You know what really grinds my gears?

Read: You know what I really hate? I just wanted to name it something different ^_^

Anyway, without turning into a massive argument with everyone treating each other like crap, what do you hate? By the way, I feel I'm taking a MASSIVE gamble making this topic, but I decided to make it because I assume you can all be nice and civil to each other, and it might be a successful topic. If it turns into a hate topic, I'll ask someone to lock it.

My list's quite long, so I'll post it in sections

One thing that really grinds my gears is when people automatically hate something they have no knowledge on. I understand people can have their own opinions, but when people are like 'I hate _______ SO much' and have no idea on it, or even worse, when they go 'Whenever I see a ________ fan, I want to stab them so much', it annoys me. Granted, it's slightly hypocritical of me to do this, but at least I've seen a bit of some of the popular stuff people hate (e.g. I saw Twilight and I've heard a whole Justin Bieber song and hated him so much from there).

Another thing that really grinds my gears is when people stare in through your living room window. I know it's a minor thing, but it's annoying. I don't live in a zoo, so there's no need to stare in through my window for as long as possible when you walk past my house, and there's no reason to walk slower past it either. I know I'm handsome I have nice stuff there's a window there, but that doesn't mean you HAVE to look through it. If I put a knife outside my door, would you feel the need to go around cutting things with it?

You know what grinds my gears? Well, apart from my laptop switching itself off without warning, meaning I have to retype things?

Slow people in front of me. ESPECIALLY in supermarkets. There I am, browsing through the supermarket when some sod with a massive trolley is in the way and I can't get past them. Suddenly this trip to Tesco has become a freaking game of Pac-Man. The gits don't even acknowledge the fact they're blocking people, as if the planet revolves around their fat arse, which is highly probable.

I also hate people in queues who loudly profess their distaste at being in such a long queue. One particularly egregious example happened when I was in the bank about a week ago: there was indeed a long queue and the old guy in front of me actually complained to a member of staff about how 'ridiculously' long the queue was. Yeah, you tell 'em what's what, sir. Stick it to those Barclays bastards for making us wait in a queue like animals. You're a real Che Guevara, a really grumpy and whiny Che Guevara. Yeah, no one likes queueing for ages mate, but you you have to make it even more tedious? Man up and stop whining, you're British for God's sake.

I could go on about others things that grind my gears, but I'd be here all day and it wouldn't be fair to other grinders.

Ashworthy-Harvington wrote:Slow people in front of me. ESPECIALLY in supermarkets. There I am, browsing through the supermarket when some sod with a massive trolley is in the way and I can't get past them. Suddenly this trip to Tesco has become a freaking game of Pac-Man. The gits don't even acknowledge the fact they're blocking people, as if the planet revolves around their fat arse, which is highly probable.

Oh dear god, this, so much. It reminds me of this thing that happened to me a few months ago. I was in a shop, which has extremely small aisles. I went to walk down an aisle to get a drink, and this man was in the aisle. When I say in the aisle, I mean blocking access through the aisle. Imagine in Pokemon Red/Blue when Snorlax blocked your path. Yeah, it was like that. He was morbidly obese. If he had've been any fatter he would have knocked off everything on the shelves on both sides. And he was just stood there, looking at everything he'd bought. Probably would have took him a while. He probably ended up eating his basket. I couldn't get past him, so I had to walk around the shelves to get past him. Guess where the drinks were? Right where he was stood. I walked around the shop for 10 minutes, walked back. He was STILL there. I ended up walking to another shop.

Moral of the story: If there's not a slow person keeping you from going down an aisle, it's a fat person. Maybe the fat people should outwalk the slow people? It might make them lose weight.

Why didn't you say 'Excuse me?' Alex? Couldn't you have just done that? Although there was a time when something similar happened in Tesco.. I asked about three times for them to move by saying "Excuse me please" and they still didn't. In the end I tried to force myself past and it seemed to do the trick. I got tuts but who cares? They had their chances.

Also, 'You know what really grinds my gears?' Sarcastic people. I truly hate people that give sarcastic responses and get smart. An example of one guy when I heard he was coming on a trip, he said "No, where did you hear that?" So I said "Well I heard you might be coming" to which he replies "Well MIGHT and WILL are two completely different things" I felt like I wanted to punch something. There is absolutely no need for it at all.

I also dislike it when people say they'll do something and then let you down and make excuses about it. I prefer them to say they can do it or not and if they can't, please don't stand there and lie about it..I really can't be doing with it.

I also hate people that talk behind other peoples backs. I once worked in a charity shop and the staff there were rather nice to me. Little did I know that there were a couple of gossips talking about me. I walked up the stairs once and overheard them talking about me, saying lies that I was lazy and I didn't contribute when it was obvious I did. I walked up the stairs and confronted them with it, grabbed my coat and walked out. It was really hurtful. If you have a problem with someone, be honest and just talk about it with them privately, what someone thinks may not be what it seems.

Anyway there's probably loads more but I can't think right now..

Darren wrote:Also, 'You know what really grinds my gears?' Sarcastic people. I truly hate people that give sarcastic responses and get smart. An example of one guy when I heard he was coming on a trip, he said "No, where did you hear that?" So I said "Well I heard you might be coming" to which he replies "Well MIGHT and WILL are two completely different things" I felt like I wanted to punch something. There is absolutely no need for it at all.

I'm a sarcastic person myself, but I completely agree - there's a thin line between being funny with it and just being outright rude.

Hmm, is Hollywood's lack of originality something I'm allowed to grind my gears about? Yup, I'm still kind of sore from the trailers before Toy Story 3. Sequels, remakes (a.k.a 'gritty modern reboots', adaptations of popular books/comics, silly talking animals... Now in 3D, because the the trailer for 'Piranha 3D' made me realise it isn't just a gimmick*! Of course they aren't all necessarily bad, but I'd like to see something completely new (I've heard good things about Inception, good old Christopher Nolan). Yes, I'm aware the same problem exists in television, the music industry and even in our beloved video games. I'm also aware that there are exceptions; unfortunately these exceptions tend to be small Indie projects overshadowed by the Blockbuster Machine.

On that note: Adverts in general grind my gears to no end - Why can't they get to the bloody point? Why do you feel the need to annoy me out of buying your products with annoying mascots, awful jingles and outright cockitude.

(*I'm really, REALLY hoping the 3DS brings some quirky new game-play elements to the table. Not that I don't have faith in Nintendo's efforts)

Never noticed you to be sarcastic towards me Ash

I agree with the adverts, some are funny but some are just over the top and pointless.. I wonder what goes through their minds when they create stuff like this sometimes..

Darren wrote:Why didn't you say 'Excuse me?' Alex? Couldn't you have just done that? Although there was a time when something similar happened in Tesco.. I asked about three times for them to move by saying "Excuse me please" and they still didn't. In the end I tried to force myself past and it seemed to do the trick. I got tuts but who cares? They had their chances.

There's times when you don't do that. Asking won't always work, you need to get an idea of who your audience is, even if it means judging a person.

Darren wrote:Also, 'You know what really grinds my gears?' Sarcastic people. I truly hate people that give sarcastic responses and get smart. An example of one guy when I heard he was coming on a trip, he said "No, where did you hear that?" So I said "Well I heard you might be coming" to which he replies "Well MIGHT and WILL are two completely different things" I felt like I wanted to punch something. There is absolutely no need for it at all.

I completely agree with this. I see it a lot and it pisses me off a lot. I don't mind the occasional sarcastic comment, but when it happens all the time, it gets annoying. Being overly sarcastic is what gets people arguing and hating others.

Ashworthy-Harvington wrote:Hmm, is Hollywood's lack of originality something I'm allowed to grind my gears about? Yup, I'm still kind of sore from the trailers before Toy Story 3. Sequels, remakes (a.k.a 'gritty modern reboots', adaptations of popular books/comics, silly talking animals... Now in 3D, because the the trailer for 'Piranha 3D' made me realise it isn't just a gimmick*! Of course they aren't all necessarily bad, but I'd like to see something completely new (I've heard good things about Inception, good old Christopher Nolan). Yes, I'm aware the same problem exists in television, the music industry and even in our beloved video games. I'm also aware that there are exceptions; unfortunately these exceptions tend to be small Indie projects overshadowed by the Blockbuster Machine.

Only 1 in 10 movies nowadays are based from original ideas. The majority of them are based from TV, games, comics, books, ideas taken from other films, ideas scrapped as sequels for other films, and more. Weirdly enough, only 1 in 10 movies make a decent profit. Sadly though, lack of originality is done because it makes money. The film might not make a profit, but with a lot of films, merchandising can bring in money too. You have to remember that this is a business, even though I despise the lack of originality. This is why postmodern films such as Cloverfield and District 9 have become popular - they go for new ideas, hence the term postmodern.

Ashworthy-Harvington wrote:On that note: Adverts in general grind my gears to no end - Why can't they get to the bloody point? Why do you feel the need to annoy me out of buying your products with annoying mascots, awful jingles and outright cockitude.

But aren't the annoying mascots, awful jingles and outright cockitude the ones that stick in your head? It might be annoying, but it's actually marketing that works - it gets people talking. I hate the We Buy Any Car advert though.

Another thing that grinds my gears is on Facebook/MSN/AIM/Skype/whatever when people talk to you just for the same conversation every time. 'Hi' 'Hi' 'how r u' 'fine, u?' 'fine ty, wuu2' 'nm, u' 'same'. If it leads to a good conversation, then I'm fine with it, but when I get it every time I go on Facebook, it's annoying. Especially when it's someone I don't give a damn about. Thank god for blocking people

You know what really grinds my gears? People who don't understand the real definition of agnosticism and thus have serious bad misconceptions about atheists. Originally, the word agnostic wasn't referring to a deities in particular; it was coined by a man who had no idea what he was doing in some 'freethinker' club. Dictionaries then tainted it to mean some 'middle-ground' that doesn't really exist and paint atheists as ignorant.

http://atheism.about.com/od/aboutagnosticism/a/atheism.htm for more information.

You know what else grinds my gears? People who just don't tell the truth enough. I don't mean lie. I literally mean people who don't tell the truth enough. Too many times do I ask for why people think or do things and they give me this complicated answer that just subtly means something else.

Let's say for instance I ask somebody why they dislike the NBA. I've gotten stuff like "because the players are too arrogant and bad." I then ask them to list these players and they can only name one or two. Clearly, they never really thought MUCH of their opinion on the NBA and probably never seen much more than a finals game. You break down all the reasons to the point where the person is just needlessly biased. The truth would have been "because it just doesn't interest me."

Well, if it doesn't interest you, why go through such long explanations and silly opinions when you could have just said something more simpler? This is a good example of what I mean by 'truth'. I don't care for political correctness one bit. Don't make up excuses or be subtle about simple things. You look stupid in the process and I can almost always tell when somebody's doing it.

I'll say one last thing for now. People who non-jocularly insult America as if they've been there and know all about it. People underestimate ALL forms of media. You do not learn to know about a country by a news report. This also includes these 'silly' stories that buzz around and somehow international sources get them before US sources do (which implies something interesting).

It's okay to joke about, but serious people who have misconceived ideas about a country really need to actually do some research and not let the media tell you what's actually happening. The media only reports things for shock value. Every country has the same amount of it.

GhostAnime wrote:You know what really grinds my gears? People who don't understand the real definition of agnosticism and thus have serious bad misconceptions about atheists. Originally, the word agnostic wasn't referring to a deities in particular; it was coined by a man who had no idea what he was doing in some 'freethinker' club. Dictionaries then tainted it to mean some 'middle-ground' that doesn't really exist and paint atheists as ignorant.

Is there a difference between not knowing and not caring? Both of them apply to me, so it grinds my gears whenever ANY religious extremists try to take the moral high ground despite their despicable behaviour.

GhostAnime wrote:I'll say one last thing for now. People who non-jocularly insult America as if they've been there and know all about it. People underestimate ALL forms of media. You do not learn to know about a country by a news report. This also includes these 'silly' stories that buzz around and somehow international sources get them before US sources do (which implies something interesting).

I understand what you mean. It's people like Bill O'Reilly and Glen Beck who are the loudest and most attention-grabbing (and obnoxiously patriotic), so people have the misconception that all Americans are like this. Of course this isn't the truth. Hey, this is quite similar to the religious extremist example.

Basically, the Dunning-Kruger Effect grinds my gears in all its forms, especially pointless celebrities. The more incompetent somebody is, the bigger their ego. It's even worse when other people pander to their egos instead of calling them out for it.

A more personal gear-grinder is the Job Centre, which seems to use the Dunning-Kruger Effect as a business motto: the more you go out to help yourself, the less help we'll give you. I've handed out dozens of CVs and applied for jobs online, but it's not like the Job Centre are meeting me halfway in the "Job-Seeking" department. I wouldn't be that annoyed, but (as you may already know) I'm doing a Video game Design course that costs me a whopping £135 a month, but I only get £200 a month - the Job Centre already know this, I've explicitly pointed this out to them. Do I get any financial help? Of course I don't - I asked for a social security loan to help me pay for this course, but apparently it's not for educational purposes. Social security loans go to people like my chav cousin who'll spend it on gaudy designer labels, drugs and awful cider (of course they'll be dishonest about what it's for). Somehow they expect me to live on £65 a month.

Interesting psychology study there. Shows even more differences between the West and the East.

Also, in the atheist/agnostic issue, the conceptions include thinking all atheists are dogmatic and ignorant and that they 100% deny any higher being existence when they typically don't.

Ashworthy-Harvington wrote:
A more personal gear-grinder is the Job Centre, which seems to use the Dunning-Kruger Effect as a business motto: the more you go out to help yourself, the less help we'll give you. I've handed out dozens of CVs and applied for jobs online, but it's not like the Job Centre are meeting me halfway in the "Job-Seeking" department. I wouldn't be that annoyed, but (as you may already know) I'm doing a Video game Design course that costs me a whopping £135 a month, but I only get £200 a month - the Job Centre already know this, I've explicitly pointed this out to them. Do I get any financial help? Of course I don't - I asked for a social security loan to help me pay for this course, but apparently it's not for educational purposes. Social security loans go to people like my chav cousin who'll spend it on gaudy designer labels, drugs and awful cider (of course they'll be dishonest about what it's for). Somehow they expect me to live on £65 a month.

I know exactly what you mean here, and I know many that will share that opinion. Plus it grinds my gears when you're treated like scum from the moment you walk in. It's as if they look down on you, and it can be really stressful. They even had the cheek once to complain that I was doing TOO much job searching! They said I didn't need to write so much. Well excuse me for trying to find a job while you're too lazy to read it! *sigh*

Anyway, I get a whole lot more from my employment coach, you won't get the right advice in places like that, go seek out somewhere else that can help you.

You know what grinds my gears? The Daily Mail. ;D

In all seriousness, you know what grinds my gears? People who have no clue what they're on about, and then get praise from other stupid folk at the same time, here's a situation I was in last term;

Person A: 'Miss, why are there so many immigrants in this country? We need to get them out, taking our jobs, taking our money.'
Miss: Well, it's not exactly like that.'
Person B: 'DUDE, YOU SHOULD SO BECOME PRIME MINSISTER.'
Person A: 'Yeah, just kick em' out, get our jobs back, I could do a better job than any of those.'

I was just sitting there at the back of the classroom with my head in my hands, just banging my head on a wall begging for him to stop, it was terrible.

You know what else grinds my gears? People who say Socialism doesn't work.

I am sick and tired of reading ignorant people who’ve never read anything Marx or Engels wrote (except possibly the Communist Manifesto) baselessly claim that ‘socialism doesn’t work’.

My simple response to people who spout this empty rhetoric is to ask: how do you know?

Ever since the West witnessed the horror that was the Soviet Union and red China, the dream of socialism has been inexorably married in our literature, politics, rhetoric and culture to these perverse manifestations of totalitarianism. The impact of these horrors has struck all sides of the political spectrum from the left to the right. On left, we have seen them seemingly no longer willing to call themselves ‘socialists’ so they go by monkiers like “anarco-socialists” which, at least under the original definition of the term, is as redundant a phrase as PIN number, ATM machine, or NDP party.

On the other end of the spectrum, when he really wants to insult the New Democrats, Conservative cabinet Minister Monte Solberg calls them ‘socialists’. In the US, when a word dirtier than the ‘n’ word or the ‘c’ word is needed, usually ‘socialist’ suffices.


The problem with all of this verbosity on both the left and the right, of course, is that what happened in the Soviet Union, China and elsewhere bears little if any resemblance to anything that was ever uttered by either Marx or Engels. To say that these countries were socialist is a bit akin to taking a beautifully romantic ballad and then, having never witnessed romantic intercourse, witnessing a horrible rape and claiming that one naturally derives from the other.

In short, the Soviet Union was not the failure of socialism so much as it was the rape of humanity and of socialism itself in equal measure.

So, to those of you on the right wing: okay, fine, keep hating socialism, that’s alright. But if you’re going to be honest and actually read what Marx wrote and then read any history of the Soviet Union, you should all realize that we cannot know that socialism doesn’t work since it’s never been tried in the industrialized world.

And to those of you on the left wing: quit being such cowards and reclaim something that once stood for something just and bold and pure and quit thinking that socialism is a dirty word!

Matt, you magnificent b*stard I salute you! I hate the Daily Mail as well, especially during the truly redundant "Sachsgate" scandal with Johnathan Ross and Russell Brand. Also, your point about right-wingers only ever focusing on the negatives of communism/socialism (the Soviet Union and even modern day China seem to miss the point of it). Ironically, this is pretty similar to GhostAnime's point about people's misconception about Americans - a few bad examples is all it takes to form an ill-informed opinion. Sure, a few rational people will actually look at the FACTS, but the majority will stick their fingers in their ears going "La la la I'm not listening!" whenever someone comes along with information that contradicts their precious opinions.

Which is what grinds my gears about the entire human bloody race.

You know what grinds my gears even more?* There I am in ANY Pokemon RPG, all my team are low on health and PP and I need to get to to a Pokemon Centre. Suddenly...

Wild ZIGZAGOON/ZUBAT/BIDOOF/TENTACOOL/REALLY COMMON POKEMON YOU'VE CAUGHT A HUNDRED TIMES BEFORE Appeared!

RUN

Can't escape!

"Bugger off!"

And do you really, REALLY want to know what grinds my gears even more than anything in this damn world?

"I Gotta Feeling That Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night!"

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUU- (I felt dirty typing that out )

* Slight hyperbole - being assaulted by irritating common Pokemon isn't as annoying as the human race's inability to get on with each other.

I agree with the Daily Mail thing. They do absolutely no research at all. Anyone see the article with Chris Brown wearing the Kirby necklace and they called it a pink cat necklace? I know Kirby's not a popular franchise, but a bit of research would be nice.

MSN also grinds my gears. They've given me absolutely no help with installing any of the MSN products. Not forgetting that their news lacks any research and has loads of errors. And their opinion articles are awful. I know they're opinion articles, but seriously, Niko Bellic has done more for gaming than any other character ever? Donkey Kong and Mario got kids playing videogames and got them hooked, as did Sonic in a way. Also, Samus and Aeris are nowhere on the Top 10 girls of gaming list. I know Aeris is overrated, but still! And I'm pretty sure the only Nintendo character there was Peach, at 10. Yes, there's not that many girls on there, but there were some awful people above her. And as for other articles, the editors need to make their mind up! One editor named Friends, Glee and Only Fools and Horses as overrated in one article but named Friends and Only Fools as some of the best TV shows in another, as well as naming Glee the best new show.

Okay, another thing that really grinds my gears. People who feel the need to look at your phone while you're texting. No, I'm not texting about you, so stop looking at my phone. Worst of all is people who go through your phone, whether it be snatching it off you, taking it out of your bag/coat, etc. One time, some guy took my phone out of my bag and wasted a few quid of credit calling random people then hanging up. Seriously, do you have nothing better to do than to call people you don't know and then hang up?

People who can't tell the difference between race and ethnicity.

http://www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_04-experts-03-02.htm

You know what really grinds my gears? Taking a shit which won't come out so you sit on the bog for ages (getting a numb arse in the process), and being bored shitless after reading all the mags in the boghouse.

OUTRAGE!

Something that really grinds my gears is when stuff isn't organised well. I know I'm meant to be independant, but there's a limit when I'm not being given any assistance either.

Soundwave wrote:You know what really grinds my gears? Taking a shit which won't come out so you sit on the bog for ages (getting a numb arse in the process), and being bored shitless after reading all the mags in the boghouse.

OUTRAGE!

In my head that sounded like this:



Something grinding my gears at the moment is my badly wired brain. When I go to bed my brain won't shut the hell up for hours and hours. "Oh, remember this song? What's it called? We should switch our laptop back on. Oh, I've had an idea, it's a really good one this time. Write it down. You know what we're like, we'll forget it by the morning if you don't. We haven't played on the 360/DS/PS2 in ages, why not?"... And so on. It's like a one-way conversation I can't get out of because it's IN MY HEAD. Yet when it comes to the crunch, when I want to write down this brilliant idea, that part of my brain buggers off and is replaced by Writer's Block.

My brain is the setting of some kind of surreal sitcom, that's enough to grind anyone's gears.

HAHA That video was hilarious XD

Ashworthy-Harvington wrote:

Soundwave wrote:You know what really grinds my gears? Taking a shit which won't come out so you sit on the bog for ages (getting a numb arse in the process), and being bored shitless after reading all the mags in the boghouse.

OUTRAGE!

In my head that sounded like this:



Something grinding my gears at the moment is my badly wired brain. When I go to bed my brain won't shut the hell up for hours and hours. "Oh, remember this song? What's it called? We should switch our laptop back on. Oh, I've had an idea, it's a really good one this time. Write it down. You know what we're like, we'll forget it by the morning if you don't. We haven't played on the 360/DS/PS2 in ages, why not?"... And so on. It's like a one-way conversation I can't get out of because it's IN MY HEAD. Yet when it comes to the crunch, when I want to write down this brilliant idea, that part of my brain buggers off and is replaced by Writer's Block.

My brain is the setting of some kind of surreal sitcom, that's enough to grind anyone's gears.

You have definitely made my day with that video lol. I got that Eddie Murphy stand up on DVD. God damn, going to have to watch it now.

You know what really grinds my gear? People on Facebook who obsess over how much they love someone. It annoys me with 13 year olds especially when they're like 'OMG shes my lyf!!!!!!!!'. It gets worse when they have split display pics where it's their display pics made into one pic with a love heart on. It's so horrible it makes me want to vomit. When they split up, they're crushed, and it's worse when one of them stalks the other. Seriously, get over it.

I have probably said this one before, but recently it has got to me again. People who say they'll do something and then not do it. I have been quite organised recently in a lot of things and people either do not live up to their promises or slack on things. When I am being quite organised and up to speed with things I expect others around me to do the same, and if they don't it grinds my gears.

What grinds my gears, are people who are quick to point out things I do wrong, but never take the time to give praise when I do them a favour or help out when not asked.

Is WAS going to post a rant about why modern pop music grinds my gears, but I'm more annoyed by someone borrowing my laptop and closing the browser before I could post it. It's petty and somewhat selfish, but it grinds my gears my laptop is becoming the family computer even though it's specifically mine.

Anyway, what grinds my gears about pop music? The over-emphasis on image rather than content. I had a big rant about Lady Gaga being the poster-child for this endemic of style-over-substance, Ke$ha being an even more notorious example. Your mileage may vary on whether or not you think Lady Gaga is a talented musician, but it's hidden behind a bizarre faux-post-modern façade. Ke$ha on the other hand is exaggerating an already over-saturated cliché (i.e. drunken, rich white-girl thinking she's a hardcore "Gangsta") almost to the point of self-parody - she isn't really this vapid, is she? The likely case for both of them is that it really is just an act, all in the name of getting noticed by record companies and music audiences. I personally feel that this emphasis on image is distracting from decent song-writing - is it out of fashion to have meaningful lyrics and legitimate talent these days? There seems to be more musicians these days that work their songs around their persona instead of the other way around (Justin Beiber, Ke4ha, 99% of every R'n'B/rapper in the last ten years). It probably grinds my gears more that I'm so bothered about it, but there you go.

Another personal gear-grinder for me is that my eight year old cousin wants to dress up as Freddy Krueger this Halloween. Anyone who's seen the first film (or remake), or at least knows his origin can understand why this has gotten to me.

And before I go...

RawkHawk wrote:You know what really grinds my gear? People on Facebook who obsess over how much they love someone. It annoys me with 13 year olds especially when they're like 'OMG shes my lyf!!!!!!!!'. It gets worse when they have split display pics where it's their display pics made into one pic with a love heart on. It's so horrible it makes me want to vomit. When they split up, they're crushed, and it's worse when one of them stalks the other. Seriously, get over it.