I have been tagged in a meme by Darragh and Gav.
I would guess that a lot of my blog readership still comes from people I know indulging in a little curiosity in the style of ‘what the hell could that girl possibly be up to now?’ – so here’s a brief meme-splanation for the uninitiated, and why we’re talking about it lately in the first place: Darragh’s Meme Blog
Right. Now then.
Getting Your Goat Meme
- List two things that irritate you for a reason, and list the reason, and two things that irritate you for no apparent reason whatsoever
- Give credit to the person who tagged you
- Link your answers to the original blog – Keiron over on http://www.skillett.com
- Tag four new people to participate.
Things that irritate me for a reason:
1: When a DJ doesn’t back-announce a song. Bugs the hell out of me. You know when you tune in the middle of a track and you don’t know what it is but you really like it? It drives me to distraction when they don’t tell me at the end. I have a big radio/music rant in me somewhere. I love the radio and I’d listen to it more if RTE did the BBC thing and announced what was going to be on their radio stations via the interim announcer on the telly. You know the way they say “Over on Network 2 now…” yeah? Well the BBC do that in relation to their radio stations. Very clever altogether. In the same vein of not knowing what a song is – when you like a song from an ad and forget the lyrics to look it up. In Germany they have the track details in the corner of the screen. Go Germany. More efficiency Ireland, please. (Part of this irritation is of course my own inability to remember what I was listening to several hours later when I have the internet to hand).
2: Fake charity bag scammers. I’m sure you’ve heard of the people who hand out fake tags and bags to houses, asking for your old clothes etc. Basically, they sell the clothes on and export them for profit. My problem with this isn’t even that they’re taking away from real charities (which is an issue in and of itself, of course). It’s that they’re lying to me. Do you know what, if you told me that you were making your living by selling on my old clothes I would still give them to you. You’re kind of providing me with a service – it means I don’t have to get rid of them myself. Just be honest about what you’re doing and you can have bags upon bags, but don’t try to appeal to my bleeding heart by telling me about people who are freezing without my old fleece and in desperate need of a pair of skinny jeans – that’s just wrong.
Things that irritate me for no good reason:
1: The word biannual means something that happens twice a year. The word biennial is used to refer to something that happens every two years. This is not something that everyone knows. When random people get it wrong, I quietly do not correct them even though I long to. When bona fide publications get it wrong, I kind of want to kick them….biannually. I know that this isn’t a reasonable irritation because I obviously make my own language mistakes and as mistakes go, it isn’t the most run of the mill thing that a person should know like the basic they’re/their/there. Still and all, it’s my pet peeve….and I will write a letter, don’t tempt me! Also don’t say imply when you mean infer. Thanks.
2: Not being the first Sinéad. Now, this is completely irrational. I just like to be the first Sinéad that someone knows so that I get to be the ‘Sinéad’ in their life without any denominating addition like surname or nickname or identifying marker of where they know me from. It’s probably because all of my nicknames are so ridiculous, but I’m sure everyone enjoys it when someone says just their first name and everyone knows who they mean. It’s particularly crap when there is a new person with your name and they usurp your throne by being prolific despite the fact that you got there first. The lack of being called Sinéad can only be made up for by having a nickname that is cool, so cool that only a few people were there on the “epic” occasion when it was conceived and everyone longs to know the backstory, and because it doesn’t give any initial hints to who it refers to – people long to know who you are. Essentially, Sinéad or stealth-nick, but nothing in between. Irrational, see?
Credit for the tagging:
Darragh was the very first person to comment on my blog. I think it’s indicative of his loveliness. Go check out his blog. Thanks for being so welcoming, Darragh.
Gav will probably be in charge of the world some day, so you should probably go make friends with him now. A good place to start would be over at the blog he shares with Ciara, which is an instantly entertaining and honest read. G’wan, scoot…
And Now, I tag others, if they would like to:
Susan over at livejournal, because I know it will be perfectly punctuated and interesting to boot 
Stephen at keeperofthekeys, to encourage him to keep up the renewed blogging!
John at Slightly Foxed, because it couldn’t fail to be entertaining.
Dave at The Film Cricket, because film-related irritations are something I’ve decided I want to read about.
With you completely on the DJ thing. I have waited patiently for a song to end just to catch the band name. I’ve even waiting until the end of the proceeding adverts. But alas, no band name. Why? Whyyyy?
I’ve taken to typing a line of the lyrics into my phone to Google later, but it remains a pain in the ass when you’re driving or otherwise unable to stop and take it down.
I know just how you feel about the biannual/biennial thing! Odd things like that drive me potty too. My pet hate is cactuses or stimuluses.
Once a bus driver, when I checked where a route would terminate, told me he was serving “both terminuses”. Before I could stop myself I had said, aloud, “Termini”. I totally deserved the filthy look he gave me.
I have the exact same reaction when people say “rastafarians”…not that they do very often, mind you…
1. Thank you for the linky
2. Thank you for bringing Stephen Boyle’s blog to our attention
3. Go Germany, go efficiency, bitte!
4. Gav is actually already in charge of the world, I’m convinced of it!
I encourage all people everywhere to read Stephen’s blog, and the world would do quite well with Gav in charge!
Thanks for reading
Will do it post haste after my exam on Wednesday.
(Also, it is seamlessly – as in “without a seam or joining”) :p
pwned.
if its any consolation to you i knew a whole bunch of sineads before you still got to be THE sinead.
Aw Plunkett, you embarrass me!
I’m not sure if there’s an Irish version shazam, but it’s saved my fury so many times!!!
[...] Sinead needs Shazam in her life! [...]
Thank you for the mention! I really want to do this on mine now, but have yet to actually read enough blogs to be able to comment sensibly or coherently on anything. But it’s coming. Thank you again!
@Keiron In starting your meme you’ve actually solved a goat-getting issue! That’s the beauty of blogging for you!
@John No problem at all, still loving the blog! May you always travel and write about it!
About the charity bag scammers, a three step plan. Excuse me but I just don’t go for his 12 step rubbish.
1. First do a little investigative work (ala Harry McGee) and ensure that the charity is indeed a sham.
2. Having established definitively that it is a scam, let the fun begin. Fill the bag with every bit of useless crap in your house (if you’re hoarders like we are this makes it so much better). This means clothes that are ripped and worn beyond repair and those shoes that you’ve been keeping for a not so rainy day, just to wear them one last time. Obviously anything that can be reused, keep and drop off at a genuine charity shop.
3. Sit back with glee, safe in the knowledge that it will cost them to dispose of this crap instead of making money from it. I did it recently and had the enjoyment of watching some shabby looking git almost keel over attempting to lift my bag as I headed out to work. Happiest Tuesday in a long while.
I actually did do my investigative for Harry on charity bag schemes! That’s how I got to know and loathe the entire practice. Apparently, you may not have been as successful as you’d like though because apparently they ship off clothes and such in really bad repair for some sort of molting/recycling process that still earns a few bob. I can’t remember entirely because it’s a while since I read it – but basically there’s money to be had out of anything!