Tag Archives: memes

Our Wedding Photo Memes

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Before putting the wedding photos to rest on this blog, I wanted to have a little fun. When Sidney and I sat down and looked through the images together, we noticed something on the lighter side. As we scrolled through the over 600 photos, we laughed and commented on how some of them would be perfect for memes! So, tonight, I bring our observation to reality. Here are five memes from the photography of Nicholas Gore Weddings.

This is Sidney walking down the aisle to her groom. No doubt the color of the dresses caught her eye…

Excuse me for being a little cocky, but I think I caught her eye as well.

Excuse me for being a little cocky, but I think I caught her eye as well.

After the group photos were taken at the reception, I shared a quick chat with my parents…

Don't worry, no cake was ever shoved in anyone's face. And let me save his reputation...my dad never suggested it.

Don’t worry, no cake was ever shoved in anyone’s face. And let me save his reputation…my dad never suggested it.

The bridal toast is always a time to be happy and to reflect…

This meme was actually written by Sid.

This meme was actually written by Sid.

The groom must have his moment of glory…

Telling myself not to screw it up the entire night before obviously paid off.

Telling myself not to screw it up the entire night before obviously paid off.

If only they knew…

This is a truthful meme. Sid handed off the bouquet to her sister.

This is a truthful meme. Sid handed off the bouquet to her sister.

Okay, I had to add one bonus meme in because this one of Sidney’s sisters is too good not to use.

We can only hope they get Sid's good looks!

We can only hope they get Sid’s good looks!

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Thanks for sharing a laugh with Sidney and I. Remember, it is always fun to turn your professional, beautiful photos into memes! Don’t Blink.

Three Social Media Trends That Drive Me Crazy

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As social media keeps evolving there will be certain practices that I love and that I hate. As long as this blog stays up and running, I will continue to write about them. Tonight I will focus on the latter, so as always I want to apologize for the negativity. I will make up for it in my next few posts.

In tonight’s edition of Don’t Blink I want to quickly highlight three somewhat trendy practices in social media that I am not so keen on. Each practice I am about to highlight comes from a different social service but each one I believe carries with it unoriginality and a degree of laziness. I love social media because of its ceiling for creativity so when I see an example of something on Instagram, Vine, or Facebook that I feel has very little uniqueness or thought from the user I get turned off.

Here is what I am currently burning on:

Throwback Thursday Pictures That Aren’t Really Throwbacks: I am still all about the Throwback Thursday idea. I love seeing people’s pictures from years ago when they were in diapers, blowing out the candles on a birthday cake, or dressing up for Halloween for the first time. I also enjoy seeing people’s photos from maybe not all the way back in childhood but maybe from a time 10 years ago when they were at a different stage in their life and had a noticeable different style or appearance.

I don’t enjoy seeing someone’s Throwback Thursday picture from their spring break Vegas vacation four months ago.

I have seen plenty of Instagram users butcher the idea of Throwback Thursday and use photos that are just a year or two old and in many cases even more recent than that. If you post a TBT picture, it is a good rule of thumb to not post any pictures that you originally took on the iPhone that you are using at the present moment. To give a more straight-forward rule, make sure the picture is at least 4-5 years old before branding it a #TBT.

If you don’t have a good Throwback Thursday picture I just advise not using one for that particular Thursday. Don’t force one just to say that you posted a Throwback Thursday photo. If you didn’t go through photo albums or search way back on Facebook to get your photo, chances are it does not qualify for TBT. I think sometimes people use Throwback Thursday as an excuse to just post a photo where they think they look especially good in or one that shows them doing something really cool that happened in the very recent past. This misses the point.

The Revine: I want to give a lot of credit to Vine. With the introduction of Instagram Video, Vine has managed to stay relevant. It has kept its original fan base and continues to attract new users. The service has done all they can to maintain its status as a top app by introducing upgrades and new features. I applaud them for this but one of their new rollouts drives me crazy: The Revine.

Going along with the same concept as a retweet on Twitter, Vine users can now take a video that they like and “revine” it for all of their followers to see.

One day I was on Vine and it was completely normal as I viewed the content of the roughly 40 people I follow. The next day I looked at my feed and I was overwhelmed with weird people who I would never in my wildest dreams follow. Many of my followers had started to re-vine like complete randos and I no longer recognized my feed. I had no interest in the funny looking people doing bizarre things on my iPhone screen. It was actually a little scary.

I liked Vine because I got to see my friends showcase their lives and experiences in cool six second videos. I liked the connection that I felt. The introduction of revining has smashed that connection and brought in a lot of garbage that I have absolutely no interest in.

I propose that Vine just puts some limits on revining. I could live with it if the service limited users to one revine every 24 hours. While I would still get a little annoyed at stupid videos that I have no desire watching, it would prevent the people I follow from revining 10 random Vines in two minutes and totally taking over my feed.

The Facebook Share, Share, Share Technique: Now I can see sharing a quote or funny joke once in a while on Facebook but I become a little dumbfounded by the people who use their profile simply to post memes, shared photos, cartoons, sayings, and whatever crap they can steal that already has 1,529,045 shares one after the other on their wall. I am including this in my post because I seem to see it more and more often.

Don’t you get it? Your Facebook profile is there to market YOU. In that space you can let your personal brand come to life, you can showcase your individuality. Not only is seeing a junkyard of quotes and “first world problems” memes an eyesore, it shows that you have little to offer. I would honestly rather read long status rants and view low quality selfies on someone’s Facebook profile as opposed to recycled internet trash just because the former is an extension of the person, something of their creation. I am Facebook friends with you because I am interested, give me something to feed that interest.

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If you do use these practices on social media I don’t hate you. Chances are, I still follow you. I just think originality should always be strived for and social media is a great way to channel your creative juices. Show me what you got! Don’t Blink.

Condescending Wonka: Wisdom to Live By

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Over the past six months or so, the Willy Wonka memes have taken over Facebook and the internet. I am sure you have all seen what I am talking about…there is a picture of Willy Wonka (from the old movie in 1971, not Johnny Depp) leaning his head on his hand decked out in his candy man costume with a creepy smile that would scare any parent with young kids. In the picture there is text at the top that says something that usually starts with “Oh, so you…….” and then at the bottom there is a sarcastic punch line. The jokes are a play on the real personality of Willy Wonka in the actual movie but usually make fun of present social norms. Many of them are really funny.

Unfortunately for me, I hate seeing these things pop up on Facebook because Willy Wonka (the one from the 70’s) just makes me a little queasy. I think the whole movie is really weird and let’s face it, seeing some creepy guy in an over-the-top purple suit is not what I want to see on my Facebook news feed…please give me more of my hot lady friends in their bikinis.
So to keep the humor but to resist the urge to click on the hideous image of Wonka, this past weekend I started following Condescending Wonka (@OhWonka) on Twitter. It is already one of my favorite accounts to follow. In fact, I retweeted three of the Condescending Wonka’s brilliant pieces of sarcastic wisdom over the weekend. For tonight’s blog post I would like to share with you the three tweets that I retweeted and offer some quick commentary on them. Oh Wonka, you crack me up!:
1. “Oh, you replied to my text with the letter “K”…you must like talking about Potassium.”
Nothing is more annoying or standoffish than the “K” text.  Lazy, disrespectful, and unoriginal are great ways to describe it. Yes, I have used it before. I rarely pull the “K” card but when I do it is usually because I am frustrated and I want to say the least possible because if I let loose I might text something that I regret. But some people use it way too much and will then even get angry at others when they use it. I “K’d” a person the other day and that person responded with “don’t  ever ‘k’ me.” I reminded the person that she had used it on me first. Not believing me,  I was able to just go back in our chat conversation (thank goodness for iphones!) and screen capture a couple days earlier when this person used “k” and sent it right back…sweet redemption!

But honestly, using “K” in texts is bush league. Have the respect for the other person to at least give them an “okay.” At the bare minimum, double up and give your text recipient a “kk.” If you do decide to do the unthinkable, at least have the decency to give the person a capital K with a period at the end (i.e. “K.”). Using “k” is just a slap in the face.

2. “Let’s have a round of applause for the heroes that save all the cancer-ridden children by liking and sharing those Facebook statuses.”
This one speaks so much truth. If there is one thing that pushes me away from Facebook more than anything else, it is the copied status updates addressing some disease or natural disaster. In my opinion, the people who share and like these updates are doing more to spurn the problem than solve it. These clueless people probably think that instead of actually getting away from their computer and donating money to cancer research/relief efforts or actually going out in the community and visiting sick people, they are doing their part by clicking the“like” button or copying and pasting something as their status. Asinine.
First off, all of those statuses that say something along the lines of “post this as your status and $5 will be donated to cancer research” are complete scams. Secondly, how self-serving and arrogant is it to do something like that? Let’s be honest here, many people do it to portray themselves in a positive light. It is like the people who decide to give something up for lent and then broadcast it all over social media or decide to tell all their friends. Do things for the right reasons, not for praise from others.
3. “Oh, you’re jamming to the latest popular song on your iPod? Please, join the countless others in tweeting the same lyrics.”
This one made me laugh the most because I am so guilty of it! Thanks Condescending Wonka for putting me in my place. Sometimes it is just so hard not to tweet lyrics though! I will be driving in my car to work in the morning and a great country song will come on and motivate me for the day ahead and I just can’t resist but to share it with my followers (follow me @BrentR7). When you have over 11,400 tweets you have to have something to fill the content, right?

It is cliché and unoriginal so perhaps I should try to cut back a little bit. What I think Wonka should have done though is call out the people who tweet lyrics and butcher them. Nothing is more annoying than incorrectly tweeting lyrics, in fact, it should result in the loss of Twitter privileges.

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Thank you Condescending Wonka for bringing a little bit of humor and sarcasm into my life. Don’t get too comfortable around me though, I can tolerate reading your tweets but please save me the eye sore and get the hell off of my news feed. Don’t Blink.