TMP63: Rulebreakers

Welcome to my refreshed Monday Peeve! Unburden yourself of an annoyance and you’ll feel better afterward. Or not. Complain in my comments or crab in your own post. Doesn’t have to be on a Monday. You do you.

I’m writing this on Sunday night, and tomorrow is July 4, a holiday off from work for many Americans (though not all). I’m not going to complain (again) about fireworks as they actually haven’t been that bad this year, though ideally there would be zero amateur ones going off in a time of drought. No, I’m here to bitch about the people yelling in the pool/jacuzzi. The pool closes at 10pm every night, no exception for holidays. But for some reason, tonight some folks have decided that they don’t have to obey the rules, and they’re still downstairs yelling and drinking now at 10:30pm.

Have you ever noticed that the more people drink, the louder they get? It’s a strange phenomenon. I’m not going to pretend I want to go to sleep, because it’s too early for me, but others might. Rulebreakers never care about inconvenience to others though; they’re simply all about their own selfish pleasures. There is no real enforcement of the pool rules, only an honor system, where the HOA supposes that people won’t want to be assholes to their neighbors. We have a lot of elderly people here and some babies too. There are also working folks, such as cops and nurses, who might actually have to get some sleep tonight in order to be on the job bright and early tomorrow. (Note: I don’t know for a fact that there are cops or nurses living here, but there could be.)

There may be a compelling reason to break a rule, but partying loudly into the night and disturbing an entire community because tomorrow is the 4th isn’t it. Naturally, I expect the same inconsiderate jerks to do it again tomorrow night (tonight), when I will need to go to sleep at a reasonable hour and get up for work on Tuesday.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

TMP62: Reader’s Choice

Welcome to my refreshed Monday Peeve! Unburden yourself of an annoyance and you’ll feel better afterward. Or not. Complain in my comments or crab in your own post. Doesn’t have to be on a Monday. You do you.

What a week, eh? Mine was a strange dichotomy of personal calm and political upheaval. There’s a lot to be enraged about, but I don’t have any recent minor annoyances. I’m sure that will change shortly, but in the meantime, I yield the floor to my readers. What is your peeve today?

I’m eagerly awaiting your complaint in comments, or via a link to your own post. Happy crabbing!

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

TMP61: Sunburn

Welcome to my refreshed Monday Peeve! Unburden yourself of an annoyance and you’ll feel better afterward. Or not. Complain in my comments or crab in your own post. Doesn’t have to be on a Monday. You do you.

I’m really peeved about my sunburn. Look, I know I have fair, sensitive skin. I’ve been burnt in the past. So I put on a ton ~ a TON ~ of sunscreen before going to the park yesterday for a concert, and yet I still got lobsterized. My friends who were there the same amount of time as I was… are perfectly fine. It’s just me. And sunburn is upsetting for a few reasons. First, it’s super unhealthy. Second, it takes a long time to heal. Third, it hurts! I feel it’s not fair that other people can be in the sun and not get burnt the way I do. I want to file a complaint with God or the universe or someone who will put an end to this injustice. Not that I blame the sun. It’s not the sun’s fault for just sitting there blazing away in the middle of the day. Nope. It’s some curse that has been put upon me and me alone. Well, maybe others suffer this same issue, idk. But I want justice! GRRR!

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

TMP60: WP App

Welcome to my refreshed Monday Peeve! Unburden yourself of an annoyance and you’ll feel better afterward. Or not. Complain in my comments or crab in your own post. Doesn’t have to be on a Monday. You do you.

OK, so you knew this was coming, right? I mentioned that I downloaded the WP app again and it was much better than before. But! It still sucks. Last week, I wrote to the “Happiness Engineers,” and I received a courteous reply immediately, which was refreshing. They supposedly “reset” my connection to WordPress (whatever that means) so that my reader would quit skipping posts, and it’s somewhat better, but it’s still skipping some as of last Wednesday, including my own on Friday! (Yes, I follow myself to see how my posts look in readers.)

It’s super frustrating because I only know of the posts it skipped when I discover them via another blogger’s response, but, as they say, I don’t know what I don’t know. So there could be loads of skipped posts I’m unaware of. Apologies if they’re yours and I haven’t been liking/commenting. Also, in my actual list of published posts in the app, my Friday flashback is missing, though it’s on my blog itself and can be found in my WordPress browser list of posts.

That’s not the only thing though. Images are still weird in the app reader just as they were years ago. It didn’t seem so at first, but yep… weird. Sometimes a post (including mine) will initially appear to have no image, but when I click into it, there’s an image. Why didn’t the preview generate? Saturday I did an SOCS post, and in the preview my shrimp bowl image from Friday appeared. The wrong image is not actually in the SOCS post though once I click into it. Just another dumb glitch.

I also wrote to the Happiness Engineer that I think each post should have immediately visible stats in the app just as in the browser, but the Happiness Engineer had no idea what I was talking about. You know what I mean, right? In your browser, if you click on your list of published posts, you can see each one’s performance to date (likes, comments, views). But you have to hunt for those stats in the app. Luckily, I don’t care that much about stats, but WHY can’t we have them the way we want them? Grrrr!

Stay tuned for more peevery!

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Better Left Unsaid

Jim continues his Wednesday Thoughts series this week with the theme of “better left unsaid.” My first thought is why the eff didn’t my app reader pick up this post? (I saw it only because Sadje responded.) Is it better to quit complaining about every little WordPress glitch, or note them all in public as I’ve been doing? Generally, I enjoy my experience here very much, but I definitely don’t want to give the impression that it’s perfect, since there are constant screwups on their end.

Mostly, I don’t complain. This may be hard to believe, since I host the Monday Peeve, but, trust me, I could peeve all day every day and never run out. I think it’s better most of the time to simply suck it up and move on ~ if you focus on everything that’s wrong, then you’ll be mired in a depressive muck all day. Every day some driver does something idiotic/dangerous during my commute, but I try to let it go and not get enraged. And OK, sometimes that driver is me. Unlike most people, I don’t claim to be a perfect driver. Here’s a question: if everyone is as great behind the wheel as they claim, then why are there so many accidents?

That was rhetorical.

What about romantic relationships? I never managed to negotiate the path between trivial nagging and speaking up about truly important things. My parents griped about every dumb thing (though, for the record, they were somewhat happily married for 50 years), and I didn’t want to engage in similar constant bickering. I usually opted for saying nothing, but eventually I’d explode, and the other person had no clue there was an issue. That’s not a good path either, obviously.

Luckily, I no longer have to worry about romance. With regular friendships, I just take a break from certain people when they annoy me, and then I reengage later when I’m over it. The great thing about this is they never even notice! No muss, no fuss.

Outside of romance, my philosophy is that if there is any doubt about speaking up, then don’t. You can always say the thing later, but you can’t take it back once it’s out there. My belief is that most complaints are better left unsaid.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

TMP59: “I Never Watched…”

Welcome to my refreshed Monday Peeve! Unburden yourself of an annoyance and you’ll feel better afterward. Or not. Complain in my comments or crab in your own post. Doesn’t have to be on a Monday. You do you.

This isn’t new, but I get really tired of people posting crap about how they never watched [whatever show]. WHO CARES?! They act all superior about it too. “I never watched one single episode of Game of Thrones!” Wow, do you expect a medal? And they think they’re so unique but ~ newsflash ~ a zillion other people have bragged about never watching it either. I’ve personally not seen any of the Star Trek spinoffs… so what? That doesn’t make me better than people who watch them all or who see every Star Wars flick or who try to catch all the football/basketball/baseball games they can. It’s bizarre how people try to one-up each other (especially on Facebook, lol) over whichever pop culture phenomenon has failed to hook them. Oh my, I’ve turned my TV into a planter and now I listen only to classical symphonies whilst reading Proust (in the original French). Whatever, dude. Look, if you skip watching TV because you’re out feeding the needy or picking up litter on the beach or saving kittens, that’s fantastic and you have every right to toot your horn. But there’s no prize for swerving around a particular TV show or movie only to watch a different one or read a book. STFU already!

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

So Annoyed

I am so annoyed with WP that I downloaded their stupid idiot app again! For a while now, everything has been more difficult while composing posts on my phone. I know this is deliberate on the part of WP because they had to choose these changes, and they did. The recent annoyances are not random glitches ~ and note how WP never fixes anything we ask for!

Today’s issue was links. Suddenly, it became impossible to create a link in a post (from my phone), due to the link toolbox popping up off the GD page! Finally, I signed out and deleted my cookies, thinking somehow I had done something wrong, messed up a setting, or whatever. Signed back in and… nope! Off the page. I mean, honestly why the eff would they do this???

Everything about these blocks has been a pain in the ass, and this latest idiocy is no different. Already, it’s easier using the app, though I do so under protest. Let that be noted for the record! The reason I quit using the app previously is because it effed up my images. We shall see how it goes now.

It would take so little to get me to switch back to Blogger; unfortunately, I’d miss the WP community too much.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

TMP58: Texas Massacre

Welcome to my refreshed Monday Peeve! Unburden yourself of an annoyance and you’ll feel better afterward. Or not. Complain in my comments or crab in your own post. Doesn’t have to be on a Monday. You do you.

Okay, so today’s peeve is more of a rant. While I am still sticking to my policy of not arguing online, I simply have no patience for those who place blame for last week’s Texas elementary school massacre anywhere but where it belongs. That culpability is on the murderer himself, the easy access to guns in the US, and the US politicians who take NRA money and thus are beholden to the NRA rather than to the American people.

I just can’t even with anyone online who tries to justify the proliferation of guns here with the same old tired selfishness, supports the NRA, or huffs that “now is not the right time to talk about this.” If not now, when? This issue isn’t about mental health, bullying, violent video games, or anything other than easy access to guns and the NRA’s paying off our pols. How do we know? Because other countries have mentally ill people, bullies, and folks who play violent video games, and yet they don’t have mass shootings every damn day. Why? Because those countries don’t allow easy access to guns nor is there an NRA purchasing their politicians. I’m so disgusted with this do-nothing status quo.

If you’re wondering why I specify online, it’s because in meatspace (aka “real life”) I know people who would disagree with me. Most likely we will never discuss mass shootings though, and there are other factors keeping the relationships viable. But when all I know of someone is their words on a screen, that is what I judge them by. And sometimes I have ended real life relationships over hot button issues regardless. Shrug…

Please remember my comment policy and post disagreeable remarks elsewhere.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

TMP57: Political Signs

Welcome to my refreshed Monday Peeve! Unburden yourself of an annoyance and you’ll feel better afterward. Or not. Complain in my comments or crab in your own post. Doesn’t have to be on a Monday. You do you.

I’ve complained about this before and I will again ~ political signs trashing up our environment for no purpose whatsoever. I don’t want to hear that crap about name recognition, as it’s completely negated by ALL the names blasted everywhere. Anyone who votes for someone because they have more ugly signs plastered over the public lands than their opponent is an idiot. I hate the signs, the politicians, and our entire upf*cked political process that is more of a clown show every cycle. Bleh!

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

TMP56: Rude Dog-People

Welcome to my refreshed Monday Peeve! Unburden yourself of an annoyance and you’ll feel better afterward. Or not. Complain in my comments or crab in your own post. Doesn’t have to be on a Monday. You do you.

I was in Los Angeles this past weekend and ~ ZOMG ~ there was poop everywhere. Dog-people! Pick up after your pets. As I was walking to the park with the fam, I actually saw a poop bag… on the ground. So there was someone who actually carried a poop bag, picked up their dog’s poop, and then… left the bag on the ground because they couldn’t bother putting it in a trash can. WTAF?????

Besides that, my daughter reports that people let their dogs off-leash in the parks designed for children where it explicitly says KEEP DOGS LEASHED. If you say something, they’ll go oh my lil Fluffykins won’t hurt anyone. First, they don’t actually know that. Second, there’s a first time for every dog bite (“he never bit anyone before!”), and third, lots of small children are scared when even a friendly doggie bounces up to them. Kids are LITTLE, yo, and dogs look larger to them than they do to adults. It’s up to parents to decide when and where and how their children will interact with dogs, not yours, stranger. You have no idea who the kids are and what medical conditions they may have or any previous trauma they may have suffered. Just obey the law, FFS.

Unfortunately, my grandchildren say they dislike dogs because of all the park incidents. That’s really a shame because most dogs are lovely and most owners are considerate. But it just takes one scary sitch to make an impression on a little kid. Rude dog-people are a super-peeve of mine, have been for ages, and are even more so now.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.