What Grinds My Gears
Posted By Kathleen David on March 7, 2008
There is an episode of Family Guy in which Peter Griffin gets a job as an obnoxious ombudsman on the local TV station for slightly hilarious high-jinx ensue. His spot on the show is called “Grinds My Gears”. Which has been sticking in my head as things have been happening either to me or around me so here is the first edition of what grinds my gears.
You know what grinds my gears, drivers who think that turn signals are optional. I so want to get a bumper sticker that says “Turn Signals; Not just a Good Idea but THE LAW”. Then there are the yahoos who think signaling after the fact makes up for their lack of informing me beforehand that they are moving into my lane. I guess they are hoping that if I hit them, the cops will see that they had their turn signal on so it MUST BE my fault for not yielding.
You know what else grinds my gears? People who go onto other people’s web sites just to either bash or troll them and never add to the conversation because it makes them feel better about themselves. Heck, I’ll expand that to people I have met that do the same thing in fandom. There is a difference between constructive criticisms and just plain being mean criticisms. The problem is that most of these people don’t recognize what they are doing even if presented with tons of evidence that they are. It just doesn’t register in their version of the world.
You know what….well by now you know the rest of the line. That the minute I was getting my resume back in order so I could find a job in at least one of my chosen professions, we slip into more job cuts and loss than we have seen in 5 years. And what happened 5 years ago? I got downsized at my dream job (well honestly one of my dream jobs). So my chances of going back into the field at about as good as a camel going through the eye of a needle (the original meaning of it). I have been putting feelers out there and come up with less than nothing which annoys the ever loving *beeeeep* out of me since I am a good worker and an asset to any company I work for.
So what grinds your gears? I am honestly interested.
I am grateful for everyone who uses a turn signal correctly.
What grinds my gears? People who think that traffic lanes are just decorative paint jobs.
And I don’t troll Glenn’s website. I just like to tease him every now and then. Heck, sometimes he’s even right. 8^)
What grinds my gears?
-People who leave there turn signals on indefinitely. (Are they keeping time with the music in their heads?)
-People who chew with their mouths open. Honest to goodness, my coworker chews loud enough that I can hear him over my mp3 player!
Oops, their NOT there. It’s been a long week.
Nothing grinds my gears like stupidity (and not being able to say what I really think).
Patron: Oh! When did the children’s section move upstairs?
Me: Twenty years ago. (Haven’t been here in a while, have you)
Patron: Do have a copier?
Me: Under the 6-foot banner directly behind you.
Patron: How do I get downstairs?
Me: Try the stairs, three feet behind you.
etc.
I’m an accountant. Mostly, I do tax work.
What grinds my gears about this is the clients who think that I’ve got some sort of crystal ball.
Me: How many business miles did you drive last year?
Client: Can’t you just figure that out?
Unsaid by me: No! I haven’t been sitting in the driver’s seat next to you all year taking notes and my crystal ball is broken!
Me: No. Those figures have to come from you. Can you please get them for me. (Unsaid: No! I haven’t been sitting in the driver’s seat next to you all year taking notes and my crystal ball is broken!)
Ok – I’ll byte – the turn signal stuff bugs me too… but what really grinds my gears are parents who listen to every driveling excuse out of their little angels’ mouths (“The teacher only loses MY homework”… “She doesn’t ever call on me.”… and my personal fave: “She failed me because I’m (choose one – of a certain ethnic group, sex, hair color, size…) then come gunning for ME, only to be forced to change their tune when they finally (after three marking periods) show their face at school.
It’s been one of THOSE days…
What grinds my gears?
The serious stuff is usually the brick walls I run into at work. I mentioned some of it here…
http://jjchandler.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/and-this-is-why-my-job-sucks/
… a little while ago and I don’t think I’m really up to typing it again. Or getting chewed out about the page-and-a-half of your blog that I take up with it.
The trivial stuff is something like one of yours. I can’t stand going to a website devoted to a movie, book or TV show that I look in the hopes of discussing the things that I like with others and, nine times out of ten anymore, finding half or more of the people posting on the site are there to tell everyone else how bad the thing is, how stupid you would have to be to like it and so on. I mean, why waste the time to go to a site about, say, the new Battlestar Galactica, and whine and moan about how horrible it is and how it ruined the original show when you could be spending the time on a site or board for the original show where you can talk about what you love? There’s always been that little pocket of fandom that lived to condemn anything that anyone else likes, but the net has allowed them to seemingly be everywhere all the time.
That and waiting 45 minutes for the meal you ordered to get to the table and having it arrive cold.