(DISCLAIMER: It's entirely possible that some of these may apply to you. If so, I hope you will not take offense, because no offense is intended. Maybe you can enlighten me.)
- People who don't wear seatbelts. I realize that many of us may have never worn seat belts growing up, but in this day in age, it makes NO sense to EVER be in a car without wearing a seatbelt. How many times have you seen a story on the news where someone was killed in an accident because they were ejected from the car? Often, there will be someone else who was in the vehicle and WAS wearing a seatbelt and they survive the crash with only minor injuries. It's something so simple and so easy that can save your life, so I just can't fathom why people would ever skip buckling up.
- The obsession with all things Apple. Shopping malls may be on life support, but you can bet that the one store that is undoubtedly always busy is the Apple store. I just don't get it. I have two phones - a work phone that is an iPhone and a personal phone that is an Android phone, so I have had experience using both. I just don't see why Apple people are so obsessed with iPhones or iPads. The battery life on the iPhone is better, but that's about it. The fact that you can't even download an app without logging into the Apple Store is annoying! And these people who camp out to be the first person to get the new version of the iPhone? Really? What's the difference between those folks and the guy who gets the phone, say, 3 months later. They both have the same phone, but the second guy got his for $100 less. If you're an Apple devotee, that's your prerogative and I bear you no ill will. I just don't get it.
- Pimped out cars. This is especially true of the people who buy a fairly inexpensive car (think a Chevy Cruze or a Honda Civic) and then spend thousands of dollars to pimp it out with spoilers and shiny hubcabs, a huge stereo (that only makes the car vibrate and rattle when the bass kicks in), mufflers that make the car louder and ground effects. The latter is the most baffling......why would you care to highlight the ground under your car? Who are these people trying to impress?
- The obsession with Disney World. Like most American kids, my parents took me to Disney twice when I was a kid. I, however, haven't taken my kids there and I'm guessing (hoping?) that they are too old to want to go now. We haven't gone for a couple of reasons. First, the kids never really asked to go, so it never really came up. Second, it's friggin' expensive! We have family season passes to Six Flags and I have two partial Blues season tickets all for less than it would cost my family of four to go to Disney FOR THREE DAYS! And that's just the theme park tickets! That doesn't include lodging, meals, transportation, etc. I just don't see it. Spending that much money to wait in line all day - without even any good roller coasters - it just doesn't make sense to me. And some folks go there year after year. I could see going once, just to say you did it, but I can't see spending that much money to do the same thing year after year. I know that many of you swear by Disney and think it's the most magical place on earth. Good for you and I'll take your word for it. I'll also choose to instead go to various Six Flags parks (with good roller coasters) numerous times and go to 12 Blues games a year while also saving several hundred dollars. To each their own, I suppose.
- Earrings on guys. Why?
- The Kardashians. Why does anyone care ANYTHING about these people? They have no talent or, really, any redeemable characteristics. Yet people watch their shows and buy their products, which just feeds the animal and keeps it going. I don't get it.
- Soccer. Hear me out. I don't have a problem with soccer players, aside from the diving and fake injuries. Seriously, if you touch some of these guys at all, they go down like they were hit by sniper fire! But it's not the players who baffle me. It's some of the rules. Like the clock, for instance. Why does it count up instead of down? And why the heck don't they stop it during injuries or after goals rather than adding injury time to the end of each half? Is it really that hard to stop the clock? It just makes the end of the game somewhat anticlimactic because no one really knows when the game is going to end. Also, the scoring. In 11-on-11 play, nobody ever scores. In a shootout, everybody scores. Can't there be some sort of happy medium? I mean, Seattle won the MLS Cup without even having a single shot on goal through 90 minutes of regulation PLUS injury time PLUS an extra 30 minutes. That should NEVER happen. They basically played not to lose and then figured they'd take their chances in the penalty kicks...and it wound up working. At least move the penalty kicks back a bit to make it tougher on the shooters. I hope St. Louis gets an MLS team and, if we do, I will support them and go to games, but some of these odd nuances of the sport just don't make sense to me.
- People who rip on baseball as being too boring but who absolutely love football. Don't get me wrong, I like both sports and enjoy watching and breaking down the strategy of each. But saying baseball has less action that football? No way. Football is 5 seconds of action followed by 40 seconds of everyone standing around, frequently interrupted by commercial breaks. It's especially bad when you're at a game that is televised. 3 1/2 to 4 hours to play a game - yikes.
- Suburban white kids who listen exclusively to rap and hip hop. Whatever happened to jamming out to some good old rock-n-roll? I'm all for diversity in musical tastes (I can go from listening to Metallica to Turnpike Troubadours to Sarah McLachlan in consecutive songs), but I miss the days of the burnout with the mullet and jean jacket driving a Trans Am and rocking out to AC/DC. (OK, maybe not the part about the mullet....or the jean jacket.....or the Trans Am.)
- Reality shows. They're not real, okay people? They're scripted just like other programs.
- People who make knee jerk assumptions about people or stereotype them without ever making an effort to get to know them. This has gotten much, much worse in recent years, thanks to social media. Not all young black males are criminals. Not all wealthy white folks are racists. Not all Muslims are terrorists. Not all Southerners are ignorant backwards yokels and not all Northerners are elitist snobs. Instead of just assuming you know someone because of the color of their skin or where they grew up or where they go to church or who they voted for, take the time to actually get to know that person. I guarantee you they are more unique than you could ever imagine.
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