Things that Make You Go HMMMM

Today is a venting session for two pet peeves. One is nail clipping in public. The other is Twidiots. If you don’t like complaining, you may want to skip my post today.

• So, a major pet peeve of mine is people grooming in public. It’s not only completely against all rules of etiquette set forth by Emily Post, but also it’s really unsanitary. Things like brushing your hair on the train while sitting in front of me may seem like it’s not that big of a crime. But, when your gross hair comes drifting off of your head and into my personal space, we have a problem. I guess the issue is my very temperamental gag reflex. I have no physical or mental tolerance for seeing or smelling disgusting things, they make me gag – quite literally. Sometimes, I will even dry heave. I have not seen anything yet that has caused me to actually boot the contents of my stomach so I guess that’s something.
  
  To my point: trimming one’s nails in a public area is disgusting. Even if the person is getting it in their hand (ugh) or into a garbage can (at least they learned that much), there is still the telltale sound of “click, click, click” as the nail clipper does its duty. This begs the question from me, “WHY in the name of all that is so fresh and so clean does this have to be done here (at your desk, on the train, etc.)?!” Who are these people that have nails that grow so extraordinarily quickly that they cannot possibly stand to wait until they are in a bathroom or, God forbid, the privacy of their own home!? Additionally, who carries freaking nail trimmers around with them?
  
  My essential problem is the noise. Following that are the little pieces of nail that will escape whatever trap they have laid to catch their trimmings of the urgent variety. My greatest fear is encountering one of those bad boys while paying a visit to someone’s desk. THAT would almost certainly trigger the gag reflex – not good.
  

Moving on to Twidiots…

• It is my understanding that some people are just odd, and depending on your definition, any one of us at any time could be the odd person in someone else’s eyes. I’m fine with that for sure; odd makes the world go round. My main gripe here lies with some people on Twitter that are just idiots – twidiots, as it were. People that use the Twitter to annoy, confuse, sell junk no one wants, harass, etc, etc. Sometimes it’s unintentional, I understand. Sometimes, it’s just downright annoying and people know what they are doing.
  
  Obviously, I’m into triathlons. Therefore, I like to follow (and be followed) by people and companies that directly relate to my noted interests. I like being followed by Starbucks and Whole Foods – these are retail establishments that I visit regularly. I like Twitterers like Foodimentary too. I enjoy food and they have some fun facts and quotes! But, on the flip side, one wrong word (for example one Twitter user asked if anyone was proficient in Quicken) and you’re shark bait for any weirdo with an agenda and a Twitter account.
  
  Sometimes there’s just a lack of technological know how that is frustrating. I was followed on Twitter by some poor soul who was treating Twitter like an IM client. If you went to his page, he was talking to all the people he followed. Problem is, he had 1 person following him. Normally this would just be funny, except when I went to check out who the person was, half of his page was talking directly to me saying hello over and over. It was just freaking creepy considering he was following 17 other people. At what time did I draw the short straw? So, guess who got blocked out of my Twitter!? Then, I locked my account from public view. The main problem now is that I feel like I’ll get shorted on being a part of the Tri community on Twitter somehow (I have a tendency to feel like I’m missing out on things sometimes).
  
  I’m sure people with large followings have this problem on a greater scale, but I think that I just have a low tolerance for odd behavior and I'm still new to Twitter. Perhaps I’ve seen one too many scary movies… perhaps I just need to develop a thick internet skin and deal with it! I guess we put up with the annoying to get the good – I @ reply with some fun people. I like to see what other people that are training people do and even what goes on in their daily lives. It’s also cool to see people validating our sport online, and supporting each other with words of encouragement. It’s really a natural community of sorts!
  
  So, does anyone else have stories/tips for dealing with goofballs?