Datasets:

nreimers

/

reddit_question_best_answers

like 12

[ { "body": "I can relate although I would say I'm very attractive not *extremely* attractive. I tend to make friends due to my three social hobbies drinking, rock climbing, and music so most of the people I'm friends with and spend time with are people's whose internet prowess doesn't extend past facebook apps. I imagine a lot of people are in the same boat as us.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "first, foremost, and most important: Exercise.\npreferably, run... until you cant feel pain anymore. it works the best, its good for you, it will get you high, and it will help with the depression. \n\n\ndonate / destroy things around you remind you of her: throw away old pictures, or at least store them in some obscure location, like your parents house.\n\n\nrearrange your apartment. Its kinda like moving, but its free.\n\n\nkeep up good hygiene. shower, brush and floss EVERY DAY.\n\n\ntake up a new hobby: guitar, cooking, jujitsu, chess, anything really. The bigger the time-sink it is, the better. \n\n\nspend time in public places: the library is a good one, as its pretty quite and you can read up on your new hobby\n\n\nand just as (if not more) importantly:\nDO NOT contact her in any way: no phone calls, face book posts, or emails. Do this for about 5 months...\npreferably, wait until you get some indication that she wants to talk to you again.\n\n\nDO NOT get drunk. it will make you more depressed and do stupid shit.\n\n\nAnd lastly, start doing these (and the other suggestions) right now.\nLiterally, open up a new tab, grab your phone, and start looking for places to go and people to see.\n\n\ngood luck dude", "score": 11 }, { "body": "Hey man sorry to hear. Just give it some more time to heal up. If you think she's okay with it, just give her a call and ask why, so you can get closure. After all, you've been together for so long, I wouldn't think she would refuse to give you an answer. Lastly, just hang out with your friends and find new connections!", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "If you're short on time, consider an extended-stay hotel. We stayed at one in Albuquerque that was going for around $600/month (prices are low at a lot of hotels, right now, because people aren't travelling.) I can't speak for the areas of SF, because I haven't stopped there long enough (yet) but I know there are [some](http://homewoodsuites1.hilton.com/en_US/hw/hotel/SFEHWHW-Homewood-Suites-by-Hilton-Santa-Fe-North-New-Mexico/index.do).\n\nYour budget can be higher on an extended-stay, because you don't pay for the power/water/cable, and there's maid-service built-in.\n\nTypically, in an extended-stay, a week will cost you about 4-days, and a month will cost you about three weeks. Some will give better breaks for multiple months. They tend to be in industrial areas or near airports; but they also tend to be monitored by camera, etc, etc.\n\nIf nothing else, you can always get into one for a month or so, and keep looking for sublets. That's our typical MO. Hit town, grab a longstay, scout where we want to be.\n\nAnd let us know how things go.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "* Actually have interesting stuff going on in your life, don't fake it. \n\n* I do get the concept of not seeming too eager, desperate, or available, but... \n\n* ...if you go overboard with this you can shoot yourself in the foot by coming across as plain uninterested in the person, causing them to give up on you and move on.\n\n* Not everyone likes the whole chase/challenge/conquest/hard to get thing either. ", "score": 59 }, { "body": "I find when people don't respond to me or play games I just get irritated and start to lose interest. As a consequence I naturally begin to contact them less and give them less leeway for stuff like this... which might be exactly what you're suggesting.", "score": 14 }, { "body": "I think you can pretty much sum up the jist of what your getting at with one statement: \"Don't be a doormat\".\r\n\r\nDon't \"play games\" but as a healthy normal adult, you should have your own interests and activities. Do your thing, and don't stop your life because someone new comes into it.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "If someone doesn't seem interested in me, or seems too busy for me, I lose interest in them really fast.\n\nEdit: grammar.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "My method in my best relationship was to ask her to move in with me a week after we met and then spend most of every day together for the next three blissful years.\n\nBut I'm sure your pretending-to-be-popular method has value, too.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "There are parts of the world that contain millions of species of plants and animals that have never been documented, let alone cultivated for human consumption. Irian Jaya in Indonesia and the Amazon basin may contain the world's next potato.\n\nThere are also a lot of things we *could* eat that we don't for cultural reasons. Ants and other insects are very nutritious and plentiful, yet no one but starving refugees eat them. ", "score": 11 }, { "body": "I'd add Lamb's Quarters to this list for a starting point of things that are edible (as in delicious and very nutritious) but unutilized: http://www.wisebread.com/free-food-in-your-yard-edible-weeds\n\nI have a book on edible wild plants, and I've always found it amazing how much stuff you can dig up and eat even in the eastern United States. \n\n", "score": 6 }, { "body": "Some foods we don't eat anymore, sumpweed which is related to ragweed, because there are better alternatives. \nOthers you couldn't make a profit raising or to dangerous. elephant and grizzly bear. \n\nI am sure in a few years they will bioengineering some meat products. \n", "score": 5 }, { "body": "When it comes to fruits and vegetables, we mostly eat was is easy to grow, transport and store because those are the varieties that are produced by commercial growers. In the US, we have gone from around 1800 fruits and vegetables grown and eaten in the 1750's-1800's down to about 100 varieties that are grown now by commercial growers. Commercial varieties that are grown now have been selected for disease resistance and transportability rather than nutritional content or exceptional taste--which explains those red softballs being sold as \"tomatoes\" in the stores.\n\nWe have just begun to explore nutritional yeasts, algae and fungi--those will play a big part in our food in the future.\n\nIn Haiti, the locals eat \"cookies\" made of clay and lard--I expect this to be the next big food fad in the US at anytime. Call it Dr Obeyjon's All Natural Colon Cleanser and Mineral Booster.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Euell Gibbons wrote a whole book about all the edible plants we don't eat. It's called [Stalking The Wild Asparagus](http://www.amazon.com/Stalking-Wild-Asparagus-Euell-Gibbons/dp/0911469036). Apparently we have domesticated a relatively small number of all the possible plant food sources in our biosphere. Of course, having domesticated them we have selected them over thousands of generations for size, taste, and production. So wild edible plants are usually sized for birds or squirrels or something. But there are a lot of them we don't use.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "According to [Jared Diamond](http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=hobrrobe-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&asins=0393317552) ancient humans likely tried every plant available. What we've kept eating is pretty much everything that was nutritious and practical to grow/gather and eat (i.e. worth the trouble as far as labor vs. yields.) Similarly, we domesticated all the animals that had the characteristics that make for practical farm animals (large, non-skittish, group-living, socially-hierarchical herbivores.)", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I'm quite sure that we have tried everything possible, but do we eat them regularly? Probably not. \n\n\nJared Diamond expounds upon this in \"Guns, Germs and Steel\" -- on the rise of agriculture. It seems that 'primitive' (read: ancestor-like) peoples have an encyclopedic knowledge of the flora/fauna of the area, and I would say that they probably have a diet approaching all available (in their area). \n\n\nCulturally we are barred from eating certain foods (pig, fish [Greenland Norse didn't take advantage of the abundant fish], etc.). Also, affluence influences certain taste preferences. We don't usually think of rats as food, but they are a good source of protein. So, we aren't even close to utilizing the full scope of flora/fauna available to modern societies.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I think we eat less than we used to. Who wants to wash Poke greens 5 times to make it less poisonous before eating it.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Do the original starting strength as opposed to Bill Starr's 5x5 that you can find here:\n\nhttp://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/The_Starting_Strength_Novice/Beginner_Programs\n\nAs a total novice you will probably give up when you forget a day or start getting in the mindset of \"I don't know what I'm supposed to be lifting today!\" \nIf you want my advice keeping it simple should be priority numero uno. Don't worry about percentages and which day is heavy and oh well i missed a medium day should this one still be heavy or should i readjust etc. Until you've gotten to a point where you are having trouble adding 5 lb to you squat each week, bare bones starting strength is as easy as it gets. Feel free to add some accessory chinups/ab/arm stuff to this(i dont because i'm a lazy weakling).\n\nIf your gym doesn't have bumper plates or a platform, you'll probably want to swap rows in for power cleans. \n\nI don't really do cardio, I'll leave it to someone else to tell you whether or not that is a fuckload of HIIT. But to me thats a fuckload of HIIT. \n\nProtip: If you find yourself wanting to quit/crying because its too much workkkk, lose the cardio before you lose the lifting.\n\nPStip: Gains and losses are made in the kitchen. Learn how to eat properly (if you're really fat even learning, and then instituting a eat well every other day policy can be a good way to ease yourself in to these fine waters)\n\nI hope you stick with it, good luck. Here's how to do everything straight from the Fittit God's mouth:\nhttp://www.youtube.com/user/timdonahey\n", "score": 5 }, { "body": "You're going to burn yourself out with that - especially combining all that HIIT with heavy lifting. Rest is important too.\r\n\r\nAlso, I upmodded you just because you didn't say \"regiment\".", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "intelligence develops within species that live together as groups, through co-operative hunting strategies, and using deception to acquire resources from others. the animals you named are solitary hunters, leaving little opportunity to gain intelligence through evolution.\n\nmore likely dolphins, wolves, or some other pack animals will gain intelligence. but b/c of pollution and habitat reduction, that is also unlikely. ", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "I make my own varenyky. I usually do \r\n\r\n* plain farmer's cheese\r\n\r\n* sweetened farmer's cheese\r\n\r\n* potato and cheese (with salo or without)\r\n\r\n* cabbage n' onions\r\n\r\n* stewed blueberries\r\n\r\n* sour cherries", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "One time I tripped an eight(3.5 grams) of mushrooms and read a few things about philosophy. I came to a guy named [Berkeley](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Berkeley) and after reading his arguments I began to doubt reality. I started thinking I was nothing more than a thought. I started thinking that everything I've ever known was just some little fantasy in some person's head. I was freaking out. I felt horrible. It's one thing to think that nothing matters, but to think that nothing exists while tripping an eight? That was terrible. \n\nAssuming that reality was just an illusion and I didn't really exist what was the harm in just enjoying life? What was the harm in believing in only empirical things? If I am just a thought then what right do I have to go lament at my own state, at my own being, at my own immateriality? I came to accept that if everything was a thought the only thing I could do would be to live life unrestricted.\n\nA lot of this concept of soul, or of a world separate from the material world that we perceive comes from [Plato's \"world of ideals\"](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato). This is almost entirely based in [rationalism](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationalism), which despite it's name isn't all that rational. Rationalist believe that human logic and rational is more reliable than our sensory perceptions. Our reality is our perception, our universe is our reality. I don't doubt reality's existence, I do doubt that what I see is what everyone else sees.\n\n[4]", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "ok, so I'm not a doc, but I work in an ICU. So we have this patient sick as shit. sepsis, pneumonia, going into renal failure, bla bla bla... So Dr D (as I'll call her) is giving the family the pep talk in the hall as I overhear it. \n\n * Dr D: so grandma (or whatever) is really really sick and she is going to need to stay on the breathing machine for a few days, and will probably need dialysis for a few days, but we have been able to wean her pressors down a little and her labs are showing signs of improvement.\n * the family: Oh thank god, the prayers are working. \n * Dr D: Well, the antibiotics are working too. \n\n", "score": 25 }, { "body": "Patient: May God help us through this surgery\n\nMe: I don't believe in God\n\nPatient: WAT?\n\nMe: I'm an atheist.\n\nPatient: WAT DA PHUCK. GET ME OUT OF HERE - I WANT A NEW DOCTOR NOW.\n\nMe: Enjoy the sleeping gas - AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!\n\nPatient: Noooooooooo-zZzzz zzZzzzzzzzzzzz\n\n\n\n\nP.S. I'm actually just a CS undergrad.", "score": 23 }, { "body": "I would only deal with their medical needs. That's why you went to school. That's your specialty. If they want a priest, tell them to go see one.", "score": 16 }, { "body": "Speak of the devil! I read an article on just this over break at home. [Here's the link.](http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-tc-nw-health-prayer-1221-122dec22,0,5012984.story) Good luck!", "score": 4 }, { "body": "\"Do you want a doctor who ignores you while you get better? Or a doctor who holds your hand while you die?\"\n\n-Dr. Gregory House. ", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Many hardcore anime fans get fansubbed anime online, either by download or through sites where you can stream it. By this point, most of the anime I list below has already been released internationally, so purchasing them legally is another option. I don't want to bring up the whole subbing vs dubbing debate, but my personal opinion is that anime is best when watched with the original Japanese voices. There are some who would disagree with me, but I highly recommend watching anime in Japanese, with subtitles if necessary.\n\nAnyway, here are some of the best series and movies I can think of off the top of my head (in no particular order):\n\n**Series**:\n\n* Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann\n* Code Geass\n* Death Note\n* Neon Genesis Evangelion\n* FLCL\n* Macross Frontier\n* Cowboy Bebop\n* Trigun\n* Samurai Champloo\n* Full Metal Alchemist (I recommend the newer one, though both are great)\n* The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya\n* Now and Then, Here and There\n* Welcome to the NHK!\n\n**Movies**:\n\n* Sword of the Stranger\n* Summer Wars\n\n", "score": 8 }, { "body": "Dubbed shows are a good place to start. There are a number of shows that are better in English. These come to mind:\n\nCowboy Bebop (It paved the way for Firefly)\n\nEl Hazard: The Magnificent World (For you to try comedy)\n\nFooly Cooly aka FLCL (Welcome to the land of metaphors)\n\nGurren Lagann (An intro to giant robots for anyone)\n\nNoir (Action anime at its best)\n\nTo try subs:\n\nMononoke (The show not the movie)\n\nSpice and Wolf (A love story like your Miyazaki)", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Be fore warned, once you go down this path, there is no turning back. It changes you in profound ways, suddenly you are hanging out with different crowds, eating different foods, wearing different clothes and listening to different music. Things you used to care nothing about are suddenly the centre of your universe while things you used to enjoy are in the closet never to be spoken of again. For your sake and your families, do not go down this path unless you understand the consequences.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Akira is kind of a huge paradigm shift from the Miyazaki films you listed. You might want to check out Ghost in the Shell (everything in the franchise). It's cyberpunk, much like Akira.", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "Muslims keep a water jug in the bathroom, and wash their ass after wiping. Kinda fiddly, but eminently sensible. ", "score": 4 }, { "body": "tl;dr: TP. two passes, 5 sheets on first pass and 3 sheets on second.\n\nAn interesting question! As someone who spends a considerable amount of time on the shitter (an hour a day), I have a bit of personal experience on this very subject. You should attack this problem on multiple fronts.\n\n* First, as another poster said, increase your fiber intake. Bananas will usually bulk up your bowel movements -- add more mass -- and ensure the poop comes out as clean as possible. It can happen. I have moved my bowels a few times and had to use ZERO toilet paper. Plus, a clean turd just feels good. It sorta slips out of your anus like a brown snake. No fuss. No soiled buttocks. Just a long, brown, bulky turd. Bonus points if you can loop it in the toilet. \n\n* Next, and this is essential, you have to wipe at least once while sitting on the shitter. A back to front movement is essential. The alternative, a front to back, only serves to push the poop into the upper recesses of your buttocks -- and require more TP to clean. The first wipe is the most important and serves to remove the most external doodie.\n\n* Do NOT stand up and take the first wipe. When you stand up, you make a shitty mess into a shittier mess. As you stand, your buttocks come together and press the external shit up and down your buttcrack. The end result is more shit to clean.\n\n* However, after the first wipe, it is permissible to crouch or stand for the second wipe. The second wipe should be a front to back motion -- from your testicles to the top of your buttocks. Generally, you want dive in, grab the remaining external doodie, and pull it out as quick as possible. The goal here is to capture the remaining doodie in a quick, almost scooping, movement \n\nGenerally, the first wipe is 5 sheets and the second is three. Your mileage will vary depending on your size and ass mass. The more mass in your ass, the more TP needed.\n\nOf course, to avoid all of this, you could move to a European country and use a bidet. Despite its French name, it is quite possibly the best doodie removal in the world.\n\nIn closing, good luck. Make sure you bring good reading material. It can also serve as emergency TP in that terrible event that you run out of TP.\n", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "Sounds like you need something like this: http://lifehacker.com/5355582/history-tree-displays-your-browser-history-as-a-color+coded-tree\n\nOr like this: http://lifehacker.com/5424135/voyage-turns-your-firefox-history-into-a-visual-map\n\nBut what would be really cool would be a mind map style tree: http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Flash_browser\n\nor http://www.wikimindmap.org/\n", "score": 13 }, { "body": "Should probably track how much time you're spending on each page and ignore the page if you're not spending more than 1 or 2 seconds on it.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "If you can, get ahold of either a 22LR conversion slide/barrel kit for your autopistol, or a 22LR gun that's as close to your gun as you can get in terms of feel, trigger type, sights, etc.\n\nGiven the price of 22LR ammo, this is one of the best moves you can make.\n\nMy daily carry CCW piece is a Ruger New Vaquero in 357, basically a modern replica of the 1873 Colt SAA. I also have a cheap Cimarron 22LR based on the same frame and action type. I've modded the sights on both to match each other.\n\nGiven ammo prices, a lot of people are buying such \"pairings\".\n\n---\n\nAs to your original question:\n\nFirst thing to do is \"benchrest\" five or six rounds. Get some sandbags or similar, lay your wrists across them, very carefully establish what your gun is able to do and where the groups are going. If you're off right or left, odds are at least one of your sights (front or rear) is drift-adjustable. If you have tritium night sights you MUST get the proper screw-adjust tool for your type of sights. If not, you can use a brass punch and a wood mallet to gently tap one of the sights left or right to bring things into alignment. Do another five rounds over sandbags to check, nudge 'em a bit more if need be.\n\nIf you're off in terms of elevation, a heavier bullet will likely go a bit higher. In other words, if your practice rounds are 115gr and going a tad low, get some \"business ammo\" in 124gr to bring it up a bit. If it's WAY off, talk to a gunsmith.\n\nGetting your sights dialed in and at the same time, establishing the max possible accuracy for your gun is the first thing to do. May cost you up to 20 or 25 rounds. Well worth it. \n\nShooting over sandbags, each shot carefully taken, tells you what kind of groups the gun is capable of with your real shooting skills basically out of the picture (because that's now how you shoot in real life, to SAVE your life). If you know the gun can do, say, 3\" groups at 25 yards but then when you shoot \"normal\" you're throwing 6\" to 8\" groups, OK, that tells you first that it's not the gun's fault :) and second, you now have a goal to work towards. Everybody needs goals.\n\nOK. At that point, you need to start looking at what your gun's alternate operating drills are, and what kind of shooting stance you're going to focus on.\n\nOperating drills: IF POSSIBLE, set your gun up so that every shot is fired with the same type of trigger. If it has a \"Double Action Only\" or \"DAO\" trigger like a Glock or many others, well that part is decided, ain't it? If it's a \"DA first shot, single action thereafter\" system, see if there's a practical way to get the first shot be single action instead of double action. Some guns are safe \"cocked and locked\", in other words hammer back, safety on. Draw, sweep the safety off, first shot is single action instead of double.\n\nI have a friend with a Ruger P85-Mk2, a large-frame double-action first shot, single thereafter. It has a hammer, but if you cock it and then put the safety on, that automatically de-cocks it and forces that first shot to be double action. I did some research. Turns out there's a second, automatic safety that is highly regarded (as long as the P85 is the \"Mk2\" variety or has had a safety retrofit if it was older). So it's actually safe to carry safety off, hammer down (meaning DA first shot). If that were my gun, I'd carry it that way and then practice cocking it as I drew, as if it was an 1873 Colt. That would put the trigger in SA mode for the first shot (and all subsequent). I'd practice the living shit out of that with no ammo (not even in the same room, to avoid accidents!) and get that to the point where it was basic muscle memory. And then I could live with that gun just fine.\n\nNext thing to do, and this also involves NO FIRING, unloaded gun, is to figure out which stance is best for your hands. Google the terms \"Weaver\" and \"isosceles\". You need to understand both. Each has it's upsides and downsides. If you're going to shoot BIG power, like the hottest 357Mag you can get ahold of from small borderline psycho ammo loaders like DoubleTap and Buffalo Bore, or anything hotter, Weaver starts to have advantages. Weaver also has a cleaner transition to one-handed shooting. Isosceles holds can do faster controlled fire with more moderate ammo like the 9mm, and is now the most widely adopted police shooting system in the US. Study both, practice both with an unloaded gun, see what feels best for you and your needs. Pick one. Get your stance right (including proper hand positions on the gun for the hold of your choice) before shooting another round.\n\nOnce you have ALL that sorted out, do multiple range trips, shoot about 30 to 40 each session, think about what you're doing, see if there's any pain in any part of your hand (a good indication of improper grip), see if your groups are going left or right.\n\nYou're also going to have to buy some real combat ammo if you decide to keep it loaded for personal defense at home or better yet, get a CCW permit and pack. My usual recommendation is Speer Gold Dot projectiles, either 115gr or 124gr+P if you can cope with the extra horsepower. You'll have to shoot at least a little bit to get used to the higher recoil levels over practice grade stuff. You also need to make sure \"the good stuff\" feeds properly through your gun - hopefully you have something decent with a good rep for feed reliability: Glock, Ruger, Springfield XD or other decent piece. If it's a \"High\"-Point...ghaaaa...do yourself a favor, go spend $300 on a good basic 38Spl or 357 revolver, esp. a used S&W or Ruger...it'll go \"boom\" every single time and not care what funky ammo shapes you stuff into it :).\n\nGood luck.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Save the rounds for few and far between shooting. Spend most of your practice on dry fire, to ensure you aren't flinching or tugging. Then the 250 rounds will be well-spent when you do go use them.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Don't do any shooting with live ammo at all.\n\nPlace an empty shell on the slide upside down, practice pressing the trigger w/o knocking the brass over or off the slide.\n\nAlso, practice your trigger resets by pressing the trigger and working the slide with your finger still on the trigger, then performing the reset. It should be fast but not cause any excessive muzzle movement.\n\nYou might want to invest in some books or DVDs, I am sure other redditors can suggest something. Youtube might be a good place to start.\n\nYou don't need to have live ammo to practice and improve your gun handling.\n\n\nOh, and you'll need a lot more than 250 rounds of ammunition if you plan on becoming a better shooter. Each trip to the range my wife and I easily go through 250 (pistol alone), we reload.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "When I notice my accuracy dropping off, I will start loading only three rounds at a time. Once I am grouping those well, then I step up to five rounds, etc. I have found this is helps me to focus more on my fundamentals and less on blasting off the the whole mag.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "As others have already suggested: dry fire, dry fire, dry fire.\n\nWhen you get to the range with it, take things slow, and I'd probably limit your range sessions to 50 to 100 rounds at a time until ammo cost and availability are less of an issue for you. I can easily burn through far more than that in a trip, but most of that ammo is honestly wasted simply having fun. ;) That was also before ammo availability became such an issue.\n\nThe biggest fundamental that you can't really simulate well with dry fire practice is learning your trigger reset. When you're actually getting to do some live fire, pay particular attention to the point where you trigger resets on pull off and where you can begin to pull again. You want to learn to keep this as tight as you can so you're not slapping the trigger all over the place and fouling up your follow up shots.\n\nSpend some time over at [pistol-training.com](http://pistol-training.com). There's a great archive of training drills there, and Todd Green is one of the most articulate and insightful firearms writers I've come across anywhere. The site's been up for a couple of years, and I'd really recommend going back through the archives and reading the articles as you have time. It'll definitely be worth the time invested and will probably open yourself up to new thinking.\n\nOne great training tip I picked up there that I'll go ahead and pass on because it's buried a bit back in the archive : 3x5 cards and paper plates make great, cheap targets. A 3x5 index card is roughly similar in size to a human ocular cavity and the plates are about the same size as the vital organ zone of a human target. No need to spend money on more expensive targets. Also handy if your range has a \"no human shaped targets\" rule like I've heard of some places having. \n\n\nHope that helps. :)", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "If you haven't already seen them, you might like these guys too:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mighty_Boosh", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "Talk to your girlfriend, and tell her that you're uncomfortable with him being so touchy. Try to not make it sound like he's (possibly) interested in her. Tell her that you just don't like other guys being that touchy with her.", "score": 11 }, { "body": "Tell him that: \"Laisse ma copine tranquille, trou du cul!\" ;) \n\n(phonetically: less-mah-co-peen-tran-kill-troo-du-cu)\n\nIt means leave my girlfriend alone, asshole.", "score": 7 }, { "body": "To be honest, I'd suggest approaching your friend about it.\n\nKndly tell him that you don't mind his friendship with her, but you're starting to get uncomfortable with his touchiness/flirtiness towards your girlfriend.\n\nThough I think the touchiness could be due to drunkenness and he might not be like that normally towards her, I'd still say approach him about it.", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "In my indoor range experience, Saturday is when all the gun owners who don't understand muzzle discipline decide to go shooting. And I REALLY don't enjoy being swept.", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "You met her while she was drunk and you were high on E....you probably aren't as into her as you think. You don't know her or anything about her. Genuine feelings of attachment need some kind of foundation, and you two have absolutely none yet. \n\nNot to mention, her boyfriend died a month ago and you're not over your ex. Can you say \"rebound\"? This is not a healthy situation for either of you. It won't end well. Back away. She's not ready for a relationship and you don't sound as if you are either. If you think you can handle just being friends, then just be friends; it's way, way, way better than jumping headlong into a romantic relationship with someone whose heart is shattered and who you really don't know yet.\n\nGood luck.", "score": 10 }, { "body": "Try seeing her sober, both of you, and see how it goes. \nMight also be somewhat of a rebound, so watch out.", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "I know some guy that has a MagicJack. He really likes it. He is weird as hell though. I'm not sure if the MagicJack made him that way, but I'm not taking a chance. ", "score": 15 }, { "body": "I have used MagicJack. It is legit. I still owe them 20 bucks. \n\nJust make sure that you buy the magicjack from the authorized seller.", "score": 7 }, { "body": "My impression is that it works for some and not for others. Also, to get reliable phone service, you apparently must have an EXTRA COMPUTER you can leave running all the time with MagicJack, AND a reliable broadband connection, AND a reliable electrical power source.\n\n\nMost people don't have an extra computer available to tie up with MagicJack. Many don't have a reliable ISP (I don't: I have Charter). Many Americans don't have reliable electricity (I don't: I have full blown outages usually once a month, and brownouts much more frequently: I acquired a UPS to try to keep from corrupting my hard drive during a power down).", "score": 7 }, { "body": "I just bought magicjack a couple of weeks ago and so far we're happy with it. I've been using Vonage for years, but lately their quality of service has gone downhill so we decided to give magicjack a shot because the cost savings is so great. We have it hooked up to our domain server which is on all the time anyway, and my husband found a hack to make magicjack run as a service so the computer does not need to be logged in. We had one problem with the telephone not ringing on incoming calls, and we removed the USB mouse and keyboard from the computer and then it worked. We usually use remote desktop to get into the computer anyway so it wasn't really an issue. I think for the average user it might be a bit wonky, but if you know what you're doing and are willing to mess with it a bit to make it work it's pretty good. So far the sound quality is better than what we've been paying Vonage $40 per month for.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I bought a magic jack to try and offset the costs of making work phone calls on my cell phone (as a freelancer, this makes up about 85% of my bill).\n\nHowever, the magic jack does not work very well at all - the actual service is laden with static and pops - and sounds terrible. Most of the calls I made ended with me calling back on my cell phone because the person on the other end could not hear me.\n\nMagic Jack does not have any wireless support, and they expect you to use in a computer hooked directly in through an ethernet cable (which is unrealistic, at least in my eyes, in this day and age).\n\nThe customer service is also abysmal, it takes about an hour to troubleshoot a simple problem and it can only happen using their online tech support. There's no phone line to call.\n\nBottom line: Don't waste your money.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "My uncle uses Magicjack + Skype to have a Virginia area code and cheap calling from Santiago, Chile. Works for him. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I have been using it for a couple of months and I have had zero issues with call quality. I am overall, very satisfied with it and would recommend it to others.\n\nThere were a couple of issues in setting it up though. I am running it off of a mac and had some trouble finding appropriate drivers. The actual official site was of no help and I only found a working driver on some outdated forum through google. Customer service seems non-existent.\n\nThat being said, after 20 minutes of googling, I am very happy with the service. I also use it to interface with google voice. \n\nI do not use it with a headset, I got a shitty radio shack land phone and it sounds perfect.\n\nIf you need help finding a working mac driver, pm me and ill link you to the one im using.\n\n", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Criticisms\n\nUsers have expressed concerns with the advertisements displayed by the product and the policy, which allows YMAX to analyze numbers called by customers. From the EULA (End User License Agreement):\n\n You also understand and agree that use of the magicJack device and Software will include\n \nadvertisements and that these advertisements are necessary for the magicJack device to\n \nwork ... Our computers may analyze the phone numbers you call in order to improve the \n\nrelevance of the ads.[4]\n\nThe EULA also forces users to resolve all legal issues with the company through arbitration in Palm Beach, Florida.[4] The Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida has received hundreds of customer service complaints, primarily related to difficulty returning the product under the 30-day guarantee. The bureau gave Magic Jack an \"A-\" rating.[5] According to the Better Business Bureau records, the company has provided refunds in all cases. The inventor has also responded to customer service complaints on the company website as well as a May 2008 interview with Laptop magazine.[6]\n\nAs of November 2007, magicJack did not provide an uninstallation method either in the software or in any documentation. Removing the software from a Windows machine required editing the registry. Currently, an uninstall utility for the Windows platform is available for download at the MagicJack.com website. It can be found by searching the FAQ for \"uninstall.\" There is no uninstall mechanism currently available for the Mac. [7]\n\nAs of December 2009 MagicJack is not able to port over your existing land line.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I have considered posting over there. I presume trans women are welcome? I've added it to my front page, so I'll see about making a mark there sometime soon.", "score": 18 }, { "body": "I'm so happy to hear this. I hated to see it go dead-in-the-water for a while there. \n\nDo you mind me asking what happened to cause it to go down and what you did to get it up and running properly again?\n\nI'll definitely be checking by each day to see what's going on and contributing when appropriate.", "score": 10 }, { "body": "Oh yay to see that! Before 2XC, I've mostly bounced back and forth from /r/women and /r/feminism, but the latter was a bit quiet then. Glad to know it's getting more regular activity :D", "score": 6 }, { "body": "Hmmm, so do you guys get harassed by the MRAs much? That's one of the main reasons I'm sort of avoiding that subreddit. ", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "Be careful of too much porn, embracing too many of your fetishes can make normal sex much less interesting, and make some girls seem much less attractive", "score": 11 }, { "body": "if you put things of importance in your life aside to masturbate, it is bad.\n\nfrequent masturbation = ok\n\ncompulsive masturbation = not ok", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "oh hay looks like I can help you... in no less than 10 easy steps.\n\n* You're not above jack shit. Stop thinking you know something somebody doesn't. Very stupid people have led better lives than you on bullshit and being nice alone. You know nothing about nothing, and that's the first step to fixing your shitty life.\n\n* Job. You go get a job. It doesn't matter where or what, and I'll tell you why : The first step to meeting other human beings and learning how to act like an adult is pretending to be one and having a job. You probably don't have a car, so closer and any job WITH PEOPLE is your first task.\n\n* Car. They suck ass, they're expensive, and they drive you to other better jobs farther away. Plus, people will talk to you, and maybe some poor hack of a woman will fuck you in it. \n\n--- keep in mind, most people learn those 3 before 15 so we're working quicker than usual ---\n\n* Self respect. You now have money, albeit not much of it, to buy a bullet to put in your computer, and to go do something on the weekends that requires standing up and not being a piece of shit. The car and job probably suck ass, but you WILL have days to yourself and you will not spend them dicking around on reddit. Go play adult softball, go to a cheap dive bar and have 2 beers, go to the YMCA and pound the weights, hell go find a poetry reading with cheap water if that's your thing. It's what you can afford and it's not a fucking computer.\n\n* Start saving. This is hard and sucks ass to do, but you must moderate 4 to move on. Apartments will cost 2 months down payment, but baby the economy is working for you and if you can do the first 4 steps in 2 years you'll get months off with no down payment. Get a modest place, buy a nice couch and bed, and aim to spend about 25% of your yearly income on rent. You now have an apartment, a place your friends want to sit, and a place your girlfriend wants to sleep.\n\n* Clean that mother fucker for 30 minutes every day even if you think nothing is gross. Clothes, dishes, toilets, floors, clean that mother fucker for 30 minutes and add another 2 hours early Saturday morning just to be sure.\n\n* Time to really prove you're intelligent. The government for all it's flaws loves college educated citizens and now you get to fill out the FAFSA for a community college. Yes, college educated people will still think you're a failing shit head being 30+ and attending community college in a fuck hole apartment, but we all know you're doing better than the 29 year old you were.\n\n* You got out of community, you can now go to college, leverage family, savings, fiancees you now have, be a better person...\n\n* You graduated collage, you're now an adult, and can be what you want to be.\n\n-- or --\n\n* You didn't graduate college but you're still an adult and can be what you want to be.", "score": 350 }, { "body": "Shit, man, what the fuck can we ask you? You have no experience and have never done anything. I'd get more wisdom from my cat.", "score": 193 }, { "body": "I thought I was having a shitty, pathetic life until I read this.\r\n\r\nI've been spending my 24th birthday trying to find a reason to not kill myself and the fact that you exist might have just made things better.\r\n\r\nThanks", "score": 130 }, { "body": "You have made my day. Mom of 4. Sometimes I think I am too hard on them because they have to \"pull their weight\". They are 8-12. And by pulling their weight, I mean, cleaning, doing their laundry,cleaning up after dinner, making \"nice\", taking** responsibility**. They bitch and moan about it, and honestly most times it would be easier if I just gave into them. But, I get that it helps contribute to their self-esteem, and that they are aware that they can, and would, be able to do well all on their own. Thank you for showing me that I am on the right path with my child-rearing. And, if you want a second mama, I can help kick your ass. BTW, I am sorry that you do not have a good sense of self. The only to get that is to realize that all the rest of us are just big, goofy, worried people too. ", "score": 66 }, { "body": "I wish I could meet you in real life, drag you to a bar, and buy you a drink. \n\nI also wish you the very best in turning your life around. It will be very hard but in the end worth it. Put yourself in uncomfortable social situations where others won't judge you! Go to a gym where nobody might know you and get yourself in good shape. This will be a huge confidence booster. \n", "score": 32 }, { "body": "First off: you are not self-sufficient in any sense of the word, and if you rely on your parents for all of your social interactions, you are certianly not self-sufficient emotionally. What you are is satisfied and lazy. Very different.\n\nMy older brother is 28 and in the exact same boat. He gets treated like a teenager because he, like you, invites people to. Like you, he blames away his 'condition' on ghost in the shell psychiatric issues, but unlike people with real psychological problems he doesn't put any effort into getting better. He sees a shrink but he's only in therapy because our parents make him do it or else they'll kick him out. I spoke with his therapist who confessed that after a year of therapy, he may be doing nothing more than enabling my brothers self destructive behavior.\n\nReally, his biggest problem is that he's an asshole. I love the guy, but it's a fact. He's totally OK with taking advantage of my parents. He knows they want him out of the house, but they're not strong enough to kick him out or discipline him in anyway. He actively turns away job opportunities and the only time he leaves the house is when I invite him, and it's rare even for him to take me up on my offers (i'm 25, live on my own, am gainfully employed and have a life). The best I can see it, the only effort he puts outside himself is to be antagonistic to my parents, biting the hand that feeds him at every available opportunity. For no good reason, and completely undermining himself in the process.\n\nYou sound similar enough to my brother for me to be reasonably sure that you are not a cautionary tale of anything. You are a rare outlier, although others exist. You are a borderline sociopath and your defeatist attitude is a disguise for your general lack of desire to get out in the world.\n\nNow: cut the umbilical cord and get a fucking life. Your parents deserve better. You're 29: you need to move on so they can have their own lives again. Grow up.", "score": 26 }, { "body": "It seems like people are bashing your lifestyle instead of asking questions here (which probably isn't really helping your situation), so I'll ask a question or two:\n\nHow badly were you getting bullied in High School? In what ways were these people bullying you? I ask because in the latter parts of my High School experience, the bullies eventually stopped going to school because of arrests or drop outs.\n\nHave you ever considered going to a Jr. College to see if you could handle higher education?", "score": 20 }, { "body": "would you be willing to act as prey in a human hunt? and by that i mean you would be offered a substantial sum of money and a running headstart while professional hunters track and chase you with shotguns, assault rifles, and other ranged weapons, with the proviso that if you survive for 72 hours you can keep the money? I only ask this out of pure curiosity.", "score": 18 }, { "body": "Look mang. You got two working legs, two working hands, a brain, you can read/write (already you're better off than millions of people).\n\nAs for the girlfriend thing, one thing I've learnt is that looks really isn't the most important thing. What you need to focus on is developing yourself as a person. Girls won't love guys who don't love themselves. I had to learn that the hard way.\n\nGet out the damn house...seriously. Go to the grocery store or pharmacy something, strike up small talk with the cashier or other shoppers. Doesn't have to be much, just saying have a good day or something. The point is to build your confidence while get accustomed to talking to others.\n\nAnd that's another thing...guys with low/no confidence = chick repellant.\n\nI guess the point I'm trying to make is, don't look at the whole picture at once. Start small and little by little you'll see yourself becoming closer to the person you'd like to be. But all this advice is useless if you don't want to change.", "score": 15 }, { "body": "You are why Courage Wolf exists, man. Pick one of these pictures off this website, print it out, and tape it to your wall or your bathroom mirror or somewhere you will see it every day.\n\n[Courage Wolf motivationals](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/courage-wolf)", "score": 13 }, { "body": "Here's some ideas ....\n\nDon't try to solve everything at once. Take one step each day that gets you on track.\n\nDo exercise\n\nStart a vegetable garden. \n\nGet a part time job.\n\nDo something volunteerwise that will put you into contact with people in a structured way. Talk to the elderly in a nursing home. You could do literacy work, teach english as a second language, stream/habitat restoration projects. If not people, can you walk a neighbor's someone's dog on a regular basis. I am sure they would appreciate it and then you would have a topic of discussion. The dog. You might meet other dog walkers at the park etc.\n\nMay be you will find something on:\n\nhttp://idealist.org\n\nhttp://meetup.org\n\nmay be craigslist in your area.\n\nA support group for people with social anxiety might be good? \n\nTry learning things that are practical and useful but also put you into contact with people. Learn a foreign language. May be get a penpal ... that could evolve into regular phone conversations. \n\nI was going to say learn a programming language but that might draw you in.\n\n ", "score": 13 }, { "body": "> I'm too old. Suppose that I graduate college, I will be 32-33 at least. For what? To be a cubicle slave? It would be like going from a form of slavery to another. At least mine is self-imposed.\n\nYou know nothing about the world outside your bedroom, yet you sound so confident that you know what it's like.\n\nYour arrogance is bringing you down.", "score": 11 }, { "body": "Hey autoLifeSentence, I have a disability and I can offer you some advice to your infantilized complex because I know anything like that can be paralytic and demoralizing. The thing is, at least it works for me and hopefully you can use or augment it in your way, is to know that you are the one that is the main one that is projecting and perpetuating the idea your are inferior, its a hard thing to break and probably seems like the hardest thing to do and you can up with X excuse but if you want to change you have to change, theres no beating around the bush. Giving yourself excuses is not going to make that change, and change in the lightest of weights are sometimes the heaviest and some of the heaviest weights are the easiest, you just have to try, for a week, a day, hell even a minute. Just try is what I'm saying blank out your mind and \"jump\" in a impulsive method for a while with a completely different way to think, if you make one little change, you know what, you've changed. Baby steps mate, things aren't going to change overnight, they never do. I have cerebral palsy and I feel disconnected from people all the time and feel like a burden but if you have that recurring thought all the time, your just defeating yourself.\n\nOf course your going to get knocked down, I do all the time, and getting back on the \"change route\" can be the hardest, but the trick with the way I cope/change is to mentally experiment until I get to a point that makes me better and more sound.", "score": 10 }, { "body": "29 year old, you're very young dude so don't talk like you're 80 and your life's over. \n\n**Step 1.** Get a fucking job, wake up and apply everyday from 8-12am. On top of keeping yourself busy and meet new people, it will financially allow you to move out.\n\n**Step 2.** Go out and meet people. Would it be through a sport club, bars, or whatever tempt you most. You need to get out.\n\n**Step 3.** You say you're extrovert, then be extrovert and fuck all. You're your only judge.\n\nSo when do you start?", "score": 9 }, { "body": "Not to make light of your situation, but your post reminds me a lot about the book \"Confederacy of Dunces\" written by [John Kennedy Toole](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kennedy_Toole) . It is also semi-autobiographical. It may not be the best thing for you to read right now.\n\nI am not a psychologist, and would say take all advice here with a grain of salt.\n\nThe quickest way you can overcome social fears, if that is your aim, would be to:\n\n- create a free email account\n- post which town you are in, in this thread\n- ask for redditors who are willing to help to email you\n- choose two(2) unrelated respondees to meet up on a weekend\n- go out with both of them for a few hours and practice walking up to strangers and asking the time or directions. They would hang back and watch to be able to intervene if anything did not go smoothly.\n- after each chat with a stranger you can \"debrief\" with the two helpers about what went right or wrong and how you felt.\n\nafter a few weekends you will be able to notice your own progress and move towards being able to try things on your own.\n\nThe reason for having 2 unrelated people is so you are not exposed to the possibility of a malicious prankster who could easily make the situation hellish for you. (Hey, this is the Internets)\n\nI believe you would find these two supportive redditors who could offer their insights into social mechanics to demystify interpersonal dynamics and provide the stepping stone to self reliance in social situations.\n\nThen could post about the whole thing and offer inspiration to others.\n\nOtherwise try a psychologist, who would probably take a similar approach.\n\nChances are joining the army would destroy you in your current situation.\n\nTry not to worry, there are way more messed up things happening in this world, but human contact is worth the effort of giving it a go. All the best.\n\n\n", "score": 9 }, { "body": "(De-lurks): First of all, you should consider seeking professional help. You might be diagnosed with a mental disorder – depression probably in your case but IANAP – which is treatable given the right therapy. Taking anti-depressants should only be a last resort, though. I was and am in a similar situation like you, though my depression, which lasted probably four or five years (can't remember) was in great part substance-induced. I beat my addiction – with the help of my girlfriend, which i am very lucky to have - and enrolled in college to pursue my dream of becoming a historian like i always wanted (college is basically free here so I don't know if that is an option – but ask your parents for assistance). You seem to enjoy reading? That would be a great start. \r\n\r\nWhat particularly helps me is sports. Try running or biking – it takes some determination to start but only after a short time you can and will improve your physical and – concurrently – mental constitution. Especially running is a good start since it requires almost no expense (even shoes are not a must, if you ask me), just get out and do it. Remember, other people pretty much have the same anxieties in public, they simply have to be faced (The brain is basically constantly scanning if someone poses a threat). Sports helped me beat my agoraphobia (often a side-effect of depression). The stronger I became, the less I cared what other people thought about me. \r\n\r\ntl;dr: Sports, sports, sports, sports, sports, sports, sports, sports...Marge, Bart rides up in the front seat today because he's a good guy at sports. (Sorry)", "score": 7 }, { "body": "You need some excitement in your life. We can fix this. I want you to go out and buy all black clothes, military like. You need to be in black head to toe, ski mask, jacket, pants, gloves, boots, etc. \n\nNext, your going to go out at night and your job, is to be an urban explorer. Pick a target and scale it. Get to the roof, proclaim the target beaten. You'll want to start with simple, abandon places when you start to work on your scaling skills. Eventually you can work your way up to breaking and entering and eventually parachuting off the really tall buildings. In no time you'll be a badass. I believe in you. You can do it. And better yet, you can document your achievements here on reddit.\n\nor you can stay home. Take. Your. Pick.", "score": 7 }, { "body": "Don't have a question, but some possible advice:\n\nI think the Army will still let you enlist at 29. Check with the Air Force first though.\n\nSeriously. I was in similar situation (though I had a 2 year degree), living with my mom at 24, depression, shy, no social skills, etc. Joined the USAF. Changed my life. Basic in San Antonio, TX. Tech School in Biloxi, MS. First duty station in Germany. Second in DC. Next up I'm going to Korea then back to Germany supporting the Army (AF weather kicks ass). Learning pretty much every step of the way.\n\nAnd the great thing about the military is you don't need qualifications, just the will to do it. You don't need social skills, although they do help. Being virgin doesn't matter, you'll lose it one way or another. You'll be treated like a teenager initially. Everyone is. Prove yourself and give it all you've got, you'll be treated like an adult real quick. I'd just recommend going with one of the Intelligence careers if you don't want to be a front line combatant and have directly marketable skills after the service.\n\nYou don't have to be a cautionary tale, but you may need to take a few kick in the balls. But hey, that's part of being an adult.", "score": 7 }, { "body": "Each day that passes is the same, in your mental world, your books, your PC, your parents and your lifestyle. \n\nProject this into the future, and whilst you know that each day is the same, there are subtle changes. Your parents are at an age when they are ageing, soon they may retire or stop working, minor aiilments will start to change their lives and the balance of your relationship. A few more years may pass. One of them becomes ill or infirm. Your role will shift. A few more years pass and one of your parents passes, you become sole carer for your other parent. Who dies next?\n\nWhat I am saying here is that some things change, and the change is subtle, but inexorable and inevitable. Your comfort bubble of the last few years since your teens will change whether you like it or not. At some point you will be fighting to fend for yourself or for your parents. That time may be not too far away, if you carry on as you are now then the passing years have nothing to offer you but slowly building pain and heartache. It is not a status quo.\n\nFor someone with \"above average intelligence\" you have shown poor judgement in your lifestyle choices and you are seeing a world of people working, loving, playing and fighting, pass by flickering on your screens and in your books. Those people are participating, immersed in the truly glorious struggle of human life on earth. They are engaged in humanity's fate striving to better things, make a life for their kids, carve out their piece, make their bid for immortality.\n\nWhen you pass on, the world will not have gained anything for its bounty having supported you for years.\n\nYour parents, whether they show it or not, must be so sad at the life you've chosen.", "score": 7 }, { "body": "A lot of people have been trying to give you advice on your current situation, but honestly, are you really wanting to change your situation? By your \"tone\" of your replies, you appear to have fully given up on life so to speak. If you do not want to be an anti-social recluse, it is important that you do get outside, and if anything, watch people and how they interact with others. Watch people cracking jokes to each other, shaking hands, talking about current affairs or whatever. I think the first step is to get out of your comfort zone. Life is scary, but is too precious to waste living like a gremlin in a basement or bedroom. \n\nThere are a ton of people who are not fortunate enough to have a computer, food on their table, moderately wealthy parents etc.. You are still young, 28 is the new 20. If you want to do meaningful work and not slave away doing menial work, learn a trade of some sort. You can become a locksmith and go home to your apartment knowing you helped a family be a little bit safer at night or whatever the case is. If you go into carpentry, you can tell yourself you helped build that building over there. There is a lot of different places you can work, and you can get help finding work at any local government office.\n\nIf you want to get help, you can get it. You can do what you want to do and be who you want to be. If you don't want to change, then try to be as content with yourself as you can be. From personal experience, I have a relative who has lived with his mother his whole life. He is, for the most part, miserable. I try to get him out as much as possible and he has a blast whenever he does. Get out as much as possible. If you have problems approaching random people, just remember that so do I, and so does everyone else. The unknown is scary. Rejection is shitty. Riding a bike at first was painful. Now it's easy and enjoyable. Get back on that bike brother.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "You can spend the rest of your life making excuses. The internet isn't going to validate your waste.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "Being a former college drop out who tried living like a hermit and disappearing from the world, I can give you one piece of advice that helped me persevere enough to go back to school and finish my degree.\n\nWhen you reach a point in your life when you have no friends, no job, no accomplishments, nothing... then you stand to have absolutely nothing to lose. Whenever you're ready to go out in the world and face situations where you feel people judge you and don't respect you, then think to yourself. Who the fuck cares? My life is a black void of nothingness. I've lost anything and everything I've had of value. What's a few judgmental pricks going to do?\n\nGoing back to school older, picking up studies I hadn't looked upon in years, I was treated like an idiot. But I got through it and not only graduated, I graduated after making good friends, making straight A's and B's, and with guaranteed recommendation letters from my professors. The experience was rough but it only made me stronger.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "\"So understand,\nDon't waste your time always searching for those wasted years,\nFace up...make your stand,\nAnd realize you're living in the golden years.\"\n\n-Bruce Dickinson", "score": 6 }, { "body": "My brother is the same way. He is 23 and is completely dependent on my parents. All he does is play video games, surf the interwebs, and read manga. What would it take for me (his older brother) to save him from this fate?", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I was like you for sometime. At the age of 23 I started going to college. I am now almost 26 and will be graduating in '12 with a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering. I am hoping to pursue a career in patent law. Here is the deal. I will graduate with my undergraduate degree right after my 28th bday. When I complete law school I will be 31 yrs old. I have a friend who is a year younger than me graduating from law school this year!!! Does this make me a loser? Maybe/ Maybe not. It takes everyone a different amount of time to realize what they want to do. The key thing to remember, and something that I have to remind myself, is that life isn't a big rat race. It is a long slow crawl. \nIf I were you, I would go back to school immediately. This is the best time to be in school too. I don't even think you are too old to be in school. There are people in my classes who are 35, and they fit in quite well. You need to stop feeling so sorry for yourself though. Even just getting enrolled in college will give you a big confidence boost which is something you need. After a few semesters of going to school and doing well things will really open up ...\nHeed my advice. . . Good Luck", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Seriously, you should google [Avoidant Personality Disorder](https://health.google.com/health/ref/Avoidant+personality+disorder). I have some avoidant tendencies as well, but they haven't effected my life too much. \n\n\"When to contact a doctor: See your health care provider or a psychiatrist if shyness or fear of rejection overwhelms your ability to function in life and relationships.\"\n\nMy advice is see a doctor/psychiatrist and try to move out of that house. Your parents seem to be enabling you to continue this lifestyle. If it doesn't work out you could always move back in...\n\n\n", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Hey man. Like most everyone else here, I am not going to ask you anything. I just think it is pretty sad how mean a lot of folks here are being to you. I can't remember a prior instance of Reddit being so mean and insensitive to someone. \r\n\r\nDo you want a job, higher education, relationships and friends? I would implore you to just start doing things. Anything. Just pick one of those vectors (likely job or education) and start plugging away at it. One of the nice things about life is that--in many cases--there is no real deadline by which you have to get your shit together and start living. So why not start now?\r\n\r\nYou seem like nice and intelligent guy. You can do it. It's not that hard. The world will not reject you.\r\n\r\nKeep in mind that we are all just winging it as well.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "OK. Lots of great advice on here, but almost all of it would be almost impossible without a good therapist. You need to unload your newfound anxiety at being out in the world on someone. I was in a similar situation a few years ago, except I had an apartment in manahattan and a college education. I was basically entirely stagnant, sedentary and had no life at all. I started going to therapy 2x a week and this gave me some incentive and cleared my head enough to get a pretty great job where I was making more than I ever have. I got a girlfriend, moved to a new place and began spending $40 a week on dry cleaning, going to nice restaurants etc. I never would have been able to this if I wasn't in therapy. The smallest setback at work was traumatic because I had not faced my fears of rejection for so long. My therapist helped me work through them and realize how trivial they were in the grand scheme of things. \n\nOnce you have a therapist you trust, you can start to work out some of your fear scenarios with him/her and you will begin to develop rudimentary social skills in a safe, professional environment. Again, this is crucial. If you just go out there on your own you will crash and burn. \n\nOnce you are in therapy for a few weeks, join a gym. Regular exercise will keep your body and mind sharp and help you control anxiety. Then as everyon else is saying get a job. Any job. Doesn't really matter, you just need to be in a position where you are responsible for SOMETHING contributing to society. Not going to lube you up here before I jam it in: this is going to be painful, and you will inevitably suffer many setbacks and relapses. But really, you don't have a choice. Your life now is a slow suicide and the longer you wait the harder its going to be to reenter society. ", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Take small steps, and don't give up. Anything is a step in the right direction. Make one friend, get a voluntary job. Anything, take small steps and keep taking them.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I am more or less, the 35 year old version of you. You don't want this to be your future. You need to find a way to make changes now. ", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Question 1:\nIt's been suggested that the internet helps people who are extremely shy to improve their social skills and function more like the average person. Do you feel like posting on reddit or the internet in general does anything to improve your condition?\n\nQuestion 2:\nIs there anything that we, reddit, can do to help you?\n\nQuestion 3:\nWhat do you do with your time?\n\nQuestions 4 and 5:\nHave you considered distance learning courses to further your education and increase your employability? Have you thought about doing voluntary work to give you confidence in returning to ordinary society?", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Are there any fantasies about yourself that you both allow yourself to indulge in and get pleasure from?", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Small steps:\n\nTry going out for a walk.. try going out for a walk and do some shopping. Try little things.. then you can move onto bigger steps - you need to gradually re-integrate yourself into society.\n\nTake little chances, set small challenges for yourself, and keep trying.\n\n(not really a question, I know)..", "score": 4 }, { "body": ">I would be on the streets, if it wasn't for my parents.\n\nNo, you would be forced to get you shit together and be an adult. \n\nI know it gets posted every time, but the meme has a point:\nhttp://i.imgur.com/6Qrue.png", "score": 4 }, { "body": "You sound like a smart man. You're diligent, well-spoken, savvy and (debatably) down-to-earth. You obviously have issues with self confidence and esteem, but truth be told, we *all* do.\n\nWhat distinguishes us from one another in the social ecosystem is how we CHOOSE to deal with our insecurities. Fuck, I certainly have it in me to wake up and CHOOSE to be an unmotivated, defeated, worthless bag of skin. I certainly have it in my capacity to CHOOSE not to face the other CHOICES each day brings. It's takes a shitload of energy. There are a shitload of risks and consequences involved with my CHOICES. I know ahead of time that I alone am ACCOUNTABLE for the outcomes of my choices.\n\nSome people CHOOSE to be assholes (or bitches) to deal with their insecurities. Some people CHOOSE to eat. Some people CHOOSE to exercise, etc. etc. etc.\n\nYou say that you \"lack the skills required to be attractive in the job market\", and \"no social skills\" yadayadayada.\n\nIn my opinion, there is one skill that you lack that has put you into this position. In my opinion, it is the single catalyst for your overwhelming insecurity. It's a tough skill to learn, but AutoLifeSentance, if you CHOOSE to develop this skill, it will be the single most valuable trait that will empower you to take control of your life.\n\nI am talking about the skill to SUCCEED.\n\nThat's why it is important to go to school and learn a bunch of stuff that you are going to forget in six months and don't give a shit about. It is an exercise in learning to continually CHOOSE to SUCCEED in a social system, with all it's deficiencies, and come out the other end with a piece of paper. That piece of paper says \"This person has developed the skill to SUCCEED.\"\n\nDon't get me wrong, I'm not saying you should go back to school. IAMA University dropout, totally not a success story (when it comes to post-secondary academics). But since then I've taken a good look in the mirror and have CHOSEN to developed the skill of SUCCESS. My unwavering dedication to the development of this skill has EARNED me a job I love and CHOSE, a house I love and CHOSE, a wife I CHOSE, a beautiful daughter I love (but didn't really choose, she just kind of showed up :) etc.\n\nI am accountable for my success, due to the choices I've made.\n\nMy advice to you: start making better CHOICES that will EARN you skill of SUCCESS. Start small. CHOOSE to go fill in an application for a job. Go do it at McDonalds, for fucks sakes.\n\n*** THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU EVER NEED TO WORK THERE. YOUR TASK IS TO FILL IN AN APPLICATION, AND SUCCEED AT THAT TASK ****\n\nIf they never call you back: don't worry. That wasn't the point. You're starting small and getting off your ass to go fill in some random application. If you actually do it: then you've succeeded. You are accountable for the success or failure of this task.\n\nIf they DO call you in, you've earned the CHOICE to take it or leave it. Regardless, you've succeeded at your task of filling in an application.\n\n\"I don't know exactly what's wrong with me. Probably I simply lack balls.\"\n\nYou have the balls. You just CHOOSE not to use them. I'm not saying it will be easy, I am saying that you have it in you to make different decisions, and you are accountable for the outcomes of your choices. You'll fail lots. We all do. The difference is whether or not you CHOOSE to continue to develop your skill of success, or continue to make poor choices that have led you into the situation you are in now.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I feel for you, as i am headed down the same path. I did go to college and got a degree however, and 23.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Your not really asking for advice, but I feel like giving some anyways. Get outside. Spend a couple hours outside each day. Read your book at the coffee shop, or stalk Border's or some other bookstore. Do this for a couple weeks until you feel more comfortable spending time among other people. Start looking for jobs and get one. It doesn't matter if its a shitty job, just get one. It'll benefit your self-esteem. keep you busy, and force you to socialize.\n\nReference this document if you are having troubles:\nhttp://img242.imageshack.us/img242/6827/howtonotfailatlifepn3he9.png", "score": 3 }, { "body": "If you were to post the city you live in, perhaps someone on Reddit would be interested in taking you out for a coffee or eventually to meet some people? You probably don't \"want\" to do it, but perhaps if you push your limits just a bit you will get a payoff? \n\n", "score": 3 }, { "body": "In the very least start making some money online at home. It seems you are at least capable at that. There are some ways to make partial income purely online. Why not try that, and suddenly you have something to put on a resume. Buy some self-help shit and follow it all to the letter. Do it but don't think about it. Take a couple online courses so you have some basic skills. Boom. You are now a real person.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "\"Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”\n- Howard Thurman", "score": 3 }, { "body": "We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend.\n\nFor all I know you might be me from the not too distant future come to show me the ravages of fear and futility. You are not alone in looking at the world and thinking \"why bother\". I hope that brings some consolation. I know it does to me. My circumstances differ in small details that I hope give me a better chance at breaking the vicious circle but only time will tell.\n\nThe only piece of advise I can think to give is to embrace the perseverance of existentialism. Life is absurd and we'll never be Whitman, or Einstein, or Marx. So take pleasure and find meaning in what you can. Being a hermit is a life of never ending dullness and static. That has never made me happy, a fact I must remind myself.\n\nAs Nietzsche said:\n>What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more' ... Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "We all go trough this :\n\n\"We started to see Brandon flounder in the first grade, hives, depression, he cried every night after he asked his father, \"Is tomorrow school, too?\" In second grade the physical stress became apparent. The teacher pronouncedhis problem Attention Deficit Syndrome. My happy, bouncy child was now looked at as a medical problem, by us as well as the school.A doctor, a psychiatrist, and a school authority all determined he did have this affliction. Medication was stressed along with behavior modification. If it was suspected that Brandon had not been medicated he was sent home. My square peg needed a bit of whittling to fit their round hole, it seemed.\"\n\nhttp://www.scribd.com/doc/16286882/An-Underground-History-of-American-Education\n\nMore or less. Some are more sensible and suffer more. Get over it, society is mad, be yourself, stop trying to conform to integrate. You will find people that don't want you to conform to be friends with you. Those who want - for sure they are not friends. Conscious or not about it.\nWhy is society mad ? Look : \"Housing bubble\" - \"Crisis\". This means there are too many houses, and people suffer and lose their houses - because there are too many houses ! Try to \"adapt\" to that if you want, I stopped trying. Be alive - indifferent to the society. Don't allow this madness deny you. Yes - get a job, no need to like it. Think of it as a start, before you change things to be as you wish - that's how I think. I have no illusions about it.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "You sound like a friend of ours, only he's 37 now. Pretty sad. But if that's all you want in life, then why should we judge you?", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Dude - you need to go get your ass a job. \n\nEven if it's a shitty one - get a job, and hold it down for a while. If you really dislike it, then you can start trying to find a new one in your down time. \n\nBeyond that, unless you find a job you like, get your ass in a technical college or something. \n\nYes, your parents should have pushed you out the door a bit sooner than they did - but at some point you need to stand up, be a man, and take responsibility for yourself.\n\nAll this reclusive shit will start to go away once you are out and interacting with people. It might suck for a while, but it'll get better.\n\nHere's some words of wisdom from 4chan - believe it or not, they're on the ball with this one: http://i.imgur.com/SoCwQ.png", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I have a question in this thread where no-one is asking anything-- WHO is financing this lifestyle? Where does the money come from? ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I don't usually write mean posts, but you sound like an asshole.\n\nEvery time anyone says something helpful on this thread you respond with some short one line response just disregarding what they say. You act like you have the answers, when clearly you don't. You blame things on medical disorders but you said in this thread you haven't been to a doctor.\n\nYou come off sounding like an arrogant asshole for these reasons.\n\nAs Neverclear said:\n\n>You're not above jack shit. Stop thinking you know something somebody doesn't. Very stupid people have led better lives than you on bullshit and being nice alone. You know nothing about nothing, and that's the first step to fixing your shitty life.\n\nPeople treat you like a teenager because you've accomplished as much as one. Grow some balls and get over yourself and your excuses. \n\n\nThis advice brought to you by an overweight, insecure, antisocial, 20 year old who has trouble making friends and meeting people, but also makes Dean's List every semester and is not worried about finding a job after finishing his degree and has a beautiful girlfriend who would start a family with him in a second. You've lived 150% of the life I have, and I feel like I've accomplished more than you ever will with your attitude.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "How do your parents feel about it? I am 27 an in the same situation as you. But one reason I am in this situation is that my parents refuse to try to get me to grow up. My mother will do anything to keep me inside the house, and my father doesn't want me to become independent because he wants me to work for him where he can boss me around. And I don't get paid enough to become self-sufficient either. \n\nAnd I am totally fed up with this, and feel trapped. As a result, I am looking for any full time job so that I can hurry up and get a cheap apartment. At this point in my life, I realize that my parents will do NOTHING to help my situation. In fact, they will keep me in the same place if it were up to them. I realize that I will be 35 and in the same situation if things don't change. I am dependent on my parents, and my parents are helping that dependence. And since they seem to want to keep me dependent, even at 27, I figured that I have to get away from their influence, by any means necessary. \n\nSo, here is my plan for getting myself out of this situation. The first step, I think, is getting a job. That is where I am now. Get a job. It will be hard in this economy, but get any job that you can get. And focus on full time employment. Once you get that job, save up for either a car or an apartment. Once you get your own apartment, you are set. Then I would get high speed internet access. \n\nYes, that still seems like a shitty way to live. But having your own place is much better than not having your own place. Having your own place will give you much greater confidence with females because at least you have your own place to bring girls to. And if you really need to get laid, then find a venue in which girls regularly get drunk. \n\nOf course, I am still in the same situation as you. I have developed a plan to get myself out of this mess and thought I'd share it. I hope that my plan is successful. And the craziest thing is that my parents won't really be happy because I will be far more independent, and will be able to do things on my own without them telling me how to live my life. \n\nAnd to those who are calling him lazy or whatever. Refrain from judging before you entirely know their situation. Especially when you have people close to you who are enabling it, who are trying to keep you from leaving. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "My older brother is identical to you in almost every way. I started going down that same hole but decided to try and put a stop to it because it just looked so boring, and I was getting to get used to the boringness and not enjoy life. My first attempt to getting out of the hole was to do everything at once, find jobs and cars and all that crap. I would fail at the first steps and just get bored and quit.\n\nMy next idea was to not look at the whole picture at once and just do something interesting to stimulate myself. In general I would try to make it an outside activity. For instance I decided to try to do a canoe race. My dad was in the scouts and used to race so he found one of his old boats and some paddles and we gave it a shot. It was fun and we had a great time.\nAnother time I decided to do some research and found out the process and safety rules to buying and owning a gun. I went out and with no effort bought a .22 rifle and went to a local shooting range. It was great fun. In total I spent $134. Those kinds of experiences got me to like improving on whatever I was doing. I suddenly realized trying to accomplish something that you actually want to accomplish is the most awesome satisfying thing out there. Godda think in the smallest steps possible. If you hit a wall, start out the process of climbing it with the smallest steps you can.\n\n**All things said, the internet is the greatest tool that man has ever seen. Think of something fun to do outside and research the shit out of it till you get perfection. it will help you to live life a little and make it a happier experience.**\n\nEDIT: I'm trying to help my older brother out the same way, and its working great.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "No question, just a piece of advice that helped me get out of my reclusive slump quite a bit:\n\nYou do not hate PTSD. You are not a Sociopath. You are not a psychopath. You are not autistic. You are not bipolar. You do not have some crippling anxiety disorder.\n\nToss away these self diagnoses immediately. Wallowing around and telling yourself you have any of these disorders is purely detrimental. Unless you have a honest-to-goodness diagnosis you don't fucking have any of these disorders, and if you DO have a diagnosis dwelling on it is detrimental to getting anything done.\n\nOnce I stopped milling about calling myself a sociopath (at least seriously) and just went out and tried to be social, it helped a lot. Of course, there's the problem of finding where you should be social, but I would take Neverclear's advice on that--get a job, go to school. Coworkers and classmates are the easiest groups to break the ice with.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Meet My (soon to be former) Roommate!\nHe's 63 years old and has been a pothead since he was 20. He's a \"fan\" as in \"science fiction fan\" as in \"Comic Book Guy\" - but without the personality or the potential. \n\n Has never held a long term job. Has no friends in real life. Has ZERO social skills. None. Nada. Thinks only of his own needs. Will think of yours ONLY if it can get him something he wants. Doesn't bathe more than once a week. His room (and usually he as well) smells ... indescribable (\"ass\" simple doesn't do it justice). \n\nThe last \"friend\" he brought home was 17 years old . It creeped me out. She stopped coming around after about 3 days. \n\nHe is currently on disability (900 a month) for having two heart attacks the past 10 years. He weighs over 300 lbs. Eats ONLY potato chips, popcorn, cheese, and processed meats. Refuses ALL vegetables and fruits (after 2 heart attacks). Claims he made a promise to himself live exactly as he wanted after he left home.\n\nSpends his days reading comic books, toking up and watching television. NOTHING else. That's his life. I'm moving out Tuesday. I found out that since I moved out he can't pay the rent because in 5 weeks he couldn't be bothered to find another roommate so he's being evicted. \n\n63 years old.\n\nWelcome to the rest of your life if that's what you want. It's your choice and your own fault if you end up as him.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I'm a girl which probably makes it different but the thought never even occurred to me until I was 17. Weird because I wasn't even a virgin. Maybe it's a good thing you never have. I haven't left my room in over 5 years.", "score": 154 }, { "body": "I'll have to throw this on my list of products to **not** spend $21.99 on...\n\nhttp://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/shirt/akxdr/im_an_18_year_old_guy_who_has_never_masturbated/", "score": 77 }, { "body": "Some very important [scientists](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/relationships/6709646/All-men-watch-porn-scientists-find.html) need you for immediate experimentation.", "score": 74 }, { "body": "No, it's not weird at all. It is, however, very VERY boring. There's an amusement park in your pants and you're tall enough for all the rides. Live it up.", "score": 68 }, { "body": "I come from India where masturbation is taboo, although everyone does it. Ironically it was my doctor who said 'if you are masturbating, don't do it'. I started it then...think at the age of 14. I got hooked to it. Soon I was fapping 12-14 times a day (I kid you not!)\n\nEdit: Shit, I posted it using my real username!", "score": 56 }, { "body": "Nocturnal emissions are pretty much hard proof that you need to get rid of that shit once in a while.\n\nMight as well enjoy doing it.", "score": 38 }, { "body": "Are you Edward Cullen from *Twilight*? Because that's how he got Bella Swan pregnant, actually. He never ever once ejaculated after he was turned into a vampire, and so his chilly body kept his last batch of viable sperm cold so that when he met his true love, he was able to bequeath upon her hot human body his ninety-year-old sperm.\n\nAnd no, I didn't read the books, but I have read [plenty](http://stoney321.livejournal.com/317176.html) [of](http://vampirely.wordpress.com/) \n[criticism](http://twilightsucks.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=twilight&thread=638&page=1) [and](http://otahyoni.livejournal.com/130432.html) [parodies](http://www.cracked.com/article_16878_if-twilight-was-10-times-shorter-100-times-more-honest.html). ", "score": 34 }, { "body": "I think it's interesting that there's socially accepted ages for everything. For instance, starting to drink alcohol at age 17 (+/-2 years) is okay. But if you heard of an 11-year old getting drunk, you'd be upset at their parents. Likewise, if you heard of someone getting drunk for the first time on their 24th birthday, you might find them odd or sheltered. \n\nMasturbation is similar. I'd say the age is something like 12 years old (+/-1 year). Any earlier or later is considered weird.\n\nBut it's not really. Everyone is different; don't feel like you need to do something because it's 'normal' or 'expected.'\n\ntl;dr: I'd recommend it.", "score": 33 }, { "body": "The first time I masturbated I was 22 I think. Not from trying to avoid it...nothing \"clicked\" before then, I guess.\n\nWeird? Supremely.\nWorrisome? I don't know why it would be.", "score": 32 }, { "body": "Ok man, let me start off by saying that your missing out and i mean it. To be honest I'm not even sure how you can resist the urge. I am 16 now, have been at it for about 5-6 years, and i cant stop. I have masturbated literally everywhere, IMeanEverywhere. Here is a list: My room, my brothers room, my bathroom, my kitchen, my parents room, friends room, bathroom at the movie theater, aboard a southwest airlines flight, in a 5 star hotal room, 5 star hotel bathroom, 5 star hotel pool changing room thingy, porta-potty, my shed, my living room, in the backseat of my moms car while she was driving (that one was hard), multiple restaurant bathrooms, the bathroom at my school, OH i also managed to do it on the school bus once (again really hard), in a tent, on my brothers bunk-bed when he was awake on the bottom, in the bathroom at a concert, every room in my aunt's house...\n\nAnd that's only scratching the surface, yes those are real even the ones about the bus and my moms car.\n\nYes, this is clearly a throwaway. ", "score": 20 }, { "body": "DO IT NOW. My god I don't understand. Why are you on the internet?!! Go and do it right now, and then come back and tell us what it was like. ", "score": 17 }, { "body": "Dude, it feels great to hold off for a couple of weeks and then do it. To go YEARS into puberty and not do it...I would kill for that feeling. It will be like the Second Coming, but in your pants. And it will be the first.\n\nBut yeah, it is kind of a time waster. Only do it once you get a job and actually have time to waste.", "score": 15 }, { "body": ">and never really had the urge to do so.\n\nYou're saying you never had any sexual desire to speak of? Not even had an early morning boner? \n\nThat's called being [asexual](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asexual), further info: http://www.asexuality.org/home/", "score": 14 }, { "body": "Think how much more productive you are than any other 18 year old who has ever lived.\n\nIf you want to do it then go ahead, if you don't then don't. BUt don't get uptight about feeling you have to.", "score": 12 }, { "body": "Not masturbating regularly (or otherwise relieving yourself this way) can [lead to health risks](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3072021.stm). Obviously, if you think you're risking eternal damnation, the extra risk of prostate cancer isn't going to outweigh that, but consider this: Onan wasn't smitten because he let seed fall to the floor, it was because he failed to meet his obligation to his late brother by not impregnating the decedent's widow. It was that specific action in that circumstance that God was angry at.", "score": 9 }, { "body": "It is a little weird, but you're not the only one. My ex masturbated for his first time at 19. When we met in our mid-20s, he was an otherwise healthy guy who was a good lover, so this many not necessarily be a issue.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "The internet is for pornnn\n\nThe internet is for pornnnnn\n\nGrab your dick and double-click\n\nBecause the internet is for porn.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "Seriously, it's incredibly weird. How the hell did you get through puberty? \n\nAnd honestly, I'd say yes, you need to. Apart from anything else, if you want to be a good lover for any future partner, knowing your own sexual response inside-out is a crucial factor. \n\nIf it's too weird just starting in cold blood, so to speak, then find some porn. You have the internet, it's not hard. Search for something that appeals (badjojo is good for this - and it's more than OK for the majority of stuff *not* to appeal), and just play idly while watching. It lowers the required amount of physical stimulation *dramatically*, and gives you something more compelling to think about than how awkward you feel. \n\nPut it this way - what do you have to lose, exactly? \n", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Not really, I've always figured eat when you're hungry, sleep when you're tired etc; basically follow your body's urges as it is usually trying to tell you what it needs. If you have no urge to masturbate, then you are not weirds for not doing so - equally if you have strong sexual urges, you are not weird for masturbating or having sex. There is no right or wrong level of libido to have.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I don't think it's weird. I didn't masturbate till I was 24.\n\nThen again, I've never had a girlfriend and am still a virgin.\n\nOkay forget that, it's weird. You're weird. I'm weird.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I just watched an American Dad episode about Stan never having jerked off, and then when he does, he doesn't leave the house for a few days. If you go for it make sure you've got some time to spare.\r\nEDITED: I had family guy instead of American Dad. American Dad is much better.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I am not trolling when I say this: are you 100% sure you're not attracted to the same sex? Your story sounds painfully familiar to other people who ended up being gay, but this is just my personal experience.\n\nTwo key points to note: You couldn't get hard with your girlfriend (now how normal this is, simply from being nervous, I don't know.) The other is the fact that you can't masturbate, apparently, to women - \"but after a minute or two I got bored of it\" this sounds like you weren't excited in the least bit.\n\nAlso, the following sounds like denial: \"I do get erections and get turned on by woman.\" You mentioned you were straight like three times in your post. This has nothing to do with masturbating.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I never really masturbated much as a teenager and I never had a wet dream in my life! To this day I only really get turned on when I'm actually with a woman. I get spontaneous erections like in the morning and on the bus, but I don't get turned on much by porn and never by thoughts. I only wank to relieve the pressure, not for fun.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "What about pornography? You say you have led a very sheltered life, does that mean you haven't given porn a try?", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Step 1: Get a webcam or professional filming equipment.\n\nStep 2: Film yourself masturbating. \n\nStep 3: ?\n\nStep 4: Profit!\n\nJust think of the financial potential a tape of someone discovering masturbation who is of legal age can be in the pedophile community? Millions!", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I didn't masturbate until I was a little over 18. I got bored of it as well, but then I got a girlfriend and she got me off and I then knew what it took. I do masturbate occasionally now to relieve stress.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "There is no rule or requirement regarding masturbation. To do anything at a certain age or time just because others do it at that age or time is a very weak motivation. I really doubt that most of those advising you to replace your biological clock with theirs used someone else's in their growth and development. It is ok not to masturbate and, should you be compelled (from within) to start, that's ok too. But to act or not act because of some norm is very immature. Also, I believe, to use external stimulation in order to accomplish something that is now not really all that important to you, just for the sake of doing something you don't care if you do or not, is very artificial, IMHO.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "[Is this part of the reason why you refrained?](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/11/God-kills-kitten.jpg) I've always wondered if this is true...", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I'm going to assume you're not a troll because honestly, with all the weird kinks, fetishes and sexual problems people have, it's actually entirely understandable to me that someone would be in your situation. \n\nMasturbation is a very important part of your sexual development and is a fun, safe and intensely pleasurable past time. It releves stress and is a good way for you to get to know your own body. I think once you experience masturbation to completion you'll never go back to not doing it and you'll probably more actively try to get other people to do the work for you, which is a good thing. You can't be a very good lover if you don't even know how to pleasure yourself. \n\nSo, go get some porn, some tissue, get hard and jerk it like it's no one's business.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I'm not sure you're going to get the understanding you're looking for here; in fact I'm sorry to say that people may even react with harsh replies to your question. Your situation is unusual, and is in fact hard to relate to. I would add, however that there is nothing wrong with doing or not doing as you please... as long as you're not sinning.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "16 year old here. I have also never masturbated. I do get erections in the morning and am into girls. I'm a virgin. I can only think of two nocturnal emissions I've had. I have also never watched porn. For real. I don't know what I would watch (starter porn?) I'd like to try it but I don't realy know how. Do I just wrap my hand around my penis an start moving up and down? That pulls at the skin and isn't exactly a nice feeling. Yes I am serious. Any advice is appreciated. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "The first time I masturbated, my dick swelled up for about 3 days, not the normal erection swelling either, It was short and fat. Also, the first time, the semen was a golden color, rather than the normal white. All kinda weird for the first time. But I was hooked, then and there. 12 years old and happy.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I don't consider myself oversexed, but the first time I ejaculated was a shock, I had no idea what the glorious sensation was. I have been manually encouraging it repeatedly for the 40 years since. I am happily married and have a healthy sexual relationship with my wife.\n\nYou may have a medical condition. Out of curiosity, why do you shave your pubic hair?", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Sounds like a kid trying to strike fear into you. I wouldn't worry about what that kid is going to do, if he actually planned on doing something \"bad\" he would not have warned you first by giving away the information he collected", "score": 7 }, { "body": "You might be amazed at what kind of information one can turn up with a bit of social engineering and research. Sometimes I guess at what high school kids attend, based on the IP of the school board they post questions from, to a forum, and matching the homework help questions to the curriculum. If this narrows the choices down to just a few locations [take a guess](http://xkcd.com/628/).", "score": 5 }, { "body": "To be honest he probably just googled your username and found your facebook or myspace profile or collected more information from forums youtube etc. By the way you cant get 'reported' for hacking on a video game it's not an offence and if there going to ban you from the game they will need evidence but I doubt anyone would bother.. Just block him on your MSN/Skype whatever and never join his game server again.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I'm in Davie FL! I'm like two miles from that intersection! Fireworks terrified my cat too! I'll pass the info, and look around when I'm driving about!", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I hope you find the puppy. I really do.\n\n\nOn NYE 2008/2009 my girlfriend and I went to see the fireworks in the city and when we came back, our labradoodle was _freaking_ out. She had wedged herself under the cabinet in our living room try to escape the noise. She has hyperventilating and panting hardcore. Obviously spooked. She also flips out when we get thunderstorms too.\n\n\nMy girlfriend took her to the vet this year who prescribed valium for her. At 1130pm at the vet's recommendation, we gave her the tablets and within 15 mins we had a dog who was nice and calm and relaxed. She didn't flip out at the noise at all. She had some trouble walking, her legs were flopping all over the place, but she was fine. To top things off, there was a thunderstorm that evening too.\n\n\nPerhaps next year (after you find her, because I'm an optimist like that), go to the vet and get some valium for her too. Also, I am annoyed that my dog gets better meds than me.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I use a PreSonus Inspire 1394. The Inspire is reasonably inexpensive, and provides a variety of inputs so you can probably do whatever you need to do.\n\nhttp://www.presonus.com/products/Detail.aspx?ProductId=7", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I would highly recommend an Apogee Duet. They professional studio grade DA/AD converters. \n\n[Duet](http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/duet.php)", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "... wait. You have only met 5 times and won't see him until SEPTEMBER?! I think that's more than enough of a reason to break free.\n\nDo you think you're just trying to keep this relationship because you're afraid of not finding anyone? Don't be afraid to meet other people, you are far too young to set your sights on someone just yet. There are more people to date out there than you can count! \n... and you're sure he's faithful?", "score": 17 }, { "body": "LOL, 'you've met up about 5 times?' \n\nYou aren't dating exclusively and if you are, you are both fucking weirdos. ", "score": 10 }, { "body": "Dump the motherfucker already. \"We REALLY click\" is not a good reason to stay together with someone who clearly doesn't want to see you that much.", "score": 10 }, { "body": "You can count on one hand the times you met up in the last 2 years? How on earth have you made that work? I'd kill it if I were you.", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "[It takes 52 hours to go to from O RLY? to YA RLY!](http://www.bing.com/maps/?FORM=Z9LH9#JmNwPTQ2LjA4NDk5MjAwMDAwMDAxfjI3LjEyNjIxMjAwMDAwMDAxJmx2bD0zJnN0eT1yJnJ0cD1wb3MuNDguNzQzMDM0MDc5NjcwOTA2XzIuNDAxMzg1MDgzNzk0NTk0X09ybHklMkMlMjBWYWwtRGUtTWFybmUlMkMlMjBGcmFuY2VfX19lX35wb3MuMzkuMjE2NzAxMzg4MzU5MDdfNDguMjgzMjk4NzYwNjUyNTRfWWFybHklMkMlMjBBemVyYmFpamFuX19fZV8mcnRvcD0wfjB+MH4=)", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "Apart from fixing your flu (which definately needs fixing)...\n\n\nGo big or go home. Stack the fuel properly. Start with newspaper or paraffin starters... place kindling on top (leave space between the kindling, but not so much as to keep the heat from each piece separate). Put 2 split 16\" (seasoned) logs on the kindling - again, mind the spacing.\n\nIf it's cold outside, heat the flu before you light the fire (roll up a few pages of newspaper and light the end. Hold it up the flu like an Indiana Jones torch for a few minutes. \n\nLight the paper under the grate, close the doors, open the vent (if one exists) and when she's good and hot, open the doors (leave the screen closed)\n\nWe have fires often in our place. Sorry if I didn't explain it well, but we've never ever had a problem.\n\n\n\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "you are my male counterpart. \n\nif it makes you feel better, researchers of human sexuality mostly reject as ridiculous our gay-bi-straight paradigm. sexuality is a spectrum--some people are attracted to both sexes equally, some to one alone, and many, many, many are somewhere in between. ", "score": 16 }, { "body": "Well, you're not alone. I'm frankly astounded that I turned out as \"normal\" as I did. I was 27 before I lost my virginity. Until then, I'd had crushes on both genders. From a really young age I crushed on guys but would never have considered acting on it, becuase \"duh\" that's not normal. So, I concentrated on my crushes on females.\n\nNo romantic success until my (now) wife seduced me and that decided it. As fate would have it, she's bi too, so we understand each other quite well.\n\nAt this point, I'm in a happy relationship open to experimentation, which is the best one could hope for. How I got here was pure chance, though, so I'm not sure I have any good advice besides \"find the human on the planet who's a PERFECT match for you!\" \n\nI'm fond of the phrase \"labels are for cans\" as none of the typical labels gay, straight, or bi seem to feel right on me.\n\nAs for the being a virgin thing, this is a thing best cured sooner than later. Sex is a basic human desire, and isn't necessarily tied to a morality/committment/relationship thing. Find someone you're friends with who at least understands sort of who you are who can help you do some experimenting with. It needn't be someone you plan on a permanent relationship with. I think too many people are hung up by the \"my FIRST experience\" problem, and that actually causes more psychological problems.\n\nI too have felt this overwhelming \"bi guys don't exist\" vibe. It's weird. I always like having had some common experience so I can intuitively understand what other people have felt: depression, anxiety, loss, etc. but I've always been bi, so I have NO idea what it's like to only feel attraction to one gender. (though I do sort of feel slightly out of place with both straight/gay: I really don't like going down on girls, and I don't like the idea of anal sex at all, so neither \"straight\" nor \"gay\" stereotypes describe me well)\n\nGood luck! Hang in there.\n", "score": 7 }, { "body": "You're certainly not the only one confused about it. And if you decide in the end you're bi, go for it. Whatever makes you happy.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Hey, thanks for writing. I wont lie, bisexuals face criticism from both straight and gay communities, but luckily you're a male so the worse you'll get is \"he just can't admit that he's gay.\" A female has to combat with the whore stereotype so for that you're spared. Minus the criticism though, lots of gay guys would be turned on by your bisexuality. I guess it really comes down to doing what feels best, Who says you need a label anyways? If you're dating a guy, you are a guy in a relationship with another guy, or if you're dating a girl, you're a guy in a relationship with a girl. Be well :0)", "score": 4 }, { "body": "When I was young, I guess I did block off part of my psyche like that. I was one of the most well-behaved young people/teenagers most people had ever seen, but I guess I acted out sexually. It's not like I went with every guy around, though; from age 13 on I had one relationship at a time, most lasting more than a year, until I got married at 19. When I was 21 and pregnant, my then-husband confessed to his huge crush on a female friend and we both decided to explore and be open. (I'm now married to that friend's spouse and he's dating her). \n\nThere are things to enjoy with men and women, and it's hard to settle down in a way that means you have to choose one or the other forever. Polyamory is an option but is even less openly accepted than bisexuality; many people still don't know what it is. On the other hand, I've known a few couples who had a \"friend\" or \"roommate\" out with them who I was pretty sure was another partner to one or both of the \"official\" couple, and I know such arrangements can work out.\n\nJenny Block's book \"Open\" is more about a poly lifestyle than bisexuality, but the reason she's open is because she's bisexual and couldn't live with that part of her psyche walled off. I recommend it.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "You're probably mainly looking for responses from other bi guys/gals who've had similar experiences to yours, but as a gay guy I wanted to add that we don't all think negatively of people who think of themselves as bi. I haven't had a discussion on bisexuality with any of the gay people I know so I'm not sure how common cynicism towards bi people is among gays and lesbians, but I'm actually surprised that it exists in the first place. I know from personal experience that sexual orientation issues can be difficult to deal with and confusing so even if I had a friend who identified as bi just because he was in denial or because he was trying to hide, I'd still be supportive of him.\n\nAlso, I'm glad you posted this because I had no idea that someone's sexual orientation could change back and forth is such a small amount of time. Upvote for enlightening post.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "i don't know how old you are, but you sound young. i don't mean to be offensive at all, please don't take it that way. :)\n\nI think you will be fine, you shouldn't feel like you have to make a choice, and speaking as a completely gay person, most gay people would have no problem with that sexuality that you describe. give people a few years and they will have much less absolutist views and stereotypes. as to whether you would want to be a part of the \"gay community\" that's kinda a loaded question. there is no gay community, only gay people, and if you are a guy who occasionally is attracted to other guys you will probably run across a few gay people in your life. :) most gay people end up spending some time with other sexual minorities, the ones that are judgmental about it and think everyone should fit into some cookie cutter are not hard to avoid. :) I would be more worried about straight people accepting you than gays. If you don't want to come out until college, wait, no big deal :)", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I was in the same position and felt much the same, tried to deny the attraction to other males & rationalize it away, 'I like girls so I can't be gay', 'everyone has homoerotic fantasies sometimes so its no big deal', 'I don't feel like that *right now* so it must have just been a passing fancy', etc. The first time I had a gay sexual experience I nearly threw up the next morning, not because I was disgusted by it but because it was a commitment; I could no longer pass myself off as 'just a straight guy who's a little bent'. Over the years I was with a few girls and a few guys, I became more comfortable with it especially after my hormones started to settle down a bit. Just recently I married the woman that I love. It doesn't mean I'm not bi now; it also doesn't mean I'm going to be going out searching for cock any time soon, and more than a married straight guy is automatically going to fuck women who aren't his wife just because he's attracted to women. But I do still have sexual desires toward men. My experience may well be a bit different than yours as I'm also a Goth and a transvestite androgyne; I never found it difficult to find men who were interested in my normal social circles, so I'm not sure how useful my experience will be to you. But my advice is to just get out there and meet people, always find out if a guy is gay/bi *before* you come on to them, don't fuck while drunk or high, and eventually you'll figure out what fits right for you.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "dude you described my feelings perfectly. When I'm crushing on a girl, the gay (for lack of a better word) parts of myself seem farther away, less apart of who I am. And vice versa, I feel similarly when I'm crushing on a guy. It's frustrating sometimes because I end up challenging my bi-ness one way or the other. \n\nI have learned that, for me at least, it is much, much more about the person and how they make me feel than their gender or anything else. Right now, my girl is really really cute, among many other incredible things.\n\nBeing bi is a lot about going with the flow...", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I seem to be (after much consideration) a heteroromantic homosexual, at least at the moment. I don't know if that counts as bi, but I'm pretty damned confused about it. I told friends and family I'm \"not straight\" seeing as I've actually decided to try guys. Also I wasn't sexually attracted to guys until a few years ago. I doesn't seem like I can relate to your average gay guy's experience either. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "The weird thing about being bi is that it doesn't seem to have much to do with the gay community, despite the fact that the community names itself LGBT. Most lesbians certainly wanted nothing to do with bi women.\n\nWhen I self-defined as lesbian it was very much a gay community type of thing and I was out in all aspects of my life, but being bi is weird. I currently have a boyfriend so most people think I'm straight unless they knew me when I only dated women, and I can't see the point of \"coming out\" just to tell them that I'm bi, unless for some strange reason it becomes appropriate to the conversation (which it almost never does).", "score": 3 }, { "body": "My boyfriend is bi (I'm gay). He's told me before that I'm the only guy he'd ever consider being with, and he'd only been with ladies before this. In some ways, it's nice because he can explain (or attempt to explain) some of these things about why ladies are attractive. It's an insight that I don't really have. But the sexuality doesn't really matter because he and I like one another (though, the hardest thing to do was to realise that women aren't a *threat* — they're just different. One is pie, the other is cheesecake).\n\nI also have a straight friend who's fooled around a bit, but he says that, after evaluation, he likes ladies better.\n\n\nI don't think it's fair to make the assumption that people are Homo- Bi- or Hetero-sexual — human sexuality is a diverse and varied thing; it is fluid, and changes day to day just like our preferences for foods.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Doesn't sound to me like you're confused at all about your sexuality. \r\n\r\nYour confusion stems from succumbing to the notion that you __must be X__, where X is gay OR straight OR bi OR some other rigid label. You don't HAVE to fit into any predefined bullshit label. \r\n\r\nAs Frank Zappa put it, you am what you am; a cow don't make ham. ", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "She probably had moved on significantly before you separated, leaving you to play catch up. Don't fret over if she was talking to or with this guy before the separation. Nothing's going to change and nothing good will come from it. Thinking about it is also just a distraction preventing you from moving on. Don't try and get her to discuss it, just accept it (within yourself) and move on. Good luck. ", "score": 19 }, { "body": "Some people can move on very quickly while others need time to adjust. Her ability to move on doesn't mean that she was cheating on you. Try not reading too much into it because it happens. ", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Maybe she just met someone that was so right straight away.\n\nMaybe she had learned from relationships what she needs to such a degree that when there was someone right, she didn't need to hesitate, anymore. You have been a part creating that happiness for her.\n\nMaybe she was lost and jumped deeper immediately because she felt she has to do something with her life.\n\nMaybe...", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "You need to take a look at the neck after leaving it that way for a bit. If it's back bowing, then you can adjust the truss rod, just like normal. No biggie.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "[Basic Instructions - How to Riff on an Idea](http://basicinstructions.net/basic-instructions/2009/9/23/how-to-riff-on-an-idea.html)", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "I tried both Lightroom and Aperture, and ended up with Aperture: I liked the freeform editing modes of Aperture, though Lightroom's module-based work-flow might work better for you. \n\nThe great thing is that you can demo both and decide for yourself. \n\nAnd yes, I have Photoshop for the times I need it. I am also thinking about re-demoing Lightroom 3 to see if I like it more than Aperture now. ", "score": 8 }, { "body": "There are trials for both. Take a couple of hours to install, import some photos and see how you like the workflow.\n\nPersonally I went with Lightroom - and have been with it since the first public beta of version 1. It's the best purchase I've made for photography besides my DSLR.\n\nBefore you even install, Lightroom has some advantages: your purchase is for the Mac and Windows version (they use the same key) - so there's no platform lock-in should you decide to \"unswitch.\" You can also install on two computers, typically a desktop and a laptop (which can be both Windows, Mac - or one of each.)\n\nThe Lightroom interface is modal - it has a \"Library\", \"Develop\" and \"Publish\" modes that group the tools. Some people don't like it, but I find that it makes a lot of sense for ingesting large volumes of photos (600+) at a time, since it enforces a workflow to get things done.\n\nSo you'll import your photos, organize them into folders, \"pick\" and tag which ones you'd like to develop, filter out the \"rejected\" photos - then switch to develop mode, the publish. The filters work very well so that you can quickly reject the photos that you don't like - and then take just your group of \"keepers\" into the develop phase to minimize distractions.\n\nLightroom is also very flexible about the layout of your library - it can import in place, or organize photos for you in a layout of your choice. Support for multiple disks, multiple libraries, exporting and automatic backups also work very well.\n\nAperture is an \"all-in-one\" interface - and it feels a bit like information overload. You're spoiled for choice at all times and it's easy to become distracted. It also uses their \"Pro Apps\" interface style, which I don't like very much.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I started out with Aperture, moved to Lightroom after about a year, then recently tried Aperture again to see if anything had changed.\n\nI ended up back in Lightroom. Here's why:\n\n1. **Faster:** Many operations feel quicker or more responsive.\n\n2. **Better adjustments:** I was never pleased with the result of heavily adjusting an image in Aperture.\n\n3. **Better plugins:** The leading flickr upload plugin for Lightroom is much more mature than Aperture's.\n\n4. **Better library format:** Lightroom lets you store originals wherever your want and uses a catalog file to keep track of them. Aperture stores everything (originals, thumbnails, metadata, catalog) in one big proprietary bundle (you can go inside it, but getting at your images isn't nearly as straightforward as with Lightroom).\n\nThere are other reasons, but I'm not going to write them up on my phone. Your experience may be different from mine, so definitely take advantage both trial versions.", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "Support your community farmers. We usually have a farmers market once a week where I live, I'm sure that you can find some around your area too. Awesome fresh produce all the time.\n\nBuy your meat straight from the farm, get a few friends to go a quarter in a cow and freeze it, you'll save a fortune and get to choose the animal you will eat. You'll get to see where it was brought up, how the farmer treats his/her livestock.\n\nDo you feel like starting a vege garden? Nature does most of the work, if you have a back yard, you can look into ripping it up and replacing it with a vege garden, the backyard that you get on a quarter acre is enough to support a family with very little extra you have to spend.\n\nIf you feel like going fancy or dont have a yard, you can look at vertical gardening, container gardening (pain in the ass), upside down gardening or my favrouite, aquaponics, which is using a hydroponic grow bed in a closed loop system feeding from an aquarium/pond, all you have to do is feed the fish and the plants absorb all the nutrients from the water, making them grow insanely fast.", "score": 17 }, { "body": "I wondered the same thing after seeing the same movie. I don't eat fast food (easy), buy local (hard to find local fresh veg in the winter), we grow what we can, and when the Oprah show told ny wife we should have 'urban chickens' we did that, too. Chickens are pretty good pets actually.They're pretty funny , too. We average about 2 dozen organic eggs per week from 4 hens.I don't think its possible to totally avoid the evils of huge conglomerates like ADMor Tyson or Monsanto, but I'm willing to do what I can. If my only option is small victories, I'll take'em.", "score": 8 }, { "body": "If you can start a vegetable garden, it's a great experience as other posters have stated.\r\n Nothing tasted like something your grow yourself. \r\n\r\nMy neighbor has taught me alot in the past few years, one example is to use your gutters (his garage, both our gardens are behind them) to collect rain water to a barrel. This is used to water the garden when needed. And he has three goldfish he keeps in that barrel over the season to prevent algae and mosquitos from that water. Love that guy.", "score": 7 }, { "body": "Start a garden. Yes, I'm serious. \n\nI have two 15'x15' plots that produce all the veggies my wife and I eat, apart from grains (need more space) and the occasional winter tomato.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "The first Doctor Who I watched was the odd Nine episode, and I loved him. But I didn't really start watching until Ten took over, so they will jostle for my first place spot eternally.\n\nOn another note, though. I think Ten[nant]'s departure came at just the right time. Sooner or later he would have overstayed his welcome; he's already the second longest running Doctor. So I'm glad he left when he did. From a production standpoint, Tennant seems to be moving on; and from a character standpoint, Ten's jubilance was starting to break under the repeated horrors of his journey. He was weary, and I don't think he could have recovered.", "score": 14 }, { "body": "Peter Davison has been my Doctor from as long as I can remember and probably always will be.\n\nNeedless to say I flipped everloving shit when he showed up for that special, and to hear David Tennant's Doctor tell him \"You are my doctor.\" I air-fistbumped Tennant. \n\nThe Davison episodes are an interesting watch for me. The first half of his episodes he has Adric. I absolutely hate hate HATE Adric, although his death was really well written. I rarely watch his last episode because his regeneration is particularly crushing to me.\n\nTom Baker and David Tennant tie for second place, and Eccelston takes third. ", "score": 9 }, { "body": "[You never forget your first Doctor.](http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/unisex/popculture/988c/) \nThe first episode I saw was The End of the World (9th Doctor) late one night on PBS. Then I went back and saw all of the new series and got some of the old one. \nTennant is my Doctor, I suppose, closely followed by Baker, then Davison, then Eccleston. But #9 will always be my first Doctor.", "score": 9 }, { "body": "I started watching Dr Who on PBS with my dad when I was about 9. Forever, Tom Baker was the Doctor. When he regenerated into Peter Davison, I hated it. I felt bitter towards Davison. But then as the 6th doctor came, I suddenly missed Davison. LOL\n\nWhile I'll always see Tom Baker when I envision the Doctor, Tennant has become my favorite.", "score": 8 }, { "body": "I think he'll put on the brainy specs at least one more time. Probably not for a while and I think it'll be alternate universe human-Doctor, not the real thing. Something like Timecrash. That ending was just too heart breaking and Matt Smith already has a tough job ahead for Tennant to pop up and remind people what they lost so soon. I bet he'd come back to help bring the show to a close if things don't go well and the Beeb decides to shelve it for another 10 years.", "score": 7 }, { "body": "I watched starting with 9 and loved him. And then David Tennant came in and I was like \"Who the hell is this guy? Trying to be the doctor. Who does he think he is?\" But then he grew on me when he did his first little rant during the Christmas episode. He quickly became my doctor.\n\nSo, keeping that in mind, I'm trying not to be so judgmental of Matt right away. I already love his goofiness. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I don't have a Doctor because I started my love of WHO with the books. I didn't have enough control over the TV in my house but I was a member of three different libraries so I read the books which I still maintain were some of the best written fiction for young readers ever. I read whatever I could get my hands on so I first encountered all the doctors at once.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "i would recommend an iud if you can. i had a paragard which later expelled, and now i will be getting a mirena. i've pretty much only heard good things about the mirena.\n\ni've only had bad luck with birth control pills, especially loestrin 24 fe. that killed my libido, killed my appetite, made me want to kill myself, and my hair started to fall out. not fun.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "\"I did some freelance content production...?\" Does that translate into American as, \"I let bitches suck my cock on tape?\"", "score": 13 }, { "body": "I know this isn't an AMA, but if you don't mind: how much did you pay them? Where is the line between pornography and prostitution drawn ;)", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Nicole is awesome...what site/company is this for?\n\nOr did you just tell them it was for your \"friends\" \"porno company\" ;)", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Go spend some time at a trailer park, You'll realize these things are related to the class of the people (often based on money, but not always) and not the race. Trust me when I say regardless of race, people who have nothing, respect nothing.", "score": 653 }, { "body": "Having your eyes open to see things does not make you a racist.\n\nIn fact, from this, you don't sound like you are racist. There's a list of observations, and no invective. You need to worry when you are unable to see a black person and assume that they are all on Section 8/uneducated/whatever. Also, balance this out with seeing the seedy side of any other group of people (we all have them).\n\nAvoid stereotyping those you meet, and you'll be fine.", "score": 209 }, { "body": " I used to do tech support for a Canadian cable company basically fixing peoples PCs so that they could get back on the Internet (usually due to bad downloads...)\n\n I had the \"privilege\" of being in thousands of homes... white, black, native, oriental, east Indian, West Indies etc... you name the race - I was in all of their homes...\n\n It's all just about the people mate. Lets face it you are in the rental industry and you are not about to meet the creme de la creme of society. Many renters are renters as they cannot do anything else. You are not dealing with homeowners that really, really care about their property values, corrective repair, maintenance and other such values.\n\n Okay, in your case the people seem to be mostly black. You just discovered the most economic disadvantaged group in your area! One state or country over it's the East Indians, or the Natives, the Bosnian s, the Gypsy's... whatever. \n\n And there always be one economic disadvantaged group that deals too many drugs, has a history of substance abuse, crime... whatever...\n\n And everyone hates them in that area. I have traveled quite a bit and heard it all. \"Those damn (Blacks/ Pakistanis/ Gypsy's/ Cambodians/ Albanians, etc,etc...) just don't care about themselves and they are horrible people who have no respect. They are a bunch of thieves, criminals etc... \n\n But case in point. I went to thousands of peoples homes and sure, some were bad. Every race, religion, and creed.... On the flip side I did work in peoples homes that were great people - every race, creed and religion...\n\n But you are not going to see a lot of the best when you are dealing with the lower end socio-economic classes. I know if you traveled somewhere else it would be the same thing, just a different people who are disadvantaged. ", "score": 163 }, { "body": "You cannot *not* be racist and work in the apartment industry. I've worked at about40-50 different communities (I worked as a floater). My favorite was an Equity propert in a really nice area. The only time I talked to/saw people was if they had packages to pick up.\n\nBut let's take a trip south to the, almost, ghetto. Wow, the section 8/FEMA paperwork was fucking hell. They tried to treat me like I was a servant. We couldn't order pizza because the drivers refused to deliver there. Gunshots almost every day... I walked around fearing I'd get jumped or hit by a stray bullet.\n\nThis one black woman BLEW UP her oven twice making fried chicken. I told her we would NOT be replacing her oven the second time as it still functioned, but was dirt as shit and looked lke shit.\n\nAnd the wal throughs... Fuck dude. People at the nice communities would clean their ovens, shampoo their carpets and even pain/patch up walls. Go to the ghetto and you find crack pipes, nasty nasty nasty ovens, refridgerators with food in them... Don't even get me started on the bathrooms.\n\nYou know why? Because renter's credit doesn't mean shit if you're degenerate piece of shit on section 8, it only matters to us well adjusted members of civilized society.\n\nI'm just glad I never had to work at a property that leased to felons.\n\nEDIT: I wanted to save this until I got down voted to hell, but read this post and you're thinking I'm talking about black people and white people, right? I didn't say anything about the race of the people in either community, except a black woman blew up her oven.", "score": 67 }, { "body": "Recognizing that there is a problem does not make you racist. You're racist if you start treating people differently simply for their skin. Don't worry.", "score": 32 }, { "body": "My family owns a good bit of rental property. Some near Auburn University (thats 99% of the time white renters). We have some condos in a bad part of Auburn thats 99% mexican and some In my home town thats 99% black. By far the worst ones to go in a clean and repair are the ones rented by the blacks and mexicans. They are mostly left with trash and filth everywhere and sometimes even take the light fixtures. Not all are like that but most of our renters are. Most of them drive a vehicle that is nicer than mine and they make 1/4th of what I make. We even had a black family leave a dog with 10 newborn puppies in a house when they abandoned it for over a week. 2 of the puppies died. Then they hard the nerve to threaten us and break in when we threw away all of their stuff. Most have no respect for what they don't own.", "score": 25 }, { "body": "I worked at this grocery store.\nThe shoppers were 75% black, 20% hispanic, 5% others.\n\nI worked there for 8 months. It made me hate black people.\nThe amount of bullshit I dealt with....was just horrible. \n\nI was a racist :)\nThen I got to college and me and my RA were talking about it.\nHe told me...don't bunch people together on color....but rather look at their financial situation. Now, I'm not racist! Well...I don't like Indians..but that does not count since I'm indian. ", "score": 24 }, { "body": "I lived in Hawaii for 20 years, and if anything will disabuse you of race prejudices, it's Hawaii. There is racism in Hawaii, but it's a different paradigm. There was never any slavery, no segregation, most marriages are mixed race. You see blond, blue-eyed people with Japanese names. Asian looking people with Irish names. And everything inbetween. You just can't look at a person's racial characteristics and make ANY conclusions. The way they dress, the way they conduct themselves, etc. can be all over the map. \n\nThat said, I never lost a certain racist habit of noting a person's race when they offended me. God-damned this-or-that-racial slur. \n\nI guess it's because racial characteristics are so prominent in a person's appearance. Race is one of the first things you notice about a person -- when you can tell, that is. When you have been stirring that pot for generations, you can't even tell what race a person is, sometimes. \n\nBasically, you just have to treat each new person as a new person, with a clean slate, and a certain amount of respect. I've never been a subscriber to the idea that someone has to *earn* respect. I believe in a sort of \"line of credit\" on respect. I give respect at first, and continue to do so, unless they do things to cause me to *lose* respect. \n", "score": 21 }, { "body": "You, like most \"racists\", are simply a bad statistician.\n\n> For the last year or so, I've split my time between two complexes in the part of town where most of my city's blacks live.\n\nSo you work for two complexes where poor black trash lives. You will obviously see a sample of poor black trash. If you work for a white trash complex you will see sample of white trash. If you work for a low-income apartment complex in Albania you will see Albanian trash and in France you will see French trash etc etc etc etc.\n\nEach community of trash has its own signature characteristics. (When one thinks of white trash, for example, one thinks of inbreeding and trailers, and when one thinks of black trash one thinks of single welfare moms and money stupidly spent on luxury items). As a (presumably) white person it is easier for you to recognize the social reasons behind white trash (namely, lack of education and poverty). However, since there is a clear difference between you and the poor blacks, it can be a knee-jerk reaction to associate black trash behavior with black skin color.\n\nIf you want a \"cure\" for racism simply pay a visit to middle- and upper-class black neighborhoods. Or Google this guy named \"Obama\". Or pay a visit to northern Europe where many (I'd venture to say most) blacks are educated African immigrants. In Europe, by the way, racists are less concerned with blacks and more concerned with Arabs/Muslims, for the same reason. They extrapolate what they see (poor, uneducated communities of Muslim refugees) and make the false connection that being a Muslim or Arab somehow makes you poor and uneducated.", "score": 21 }, { "body": "I don't know how you're gonna do it, but you better do it fast. Racism is a crime, and crime is for niggers.", "score": 20 }, { "body": "I completely understand where you're coming from. The majority of my co-workers are black and from poor neighborhoods. I have never considered myself racist, but now I question thy belief. Everyone of my co-workers seem to soak themselves in any ghetto stereotype you can think of, and they do it proudly. They all have horrible grammer, sagging pants, badly painted cars with 1000 dollar rims, only eat at popeyes, rap loudly while working quoting bad radio pop rap, etc. Every one of them are proud that they are getting over on \"the system\" by claiming friend's kids as dependents, lying in order to get foodstamps, and lying to get thousands each after hurricanes Katrina and Rita when none of them had any damage or even lost power. It is really hard to not be racist when the only people of a different race that you see everyday embody all of these stereotypes. I could use some well-educated 'normal' friends of different races. ", "score": 16 }, { "body": "I'm black and I'm probably more educated and better off than you. And this goes for the rest of my black friends as well. In fact, I would say that my black friends are generally more educated than my white ones. This includes my in-laws, who are also white and from rural Maine. \n\nThere are a lot of educated black folks out there. In fact, we have a whole network of colleges and universities that we frequent and manage to maintain. I know plenty of black lawyers, engineers, doctors and dentist. Honestly, I don't know too many uneducated black people except for the ones that I deal with for professional reasons. Even the guy who owns the liquor that I frequent went to Brown. \n\nLet me describe middle to upper class black society for you. We live, eat and socialize almost exclusively together. But for the most part we keep a low profile. We all live in the same neighborhoods that have been around forever. We all drive the same cars, wear the same clothes and have the same political views. We are the Morgan Freemans and Bill Cosbys of black society. Ironically, Morgan Freeman's nephew was my weed dealer for a long time....but that's another story. \n\nWe generally are also the most judgemental and pretentious people you will ever meet. If you think that you hate poor and uneducated black people, then you have no idea. Educated black folks have more exclusive societies than I can count all for the sole purpose of keeping poor people out. We even hold huge gatherings, in far off places, where it's just us. And and soon as poor black people show up we leave. \n\nSo yeah, the other half of the black population hate poor people probably more than you. \n\n*please excuse any grammatical errors. It's late and I'm drunk at the moment. I will fix it later. Thanks. ", "score": 15 }, { "body": "I can explain part of it.\n\na) Generations of bad schools, bad curricula.\n\nb) Generations of bad nutrition.\n\nc) Generations of propaganda to subtly undermine people of color.\n\nd) Generation after generation living in dangerously substandard housing (ie: lead paint, ozone, high particle count areas, etc.).", "score": 10 }, { "body": "Paying attention isn't racist. \r\n\r\nStep back and look at the larger social-engineering aspect of the \"urbanization\" of smaller america that includes many of the things of which you speak. They are spreading out in clusters, to chosen areas, for specific purposes. There are going to be some growing pains and necessary adaptation.", "score": 10 }, { "body": "Every time I think about being/feeling racist, I pull up this video.\n\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybDa0gSuAcg\n\nMakes me want to go hug black people instead. (I don't, because I'm a huge hairy dude, and that would be weird and inappropriate, but the thought is there.)", "score": 10 }, { "body": "You can't. It's wired into our brains through a few million years of evolution.\n\nHowever, you should try your hardest to be fair to individuals.", "score": 7 }, { "body": "I know the apologists will always say \"its because of poverty\" or \"lack of education\" etc but can you name one prosperous society or country that is run by black people?", "score": 7 }, { "body": ">*As part of my job, I have to the Section 8 office every now and then..\n\nI think you accidentally a whole word there champ.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "I generally agree that the issue turns on class and not race, however, when seen as a percentage of the population, black people come off way worse than the trailer park set. ", "score": 6 }, { "body": ">*I am bewildered by the number of twenty-somethings who live off of social security.\n\nBecause they get denied, then they appeal, and the lawyers take the case at no charge to the client. (just 33% of the settlement). It is all about how you work the system, and they have tons of experience at it. In most cases they don't even have the work credits to be eligable for Social Security, so they end up with SSI (Supplemental Security Insurance). It only pays out about $700/ month. Could you live off that? They are not getting rich from it, I assure you. \n\nBut what you have to also realize before you jump all over them is that they have to choose between that, or dealing drugs. Not too many people are hiring in the inner city, not too many jobs. The school system in the inner city is crippled due to poor funding, so the kids are just being taught to the test and have little chance of getting into a decent university because of it. So they figure, it is either Social Security, or drug dealing. What choice do they really have? The farm jobs are all taken by migrant workers, if they even had the means to get to the farms, and the factories are all closed down and moved to China. It used to be that a man with a poor education could still make a decent living for themselves. Those options are gone now.\n\n>*There are more Mercedes, BMWs, and Lexuses at this place than anywhere else I have worked...they are all just 10 years old.\n\nStatus symbol. They are just trying to emulate what they perceive as a sign you have succeeded. Their heros are rappers and professional athletes, the only people to get out of the ghetto and make it. But keep in mind, those 10 year old BMWs, Mercedes, and Lexuses all cost under $10,000. They are all high mileage trade in's sold though high interest, high risk loans, the only kind of loans they can get. That car is the only thing they \"own\".\n\n>*I am equally bewildered by the number of twenty-something women who have multiple children with no adult male around, don't work, and receive Section 8, food stamps, etc.\n\nNo father around when they were little girls to raise them to respect themselves. It is a cycle, and it is sad.\n\nSo here is what you do. You turn racism into understanding and compassion.\n\nInstead of resenting them, how about a bit of compassion by realizing the situation they are really in. Be glad for what you have and the opportunities that you had. They will likely never see those opportunities. Do what you can to help them get a leg up. Like they say, you can give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, you can teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime. Most of them want to learn to fish, but nobody is there to teach them...\n", "score": 6 }, { "body": "i'm somewhat of a real estate investor, that is, i buy and rent out properties all across the US as a source of income. I mostly focus on the west coast and the Las Vegas area. I have to say that I completely agree with your observations. I own a plethora (10+) of different houses and I rent them out to section 8 people simply because the government pays the rent so less headache from late payments, no payment, etc. 100% of my tenants are black. 85% of them are single mothers with 3+ kids getting a 2000+ sq. ft. house completely covered by the government. 50% of these women are in their 20s.\n\nThis is difficult to watch with my background. I'm not originally from this country and neither are my parents. We worked our way from the very very bottom of the socio-economic ladder (think poverty, no running water, etc) to where to are now, which i would consider upper middle class. We've lived next door to everything from drug dealers to meth labs and the grittiest of neighborhoods (think \"The Wire\"). We took no welfare (only unemployment a few times) and worked for everything we have now. It's infuriating to watch people take advantage of the system and kindness of the government and people's tax dollars. It further infuriates me to see them blame the government and \"the system\" from holding them down.\n\nIMHO a big problem I see in black communities is the general attitude towards their personal freedom. Many of them feel *entitled* to their *freedom* due to the slavery issue. By freedom I mean that they feel like they should be able to do whatever it is they want and any kind of regard for other people, rules, regulations, social norms, are an infringement on their freedoms. This behavior I believe is taught and permeates through the community. I've become friendly with a few of my tenants who are nice people and they openly talk about having another kid so they can move into a bigger house.\n\nThe attitude is further compounded by the fact that parenting is almost none existent. There is no way a 20-30 something unemployed single mother can properly raise 3 or 4 children. Without proper parenting you lose education and then the children have no way to advance socio-economically. They end up like their parents having kids and living off the system.\n\nI know I've said a lot of things there that are not PC but hey that's what' reddit is for. Of course this is all IMO so if you disagree and want to downvote I don't have a problem with that. Remember that stereotypes exist because they are generally true. My advice to you personally is not to judge or hate the individual. Their behavior is learned from the environment around them but they may individually be very kind hearted people. They simply don't know any better. I may look poorly upon blacks as a race but I am always open to give each individual a chance to prove me wrong.\n\nEDIT: other people bring up great points. your personal experience is with black people and how they are and so are mine but every race or group has their own issues. for example trailer parks white people often do the same thing (having children to get paid by the government). each group all have their issues but each group also have their bright spots.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "As someone else mentioned, stereotypes take some basis from facts and observations, and your observations do not mean you are a racist.\n\nIf you think that your race (or any race) is inherently superior to others, that makes you a racist, which I do not believe you are.\n\nA big part of the problem is that the black community (in America a least) has a cultural acceptance of some pretty irresponsible practices and behavior.\n\nTheir decisions and behavior do not make you racist (unless, as I said, you think that a particular race is inherently superior because of it)", "score": 5 }, { "body": "It's not the observations that necessarily make you racist, it's what you believe they stem from. If you believe that particularly properties are inherent in certain races, then you're prejudiced. (because you have pre-judged people.) \nIf you make a point of understanding the history and circumstances that have lead to certain groups being underpriveleged, and how humans choose to respond to being underpriveleged, then you can gain some insight into the situation. Which is a way of combatting one's own prejudices. \nI would start by watching The Wire, then maybe read a blog that talks a lot about the multitude of ways that racism acts on society. Remember, it's possible to be racist not just in the sense that you feel negative feelings towards other races, it's also possible to be racist in the sense that some of your actions support a system of society that is itself racist. ", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Friendly neighborhood black guy reporting in...\n\nI think some folks are downvoting you because a headline like \"How do I stop being such a racist\" smacks of insincerity and trollitude.\n\nYou don't strike me as a racist, but more someone observing the world immediately around him. What you're noticing are a lot of things that are prevalent across a good slice of black people as a whole, but you need to consider how many blacks live in poverty, and how folks from other racists who live in poverty are. Consider how healthy the infrastructure around them is, and how accessible better facilities, education, food, communities, etc. are to them, because you aren't living the life wearing the same prescription goggles they are. Their situation may lead them to look at life and how to prioritize it and what sort of relationships and outward personas they need to project around other people inside/outside their community. Doing what you can to understand this will teach you great things.\n\nTL;DR: Make a friend. Chat it up with them extensively. Share concerns, find out theirs. Maybe they can help you.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Umm, you're not asking us to make you not-racist, you're asking us to make you blind. Nothing you just described here makes you racist in any sense of the word. If you've been so brainwashed by the whole \"white guilt\" bullshit that's been going around that you think that **simply noticing** differences between people of different skin color, then that shows something incredibly wrong with this country.\n\nDon't get me wrong reddit, I have absolutely nothing against Black people, I just have a problem with the attitude of America that can actually bring someone to reddit with simple observations, but mislead him to believe that making a few negative observations makes him a racist.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "All of these things that you listed are cultural, not racial. Being black does not cause you to seek handouts and shun work. Being raised in a culture that shuns works and glorifies handouts does cause you to do these things. Culture, not race.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "After years of living, working and being friends with people of all races and linguistic groups (I live in Singapore, but have lived and worked in much of Asia and Europe, as well as a long stint in the US), I've come to the conclusion that racial groups have clear and definite 'personalities'. Still, in no way can you assume that anyone in that group will be any particular way ... its more of a statistical pattern than something you can ascribe to an individual.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Get out of property management! It will make you HATE everyone. I used to manage apartments around a college, I fricking hated college students. I managed apartments in Orange County, CA. I wanted to kill all of my residents. All of them.\n\nThe dead residents though -- they are the worst. Especially if they don't have the sense to plan dying and they live on the second floor and they leak through the ceiling of the person underneath.\n\nWorst occupation ever. I went and got a degree in something entirely different and never looked back.\n\nMy hate decreased.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Stereotypes exist for a reason. Don't ignore what you see and the way you feel because it may not be socially acceptable. I applaud you muddle for speaking your mind and trying to work your feelings out. Not all of life's truths are fashionable to discuss.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "It's ok to be racist, as long as you are an equal opportunity racist. That way, no one can say that you discriminate any one group more than another!\n\nEqual opportunity FTW!", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Try growing up in a parallel universe where everyone is the same color. Other than that, you're pretty much genetically predisposed to fear or be cautious of those who are different, race being the easiest thing to differentiate people. But don't worry, because *everyone* is racist. We can't help it. It's a trait that once probably served us well a long time ago and it stuck with us and became ingrained in our culture. There might be some extraordinary examples people might throw at you to contradict that, but it's not something they can prove. \n\nSome people have racism reinforced by one way or another and some have it mitigated. I find that by not thinking about it, I tend to consider race less often.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Racism is institutionalized at this point, and that would account for most of the numbers. It's a class issue over anything, really.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I had the \"privilege\" of spending some years of my childhood in the projects of upstate NY, in a community with a very interesting ethnic mix. The two dominant groups were African Americans and, interestingly, Seventh-Day Adventist Belorussians (I think some Americans went over there, converted a bunch of Belarus hillbillies and then somehow imported the whole fucking village to the US. They were all related and ultra-religious.) Anyway it was a great experiment in what happens when you take one group of uneducated trash and plop it down next to another group of uneducated trash. The Belarus hillbillies had scores of welfare babies, didn't work, were uneducated and prone to violence. In fact, despite their religious views, the women would frequently split up with their baby daddies on paper so they could increase their benefits as two separate family units. What did these groups have in common? Neither valued education, and both were poor. So despite having a different racial, national and linguistic background, they both sucked equally.\n\n(Incidentally and unsurprisingly, there was a ton of racial violence. My best friend was a bi-racial girl, and I am Russian American - no relation to the Belarus hillbillies - so we were both on the fringes of the community and would get beatdowns from kids in both groups for \"crossing party lines\".)", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Don't worry, you're not racist unless you judge people based on race. That doesn't mean you have to completely ignore the obvious. Stereotypes exist for a reason.\n\nLive your life treating everyone equally, but don't be surprised when people fit the mold you associate with their race.\n\nIf I walk into a classroom full of blacks, whites, and asians and someone asks me to guess who has the highest GPA, the blacks and whites lose. Sorry if my statistical guess pisses someone off, but just because someone might chose to be idealistically ignorant doesn't mean I am going to subscribe to the same mindset.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I've worked in my fair share of warehouses and manufacturing places. Pretty much all of them hire out of halfway houses. And you know what? 90% of all the new hires were completely worthless pieces of shit. White pieces of shit, black pieces of shit, hispanic pieces of shit. They were all racist towards each other; they all stole; they all couldn't get through a full shift without doing something reckless and irresponsible.\n\nAs long as you realize that the situations you are seeing are merely cultural and not tied to genetic or physical makeup, you'll be fine. It's when you imagine race as an actual mental attribute where you go all wrong.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "You're not racist, you're just generalizing a group of people based on what you've seen/experienced. Just don't immediately assume EVERY black person you meet falls into this class of people. \n \n I make generalizations with blacks, mexicans, and white trash. No one is safe. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Take LSD.\n\nI'm not kidding. When I dropped acid every single bit of racism I (and I believe everyone feels to a certain extent) feel vanished, and I was in the middle of fucking New York City.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "To stop being racist:\r\n1) Move to a place where only white & yellow people live.\r\n2) Try to forget what you saw.\r\n3) Watch TV & movies repeatedly to reprogram your mind.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I'd host it as a torrent if you want it up for download - it'll save you money. And yeah, I'd host your own Wordpress on a dreamhost/servage account, and throw it up on last.fm as well. :)", "score": 3 }, { "body": "if you are looking for a more social atmosphere, i really love the sixty-one [t61](http://www.thesixtyone.com)\n\nits a great place for artists to get feedback/listeners, comments and what not. its been around for a couple years, [i've been there](http://www.thesixtyone.com/skyflyingby) pretty much since the start. \n\nhope this helps. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I highly recommend [alonetone.com](http://www.alonetone.com)\n\nIt's free and there are no ads. You can upload mp3s and share your profile with flash playing or direct links to your mp3s. There is a commenting system and community there as well.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I like the labels that do single serving, and entire container so you know what happens if you eat/drink the entire thing in one sitting.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "This summer while I was at a benefit swim (sitting at a picnic table with my friend near the beach) waiting for my wife and her friend, an older dude (65+) and his nice dog sat with us and we had a nice chat. He was a nice guy and we talked about random things. After a while he bluntly asked us if we minded if he smoked some pot. My friend and I (both smokers) said something along the lines of: *\"Go ahead buddy. Enjoy!\"*\n\nSo he smoked out of this silver bullet thing and then reloaded and offered us some. It was a very nice surprise as both my friend and I were completely out. Upon finding this out he promptly pulled out his baggie and gave each of us a huge bud to take home. Then he bid us a nice day and walked off with his dog...\n\nI live in BC. :-)\n\n", "score": 62 }, { "body": "One morning, a friend of mine and I left a party from the night before. We were driving home, hungover as hell. My friend packed a bowl and as he was about to light it for the first time, we were pulling up to a red light. As we rolled up, I looked over at the car next to us. Two guys, tired and bedraggled, looking like they've been to hell and back, about our age were sitting next to us about to light a joint. For a moment all four of us looked at each other, smiled slightly, then lit our smokes and drove away, never to meet again.", "score": 20 }, { "body": "My favorite way to find out is when you get in some guys car and he has a bottle of Rohto, because only stoners need industrial strength eye drops.", "score": 17 }, { "body": "When I was in college me and some friends went out back behind the dorms to smoke. We were approached by two guys who seemed high as fuck, and talked for a bit about music. We seemed to hit it off. My girlfriend told them we were gonna smoke. She even asked if they wanted to join us.\n\n\nThen they pulled out badges from underneath their hoodies. We all got arrested for \"Unlawful Possession of Marijuana\".\n\nThe moral of the story? __Be fucking careful__", "score": 15 }, { "body": "smoking people out is amazing. There is this beautiful comradery among pot smokers. Instant friends! ", "score": 12 }, { "body": "This last week i was in India with my family. In Nagpur, a more rural/suburban area, I met/toked with this 50 year old rickshaw driver; he was a tiny guy with a bushy moustache. The guy was a total hippie/family. he took me to his dealer, who gave me an amazing deal on great hash cause i was with him. Then we smoked on the side of a busy street in his rickshaw, with one of his other friends (I floated the hash). As we smoked they talked about how hard they work to take care of their family's, but how working hard built their character, vs. a rich kid who doesn't have to work. Then me and the guy got some chai and he drove me home. Great day.", "score": 10 }, { "body": "So it turns out this kid's lab partner is a total azn nerd, and ends up doing the labs completely before he even comes to lab. This leaves him lab partner-less, and since I just switched into the section, he ends up paired with me. This class is a bitch (Signals and Systems), but this event is probably the best coincidence that happened to me this semester.\n\nAfter we get done with the lab, we're heading home, and I ask him casually, \"so what do you do for fun here?\"\n\n\"Honestly dude...I just smoke a lot of pot.\"\n\nAWESOME. Instead of going our separate ways, he came by and we hit my vape. He ended up being one of my best buddies this semester, and he's a big reason I ended up passing the class...we'd just do homework and get baked.\n\nI guess it's not that much of a revelation to find a fellow smoker when you're a Business or English major, but when you're doing Electrical and Computer Engineering, it's really quite awesome.", "score": 10 }, { "body": "haha, i was having a serious case of the munchies, so i decided to hit up subway. the clerk who spotted this asked me if i was high. i said yes and he offered me a free sub and told me to come back in 30 minutes because when he was closed. He is now one of my good friends and we smoke all the time haha!", "score": 8 }, { "body": "The word urban dictionary uses for it is \"Stonergy\" I believe.\n\nIt seems like if you're high and you know that the next person is high, you're friends. Simple as that.", "score": 7 }, { "body": "Some friends and I were smoking in one of my old friends apartments and we had ordered a pizza but ended up just having enough for the pizza and a really crappy tip. So when he showed, we invited him in gave him a couple beers and a few bong rips and sent him on his way. Pretty cool dude.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Recently at work, several of us were last-minute wrapping our gifts for the gift-swap thing that we were gonna do at the end of the day. One of my co-workers needed the wrapping paper and knew I had it so he wandered over to my cubicle and asked \"Hey Kevin do you have the rolling papers... er wrapping paper.\" I started laughing and said \"Not til after work dude.\" And we both started laughing for the next 5 minutes or so. It's great when you connect with a fellow stoner. ", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Wow, reading all of this makes me wonder about a few things. How many of you that responded are female? Also, how many of you are from Massachusetts?", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I was at a small New Year's Eve party with my parents; everybody there (including them) is a baby boomer and I'm the only person under 50. I think I had mentioned smoking pot before, because my dad's friend quietly invited me out on the porch for a joint. Quite a nice experience.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "It seems that once you've sat around in a ring of folks passing the bong or the clip, you have experienced a tribal ritual which is honored by all who have experienced it, other than the occasional flake who never smokes again. I wonder if the underground nature of the activity bestows this feeling, and if, after the day of legalization finally comes, it will survive, or will new smokers simply treat it like a bottle. Notice that the same doesn't come when sharing a six-pack.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Love it. Just moved to a new city, and I haven't met anyone yet...dying to meet some normal people to smoke with...also saw Avatar (with family) and wished I had been high, ha.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "There will be lots of women he meets in his life. /r/gonewild is probably not where he'll be meeting them. Technically, they are a \"threat\" to you, but don't think like that--it'll drive you crazy and in turn it'll drive him crazy. There isn't much to do if he *does* find someone he'd rather be with (I mean, think about it, you could just as easily find some man you'd rather be with, right? It's not one-sided). In the mean time, calm down, maybe talk to him if you think you should, and just focus on the two of you. ", "score": 9 }, { "body": "Who the hell would want to start a relationship with a girl just because they saw a nude picture of her?", "score": 8 } ]

[ { "body": "Don't expect to make a living at it. You'd do pretty good as a bar band and maybe get to play some public events. (Baby boomers eat this shit up) As far as the songwriting goes, it's all been done before but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't go and have fun with it. Though it won't change the world like your influences have.", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "image 1 is awesome....you're deep in th throws of passion. You;ve got lovely breasts and a ymmy tummy....love to see lots more", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Your parents are idiots. Sorry. They are bad judges of design and frankly, with their discouraging words, bad parents.\n\nGo for it.", "score": 99 }, { "body": "its not crap but its definitely young, inexperienced. it looks like you have a start but you need to develop it. practice. its the little things that make a great design. the gradient or shadow in the right place. the supplimental colors that bring out the design. you look like you have a good eye for positioning, layout, that kind of thing. but you need to work on the details. right now these just look a little flat, a little plain\n\nedit: added last sentence\n\nedit 2: be careful not to overdo it though. its a fine line between doing it right and added too much", "score": 45 }, { "body": "Not crap at all.\n\nI was applying to AIA on lower quality work and was accepted. I didn't go due to costs involved, but I am sure you could get in. \n\nAlso, this is your work before formal training, imagine what it will be like in four years when you complete the programme.", "score": 11 }, { "body": "The TL:DR version: Go for it, but make sure you know what you are getting into.\r\n\r\nBack in the day I quit CS and after a few years of screwing around, went back to school for design. I did industrial design and not graphics design.\r\n\r\nHere are some thoughts:\r\n\r\n* If you go to Stanford / MIT / *insert good school* and get a CS degree, you probably won't have too much difficulty getting a job interview so that's one hurdle you just skipped. Of course you still need to be competent and survive the interview. Getting a design degree, on the other hand, is all about your portfolio. Mediocre portfolio = No interview. They don't care where you went to school or how hard you worked. If your work is mediocre you don't get the time of day. \r\n\r\n* People tend to have this idea of art schools being a very relaxed place. All I'm gonna say is that design school is A LOT OF WORK, but in a good way. You have to work your ass off. Mediocre engineers are engineers. Mediocre designers are flipping burgers.\r\n\r\n* As a designer, there is a small part of you that you either got it or don't. Call it, talent or insight or creativity or whatever. Unlike the technical skills, it can't really be learned. Now, you can still be a designer if you don't have it, but it would sure make your life easier if you do.\r\n\r\n* Compared to good software engineers, good designers make shit. On top of that, of all the design fields, graphic designers makes the least. Unless you are one really fucking good + a good bit of luck, you'll never get rich doing design. You do it because you love it.", "score": 11 }, { "body": "I just made an account so I could respond to this post.\n\nYes, you should definitely apply. I'm a fourth year student in a reputable design program in the US and my work was arguably not as strong as yours (perhaps comparable; we're all our own biggest critics). Anyways, my program is even more selective than yours - only 5% of applicants are accepted.\n\nAnyways, your stuff ain't bad. I think my main advice to you would be to work more on establishing your own style. This doesn't have to be a certain aesthetic that you make every piece in...that actually isn't a great idea until you get famous enough to have serious name recognition. \n\nYou, and some of the commenters here, worry me a bit because it seems like you all look up to whatever is currently trendy. And it's okay to do that a bit, but don't forget design history. Smashingmagazine is NOT respectable. All that stuff is just mindless parroting.\n\nRead Meggs' History of Graphic Design. Do your own research into stuff you like from years past and let that influence your work. Keep a file of stuff that inspires you, and ideas that come to you. Find stuff you like and figure out why you like it - then do that.\n\nLast thing - design is accessible enough that everyone thinks they're a designer. I don't know if your parents have any special credentials but I'll assume that they, like various freelance clients I have had, don't. This won't stop them from telling you their opinion. Just remember that you're the professional...only take advice from people who pay you or whose work you like better than your own.", "score": 7 }, { "body": "I'm not a designer myself but do work in the multimedia field. I think your stuff looks rough but ok, and I'd personally be a little surprised if it wasn't good enough to at least get accepted to design school. Of course it depends on how strict the school is, but you've definitely got some talent there to work with.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "If you love it, DO IT. \n\nIt is the only way to get better. \n\nwww.conceptart.org\n\nYou have some potential. Devote time to it, get some experience, and prove them wrong.\n", "score": 5 }, { "body": "They are rather plain for my taste but I wouldn't say they were shit. It's not really a style that appeals to me either but that's not to say that it may not appeal to others. But the pop art/retro thing probably won't be that commercially viable for much longer anyway I would think.\n\nAt the end of the day, if that's your style and you like it and you can sell it as well, you're winning. To that end, though, I would say that a bit more detail/originality wouldn't go astray. Experiment with blending styles :)", "score": 5 }, { "body": "You have an aesthetic appreciation that shows in your work. You actually *do* some work, so that's good too. I didn't see a consistent theme to the photography other than \"hey, that looks neat,\" but the compositions were good.\n\nThe important bits are: you have an aesthetic sense and you use it. The rest will come with practice and study. Your parents don't understand it, but if they aren't lost souls, they will come around. It might take a couple decades, though.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "this *isn't* crap. You're working on this in your own time, you're not doing it just for school or paid work, which shows you not only have any interest to do it, but a passion to work harder to further your skills. If you show your motivation, plus your work ( the typography is fantastic) I see you having no problem getting in. ", "score": 5 }, { "body": "How good you are is irrelevant. \n\nYeah, some people are inherently better than others at \"art,\" but those people are cocky and have a poor work ethic. \n\nDesign school exists to teach. The most technical of technical schools spends quite a bit of time teaching what many think is unteachable in attempts to foster students with an artistic eye. It definitely *can* be learned, whether or not you have an\"eye.\"\n\nThis is from my experience as a second-year photography major. I am not qualified to comment on your work except as an average person (I generally find those outside of my own field able to give a constructive critique, because \"pretty pictures\" are, to them, the most important thing).\n\nI say go for it. When I visited the school I am currently attending (very technical school, not known for \"artsy-ness\"), they said knowing little was preferable to knowing a lot (clean slate, etc etc), but the hidden message was that those who come into it with more knowledge tend to be cocky and think that they know everything already. The truth is that basic education in any art field **rapidly** levels the playing field, regardless of experience.\n\nEdit: I'm going to corroborate the people saying this type of schooling involves a *huge* workload. Honestly, there ARE kids who get through it doing nothing, giving these majors the slacker image, but anyone who is driven will be absolutely loaded down with work.\n\nThe difference is that you will enjoy far more of what you are doing than many other majors. I would not trade places with my Mech. Engineering friend for anything - 12 straight hours of studio work is far more appealing to me than 4 straight hours of calculus.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "You need more process work. Show what you are thinking, why you do what you are doing. Random doodling is good, excellent for free association and flexibility, but design is a very lucid process of problem solving, with the creative aspect that makes the solution 'new'. I'm a design professor at a major US art college. When seeing portfolios what sticks out are two things: creativity (of course) and a brain that shows this creativity isn't just 'lucky' (i.e. is really working out a solution). LEFT and RIGHT brain!!! Hope that helps! And don't just imitate the successful - PUSH IT. When I see someone who is pushing to somewhere new, even if clumsily, he or she is IN - they have the mojo. Guts are Gold.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "You're much more talented, driven, and further along than I am, and I'm an aspiring designer. Stick with it and follow your passion. Your parents will come around once they see you succeed. Then you can shove it in their faces.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I think that you should never use \"I think\" at the start of a sentence of something that you want to be taken seriously.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I am a 4th year New Media design student. here is my take on your work, and some friendly advice.\n\n1. Your vector illustrations are fine, but they are not just looking for vector illustrations in a portfolio. They want want to see your versatility across other mediums, your creativity, and your attention to detail. You should, no not should - you NEED- to have at least 3-4 hand drawings (non manga) - drawings from observation, still life, human figure, etc. All good design work starts off organically (ie. with pencil and paper). They want to see that you have this skill and are not just tracing vectors from photos.\n\n2. You should have 12-15 GOOD pieces that represent your skill and creativity across multiple mediums. A couple vectors, a couple typography pieces, 3-4 illustrations, and then a few mixed media (painting, charcoal, etc)\n\n3. You never know until you try. Apply for a couple different schools. Find out when their portfolio days are, and bring in your portfolio. These days are kind of a get your feet wet experience. It will give you a chance to talk to some profs and get some feedback on what is good, and where you could improve for your final portfolio submission. Take advantage of this opportunity.\n\n4. Parents and friends are VERY bad judges of design. Why? Well first of all they will almost always tell you it looks good because they don't want to hurt you feelings, and second because they don't know what makes a design good or bad in the first place. If you want a true crit on your design work, ask fellow designers.\n\n5. I had a shit portfolio when I decided I wanted to go to design school. So instead I went to Junior college for 2 years. My local Junior college had a basic graphic design program that helped me build a solid portfolio to submit to design school.. I left with a 2 year degree and got into a 4 year design school with it. If you think you might need the extra time and resources to get yours together, you might want to take a look at a Junior college program first as well. Nice thing about it - about half of your program transfers in and you will be able to complete your bachelors of design in 2-3 years.\n\nGood luck!", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Your typography is weak and clumsy. But if you want to be a designer, don't pay attention to your parents. Go for it. Along the way, figure out why your work sucks and improve it. Disregard anyone who says you can't get better. The first step to getting better is recognizing that you suck. ", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I am not even going to look at your work because what anyone of us say about your work is not important. I will however say this, if this is the type of work you enjoy then by all means pursue it it. You can only get better and better at it. Since it is something you enjoy you will always be learning, you will always be happy doing the work you get, and you will be on he right track to be a happy healthy and maybe even a wealthy person. There is no such thing as talent only a fervor for practice.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Definitely not crap man,\n\nyou may not be qualified to be the lead designer for apple just yet, but I don't think you should give up and say screw it. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I like the colors you chose. One thing I noticed was you have no layouts with type... Brochures, full page ad, etc. I understand it's pre-design school but I would be interested in how you design a business card, letterhead, ad, logo and etc. Show variety not to show you can do it but to show range... with what you have now I like the colors and handskills ... I wish you luck. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I haven't even looked at it, but you're fine for school. School is there for you to learn, not to already know anything. If you were great at it you'd already have a career, the fact that you have desire and dedication is all you need for more education. Fuck your folks and move on with what you actually want. be your own person on this one.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Well quitting CS before getting accepted into design school was perhaps a bit rash but remember you can always go back. \n\nread this book [Understanding Design](http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Design-Reflections-Being-Designer/dp/158423265X) by Kees Dorst\n\nhttp://www.coroflot.com/ has heaps of portfolios from design students (and graduates), I'd recommend having a look through some of them and then, well, basically just remaking the ones you like the best. Beginning to learn to design (you are a beginner remember) is really just about learning the basic rules by copying those who've done it before you. Being new and special and cutting edge and innovative comes later, so don't worry about it for now.\n\n\"Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.\" T.S. Eliot \n", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Listening to your parents is always a bad idea. Parents always want what is safe for their children, even to the point where they will ironically harm their kid in some way to try to keep him 'safe.' Their opinion of your art is nothing more than evolution screaming in their heads, ignore it. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Preface: I know absolutely nothing about design theory.\n\nI think you're stuff is ok. There's a difference between messing with ideas and designs and doing this full-time, which is going to be more work and more integrative of the whole field. I'd test yourself first, to make sure your heart and soul is in this. How?\n\nFind a local non-profit with a bad website/logo/marketing, and design brand new stuff for them for free. If you enjoy that, you're good to go.\n\nEDIT: Oh also, your work isn't crap at all, and your parents should shove it.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "My live in boyfriend is a talented designer and i'v been pretty exposed to good design. I think you are very good for a hobbyist, and you should go for it. Designers are always in hot demand, and it would be a great career choice for you. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Not bad at all...keep at it. Never listen to anyone that tells you differently than that little voice in your head/heart.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "As a professional motion graphics designer, I have some advice for you. I don't know how far you got in your CS major, but there is a high premium and demand for those designers that can do some coding. (actionscript, 3d scripts, after effects coding, automations scripts etc). I don't know if you had any love for CS, but it would be wise to apply what you learned there into your design skills. The commercial art field has many branches now and there is a good chance there will be more jobs that didn't exists when you started that will be there when you graduate. Keep an open mind and soak up as much as you can while you can. Feel free to pm me if you want to ask me anything.\n\nHaving said all that, if you have dreams of being filthy rich, quit right now and get back to CS full time. \n", "score": 3 }, { "body": "As I've never looked into design school I have no clue what they are looking for, but I will give my artistic opinion on your work.\n\nI think you have some talent (its certainly better than my work), but you currently lack flair and feeling in your work. You don't seem to have a \"style\" that I can pick out to your work, other than minimalism. I think you need to work some more and develop this style in order for your work to really shine and convey your message.\n\nTechnically your work is quite appealing, but as it stands I'm not sure if you will get into design school with just that. I think you should apply and see what happens, while fully understanding that you may not get in right now. With an extra year of experience and developing a style I think you have an excellent chance if you applied again.\n\nGood Luck.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Your stuff looks fine to me for someone applying to design school.\r\n\r\nI know designers who don't have your chops. \r\n\r\nGo for it.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Here's what has been the most helpful to me. It's a quote from some guy named Ian Ybarra's blog.\n\n I learned a long time ago that you can't care what they think of what you're trying to do because they won't understand even if you make it happen. You can't do something just so people will tell your story the way you want it told. If you want your told right, you'll have to tell it yourself. And you'll only like to tell that story if it's about you doing something you love.\n", "score": 3 }, { "body": "> They constantly tell me I have no idea what design is + that the stuff I do is just some random doodling and anyone could have done it.\n\nYour parents are being insensitive and don't know what the fuck they are talking about. Your work is good. Not great, but that's just because you don't have much experience. I think applying to art/design school could be one of the most important (and good) decisions in your life.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I'm not an expert, but I think you got the talent, it may need shaping but that's why people go to school. Keep working, and believe in yourself. \np.s. By the way your parent reaction is normal, don't expect them to understand you for changing from a scientific carrier to \"some artistic non-sense\" carrier. That's how old people think, but with the time they will accept it.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "You should have no problems getting onto a design course, if you expand your portfolio; a school is looking for potential - not a polished graphic designers finished work; they will teach you how to do that. \n\nYour parents are talking about a different type of design; remember - everything man-made is designed, hence some confusion; seek out like minded peers for support. Be aware that the reasons for your parents disliking your work so far could be because they are anxious about your future.\n\nFind out where you want to study & pick 2 alternatives - then find out the entry requirements; you could even talk to a lecturer - they are often very approachable. You may be surprised about what they need, so it is worth doing. If you do this now you will have time to prepare & diversify your portfolio. Hand drawing skills are always valuable as well as photography. I assume you know about design sites on the web, check these out if not.\n\nIf you have the possibility to work for a design office/designer that would help you immensly. Ask around for part time positions - say you will do it for low wage/free in order to gain incredibly valuable experience; I can't stress how much that counts for on many different levels.\n\nGood luck. \n\n", "score": 3 }, { "body": "So I'm 45 and I listened to my parents and got an engineering degree instead of pursuing a career in music. I'm just now working on my first album and I regret not following my dream when I was younger.\n\nFuck your parents, its your life, do what you love. Set yourself a goal for your design career - say maybe you want to be self sustaining by the age of 25. If you can't make a go of it by then, you have plenty of time to do something else.\n\nAt least you'll have no regrets.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Sometimes parents who are not creative people don't get it when their kids move in a creative direction. I am a musician who received a lot of resistance from my parents when I went to study music. In the end their discouragement slowed me down and created a strain on our relationship. \n\nI say go for it. Your designs are great... I especially love the typography. \n\nOne way to get your parents on board could be to show them that there is a market for designers, get a freelance job, internship or introduce them to a pro designer. Do pro-bono work for a nonprofit. Anything that will show them that this is a legitimate career path. \n\nWhatever you do, don't let them or anyone else discourage you.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I think your stuff is pretty good -- good luck with your endeavours!\n\nThat said... Zurich University of the Arts, huh? Greetings from Basel :)", "score": 3 }, { "body": "You're design work is very impressive for someone your age. Now's the time to chase after what you want. Don't let parents or even teachers dissuade you. You can't live for anyone but yourself. Good luck!", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Just a quick look, there is obvious talent here.\n\ndon't know if you'll be \"great\", but definitely good enough to be \"good\", and \"very good\". Good enough to make a good living at it, if you have enough business sense.\n\nGood enough that aside from picking up new techniques from normal study, the major barrier has to do with inspiration and attitudes.\n\nYour first rule should be to \"Flourish and Prosper\"\n\nand to Heck with the critics.\n\n(Heck is a low class low rent version of Hell, distinguished by lots of soap operas and really bad taste, and not enough budget to do the whole Hell thing really right)\n\nedit:\n\nThis article is for musicians, but there are a number of points that are valid for Visual artists.\n\nhttp://www.dannybarnes.com/blog/how-make-living-playing-music\n\nSnippet (adjust for the visual arts as needed):\n\n> e. if you are going into a deal with any entity, seek two things:\n\n> 1. the arrangement must be win/win. win/lose is ultimately lose/lose. avoid that.\n\n> 2. make an agreement that either one of you can walk away at any time and everything is cool.\n\n> **f. keep working on your art. keep taking lessons and studying and working. this is the main art strategy. research, learn, study, experiment, develop, edit.**\n\n> g. don't be afraid to do other things to make money in the short term. this can be a very rewarding experience. \n\n> historically musicians have been barbers and bartenders and all kinds of stuff to make ends meet. this is totally fine. don't worry about it. it's cool. do what you need to do. waiting tables will give you lots of stuff to write songs about. i used to call myself the king of the part time job, because i could get up out of my chair at any time and go get a job of some sort. not that it would be the greatest job of course, but i could go and get something going. i've cleaned pools, painted apartments, done maintenance work, taught music, worked in a factory, threw newspapers, drove a delivery truck, cooked, all kinds of stuff, and none of it killed me. through it all i was able to keep practicing and writing music and studying what i was doing. bills? hey no problem, go flip a few burgers and i can pay that and get back to playing the banjo. get a job in a dance band whatever i have to do. just live within your means and you can avoid so many hassles. hassles interrupt your practice routine.\n\n> **h. keep your art the main focus. it isn't about you it's about your art. do what's good for your art and don't draw attention to yourself as much as the art. if your main focus is on the art, waiting tables is no big deal because you are doing it to support your art. if your main focus is you, you are not going to like waiting tables. you will feel like you are way too good for that.**\n\n> i. avoid the performance mentality. \n\n> i know this sounds ridiculous in a performance based industry, but think about this. \n\n> *here is a recipe for disaster.*\n\n> my value = my performance + other people's opinions\n\n> the reason why, is that *someday, you are going to have an off day and/or someone is going to criticize you. if you put your value in the world like that, you are going to have a bad time of it.* i speak from experience. i only learned this at the age of 46. finding my true value fixed this for me. [write me if you want to know what it is.] but establish your value outside of how well you did on the gig and what the papers said about you. \n\n>otherwise you are going to be miserable and you are going to make everyone else miserable. somedays you play better than others. this doesn't make you a great person. somedays you make lots of errors, this doesn't make you a bad person. ", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "[Ahem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation)\n\nYou can thank me later. \n\nBasically, there are three types: emission of electrons (beta), photons (gamma), or nuclei from atoms (alpha). Gamma radiation is usually what people talk about when they say \"it's radioactive.\"", "score": 9 }, { "body": "Basically the Higgs field is trying to give you a hand job; and what you have to understand is that anytime something touches your penis and doesn't create a child, it angers god. Hence the cancer.\n\nsorry this is complete bullshit, but i *am* drunk.", "score": 9 }, { "body": "radiation, as the name implies, is some particle that is 'radiated' from a source. That which is radiated can either be massive (like a neutron or electron, or other such thing (even whole nuclei)), or it can be, essentially, pure energy (light (a photon)). Depending on what is causing the initial particle to decay, different particles are released. These releases are extremely well characterized and happen the same way every time, with a characteristic probability under given conditions.\n\nWhat hurts, and what is dangerous, is that like all projectiles, they can impart their energy onto you and your body to essentially shred it. Massless particles (light) is electromagnetic energy with a characteristic wavelength. This includes visible light. Infrared is just out of sight on the red side and has little energy. Ultraviolet is just out of sight on the blue side and has a lot of energy. That energy can be used to break/make/reform bonds within your DNA and other parts of your body - and almost always is unintended and harmful. You don't want your DNA getting spliced/mishmahsed, reformed just because some light hit it. That is why UV light gives you cancer. X-Rays are even more energetic than UV. Find a spectrum on google.\n\nThe other kind of radiation is massive radiation. Particles that are more or less bullets. These are more from traditional 'radioactive' sources - Uranium, Iodine, Phosphorus, Carbon, Strontium, etc. These are essentially just particles that are unstable and which decay. When they decay they break down and give off a massive particle (a neutron or electron, etc.). And these particles are going fast. VERY fast. Momentum is a combination of speed and mass. It's why a bowling ball hitting you hurts more than a balloon. Though these particles don't have much mass, they do have some. And because they are going VERY fast, they actually have a substantial amount of momentum. Again, enough to shred anything that gets in their path (atomically). And they do. Get 'radiation poisoning' like at Chernobyl or from some such radiation source is essentially getting shot with billions upon billions of atomic bullets, each blowing up the proteins and other parts of your cells.\n\n\nOur bodies are pretty well designed to keep radiation out - and most, because they are just atoms, don't travel very deeply, and can be stopped by a single sheet of paper, if not a few millimeters of skin. The problems come when something is ingested, and can get millimeters all around your internal organs. Or when you get a LOT of radiation - so much it just keeps pounding away at you. Or when the exposure is constant and over long periods of time.\n\nIf you want to learn about it, read the wikipedia page. Understand that 'radiation' can mean a few different things. If you understand whether or not the radiation is from photons, electrons or more massive particles, you can tell a lot about how damaging it is, where it came from, and how to stop it.", "score": 8 }, { "body": "Try the [Simple English Wikipedia article on Radiation](http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation) .", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "Never actually did it, but you guys absolutely should read Tristan Taormino's \"Opening Up\" before you do anything - it is a great introduction to open relationships.\n\nActually, everyone should read this, even if you're *not* into open relationships, because all of the advice they give applies just as well to closed relationships. So if you're in any sort of relationship, fucking read this book. ", "score": 7 }, { "body": "I've done some soft swing with my gf on a few occasions, it's so very very important to know your limits and if you don't like something don;t hesitate to say so. Otherwise it might haunt you a bit ;)\n\nBut with clear boundaries, it's much fun.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Maybe you've got a high fret that's dampening the sound, or it's fitted improperly into the nut. Either way, take it to GC and ask for a setup. Since it was purchased there they should do it for free and you should end up with a good player. \n\nCongrats on the new axe!", "score": 7 }, { "body": "Is it dead only when you fret it, and does it get worse the higher you go up the neck? It's probably the intonation. edit: if this is the case, it will sound out of tune when fretted, not so much \"dead\".\n\nIs it dead only when you don't fret it? It's probably the nut.\n\nIs it dead all the time? It's probably the bridge - but it could just be the difference in character of g strings, see below. \n\nI assume you'd be able to tell if it's buzzing because it's hitting a fret, and that this is not the cause of the problem.\n\nYou could try a thicker gauge string. Alternatively, you could try a wound g-string, like the lower 3 strings. It'll be harder to bend, but it may ring a little better. G strings usually sound \"deader\" than the others because a.) they're not usually wound like the lower 3, and b.) their tension relative to their width is lower than the higher 2 strings (they're the unhappy middle siblings of the family). Using a wound G-string solves this problem, but at the expense of making it harder to bend.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Take it to a different shop and pay for a setup. If it can be made right, it will be made right, if it can't then you can say, \"The guitar tech at (blank) said that (blank) is broken.\"", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Intonation. An open string can be perfectly in tune and be out of tune several frets up the neck. Ideally, your strings should be in tune up to the twelth fret and beyond. ", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Some that always gets me.\n\n\"I haven't bought this yet but I think it looks cool/sucks so I gave it this rating\"\n\n\"I expected these super cheap items to perform as good as these items that cost 5-10x as much\"\n\n\"I couldn't figure out how to use this simple function of the item that would have been explained by the manual/online, or graduating elementary school\"\n\n\"This toaster is terrible at mowing my lawn\"", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "Your critique of art subjectivity is similar to critiques of cultural relativism. The presence of multiple perspectives, you're right, does not prove subjectivity in art. Congratulations on defeating the most facile argument still peddled in philosophical circles.\n\nIn order to prove the quality of art objective, you must provide a standard for what \"good\" and \"bad\" means in its context. To use Adler's example, a table can be measured by the objective purpose of providing a surface for eating, storage, writing, etc. A table can be asserted \"good\" or \"bad\" by how well it fulfills these standards (Kant used the term [hypothetical imperative](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothetical_imperative) in a parallel debate in ethics).\n\nArt can be judged by how it entertains, how it edifies, how much prestige it bestows on its owner, and more. You indicate that art should be judged by how experienced consumers of the art judge it. However, this is a hypothetical standard. I can propose it should be judged by how much everyone likes it, or how much it reduces crime in society, or by whether my nephew falls asleep when he sees it. The choice, like your choice, is abitrary.\n\nUnless you give a sound, categorical standard for judging art, you have not proved that art is objective.", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "List other needs you have: \"Stop mailing me this shit.\"\n\nThere's a prayer they actually can answer. Either they answer your prayer and you stop getting their mail, or they don't and basically reveal the extent of their hypocrisy. A win-win for you... sort of.", "score": 7 }, { "body": "\"I have been compulsively collecting human eyelids for these past twelve years. To date I have not been able to overcome this addiction, and I need the Lord's help to be free. If he is not available to cleanse me, if he could kindly supply another dozen eyelids I would be most thankful.\"", "score": 6 }, { "body": "(Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NLT) If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her.\r\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I've found it has to do with a poorly cut crotch and the only way to fix it is to not wear that pair of jeans any longer.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "Awwww....my clothes make funny sounds too. My bra creaks when I move, one day the psychiatrist where I work heard it in the break room and asked me what I had on under there, I told him all sorts of belts, pulleys, and cords. (we're close) Its so embarrassing, someone thought they heard a mouse one day too, and my roommate can hear it in a room of people and snickers at me.....I'm gonna get a new bra. ", "score": 5 }, { "body": "the inseam of your pants are probably wrong. this happens to me too; i'm 5'1\" so it's difficult to find jeans that fit in the crotch right.\n\ni'd say do a bit of googling to see how to measure, and if you're really up for making it stop, buy new jeans.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Cut a small hole in the top of the egg. Drain out and scramble the white and yolk, use a funnel and pour back in, make a foil ring to hold the egg. Place egg on ring open side up with cold water covering 3/4 of the height of the egg. Turn on heat to medium. Bring to a boil and turn off heat, cover for 20 minutes and done. ", "score": 19 }, { "body": "Start cooking it at the end you made the hole in so that the egg yolk/white cook and form a plug for the hole, then immerse the entire egg.", "score": 8 }, { "body": "I haven't tried it, but I would think it would be rather difficult to scramble it by shaking alone. Perhaps use a needle or straight-pin to poke a small, single hole in the bottom or top of the egg (this part I have done). Push the pin as deep as you can to ensure the yolk's membrane is punctured and to poke holes in the white to weaken its structure. Remove the pin and then shake the egg to combine. Boil and then enjoy your awesomely marbled egg?", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Media shitstorm. Someone was going to say it so why not me?\n\nBring the media outside his house and have them do a story. It will get everyone's attention and the police will be forced to act.", "score": 187 }, { "body": "Call the credit card company, tell them the police are doing nothing, they will help her, since they are being defrauded as well.", "score": 167 }, { "body": "Jesus, I'm sorry, but you guys are retarded.\n\n1) Call your credit card company, report the theft and get his spending off your card/record\n\n2) If you are so sure of his identity, but the police wont do anything, get a lawyer and sue in civil court for assault/battery and Conversion. \n\nVote me down all you want, but that is far better advice than all the dumb revenge plots, and/or false reporting to 911...", "score": 109 }, { "body": "go to payphone anyway from any kind of camera. call 911 anonymously saying that at said address there's an acquaintance of yours who has been bragging about robbing people lately. each time seems more violent and you think he's actually gonna really hurt someone bad tonight. i suspect cops will be there shortly.\n\nedit: bad spelling.", "score": 85 }, { "body": "If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... **The A-Team**", "score": 70 }, { "body": "I've had a very similar situation happen once. Wasn't directly robbed, but a chick at a u-haul took down our CC number and started ordering shit to her house. Like thousands of dollars in stuff all to her apartment. I mean, what an open and shut case, right?\n\nThe police just told us \"we don't mess with those cases\". Flat out would not do anything.\n\nMaybe it has to do with them not wanting to get involved in the CC fraud.\n\n", "score": 32 }, { "body": "File the police report, get the CC's canceled immediately, get the bank involved. Any kind of vigilante justice makes your friend no better than the thief that started it. Plus, it is not worth the risk to her physical well-being.", "score": 24 }, { "body": "IANAL, but I think Illinois state law grants her the right to stake out his house for a few weeks, establish his routine, then mug HIM on a major holiday. Eye for an eye, you know. ", "score": 14 }, { "body": "Post all the info on **4chan!!** And make sure you say that you're that one kid who wants to kill anonymous.", "score": 12 }, { "body": "Here is my 2 part plan for revenge on scumbags:\n\n1.) Buy a sledge hammer.\n\n2.) Aim for anything knees or lower.\n\n\nThat fucker that stole my shit is lucky he never put it on craigslist.", "score": 8 }, { "body": "Skip the police, call the District Attorney, explain what evidence you have gathered.... then it should be a layup for them ", "score": 6 }, { "body": "I know i sound like a psycho but i have a friend in the canadian military whose little brother was robbed by a kid in his neighbourhood... he waited around the guys house till he came out one day and my friend shot him up with paintballs till he had welts all over his face and back and chest and everything... cops didn't do anything ", "score": 6 }, { "body": "NEWSFLASH: The role of the police is NOT to annihilate crime but to keep it at such a level as to justify further expansion and spending on Policing and low enough so that Rich arnt inconvinienced too mcuh.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Wait 5 years. Start dating him. Have children. Divorce him. Collect alimony and child support. Tell him after the hearing who you really are.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "call a current affairs program and sell your story. Maybe then the police will get off their arses and do some work.\n\nOr hire goons to beat him up and steal his shit.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "The problem with \"revenge\" is that people who earn our desire to inflict it are usually losers with WAY less to lose than the victim... \n\nSo we go all tit for tat and Bam: if it's the right kind of psycho shitheel, we now become that loser's *raison d'etre*... Their new FUCKING CAREER is YOU; \"getting even,\" making you miserable, etc... So make sure this is okay with you before you do anything creative.\n\nBest of luck!", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Take it to the Police governing body and make a formal complaint also after you have filed the complaint go to the local media", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Go over there with a couple of friends that have balls and fuck him up. When you roll him over, find out some personal information on him such as family members locations, numbers. Take his phone and see if he has mom sis or whatever. While you're terrorizing him make sure to get his social and name, birthday. FUCK HIM UP GOOD. When he's barely an inich away from losing life, go dump his ass off @ the hospital. Be sure to wear a ski mask. If might help to take video to show to your GF so you can get some gratisfaction sex. After that, keep tabs on whether he moves or not. Follow his ass. Fuck him up again repeatedly. If he thinks he has the right to mug some chick in the street, then he has the right to get his fucking teeth kicked in.\n\nWear a mask. Please. Be prepared for him to be armed.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Being in the police academy right now you need to have your friend file a report AT the police station explaining that the criminals have committed or are currently committing a felony. The reason for this is the police have their hands tied when someone comes in and says that a misdemeanor has taken place. \n\nThe police cannot file any charges in hindsight just for a misdemeanor but when a felony has occurred or is occurring they need to by law take action. Either by filing a warrant for the criminals or opening a active investigation. The report she files AT the station should then should be given to a detective who then will take the matter seriously and then im guessing a warrant will be issued if all info is credible and relevant. \n\nYour friend needs to explain to the police that if her pocketbook was taken there was some force during the altercation. IE: If she was wearing the pocketbook on her shoulder the mugger needed to use physical force to either rip the pocket book off her shoulder or needed physical force to pull it down off of her arm and during the entire process that forced that was used against her caused her to loose her balance and fall. \n\nAll in all your friend need to clearly articulate that when her belongings were taken there was some force that was transferred from the mugger to her. If this is the story the charges that could be filed could be anywhere from felony assault to felony burglary. This then would acceptable enough for a search warrant for that specific individual/s.\n\nYour friend should also write down any pertinent info about the suspect/s including what he was wearing, race, ethnicity, age, scars, tattoos, accent, and location of indecent and where the criminal ran off to.\nIf your friend writes a very detailed report the detectives should take the matter very seriously especially since usually criminals who do commit burglaries like such do them more often than not and are definitely in the police database. \n\nIf any part of this process fails and someone in the police department drops the ball your friend needs to file a formal complaint with the departments \"IA\" internal affairs unit, who act as \"big brother\" for police. IA should then see that some wrong doing has been committed inside the police department by not taking this matter seriously and the person who did drop the ball will come under serious investigation. \n\nHope this helps", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "How much ? -$1.00 Do you have the drives ? Can you get it to boot ? How long till it gets a bug? DO YOU HAVE AN OLD BOX TO PLAY WITH THIS!!! ", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I once had to install Windows 95 with floppy disks. It isn't recommended. Especially on a 486 with a floppy drive that's just barely hanging on. And finding out that one of the disks was bad.\n\nRemember how fickle floppy disks were? Disks written on one drive sometimes didn't read on other drives. Sometimes disks would just die. Or just part of the disk would die. I don't miss floppy disks at all.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Both ACTORS are gay, yes, but only one character is gay, and you refer to them as Captain Jack and Dr. Horrible. Dr. Horrible spent the whole video swooning over Felicia Day.\n\nThe link is correct, and the voting is for Gay/Bisexual Man of the Decade. Neil Patrick Harris and John Barrowman are votable. Not Dr. Horrible or Captain Jack.", "score": 8 }, { "body": "ummm... so maybe it is just me, but I do not think of NPH as Dr. Horrible. He will forever be Doogie Howser. Again, maybe just me.", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "**I hit the maximum character length for reddit posts (10000 characters) with my last edit so I'll write it here**\n\nI was still effected by the ecstasy pretty bad. I was grinding my teeth a lot. They put me in a room by myself that had a spare bed for a roommate I was suppose to get the next day. It was really large and on the second or third floor of a hospital. I had a nice view of a basketball court a floor below and it snow stormed the whole time I was there. All my belongings that I had including my clothes were locked away in a closet that was in the same room.\n\nI laid in the bed for a few hours just griding my teeth and failed to fall asleep. I then decided to walk around. The whole area was basically a figure 8. Showers were in the middle, the kitchen and staff were at one end and the recreation room (complete with a Christmas tree, a ping pong table, board games and a television with cable) was on the other.\n\nWhat sticks out most in my memory were the people I met there. The roommate I had there the next day was actually self-admitted and while I never asked him I heard (read: eaves dropped) that he was there because he was having problems with insomnia. I met a girl about twenty five who had some type of dissociative psychotic episode earlier and had no idea how she even got in the psyche ward. She spent a lot of time by herself crying. I felt so bad for her I gave her a box of cheese crackers that I got my roommate to get for me. There was another guy who walked into my room every night I was there and was convinced that I heard the same voices he did. He was indian, skinny, and about six feet tall. He'd break into my room and just ask me over and over, \"You hear them don't you? You hear the voices, I know you do.\" I'd spent about fifteen minutes telling him I didn't until one of the hospital staff would realize he was missing and find him in my room. Another guy was an asian guy, probably sixteen or so, about my height (5'7\"). He was mute but that didn't stop us from playing ping pong together. His parents spent a lot of time with him in the recreation and his dad was pretty good at ping pong. He never spoke to them either. And last but not least was a guy who I swear was the mirror image of Charles Manson. I got bored one day and started talking to him. It turns out he believes that the church of scientology were after him and were putting curses on him. There was a certain word he kept on hearing random strangers say (I don't remember what it was) and he believed that all these people were members. He told me once he was at a party and fell asleep next to a campfire and woke up with cigarette burns all over his arms. It just so happened I had several fresh cigarette burns on my arms so I tried to convince him they weren't that but he didn't believe me. He'd walk around a lot talking to himself about random conspiracy theories related to the government. He also would often sit in front of the pay phones, look through a phone book for close to an hour and call random people. I couldn't figure out how he got all the quarters. It turns out he spent a lot of time on IRC and he was an interesting enough character that I wanted to get his e-mail or something but I decided against it.\n\nLater that day a staff member walked into my room and told me my parents were on the line. The girl I had lived with had called them, I guess. They told me them and my uncle were going to drive from two provinces away to bring me home. I told them that was unnecessary but they were relentless. I couldn't believe they were going to do that, especially in the winter weather.\n\nThe next day the girl showed up. I was very surprised as I hadn't expected to see her again. She broke up with me the day she left, after all. At the time I asked her to stay but she refused. She had came for $400 I once promised her. Keep in mind she didn't have a job at the time but she could move back with her parents. She said she needed it to \"start again.\" I don't know why but I gave it her my debit card and told her to bring it back. She did and that was the last time I saw her while I was in the mental ward.\n\nLater that day my parents arrived. They were staying at my aunts place at night but spent most of the day with me. On the third day I talked to the resident psychologist and she basically told me I didn't belong there with the type of people they had admitted. I agreed. She recommended I get therapy, though, when I went back home. My parents agreed.\n\nSo a few days later I was back home. I told them I'd only take the therapy if they'd allow me to leave within a month. They reluctantly agreed. In the middle of it, however, I pulled off another crazy stunt.\n\nThe girl started calling me shortly after Christmas. She had fucking issues too. She always went on and on about how she needed a guy to \"give her the moon\" and all this crazy shit. She wanted to see me. I tried to get her to come to my place but my parents wouldn't allow it. I decided I'd travel to Toronto instead and crash at my aunts place. So I travelled to Toronto and on the first day we met up I visited her at her apartment. We didn't have any place to go to have sex so we went all the way to the top of her mothers apartment building. We spent some time on the roof after we discovered someone had left it unlocked. I then fucked her at the very top of the stair well while recording the whole thing with my cell phone.\n\nWe didn't have a place to stay for the next few days but I still had the keys to my old apartment where my old roommates were still located. We arrived and nobody was there. We basically spent the next three days staying in my roommates room watching movies on my laptop, listening to his music, drinking his alcohol and fucking on his very comfortable bed. He still has no idea we were ever there.\n\nAt the end of it she started talking about how we should move on and all this shit. She was always so dramatic. She went on about how she was a circle and I was a square and how we would never work out. I was madly in love with the girl but she said she had to move on. So I left for home once again...", "score": 4 }, { "body": "You're setting a good example for the children of the world with your survivalist use of the OLPC ;).", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "From a logic standpoint, it all depends on you accepting the [tertium non datur](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_excluded_middle) axiom or the [principle of bivalence](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_bivalence), which isn't the case for all logic systems, e.g. [intuitionist logic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuitionistic_logic), but that system just makes things waaayyyy too meticulous.\nSo, to answer your question, it depends on the system you're using, e.g. it depends on your personal preference and your understanding of logic (or lack thereof) :)", "score": 6 }, { "body": "For very simple propositions it is binary. \"Water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen.\" (This is basically a tautology.)\n\nFor more complex propositions it is subject to qualification: \"This is the best turkey sandwich ever.\" It probably isn't, but the qualified interpretation may be something like, \"This is the best turkey sandwich I've eaten so far in my life,\" or even just, \"This is a good turkey sandwich.\"\n\nThe more rigorous and simplified you make propositions, the less qualification needed and the less blurry their truth value.", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "For my close circle of friends, it's 1:4. But, there are other girls who will partake with us occasionally.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "my group is usually, all guys :( none of us are happy about this. The thing is, most of us actually have girlfriends or the like, but they just don't want to smoke. it's quite the predicament.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "For my close circle of friends, one woman and five guys. Slightly extended circle, I know a lot of fairly cute younger stoner chicks.\n\nUnfortunately they're all idiots.\n\nWe were sitting out on the front porch one night and a buddy points at a light in the sky. \"That's the International Space Station.\"\n\nThis chick - not bright enough to pull off 'ironically stupid' - looks at him and says, \"There are _people_ in _space_?\"", "score": 4 }, { "body": "of the people that are in my daily group 1:2 \n\nfor my weekend group its actually about 3:2 girls to guys", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I'm a girl that smokes with mostly guys. so 1:3 or more. I don't know, I think girls tend to smoke less then guys with the exception of female stoners like me.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Feynman, Schwinger and Tomonaga won the Nobel Prize for figuring out how to make divergent integrals, those that \"blow up\" and go to infinity, give sensible results in quantum electrodynamics. This process is called renormalisation. \n\nSchwinger and Tomonaga did this similarly and independently. Heroically, Schwinger calculated the first order correction to the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron. Feynman's great contribution was that his method of renormalisation using diagrams allowed even students to reproduce Schwinger's result.", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v256/JesusCrust/DSCN1221.jpg\n\nhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v256/JesusCrust/DSCN1222.jpg\n\nGunshot wound from what sounded at the time like a 7.62 or possibly smaller. (Hard to tell when you're on the ground bleeding) Most likely it was a Russian caliber variant (7.62 x 39mm). The round was deemed to have been hollow point from the amount of fragments pulled out of the tissue during the initial surgery. Struck my tibia about 3/4 of the way down the bone, severed my posterior tebial artery, resulting in 4 liters of blood loss in 4 minutes. I was apparently dead for about a minute before I was medivac'ed (they jump started me ASAP). \n\nFor the first week back in my country and in the hospital, it was unsure if I was going to keep my leg or not. Luckily, I did. Had the fragments cut any of the remaining two arteries in my lower leg even in the slightest, I'd have a prosthetic right now.\n\nRegardless of fortunate outcome, the severity of the damage to a vital limb for my line of work caused me to leave my employment (along with a newly found ethical imperative I suppose...) I had to relearn to use my left leg, due to the \"re-wiring\" of the remaining muscles to allow me to walk.\n\nI may post a pic of the injury five years after the fact. Please do not ask how the injury actually occurred. That's something I'm not willing to speak about with a bunch of strangers.", "score": 106 }, { "body": "Spilled burning cooking oil on my hand. Left it on the stove for too long at too high a temperature, and knocked it off the stove trying to put the resulting flame out.\n\nhttp://imgur.com/Ej3X6.jpg - Took at the hospital after. The term they used was \"degloved\", which still gives me the shivers. They had to cut the top layer of skin off up to my thumb nail and past my second index knuckle.\n\nhttp://imgur.com/cQGVn.jpg - The next day after removing the bandages. All the white part was dead, and had to come off through a combination of a cream which eats dead flesh and rubbing with a towel over the course of several weeks", "score": 45 }, { "body": "[30 titanium screws and two rods in my spine](http://img196.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=postop1.jpg).\n\nThose are my x-rays. The image files are rather large (~1MB), but show every detail. They were to correct a 90° kyphosis and a 27° scoliosis. The recovery from the 11-hour surgery was the most horrible thing that has ever happened to me, not just with pain, but with the opiates and subsequent withdrawal.\n\nSo yeah. That sucked.", "score": 38 }, { "body": "[Necrotizing fasciitis](http://imgur.com/ZuAt2) and [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necrotizing_fasciitis) is the Wikipedia page for it! 3 months in the hospital, inches from deaths grip. I cannot begin to describe the pain and horrors that I endured. The leg still hurts daily 5 years after the fact!", "score": 32 }, { "body": "I had a 2 1/2 inch piece of glass in my hand for 3 weeks.\n\nhttp://imgur.com/8LPO4.jpg\n\nhttp://imgur.com/5R7Ge.jpg\n\nI didn't know it was in there, this next link shows what my hand looked like pre-surgery.\n\n\nhttp://imgur.com/c3FeA.jpg\n\nIf you want to read how this all happened and what I thought was wrong its part of my only reddit post.\n\n", "score": 27 }, { "body": "http://imgur.com/RrTgP.jpg\n\ntook a soccer ball to the eye in highschool.\nwashed it out, felt better, went out to play again\ngot hit again... no joke...\n\nit took a LONG time to get depth-perception back", "score": 24 }, { "body": "I lost my footing whilst climbing over a fence and slit my hand open. It shredded all the webbing in between those 2 fingers and inexplicably horizontally sliced my wrist (not pictured). Strange enough it wasn't painful at all just really bloody.\n\n[pic... actually a scan](http://imgur.com/0Pv5u)\n\n\n\n", "score": 23 }, { "body": "my wife was driving the car home, 10 pm, it breaks down on the side of the road. I borrow her sister's car the next day to go empty contents of broke car. I park her car directly behind mine, and get to unloading the broke car. I was standing in between the two cars when a chevy silverado 3/4 ton pickup with a full large trailer come off the road at 55 mph, and while trying to get the truck back on the road, the trailer didn't get get back on, and hit the back car into the front car, with me standing in between them.\n\n[here](http://i.imgur.com/jHkTU.jpg) is the only damage to my leg. There were no broken bones; the doctor was bringing in other doctors to show me off...he was sure that I should have broke something. In fact, there was no exterior damage at all, the doctor had to cut my leg open to release pressure, for blood flow to the foot.\n\n[This](http://i.imgur.com/IeIGk.jpg) is the car that hit me from behind. You can see my ass print on the hood where I bounced off of it.\n\n[This](http://i.imgur.com/TcKmn.jpg) is the car in front. The car in the back did not touch the car in front; my legs did the damage to the car in front. That caved in part there? That's my legs doing that.\n\n", "score": 17 }, { "body": "I have Crohn's disease. About 10 months after my first surgery (which is when I was diagnosed, at 21) I was having some problems again with severe stomach pain. My doctor and I decided to do the pill camera endoscopy again (a pill shaped camera you eat, transmits pics to a hard drive on your belt, and then you poop it out and flush away). I had done it once already after my first surgery which showed active Crohns all throughout my small intestines. \n\nI ate the pill, and didnt see it pass (but only about 1/3 of people actually do) and continued on with life. Then a month later, after eating with a friend, I doubled over in pain, decided I was having another flare-up, and went to the ER.\n\nI got an abdominal x-ray, which showed the camera was still in me. An anal probe to try and retrieve it was unsuccessful and after I had this camera stuck in my ass for two months, I had it surgically removed, along with some more small intestines that had a blockage, which was holding my camera. \n\nI had a camera stuck in my ass for two months, and all I got was a crappy polaroid pic of the ordeal\n\npic of the intestines and camera-\n\nhttp://imgur.com/ABXO5.jpg\n\nxray of said camera stuck in my ass\n\nhttp://imgur.com/caUEI.jpg\n\npic of my battle wounds\n\nhttp://imgur.com/6MvYL.jpg\n\nNot really sure if this was the most painful thing I have experienced (although I know the most painful experiences are all Crohn's related), but this story has the best pics : )\n\n", "score": 17 }, { "body": "Criminy, some of you guys have been brutalized.\n\nI was at work, in the school (college) cafeteria. I was wearing shorts (against the rules) and my socks were pushed down to my sneakers (rather than pulled up over my calves). I had an apron on. I went to take the big pans of ravioli out of the steamer (looks like an oven but heats with steam). I took the top one, the bottom one came with it (they were stacked, one on the other, I didn't clear the lid of the bottom one with the bottom of the top one). \n\nSo basically I poured boiling ravioli down my legs and into my shoes. I yelled in pain, grabbed a towel and wiped off the hot ravioli and tomato sauce... I stopped when I realized I was wiping off my skin too. \n\nI leaped into the handwashing sink and hosed myself down with cold water. But I was already skinless. I had 2nd and 3rd degree burns on my ankles. I still have ravioli shaped scars on my ankles, twenty years later. \n\nThat was probably the most pain I've been in.", "score": 14 }, { "body": "I had a condition called pectus excavatum which is basically a giant indentation in one's chest. Think if your sternum bent inwards and there was a giant spoon like depression. Ya it was pretty psychologically crippling as a kid and had some adverse physical effects as well (put excess pressure on my heart) anyway i had it fixed through something called the Ravitch procedure. \n\nHad my sternum broken outwards as well as all the ribs and cartilage connected to it. Additionally had some of the excess rib material removed (pectus is caused because your ribs grow to fast/long when in the womb and pushes your sternum either in our out). They threw a metal bar in there to stabilize the whole thing then i got to recover for 2 weeks in the hospital and another 6 months outside of the hospital with limited movement and excessive pain. Also my right lung collapsed as a complication while in recovery (that actually hurt more than the surgery because i was on a spinal tap afterwords so i couldnt really feel that much).\n\nSo ya, that coupled with the crippling anxiety over my health that it gave me for a while, is probably the worst pain ive had.\n\nI can't really find any pics of myself atm; their probably all at my parents house, but heres some general pics of the conditions/procedures i looked up.\n\nPectus: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_MpceaBsKWvg/R6i6gl-D8-I/AAAAAAAAACU/pvyMWB25uLQ/s400/excavatum.jpg\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pectus_excavatum\n\nRavitch Procedure: (WARNING GRAPHIC) http://img.medscape.com/pi/emed/ckb/pediatrics_general/1000722-1004953-870.jpg", "score": 12 }, { "body": "Rhinoseptoplasty to correct a deviated septum that was causing a sinus infection at least once a month. \n\n[Here's a pic right after surgery](http://imgur.com/151xRl.jpg)\n\n[And here's one from later in the week](http://imgur.com/cDVaal.jpg)\n\nI was a \"special case,\" apparently, meaning I needed my nose broken in 6 places rather than the usual two (this is done by packing the nose with cotton and HITTING IT WITH A FUCKING HAMMER). The pain was bad enough, but it was having to sleep on my back (which I've never been able to do) combined with not being able to breathe through my nose that really drove me insane.\n\nIt was a maddening experience, but surprisingly short. [Here I am after only a week](http://imgur.com/zbuopl.jpg)", "score": 12 }, { "body": "I got drunk and forgot how to walk. [This](http://b7.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/00846/72/41/846981427_l.jpg) is the result. It was full of sand so the doctor had to scrape it out with a scalpel. Im glad i was drunk cause it kinda hurt", "score": 11 }, { "body": "Hi reddit, long time lurker, first time poster, but I have a good story. It's not the most painful thing that's ever happened to me, but the picture is wonderful. I was at a staind concert, and decided to crowd surf. My buddy helped me get up, and then held a camera over his head and took a picture. He snapped the picture at the exact moment that some knob decided to break my nose (the extended fist in the pic), which was just before the crowd dropped me 7 feet onto the ground (plywood over a hockey rink). I fell right at the guys feet, stood up and nailed him in the teeth, busting up my wrist and a couple fingers in the process. Good times.\n\nhttp://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/3U7LQ4ge3LRX5xb-1MGL-g?authkey=Gv1sRgCPiojeOA65LqHQ&feat=directlink", "score": 10 }, { "body": "I burned [my hand](http://img.skitch.com/20100103-bgbn8ypmerebb2gyy7wdt6g12c.jpg) in a grease fire. ", "score": 10 }, { "body": "http://imgur.com/Y3nZ9\n\nThird degree burn from a cooking accident. This is the big blister about 5-6 weeks after I did it.\n\nShortly after this picture I popped the blister helping a child who had fallen into a fire at the camp I was working at. There was so much liquid it soaked the sleeve of my shirt. Yum!", "score": 10 }, { "body": "[Not very impressive compared to some of the other posts.](http://imgur.com/KoC9f)\n\nI was trying to figure out how to use my new utility knife. I was doing it wrong.", "score": 9 }, { "body": "these two...\n\n[face](http://imgur.com/P5fwd.jpg)\n\n[finger](http://imgur.com/6V1h8.jpg)\n\nthe face one, well, that was the result of a rather drunken faceplant off a mountain bike... to this day i don't know why i was on this mountain bike, nor where i was going, however i do, as a result, know what it feels like to crush the entire right side of your face in. sinus cavity, orbit to the eye, everything. i also know what kind of stupidity can result from a .3 BAC, and why i shouldn't (and don't) drink anymore.\n\nthe second, the finger was due to an unfortunate accident at work involving a 2hp industrial bench grinder and a (coarse) wheel that was ground down so far it placed the tool rest at a really bad angle... caused the grinder to suck in the piece of metal i was working with and flip up, pinching my finger between the metal and the wheel for a split second. took the entire nail area off, down to the bone. the silver thing you see is a piece of foil used to keep the layers of skin separated so i'd still have some sort of finger nail after the accident.", "score": 9 }, { "body": "Lost the end of pinky in a rope swing accident. \n[XRay](http://imgur.com/TJN8K.jpg)\n\n[Post-surgery1](http://imgur.com/uHdFZ.jpg)\n\n[Post-surgery2](http://imgur.com/SEyaZ.jpg)", "score": 8 }, { "body": "Wow, some of these are pretty brutal, but here is mine. I was cleaning a meat slicer and instead of keeping it off and wiping the blade I would turn it on and off to make the blade spin and just hold the rag there (i've done this several times without cutting myself, and so has everyone else who cleans it), the tip of the blade caught the rag and pulled it and my finger over too and sliced the tip off.\nAt first I just thought it just sliced open a bit and no chunk had actually come off because I had latex gloves on and it was barely bleeding, it didn't really hurt either, so I grabbed the finger to keep pressure on it and went to the sink but when i pulled the glove off blood went EVERYWHERE, and just as I was about to tell my coworkers what happened two customers walked in. It was pretty funny though because one of them was kinda freaking out more than I was while trying to clean up the blood and the other helped the customers then found the chunk that came off and brought it back to me.\nWell here are the pics\n[pic 1](http://imgur.com/b9Kvm.jpg)\n[pic 2](http://imgur.com/D5Ovg.jpg)", "score": 7 }, { "body": "Until I read the last part of your question, I was going to tell you a story about a catheter insertion.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "Not really that impressive, but one of my few wound photos: \n\nI agreed to do an experimental implantation of a birth control drug (Norplant) in my arm. It's five little plastic rods that they put in fanned out and then theoretically just slide back out through a tiny incision. It seemed to work fine for me so instead of having them surgically removed at the end of the test period (about a year), I opted to keep it for the full 4 years. When the time was up, I went to get it taken out and my arm had massed scar tissue in the whole area, so it was really difficult to numb, and the doctor ended up chopping through flesh that was not at all anesthetized. I screamed a lot and it took a very long time (he was trying to not make a bigger hole in my arm and work inside the one he already had, bless him) during which I almost passed out, but kept continuing since I wanted it over with. \n\nAlso the sound that metal scissors make cutting through pieces of flesh is about what you would think, I noticed. \n\nIt stiched up pretty neatly, all told, when they put everything back together, and I have a small 1\" scar now and that part of my arm flesh has a different consistency than the rest of my arm. [This shot](http://www.flickr.com/photos/redreplicant/4239066513/in/set-72157619322835943/) is after a couple of days healing; the stitches are inside the opening and clear.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Never been injured in my life :(. This is sad since me and my friends had a parkour like phase in High School, they all got injured and i didn't. Feel so left out.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Doesn't compare with most of the stuff here, but here's a scan of my broken fingertip.\n\nhttp://imgur.com/cPPua.jpg\n\nI was pushing a roadcase, with some equpiment on it. When I approached a door I looked up to see how much headroom I had... and I forgot to relocate my finger from near a \"caster notch\" (used for stacking roadcases with casters) in the \"wheels\" case. The shit on the case was then jarred by impact with something unseen, and my finger was crushed in the notch.\n\nPain... Blood. \n\nPaid day off. Tylenol 3!", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I am not going to post pictures of my kids here on the interwebs. Just not gonna do it. Stop asking.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I twisted a testicle. Basically it twisted and lost blood so it started to die. By the time I got home, I was heading to class but turned around, I was vomiting from pain. Hopped in the bath thinking warm water would help but it made it worse. I had to be brought in to the ER in a wheelchair because any walking caused my ball to bounce against my leg causing me to vomit uncontrollably. They shot me up with what they said to be the strongest meds they had but that didn't help. It brought the pain down to the point of me not crying is pretty much all it did. Oh and before they did anything the doctor tried to twist my ball back for about 10 minutes. I about blacked out from the pain. I don't have pics but thought I'd share the story", "score": 4 }, { "body": "The doc and physical therapist have pics of my torn-in-half ACL, shredded MCL and other cartlidge damage. I walk normally, but I have to think about every step that I take. No painkillers, either, cept weed.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "The doctor refused to give me the pics, but I fell off a pushbike and grated my face on a freshly sealed road. Result was a lack of nose (later re-built - we have the technology!). I've spent over 10 years in and out of orthodontists and plastic surgeons patching up the damage. I was 9 at the time which is probably why the doctor didn't want me to see the pre-op photography.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "well when i was seven i crack my skull open when i smashed my head into a wooden trailer. i honestly dont remember much other than screaming and driving to the hospital, but im sure it was really painful. i had to wear a skull cap all summer :P \n\nthe [scar](http://imgur.com/mWnS2.jpg)", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Last summer, I was swimming in the pool at my apartment complex. After doing a few laps, I made my way over to the deep end, put my hands on the edge, and lifted myself out like I have done hundreds of times before in the past. This time, however, I felt a ripping, popping sensation in my shoulder. I assumed I had pulled a muscle, so I dried off and went back to my apartment.\n\nThree days later, my shoulder was swollen to the size of a grapefruit and was purple/black and painful to the touch. I decided that it was time to go to the hospital and get things looked at. \n\nLong story short: 17 months, 2 surgeries, 29 staples ([pic 1](http://imgur.com/TPqhH.jpg) and [pic 2](http://imgur.com/iZ1cv.jpg)), 8 screws ([pic](http://imgur.com/cqCt2.jpg)) and 1 metal rod ([pic](http://imgur.com/wv9FB.jpg)) later, and I still can't raise my arm above a 90 degree angle from my body.\n\nI haven't been back in the pool since this happened, but I can guarantee you that next time I want to exit the pool, I'll be using the ladder in the shallow end.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "When my Chron's was bad, I had a perforation in my intestine for about 15 hours while the doctors tried to figure out what was wrong. The pain was deferred around my body and morphine didn't do anything for it. You can't really notice it in the x-rays though, which is why it took so long to figure out what was wrong.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Shattered kneecap.\n\n[X-ray after surgery to install pins](http://i.imgur.com/jHN6H.jpg)\n\n[Stitches](http://i.imgur.com/cMOnZ.jpg)\n", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Peripheral neuropathy. A nerve (usually in the leg) gets damaged somehow, causing loss of feeling and pain. Nerve pain is the worst kind of pain - it felt like my leg was on fire and being electrocuted at the same time for months. Constantly. The pain never went away. The only thing that lessened it was putting ice on my leg - pain killers did nothing. Eventually, my primary doctor put me on an anti-depressant (which they use to treat neuropathy) which helped A LOT. My doctors couldn't figure out what damaged my nerve, but it's mostly healed now, so I guess it doesn't matter. I still don't have complete feeling back in my leg, but it hardly hurts anymore.\n\nI don't have any pictures, but if I did, it'd just be pictures of a normal-looking leg since there's no visible damage from peripheral neuropathy. :)", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I busted my collar bone snowboarding in Banff. Busted it into four pieces... It was late in the season and I hit a drift and went shoulder first into the mountain. I didn't realize there was anything seriously wrong until I got to the bottom of the hill and discovered I couldn't lift my arm above my waist. It was my first ever surgery, they put in a 5 inch metal plate and 8 screws. Gotta love titanium.\nhttp://imgur.com/USEm0.jpg\nhttp://imgur.com/DIXPa.jpg\nhttp://imgur.com/a8RS1.jpg\n\nIf anyone wants post-surgery xray, just ask. I'll just have to chop out my name.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Not particularly painful, but pretty [impressive looking](http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs230.snc1/7716_149802894601_502454601_3485326_3801807_n.jpg).", "score": 3 }, { "body": "http://imgur.com/jfSKo.jpg\n\nWas playing ultimate frisbee and ran into a bush. The bush was prickly so I flinched back and dropped my knee to the ground right onto some metal edging that keeps the mulch beneath the bush. This was ~10 minutes after the injury right before a paramedic put a bandage on. Worst part was in the hospital a few hours later when the orthopedist had to scrape mulch out of my bone to get it clean. \n\nAbout 4 months after that, I tore my meniscus in my other knee and got it fixed (trimmed) in August 09. About 3 weeks ago I injured my other other knee (same one as in pic) in a way that felt eerily familiar. A week and a half ago I got my other meniscus repaired (instead of trimmed) and I have 4.5 more weeks to go on crutches :( So in the span of ~1.25 years, I've had three knee surgeries for three different knee injuries.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Longboarding (without a helmet of course). I don't even remember the accident or the following 12 hours. Woke up in a hospital one helicopter ride away. I had broken both eye sockets, one cheek bone and some bones near my sinus. My brain was also bleeding a little. Luckily I didn't need surgery, a week off from school and I was ok! I have learned my helmet lesson. ALWAYS WEAR ONE.\n[my face!](http://imgur.com/Xeb8J.jpg)", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I was about 10 years old and my uncle was over my house visiting. He was in his early 20's and was having a blast fucking with me *all day*. He would turn off my cartoons, pinch me... basically all the things an older sibling might do. I couldn't come up with anything to do or say to him, every jab was met with a bigger pinch and every joke was met with a straight face. I was outclassed. \n\nWhen he went to leave, he told me he had court the next day and that he couldn't come see me before he went because I would be at school. I suddenly had inspiration and came back with what I thought was the best insult *ever*:\"I hope you rot in jail\". \n\nThe next day I got home from school and my mom was crying. Her baby brother was going to have to go to prison. She told me he dropped off a gift for me before he left. \n\nIt was a beautiful collectible doll, with a handmade dress, hat, petticoat and more. It was gorgeous and nicer then anything I ever got before. On the box he wrote: *Hope you rot in jail, Love you always - Uncle.*\n\nIt was over 3 years before I saw him again. :(\n\n", "score": 27 }, { "body": "I was freshly 16, and still working on my learners permit hours. Therefore, I still had to get rides places from my family. It was a day during winter break, and I needed a ride to the train station so I could head downtown. The only one available was my grandma. She picked me up, and even had a cup of hot tea and some cookies in the car for me. She always did stuff like that.\n\nWe rode to the station, she told me to have fun, behave, all that typical grandma stuff. I just rolled my eyes and said \"Yeah, yeah. I'll be fine. I have a phone on me in case I need a ride back. And don't bring any cookies.\" Then as I stepped out of the car, I made a face at my friend like, \"Can you believe this shit?\"\n\nI ended up not needing a ride home, but the next morning I woke up to the worst words I can ever remember hearing: \"[Concept_Check], you need to get dressed. Your grandma had a stroke. It's serious.\"\n\nShe survived, but only physically. My whole family considers that day in 2006 as the day grandma died. She's been mentally... vacant for those years now. The dementia is getting worse every day, and we're only helping her exist now. I break down every time I think about how awful I was with my grandma, the last time I was with *her,* and not this shell of her. She was... is... a beautiful soul and a wonderful example of how I need to be. I'll never forgive myself for my ungratefulness.\n\n*edit:* Spelling.", "score": 12 }, { "body": "My brief story is not to same extent as other people. \n\nMy cousin was a lot older than me. Probably twenty years.\n\nGrowing up, I always thought he was annoying and uncool so I acted like a big asshole to him. I would tell him to leave me alone and go away. I'd ignore him and sometimes just run away.\n\nLater in life, I found out that his wife took his daughter back to their home country while he stayed here. His wife barely disciplines the child and talks a lot of shit about him. I realized he's actually a nice guy who is just a little awkward in some ways but means well. He has always taken care of his mother, father and brother. He takes care of my mom too by helping out with the business after work. He has also made sure relatives who fly over here are provided shelter and transportation. Basically looking back, even though he was a little pushy, his heart was always in a good place.", "score": 8 }, { "body": "\"I have no respect for you, I hate you. When you die, I wont even go to your funeral. If you end up in heaven, I'll do anything in my power to go to hell, I want nothing to do with you\"- said that to my father. I don't regret it though. ", "score": 6 }, { "body": "When I was 5 or 6 my mom got me a kids pottery wheel for christmas. I was no good at it and hated it. I marched right up to my mom and told her it was the worst present ever. Still feel like shit for that 18 years later.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "I've always had a strained relationship with my father, mostly because I still vividly remember his threats and use of violence against me as a child. I believe he had and still has severe anger issues. I come home, and I feel like terrible things are going on behind my back. When I'm in my room, I can hear him yelling at the top of his lungs at one of my siblings or my mom. I come out and he's a timid little puppy, talking to me in the sugar-sweet tone mothers use to coo at their babies.\n\nIt's driving me insane. I feel like I have no right to be angry with him because he's been nothing but sweet to me. He's even laid all that father-son camaraderie on me, and I play along, feeling extremely uncomfortable, as I don't like to take sides on any issue and it's making me appear like his friend, which I don't want to be.\n\nI want to say something, anything to make it stop. Reddit, am I insane? Should I just go back to school and hope things are ok at home? I have this nagging feeling that I should do something about this even when Im far away, I've been trying to run from this but I feel like no matter how far I go it will haunt me.\n\n**EDIT:** I apologise to all. I don't mean to hijack this thread. I've been meaning to post to AskReddit about this for a while now, but just never got the courage to. Reading all these stories of regret after family conversations forced it out of me. I dont want to burst out in anger at anyone, or hurt anyone, so you all might be the best people to ask for advice about how I should (or shouldn't) approach this.\n\n**EDIT (redux): Reposted under anonymous username. I'd rather not have my friends or coworkers know about family issues.**", "score": 5 }, { "body": "\"Shut up, cunt.\"\n\nEdit: Sorry, I just can't shake that Dexter Thanksgiving episode. It blew my mind. Not used to be shocked by TV anymore.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Dude, you need to tell THEM that. It's hard, but it will bring you closer to them to communicate. Set the precedent for the future: apologize and communicate. It is entirely worth it.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "My grandpa mentioned he wanted to get a \"scooter\". I said, why, so you can just get fatter and not walk? Shit.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I told my mom that my dad died on purpose just to get away from her. Twice.\n\nThe first time was when I was 12 and my dad had died not that long ago. The second time was when I was about 17, so I have much less of an excuse for that one. It doesn't even really make sense because my dad died of a stroke and not from suicide. But it still *really* got to her.\n\nI also told her that I wished she would've died instead of him a few times.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I haven't yet but I know it is going to happen:\n\nI hate my mother. She is a horrible person and I am one day (probably soon) going to crack. She is a drug abusing (anti-depressants) alcoholic. She gets wasted at dinner and rambles on like half of her brain has been removed, seriously. \n\nShe can't even talk and she blacks out so hard, wakes up the next day not remembering any of it. The other night we went out and she was the worst I have ever seen her. She turned to my dad (who has done everything for this family and everything for her) and kept saying \"You asshole. You're an asshole.\" in front of the whole restaurant over and over and over. That was the closest I have ever been but she is getting even worse! I am one day going to stand up and say something along the lines of:\n\n\"I hate you. I have hated you for 6 years now. I hope you drop dead. You have single-handedly destroyed this family.\" I am going to regret that one a lot.\n\nEDIT: I would also greatly appreciate any tips or advice if anyone has had a similar situation with a parent. The reason I never say anything politely is because she is so damn sensitive that me mentioning \"You said that already\" would probably lead her to say \"You hate me. I can't do anything right\" and she'll start crying and things will only get worse. That is why if I went through with \"drop dead,\" I think she actually would have a heart attack and die right there. She once had cardiac arrhythmia from a sister-in-law yelling at her. I really think what she needs is a good psychiatrist to knock some sense into her. Sigh...", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Several, although all of my family has some anger problems, not violent normally but whatever. Most stuff is just let go and we don't hold grudges. I'm the quietest and so my outbursts tend to have much more oomph. \n\nThe biggest one was to my sister when I was 18. I'd just walked in the door and she started bitching out and so I came out with something along the line of (not verbatim): \"I want to cut you up and play with your blood.\" Imagine that line stretched out into several paragraphs and you've got it. We've had a fairly reasonable relationship since. And yes, I realize the similarity to the line in American Psycho, but I first saw that when I was 20. I really connected to it.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "My sister and I have different fathers. I told her she was adopted, that's why she didn't look like any of us.\n\nMy mother told me to turn off the TV and lights and go to bed. I told her I'm 27yrs old and I go to bed when I'm good and ready! It tore me up. I later apologized to her for my disrespect and in her house no less.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Okay, I like the song, lyrics are great, Vocals are excellent. What I can't figure out is the time signature. If it's supposed to be 4:4 you're in real trouble. If it's a 3/4 the timing still sounds really sloppy. I know if you're going for that really languid deconstructed thing this might be your intention, but it just sounds wrong to me. The tambourine sound really ads to this slop because it seems to always have a different decay/velocity? Don't quite know how to put it except that the dynamics of the tambourine are really inconsistent. \n\nI don't know how you're recording this. If it's all at once with a band. Practice more to tighten up. If its just you and your DAW play to a click track and if you can go back in and look at your notes. You definitely need some swing in there, but what you have is just all over the place. The biggest problem is the banjo. \n\nAs far as the mixdown is concerned, I only listened to it on my laptop and it translated really well. I like the subtle slightly detuned saloon sounding piano. That really sounds nice. I might pull back the harmonica in places, but it sounds great. \n\nI'd say, just work on the cohesiveness of your timing, and you'll have an excellent track. I just wanted to say it again, the vocals sound great. \n\ngood work.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I really liked it. Yes, its kinda sloppy but i still think its great. It almost sounds like some older Beck", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Do you dress well yourself? If you don't (and I will wager you do not, as you are a college student), suggest you both start making an effort to do so.\n\nAs for the sports bra thing, does she have larger breasts and/or a smaller rib cage with medium sized breasts? If she does, she may not have the ability to pay for a real bra that fits well without pain as those can cost upwards of $80 and require a trip to a nice department store that carries better sizes.\n\nAs to the suggestion for taking her out somewhere nice, do either of you have an apartment? Can you cook at all? If you can't, call a parent and ask for a nice and easy recipe and do a nice dinner at home with a few $5 + bottles of wine where you both dress up.\n\nRoast chicken (which you can buy, premade, at most grocery stores for less than you'd pay for a meal out), a few fancish side dishes (scalloped potatoes, green beans with almonds, cheesy mashed potatoes, turnip gratin, or whatever) and a nice frozen desert would be a decently easy meal that you could make nice. Hit up goodwill and get a table cloth and a dish to put tea lights in at the center would run you about $15 and would set a fancy atmosphere.\n\nOf course, she may just not be into being girly. The sports bras imply that to me for sure. If you want a heels and makeup girlfriend, she may not be it. She is probably the sort who, at most, will wear a little lip gloss and a jersey dress.\n", "score": 24 }, { "body": "As a girl with rather large breasts, I can definitely understand how she feels.\n\nI am a size D, and I used to wear sports bras all the time because\n1. They make my breasts look smaller\n2. I used to be very active\n3. Even when I'm not active, they are pretty damn comfortable (no wires or stupid stringy straps to deal with, depending on bra of course)\n\nYou have NO idea how big of a deal number 1 is. I have size D breasts, 5' 1\", 130 pounds. They really stand out, and they make me self conscious all the time. I feel like people are staring at my breasts everywhere I go. Even growing up, my sisters (who both have small breasts, probably from my father's side of the family) used to make fun of me all the time, so that really killed my self- esteem at a young age. \n\nFor the bras to make my breasts look smaller was like a gift from heaven to me. I can feel normal now, without having people stare at me, or judging me. \n\nBack in the day, I was the same way. Jeans, T-shirt, Sports bra, sneakers. I had a boyfriend. I was happy. I was comfortable. I didn't feel the need to change. \n\nEventually, my ex broke up with me and is now dating a much girlier girl, and they seem to be happy. I've also noticed he's started to dress up a LOT nicer, too (turtlenecks, button up shirts, etc.). \n\nAs for me, since I am single now, I have gotten a lot girlier. I dress up, do my hair, put on make-up, enough to give me the confidence to attract men again. And I like it, and will probably continue to do so once I get into a relationship. \n\nShe LOVES YOU. She is confident enough in your relationship to know that she doesn't need to change to impress you. \n\nI'm not sure what kind of advice I can give you regarding your relationship, but the best I can do is give you her point of view. \n\n\n\nAnd god damn it, if you really feel like she should change, then take her out and buy her the clothes with your own money. ", "score": 15 }, { "body": "Bras are really uncomfortable!\n\nHere's the perspective of a woman who dresses kind of slouchy around the house and doesn't have the money or inclination to buy a wardrobe for going out to impress other people (me):\n\nWomen and men are made of the same stuff, yet western society insinuates that women are not good enough unless they render themselves uncomfortable for the sake of appearance.\n\nIn order for men to look good they need only be clean, shaven (although not always) and wear decent clothes that are clean and unwrinkled.\n\nFor a woman getting ready to please a man's eye she must prepare for a theater production. Anything other than comfortable is putting on a show.\n\nFirst we have do decide what type of character we want to play (or believe that our loved one wants us to play). Fresh faced, girl next door? Fashion Model? Off-duty stripper? Even the most naturally put-together looking women have created the style they present. For youthful beauties this may appear effortless, but it is rarely accidental.\n\nOnce you choose your style, you have to worry about maintaining consistency. You must fill your closet with enough pieces to mix and match, depending upon weather, chosen activity, time of day, etc. If you wish to play more than a single character, then you must try to fill your closet with pieces for each style, or (even harder) try to blend the styles. A lot of women enjoy this work (as I did in my youth), but after a while, it can become exhausting. If your body is not perfectly proportioned then you must also struggle with finding clothes that fit properly and hide the things you've been taught to hate about it.\n\nThe rule of thumb is that the sexier the outfit, the more uncomfortable it is. If a dolled up woman had to escape or defend herself, she would be as effective as a toy poodle in a pack of wolves. Not to mention the physical pain caused by things such as bras and high heels. Google [\"bunion\"](http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=bunion&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi) if you want to see what even the most expensive dress shoes can do to women’s feet.\n\nThe more self-confident a woman is, the more difficult this charade becomes. What you wear is like a billboard advertising the persona you would like to present. The less validation we need from others makes this whole endeavor seem disingenuous, if not ridiculous (especially when expected by the guys who only put a small fraction of the effort into their own appearance).\n\nAnd that is only talking about the clothing. Once the dress is selected we must think about grooming, hair, makeup and accessories. Those of us who have average hair can't just brush and walk out of the house. If we want to look great, we have to spend plenty of money for color and cut, as well as the devices and chemicals that must be used to straighten, curl, de-frizz, create body, etc. God forbid it is windy, rainy or humid or all of our work is for naught. And while we are out paying someone to work on our head, we had better get a mani and pedi so that our hands and feet don't gross you guys out.\n\nAlso, makeup is expensive, goes bad and is mostly toxic. Unless we have perfect skin, naturally thick, black eyelashes and plump, red lips we feel inclined to create a deception by painting on these attributes. In order to do this we need to spend a good deal of money on a variety of products that feel gross on our faces and will probably give us cancer down the line. Again, look out for the rain or humidity. Go into any ladies bathroom and watch the frantic dance around the mirror as they desperately try to replace the layers of powder, blush and lipstick that have faded throughout the evening. This means that instead of sticking our keys and money into a pocket we must carry a bag full of crap; which is constantly on our mind and at risk of being forgotten or stolen.\n\nI understand that this job is part of the society I live in, and don't object to putting on this show to keep my husband happy (although I don't go to nearly the lengths I did before I realized why I was doing it).\n\nThis topic came up at my family Christmas gathering. I told my cousin that if I lived on an island where there were no men I would shave my head and wear comfortable clothes all the time. The funny part is that she had to think about it for a minute before she realized that the real reason we do this is to attract and keep sexual partners or get and keep a job. \n\nNow that I've shared that perspective, let me give you some advice on encouraging your gal to spruce it up a bit: Find some things that you love about her looks, and compliment her often. Put your energy into working on your own appearance. This may include exercising, shaving, manicures, new clothing, hairstyling, dental work, posture and carriage. In other words, apply your own standards to yourself.\n\nDon't hound her or make her feel bad for wanting to be comfortable. My husband would love for me to wear dresses all the time. I hate dresses, but wear them for him. We took a special shopping trip to pick out some dresses, and spent way too much money; but it made him happy. Instead of picking at me, he makes comments like \"That's a nice dress, but I think it would look better on you than her”. \n\n\n", "score": 15 }, { "body": "Different women prefer different clothes. Her love of comfortable clothes might not *just* reflect a physical desire; have you perhaps considered that she feels most confident with the \"comfortable\" style she's settled into?\n\nI have many female friends who love to dress up regularly and generally look very polished and put a lot of work into the way they present themselves physically. This makes them feel confident. However, there are other (albeit fewer) women I know who feel awkward and socially inhibited when they're all \"dolled up\" or even when they wear a *single* article of clothing that is form-fitting or slightly revealing in public.\n\n[**Edit:** This discomfort (as I have witnessed it and felt it at certain points in my life) can range from good-natured uneasiness (that is, women who mock or otherwise make fun of themselves when they're spiffied up) to completely paranoid, debilitating anxiety (that is, women who constantly think that other people are looking at them strangely and judging them unfavorably and women who feel \"naked\" when they bare a certain amount of chest or leg -- or in some cases even arm).]\n\nIf this is even a slight possibility in your case, she may be picking up on your hints but simply choosing to disregard them because her \"comfortable\" clothes make her feel \"comfortable\" in more ways than one, and changing up her \"look\" would jeopardize her confidence in the way she presents herself. In fact, continuously hinting that you'd prefer she change up the way she dresses could end up hurting her feelings or making her feel resentful of your disdain for how she presents herself.\n\nIf you want her to dress differently ALL the time (i.e. you hate the way she dresses so much that it's a constant thorn in your side), then you're probably dating the wrong person. However, if it's something you want as a \"once in a while\" thing, you could easily approach it in a way that's less evasive and passive-aggressive than simply dropping hints. Why don't you offer to take her out somewhere really nice for a romantic dinner, and suggest that you BOTH get dressed up nicely for the occasion? The more she feels like you're being *inclusive* rather than demanding her to be the sole agent of change, the more likely she is to be receptive to your desires in this area.\n\nIf she agrees to your suggestion, be sure to be completely supportive and to give her a lot of positive reinforcement. Translation: Be very vocal about how smokin' hot she looks!!\n\nI hope this helped a little bit. :)", "score": 7 }, { "body": "About the sports bras - I used to be the same way. Sports bras are meant for...sports, where you don't want any movement in the chest area, so they constrict your breasts. Which means that wearing them exclusively for a long period of time can damage the tissue. Not to mention, it's uncomfortable. When they come off that shit is like a pop-up book.\n\nIt's a good idea to get your ladyfriend some bras with support. Finding the exact size can be a bitch but well worth the effort. If there are any specialty lingerie stores in your area, try there first. They should know what they're talking about. If that's not possible, Nordstrom's, Macy's or even Victoria's Secret can measure her, too. Don't buy any bras without her trying them on to be sure they're comfortable. There are a lot of guides on the internet also that can tell you what to watch for when trying a bra - [here's one from figleaves.](http://www.figleaves.com/us/fitting_room.asp?cat=187&txt=5683) While they're not the highest quality, I think Victoria's secret has some bras she'd like. They make t-shirt bras that are cotton, super comfy, cute and don't show under shirts. I got a few and I love them to death.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "Maybe try taking her out somewhere fancy, and telling her she *has* to get dressed up. While out, tell her how great she looks, and that she should do it more often. That's the most subtle way I can see to approaching it.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "You're not supposed to wear sports bras constantly. It's not healthy. Compresses the girls too much, the material doesn't breathe (encouraging infection). I don't remember what else, I just know that this is not recommended. And I for one cannot even begin to imagine wearing a sports bra for more than an hour or two - they are not very comfortable! Are you sure it's a sports bra? \n\nOtherwise, you really can't change her. She has to want to change herself, yaddah yah. My pet peeve? People that treat their SOs as their personal dress-up dolls. Only if my husband requested my help selecting clothes, would I give him my two cents.... this just smacks too much of \"you're perfect, now change.\" \n\nSorry! As I said, it's my pet peeve.... \n", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "Go and talk to your doctor about meds, or even better, see a psychiatrist (they have a lot more knowledge about depression/anxiety meds than family doctors do, even though family doctors prescribe more of them.) Everyone's different- Zoloft wasn't a good experience for me at all, and it usually takes me a good 3-4 tries with different meds/dosages before I find one that works for me. Right now I'm on mirtazapine (Remeron) for anxiety/depression, and it's working great. I think that I've pretty much run the gamut of them over the years. After you see your doctor, stay in very close touch with him/her about how the meds are working- there's no point on being on something if it's not doing anything, or making you feel worse. \n\n\n\n\n\n", "score": 6 }, { "body": "There may not be enough info given here for us to answer properly. How extreme is it? Not suggesting you are in this position but some people can get over it with therapy and practice. In either case, I wish you the best. \n\nAnd in what situations is it worst? When have you been using alcohol?", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Can you please tell us about the problems in your life. Job, family, relationships, joy, interest/hobbies. Anything, get the words flowing here.\n\nThank you.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Hey softdick :) , it really depends on a professional diagnoses unfortunately. \n\nI would talk to a doc first and then go from there. ", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Love it, and it's always getting better. \n\nMy advice to you is to **open your mouth and communicate**. Nothing gets better if you don't talk about it with your significant other.", "score": 52 }, { "body": "Been married 25 years, 3 kids in University. Sex life is amazing. Things really do get better with age. Can't wait for the kids to all move out.", "score": 24 }, { "body": "Honestly, not so much. I have a great girl who I have been with for a few years now, (about 2.5) and we live together in my house. But honestly, as horrible as it sounds, this is one of the reasons she doesnt have a ring on her finger, I am just flat out not satisfied in bed. \n\nShe treats sex as a reward for, well cleaning, or doing chores. Its kinda sad. Bah.", "score": 17 }, { "body": "Really? \"She sucks at sex\"?? I'm not even going to swing at that pitch. Challenge me.\n\nAnd sorry, I really do enjoy my sex life so I'm not much help as a sympathizer. But I discuss what I like with my wife. No sarcasm: have you done that with your wife?", "score": 12 }, { "body": "Love my sex life. I have a regular, well, fuck buddy I guess is the best term for it. We hang out when we want to, we go at it many times over several hours a few times a week and then go about our business. We call each other when we want it, meet up when we can no hard feelings if we can't. It's not just sex, we have solid conversation and cook and watch movies and such, but it is solidly not a romantic relationship. Basically we decided single and looking for the right person doesn't mean you should be sexually starved or grasping at bad short term relationships to get off, and we have really, really good sex instead. She absolutely loves to have sex and to everyone here defending going solo as being good enough-- most of the fun in sex is making your partner go wild and getting them off, and she's the kind of girl who loves to take it as long and often as I can dish it out, it feels fantastic. ", "score": 6 }, { "body": "My husband and I *really* enjoy our sex life. We both have great libidos, and indulge them insanely, I guess in part because I'm lucky enough to have a husband who can get it up whenever he wants, and can have sex again immediately. That said, there is something to be said about the woman having to be in the right frame of mind to have sex. For women, if they're not happy with their spouse, its hard to get intimate, because why the hell would you want to twist yourself into uncomfortable positions so he could stick it up your coochie, work at with him for awhile, and tire yourself out, if you're not even happy with him at the moment???", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I hear you, brother!\n\nOf course I tell other people that my sex life is wonderful, it's the only thing that I do for the sole purpose of being \"manly.\" In reality, the sex is really the only thing about my relationship that's not so great. Over 3 years with my girlfriend, but she has so many hangups with herself now that she doesn't really enjoy sex anymore (though when we started it was fucking hot!). She's gained weight, but I couldn't care less about that. So. She's uncomfortable in bed which leads to sex being a chore for her. That lack of interest or even a shred of enthusiasm makes it feel clinical and too... \"Pardon me, miss, but could you spare some time, if you would please, to, perhaps, if you wouldn't mind too much - I don't want to be a bother, really, but could we have sex?\" These are all things that we've talked about mulitiple times, but that hasn't changed anything. She's not big into blowjobs, so that sucks (pun intended), I have to initiate every time (unless saying \"if you want sex we'll have to do it before midnight, because I've got to get some sleep tonight\" is considered initiating sex), we haven't had sex with the lights on in over a year, and there are certain positions we can't do because we're both too chubby to pull them off properly. I wish she'd masturbate so that maybe she'd get turned on and arouse herself when I'm not around so she might get used to feeling sexual again, but that isn't happening. Again, we have great communication and we've discussed all these things multiple times before. Sometimes you get to a point where talking about it won't change anything (it'll keep the relationship strong and honest, but won't change the actual issues at hand).\n\nShe's funny, beautiful, smart, wonderful and a whole bunch more. I love her more than I could express. Doesn't change the fact that this is frustrating.\n\nThanks for letting me get that off my chest!", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I do. I'm a woman. The reason I enjoy it is because every time we have sex he gets me off. If he didn't I would probably only do it to satisfy him. I never masturbated really I prefer when he gets me off. Sex without an orgasm is just idk boring, empty and just not fun. If I didn't orgasm the sex and my interest in it would stop. Also I never masturbated until after he showed me how to get off several times and I still prefer it when he gets me off. l'll only masturbate if I am desperate or if I give him a show but he has to please me too after said show. Since I cum 99.7% of the time (I can't orgasm when drunk for some reason) I slowly became more experimental and now I am a \"freak.\"\n\nThat said does your wife orgasm? I'm talking about a real orgasm. Try going down on her and fingering her if she spasms down there it's real (he vagina will tighten and loosen on you several time) also her face will flush. You would be surprised how many women fake orgasms for their man and fake interest in sex. If you never orgasmed I can guarantee you sex will be a chore a chore that leaves you unsatisfied. \n\nAlso your advice for her \"put some effort into pleasing herself\"... uhh how about YOU PUT EFFORT INTO PLEASING HER? ", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "You realise that it's ridiculously easy to give someone rice, right?\n\nhttp://www.freerice.com/\n\nIt's educational, fun, AND you donate rice at the same time.\n\nSeriously, go play it.", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "Mario Galaxy, no question. One of the best games of all time in my book. Not much fun for multiplayer, though; for that, I'd recommend SSB: Brawl.\n\nEdit: Okami, No More Heroes", "score": 14 }, { "body": "Zelda Twilight Princess, Smash bros brawl, mario galaxy, wii sports resort, metroid prime trilogy.\n\nIn that order. Go for it!", "score": 9 }, { "body": "Mario Galaxy is a definite winner, as is Zelda. I haven't played the Metroid Prime game yet, but the previous two were solid so it's a fairly safe bet. On the VC, I have Mega Man 9 and some of the older games. World of Goo is great, too. \n\nWii Play is worth it if you're buying a new controller. I believe it's only another $10 on top of the price of a controller. It's nowhere near as great as *Wii Sports* but it's fun for an afternoon, at least. *Wii Sports* is pretty amazing by itself.\n\nOh almost forgot - Mario Kart is fun for two people.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "New Super Mario Bros. Wii, great w/ people, but trying to replay older levels by yourself is just boring.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I know some people recommend Mario Kart, but I think it sucks. The power-ups affect the game too much. Unlike Brawl it doesn't really matter how good you are. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Mario Kart Wii (fun online), House of the Dead: Overkill, Mario Galaxy oh and of course...the Homebrew channel.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "How do you find the (whateveritis) to sit down and actually write? How do you gather your thoughts? Any tips or tricks for a scattered mind who'd love to write?", "score": 8 }, { "body": "What are your qualifications on the subject matter? (degrees, industry experience, etc.)\n\nHow much did the publishers care about your above qualifications (or lack thereof)?", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "Go somewhere else so you can distinguish between \"prestigious\" and \"good.\" You seem to be confusing the two at the moment.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Don't apply to grad school until you have a clearer idea of what you want to do and why you want to do it. You need something more specific than \"some kind of therapist\". It's okay if this plan changes, but it should exist and be something you've put some serious thought into.\n\nAlso, do *not* apply for a Ph.D. if you don't want to do research.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "You need to apply to a variety of schools anyways. Find 6-8 schools you'd be comfortable going to in the range of dream school to \"safe\" (lowest end you could tolerate) school. Find advisors that you'd like to work with at those schools, and try to start up a dialogue with them (email them asking for some of their papers, or whatever). Apply to each, and hope for the best.\n\nAs far as GREs - study what you have done, get practice tests, and check online. There's probably tons of resources for something as disgustingly common as psych.\n\nAttractive - get as much time in something as close to psych as you can. Shadowing (if acceptable w/in the profession), work with psychologists, hell, whatever you can get. Re-take any very poor classes if you can (hopefully your gpa for psych classes is over 3.3). Try to take some master's classes if you get denied the first time around.\n\nAlso, verse yourself in the fucking literature. If/when you get an interview, you should be able to talk about what's happening today in the field.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I am not that computer savvy, so I was proud of myself taking an old laptop and partitioning the drive to dual boot Ubuntu and XP. Now I feel like a computer ninja having my dual booting laptop sitting on my desk right next to my MacBook Pro and having 3 OS's available at all times. I am the king of computer illiterates.\n\nYes I know how easy that is to do, don't steal my dream.", "score": 7 }, { "body": "I wrote a Perl script to write my college poetry class assignments for me. \n\nGot a B+ in the class, too!", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I \"Mac-ified\" my family's PC. I realized hacking OSX to make it work on our Dell was beyond my capabilities, so I downloaded program after program to make it look like a Mac. It had the Mac boot screen, toolbar, dock, and widgets. The Close/Minimize/Expand buttons looked like Mac's (although on the right side of the window) and I had the cursor visuals changed to OSX's style. For iChat, I downloaded Trillian and used the iChat theme. All the sounds converted. The dock was almost a carbon copy of OSX as I used the Mac icons for their respective Windows programs. I believe that about sums it up.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Ordered pizza from the Linux command line. [Not me in video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J691aLfkWP0)", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Wow. Reddit is a small world. I wrote [pretty much exactly what you're describing](http://pelagodesign.com/sidecar/unpartisan/) 4 years ago. It was like Techmeme for political news. I took it down in 2009 after the site never took off.\n\nFiguring out whether two blocks of text are related is quite easy. You can count the number of common words and phrases. If you integrate a dictionary, you can search for matching synonyms. Proper nouns and multiple-word phrases get weighted higher. You'll never get pure *certainty* that two stories are related, but you can develop an algorithm that helps you determine the *likelihood* that they are related. Refinement of your algorithm will help you cut down false-positives and false-negatives.\n\nThe trickier part was actually *grouping* stories. The way I did this was to scan news articles. If the article was similar to an existing story, it would get grouped together. If it was distinct, it would get stored in its own group. Then I would scan RSS feeds separately and assign them to existing news stories. Rising news stories could be gauged by how big the groups were (how many news stories and rss blog postings were attached to the group), and the age of the group.\n\nMy comparison algorithm was pretty primitive (it was 5 years ago and was my first big programming project), but you're welcome to the code if you're interested.\n\nEDIT: One thing I forgot to mention is that, if you're comparing common words within a block of text, it's good to investigate various [word stemming](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stemming) algorithms in the language you're writing your program (e.g. Python) in as well as the language you're planning on scanning (e.g. English). This breaks down words into their linguistic roots for comparison (eg. wrote == write == writes == written).", "score": 10 }, { "body": "Alright, there are a couple approaches to this that I can think of. Keep in mind, I'm sick, and my words might not be the clearest...\n\n1. Chunk up your documents. This could be by phrase, stemming, etc... You can have as many different chunking methods as you want, as long as they are tagged. These chunks will be known as \"pivot nodes.\" We are going to build a graph, so connect the document (article) to the chunk, and save the number of times the chunk appears in the document\n\n2. Score each chunk by the number of documents it shows up in. The more documents, the lower the score. Then scale these to an inverse exponential function (fast drop off).\n\n3. Take the connection from the document to the chunk, and assign it a cost of 0 (in reality, not 0, more like 32k, essentially the middle of your number line). Iterate through all the chunks in that document. Every time the chunk appears, add to the chunk score, and every time that it doesn't appear, subtract from the chunk score.\n\n4. Take a given document, and calculate the connectivity to other documents by calculating taking the chunk score, and multiplying it times the connection scores. The document whose collective scores are the highest should be the best related...\n\nAlright, then the second method:\n\n1. Chunk up all the documents. \n\n2. Rank all the chunks by the number of times they appear (uniquer -> higher rating)\n\n3. Take each document, and calculate the top N tags, with a high rating cutoff. We'll tag the document with these, and call them document tags.\n\n4. Find document with similar tags...\n\nProfit!!!\n\nHonestly, there are more things you can do to make this better, but it all depends on computing power, and cash... ", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Hmm, it's been years, but I remember that recipe software often does this sort of thing. The good ones, anyway. I'm sure that kind of software is expensive, but \nTHEre's likely to be some kind of \nPIRATEed software site that could help you. I try to keep that sort of thing at \nBAY, myself lest some \nORGanization come after me legally.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "you should try [sparkpeople.com](http://sparkpeople.com)\n\nThis is going to be my best buddy for 2010! You can track your weight goals, meals, grocery list, work out time and just about everything you can do to get fit. (it's also FREE!!!)", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I used to keep journals of my dreams. On several occasions, I awoke from \"recurring\" dreams and checked my journals to find the last time I dreamed them - only to realize I had never dreamed them before. I convinced myself in my dream that it was a dream I'd had before. OR, perhaps, I actually had dreamed it before, but not consciously remembered, until later, when I dreamed it again.\n\nOne way or another, I frequently wake up with anomalies in the continuum of what happened and what I imagined.", "score": 8 }, { "body": "yeah, I've had a daydream where I see myself experience Deja vu... a few months later, that exact dream played out in real life, and I got the Deja vu feeling...\n\n My comment's a pretty terrible explanation, but, Yes is my answer to your question.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "My mom does that because she works in a psychiatric hospital and doesn't want patients looking her up.", "score": 14 }, { "body": "I hate it when people make up their last names because they think it sounds cool.\n\nExample: Kiersten Copernicus\n\n...I can never identify who it is...", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Even worse is when people put something for their name that doesn't even resemble it.\n\nFacebook recently suggested that I add a \"Ju-Jube Wackypants\". ARGH!", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I can understand in some cases. For instance, it's common for Mexicans to go by their middle name, because pretty much every mexican girl is named Maria. Just try to look up Maria Lopez, or Maria Gonzalez... it's like the John Smith thing. \n \nUsually, though, it's for privacy reasons. Their friends will know who they are, and they aren't interested in \"friending\" acquaintances.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "wow. great stuff. she has a nice body, you're a lucky man. love how wet her pussy is in the second shot.", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "Ususally not, most bottled American beer has very little flavor. Bud is shut a crummy beer...soon as they flavored it with lime, sales improved big time. \"If you have to put lime in your beer, you need to find a better beer\".", "score": 6 }, { "body": "I'm Canadian, and a beer lover. I can find merit in most brews. I have to admit that, for US beer, I prefer Sam Adams, Fat Tire, etc... the stuff with a little more taste. In fact, I think the 'hopiest' IPA I have ever had was a microbrew from Hawaii (Big Swell) which was tasty. However, though I don't really like Bud/Coors/Pabst, it is dangerous to call the preferred taste of millions of people \"shit\". Perhaps a light, mildly flavoured, no aftertaste brew is what the majority of people want. Be careful when you are assuming you have better taste or more insight than millions of other people... you'll wind up humiliated sooner or later. ", "score": 5 }, { "body": "to be fair. Popular imported beer is crap too. Fosters, Labatts, Molson, Becks, Heineken. \n\nAmerican Microbrews can be excellent and competitive. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I drink the shit out of Miller Lite. Why? Because i drink it in large quantities, *when* i drink it, it's cheap, and it tastes better than the rest in my opinion.\n\nWhen I have a little extra money I go for some Dos Equis, some Sam Adams, and maybe a little [Mississippi Mud](http://littledan.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/1-mississippi-mud-002-large.jpg).", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "He is not too stupid - he is peeing because he is overly stimulated - not because he thinks it's a good thing to do. Hitting and yelling at him makes him anxious, which sadly makes his peeing problem worse. \n\nYou need to teach him to be calm. Make this easy - *set him up to succeed.* Leave and come home immediately, teach him to give you a down or a sit. Praise him for any calm behavior. Also reward any [calming signals](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgnLgHFRJu4). That's yawns, tongue flicks, soft eyes, head turns. Once he has practiced immediate returns that leave for 2/5/10/20 minutes, then hours. \n\nYou may also want to ignore him for 20 minutes when you get home to make it less exciting. ", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Don't hit your dog.\n\nSome dogs get really excited when they see you and they pee. This is not the dog being bad. The dog cannot control this. I have a dog that does this occasionally. Here is a tip. Do not give the dog attention when you walk in, take the dog outside and then give it attention. You might not be able to control the dogs bladder but you can control some of the dogs excitement. It is very likely that this problem will lessen with time. 7 months is still very much a puppy. Relax and be patient with your dog. Punishment is not going to solve this problem.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Is it a young dog? It takes a couple of months for pups to gain proper bladder control.\n\nOn the flip side, is it an old dog? they usually can't hold it as well as they could when they were younger.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "it's not a word but when people - kids or adults - do that question-speak thing it drives me nuts. That's where they speak in ....fragments? each of which they inflect like a standalone .....question? like this ...here? with little faux....pauses in there? slightly squinting at the listener as if they're an idiot? and they're afraid they might be going over your head?\n", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "Try not to eat whole boxes of cookies, you probably won't feel as great about it in a couple hours. Keep a water bottle handy in case your mouth goes dry. Learn how to roll a decent joint, in case you need to some day.", "score": 23 }, { "body": "Watch these two videos...\n\n[Here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jymDn0W6U&fmt=22)\n[Here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g&feature=fvst)\n\n...and ponder your existence. Remember your relative importance and be happy to even be alive. \n\nThis list of suggestions is aimed at making your life better with the help of cannabis. \n\n1. Smoke by yourself more and explore your interests. Write, draw, sing, dance. whatever. Close your eyes and meditate on certain thoughts, let your mind wander.\n\n2. [Do mindfulness meditation.](http://www.ehow.com/how_2338227_practice-zen-mindfulness-trainings.html) [Read this book.](http://www.easy-share.com/1908905967/Jon Kabat-Zinn - Wherever You Go There You Are - Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life.pdf)\n\n3. Get a portable vaporizer (like the vaporgenie) to use when your by yourself. This will cut down on how much smoke you put in your lungs, which is generally just a good thing to do.\n\n4. Know your weights. Know how much a gram, eighth, quarter, ounce is. Know how to tell if a bag is short or not. This will make you more savvy when dealing with rando dealers.\n\n5. Get a scale. See above.\n\n6. Always be generous with those who are generous with you.\n\n7. [READ THIS](http://www.easy-share.com/1908905987/Cannabis, Forgetting and the Botany of Desire.pdf) - from the preface to page 19. I wish I read this when I first started smoking to get a scientific grasp on what weed is and how it effects my brain.\n\nAlso try downloading some brainwave audio tracks and use them with around ear headphones. You will slip into an even deeper stone and more relaxed state of mind. Here are some links...\n\n[Ultra Meditation Series](http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1865026/7849194/)\n\n[Brainwave Evolution](http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/2038563/3924597/)\n\n[Brainwave Suite](http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/751751/1308199/)\n\n[Awakened Mind System](http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/552954/5232796/)\n\n8. [Read!](http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/search) I find that when I read a good book while high I become much more absorbed in the material. Here are a few good books to check out....\n\n[The Best of Isaac Asimov](http://www.easy-share.com/1908906172/Best of Isaac Asimov, The - Isaac Asimov.pdf)\n\n[The Omnivore's Dilemma](http://www.easy-share.com/1908906178/Pollan, Michael - The Omnivore's Dilemma; A Natural History of Four Meals (2006).pdf)\n\n[The Doors of Perception](http://www.easy-share.com/1908906217/The Doors Of Perception - Aldous Huxley.pdf)\n\n[The Book - Alan Watts - HIGHLY SUGGESTED](http://www.easy-share.com/1908906222/Book On The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are.pdf)\n\n[A Short History of Nearly Everything](http://www.easy-share.com/1908906227/A_Short_History_of_Nearly_Everything.pdf)\n\n[Introduction to Consciousness](http://www.easy-share.com/1908906247/Introducing Consciousness.pdf)\n\n[Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy](http://www.easy-share.com/1908906253/The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.pdf)\n\n[The Age of Insanity](http://www.easy-share.com/1908906256/Age of Insanity - Schumaker.pdf)\n\n[The Science of Marijuana](http://www.easy-share.com/1908906259/The Science of Marijuana.pdf)\n\n[Self University](http://www.easy-share.com/1908906270/Charles D. Hayes - Self University - The price of tuition is the desire to learn. Your degree is a better life..pdf)\n\n[Huge Novel Award Winners](http://www.easy-share.com/1908906306/Hugo Novels.zip)\n\n[The Ego Tunnel](http://www.easy-share.com/1908906324/The Ego Tunnel.pdf)\n\n[On The Meaning of Life](http://www.easy-share.com/1908906334/On The Meaning Of Life.pdf)\n\n[The Joint Rollers Handbook](http://www.easy-share.com/1908906340/The Joint Rollers Handbook.pdf)\n\n[Cosmic Trigger 1](http://www.easy-share.com/1908906389/Robert Anton Wilson - Cosmic Trigger I - The Final Secret Of The Illuminati v0.9.pdf)\n\n[50 Things You're Not Suppose To Know](http://www.easy-share.com/1908906391/50 Things You're Not Supposed To Know.pdf)\n\n[Philosophy and Philosophers](http://www.easy-share.com/1908906407/Philosophy and Philosophers - An Introduction to Western Philosophy (Penguin Philosophy).pdf)\n\n9. [Always remember yourself.](http://www.selfremembering.org/excerpts.htm) Don't try to be anything while your high. Remember if you ever feel anxious to become mindful of your breath and let any other thought drift away.\n\n10. [Listen to bomb music.](http://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/9jbko/help_me_grow_my_music_library_and_maybe_grow_your/)\n\n[Stevie Wonder](http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2c9KUT/www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DwDZFf0pm0SE)\n\n[Best albums you've never heard in 09'](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8426925.stm)\n\n11. Watch some videos!\n\n[Alan Watts](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERbvKrH-GC4)\n\n[TED](http://www.ted.com)\n\n[surf the channel](http://www.surfthechannel.com)\n\n[JFK](http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D1QAWiIRgx0g)\n\nand laugh\n\n[Hilarious](http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/3401aX/www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D9h6d-evb_nM)", "score": 21 }, { "body": "A good air tight canister or jar is good for storing it between sessions. If you are looking for glass pipes/bongs, the internet is the best way to go, headshops mark up their pieces like crazy.\n\nThe best way to deal with police is not to deal with police. I always smoke at home, with people whom I trust. When I say trust, I mean my brother in law, my best friend that I have known for 9 years, his brother(who is my dealer). \n \nIf you have to drive with it, always follow every driving law, never drive more than 5mph over the limit, make sure your vehicle is in good working order(lights all work, registration up to date, etc). Stop at all stop signs. Never run a yellow. If you can, have your guy deliver it to you. If that means you have to smoke a bowl with him, so be it, hey you're gonna get high and you don't have to deal with bullshit.\n\nIf you are driving with it, lock it in the trunk or if your glove box locks, put it in there and lock it. **DO NOT** put it in the center console, your pockets, in your pants, crotch area, or under a seat. If it is in a locked compartment, they will need a warrant to get in there.\n\n**NEVER** consent to **ANY** searches.\n\nDealers - If something doesn't seem right, ditch. If he starts shorting you, find another dude. If he's shorting you, you are not that important to him as a customer anyways, find another guy and move on, it won't hurt his feelings, and your wallet will thank you. ", "score": 17 }, { "body": "\"I imagine I'll smoke about half as frequently as I drink (once a week at most)\"\n\nThat is very unlikely.", "score": 14 }, { "body": "Smoking a bowl is more effective and less smelly indoors, but smoking a joint just damn tastes better! Plus, you can keep the roaches and roll them into roach joints or spice up the next joints with them. It kinda evens out because the roach acts like a filter and traps the resin. Therefore, roach weed will get you stoned. Don't underestimate the power of the roach! \n\nAn additional benefit to joints is portability. If you carry one or two in a small airtight container, all you need is a light and you are well on your way to smoking a doobie in the park. And nothing is better than smoking a doobie in the park! If you smoke a bowl, it's gonna stink up your pocket. If you go that route, just wrap a hunk of aluminum foil over the end of your bowl. That will also keep everything from falling out between smokes.\n\nI say Bic lighters are the way to go. They last way longer than any other common disposable brand. Get a decorative one so when you smoke with others you can identify your lighter. It's a good idea to identify your lighter to others beforehand so they don't \"accidentally\" yoink it. Do this before everyone is too stoned. Say \"mine is the American flag lighter\" or whatever. Since I have been doing this, I have not \"lost\" any lighters. ", "score": 9 }, { "body": "> For example, I know next to nothing about storage, odor prevention.\n\nThe biggest problem I have, is that once you start smoking, you lose the ability to detect subtle smells of weed. By subtle, I mean fucking subtle, as where only a non-smoker would be able to detect. Annoying.\n\nSeal your shit in tupperwear or those containers from rubbermaid that say \"prevents odors from leaking\".\n\n> how to deal with police\n\nIf you're in a state with medical marijuana, do your research and seriously try to get a card. In California you can do it easily by going to a regular doctor, tell him you can't sleep. Get some Ambien, don't take it... fill your script for 4 or 5 months then go get your MJ card. You might not even need to do it for that long, although I did.\n\nOtherwise, I don't know how to deal with police, because I haven't had a run in with them.\n\n>the best place to buy lighters and pipes, or anything of that sort.\n\nAny head-shop, that's what they are called. Our country is littered with them, but maybe I'm biased because I'm in California. Use google maps and search for like \"head shop\", or \"smoke\", also try Yelp.\n\n> So I'm curious and definitely wanting to learn. I imagine I'll smoke about half as frequently as I drink (once a week at most)\n\nI said the same thing, I'm smoking every day now. When I realized that the apparent side effects are minimal, I quickly realized that this isn't like Alcohol at all. This is a natural medication that can be used for like 100 different positive reasons, and then I found myself using more and more.\n\n> and I want to have some real and practical knowledge on the subject. So what can you tell me? What do you wish you had known?\n\nWikipedia my friend, [THC](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrahydrocannabinol) and [Marijuana](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marijuana)", "score": 7 }, { "body": "Friends! Smoke with friends as much as possible. Even if you ave to smoke them up occasionally it's worth it. If they're good friends, they'll get you back. It's just so much more enjoyable to be stoned with other people. ", "score": 6 }, { "body": "You will smoke more than you drink, as its easier to get away with being high infront of people in the future...but if you can i suggest you keep it down to once a week.....coming from a guy who went to every day ...keep it at once a week. Your enjoyment of the cannabis as well as your wallet will thank you. \n\nDon't support your friends habits 24 7 its cool to smoke people out but if its becomes habitual n shit, simply ask them to pitch in on it...\n\nDealing with Police. \n1) Don't brag that you smoke. Even if you have your card keep it on reddit or between friends.\n\n2) You have rights, learn them then get a lawyer to protect them if it ever goes to court ^_^\n\n3) In california a medical marijuana card costs you about 100$. the ticket for it is 150$. Anytime a cop pulls you over most of the time they write \"Possession of 1oz or less\" In which you go to court with your card and say \"I was going home from the clinic\".\n\n4) If you're going to smoke away from home and don't want to get caught. Joint is the way to go as ...you literally burn through the evidence easy to dispose of etc.\n\n5) Vaporizer...gives you a different high from bongs n shit but saves your voice if you ever care about singing or anything else and coughing isnt comfortable.\n\n6) If your tolerance ever gets up to where you need to smoke more than a gram......get some hash with your weed, 1 gram of each sprinkle a tiny bit of hash on top take ur hit through the bong and enjoy the longer lasting more in your face high.\n\n7)\nDepending where you go\n\nGram = 20-25\n1/8th of the same gram = 40-45\n\n1/8th = 3.5 grams. Find 2 Friends...with..cards? Give them 2 grams for 20 each. You just paid 5$ for 1.5g saves you money on smoking...\n\nPast that I don't know what else I could recommend without more specific questions.\n\nOdor prevention...doesnt work TOO Well...but the plastic containers they give you the weed in. if you cut open the bottom. stuff the shit out of it with Fabric softner and breathe out of that it usually smells not as bad...throw towels under the doors etc.\n\n\n", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Always store your stuff in a glass mason jar, or a small orange pill bottle (like what you get from the pharm). \n\nBuy a good aluminum grinder and always grind your buds before smoking. The smoke will be smoother, you'll smoke less to get high, and you'll save any kief that falls off the buds in the bottom of the grinder.\n\nSave your stem and seeds but don't smoke em. The stems are great for making tincture if you save enough, and you can always grow with the seeds.\n\nDon't be afraid to ingest rather than smoke, it gets you cooked and you don't punish your lungs in the process.\n\nShould you get pulled over;\n-be polite\n-admit to nothing\n-answer every question with \"I need to consult with my attorney before I can answer that.\"\n-Do not allow any search to take place without your attorney present\n-Demand to see any warrant that they claim to have", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "The client.\n\nAfter ten years, I feel like I've defeated *my* portion of the job. There's little I can't code in a reasonable amount of time. I rarely get stuck anymore regardless of how ridiculous they want their javascript effect to be or how complex the SQL query yanking all of the data out ends up being.\n\nBut the clients never get any easier. They use words that don't mean anything (this should \"pop\" more), ask for things that would hurt their traffic or make the site confusing, and generally destroy the beautiful creation you made.", "score": 54 }, { "body": "For me its the final 10% of the project.\r\nIts when you're done with all the cool jquery and have been looking at your superb design for so long, it makes you throw up in your mouth..\r\nThings get repetitive and boring and you find the smallest trivial tasks repulsive.", "score": 10 }, { "body": "Completing a design that I am completely, 100% satisfied with, only to come back to it a few hours later and realize that I absolutely hate it.", "score": 9 }, { "body": "When you've slaved for days on end getting a design nice and tidy, then you present it to the client. They will ALWAYS, I repeat, ALWAYS do this little \"hmmm\" thing then stand there for a few seconds. Then they will say that they don't like the blue you used, or that the logo isn't big enough. Or they will fail to grasp the concept of greeked text, placeholder images or the reason they hired you in the first place!\n\nAll in all, it's the initial presentation that's the worst. After you've had a few minutes to explain to them the various aspects of the design and the reasoning behind it, it's as if you've raised their IQ from that of a clam to a drunken retard who's had a misspent youth experimenting with smoking banana peels and listening to prog-rock. But at least a drunken retard knows how to sign a cheque. Clams don't have fingers. They can only make little slimy x-shaped smudges with their little foot-tongues. But my bank still accepts them, so I shouldn't complain. It keeps the booze flowin'.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "Motivation.\n\nWeb design is fun and exciting, and the possibilities of browsers are becoming limitless. Sometimes though, the daily tedium can get you. The trick is to never stop learning, because there's almost always a better way to accomplish your goals.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "clients who want everthing pixel-exact in all browsers from ie6 upwards. i mean wtf - firefox users wont start up ie6 to check if a line is 2px off or not! or our outsourced design company who submits work as screenshots inside pdf's, not giving me any color tables to work with or even the basic styles for links, visted links, font sizes, spaces etc....", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Well, after I actually *did* get in trouble for something in my IM window, I am super paranoid... even though I'm now out of my parents house, and most of my conversations are bland nothingness anyways", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "[Maybe](http://hidemyass.com/), [you](http://webevader.org/) [should](http://proxy.org/cgi_proxies.shtml) [try](http://www.proxy4free.com/page1.html) [with](http://www.zend2.com/) [any](http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_proxy.htm) [of](http://kproxy.com/) [these](http://pimpmyip.org/). ", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Your wife feels threatened. You made a connection with this woman years before she came into the picture. She's afraid that your old bonds will win out.", "score": 29 }, { "body": "You clearly don't have much experience with women.\n\nYou going out with a girl she doesn't know and doesn't know the extent of your past relationship. She thinks you're trying to seem legit by asking permission specifically to lure her into a false sense of security. ", "score": 12 }, { "body": "If you cave in now, you will be doomed to have this situation repeat itself again and again and again.", "score": 8 }, { "body": "She's 23. That's the problem. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure she's awesome (otherwise why would you have married her?) but you also have to take into account that she is still quite young, and is probably worried that you will leave her for someone you fucked in college.\n\nBring her along when you hang out with your female college friends and when she does, be sure to include her in all parts of the conversation/activities. \n\nOther than that, don't talk about them unless you are going to be seeing them in the near future and want to make sure your awesome wife can come along. \n\nBasically she's worried you don't find her interesting and attractive because you are hanging out with women you partied with and are closer to your own age.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "I'm gonna second the bit about how you should default to favouring your wife's considerations, but I'm not saying you should roll over and \"yes dear\". Sit down with your sweetie and talk to her. You obviously feel like this is an okay thing to do, she obviously feels like it ain't. Why? She mentioned not knowing the girl, but why does that matter? Obviously, you're quick to defend against the \"cheating\" card, but maybie that's not where she's coming from at all. Find out what her problems are here and see what you can do that's not gonna upset her. Alternatively, she needs to understand where you're coming from and needs to recognize where she needs to loosen up to prevent upsetting you. Folks shouldn't be upsetting each other, is my point. ", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I disagree with some of the postings. I am a woman, and this sounds like a monster trust issue. If you haven't done anything to damage her trust then you should not let her get away with over-control. Obviously she is your wife, but does this mean she cannot hang out with any other men than you? Sounds weird. I recommend being honest with your feelings to her ... ", "score": 5 }, { "body": "In my experience it's not really that she doesn't trust you, it's just that she doesn't trust those women around her man... Having said that, maybe you can bring her out with you next time to put her mind at ease.", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "Relationships were always weird in my family. We (my brother, my cousins and I) were teased mercilessly about friends we had that were girls. It was ridiculous. Constantly I'd hear \"Oh is she your *girrrrllllfriend*?\" I know every family does this to some extent, but I feel like my situation was slightly different somehow. \n\nBecause of this, I never told my parents about girlfriends I had, or girls I liked. I didn't ask for any advice on girls, and had to deal with a pretty lame middle/high school life with no girlfriends because I was both too shy with girls and too embarrassed to mention it to my family.\n\nI want my kids to be open to me about their relationships with girls/boys. I am more than glad with the way I turned out, I have a wonderful girlfriend of almost 5 years, and I have a great relationship with my parents. The only reason I feel like this was my parents doing is because my brother is the exact same way about girls to my parents. He didn't even tell them he had a date to the prom! ", "score": 66 }, { "body": "I'm teaching my children that getting good grades is not an indicator of your worthiness as a human being.", "score": 30 }, { "body": "Diversity is healthy. My folks sat me down when they saw I was dating a Dominican girl and gave me a \"racial purity\" lecture. It was the most horrifying shit I'd ever heard come out of their mouths. Grown-ass people. In the 1990s. Talking to their son in full sincerity with this ignorant übermensch bullshit. There were a number of lessons I came to learn about how parents aren't necessarily ideal role models. That was one of the first and biggest.", "score": 27 }, { "body": "I will enter my kids into Martial-Arts Training as soon as they are able. (I'm not talking about Karate either...)\n\nThey won't like it at first... They might even hate me for it at some point. But when their confidence level is way above anyone else's because they will know that they have the ability to kick the living shit out of anyone who crosses their paths... I'm sure they will thank me.", "score": 23 }, { "body": "The religion conversation is going to be somewhat different. My parents encouraged tolerance of and learning about all religions, but the atheist/agnostic option was never present. I plan on adding that as well to the dialog.", "score": 12 }, { "body": "The only sex talk I got was \"don't let that happen to you.\" That'll fuck a kid up. I won't make that mistake. ", "score": 11 }, { "body": "I'm going to do all that I can to make sure that my kids don't have to pay for their own college. It really sucks to pay back loans when I have extremely little income.\n\nWhen I have kids, I would rather take out the loans myself because I know I will have the means to pay them back and my kids will not. I'll let them start fresh out of college.\n\nOther than that, I agree with just about everything my parents have done.", "score": 10 }, { "body": "Probably let them drink underage and smoke weed at home under my supervision. As opposed to up at the park at night where the cops will bust them.", "score": 9 }, { "body": "I got issues:\n\n• it's okay to be angry/sad/frustrated/upset, but let's find out what the real problem is, and I won't take it personally if you're angry.\n\n• everything is discussable.\n\n• I won't be a hypocrite.\n\n• I'll admit when I'm wrong.\n\n• I'll provide reasons for my requests, and if the situation doesn't allow, I'll explain as soon as possible.\n\n• I'll read to them at night.\n\n• I'll spend time with you rather than my own hobbies.\n\n• I'll take you guys out for once.\n\n• I won't try to convince you my tastes are better than yours.\n\n• I'll teach through example rather than nagging.\n\n• I won't induce guilt or shame as motivators.\n\n• I'll put you in your place.\n\n• I'll teach you to earn respect rather than expect it and be indignant when it's not magically given to you.\n\n• I'll teach you specifically how to approach people, strangers, people above you below you and on your level, to get them on your side.\n\n• I'll teach you to lead rather than follow.\n\n• I won't interpret family as a means to boost my ego by making them sit through my self-aggrandizing, self-indulgent blathering about me and my ways of thinking.\n\n• I won't complain about the world to you guys.\n\n• I will lay out fair and consistent ground rules, rather than overtly stating we have a laid back and pressure-free devil-may-care environment, only to be met with yelling for things that were never established as on or off limits.\n\nGot that off my chest. Done blaming. For now.", "score": 9 }, { "body": "I'm going to ask a close friend of mine to let me use him and his prosthetic arm to teach my kids lessons about leaving notes.", "score": 9 }, { "body": "I'm honest with them, always. Ex gets mad, sometimes (\"What? *we* are Santa???\"), but is convinced our 4 year old is a genius (\"The planets? They go Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto except it's not a planet. Duh, Dad.\") The reason my son loves this stuff is because I encourage it (mainly by answering when he asks \"why...\" or \"how...\"). Also, I don't require them to apologize. I suggest that it might be a good idea, but the decision is theirs. I want their apologies to be genuine. I remember being made to apologize. It sure as hell didn't make me feel sorry (at least not to the person I was being forced to apologize to). I'll tell them when and why they might want to apologize for their behavior, but I don't make them do it.\nSo, differences? Only to a degree, because my mom did a great job... but they are: total honesty, integrity, and always giving a fair answer when they ask 'why'.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "VeryLongStoryShort. I was raised Catholic. I would emphasize the beauty of every day life and love and the pain that goes with both. Leave out the guilt and the mis-placed prejudices. \n ", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I'm going to make sure my kids first credit card has a $500 limit. My first one had a $5000 limit... still paying that shit off....", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Anyone answering this should say if they HAVE kids presently...it makes a huge difference in what you think you'll do when you have a dog in the fight.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Let them do their own laundry. Looking back now I can't beleive how much problems laundry created between my mom and I. Been doing it myself now for years and it's almost relaxing.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Love yourself. Your nose may not be perfect, your face may be too round, you may have cankles, and your breasts may be large (and become saggy as you age.) But learning to love yourself is a lot cheaper than fixing the never ending list of things that need to be fixed.\n\nI am not a parent, nor do I ever want to be one, but something I wished my parents had instilled in me.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "One of the first things I'll teach my children is astronomy and that they live on a planet and not in a country.\n\nIf I ever see myself saying \"Don't touch this.\" to my children I'll probably beat myself, because that is simply the way children learn about their environment. People never let their children go while they try to learn stuff by touching them and wonder why they become dumb and generally not interested in new things or learning. Most parents still have no clue that they are actually programming their children.\n\nI will teach them that everything that feels like fun to them is automatically to be seen as healthy and that the amount of money they will earn depends on how happy they are in their jobs. I probably will say \"happy-place\" instead of \"job\".\n\n\n\n\n\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Quit rewarding her bad behavior. If you buy her shit when is poutting, she is going to act like a child to get her way.\n\nIf shes in a bad mood, go hang out with your friends.\n\nOr just leave her. She sounds like an acne ridden unstable bitch.", "score": 32 }, { "body": "You need to learn how to train a dog =p Reward desirable behavior, ignore undesirable behavior. If you ignoring her bad behavior means you ignore her almost completely, well, time to find a new girlfriend, yes?", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Apologizing all the time because your SO is unjustifiably pissed off all the time is no way to live. Life is too short. Find someone else who will appreciate you. They are out there and you deserve better.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I'm assuming you guys are super young (your way of writing implies this). Because you guys are super young, neither of you are able to overcome past issues in the relationship. Therefore, time to move on and learn from this experience.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I know some people who have been helped by Accutane, but at the same time I know some who have been driven crazy by it.\nA known (but somewhat rare) side effect of Accutane is suicidal behavior. I know that your problems in this relationship probably stem from more than that, but just keep an eye out my friend.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I do Christian mode a lot but only in my head. Somewhere in the back of my head xtian mode is always saying something stupid whenever I read/hear atheistic arguments. There are many times when atheists use the wrong wording or fail to elaborate on a statement and I just go DOH cuz I KNOW what the theist would think of that. ", "score": 8 }, { "body": "God created man knowing the evil they would bring. Therefore God created evil and is, by definition, evil.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Windows 2000. No, seriously, Windows 2000 was designed with those specs in mind and is mostly compatible with old and new software, and is NT based so less crash-y. If you want to go with a linux flavor there's always xubuntu but when I loaded xubuntu on my 700 mhz, 256 mb, 10 gb laptop it was *still* slow. That may have been the hard drive's fault, but even then XP went pretty quickly in comparison. ", "score": 14 }, { "body": "It's been a while since the last time I used them, but have you considered the Linux variants with really small footprints? Damn Small Linux, Puppy Linux, etc. might work well.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "yeah xubuntu gets my vote. Even that might be a little to much for it tho. RAM is more important that CPU speed on a PC of that spec with a lightweight OS.\n\nIf it is too much for it. Youll have to fiddle around with something like Damn Small Linux or Puppy Linux. \n\nSkip any MS route, we dont need another child indoctrinated. :)", "score": 3 }, { "body": "If you can boost the computer to 512MB of RAM, then you're okay with XP. But I second the vote for Windows 2000. I have a friend who happens to have two identical laptops, 700Mhz Dells with 256MB RAM (maxed out). XP is pretty slow because even with all of the nonessential services turned off, it still goes into swap with a couple of browser windows open. The 2000 machine uses much less RAM, and Firefox 3.5 will work. \n\nI tried Puppy Linux on a 1.3Ghz Duron last week, and the computer flew with 512MB off the live CD. I had a spare 600MB (yes MB) hard drive, so installed it and had about 200MB free. ", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Jesus Christ... I am so with you. I have insurance and fear getting sick as I may go bankrupt. Every one in congress failed the people of the US. It is a miserable failure and a disappointment of the lack of courage of our elected officials. It makes me sad that a minority of vocal individuals is able to steer the debate and strike fear into the weak willled of congress. ", "score": 13 }, { "body": "I'd get your ass to Europe ASAP...\n\nI think if you get a 6-month Visa in the UK the NHS will cover you", "score": 7 }, { "body": "I haven't had insurance for at least a year and a half. I may have it soon because I'm likely to finally become a permanent employee soon (after being at this shitty job for a year!!). Who knows what the insurance will look like. Probably pretty goddamn awful. I feel for you, brother. I've got some mysterious chronic pain in my left foot, eye problems, teeth problems, ear problems, terrible allergies, TMJ... and the list is only getting longer.\n\nHere's to hoping the non-profit, member-owned co-ops described in the bill turn out to be a viable option for those of us who can't afford the kind of coverage we'd like (but then we'd fucking get taxed for it, rather than the rich paying more) and who don't want our money going to some non-national corporation of misery pimps.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Maybe [this](http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/health-bill-benefits-for-the-impatient/) will help. Keep in mind the House bill provisions were meant to take effect sooner than the Senate's, so maybe there will be a compromise. This is the thing I'm most hopeful about:\n\n>Short-term expansion of state high risk pools: To help people who cannot obtain insurance because of pre-existing conditions, both the Senate and House bills would provide $5 billion to increase the availability of coverage through state high-risk insurance pools. This provision would take effect 90 days after enactment of the legislation, but many details remain to be worked out.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "It's all a bluff. They won't let me out of my room, and my tire swing is all chewed up, so I have to refer to this gizmo for laffs.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Being rather new here, I sure don't know. But I'll predict that the answers to this question will result in a high crap/quality ratio. ", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Stay away from anything generating radiation of any sort - crt tv/monitors, wifi, cellphones, and cordless phones are big culprits.\n\nPlug the amp and everything in your effects chain into the same power strip and make sure everything is grounded. If you're on a line with fluorescent lighting, you may need to turn them all off or get a power conditioner.\n\nApart from that, it may be shielding. There are two main places that you need to check - your cables and any routing you have on your guitar.\n\nFor cables, you pretty much just need good, shielded cables. It's not worth the time shielding them yourself unless you're in a serious bind.\n\nFor solid body electrics, your cavities need shielded. I'm not sure how this works on strat-style guitars, since they have a lot of routing under the pickguard, but on a normal super strat-style, the cavity is pretty small. Open up your cavities and make sure that they have either conductive paint or conductive tape on all wood surfaces and on the inside of the cavity cover. The conductive coating on the cover has to touch the coating on the cavity. \n\nStew-mac has copper tape kits or paint, if this seems to be your problem.\nTape: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Supplies:_Shielding/Conductive_Copper_Tape.html?actn=100101&xst=3&xsr=991\n\nPaint: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Supplies:_Shielding/Conductive_Shielding_Paint.html?actn=100101&xst=3&xsr=991\n\nWhole kit: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Supplies:_Shielding/Self-adhesive_Shielding_Kit.html?actn=100101&xst=3&xsr=991\n\nAnother problem may just be your amp is crappy, lol, but if you're recording on it, then probably not.\n\nRegardless, there's always going to be some hum, especially if you're using active pickups. I'm running some EMG 707's with a fuckton of gain, and even though I have absolutely everything shielded, grounded, on the same outlet, etc, my hum is pretty shitty. The real trick is a noise gate. With a properly timed gate, you can never tell, except for really long, sustained notes.", "score": 8 }, { "body": "could be interference due to shoddy shielding on your cable. before you spend a fuckton of money for someone to look at your amp just upgrade to a standard mogami gold instrument cable, and a planet waves speaker cable for you amp. spend 50$ altogether for some nice cables, and even if that wasnt the problem, at least now youve got some nice cables...", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "Call the cops, call the target, both anonymously. If the cops can't get to him in time the target at least gets a head start.\n\nAlso you might want to stop associating with a pre-meditating murdering psychopath.", "score": 16 }, { "body": "What kind of friend tells his buddy of his murder plot and his escape plan but leaves you holding the bag since you have some responsibility now to prevent said murder? This will go over well with the cops when they ask you if you knew of the murder plot and the action you took to prevent it. Now you are practically an accessory. Read him the freaking riot act, then kick his ass for being an idiot and not keeping his plan to himself.", "score": 11 }, { "body": "Well, I am not a lawyer but if you know someone is going to commit murder, I think you need to call the police.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "You need to notify the authorities immediately. Make an anonymous call so he doesn't retaliate against you. Have him committed to an institution if the cops don't listen. You have a chance to prevent this and you must. They may be your friend, but you can't stand idly by when he makes the worst mistake of his life.\n\nHe is not ok. If you care about him you must take action.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "This sounds like a job for Dexter Morgan... seriously I don't care how badasss your friend is or thinks he is.... senseless killing in order to satiate your own ego pathetic.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "[You are not alone](http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=site:google.com+youtube+slow&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=)", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I'm one of the authors of the Art of Problem Solving series; one of my AoPS colleagues directed me to your post here.\n\nWith that disclaimer, I'll start by noting that dozens of people (including many of my students) have sent me Lockhart's Lament because they felt our work addresses his lament. We basically wrote the books we wish we'd had in high school, and they're specifically designed for students working independently, so they'd be well-suited to one-on-one instruction that match the pace of the student. \n\nThe Zeitz book is fantastic -- some of the students on our site call it \"AoPS3\", as it's a natural follow up to our old Volume 1 and Volume 2 contest prep books that have been around for 16 years now. (Our full curriculum has been developed in the last 6 years as an extension of that earlier work.) \n\nIf you have any specific questions about the books, please feel free to contact us as described here: http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/AboutUs/AoPS_A_Contact.php\n\nPS Our (very thick) chapter on conics does indeed have the students starting from the classical definition of each conic to derive general forms of equations whose graphs are the corresponding conics.", "score": 10 }, { "body": "I used Paul Zeitz's \"The Art and Craft of Problem Solving\" a lot in high school, on my own. The AoPS books didn't exist then, and I've never read them, but I've often seen Zeitz's book recommended alongside them on the AoPS forums. My impression is that they have a similar approach.\n\nI am strongly in favor of exposing more high school students to such things. It is not an exaggeration to say that that book changed my life, due to its focus on the how/why, on using intuition and creativity in mathematics, and just for making it all seem so *fun*. As a current graduate student, I can say that it's much closer to \"real\" mathematics than anything in the standard high school curriculum.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "FYI, there's a website for these books at http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/\n\nSounds like a fairly reasonable approach to me. I don't see any reason to restrict it to advanced students. The only problem I see is by the time many students are in HS, they're so put off math that all they want is what's needed to pass tests. ", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I do **NOT** like Gurren Lagann. I heard all the hype about it so I checked it out when it aired on SyFy. I grew up watching giant robot anime (1970s and 1980s), and this series is crap. The animation is too wacky and over the top in the vein of FLCL or Dead Leaves. Ironically I cannot stand the \"giant-face\" robots even though Gai-King is one of my all-time favorites.", "score": 16 }, { "body": "I am not a fan of mechs.\n\nNeedless to say when I watched Gurren Lagann back when it finished airing in Japan, it became my favorite anime ever. That says a lot.\n\nI also made the Reddit alien with the Gurren glasses here.\n\nI also created http://www.gurrenlagannepisodes.com/\n\nROW ROW.", "score": 11 }, { "body": "It might be over-hyped, but it's still a good series. I respect it, not only because it's just a pretty awesome mech show, but for the fact that it really, I mean REALLY, emotionally affected a lot of people in a positive way. I have read so many goddamn posts about GL inspiring people to get their shit together and punch life in the face. It might be corny, but fuck it. I can't lose my respect.\n\nI need to lay off the Gainax giant-robo shows for a while, though. I just finished watching Gunbuster and Diebuster over the holidays and man. Why so B'AWWW, Gainax? ;__;", "score": 6 }, { "body": "You need to watch Infinite Ryvius immediately. While I enjoyed Gurren Lagann, I just do not understand how fans would consider it an instant classic.\n\n\nMy Gurren Lagann Recipe:\n\n 1 part \"FLCL\"\n\n 1 part \"Infinite Ryvius\"\n\n 1 part Annoying Catch Phrase\n\nMix all ingredients in a bowl and blend well using a power drill. Makes 27 servings. Side effects include seeing spirals everywhere.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Fuck that, it was a bad parody. I didn't like it. I got the jokes. They were dull and unimaginative. \r\n\r\nIf you want a good parody, watch FLCL. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I would also like to say that as someone who loves literature in general and appreciates the subtle things that go into making a story good, I have appreciated the care that was taken with making this anime. Each time through I have noticed some new element, theme, or parallel that adds an additional layer of meaning or richness to the show. \n\nSome examples (spoilers):\n\n- Did you notice that everything has faces? Like, literally everything. Not only all the \"good\" mechs and ganmen, but every building in the rebuilt Teppelin, Yoko's TV set, cars, etc... Keep an eye out.\n\n- Rossiu's inability to leave Adai village. Several of his lines in the latter half are identical to or very slight alterations of what the priest said. Then, later, the Anti-Spiral says things that are very slight alterations of what the priest or Rossiu said.\n\n- The contrast of survival with victory. \n\n- Priority: Individual/Group. Again, here, we can contrast Simon with Rossiu. Rossiu would say he is putting the group ahead of individuals in that group (See: willingness to sacrifice some to ensure the survival of the group, albeit at greatly reduced standards of living). But you also see him send a message to Yoko - \"You are someone who must live!\" - so he prioritizes individuals as well, but in a way that disgusts Yoko and the others around him. So Rossiu shows the defensible but contemptible ways to prioritize both individual and group.\n\nContrast this with Simon at the end when the Anti-Spiral offers him the choice between saving Nia or keeping the universe from destruction. Simon rejects the choice offered: \"I'll save them both! The girl! The universe! Both of them!\" If you think of the way that the Anti-Spiral was defeated, and of the double-helix picture at the end, you see they are both conveying the idea of a group of strong individuals acting together with everyone valued for their unique strengths. It's a strong contrast to the \"straws\" of Adai village or Rossiu's decision to randomly save some and make sure his friends are brought aboard. \n\nI am having trouble summing up this last one into a concise message/theme, but hopefully you see where I am going.\n\nThere are others, too... Ahh, this anime is so rich and multilayered.... I am in love...", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "It's strange you want to do this system wide. Writing a rootkit by any chance?\n\nBefore you embark on hooking arbitrary functions; have you looked at simply using custom ACLs? Windows has _very_ complex permissions support; and AFAIK it works for registry keys just like for files.", "score": 16 }, { "body": "What you want is a registry filter driver. msdn link [here](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa906577.aspx). OSR article on registry filtering [here](http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=517).", "score": 12 }, { "body": "You probably couldn't do it with a File System driver. You MIGHT be able to create an Installable File System Filter and have it mediate NTFS IO requests, but I doubt it. Keep in mind that, unlike Sys V-based file system architectures like Linux, NT doesn't really have an easy \"virtual file system\" layer. This is one reason why you don't see a mature (or even complete) version of WinFUSE floating around. Furthermore, the last time I looked into this (because I wanted to write WinFUSE), getting hold of the Windows File System DDK required an NDA and a bunch of other crap, and was a separate download from the \"regular\" DDK. In short: don't go this route, there be dragons.\n\nYou might have to resort to DLL injection/API hooking. It's ugly, but so is what you're trying to do. \n\nLastly, don't expect this to be easy to do. After all, if it were really easy to do this it would be a HUGE security hole.\n\nGood luck on your quest; I'm sorry I can't provide a more specific starting point.", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "This is why I play the spy. It's a fantastic feeling to become a pyro, actually pretend like you're on the enemy team, get the medic to heal you as you charge in (never turn around to the medic, let him follow you)... then pretend like you're corner camping... and then... BAM... when the medic turns around stab him... it doesn't matter if you kill anyone else... just stab that medic... the one who trusted you... the one who thought you were his friend... as his cold, dead body falls limp to the floor, type into chat:\n\"I was never on your side...\"\n\n...I love it when I trick people.... (p.s. disguise as a heavy. NO ONE expects a heavy :) )", "score": 16 }, { "body": "Pow...pow pow. oh neat they're dead.\n\nWell that was easy. When did I learn to snapshot with the revolver?\n\nPow...pow...pow pow pow...pow...reload...pow pow...pow...knife knife oh neat I just got messed by a tribal sniper.", "score": 10 }, { "body": "Turn down your sensitivity (if you're playing Scout), and wait till they're actually in the crosshair to fire.\n\nAdditionally, if you're playing on different servers, your hitscan weapons might actually behave differently... \n\nI remember the famous ESEA clip where the demo shows the pellets from this scout flank clearly hitting the Medic, and yet the Medic takes no damage. There was some big uproar about how ESEA had given a terrible server for the final round (I remember everyone had like +90 ping too...)", "score": 9 }, { "body": "If you havent eaten or had a drink in a while, they will affect your brain and thus your gameplay. You need to be well rested too.\r\n\r\nThere are also certain aim techniques to utilise: don't use your cursor to aim as scout, use your movement. That way when your cursor moves across the target you fire, not pointing to the target and firing.\r\n\r\nCaffeine helps too, but I would advise against it personally. Simply because it's one of the two most addictive and (legally) freely available substances.\r\n\r\nAlso:\r\n>Zoolooman of forums.somethingawful.com posted:\r\n\r\n>Another \"tip\" for pubs.\r\n\r\n>Sometimes an enemy Scout will seem to hit every shot on you, but every time you get even close to killing him, he's completely out of sight. This Scout is probably playing very defensively, right at the edge of his team. He has no trouble hitting you because you have to advance predictably. You'll never kill him because he can just dodge back and force you to advance further or break off.\r\n\r\n>This is frustrating. Take a deep breath when this happens. The enemy Scout is not actually massively better than you, but he is in a massively better position, so you're not going to win.\r\n\r\n>My tip is to switch away from Scout in this scenario. Your team isn't good enough to make an even fight possible, and you're just going to die over and over. Find some other way to contribute.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "Get a large mouse pad (something that's at least 1.5 square feet) and turn down your mouse sensitivity.\n\nOh, and turn off mouse acceleration if you're using it. Mouse acceleration causes wild inconsistency in aim by its very nature.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Do you always play on the same server? I would bet you're playing on different servers and that some of them have good rate settings and others bad. Very few server admins know how to properly configure the rate settings to minimize choke. They read poorly written guides about configuring 500fps servers and end up making the playing experience terrible for their players.\n\nIf sv\\_maxrate is too low and sv\\_mincmdrate and sv\\_minupdaterate are too high, players will get choke. The symptom of this is severely decreased accuracy in areas with a lot of players. You will shoot at where you think a player is, and miss.\n\nYou can type the following in the console to set your client side settings optimally. The server settings above limit these settings though, so on poorly configured servers it wont make any difference.\n\n rate 200000\n cl_cmdrate 25\n cl_updaterate 25\n\nUse the \"netgraph 3\" command and watch the choke. On a good server, this will stay at zero or very low even in intense firefights. On bad servers, it will jump up into the twenties or thirties or even higher. Type \"netgraph 0\" to turn the graph off.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Avoid Orkin. Call a local contractor preferrably someone you got a reference from. Orkin is expensive and farms work out to the local pest control companies. ", "score": 6 }, { "body": "Looks like Ants. They can move a lot of dirt overnight, assuming this dirt appeared rather sudden. Termites do a lot of damage but take a lot longer and they eat wood, not move dirt around. Also unless there is moisture there won't be termites. ", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Got it shortly after it came out. I very much like it now, but it is much lower profile than the Mighty Mouse and it took a couple of days to get used to it. The scrolling is excellent and the mouse tracks with amazing sensitivity. I don't use the scroll forward/scroll back feature but it's worth a try.\n\nIf you get it, you might want to try one of these:\n\nMagic Prefs: http://vladalexa.com/apps/osx/magicprefs/\n\nBetter Touch Tool: http://blog.boastr.net\n\nBetter Touch Tool is great, but it's still a little buggy. Magic Prefs is much more polished.", "score": 10 } ]