Monthly meme dump!
About 5 years ago I left traditional social media behind because I got tired of the bickering and mostly political soap-boxing. I miss out on a few pictures of cousins that I forgot I am related to and maybe I wont get to see the picture of an airplane wing posted by someone I went to school with 30 years ago. For the most part though I don't miss this at all.
These days the only micro-posting thing that I am involved in at all that could even be perceived as slightly "social media" would be 9-Gag, a site that is mostly memes and some pretty decent links to current events. Since I live in a country where the local media is completely government controlled, I probably wouldn't know about what is going on in the world if it weren't for 9gag.
In the process of perusing the memes I stumble upon things that make me laugh or make me think and I'd like to share a few of them with you.

This will probably end up being offensive to people out there with kids but I think that this notion is pretty widely held for people that don't have any children by choice. I love baby animals but for the most part when I see a baby human get introduced into some sort of situation I feel like it is going to be an annoyance.

I was carrying a bunch of things the other day and accidentally stepped on a sleeping Nadi (my dog) while I was walking. She yelped and then looked at me like "why did you do that?" and then I spent the rest of the day apologizing and giving her treats that she didn't do anything to deserve. I think most pet owners have gone through this at one point or another.

I was talking to some friends the other day and the question came up about how long it has been since any of us have owned a car. You see, this is not something that most people have in the expat community because there really isn't much reason for you to have a car here. Taxis cost almost nothing and everything can be delivered. Even the people I know with children work out ways of getting them around without a car.
I do recall what it was like when I lived in USA though and unless you live in NYC or Chicago, owning a car is basically mandatory. You can't get things done there without one as public transport just isn't that widespread and taxis are expensive. When I was a poor college student it was almost as if my car could read my financial situation and any time that I started to have some savings, something expensive would break.

I am so out of touch with today's slang. Perhaps a big part of the reason why this is the case is because I refuse to participate in social media. Every now and then someone will send an abbreviation in a message that I have no idea what it means. I'm too old now folks, I'm not going to try to participate in the ever-evolving slang notions of the world.
one thing I think is funny is when older people do try to get involved with slang and use it wrong... they just look like fools. Even if they do use it correctly they appear like they are trying too hard to be young and cool and they end up accomplishing neither.

I am almost never rude to people and the above meme encapsulates me perfectly. The other day I was rude to a guy in a pub and some of my friends were saying that they have never seen me get angry at someone before and well, this guy had it coming. he was a kind of nuts drunken fool that needed to be told off and that's exactly what I did.
I have a rule when it comes to anyone: If you are decent and respectful to me, I will be the same towards you. It really is that simple.

This is not a meme technically and posting stuff like this is frowned upon by a lot of the 9gag community. For me though, this was pretty profound. I have a lot of degrees and qualifications and I don't feel as though acquiring them really prepared me for anything that I ended up doing professionally. Once when I was backpacking after graduating I was speaking to a guy that was lamenting the fact that he can't get the jobs he wants because it requires that you have a Masters degree. I encouraged him to just lie on his CV and say that he did have this degree and see what happens. He took my advice and then got hired - always living in fear that he was going to get busted. It turns out he is very good at what he is doing, much better than most of the people that genuinely have the Masters degree.
While I don't think this is necessarily true for all professions, for the most part I feel like having blanket qualifications such as a degree in (insert whatever here) is a really stupid one. I have met people with degrees that are some of the dumbest people I have ever met and I know people that didn't graduate high school that are some of the most intelligent people I have ever met.

I remember Clippy. Like most people I hated Clippy but the words in the meme are correct. Clippy was just an amusing attempt at a help section that was meant to be entertaining and had no ulterior motives. These days if you encounter a "feature" in almost anything they are likely using you to make money off of you. It truly was simpler times back in those days and if you are a lot younger than me, data collection has likely just always been a part of your life. These days it seems like almost anything is trying to steal information from you and I don't like it.

I will wrap this up in the same way that I always do, with a picture of Nadi. The other day I was tormenting her with a delicious pizza and I decided to do a little test on her. I left the pizza box open on the floor and then set up my phone to record it and her while I went downstairs to get some sodas from the nearby minimart. I was gone about 5 minutes. While I was gone Nadi did sniff the pizza and walk around it looking at it from different angles, but she never touched it. She knows it is not for her unless I give it to her. I was so proud of her when I got back and believe me, she ended up getting some pizza as a reward.
This post has been upvoted by @italygame witness curation trail
If you like our work and want to support us, please consider to approve our witness
Come and visit Italy Community