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

- homemade greeting cards because I feel compelled to keep them when I would throw away store bought cards without a second thought.

ribbon cables in cameras that keep undoing when I'm trying to reassemble the thing.
Not having realised that I might need to solder a part of the camera, not that that might be the best way of attaching that bit.
& feeling lousy & fluey but thinking if I got into fixing the thing I might have a working camera. Now just have a disassembled thing that can't take pictures and a fear that screws may disappear.

& hoping that the supplies of the new Nick Cave covered Uncut with the Zappa reissue reviews in haven't all sold out around town cos the students are back. Couldn't see any left in the main newsagents in town yesterday & they had stacks on Tuesday. Normally still have it at the end of the month too. Is Cave that popular?

when i see a signpost that has become loose in the ground and instead of properly remounting it, the dpw just props it up by sticking a little wooden wedge in the hole.

Now a third dude at my gym with his own personal fan from home. Also, he was walking around in the locker room this morning naked except for still having his gym shoes on.

I really hate when people are walking around with shorts and flip-flops on yet also a jacket. If you are wearing a jacket you should also be wearing long pants. Otherwise it just looks top-heavy and weird and lazy.

Now a third dude at my gym with his own personal fan from home. Also, he was walking around in the locker room this morning naked except for still having his gym shoes on.

Bizarre.

- drivers who use the gas pedal like they're playing a pump organ!! FU! Should I say something???? Fuck!

I'm angry and queasy.

Everybody wanna be just like me.

Ha I was mentally composing an IA post yesterday which went something like:

"dear bus driver,

it is clear from your footwork that you are a highly esteemed drummer in the speed metal world, but your high-speed alternate stamping between accelerator and brake is a little less conducive to a pleasant commute home"

but then I got home and forgot about it

People who get in the inside lane at a stoplight and then turn their left blinker on when the light changes to green.

NO BLINKER - we are in the fast lane together, lead the way!
BLINKER - you are a roadblock, I will sit here behind PeePaw.

People who speed up to pass you as soon as you turn your blinker on, although this is not innocuous, nor is my anger irrational.

My dad does this old-man thing of turning on his blinker if the car in front of him turns on their blinker to signal to the drivers behind him that a car is turning.

I tell him that his brake light should do the trick, and a car attempting to pass him as he supposedly turns is going to get surprised when he just keeps moseying down the avenue. He says he's providing a public service.

my mom always forgets to turn her blinker off after she changes lanes. i'm like, you're deceiving everyone behind you!

pp's dad definitely gets the Old Man Driver award for that move. What the hell.

Yeah that's nuts!

I hate when people put their blinker on while already turning. Indicators, they're not an after thought!

If I want to cross a road and look directly at your car nosing out onto the road I want to cross, and you're not indicating, I will suddenly develop a severe limp when you subsequently decide to drive in my direction.

For some reason, my entire life, I've absolutely hated T-shirts that have a logo tiny and on the top left side, just over the heart. I will never willingly wear one in a million years.

Also, to a lesser extent, shirts that have stuff on the back, particularly text. A t-shirt should be a cool design, nice and big, on the front. Or otherwise wrapping around the entire shirt.

When Jesse and I were shopping for pants the other day, I noticed that the horse logo on Polo shirts is now like three inches tall, but still in the same place. It's very ugly.

My dad does this old-man thing of turning on his blinker if the car in front of him turns on their blinker to signal to the drivers behind him that a car is turning.

Hey!!!! I was JUST thinking about this behavior not even 5 minutes ago! When I got my license at 16, I was living in Michigan, where the driving test asks if it is legal to go around a car making a left turn by passing them on the shoulder on the right (it is not), and how everyone did it anyway. But then when my family moved to NC, at first my dad had many near-misses and fits of road rage because while he was trying to going around a stopped car w/ its left blinker on, they suddenly went straight, since their signals meant "Hey, look, someone in front of me is turning left!"

So tonight I was remembering that and wondering if anyone else had ever noticed that phenomenon, which is ubiquitous in North Carolina. I thought how if I asked, people would think I was imagining it, but that I knew for sure that it was a thing, and how it was just me and my memory against the world, and then PPlains, you rescued me from my isolation! Thank you, Pleasant Plains..... thank you.

Well, I guess my dad shared that experience, but he's dead, so he couldn't validate the memory. So it's just you and me, PP.

I've never seen the left blinker/car not turn thing.

Just me, Je55 and my dad.

Dad does it a lot more on the right lane in the city. Usually there's a turn lane for the left-leaning, but I wouldn't doubt he'd do it there too.

I've seen it a few times too. Hate it.

That's some counterintuitive shit.

It's up there with waving someone out of turn at a four-way stop, that's for sure.

ha, yeah

I was at a busy 4-way-stop yesterday where everybody did exactly what they were supposed to do. It made me irrationally happy.

IA PIGEON EDITION:

1. Dumb tourist kids feeding pigeons on the plaza in front of my building so that I had to walk through a massive flock of pecking pigeons to get to the train.
2. Kids on the corner doing whatever it is that kids these days do, and one of them drops a french fry or something, so allasudden PIGEONS ATTACK, which nbd, but then this woman walking in front of me FREAKS OUT and starts squeaking about "oh my god! no! pigeons!" and trying to dodge them, and the pigeons flap out of her way and then go back from the fry, so she just freezes in the middle of the sidewalk until her friend grabs her and pulls her forward at which point the woman breathlessly describes how the pigeons just attacked her. YOU ARE IN A CITY. PIGEONS. GET OVER IT. All this while I'm trying to get past the damn kids, the fry-crazed pigeons, and this dingaling so I can walk down the street.
3. The pigeons at my work train station, who basically own that damn platform, and will just flap right at your head if you happen to be between where the pigeon is and where it wants to go, which even though I live in a city and come on, pigeons, get over it, is still a little disconcerting.

This is why a water bottle with a raver spout, set to 'stun', can be so useful.

that reminds me - while we were camping we swam in the lake, and all these idiots on the shore were throwing out food for the ducks who would then come up on the shore and eat and THEN the stupid tourists would shoo them away! ragh

I was camping near a lake at the end of July and we heard a bunch of canadian geese down near the beach. We went down for a morning swim probably an hour later and the geese had shat all over the beach. The entire waterfront. Fuck canadian geese.

geese are assholes, I hate them

LOOOOOOOOOOOL back in the days when Canada geese were endangered, my uncle (hunter/conservationist cop) raised 14 goslings each spring. This lasted long enough that hundreds of birds adopted his acre on Minnehaha Creek as part of their migratory pattern. My uncle worked with MNDNR, who tagged/fitted transmitters to most of the birds for tracking purposes, so spring was something we defined as '500 geese arrive, shit from shore to door, fly off' but a) in mitigation, goslings are cool and b) my uncle happily fed all the waterfowl/game birds who wanted seed corn from a barrel kept in the garage. Some of the other species were endangered, and there was a Great Blue heron in the marsh nearby.

Still, goose shit - yeuccccch.

I park underneath an interstate off-ramp populated by pigeons. I'm probably the only dude in my neighborhood who actually uses the foam brush at the car wash.

it's like a dog-sized shit

On radio/tv: people who respond to "Thank you" at the end of an interview with "Thank you" in return.

yeah we have geese wandering the parking lot at work pretty often, goddamn they are turd machines

I have to say, every since I adopted my cockatiel, I love the shit* out of pigeons. They have personality just like my little guy! I don't touch or feed them, but I admire them. They make me smile. Thankfully the area of the city I work and live in is not nearly as pigeonful as Carl's though!

*really bad choice of words, but also kind of funny. You know what I mean.

I'm not a huge fan of birds in general. My inlaws have a pet eclectus parrot, and while it's beautiful to look at, I cannot stand having it anywhere near me. Something about their eyes, I'm just afraid they're going to go nuts and peck me to death

I don't care for birds as pets (too loud and sharp) but I really don't mind pigeons. I like observing all the different pigeon colors and patterns and pretending I am learning about Mendelian genetics. It's a little tiresome to have to dodge them on the train platform and I would prefer people didn't feed them because then they flock and poop everywhere, but otherwise they are fine.

I think I deleted the picture but in the winter, the pigeons at my work train station huddle under the heated shelter, all puffed up in the cold, to the exclusion of humans, which I find kind of hilarious. I wasn't kidding when I said that pigeons owned this train station.

I meant to say that I had a picture of the birds doing that but I deleted it.

xp The parrot is probably too big. Rigby's just right! You come to Toronto and kiss the top of his little head, you'll love him. His beak is not large enough to do any major damage. ;) I would probably be afraid to interact with a parrot myself, having no experience with them..

One thing I have to say (re Carl's 'too loud')! My bird used to be loud and obnoxious all the time but we 'put him to bed' by covering his cage around 8pm and husband uncovers him around 10am and his whole personality has become so much more pleasant and lovely. So if you know any bird owners with shrieky pets that MIGHT help :) Now that won't stop him from happy whistles but he's usually so beautiful and melodic that we don't mind.

Maybe I have told this story, but when we first moved to Chicago, Jeff, Jesse, and I lived in an apartment together Jesse's African Gray who would do this little talking routine that was basically Jesse answering his phone, talking, and then hanging up ("Hello? Hey." *mumbling that sounds like someone's voice heard from another room* "Okay, bye." *CLICK* (as in he would make the sound of a clamshell phone shutting), and all of this in Jesse's voice). One night Jesse and Jeff were out and I was home alone studying, and the bird's cage was covered so we were all quiet and peaceful UNTIL I walked by his cage to go into the kitchen for some water and the bird heard me and went, "HELLO? HEY" in Jesse's voice and I nearly pooped my pants.

it's not the size -- I've had to petsit canaries, and I had a friend who had a dove...it's their eyes. and they smell sort of weird. I dunno.

I like to look at birds and read about them. Do not like pet birds. I do not like being in small spaces with birds. A pigeon once flew into my head so those suckers can fuck off.

Also, one time that bird climb down off Jesse's shoulder, waddled across the floor and bit my toe for no good goddamn reason.

xp ahhhhh! Scary creepy bird! I suppose I am lucky then because the best I have achieved is my bird tweeting the appropriate syllables/cadences when I say 'Hello Rigby,' 'I love you,' 'Pretty bird,' and 'Goodnight Rigby!'

Birds do smell. I clean all the fucking time to keep that at bay. A bird and a dog in my apartment, two smokers (but outdoors) - then my sister's apartment has the two rats, two cats and a bunny. :P

hahaha Rigby recently discovered my toenails and started biting them.. I just kicked him (softly) :P

I didn't love Jesse's bird, but he wasn't that bad. The noises he made were at least mostly amusing and not normally shrill. Long ago, I lived with a cockatiel named Bob who was a jerrrrrrrrrrrk and shrieked if you left him alone in a room.

I lived with a bunch of roommates years ago and one of them said we'd take care of a stupid parrot and it was loud and messy and stinky and got its food everywhere and then we got so many mice. I hated that bird.

xp ugh, yeah. That was definitely a problem we used to have - still do, but less. He gets timeouts (locked in covered cage) whenever he's bad like that. Or pre-emptively when we have Saturday morning brunch because he REALLY wants to eat our eggs 0_o

loool mice, I never considered that might happen. Luckily our dog is a part-time vacuum cleaner; they have a symbiotic relationship.