You Know What Grinds My Gears? - Things that personally piss you off

[Clem Fandango]

This is mega annoying, especially if he always picks expensive stuff like your example. What happens if you tell him that you can't (or won't) pay him back? "Sorry, $150 tickets are not in the budget right now, but thanks for thinking of me. Have fun at the match!" If it's true, you can tell him that you'd love to meet up afterward to do something cheaper instead. Then, just drop it.

I think your instinct is right that he doesn't want to give anyone the chance to say no. To be charitable to him, though, I feel like he could be doing it because he's worried that no one likes him or something, so he's trying to force you to commit. You might just have to speak to him honestly. I know it's awkward, but it's more awkward to let him think that this is a good way to socialize.

Is he from a wealthy family?

I think only one time I said no because I genuinely couldn't make it, and to be fair he just got a refund without much complaint. Maybe that's his MO? Like he thinks it's better to just get the tickets and he can always refund them? But like I said, I still don't like the pressure.

He's not from a rich background. We've known each other since high school and his upbringing was actually quite poor. But without going into too much detail he had some good fortune in his early 30s and is now "independently wealthy" (as in, he doesn't have to work and basically lives a life of leisure).

 

[Nick Obre]

I think only one time I said no because I genuinely couldn't make it, and to be fair he just got a refund without much complaint. Maybe that's his MO? Like he thinks it's better to just get the tickets and he can always refund them? But like I said, I still don't like the pressure.

He's not from a rich background. We've known each other since high school and his upbringing was actually quite poor. But without going into too much detail he had some good fortune in his early 30s and is now "independently wealthy" (as in, he doesn't have to work and basically lives a life of leisure).

Just tell him "If you buy tickets to something on my behalf without confirming that I WANT TO GO and CAN AFFORD IT and I'M FREE AT THE TIME OF THE THING, I am NOT GOING. No matter what it is. Even if all 3 things are true, if you don't confirm with me, I'm NOT GOING."

If it's, as you think, an aversion to being told "no", he has to understand that doing this without your confirmation is an automatic no. He's "no-ing" himself by acting that way.

 

[The Last Stand]

Say we've been talking about going to see a cricket match in the summer, and I've indicated an interest. He'll just buy a fucking £150 ticket on my behalf and then breezily ask me to pay him back. He never checks that I'm alright with the price, and even upgrades to more expensive seats on the basis that he thought it would be worth it.

I'd be more mad that HE bought tickets that he expected ME to pay back. I didn't agree to anything, why are you buying stuff for me with that expectation of being PAID BACK?

I hate when it's your day off and people expect you to always do stuff. Maybe I'd like to just unwind at home from time to time.

 

[Trollish and Suspicious]

When you go to watch a movie but realise the plot is crap because they spent all their time hiring black women

 

[ToroidalBoat]

There's been endless cold snaps with little relief since before winter even started, and there's still cold snaps going on even now.

Also I think being cooped up indoors all the time leads to a lack of energy, at least if it's constantly and unusually cold outside.

 

[Clovis]

It's extremely distressing. We wonder why no one can string together a sentence, but much of what passes for "professional" writing these days, in fiction and otherwise, is atrocious, just poorly written, self-indulgent twaddle. Reading it enriches no one in any way. So, even the young people who do bother to read anything are mostly seeing suboptimal examples of language usage, and so the cycle goes. People have developed a skewed perception of what good writing is like, which is part of why LLMs are so insidious. Even a perusal of your local news site will show what I mean. Even "professional journalists" can't write a sentence to save their lives. Work emails from corporate or management are often unparseable nonsense. No one cares. As long as American schools can pay enough lip service to caring about STEM, the basics of reading and writing our own language can be swept under the rug and no one really minds.

It's no wonder stuff like all of this gender shit has taken hold like it has. None of the people involved are capable of reading critically, so they fall for the kind of pie-in-the-sky magical thinking that destroys people. It's worse than that, though, because none of the purported experts can write a coherent sentence, either.

We cannot read because we cannot write. It's seriously unbelievable how much gets published that just shouldn't, from fiction to scientific literature.

I'm sorry, I know I sound like a complete schizo, but this gets me going.

I've been watching UK documentaries from the 1970s and the articulate and thoughtful speech of even the impoverished, disadvantaged subjects is notable. They speak like adults, not the childlike level of maturity we see on TV today. The editing and narration is much more demanding of the audiences engagement than any of the fascile shite I see today.

I think there's been a deliberate dumbing down of the masses. We've been thoroughly infantilised.

Had the same perrenial old argument with an academic today, about the value of choosing to write obfuscating difficult texts. They say the effort of studying them makes for better understanding and if a text is too easy to understand the masses will misread it.
I say the jargonisation of academia and the gatekeeping is just another side of the dumbing down of our culture. Both obscure truth and meaning, the jargon-currency becomes more Important than getting a useful point across.

Grim, isn't it?

 

[Trollish and Suspicious]

Easy to farm karma here. Just say "black people bad" lol

 

[The Last Stand]

When people tell you stuff you already know or asks the same questions repeatedly.

 

[Kiwi Lime Pie]

Do cyclists deliberately go out of their way to be annoying faggots, or am I just unlucky?

Sadly, cyclists in my part of Kiwi Land have no regard for traffic laws. Countless times, I've seen them run stop signs or red lights. Just today, I saw one riding in a left turn lane only to go straight ahead. And on one occasion, I had one refuse to let me pass him by cutting me off. I think he was the one that acted like he wanted to fight me at the next red light.

Working with the public made me truly realize people are fucking retarded. Trying to get free shit, vandalizing property, and starting fights. My hometown is fucking retarded.

Even before the era of the Karen, my experience working in the service field taught me that there will always be people who look down on you for no reason other than they feel as if they can.

How do you even watch sports? It's almost all advertising. Even the commentators are like " ... as you can see on the scoreboard presented to you by nissan."

Some Americans (*raises hand*) also dislike this. Besides all the political commentary that has permeated US professional sports, the endless corporate sponsorship of everything has run amok to the point of absurdity. I'm surprised that no medical facilities have stepped in to sponsor athletes' injuries at this point.

Similarly, I hate how all the ads for sports gambling web sites have become so pervasive across all forms of media. What grinds my gears most is how their ads encourage everyone to bet - especially on low-probability same day parlays - and yet many sites refuse to let you cash out if you decide you don't want to gamble any more by only allowing site credit... all the while they run a five to ten second disclaimer after every ad encouraging people to bet responsibly or to call a toll-free help line if they have a problem.

You know what pisses me off? Job-hunting, especially in this economy. I've been looking for a new job for like 3 months now, and it's painfully difficult. And I'm really damn good at what I do too, so it shouldn't be this stupidly hard.

During my last two times I had to job hunt, I learned that no two employers will accept the same resume format and everyone expects it formatted their way or else they won't even give you consideration. If someone has the skills you need and can pass a background check, that should matter more than resume formatting, but we can't have sensibility in today's times, can we?

When you're in adult rec sports, you can play for love of the game. It's the nostalgia of playing ball as a child without having to be in a dick-measuring contest with the jocks from school.

I largely enjoyed my time the local rec league and I was fortunate to eventually fall in with a group that played well enough together to stick together for a few years and season and win a couple of championships before the team imploded and I was left out by the new team that formed from the remnants. That said, there was one team that we occasionally played who was over-competitive compared to the rest of the teams and so cocky and arrogant about their skill that everyone else hated them to the point they experienced Schadenfreude during the rare occasions they lost a game.

Which leads me to my "grinding gears" tax: when your team has to forfeit or reschedule because your teammates would rather watch a game.

Having been captain of a team in the aforementioned rec league, I totally get someone having to miss when something comes up last second. What ground my gears was the people who agreed to be on the roster and then not show up to any games and not pay for their spots, or those who would call five minutes before game time to say they decided they weren't going to play that week. My last season as captain, I believe we played short handed every week but one. It's no wonder we lost every single game and had to forfeit our first round playoff game because not enough people wanted to show up.

Maybe you wouldn't be bothered by it if we lived in more normal times.

So to (finally) get to the point I'm trying to make, this makes me feel like a hypocrite because I used to, and largely still do, consider myself a live-and-let-live liberal. A 90s liberal. Yeah, we can all get along, just leave other people alone.

The thing is that there shouldn't be anything inherently wrong with someone, whether real or fictitious, coming from a non-traditional family background. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people who have the live and let live attitude about people different from themselves, but that attitude is now seen as "problematic" because current year identity politics brands anyone as some sort of hater or fear monger if they don't accept all aspects of a person's background or lifestyle.

 

[internet friend]

Some Americans (*raises hand*) also dislike this. Besides all the political commentary that has permeated US professional sports, the endless corporate sponsorship of everything has run amok to the point of absurdity. I'm surprised that no medical facilities have stepped in to sponsor athletes' injuries at this point.

You know it's bad when I don't even watch sports and still see this shit. There was a headline a few days ago I saw saying something like "How the formula One could be a vehicle for social change" and it just filled me with sadness. Why does it have to be a "vehicle for social change"? Why can't it just be fast cars driving fast?

 

[Mysterious Figure]

I hate that I can never stay asleep. My mind is always racing.

 

[bliblblblbbllb]

I hate people who say they'll "listen to anything" or "like all music."

They're fucking liars who think playing bossa nova LPs off YouTube during downtime at work is "the weirdest music they've ever heard" or think Billy Joel, Talking Heads, and ABBA are fucking outsider art only enjoyed by psychopaths. I am not a music guy at all. I'm not that deep into anything. But I can't count how many times I've asked someone "Are you okay with music while we work? What music do you like?" And they say they like everything. Then I play "Greatest Hits of John Denver" or a "cafe ambienance" mix and it's "Holy shit bliblbblbl! What is this crazy music!?"

I'm pretty sure "I like all music" actually means "I only ever listen to the pop radio station and 7 second remixes of songs I hear on TikTok and in advertisements."

 

[Return of the Freaker]

I hate people who say they'll "listen to anything" or "like all music."

They're fucking liars who think playing bossa nova LPs off YouTube during downtime at work is "the weirdest music they've ever heard" or think Billy Joel, Talking Heads, and ABBA are fucking outsider art only enjoyed by psychopaths. I am not a music guy at all. I'm not that deep into anything. But I can't count how many times I've asked someone "Are you okay with music while we work? What music do you like?" And they say they like everything. Then I play "Greatest Hits of John Denver" or a "cafe ambienance" mix and it's "Holy shit bliblbblbl! What is this crazy music!?"

I'm pretty sure "I like all music" actually means "I only ever listen to the pop radio station and 7 second remixes of songs I hear on TikTok and in advertisements."

You should get their reaction to Wheeler Walker Jr.

Tax: I have a lot in my queue/stack that requires me to physically do stuff lately and my supervisors always pick the worst time ti bug me about my ticket queue

Edit: i'm up on a ladder with a respirator on plugging in cat 6 and with a noc tech remoted to my pc for console "hey lets talk about updating the entries on these tickets "

 

[Meat Target]

You know it's bad when I don't even watch sports and still see this shit. There was a headline a few days ago I saw saying something like "How the formula One could be a vehicle for social change" and it just filled me with sadness. Why does it have to be a "vehicle for social change"? Why can't it just be fast cars driving fast?

They've taken the notion of "corporate social responsibility" (that companies should avoid doing things that harm other people) and bastardized it into "use firms as social engineering vehicles."

ESG is predicated on risk management. They kiss the progressive ring and don't stick their necks out for shitlords because they don't want negative press or discrimination lawsuits. They aren't always true believers; they just don't wanna provoke the wrath of the para-government that is the activist-grifter class.

Hence, you cannot have any app or product that doesn't simply do what it does on the label. They use their marketing and consumer behavior experts to manipulate their customers towards what Larry Fink demands.

 

[bliblblblbbllb]

You should get their reaction to Wheeler Walker Jr.

I'm always tempted to break out the Wesley Willis.

 

[AnOminous]

I've usually been a lot calmer about stupid people driving than I used to be, but the other day it seemed like literally everyone was doing shit to piss me off. One thing I hate is when some idiot rides his brakes so the lights are always on and you can't tell when he actually does slow down, so you have to give him a huge lead to avoid having to screech to a halt.

And some douche riding my ass when I'm doing the speed limit and there's a passing lane. I just let off the gas and slow down for those fuckers. Or even more annoying, people who pass you at a high speed then immediately pull right and slow down.

Roundabouts where they make no fucking sense because some planner had a fetish for the things. Roundabouts where they're yield to drivers already in them and then the next one is yield to incoming.

Lazy ass truck drivers with open flatbeds full of junk and trash that keeps blowing out the back.

 

[Chao Garden]

I just saw a bunch of ugly gay palestinefag protesters in the middle of the fucking road by these stoplights. One of them was a gross TiM troon too. Never thought I'd have to see that in person, inshallah they will get run over

 

[UnsufficentBoobage]

Most phone cables only serve as chargers and not as USB they supposedly are, so no acessing the disk from your PC~. Had to try EVERY cable in the house (6) before finding my sister has a palm's lenght working one.
Why I needed to is another gripe, my smart phone has some arbitrary limit on amount of files that could be on a flash drive you plug into it, and everything above gets turned into 0kb useless things irreversibly.

 

[Baron Vain]

When people say spanking is child abuse. Do people even know what child abuse means? Sure when it goes too far like the kid getting hurt, but one or two hits leaving no marks isn't doing any harm. They can't even tell the difference between hitting kids for no reason and discipline.

It's so common in non white households and cultures. Especially Asian culture, which is why they are so well behaved.

Some retards even compare spanking to CSA which is very insulting. That stuff is actually traumatizing and harms kids, not discipline which being a few spanks.

 

[AnOminous]

When people say spanking is child abuse. Do people even know what child abuse means? Sure when it goes too far like the kid getting hurt, but one or two hits leaving no marks isn't doing any harm.

It depends what it is and what it's for. If it's for something outright dangerous or that you'd get to enjoy prison for if you did it as an adult, and nothing less will get through to your dumbass kid, it's almost obligatory. You can't let your kids grow up to believe some forms of absolutely unacceptable behavior are okay.

I got the belt maybe three times as a kid and each time, it was not only something really fucked-up but something I'd done more than once. It was the only way to get through to my ODD/ADHD kid ass. And I learned not to do those things. Well, not to do those things to them. The one time I called my mom a bitch, for instance, because I had a friend who would always do that because his single mom was weak. That did not result in a spanking but a you BETTER not EVER do that again and I knew what that meant.

It was usually not my dad who was the one to fear, but my mom.

That said, the nuns at my Catholic school, especially the principal, were all absolutely pushovers when it came to me, and most of the kids were somewhat terrified of them.

tl;dr it's retarded to say any form of corporal punishment is absolutely utterly verboten and it's sometimes a good thing when it isn't arbitrary and unfair. Actual physical abuse causing damage is an entirely different thing.