When you're 18 you know everything. If, when you've reached 21 (or got a degree in something "clever") you still know everything, you're still only 18.
I have a sling bag I kept from the Army that carries... everything. Small laptop, Kindle, phone, cables, wallet, checkbook. More often than not it stays in the car and I take out what I need for the moment, but it is nice to have a good amount of things at my disposal without being a full manly looking dude carrying a purse, or trying to claim a satchel.
The world 'whilst.' I Google the word, the definition is British and means 'while.' If you originate from any states or territories of The United States of America, stop using whilst. Stop. Stop it. Whilst is not proper English, whilst doesn't stop global warming, whilst doesn't make an argument more coherent, whilst does not make you more attractive to whatever sex you want to be attracted to. Whilst just pisses me off.
England can disagree, it's your word. Americans trying to be pretentious need to be *cough*metaphorically*cough* slapped.
Now that's what I call a pet peeve! I think a pet peeve is something that doesn't bother everybody, but something you really detest yourself. They can be fun to collect. This is a new one on me, but I think I might agree with it.
The best Christmas gift I ever got for my sister was a real, actually useful watch. It was round. It was graduated in minutes. It had two hands and a day / date function. It even showed the phase of the moon correctly. I got her this watch for exactly the reasons you list above - women's watches tend to be useless. My sister thanked me for that gift more than for anything else I've ever given her and she wore it for about thirty years. Women (at least my sister) want functional timepieces!
I honestly remember being in a shop one time and asking the cashier if she knew what time it was. She glanced at her wristwatch and said "it's either quarter to four or quarter to five." I said ...what? She showed me the watch, which was one of those dressy oval jobs with no numbers on it, and said "I can't really tell unless the hands are on 12, 3, 6, or 9."
I find that I use 'whilst' in speech all the time. I think it has to do with the fact it rolls off my tongue and on to the next sound better, given my accent and dialect. A bit like a tied note in music, it limits the staccato and aids the flow. My ultimate peeve is a common one. I hate when a cashier puts my change on the counter instead of delivering it straight into my upturned palm. Ever seen a chronic nail-biter trying to pick up change? I'd have as much chance using my toes.
How my brain can come up with the most twisted characters, have them go off on pretty mean-spirited, insulting rants, yet there's no context for it. No rhyme or reason as to what propelled this rant, why this character feels the way he/she does. Just now I had a character randomly insult the city he lives in, calling it a ‘den of inbred hillbillies suckling the decayed teat of the carcass that is intelligence and reason’ before rounding on the MC's little cousin and saying, ‘There's no future for anyone, not even you’. And there's no context for this. Sure I may get a general sense of what setting he's from, who he's talking to but that's it! No context as to why he's talking like this, what compelled him to go off on this rant. I'm thinking, “Thanks, brain. THANKS. God forbid you actually give me some context as to why this character is acting like a big douchebag to the MC and his little cousin.” And it's always like this for any character I create. One villain in my Colonial mystery compared Amos' hometown to that of a small toe severed off of a newborn babe. With no context as to why he just said that other than he's comparing the hometown to Boston. But again, no context to how this conversation came up. Hell, I don't even know the how and why behind Amos winding up in Boston in the first place. His town is supposed to be at least a day's carriage drive away. A few years ago, I had this image of a king ‘marking’ the son of a insubordinate noble by drawing his sword down the son's cheek. The son in question is about twelve. Again, no context. No reason. Nothing. And it's not even with mean characters! A few months back, when contemplating scenes for my fantasy, my brain lovingly graced me with a mental image of one of my female characters removing her shirt in front of my MC. No, this was not the prelude to a lesbian sex scene (they consider each other friends), they were just talking when she suddenly decided to go topless. What happened? You guessed it. No. Context. Behind. This. Image. GAH! GIVE ME THE PLORKING CONTEXT, BRAIN! I CAN'T USE THESE CHARACTERS/DIALOGUES IF I DON'T KNOW WHY THEY'RE THERE!! Ahem, thanks for the thread, @jannert .
Mine is the unfortunate paradox of the mix of positive and disappointing traits of online forums, like this one. Posters who take jabs at people for their own ego stroking, with comments off topic to begin with. Bad manners, basically. So on the one hand forums can be a great benefit and one can learn a lot. But the nature of the anonymity it affords leads to jokers saying things here they'd never say to my face. Civility by the wayside, it seems.
About the pockets in women's clothing - there's an Agatha Christie mystery where Poirot (or if it was miss Marple?) detects a female villain, hold your breath now: because she wears clothes with large, unbecoming pockets! What woman would choose to wear garments with pockets unless she needed them for hiding stolen jewels (or maybe it was drugs) ? That was in the thirties, so I had hoped for a change in people's pocket-attitudes.
Hey J...J. This is my old watch from when I was little. You can have it. But J, modern folk don't wear watches. I've got two Seiko kinetics in the drawer - resting, and from the old man [deceased], also my Russian Tank watch '89, valued at 99p. You see, us new, modern people tell the time using telephones. Our wrists are for our lap/heart rate/ wank monitors. My pet peeve is people who collect Mont Blanc fountain pens.
The heresy! Lies! There is nothing like a watch, I do not see how I'd be able to live without my trusty watch. Much more practical to look out your wrist instead of pulling out your phone
Films and TV fiction. TABLE MANNERS. Scene: A couple of friends, a family or even a couple on a date sit down to eat in a restaurant, in the dining room or at the kitchen table. Symptom: Characters gesticulating with the cutlery, chewing with mouth open. Glass in one hand, fork in the other. Elbows on the table. All the while talking loudly, completely unconcerned they are breaking every basic rule of table manners. And I'm not talking about scoping soup the wrong direction or incorrect handling of napkin. But basic manners a 7-y.o. should know. Half the time they are saying something self-obsessed and banale that could easily wait until they finished chewing and put the cutlery down. THIS IS DISGUSTING. Mark well - this isn't characters who are gangsters or 18th century peasants. For them, it might be part of the 'characters' personality and background. But this is normal modern middle class characters who seem to be living comfortable and otherwise refined lives. They have a dining room at home, or eat out at a nice restaurant. So what's their excuse!? Since films usually "censor out" things like messy kitchens, visits to the bathroom, overflowing laundry baskets, messy handbags..... all of which we know are part of normal life.... then why not censor out disgusting eating habits too? Though truth is, I don't know anyone who'd be eating in this way while in a social setting. Initially I thought it was just US films and (wrongly? unfairly?) concluded that average standards for table manners were lower in the US than in Europe. I had only been aware of the American habit of fork in right hand, and larger portion sizes. No American I knew had in any way revolting table manners. But then recently I noticed the same appalling table manners in a Swedish film and a French TV series. Strange thing is: I never thought of it before the last few years. Is it some kind of new trend on the screen? What's with this! It's really annoying!
Haha.... Or maybe I've watched too much TV. I've always had the same standards of table manners though. If anything I'm more relaxed about it now, than I used to be.
ok but going to jump in with a serious peeve: Church collapse --> Morality through Law People be like "fuck you it's not against the Law' (to rape my wife) And a bit like French Nazi-sympathisers when neighbours use sprinklers True story.
Are you talking about the fact that morality went out the window with Christianity? That's more of a "serious problem" not a "pet peeve", isn't it. Totally agree though. Was just reading something about people's complaints about other passengers in public transport. Pretty much all of the things they listed are things people wouldn't have dreamt of doing 50-60 years ago. I wasn't alive then - granted - but that's very much my impression. Used to go to school in a bus where it was a given that the kids stood and the adults sat. Men often gave up their seats for women who expressed gratitude in response. It was a given that we kids offered our seat if any adult was standing. Today, I've noticed it's the opposite and people so busy with their phone that a pregnant woman could give birth standing up in the bus - they wouldn't notice.
Thanks, M. So thoughtful, as usual. But hang on to it. Our (hypothetical) grandchildren/great-grandchildren may decide that telephones in pockets are a total nerdy load of crap (because our hypothetical children/grandchildren who are their parents can't do without them) and decide that windy-up wrist watches with dancing dogs on them are the next big thing. And they'll pay thousands to wrest them from gramps/great gramps. Look what's happened to vinyl. What is a Mont Blanc fountain pen?
Montblanc Meisterstück Platinum Line Classique Fountain Pen with Piston Converter, Black Google is your friend!
Good point. Perhaps the gadget hysteria on the whole will one day become uncool. Mont Blanc pen is a very expensive fountain pen. Status symbol. Why pay £2 for a fountain pen when you can pay £2000? I hear old Soviet watches are very trendy in Russia at the moment. Someone I know was happy to have inherited one from his grandfather.
