comments *giggle giggle*' and giving me play by plays of her Facebook comments. Is she new to the internets?

• She also kept talking about her "conference in Toronto". ALL THE TIME. I wanted to stab something when she mentioned Toronto and the godddamn conference.

• One time, we came back from going out (of course at a rather early time since the girl never did anything at these things but stand there) and because she took showers in the morning and me at night, I was about to go into the bathroom. I asked her if she needed to go in before I went, she said she'd go after. When I am done, I come out and shes snoring already so I turned off the lights and went to bed. Then at 4 am, when we had an early morning the next day, she suddenly wakes up to realise she is still in her clothes. AND THIS BASIC BITCH DECIDES TO SHOWER. AT 4 AM! WHEN SHE COULD HAVE LITERALLY WAITED A FEW HOURS AND SHOWERED THEN. So she woke me up at 4 am.

• Let's talk about the partying or there lack of. I am a senior citizen so I get it, I can't stay out until 4 am because I am just too old for that shit. But this girl, when she goes to anything, she doesn't sing along to the music (I don't think she's heard the songs before), she barely talks to anyone and she stands like a creepy mannequin in the corner. Usually staring. I once noticed her at the toga party at the bar half the time and later I asked her if she had drank a lot. Turns out no, she had one drink and had just stood there for fun the whole time. Not waiting for a drink or anything.

• Cankles

 

• She kept calling "gelato" gelati. Gelati is plural of gelato, yes, but we're not getting many gelato, JUST ONE!

• When we had to leave the hotel in the morning, we usually got our wake up call one hour early and we were to be at breakfast half hour before leaving. She'd be in the bathroom drying/straightening her hair and putting on make up until forever. One time, when we were meeting up for 8:30 AM, she was in there until 8:10 AM and I missed out on meeting with everyone (this was on the cruise so whatever, I just hung out by myself) and usually, I only got like 10 minutes of breakfast time.

•  Speaking of missing out: in Turkey while on the cruise, we were only docked for 2 hours. She made me late for meeting up with everyone for breakfast because she was in the bathroom forever and a day, straightening her hair to make her look like an old lady, so as I run out, I go to grab my key. Our cabins on the boat had to be locked from the outside when leaving the room, they didn't auto-lock. I go to the desk where I left my key the night before, but it was gone. I was like WTF! That bitch took my key! So I run to the restaurant I think they are eating breakfast to be shoo'd away by staff since breakfast was over (I didn't know they had moved to another restaurant since the idiot didn't call our cabin to inform me) and ran back to my room. Feverishly took another look to see if it had fallen somewhere. Then I luckily found the cabin stewardess who helped lock the room for me and later on, gave me an extra key. After we all get back on board from our Turkey stop, she comes into the room and I'm like "I think you took both the keys". She's like "uhhh no, I didn't. I only took mine". "No, I left my there and now I can't find it. Can you check?". She goes into her purse as she says, "okay fine but I am certain I didn't take it...". Lo and behold, she had both keys. She did apologize and say she felt bad. I said that it was okay (pfft, whatever. I was still pissed and she was bragging about all the stuff she bought in Turkey with our group...while I had wandered around by myself) but if she did this to me in Santorini, I would smother her in her sleep. She giggled. I looked at her with this face :| (I was fucking serious).

• Poo skid marks. She told me once, while we were on the cruise, "well you probably heard all the flushing. I had to poo and it doesn't seem to be able to flush it" (maybe substitute another word for poo). I was like ready to gag.

• She walked slower than molasses. I usually was walking miles ahead of her (and I am usually slow! So imagine her!!) but every so often, I felt obligated as her roommate to turn around and see if she was kidnapped by gypsies. She was always SOOO FAR BEHIND! For everything, even when we had just a few hours on Santorini, she walked around like a retarded penguin.

•  She never asked for directions or help when we were going places. It was always me who had to ask for directions!

• When we were in Santorini, all the GOOD stuff, like beaches, were far out on the island. When we were there, all of our group were renting ATVs in pairs to go to the beaches. I unfortunately got stuck with roomie. So as everyone is speeding off (and I am like OMG I have poor sense of direction and I need to go with someone!) and she is walking SO SLOW towards the ATV rental place. Then she suddenly says "I don't know if I want to get an ATV, I have so much more to explore in town!". (Meanwhile, in town, there are just some souvenir shops and that's it) In a moment of anger, I said UGHHH I WISH I WAS TRAVELING WITH ONE OF MY FRIENDS RIGHT NOW!!!! Then the bitch conceded.

• In a lot of the hotels we stayed at, it was two twin beds pushed up beside each other in the tiny room. We never took the effort to really push them apart (with the small space) and a lot of the time, I often found her not only snoring loudly but also her legs all on my bed. And she always slept facing towards my bed whereas I always tried to fall asleep facing the other way (might have tossed at night to face her direction). One time I woke up and said, "sorry I might have pushed you into your bed last night because your legs were all on my bed". She responded with a NO WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, I DID NOT sort of way. Same as with the key incident. 

• She often put on some lotions or something that smelled like old lady ass.

•  Her face literally (!!) came off on the towels.

• She hangs out by herself all the time and sometimes, sits creepily to the side of me and only joins in the convo to say stupid shit like "the sunrise was so beautiful that I had to stop to take a photo of it" 

• We did this thing where we talked about our most embarrassing story - her story was, I kid you not, saying when she gets drunk, she punches people who are much bigger than her. Like her brother. HOW IS THAT EMBARRASSING????? THAT IS NOT AN EMBARRASSING STORY!!!

Speeding cyclists who ride on the sidewalk and in the middle

I've already ranted about people who ride their bikes on the sidewalk before. But to add to this rant, there are people who not only ride on the fucking sidewalk but also ride in the middle of the sidewalk. As a pedestrian, I kinda have the right of way on the sidewalk. But these fucking idiots ride up literally millimeters beside me so if I move an inch, I could get run over. And the worst, these fuckers will sometimes continue riding in the middle of the damn sidewalk and ring their bell or shout something at me to move over. ASSHOLE! You're the person riding a bike on a sidewalk, you should always yield to the pedestrian! That means you ride up on the grass for a bit, whoopty-doo! You don't always have to ride on the pavement! When you see someone there walking, move your ass over and don't expect them to yield to you! Or better yet, ride on the goddamn road!

Crazy cyclists riding on sidewalks on children's bikes

People who take shopping carts back to their homes

Why don't these people buy one of those little wheelie carts or a bunch of reusable bags? Those shopping carts are not personal transport devices for your use outside the areas of the supermarket or store. The taking of shopping carts and not returning them (and just leaving them in random locations on the streets or in parking garages) is what likely increases prices. Also, because of these shopping cart stealers, they are now using magnetic strips in the parking lot that cause the wheels of the carts to lock. This is fine and dandy for places that clearly mark that line -sometimes not even the outside perimeter of the parking lot- but not all places do. One time, at a grocery store that charged $1 to use the shopping cart, the wheels ended up locking on me while pushing it to the parking lot further away from the store. I couldn't push it anymore after it locked. If it was $0.25 in the cart, I would've left it behind but it was a $1! So I had to lift the the front wheels and push it back by myself, until a nice lady helped me out. It was a bitch to do because it was humid and the dang thing wouldn't move. End of story, people who take shopping carts home ruin the lives of everyone else.

People leaving bandaids in the shower

I don't understand people who use public showers (for example, at the gym or the spa) who leave behind their nasty ass bandaids. I get it, those things easily come off with water but when I wear bandaids and shower, and it comes off, I make a mental note of picking it back up to throw in the garbage when I'm done. It is just common courtesy and respectful to other people. Not to mention, I'm pretty sure it's a health hazard especially if it's all bloody. Don't be a gross, gnarly asshole and throw away your discarded bandaids!

People who suddenly stop walking to bend down to tie their shoes

And I almost run into their bum.

Community managers for brands who can't spell or know how to use proper grammar

You'd think they could hire someone who knows how to properly pluralize words and differences between you're and your.

It ain't brain surgery.

Guys wearing wifebeaters but have big old sausage arms and a pot belly

That's not hot. Dat groce.

Just wear a t-shirt or something. Also gross when there are moobs.

Those inspirational graphics with grammatical/spelling errors

Putting up for rent posters and not even able to spell your main intersection properly

You don't understand how many times I've seen Steeles spelled as Steels, Yonge spelled as Young and Eglinton as Eglington.

Good lord, you LIVE THERE!

Dat groce

Put this in the "that's gross" column and not the rage column.

People who, before they sit on the bus or subway seat, wipe it down with their hand. That's disgusting because soon after, they are touching their faces! I get the Touch The Chair (TTC) mentality because I've accidentally sat in gross seats before but I don't give it a full on wipe down.

The classic line siddle-upper

She always ignores the line up and always stands right beside the first person in the line. When the bus comes, she pounces everyone in the line to get a seat.

Even though she only goes down two stops. Literally.

People who leave useless tips on Foursquare

I'm not sure if people are too dense to figure this out, but Foursquare tips means legitimate tips about the location. Meaning, you at one point or another, have stepped inside the establishment and can offer a "tip" to other people who in the future will also visit said establishment.

What isn't a tip: saying you need to check it out. That provides zero "tip value" to other people. It makes you look like an idiot who doesn't know how to make mental notes for yourself for places to "check out" or too stupid to use Foursquare's "to do lists.

These are examples of people failing at life/Foursquare.

When bus drivers get off midroute to go get coffee at Tim Hortons and take a jaunty slow walk back

Especially late at night and you've already spent 1.5 hours trying to get home to wake up early for work the next morning.

Smoking right in the bus lineup or beside the shelter

Have some common courtesy. Ya you're outside but the bus shelter does say no smoking so you being two inches away in the vicinity of all the other people waiting for the bus makes you an inconsiderate ass.

Fobs who have ruined Abercrombie & Fitch

Ed. note: Granted, I'm pretty much too old for A&F now but nonetheless...

Many moons ago, in the late 90s to mid 2000s, wearing Abercrombie & Fitch (and Hollister to a lesser extent) in Canada meant something special. That you either went to the States to go shopping and had good enough taste to not just go buy from the same old Canadian chains or you bought it online or through the catalogue (having a catalogue meant you were extra special because that meant you got onto their mailing list from a prior purchase or some other method, so you got to receive the catalogue to gawk at the hot shirtless guys). Basically, it meant there was a conscious effort for you to buy the Abercrombie & Fitch brand and it wasn't like you were wearing it because it was on sale and you bought it for no other reason than that and you just can't walk around naked.

Since they opened up the stores in Canada, and as of late with their crazy sales (a recent thing because as recent as 2009-2010, a mere 20% or 25% is most you could hope for and even then, you might as well just buy it at full price because the good sizes are always quickly sold out), it's like every fresh off the boat person is decked out in A&F.

Those of us who are Asian but fall into the "I was wearing Abercrombie & Fitch before it became commonplace amongst all the fobs" tend to find ire with this phenomenon because it automatically lumps us, visually and subconsciously, into the same group. A big homogenous group of fobby Asians who bought a shitload of A&F because it seems name brand and it was hella cheap on sale.

I don't want to ever be lumped into fob culture because that's far removed from me. But now whenever I don a piece of clothing that has the moose emblazoned on it, I feel like I should preface things with "I'm not a fob but...".

Stinky ass people at the gym who move right beside you

Just as you're getting into the groove and want to use that machine to focus on that specific muscle.

But then you're gagging so much, you just have to pack up and leave because the stink is overpowering.

People who suck on DrawSomething

These are just two of the examples of shitty drawings I get. One to depict "ring" and the other to depict "Russia".

Draw less shitty, people! Put some effort into it!

Like my art work for "yoga" and "Marge". Skill!

CRAP

 

 

SKILL!!

Ugh! The TTC/subway isn't your personal living room!

People chilling in bus shelters or benches by bus stops

That's fine and dandy EXCEPT when they don't wave away (or some other kind of visual indication) bus drivers who are on that bus route that don't need to stop for them.

So then that results in stopping, opening the door and them not getting on... thereby wasting minutes because someone doesn't know how to wave.

When the bus is like empty but someone decides to stand beside me

Oh my god!  They are now grabbing both poles, trapping me in!

Sitting on gym equipment, talking on phone

Bitch, why are you hogging the equipment just so you can sit down while you talk or text on the phone? The equipment area isn't your living room.

People who talk on their cellphones like a walkie talkie

Technology has come a long way. You no longer have to move the mouthpiece/mic to right beside you mouth to speak and then move the earpiece part back to your ear when you have to listen. Just leave it there normally!

The Jennifer Hudson Weight Watchers commercials

With her over-exaggerated arm movements and, the worst, when she's singing to herself.

Terrible.

Linkedin profile pictures with other people in them

Why do people use profile pictures for a professional/business oriented networking site of them and other people? I get quirky photos for Linkedin (I am guilty of that myself) but a group photo isn't appropriate nor makes sense.

You don't know who exactly is the potential job candidate, so you might as well not have a profile photo at all. Or it shows the candidate is too stupid to crop a photo.

Or you can be in a non-group photo but a photo with someone else, looking like a douche.

See example below, a legit Linkedin profile pic (from a really sketchy looking profile).

Clicking a link in a tweet to end up on the status update on Facebook

I personally find syndicating content across numerous platforms a fine art in not annoying the shit out of your core audience.

If you are using a Twitter feed to syndicate your posts from your website, like big name publications like New York Times or Mashable, great - I'll always be on top of the news by following these brands on Twitter.

But then there are some brands or obnoxious people who use tools to post once to Facebook to then syndicate out to other places like Twitter and vice versa. Normally, this isn't that bad but with the 140 character limit, sometimes you'll end up just seeing a link towards the end. 

When you click on it, thinking it goes to the place mentioned in the tweet, it then takes you to Facebook WITH THE EXACT SAME MESSAGE and sometimes, no link at all.

 

And you're like, why the hell did I even take those 3 seconds to click to the link and wait for the thing to just load the EXACT SAME THING but on FACEBOOK?

 

Learn to do social media right, "social media gurus".

No man-sitting on the TTC

People who walk up the bus steps ridiculously slow

And then they slowly survey the area before moving out of the way from the bus door.

By the time you get on the bus, and the idiot moves out of the way, there are no more seats.

Especially frustrating when you were waiting outside in the cold for a long time just to miss out on a seat because of a slow tard.

Stinky people at the gym

Put on some goddamn deodorant or antiperspirant!

Drowning oneself with cologne or perfume

I don't know what's worse, having my nose inundated by the overpowering smell of B.O. or gross ass perfume or cologne.

Either way, it makes my gag reflex act up.

Jason Derulo and Mr Worldwide, Pitbull

Jasonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn Derrrruuulllooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Why must every song of theirs start with them namedropping... themselves?

I can maybe understand namedropping yourself if you're collaborating with another artist and you only get a "featuring" byline, but these are THEIR SONGS AND NOT FEATURING ANYONE ELSE??

Also, Jason Derulo, you're a nobody. And nobody cares that this is a Jasonnnnnnn Derruuuulllloooooooooo song. (And yes, I feel bad after his vertebrae injury but this doesn't take away from the fact he was obnoxiously starting every.single.song. with him singing his own name).

Night service on buses

It's to be expected every time that it will take years. If you take a late (by late, I mean anything after 9ish PM) bus home, particularly from Finch station, here's what you have to deal with:

• Stopping at bus stops even if no one dinged the request to get off and there's no one waiting at the stop
• Stopping at intersections when it's still a green light or yellow light
• Moving at such slow speeds that I can LITERALLY (not figuratively) walk beside the bus and still get home faster
• Possible stop at a Tim Hortons along the way
• All this after waiting forever (like 20-30 mins) for the bus to begin with!

If you're taking that late night bus, you're tired and it's late and you just want to go home. And sometimes you have to pee or you have an early day the next day but you're SO close, yet so far from home. There's like no one out on the route waiting for the bus so screw putting the bus back on schedule. Why can't they account for the lack of pick ups/drop offs at night? Every single time the driver decides to randomly stop at yet ANOTHER green light and wait until 1 or 2 cycles of the lights to turn, I mutter "fuckkkkk" under my breath.

I hate living in my hood.

When you don't get the courtesy of a job rejection

With my last rant about HR, this in the same vein.

But hiring managers, not specifically HR, though it's all part of the hiring process.

When I actually make it to the stage of interviewing, take the time to come down to your office and possibly raise suspicion of people at my current job, and I don't get the job, the LEAST you can do is send me an email to say "we went with someone else". Yes, an email and not a call because if the call isn't to say you have me in mind for another job, I'd rather not have to play off disappointment in real-time.

I don't see why this is so difficult. If a hiring manager is meeting with even 20 people, he or she can also just send a mass email with everyone on the BCC to let them know the outcome.

It's just fucking rude, otherwise,

"Associate" level jobs that require professional experience

When I was a new grad, searching for my first job, this enraged me like nobody's business. Now that I am more established in my career, this enrages me less so -- but also as someone who is considering a different career path, my rage is starting to boil again.

Here is a job listing's job requirements that I was interested in applying for... until I read this part:

Professional experience of at least 2+ years working in social media (can be PR/marketing/advertising related). We know many have personal experience in social media, and while this is a great learning area, we're looking for people that have managed brands professionally in the social space;


This, for an entry level job.

How the hell does one get 2+ years experience working in social media and still be in the market for an entry level job? Internships? And social media type jobs are a relatively new career path and generally speaking, most people who DO have 2 years experience in this area, are already up there because there's a lack of people who DO HAVE the professional experience.

And who's to say someone who has the "professional experience" is any better or more qualified than someone who is in the field but not directly managing brands' social media profiles?
Not to say those who whore themselves out in social media to gain followers are any more qualified and capable of working on social media strategies, but it's still a rather aggravating requirement to have for such a low level job.

Fuck that.

Seat stealers who should be happy that I am not a violent person

Or a violent person with access to things of a stabby nature. Hell, if I had a spork at the time of this incident, she would've been sporked to death.

This is what went down.

I was waiting for the bus for what felt like FOREVER in the cold and was in the front of the line. When the bus pulls up, I go to sit in one of the much coveted single seats. As I am turning around to park my kaboose and moving my bags out of the way to sit down, this dumb bitch LITERALLY squeezes between the space (about a foot) between my ass and the seat and then slides into it.

SHE STOLE MY SEAT FROM RIGHT UNDER MY BUTT!

As I stood stunned frozen that that shit just went down, too surprised and confused by what had just transpired (I've had to deal with seat stealers before, considering I take a pretty ghetto bus route, but never when in the midst of my butt lowering down to the seat!), I stumbled to a seat nearby. Still in shock and then eventual rage.

So I gave her a look of much disapproval and shook my head at her, and she (no joke) smiled at herself!

Right then and there, I had to hold myself back from punching her with my boney knuckles. But I didn't, because I am an upstanding citizen. Seriously, though, what a bitch. I usually delete these stealth photos off my phone after I post them here but this one I will keep forever so that if I see her again (and I thought I did two days ago but then analyzed this pic to realize it wasn't her), I will stare her down.

When other people with similar ideas get a book deal (and I don't)

My friend got me this book, I Hate Everything, for my birthday. I love it, because I can so relate to a lot of it.

But what the hell? Why does this guy get a book deal writing about the same things I hate and can verbalize in book form and I don't?

Not fair.

Leaving ski lift tags on years after the fact

See illustration above. The date on it said December 2010, I took the picture in January 2012.

The guy literally had one whole winter season to remove it but no, decided to leave it on for one more season.

Leaving these on, is it just laziness or just to show everyone "hey look at me, I went skiing/snowboarding!"? Really now!

Sleeping on someone's seat

I was sitting in that empty seat in front of her and then suddenly felt something squish up behind me. I was like WTF!! Then turned around, and her head is right there and she's pressed up against my shoulders.

WHO DOES THIS??? IF YOU WANT TO NAP, NAP SITTING UPRIGHT. DON'T LEAN UP ON PEOPLE! Ugh!

Pole hoggers

This guy was wrapping himself around the pole and I had nowhere to hold on to, could've rolled down the bus aisle for all he cared. I put my hand on the chair's rails and then he smushed himself into where my hand was.

Then I had to put my hand in the only spot of the pole I could grab, which was 1 inch from his head.

C'mon now! You're not a stripper and this AIN'T YOUR POLE!

People who hog two seats and oblivious to the dozens of people standing

Like this guy. Who, for the entire bus ride, did not move from that extra seat he was hogging.