Zero Tolerance?

I so need to lighten up on a few things, boy. I have a couple of heavy pet peeves that seem to somehow get under my skin way too often. And there's not a lot of room under there!

I can't get past those people who have come to believe that their every whim needs to be catered to, as if their passing fancies somehow obligate you. We have a group that gets together once a year at the same restaurant. It's been going on for 10 years. We have a lady in the group who decided that this year the time had come for a change, but no one else wants to break tradition. She's been carrying on for weeks now. My attitude here is, "hey, majority rules, and there's no good reason to change what works for everyone else because you've gotten an idea." I guess I need to work on that, huh? Control freaks just bug the hell out of me.

I really need to knock off the Caped Crusader act when it comes to the English language. It's really a pet peeve of mine to see the language being mutilated and left for dead, particularly when it concerns the written word. I'm not talking about the occasional grammar slip-up, or a typo here and there, but I do a slow burn when I come across this whole new version of English. When did "would've" become "would of?" See, I did it again. I need to work on that as well, but my attitude is, if you're writing something you'd like me to spend time reading, take the time to compose it well.

And what's happened to the art of persuasion in this country? Why can't people disagree intelligently, without resorting to infantile tactics such as name-calling? You can get a good example of this by perusing an online forum or message board, particularly one that touches on a controversial topic. Sometimes, by the time you get to the last thread, you'll have no idea what the original discussion was. And of course, my favorite is the post that reads "your an idiot!". Yep, and "you're a genius!" But you know what? I'm not going to stop it. So I either stop reading, or get over it.

Yeah. Lighten up I guess.