>Nod to the B52s there.
>
>All this talk of heaven and hell has made me think. I'm sick of arguing with Howard; how about a thread on what YOU think hell is: What's your private hell?

Okay, you asked for it...

SET VOLCANO ON
LOCAL lcProfessionalHell, lcPersonalHell
TEXT TO lcProfessionalHell

1. Dealing with clients who insist you read their mind(s) to acquire the specifications for the work you're performing for them, then refusing to pay and blaming you when the resulting work product doesn't measure up to their (usually unrealistic) "vision" of what they really wanted.

2. Clients who want giveaway prices, priority service, and extensive documentation about every minute you spend on their projects, then niggle with you about every minute/time entry and delay payment of your invoices until the last possible millisecond.

3. Clients (and managers for those clients) who believe that, since you're consulting for them during the normal workday, your off-hours time should ALWAYS be available to them at their whim, at a moment's notice, and are subsequently insulted when you inform them it's not.

4. Developers/clients/pundits who can't seem to understand that it's the **SOLUTION**, not the tool, that really matters. Outside of the Fortune 1000, the large majority of companies that buy application software ultimately don't care if it was written in Reverse Klingon Sanskrit -- as long as it does what they want quickly, efficiently, with as few headaches for them as possible, and is well documented and supported.

5. And, last but not least, VFP developers who can't see the beautiful forest in front of them because there's too many of those damned trees in their way. There's hundreds of small software companies out there right now making s***loads of money selling vertical market *solutions* that are STILL WRITTEN IN FOXPRO FOR DOS, for crying out loud. We've got the best tool on the planet for designing and delivering these things -- why are we spending our time arguing about which tool is going to supplant ours instead of building cool stuff with the one we've been given?

ENDTEXT && lcProfessionalHell

TEXT TO lcPersonalHell

1. Insects that sting
2. Politics
3. People who talk on cell phones while driving
4. Driving in Manhattan
5. Being forced to listen to hip-hop music blaring from someone else's vehicle
6. Soap operas
7. Vegetarian food
8. My Colorado Rockies not being able to find decent pitching
(okay, okay, that one's a stretch)(BG)

ENDTEXT && lcPersonalHell

SET VOLCANO OFF
RETURN && to your regularly scheduled thread