Things you don't "get" anymore

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

You and me both. I don’t attend funerals, and I refuse to go to the cemetery. I’m not religious, but also I just don’t see the point. My daughter basically forced a couple of small containers of my son’s ashes on me, even though I told her I didn’t want them

Boy, howdy. People getting paid to tell you how to think and act. Fuck them.

You guys are taking all my choices! No matter how much I read about NFTs, I still don’t understand them, nor how they translate into cash in hand. Same with crypto currency. I certainly won’t invest in something I don’t understand.

Here’s one for me: parents giving their very young children smartphones and allowing them to be on social media, especially with all the shit that goes on on those websites.

22

That was a great link, and thank you for that. What you have posted is 100% true and explained well.

However, to belabor. I remember this because I could never understand why it would be called “the sweet sport.” I used to sit and watch Friday Night Fights with my father. I didn’t like it. I just didn’t want to go to bed, and there was only one TV in a household back in the 1950s.

You’ve never heard the term? Well, you have now. :slightly_smiling_face: Maybe you can explain it.

23

I don’t get walking around with your underwear showing. That’s equivalent to having toilet paper hanging out of your pants. I’d be mortified to make that mistake.

24

Well, it’s extremely hard, it takes talent, strength, technique and incredible stamina. So it’s…a sport.

25

My theory is, they exist solely for rich people to move and hide their money. All this about “the rights to an image that everyone can see” is a smoke screen.

In the old days, rich people would buy art. “Ooo look, I own the Mona Lisa, ain’t I cool?” Most people didn’t buy masterpieces because they like art, but because it is a good way to park their money. Or launder their money. or create tax write offs. The bonus is, us rubes get to enjoy the art. It is good art, after all.

Well, there are only so many expensive things people can buy, and there are so many more people with questionable money these days, what are they to do? Art can get stolen, damaged, or the market can shift, and all of a sudden you’ve lost money due to forces you can’t control.

What to do?

Well, the idea that that any physical thing has “value equivalency” is a hindrance to rich people. Sure they buy a Ferrari, a mansion, an yacht, a painting, and everyone agrees it has value. These things can always be changed into cold cash fairly easily. As long as you don’t glut the market.

But tastes can change. What if no one like Ferraris, or yachts, anymore? The perceived value goes to nothing.

So you make something that can’t go out of style. You make something that there is no limit to how much of it can exist, yet can’t be lost or damaged.

The value of the NFT isn’t the picture of the frog, the value of the NFT is the “idea” that something has value. You know how the stock market is described as a belief that the stock market has value? It’s all faith? Well, NFTs create a faith in an idea. When you buy an NFT, you’re buying the idea that a “money bubble” has value. The NFT image isn’t the thing of value, the “idea” has the value.

The rich are buying a place to hold money, that can be traded to other people with money.

While we’re laughing about the stupid rubes buying an image, they’re hiding their money away and creating fake losses to offset their taxes. It’s a con, pure and simple.

26

My wife’s friends all seem to grow hostas, so we went to their once-a-year annual plant sale. Rows and rows and rows of hosta plants for sale, all slightly different. And all pretty pricey. We have a few next to a fence, but no way could we say what type they are. We were astounded that it was such a big thing.

27

Science fiction.

I’m a big science fiction fan and I’ve been reading it for decades. But I noticed I tend to read “classic” science fiction from back when I was younger. Even my idea of “new” authors are people like David Brin, Lois McMaster Bujold, Peter F. Hamilton, and Robert Charles Wilson, whose careers started back in the eighties or nineties.

So I decided I should check out the new stuff. Figuring I’d start at the top, I looked at recent Hugo and Nebula nominees.

N. K. Jemisin? Mary Robinette Kowal? Yoon Ha Lee? Arkady Martine? Tamsyn Muir? I don’t recognize any of these names. But that’s the point. So I go to my local library and start checking out books.

And I find that I’m generally not getting into these books. Apparently at some point in the last decade or so, science fiction turned in one direction and I turned in another.

28

Several posters above said that they don’t “get” dressing up. Personally, I don’t get them.

Sure, there are certain kinds of clothes that I feel very relaxed and comfortable in, and formal wear (no matter how you choose to define it) is NOT intended for being relaxed and comfortable. It’s intended for being fancy and formal.

When I’m wearing something formal, I do agree, that it’s not extremely comfortable, and I might even complain a bit about this or that. But on top of all that, I feel fancy, I feel dressed up, I feel like this is a special occasion. And that’s (in my opinion) the purpose of formal wear.

In my experience, people tend to act a little different depending on what they’re wearing. To take just one example, a person walking down the aisle at their own wedding should not have the same posture or gait as when they are walking down the boardwalk licking an ice cream cone, and what they wear will help with that.

You’re all free to disagree with any or all of what I wrote. But if you are among the people who don’t “get” formal clothing, I hope this has explained another point of view to you.

29

There’s no “anymore” about it, but I don’t get watching other people play video games. What’s the point of watching Twitch streams of somebody else playing (usually with their image in the corner with big headphones on) while a whole bunch of commentary crawls by on one side of the screen?

I get watching a walkthrough so you can figure out how to get past part of the game you’re stuck on, but just sitting back watching some random annoying stranger play a game? Why not play it yourself?

30

The boomer equivalent of this is House Hunters; basically watching other people buy houses.

31

I know I will watch an Let’s Play or stream for a few reasons:
*The person(s) playing are entertaining in their commentary and reactions.
*It’s a game I’m not interested in playing but want to see the plot or how the player/chat reacts to stuff
*To check out a game before buying and playing it myself.
*For ideas and inspiration for a game like Minecraft.

I also like to watch people play West of Loathing, despite having played through it myself about 4-5 times and have watched about a dozen other partial or complete playthroughs. It’s fun to see how other people play it and do things I would have never thought of because I already know how to beat the game.

They also more convenient for those who can’t afford to buy the newest games or don’t have the time to play, it’s pretty easy to watch/listen to an LP and do other stuff.

32

The same could be asked about ANY kind of sports. I’m happy that those people are getting their exercise in a fun manner, but why should I get excited over it? (I’ll admit that I do get excited when I see a very close play, and I’m impressed by the players’ skill, but those moments are few and far between.)

Once upon a time, most or all of the home team players actually lived in the home city, and there was a certain amount of hometown pride which led people to cheer them on. But now (and for a VERY long time) the entire team is simply made of whoever the owners chose to hire. Where’s the hometown pride in that? (One might make an exception for college sports, but then you have to ask yourself whether they represent their classmates or their recruiters.)

33

I get ordering food for delivery. I didn’t grow up in a place like NYC that had much delivery but we always had pizza. Then we got delivery Chinese food here and I felt so fancy. Then I was lucky enough to be in the tiny delivery area for Jimmy John’s and I felt like a true Business Person.

But I don’t get food delivery apps like GrubHub and UberEats. Not because I don’t get the appeal of delivery (see above) but the price is SO much higher than if you picked up yourself I just don’t see how people can use it so much.

I can see using it when you’ve got a coupon or a very once-in-a-while treat, but I don’t see how people can afford to be using those services enough that the companies are going so strong.

34

Now THAT I understand.

35

Why so many people have to have black wheels on their cars and light trucks. Half a dozen years ago or so, I might not have “gotten it”, but I viewed it as just ( another ) fad. I could maybe see black wheels if someone with a black car was going for a monochromatic look, or maybe ultra-contrasty with a white car, but that’s it. I’ve seen so many attractive vehicles look so “dressed-down” by having black, especially matte black wheels. It’s a shame too since lots of wheels have very attractive designs that are “hidden” by being flat black. Now it’s like “Everybody has black wheels…because…everybody has to have black wheels…because…everybody has black wheels”

This! Oh yes, so much this. Nailed it squarely. Just what do they mean when fans babble/bellow “We won111”. “We’re gonna kick your asses!!!”. Just who is this we they speak of?

As to the first part of your post, that too. I can understand the excitement of seeing exploits in the moment, or even relaying said exploit to a friend later. But all this off-field blather about speculation, coaches, rules etc? Bah!

36

I call false analogy. Buying a house is the most expensive purchase most people ever make, many people do it only once in their life, and many more never get a chance to do it. So, watching others do something that you think about, dream about, save up to, and plan to do, someday, but cannot do (now), has a strong motive.

Watching somebody play a game you have yourself, and can start playing on a moment’s notice 24/7/365 is a very different deal. It’s like watching somebody take a jog through the suburbia.

37

I had to look up what a ‘hosta’ is. I had no idea they existed, let alone that they were a big thing.

38

I watched one where they unboxed one of those subscription boxes just so I could see what was in it.
Watching the unboxing channel hosted by some English chap is somehow amusing.

39

I was thinking just the other day that I haven’t read a science fiction novel since The Gripping Hand series by Larry Niven. I just figured that my tastes had changed. Maybe though there’s been no good SF since then.

40

I’ve attended gaming conventions, and science-fiction conventions, for most of my adult life (going back to the 1980s). There have always been people who attended in costumes, as characters from movies/TV shows/comic books/video games/etc., and there were frequently costume contests at those conventions, as well. I remember being at GenCon (a big gaming convention) in 1984, and seeing a guy in a great Doctor Strange costume; he would absolutely have fit in with that costume at a present-day cosplay event.

As far as I can tell, “cosplay” seems to simply be a newer name for the same thing, though one difference is that, with social media, one can show off one’s costumes without having to attend a convention. (A second difference might be that, with “nerdy things” being more mainstream now, there are likely more people who’ll recognize that you’re dressed up as a specific character from a specific show or video game.)