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.

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.