I'm going to do that optimist-pessimist thing

Gripe-worthy today:

1. Commuters in the bus who deliberately sit on aisle seats, leaving the seat between the aisle seat and the window empty, effectively occupying more space than what their butts, no matter how large, really need.
2. Playing badminton outdoors on a windy day.
3. Having different foods on your plate touching each other.
4. The entire idea of making gross and misleading generalisations. I was watching the news recently, and someone in the F1 planning committee (a local, middle-aged, balding) was talking about how Singaporeans in the "heartlands" would not be as interested in the Grand Prix, as compared to their interest-level in, say, the world cup. He suggests that this was the case due to the foreign and occasionally unpronounceable names of the cars and their drivers. He then went to on to include further insight on ways that heartlanders can make associations for themselves by linking names of drivers to words from the vernacular, that vaguely sound like "mee rebus" and "masak", and then bet TOTO/4D on related numbers. Sheesh, I won't even deign to polemicise because I'll sound like the Ah Pek at the coffeeshop nearby who drinks his Tiger and ogles the half-naked chick on the beer ad, lamenting Cheng San in 1997 and the increase in energy consumption bills.
5. High-fructose Corn Syrup, and advertising in the US purporting that nothing is wrong with it. 
6. Dealing with people who have this obsessive-compulsive desire to study more than three-quarters of their waking hours a day, and keeping your cool while they brag and wallow in it simultaneously, a very confusing and complex expression I would think. Am deeply concerned.

But as they say, every cloud has a silver lining:

1. While providing my sister and I some fodder for bitchin', at the same time I'm reminded of our struggle to create space out of a lack thereof, which is a pressing need in these troubling times. (No there isn't much positivity, unless you want to contrive out more.)
2. We went jogging instead and found it much more fun.
3. Every meal becomes an adventure in keeping food items separate, especially when zealous grandmother dishes out rice like $700 billion dollar bailouts.
4. Because the increasing income gap can be so unnerving it's somewhat amusing.
5. Because this has churned out spoofs of the TV spots to hilarious effect. 
6. At least they're not passive-aggressive. (This may be debatable though.) Or, at least they don't stage nervous breakdowns.