What annoyed you today?

[arandomguy]

[extropalopakettle]

So,

[Eykir]

[Antrax]

Okay, I've been successfully trolled.

[Kd]

I think 'etymology' is a very big word to be using when talking to a troll so I looked 'democracy' up myself (I'm just preparing for the next ELQ, teehee)

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=democracy

Oh, and slightly getting this thread back on track, I am annoyed today because my best friend isn't answering her phone, and I really need to talk to her.

[Antrax]

So it would appear the word is originally from greek. Now, we are left to wonder, how is it that the ancient greeks thought up a word to describe something that would only be invented by "America" thousands of years later?
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[arandumbguy]

We were first. We're the greatest. You all suck. Our flag is better. You're a liberal.

[armandoguy]

No, democacy is a corruption of the words 'demo' like when people go on a march or something and the word 'crazy' which is when people get ca bit carried away and do stup[id stuff.

The word democracy started in the '60s with all the political freedom in America.

[arandomguy]

People in Greece invented it. America was the first to enact one though. Duh.
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Monkeys are better dead.

[armandoguy]

lol, so the greeks invented it then thought "nah, we don't need this, let's not bother" then years later the Americans came along and said "Hey dude, like I just found this like really old political system, yeah, and like it's not even been used, huh Coool, huh?? Like lets use it before anyone turns up and claims it back"





Randomguy, some of your stuff is pretty funny, if you had a bit more consistency it would be cool, if you stopped the blatant unsophisticated name calling it would be cool

[DMTsurel]

[extropalopakettle]

I geuss they make a distinction between democratic repulic and democratic federal republic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_states

[GH]

You know what I find annoying? When I go into the restrooms in this building and find yellow water in the urinal. Flush the toilet when you're done, dirty hippies! I don't want your nasty hippie-wizz backsplashing my shoes! Whenever I see the yellow water, I always make sure to flush twice *before* I go, and then twice again afterwards. That'll teach 'em.

P.S. The above rant/vent in no way reflects my overall views of dirty hippies. I just don't need to experience anybody else's urine in any way. If I was into that, I'd find a hooker.

[extropalopakettle]

[Kd]

Like, man, don't make fun of the beatniks... y'know, it's like, we just stand at the urinal doing all our crazy poetry and, man, you know, we don't check what we leave behind, that's just crazy talk, man.

[Dragon Phoenix]

Putting the Massive Attack CD I bought yesterday in Belgium in the CD player, to find out that the girl behind the counter has mistakenly put a Manowar CD in the jewel case.

[Dr. Borodog]

Antrax.

[Lauritz of Arabia]

That "Do the Coo-ool-whip" commercial.

[Travis*]

I hate that one too. Also, the hurray for huggies commercial, can't stand it with a psychotic passion.

[Beartalon]

[IrritatedCanadian]

[jadesmar]

[jadesmar]

[Lauritz Melchior]

The word 'democracy' comes from a 13th century Latin translation of Aristotle, attributed to William of Moerbeke. Unfortunately, it doesn't say what work or Aristotle it was, and I'm too lazy to look it up. It began to be used in the sense of "govt. by the people" in the 16th century. The word, in Greek, was originally used by Aristotle, and therefore, the idea of democracy can be traced to ancient Greece.

Telephone, on the other hand, was not used until 1828 and was a "name for a system of signalling by musical notes, devised by Sudre". The word was later "applied to an instrument devised by P. Reis in dec. 1861", and later "applied to the 'Electrical Speaking Telephone' of Alex. Graham Bell, introduced in 1876". While the word is undoubtedly Greek in etymology, the idea and the word itself are not. Democracy can be traced to ancient Greece, but the telephone cannot.


Jadesmar: I realize that you were joking, but I used your comment as an excuse to look this up =p]
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2500th member give or take 3

[Courk]

When the USPS tries to deliver a package larger than your mailbox, they knock on your door. If you aren't home, they leave a note saying you can come pick up the package at the post office. At least allegedly, since they "attempted" delivery 10 days ago and "left" "two" "notices."

[Samadhi]

Are you saying you have doubt in a government agency?

[Courk]

The "attempted" delivery times were about 5:30 pm and 6:30 pm. When my dad went to get the package, they said they don't deliver that late.

I feel like this is a really bad Twilight Zone episode.

[Sessie]

Note for all GLers: If I'm ever driving you somewhere and I'm not sure where I'm going so you have to give me directions, and we come to a fork and I have to ask you "which way," please don't point vaguely and say, "This way." I will slap the hell out of you.

I was driving my mom to the airport and wasn't quite sure whether to take the left or right entrance. This was the conversation that ensued:

Sessie: "Which way do we go in?"
Mom: *points* "That one."
Sessie: *unable to stare in the direction of the passenger seat, as the car is in motion and there are many other cars around, and Sessie does not really want to die* "WHICH one?"
Mom: *points again, apparently more vigorously* "THAT one--"
Sessie: "RIGHT OR LEFT, MOTHER?!"

*sigh*
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"I have an everyday religion that works for me: love yourself first, and everything else falls into line." --Lucille Ball

[Courk]

Reminds me of simple conversations I have with my mom.

Me: Do you want green beans or corn with dinner?

Mom: Ooh, yeah, that sounds good.

Me: Which one?

[Nigma's Good Twin]

With all that's being thrown around these days, it almost irritates me that most people think the United States is a democracy. While Americans really like to think we are, we're just not.

As the only part of this debate I'll get into, here's what the CIA has to say about the US:
Government type: Constitution-based federal republic; strong democratic tradition

Their definitions of these terms:
Constitutional - a government by or operating under an authoritative document (constitution) that sets forth the system of fundamental laws and principles that determines the nature, functions, and limits of that government.

Federal republic - a state in which the powers of the central government are restricted and in which the component parts (states, colonies, or provinces) retain a degree of self-government; ultimate sovereign power rests with the voters who chose their governmental representatives.

Please note the following:
Democracy - a form of government in which the supreme power is retained by the people, but which is usually exercised indirectly through a system of representation and delegated authority periodically renewed.

And as collaborative information:
Federal (Federative) - a form of government in which sovereign power is formally divided - usually by means of a constitution - between a central authority and a number of constituent regions (states, colonies, or provinces) so that each region retains some management of its internal affairs; differs from a confederacy in that the central government exerts influence directly upon both individuals as well as upon the regional units.

Republic - a representative democracy in which the people's elected deputies (representatives), not the people themselves, vote on legislation.
And since it' mentioned in the definition of federal, I'll help cross-reference:
Confederacy (Confederation) - a union by compact or treaty between states, provinces, or territories, that creates a central government with limited powers; the constituent entities retain supreme authority over all matters except those delegated to the central government.

I doubt anyone could claim the American people have "supreme power" (as in the definition of democracy) at all, even an optimistic patriot like myself. Heck, I'd even be willing to concede that the populace might not have "ultimate sovereign power" as the alleged definition of federal republic states. And remember, this is a major government agency of the United States making the definitions.
I had naive patriot in there first, but thought I'd better change it
And I know the CIA can hardly be called the authority in determining government types, but it has the neat definitions, so there.

[Lauritz Melchior]

I ordered a bunch of stuff from amazon.com a week ago, under regular shipping (1 business-week). It's Tuesday and the stuff still hasn't arrived, so my dad checks the shipping status. Estimated time of arrival: September 28th. Not August 28th. No. Two months from now! And it said one business-week =(
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2500th member give or take 3

[Chuck]

Maybe one of the items isn't available yet and you asked them to ship everything together.

[Lauritz Melchior]

Heh, you were right. The Art of Singing (it's not what it sounds like) is "Special Order" unlike everything else. So we'll just reorder the other things minus that.
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2500th member give or take 3

[Beartalon]

I ate out tonight, and didn't have a credit card with me, and no cash. The restaurant I went to has always had debit processing.

Not anymore. The debit processing machine is gone.

In order to pay for my $10 dinner, I had to use their onsite ATM.
The machine is set to charge a handling $1.50 fee for withdrawing money. My bank will take a service charge of $1.50 for using a non-bank-specific ATM. I haven't yet left a 15% tip for the service, making another $1.50

It costs 14.50 for me to eat my $10 meal, but I would have happily paid the tip so I paid $3 more than I expected to put out at the time.

At the bottom of my debit receipt, I see the machine is registered to the franchise owner whom I know gets to keep most of the fees charged while a small portion goes to pay for the purchased machine.

It galls me that the ATM owners are getting as greedy as the banks, and you can bet that those excessive fees are NOT distributed to his/her staff, and that the use of the ATM reduces their tips by the amount by which the diner is robbed...

[jesus_saves]

i m an idiot and forgot to pick up a very important package yesterday that i need for this weekend. It came while i was in colorado, and yesterday was the last day i could pick it up before they would return it to sender. So it got sent back today. (this i realized at abour 8:15, right after UPS closed for the day). i suck

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³⁸ For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
³⁹ Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord

~Romans 8:38-39

[Nigma's Good Twin]

We still love you.

[Logain]

Got a new dual layer Pioneer DVD burner 16x from buy.com yesterday to replace an older single layer one which was pretty slow.

First two DVDRs didn't finish and had errors reported (now helping to fill my garbage can). Then tried twice on a DVDRW which failed the same way. Finally put my old writer back in place and the new one sits on a shelf till I figure out what to try next.

[Mackay]

An approximation of the last hour and a half.

8:00am: Went to bed.
8:15am: Still wide awake despite having been awake for a very very long time and the fact that my eyelids are like lead.
8:25am: Start to drift off.
8:30am: Jolted awake by screaming niece.
8:35am: Crying ceases.
8:45am: Apparently I have been asleep, as I am jolted awake by niece climbing on me.
8:50am: Niece uses me as anchor for climbing off bed.
9:00am: Start to drift off again.
9:05am: Jolted awake to repeated smacking noise. Try to ignore it and continue sleeping.
9:10am: Sister walks in, yells "Hey Ellen, you have to see this", points out niece repeatedly smacking a cup into my computer keyboard. Isn't that cute.
9:11am: Sister removes her daughter from my computer chair.
9:15am: Niece throws tantrum.
...9:30am: She is still screaming. Get out of bed, come stare at her. She stops screaming. Niece reaches out arms for me, so my sister hands her over. I take her. She starts screaming again. Give baby back, go back to bedroom. She calms down again.
9:35am: Sister needs computer logged in. I check her balance for her and begin writing whiney post on the GL.

Immediate future: bed. Niece has gone to day care. *whew*

[Beartalon]

More adventures with money:

I stopped at a grocery store and bought less than $10 worth of stuff and wanted to use my debit card.

I ask the cashier for $40 cashback to save a trip to the ATM (the nearest one being the one owned by the grocery proprietor, who charges $1.75 to use his machine - see previous rant above).

The girl had to use a calculator to determine the total she had to type in, and had to do it three times because she kept screwing up my purchase amount which is on the screen right in front of her. How hard is to look, compare and type a three-digit number with a decimal point, and to add a multiple of 10 to a number less than 10?

A short time later when the debit sale went through, she picked up the calculator again. I didn't understand this as the register showed the change I was to get ($40). She calculated it again "to be sure the register was right, as it was giving errors"

WTF? I said "Garbage in, garbage out," which was totally lost on her...

[Kltpzyxm]