What's your pet peeve in RL?

[Ketaru]

Re: What's your pet peeve in RL?

Wow, as I was typing this out, I reloaded the thread to see what new stuff has been added to it since I began and now I feel uncomfortable about putting this here at this time. But alas, it's all typed out now so it would be stupid to just scrap it all.

It's not really in line with the discussion going on right now, but seeing as I came out as bisexual in this thread, I should probably continue it in this thread. Considered adding this to the "Latest, Greatest Accomplishment" thread, but I loathe to call this an accomplishment.

I got impatient and shot my friend an e-mail telling about myself. Didn't want to because I likened to coming out to somebody over e-mail to breaking up with somebody over e-mail and I hear women hate that so it must be not be the desirable route to take. But I got impatient and really wanted to know what he thought and didn't want to wait until January.

He responded saying that he is completely cool with it, among a lot of other nice stuff. In retrospect, I feel like an idiot for expecting anything else, seeing as I've been friends with him for about 13 years now.

Even more idiotic is how I look back at how my hang ups over the issue really held me back a lot. I knew this gay guy in college that I wanted to be friends with because I could be pretty sure he knew what I was going through. But I somehow felt disgusted by him and kept my distance. On the flip side, there was a girl that I came to really like towards the end of college and imagined it would be really nice to go steady with her. But I didn't because I wondered if I was just fooling myself into thinking I liked a woman. Now that I look back, it was such a missed opportunity.

All well. Wherever it goes from here, what will be will be. Still have reservations about telling my family, but at least somebody out there knows now.

There's also something to be said for actually finding religion for yourself. I can't stand the folks who run around trying to convert everyone. Converting because of social pressure or fear of damnation is not a basis for faith; Polictics perhaps, but not faith.

Was looking back at old responses and I've finished reading a book called In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise since this was posted. People who come door to door with pamphlets are a nuisance. Even worse are those that tell you how you're going to hell if you don't convert.

But as I was reading a part of the book dealing with the relationship between spirituality and silence, I thought about how the closest I've ever felt to having a religious experience was when I was in this church all by myself. No guy delivering a sermon (though I hear a lot of sermons now whenever I have to take the consumers from my group home to church). No singing. No bands playing songs to praise the lord.

But when you're in a church all by yourself and it is quiet, there is this odd feeling of "Yep. Just me and God here." Who knows? If this world weren't so damn noisy, I might have been something other than an atheist.

I enjoyed the book. Talks about spirituality and silence, how a noisy world might actually be detrimental to our health, the relationship between consumer culture and noise.

[Murphie]

Re: What's your pet peeve in RL?

I'm glad you told someone, and that the reaction was a good one, Ketaru! Changing the subject at times like this is often a good idea.

Funny thing, I actually wanted to talk about something else, and then I saw the Dixie Chicks thing, and since I was actually riled up about the other thing that I wanted to talk about, I ended up getting distracted. Damn me.

[Ufgt]

Re: What's your pet peeve in RL?

I find the idea that we here as posters are allowed to have political opinions, but that public figures that aren't specifically politicians should not kind of strange.

I agree, but public figures are held to a different set of rules than us normal folk. They are people, just like you and I, but since they are in the spotlight, everything they do is scrutinized, which I think is unfair.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: What's your pet peeve in RL?

So, when other musicians, such as Toby Keith said the opposite, people were equally enraged, because he was a musician making political comments, and people just don't like that? Yeah, I don't recall hearing or reading about that happening. Care to provide sources where other musicians who have made political comments have been attacked in a similar manner?

They are equally enraged when actors, athletes, artists, and other public figures talk about politics? Or is it just musicians?

Way to drag this out of context.

I just don't think its an entertainer's place to make disrespectful comments toward a president. If anything, it should be supportive.

Think about it. Celebrities are in a unique position to influence young people and that can be abused just as much as it can be helpful in other regards. Chances are also that their opinions are not informed ones. Really, these people live rather busy lives, they don't have the perspective of a common American.

Many celebrities, for example, would support raising taxes on the wealthy. They view themselves as wealthy and thus think they may be sacrificing for the greater good. Heart seems in the right place, but the brain is gone on that one.

If they run a business that employs people, however, they may very well feel differently about taxes being raise because in a time where jobs are already scares, cutting into a business' bottom line is a surefire way to kill of more jobs. Businesses can and will tough it out on as few people as they can if they must.

Who do you think has made the hard choices more - The Dixie Chicks or Oprah? Who would you listen to? Someone that calls the shot or someone that hires other people to call the shots for them?

Are you going to listen to the guy that's served in the military or the person that just has acquaintances there. Do the Dixie Chicks have any sons or daughters presently serving? Husbands? Maybe they do, but there are a lot of perspectives on the war over there.

The most important one being, naturally, that 3,000 of our civilians were murdered in the name of Allah. What are we supposed to do? Just sit on our hands? Do you think if we just leave it alone they'll just kill themselves? Seems either way, they've been going at it for thousands of years. The problem is kind of Islam saying "Kill all other people that don't believe in Islam." When that's your belief system, you're never going to be a good neighbor.

Now, here's a little video. On that subject. Bill Maher isn't a guy I always go to, but he's pretty frank on this topic. He has three guests, let's see which one is totally out of his element in this discussion, who's just slightly misinformed and who has the straight dope:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iLDPwyqqto]YouTube - Real Time with Bill Maher Is Islam a religion of peace[/ame]

And to think the things Bill Maher is saying of late are the sorts of things that got Juan Williams fired from NPR.

[Ufgt]

Re: What's your pet peeve in RL?

Trickle down economics... it's this a failed theory?

[Raydeus]

Re: What's your pet peeve in RL?

WTF? US's reasons for invading Iraq, stealing and slaughtering people were just "shoddy"?

Oh right, they were already in a bad shape so it was A-ok to go there using lies and make things much worse so Bush&friend's got some money? Yeah, fuck that. It's always the same, the Indians, the Mexicans, the Iraquis etc. And that's not even mentioning what the war did to the people in the US and their constitutional rights.

The amount of stupidity and brainwashing is simply staggering.

But I'll just use the ignore list before I keep saying what's on my mind, which would get me banned for sure.

Seriously WTF is wrong with some people.

[Murphie]

Re: What's your pet peeve in RL?

Way to drag this out of context.

How, exactly? You made a pretty broad statement, and I questioned it. That hardly constitutes dragging it out of context.

I just don't think its an entertainer's place to make disrespectful comments toward a president. If anything, it should be supportive.

Think about it. Celebrities are in a unique position to influence young people and that can be abused just as much as it can be helpful in other regards. Chances are also that their opinions are not informed ones. Really, these people live rather busy lives, they don't have the perspective of a common American.

The common american isn't exactly very informed either. Are you claiming that entertainers should keep their mouths shut about something if they disagree about it? Celebrities use their exposure to bring light to all sorts of things. Is that only good if everyone agrees that it's something that should be said?

Many celebrities, for example, would support raising taxes on the wealthy. They view themselves as wealthy and thus think they may be sacrificing for the greater good. Heart seems in the right place, but the brain is gone on that one.

So because they have wealth and feel that they could stand to be taxed more for it, that means that they are uninformed on the subject? Are non-public wealthy people who feel that way also uniformed?

If they run a business that employs people, however, they may very well feel differently about taxes being raise because in a time where jobs are already scares, cutting into a business' bottom line is a surefire way to kill of more jobs. Businesses can and will tough it out on as few people as they can if they must.

Wealthy people are not businesses. Income taxes on the people who own a company don't affect the bottom line on the company, which is a separate entity and subject to a different set of tax laws.

Who do you think has made the hard choices more - The Dixie Chicks or Oprah? Who would you listen to? Someone that calls the shot or someone that hires other people to call the shots for them?

I am not sure of the relevance to this discussion.

Are you going to listen to the guy that's served in the military or the person that just has acquaintances there. Do the Dixie Chicks have any sons or daughters presently serving? Husbands? Maybe they do, but there are a lot of perspectives on the war over there.

There are a lot of perspectives here as well. Again, I'm not sure I understand your point. I'm going to listen to everyone, though, to answer your question, and then form my own opinion either independently or via gaining a greater understanding of the issue via said perspectives.

The most important one being, naturally, that 3,000 of our civilians were murdered in the name of Allah. What are we supposed to do? Just sit on our hands? Do you think if we just leave it alone they'll just kill themselves? Seems either way, they've been going at it for thousands of years. The problem is kind of Islam saying "Kill all other people that don't believe in Islam." When that's your belief system, you're never going to be a good neighbor.

And this has exactly what to do with the war in Iraq?

And to think the things Bill Maher is saying of late are the sorts of things that got Juan Williams fired from NPR.

Cable entertainment journalism isn't NPR, and thus isn't held to the same standards. He lost his original show on network TV for voicing the opinion that HBO is perfectly willing to allow him to voice, because it brings viewers in.

And yeah, Steven Weber isn't the one with the most understanding of things, perhaps, but that's the point of Maher's panels. They are a mix on purpose to present a varied POV.

[cidbahamut]

Re: What's your pet peeve in RL?

Computers.

Yesterday I got some new harddrives and went to install them as part of my plan to keep my computer from keeling over dead prematurely. When it comes time to boot the computer, I suddenly have no output on the monitor.

Bloody hell.

I go to do a little preventative maintenance and end up killing the damn thing. Now I have to figure out if this is just a busted video card or the whole motherboard frying itself. God damn.

[DakAttack]

Re: What's your pet peeve in RL?

My pet peeve in RL is when somebody chastizes me for being "something of a queen", then goes and thanks somebody else for being a complete and total queen.

[KingOfZeal]

Re: What's your pet peeve in RL?

Roommates. I know I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating again as it's a new academic year (and thus new roommates).

While, of the 7 other people who live in this section, I only seem to be disliking 2 (a significant improvement over last year), it's still aggravating when both these people are in the rooms on either side of me.

To one side, I have a Russian international student who doesn't seem to understand the concept of volume control or 'quiet hours'. He plays anime and TV shows (both in Russian and whatever language it was originally aired in) loud enough to be hear very clearly down the hall and through 3 closed doors. He watches these videos virtually all day (I've heard them from 7pm all the way to 6 am), and the laugh tracks on sitcoms are starting to really get on my nerves. Plus about once a week he seems to throw a party for all the international students in the hall that tends to go on until about 2am (midnight to 2 is the worst). I've said it before, I'll say it again: I should not have to wear ear plugs to sleep every night. I have even caught him once or twice and asked him to keep it down: it works for about a week, then it's right back to it's original level. He also has a habit of slamming his door, even if he's only in the room for 10 seconds (literally, I hear it slam twice in a ten second time frame).

On the other side, I have a guy who doesn't understand what the shiny metal handle is on a toilet. I really do feel sorry for the cleaning ladies who are responsible for this hall, whom I've gotten to know fairly well since I started coming here. I hate that I'm associated with people like that, even if I'm not the one responsible.
In addition, this guy also has a rather deep voice, which makes it carry incredibly easy through the wall (and he doesn't shut up, ever), and yet a higher pitch laugh that's the most annoying one I've ever heard, which carries just as well.

If it weren't for those two people I would probably be having an awesome senior year outside classes.

[DakAttack]

Re: What's your pet peeve in RL?

Roommates. I know I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating again as it's a new academic year (and thus new roommates).

One year I had a roommate that would smoke cigarettes beneath my window.

Another year I had a roommate with an extremely high pitched voice who liked to smoke weed in the apartment. The school didn't care.

Yet another year, I had a roommate who liked to blast music and sing while in the shower, and would do this twice as day at noon and midnight.

College helped me realize how much I hate people who aren't me.

[Murphie]

Re: What's your pet peeve in RL?

Roommates are almost always an issue unless the people living together are all just really easy going. Or have vastly different schedules. It's why I've lived on my own most of my adult life.

[cadoxangelus]

Re: What's your pet peeve in RL?

Currently I have the best roommate. One who has been paying rent since september, and still hasn't moved in. Oh right! pet peeves! I have a few:
1:Old roommate and new roommate work with eachother, they were supposed to transfer our comcast bill to the others name so we dont loose out on internet. Somehow this has become a giant clusterf*ck and is somehow my fault.
2: Getting chastised by my family for wanting to spend time with my girlfriends family this thanksgiving, even though every other holiday/get together/etc. we go see mine.
3: Still at work.

[KingOfZeal]

Re: What's your pet peeve in RL?

Roommates are almost always an issue unless the people living together are all just really easy going. Or have vastly different schedules. It's why I've lived on my own most of my adult life.

College has taught me that I'm going to want to live alone (at least, not with people who aren't family, whoever that may entail). I think this has been a more important and longer lasting lesson than my actual degree.

[cidbahamut]

Re: What's your pet peeve in RL?

The degree you get at college is usually secondary to everything you learn outside of the lecture hall.