Seven Cheeses
Feb. 5th, 2006 12:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darren_strangerQuiet101 tagged me for a 'list seven things that piss you off' meme.
It'd be easy (and obvious) to go for all the big worries of the world, so instead i'll toss in a few of the more specific bugbears that piss me off from time to time:
- Trying to cross a busy road, picking the safest gap to walk across, then hearing a driver speed up in indignation that someone would be so foolhardy as to cross in front of them.
- Americanised spelling displacing our own, through media saturation, deliberate use to save space in newspaper columns and spell-checkers that reset to US English no matter how many times you tell them to use Australian. Special irritation is reserved for the use of the word 'ass' in ways unconnected with donkeys.
- Realising that ironic use of the term 'unAustralian' is probably helping it become more widespread as a serious word, and that i'm a regular culprit.
- Office lights that have to be constantly on no matter how bright the day, with heating or air conditioning fired up the moment the temparature drifts a few degrees from 22. Also included is the look of incomprehension at the idea that i might choose not to piss energy up against the wall in this way.
- E-mail chain letters that tell you inspiring and uplifting stories of human kindness and consideration, then threaten you with terrible consequences unless you forward it to the required number of people within the required time.
- The conflict between believing in tolerance for other points of view and the existence of other points of view that believe in intolerance.
- Everybody Loves Raymond.
Now, i'm supposed to tag seven other people to follow suit but i refuse to do that, so instead i'll offer a different task for anyone that cares to take it up - namely to list seven things that inspire you, fill you with hope or otherwise put a smile on your face. I'll do likewise, but it may take a bit more time than this one.
It'd be easy (and obvious) to go for all the big worries of the world, so instead i'll toss in a few of the more specific bugbears that piss me off from time to time:
- Trying to cross a busy road, picking the safest gap to walk across, then hearing a driver speed up in indignation that someone would be so foolhardy as to cross in front of them.
- Americanised spelling displacing our own, through media saturation, deliberate use to save space in newspaper columns and spell-checkers that reset to US English no matter how many times you tell them to use Australian. Special irritation is reserved for the use of the word 'ass' in ways unconnected with donkeys.
- Realising that ironic use of the term 'unAustralian' is probably helping it become more widespread as a serious word, and that i'm a regular culprit.
- Office lights that have to be constantly on no matter how bright the day, with heating or air conditioning fired up the moment the temparature drifts a few degrees from 22. Also included is the look of incomprehension at the idea that i might choose not to piss energy up against the wall in this way.
- E-mail chain letters that tell you inspiring and uplifting stories of human kindness and consideration, then threaten you with terrible consequences unless you forward it to the required number of people within the required time.
- The conflict between believing in tolerance for other points of view and the existence of other points of view that believe in intolerance.
- Everybody Loves Raymond.
Now, i'm supposed to tag seven other people to follow suit but i refuse to do that, so instead i'll offer a different task for anyone that cares to take it up - namely to list seven things that inspire you, fill you with hope or otherwise put a smile on your face. I'll do likewise, but it may take a bit more time than this one.
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grumble
Date: 2006-02-05 03:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-05 03:36 am (UTC)Also included is the look of incomprehension at the idea that i might choose not to piss energy up against the wall in this way.
Heh. Should've seen the look I got from the tube-replacement-bloke when he came to replace one behind me in the office (I hadn't put in the order, I don't know who did) and I told him in no uncertain terms that I didn't WANT it replaced, that the room was so much more pleasant WITHOUT it. :)
I spent half my life at ye olde job (so it seemed at times) turning off a light that was in the entranceway of the ladies' toilet. Imagine - swing door in from corridor, reach arm out, there is next swing door into ladies' proper, first swing door hasn't even shut before second swing door is opening. There is NEVER a situation where a person would be in this tiny space without one or the other of those doors open, and yet there was a light there and SOMEbody thought it should be on ALL THE FUCKING TIME. I turned it off whenever I went in there. And every time I went back the frikken thing would be turned on again. *boggle* Who needs a light in a space that small that you're constantly moving through anyhow? *more boggle*
Crah.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-05 04:28 am (UTC)Oh, hell yes! I understand this one all too well!
no subject
Date: 2006-02-05 04:54 am (UTC)And, don't forget - autocorrect that always defaults to US English as well.
*nods*
We once spent TWO HOURS trying to convince a new XP install that it wanted to use UK or Australian English.
TWO HOURS. Word sucks.
To be fair, even Open Office does this.
- Office lights that have to be constantly on no matter how bright the day, with heating or air conditioning fired up the moment the temparature drifts a few degrees from 22.
I'm with you in the former. Every so often my Boss gets it into his head to replace all the lights. Within days I've usually removed half.
Now, I don't know about your office, but our air con/heater is ALWAYS on, and we like it that way. In part because we don't have windows and without it the office very quickly takes on a very special miasma. It's amazing that in a space as large as ours that could be packed with so many people how quickly the funk spreads.
Everybody Loves Raymond.
I know you won't believe this, but there is actually one episode of Everyone Loves Raymond which rates as one of my favourite suitcom episodes ever. If I recall, it's the one where Frank (? The father) reverses his car into Raymond's lounge.
I've seen it once, but there was something so dreadfully human about his ... crumbling, his refusal to accept he was aging.
And, well, I'm no fan, but there are worse sitcoms. Far, far worse. In my opinion.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-05 06:28 am (UTC)To be fair, i've seen moments in Raymond that have been so familiar i had to laugh, but i still find everything about it irritating - the running jokes, the embarrassment-humour, the laugh-track timing, not to mention the accents. But beyond the annoying surface things, i think i also dislike it from a cultural point of view that sees its emphasis on old-fashioned gender roles and family structure (where the men go to work and come home to watch sport, ignoring the nagging of their wives who run the household, look after the kids and try to win the men with their cooking skills etc) as somehow a sinister sign of rising conservatism and a resurgence of a whole swag of attitudes that were best left in the '50s.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-05 11:15 pm (UTC)I'm increasingly convinced that "comedy" is the primary vector for role reinforcement. We'd be better off without it.
Sometimes I wonder if reading "Stranger In A Strange Land" didn't totally kill my appreciation of humour.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 12:02 am (UTC)Theoretically, there should be no problem with one show depicting old-fashioned gender roles, if it's one of a range of different scenarios being presented alongside other possibilites in other shows. Emotionally though, i can't separate it from the wider 'Family Values' thrust that seems actively hostile to 'other possibilities' and is often just a cover for some good ol' fashioned bigotry.
What i haven't figured out is why the same thing in The Simpsons doesn't bother me.
(Maybe it is the accents after all.)
no subject
Date: 2006-02-05 06:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-05 06:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-05 06:37 am (UTC)I have heard that UK English spelling has also changed since the US went its own way, so that's probably more a case of drifting apart than not getting it. Still, i *like* our spelling and find the Americanised versions look very utilitarian and drab to my eyes, almost to the point of 'Newspeak'.
Plus, when i see American spelling being widely used in conjunction with SMS-talk, poor punctuation and 'OMG like no way' teenspeak, i can't help seeing it as a symptom of 'dumbing down' in younger generations.
Shit, i'm becoming a grumpy old fart.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-05 09:25 am (UTC)7 deadly inspirations
Date: 2006-02-07 04:06 am (UTC)milkshakes are good too :)
Re: 7 deadly inspirations
Date: 2006-02-08 02:00 am (UTC)Successful chaos sounds interesting.