Pet Peeves

[der_kluge]

Thank you, Kluge. I laughed so hard and so suddenly, my back popped.

Hey, glad I could help!


As for a pet peeve, I don't really have any major ones, but I do hate it when people say "like" excessively.

"He was like oh my god, and I was like oh my god, and they were like, get outta here, and..."

And "ya know". Blech.

The above only becomes worse with "ya know" added into it.

"He was like oh my god, ya know? and I was like oh my god, ya know? And they were like, get outta here, and..."

Good lord.

A systems analyst I used to work with used to give me a hard time about "wishy-washy" words, and he and I used to go around and around.

him: "Will the batch jobs all run this weekend?"
me: "Yes, they should."
him: "what do you mean they should?"
me: "well, assuming cron kicks off the job, and box doesn't crash, yes, they'll run"
him: "will they complete successfully?"
me: "probably"
him: "what do you mean, probably?"
me: "well, assuming there are no errors, yes."

And this is how it would go, for a long time, and he would get annoyed, but with data processing, you're never 100% sure of anything. There can always be errors. Our managers used to get annoyed because they'd be saying "a brand new job shouldn't have any errors!" And I would point out, "no.. it's the job that's been running for 20 years that shouldn't have any errors. This one I'm installing this weekend... it'll have some errors." They hated that.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

In New South Wales (my state in Australia), people turning right (across oncoming traffic; it would be "turning left" in the U.S.) are allowed to complete their turn after the arrow turns red. This only applies to the first person waiting, who would usually be sitting part of the way into the intersection anyway. This does mean that people are "free" to dash through an amber light before it turns red, because it puts no-one out.

It's all about conventions.

Now for my own pet peeves:

• I work with a woman who "can't stand" having the radio on when we're working out filling orders in the factory, but who loves to chatter about her own crap on and on and on. I don't mind talking to her but it irritates me that only the noise she wants to make should be allowed. Luckily, she doesn't get to decide whether I have the radio on or not.
• People who use the term "roll-playing". At this point it's pretty much automatically derogatory.
• People who believe in censoring "nasty" language. Every possible vector for "bad" words into your life (except for people physically present in the room with you) has an off button, and you don't have the right to turn on your television/radio/computer at any time onto any channel/station/site and be "protected" from it. The market provides for "family-friendly" entertainment in spades; stick to those outlets if you don't want to hear it.
• People who drive below the speed limit on straight, open roads when there are no cars around. Like when I'm driving hom after 1 a.m.

 

[diaglo]

Now for my own pet peeves:

• People who drive below the speed limit on straight, open roads when there are no cars around. Like when I'm driving hom after 1 a.m.

a pet peeve of mine.

the posted speed limit is the MAXIMUM speed you can legally go.


diaglo " who hates pinheads riding his bumper " Ooi

 

[MaxKaladin]

I'm with mhacdebhandia. I hate getting stuck behind some joker who doesn't want to drive the speed limit and won't let people by. There are some roads that are bad about this where I grew up. There are limited opportunities to pass if the person in front of you doesn't pull aside some to let you by and you tend to see little lines of cars proceeding along behind the one jerk who wants to drive 10-15mph below the speed limit and won't let anyone by. When you get to a spot with a passing lane, everyone floors it to try to get around the guy. Very annoying.

Yes, the speed limit is the maximum but if you want to go slower for some reason then at least have the courtesy to let people who want to go the maximum allowed get past you.

Interestingly, here in Texas some roads used to have minimum speeds posted. Typically, these were urban freeways. At the time they were generally a minumum of 45mph and a maximum of 55mph. I haven't seen one in a while, but I suspect they took them down because the traffic problems have been getting so bad you often can't go 45mph on the freeway anymore. It may also have to do with raising the speed limit on the freeways when that 55mph federal limit was relaxed.

 

[sniffles]

All this driving discussion made me think of another one: people who drive too fast in parking lots. It's a parking lot, not the freeway! You should not be doing 30 mph in a parking lot.

I don't know if this is an Oregon thing or a city driving thing, but everyone here seems to think they ought to be "first" in traffic (as if it were a line that they could be at the head of). They speed up to prevent other drivers from merging or changing lanes ahead of them, and they refuse to let other drivers exit parking lots ahead of them during heavy traffic hours. As if letting one car get ahead of you will massively slow down your progress toward your destination. I never experienced this sort of behavior when I lived in Texas, but I admit I didn't live in a large metropolitan area.

One of the local news channels here did a test recently to see if darting in and out of traffic lanes would actually get someone to their destination faster. The "lane hopper" only reached his goal 1 minute faster than the control driver.