Pet Peeves: Aka Things That Make You Go "Gah!"

[Zola]

I hate online registrations. 

Not so much with forums such as this, which only asks for for very basic personal information (some of which doesn't even necessarily have to be true because its never verified other than an email addy). But banking websites, government websites and such like, really do ask quite intrusive questions beyond the basics. 

In one respect I can see why they do this, but I sometimes do wonder what the benefit is of asking one's sexual orientation & ethnicity etc? Is it because of some policy regarding diversity quotas, or that they just want to know more about your private life so that they can sell it on to 3rd parties. 

The real annoying thing is that you can't leave these questions blank. You have to select an option, and if you really don't like revealing your orientation then you can always lie by selecting something else. Which to my mind defeats the whole objective. 

[JTMacc99]

I love those guys @theredhead77. 

And that's a great song, both because the message is on the nose and it's delivered with exactly the right energy. 

[Qoass]

I know this belongs in another thread but my beloved TiVo died and Jeepers, Creepers, does EVERYTHING I want to watch have to be on Thursday night???

[Mountainair]

5 hours ago, magicdog said:

Have you considered home schooling?  You can set the curriculum based on each child’s learning style, set hours (younger children tend to need 2 to 3 hours daily whil middle and high schoolers about 4 -5 hours daily).  The fact that you have set up learning sessions for them is a form of home schooling in itself.

Yea....no! I'd lose my mind if I home schooled. I did think about it when I was having issues with the public school system and my oldest son but ended up getting them into a Charter School and have been really pleased with it. My husband works 50 plus hour weeks so my kids leaving the house for a few hours a day makes me a better mother :)

[backformore]

On ‎1‎/‎20‎/‎2018 at 2:09 PM, bilgistic said:

Incoming first-world pet peeve...

I took a survey for a pet food company, and I'd like to order their food, which is very expensive ($3/can). Taking the survey yielded a $25 coupon off a $50 order.

On the website to order the food, a $50 order gets you free shipping. Just one selection (case) of the canned food is over $50. Yay! Free shipping! But then...when I go to check out and put in the coupon code, I'm now being charged for shipping ($12! That equals four cans of food!).

An ongoing peeve I encounter is when an online store has FREE shipping with an order of $50 or more.  And then every single item I want is sale priced at $49.99.  So to get the free shipping, you have to actually spend $99.98.  

On ‎1‎/‎20‎/‎2018 at 7:58 PM, bilgistic said:

I still get actual paper birthday checks from my 91-year-old grandmother. I'm fine with older folks using checks. I'm 43 and I don't use Bitcoin like the kids today. (Please don't explain to me what it is or how it works. I don't care.)

My 90 year old father sends birthday checks to my adult kids, then complains to ME when they don't get cashed for months.   He says "what do you mean they don't go to the bank?  Don't they have to go every week to deposit their paychecks?" 

[backformore]

On ‎1‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 8:31 AM, DeLurker said:

So very true.  Corning Ware plates also shatter spectacularly and into teeny tiny pieces that take forever to find. 

My bare feet are very good at finding those shards! 

[backformore]

My peeve on this site is when posters discuss a show, and instead of calling the character by name, they use the name that the actor played in a previous show.  

IF there's a show with Sue and Tony, and Tony is played by an actor who once played the part of character named Bruce in an entirely different show - posters will post about the relationship Sue has with "Bruce."  And I'm sitting there trying to figure out if I missed an episode, because I never noticed a Bruce on the show. 

The other thing is when they give characters cutesy nicknames, and then refer to them by those names, and I can't follow the discussion because I have no idea who they're referring to. 

[bilgistic]

1 hour ago, backformore said:

My peeve on this site is when posters discuss a show, and instead of calling the character by name, they use the name that the actor played in a previous show.  

IF there's a show with Sue and Tony, and Tony is played by an actor who once played the part of character named Bruce in an entirely different show - posters will post about the relationship Sue has with "Bruce."  And I'm sitting there trying to figure out if I missed an episode, because I never noticed a Bruce on the show.

This was highly illegal back on Television Without Pity!

[ABay]

Except for the recappers, some of whom used so many it was tedious reading their reviews.

Edited January 25, 2018 by ABay

[theredhead77]

19 hours ago, backformore said:

My 90 year old father sends birthday checks to my adult kids, then complains to ME when they don't get cashed for months.   He says "what do you mean they don't go to the bank?  Don't they have to go every week to deposit their paychecks?" 

Does their bank have edeposit via their mobile banking app? Open the app, point the camera at the check, boom, check deposited

[PRgal]

37 minutes ago, theredhead77 said:

Does their bank have edeposit via their mobile banking app? Open the app, point the camera at the check, boom, check deposited

I do this!  I guess some people are lazy if they aren't depositing!  Oh, and many of us don't carry too much cash with us, either. 

[BookWoman56]

My mother has been celebrating an "anniversary" of her 29th birthday for a seriously long time now, as she will hit 90 in real years later this year. However, my paternal grandmother was in the hospital for congestive heart failure, several years before she died. She kept shaving a couple of years off her real age every time somebody asked, because surgery was being considered and her actual age was a factor. She stubbornly kept insisting she wasn't as old as she really was, and kept lowering her age until it reached the point where she would have given birth to my father when she was 10. So my father had to take the surgeon aside to provide the actual age versus the age my grandmother was claiming.

In terms of why banks, government agencies, and so forth ask a lot of questions other than basic information, in many cases it's to collect data and analyze it for trends. So it's not about whether you as an individual are straight, gay, bi, etc. At least from the perspective of banks, it's to study the data in case there are trends that might lead to lawsuits and/or trends that indicate something needs to be done to change the trend. For example, if there's a huge disparity between the percentage of the population in general that identifies as LGBTQ and the percentage identifying in account or loan applications as LGBTQ, the bank needs to figure out WTF is going on, whether good or bad. Let's say that the percentage of the US population identifying as LGBTQ is 5%, but the checking account applications and mortgage applications show that 10% of the applicants for those services at Bank ABC are LGBTQ. Bank ABC would figure they are doing a good job marketing either directly or indirectly to that specific demographic. OTOH, if only 1-2% of applicants for those services at Bank ABC are LGBTQ, then the bank is going to want to explore reasons for that disparity. If you then go into discrepancies between which applications get approved versus which ones are rejected, the bank needs to dig deeper and see if there's evidence of intentional or unintentional bias, because there's the potential for lawsuits and so forth. So, again, generally the places collecting that data (at least for non-government companies) don't give a flying fuck about your own personal data; they're interested in the bigger picture. As for government agencies, I suspect it's more or less the same purpose, but I also don't underestimate the willingness of any government to collect unnecessary data that could later be used for nefarious purposes. 

Edited January 26, 2018 by BookWoman56

[TattleTeeny]

Still no luck. But maybe I'll go for this one.
 

Edited January 26, 2018 by TattleTeeny
Sorry that is so huge!

[theredhead77]

@TattleTeeny I found this - link to etsy

[TattleTeeny]

I actually added that one to a wish list yesterday! Thanks, you guys!

[BooksRule]

I thought about the brief discussion here a couple of days ago about the talent for finding the bad shopping carts when I was at a Wal Mart a few minutes ago (to pick up a few things that the other Wal Mart I went to on Wednesday didn't have) and noticed that there was a woman pushing a cart with a 'flat'.  I don't know why she didn't exchange it for a better one, but I could hear that bad wheel going 'ka-chunk! ka-chunk!' all over the store. 

Edited January 26, 2018 by BooksRule
typo

[Zola]

3 minutes ago, BooksRule said:

I thought about the brief discussion here a couple of days ago about the talent for finding the bad shopping carts when I was at a Wal Mart a few minutes ago (to pick up a few things that the other Wal Mart I went to on Wednesday didn't have) and noticed that there was a woman pushing a cart with a 'flat'.  I don't know why she didn't exchange it for a better one, but I could hear that bad wheel going 'ka-chunk! ka-chunk!' all over the store. 

On the subject of trolleys again, I always wipe the handlebar before using it, primarily because you just never know how clean the hands of the previous user are.

[bilgistic]

YES! I also wipe the little flippy-down seat thing because of dirty baby butt.

[Quof]

Yet parents think nothing of setting Dirty Baby Butt on tables and counters upon which food is served. 

[Blergh]

22 hours ago, BookWoman56 said:

My mother has been celebrating an "anniversary" of her 29th birthday for a seriously long time now, as she will hit 90 in real years later this year. However, my paternal grandmother was in the hospital for congestive heart failure, several years before she died. She kept shaving a couple of years off her real age every time somebody asked, because surgery was being considered and her actual age was a factor. She stubbornly kept insisting she wasn't as old as she really was, and kept lowering her age until it reached the point where she would have given birth to my father when she was 10. So my father had to take the surgeon aside to provide the actual age versus the age my grandmother was claiming.

 

  My paternal grandmother was rather coy about her age (even insisting having question marks on her birthday cake instead of numbers)  until she made it to her 90th birthday then she realized she had more to gain by bragging!

 My maternal grandmother had no problems about her actual age. However; she had borne my mother when she was 19 so she loved it when folks thought they were sisters to the point that when someone pointed out that they could tell the two were mother and daughter, my grandmother  sourly replied 'I used to look MUCH better!'

[StatisticalOutlier]

On the news last night, there was a report about a woman who took photos of shopping carts filled with slabs of raw meat (she said pork) being taken into a 99 Ranch grocery store in San Jose, California.  I play pretty fast and loose with germs, but naked raw meat in a shopping cart gives even me pause.

Why do women lie about their age?  People are only going to think, "She looks pretty rough for that age."  That's preferable to telling your real age? 

I know there's age discrimination, but if you're not at your job, then I don't understand it.

[ratgirlagogo]

On 1/24/2018 at 10:18 AM, AuntieL said:

Many years ago my nephew' "other" grandmother and I  decided to fudge our ages. She said decided it would be her 59th birthday. I decided I was going to stay at 39. My then seven-year-old nephew looked at both of us and said "well I guess I'm not born yet". Little smartass almost didn't make it to 8. 

OH MY GOD!!! I had no idea I was on a message board with Jack Benny!!!!

[Katy M]

I will fully admit that this is the stupidest thing that anyone has ever gotten annoyed with ever.  It's not worth being annoyed at.  But, I can't help myself, because it's just stupid.  On the Goodreads website, when you finish a book, you mark it as finished.  Goodreads then sends you an email to tell you that you've finished the book.  Like you're not going to know.  

[theredhead77]

2 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

On the news last night, there was a report about a woman who took photos of shopping carts filled with slabs of raw meat (she said pork) being taken into a 99 Ranch grocery store in San Jose, California.  I play pretty fast and loose with germs, but naked raw meat in a shopping cart gives even me pause.

Here is the story if anyone is interested.

[auntlada]

30 minutes ago, Katy M said:

I will fully admit that this is the stupidest thing that anyone has ever gotten annoyed with ever.  It's not worth being annoyed at.  But, I can't help myself, because it's just stupid.  On the Goodreads website, when you finish a book, you mark it as finished.  Goodreads then sends you an email to tell you that you've finished the book.  Like you're not going to know.  

I hate that, too. I even hate the part of the email where it asks me what's next. Maybe one of the other 10 books that are marked "currently reading?"

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

I will fully admit that this is the stupidest thing that anyone has ever gotten annoyed with ever.  It's not worth being annoyed at.  But, I can't help myself, because it's just stupid.  On the Goodreads website, when you finish a book, you mark it as finished.  Goodreads then sends you an email to tell you that you've finished the book.  Like you're not going to know.  

You are wrong and I can prove it.  This morning I became annoyed with light switches.

I have a light that is controlled by two separate panels.  In a world that makes sense, when all the switches on the same panel are in the down position, the lights should be off.  This is not true in my world.  My world is a mad, mad place. One switch is always not like the others when the light is off.  So I get the bright idea of testing all combinations;

OFF + OFF = ON , OFF + ON = OFF, ON + ON = ON, and ON + OFF = OFF

But, wait... I have two other lights like this that work off two switches.  Let's see how they work...

OFF + OFF = OFF , OFF + ON = ON, ON + ON = OFF, and ON + ON = ON

OFF + OFF = ON , OFF + ON = OFF, ON + ON = ON, and ON + OFF = OFF

Yes, I wrote it down. I'm not ashamed.  OK, I am a wee bit embarrassed.

But wait...those evil electrical bastards.  They knew this would annoy someone some day.  The switches that control only one light have 'off' written in little tiny letter in the off direction.  But on the switches that control two lights on the same panel, no writing.  Diabolical.

I was having some kind of weird  procrastinating episode to avoid doing work on a Saturday morning that got a little lot out of hand. 

I think I am also paying way too much attention to how things work in my brand new kitchen.

I share this embarrassing story with you for the humor of it.  Don't judge me, please.  But know I take heart that at least one of you, even if you don't admit it, is going to go look at your light to see which way they work and if they have writing where off is off and omissions on the rest.

Edited January 28, 2018 by ParadoxLost

[MargeGunderson]

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

I will fully admit that this is the stupidest thing that anyone has ever gotten annoyed with ever.  It's not worth being annoyed at.  But, I can't help myself, because it's just stupid.  On the Goodreads website, when you finish a book, you mark it as finished.  Goodreads then sends you an email to tell you that you've finished the book.  Like you're not going to know.  

I think this thread should be subtitled “No Peeve too Big or Small.”

[ratgirlagogo]

4 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

On the news last night, there was a report about a woman who took photos of shopping carts filled with slabs of raw meat (she said pork) being taken into a 99 Ranch grocery store in San Jose, California.  I play pretty fast and loose with germs, but naked raw meat in a shopping cart gives even me pause.

That it was being transported in (what one assumes are stolen) Costco shopping carts seems to have been half the story.  If they'd brought the meat in through the service entrance I'm sure no one would have been any the wiser, or upset.  I'm not upset anyway.  How does anyone imagine large pieces of dead animal are conveyed from one place to another?  They have to go into a truck or something, and then on some kind of dolly.  Not a stolen one of course.:)

[LilWharveyGal]

43 minutes ago, MargeGunderson said:

I think this thread should be subtitled “No Peeve too Big or Small.”

Ok then, this seemed too small to mention but I feel like you've now given me permission. :)

What brain-dead business buzzword creator decided that "ask" is a noun?  In meetings lately everything is, "What is your ask?" and "My ask is..."  Was the word "question" really too hard to spit out or comprehend?  It makes everyone sound like a bunch of ignorant children.  (And one of the "asks" was followed up by the equally heinous, "I have an add.")  I'm generally one of the youngest people in the room, so I further resent being made to feel like such a fuddy-duddy!  

[theredhead77]

1 hour ago, MargeGunderson said:

I think this thread should be subtitled “No Peeve too Big or Small.”

Pet Peeves: All Sizes Welcome

1 hour ago, ratgirlagogo said:

That it was being transported in (what one assumes are stolen) Costco shopping carts seems to have been half the story.  If they'd brought the meat in through the service entrance I'm sure no one would have been any the wiser, or upset.  I'm not upset anyway.  How does anyone imagine large pieces of dead animal are conveyed from one place to another?  They have to go into a truck or something, and then on some kind of dolly.  Not a stolen one of course.:)

I imagine they are in some sort of wrapping to start with.

[ratgirlagogo]

41 minutes ago, theredhead77 said:

 

I imagine they are in some sort of wrapping to start with.

Not in my experience , from working in restaurants and in the one food coop I was in that sold meat.   They're stored in a supercold meat locker, then in a refrigerated truck, then they go into the wherever for final processing. Although now that I'm thinking I guess the coop stuff was in a crate, but not really wrapped in butcher paper or anything.   Granted, there might be some hygiene issues with a guy that uses stolen supermarket shopping carts as his dollies - but there might not be.  

[BookWoman56]

1 hour ago, LilWharveyGal said:

Ok then, this seemed too small to mention but I feel like you've now given me permission. :)

What brain-dead business buzzword creator decided that "ask" is a noun?  In meetings lately everything is, "What is your ask?" and "My ask is..."  Was the word "question" really too hard to spit out or comprehend?  It makes everyone sound like a bunch of ignorant children.  (And one of the "asks" was followed up by the equally heinous, "I have an add.")  I'm generally one of the youngest people in the room, so I further resent being made to feel like such a fuddy-duddy!  

I work from home, but there are various teleconferences in which I have to participate. After I dial in and announce that I'm on the line, I put my phone on mute. One reason for doing so is to ensure I don't share background noise from the doorbell ringing, dogs barking, etc., but the other reason is so nobody hears me when I am muttering at the phone, "Ask is not a noun. WTF is wrong with just saying, What is your request?" And not the same kind of mistake/choice, but if I had $100 for every time I've heard one of my colleagues say, "We need to flush out this project plan," I could go on a seriously nice vacation overseas. I have a couple of times sent one colleague an FYI note, explaining it's really "flesh out" and why, but it seems like they say it correctly for a week or two and then revert back to the wrong expression. Who knows? Maybe they really do mean that they need to dump a lot of water on that project plan or else make enough noise that it comes out of hiding.

[auntlada]

I was thinking that maybe the plan is so bad it needs to go down the toilet.

"What is your request?" sounds so much nicer than what I would have said: "What do you want?"

I use "add," but only in file names not conversation. If I've written something that is a compilation of things and have something new to put in, I usually write it in a new Word file first d name that file "new thing add." I think I learned it from the Associated Press. When AP sends breaking wire stories, everything after the first stories, which is often one sentence, everything after that includes "add" in the slug.

I don't know why regular people use it.

[Zola]

Another slight peeve I sometimes have awkward/embarrassing issues with, is date formats.

Over here in the UK when someone mentions an event, like a birthday, a meet, or appointment, we generally write it as "dd/mm/yyyy". My birthday, for example, is 06/02/93

Now, for you guys in North America (and other countries no doubt), you will read that as "June 02nd 1993". In which case you will think "ah, I don't have to get Zola a birthday card until June!" Whereas in actual fact it's February 06th. 

Many applications and operating systems etc. come with a default "American" time and date setting, and it's usually up to the user to change this to their local time zone (either automatically or manually). However, some of my friends don't seem to have bothered, so when they send me an invite or send me a photo of something with a time/date stamp, I am thinking the date is in UK format, when its actually in US  (the more obvious dates like "13/12/17" are easier to work out).

 

So yesterday, I got a rather vexed email from a friend whom basically said "Why didn't come to my birthday party a couple of weeks back?" And I replied "I thought it was in October?".

"What makes you think that?" was her reply.

"Because in your original email you put "01/10/18"

"Noooo, it's January! January 10th!"

"Well how am I supposed to know?"

 

And then the email just descending into a childish blame game. But it turns out that I wasn't the only person on her invite-list to have missed her birthday, primarily because they too thought it was October.

So now I have to double-check those kinds of ambiguous dates just to be on the safe side, lol

[DeLurker]

11 hours ago, LilWharveyGal said:

What brain-dead business buzzword creator decided that "ask" is a noun?  In meetings lately everything is, "What is your ask?" and "My ask is..."  Was the word "question" really too hard to spit out or comprehend?  It makes everyone sound like a bunch of ignorant children.  (And one of the "asks" was followed up by the equally heinous, "I have an add.")  I'm generally one of the youngest people in the room, so I further resent being made to feel like such a fuddy-duddy!  

That might mandate a good throttling.  I think you would find a jury sympathetic if this happens.

[Quof]

The same people who made "gift" a verb.   

On another note, I have read or heard at least 3 news stories in the last few days in which the journalist said or wrote "between she and Mary" or "between you and I" or "between he and his boss."   I post on their Facebook pages and send them tweets offering them a 5 minute grammar lesson on the difference between subject and object. So far, no takers.

[theredhead77]

7 minutes ago, Quof said:

The same people who made "gift" a verb.   

On another note, I have read or heard at least 3 news stories in the last few days in which the journalist said or wrote "between she and Mary" or "between you and I" or "between he and his boss."   I post on their Facebook pages and send them tweets offering them a 5 minute grammar lesson on the difference between subject and object. So far, no takers.

I'll take you up on that  offer.

[Mindthinkr]

I have very good hearing. Actually I find a lot of things too loud (movies, live music or the radio in the car, the volume that people watch tv on etc.) So I guard my hearing by wearing ear plugs during these things so I don’t get an earache. My pet peeve is that other people who can’t hear in denial about getting hearing aids. I know I’m a bit overly protective of my hearing but should I have to suffer really loud noise because of your refusal to get your ears checked and get some type of device? This is especially annoying  for me when the person who can’t hear well misses conversation, instructions and answers. I have actually gotten hoarse from trying to speak up so others can hear. Argh! 

[Quof]

There are those who are hard of hearing.

Then there are those who are simply hard of understanding.

Quote

I'll take you up on that  offer.

Easy - is the person doing something, or having something done to them.   That's all.

Edited January 28, 2018 by Quof

[StatisticalOutlier]

16 hours ago, ratgirlagogo said:

That it was being transported in (what one assumes are stolen) Costco shopping carts seems to have been half the story.  If they'd brought the meat in through the service entrance I'm sure no one would have been any the wiser, or upset.  I'm not upset anyway.  How does anyone imagine large pieces of dead animal are conveyed from one place to another?  They have to go into a truck or something, and then on some kind of dolly.  Not a stolen one of course.:)

The story on TV didn't mention that they were using Costco shopping carts.  I assumed it was shopping carts from the store the meat was being delivered to, and thought about people using those carts later for their groceries. 

[SunnyBeBe]

Peeve: When I have to explain to the check-out clerk, why they need to sanitize the belt, since there is some unknown liquid on it.  (I had to explain that it could be poultry juice or something that contaminates items that are laid on top if it.)   I mean...........lol  You can't make this stuff up.  Do they even train these people?  And, even if they don't train them, wouldn't anyone know this? 

Edited January 28, 2018 by SunnyBeBe

[GHScorpiosRule]

I’d like to add “adult” to the list. It makes my ???? when I hear “adulting.”

[Popples]

2 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I’d like to add “adult” to the list. It makes my ???? when I hear “adulting.”

I can't stand this. The first time I saw it, a woman was saying, "Had to break up with my boyfriend because he couldn't adult." At first I thought maybe she was typing too fast and forgot "be an", it happens. Then she came back and said "Adulting is hard" and the only feeling I could muster was she didn't sound terribly mature saying that, either.

[NutMeg]

On 1/27/2018 at 10:17 PM, StatisticalOutlier said:

Why do women lie about their age?  People are only going to think, "She looks pretty rough for that age."  That's preferable to telling your real age? 

I know there's age discrimination, but if you're not at your job, then I don't understand it.

Good point. As an aside, I've noticed that men and women who let their hair stay white look (and are praised for looking) much younger that their age - think Ted Danson, Helen Mirren, etc. Indeed, their face looks positively youthful after you've seen the hair and expect to see an old crone or a wrinkled old dude.

Back to topic: indeed, if the choice is "he/she looks much older than their age" or "he/she looks much younger that he/she is", it's no contest. I'd rather go with my real age and have people act surprised (hopefully some really think I look younger than I am). I've seen a few people (men and women both) play the game of "can you guess how old I am?", and everyone politely subtract many, many years to what they thought it was, and still coming only within a couple of years of the real age. Very cringeworthy to watch.

But age is a funny thing. Me, now, today, I'm suddenly back to living by myself in the city where I went to university - and because I'm back here and living alone, I feel almost like a student with a much more decent budget and apartment, especially as my schedule as a freelancer is mine to decide and I can pretty much wake up as late or as early as I want, no consideration for school schedule or anything. And thus sometimes I feel like I have my life ahead of me, and the energy is such that I feel like a late 20 or 30 year old. However, people see me as someone 20 years older and therefore have expectations, positive and negative, about me, that are just not necessarily true.

Luckily, I'm surrounded by old friends (we all see each other on a time spectrum where all the people we were since around 18 cohabit) and family members who see me at some specific age where I'll always be for them, so it's easier for me to believe I'm about to explore new work options once I'm really settled. There are days, though, when the person I see in the mirror in the morning makes me think that maybe I am past starting new things and the most exciting part of my life is over. And then, I usually manage to shut out that annoying inner voice that's been a serious peeve for the longest time, and that is increasingly losing to the other one she's been battling with and which is has a much sunnier outlook on life.  

Edited January 29, 2018 by NutMeg
didn't realize I misspelled "subtract" so badly that it was automatically changed to "substation"

[theredhead77]

Years ago a girl friend and I were getting ready for a party while another [male] friend was hanging out in the living room. We were drunk and taking FOR!EVER! to get ready. When we finally went to the living room he built a fort with my couch and all the blankets. We proceeded to drink in the awesome fort for like another hour before they went to the party and I said I have to sleep now.

 

 

 

Not gonna lie - even at 40 sometimes I feel like I am just impersonating an adult but really have no fucking clue what I'm doing.

 

[Bastet]

18 hours ago, Zola said:

And then the email just descending into a childish blame game. But it turns out that I wasn't the only person on her invite-list to have missed her birthday, primarily because they too thought it was October.

I agree she should have changed the date format to the one used in the country in which the party was being held (duh!), but I'm surprised several of you thought a birthday party invitation received in January (or December?) referred to an event in October.  Wedding invitations that far in advance, maybe, but birthday party invitations?  I'd have thought the "Why am I getting an invitation now to a birthday party that isn't happening until October?" weirdness would have, especially given the known problem of some applications defaulting to the "wrong" date format, triggered a "Hey, is this party really in October or did you mean January 10th?" email.

[Zola]

5 hours ago, Bastet said:

I agree she should have changed the date format to the one used in the country in which the party was being held (duh!), but I'm surprised several of you thought a birthday party invitation received in January (or December?) referred to an event in October.  Wedding invitations that far in advance, maybe, but birthday party invitations?  I'd have thought the "Why am I getting an invitation now to a birthday party that isn't happening until October?" weirdness would have, especially given the known problem of some applications defaulting to the "wrong" date format, triggered a "Hey, is this party really in October or did you mean January 10th?" email.

Like you, I did wonder about that myself - why October? Why 10 months advanced warning? But in all honesty, I didn't want to take her to task about it and just accepted the invite in good faith. (It was her 25th birthday as it turns out, so I can understand why she was a bit disappointed with my no-show).

But going back to date formats. I have noticed on this forum, my profile states my birthday as "02/06/93" and there's nothing in the settings for me to change that to  my time zone. Therefore to most UK eyes new to the forum that would read as 2nd June, until they eventually realised its actually February (which reminds me, its only a week away now. Noooooo!! I don't want to be 25! That sounds soooo old!)

[Katy M]

9 hours ago, Zola said:

Noooooo!! I don't want to be 25! That sounds soooo old!)

I remember feeling that way when I turned 17, oddly enough.  Then 29, then 35, then 39, then 40 and I'm not going any higher than that.  Y'all get the picture.

[Blergh]

Don't feel too bad. Many times I feel like a teen time traveller from the late 1970's trying to pretend to be a middle aged adult in the late 2010's. Actually, sometimes it's fun imagining how funny it would sound describing these times to those from that era!

[Qoass]

That's why I object to telling my age. People have great opinions on the age-appropriateness of all kinds of things whereas I feel these opinions simply do not apply to me.