We hear about the freakouts, the verbal lashings, the accidents and many more.
But what are some small things, things that have little consequence but are still infuriating or that drive you up the wall?
Here are some examples of my own:
- People flocking to the metro doors without leaving proper space for people to leave.
- Hearing the same 3 questions at work every time.
- People walking slow enough to pass but not letting you.
Okay Mr speedy gonzolaz, I can see your high powered LED sun beam headlights that are so far up my tail pipe my engine compartment looks like a disco.
I get you want to pass me. I want you to pass me to so you can get to your DWI faster. Unfortunately I am going 75mph in a 65mph speed zone and there are a whole line of stoners driving 45 to the nearest source of frozen pizza filling the right lane.
Yes, i can see you are somehow immune to speeding tickets and want to go 95mph. No I don’t want to get over in the right lane and go 45mph just for you my special boy.
Please wait one half of a minute while I clear this conga line of slow pokes and then you will be free to speed off to your inevitable demise.
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People who think freedom of speech also means freedom from consequences.
Bigots being criticized is proof the system is working.
Fucktards voting for fascists.
That doesn’t sound very small to me good sir
Cars going into the pedestrian crossing area at red lights
Grains of sand
Sounds pretty rough
Uber/Dash drivers parking wherever suits them, blocking lanes. Inconsiderate pricks!
Then I get annoyed at the companies forcing them to meet unrealistic expectations or they stop getting jobs.
Then I get annoyed at myself for getting annoyed at the poor bastards busting their asses to make a living in a system that treats them as entirely replaceable.
I see so many uber drivers double parked right next to wide open parking on the side of the road. Not wanting parallel park I get, but just pull off to the side dude it’s wide open! Your fare is slamming the rest of their beer, you got time!
Mostly pedantic language things like people misusing “empathy” (it’s not a synonym to sympathy god-damn-it) and “disinterested” (not synonymous to uninterested god-damn-it). Misuse of semicolons is especially frustrating to me; there are so many people out there, who do not understand the weight difference a semicolon creates, and then thoughtlessly use it to seem smart (wink, wink).
Please expand on your understanding of semicolons
Sorry it took me so long to respond; I had to find my copy of The Elements of Style by Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. Here is a relevant quote from that excellent style guide:
If two or more clauses grammatically complete and not joined by a conjunction are to form a single compound sentence, the proper mark of punctuation is a semicolon.
Mary Shelley’s works are entertaining; they are full of engaging ideas.
[…vs.]
Mary Shelley’s works are entertaining. They are full of engaging ideas.
[…vs.]
Mary Shelley’s works are entertaining, for they are full of engaging ideas.
[…] A comparison of the three forms given above will show clearly the advantage of the first. It is, at least in the examples given, better than the second form because it suggests the close relationship between the two statements in a way that the second does not attempt, and better than the third because it is briefer and therefore more forcible. […]
Note that if the second clause is preceded by an adverb, such as accordingly, besides, then, therefore, or thus, and not by a conjunction, the semicolon is still required.
I had never been in the place before; besides, it was dark as a tomb.
Alright, back to me. A good example of what I’m referring to with “weight” is revealed when discussing how to properly use a semicolon with an ordinary colon. A semicolon is “heavier” than a colon; let me give you an example to illustrate this.
The answer: humanity is doomed; the people are angry.
This is stylisticly bad, because the semicolon separates the clause “the people are angry” from the context (the scope, if you’re a programmer) of the colon: now the clause is equal to the rest of the sentence, “The answer: humanity is doomed,” instead of serving as part of the clause “The answer:” is describing. The correct—that is, the intended—sentence would simply be this:
The answer: humanity is doomed, the people are angry.
One might think that this is illegal, as there is no conjunction, but, indeed, that presumption would be incorrect: “[…] humanity is doomed, the people are angry” is actually a list and the author of the sentence (me, muahahahaha) is using a literary device called asyndeton.
Here’s an example of asyndeton:
The ingredients of despair: hope, yearning, jealousy, conjecture.
The incorrect version would be with a semicolon introducing the last element of the list.
The ingredients of despair: hope, yearning, jealousy; conjecture.
Because the first example has only two elements, it can seem like one has to use a semicolon, but I think that the example given above shows how that is, in reality, quite absurd.
Alright, rant over, I hope this has sufficiently answered your question! Have a good day :)
;-)
Is English your native language? As a native Spanish speaker myself I find using semicolons correctly easy enough, but most english speakers prefer to avoid them and many just don’t understand them. I’ve even had teachers at uni mark me down for using them appropriately. I gave up almost entirely with their use when writing in English because of this.
English class is just a place to go to be wrong according to someone with no actual skills.
English itself is the result of numerous rounds of multilingual people mashing together the most efficient bits of other languages. The rules are so inconsistent that there kind of aren’t any. Also, written English and spoken English are two different languages with different rules, which is why you sound pompous when reading aloud formal essays and why you have to invent emoticons and even start to do rich formatting and change fonts to translate casual conversation into writing.
Take a persuasive writing class at an American college, typically numbered as ENG-112, they might touch on a few points about how to create effective arguments, they’re mostly going to grade on pedantic points of grammar, punctuation, spelling and MLA formatting. They’re not going to teach you a damn thing about teaching, partially because they’re obligated to generate test scores and testing a skill-based curriculum is more difficult than a pedantic rule following one, and mostly because they don’t have any actual teaching skills themselves.
Which is why there is a nationwide industry of your high school teacher teaching you how to use semicolons and a college professor marking you wrong for doing it that way.
Doesn’t matter how many times I do laundry, my clothes still get dirty :(
Just don’t wear them then
Shifting a manual transmission incorrectly
This is the only correct answer
People who don’t return their cart to the cart corral in the grocery store parking lot
People who act like they are blind to others in the supermarket. Not making space for others, blocking us with their trolley etc. It’s not a museum.
Neighbors running their leaf blowers for hours and super early or late in the day
Here’s a really small one: when one of my toenails has a sharp corner to it that snags on the sheets.
And socks…
Ugh… It is like fingernails on a chalkboard for me
That innocent people will die due to selfishness and bigotry. And that it is decidedly ok.
That’s a small thing?
Its the only thing everything else isn’t even a consideration
