Five issues that have the potential irritate me. How about you?

OK, when you get to Number Five, you'll understand this introduction:

Here I am, where I ought to be. A writer must have a place where he or she feels this, a place to love and be irritated with.
Louise Erdrich, Author of The Round House, Pulitzer Prize Nominee, National Book Award Winner

Number One - Writers who just keep writing good material always. 

Involvement on social media platforms, for me at least, runs in a direct relationship to the amount of work I have producing copy & branding solutions for paying clients.

When I get busy with work that remunerates me, my publishing on SM reduces.

No real surprise there. What's inherent in that though is the need to keep one's writing muscles exercised.

@Jim Murray has written extensively on this with his always thoughtful contributions to beBee. To my mind he's kind of like the Schwarzenegger of of writing fitness. There's always something popping up from him and I appreciate that, even though it kind of wears me down, if I allow a tiny bit of competitive spirit to peek out. 

Mercifully, that happens almost never - probably 'cause I'm too damn lazy to up my game and output.

Besides, he's fuelled by those giant St. Catharines' doughnuts and lots of java. 

Oh, and, he doesn't have little kids anymore - although he's still a doting parent.

Anyway, here's the first thing that has the potential to wear me down:

Number Two - Incessant sniping on virtually any SM platform you can think of

There's great wonder available to anyone who cares to notice on various platforms. I'm not a Snapchat or Instagram enthusiast but my nieces, nephews, friends and even my wife, employ those platforms to great advantage. Neither am I hugely motivated to Tweet but have real admiration for folks such at Paul "Pablo" Croubalian and Lance 🐝 Scoular who make eminently good use of it and are kind enough to share their presence in supporting some of the stuff I do. Facebook is brilliant for me to keep up on an entertaining and almost purely social basis with friends, relatives, former and current colleagues. Lately too, I've been enjoying the swelling movement to resist President Cheeto by powerful FB proponents such as Dan Rather, Robert Reich, and others. LinkedIn? Meh. Not so much. Yeah, I still check in and I have met a few good folks over there (and to its credit would not have come upon beBee if it weren't for LinkedIn) but it just doesn't do it for me.

Then we come to beBee and without sounding as though I have mainlined the Kool-Aid - this is a great spot to engage in genuine conversation with wonderful people and inspiring, provocative minds such as (yes, I will miss someone in the list - too bad - that irritates me too - a little) Lance 🐝 Scoular, Phil Friedman, Paul Walters, Pascal Derrien, Phil Friedman, Robert Cormack, Gert Scholtz, Sara Jacobovici, Pascal Derrien, Graham🐝 Edwards, Kevin Pashuk, debasish majumder, Robert Cormack, Gerald Hecht, Dean Owen and some of the newBees Joyce Bowen, and Sara Jacobovici.

While each of these folks (and surely some of those I missed - which irritates me - but I think I mentioned this) have created some wonderful pieces here the commentary thread often strays way off target. It usually begins with old grudges or fresh umbrage. It usually comes from the same people. Now, I am not one to ever condone even the notion of censorship. I am though one who condones knowing when to speak up in a relevant fashion and when to shut the f&(k up when the commentary has nothing to do with the original content.

To my mind, sniping, when accurately targeted, can serve a tiny purpose if for no other reason than to pop the balloons of pretension. There are few things more irritating though than a undisciplined sniper whose shots regularly take out the innocent.

Number Three - Diatribes which revolve around the central notion of he said, she said, then he said, etc.

N.B. This irritation does not centre on the quite entertaining and informative series of dialogues which run under the rubric of 'He Said, He Said'. 

It does centre on the immensely irritating and constant exhumation of remains which should have been left buried and undisturbed.

Life is too short for long-term grudges.
Elon Musk

Elon Musk is way smarter than me.

'Nuff said.

I don't really want a blocking function on beBee and hope that I don't have to use it more than twice! What would be really cool though is to have a grudge filter that would strain out all the same old, same old crap that appears time and time again in commentary threads. Javier 🐝 beBee Donna-Luisa Eversley

Surely, we all have better things to do with our precious moments of life than to rehash them and relive the stress they inevitably create.

I had a teacher in high school who was really mean to me. 

Wanna hear about it - in long and exhausting detail?

Didn't think so and I don't care to credit his lasting impact on my life with any sort of notice.

I solve this irritation simply. I let it be.

https://tinyurl.com/honcgul

Number 4 - Profoundly self-centred, overblown self-interest and assumptions that I give a s^$t

Stupidity, combined with arrogance and a huge ego will get you a long way.
Chris Lowe, UK Musician

Guess that might be true, for a short while, in the entertainment business. Need to have some combination of those 'qualities' to keep moving forward when everyone is telling you you're not good enough. Eventually though you have to back it up with skill, talent, quality, and authenticity.""""""