Mundane, Pointless Things I Hate

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

None of them are worthy of a pit thread, nor even a thread of their own… Just a few random things that bug the everliving crap out of me, most of which have cropped up again over the past few days:

Commercials that try to disguise themselves as documentary-type pieces: I’m sure these ads run elsewhere. The biggest culprit at the moment is for something I believe is called the “Toyota IMV Project.” Here, it tends to run on the Discovery channel, especially during Mythbusters. It’s all kinds of docu-artsy shots of Toyota executives discussing their vision. In Japanese, of course, with sub-titles. And it’s like 3 minutes long. Annoys the hell out of me, and I wish it would go away. It’s certainly not the only one if its ilk: there are the food commercials that try to pretend they’re actually short little food shows on the food channel, and many other examples that I can’t be bothered to remember.

Speaking of food…

People on food shows who have the manners of a goat: I love watching different cookery shows; I get great ideas from them, learn a lot about food in general. Food shows are a good thing. But I can’t stand these otherwise pretentious, self-inflated hosts who 1) shove four pounds of food in their mouths 2) scrape the spoon/fork/spatula/garden hoe against their teeth and 3) talk with their mouthful. It’s hideous, and disgusting and for people who seem to lord their food superiority over the rest of us, laughable.

Then there’s** Food shows that try to be really artsy**: I watch BBCFood here, and there are a few examples of this that just drive me batty. There’s the Australian chef, Kylie Kwong, whose show is all about soft lighting and “artistic” angles and many, many shots of Ms. Kwong looking pensive and deep. Then there’s Chef At Home, with Michael Smith, which is all about the weird-angled shots (watching him break an egg into a bowl from between two spatulas, or watching flakes of salt hit the fish with hazy focus, ooh, edgy). The weird angles aren’t bad enough; apparently there’s six cameras set in his kitchen and pantry, and they shift constantly. Ya know what? I just want to see a simple, him-behind-the-counter-cooking shot. Don’t change focus four times in the course of fifteen seconds. Don’t show me the view the peas would have if they had eyes. Just show me what he’s doing, and move on! I won’t even go into the fact that he presents the show like his audience is a group of kindergarteners. He has interesting ideas, but I can only bear to watch the show once in a great while.

And off the food subject…

People who can’t respect that other people might have different opinions: I see it here, I see it on my blog, I see it on other messageboards. Since when does my taste have to match your taste? Why do I have to be an idiot if I like something you don’t. How can it be so hard to comprehend that I don’t like something you adore? It works for you, it doesn’t work for me, who cares?

Sorry, just a series of pointless rants… Maybe it belongs in the Pit, but honestly, I don’t know what goes in the pit and what doesn’t anymore.

2

Not getting a lot of good sleep lately are we?

3

I have a medical claims adjustor from an accident 6 months ago who I believe is either dead or downright incompetent. She does not answer phone messages. She does not answer faxes. She does not answer e-mails. She (the company) owes me money that I have paid out of pocket for ER expenses. Looking back at my post, I realize it is not mundane but I wanted to vent somewhere, and this seemed like the perfect place.

4

No! You’re not crazy! (was that was you wanted, TMINC?)

I HATE it when the chef/host shakes the audience members’ hands and starts to prepare food without first washing his hands. Emeril is the biggest offender I’ve noticed.

TUVM for the outlet!

5

Ooh, ooh, I have one.

For some reason, the people next door sometimes turn on their stereo REALLY REALLY LOUD right at 10:45. They listen to two or three songs, then turn it off around 11 at the latest.

This is about the time I’m going to bed: brushing my teeth, putting on my pyjamas, laying out clothes for tomorrow, etc. Now, noise usually isn’t much of a problem in our house because the part of our apartment against the adjoining wall is a hallway, the stairwell and the bathroom. But my before-bed puttering takes me to the only part of the house where noise really carries.

In the bedroom, as I settle into bed to read a chapter of my bedtime book, the loud music from next door is noticable, but muted. When my husband comes in and turns on his CPAP[sup]*[/sup] machine, you have to strain to hear it. And as I said, they always turn it off by 11.

So mainly I am just annoyed at myself, because I let myself get all annoyed over it. I know they’re going to turn it off soon. I know that I won’t be able to hear it once the CPAP machine is on, anyway. But I get stupidly worked up and worry that they won’t turn it off, and plot in my head about what I would say to them if I called them up and yelled at them. This gets worse when I’m just stressed out in general, and then it puts me in a bad mood as I’m trying to go to sleep. And it’s just. so. stupid.

[sup]*[/sup] Lovely white-noise generators, CPAPs are! Makes hotel sleeping a lot more pleasant, I’ve noticed. I’m thinking about buying a white-noise machine for when I travel alone.

6

The faucets in the mens’ room at work are the kind with the lever you raise to turn the water on. We usually leave them so that the water is supposed to be hot; that way, you turn the water on, and it’s just kinda warm, so you’ve got warm water to rinse your hands with, rather than setting it so that it’s supposed to be hot, in which case you get cold water, and the next guy gets warm water… if he gets there in time.

What I hate is that, if I go to the bathroom shortly after five or six guys go and wash their hands, when I turn on the water, live steam comes out of the tap.

I hate that.

7

Sorry for the snarky comment earlier. Now let me introduce you to “The Wave” TM.

The Wave is used when another driver does something insanely stupid around you, or cuts you off, and makes it all good with a little apologetic wave.

Often accompanied by The Stupid Grin, so you know that there is a really bad feeling about being such a piss-poor driver in that other car.

An offshoot to The Wave, is The Minimal Wave. This is when the driver of the car not only recognizes that they did something stuoid and dangerous, yet doesn’t feel that you deserve the genuine article because after all, their car is so much more expensive than your old POS.

8

How about the loud rap music that ADULTS seem to feel the need to leave playing during the few minutes out of their life that they are filling up their car at the gas station? Would life really be so terrible if everyone didn’t have to hear about how some gangsters is going to shoot his bitch with a nine?

9

Cashiers who leap to the defence off the person who’s pushed in front of me in the queue I’ve been waiting patiently in for five minutes, then proceed to serve them and simultaneously tell me off for losing my rag. This has happened to me twice inside of a month, in two different stores. I will headbutt the next one who tries this. I’m not joking.

My miserable, whiny, pessimitic, buzz-killing colleagues. Like the secretary who asked how my recent long weekend in New York was, who upon being told that it was fantastic and I hadn’t wanted to leave, replied, “So three days wasn’t long enough then. I told you.” Or the department head, who upon asking about the same trip and being told I’d had a fantastic time, thank you, replied: “Well, it’s all over now.” You know, if I took as little joy from life as most of the people I work with, I think I’d jump off our ten storey building. Miserable gits.

The travel company who did not respond to my e-mails about where the hell my tickets for said trip was, and who, when I tried to call them, kept me on hold for 20 minutes and charging me 10p a minute for the privilege, before cutting me off (twice), and who finally e-mailed me the day after I got back saying: "As your travel date has now passed, I trust this matter has now been resolved for you.
Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you." Grrrrrrrrr.

Aaah. I feel better for that!

10

The across the street neighbors who leave their poor bassett hound out to bark all day. They don’t do it all the time, but the other afternoon the poor dog barked and howled for 45 minutes straight. It’s not the dogs fault - I just don’t think they have time for it. It drives my poor Sugar Magnolia, who is a skitty kitty anyway, under the couch every time he starts up with the barking.

11

People who insist on reading aloud during classes but have no idea how to read aloud or what commas or periods are.

“Directions first you need to. turn on the water next you should get your. hands wet after that put soap in. your hands and rub. them together after that you. should put them under. the water again to rin.se your hands”

Grrrr!

12

blush I read just like that!