I’m not really in a cranky mood, I had just been jotting these things down here and there with the vague idea of a post some day, and today is the day.
• Music on blogs; I am usually playing my own music or, I find it distracting while I am reading the blog. I especially hate it when they bury the on/off ap far down in the blog side bar. My keyboard is third-party because I liked the touch, so it does not have a volume button.
• Not counting the change back. When did it become OK to just dump a handful of change in somebody’s hand and say, “There ya’ go.” I bet if that machine didn’t tell you how much to give me back you wouldn’t know how much to dump in my hand.
• Those pop-up show preview bars that cover the bottom of the TV show you’re watching and often have moving parts that are distracting. I’m trying to watch a show here, people!
• People who can’t stop checking their cell phones or reading (and replying to) texts while they’re eating with you or talking to you. Or people who are constantly on their cell phones because they can’t bear to have a minute of down time. Like, get on the plane, immediately pull out the phone, (and in loud voice) “Yeah, I’m sitting on the plane waiting to take off, what are you doing? Uh, huh. Yeah, you wouldn’t believe how long the security line was. Uh, huh.” (etc). Heaven help us when it is OK to use them on planes in flight. Also annoying are people who talk on cell phones in restaurants (I know I am not alone here). I really don’t want to hear your side of your pointless conversation at the top of your voice while I eat…or worse, both sides of the conversation accompanied by an annoying trilling beep after each transmission. I really love the folks who wear those silly-looking blue tooth Star Trek-looking things in their ear while they eat dinner with their family. They look important!
• When you order something from a website and are given the option of clicking Yes, send me specials, coupons, etc. and you don’t click it and get the email ads anyway and have to unsubscribe from their email list - often more than once. No thanks means No thanks, people.
• When I order something online and I end up on their catalog mailing list and I call, cancel the catalog, eventually order something else from the website and end up on the catalog list again. It is a vicious cycle.
• Magazines that start sending you renewal notices right after your first issue.
What’s your pet peeve?