Tag: Grumpy Cat

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Meaningful or meaningless?

I keep thinking about the Grumpy Cat phenomenon.

I sort of get it why and how this kitty became popular. I’m sure many people were charmed by her sweet yet disgruntled expression and found the snarky quotations of the memes entertaining as well. I couldn’t help laughing at them, myself!

And I think it’s great that the cat’s owner saw what was happening and seized the opportunity to create a fun and lucrative business out of her cat’s popularity.

But, I mean…! Even if you’re already in attendance at SXSW, why would you spend three hours in line waiting to have your picture taken with…a cat?!?

Now, it’s not like I think we should only do “meaningful” (i.e. “serious”) things. Heck, I like to laugh; I love musical comedies; and I probably spend more time than I should reading light and entertaining novels. But there’s no way I’m going to put out significant time, energy, and/or money to go somewhere in order to do something that’s essentially meaningless.

I find myself yet again giving fervent thanks for a life that’s filled to overflowing with beauty, with love, and with meaningful work and relationships…right where I am, every single day.

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From grumpy to fascinated

I was feeling rather out of sorts, and started looking for a photo that matched my mood.

I searched on the words “irritated”, “angry”, and “bad mood”, but nothing was quite right. Then I noticed the above pic and realized that “grumpy” exactly described how I was feeling.

However, I would have liked a better pic, so I decided to search for more images of “Grumpy Kitty” and discovered “Grumpy Cat” — a real live (well, now she’s deceased) cat who became an internet sensation because of her grumpy expression.

I became rather fascinated as I read (on Wikipedia) about this cat, who as of August 23, 2020, had 8.3 million total likes on Facebook, 2.6 million followers on Instagram 1.5 million followers on Twitter and 283,000 subscribers on YouTube.

I mean, really?!? Yes, really!!!

Check out this paragraph (also from Wikipedia): CNN, CBS News, and CNET called Grumpy Cat the undisputed “biggest star” of SXSW Interactive [in 2013] over Elon Musk, Al Gore, and Neil Gaiman. Over 600 fans waited for hours in the line, which was nearly three blocks long, to take a photo. Among the crowds were Internet entrepreneur Dennis Crowley, singer Andrew W.K., and actor Ian Somerhalder. Somerhalder took photos with Grumpy Cat and called her his “new love”, and described her as “very peaced out”, “sweet as pumpkin pie”, and “kind of amazing”.

The good news? As I reflected on the crazy, crazy world in which we live, I realized I was no longer grumpy. Yay!

Now I’ll leave you with a few of the memes that made Grumpy Cat famous.😂