author « Robin Writes

Admittedly, these are some of MY pet peeves; doing these things doesn’t mean you’ll lose all your “friends,” not even me. But they sure are annoying:

“Talking,” or typing, on the page of a deceased person. Especially when your comments are directed to them. Seriously, peeps, they aren’t watching or reading, let alone going to answer to you. I get that you want to remember them and feel close to them, but surely there are better ways to do this besides social media.

Speaking of, few things are creepier than having a dead person’s birthday show up in your newsfeed. Take the page down or make it private. Please.

Sharing old news. This gets old fast. Some people are going to comment, but probably half of those will be along the lines of “hey dude, this happened TWO YEARS AGO!”

Exhorting people to share something if they think that ________sucks. Good grief. We all know cancer sucks, among other things. We don’t need a sharefest for this.

Likewise, sharing or commenting or liking to “support” something. This does nothing.

“Reply all” has to be one of the most annoying inventions ever. If you get an email asking if you’ll be at XYZ meeting, you don’t need to hit “reply all.” Really, no one but the sender cares if you’re coming or not; if there are one or two people to whom this might matter, email them separately. I certainly don’t need to get 17 emails that say “I’ll be there” or “can’t make it.”

This particularly applies to group emails of jokes, funny stories, lists, and other assorted things that I’ve probably already seen. And especially when some of the recipients take a day or so to respond, because they MUST RESPOND, and I keep seeing it all week long.

Also, don’t send the same damn email to more than one of a person’s email addresses. I don’t need duplicates, I get enough email as it is. Before you reply, or “reply all” ONLY when it’s absolutely necessary, as during an actual discussion of some sort, check the email addresses. Please. PLEASE!

Stop “liking” bad stuff, things like an obit or a horrible news story. Comment if you will, but for heaven’s sake don’t “like” it. Sheesh. “My dog got hit by a car today” received 25 “likes.” What’s wrong with you people?

Old post comments are near the top of the annoying list. Yesterday, I got a FB notification that someone commented on one of my comments. Naturally, I went to look and guess what—I kid you not—my post was from FOUR YEARS ago! Good grief.

And finally, just because virtual communication is effectively 24/7, don’t message someone outside of regular business hours and expect any kind of prompt response. Or even one at all, because we’ll undoubtedly forget all about it by the next day. I understand wanting to do it while you’re thinking about it, but instant messaging is like a conversation; it’s in the moment. Logging on in the morning, or turning on your phone and having six or so messages, is like walking into your office and having a line outside the door at 6:00 a.m.

Nothing is that urgent, unless it’s a family emergency, a life or death kind of thing.

After no TV for a few days at the farm, which is perfectly fine most of the time, we got home to renew our feverish Walking Dead marathon. And I still can’t help thinking that these guys are so very clueless so much of the time.

We’re in season five now, so it’s been a couple years of running and hiding and attacking and surviving; you’d think they’d all have bought a few clues by now.

Here’s just one example:

Rick and Carl and Michonne are out and about and come across a fairly empty town or neighborhood. They decide to hole up for a few days to rest and recuperate.

Note for fans: yeah, I know this isn’t entirely accurate, but I don’t want to give away anything and for my purposes, this is enough.

So, they pick a house, lock themselves in, and set a guard. All good. Until they get careless.

Carl and Michonne go out scavenging and Rick stays in to rest and read a book. The door isn’t locked or barricaded and no one is paying attention. I get that relaxation is very much needed, but they really can’t afford it in this post-apocalyptic world.

You’d think they’d know this by now. Naturally, the bad guys show up.

So, what would I have done differently than our heroes?

First, I wouldn’t choose a large, two-story house. Now, I get that there may not be a lot of choices, but in this case, seemed to be plenty of options. A second floor would help with walkers, certainly, but not with living humans. In a defense situation, smaller is definitely better. If one had to go this route, there are things that can be done to make it safer:

Clean out the bodies upstairs or at least seal off the room. Maybe they’re so immune to walkers at this point that the bodies don’t bother them. Just close the door and ignore them? Not me. Seal that sucker up like a tomb!

Pick two other rooms, or even three, to reinforce and defend. Keep a 24-hour watch. Board up or barricade windows. Organize and ration supplies.

Our heroes seem to keep trying to believe everything’s normal.