My pet peeves (updated)
May 4th, 2006 by SplineGuy
Do you have any pet peeves? I have a couple that don’t really seem to bother any one else but they sure bother me. I am typically a very laid back kind of guy so that when something does bother me it is probably not big deal. The big stuff I let slide, but I nit pick some of the goofiest things.
- The first one comes from the signs around town with lettering that involves numbers. Does anything bother you about the following picture, that is, other than the fact that gas is too expensive?
UPDATE: I’ll spill the beans now. It’s the 8, it’s upside down. When there is a smaller end, it goes on top. The station across the street does the same thing. Am I crazy, or what? - Another one is when people ask for my “VIN number” or “PIN number” or they talk about something called an “ATM Machine.” In fact, I just did a google search for “ATM Machine” and had 3,530,000 hits. What does the last letter stand for in PIN or VIN? What does it stand for in ATM? Why are they saying it twice, ARGGHH!
- The last one happens to be mathematical in nature. It bugs the tar out of me when a mathematician or a student chooses to read a notation instead of referring to it by its actual name.
EX:
, This is read as “the natural log of x.” There is no such thing as the “ellen of x” function.EX:
or 
, These are the “tangent” and “cosine” functions. It’s like fingernails on a chalkboard to hear someone say, “tanex” or “cossex”. To quote the older Biff in Back to the Future 2, “You sound like a darn fool when you say it wrong.”By the way, a couple of exceptions that I’ll put up with are the hyperbolic functions. It gets very clumsy to have to use the word “hyperbolic” over and over and over in a lecture. I’ll some times get lazy and refer to the hyperbolic cosine (
) as “cosh of x” (pronounced like coach only with an “sh” at the end) or the hyperbolic sin (
) as “sinch of x”.
Just thought you’d like to know how to get on my nerves.
Paying by 9/10 of a gallon? I saw on the news the other day that there was a gas station somewhere (out east, I think) that charges by the half-gallon because the gas pumps are so old that the highest price that can be set is $2.999!
That is a bit annoying but my peeve is a much more insignificant detail.
We’ve got one station that was a bit short-sighted when it built an enormous sign for the gas prices. Because the first digit (left-most) can only be a 1, the highest price they can display is 1.999. Too bad, they still charge higher.
Once in a finance class, the professor wrote an equation on the board that contained ln x. I swear someone asked, “what’s the little n after the 1?” So, when I hear someone say ellen x, at least I know they understand.
I was thinking the peeve had to do with gas stations that sell burritos. Talk about your cheap gas…
I updated this post. Now everyone can know what bothers me about the gas sign. Check out the 8, it’s upside down!
Could it be that the gas stations are correct and that you are wrong?
Nah …
I was starting to think that maye that was the problem, but then I figured it was just the angle of the shot. I undertand your feelings on the proper allignment of the 8 though.
Your first 2 in this post also bother me, especially the “PIN number”, “VIN number” and “ATM machine”…..argh! And Yes, the 8 is upside down! I also hate when letters are backwards or words are mispelled on signs. I know a lot of times its on purpose, but it’s just plain wrong.