Peeve Week 1

It's Better to Owe Taxes

18 Comments / Peeve Week 1, Series / By Ronald Huereca

It’s better to owe taxes than it is to collect a refund.

Are you scratching your head over what you just read? You’re probably not the only one.

Last year I owed the United States Government several hundred dollars in taxes. When I told this to one of my friends, my friend looked at me and said, “You must be doing something wrong.”

“Doing something wrong?” I asked. “How is that?”

“You’re not getting any money back.” My friend explained.

“So why is getting money back a good thing?” I asked, hoping for some insight into my friend’s thinking.

“Because. You get to go on a spending spree.”

“So why not get that money up front instead of waiting a whole year to use it?” I asked.

I received a blank stare. My friend didn’t get it.

Credit Woes

3 Comments / Guest Posts, Peeve Week 1, Series / By cetroyer

Cetroyer contributed this article for Peeve Week.

Ever get frustrated by all those credit card offers in the mail? Not only does it take up valuable space in your trash can, but each one of those envelopes has the potential of helping someone steal your identity (or at least a credit card or two opened in your name). Speaking of your identity, do you stay up nights worrying if it will be stolen? Take heart, help is near.

Ongoing Sales at Retail Stores

4 Comments / Guest Posts, Peeve Week 1, Series / By cetroyer

Bes Z. contributed this article for Peeve Week. Please check out his website: The Reasoner.

I wonder if one should feel sorry for paper calendars. Not only are more people depending on online calendars, many people simply know what day and month it is based on the big “SALE” signs at almost every retail store. A “Clearance event” usually means it is winter, a “Biggest sale of the year” sign means it is July, a “50% off” sign says it is the time after Christmas and before New Year’s, and so on. You see these sales signs everywhere and I think they are put there by retail stores to help you get rid of your paper calendar. Regardless of the reason, the sales events are always around at retail stores, and you will always find every item at a discount throughout the year.

Airline Security

5 Comments / Guest Posts, Peeve Week 1, Series / By cetroyer

Cetroyer contributed this article for Peeve Week. Please check out one of his favorite sites: World Mag Blog.

Have you flown the friendly blue skies recently? Or the not so friendly skies if you happened through Denver around Christmas time. There seems to be one major complaint when it comes flying: airline security.

You may be thinking, “Right on! Security is such a joke…and those TSA agents…(so on)”, but that’s not where I’m going with this peeve. No, I peeved with the average flyer who gets upset when going through airport security over removing his/her shoes, or having to take his/her laptop out of his/her bag. Has everyone forgot what occurred over 5 years ago that prompted these measures?

A Faster Shopping Experience

4 Comments / Peeve Week 1, Series / By Ronald Huereca

One brisk morning I went to the local grocery store to go buy some donuts. It was fairly early in the morning, so there was hardly anybody in the store. I gathered a dozen or so donuts and made my way to the register. The only lane that was open was “self-checkout.”

“Oh brother.” I thought to myself. I bit my lip and looked at the box I was carrying the donuts in. I glanced around and saw a managerial looking guy at the customer service counter.

“Is there a cashier available?” I asked in almost a yell.

“There’s self-checkout.”

I again bit my lip. In my experience with self-checkout, it was always an option — almost a convenience. This store was trying to force this “convenience” upon me.

In protest I responded, “I want a real cashier.”

The manager sighed heavily and walked over to a lane. He proceeded to ring out my donuts with a rather peeved look upon his face.

I walked out of the store, satisfied that I had pissed off a store manager who wanted to make his customers do the grunt work.

Three Technological Advancements That Are Still Somewhat Useless

5 Comments / Guest Posts, Peeve Week 1, Series / By Ronald Huereca

Bes Z. contributed this article for Peeve Week. Please check out his website: The Reasoner.

Human beings have for a long time depended on tools to achieve goals faster. From cars to computers to watches and cell phones, we all use some tool that helps us do things more efficiently. With advancements in technology, however, more focus has been put in the last decade on adding glamor to things instead of improving those things. Here is my list of 3 small technological advancements that were intended to help people but at this time are simply not doing as much good as originally hyped by their respective industries.

E-mail: The Unreliable Medium

7 Comments / Peeve Week 1, Series / By Ronald Huereca

Whether it’s contacting a webmaster, site owner, tech support, submitting an essay in a contest, or enlisting the help of a blogger, e-mail is an incredibly unreliable form of communication. From my experience, e-mail is slow, and delivery isn’t guaranteed. This article will focus on my peeves with e-mail as a communications medium.

Wet and Irritated – Automatic Flushers and Walkie Talkie Cell Phones

8 Comments / Guest Posts, Peeve Week 1, Series / By Ronald Huereca

Nathan Kennedy contributed this article. Please check out his website: The Tennessee Valley Angler.

Let’s think about this gadget thing for a minute. Gadgets are there to make life easier for us all, right? Certainly. But shouldn’t we draw the line when gadgets actually don’t make life easier, and yes, even infringe upon the rights of others? Take the following (hypothetical) events:

You go out for lunch to Senor Jose’s Muy Caliente Budget Burrito Barn. Predictably, on arriving back at your place of work, you feel some imminent intestinal discomfort taking shape. So you casually (well, as casually as you can possibly manage under these circumstances) walk down the hall and around the corner to the restroom. You take a peek inside to make sure you have some privacy for the devastation about to ensue. Good, it’s all clear. You take a seat in the big stall at the end and go about your business. Suddenly, and without warning, the automatic flusher decides it’s time. You do a little half hop, half squat thing to avoid the horrid back-splash from the industrial, 10-gallon per flush toilet. Just as you’ve recovered your composure, you hear the door open. You hear footsteps pass the four empty stalls and come to a stop at the stall right next to yours. The door opens, you hear unbuckling/unzipping sounds, and the guy sits down with a grunt. “Great,” you think, “but maybe I can wait him out.” That’s when you hear it. That annoying, cell-phone walkie talkie sound. Drrrrdrrrt! Drrrdrrrt! “NO! Anything, but that! Maybe he’ll just not answer it?!” No such luck. “Yeah, man. I’m here at work.” Drrrrdrrrt! “Still havin’ those colon problems?” Drrrdrrt! “Yep. You wouldn’t believe the…” Just then your toilet cheerfully chugs through another flush cycle. You probably say a few curse words this time while doing your little squat-hop thing. Drrrdrrrt! “Hehe, this guy next to me…hehe…his toilet just flushed when he didn’t want it to…hehe…looked like he was doin’ some kind of squat-hop thing to keep from getting wet!”

What's That On Your Ear?

3 Comments / Guest Posts, Peeve Week 1, Series / By Ronald Huereca

R. Hunter contributed this article for Peeve Week.

There’s an epidemic that’s sweeping across the country. The cause is laziness and the desire to look like a moron.

Signs of the disease start with a few symptoms:

A startling growth protruding out of the ear.
A sudden urge to talk all the time.
An abundance of harsh stares.

What could this epidemic be? Is it a tumor growing out of someone’s head? I can hear Arnold Schwarzenegger screaming, “It’s not a tumor!” No, it’s a bio-electric nightmare known as a Bluetooth headset.

Three Annoying Cell Phone Habits While Around Others

14 Comments / Guest Posts, Peeve Week 1, Series / By Ronald Huereca

Bes Z. contributed this article. Please check out his website: The Reasoner.

Having a cell phone is a necessity for many people today. We keep in touch with our friends through our cell phones, and we also check news through it. We text message our friends via the phone, and we also take pictures through it. With a trend that is outpacing itself from other trends like wearing a watch, there are more and more annoyances everyday that need to be addressed when it comes to using cell phone around people. Here is my list of 3 annoying habits that some people cannot seem to avoid when they use their cell phones in public.

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