It can be low effort, passive-aggressive, insulting or derogatory towards your convictions.
Wooden plaque that had the words “I swear it was clean yesterday.” From my dad.
I’m not one for impractical clutter. And my dad could be very judgemental. Why I would want an ugly handmade plaque that would imply I was messy, lazy, and dishonest about it?
When I was younger and foolish, I agreed to help my boss feel a staffing void for a month and a half, which involved at least 20 hours of extra work. I was on salary, so of course it was unpaid overtime. My boss gave me a bonus of $50. That alone is kind of messed up, but my boss should have given me a raise, because it was the end of the year and that’s when raises ought to be given, and instead of giving me a raise they gave me that $50 bonus.
I took the money, but I immediately lost all respect for my boss and stopped caring about that job. It was a good lesson, though. Don’t work unpaid overtime, and expect your boss to shaft you, because they can take home the money that ought to be going into your wallet, if you let them.
I think the “worst” thing I ever got was a VR headset. It wasn’t a bad present per say and I really liked it at the time but unfortunately the VR space died pretty fast and it was completely useless soon after I got it.
Edit: it was a headset where you put your phone inside, I should have said that first
Arkham Shadow just came out on VR and people are saying it rivals other games like HL: Alyx in terms of scope and quality.
I’m watching a playthrough right now and it’s blowing my mind how awesome it looks to actually be Batman
That’s great. The headset I was talking about was one where you put your phone inside. I should have said that first :(
Edit: it was a headset where you put your phone inside
Aw man those things were so cool! My dad actually got one of those for me as a gift when I was way younger, I forget for which occasion. Didn’t use it much tho cause later my grandma found out about it and stole it, throwing it away in the garbage. She doesn’t hate me or anything, she was just scared I’d get brain cancer and since nobody in the family ever believes her because of that crap she reads on facebook, that was her way of protecting me. Oh well.
Oh man, that sucks. I’m sorry. Anyway, the industry abandoned them pretty fast so…
Still had cool experiences. I think now a days you can use apps to turn your phone into a makeshift oculus quest and stream to your PC using Steam VR, so somewhat useful I think
The thing is that it doesn’t even have controls or something, you just choose the content and put it in.
A few years ago I went to visit my mom around Christmas, I picked her up and we were heading over to my grandmas. On the way, while my 1 year old is screaming in the back seat, she asked if she could run into a store on the way.
When we got to my grandmas she gave me the bag that she had just bought, store logo on it and everything, no hiding a thing, that contained 1 roll of camouflage themed duct tape, and a pack of trash bags.
I had told her earlier in the year that I was using trash bags and duct tape to block the windows in my garage while I was doing some renovations in there, and so she got me trash bags and duct tape, almost a year later…
I still appreciate that she got me anything at all and there was at least a thought behind it even if I don’t understand that thought.
At the call center I worked at, our Christmas bonus was a dress shirt with the company logo on it.
My wife wears it when she dyes her hair.
No jelly of the month?
Too expensive.
Truly a horrible place to work at it.
My grandmother bought me a dark green, polyester, turtle-neck shirt; when I was 12. I never even tried it on.
Sounds really fucked up of me, but I once had a girlfriend gift me a painting she made for me. I could tell she really tried, took her time, spent money on it, and she chose a subject matter I really liked, but it was absolutely terrible. One of the worst paintings I’ve ever seen.
It put me in such a dilemma because she even framed it and was expecting me to hang it up at my place but I couldn’t bear to hang it and see it ‘decorating’ my place. I thanked her a lot when she gave it to me but I would’ve preferred she had gotten me nothing instead.
I was given 30 quarters that had letters and numbers on each one in a black velvet pouch. If you put them in a certain order, it had a message. The quarters went in year order. The message was a Bible passage according to Matthew. It was when Judas was given 30 silver for betraying Jesus.
The context, I told one of our friends that the gifter was trying to get with his wife while he was deployed. He denied and then made me feel like shit to insinuate such a thing. Turns out, it was true.
I still have the quarters so I could give them back some day.
Wasn’t Judas the one who did the denying? So by referencing this isn’t the gifter calling himself Judas and not you?
No, it was Peter who denied Jesus three times. Judas gave Jesus up to the Roman government by kissing him to show them who Jesus was.
Not a Christian, but it was Peter who denied Christ, and Judas betrayed him to the authorities. So in a way, OP is kind of like Judas, if Jesus was a dudebro who liked sleeping with deployed soldiers’ wives and felt crucified if you told on him.
I’ll take being Judas over a dudebro any day!
Definitely
My mother got me Rogaine for my birthday last year. Pretty rude and uncalled for I felt but now I’ve stopped cutting it and have the longest hair I’ve ever had so I guess she hit a nerve with that one
I once got a picture of a really cool present from my dad, which he said was in the mail. Never got the present.
Maybe it got “porch pirated”. I thought I was immune from that until my things started disappearing.
People keep giving me steak house gift cards.
I’m a vegetarian. I can only eat a roll there.
I used to receive a lot of Starbucks gift cards and can only drink so much coffee, so I would sell the codes using an online gift card trade site. I forget which specific one I used, but there are several sites when you search up “sell gift cards.” I used to get like $0.70 per dollar or so, which isn’t terrible when you’re a broke college kid. Can’t pay rent in gift cards lol
I’m vegan, and my agency gave me a gift card to Zaxby’s, and it wasn’t even loaded
Perhaps that’s why, to annoy you.
Sounds like a dick move, too
Are you full vegan or just vegetarian?
If it’s for Ouback Steakhouse, you could always have a Bloomin Onion if you’re okay with eggs and milk.
But otherwise, yeah, not much else on the menu for ya.
Don’t forget salad. Outback is largely one of the worst if you’re vegetarian unfortunately. Most steakhouses at least have a few vegetable sides and can make a meal out of them.
Vegetarian but I may as well be vegan since my stomach can’t handle eggs or much dairy.
I’m vegan and the number of people who can’t figure out “no animal products” is astounding. I’m so tired of “no eggs? No dairy?” like yes bitch, I don’t fuck with animals.
People act like it’s rocket science.
What? Fish is an animal?? /s
Not according to catholics
How could I forget? It always blows people’s minds that I don’t eat fish, but before I was vegan I never liked fish anyway but no one had a problem with it then.
To be fair, the person you’re responded to said “vegetarian” not “vegan.” But yes, otherwise, it isn’t rocket science. My vegan boys are big fans of seitan.
Hail seitan!
Right. I guess people mix up the two a lot so for me it’s just easier to say “no animal products” plainly.
Either way, a Steak House is probably not a place they’re interested in.
Maybe they have impossible steak!
Which is actually amazing for tacos and as an added bonus is you don’t get those nasty grizzly parts
People act like it’s rocket science.
There’s always going to be a question as to where you draw the line. For example, is it okay to eat figs, even though they’re pollinated by wasps that end up in them? Is it okay to eat plants grown using animal products as fertilizer? Is it okay to eat cultured meat that is many generations removed from a living animal, such that none of the material present now was part of the living animal? How about things in the animal kingdom, but outside the chordates? The ones you’d need a microscope to see? Is honey okay to eat?
There’s also the issue that other people that call themselves vegan will disagree with you on what all counts.
It’s usually not that complex. If someone has a plate of chilaquiles with egg on it and I say I’m vegan I don’t think it’s hard to discern that I’m probably not going to eat it.
Egg is obvious if you know what the difference is between vegetarian and vegan in the first place, but I don’t think you can expect most people to be able to cook vegan food, even if they’re trying, and know the basic definition. I know enough non-obvious uses of animal products(like shellac on fruit), that I’d have no confidence in being able to avoid them all unless I grew everything myself.
Life.
My aunt only ever knew one thing about me, that I grew up liking Harry Potter. First I got all the books, split across two years. Then I got all the movies as they came out, up to the 5th one. After that I was apparently too old for her to know what I liked, I got a gift card to a gas station for 3 years in a row. I mean hey $20 in gas wasn’t a totally awful thing as a late teenager, so I guess it could have been worse.
My birthday is the 27th of December.
On any given year odds are that my birthday sucked. Growing up it was during holiday break so no bringing cupcakes to school. 2 days after Christmas, care to guess how many kids want to attend a birthday party? Birthday presents were almost always an afterthought combined with Christmas.
I am a huge Star Wars fan so when Carrie Fisher passed away on December 27th, 2016, that was an especially shitty birthday.
There have been uears when my parents have forgotten my birthday entirely.All that aside, my wife threw me my first and only surprise birthday party for my 40th. It was Star Wars themed including food she made from the Galaxy’s Edge cookbook she had given me for Christmas. That year I got a Kenner power (Gonk) droid still in the original packaging (with Venture price sticker still on it), which my mom had somehow saved since I was a kid. She also gave me all of my old Star Wars action figures she had been saving for me, unknown to me. And I also received an original Rancor and the box it came in from a friend. That one almost made up for all the others before and since. I’ve learned the best way to have a good birthday is to set the lowest of expectations.
Christmas babies unite! Yeah, Ive never really had a good one. Spending this one alone, too. Whatever I guess…
Your wife sounds lovely though, and happy early bday!
Cheers and a happy early birthday to you as well!
Or…is it a late happy birthday?
Ugh, I can never remember with your birthday being so close to Christmas, y’know? It just slips my mind every year.
I felt this in my soul…
My BIL’s bday is on Christmas. We call him “Little baby Jesus”.
If they’re older than 33 you can call him Old Jesus, too!
Too small clothes so I’d be excited to go on a diet and lose weight… as an already very sick underweight teen with an eating disorder who wasn’t a wize zero “but you’ll get there”
Paulo Cohelo’s garbage books to “help me with my constant depression that keeps bringing everyone down and you like books, no?”
Stuffed animal toy thay was first intended for a baby shower but the mom didn’t want it so “why should it go to waste if you can have it as a birthday present”
Plastic surgery offering as a sweet sixteen present “so you can feel beautiful”
Professional acne treatment (Accutane) as a birthday present because “Oh you poor thing need it”
A used and stained old yellow blouse “because it will make you look happier” I hate yellow.
And the list goes on lol. That was growing up and it is one of the many reasons why I am no contact with all of those people.
Now as an independent adult in a stable loving relaionship surrounded by nice genuine friends, I actually get very thoughtful and beautiful gifts. Some expensive, some with no monetary cost.
Interesting glimpses into a fucked up childhood via presents. Good for you that these times are over.
Thanks for the empathy and good wishes. I am in a better place now.
