February 2012
1 post
229 - Sneezing with drink in hand
This can be messy and wet covering your socks in whatever you had in your hand. Even if you have a build up to the sneeze there is a mad rush and panic to place the drink somewhere and that inevitably results in some spillage itself.
January 2012
3 posts
228 - Getting egg shell in the egg
It’s not the end of the world, a little crunch in your scrambled egg, but when you decide to get it out it’s the hassle that starts to drive you mad. Every time you stick a fork or your fingers near the offending piece of shell it floats around out of the way.
227 - That moment you realise you need more than a...
You know how it is, you’re out on your “bits” shop, it’s not the big weekly one so you grab a handbasket. Then as you’re walking round you remember more and more bits that you need, and you pick up the odd buy one get one free, and before you know it the handbasket is full and you’re balancing the toilet roll on your head because your arms are full . You should...
226 - Adding a few tracks to an album release
A few artists have done this in recent memory (Cee-Lo, Leona I’m looking at you) they have a popular album, a while later then have a couple of great singles that boost their popularity and, often just before Christmas, they release the previous album with the extra tracks. It’s a real slap in the face to people who purchased the album originally that there is now this special edition...
December 2011
2 posts
225 - Phone keypad menus
“Press 3 for your account balance” and so on. They never have the department you want, so you press the closest thing and end up getting cut off, or stuck at a dead end and hanging up and starting again and often something distracts you mid way through and you realise you didn’t listen to all the options either.
224 - Misusing the word literally
This was one that came to mind after seeing The Young Apprentice winner Zara tell us she could “literally taste the end of the competition”.
I shall however leave this to The Oatmeal to explain (the following bit of work isn’t by me - but go and check out more of the Oatmeal stuff on the site http://www.theoatmeal.com and buy some stuff there if you fancy)
November 2011
3 posts
223 - Christmas in November
I’ve checked the calendar and Christmas is still on the 25th of December, stop celebrating it from November (if you’ve started in October you have my contempt).
222 - The measuring cup in washing powder
I’ll start by saying that I’m very thankful that the company who make my washing powder give me a free measuring cup. The only problem I have is that I can never find the blasted thing, I lose the ones in the cupboard and I know there’s one in the box but I’ll be damned if I can find it. It normally tumbles out with about two washes worth of powder left in the box.
221 - Losing a bottle lid
Bottles are a great invention much superior to cans for the very reason that they can be resealed and you can put your drink away for a little bit later. I’m sure you can all imagine the dispair as you watch a dropped bottle lid roll away into the distance, you’re now faced with the decision of drinking everything now, pouring some away or finding some make shift place to put your...
October 2011
2 posts
220 - Horoscopes
I am amazed that these things are still around and people are making money from them. It’s basically making up vague nonsense, recounting where planets and stars are in the sky and telling people that it relates to their future.
219 - Trying to turn to a nonexistent page
There you are reading through a book or your favourite magazine and the damn pages won’t turn properly, you moisten your finger and thumb and to no avail. That next page just won’t separate. Then you check the page numbers and realise that there isn’t a page there, you’re turning from page 10 to 11 and trying to access some mythical page 10.5.
September 2011
3 posts
218 - When someone fills the box of chocolates...
You get handed the box of chocolate be they Cadburys Roses or Heroes or Mars Celebrations and you reach in for your favourite and its a wrapper. More fiddling round and it’s more and more wrappers. Who does this? This is a box of chocolates not a bin, don’t be so lazy and dispose of your wrappers properly.
217 - Not having a towel by the shower
Sometimes you just don’t think things through you just start something. Like getting in the shower and realising as you get out that you forgot to sort out a towel. Now it’s a wet walk to go and find one, or you could stand still and wait till you’re dry - good luck with that.
216 - The wait at the baggage carousel
We’ve all been there, well those that have travelled on airlines at least, standing around the baggage carousel waiting for luggage. The thought in the back of your mind that this could be the time that the airline lose your case. The ever dwindling crowd of people walking away with their luggage as you stand, silently, with the few remaining people trying to work out if that black suitcase...
August 2011
9 posts
215 - Talking in text speak
I was out a few nights ago and we walked past somebody in a strange period costume and I heard a friend say “WTF”. What have we come to when people say txt spk abbreviations and acronyms out loud!?
I know somebody else who on finding something funny will often be heard saying “LOL” - seriously WTF!?
214 - Separating frozen food
You know how it is you’re a bit lazy so you just chuck that pack of sausages into the freezer all together. Then you only want to eat two but the damn things have frozen together, you can’t defrost them separately and refreeze them so you’re going to have to break them apart whilst frozen. Cue stabbing with knives, cut fingers, bashing of sausages against the work top and if...
213 - Cancelling Xbox live has to be done on the...
I have had Xbox live for a while but I haven’t used it for a long time so I thought I’d cancel my membership. I couldn’t find any settings in my billing on my Xbox so logically went to the Xbox website and logged into my account and had a look around there only to find I have to ring up Xbox support to cancel! Really, you’re freaking kidding me. You can do everything online...
212 - When you can't read your own writing
It’s bad enough when you can’t read something somebody has written for you but when you’ve scribbled something down yourself and you can’t read it - it’s just a little bit embarrassing. Especially when you can’t work out what on earth it is supposed to say.
211 - Biting the inside of your mouth or your...
Another one to go down on the list of “I can’t believe I just did”. Aside from the obvious pain of biting yourself is the disbelief that you managed to eat the inside of your mouth instead of your food.
210 - The embarrassing playlist shuffle
We all have those little tracks that we’re a little bit ashamed to have on our computers but we still enjoy them and keep them there, or possibly you have a mix of your’s and your wife’s music on the computer (likely excuse).
Well if you’re like me you’ll often just put your entire library on shuffle and when you walk out of the room to let someone in you...
209 - Not being able to decide what music to...
In these days of storing all your music on your computer you have instance access to loads of music, add to that services like Spotify and there is such a huge choice and variety of music at your fingertips. Yet there are some days when you just can’t find something to listen to, you can scour all the music you have, and sit endlessly clicking for what seems like days with your playlist on...
208 - Standing on a plug
I can attest that standing on a plug is more than irritating, it’s damn painful. The irritating bit is that you were stupid enough to stand on a plug in the first place.
207 - Stirring too vigorously
It’s so easy to get carried away in the kitchen, trying to throw everything together quickly and casually like Jamie Oliver, and then take that vigor to the stirring bowl and promptly slosh everything all over the place. If you’re wearing something white you’ll probably spill on yourself as well.
July 2011
6 posts
206 - Having credits at the start of a film
Having the credits at the start of a film is ok if you’re making a Bond movie, otherwise it isn’t, it feels like you’re cheating me into watching and reading them.
205 - Putting together flat pack furniture and...
Many people love going to places like IKEA and then have hours of fun pouring over instruction manuals putting together furniture. Then you get to the end and there are four screws left, they don’t seem to fit anywhere and you’re pretty sure you put all the correct screws in the right place. They’ve surely given you some extra ones, haven’t they?
204 - Trying to find you car in a busy car park
Yes there are lots of apps for this now but you’ll think, “I’m not stupid, I don’t need an app to find my car in the car park”. You’ll then spend a quarter of a hour walking round pressing your key fob and trying to see which car’s lights flash. It works eventually and you’ll no doubt find your car was two paces from where you first stood looking...
203 - Forgetting to check in
There are plenty of people who use a social media check in service such as Foursquare or Gowalla. You spend all that time checking into places like the local super market just to keep a mayorship alive. Then you go to somewhere awesome and get home and realise you forgot to check in!
202 - Messenger functionality
I was checking my email in hotmail (yes I still use it, no I’m not a 15 year old girl) and a bloody messenger box popped up. If I wanted to chat to someone on messenger I’d have opened messenger and not tried to check my emails.
201 - A flimsy toilet seat lid
I’m sure I’m not the first person to sit on a toilet with the lid down for whatever reason. How damn annoying to find out as you sit down that the lid, despite it’s sturdy look, is actually rather flimsy. It’s likely this isn’t something you’ll do in your own house, I imagine you know the strength of you own toilet seat, so having to explain the now obvious dint...
June 2011
6 posts
200 - Ring pull coming off without opening the can
I’m sure you remember tin openers? Well they were made a thing of the past by the introduction of the ring pull on tin cans. Brilliant you just pull it and the lid comes off. Great until it goes wrong and there’s no tin opener in sight.
It’s also the same with drinks cans, how annoying when a slight dint prevents the ring pull from working. If you were lucky enough to make a...
199 - Getting your zip caught
It’s damn frustrating, whether it’s a piece of clothing or worse skin, or just a but of that backing to the zip, getting it caught on anything it irritating leaving you yanking at the zip trying to get it to move. I have a memory of being an eight year old fearing I was going to be stuck in my winter coat forever when the zip got stuck, thankfully mum to the rescue.
198 - The honk honk iPhone clown noise
It may have been amusing the first couple of times you or anyone else heard it, I’ve no idea why, but now it is most definitely bloody annoying. It’s not quirky or clever it’s just damn irritating, pick something else.
197 - Missing that last tick box
You know what it’s like when you need to select loads of stuff, say emails in your inbox that you’re going to delete, you go down the list selecting them via a tick box or using the old ctrl click to highlight them and just as you get to the end you mis click and de select all of them.
Damn you clumsy fingers!
196 - Facebook comments and the enter key
I’m sure most of the world is familiar with the concept of a paragraph, it would appear the developers at facebook aren’t. If you’re typing a comment and tap enter, expecting to start on a new line, you post whatever you’ve written. The amount of multi part messages I post is really starting to irritate me.
195 - That late eureka moment
Some things get you thinking and there’s some that just stump you but sit there in the back of your mind leading to that rather delayed eureka moment. When you jump up in bed at 4am shouting John Deacon, for instance, after that conversation about who the fourth member of Queen was (this is obviously hypothetical as no one would forget the line up of Queen). Or when you realise just after...
May 2011
7 posts
194 - The "time played" clock in a computer game
If you’re like me you’ve grown up with computer games and so as you get to older you still enjoy playing them and I really do, days were spent at uni playing Pro Evo. Everytime I go to play anything though recently, whether it be on an X-box or on via Steam I noticed there’s a clock. A little counter saying how much time you’ve spent so far playing the game. It always feels...
193 - Sensitive CD player
I know CD’s are so 1990 but I have a crap load of them and I still like to listen to them. We have a CD player in the kitchen so cooking often means picking out a decent album to listen to. The only problem is that the CD players jumps at anything, the toast popping up is enough to make it skip a little, even stirring too vigorously when cooking something can cause issues.
192 - The overly long chapter
Now I like reading, as I’m sure many of you do, and I often read just before bed. I’ll get in and read a short chapter and think “oh one more can’t hurt” so I set off and it turns out it’s the longest chapter known to man and I just can’t bring myself to stop mid chapter.
The obvious solution to this is to read nothing but Dan Brown books.
191 - Somebody thinking you're staring at them
We’ve all been on one side or another of this before. You know you’re in a bar or in a gym or somewhere and watching the TV or reading a high up poster and then you realise the person just below it is giving you a funny look. They haven’t realised they’re sat under the TV and just think you’re staring at them.
It’s equally as awkward when you’re the...
190 - Struggling with perforations
They are in essence straight forward, some nice little useful holes in a paper for you to tear bits off. How annoying when you tear along the perforation and suddenly it stops working and leaves a big chunk still attached and you holding half of whatever it was you wanted to tear off.
189 - Missing the time when resetting your watch
Most people have to reset their watch twice a year at least, when moving to summer time and back, and then some people travel so they change it then as well. I’ve had a few watches and on many of them you can only go one way, so you can only increase the hour for example. How frustrating is it when you slip and bang, you’ve gone past the hour you were after, you’ve got to wind a...
188 - Sport on TV in sunny weather
It’s been a rather nice month in the UK with plenty of sunshine but unfortunately live sports broadcasters haven’t quite solved the problem caused by the difference in contrast of the sunny areas of the pitch and those in the shade of the stands. The constant refocusing as the ball moves round the pitch can get a bit off putting and irritating. It’s never normally a huge problem...
April 2011
6 posts
187 - When you can't think of anything to do on...
Somedays you’re drowning in links to videos of dancing cats and sneezing babies and great intellectual articles. You just can’t find time, there’s so much awesome stuff on the internet you’ll never be able to see and read it all.
Then every so often you’re sat there looking at a blank browser address bar wondering where to point it to, knowing that it’s...
186 - Needing the loo in bed
Ah that lovely morning where you can lie in and snuggle under the covers, but what’s this? - you need the loo. You really don’t want to get up and you try ignoring it but the feeling grows until eventually your nice snoozing is going to have to be ended by a trip to the toilet and it’s cold tiled floor. Damn you bladder!
185 - Moving your car seat
Every so often for some reason or another you have to move your car seat, an elderly relative in the back seat behind you maybe, or a quick nap in a lay-by. It is with reluctance we often do this, why? Because you know that no matter how much fiddling and messing about you do you won’t get that seat back in the same place, it won’t feel right for a long time and you’re in for a...
184 - Missing a belt loop
You only ever notice it somewhere you can’t undo your belt and re thread it. Most of the time it isn’t a problem but it’ll bug you, you’ll know it’s not quite right, you’ll feel your trouser’s sag a little where the belt can’t do it’s job. You just need to find somewhere to go and re thread your belt, or you could do it in the middle of a...
183 - Womens handbags
You know that carpet bag thing in Mary Poppins that she pulls a lamp and other stuff out of? I don’t think it was a joke in any way, women’s handbags often seem like different worlds, it’s like reaching down into Narnia.
The only time men ever get to look is when they’re requested to just “grab something” out of there, like it’s a simple task, I can never...
182 - Really short laptop cables
The point of a laptop is it’s portable, which is great when you have a full battery and you can wander around as you wish. Every so often though you’ll have to sit down and do a bit of work and charge the laptop at the same time. This doesn’t mean you want to sit on top of a plug socket, it’s nice to still be able to sit on the sofa a few feet away without having to wheel...
March 2011
6 posts
181 - When it feels like your phone went off
You know the feeling, you move your leg or brush against something with your phone in your pocket and think “hey did my phone just vibrate”. Even when you have the volume turned up on your phones ring you still think it. So you get it out and check it and lo and behold it hasn’t gone off. Yet every time you ignore it or don’t feel it vibrate the damn thing has 20 missed...
180 - Simpsons Halloween episodes
In an age where there is that much Simpsons on TV, both old and new, you just never know what episode you’re going to get, and well generally you don’t care. But it’s always a little let down when you decide to watch and it’s a Halloween episode. They’re just not the same, not quite as lazy as a friends flash back episode but equally as disheartening.