Gifts We Need To Stop Giving

As the calendar nears to December, the full hustle and bustle of the homogeneously termed “holidays” are almost upon us. It’s a time of wonder, tradition, hope, joy. Not so coincidentally, this is also the time most people seem to abandon common sense, and go all ape shit. And if nothing else, this blog has always been about doling out common sense in a world sorely needing it.

So, dear reader (I say that because hits are way down, and I am damn close to having single digit readers), I am here to once again lay down some wisdom on a world that really lacks it, but will also disregard it. Yet, I will still dish it out because it’s what us visionaries do. I will also stop slyly inferring how great I am. For now.

If I can help you at all this holiday season, let it be this. Stop buying bullshit gifts. Right now, the net is all awash in “top ten gifts” lists. The best tech. The best gadgets. The best deals. All noise, my friends, all noise. My gift to you is what not to gift to others. 

Spoiler alert; it sucks, whatever it is.

Fitness Trackers. OK, can we just stop this now? Besides the copious reports that these things don’t actually work, where’s all the owner’s evidence that they do work? Counting steps is bogus at best. Sure it’s all nice and cheery to think that something literally as basic as just meandering around all day will help you lose weight by just more meandering is bogus. Who has ever lost -and kept off- weight by merely just increasing their steps? I’ll tell you who; no-freaking-body. If it was really that easy, people would be walking more. Instead, they’re just driving more, and that’s while staring at their phones. These are the same numbskulls who thought Jared lost all that weight by just eating at Subway. Turns out it was all the whacking off to child porn. Fitbits, etc are just this generations version of the treadmill. Something bought during the holidays with the best of intentions, but ultimately just ends up being decorated over with clothes.

Unsolicited Books. We all have that one daft aunt who thinks she “really knows” us. She wants to show this off by buying us a book we never asked for. Books are huge investments of time, especially if they don’t have lots of pictures or things to color in. Just because we flew in a plane doesn’t mean we would be fascinated by a book about aviation history. Just because Hamilton is the trendy play these days everyone pretends to love, doesn’t mean there is any real interest in reading a droll history of the man. No one really knows me well enough to buy me a book. If you really do know me, you know not to buy me a book.

Anything from Kohls that comes in a box under $10. No, just no. That shit is all $1.99 the day after Xmas anyway.

Anything that is a monthly subscription. How come I just can’t buy anything anymore? How come everything has to be a subscription? Razor blades, toothbrushes, dive bar shirt clubs (Why? Why do I want shirts sight unseen from bars I will never go to? I have a theory this one is all a scam and the “bars” are just made up.) dog toys, dinner, music, jelly? Why can’t I just buy a damn razor or download without being tethered to receiving another thing in a regular interval? (Clue; it’s because you’re much more likely to just receive the shipment than ever actually cancel it from your card.)

Alarm clocks. Can someone please explain to my why alarm clocks are still around? With the prevalence of smart phones, they are just not needed anymore. Put any bell and whistle you want on them (white noise, projection-because what helps you beat insomnia quicker than staring at a giant, illuminated clock on the ceiling as you can’t fall asleep?) Phones have pretty much killed off other things like GPS, radios, genuine human interaction, cameras-why are alarm clocks still around?

These aren't my grandchildren.

Facebook Portal. OK, so let me make sure I understand this. The dominant social media company that does all kinds of sketchy things with our personal data has introduced their very own camera? That can follow us around? Yea, this sounds safe. There’s a reason my FB password is ZuckerburgSucks. It’s also the same reason this blog has been receiving so little traffic from FB, too. Bastard. 

Romaine Lettuce. Obvi.

Anything alive. Really, I mean it. We can start at the deforestation of the Earth for something so trivial as “Christmas trees.” But, really, anything from a plant, to a fish, to a puppy/kitten, horse, actual children (both domestic and shithole countries.) It’s too much.

Cars. November to Election Day; offensive and unrealistic political ads. Election Day to New Year’s Day; offensive and unrealistic car ads. Like, seriously, has anyone here ever received an actual new car for Xmas? Even a beater car? No, because those things only happen in commercials, not to us ham and eggers who live paycheck to paycheck and whittle away what precious little time they have left over on a blog no one reads. One day I aspire to be at a point in life where I have a wife and a job where I can surreptitiously squirrel away enough money from her to buy her a car. If I can do that one year, then hiding the mistress the next should be a piece of cake. #squadgoals

Not shown; the side of the house he had to knock down to get the car into the living room

Ancestry.com C’mon people. You know who works for Ancestry? A bunch of Nigerian princes we’ve already sent money to. So let me get this one straight. These are for people who have absolutely zero going on in life, they to at least have to feel they sprang from noble stock in the past. This same stock would shed tears if they saw what a mess we are. All you do is send them in a swab of your spit There are just so many jokes I have for this part, I literally can’t decide which to use-

Can’t they just get that from the envelope?

Emily Ratajkowski can send in some of mine.

BYOING BYOINGBYOING

What if mine has some chaw in it?

So..if you ask for my girlfriend’s spit…..

Back on point, you just send them a swab of your spit, and, quite magically, your entire lineage comes back! Presto! Totes legit. Well, I got all uppity about this and send an undercover -and sexy! agent to the Ancestry office, and she revealed the cutting edge technology they use

You are Turkish.....and......Ugandan......and...

So trot out Kelly Ripa all you want, Ancestry and their ilk are likely scams. Oh, and guess what they do? They also sell your data. Their biggest finding so far? People who send money to Ancestry.com are stone fucking stupid. Sorry, Susan, you’re not really Navajo, enough with all the dream catchers on your desk. Really, at this point, you might as well throw away your money at DNA testing your dog.

Your move, Ancestry.

Dog DNA tests. Oh, FFS, we’re doing this now, too? This is an even bigger scam. “Oh my god! Sparky actually descended from one of the dogs in Turner and Hooch!” No, no, no. Please stop wasting your money on this. Send it to me; I will set up some bullshit Patreon site. In fact, with the first few patrons, I will roll that money right into an experiment where I send Theory Pup 2.0 saliva to Ancestry and my saliva to a dog DNA site. Science!

Pink Salt Lights. For every piece of evidence you can find from some POS “mommy blog” that goes on and on about the benefits of (Himalayan) pink salt lamps, I can point you to 50 fact based articles that declare them to be-scientifically put-pure hooey. I’m sure if you also wasted your money on a DNA test, your results would come back as “gullible and prone to nonsense.”

Sexy Handmaiden’s Tale costume. I don’t even watch the show, and even I know there’s something wrong with this. What’s that? They already pulled it? Damn! Uh…I mean, good. Not like I was saving it for a special occasion or anything. 

"Kev, do you ALWAYS have to have pictures of half naked girls in your blog?"
Yes, yes, I do, because it takes me 3 days to find just the right one.

Ugly Sweaters. There was a time, not that far ago, when people had holiday parties where you had to wear an ugly sweater. The idea was that you  had to go out, and find an actual, ugly sweater. By the droves, people would go to thrift stores -or their parents’ closets- to find sweaters that were at one time sorta fashionable, but currently termed “ugly.” As this rage grew, it became profitable for companies to premake “ugly sweaters.” Nowadays, you’re just a few clicks away from any number of licensed ugly sweaters; movies, sports, cartoons. Now they light up and play music. This really all defeats the original intention. Personally, I blame all the hipsters for ruining this. I blame them for a lot, actually.

Am I missing anything?

You GD know the next post will be titled Gifts Most of The Morons Who Make Up the General Public Need.

On an unrelated note, be on the lookout for my Amazon Gift List!!!!!!!