Stupid things that instantly piss you off

[badger]

I haven't read all the posts here, but I thought I'd put in what set me off this morning.

My supervisor was talking to my co-worker. Sup went to a chinese restaurant and had something vegetarian, a prawn dish. Said she's being vegetarian this month.

Eh? since when did prawns become vegetables? I actually ripped right into her saying prawns are animals ("no they're not", she claimed ), and how shrimp harvesting is so devastating as they troll everything in the nets' path.

What's worse is that another goof standing by listening in said that fish are considered part of a vegetarian diet. That set me off even more.

Grr

Oh my god, just as I put this up, my coworker says "ever been to the Crab Pot? sounds good, they take a crab and smash it with a hammer for you".

Yeah, that sounds great.

[malkin]

Searching for BIKE BELL getting a bunch of Bell Helmets etc.

I'm not sure why that bugs me so much in light of the fact I am endlessly delighted by a search for a BROOKS SADDLE turning up a bunch of "Mel Brooks Blazing Saddles" hits.

[Aggie_Ama]

+1 million on the dogs in the bed of the truck. At A&M I had a friend that worked as a vet tech, she showed me some horrific pictures of dogs they tried to help after being thrown or jumping from a truck. Only one or two made it which is why the vet she worked with took the photos. He would show them to clients that brought their dogs in the bed of the truck, he didn't care that he sometimes lost the client.

Another huge pet peeve is people who throw their gel wrappers. At my recent half marathon they were all of the roads, no wonder the locals seemed so hateful to us. I try to pick up as many as I can on the mountain bike trail. People are so stupid to not realize they need to pack out what they pack in.

[badger]

My boyfriend and I fly fish. Everywhere we go, I end up spending about half an hour at the end of the day picking up various garbage left behind by other fishers. Same when I go for the local mountain hike trail. I pick up water bottles and wrappers all the time.

Another thing that really bugs me is when people toss garbage out the car window. Like whole bags of McDonald's take out after they're done. I so wish I can pick it up and throw it back into their windows.

[Maxxxie]

Searching for BIKE BELL getting a bunch of Bell Helmets etc.

I'm not sure why that bugs me so much in light of the fact I am endlessly delighted by a search for a BROOKS SADDLE turning up a bunch of "Mel Brooks Blazing Saddles" hits.

Hee hee If you're googling, you can exclude terms from the search results by using the "-" modifier. Eg search for bike bell -helmet or brooks saddle -mel -blazing

+lots to the unrestrained dogs in utes/trucks. Ditto the random litterers.

I don't have any of my own random pet peeves to add. But I'm getting a giggle out of some of the ones that have been posted so far!

Max

[Crankin]

People who say, "Oh, but I wasn't trying to go fast. I was just riding," when you are struggling in a 20 mph headwind and feel like you are going to keel over.
Can you tell that I am in a bad mood?

[tzvia]

Phone cold-call sales are bad enough, but when I pick up the phone and the person asks for 'Mr. XXX', mispronouncing my last name, assuming the man of the house makes the decisions (and I'm not married so there is no Mr. XXX), oh boy my blood boils instantly.

It does not matter that my phone is on the 'Do Not Call Register', I am already mad by that point. So I get the name of the company, and remind the person that they are using my time and my telephony equipment for their advertising so if they call again they will be charged a fee. I then proceed to attempt to get the legal address of the firm for this purpose and the name of the caller to add to my list, and by that time they are hanging up on me. Good.

On the bike I can only say that idiots make me mad. Unsafe ones with children. I was riding out of a favorite MTB trail that unfortunately attracts weekend family outings in the first mile or so, when I came upon a family of idiots. Don't know what else to call them. Woman and man and 3 kids, around 6 through 10 years old. Two bikes, both small kids 'dirt jump' type bikes, with pegs. The two idiot adults on the bikes, the two younger kids sitting on the handlebars, weaving all over the trail because the bikes are way too small for the adults to ride safely. The kids jumping on and off as they negotiate the short steep hills. NO helmets on anyone. One kid hanging off the rear pegs. I yell 'on the left' but they have no control over the bikes, and are weaving all over, spilling kids off the bars as they go, who run back and jump back on. I slow down as I see this and yell 'on the left' again. The woman cuts to the left and forces me off the bike and the kid of the bars. Am I mad? You have one guess. I can tolerate a lot on the bike; I see a lot of dufus stuff but being stupid and unsafe with kids just gets me right off. I have to dismount- they are all over the trail which is wide enough for a truck to go through. Finally I get back on the bike and force myself around the woman who actually looks surprised as she has to stop and the kid on the bars has to jump off yet again. Good grief.

[Maxxxie]

Phone cold-call sales are bad enough..<snip>..It does not matter that my phone is on the 'Do Not Call Register', I am already mad by that point..<snip>..and by that time they are hanging up on me. Good.

Whenever I get calls from telemarketers, I make it my mission to make their experience as unpleasant as possible. I believe I'm helping to make the world a better place by making telemarketers so miserable that they leave the telemarketing industry and move onto something a) more productive and b) less irritating to the rest of the world.

How do I do this? Well, it depends on my mood. Sometimes (my preferred technique), I will pretend I am a deaf, old biddy who says things like "Ehh?? What's that, sonny? Wait, I need my hearing aid.", and I'll leave them hanging for a while whilst I bumble around trying to find my hearing aid. When I don't succeed, I'll go back and tell them they'll need to shout. I, of course, being an old biddy who can't hear, will shout back. You know, so that I can hear myself. This can provide many minutes of entertainment (for me) and frustration (for them). Most of them work for places that have a policy that they're not allowed to hang up on customers. Yay!!

One other favourite (this, I learned from a friend of a friend) is to say that I can't possibly give money to someone I don't know on a personal level. And so, the conversation will become more and more personal. Nothing's off-limits. Shoe size, colour of underwear.. it's kind of innocent at first. Then it descends to gutter level. "So... what are you wearing?". Some (particularly those calling from overseas) don't understand the nuance. But eventually the penny will drop and they'll get all flustered. I've never managed to get the conversation X-rated. For some reason, they find an excuse to end the call.

My all-time favourite, though, was when I answered the phone and the caller thought that I was a young child. First, I asked them if they were Santa Claus, and told them I'd been a good girl, and could I have a pony. They asked for mummy or daddy. I told them mummy was dead, and that daddy was in jail for killing her. They couldn't get off the phone fast enough!


Max

[OakLeaf]

I don't act rude to telemarketers. It's about the world's worst job, usually paid little more than minimum wage, staffed for the most part by people in depressed rural areas, and they have a quota to make if they want to keep their jobs.

All you have to do is say "Thanks, not interested" and hang up. You don't have to engage them. Then you can put their phone number into your spam filter (it's surprising how often calls come in from the same call center).

It is kind of strange, though, how the "do not call" list worked really well for the first few years, and now we get spam calls all the time again, hardly any less than before.

[Irulan]

I haven't read all the posts here, but I thought I'd put in what set me off this morning.

My supervisor was talking to my co-worker. Sup went to a chinese restaurant and had something vegetarian, a prawn dish. Said she's being vegetarian this month.

Eh? since when did prawns become vegetables? I actually ripped right into her saying prawns are animals ("no they're not", she claimed ), and how shrimp harvesting is so devastating as they troll everything in the nets' path.

What's worse is that another goof standing by listening in said that fish are considered part of a vegetarian diet. That set me off even more.

Grr

Oh my god, just as I put this up, my coworker says "ever been to the Crab Pot? sounds good, they take a crab and smash it with a hammer for you".

Yeah, that sounds great.

uh, yah. It's called Pescatarian if you eat fish.

This may have already been mentioned & I did not read this entire thread, but I am sitting here in my living room listening to a dog up the road barking...and barking....and barking....he stays in a pen & if he hears the slightest thing he starts barking and will not stop. No one at his house pays any attention to him and no one ever tells him to stop. I feel bad for the poor thing & his owners piss me off because they 1. neglect the poor thing and 2. do not have enough respect for their neighbors to make the dog stop (or send him to a home where someone loved him).

uh yah on this one also. for me it would be a) not have to listen to your semi abandoned dog bark all the time and b) to not have your free roaming cat pooing and hunting all over my yard.

[bunny_ninja]

As a vegetarian of many, many years - I have heard 'do you eat fish?' sooo many times after explaining that I don't eat meat.

[rubywagon]

As a vegetarian of many, many years - I have heard 'do you eat fish?' sooo many times after explaining that I don't eat meat.

+1! Someone asked me once, "What about chicken?" I got a good chuckle.

[WolfGirl]

Getting cut off (and almost crashed into) at an intersection by another cyclist who ran a red light! I guess the fact that he was riding on the sidewalk made it okay.

[bunny_ninja]

Getting cut off (and almost crashed into) at an intersection by another cyclist who ran a red light! I guess the fact that he was riding on the sidewalk made it okay.

HAHAHAH! yup...

[PamNY]

I can shut down the whole "what do you eat and what should you be called" conversation by explaining that I don't eat anything I wouldn't be willing to kill myself. Which is true.

Nobody has suggested a label for me yet.