Unintentional taunting

Some places so forcibly project positivity that there is little question given to the inherent negativity that may be present.  The key concept here is projection of positivity. While at the location, any negativity perceived by a customer (no, they are not a guest) is jarring and potentially a reason to summon a manager.

One place this is notable is environmental music of the location.  Often this is done by some clueless person tasked with music selection to match some generic venue-style, approved by some moron tasked with approving such things.

The obvious idiocy and failure of corporate bureaucracy deserves little note but no positive otherwise.

Someone chose these things to be something that would probably be comforting to consumers at the location.  This is all well and good.  But, to a person that is seasoned in the location that is no longer a fan of the location, some songs become more of a taunt.

"Put on a happy face" (not sure of title or artist)
No. My happy face is miles from here.  I might be able to fake a veneer.

Taxes profitmongering

I recently filed my taxes.  Meh.

Federal government owed me money. No surprise.
Indiana wanted more money, on the order of about 66% of what I was getting back in Federal refund.  Seemed excessive, but whatever.

Filed the taxes anyway.  To pay State, was sent to some mostly non-descript site for paying all manner of "government" payments, and as a not-logged-in person, it didn't ask who or what I was paying for.
For a $315 bill, it wanted to charge me a nearly $8 (7.8?) fee to use a card.

I'm sorry, but I'm not.  If this is the payment system you have, it can go unmentionable itself.  Bill me.  I'll send a money order at a cost of maybe a couple dollars, but I will not pay your "convenience" fee.

I hope I'm not the only person to have this annoyance and choose to skip the "convenience" provider, putting said provider out of business.

I'm tired of being treated like a money-source.  EVERY state should be "retired" at this point, with enough money in the bank and investments to support itself without needing ANY taxpayers. States and the federal government were stupid and didn't do this.  That's on them.

How are you doing?

So many people ask the question, "How are you doing?" that any thinking person has a number of canned retorts to respond to this.

One of my standard retorts is, "I think I'll live." which may be followed up, depending on receiver with, "I'm not sure how to feel about that." (or very similar)

The purpose of this interaction with people is twofold.  I am dark. This is probably immutable.  In spite of this, I can and do humor humor.


Big afterthought:
I was going to add parenthetical things to clarify points. I chose not to because people that could be confused by my minor points or wit would be confused in general.  Even trying to help them find the general direction of "up" would be a challenge.  So, I left my thoughts mostly as-is.

Labels

Labels tend to have meanings, typically of a categorical context.  It's a necessity.  A tomato isn't an apple, and suchlike.

Unfortunately, some legislatures and worse some judicial branches have started valueless-ing some categories, essentially refusing to accept real-life categories.  The value of being a real woman (created via nature) or real man (same) as opposed to a fabricated woman (whatever creator you choose or un-choose to believe in made you such) or fabricated man (whatever) come to mind.  What you choose to pretend to be... is whatever it is.  You pretend successfully, I'll probably ignore you because you pretend well. 

Let's intentionally include the man that pretends to be female and doesn't creep out the other girls (or hit on them) in the girl's room or the woman that pretends to be a man and doesn't creep out the other boys (or hit on them) in the boy's room.  Fine.  Whatever.
Let's intentionally preinclude the people that have had "reassignment" ... whatever that actually means as far as nature and GOD are concerned.  If you "fake the funk" as a what your pretend to be, and people don't "detect" it, success.

I'm friggin' tired of having to address people in ambiguous ways because they may choose to interpret things wrong.  If you're a guy or you look like a guy, I'll call you "sir" or (less likely) dude, or guy.  That should not EVER be considered an insult.  Same for a (what looks like woman) being called "ma'am" or equivalents.  Being forced to use sex-less pronouns will get tired fast (with reason, because they make no sense).

If sex-less-ness is forced upon service locations, I can bet that service will suffer and those that provide service will quit because [humanoid phallic organs] (of the unpleasant variety) (regardless of gender or sex) are acting like [humanoid phallic organs] (of the unpleasant variety).  Was that confusing?  Blame the dicks (of both sexes/genders).

I've tried to be civil, but they (as a monolithic community) seem to nationally refuse to be.  Instead of asking to be tolerated, and tolerating "oopses", they distolerate anything even slightly resembling an error. 

So, in general, I ignore them and resort to silence.  As a busser, I guess that's a perk.