Monday Open Thread

07/01/2024 09:00 AM

Driving-themed

I am still out of town and unfortunately, I didn't think of a good article idea. Admittedly, not an easy thing to do a week before you post. If I praise a player, they could have a really bad week and the timing would be terrible. So this is an open thread. But to give you something to chew on for the comments, in no particular order, my driving pet peeves

Use/Non-Use of Blinkers

Okay, this going to sound obvious to most of you, but it seems like some people on the road do not understand the purpose of blinkers. The purpose of a blinker is to give advance notice to the people driving behind you that you are about to turn. The car can either slow down or try to change lanes in preparation.

I actually have three pet peeves that are blinker-related. The first is obviously not using it. If you are slowly down and not using your blinker, it is immensely frustrating because I have no idea why you are slowing down. Also, people who use their blinker at the last minute do not understand the point of a blinker. Might as well not use it at that point honestly. The point is not to literally have it on while you turn, it's to tell people you will turn. If you do it at the same time, I already know you're turning.

This a lesser and way less common one, but obviously people who turn on the blinkers way too early. Especially if there are multiple right-turn options. I specify right-turn because a too early blinker on left turns is very much appreciated, because it's a lot of notice to try to change lanes. Assuming there is no middle lane specifically for turning that is.

Green light

Okay this one drives me nuts because it happens all the time. If you are approaching a green light, don't slow down. Why are you braking? It's a green light. There is a yellow light specifically for letting you know to slow down. You will have plenty of time to stop when it turns yellow. And if you think you don't, guess what? You're going to make the light in plenty of time. Especially since people who do this are never fast drivers. Like seriously, it's yellow for a decent amount of time, there really is no need to slow down while it's still green.

Cutting Off

Okay this one I just don't really understand. On the highway, let's say I'm in the lane right next to the passing lane/fast lane. I specify this because this is where it usually happens, but it's not exclusive to this. Anyway, there is no car ahead of me for a while. A car in the passing lane understands it's a passing lane, so as soon as they pass me, they go to my lane. But for some reason, some cars change lanes really tight. Like for no reason at all, it's like they're cutting me off. Like when I pass a car, I try to make sure there's plenty of space. I really just don't get cars who change lanes as fast as possible when it's just not necessary.

Passing Lane

This is nicknamed the fast lane, but it's the passing lane. Don't hang out in the fast lane. I don't care what speed you're going. If I see a car gaining on me behind me, I try to get over as soon as I can. And I get out of the fast lane if the lane next to me has no cars to pass. Obviously, this is different if there's traffic. Some cars, for whatever reason, feel that as long as they go a certain speed, they can just stay in the passing lane. That is not how it's supposed to work. Get over, let them pass you, and when you need to pass a car, go in the passing lane yourself.

What 65 mph drivers missed that memo because you guys need to stop?

Distracted drivers

Phones, makeup whatever. You're behind a car and you can tell they aren't actually looking at the road. It's causing them to go slower. Maybe swerve. "Are they drunk?" usually crosses my mind so I suppose calling them "distracted" may be generous.

Unrelated to this driving-themed post, can anyone tell me why blood in movies looked incredibly fake for such a long time and when exactly did people figure out how to do fake blood? It's not a Hays Code thing either, you couldn't even show much blood for that, blood was SO BAD in the late 60s/early 70s in every movie.

I watched The Honeymoon Killers (great movie!) and there's an extremely unsettling murder (spoiler? Name of movie kind of gives this away), and it's effective despite no budget and being in black-and-white. And then there's an unfortunate close-up of blood on the face, and well, it's as bad as any B-horror movie could possibly hope to achieve. It's always been bizarre to me that the time period wasn't like "this is extremely fake, maybe we can try another method."

Anyway enjoy your Monday, I'll actually be back later today.