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Saturday, December 20, 2008

#339: Movies on Buses/Airplanes with sound over PA system

I was annoyed by this in Argentina. They would play the movies on the buses and planes over the PA system, instead of what I am used which is having the sound muted and if you want to watch/listen to the film, you plug in your ear phones. I did not enjoy having to listen to bad movies on my 21 hour bus ride, especially this terrible Drillbit Taylor.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

#337: Exhaust smell in foreign countries

Living in a country with good motor vehicle emission standards, you forget the much of the world doesn't have the standard of living to enforce these rules. Even in a fairly well-off country like Argentina, I became annoyed at smelling exhaust, even in the smallest of towns in Patagonia. It just took one idling pickup or bus to stink up the whole area in a wide radius. Also, to make matters worse, they leave vehicles idling a lot. I think it might be due to being scared that it won't start up again if they shut it down while waiting to drive off. Severity: 4

#336: cheap napkins in some Argentina restauants

Some restaurants in Argentina had napkins that were basically like wax paper. Totally unsatisfying to wipe your mouth with. Severity: 3

#335: Places not opening for dinner till real late

In Buenos Aires, almost all spots for dinner did not open till 8pm. I understand that most people might want to eat late, but there still has to be enough business during the week that you could open early. I was walking around all day and starving and couldn't go to the places I wanted to because the timing was not right. Severity: 1

#334: Airport taxes in foreign countries

This isn't about hating these type of tourist taxes, which I do. This is about having the stupid process of paying it at the airport before you depart, rather than instituting and automated system where the tax is included in your ticket and remitted to the government by the airline. I guess people need jobs. Severity: 1

#333: No tap water in restaurants in Argentina

You just can't get tap water brought to you in Argentina. Even when I was by glaciers and the tap water was the best you could possibly have and better than bottled water, I could not get them to understand the concept. That, or they just refused. One time, a guy just poured me a little bottled water in a glass at no charge, but that wasn't the point. I find bottled water the ultimate in wastefulness when you have fine tap water and I didn't want to contribute to the waste. Severity: 3

#332: Having to ask for the check in Argentina

On my trip to Argentina, I found it a bit annoying to have to ask for the check every time. They just never would come by and see if you were done or not. Sometimes, you like not being rushed, but often it was quite obvious I was ready and having to say "La cuenta por favor" so much became irritating, though it was one of the few phrases I mastered. Severity: 2

Monday, September 29, 2008

#331: Blackberry Buzzing

People at meetings that have their blackberries out and they buzz for every email vibrating on the table. Why do people need to get a buzz for every email? They are going to check it every 5 seconds anyway. It's distracting to me. Severity: 3

Sunday, September 07, 2008

#330: Single Serving Laundromat Supplies

It annoys me to see people wasting money buying single-use supplies from the laundromat vending machine. To pay 75 cents for 2 sheets of Bounce is shameful. How hard is it to buy a 120 sheet pack like I do and take some to the laundromat when you do your clothes? Instead of paying 38 cents a sheet, I pay something like 3 cents and save on trash by not creating packaging waste like this fool did. Same goes for detergent purchases (which this guy also made). The laziness, lack of green, and extreme waste of money boils my blood a little. Severity: 3

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

#329: Fast Phone Number Giving

I dislike when people leave a voicemail and they leave their phone number in such a fast way as to make it nearly impossible to get the number. It's both rude and self-aggrandizing in that it's saying that the person thinks their time is so valuable that they can't spend the extra second to leave the phone number in a slower, intelligeble manner. Severity: 2

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

#328: Premature Elevator Leavers

I don't like when I'm in an elevator with someone else and they stop off at a floor before mine and before the door opens they make a move to leave and have to hold themselves back and are really close to the door. I'm a bit confused by why this annoys me, but I think it both makes me nervous for their agitation to leave before they are able to and insulting for them wanted to get out of the elevator (and away from me) so fast that they can't bear to wait another second. Severity: 1

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

#327: Ticket Number write down

When I call in to the help desk at work, they always say, "Now write down this ticket number" and it's stupid because seconds later, you get an email with the number. So I just pretend I'm excitedly writing the number to make the guy feel important, but I think it's stupid. Severity: 1

Monday, June 30, 2008

#326: Office Phone Number Display

You may recall annoyance #246 where I complained about my phone not displaying the number of the call coming in on the second line. Well, my new job's phone does this, but has a new annoyance. It doesn't display the code I've dialed in to access a conference call. So when I call the conf call 800 number and type in the code, when I get the hold music, I'm always unsure if I typed in the wrong digits by accident or if it's just the meeting host being late to start the call. Severity: 2

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

#325: Voice Mail Blather Before the Beep

When you call a phone and the voicemail precedes the beep with this long-winded message about how to leave a message, pressing numbers for more options, leaving call back numbers, etc. and you're anxious to just skip to the beep and leave the damn message already. Sometimes, you can hit the # button, but sometimes, that doesn't work and causes more mishaps like it did to me today. Severity: 2

Saturday, June 21, 2008

#324: Debit Card Usage

I don't understand why I see people using debit cards so much. It's obviously better than writing a check, which you hardly ever see. But my problem is that I know most of these people also have a credit card and so why aren't they using that instead? You get points, you have no chance for overdrafts, your rights for disputing charges are better, and you get interest free float for at least 20 days. Any points rewards programs associated with debit cards are FAR inferior to credit cards, which usually have a standard 1% cash back or gift card back amount, while debit cards are typically 1/3 or less of that reward, if they have any at all, which most don't. Only exception is people that need cash back, so I'm talking about people that use it with a signature, not PIN. Severity: 2

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

#323: No Print Preview in Outlook

Just pisses me off and wastes paper. Severity: 3

#322: Misleading Price Signs

I don't like the scams businesses do where they put a sign out that tries to trick people. The biggest violators of this are parking garages that advertise some low cost but in small print say it's per 20 minutes, which is not what most people are going to find useful in determining the cost of their parking. Also, I recently noticed a bar put up a sign that said some special beer was $1 off, but the off was small and such that I think they meant to trick people that the price was a $1, not that the savings was $1. Especially since $1 off isn't that great to trumpet. Severity: 2

Saturday, June 14, 2008

#321: Sad Microwave Clock

I bought a pretty cheap microwave Best Buy to replace my original one that broke about 3 years ago and the clock is so inaccurate, that after about a week, the time is wrong by 10 minutes. I know I only spent $40 on this appliance, but that is unacceptable and I am tired of having to reset it all the time. On the contrary, a wall clock I bought at Walgreens for $2 is way more accurate. Severity: 1

Sunday, June 08, 2008

#320: Good Times

No, not the show, which I love. This is about people that say "Good Tiiiimes" with that elongation of the "i" in a Socal surfer sort of tone. It used to be cool, but has been overused to the point of annoying me. People: try to be cool in some other way and come up with your own hip phrase that will last a few years before I deem it expired, like this one. Serverity: 1

#319: Wamu Credit Card Offers

I don't mind credit card offers, as someone who signs up for one if there's any deal to be had. However, Wamu keeps sending me this scam deal where they trumpet "0% of purchases till [really long time from now]" but then there's an asterisk that says "when you transfer a balance." Of course, the interest rate on the balance transfer is like 8%. In addition, they count on the average Joe not understanding about the payment allocation rules which state that your payments go to pay off the lower interest rate balance before the higher rate balance, which means that keeping to take advantage of the 0% on purchases, you necessarily have to be paying interest on the 8% balance transfer balances. Anyway, it's a bad deal and the fact that I get one of these from them about every two weeks is annoying and makes me not ever want to deal with this bank. Severity: 2

#318: Refuses to Share

This one guy at my pool who I see a lot will sometimes stand wating for a lane to open all for himself for great lengths and it annoys me that he won't share a lane like everyone else. Severity: 1

Thursday, May 22, 2008

#317: Efficiency Ignored

When I find a shortcut to make my life more efficient, I like to share it. It annoys me when everyone I tell the idea to seems uninterested. The latest thing is when I investigated to figure out how to set the speed dial on my work phone (which was a lot of more complicated than one would think) and had the additional idea to put in the conference call number (which is the same throughout the company) in. Almost everyone calls this number at least once a day. And yet no one seemed as excited as I was that they could just push a button to initiate the call, rather than dialing 12 digits on the phone and having to remember the number or look it up in the meeting request. Severity: 2

Sunday, April 27, 2008

#316: 7-11 Hot Dog Purchases

One of my great joys is having a salty 1/4 pound Big Bite hot dog at the Mill Valley 7-11 on the way home from mountain biking. However, the process is annoying to me because when you pay for it, the guy gets the hot dog from the rollers, puts in the bun and puts it in the box, but then leaves it over at the condiment area so I have to walk all the way over to there for nothing (since I don't put anything on it) and then back out the door. So, today, I said "I'll have a hot dog plain" and the guy responded "do you want a bun?" and I was like, "Yeah" and he still put it over at the condiment area. So, I'm both annoyed that the guy thought plain meant no bun and that he didn't understand that I was saying not to put it over at the condiment area since I wasn't going to put anything on it; just give it to me. Anyway, all the drama involved in getting the hot dog purchase to go as efficiently as I want it to go is just plain annoying. Severity: 2

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

#315: Handicap Button Pushers

This is similar to another one from long ago, but different enough to warrant a new entry. There's a button to open the door to the bathroom on my floor at work from the outside and inside for handicap people. This guy that is not handicap and uses it annoys me because it is shamefully lazy, in my opinion. Severity: 2

#314: Scared of Protests

People that are scared to come into the city for work the day there is supposed to be a protest because they think they'll be stranded. This isn't some third world country. The odds of something so violent and crazy happening that you are held hostage in your office are so low that not coming in is just a scam, similar to #313. Severity: 2

#313: Jury Duty Day Off Scammers

People that take the day off from work for jury duty in advance of calling in to find out if they have to go in. They're just trying to get an extra day off. Severity: 2

Monday, March 17, 2008

#312: Airborne

People that spend money on the scam product Airborne because they think it will keep them from getting sick, annoy me. I have no idea what the product is, but the fact that it says "created by a schoolteacher!" on the box, tells me that in no way can it possibly have anything else than a placebo effect. It's just another case of people wanting some magic drug to protect them. There's something about taking pills that makes people feel special, I've found, such that I feel many do so unnecessarily. This product has capitalized big-time on this phenomenon. Severity: 2

Monday, March 10, 2008

Public Input Needed: Vote For Most Baffling Annoyance

I'm curious what visitors to this blog think is the oddest annoyance I have. By odd, I mean you can't see how something could annoy someone enough to waste the time to write it down. For reference, refresh your memory with the archives and don't forget to check out the old entries on my main website. I will allow you to pick up to 3. Based on the responses, I may or may not do some soul-searching and do my best to stop being annoyed by things that shouldn't bother me so much. Thanks,

Marc

#311: Sooner Rather Then Later

This phrase is used a lot at my work to describe when someone wants something done, and it bothers me as a stupid thing to say that people must think sounds clever to say. Severity: 1

Thursday, March 06, 2008

#310: Meeting Requests

People at work that ask you if you're available for a meeting and never check your calendar. It's much simpler to just do that and if the person can't do it, they can decline. Severity: 1

#309: Self-Spoilers

Anyone who actively reads a recap or blog of a show before they watch it annoys me greatly because I can't fathom how someone can't have the patience to wait till they watch the show to find out what happens. To me, watching the show not knowing what is going to happen is one of the great joys of TV watching and so the fact that some people don't share this belief makes me think the human race is doomed. Severity: 4

#308: Loud, low-threshold laughers

Lately, I've been around some loud laughers and it gets annoying after a while because typically, loud laugher are also low-threshold laughers that will laugh frequently without just cause. I don't mind loud laughing if it's justified, but when it happens with great frequency and usually for things that aren't really that funny, then it becomes something that I feel the laugher just wants to hear themself laugh or thinks it's cool for others to hear them. After a while, it gets old and hurts my ears. Severity: 3

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

#307: Receipt Givers

When you order something to go at a restaurant for lunch or dinner where they call a number and people go to claim their order and try to hand the person their number proving it's really their food. These people don't care. They know that it's your food or else the real owner would dispute the interloper. So why people feel a need to present the order receipt to the worker is a mystery to me. I also don't know why this bothers me so much, since I would think only people in the job of having to refuse or crumple the person's receipt would care. Severity: 3

Monday, January 07, 2008

#306: 3pm Virus Scan

Everyday at work at 3pm, my computer hard drive starts going nuts and it's because they do this virus scan and it slows down all my applications while it runs. I don't see why they can't do this at night when I'm not working since the PC is always hooked up on the network. Severity: 3