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Thursday, December 8, 2011

Tony Robbins is your homeboy. Oh yes, he is


"Imma teach you how to deal with these donkeys." - Tony Robbins (if Tony Robbins rode the GO Train)

The poll question for the past 20 days addressed how willing many of you are to speak up when someone is being annoying on the train. 116 people participated (thank you).

The question:

Some guy near you on the train is zippin' his BlackBerry trackball 10 dB louder than necessary. Do you?

The answers:

Sigh. A lot
42 (36%)

Clear your throat and give him a good stare
38 (32%)

Kick his shins
6 (5%)

Throw something
2 (1%)

Yell real loud, "Whose winding a watch and can you please stop"?
12 (10%)

Get up and ask him to stop trackballin'
16 (13%)

Okay, we really have to talk about this. Sighing? SIGHING? No one pays attention to sighing. Usually the person doing the annoying stuff is so wrapped up in doing the annoying stuff that they forget there's people on the train with them sharing the same space as them. Sighing does not work, but I know people use sighing as a means to deal because I read enough tweets from other GO commuters to know it's a very popular coping method. Problem is, it doesn't work.

Throat clearing and death stares followed closely behind. Please name one time where this has worked for you, I bet you can't. If a fellow commuter is listening to their music 30 dB higher than necessary, you're wasting your time with both this approach and the one above it.

Kicking. I don't condone violence. I threw it in the poll because of past reader comments where kicking was suggested as a method for dealing with crap. At least those people answered honestly... and have bail money saved.

Throwing stuff. C'mon ... two of you would really throw something?! What is this? The movies and you're 11? What in the hell would you throw? Your shoe? How awkward would that be, because, you know, you have to go get it or maybe you won't. Are you gonna drive home shoeless yet satisfied because at least "you showed that guy"... ? I've had people encourage me to throw stuff at people. I"m happy to learn that many agree it's not the best approach. Plus there's the whole jail thing ...

Yelling and pointing out the annoying thing. This was how I approached the situation and a few people took offence - all you throat clearers, death starers and sighers - how's that working for you? At least after I said that, dude put his goddamned BlackBerry in his pocket. Problem solved. For The Win. Like A Boss and all that jazz ...

Approaching the person who is being annoying. Obviously, this is the best approach and 16 of you aren't shy to do so. I would have confronted the guy but the problem was, from where I was sitting, I didn't know who it was and it wasn't like I didn't try to figure it out when I actually stood up and scanned the coach.

Yesterday I posted a picture of a woman who rode an express train for the entire ride with a cupcake container on the seat next to her. Despite the train being at capacity, no one said anything. I'm gonna empower you guys. I'm not sure how. But I may get all Tony Robbins on you in the coming months. Oh yes ...

4 comments:

Drumstick said...

I love Tony Robbins. Did his UPW seminar a few years ago. Wanna do one again.

C.J. Smith said...

See. We can all benefit.

Anonymous said...

Yesterday I politely asked a man to turn down the volume on his blackberry. He did. I also will ask people to move their belongings off of a seat I wish to sit in. If they don't respond, I nicely pick it up and hand it to them and sit down. I've never had to stand because of a cupcake.

ExGOnowTTC said...

What does Tony think of cupcakes?