I was on a MUD (old multi-player internet text rpg) called Three Kingdoms when Princess Diana died. Over a hundred people online at the time from all over the world.

It was a huge shock for everyone, followed by a strange communal grieving for a well-known and liked international figure.

I totally get where you’re coming from but wanted to put the counterpoint, as obvious as it was.

She was caring for those who nobody else could for at that time, and to generally good effect day to day.

I’ve worked in group homes and know of the challenges you face in serving those who aren’t all that stable.

Just would never have advocated for that solution for anyone really. All that is said with historical knowledge and such.

Yours was a good post.

She was trying her best with that she had and knew at the time, even if she overreacted in the end, to terrible effect.

And forced a sane but disruptive man through a disabling procedure?

No. She went way the hell too far so she could protect her little kingdom and stay in power. She was not concerned with helping her charges improve their lot in life.

Have they lost their mind?

Yes, but the warning was included in the subject. Also there’s no more obvious twist than that.

Knights of the Old Republic.

I’d heard for many years how amazing they were, so I finally tried them.

Each game has a major plot twist. Both are obvious enough but if you google anything the spoiler in the first game is ruined.

The one in the second I was assured was a better game but apparently only if you download the unofficial patch that finishes the game, and it still can’t save the game from the obvious fucking fact you’ve been carrying around the BBEG since the goddamned beginning while everyone tried to pretend otherwise.

People want remakes of these games primarily for nostalgia, and they do not hold up.

And what’s the word in German that means everything you just wrote?

I’ve done a lot of self-forgiveness in recent years, so a lot of the simpler and sillier ones I don’t think of as embarrassing anymore.

Could be the time I flipped a guy off after he cut me off and I missed a light. He saw me in his mirror and started freaking out and swerving, almost hit a curb.

I didn’t mean to ruin his day. Just letting off steam.

Either that or the time I drove on the shoulder to avoid a car stopped in the middle of the road. When I merged back she had started to move and we collided. Totally my fault.

I only realized later that due to her age, location, and stickers on her car from a nearby Catholic University that I’d probably hit a nun.

It meant my Dad never played Scrabble with my mom ever again, that’s what it meant.

Across two Triple Word tiles, no less.

Are you telling me there’s a way for me to become more of a coffee snob?!

Edit: Google says it’s not this way and makes for weak coffee.

She was named Beta, a yellow lab who was housed with a yorkshire terrier, constantly yapping and nipping at her.

Eventually she snapped.

At the time the owner was pregnant so there was no way they could take the risk.

My wife and I adopted her because we already had another dog from the litter, her sister Violet. We renamed her to Veda.

Never had a problem. She growls softly when her lines are crossed but is otherwise a perfectly snuggly girl. Getting on in years but still with us.

I think it’s better to not look at it as good and evil but as joy and pain.

There will always be both joy and pain in the world. And there isn’t even a ‘balance’ between the two. Some experience more pain than joy. Some, more joy than pain.

Part of the trick is to learn to focus on the joy. The pain will be there and requires acknowledgment, not attention.

Eat their young when they are in a confined space that appears to not support the population.

In a sense, we make them eat their young by putting them in cages and breeding them.

But it is behavior learned in the wild - keep alive only the babies you can actually support, or else everyone dies.

Nature gets brutal sometimes. One of my dogs once killed another dog, but she’s always been a total sweetheart to me.

Raccoons are cute, curious, critters with thumbs. They like to wash their food. They’re adorable!

But they are also wild creatures that will bite when scared and can carry dangerous diseases.

Nature gets brutal.

I’m not agreeing with him at all but that’s a strange jump to take.

I’d say that secondary sexual characteristics in women tend to involve body fat. Being in extremely good shape does affect that a little bit - breasts, hips, face, ass, - and some would see that as looking more masculine where I’d say they’re just extremely fit.

Somehow roundness and softness is ‘feminine.’

Cuba?

This is a very good way to say it.

I love my country for its heart, its people, its ideals.

I mourn my country for its ignorance, its failures, and its systemic ills.

I hate my country for what it has done to most of the rest of the world in trying to ‘supposedly’ promote freedom and democracy.

It’s a very complicated thing, patriotism. And it means nothing if you have it while your eyes are closed to reality.

Happiness is one I’ve been wanting to revisit for some reason. Perhaps to show to my wife, who has never seen any Todd Solondz.

My dad once brought home a coworkers desk drawer over the weekend and made lime jello.

On Monday morning he quietly reignited his old rumor that she kept jello in her desk.

In annoyed fury she flung open the drawer to reveal it completely filled with jello, one unpeeled banana in the middle.

Some things about it are true in minor ways, like frowning brings your mood down. Being nice to others feels better, so you start to feel a little better for having done so.

And knowing that this actually has an impact on the people around you helps you become more empathetic.

I’m a better leader for my team at work because I’m not depressed all the time. I know it, they know it, and it helps.

I didn’t make it. But I’m no longer faking it as much.