Welcome to your first lesson in Sifner vocabulary.
I know, you thought you were only going to learn about survival games and cats on this website. Guess again!
Over time I’ve developed a bunch of slang, curses, and shorthand that ends up peppering my speech- both written and spoken! To avoid confusing folks – and because I hate repeating myself- I’m going to post these little Sifner vocab/sayings lessons so we’re all on the same page.
Lesson 1: Fridge Praise
Let’s talk about Fridge Praise.
Fridge Praise is the phrase for the mental image I get whenever someone praises something I’ve done – especially any type of creative thing, like writing or photography.
My mental image at that moment in time, that praise moment, is of that kinda…sitcom Mom staring down at the kid who has done just the ABSOLUTE worst of stick cat figures. And being ESPECIALLY EFFUSIVE – praises the fuck out of the stick cat (gold stars all around!) and deems it worthy of being clipped to the fridge.
Is there anything wrong with this belief/concept/idea? Probably! I’m sure I could get a good handful of therapy sessions out of this sucker.
Would I prefer that people don’t praise or comment on things I’ve done? Like most people with a pulse, I do like hearing I’ve done a good thing/nice job. So yanno, keep doing that.
Do I know where this all came from? Yes & no. I can’t point to anything dramatically and have that Lifetime moment of AND THAT WAS THE SECOND I KNEW blah blah blah. I do think part of me is just not into things being made into a huge deal ( no parades, no fancy weddings, no pageantry if you please sir!) and when folks go to THAT DEGREE: That “Oh my god this is the BEST X” “OMG that Y is SO.AMAZING.”
I dunno.
I guess that the over the top praise just strikes me as being fake? Even though it’s (probably) more of a deep dive into how loosely people treat language and expressions these days (I’m not smart enough to expand this, just thinking more of folks who always LOVE or HATE something- never an in between) and so folks just immediately go to the wall. “Oh that game is THE BEST” blah blah blah.
Anyway. So if I really do make the best stick cat figure you’ve ever seen and you book the parade & fireworks and I still don’t believe you. Just know that it isn’t personal.
And if you made it to the bottom of this post, gold star- you’re amazing!
(See what I mean?)
Subnautica