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

three hardback books is good resistance training imo, maybe she's working her way up to the full set of encyclopedias?

I have a hard time reading at the gym unless it is gossip trash. I mean how can you read a book on the elliptical?

Geez, get an mp3 player already.

people using "self-confessed" as a prefix for something that is closer to a brag than a confession. eg "self-confessed music obsessive" which I just crossed out of someone's copy. stop it imo

dude all blushing and getting shy when asked about his interests then finally saying, don't laugh but I'm really into... music

I once saw a woman sitting on one of those HIP ABDUCTOR machines (with the resistance weight plate on the absolute lightest setting, of course) reading a novel. Like, how many half-hearted, no-weight reps of that do you think it's going to take to get results, and how long do you plan to sit there in order to actually get more than a paragraph of reading done?

On a related note, during bar study there was this dude I'd see at the gym who'd bring his bar books in and, like, read them in between sets. Dude was actually working out, but the studying efficacy seemed questionable at best.

something to be said for doing one thing at a time

That almost makes sense to me. Not that it would be an effective study method, but that I would need/want to work out but feel like I was doomed to fail if I wasn't spending that time brushing up on the holder in due course rule, so I'd bring my books to the gym.

I mean, Bar Exam Psychosis being what it is and all.

People still screwing up the ripping/burning terminology in 2012, even though few people still do either.

You're not burning a CD if you're copying the audio from it to your computer, damn it. That was when you put stuff ON TO a CD.

Exercising is mind-blowingly boring, to me, so I'm totes down with the books. Playing music doesn't count or help, it doesn't occupy my attention in the right way at all, it only engages a feeling side of me, not a thinking side? I need books to lose myself and lose track of time.

I used to use the recumbent stationary bikes so I could hold the book still. Eh.

idgi, bar is the most over-inflated exam of all time. Pass/fail where failure is extremely unlikely for a first-time, native-english speaker from an accredited law school. And you can retake! And if you have a job lined up, most jobs won't even fire you for failing!

I went to the gym like 2 hours a day during bar study. Was in the best shape of my life.

i dunno, i'm kind of in solidarity with people who acknowledge working out is generally unpleasant, like waiting at airports, and have prepped accordingly. (terrible/great idea: replace all seating at airports with ellipticals)

Exercising is mind-blowingly boring, to me, so I'm totes down with the books. Playing music doesn't count or help, it doesn't occupy my attention in the right way at all, it only engages a feeling side of me, not a thinking side? I need books to lose myself and lose track of time.

I used to use the recumbent stationary bikes so I could hold the book still. Eh.

― grossly incorrect register (in orbit), Monday, November 19, 2012 4:37 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The solution to this is finding exercise that isn't boring, or finding ways to make it less boring. For me this was basketball, which I suck at, but enjoy playing. I started designing workouts around basketball (drills and such) with motivation to get better at it. Then once I was in the gym and warmed up I could get myself to do some weights and such.

Another way to make it less boring is actually to push yourself hard and set difficult goals.

Anyone over 35 (really 30, but I'm being lenient here) who begins any sentence with "When I grow up…"

iirc in orbit does a style of dancing that takes non-trivial amounts of energy and bikes all the time, so she's probably supplementing that with the boring shit

Yes that's why I take 2 dance classes a week and ride my bike, I'm just saying, if you have to go to a gym because it's winter or you can't dance or hit a ball or catch or throw or have sporty skills, and the treadmill is the easiest way to knock out your fitness needs, I sympathize with anything that eases the drudgery.

xp obvs

I joined a gym a few years ago that had little televisions on the elliptical and stationary bike machines. Kind of nice.

I wasn't commenting on l's personal exercise routines/habits in any way, ftr

By reading a book?? To me, books are something you keep on your bedstead at night. Or take on vacation.

"self-" anything! I have never used "soi disant" in all my life!

I like to dance so I incorporate dance music into my exercise. You exercise to feel good and graceful!

I saw someone watching a DVD at the gym on one of those little players...that was a cool idea! But I like to close my eyes and concentrate on my speed.

people using "self-confessed" as a prefix for something that is closer to a brag than a confession. eg "self-confessed music obsessive" which I just crossed out of someone's copy. stop it imo

a usage pet peeve i mentioned on twitter last night: when writers who are explaining what a thing is say "in case you don't know" or "for those who don't know." explain the thing regardless and let the readers who *do* know deal with having to go over it again for a few seconds.

The other thing is that when I do use an eliptical or treadmill I manage to find little aspie ways of watching the numbers or playing with the resistance to keep my brain from going completely numb, but that's probably not a sign of mental health

self-confessed mansplainer

Hurting I do that! I need to be distracted in 100 different ways or i.ll just go home

idgi, bar is the most over-inflated exam of all time. Pass/fail where failure is extremely unlikely for a first-time, native-english speaker from an accredited law school. And you can retake! And if you have a job lined up, most jobs won't even fire you for failing!

Yeah, we can say that now but in the heat of the moment when it feels like everything - your future, your self worth, your financial well being - is riding on this one test, it doesn't feel quite so casual. I use the term "bar exam psychosis" jokingly, but but it really is a specific type of break from reality (reality being that the bar is the most over-inflated exam of all time).

I've got no beef with people reading while working out, other than thinking about it makes me motion sick. It's mostly the people who have to bring so many things with them, like toddlers on a long car ride. But I guess I'm pretty lucky in that appropriate music and the delightful company of my own brain is generally enough to get me through however much cardio is happening that day.

in orbit otm. I used to sit on the exercise bike playing some mindless drop-the-blocks puzzle game and I wasn't doing particularly great at either but it was better than the nothing I do if I convince myself I totes have to put all my effort into working out (currently kinda stuck in the doing nothing stage because I hate all forms of exercise ever invented)

I've already mentioned cars with lights that turn themselves off, putting me in a position of either getting an answer of "Oh you silly, they turn THEMSELVES off!" if I say anything or a family of four being murdered one night because their battery died and I could've done something about it.

But my latest ITTMYIA appeared yesterday. WHY WOULD SOMEONE'S REVERSE LIGHTS COME ON WHEN THEY LOCK THE DOOR? I sat behind a car waiting for them to back out of a space yesterday before realizing that the lady who had just walked past me had turned them on just by going eep-eep with her keychain fob.

Reverse lights are only for reversing. Did I really just have to type that?

I pointed out maybe 4 cars with lights on to people before I realized it was some newfangled dealie. A newfangled dealie that makes no sense whatsoever. Somewhere, someone decided that a car's lights turning themselves off after five minutes was preferable to a car's lights turning off when the car is turned off. I hate that person.

"Not only will your lights stay on for five minutes after you close the car door, but you get to be a dick to anyone who points this out to you!"

Haven't seen any empty cars with lights on over here yet, but I hate it when I have to walk past the entrance of a car park and there's someone sitting at the wheel of a car with the engine and lights on, car diagonally hanging out of a space and into the exit route, looking totally like they're going to move any second and may not bother looking up first, except they're just... sitting.

It's not so bad in daylight but in the dark it's hard to see if the driver's just getting ready to move off or sitting there to eat a McDonald's while blocking the way out with the engine going.

This morning a bike came towards me so I moved over but skidded slightly even further away from the cyclist on some sodden leaf mulch, and the cyclist rang his bell at me. Which annoyed me, because I had already quite obviously seen him and moved out of his way, and also what am I meant to do, think "gee, I was having such a good time sliding around, but since that guy rang his bell I had better spontaneously regain control of all my limbs"?

(there was no chance of me falling back into his path, and even if I had I don't think having a bell rung at me before uncontrollably getting smacked by a bike would have helped)

the OCCUPANT of the OFFICE down the HALL only CLOSES the DOOR by BANGING IT SHUT and he opens and closes his door roughly FOUR HUNDRED TIMES on any given day for no obvious reason i am not even sure what he is doing in there since he never has a chance to sit down between all the banging and think for a goddamn second like the rest of us ARE TRYING TO DO

reading in the gym is morally wrong

still better than READING + WALKING

I have a co-worker who is really basically a good guy but has this annoying way of going on way too much about certain kinds of things -- hotels, air travel, restaurants -- in excruciating banal detail and with this kind of air of pampered self-regard combined with new york jewish neuroticism. I really basically like the guy but those conversations drive me up the wall.

air travel blows, restaurants and hotels forever

Most of the time at the gym I listen to podcasts, or else music when I need to motivate myself.

I mean, before I joined a gym I thought it would be cool to read magazines on the treadmill, but it's a major hassle if you don't want to half-ass it.

exactly if you're going to bother to set foot in the gym at all step all the way in

<3 air travel.
Can't wait to get to O'Hare today and fly back Saturday.

Air travel is less than 3.

I do a treadmill thing where I run hard for a minute and then walk for two while reading a message board

I know we could do a whole separate thread about the kinds of innocuous facebook status updates that make us irrationally angry, but in particular, updates that refer to specific moments in specific tv shows, as though everyone else is also watching them. "Man, I did not expect the green orc to show up with christmas presents!" shut the fuck up

tbf it was pretty surprising. he was always such a sourpuss!!

There's a great Twitter feed: @uokhun where every cliché used by that woman we all went to high school with - the one who was a total burnout/knife-wielding cow but now everything is reformed about her except for the claw bangs - is distilled down to essence of THERE FOR YOU GURRRRRL.

I have no idea what a "knife-wielding cow" is but it made me lol

I understand that bit, but not the rest. Especially not 'claw bangs' - bangs is a fringe, I know that much...

Google search for 'claw bangs' brings up 'mall bangs' and this picture:

http://www.sobeautymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/mall-bang-2.jpg

Awesome.

glad the mortar shell only grazed the girl on the right

Oh I remember that hair so well. The girl on the left looks AWESOME tbh.