Years ago I abandoned the main social media of the world because it was becoming too much of a useless part of my life. I still believe it is a useless part of almost everyone's life and other than finding a nearby restaurant or something like that, I don't really understand why anyone uses it. It is a total waste of time and the part that was really the kicker for me was the political arguments that I would see strangers and even worse, lifelong friends and family members really going for the jugular over something that their opinion doesn't really even matter on anyway.
Instead, I fill any dead time with 9gag, which while not without its faults, focuses mostly on humor and memes as well as reposting some Twitter stuff of note. Reposting Twitter stuff is frowned upon by the overlords of the community but since I do not use Twitter I would never see these humorous or insightful gems if someone didn't put them on 9gag.
You CAN get into arguments on 9gag but the people do not know one another and therefore it doesn't get as toxic. Also, the comment sections can be more informative than any news station of network is ever going to tell you. Basically, if it weren't for 9gag I would have no idea what is going on in the world and honestly, I wouldn't mind that anyway.
Here are some of the things I felt compelled to save either because I found them funny or profound in some way. Hopefully you will think they are interesting as well.
This one hits really close to home lately because as you might have read if you follow me, I just got back from my first vacation in years and for the most part I really didn't enjoy it. Little things like needing a nail clipper or Q-tip (earbud) and not having any got under my skin a lot more than they should. I also really do not like what travel has become as we are all treated like cattle and put into as small of seats as possible. One of the things that seriously annoys me about air travel in particular is the constant bombardment of announcements. I mean honestly, if you don't know how to put on a seatbelt you shouldn't be allowed to fly.
For the most part during my 12 days away if I could have clicked my ruby slipper heels and been back on my couch with my dog I would have done so.
This is a big part of Asia. In Thailand they banned plastic bags at most stores yet everything in the store is wrapped in plastic. Sometimes the things are double sealed in plastic. I was also at coffee shops where the cup is plastic but the deadly sea-turtle killing straw is paper. I don't normally drink cold coffee so this was a new experience for me but geez, after 30 seconds sitting in your drink the paper straw immediately collapses and is useless. I am not a big fan of government mandates because I always assume they are meant to benefit someone other than the public. In this situation I think they were banned not in the name of environmentalists but so that Tesco, Big C, and 7-11 can save millions of dollars a year in free bags.
This is something I gripe about every year. I remember a time when I used to enjoy summer but here in South East Asia summer is taken to a totally extreme level. You literally can't do anything outside without turning into a human waterfall of sweat in 20 minutes or so. I normally have to carry a towel with me wherever I go because otherwise I just get so nervous about how much I am sweating, and this nervous situation makes me sweat even more.
When November comes the weather is absolutely glorious especially in Vietnam. Our "winter" is more like the beginning of autumn in the west and it is my favorite time of the year.
This just follows up on what I said before. We all have these super fond memories of summer and look forward to it but how much of that enthusiasm goes back to when we were kids and we didn't have to school? I don't know how much of this is true but I heard that summer break from school was created many eons ago when the school buildings would actually be too hot for anyone to be in during that time of year and that is why it was closed.
I loathe summer now, even if I was back in USA. It's too damn hot!
I'm getting a teensy bit political on this one and my apologies for that. One of the benefits of living overseas is that the evolution of politics in my home country do not affect me in the slightest. I don't really even bother to keep up with it and will only find out about the major happenings (which are normally just a right vs. left thing anyway) because I look at 9gag every now an then.
I don't think that anyone can look at politicians and media these days and not think that they are completely full of crap. When I was a kid I thought wrestling was real and I loved it. As an adult I know that it isn't real but I enjoy it anyway.
Another mildly political take and another reason why living overseas is pretty great if you can pull it off. Here in SE Asia you are subjected to taxes but they are extremely low to the point where you look back at USA and wonder how it is possible that they are always out of money.
The fact that the government would take nearly 3/4 of lottery winnings is completely absurd and honestly, that should make you angry.
This last one is a little bit mean and I'm sorry/not sorry about this is me in a lot of situations. This doesn't mean I am a sociopath or anything... I do have empathy. But in a lot of situations when people are offloading their problems on me my eyes kind of glaze over and I am barely even listening to them anymore. I think this is because of the fact that I feel the world in general has become a lot more complain-ey in the past 20 years and things that people just took in stride when I was in my 20's is not a big deal that needs to be announced to everyone.
This might take you a minute to read, but it is friggin gold. Long ago when bootleg DVD's were big business in the black markets of Thailand when I first moved there, the DVD packages were hilarious. Although they were not this funny it would normally be because they were nonsense. Sometimes I would get DVD's that didn't yet exist on the market and the subtitles made movies hilarious because they weren't even close to what was actually being said.
I'll leave you like I always do with a picture of my dog Nadi. She is delighted as far as I can tell to be back home in our condo away from those other dogs that she was forced to be roommates with for nearly 2 weeks. This is the main reason why I think I cannot enjoy vacation... because I always worry about how she is doing.
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My wife was just saying the other day she would enjoy traveling more if there was teleportation. She has some strict limits though. You need to have visited the destination at least once and if you have, then you can travel back at a rate of 15 minutes per hour of original travel. So a four hour trip would become one hour. She feels you still need that time penalty to make it worth it! I hate feeling like I am a fat ass every time I fly even though I am not that overweight. The rest of those were pretty funny. That movie description is gold!
There is a line in a Tenacious-D song where Jack Black says "let's get the scientists working on the teleportation tube technology immediately!" and I couldn't agree more. The problem with travel, especially by air is that the process is all convoluted and time-consuming because of security. I remember the "good ol days" when I was a kid and the entire family would walk into the airport whilst going through very little in the way of any security and accompany my father all the way to his gate. The process between check in and getting on that plane was like a 20 minute affair. These days when I have to fly, especially if it is an international flight the whole thing can take over 2 hours. It makes me not want to go anywhere.
Yeah, I understand. We used to send my friend's brother to New York and we could sit with him until he got on the plane. Then after 9/11 we could only watch him through the glass.