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... people who don't know the difference between 'continental' and 'contiguous'--
ME: "How much do you charge for shipping to Alaska?"
THEM: "Sorry, we only ship within the continental US."
ME: "Umm... Alaska is part of the continent; it's not an island."
... people who treat Alaska like it's another country--
ME: "How much do you charge for shipping to Alaska?"
THEM: "Sorry--we don't do international orders."
ME: "Umm... Alaska is the 49th state; it's not international."
THEM: "It's in Canada or something, isn't it?"
... people who don't know the difference between 'continental' and 'contiguous'--
ME: "How much do you charge for shipping to Alaska?"
THEM: "Sorry, we only ship within the continental US."
ME: "Umm... Alaska is part of the continent; it's not an island."... people who treat Alaska like it's another country--
ME: "How much do you charge for shipping to Alaska?"
THEM: "Sorry--we don't do international orders."
ME: "Umm... Alaska is the 49th state; it's not international."
THEM: "It's in Canada or something, isn't it?"
Well we Canucks wouldn't mind taking Alaska (and Hawaii, for that matter) off of your hands and eliminating the above confusion. :-)
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10. People that complain about the price of gas (at $4/gallon) while buying bottled water, eating lunch at expensive resturaunts or drinking multiple Mountain Dews a day
9. People that intentionally chose a career in a low-paying field suddenly realizing they are unemployable and looking to everyone else to fix their mistake
8. People, regardless of profession, that do not strive for excellence in customer service: rude doctors, inattentive checkout clerks, crappy drive-thru workers
7. Parents that get into arguements with other parents at their kid's sporting event
6. The loss of focus in public schools, resulting in hours a week spent on social engineering rather than educational basics
5. Property taxes that are assessed incredibly high compared to the home's actual value. We need a law that says your property tax assessment is an offer by the municipality to purchase the home at its assessed value.
4. Fundamentalists of every stripe/color/creed/origin/belief system - anyone that believes they have The Answer and it lies only through their faith/point of view
3. People that clearly have never studied history, read books or intellectually probed the many problems we face and yet spout drivel or provide "solutions" to problems they clearly know nothing about
2. People that litter or disturb pristine places of natural beauty
1. People that confuse "equality of opportunity" with "equality of outcome"
... people who don't know the difference between 'continental' and 'contiguous'--
Oh my. That's...painful to watch. I'd blame public school, but I went there too and I seem o.k....
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4. Fundamentalists of every stripe/color/creed/origin/belief system - anyone that believes they have The Answer and it lies only through their faith/point of view
13) Fundamentalists. for pretty much the same reason LL just used. Anyone so set and closed-minded in their way that they won't even ha ve a conversation about other possibilities. And this doesn't just go for religions either. I've had this problem with people on the other side of the fence who believe that evolution is the only way and refuse to consider that hey, maybe there is some big guy up there who set the wheels in motion.
14) Catgirls. I don't know why. One of a very small set of things that actually makes my eye (right eye for those who care) start twitching. I saw them at a convention and I juust wanted to lay waste to them with a large foam ax. My friend actually had to stop me from going Jesus-in-the-temple on their booth. which he did by pointing out a Poison Ivy cos-play that was unbelievable...mmm...poison ivy...
Y'know, for a top ten list, I seem to have an awfully lot of numbers...oh well.
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... people who don't know the difference between 'continental' and 'contiguous'--
ME: "How much do you charge for shipping to Alaska?"
THEM: "Sorry, we only ship within the continental US."
ME: "Umm... Alaska is part of the continent; it's not an island."... people who treat Alaska like it's another country--
ME: "How much do you charge for shipping to Alaska?"
THEM: "Sorry--we don't do international orders."
ME: "Umm... Alaska is the 49th state; it's not international."
THEM: "It's in Canada or something, isn't it?"
My Dad used to compain about this when he worked as an engineer for a mine in New Mexico. Secretaries from New York refused to ship to them because they didn't ship internationally.
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This scenario:
TOWNIE: "Where ya from?"
ME: "New York."
TOWNIE: "City, eh?"
ME: "No, upstate."
TOWNIE: "What, you mean like Middletown?"
ME: *slides hand down face in aggravation*
"You know where Canada is, right?"
TOWNIE: "Sorta. It's near Alaska, right?"
ME: "It's an entire country. Anything north of the U.S. is Canada."
TOWNIE: "Oh..."
ME: "Yeah, if you drive south from Canada for about an hour, you'll be in my driveway."
TOWNIE: "Wait, I thought you said you lived in New York..."
ME: *cold-c ocks TOWNIE*
In no particular order...
1. Robo-calls at work (No, I don't really want to hear about the 'toner mixup' and resultant 'special offer' you have)
2. Texting (yes, in general. I'm certain it's a type of illness)
3. Narrow-mindedness (Ironic, yes? I mean, we're talking about pet peeves here, and I'm saying that...oh, never mind).
4. Drivers who can't maintain a constant speed on the highway (Seriously. You just passed me doing 15 mph over the limit, now you want to be in front of me doing 5 mph below?)
5. Drivers in the 'passing lane' while travelling below the speed limit (Does the phrase "Slower traffic move right" mean anything?)
6. Use of the term "Conversate" (it's 'converse') or any other made-up word currently in fashion
7. "That's the way we've always done it" (despite any obvious flaws)
8. Poor customer service (At least pretend like you want to help, OK?)
9. Arrogant customers (It doesn't hurt to be nice to salespeople, despite how very much you want the impossible-to-obtain item)
10. Parents who don't intervene during a child's public temper tantrum (An occasional outburst is understandable. Screaming and throwing things for several minutes at a stretch is not)
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13) Fundamentalists. for pretty much the same reason LL just used. Anyone so set and closed-minded in their way that they won't even ha ve a conversation about other possibilities. And this doesn't just go for religions either. I've had this problem with people on the other side of the fence who believe that evolution is the only way and refuse to consider that hey, maybe there is some big guy up there who set the wheels in motion.
I am 100% evolutionist, but I can see why people can believe something else. When I lived in Tennessee, I once had someone call me a "Darwinist", so I have seen this debate from many angles and fought it a few times (with school board politicos no less). The conversation went something like this:
Me: So in the end, I guess I have to agree that I can't disprove Intelligent Design though I disagree with it.
ID Person: Right, which is why, since neither macro evolution nor ID can be conclusively proven/disproven, we should teach both in school
Me: Hmm, ok, so you want to teach children than an alternate explanation for life on earth is that an "intelligent agent" caused the life to flourish?
ID Person: Right!
Me: So I suppose it is ok we tell them that aliens came to earth, made some adjustments to the atmosphere and chemistry of the planet and then dropped off a bunch of species...
ID Person: What!? No, no, I don't agree with that!
Me: Well you said it was an "intelligent agent", right?
ID Person: yes well, I meant it was god...
Me: But you don't know, and you and I certainly can't prove that aliens aren't the intelligence behind species, so aliens are just as viable an intelligent agent, aren't they? I mean, it could have happened that way since you and I both have already agreed species could have been placed here by Intelligent Design. Maybe we should teach them about evolution, and Intelligent Design but add that the intelligent design could have come from god or from aliens visiting the planet. It may well spark some interest in science; some of the kids may want to find these alien creators and become astrophysisists!
ID Person: err....
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...you and I certainly can't prove that aliens aren't the intelligence behind species, so aliens are just as viable an intelligent agent, aren't they?...
I've had the exact same conversation with both sides of the fence. there is just something in my makeup that makes me want to play Devil's Advocate every time...I don't even want to get into the whole ID debate though. I applaud whoever tried to combine religion and evolution, but there are too many holes to teach it in schools as fact. at least for my tastes.
Though my conversations with fundamentalists usually end up as one of two possibilities:
1)them: Have you ever considered that the answer you're lookeing for is in the bible?
me: Why yes I have, though I do have my problems with it.
them: then you'll go to hell.
me: But I'm just saying I have a problem with a book, not the religion...
them: To hell I say!
(exaggerated and condensed, but pretty accurate.)
2)them: And that's why it makes more sense for there to have been evolution to the exclusion of any religion.
me: but according to the book of Job, this proof you used doesn't make much sense. they seem to have a better explanation for us not understanding.
them: well I can see you're not thinking clearly. come talk to me when you get some common sense.
(again, abbreviated, but pretty accurate nonetheless.)
Gah, close-mindedness makes my head hurt.
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Gah, close-mindedness makes my head hurt.
well put. This is supposed to be a lighthearted thread (I think), so I will just bow out and chuckle at the pet peeves of everyone else (not that I wish to rebut but won't or anything of the sort. I just don't want to drag the thread off topic).
Thanks for the chat!
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People who crash the parade, rain on it, and then don't even have the decency to leave.
In Interspeak:
I'm talking about the person who jumps into a thread, states their opinion in a caustic and deliberately antagonistic way, refuses to apologize for his boorish behavior, then keeps coming back to sling more antagonism and essentially repeat his initial statement--and don't respond to the guy, because then he'll never shut up; it's like reading spam or trying to close a porn window and getting twenty tribble-porns for the effort.
And it's tantamount to internet bullying.
As an example, I might, sadly, point you to several Paizo threads, like this one... :-(
...And it's tantamount to internet bullying...
There seems to be a movement in Internet culture that if you have something to say you should couch it in the most ascerbic tones. We saw this with the brief influx of gamists from other places who never heard of courtesy; in fact derided it as 'Victorian'. It is kind of sad to see, as I am a big believer in politeness, even when you are posting anonymously on a message board.
Deriding or belittling others because they think something is good or they disagree with you doesn't make you witty, it makes you a troll. I have come to the personal conclusion that a lot of these people must lead very unhappy bullied lives if they feel the need to come to a message board and post mean-spiritedly like they do. Either that or they are smug 'Comic Book Guy' jerks who believe their superior knowledge of some obscure discipline makes them special.
I have heard people argue that the message, not the posting style is important. I call shennanigans on that. The way the message is constructed is CRUCIALLY important to getting your imformation out. That's Communications 101. They have a degree for it for a reason. People get paid phat salaries to discover how to appeal to people so that they will listen to a company's message. If a car dealership put an ad up saying: 'Our cars are the r0xx0rs! Anyone who drives another kind of car is a total asshat who is brain dead." Would you buy a car from them? Even if their car was the best?
Communication style is important. Just like grammar. Slang should be the spice in the message, not the main ingredient. Grammar gives us a common ground to interpret messages in a clear manner. It amazes me that so many folks who spend hundreds of hours disecting grappling rules in a fantasy game can't figure out how to use a period or Google as a spell-check feature. Poor spelling and grammar is just as detrimental to the message as getting the math wrong in a discussion of high-level feat bonuses.
10.people who say use fierce to describe anything
9. people who talk or use their cellphones during movies
8. internet memes and catspeak
7. fangirls/fanboys
6. people who totally misuse words that could be used correctly in a different context, like calling snow gay when you really want to say snow isn't cool
5. people who whine about things that could be solved if the'd just do something
4. people who make jokes of rape and mental retardation
3. overly perky people
2. hearing the word munch
1. whenever people get their braces taken off and spend the rest of the week licking their teeth
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-Commercial breaks that are 10 times louder than the show I'm watching!
Literally, it's like the station boosts the signal for commercials only. I'm watching SyFy and the annual New Year's TZ marathon. The rest of the family is still asleep. I had to go to headphones because I got sick of trying to cut the volume from 10 to 2 at every commercial break!