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| Gatsby looking peeved (my photo) |
1. I'm participating in John Holton's Writer's Workshop today by writing 10 sentences about 13 peeves, and yes this intro sentence counts, which means I have only 9 sentences left for the peeves.
2. It annoys me that there's cheese on everything lately ~ I mean, I like cheese, but I don't need it all the time, especially on a salad, and I wish the default was no cheese/ ask for cheese instead of the opposite.
3. I am turned off from romance novels that (a) are written in first person; (b) are written in present tense; and (c) use spilled food or drink as the "meet-cute" (this is 4 peeves now in 3 sentences for anyone who is keeping track aka me).
4. I'm mad at the incredibly stupid algorithm designer who decided that if I bought, say, an automatic cat feeder, then I need to see a million more automatic cat feeders everywhere I wander on the internet because obviously I want to buy a new automatic cat feeder every damn day.
5. I don't want a romance novel or romcom hero who is (a) grumpy or silent; (b) wallowing in pain from a lost love; or (c) rudely sarcastic, since none of those things are the least bit attractive.
6. It's irritating that all the gift wrap on Amazon is sold in these weirdly sized pieces that don't actually fit any normal gift box (this is peeve number 9, like the love potion).
7. Did Don Francisco's think that no one would notice if they made their coffee cans 2 ounces smaller and "didn't raise the price?"
8. I always stand to the side and wait a polite few seconds before stepping onto an elevator in case people are coming out, but now they're all texting or whatever oblivious thing and don't come out, so I end up stepping in, stepping back, and saying excuse me when it's their fucking fault.
9. I'm so annoyed at how increasingly inconvenienced we are with all these jump-through-hoops ID methods (that are still imperfect) because apparently it's not possible to catch (and execute!) scammers, hackers, fraudsters, and all the other criminals who prey on us online.
10. As always, I hate litterbugs, particularly those who dump furniture and mattresses in our trash area instead of getting rid of it properly or fling their garbage on the ground because they're too damn lazy to open the gate and toss it in the bin (and that's 13 peeves in 10 sentences, woohoo, almost as good as 88 lines about 44 women).
I don't know what it is about cheese. When I used to tell people I was vegetarian, they would slather everything with cheese. Which I don't even like (and it's probably even more toxic than meat).
ReplyDeleteCat feeders? I once read about a woman who bought a toilet seat and then kept getting bombarded with ads for them. Maybe the stupid algorithm thought she was starting a collection?
A lot of things are being sold in smaller portions for the same price these days. Remember when they started putting those cardboardy things in candy wrappers, ostensibly to protect the candy bar from squashing, but in fact so they could shrink the candy bar while keeping the wrapper the same size. You're buying a lot of air at snack prices these days.
I think a lot of those scammers and fraudsters are operating from Nigeria or Russia or whatever. Kind of makes them hard to catch, although I suppose we could ask the Ukrainians to make a point of taking them out.
Thanks for this quick course in peevology.
OMG! The elevator one! What. Is. Wrong. With. People???
ReplyDelete#4 is one of my main pet peeves. I HATE repetitive BS in my feeds and I block companies constantly. What pisses me off is that there are influencers working on behalf of some of these companies, so I have to block them, too. UGH. I'm so sick of the internet. - N
ReplyDeleteI'm on the same page as you with most of these and yes shrinkflation is a thing. Thanks for stopping by my blog.
ReplyDeleteShrinkflation. Yes, it has a name. And it's happening with everything.
ReplyDeleteThe algorithm is serving me up bra ads. (I keep checking, but they don't have my size. It's the checking that keeps them coming.) And Trashie (which I don't need to be reminded about, thanks).
Everything is smaller and either the same price for less or they jacked the price up for less. Crazy.
ReplyDeleteCute photo of your cat. He looks surprised.
ReplyDeleteYou had me nodding along to so many of these, Paula! The cheese one is spot‑on—why is it suddenly the default topping for everything? And the elevator frustration… yes, yes, yes. Loved how you turned everyday irritations into such a sharp, funny list.
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone! Sometimes it feels good to vent!
ReplyDeleteE and I live in a fairly nice area, but dumping furniture and mattresses is a real problem.
ReplyDeleteNot exactly #4, but I was just looking for a DVD player and the site (the website of a well-known British physical store) decided that a similar search was "Calvin Klein bra"! I don't watch DVDs on my wife's underwear!