The 2008 List of the Top Ten Things That Irk Me

Last September, I came out with the first annual "Top Ten Things That Irk Me List." These are topics that drive me crazy in regards to society, humanity, and just life in general. If you would like to contribute to this list, or have your own "irks" to share, e-mail me at richard@richard-escobedo.com.

1. People who walk in the street barefoot! - When I see people doing this, I cringe! It is so aggravating when people walk out of their homes and blithley galavant around the street as if they were the cleanest, safest surfaces in the world! I understand if you're in your front yard, in the grass, or perhaps just walking around on the concrete for a little while, but to be in the street, it's just digusting.
   
2. Repetitive and inappropriate use of the word 'like.' - Sadly, human society in my opinion is slowly deteriorating (Hopefully President-Elect Obama will change this) and so is our speech and grammar. Humans as a species are turning to using the word like in the following context: "My dog, like, licked me and it was like cold." Your dog like licked you? What is a like lick? People, if you're using the word like inappropriately, fix it. (I just got an idea for a new blog post - ERADICATING BUZZ WORDS!)
3. Neighbors who are morning people. - Now I'm not necessarily saying that being a morning person is a bad thing, but more specifically, the kind who are up at 7AM on a Saturday morning and are trying to get an old car started. I have never before in my life lived next door to a neighbor who does not value and cherish sleeping in on a Saturday! My neighbors (in this case) have always had the common courtesy to wait to do something of this nature, and this time was obviously just shocking!
4. When coffee and cereal is slurped. - I try to be a patient person, but when people smack gum like a cow (see previous list of "irks"), slurp their coffee because it's "hot and will burn their mouth," and they slurp their cereal for no apparent reason, I lose it! Have people lost all respect for one another? Or at the very least the common courtesies that our parents have instilled within us to not commit these unmannerly and downright atrocious acts? I think I will just leave this up to you, but again, in my book, it's deeply aggravating.
5. Crackberry/Cell Phone Addicts. - I have lived, on multiple occasions without my cell phone and iPod for at the most, three days. It really irks me when I see kids at a party or even adults out "in the wild with their eyes glued to their itty-bitty 2.5", 256,000 color display just to find out if they are going to have pizza for dinner. To those of you that are addicts, I feel so sorry for you, but just put it down!
6. Americans who feel that the "nation is in distress" and hang THEIR AMERICAN FLAG UPSIDE DOWN. - I understand that the people doing this are well within their first amendment rights, I truly do, but for them to do something so derogatory is just disgraceful and appalls me. Even with the first African-American President being elected, there is still a lot of bigotry in the world today, and regardless of what their political beliefs, they should have the sense to respect the men and women fighting overseas who actually have to use this symbol of American pride and dominance as a true distress signal in a time of war.
7. Arrogant and stuck-up human beings. - I think that this is pretty self-explanatory.
8. People who walk so darn slow. - I'm curious to know if people do this just to be rude, they think their better than you, or of they don't even realize what they're doing. It exacerbates me when somebody turns and looks at you clearly after you're said "excuse me," and continues to walk ridiculously slow!
   
9. People who talk too much. - I go to a GT school... a school where everybody loves to talk and is the farthest place from being devoid of a motivated student body. I understand that kids (heck, myself included) love to talk, but sometimes enough is enough. I could care less that your Aunt Bonnie just got a new dog or a new cat after you've been rambling on to me for the past 3 hours about how all of her pets before that died and what happened in each specific situation. I suppose that's a really bad example, but I think that all of you get the point I'm trying to make.
10. Kids who can't look you in the eye when you're speaking to them, or speak when you're speaking. - Again, I go to a mainly GT high school where everybody loves to talk, but whether you're class president or just giving a speech in speech class, it is infuriating to have other people speaking while you speak.

This list took significantly longer to piece together, and was a lot harder to piece together! Hopefully by this time next year, I will have studied a few more sociological problems, and there might be a few more exciting events to talk about that just might get me hyped up about next years list! Until next time, if you would like to contribute to the list, e-mail me at richard@richard-escobedo.com.