Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Annoyed

****WARNING!!! Somewhat bitchy blog post ahead. Stop reading now if you don't want to be subjected to it!*** :)

Normally I'm a pretty positive person with an easy-going nature, but sometimes I just get annoyed. And it's been happening a lot here lately. I wasn't going to bring it up and subject all of you to these minor annoyances, but hey, I haven't had much to write about lately....so what the heck?

For instance...I get annoyed when people spell common words wrong. Yes, everyone makes a mistake here and there, and I know that spelling does not come as easily for everyone as it does for me. But I truly believe there are a few words out there that are worth taking the time to make sure you know how to spell them. I hate that it just seems to be "no big deal" anymore when people use you're/your wrong. Or their/they're/there. I can maybe see where you'd be confused by their/there. But if you just think about it for a minute, you should never mess up "they're" or "you're". They are contractions...meaning you've dropped the "a" of "are" and replaced it with an apostrophe. Very clear to see. They're= They are. You're = You are.

Along those same lines, I find it both interesting and annoying that I see so many really bad spelling errors. Doesn't anyone use a dictionary anymore?? Or even spell-check???? If I don't know how to spell something, or even think it might be wrong, I look it up. Here are a couple of good ones I've seen lately:

Fessents - I received a postcard in the mail from a local realtor about a nice sized piece of property out near our house. It had a picture of the property, as well as a description. I had to read it three times to get what this realtor was trying to say when he wrote, "Lots of open space and wildlife, including deers and fessents." I'm not kidding. I read it THREE times. Finally, I tried to read it based on just phonetics, and I got it. PHEASANTS. Ok, dude...umm, do you really think I'm going to use YOU to draw up papers that will bind me for the next 20-30 years??? Who knows what kind of errors you will make?? Do you not know anyone who could proofread your work? Didn't the person who printed the postcards see the error? FESSENTS, people. O. M. G.!!! I'm just saying. I'm not even touching the fact that he said "deers". I think we all see the problem there, don't we?

Incents - Scout and I were taking our morning walk in town last week and we walked past a new tattoo parlor. I always look at all the store fronts when we're walking downtown, because I like to see what appeals to and repulses someone just walking down the street...what makes me want to walk into a store, and what makes me want to keep walking faster. I do this so that one day when I have a nice storefront office, possibly in London, I will know how to make a potential customer want to come in and check out my services.

Anyway, I was checking it out, and I noticed that it also sells halloween costumes and freaky posters and scary video games, because it has a large handwritten sign in the door that reads "No one under 18 aloud." Yeah. Whatever. THAT was bad enough. But there was more!

As Scout and I were walking by, and I was doing my normal thing, looking in all the store windows, we came up on the tattoo-parlor/halloween/scary video game store. I saw another handwritten sign in the window that read simply, "Incents". Hmmmm...incents? I took a brief moment to wonder what they meant. Not incentives...no, that wouldn't be right. Incents. Didn't make sense to me. Then I looked to the right, where there was another handwritten sign that read, "We have incents burners!" Ah, ok. INCENSE!! Holy crackamoly...how do you expect to sell things when you don't even know what you're selling? How do you convey to the people you're trying to sell to when they can't understand by reading your sign? I mean, how do you even ORDER your stock? Seriously, now...I don't understand. It took much restraint on my part not to walk in and (politely, of course) urge them to change their sign to spell it correctly.

Am I seeming anal enough to you yet? No?
Good, because I have a couple more..

Irregardless - My friend Danniel and I hear this all the time, and it drives us CRAZY! (We are both intolerant of such things!) Irregardless is NOT a word. The word is REGARDLESS. It can be used as an adjective (having or showing no regard), and adverb (without concern or advice), or an idiom (in spite of). If "IR" is added to the beginning of the word, it changes the meaning of "regardless" to mean the opposite...like responsible and irresponsible.

Supposebly - This one is just wrong. No one is "supposeb" to do anything. They are "supposeD" to do things. The letters D and B are not interchangeable. There is no reason why usage of this word shouldn't be corrected by the time the offender hits 5th grade. It's kind of like a child saying "pasketti" instead of "spaghetti", and then continuing to say it at the age of 30. Not so cute then, is it?

As if those few things weren't bad enough, I also had to drive behind a man on the INTERSTATE today who was going 30 MPH!!! And we were in the far left lane....the PASSING lane!! Why, oh why???

And Scout decided that he needed to break through his underground fence and run head first into the pond today for a little swimming. All this AFTER he just got a bath and groomed on Wednesday. He was in BIG trouble when he got back, let me tell you! Of course, then he thought I was going to let him into the house so he could lay his wet butt all over the floor. Grrrrr....

So there you have it, folks. I'm no longer annoyed, now that I got that off my chest! My next post will be a lot lighter, I promise!! I'm off to have a brownie (that my husband made!). Have a good night y'all!!

14 comments:

country mouse said...

Standing in our little down-the-street market yesterday, it took every bit of restraint I had not to get a pen out of my purse and put the missing apostrophes on their signs . . . *sigh*

I'm with ya, girlfriend!

country mouse said...

Well, damn. I accidentally changed something on my blogger profile and ended up leaving you a comment from 'desperately searching' instead of from Country Mouse. Just been one of those days . . .

Amy said...

Holy Crap! I hope "you're" Brownine was delicious...=>

Anonymous said...

I didn't no that supposably they're Fessents neer are house too hunt. Irregardless, I would rather hunt deers when the seeson is hear.

Barry

Kuckie said...

Countrymouse - Thank goodness someone is!!

Amy - It was!! And even better because it was waiting for me when I got home!

BarryKuck!!! - You know I can barely stand to read that!! It's a good thing I love you... :)

Jenelle said...

May today bring you better spelling, grammar, and a dry dog.

Kate said...

great . . . now you've got me all self-conscious over my many spelling errors on my blog - lol. Will remember to do a double-check next time I click "post"!

My personal favorite - misusing the 's. Drives me INSANE! My MIL does it all of the time and I want to strangle her (for that and other reasons!). Especially when people use it to make something plural! On my way to work there's a diner w/ a huge sign toting "Truck Driver's Welcome" GAH!!!!!!!!! Makes my skin crawl.

Also, improper use of I and me. People think they're sounding all Rhode Scholar when they say "for her and I" or something along those lines. Wrong-O! Would you say "for I"? NO! or "From I"? Again, gah!!!!

OK - here's hoping your day is grammatically correct~ (and that I didn't make any errors here :)

Sheri said...

Well played Barry....well played!

Flutterby said...

Oh wow I was following links from a new follower on my blog and had to shake my head and blink a few times... your rant is EXACTLY what I spend way too much time bitching about too, lol. I've yet to do it on my blog; I just yammer about it in person for the most part. And on a few forums... and.. and...
Anyway... I will do some more peeking around your blog! CountryMouse is following mine now but for some reason her button only shows others she is following, not herself, so I was checking out those links hoping to find her, and I see her right over there.

terri said...

Spelling errors are like fingernails on a chalk board to me too. There seem to be an awful lot of business owners using apostrophes where none is required or vice versa.

And the ones that bug me even worse are the made-up words. "Yanno" - I think this means "you know?" UR, prolly, all of those texting abbreviations. We need to fight for proper spelling and grammar!

Anonymous said...

I LOVED this post! As a court reporter for the last 20 years, words are my busniess! I am constantly amazed at some of the things I see in print and on signs. My favorite is when people use 's to make something plural! Or the its/it's conflict. There's one business around here with huge signs on their trucks and billboards that say "If you're not shopping with us, your burning money!" If they could get it right the first time, why not the second??? Where did these people go to school???

I did hear, however, that sometimes misuse/misspelling of words is possibly intentional on the part of advertisers...it does get your attention--well, some of us, anyway! But it makes me think twice about shopping or doing business with those places!!!

Now I'm going to have to proof this thing a hundred times before I push the "submit" button!

California Girl said...

I'm with you on ALL of these! Unfortunately I am guilty of some of these, mostly because I can't spell well and have no idea of the spelling! The you're and your, they're and their ones really get to me.

Anonymous said...

I'm right there with ya my friend. My most annoying one is when people don't use the "to" and "too" correctly. UGH!!!!

I've been noticing a ton of spelling and grammer errors on "so called" professional documents and articles lately and that really irritates me...I mean what happened to professionalism? I understand it somewhat in a blog or something only b/c it's just a blog and someone could have been in a hurry but to see it on a sign or a document that represents one's company...NO!!!!!!!!!!!

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