Welcome to Grind My Gears, Rant Off! Really need to get something off your chest? Some problem bothering you enough to warrant a few paragraphs? You’ve come to the right place. Here we don’t bash on each other. We don’t make sly comments questioning our competence, capability, skills, or beliefs. If we honestly disagree with what someone said and you must say something, then rant away. (Attack the ideas, not the believer.) Of course I still encourage comments and questions for any post, but this isn’t a place to debate; it is a place to hear opposing and diverse in depth thoughts pertaining to each of us. We will learn more about each other and at the same time maybe more then that. If we can route some of that rage appearing on other threads here, maybe we can make this place even friendlier. Well I’ll start this off with the first rant: Sometimes this world makes me go with how unreasonable and backwards it can be. I often wonder if it is possible to really escape from the influence of Modern Judeo-Christian Society. Themes of free-will, saviors, sins, demons/angels, self-sacrifice, discriminations, etc. etc. have infiltrated and seeped into just about any named work. The ones that don't stick to the paradigm, make that the point, which in a way, isn't much different than not making the point and abusing those themes. So we abuse the themes because as a decadent society we have chosen themes to abuse. As writers we either write with our own personal beliefs or with common beliefs. Either way, escaping the roots of our perceived cultural reality, is damn hard, shameful, terrifying, and overall leaves us feeling lonely. If you can manage a book on top of all that, then making it marketable is still another challenge. I don't have anything against any Religion personally, islamic or otherwise, but I am well versed in Christianity and The Bible. I've read it, and I was impressed and let down at the same time. It did make me realize why Religion isn't so bad. It really is whatever the people need it to be.(i.e. It fits w/e agenda it needs to. It’s malleable.) The Middle East uses it to get people to become terrorist. We use it to believe 'why we shouldn't yell at that annoying person who won't shut up', or to turn down a tempting amount of cash in some shady business. It can be both good and bad and there isn't a clever way to distinguish one way or another. We are simply caught in it's storm and don't have much a choice otherwise. It enables us as much as it holds us back, and it's hard to determine whether it will end, what will end it, and will it be for the better? There is a lot of interesting perspectives that many would find appalling but could result in the 'bright' future we expect in ourselves. I'm wondering how bad it has to get before we start listening to the people who are trying to be the real heroes.(e.g. Food Inc., Whistleblowers, and books like ‘Pure, White, and Deadly.’) It's not me of course, but if I can give them some attention, then maybe they can gain the traction they deserve. End Rant, I feel much better.
I get extremely annoyed when I go to a fast food restaurant, and the person in front of me has to take their time to figure out what they want to order. I'll almost guarantee they have been there before and they know what the menu is. There is no reason whatsoever that the person, when they decided WHERE they wanted to eat, that they couldn't have already decided WHAT they wanted to eat.
My roommate drives me crazy. I can't say anything without him making some snarky, smart ass comment. For example, yesterday, I fell asleep on the couch. My roommate saw me, did some stuff around the house, then left without waking me up. Later that night, me and my husband were discussing our cats and how annoying they can be while we're trying to sleep. I started to say, "I'm so programmed to wake up when my cat gets into shit that every little noise wakes me up at night." Of course, my roommate had to come back with, "Bullshit! The cats were being loud right next to your head earlier and you were dead!" Sure, maybe you're right... But can't you let SOME statements go without countering? Fuck. Also, he doesn't do SHIT around this house! He doesn't load or unload the dishwasher, he doesn't take out the trash, he doesn't clean the litter boxes, he doesn't help with groceries. My husband got pissed off about the groceries and was all, "I'll have him pick up household stuff like paper towels, trash bags, and cat food." Our roommate came home with the cat food but not the trash bags or paper towels. My husband was like, whatever, no big deal, I'll pick them up tomorrow. Fuck that! He yelled at me for spending so much on groceries without asking our roommate for help, then when our roommate blatantly ignores our request for help, it's no big deal??? We finally got our roommate to buy the stuff. And what does he do? Buys one roll of paper towels..... How long do you think THAT'S going to last in a house with three people? Looks like I'm going shopping today....
Polarization grinds my gears. In America, the Moderate is the new enemy as the extreme Left and Right have met at the top of the circle, fusing into one amalgam, pointing their guns to the other side of the circle where the Moderates sit. We're not left enough for the Left, not right enough for the Right. We are suspect to every and all. We're not trying to censor, sealion, or bulldoze people into submission to our Leftie or Rightie rhetoric. The Moderate is the new enemy. Not diligently searching for things to be offended by? You are the enemy. Not trying to fanatically push a dogma? You are the enemy. Don't have an opinion because you simply don't care? You are most definitely the enemy. Moderate was once an ideal; now it is despised. It's meaning has been prostituted and twisted, kinda' like the meaning of "average" on grindr. That grinds my gears.
I've had my share of bad housemates/flatmates. One I can excuse because he literally went crazy, moved into the living room and proceeded to horde filth and rubbish he found or made until the smell became so bad we had to kick him out. Another, called Carl, was so inept, so brain-dead, so hopelessly fucking stupid that he once put a pan in the washing machine - figuring 'Well, it's soap, and water, and the spinning cycle will wash the two around'. There used to be an advert on British TV for a washing up liquid to designed to clean the pipes in washing machines, to ensure their longevity, and had the jingle of 'Washing machines live longer with Calgon'. We made our own version. 'Washing machines live longer when Carl's gone!'
Agreed, but I take some solace in the fact that it's we moderates who decide elections. Sadly, most of the time the choice is between one extreme and another, but it's rare that a ranting conservative attracts many left-leaning peoples' votes or a screaming liberal gets many votes from the right, leaving us as the swing voters.
It grinds my gears when any utterance (anywhere from a sentence to a book) is judged based on who uttered it, rather than what it says. The controversy over the Hugo awards got me thinking about that. The controversy would be almost nonexistent if all books were written anonymously.
When people mix up "their" and "they're." I understand that their trying they're best, but only an illiterate idiot would mix them up.
I HATE this city. I HATE IT. There, I finally said it. I also hate the fact that I feel so unreasonably guilty for admitting that I hate it. It's my husband's home town and I know he loves it here, but after a year and a half of living here I am so done with it. I am not denying that this place doesn't have many redeeming qualities or that there aren't fun things to do or beautiful things to see, but this is the kind of place I could visit but absolutely do not want to live in. It's gotten to the point where I'm so overwhelmed by the bad that I can't see the good anymore. It's noisy and dirty and crowded and it just outright smells. Where I grew up we literally don't even lock our cars or homes unless if we are going out of town for more than a few days; here there are freaking bars on all the windows and a security bar across the door. I would kill for a fresh breeze of clean air rather than a lungful of smog or to be able to walk around barefoot outside and not worry about stepping on broken glass or a used needle. It doesn't even get properly dark here at night because of all of the light pollution and it is never completely quiet, you just learn to live with the constant background noise. I know I'm not being fair and that my preference is skewed by growing up in a small town but I am so, so sick of it here.
I completely understand!! I'm from a small town in Illinois just outside of St. Louis, but I moved to Richmond, VA to be with my husband. He was born and raised here, so it's home to him. But it's so completely different than what I'm used to, it makes me home sick. There's a town nearby called Short Pump (I know, it's a very strange name) that is ridiculously overcrowded every single second of every single day. I get grouchy just driving into the city because there's so much traffic. Back home, we have a nearby town that has just as many businesses but half the traffic. Short Pump is literally five minutes away from my house... But we'll drive fifteen minutes away to a different city if we need something, just to avoid the bustle. My husband knows I want to move someday, and he supports the idea. He doesn't really have many roots here. So I find myself constantly looking at news articles about the best states to live, as well as getting on Zillow and looking at houses just to gage their prices for a potential future move. I miss St. Louis. I've even talked about moving back someday. But then spring hit and tornados started, and I suddenly remembered why I moved in the first place.
This thread needs to be made a sticky. *ahems* Sometimes I hate shopping. Sometimes I wish I could never shop in my life, why? Because my first purchase failure was my X-Box 1. I bought it specifically for future installments in Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, and Saints Row. Problem? Those games likely aren't going to be announced for a few years!!! Meaning I just blew a huge chunk of my money for a console that I won't be playing on much because the games I'm looking forward to haven't even been announced yet! To make matters worst, the damned thing requires an internet connection to even goddamn work!! Due to my crap internet connection, I'm going to have to either shell out MORE money for a wireless adapter that'll work or be stuck with an expensive box of CRAP! Also, I recently bought a Logitech keyboard for my iPad to replace my dead Zagg keyboard. It's all right, but the formatting and locations of the buttons results in me having to second-guess where the keys are. What's worse is that the key combinations for capital letters and other basic functions had been COMPLETELY REWORKED so I have to relearn that one. The irony was that I bought this over a new Zagg keyboard because it was cheaper. Figured I'd learned my lesson from the X-Box 1 thing. Well I apparently did not!
I think I saw a list that said Austin, Texas was the #1 city to live. Also Caramel, Indiana is the top on some lists. Caramel would probably be more like where you used to live.
Yeah I'm sure I saw that. But I hate hot weather, so anything further south than where I am is not happening. lol And Indiana has tornados... Apparently Massachusetts is a great place to live, but I think that might be too far from home for my hubby.
Rain, I love. I could totally love in a rainy place. I just hate hot and humid. If there's a good breeze, I might be able to handle it. But for the most part, nope. lol I've been to Alabama a few times, and it was fairly enjoyable, minus all the jellyfish. My favorite place thus far has been Colorado. Sooo pretty! I'm more of a woods and mountains kind of girl than a beach and water girl, I suppose.
We already have a gripe and whinge thread, the Not Happy Thread. just how much negativity do we need? I wish happiness threads were as prone to spontaneous germination as groan and moan threads.
Definitely was a typo. lol Replying to people on an iPad is probably not a good idea. It's constantly autocorrecting poorly, turning "yes" into "he's" or "something" into "so teething" or even "zoo ething." lol It's quite strange. I've been told I can turn off my autocorrect, but it's more helpful than it is hurtful. I do try to proofread before I hit reply, but sometimes (as you see) I miss some. But yes... I could love in a rainy place.. lol
This is my rant off I get extremely annoyed by political correctness and people getting 'upset' on behalf of others. When you quiz some people from these minorities groups they shrug their shoulders and laugh. For example, where I live the English are called 'bifes' I'm not offended. I 'get over myself' pretty quickly. Another annoyance is colour. You can have a black police federation but you can't have a white police federation. Isn't that racial discrimination? I can't abide racial intolerance but by the same token there needs to be give and take on both sides if we are to achieve racial and religious tolerance ...
The dominant group can extend a hand and offer to help the less privileged group, but sometimes the dominant forgets to listen and starts to do things they think is for the best. This can come off condescending, patronizing and disempowering. In their righteous rage for justice, the privileged group inadvertently silences the truly discriminated: "We have a voice, let us speak for you!" instead of "Let's give you a voice, so you can speak for yourselves!". Bloated egos and angry YouTube videos ensue. The privileged start to make up problems in an attempt to relate better with the less privileged. Suddenly they want to be victims -- while the less privileged hate to see themselves as such. Round and round we go, while little by little morsels of actual justice escape through the cracks and grow into rights, voices, and respect. Cops pay for killing and/or profiling blacks. Men aren't forced to serve in the military (ok, this hasn't happened yet in my country, but maybe someday it will). Abortion and birth control are readily available to women. Etc. Etc.
That's what I always found to be absurd. It's right to give the less privileged a chance to speak for themselves, but when that turns into 'let us fight for you!' I think it's backwards and very insulting. They don't want others to do their fighting for them, they want the space to do the fighting themselves. The best metaphor I can come up with is to imagine them fighting a dragon. They likely wouldn't mind backup, but they really would not like the backup to take over completely and say, 'This is our fight!' when it's not. They're hacking and shooting spells at the dragon while the privileged are in the background shooting it with arrows. Erm, I hope that was the right metaphor. EDIT: Wait, better metaphor: If they've got the dragon cornered and are taking care of it handily, then unless asked, the privileged shouldn't butt in. Sometimes all the privileged can really do, and should do, is simply listen.
*Things a teacher says in their head, never aloud #1* When students tell me they don't want to do something ''cus it's boring'. Well, you know what? I don't give a shit if you find it boring - some things I can't make fun for you, some things are just by their nature dry and serious. But you know, that's life, if you are just learning that now at 18, then, welcome to the adult world! It's a world where you need to do things you don't want to do - a place where you need to do some pretty boring things from time to time. You aren't in school any more, you are now legally a grown up. Start acting like it. And believe me, a boss is going to be even less sympathetic than I am to what you do and don't want to do with your day.
If I had a Twitter account, I'd share this. Yes, adult life is boring most of the time for everyone all around the world. And in the real world, no one gives one donkey shit if you find what you're doing boring because quite simply no one has time to listen to that sort of childish whining. The boss will simply point you to the door if you pull that crap on them. I bet you that even prolific video game developers, like the sort who work for Bethesda Game Studios, find what they do boring at times. They still gotta do it, though. Some things are just so mind-numbingly boring that watching two rain drops racing each other down a window would be more fun, but you still do it why? Because that's your job. My time working as a volunteer has taught me that the boss doesn't have time to entertain you, they want you to make their life a bit easier by doing your work. Amen, Lemex. Amen. EDIT: Wow, I didn't realize I had that rant in me. Yeah, whiners make me want to lose it too. It's like they're toddlers trapped in the bodies of fully grown adults.
