The amount of time the local public broadcasting people are spending on their fundraising this year. North Carolina's system pledge drive gets longer in terms of weeks every year, and the pledge breaks are beginning to last as long as the shows.

These people should take a cue from some other agencies and have a silent pledge period, wherein a brief (30-second) announcement is made, telling you how to make a pledge, and promising to decrease the air time devoted to fundraising if people take advantage of the silent pledge period. I've seen it work.

And while I'm griping about the pledge drive, I'll add this: it is truly annoying that so much of the regular programming is removed or delayed for the special pledge-inducing stuff. Umm, if you want us to pay for the regular stuff, how about letting us see it?

Overabundant use of automobile horns. Especially in the early-morning hours in residential areas. Most epsecially by whoever the hornblower is who comes through my apartment complex between 6:15 and 6:30 a.m. six days a week. I think the driver is probably picking up a rider for a first-shift job.

You'd think one short beep would do the trick, since it's happened week in and week out for several months now.

Installation programs for computer software that attempt to take over the whole computer. I particularly despise the ones that put several icons on my desktop without asking.

Even more, I despise having one software program tell me I have to have another program to use the one I want to use. After I have the one I want installed.

I really don't mind being told ahead of time that I need something else; I just want to know what I'm getting into before I try to use a program.

Okay, that's my latest list. If there's anything you need to vent about, feel free!