Saturday, August 7, 2010

Underestimated Sources of Amusement

What do you find amusing?  Are there things that you routinely come across that always bring a smile or a laugh to you?  While some things almost always work, there's a few things that I probably take for granted, but still find amusing.  Here's a couple of sources of my amusement.


Stupid people in public.  Humans provide an endless source of amusement for me.  Sometimes they are frustrating, and I find that I have no desire to hang out with crowds of people.  There are, however, always enough folks around that do incredibly stupid things in public.  How about those people that will walk up to a strange dog and attempt to pet it?  Let's think about this one: Hmmmm. Large, potentially dangerous animal that I don't know...I wonder what will happen if I stick my hand in its face? 


Flashy junk on cars.  You've seen the car I'm talking about.  You know that 1983 clunker that parked next to you in the Wally World parking lot?  The one with a blue book value of about 200 bucks, but has 2,000 dollars in junk from J.C. Whitney bolted onto it?  Yep.  That's the one.  I love seeing the beat up old cars with the silly accessories from some mail order catalog hanging all over them.  Thinking about who drives these cars is sort of like trying to picture what the radio DJ looks like, based on the sound of their voice. 


Text Speak.  I know that some people are addicted to sending text messages from their mobile phones.  As this feature blossomed over the last few years, people began establishing shortcuts for many words (LOL, IDK, etc).  People still use these shortcuts, despite the advent of full QWERTY keyboard features for modern mobile devices, and commonly refer to this form of typing as text speak.  Some people will use this text speak stuff when typing at their home computer, or even at work.  Have you ever received an e-mail from someone that was full of the text speak stuff, and you knew that they sent it from their computer?  Have you caught yourself doing it?  How many kids today are growing up with this trend, and how many of them will be incapable of writing a clearly worded document? 


Clothing.  I don't even know where to begin on this one...Some of the garbage that is being sold as high fashion is amusing to me.  I saw a couple of shirts at the PX that looked like they were pulled from the bottom of a trash pile; they were pure junk, and looked like hell.  Perhaps they contained gold within the fabric, because the price was through the roof.  Some of the stuff I see people wearing causes me to giggle a little, and I have to watch them for a few minutes to determine whether or not they meant it as a joke.  I'm not just talking about kids; there's no shortage of adults wearing whatever some dim-witted celebrity tells them is cool.  Another thing about clothing that is amusing is that some styles today seem eerily familiar.  Some of the stuff that was popular in my childhood seems to be coming back around.  Does that mean that we got it right when I was a kid?  





Piercing.  This one is a huge source of amusement.  Have you seen some of the crap that people are now shoving through their ears, noses, lips, etc?  I wonder if they ever get that stuff caught on things.

6 comments:

Dan O. said...

I pet strange dogs all the time. But, usually only ones being walked on a leash and I wait until they approach me. I've been a dog owner and have a pretty good sense about which dogs are not friendly.

The clothes and piercing thing. I literally laugh out loud when I see these people. Obviously they're vampires and don't own mirrors.

Anonymous said...

Whenever I see these "people" with all their piercings and chains welded to their body, I can't help but be tactical and think about how easy it would be to bring down these idiots in any fight. A little tug here, a punch there, and they'd be on the ground in a heartbeat. Too easy.

B Woodman
III-per

ProphetJoe said...

Crazy clothes, piercings, and way too many tattoos -- all seem to be attempts to bring attention to one's self. I have found, generally-speaking, that most of the people who do these things have a loathing self-image. "God didn't make me good looking or witty, so I'm gonna adorn myself with tons of crap in order to be noticed" It is similar to the junker with all the flashy accessories in the Wally World parking lot -- "I can't afford a flashy car, but I can put glitter on this turd and get noticed!"

Just John said...

@Dan: Good call on the dogs. I just find it odd that some people will approach a strange dog and try to pet it. I know that some pooches are easily startled (like ours).

@B: Yep. Airports must be a fun time for them too!

@Joe: I think you're on to something there.

cary said...

Sorry, late to this party ...

The Text Speak thing - what makes me want to giggle in their face is when someone walks up to something they find to be over the top (but is actually a very normal item that they just have not encountered before) and say something along the lines of "OMG, WTF is that? OMG that is so keewl!"

Wow. I, too, am worried that the latest generations will not kn ow what to do with the WRITTEN archives of our shared history.

"OMG, o.O! they wrte wrds n stf n sved them 2 ppr!"

radar said...

Oh yes, there was an old 70's beast of a Oldsmobile a guy owned here and he put plastic street lamps on all four corners of the car...at night they lit up! He put a Rolls Royce emblem on the trunk of the car.

Hey, Cary?

"OMG, o.O! they wrte wrds n stf n sved them 2 ppr!"

Classic, man, classic!