What little things drive you completely up the wall....?

[CrochetFanatic]

And another occurrence of "I won't take no for an answer, and I will be sneaky about getting you to cooperate".  A friend asked me if I wanted to join something similar to fantasy football (which I have no idea what the appeal is), and I gave the standard thanks-anyway-but-no-thanks response.  She seemed to accept that.  She asked my opinion for her "team", and since I had a very limited knowledge I didn't have much of an opinion. 

A while later, she was dropping hints about how fun it would be.  When I said, "I'm not doing it, but I'd be interested to know how it turns out.", I got an email invitation from her not a full minute later, which is about when I realized that my "no" was interpreted as "keep asking me, and I'll do it".  I repeated myself, and she said she understood.

Just now, she said she entered her mother, and said, "Now you must help me to select her crew, please." (Um...I must?!    What part of "NO" don't you understand?  ) and she rattled off a bunch of names.  I picked up my jaw, counted to ten, and asked why her mother doesn't select her own crew.  Turns out her mother is sleeping, and doesn't know she entered her.  I finally told her that it really doesn't grab me, and I anticipate a few more "requests" before she finally gets it.

It just bugs the living ehell out of me when I make a choice, and people try to circumvent it. 

[AuntieA]

The iPhone ad with the wrong fricking answer! In one segment, the equation proposed is the square root of [(seven to the third power minus nineteen) divided by four]. The answer, as I have worked out multiple times, is nine. The ad says the answer is 4.5. Why?? Do they think we're all idiots?

[Shalamar]

I get 9 as well.  The heck?

[siamesecat2965]

People who refer to things incorrectly. there is a FB page I sort of follow; a fashion page, where the owner and others post their outfits and show how to accessorize, and show off your bargains etc.

The owner of the page constantly refers to her stuff as "Jones of NY" when its simply Jones NY. I know its minor but it drives me batty every time I see her post that.

[Diane AKA Traska]

I get 9 as well.  The heck?

Agreed.

7 cubed is 343.  Subtract 19, that gives you 324.  Divide by 4, that gives you 81.  Which (as anyone who had multiplication tables drilled into them can tell you) is 9 squared, so the square root of 81 is 9.

I SEE NOW!  You went 7 cubed, minus 19, square rooted, divided by 4.  When it's 7 cubed, minus 19, divided by four, square rooted!

4.5 would be the answer for [The square root of (seven to the third power minus nineteen)] divided by four.

[Twik]

The iPhone ad with the wrong fricking answer! In one segment, the equation proposed is the square root of [(seven to the third power minus nineteen) divided by four]. The answer, as I have worked out multiple times, is nine. The ad says the answer is 4.5. Why?? Do they think we're all idiots?

I suspect the answer was originally supposed to be 4.5, and someone changed the soundtrack, then forgot to update the rest of it. It's very difficult to remember how one change in a program can have far-reaching effects.

[mmswm]

Depends on if the 4 is inside or outside of the square root operation, as Diane mentioned.  I've never seen the commercial, so I don't know if there's some quirk in the font that would make it look one way when it should be another, or if Apple just got the order of operations wrong.

[stitchygreyanonymouse]

People who refer to things incorrectly. there is a FB page I sort of follow; a fashion page, where the owner and others post their outfits and show how to accessorize, and show off your bargains etc.

The owner of the page constantly refers to her stuff as "Jones of NY" when its simply Jones NY. I know its minor but it drives me batty every time I see her post that.

I’m with you on that. I follow a historical fashion Tumblr, and sometimes the poster says things that are borderline incorrect in that way that after being repeated and reblogged eventually creates myths and "facts" that aren’t actually true (but are close to). She is up front about not having any background with historical fashion aside from liking all the pretty things, but she still answers plenty of asks as if she’s an expert, and the people doing the asking obviously don’t have the background to understand how the answer is wrong (and may not have followed long enough to see the sporadic "I haven’t actually studied any of this, I just like pretty things" posts.

And don't get me wrong—I’m also not an expert, but I have read enough reliable sources to see glaring issues with her answers. I can only imagine what is going through the head of actual experts who see stuff like that.

[Piratelvr1121]

Not having a tracking # for something I sent.  I've gotten so used to knowing when something's going to get to where I meant it to go.   But it means going up to the post office, which I don't really feel like doing with a toddler.  So when I sent a friend a surprise care package (little one in a manilla padded envelope) I just slapped 3 stamps on it (calculated the price based on the weight), addressed it and popped it into the mail on Monday. 

She's in Iowa, eastern part of it, and I would guess if it's going with the regular mail it might get there in two days, and she usually gets her mail while on lunch break which is now but I haven't heard anything and don't even know if maybe it will get there tomorrow.

Note to self, suck it up and go to the post office to get a tracking # even for the smallest package.

[lilfox]

About using the police as the "bad guy" behavior enforcers, Mary Poppins does this in the movie.  Some role model.

That whole movie bugs me.  The kids are as meek as anything without actually being invisible but the parents and Mary Poppins treat them like they're incorrigible hellions.  And then the family crisis is resolved by the hired help quitting her job, which she was doing poorly by the parents' standards anyway...  Whatever.  The charm escapes me.

[Piratelvr1121]

Well by today's standards Jane and Michael were angels, but that was in the days of "children should be seen and not heard" so I imagine by those standards Jane and Michael were being naughty just by being normal children. 

And while the parents, especially the father, seemed to really stick to that idea till just before the end, I didn't really see Mary Poppins treating them that way, just that she was trying to teach them the proper time and place for fun.  By Edwardian standards, anyway.

[RingTailedLemur]

Just seen the advert - Apple have it right as the "divide by 4" is outside the square root.

It looks like this:

Sqrt (7^3 - 19)
------------------
           4

That makes sense anyway, as indices (square root is the same as to the power 0.5) should be done before multiply/divide/add/subtract anyway by BIDMAS rules.

[Piratelvr1121]

One of our newer neighbors.  We own our home but there are a few homes around us that were at one point made into duplexes for rent.  Now as anyone knows, you never really know what you'll be dealing with when it comes to having renters for neighbors.  On our right we have absolutely wonderful neighbors.  The kind you share the bounty of your garden with and not just the zucchini (though I wouldn't mind that, I like zucchini)

There's another family, well I can't say the whole family's bad cause I don't even know the wife, and the kids are fairly decent. Well they're not obnoxious anyway.  The husband, from my interactions with him anyway, just seems like a jerk.  He's always got something snide to say.  DH planted some shrubs alongside our house to hopefully discourage this guy from using the strip of grass there to back up his truck.  (the back of their house faces the side of ours, and there's a wide alley between) and he doesn't need to run it over but he did.  I found a branch of one of the shrubs broken off so clearly he just doesn't care.

On Saturday we got some mulch and on Sunday after church, worked in our garden to try to cover up all the weeds and it now looks really good with all the flowers and the fish pond we have back there.   Monday I'm back there on the bridge over the pond with Piratebabe letting him admire the fish and the guy drives by and says  "Wow, you finally made it look decent back here."

Now granted our garden was looking shabby, but there were a lot nicer ways he could have said that.  Our neighbors on our right said "Wow, your yards looking great, we saw you guys working really hard!"  and teased me about the mulch bags being about as big as I am. 

I had to bite my tongue and just pretended he said something truly complementary. 

[mmswm]

Piratelvr, have you considered placing large, tire damaging rocks along your property line? I had a neighbor that was similar to your neighbor and the large rocks did the trick.

[2littlemonkeys]

Well by today's standards Jane and Michael were angels, but that was in the days of "children should be seen and not heard" so I imagine by those standards Jane and Michael were being naughty just by being normal children. 

And while the parents, especially the father, seemed to really stick to that idea till just before the end, I didn't really see Mary Poppins treating them that way, just that she was trying to teach them the proper time and place for fun.  By Edwardian standards, anyway.

Plus she can make the toys put themselves away. I'd hire her just for that, LOL

MIL is annoying me greatly right now because she just can't ask me to do something and then gets into a snit because I didn't do the thing she never asked me to do.

I have a sewing machine and she uses it sometimes.  She either can't or won't learn how to thread it, so I do it for her.  Last night, I got home and she said, "Wouldn't you know it!  I got half way through my project and ran out of thread."  I thought she was telling me about an annoying thing that happened.

This morning, DH called me up at work and asked me why I couldn't be bothered to thread the machine for his mom.  I told him exactly what she told me and now he's exasperated too.  Apparently, she left the part about how she never actually asked me to do anything out of her vent.

I took "I ran out of thread" to mean, "Now I have to go to the store and get more." not "So can you please take this thread spool I had in my own stash but haven't even given to you and re-thread the machine for me?"