Innocuous things that make you irrationally angry (a list thread)

1. people taking up the entire width of the sidewalk and walking at a snail's pace, to boot

There's a trick to this. Usually the pavement is 5m wide and the person is .8m wide yet he/she manages to prevent egress. Have been trying to unlock the secret for years but have failed thus far.

yeah, it's maddening.

wandering vs walking. When you're in a hurry, sidewalk suddenly becomes Main Street, Disneyland.

the sidewalk

this was my question in oz -- i feel like in the states when people are gonna walk into each other head-on, the standard is to shift to the right. but in australia i wasn't sure -- might it have something to do with driving on the left?

(britishes are all pasty sods, just walked through them of course)

There's no standard in oz, people just magically waft past one another. Frequently there's this crazy dance where two people walk into each other seven or eight times in a row before anyone gets anywhere.

Last month I did this exact crazy dance with an American tourist who asked me what the standard was here. That is when I realised we do not have a standard.

Walking up behind one of them and steppong on their heel so their shoe comes off is a good trick of mine

er I mean, I would think.

oh fuckaxpost

Drives Mr Veg round the twist when we visit Melb. I kind of like the nebulousness, myself. xpost

I've been noting peple drift around on the footpath, lately, and I am such a rapid walker. I'll go to move round them and they'll drift to the right as if blocking me on purpose.

are they wearing suits & dark glasses? watch out for ASIO

I've been noting peple drift around on the footpath, lately, and I am such a rapid walker. I'll go to move round them and they'll drift to the right as if blocking me on purpose.

- People who already own a house/flat and spend a good two hours trying quite forcefully to con you into committing yourself to a $600,000 loan + 25yr mortgage

...who the heck does this?

Bloody every second person I know.

You need to start hanging out with less annoying people imo.

Had it recently. 'No really the market is about to slump by up to 30%, that means you could quite easily pick up a 2br flat in the red grid for under $550,000, you should do it, go on go on go on go on go on go on go on go on' xp yes

Last year we even had a friend get all P-A with us, 'oh if I had a boyfriend who didn't own a house I would dump him'

dag adam you have some fucked up friends!

(says a guy who doesn't own a house)

this has got me thinking about how there are a lot of annoying people in australia.

If someone said 'oh if I had a boyfriend who didn't own a house I would dump him' to me I would laugh very loudly in their face.

This thread is giving me a headache.

I know, it's exponentially worse here because of the whole Great Australian Dream thing. There's an entire generation of Australians who see home ownership as the only indication of success and if you don't own a house you have failed at life.

Well I do agree home ownership is a good aim, its home PRICES that have screwed that up tho.

So I'll have zero living security when I'm on a pension. Just fantastic.

wow it's like oz has become usa x 10 in the worst way

silly me thought the great australian dream was to not be ex-convicts j/k

Both our fathers are the worst of the lot. They've been putting incredible pressure on us for 10 years and they don't ever stop. The irony here is that they both own a billion investment properties, so it's exactly people like them who have inflated the market beyond our means. Okay this is drifting back into rational anger again, sorry.

xp yeah mookie oz is insane now. Property is so falsely inflated here that the prospect of buying anything at all is actually comical.

wow it's like oz has become usa x 10 in the worst way

Dude you can still (apparently) buy huge homes in the US for under $300grand.

Here, in all the big cities, apartments start at that price. Houses are $400k even out in the suburbs. Where I live, a house would set me back 800k easily.

Adam why dont yr father(s) offer to sell you one of their properties?

well, where i live too.

y'all are limited by, in my understanding, the fact that there's no fucking water.

things are cheaper here, but in places that you've likely not heard of and tend to lack jobs.

Nah, we're limited by successive federal governments propping up the rich by giving tax breaks to people who own a billion properties. If there were truly a housing shortage we'd all be living in shanty towns on the M31.

Adam why dont yr father(s) offer to sell you one of their properties?

― manic pixie dream girl phenomenon (Trayce), Friday, 10 December 2010 14:30 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I know right

I own a house but you wont find me doing any recruiting. (glub glub glub, ie totally underwater)

You bought in Queanbeyan? I am truely sorry for your lots

My parents informed me of that flood and I had no idea. Theyre up on the hill by the high school tho.

pretty sure she means mortgage-wise, i.e. the payments are for more than the house is now worth

yeah it was a joek see coz of the whole floods thing

oic

mongrels

You always need to put a last name on an envelope. I've had mail returned because the surname didn't match the one on the mailbox.

I'm pretty sure that was a postman who was having a bad day (imagine that), but you wouldn't ever address a letter to "Bob, 1234 Main Street" would you?

Venting bc of bloody work: innocent email asking a single question, which you answer. 5 minutes later, an email asking for more data. Which you provide. Then person reveals reason for askign both questions which you could have answered at the beginning. On a daily basis. Actually their entire company does this, i think it's part of their training.

I don't mind this at all. I reply to all their questions and then TimeTrak™ "Responded to Company E-Mail" for two hours.

I've had plenty of email addressed to just "Trayce".

...names on letterboxes?

MAIL not email. Fuck.

xxposts -- lol yeah underwater mortgage-wise (in Sacramento, not Australia)

With some exceptions, it annoys me tremendously when I get forwarded links to Onion or New York Times articles.

It's like, thanks. I know 20 million people read that article today, but you must have thought I didn't know how to turn on a computer.

This is a great thread, I wonder how I missed it?

For me just about all the things that make me irrationally angry are variations on the theme of doing/organising stuff with people

People who say 'I should be OK for that' when they mean 'I probably won't bother to turn up for that'. This really drives me crazy when it lets down a group of people who need them to be there e.g. a sports team. When I captained various sports teams, the mid-week ringing around to see who was available for the weekend used to leave me incandescent with rage week after week. The SAME PEOPLE week after bloody week would say 'yes, I should be OK for Saturday' then not turn up, or ring an hour before kick off with some lame, but pseudo-watertight excuse like 'one of the kids is ill (again)'. So you want to stop asking them, but of course you can't because there are never enough players and they DO turn up one time in four and if you try and do without all the commitment-phobics you'll NEVER EVER have enough for a game, thus ballsing it up for everyone, for ever.

My blood pressure has risen through the roof just typing that, even though for many years I have only played team sport on the basis that I am happy to turn up and play as long as I have nothing to do with organisation. I guess I just don't understand the basis on which they never commit. It's not that I think I'm being holier than thou by being straight-up about whether I can do something or not, it's not that at all. I just don't want to live in a fug of half-arsed non-committing and then having to continually wriggle out of stuff. And I can't for the life of me understand how anyone else would want to live like this either. Obviously people have lives to live and unforseen events crop up occasionally but you know, it's just so selfish to flap around aimlessly like this.

It's not as important when it's just a social thing, because it doesn't disadvantage a group, but it is dispiriting when the same friends always cry off (with a minor sniffle) at the last minute from not-very-important but would-be-fun stuff like just going for a drink, or a pub quiz or a meal. I always feel a bit let down, because if I say I'm going to do something I'll fucking well be there, barring major events. Rant over. Anyone else feel like this?
the sky falls in.

"the sky falls in?" where did that come from?

www.teamer.net saved my life re. organising football

Interesting, but mr shapeless would simply reply 'yes' and then blow out at the last minute. technology can't do nowt about that!

DrC, put it this way: Same story.

Various teams = 1 team
Various excuses = "oh, the previous guy was all SERIOUS SERIOUS, you won't be like that will you?" became "Oh, Thursdays are really difficult, if it was Wednesdays, loads more would come" became "Look, I'm sorry I couldn't get there, but you said you weren't going to be all SERIOUS, it puts people off" and so on...

true, still happens, but at least you've not spent all day organising

xpost Yes, I was that serious bloke that commitment-phobes hate. This was a rugby team, albeit at crappo-level, but representing a proper club in a proper match with a referee, a tea laid-on etc. i.e. lots of other people putting themselves out for no reward to get a game on. Compared with footy, not only do you need 15 (actually 17-18 as people will get knocks) but rugby has the extra complication of stuff like you need at least 3 front-rowers. You can't just stick 15 warm bodies out there to run around due to health and safety implications, quite rightly so.

yeah, mine was Softball, and to be fair, I'm no sportsman I more enjoyed it as a social occasion.

Truth is/was, it needed a nasty man to get them to all turn out.