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

That guy didn't need decked, he needed ignored.

well he mostly got that...from what I was told.

obviously major issues reconciling his role as a soldier with daily life in peacetime and he needs therapy and not a pat on the back

http://www.willferrellonbroadway.com/images/splash/keyart.jpg

People who place their yard sprinklers so they spray over the public sidewalk.

― congratulations (n/a), Sunday, July 24, 2011 11:55 AM (30 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

OTM. Especially when it is not just a little overspray, but full coverage of all the sidewalk. And especially when it's a constant spray, not a rotating one that offers a small window of time to cross without being sprayed. There are so many instances in which it would be easy to make it NOT spray on the sidewalk while still watering the plants or yard.

If I'm cranky or if it's someone who does it all the time, I have been known to yank the hose so it doesn't spray on the walk.

Nerd solution is to zero-pad the numbers (01, 02..)

This I know and do, but I get a lot of files from other people and have to spend ages renaming PDFs with extra zeroes before the system will arrange them correctly.

Netflix raising it's price for streaming content and one DVD at a time 60%. Its innocuous as they have been "giving it away" very reasonably for a long time and I was a happy recipient; but hard to take now and in an irrational snit I've quit my account but am willing to pay other services from different suppliers who will probably charge more for less content.

There are scripts to rename files! In my experience even if you lack the scripting expertise, you can ask online in a spot or two and get a quick way to do it on whatever your OS/program is.

When, in meetings/emails, colleagues make reference to people by only their first names and expect you to know who they're talking about. You can't ask or they look at you like you're really dumb.

^try that with added civil servants and you get

CS: "Joe Bloggs..."
Me: "Who's Joe Bloggs?"
*CS looks at you like you're stupid
CS: "He's the deputy XYZ for the CDEF team at HQ ABC!"
Me: "?"

^^^^^^

I have had that conversation so many times. It's a gross badge of honor at my agency to drop the names of all the people to whom you are connected and I gave up trying to look knowledgable and will just interrupt and ask who the hell these people are.

Re the sprinkler thing, I don't mind it in summer! Baking hot day, I get a spritz, it's cooling and nice.

why write k when you can write "okay"

why write okay when you can write 'okey dokey smokey'

http://pix.epodunk.com/locatorMaps/ok/OK_15860.gif

Why does Oklahoma have that "extra" bit along the north-west?

Because Kansas can get a little saucy now and then.

I'm really pissed about Netflix upping their prices because, in the last two weeks, the streaming on my PS3 has gone to absolute shit. "Retrieving" about every three minutes and absolutely atrocious image quality. Used to be pretty great, but damned if I'm going to pay more for worse service.

Because Kansas can get a little saucy now and then.

idgi

to keep them away from Texas?

Slavery.

The southern part of the panhandle was the latitude used by Congress to decide where the slave states and the free states would go, as part of the Missouri Compromise. That line reaches across most of the northern borders of Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina. (Virginia, north of that border was "grandfathered" in and Missouri was added as a slave state as part of the "compromise".)

Texas originally went past that panhandle, all the way up into Wyoming. But when they were admitted into the Union as a slave state, they had to abide by the compromise and lose its territory north of that line.

The borders of Kansas, the state to the north of Oklahoma was drawn up with its southern border just about fifty minutes north of the slave border. This was done to provide an equal number of degrees of latitude to future states in the West. (Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota - north of Kansas - all have approximately the same distance in height.) That latitude line extended further west as the southern borders of Colorado and Utah (and at one time, Nevada) for the same kind of reason.

Oklahoma was designated "Indian Territory" until it became a state in the 20th Century. Its borders had been defined by the already-admitted (and re-admitted) states surrounding it. So that panhandle is just what was leftover between Texas wanting to be a slave state and Kansas being mapped out equal to its neighbors.

http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/content/binary/the%20moreu%20know%20325.jpg

why write k when you can write "okay"

"k" is also commonly spoken, not just written

idg writing "okay" when "OK" is an option. it doesn't bother me, i just don't get it.

hwy not write Ohkhaye!"
or OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKKKKKKKKKKKKKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

xp Wow! I did not know that but that was really interesting.

I write out okay even on Twitter or when texting. It is a habit I cannot break.

hwy not write Ohkhaye!"
or OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKKKKKKKKKKKKKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOL

also finest of display names there.

When I first started IMing in 1996, I did a lot of obnoxious shit like "I'll b L8 C U @ 4" and so did a lot of people I IMed with. AOL had dumb articles and guides to IM speak and emoticons.

Moms the world over are now carrying on that proud tradition

(btw that show on the History Channel "How the States Got Their Shapes" is pretty interesting)

The book its based on is where I got all that about the panhandle. Wikipedia offers up a slightly different version, but in the end, it's still Texas' fault.

When I first started using irc/im, I was a stickler for writing in real English, down to using correct capitalization and punctuation. I've fallen off on this since then.

AOL-style speak is for savages iirc

Ha me, too. Jeff and I courted largely over ICQ (!!!) and I wanted to make a good impression. Also he used to mock me for typing out "okay."

I clearly gave up on that proper usage thing once I got comfortable on ILX.

My punctuation/capitalization habits vary. sometimes from sentence to sentence ymmv

Thank you for the v interesting stuff re the panhandle Pleasant Plains, much appreciated.

when you're swimming and water gets up your nose and you choke and can't breathe. why can't we have gills or some shit like that. sigh

"the missouri compromise" is one of many nicknames for the popular "mullet" hairstyle. i learned this from a billy ray cyrus interview!

kentucky waterfall is my favorite term.

and it makes perfect sense if you flip oklahoma on its side so the panhandle faces down.

xp

Missouri Compromise!!! Genius.

Restaruant/cafes with extremely limited seating on a normal basis that don't provide a break area for their employees and you end up having to compete with them for a seat as well.

the Wendys drive-thru filling the sodas literally all the way to the top with ice

snack girl at the movie theater asked me if i wanted "a lot" of ice... i said "no".. she said "a little?" I said "...no, the perfect amount" and she said "ok"... ?!

people on message boards/comment threads/yelp/mefi/etc that use "we" ("we love this restaurant. we go every friday night!") without ever specifying who "we" refers to. i think it's more acceptable in a place like ilx where close-knit relationships and off-board friendships are the norm. i basically know who you're talking about, because i've been here for ~10 years and i've learned about people's lives. but in a huge, generalist environment, saying "we" without defining it as "my husband and i" or "my family" or w/e sounds really smug. ooh, you get to be part of a "we" -- big fucking whoop.

but even on ilx, if i'm referring to my other half, i'll usually say so.

I like that that makes you angry, because chances are it would just make me sad? I am a sap.

'er indoors

People who just suddenly decide one day to walk their giant ass or ill-tempered dog on your block when they live six blocks away.

Imagine walking your dogs on their usual route, only to have them turn a corner and run smack into a complete stranger who has decided on a new dog walking route...especially at five o'clock in the morning or after sundown when visibility is poor.

a really pedantic one but....people who act like they're in a short one person sized tunnel when they leave a shop to walk onto the street. they cannot look left or right to see if anyone is walking on the street already because the tunnel only allows them to look straight forward. their pace is dictated by the tunnel. i work on a pretty busy street and i swear some people actually avoid looking around them walking out of shops cos they might have to acknowledge they're getting in people's way.

i hate groups of slow walking people in a wide line who weave across the footpath so you can't get past them and then when you finally say 'excuse me' they don't hear you because they're all talking and when say it louder they give you stern looks for being pushy and impatient.

slow walking people, or just those who appear oblivious to basic unspoken ambulatory etiquette, are the WORST

people in tube corridors who fucking amble as though they're on a country walk - just, what? are you really enjoying it that much in here that you don't want to get to your destination quicker? does it not occur to you that others might want to do that?