pet peeve thread

[Antrax]

Just say no. I generally ignore all calls from my bank - if it's important they'll call again.

[Vampyr]

I was travelling abroad recently, and saw a missed call on my mobile (I thought that it was probably my friend, whom I had been separated from and was trying to find). It turned out that it was a call saying I may be entitled to a refund on the PPI I may have been sold. I spent £.299/minute responding to this call! I wish I had the energy to do something about it. Maybe it is a little perverse, but I feel that I would be willing to spend at least £100 to get my £.299 returned.

[Bbradley62]

There is no trouble with your account... and you complain?

I had a call like that asking me to get to the bank, with no further instructions, when I went there as qickly as I could I found out that they found on their data that I was the perfect client for their new product.

Sounds like you're also the perfect client for a new bank.

[blackshoe]

There is no trouble with your account... and you complain?

I had a call like that asking me to get to the bank, with no further instructions, when I went there as qickly as I could I found out that they found on their data that I was the perfect client for their new product.

My response to that would be "I'm glad you insisted I come in. I'll be closing my account now".

[gwnn]

http://mensfame.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/0_4cb87_caaf278e_L.jpg

[jjbrr]

http://mensfame.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/0_4cb87_caaf278e_L.jpg

 

variance: During a school trip to Santiago this spring, we weren't invited to Concha y Toro, whose facilities our program had visited annually for a while, because last year one of the students drank too much and vomited all over CyT's white marble floors.

 

I try to avoid buying CyT wine.

[mgoetze]

Intellectual Property.

This would make a fine contribution to this thread in its own right, too. I find this neologism rather repulsive.

 

I have exactly the opposite opinion. Our name is our name, why can't you call us what we want to be called? You don't translate people's names into your own language -- it's Jacque, not Jack or John. So why should it be different with countries? At most you may need to adjust the pronunciation to fit your own phonology.

Yeah, forget about "China", you should start calling it "Zhōnggúo". If that is too difficult for you we could settle for a literal translation, i.e. call it "Middle Country".

 

But indeed since my favourite (online edition of a) newspaper was shut down and I've been looking around for alternatives, I have been quite peeved by one of them insisting on antiquated forms such as "Peking", "Canton" and "Sezuan". The fact that they are

just a transliteration anyway,

makes it worse, because

It just sounds

like a really horrible mispronunciation.

 

 

Speaking of

gmail

, my newest peeve is that Google refuses to recognize that gmail is NOT, in fact, my primary email address, and insists on sending correspondence relating to my order of a Nexus 4 Phone (the pricing of which is another peeve - no, $349 is NOT roughly the same as €349, but at least I don't live in Austria) to said address which I never, ever check.

[gwnn]

I don't have a great Chinese ear but to me both Beijing and Peking sounded about the same as the original (I asked some Chinese friends to pronounce it properly) - I am sure it is bad but the point is that if I wanted to do it, it would sound horrible anyway no?

[dustinst22]

People who....

 

chomp on gum/eat with their mouth open

 

talk on their phone in the bathroom

 

use the word literally incorrectly

 

use "your/you're" incorrectly

 

spell "lose","loose"

 

dont pick up their dog's crap

 

listen to obnoxious music really loud

 

talk during a movie

 

dont do anything about their crying children at a nice restaurant or a movie

 

walk too slow. Get out of my way.

 

are never on time

 

tailgate

 

pedestrians/cyclists who think they own the road

 

 

 

I must be getting old

[Phil]

Totaled my car today (truth). Some peabrain tried to beat a yellow and then a red. Unfortunately I was in his way and got t-boned. And, consistent with the human scum that drives like that, he left the scene. We did find his car a few hours later fortunately.

 

Sure it sucks. But not nearly as bad as the moronic comments I've been hearing.

 

"Oh my God, you are so lucky you walked away from that terrible accident".

 

Oh, did you think maybe it was a perhaps a stroke of bad luck that me and my car got mangled?

 

:angry:

 

FML

[paua]

 

"twas brillig and the slithey toves..."

 

"didst swallow toothpaste by the tube"

[Fluffy]

At a social club on thursday: somebody asked for a drink at the bar, the waiter explained that after 20:00 no alcohol could be sold at the bar, the reaction of the guy was this: this club depends on city hall, I am from the city hall you must do what I order. He had no luck with his flawless logic so he went into threatening by filling paper-complaints about the club, the waiter, etc. He left without a drink.

 

People who think/know they have better/more rights than others makes me sick.

[blackshoe]

You did not total your car. The idiot driving the other car totaled your car. Sorry to hear it. Hope you're okay. Hope the guy has insurance or money, in which case enjoy your Christmas present from him of a new car. B-)

[barmar]

Sure it sucks. But not nearly as bad as the moronic comments I've been hearing.

 

"Oh my God, you are so lucky you walked away from that terrible accident".

 

Oh, did you think maybe it was a perhaps a stroke of bad luck that me and my car got mangled?

Sure, your car is totalled, but it could have been much worse. That's not good luck? You don't think it matters that you're walking about rather than laying in a hospital bed with broken bones?

[Phil]

Sure, your car is totalled, but it could have been much worse. That's not good luck? You don't think it matters that you're walking about rather than laying in a hospital bed with broken bones?

 

Sure it matters, but its not good luck. This *****s up my life something fierce.

 

"Hi, you have a terminal illness, but guess what! You have a whole two years to live. Others with your condition get only one".

 

"Well, bad news, we have to let you go. But you get two months severance instead of one that we gave those folks in marketing. Isn't that great?"

 

"Good news, its not herpes, just a case of chlamydia"

 

I think its nice that good-intentioned people like to put a positive spin on unfortunate events, but it does not change the fact that they are a setback.

[mike777]

"I think its nice that good-intentioned people like to put a positive spin on unfortunate events, but it does not change the fact that they are a setback"

 

Phil good point:

 

 

"Wear your best for your execution and stand dignified. Your last recourse against randomness is how you act — if you can’t control outcomes, you can control the elegance of your behaviour. You will always have the last word"

[blackshoe]

Sounds like something Heinlein might have said. :)

 

"Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't bet, you can't win." --From the Notebooks of Lazarus Long

[Ant590]

People that underline, highlight and annotate library books. Even if it's in pencil, or useful* comments.

 

* that said, I borrowed a short score from the University library to find some very helpful notes about recurring themes.

[gwnn]

Not really a peeve but a related bafflement, some people highlight up to 70% of the text in their own books, does that kind of highlighting really help anyone other than highlighter companies?

[kenberg]

Totaled my car today (truth). Some peabrain tried to beat a yellow and then a red. Unfortunately I was in his way and got t-boned. And, consistent with the human scum that drives like that, he left the scene. We did find his car a few hours later fortunately.

 

Sure it sucks. But not nearly as bad as the moronic comments I've been hearing.

 

"Oh my God, you are so lucky you walked away from that terrible accident".

 

Oh, did you think maybe it was a perhaps a stroke of bad luck that me and my car got mangled?

 

:angry:

 

FML

 

Last May 1, Becky was going from the kitchen into the garage. You go down two steps, the visuals are not great, she was carrying some stuff, anyway I heard some screaming like I had never heard from her. She had tumbled, it turned out to be a broken tibia, a broken fibula, and three broken metatarsals. OK, in fact it was lucky that I was at home. That one I am comfortable with thinking of as good luck, and I have since been better about carrying the cell when I am out. But the doc mentioned that she was lucky that she did not strike her head and get a concussion. What? Sure, and it's lucky she didn't fall on a knife and stab herself. Or fall on something else and poke her eye out. Or... Good grief. Of course however bad things are a little imagination can show how they could be worse, but maybe a guy could keep those thoughts to himself.

 

Sorry about your car. And Becky's bones have healed. It was a serious drag for her.

[mycroft]

People that underline, highlight and annotate library books. Even if it's in pencil, or useful* comments.

 

* that said, I borrowed a short score from the University library to find some very helpful notes about recurring themes.

Heh, I have another one of those (music again). We found a copy of the vocal score of Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, only to find that one line had been highlighted throughout. It was really annoying to try to parse - until I took it to a performance.

 

The previous owner was a top tenor (and clearly, it was his line highlighted throughout). But almost every pageturn changed the scoring, be it from SSAATTBB to 4-part, or to 4-part men, or solo S, or whatever. Without preparation, I would never have been able to know where my line was on a pageturn, no matter what my part was; and even seeing one line lit up, whether it was the first, or third, or fifth (I think at one point it was sixth, with [solo]SSAATTBB) made it easier to understand what the whole scoring was on that page.

 

Having said that, it was not a library book. I even more strongly agree with you on items that aren't the owner's (save music, again; notations, in pencil, on performance or crazy tricky bits, can be of use to the next one along anyway - in a performing music library).

[barmar]

But the doc mentioned that she was lucky that she did not strike her head and get a concussion. What? Sure, and it's lucky she didn't fall on a knife and stab herself. Or fall on something else and poke her eye out. Or... Good grief. Of course however bad things are a little imagination can show how they could be worse,

The difference is that most of those other "worse" things are also very unlikely, so it goes without saying. Hitting your head during a fall like that is probably pretty common, it may actually take some good luck to avoid it.

[blackshoe]

Heh, I have another one of those (music again). We found a copy of the vocal score of Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, only to find that one line had been highlighted throughout. It was really annoying to try to parse - until I took it to a performance.

 

The previous owner was a top tenor (and clearly, it was his line highlighted throughout). But almost every pageturn changed the scoring, be it from SSAATTBB to 4-part, or to 4-part men, or solo S, or whatever. Without preparation, I would never have been able to know where my line was on a pageturn, no matter what my part was; and even seeing one line lit up, whether it was the first, or third, or fifth (I think at one point it was sixth, with [solo]SSAATTBB) made it easier to understand what the whole scoring was on that page.

 

Having said that, it was not a library book. I even more strongly agree with you on items that aren't the owner's (save music, again; notations, in pencil, on performance or crazy tricky bits, can be of use to the next one along anyway - in a performing music library).

If it's mine, what I highlight and what I don't is my business and no one else's. If it's not mine, I don't touch it except to read. I don't, regrettably, read music, so I can't comment on that aspect, but again, I'm inclined not to deface property that isn't mine, however helpful it might be. Of course, if I did read music, and bought or found a previously owned piece, and it was highlighted or annotated in a helpful way, I'd probably be happy about that. I'm generally not happy about used books that are marked up though, helpful or not.

[Thiros]

Yeah..... FOX advertising New Girl or any of their other trash sitcoms during the Colbert Report or the Daily Show. Hello-o-o-o? This is Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert you're dealing with, who do you think their audience is exactly? You're FOX, you are the ENEMY.

[gwnn]

New Girl is actually quite funny for some reason.