Day 11 - 10 pet peeves

April challenge
Day 11 - Describe 10 pet peeves you have.

Whenever people talk or write about their pet peeves (me included) it always sounds kind of like they're saying "I think/know I'm right and you're wrong." I know that's probably not what people mean when they write that, and it's not what I mean either. I just wanted to get that out there before I start my list in case, by the end of reading it, you think I'm totally stuck up. I hope you believe me when I say I don't think I am... (Again, this list is made up as I think of things.)

1. Being told I'm a picky eater. I've tried to rationalize my eating habits to people once in a while, but they usually don't like to give me the time of day to explain. So, since this is my blog and I have the time of day to explain, I'm going to. The way I see it, I'm an extremely NON-picky eater because I am quite satisfied with meals that most others would find much too paltry and plain. Give me a plain and nutritious meal (without meat) and I'm happy. Give me a meal filled with weird food combinations (ie. sweet and savoury combined in a dish), slathered in sauces or dressings, or covered in hot spices and I'm not happy. I'm not sure how that makes me a picky eater, but apparently most of the world think it does. But even if I am, I really have no idea why it's other people's business what I do or don't eat. (Well, OK, to be fair, I do think it's a parent's business to help children learn good eating habits, but other than that I don't think people should try to dictate what others do or don't eat unless their opinion is specifically asked for.)
2. Hearing/reading the word 'busy' freely tossed around. I covered this topic in depth on my other blog so I won't say much about it here. I find it kind of amusing and a lot annoying when people say they can't do such and such because they are too busy. They are too busy because they chose to be busy doing the things they are busy at. And I think that's their choice and it's fine, but it's not a reason for people to complain/whine about how busy they are. We're all busy, but we choose to be busy with the things we do each day. I'm trying to ween myself off of doing this myself because I realize how silly it is to sit around exchanging stories about how busy we all are. So now, if I find myself without enough time to get something done, I realize I have to re-evaluate the things I choose to do each day and re-prioritize my life. I know I'm quite guilty of this one, but I'm really trying to cut the often-used word 'busy' out of my vocabulary.
3. Similarily, hearing/reading the word 'boring' freely tossed around is another pet peeve. That word was a no-no in our house (as it had been for my mother growing up) so with a mother and a grandmother who despise that word, you can believe that we kids grew up knowing to avoid it. And if we didn't, we could expect to get some work given to us to keep us from being too bored with our current circumstances. I certainly think I'm better for our childhood Don't Say Boring rule.
4. I was just going to type 'grammatical errors/typos' when I realized that in my line of work that shouldn't be a pet peeve, but something I am grateful for since I wouldn't have a job otherwise. Of course, I myself make a good number of grammar mess-ups and typos, but if I find them, they really bother me and I make sure to correct any I'm able to correct as soon as I spot them. So I'll refine my point #4 to say that grammatical errors and typos really bother me in professionally printed materials. I find no reason that these mistakes should show up in materials printed by large book or newspaper companies that employ probably more than a couple copy editors. Whenever I find mistakes in books that I read, I find a good editing pen and correct them right away. My mind gets too distracted by the errors otherwise.
5. Uncleanliness. While not a total neat-freak, I do like a cleanly-looking space. And luckily I really enjoy cleaning and organizing so that's a plus.
6. Movies being vastly different from the books that inspired them. I think it's an outrage and if I were an author who wrote a book that someone wanted to turn into a movie I would try to make sure the movie stuck to my original story line. There's only one movie that I forgive of this error, and that is my favourite, the Anne of Green Gables series, because I started watching the movies way before I ever read the books. I like both equally, but they seem kind of like two different stories to me, so it doesn't bother me that the movies aren't just the same as the books.
7. (This and the next one might seem like oxymorons, but stick with me here while I explain.) People bugging other people about not saying words correctly. I can't stand people saying that I don't pronounce words right. I'm not sure who decided that the American way of pronunciation was the correct one, but I don't agree with it. I have no problem with Americans / Canadians / Australians, etc. pronouncing words the way they want to pronounce them. But I do have a problem with people telling me that the way I and my fellow countrymates (or other people from other countries) pronounce something isn't right. I maintain that it's OK for words to be pronounced differently, as long as people can understand each other. And I think it's OK for someone to ask politely for something to be repeated if they didn't get it the first time. That's much nicer than just automatically saying "you say that weird/wrong," etc.
8. People who say words incorrectly - as in, not because of where they're from or their accent, but when they actually mix up the order of the letters in their pronunciation. Let's take my good old favourite (or least favourite, as the case may be) as an example. The word 'ask' is much too often mispronounced as 'aks' and it bugs me like crazy whenever I hear it. People who say it like that are completely mixing up the letters. That's the main word I hear messed up like that, but there are a few others as well.
9. People talking about coffee/Starbucks all the time, like in a status symbol kind of way. I confess that I don't drink coffee, don't even like the smell, and will never try it because of the many times my siblings and I encountered coffee grinds spilling out of garbage bags that we then had to sweep up during our stint as janitors at my dad's cabinet shop. Those grinds are disgusting and completely gross me out. I was raised in the era of the no-coffee Adventist church and the sudden rise of coffee to popularity in the SDA church really baffles me. I have no idea why gabbing about lattes and other such fancy and not-particularly-healthy drinks is really all that interesting of a subject. I would never go around talking to people (or writing on Facebook) about my daily tap-water or orange juice intake, so why is coffee so much more acceptable of a topic? It doesn't make sense to me at all.
10. People talking about how bad the economy is and/or never having enough money for things they need/want. Jonathan found a really awesome blog featured on Lifehacker last September and we've been reading through all the posts since then. I'm actually almost caught up with all the posts and have learned SO much great advice on finances, how to be happy with less, and how to retire much earlier than most people think is actually possible. Since I started reading it, I've really started to notice how often people say they don't have enough money for this or that. Mr. Money Mustache, the blog author, has written quite a few articles showing how he and his wife saved like crazy for 10 years while living pretty frugally before both retiring when their son was born and now spend copious amounts of time together as a family. And I only wish he'd started the blog about 10 years ago so I could have copied him. Anyway, if any of you are interested, here are a few of the posts* that I particularly enjoyed about how to gain financial independence: 1) Get Rich With Bikes 2) The Coffee Machine that can Pay for a University Education 3)  The True Cost of Commuting 4) The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement
    *Just be aware that Mr. Money Mustache enjoys the occasional swear word for emphasis, in case that would bother you.

OK, that was a book. I'm sorry it was so long. Ugh, I've really got to cut down on my word count or I might lose readers rather than gain them. Anyway, if you haven't yet gotten your fill of Ali-commentary, I had an inkling I'd already written a post about pet peeves in my early days of this blog. So I searched around in the archives a bit and found it. Here it is if you care to look. It's MUCH shorter than this post. I find it rather interesting that a few of my pet peeves are still the same more than two years later.