What grinds your gears?

[moon_lit_tears]

For some reason it never showed up as new posts in the thread...ugh..

 

sorry about that..

[D-Lyrium]

Doth thou mother know you weareth her drapes?

 

I know you're taking the piss, but it is genuinely worrying when writing in correct English suddenly makes people think of Shakespeare.

[djthefunkchris]

I know you're taking the piss, but it is genuinely worrying when writing in correct English suddenly makes people think of Shakespeare.

 

[LoNdOn]

I know we all complain about stuff that happens in our lives. I do it a lot. We all hate when we have a bad day at work/school, fight with family or loved ones.

 

My biggest gear grinder is the news. I hate seeing terrible things happen in the world. I really don't read much of the news or watch TV because of it. When you wake up and see stories like this http://gma.yahoo.com/colorado-batman-movie-shooting-suspect-phd-student-085940589--abc-news-topstories.html it makes you want to go back to bed and wish you could wake up in another world, well for me it does.

 

I flat out refuse to watch the news or read newspapers. I figure if it is important enough, I will hear about it anyway. I have no interest whatsoever in watching what I like to call "Scaremongering; 1000 Reasons Not To Leave Your House!" If that wasn't enough reason not to watch, I'm almost certain the news broadcasters fill in the gaps with utter guess work and conjecture.

 

As a great man once said, "Those who don't watch the news are uninformed. Those that do watch the news are misinformed."

[BurningHamster]

 

:-D

 

Haha the IT Crowd is eerily realistic sometimes.

[moon_lit_tears]

 

 

LOL

I flat out refuse to watch the news or read newspapers. I figure if it is important enough, I will hear about it anyway. I have no interest whatsoever in watching what I like to call "Scaremongering; 1000 Reasons Not To Leave Your House!" If that wasn't enough reason not to watch, I'm almost certain the news broadcasters fill in the gaps with utter guess work and conjecture.

 

As a great man once said, "Those who don't watch the news are uninformed. Those that do watch the news are misinformed."

 

 

I don't watch the news either. I seen this all over Facebook and was saddened by it.

 

The news sucks. The sad part is that it's what the world is though.

[LoNdOn]

I don't watch the news either. I seen this all over Facebook and was saddened by it.

 

The news sucks. The sad part is that it's what the world is though.

 

Yes and no.

 

The world does have tragic events on a regular occurance and a lot of them are newsworthy. However, you must bear in mind that the primary objective of the news is to sell to an audience. When I say sell, I don't mean trying to shill a product to physically purchase, I mean they need people to either buy the newspaper, subscribe online or watch the news broadcast on tv. They are in direct competition with each other and whether they are willing to admit it or not, they dramatise events and give them slogans and soundbites to try and catch the viewer's attention.

 

This isn't an anti-establishment diatribe by any means, I can appreciate what they are doing, it just isn't for me. The reason I don't watch the news is the exact same reason I don't watch soaps. I don't need to be bummed out every single day of my life.

 

I could go on forever about the problems with the media and news in general but I won't waste people's time with my thoughts on the matter.

[Remianen]

So with my mother in the hospital, I've found the need to drive a lot more (20 min drive to the hospital, 1.5 hrs via public transportation) and I have noticed some things that annoy me to no end. Much of this is probably just Brooklyn behavior (at least I hope so. Don't want to have to deal with this crap when I move to Pennsylvania) but every day I have to drive across town, my (already high) blood pressure starts to to jump on a trampoline.

 

I hate it when people take 15 seconds to turn a corner. The light is green, there's no one in the crosswalk, DRIVE you son of an aardvark.

 

I understand it's the middle of summer but I hate it when people drive 10 mph on residential streets. I wouldn't mind as much, if they weren't right in front of me (MOVE, I've got places to be!). Now, I'm not one of those types who tries to see how high I can get the speedometer before I have to apply the brakes approaching the next intersection/stop sign/stoplight (too many of my friends are like that). But the manual says 30mph is a decent speed on residential streets so that's what I typically go at. When people in the BIKE LANE are passing you, you're going too slow. Typically I get off work at 7pm and the hospital's visiting hours ends at 9:30pm. After I've showered and such, I'm leaving home at 7:30pm so I don't have time to deal with sightseers.

 

Livery cab drivers. HATE THEM. If you're driving down a fairly busy street (like, oh I dunno, Nostrand Avenue), livery cabs are always creepin', looking for someone to throw their hand up for a cab. OR, they're driving at a decent clip and when someone does throw their hand up, they immediately slam on the brakes. They're also notorious for not knowing wtf they're going to stop so when driving down narrow residential streets, they're creeping, trying to find a street address. It often looks like they're setting up for a drive-by.

 

This is probably a Brooklyn thing because I never see it happen anywhere else (and the next thing will explain why). People who double park on narrow streets and then glare at you as if YOU'RE in the wrong. On some stretches of streets, both residential and "busy", you'll see four or five cars double parked on every block. If it's Sunday and there's a church on that block, the entire street is full of double parked cars. What's worse is the people who don't even bother to pull over. They double park IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LANE. All this is just laziness. It wouldn't take much effort to park around the corner or something and then walk back but any effort is too much effort, it seems.

 

Brooklyn cops. Yes, I hate them too because they're freakin' useless. I've watched people do the double parking in the middle of the street thing in full view of a cop car and they're so busy with their coffee and donuts, they can't be bother to SCAN THE REGISTRATION STICKER and click out a ticket. Yes, that's right, they don't have to write a single thing. Registration stickers have bar codes on them. All the lazy cop has to do is scan it, pick the violation, and click 'print' and the ticket pops right now (along with a convenient envelope to send payment in). I watched four cops (two on foot, two in a cruiser) shootin' the sh*t on a corner when a woman turns that corner, drives 20 feet, stops, puts the car in park, turns on her hazard lights, and then walks (not runs, WALKS) into a store. ARE YOU SERIOUS? The woman's car was like 25 feet away from FOUR POLICE OFFICERS and no one could be arsed to write her a ticket? This doesn't happen in Manhattan because Manhattan cops (traffic and otherwise) will stalk you like a freakin' cheetah and if you double park, before your foot hits the sidewalk, you've got a nice orange ornament on your windshield.

 

bleh

[JackKnifed72]

Don't want to have to deal with this crap when I move to Pennsylvania

 

....hope your not moving to Pittsburgh....you'll be disappointed

[Remianen]

....hope your not moving to Pittsburgh....you'll be disappointed

 

Lancaster area. I can deal with the horse & buggy scene a bit better.

[moon_lit_tears]

Lancaster area. I can deal with the horse & buggy scene a bit better.

 

That's a beautiful area.

 

That puts you about an hour from where I live.

 

People still drive like idiots, just not as much.

[D-Lyrium]

You know what grinds my gears?

 

So I'm watching USA vs. France in the olympic basketball. What really grinds my gears is when you're allowed to represent a country at sport when you have a ridiculously tenuous link to that nationality. I hate it wherever it happens (especially when it happens in the case of team sports where players clearly are only playing for that team because they're not good enough to get into their "real" team, or the reverse; they're really good but the rest of their 'real' nation sucks). I hate the fact that our on-again-off-again British #1 women's tennis player is Ukrainian, for instance. Anne Keothavong was born here to Laotian parents who were refugees, so that's fair enough, but Elena Baltacha was born in Ukraine, to Ukrainian parents who only moved here because her dad - a professional footballer - got transferred to an English club. She's Ukrainian. Just because she's good at tennis does not mean she should represent England or Britain.

 

Anyway, back to the USA/France match. There's a guy called Tony Parker. Great French name, right? I did a bit of research. Born in Belgium, to an American father and a Dutch mother. How the hell is he allowed to play for France?!

 

It's ridiculous.

 

The Italian rugby union team is notorious for this (their captain (and several others) is Argentinian, and one of their other star players is Australian and his mother has Italian parents). The French football team is another example, some (I'd go as far as to say 'most') of them come from French-speaking African countries.

 

I know this debate comes up fairly often on forums and stuff, but I'm not even talking about parentage in some cases. Parker plays for France because - literally - "he lived there for a bit". What the HELL?

 

 

Edit: To clarify, I have nothing against people moving to other countries, and I have nothing against people chosing the place of their birth as their nationality (over, say, that of their parents). I just feel that you should only be eligible to represent a country in sports (and other things where nationality matters) if:

- You were born there.

- Either of your parents are of that nationality.

- If you have significant ancestry from that nation and you've made an effort to keep in touch with it (learning the language, for instance). I have a friend with a Polish surname who is, for all intents and purposes, English (his mother is English and his father's line have lived in England for about five generations). He speaks fluent Polish though, so considers himself English-Polish, and I have no problem with that sort of thing. If he was good at a sport and decided to represent Poland, that'd be fine. He'd have a 'right' to it.

 

Living in a country for a bit should not be enough though. In my opinion.

[Hyde Hill]

True D Lyrium and the onus falls on the regulating bodies for the rules they use. The murky bit is if you get duel citizenship just because you want to play for the national team or other sports related advances or because you really want to become part of the country so to speak. As we can't see into people's minds about that we can only guess. As in principle just because someone has been nationalized it shouldn't exclude him from representing the national team.

The other murky part is the heritage thing you touched upon where it is hard to truly say if someone has kept in touch enough with the heritage and put forth solid criteria for that.

 

All in all it is annoying but not something that is preventable.

 

What grinds my gears is when its done in reverse as well lol. K 1 is the best example where almost all the top fighters are Dutch so to help hide that fact anyone who is first gen or second gen Dutch is encouraged to fight under the originator country flag.

 

Again can't see into their harts but it is striking.

[Remianen]

D-Lyrium, much of that is due to competitive balance. If someone from the NBA (someone with multiple NBA championships on their resumé) wanted to play for Angola, FIBA would probably allow it because otherwise, Angola's essentially dead meat. Sure, Tony Parker's playing for France because there's no way he would make the US team but France needs the help. Heck, so does Belgium and the Netherlands.

 

What grinds my gears about Olympic basketball is even the suggestion that this year's team is on par with the '92 team (the first so-called 'Dream Team'). Every member of the '92 team except the then-mandatory college player, is in the Hall of Fame as an individual (the team is in there too). Three of the four coaches are also in the Hall of Fame as individuals. As Michael Jordan alluded to, athleticism does not supercede experience and/or skill. Somehow I doubt most of the members of the 2012 squad will ever enter any conversations about the 'greatest of all time' at their respective positions. Kobe, Chris Paul, and LeBron might, but really, Carmelo? Andre Iquodala? TYSON CHANDLER?

[jhd1]

The French football team is another example, some (I'd go as far as to say 'most') of them come from French-speaking African countries.

 

Do you remember Jack Charlton's Republic of Ireland team(s)? You only needed to have breathed in Irish air to get into that squad Didn't do too badly at the 1994 World Cup either if I remember rightly.

[eayragt]

Do you remember Jack Charlton's Republic of Ireland team(s)? You only needed to have breathed in Irish air to get into that squad Didn't do too badly at the 1994 World Cup either if I remember rightly.

 

Ah yes, Tony Cascarino and his Irish grandmother, that he revealed after retirement wasn't Irish and he actually had no rights to play for Ireland at all.

 

I'd add one to the list of eligibility, and that's if you hold a passport of that nation. Thing is, most of these "plastic Brits" (as the rags would say, but it applies to other countries) do have a passport. And quite frankly anyone with a British passport has the right to call themselves British as much as I do.

[BurningHamster]

You know what grinds my gears?

 

What really grinds my gears is when you're allowed to represent a country at sport when you have a ridiculously tenuous link to that nationality.

 

Yeah I always thought that was pretty pathetic, I am pretty sure for one Olympics Australia pretty much bought Bulgaria's second string weightlifting team. I honestly lose all interest in any sport where I see stuff like that happening. I mean sure in most pro sports you know you are cheering for a uniform and nothing more, but the olympics shouldn't be like that.

 

The Italian rugby union team is notorious for this (their captain (and several others) is Argentinian, and one of their other star players is Australian and his mother has Italian parents).

 

To be fair, I'll never count anyone with even 1% Italian blood as Australian, damn eyeties and their tomato noodles.

I know this debate comes up fairly often on forums and stuff, but I'm not even talking about parentage in some cases. Parker plays for France because - literally - "he lived there for a bit". What the HELL?

 

Living in a country for a bit should not be enough though. In my opinion.

 

It seems like if you want to have a child who is in the olympics, its in their best interest to knock up a foreigner in a country neither of you are from, then move to another country, live there a while, move on again and get citizenship in yet another country. Bonus points if the kids grandparents are from four different countries.

[BHK1978]

@ D-Lyrium: Don't get me started on that crap. When Major League Baseball ran that nonsense that they called the World Baseball Classic, they had an American born player, Mike Piazza, to play for Italy. Now as to why this is the case, well your guess is as good as mine but to me it is bullcrap.

[D-Lyrium]

D-Lyrium, much of that is due to competitive balance. If someone from the NBA (someone with multiple NBA championships on their resumé) wanted to play for Angola, FIBA would probably allow it because otherwise, Angola's essentially dead meat. Sure, Tony Parker's playing for France because there's no way he would make the US team but France needs the help. Heck, so does Belgium and the Netherlands.

 

Well then that's their problem. If it's that bad a problem (which obviously it is, when you put a sport into the Olympics that only a handful of countries (in this case, one ¬_¬) care about), then introduce rules banning or limiting professional or elite players (like football have, sort of. You're only allowed a set amount of over-23s in the team).

 

It's not America's fault (first time you'll hear me say THAT ) that nobody else cares about an American-dominated sport that only America really has a top-level professional league for. Either take it out of the Olympics, or restrict entry for elite players. Don't just let any random guy on the street play for a country they have nothing to do with "in the interest of fairness".

 

It's bad enough that your #1 table tennis player is Chinese/Taiwanese and bankrolled by Bill Gates... ¬_¬ But I guess America has always been that way; "You can't come in, you're English. You can't come in, you're Israeli. You c... oh, you're good at stuff and can make me money? WELCOME TO AMERICA!".

 

I jest, I jest.

 

 

 

 

Sort of.

 

To be fair, I'll never count anyone with even 1% Italian blood as Australian, damn eyeties and their tomato noodles.

 

Are we still a little butthurt over the Fabio Grosso incident? ¬_¬

[SHaynes23]

Tony Parker was actually raised and lived nearly his whole life in France before coming over to the NBA. He even played amateur ball in France when he was a teen and professionally over there for a few years before he signed with the Spurs. I think that gives him at least some right to play for the French team.

 

I do agree with hating people being able to be "free agents" when it comes to international sports, but I just wanted to point out that Parker has a lot more reason to play for France than any other country.

[smurphy1014]

@ D-Lyrium: Don't get me started on that crap. When Major League Baseball ran that nonsense that they called the World Baseball Classic, they had an American born player, Mike Piazza, to play for Italy. Now as to why this is the case, well your guess is as good as mine but to me it is bullcrap.

 

If I remember correctly Piazza qualified for the Italian team because his grandparents were originally from Italy. Or perhaps he knew where Italy was on a map.

[moon_lit_tears]

Why do people even watch the Olympics when they complain so much about it?

 

 

I think that's one of my bigger gripes...Why watch something over and over if you can't stand what's on the TV?

[D-Lyrium]

Yeah, because obviously we watch things purely to complain about them.

 

We complain about things that are wrong about things we're passionate about. If we weren't passionate about it, we wouldn't bother to complain. We'd just not watch/do/eat/go to that thing.

 

People grind my gears much more when they don't care about anything enough to complain about it's faults.

[moon_lit_tears]

Yeah, because obviously we watch things purely to complain about them.

 

We complain about things that are wrong about things we're passionate about. If we weren't passionate about it, we wouldn't bother to complain. We'd just not watch/do/eat/go to that thing.

 

People grind my gears much more when they don't care about anything enough to complain about it's faults.

 

 

That's not always true.

 

People have complained about shows or movies...and I ask why do you watch it? Most responses are out of boredom.

 

My aunt for example was watching the womens volleyball and was complaining about everything. When I asked her why she was watching it...she said it was because she had nothing else to watch, That makes no sense to me. If that's the case put a movie on, grab a book, go for a walk, or just go into another room and do something worth while instead of complaining about every little detail of something. I don't understand most people on that matter.

 

If you're passionate about something and want to discuss or pout out flaws in something that's one thing, but to criticize every little thing...it makes me want to punch people in the face.

[BurningHamster]

Are we still a little butthurt over the Fabio Grosso incident? ¬_¬

 

Is he the guy who is on the cover of all those romance novels? If so, he can hurt my butt anytime.

 

Seriously, I don't know who that is.