Lifestyles of the I Don't Get It

What aspects of others' "lifestyles" (for lack of a better word) do you Just Not Get? For example:

- TV on ALL THE TIME: morning, noon, sometimes through the entire night whilst "viewers" are sleeping.

- Not preparing meals, ever

- Poopy home toilets

- Not having tissues in the house or car, ever

- not using the library.

having more than three children. it's just a mindset i don't get.

Same partner for 40 years

second the TV one

having more than ONE child, certainly - tbh i really don't get the impulse to have children at all

Listening, like really just sitting there and listening to and thinking about music

seriously, idgi.

- soap operas

growing up in a big family is great though! I've got four biological brothers and two very recently adopted sisters. It's wicked.

having more than ONE child, certainly

yesterday my 4-year-old said "daddy? i really like having a brother". so.. there ya go, really

here's one - living on the ground floor on a busy street and having your curtains open ALL THE TIME so that everyone walking by sees you watching cooking shows on your couch in your pajamas, stuffing your face with potato chips EVERY DAY ALL THE TIME WHYYYYYYYYYY

haha i haven't had curtains in my bedroom since...2005? my bf HATES it but i would have no idea how to go about putting curtains in and am used to it now

(most of those bedrooms weren't facing the street!)

Even in people's living rooms I don't get that. Like it's good to have the light in but that's what net curtains are for.

you can't pull your curtains in the day time though? horrible to have no natural light.

loads of london flats don't have nets and who could be fucked to install some, they're kinda filthy looking things too. like someone's grandma's house.

It's only really an issue on the ground floor though, I would actively hate to have people looking right into the house from the street, especially when there's no front garden or anything.

I have a ground floor flat, and tbh I never, ever open the curtains, even though I have net curtains, cos they do fuck all against people seeing in anyway.

I am a hideous creature of the night though.

ppl leave TV on all through the night, while they're asleep?

- leave food on the floor when they drop it there (or do they even notice?), to be cleaned at some later, indeterminate date

- several demanding animals, which wake owner up insistently at the crack of whatever to be fed every single day

- convenience store t-shirt shoppers

- always on the hunt for deals

- nonreaders

- those incomprehensible people who run the tv and the stereo/radio at the same time (sound on)

- headphoneless mass transit riders

I wonder if the TV thing is something people do more when they live alone, especially older people.

- nonreaders

quite a lot of people you'd expect to read fit this. don't get it.

also people reading self-help books on the tube, so many of them, never met anyone irl who reads these books but i see them on public transport probably every day.

- People who use hand sanitiser when they're not visiting a hospital or at a festival.

human contact

shit, i meant to just think that.

- noisy at night

- posting to message boards

religion. any of it.

chain restaurants, vast majority of.

- lager drinking

Well, I fell asleep with BBC4 on last night because I convinced myself that I was just going to rest my eyes for a second. There's nothing worse than waking up at 4am to some robustly-voiced infomercial underscored by horrible Bar Brookie house.

Nets are horrible. They get filthy in about five seconds, especially if you live in the centre of a town (any town, not just London). Also, nobody has the time or housewifely patience to soak the fuckers in borax once a month.

I have blackout blinds in my studio (south-facing) room and no window dressing in my kitchen or around my balcony doors.

I remember watching the first season of Breaking Bad and being tooootally "IDGI!!!!" abt Skyler White and why she would ever choose to decorate her house in such a pathetically trite and awful hypersuburban manner

- like people who actually make the deliberate conscious decisions to buy really awful furniture and rugs and coffee tables and arrange it in a way that looks totally banal as if they're just kind of taught "oh this is what you do when you buy these things, don't think abt it at all just do it"

NO DECORATION SPOILERS FFS

There's nothing worse than waking up at 4am to some robustly-voiced infomercial underscored by horrible Bar Brookie house.

You don't get that on BBC4! It's okay to admit you were watching Really or Dave...

weirdly, tho there is much i don't get, i don't think i can think of anything at the moment. maybe people who don't appear to have an interior life but that's just snidey, of course everybody has an interior life.

- fans of soap operas which are unrelenting carnivals of misery and cruelty e.g. Eastenders

- people who are big fans of only sports not popular in their own country

- fussy eaters

- people who care which iteration of diet pop they drink

- people who don't like other people looking at their own phones in public

- don't mind when they eat, or happy to skip meals altogether

- make visible things without thought to aesthetics, even if it's just simple like writing and they just scribble on the paper whatever way up it happens to be, or screwing something in and they don't make them evenly-spaced

- people who instantly get on with things, like they can be given a really complex task and two seconds later they've plunged in and are doing it, no plan or anything

venetian blinds people!

- people who instantly get on with things, like they can be given a really complex task and two seconds later they've plunged in and are doing it, no plan or anything

otm, this is intimidating and bonkers behaviour

fussy eaters

otm, this is mystifying. i don't know many but lately when watching come dine with me (don't judge, it's what i do when eating my dinner) i notice so many people saying "oh i don't like fish" or "i'm not the biggest pork fan in the world" or something. or "i don't like garlic" or whatever...

even worse is 'i can't eat…' when really they just don't want to

like they won't take responsibility for their own narrow mindedness

- people who willingly consume instant coffee

- people who like the smell of air fresheners

i mean, i dunno, don't you just grow out of the "i can't eat" thing as you become an adult? i can understand a child not liking vegetables or whatever.

xpost

people who comment on an article or facebook status or whatever with the exact same correction or hilarious observation as multiple people before them. these people i do not get. each one of them becomes progressively more difficult for me to understand.

people who willingly consume instant coffee

Cheap and easy/fast caffeine. I know it doesn't taste as good but it's a compromise I can live with on a budget. If I really want to savour quality coffee, I'll go to a coffeeshop but I don't need this on a daily basis. And, actually, since coffee is not actually particularly good for me, there's less incentive to over-consume if what I have at home isn't top-of-the-line material.

- don't mind when they eat, or happy to skip meals altogether

I've had a couple of housemates, both of whom were gym rats, who were fine with not eating anything at all, except maybe some protein powder, until they had dinner in the evening. That is something idg.

anyone whose lifestyle is not the same as mine

otm

Someone might get reamed as an "elitist" for that "non-readers" thing on another forum, but I share the disgust. When I say "non-readers" I mean people with college diplomas, people in professional or management positions where, ethically, you should be keeping up with the literature of your profession.

I am a hopeless urbanite -- go to the class reunion or Facebook get- together and am horrified at what my elite peers do in their free time- not to mention the fact that their young children spend all their time with DVDs and video games.

Stroller-joggers
Ladies who have to keep their nails done as a matter of course
People who do not drink alcohol who are not recovering alcoholic

people who learn they're incorrect about something that's really really easy to not get wrong, and then carry on being incorrect

(i see that as a lifestyle choice because imo those people make a decision to remain ignorant)

slow walkers on crowded pavements or in crowded tube corridors (who are not elderly or infirm). it's like, this is not a fucking country amble, everyone wants to get out of this situation asap

people who willingly consume instant coffee

proper coffee is way, way, way too much of a faff to make especially when i've just woken up

i don't mind when i eat but that's a freelance thing really, it comes from never really knowing what the time is even though most of my life is spent in front of a screen with the time in the top right hand corner

on that: people who insist on having clocks bloody everywhere

Vera Bradley bags
Pandora bracelets

<shrug>

instant coffee foams when you put the water in

inauspicious

you know, you have a clock on your computer and your television and your phone and your microwave and your fridge and your wall and your cooker and your central god forsaken heating, but best wear a watch everywhere and look at that every 30 seconds instead (and still be late to everything) xxp

the bit that i don't get is how people can basically define themselves by their attachment to what the time is

People for whom having a really large house is important. Ok maybe a giant finished rec room with a ping pong table and a pool table and a walled-off music space would be cool. And a little home office. But that's about as big as I can dream, and I don't see the point of just having, like, a gigantic living room plus a separate "den" or whatever.

People who really thrive on having as much of their day tightly scheduled as possible. I go completely batshit after a couple weeks when my life is like this.

Surprisingly many people claim they have never even tried a drop of alcohol. I can only imagine these people are replicants.

I know a certain person who does the TV on all the time thing, and inevitably it's tuned to the most banal chit-chat. I believe this is a strategy to sabotage any possible moment of contemplation.

Tiny apartment, enormous dog

...and yes, walking the dog(s) early in the morning - but also carrying their plastic shitbag each time. I know it's the law, but that alone would decide me against owning a dog

Drinking liters of soda every day (diet soda even more absurd)

p sure i get all these things tbh apart from

- people who are big fans of only sports not popular in their own country
- fussy eaters

even then fussy eaters are no mystery, it's just cuntish behaviour likely stemming from awful parenting

was gonna say it must be due to bad parenting. but i felt i'd sound like my parents.

as a fussy eater let me say that posting like jaded assholes on the internet doesn't make your parents seem like shining examples either :P

New tattoo every three months

How many foods are you allowed to dislike before you hit fussy eater territory? Or is it more just the rudeness of being all picky when someone's served you up something?

soda drinkers are def weird, especially when those that go as far as claiming they don't like the taste of water

oh re clocks - people that have audible mechanical ones balefully ticking away all day

New tattoo every three months

― Josefa, Thursday, 26 September 2013 15:54 (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

i used to not get this at all either until i fell in with some grody dudes

basically after the first tatt the ink itself seems to be the thing, doesnt really matter what you get done

i mean i don't think i could ever decide what tatt i'd have and these guys just wake up one day stroll in to a parlour and ask for like "a bird or something", it's amazing

as a fussy eater let me say that posting like jaded assholes on the internet doesn't make your parents seem like shining examples either :P

― best null wave (bnw), Thursday, 26 September 2013 15:54 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

do you actually self-identify as a fussy eater? that's interesting, generally they don't ime

doesnt change the fact your folks should have kicked the shit out of you til you learned some fucking manners but still

the ink itself seems to be the thing

I still dgi, but maybe the larger question is why choose to be a "grody dude" to begin with

I have been overcoming fussy eating for the past 15 years or so (still won't eat anything that has touched ketchup). I have to say, it wasn't because my parents didn't try really fucking hard to make me eat food.

forcing yr child to eat something they don't like seems a much more barbaric act than someone politely declining a tomato or whatevs

and yes i self-identify as a fussy eater

A guy I know with loads of tats just came out and admitted he got them cos he thought he'd get more sex that way.

And now he has a kid, so he's certainly had sex at least once since the last time I saw him.

multi-tatt guys definitely seem to enjoy the process as much as making any statement in my experience, people who claim not to like the taste of water just need a slap unless they've got a doctor's note - this applies to fussy eating too, i'll let you off if you've got allergies or hypersensitive taste buds i guess

sorry i realise i may have fat guy privilege

Oh yeah, my housemate refuses to drink water! And often complains of headaches, unsurprisingly.

oh yeah i really don't get people who habitually drink gross fizzy drinks like coke. those things are just foul.

anyway, this is about "things you genuinely don't get", not snob-value judgements from those of us with unpleasantly strict post-presbyterian childhoods

aye i'm sure fussy eaters can pick away at my plate of mock vehemence all day, let's move on

- Poopy home toilets

what the hell is this

some people use their toilets for really sick stuff.

Dan, I think she's talking about (whispers it) bowl skidmarks.

If I ever find myself watching Dave or Really at any time of day, could someone book me into that euthanasia clinic in Switzerland?

okay that is far less horrifying than what I was envisioning ("if it's yellow, let it mellow/if it's brown, keep it around")

lol suzy joeks

altho i'll defend Storage Hunters to the death

Just one more thing about fussy eating - how do you tell when it's not a matter of people knowing certain foods don't sit well with them? There's a huge range of foods I would love to eat but don't because I know they'll make me feel bad - and that includes some very basic items that are staples for most people.

eating staples would make anyone feel bad

when i initially raised picky eating i meant that literally i can't comprehend it btw - i completely understand medical grounds for avoiding stuff, but i can't understand what having a really limited palate is like or what other reasons one might have for avoiding many food things

Homo sum; humani nil a me alienum puto

like - there are certain mindsets or attitudes to the world or aspects of it that i genuinely don't get, and i like to think i'm pretty empathetic on the whole. i'm not listing most of those attitudes cos they've been thrashed thru before or they just lead to squealing and death threats but i think there are aspects of other people's lives and behaviours that will always be wholly alien to other people, probably

or in other words, the opposite of what Michael just quoted i guess

maybe this alienness is the original cause of taboos, inter-tribal conflict etc - a point where there appears to be no common ground to meet over

as a multi-tatt guy I will say that you do get a kind of "itch" for more work once you hit your 11th tattoo, but . . . that doesn't excuse being casual and slack about what the actual work is. That just sounds like stupidity, though I get that there is a crust punk stick-n-poke aesthetic in which deliberately shitty looking tattoos are a way of being kvlt and not looking some arriviste

(at a noise festival I saw a crust punk kid with shit tons of stick n poke tattoos who had "GAY 4 PAY" on his shin- whoah)

that aside just made me think the funniest/worst possible tattoo to get would be "HI MOM!" right underneath your belly button

yeah that is precisely the aesthetic

ur right though, i didnt mean to infer every multi tatter is as stoopid as the ones i know

oh re clocks - people that have audible mechanical ones balefully ticking away all day

― r|t|c, Thursday, 26 September 2013 14:56 (57 minutes ago) Permalink

I feel like this might be a vestige of a time when those were the only kinds of clocks in existence, so you'd just get used to it. It's mostly in older people's homes that I find this.

i kinda like that noise.

NV, i'm genuinely curious here - are you saying there are no foods you don't like the taste of?

A tattoo parlor near my house has a $60 special 'Get What You Get' every once in a while. This has always boggled my mind.

ok so

people who im on their phones with a loud noise that is made every time they receive a message on trains

people who think it's ok to put their feet on seats on trains

these people I do not get - what is going through their heads

idg this thread

i dislike very few foods. amaranth makes me retch.

ok so

people who im on their phones with a loud noise that is made every time they receive a message on trains

people who think it's ok to put their feet on seats on trains

these people I do not get - what is going through their heads

― conrad, Thursday, September 26, 2013 12:02 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

seems like a stretch to call these "lifestyles"

There are a few foods I dislike but sometimes you have to man up and actually eat them because someone's gone to the trouble of actually cooking and I'm not a four year old child any more.

supposedly fussy eaters are explained by science -- they literally have more tastebuds or something

There are a few foods I dislike but sometimes you have to man up and actually eat them because someone's gone to the trouble of actually cooking and I'm not a four year old child any more.

― Matt DC, Thursday, September 26, 2013 11:16 AM (28 seconds ago)

^^^ this. Food fussiness resembles nothing so much as a very mild developmental disability to me. Sorry, picky eaters.

- Proselytisers who have no life experience.
- Proselytisers who are recent converts.

The life of the germ-unconscious is strange and fascinating to me. The people who sit on the steps to the subway, eat food off the ground, blithely let their wet clothes fall on the floor of the laundromat, hug all the fixtures in public restrooms, etc. It seems it would be incredibly freeing not to have to use the part of the brain that worries about such things

yeah it's awesome

Those people will have the best immune systems though (assuming they survive)

yeah it's awesome

― sleepingbag, Thursday, September 26, 2013 12:58 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

33.5 years plague-free and counting

germs make you strong, hair of the dog, etc

i somehow wonder how my flatmate has gone 30 years without killing herself or someone else. i'm p messy but she seems to drop things the instant she stops using them, so we often have items of clothing and shoes and books and everything else lying on the stairs or on the kitchen floor or wherever, just waiting for some unwary person to trip on them.

NV, i'm genuinely curious here - are you saying there are no foods you don't like the taste of?

i can't think of much legit food where i genuinely find the taste so repulsive i cdn't eat some to show good manners. there's a small number of things where the texture is off-putting - i think a lot of food aversion is more about texture than taste tbh - but i think most of the spectrum of stuff that humans have decided is "food" falls within the range of not being genuinely obnoxious

this thread has revealed that there are a whole lot of ILXors I'd like to give a big "fuck you" to

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-jC3H_8Dk4

I see you talkin' some shit
On a board I read
And I'm like, "fuck you" (ooh-ooh-ooh!)

There are a few foods I dislike but sometimes you have to man up and actually eat them because someone's gone to the trouble of actually cooking and I'm not a four year old child any more.

― Matt DC, Thursday, September 26, 2013 11:16 AM (28 seconds ago)

Equally, I'm not a four year old child any more so I don't have to eat my greens just because mummy says so. (NB: I don't actually call my mum 'mummy', I have nothing against vegetables, and I do like to be polite, I just think that this is a terrible argument.)

there are foods I dislike but there are a few foods that are just on the absolute no list for me -- gefilte fish, hard boiled eggs, and canned tuna esp with mayonnaise. I will refuse these foods under any non-health-threatening circumstances although I always feel embarrassed doing it.

The people who sit on the steps to the subway, eat food off the ground, blithely let their wet clothes fall on the floor of the laundromat, hug all the fixtures in public restrooms

Is sitting on subway steps really in the same category as eating off the ground or 'hugging all the fixtures in public restrooms'?

What if you only hug some of the fixtures

Can't hug all the fixtures.

I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to find fenugreek edible.

as a multi-tatt guy I will say that you do get a kind of "itch" for more work once you hit your 11th tattoo, but . . . that doesn't excuse being casual and slack about what the actual work is. That just sounds like stupidity, though I get that there is a crust punk stick-n-poke aesthetic in which deliberately shitty looking tattoos are a way of being kvlt and not looking some arriviste

Bunch of my friends make home-made tatts on each other, some look good, some don't. I kind of figure when you've got past a certain number a lot of them are more like diary entries, little reminders of hanging out with x at x time. I'm the sort of person who is unlikely to ever get one, so I don't really *get it* get it, but I don't think it's incomprehensible.

Is sitting on subway steps really in the same category as eating off the ground or 'hugging all the fixtures in public restrooms'?

Which do you think is worse?

I am only picky about tuna-in-a-can, squashes, tripe and liver. The last two I'm probably not going to find at a dinner party, the first two have set me off since having bad reactions to them during my chemotherapy years. Many of my friends are Chron's or celiac so I'm happy to cook around their dietary limitations, but I have a friend who is famously picky/macroneurotic at large unless she happens to show up hungry at someone's house and suddenly it's like 'my body needs that beef chilli'.

People who are ostentatious germ phobics, you are not very good at hiding your narcissism and disdain for others behind your hygiene obsession.

Boiling water for a nice cup of instant coffee to enjoy with this thread

you are not very good at hiding your narcissism and disdain for others is hilarious in the context of this thread tbh

I can think of lots of things to say here but all sound in my mind either ostentatiously snobby or ostentatiously reverse-snobby (not that this has stopped others)

OK, I've got one -- I don't really get alcohol as an everyday part of life -- I mean, I will have drinks at a bar with friends or wine with a nice dinner out, but if I were sitting on my couch on a Sunday afternoon watching a ballgame, I would never crack open a beer, nor would I ever just come home and have a drink after work. But note that this is a pure "I can't imagine myself into a situation where that makes sense for me" idgi, not a "why are people such savages" idgi -- seems clear there is no positive or negative moral value attached to drinking a beer while watching the game.

Since I got pregnant, the range of foods I can even think about eating without gagging has narrowed substantially so I have a whole new respect for picky eaters and the difficulty of navigating the world of food when so much of it is repulsive.

why do you need to "get it?" I sure don't expect others to understand my lifestyle, I sure don't understand theirs. just have some empathy?

that is to the whole thread concept, not to anyone in particular

I don't get people who don't need to "get" things. Aren't you curious about new experiences? Don't you want to broaden your horizons?

let's say what it really is, "behavior I actually disapprove of but don't want to sound judgey"

this thread is like a "what's up with..." seinfeld routine

oooooh wee

let's say what it really is, "behavior I actually disapprove of but don't want to sound judgey"

No but my claim is precisely that there is a way to do the thread without doing this!

some of these just make me think "why would you even notice this trivial difference and who cares"

why do you need to "get it?" I sure don't expect others to understand my lifestyle, I sure don't understand theirs. just have some empathy?

― beautifully, unapologetically plastic (mh), Thursday, 26 September 2013 18:37 (19 minutes ago) Permalink

in the words of Ice-T, "You don't like my lifestyle, FUCK YOU. I'm rollin with the new jack crew."

I don't think I get getting a thrill from eating poop. And yet not completely.
I can sort of get myself into the mind of someone who eats dook and I almost do get it.
But at the same time, I disapprove and definitely don't mind sounding judgey about shit-snackers.

there you go again with your fussy eating

- people who don't like other people looking at their own phones in public

― obi wankin' obi (Autumn Almanac), Thursday, September 26, 2013 7:05 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

I "get" munching on a dook a little more than I get this.

xp lol crut

snortOL xp

My relatively well-off sister and her husband always eat the same dinner every day unless they're cooking for others. Baked potato, tuna and salad. I don't get this at all.

crut i'm sorry i cast aspersions on what people fuel their bodies with

no wait i just read NickB's thing i changed my mind i just don't get things like that

great now I'm singing "munching on a dook" to "monkey on the dick" that's great xp

I would google "monkey on the dick" to see what you're talking about but

Interesting to see the canned tuna loathing. I love

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_s--n1TR94Vs/RlT6qdQU5BI/AAAAAAAABPQ/HpOv_xeXrNs/s400/italiantuna_kalynskitchen.jpg

great now I'm singing "munching on a dook" to "monkey on the dick" that's great xp

"rolling in the deep" here

It's a song that goes "monkey on the dick, monkey on the dick ooh ooh monkey on the dick, monkey on the dick ooh ooh" except now it goes "munching on a dook, munching on a dook ew ew muching on a dook, muching on a dook ew ew."

We coulda ate it all!
Munching on a dook!
You had my dook inside your hand! etc.

There's a floater
In my toilet bowl
Better get it on this plate
Before it gets too cold

etc etc I'm not continuing this awful train of thought

i'm sure my friends and loved one are just being polite, but i have honestly never encountered this anti-food fussiness vitriol before, it's never been a big deal if i say to my kind hosts beforehand, "look there are lots of things i don't like to eat, but i'm more than happy just to drink, have a plate of peas and join in the social gathering". i know if i'm entertaining guests, i don't want to make them do things they don't enjoy - that's just bad manners.

nv otm abt texture being as, or more, important to f.eaters (this one, anyway)

i think part of my bafflement relates to the TV show LG mentioned - Come Dine with Me - wherein contestants host a dinner party for 3 or 4 guests and everybody takes a turn to host. the number of people who go on this show about having dinner parties and then refuse to eat several innocuous-looking dinner party staples is just fucking weird to me

Didn't the "monkey on the dick" girl turn out to be like 15?

On topic I have sympathy with eephus even though I drink several times a week - it takes a lot to get me drunk, but even having one beer makes me feel a little slower and dumber if I'm just on my own. So I have a beer after coming home maybe twice a month, I feel like I'm much less likely to get anything done afterwards.

I'm also very boring, I don't get non-boring people's lives.

it's a competitive gameshow with contrived conflict and built-in "judge these ppl" ffs

she was killed a couple years ago :(((

xp

xp

i don't think it functions v. well as a competitive show and the deliberate invitation to judge the participants doesn't mean they aren't doing shit that needs judging

u might as well be discussing fictional characters

i know plenty of real "characters" with the same foibles

anyway i shd've known better than to opine about food on ILX

she was killed a couple years ago :(((

xp

― festival culture (Jordan), Thursday, September 26, 2013 7:44 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh man.

That sucks.

anyway i shd've known better than to opine about food on ILX

― Tyskie in the giro (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 26 September 2013

hahaha no i''m def with u here!

Which do you think is worse?

I think it's fairly well-documented that food can actually be contaminated by harmful bacteria when it falls on the floor and that actually ingesting this is not the best thing in the world for you. As long as a subway step doesn't look obviously gross, I don't really see the risk in sitting on it.

As long as a subway step doesn't look obviously gross, I don't really see the risk in sitting on it

There could be residue from someone's piss puddle. There could be dried spit or vomit. Yeah, at least you're not ingesting it, but then you go home and sit on your bed, which then is like putting your shoes on your bed (another thing that some people don't mind). To me, which of these things is the worst really depends. Hugging a recently cleaned toilet I'm sure isn't so bad. What's alien to me is the thought process of "I feel the need to sit down now... I guess I'll choose the filthiest surface in sight." Just a different mentality. And I don't dispute that people who are less neurotic about hygiene may end up healthier based on germ theory (although they will tend to be smellier).

Well you walk through that stuff and presumably then track it into your house, unless you take your shoes off outside your door.

i burn my shoes when i get home then put on a fresh vacuum-packed pair next time i leave the house

unless you take your shoes off outside your door

this is never a bad idea

if you don't wear a mask in your bathroom you're probably breathing in poop

best to follow with a dip in one's above ground swimming pool full of purell xp

People who don't have a trash can in their bathroom. Do they flush every piece of trash they come up with in there? Blow nose - flush, comb hair - flush the strands that remain in the comb, pick lint/thread of their shirt - flush. And non-flushable stuff like empty toothpaste tubes, dull razor cartridges.

Or do they carry it to some receptacle elsewhere? This doesn't work well for guests in their place.

i live in one of those places right now :(

i suspect the others just flush it all, they love flushing things, when i first moved in i think they put soup in there

they also love not flushing things, per djp maxim upthread

apparently nonstandard toilet uses encourage all kinds of deviation from the norm

environmentalists, go figure

i haven't read savage love in years but this one stayed with me:

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/SavageLove?oid=3097

According to Barak Gaster, Savage Love's long-suffering medical adviser, licking floors without come on them is actually pretty safe. "There is a lot of paranoia about germs that you can catch from dirt, like a dirty floor -- probably more than is warranted by reality," says Barak. "The diseases people get are by and large spread from person to person, or from bad drinking water. Stuff on the floor is not that big a risk."

yep

Josefa is Paulie Walnuts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt1r73mYfKY

thank god it doesn't stop us from feeling dirty all the time xp

LOL Paulie. But didn't someone prove recently that ladies rooms are actually filthier?

is it cuz of all the cooties

it's cuz of all of the dirty boobies

People who never, ever take a holiday/vacation/trip, ever.

People who shop at Costco for a household of one, then throw out the majority of the food they buy because it expires before you can get through it.

before *they* can get through it

Leaving the front door of a shared rented house in a large city not only unlocked but open on principle ('People worry too much')

OK thats not a lifestyle, thats a shooting offence.

I mean, at a certain point it became clear that this person was doing this in order to signify that they were currently selling drugs, but they were doing it before then too

- posting on those irrationally angry threads

motorcycles
motorcycles
motorcycles
motorcycles

lifestyles idg

- germophobes. and by that I mean casual germophobes who haven't grown up with a communicable disease or have ocd issues or whatever. like if you just generally need to buy antibacterial soap and hand santizer on the reg then I don't understand. bcz to me that shit makes you sicker than most regular germs. it's just weird to me.

- families that are all home together at mealtimes and *don't* sit down together. or who don't even observe mealtimes just because of handwavey 'I was raised by wolves' reasons. i just dgi at all. i mean, I don't hate you if you do this and you're probably a nice family but i just really like sitting down for a meal. it's not important, it just makes me feel close to those ppl, sharing food is nice imo.

- going out to eat every night. that is a lifestyle that is totally alien to me. more because I'm kind of a hick at heart and eating out was usually something v special we only did a few times a year. and ppl who eat out on WEEKNIGHTS wow. lol. yep. I'm a total hick about this but I really don't get it.

smokers

I can see the point of, say, heroin or meth, where even if it fucks you up completely, you feel great the first time you take it. But smoking seems like you have to work really hard at something that makes you feel ill and smelly, in order to get addicted to something not fun that will kill you.

smoking is fun, tasty and makes you look really cool tbh

I took it up purely to look, not even cool, but just acceptable, like as a non-smoker in the circles I moved in I was a joke

It's also tasty

i used to look cool. now i only look cool sometimes - like when i'm really drunk.

xp and it's fantastic to do after eating a huge meal.

non-"enjoyable" behaviours are rewarding

you never see great pictures of Bogart smacked off his tits either

"stop snitching"

who don't even observe mealtimes just because of handwavey 'I was raised by wolves' reasons

;_;

People who are ostentatious germ phobics, you are not very good at hiding your narcissism and disdain for others behind your hygiene obsession.

Serious truth bomb.

I mean that's mostly just the idiocy of thinking you can stop microbes from entering your body while also creating an environment for yourself that actually makes you more susceptible.

is there real evidence that excessive cleanliness encourages infection? you don't see surgeons scrubbing themselves down with compost before an operation.

(not that i disagree with the general premise re: Howard Hughesism but it feels like the whole "too much washing makes you ill" idea is modern folk "wisdom")

i think the idea is that if you're excessively clean, then your immune system stands down a bit and the biodiversity of antibodies drops off, so you become less able to fight off infections and minor ones that most people would easily shake off, those can become major ones instead.

yeah i get the idea but i wanna see the evidence

Yeah there's a bit of a difference between the standards of cleanliness required in a hospital/kitchen and anywhere else though.

Unless you actually live in a hermetically sealed sterilised bubble with no contact with other people then there's no way of actually avoiding letting germs into your body but you do need to do so for the benefit of yr immune system. People who work on building sites/as gardeners don't get ill radically more often than most people.

xp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis#Supporting_evidence

Not quite the same thing but I've also heard it suggested that people who don't go outside very often have the same issue because they don't encounter new germs often enough, and I've got anecdotal evidence for that up the wazoo.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2011/07/05/scientists-discover-that-antimicrobial-wipes-and-soaps-may-be-making-you-and-society-sick/

always sounds a bit WHAT YOU'RE DOCTOR ISNT TELLING YOU! for me tbh

the first few years of having children attending school is just a horrible period as far as catching coughs and colds goes and i would liken that from going from a relatively clean state to one with far higher levels of exposure. however after a while, you stop being so susceptible cos your immune system is battle-hardened, and amazingly you get to a point where you stop sneezing and sniffing or worse for the entire winter period

children are such disgusting savages tho

as vectors of contagion, yes they are wretched. as examples of how to really live though, they probably put the rest of us to shame

assuming you really like threadworms

anyway yeah i'm not saying that concerns about over-sterility are groundless, i believe those concerns myself really, i was just v. unsure what the current state of actual knowledge about it was

and i think it'd be fair to say that the case isn't thoroughly proven just yet

This is distracting from the fact that obsessive cleaning types are basically morally abhorrent.

wasn the initial complaint not just about people that....use handwash

cos

xp no argument there

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/zK1pkdrI9z8/hqdefault.jpg

But children snot is so cute. As are perfectly shaped little "dog logs". I love how people go "awwww" when the dog farts but having to smell another humans is an assault. I don't disagree, either. Also, snoring is only cute in humans if you're an old man. Otherwise you deserve my homicidal rage!

This is distracting from the fact that obsessive cleaning types are basically morally abhorrent.

― Matt DC, Friday, September 27, 2013 5:44 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I usually find their behavior seems kind of compulsive (even assuming not officially OCD) and therefore I'm a little more sympathetic to it even though I disagree with it and don't like it. I have a co-worker who seems to have a bunch of arbitrary irrational germ fears (certain things he won't touch, etc., where other things he does touch are probably equally bad). While I find it to be a character flaw, he's overall a pretty decent guy.

i have never seen anyone, ever, go "awwww" when a dog farts!!

xpost

Really?? Dog farts are great entertainment, especially the guilty look on Fido's face!

I've never seen a dog look guilty after it farts.

Maybe not guilty, but they do sometimes look surprised at the noise or sensation happening back there. It's pretty entertaining.

When my 19-month-old farts she always announces "Flotz" (hebrew word for fart) and then gently imitates the sound. It's adorable.

People that clean their teeth before they eat breakfast.

People into Burning Man and that kind of neo-hippy things. I mind it but boy I don't get it.

i have never seen anyone, ever, go "awwww" when a dog farts!!

one prominent ilx user farts *on* her dog iirc

People that clean their teeth before they eat breakfast. You are lucky to wake up without horrible mouth-stank, then. I do not want to taste that shit when I'm trying to eat.

Idg 6 am "boot camp" workout attendees. Idg people who go to tanning beds.

i had coworkers who would go tan during the day just so they could grab a quick nap.

You are lucky to wake up without horrible mouth-stank, then. I do not want to taste that shit when I'm trying to eat.

I find it very hard to believe that (1) you can taste your own bad breath, and (2) the taste of your bad breath is worse than the aftertaste you get when you eat and drink right after brushing your teeth. anyways, the main purpose of brushing your teeth is to prevent tooth decay, so brushing your teeth before breakfast (but not afterwards) is an outrageous and wasteful abuse of a medically necessary drug product. if you're seriously worried about your morning breath, you should use a little mouthwash before breakfast and brush your teeth afterwards, and I will tone down my moral outrage accordingly.

)non-fluoridated mouthwash, I should say)

Idg you

idg myself sometimes, but I think I'm right about the toothpaste thing

I thought the whole thing was 'brush after every meal'. I mean if you wanna brush more often fine, but p sure you are otm.

"boneless wings"

some of us have fucked up teeth

People who wear shorts 365 days a year. When it's freaking cold they put four layers on their top halves, but still with the bare legs.

Yeah brushing yr teeth before eating is just weird, sorry.

xp i'm a proud year-round shorts wearer. warming up your core is the most important part, plus you get to show off your legs.

Sometimes the morning taste is so vile. I guess you all don't have periodontal disease. I also guess I shouldn't post about waking with weird tastes in my mouth.

I'm with emilys - I wake up with cat's piss desert mouth every morning. Got to brush as soon as I wake up. Also, I don't really eat breakfast, and toothpaste & tea is a fairly nice combination (obviously I get people not wanting to combine toothpaste & orange juice taste, that shit is vile).

I used to think brushing your teeth before breakfast was weird, then I lived in Argentina where it is a cocktail called Fernet y cola that people drink all the time.

...(obviously I get people not wanting to combine toothpaste & orange juice taste, that shit is vile).

― emil.y, Monday, September 30, 2013 6:50 PM

I brush with an orange/mint flavored toothpaste.

That is still different, I guarantee it tastes nothing like mint toothpaste and orange juice

Remind me to use my discretion in making out with ILX people in the morning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcrcjKZIKYs

As I have posted on the What Are You In To thread, I am in to Extreme Oral Hygiene, and you pre-breakfast brushers are CORRECT and you other savages are TOTALLY WRONG:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDQQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freysmiles.com%2Fimages%2Fuploads%2Fgeneral%2FThe%2520Ideal%2520Oral%2520Health%2520Routine.pdf&ei=qzxKUp_-FOSj2QWSzoGACg&usg=AFQjCNFKJw2BTAqvV9ZpOO3LnV-mFHx1VA&sig2=9Y7Ad5K44IHz0A8k53zVfw&bvm=bv.53371865,d.b2I

Holy shit, that is so much information to remember. I had no idea about not brushing after a meal!

OMG that is mental. I love how it says "limit your brushing to twice a day". Anyone who is brushing more often than that is asking for srs enamel/gum issues.

The baking soda rinse is interesting tho. I drink a lot of wine, I wonder if it'd help.

-People who run on treadmills when the weather is perfectly fine outside.

quincie i feel v validated. ty

That damn thing has made a significant impact on my dental life. I was skeptical about this dr internet dentist dude; however, after scouring for any sort of commercial interest, I have come to believe that he is a totally dorky dentist who wants to share his love of dental hygiene with the internets. The fact that his #1 product recommendation is f'n BAKING SODA is a clincher for me.

Moving on from dental hygiene. . .

My intention with this thread was not to replicate the IA thread, nor for it to be a judge-y "omg look what inferior ppl do," because that really isn't my thing. My thought was for a discussion of honest-to-goodness "I do not understand the logic behind XYZ" thing, as opposed to some holier-than-thou "my taste is superior to your taste" stuff also is not really my thing.

So: timeshare owners.

they don't understand math and/or are easy victims of pressure sales techniques. there's a whole mess of fake tourist info centers (even a fake motion picture museum) where I live now that are just a front for time share slimeballs, it's really unseemly.

Here's one re: not judging just not getting it. People who - quite reasonably - are interested in going somewhere with a career but rather than talking about that career specifically, and trying to show off their knowledge about it, they just always talk about how hard-working they are, how much they value hard work, everything becomes a pretext for them to mention they work hard. Real sadness behind the eyes.

Not sure if it's a "lifestyle," but I've fundamentally never understood people who say they are not afraid of death.

- people who find Borus Johnson hilarious. I get the impression they're the same people who pick their car insurance on the basis of a free meerkat toy.

-People who run on treadmills when the weather is perfectly fine outside.

― Jeff, Monday, September 30, 2013 10:59 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ragweed season, man

Not sure if it's a "lifestyle," but I've fundamentally never understood people who say they are not afraid of death.

― emilys., Tuesday, 1 October 2013 06:42 (7 hours ago) Permalink

I've never understood people who don't think about death on a regular basis. Like when you make some reference to the fact that everyone is going to die and people act like you're some big downer, as though it hadn't occurred to them in a long time that they would die one day.

I'm afraid of intense pain or whatever but the idea of being dead doesn't bother me either way, except for how it might affect other people I care about.

I don't need to think about death that much, just like I don't think about using the toilet. I do it, but it's just something a body does, I guess.

mh, that makes sense. I'll refine my criteria to those who run on a treadmill in nice weather and have no serious allergies.

at least a decade late for this complaint, but

the proud flaunting of "designer" brands & logos on products that anyone could buy anywhere

idgi

igi: brand is expensive = I spent money on it = I have money

idg why letting people know yhm takes priority over keeping it

because capitalism

Also bcz ppl are different.

because money is associated with status and power, idg why people pretend not to understand this

also because if you're never going to have REAL money/status/power no matter how much you save, then you get your kicks by flaunting what you have and trying to use it to get laid/impress people/etc

Uh or just enjoy having something fancy/that means fancy to you.

http://holykaw.alltop.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/41933091-media_httpfarm4static_gplhC.jpg

my co-workers make a big deal about their Coach handbags that they buy at the outlet store. Strange mix of flaunting and cheapness.

igi: brand is expensive = I spent money on it = I have money...

because money is associated with status and power, idg why people pretend not to understand this

― #fomo that's the motto (Hurting 2), Tuesday, October 1, 2013 7:27 AM

uh, this whole thread is dedicated to feigned incomprehension. i mean, we all know why some people keep the tv on all the time, right? it's cuz they like it. tv noise provides them entertainment, company and comforting background babble, like all is right with the world so long as someone is talking about nothing in the living room. similarly, we know why toilets get poopy: people don't like cleaning them. the point here, as i understand it, is to highlight not our literal failures of comprehension, but rather behaviors that seem odd from wherever it is we happen to stand.

I don't know how much of the continuing mystique of Coach, Burberry, LV, and other luxury brands is based on imagined price and how much is the "quality"/reputation of the brand. Being happy to tell ppl you got it at a good price isn't that different from a wealthy person saying, "Oh this old thing? It was Grandma's," when they're talking about, like, heirloom jewelry or a Birkin bag or something.

Not sure if it's a "lifestyle," but I've fundamentally never understood people who say they are not afraid of death.

― emilys., Tuesday, 1 October 2013 06:42 (7 hours ago) Permalink

I'm afraid of a slow, painful decline, but I'm not afraid of not existing. So it depends on what you mean by "death."

I just assume any office worker's hideous Coach handbag comes from the outlet store, it's easier that way.

My wardrobe is a combination of 'Oh, this old thing?' heirlooms and quality brands that haven't been over-licensed or turbo-relaunched, acquired cheaply.

I'm genuinely afraid of leaving my daughter in a bad situation by dying. I'm not afraid of "being dead." I'm certainly afraid of extreme pain and/or a prolonged physical decline.

A lot of the stuff here is thinly-veiled class talk

oh this old thin veil? grandma's

wb contendz obv

idg ppl who work hard without immediate reward and trust it'll pay off

A lot of the stuff here is thinly-veiled class talk

otm. inevitably so. "lifestyle" is in large part a product of class.

mh, that makes sense. I'll refine my criteria to those who run on a treadmill in nice weather and have no serious allergies.

― Jeff, Tuesday, October 1, 2013 10:08 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Or significant joint pain due to long term wear and tear. Treadmills at my gym soften the blow quite a bit. I'd love to run outside, but those days may be over for me.

Or unsafe neighborhoods on all sides.

Also, treadmills force you to maintain a particular pace, if you're trying to build your speed, burn a certain number of calories, etc. Like practising music with a metronome in some ways.

xpost

treadmill running: no thinking about uneven surfaces, obstacles, etc.

Ok I'm just going to go back to hating all treadmill runners. Easier that way.

if you're gonna do in-place cardio why not bike machine or rowing machine or whatever - it's so much less stressful on your knees 'n' ankles!

Good question. #1 i like running, and feel much better after doing it than other forms of cardio. #2 i try to mix it up, so i do other forms of cardio, though running is my favorite

i've got a friend who suddenly revealed to me that he was about to get a divorce and his soon to be ex-wife and son were moving to seattle while he was staying here. he said he actually never wanted a kid or wanted to move to where they moved to, which was a revelation that pissed me off tbh. i think before i had a kid, i would have been ok with not having one. but once he arrived, he became my best friend. now he's basically cool w/his kid moving to seattle because he didn't want him anyway, which is what i'm taking away from his tone and everything, and which may be a partial reason for the divorce too from what he said. expressing mild sorrow, seeming "genuine", but cutting loose what he considers to be dead weight afaict. what a shithead.

Treadmill running gives me shinsplints

al that's fucked up!

it is, but let's face it, lots of people never should be parents

Yeah I was thinking, parenthood is not for everyone, but it would be awfully hard to empathize w someone who deliberately separated from his offspring when yours is the center of your world.

Its a little judgey imo

kid's probably better off

I'm a big believer in letting everyone go to hell in their own chosen way.

Ok I'm just going to go back to hating all treadmill runners. Easier that way.

lol

elliptical 4 life

Xp yeah I think he might have inadvertently done that kid a favor. Having no dad sucks bad, but a shit dad sucks worse.

I'm genuinely afraid of leaving my daughter in a bad situation by dying. I'm not afraid of "being dead." I'm certainly afraid of extreme pain and/or a prolonged physical decline.

Never used to be afraid of death, but now have an 8-month-old daughter, and the idea of me dying before she reaches the age where she'll be able to remember me is now a daily terror for me.

from this article on a freediver's recent death:

"The joy of being in the water, suspended in silence, at that depth, is incredible," said William Trubridge, who has won more than a dozen world championships.

In a CNN iReport, Trubridge described what it's like. "There's a lot of physiological changes that happen," he said.

"The main thing which isn't experienced in any other sport is what's called the 'blood shift,' which is where all the blood is squeezed in from your extremities, and at the same time your lungs are becoming crushed by the weight of the water column above you. So you get blood pooling in the lungs."

"It's a mental sport as much as it is a physical one. One of the beautiful aspects of it is that it forces you to be in the moment. It's almost impossible to be in the water and at the same time contemplating problems. As soon as you get in the water, that all dissolves and you're just there."

In 2006, he lost consciousness before getting to the surface. He also lost his sense of taste, which has never returned.

weee

I don't get the 'Irrationally Angry' lifestyle.