What are your pet hates?

[Mr. Bergstrom]

Ok, here is everyone's opportunity to have a rant!

Here are mine -

- Those messages at the end of e-mails, "Please consider the environment, do you really need to print this e-mail?" Give me a break! How patronising! Like not printing an e-mail is gonna help to save the environment!

- Planning departments in city councils

- People who think that they have the God given right to park outside their house. If it's a public road and there are no double yellow lines then ANYONE who pays their tax can park there. Simple as that!

- Adverts on the radio - oh my God, how bad are the adverts on commercial radio!? Just shocking, they wind me up so much!

[MystyrMystyry]

Spending more than an hour composing a really well written and thought out post, only to find that because I've been booted it's been eaten by the gremlins and gargoyles of cyberspace

It really pi-.................

[kiki1982]

dishonesty

my only pet-hate, but it is a major problem in this world.

[Lokasenna]

People who walk slowly, and somehow manage to occupy the entire corridor/staircase/pavement they are slowly meandering along. I'll admit that my walking pace can outmatch most people at a run, but I get so frustrated being blocked by slowpokes. You just want to hit them over the back of the head with something.

[Emil Miller]

Idiots who, instead of queuing horizontal to the wall in which a cashpoint is set, stand at right angles to it across the pavement.

[JuniperWoolf]

I hate it when people bring their laptops to class. There's nothing more annoying when you're trying to listen to something than the sound of typing.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

One of my pet hates is related to JuniperWoolf's. I hate when people type louder than needed, pounding the keys as if you need to hit them so hard. It's even worse with touch screens. Quit poking them like you're angry! It doesn't make your actions more effective in any way.

Others:

People who don't use their turn signals.
People who tailgate.
People who go around me while I'm making a left turn. See that solid, white line to the right? That means don't go around, mother****er.
People who drive under the speed limit (this makes tailgating not only okay, but encouraged).
People who run red lights.
People who slow down while approaching a green light.
People who don't turn on their headlights when it's raining.
Other people who drive in general.

[Maximilianus]

People who walk slowly, and somehow manage to occupy the entire corridor/staircase/pavement they are slowly meandering along. I'll admit that my walking pace can outmatch most people at a run, but I get so frustrated being blocked by slowpokes. You just want to hit them over the back of the head with something.
I second it.

[Taliesin]

- Those messages at the end of e-mails, "Please consider the environment, do you really need to print this e-mail?" Give me a break! How patronising! Like not printing an e-mail is gonna help to save the environment!



People print e-mails?

[The Comedian]

The word "whatever". . . .

Apathy -- if you don't care, then go sit in a dark room and leave the passion for the rest of us.

Weak coffee -- coffee is a muscular drink; it should taste like coffee, not warmed-up river water.

Anyone who thinks he knows Greek history because he saw the movie 300.

When the word "learner" is used in place of the word "student" -- why don't we call people "breathers", then? . . . .

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Anyone who thinks he knows Greek history because he saw the movie 300.


You shut your mouth! 300 is completely accurate!

[kiki1982]

Weak coffee -- coffee is a muscular drink; it should taste like coffee, not warmed-up river water.

Haha, I live in the country of warmed up river water! It is really looking for a place with decent tasting coffee and then sticking with it. After some trials with dismal results, we now know where to drink coffee and where not. We once ent one back where you could see the bottom of the cup through it :eek:. Oh yes, and in a new bar in our town we complained about the coffee and then the woman said, 'People now already complain it is too strong...' :svengo: Still, they put the dosage up a little bit for us. Nice isn't it.

We once served a cup of coffee to the local wintner on Christmas Eve (he came to deliver the wine we bought for Christman dinner). That was somewhere in the afternoon... He said he was awfully nervous the whole afternoon and still wide awake at ten pm! That is coffee my friend! :lol:

Oh, and in this country in some bars they think that only 'medium fizzy' water is really flat. 'Oh, but it's only medium fizzy, you won't have problem with that.' Now if I ask for flat, do you think I don't bl**dy well taste when it's fizzy? Seriously, you also have to figure out where they have genuinely flat water in bottles and where not. So, two surveys and two totally different groups of cafés. Whatever are we going to do when I want coffee and my hubby flat water or vice versa? :rolleyes:

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Fizzy water would piss me off.

[keilj]

One of my pet hates is related to JuniperWoolf's. I hate when people type louder than needed, pounding the keys as if you need to hit them so hard. It's even worse with touch screens. Quit poking them like you're angry! It doesn't make your actions more effective in any way.

Others:

People who don't use their turn signals.
People who tailgate.
People who go around me while I'm making a left turn. See that solid, white line to the right? That means don't go around, mother****er.
People who drive under the speed limit (this makes tailgating not only okay, but encouraged).
People who run red lights.
People who slow down while approaching a green light.
People who don't turn on their headlights when it's raining.
Other people who drive in general.

Shorten this to "people" and you have mine

[The Comedian]

Oh, and in this country in some bars they think that only 'medium fizzy' water is really flat. 'Oh, but it's only medium fizzy, you won't have problem with that.' Now if I ask for flat, do you think I don't bl**dy well taste when it's fizzy? Seriously, you also have to figure out where they have genuinely flat water in bottles and where not. So, two surveys and two totally different groups of cafés. Whatever are we going to do when I want coffee and my hubby flat water or vice versa? :rolleyes:

You've got to explain the fizzy water thing to me. Is it common for your wells/city water to be carbonated? Or do they make coffee with natural fizzy water?

But I've never understood why anyone would make weak coffee to serve to the public or to others. . .I mean, if the Joe's too strong, then just put some H20 in it. Problem solved. But if it's too weak, well, then you have to make anther pot.

[kiki1982]

Nono, what comes out of the tap is your normal, flat water like in other countries. Flat water on the menu is in bottles. They don't sell tap water for flat water on the menu. I have only seen that in Hungary and other Eastern European countries. I think it has to do with hygiene laws or something.
So they make coffee with tap water, but whether the flat water on the menu you can order is really flat or 'flat' (read: medium fizzy), that's the million dollar question. I think I'm going to make a list.

And yes, that about the coffee... The people who like strong coffee always have to be happy with sometimes coloured water (we call it late night wedding coffee) because there are a few people in this world who cannot figure out how to put water in it. And the modern day 'espresso's... tsssssssss Have they ever travelled to France or Italy? That is espresso, not that slightly stronger coffee which they call espresso and put in a smaller cup to make it look like the real thing...

ok, enough rant now. :D

PS: just about the coffee thing: anyone tried Polish coffee? It's a slightly bigger version of (dare I say it) Turkish coffee. Just put ground coffee and maybe sugar in the bottom of your cup, poor boiling water on it and ready. Let the coffee go to the bottom and you can drink. Gives another taste to normal coffe from your machine, is more economical and easy!

[MarkBastable]

Nono, what comes out of the tap is your normal, flat water like in other countries. Flat water on the menu is in bottles. They don't sell tap water for flat water on the menu. I have only seen that in Hungary and other Eastern European countries. I think it has to do with hygiene laws or something.

In London over the last few years, there's has been a backlash against the restaurant's practice of selling mineral water - still or sparkling - in bottles. It is now acceptable - and fashionable - to insist on a jug of tap water, and to expect there to be no charge for it.

[Lokasenna]

It is now acceptable - and fashionable - to insist on a jug of tap water, and to expect there to be no charge for it.

They are also legally required to provide it on request.

[MystyrMystyry]

I only drink the pure water that falls from the skies, not the fluridated tap crap that was originally the product of an excess industrial waste bargain with a corrupt/stupid government (it's good for your teeth! Bullshi t!) - of course you shouldn't pay for poisoned water - bottled water is a con and a criminal waste of money, and all kitchensinks should be fitted with a filter

Human bodies are two thirds water so no wonder there are so many poisoned people zombie-ing around - don't believe the lies about fluride: it's killing you!


As for coffee - what's this instant garbage they serve at suspect restaurants? I've recently noticed there's a solid wall of different brands at the local supermarket - do people actually buy the crud? Coffee has to be made from beans - not from microscopically powdered particles!

What's happening to the world!?

[MarkBastable]

They are also legally required to provide it on request.

They kept that quiet - I didn't know it till recently.

How is it killing us?

[MystyrMystyry]

It's a noxious toxin, sort of like arsenic.

This advertising campaign for a certain brand of toothpaste with the chalk and dye comparison - it may behave similarly to calcium, but it is most definitely not calcium (which is beneficial), and once the ruse started to spread it was unstoppable - in tiny trace amounts it may be relatively harmless, but because industry is industry and acts like it, over the years there is an average of 100 times the 'safe' amount originally suggested poured into water supplies worldwide

It all goes back to the days of paying doctors to say that some brands of cigarettes are actually good for you - the madman era of advertising when admen were thought of as demi-gods by parliament because they could sell snow to eskimos

There's articles around the net about it, but unfortunately a lot of them are locked into the conspiracy theorist sites

Just get a water filter and/or watertank, and take your own bottles when you eat out I guess (I don't say I have all the convenient answers)

[MarkBastable]

http://preventdisease.com/home/tips79.shtml

This is quite a sane one.

[papayahed]

I only drink the pure water that falls from the skies, not the fluridated tap crap that was originally the product of an excess industrial waste bargain with a corrupt/stupid government (it's good for your teeth! Bullshi t!) - of course you shouldn't pay for poisoned water - bottled water is a con and a criminal waste of money, and all kitchensinks should be fitted with a filter


1) how do you collect the pure water that falls from the sky?
2) How do you insure it is pure water?

[MystyrMystyry]

In a watertank - it may not be perfectly pure because of various pollutants it gathers when it falls through them, but it also has no excess fluoride

[papayahed]

dang!!!! I dislike when I order something from the internet and when it arrives it looks nothing like the picture. I bought an ipad case from amazon. I first saw it on another website and it looked like a cute leather turquoise case, it arrived today and it's turquoise cloth with gold trim. Gold Trim!!!! I feel like I need to get pearls and a nice polyester pant suit to match.

[Shalot]

People print e-mails?

Oh yes they do! Especially in the semi-paperless office environment. And get this - we print out emails (and the attachments that come with them) only to turn around and scan them back in as tiff files! Why? Well we have to put these scan stickers on them so it's not as totally idiotic as it sounds - oh and they also use the print outs for some other record keeping scan file - they're printed out and then scanned back for two different types of system records. But yeah...people print emails.

So my pet hates are:

people who type ur instead of your or you're.
LOL, LMAO and I hold a special kind of hatred for LMFAO
WWJD bracelets
flat-billed baseball hats
being late

[MarkBastable]

My office recently received an e-mail from a local council saying, "Thank you for e-mailing us your document. Could you please send us a paper copy so we can file it?"


I don't have pet hates. I have slavering packs of untamed, leash-straining, saliva-dripping, savage attack-hates.

And one of them is smileys and other idiotic emoticon animations. When I get to be president of the world (which I have pencilled in for next Thursday), people who use little pictures in their prose will be subject to reprisals too disturbing to detail here.

What are they for, smileys? Those who defend them act as if they were a vital component of the ability to express oneself clearly on the page. They bleat that in cyberspace no one can hear you smile, or wink, or frown, or stick your tongue out and wiggle your fingers with your thumbs in your ears.

That's true. It's been true of the written word for five thousand years. Do we believe, then, that from the day the first flattened papyrus reed was dried in the sun until, say, 1991, no one had ever been able to tell whether what they were reading was supposed to be funny, or sad, or a bit of a josh, or an expression of sympathy, support, disagreement or semi-serious outrage?

No. The written word can do all that without the aid of little yellow faces to give the reader clues as to the writer's intention. That's what writing is for.

Well, yes - say the smilophiles - but emoticons are only for, like, the Web. No one would use them them in serious writing - like business e-mails, or fiction, or an article for an e-zine.

Actually, people do. I fired someone for doing it only last week. But if it were true that there are types of writing in which smileys aren't appropriate, then we've developed a two-tier system of quality for the written word.

There's writing that matters - where the words are carefully chosen in order to express meaning with clarity and the writer has made a polite assumption of literate intelligence on the part of the reader. That's the stuff without the smileys.

And then there's unimportant, slapdash, what-the-hell writing, where the sentences needn't be too carefully crafted because they are covered with fatuous yellow grinning faces that help the reader guess what the hell it's all supposed to convey - because, understandably, they might not be able to decipher the meaning from the sloppy prose alone .

The smiley, in fact, does have a use, it seems. It's a coded way of the writer saying, Reader, I don't care about you enough to actually bother writing this well.

[The Atheist]

Pet hate: fluoride conspiracists.


Crikey, here's one now!


It's a noxious toxin, sort of like arsenic.

In what way is fluoride - the ion of a widely-distributed element which is present in most of our food - like arsenic, a poisonous heavy metal?

(This might be worth a new thread, although I believe the evidence is so overwhelming it would be pointless.)


This advertising campaign for a certain brand of toothpaste with the chalk and dye comparison - it may behave similarly to calcium, but it is most definitely not calcium (which is beneficial),...

Um, you do realise the chalk is analogous to tooth enamel, not fluoride, in those ads? It doesn't behave anything like calcium either.


... and once the ruse started to spread it was unstoppable - in tiny trace amounts it may be relatively harmless, but because industry is industry and acts like it, over the years there is an average of 100 times the 'safe' amount originally suggested poured into water supplies worldwide

And your evidence for this is?


There's articles around the net about it, but unfortunately a lot of them are locked into the conspiracy theorist sites

Exactly.

The reason the "evidence" that fluoride does more harm than good is locked away in conspiracy sites is because there is no reliable evidence that fluoride has any negative affect beyond fluorosis, which is not exactly a terminal disease.

[MystyrMystyry]

People who take the internet seriously

I came across this when I was researching toothpaste for sensitive teeth:

I began using Crest prohealth toothpaste in mid January, 2011. I didn't notice at first but my wife noticed an increased irritability with me and mood swings. Toward the end of the month, a small bump appeared on my rear, which was alarming, but I did not make the relation with Crest Prohealth. By the first week of February, I was using the Crest Prohealth product 5 times a day, brushing religiously after every meal or snack.Although i didn't notice at the time, my bump on my rear had grown to a small tail, and my wife noticed that I actually began to breath fire, much like a dragon of sorts. This became problematic while sleeping, causing us to invest a tremendous amount in smoke detectors and flame retardant bedding.
I have since discontinued the product.

sol of albany, NY Feb. 15, 2011

[Delta40]

The belief that we must have credit cards in order to survive

[kiki1982]

The belief that we must have credit cards in order to survive

Oh yes! And these days you can't even book a hotel room without one! I mean, really. Where were the days that you could just turn up and your room was ready?

My husband made a compromise the other day, because he absolutely wants Olympic tickets (only available via Visa, because they are the sponsor): a pay and go one. I guess, even at a cost of 24 euros a year, that's at least an acceptable alternative. It remains to be seen whether we don't just call it a day after this year, though. I mean, no interest on your card if you put money in it, and one coffee a month down the drain merely because you want to have the possibility to have it?

[MarkBastable]

Get a debit card. All the advantages of plastic without the downside of spending money you haven't got.

[kiki1982]

We have that too, but some of them will just insist on a credit card type number... And before you ask: we do have maestro, but we are one of two countries in the world (Belgium and Luxemburg) which do not have a credit card type number on a maestro card, so any place equipped for maestro will just not accept our debit card because it has the wrong number and the cmputer, stupîd thing, cannot accept it. And using it from Germany costs money every time you use it, so that's a bit stupid too.

[The Atheist]

The belief that we must have credit cards in order to survive

:hurray:

<<< has exactly 0 credit cards.

I gave them up decades ago despite having been one of the first 100 people in the country to get one when they were first legalised here in the 1970s.

[Delta40]

You should be my friend Atheist (albeit you are soooo much learned than I) I have not ahd a credit card since 1999. What a blessing!

[MarkBastable]

:hurray:

<<< has exactly 0 credit cards.

I gave them up decades ago despite having been one of the first 100 people in the country to get one when they were first legalised here in the 1970s.

I don't have one either.

[Delta40]

High Five to those who don't have a credit card!

[Revolte]

Assumptions of personality trait based on political/social philosophy. It's at the point I can't tell if someone is insulting me, joking around or making conversation.

Oh and when people ask the same question over and over expecting a different answer to spawn. Come on people, put two and two together.

[Lokasenna]

I don't have one either.

Nor do I! It seems we may have a little anti-credit collective here!

[MystyrMystyry]

Debit card for me :)

[Emil Miller]

The belief that we must have credit cards in order to survive

This is a belief that has been assiduously promoted by credit card companies but you don't have to believe it.

[MystyrMystyry]

Again chalk one up for the Golden Age of Advertising - 4000 years of wisdom dating from Hamurabai warning against debt, twisted inside out when a bunch of mind manipulators start spreading the word of how good it is to live your life on credit - our recent ancestors must have been really stupid

[papayahed]

awwww, I want to be in the no credit card club. Can it include those that have cards but have a zero balance and if they do use it the card it's paid off every month??

[Delta40]

Debit cards only accepted!

[papayahed]

ok, then screw you guys I'm starting my own club.

[Emil Miller]

Again chalk one up for the Golden Age of Advertising - 4000 years of wisdom dating from Hamurabai warning against debt, twisted inside out when a bunch of mind manipulators start spreading the word of how good it is to live your life on credit - our recent ancestors must have been really stupid

'Neither a borrower nor a lender be' ...is rather difficult to adhere to if you are buying somewhere to live. The current economic collapse was based on dubious loans for that purpose but, apart from the necessity for mortgages, there can be little point in getting into debt otherwise. As has been pointed out, a debit card ensures that people don't live beyond their means and credit cards are best avoided.

[Pendragon]

One than that absolutely pisses me off is when I post a poem and the next person borrows part of it for their post. I do not consider imitation the sincerest form of flattery, in this case I call it stealing or plagiarism :mad5::mad5::mad5:

[MystyrMystyry]

This isn't 'Leave an anonymous message' Pen - name names and shame them!

[MystyrMystyry]

Cheap electrical items bought on a whim from supermarkets rather than reputable department stores

Kettles, a set-top box, a dvd player, a toaster, a mixing machine - and now just then my new sandwich maker - all gone the way of the ****ing dinosaur

[JuniperWoolf]

I'm in the "no credit card" club, but I'd really rather have one. It makes paying for university stuff easier.

[jajdude]

I dislike when someone says, or types online, "I'm a realist." Don't see or hear it often but I have a suspicion most people believe this. What does it mean anyway? Is it like saying, "I'm a rational person"? I believe I've never met a rational person.

[The Atheist]

Nor do I! It seems we may have a little anti-credit collective here!

Quite a surprise - I'd say every adult I know in the flesh has one.


awwww, I want to be in the no credit card club. Can it include those that have cards but have a zero balance and if they do use it the card it's paid off every month??

That counts, because if you stick to it, you actually save money by having use of free funds.

[Three Sparrows]

I don't like graphic novels or emo kids--they just need to get over themselves, get a life, and quit crying about that relatively vague term "life."
I hate the smell of rotting food and bananas.
I hate it when people are slow and/or in my way.
I hate being loudly interrupted on a regular basis.
I hate the whole wedding thing; big dress, cake, humongous debt that will never be paid off, etc. All you really need is a priest.
I hate when people act extremely frivolous and vain.
/Ends hate rant.
Really though, I don't hate people, just certain actions they take.

Hey, it looks like I am in the no credit card club; I always pay cash.

[Pendragon]

This isn't 'Leave an anonymous message' Pen - name names and shame them!

Oh I could, MM! But they know who they are and so does anyone who visits the Poetry Contests thread. This isn't the first person to do so, and I'm not the only poet to have part of my poem hacked. The devil of it is that the judge of any particular contest never seems to see this sort of thing. They'll rob you on the Personal Poetry Thread as well, one reason why I quit posting there.

[manolia]

People who think very highly of themselves and that they are so much better and cleverer than others. People who are too self conscious most of the time. People who take theirselves too seriously. People who use the word "stupid" or "average person" often.

P.S I don't have a credit card : ]

[Lokasenna]

People who steal things from the communal kitchen area. Grrr...

Not only have I lost several items of food to the scavengers, but they've even been at my cooking implements... who the hell steals a bloody wok, I ask you?

May all the knives they've stolen be accidentally trodden on in the night, may all my spoons be bent for them, and may my wok bring forth nothing but poison (well, noting new there)!

[country doctor]

the doc has never hated his pets...

[JuniperWoolf]

Not only have I lost several items of food to the scavengers, but they've even been at my cooking implements... who the hell steals a bloody wok, I ask you?

Haha, that's weird. Where would they even put it? Losing my food is the main reasons why I've lived in a dorm house or something, I take that kind of thing very seriously. I sympathize.