In Vancouver, a lot of transit company properties (ALRT stations, etc) have posted signage which reads:[ul][li]No Loitering[]No cycling[]No skateboardingNo Scootering[/ul]The wording on these signs has not changed for twenty years. Any time I see one of these signs, the wrongness of it drips into my brain and drives out… whatever sensible thoughts I ought to be having instead of speculating about who worded it that way, what happened to them, if there are any current and less brain-damaged employees of TransLink whose responsibilities might extend to improving such signage or not… etc…[/li]
Finally, I’ll have to force myself to think about something else… like whether or not the lawn needs mowering.
What’s the least significant thing that bothers you?
Idling engines. Technically, there is a law here in San Francisco that you are not allowed to let your car idle for more than five minutes (it isn’t like you have to wait for snow or frost to melt or anything). Yet there are these tour buses that settle in right under my apartment window and idle for 30 to 45 minutes while they let the tourists out and wander around.
I am probably the only one who notices it or cares, but it pisses the hell out of me; sort of a low rumble that fills my ears…
Using “your” for “you’re” . Even in text messages, I see this and am first angry and second lowering my opinion of the sender.
My roommates moving the remotes in my absence. Somehow, the end result is always that coming to the television means five minutes of searching through the various rubble, couch cushions, and rotting debris that litter the room. Why they can’t all just be left in the same fucking spot is beyond me. Sheesh, I’m getting worked up now just thinking about it.
People coming to my liquor store and buying things in change - when the bill is more than $5. Double points if there’s a long line of already drunk people waiting behind said broke-ass dumbass.
Affect/effect: using effect as a verb and using either one to mean cause/obtain/achieve. (“How can I effect this trip?”… aaaaaaargh!). Yes, I realize it’s now been done for so long it’s become “normal”, but I want a walker with special spiky legs to hit them with as I shove them off my lawn.
People who will do things “right now” and that means anything from “in fifteen minutes” to “Friday of next week, and today is a Monday”.
This year’s Traffic ads:
Voice of Idjit: “dude had his lights on at noon, lol!”
Voice of Un-reason: “it is now winter. Since days are shorter, you must have your lights on at all times. Plus, conditions such as rain or snowfall make it harder to see. Whether it is day or night, make sure that you switch your lights on as soon as you get in the car, in winter!” rolling up sleeves OK, you arsehole. It is winter in weather terms, if not in astronomical terms; that is true. But, it is Seville’s winter where I am. 20ºC/68F at 3 freaking a.m., 30ºC/86F when I leave work. The Andalusian sun (you know, that selling point of the Andalusian tourism industry? That one!) is shining brightly. If Seville ever sees a white Christmas, it will mean that a volcano has exploded under Megido and the resulting ash cloud has started the new glacial age. And the Canary Islands are even further south and they are still part of Spain as of last check. So please kindly don’t make “winter ads” based on the weather in León, I realize the PreZ is from there but this is a country known for its sunshine! Morons! “Remember to switch your lights on under bad visibility conditions” = Good. “Remember to check the weather forecast before going on the road” = Good. “Please don’t get trapped by the announced heavy snowfall in Burgos, León or Soria on Christmas Eve like several hundred people did last year” = Good. “It’s winter, switch your lights on even if it’s 30ºC and you’re driving with sunglasses on” = Concentrated case of The Stupid.
I’ve started coming to work a few minutes earlier so I don’t get that ad on the radio :mad:, high BP at 8am is not good for you.
The one I hate is ASAP. You want something from me ASAP? Sure, you’ll get it As Soon As Possible!!
Which may be sometime next week.
If you need me to drop whatever it is I’m doing and do something for you NOW!!!, then just say so, already.
Actually, I disagree. I turn my headlights on automatically when I get in the car. It really **does **improve visibility; even at noon, in August, in Israel. Er, I mean it effects a positive [del]a e a[/del]effect… Er…, nm
As to the bolded part, however… I live near Armageddon* (AKA “Har Megido”) and I heartily approve this message
Switching mine on when the sun is bright does not improve external visibility (and it’s not that the lights aren’t bright enough, the Inspection dude approved them for both brightness and position, with one and two occupants) and it does decrease internal visibility: if I’ve got no cars coming from the other direction (my whole route to and from work/any of the supermarkets I use is either one-way streets, highways or streets with divides) and switching the lights off makes the Star Wars dashboard more visible, they go off, as I kind of like being able to see my speedometer. And the law does not say they have to be on, plus if it did say they have to be on “in the winter” as the ad says, they would also have to define “winter”.
I’m considering painting the car rainbow colors for better visibility both for other drivers and when I look for it in a parking lot, though (I only bought it in grey because it was the one already at the dealership)… need to check how much would it cost.
Due to personal experience (other guys with vs without lights) I’m going to have to agree to disagree with you on this. Mouse-grey car without lights, on a mouse-grey asphalt street + glare = invisibility cloak :eek:
OK, you have a point there; but I get around that by maxing the brightness on the dashes; they still don’t get too bright for me at night (or I guess I could always just get used to adjusting them as necessary)
Firstly, the law heredoes require them to be on, and winter is defined as 1/11 through 31/3. Secondly, I’m talking about my personal experience and preference, not about the minimum that the law requires. Like I said, I turn my light on in summer, too, when notrequired by law. YM obviously V… (YKMV, since we’re both in locations that use metric, like Og intended…? :D)
ETA – just saw this:
Now, that would be just faaaaabulous!! (and I agree, definitely would make your car a lot more visible, even if you just get it painted white or red or something.)
leetspeak in a MMORPG. Some of these geeks can type 60-70 WPM, it doesn’t take them any longer to type it out in realspeak. It has gotten to the point that I pretty much ignore people not bothering to type in complete sentences when they are trying to mooch something off me. I can see taking shortcuts in combat, but not when there is nothing going on.
People in MMORPGs who stand around begging for game money to buy things instead of going out and earning it themselves. In EVE Online as a bet I took all my ships and ISK, and hangar contents and gave them to someone to hold, podded into a station to get a newbie ship and worked my way back up to owning a fully geared up mining ship in a month [making about 210 000 000 ISK in game money to accomplish this] by a combination of mission running and mining. In WoW I can literally take a brand new character and in 1 week be at about level 20 and reasonable equipment just from running quests and using the tradeskills. You just have to be willing to do a bit of work to get what you want.
My cat likes to sit on the bed where she can periodically sniffle at my elbow. She has a little cold wet nose and it drives me nuts … but she is so cute I cant seem to bring myself to toss her off the bed. She also likes to lick my ankle. It tickles.
Hollywood can not seem to make a remake that does not screw up and suck. They also can really suck at turning books into movies. There are a few exceptions, like The Haunting of Hill House in the original The Haunting [the remake was tolerable, but I thought that they made changes that just plain didn’t make any sense and they could have just stuck with the original story.]
People I work with who mis-spell my name when replying to my email - which features the corporate signature legalese, complete with (tah-dah!) my name. Spelled correctly.
Also, I send out notification emails as part of my job, which start out saying “PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL. PLEASE DIRECT ANY QUESTIONS TO blahblah@whatevah.” I can’t tell you how many emails I get in response. Which I ultimately have to forward to the blahblah email address. There’s a REASON you shouldn’t be emailing me those questions! I can’t answer them! I was sort of a minor eye-roller at first, but the more it happens, the more it irks me.
Sudden sneezes, especially if they occur in rapid succession. Startles the crap out of me, and drives me absolutely crazy. I have no idea why.
I realize that this reaction is totally batshit crazy, so I don’t give in to the sudden urge to scream. But the urge is there.
Also, the sound of trickling water, and the sound of rain on announcers’ umbrellas as they report news live when it’s raining. I have to change the channel.
And finally, the guy in the cubicle next to mine makes slurping noises when he eats. Awww maaannn…
Ring…Hello, no can’t talk I’m in the library…Ah…OK Bye.
Ring…Hello, no can’t talk in the library
At any given moment you have 20 people explaining why they can’t talk or telling the security guard, I’m just hanging up. Or even worse, they are talking on the phone as they walk through the library to get to the front door, where they’re allowed to use.
The fact is the people are effectively using the phone
People who force elevators doors open when they’re closing. Argh! It doesn’t irk me as much when the door is just starting to close and they slip in, but when the door is more than halfway and they stick a hand in there to force it back open, that’s just irritating. I know, it’s only an extra three seconds and very insignificant.
Parents who use their strollers as bumpers. Today, a mother was barreling down the sidewalk, on her cell phone and not paying attention to the people around her, using the stroller to make people step aside from her. Wouldn’t irk me so much if she wasn’t on her cell phone and shoving the stroller through with such a sense of entitlement. Oh, and this other time I saw a father shove the stroller out while at an intersection to force cars to stop so he could cross. Wow… father of the year! Bugs me these people are allowed to procreate, but ultimately, it’s their kids who pay the price…
Why not set a Reply-To header on these mails? That way, the mail will still show as being from your address, but the vast majority of MUAs will send the mail to the Reply-To address when a user hits that reply button.
On the subject of sneezes, and more in line with the OP, something that greatly annoys me is the whole “bless you”/“gesundheit”/whatever protocol for sneezes. Odds are my sneeze was not symptomatic of the plague or any other life threatening condition. I’m not certain, at this point, of the existence of a soul. I am fairly certain, however, that if I do have one, it will not escape through my nose. I don’t receive similar special treatment when I cough, burp, or fart. Why does a sneeze merit any sort of response at all? It really bothers me. I never react at all when people sneeze; I don’t see the need. I’ve been told before that I’m rude because I don’t say “bless you”. Really? Also, I don’t thank someone when they bless me (are they some sort of priest or other holy sort?) after I sneeze, and I’ve been called out on that, as well.
Also, apparently I sometimes cough in such a way as can easily be mistaken for a sneeze. Despite my aversion to the whole “bless you” protocol, I still occasionally find myself explaining that “no, I just coughed”, when someone blesses me after mistaking my cough for a sneeze. To which they generally seem understanding, so my lack of thanks is no longer uncouth, as they see that I wasn’t in need of blessing after all. Madness, I say!
People parking their vehicles in front of my house. I think this is a holdover from when we had no garage and tight street parking, and the assholes next door let their multitude of teenage kids and friends take all the parking spots on the street close to us. Now we have a garage, but it still irritates me when people park in front of my house.
I also don’t like the grocery store people squishing my bread or bananas.
Regarding car lights on in bright sunlight - if you’re driving into the sun, your car becomes more visible to the people behind you if your taillights are on. I also drive a small silver car, and I drive with my lights on ALL the time - I get cut off as if I wasn’t there enough. I’d light up the entire frame of my car like a semi if I thought it would help.
