Passacaglia
New member
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2014
- Messages
- 645
In honor of the upcoming event in which the people of my great state and much of the modern world have collectively decided to deprive ourselves of an hour of sleep for the next nine months, I’ve decided to share a few of my pet peeves:
Imperial measurements. I can recite comments and stories from years past, I can solve complex trig and calc equations, but to this day I can’t remember how many feet are in a mile or how many cups are in a quart. I do like measurement standards based on powers of two, but the imperial system isn’t consistent enough to be worth it.
Electrical current. Electrical current moves in the opposite direction that electrons do. Yes, I know that Benjamin Franklin had no way of knowing that the convention he set would create such a counterintuitive dynamic for scientists and engineers, but now we know better.
“I could care less.†No, you couldn’t care less. What you could do is think about the words you use.
Two pi radians. Radians are easier to use in mathematical calculations than degrees are, which is cool. But one full revolution, or circle, is commonly divided into two pi radians, which is weird. Why, you ask? Well, what edible and fully circular delight does ‘pi’ sound like? That’s right, there’s one pie and two pi in one circle!
Game quirks. I play a lot of games, and they all have arbitrary quirks. Like wild cards in card games, especially when it’s not the aces. Why must this make no sense?!
The Roman calendar. Still can't for the life of me remember which months have 30 days and which have 31. Why are we still using a calendar which is the result of a bunch of Roman emperors pettily one-upping each other? Lets pick a number of days, and stick to it!
English spelling. This one may go beyond 'pet peeve’ territory for me, and right into ‘full blown neurosis.’ Words with redundant letters; words with silent letters; words with ambiguous letters; words with outright misleading letters; an alphabet with both too many and too few letters. Essentially, it drives me crazy how poorly the written language reflects the spoken language, regardless of accent.
And of course...
Daylight savings time. To those who enjoy getting up an hour earlier to smell the roses or shop for another hour at night: Hey, whatever makes you happy. Just leave me the fuck in bed.
What are your pet peeves?
Imperial measurements. I can recite comments and stories from years past, I can solve complex trig and calc equations, but to this day I can’t remember how many feet are in a mile or how many cups are in a quart. I do like measurement standards based on powers of two, but the imperial system isn’t consistent enough to be worth it.
Electrical current. Electrical current moves in the opposite direction that electrons do. Yes, I know that Benjamin Franklin had no way of knowing that the convention he set would create such a counterintuitive dynamic for scientists and engineers, but now we know better.
“I could care less.†No, you couldn’t care less. What you could do is think about the words you use.
Two pi radians. Radians are easier to use in mathematical calculations than degrees are, which is cool. But one full revolution, or circle, is commonly divided into two pi radians, which is weird. Why, you ask? Well, what edible and fully circular delight does ‘pi’ sound like? That’s right, there’s one pie and two pi in one circle!
Game quirks. I play a lot of games, and they all have arbitrary quirks. Like wild cards in card games, especially when it’s not the aces. Why must this make no sense?!
The Roman calendar. Still can't for the life of me remember which months have 30 days and which have 31. Why are we still using a calendar which is the result of a bunch of Roman emperors pettily one-upping each other? Lets pick a number of days, and stick to it!
English spelling. This one may go beyond 'pet peeve’ territory for me, and right into ‘full blown neurosis.’ Words with redundant letters; words with silent letters; words with ambiguous letters; words with outright misleading letters; an alphabet with both too many and too few letters. Essentially, it drives me crazy how poorly the written language reflects the spoken language, regardless of accent.
And of course...
Daylight savings time. To those who enjoy getting up an hour earlier to smell the roses or shop for another hour at night: Hey, whatever makes you happy. Just leave me the fuck in bed.
What are your pet peeves?