I’ve been extremely impressed with the longevity and all around toughness of my Dell Precision. I think it’s gotta be 12 years old now, it weighs a ton, been dropped multiple times, and while I replaced its disk and memory at some point it has never suffered a hardware failure. The thing is a tank, I love it.

I spotted She Ra PoP (Catra and Adora), Owl House (Luz and Amity) and Stephen Universe (Sapphire and Ruby)

Edit: Harley Quinn & Ivy, and Charlie and Vaggie from Hazbin Hotel

I had a therapist who specialized in working with ADHD adults and she was very good about calling me out on my “shoulds”. She would say “who told you that?” or “why do you feel that way?” or “where does that belief come from?” just about every time a “should” came out of my mouth. It was a really good practice in reframing, and making me realize I was feeling external pressures by comparing myself to others, or not giving myself the time and space I needed to accomplish the things that would satisy me. I’d encourage everyone in this thread to try getting to the bottom of your “shoulds”, it’s helped me understand and be kinder to myself.

Yeah Dreamfall was a much darker game in setting and themes, and I remember that while the protagonist tried some humor here and there it was just not as rewarding to interact with certain impractical things or be goofy like you could with April. April’s journal was also worth reading for some funny summaries of events, but Zoe’s was generally pretty dry and more pragmatic.

I still remember getting stuck on some underwater puzzle in Arcadia and dropping the game for a while before coming back and admitting defeat with a walkthrough guide. Definitely a game where you need to hang up your pride sometimes haha. I enjoyed both games, though Dreamfall was sadly missing some of the humor and silliness (it did try… a little). I have fond memories of the series though.

A “crescent” moon 🥐

There are so many great tasting cheap wines! My favorite is about $16-18 or so but I’m perfectly happy with $4-8 wine too. I will agree though that there are some extremely interesting and complex flavors to be found in the high end stuff that I find very compelling, and can understand the appeal of, but I ain’t paying for it.

This is a common misconception but it’s just not true. As you can see in this video mobility is hardly a problem. It certainly would be possible that a piece could be bent or damaged badly enough to hinder you, but a properly fit set is going to let you do whatever you need to do in a battle. You are certainly right that it was expensive though, full plate was similar to buying a luxury car. It was rare but not that rare, a sign of wealth and social class but not like only kings could wear it. And it certainly was not strictly ornamental.

Women absolutely are penalized for showing emotion. Socially between friends there is a lot better support, and that is probably what you are thinking of. In a workplace environment though, there can be serious consequences for expressing anything other than congeniality. If you’re socially withdrawn you’re an ice queen, if you get angry (no matter how justifiable) you’re a bitch or a dragon lady. If you’re stressed and not perfectly composed you’re weak “unable to handle the pressure”. I get that men are subject to the same kind of judgments but there seems to be more leeway.

We have a credit card that gives 6% cash back on groceries, 3% on gas and some discounts on streaming services. It blows my mind that every few months I can cash out a $200 or so credit towards my balance. I needed to buy those things anyway and have autopay set to the full balance each month so it really is free money. So if you can get one, absolutely a credit card that gives cash back. The one I mentioned is Amex Blue Cash Preferred but there other options out there that give other bonuses, like 2% back on everything or 6% back on something up to a certain cap.

More and more people are shaking off the old expectations of women’s passivity and men’s aggressiveness. There’s still a ways to go but it’s not as radically rare as it would have been 30-40 years ago. I was the one who proposed to my husband and took the active role in wooing him, and I’ve told that story quite a bit and only had positive reactions. Amongst our friends, I’m the only one I know who took the lead like that, but there are a lot of personalities that vary dramatically from the classic gender binary relationship. I would say my husband is the kinder and more gentle of the two of us, and he’s a tender and loving parent. Our partnership has a lot of quirks and would probably only work for us, but what’s important is that it does work.

I’m also going to say that it’s good to have an idea of what you want in a relationship, but don’t let a fantasy get in the way of reality. What you daydream about might be attainable, but more likely you will need to compromise on some things, and dating and having relationship experiences will be lessons in what those things can be.

Thanks, I did feel guilty when my first cat passed, I was the most ignorant then and she had the worst diet and died the youngest. Since then I know I’ve done what I could with the money I could budget, and tried to educate myself so I could do better. Now I try to make up for it by spreading the word to other cat owners in my life and leading by example.

Yeah same, I like to get the paté cans because it’s easy to add water to get him better hydrated.

This exactly, thank you. I’ve had multiple cats during my life make it to old age and each one had health issues from the food I was feeding them. Chronic dehydration leading to kidney issues, chronic high blood sugar from grains and vegetable fillers leading to pancreatitis and diabetes, etc etc. My old man is now on nothing but wet food and is pushing 18. He’s got some issues since I fed him junk for the first half of his life but he’s in decent shape for his age, and I bet if I hadn’t changed his diet he’d already be gone.

Oh man, as a new-ish parent I’m starting to get those sudden out of the blue hugs and cuddles and they’re amazing. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that my kid would love me but it’s like an instant shot of dopamine every time.

I’m excited to see the progress of 3d printers becoming more user friendly, reliable and inexpensive. I’ve been keeping an eye on the development of consumer printing and there are so many types of materials to print with at higher and higher details with less troubleshooting needed. I’m thinking I’ll finally jump in this year but I’ve had very little time for hobbies lately.

I can’t remember which was first but it would have been Number Munchers on PC or Asteroids on the Vectrex, an obscure console from the 80s.

There are so many different types of intelligence, and so many different ways of judging them. Someone’s intelligence can vary so much even on a day to day basis based on if they get enough sleep, their blood sugar, stress levels, hormones, health issues, distractions, etc etc. I used to put SO MUCH stock in intelligence but as I’ve gotten wiser I’ve realized it doesn’t matter if they can solve math problems quickly or have a big vocabulary or specialized in a niche field of science or got an advanced degree etc etc. I learned that as long as a partner is good at problem solving and makes good decisions, none of the rest matters. Are the decisions they are making consistently making their and other’s lives better? Are they able to tackle hurdles when they come between them and their goals? If the other pieces of compatibility are there then that’s really all that’s important.

Ranch dressing, or a mix of half ranch dressing and half ketchup I call “krantchup”. Specifically Marie’s ranch mixed with Primitive Kitchen ketchup is so good on fries.

It was not an uncommon occurrence for people to play as, say, Symmetra, Torb or Hanzo and refuse to switch regardless of the circumstances of play and whether they were able to use those characters effectively. People got reported (and subsequently banned) for throwing matches and griefing constantly if they were on an off-meta or “troll” character in Overwatch 1. Thinking specifically around seasons 1-10 or so.