I had a partner for eight years. We met when we were both 31. She was my first monogamous relationship theretofore because I decided to give monogamy a try. She was utterly, screamingly boring in bed. There was nothing else notably wrong with the relationship, except for her unwillingness to communicate on anything beyond household, workaday topics. No oral (give or receive), no anal, not into foreplay, and she would just lay there. But no conflicts either. There was the advantage of she was always willing and ready to go without any foreplay or lube. She got off and claimed she was absolutely sexually satisfied. Sex wasn’t even fun in the context of Free Use, which is a kink I enjoy. I tried to engage her in all kinds of Gottman Method relationship work, but she bluntly and explicitly refused.

At one point early in our relationship, she moved and clamped her vagina in a way that was quite enjoyable. “Honey, that was great! Please do that more.” And for the rest of our relationship, any such complement was a sure-fire way to make sure it would never happen again. After eight years of nearly daily, invariably terrible sex, I stopped approaching her sex for three weeks. She never said a thing. On day 22, I broke up with her, and she was absolutely gobsmacked, claimed that I was throwing away eight years of great history. She hadn’t even noticed that there had been no sex for three weeks.

I hate them because the last four times I ate there, I had diarrhea for days, all different locations. The last time I ate there, it all came out 12 minutes later. So yeah, four for four is enough to establish that their “food” is just toxic.

Any other country with that free access to high quality guns would have their politicians afraid of just fucking die. Republicans act as they were invulnerable demigods.

Total anecdote, so take the following with the Internet grain of salt that it is.

I was at a dinner party in the 90s. A Columbia University law professor, by way of long, meandering conversation, asked me (paraphrasing) “Why do you think we, the general populace, are allowed to own firearms?” Uh, I’m just a rural New York bumpkin. I just want to protect my livestock and keep the deer from destroying my small plot of crops. “Sure, JayleneSlide, that’s a great general reason. But in the US, it’s for killing cops and politicians.” 0_0

So, yeah, clearly not enough politicians in proper fear of the constituency here, despite their willingness to sell us out for the tiniest pittance.

I expect this to be an utter slog and snore-fest just like MW:5 Mercenaries was. I am unconvinced Piranha can make a game with any real depth. The AI is trash (enemy mechs only target the player, lancemates are worthless). Every mission is the same garbage “surprise” with “bad intelligence.” Yet another lance that wasn’t detected?! This is my shocked face. 😐

I could write a novella on how we should all do everything we can to make sure this software house fails spectacularly, but then we would never get another MechWarrior game in our lifetimes. Hell, I waited over 20 years for a proper successor to MW2. MW3 and MW4 were less simulators (dumbed-down control schemes) and 4 borked the whole crit model.

Despite my love of all things mech, I refuse to support anything from that utterly shitty game studio.

I was looking for someone to reference Brooks’ Law (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks%27s_law). Thank you for fighting the good fight.

For anyone who hasn’t read The Mythical Man-Month, it is a timeless, compelling, relevant book on software engineering and project management. It is also accessible to non-technical audiences with lessons that apply across much of modern workforces.

I totally missed that. I completely agree and apologize for the oversight.

Stainless steel that gets coated is no longer stainless steel. Stainless steel requires exposure to sufficient oxygen in order to maintain the protective oxide layer.

These are rudder bolts from the same gudgeon on my sailboat. The black stuff is anoxic corrosion.

Maybe not exactly what you had in mind, but the Battle of Blair Mountain ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain ) is an excellent example of the dynamic between police, capital class, and labor.

Edit: fixing my stupid link; thanks for the heads-up!

One of my ex-GFs was fond of saying “Men are good for three things: heavy lifting, outdoor cooking, and sex.” Welp, two out of three ain’t bad.

Triple? In our galley, “1 clove” —> 1 bulb.

In most jurisdictions, a note could be put on the driving record. If a pattern on aggressive driving were to be established, a prosecutorial or civil suit effort would have an easier time of litigating against that driver.

In my case, yes, there was paint damage from my bike, which would be evidence.

Edit to add: this was a bit before camera phones.

Fear indeed. I went to college in a very… provincial small city. Riding my bicycle around, I was regularly harassed by insecure assholes in pickup trucks, and run off the road twice. The one time I managed to get a license plate, the police claimed that without witnesses, they couldn’t do anything. ACAB.

I added my 1911 to the strap of my messenger bag, at the top of my left shoulder, where the stainless frame would be plainly visible. I was suddenly given plenty of space on the road and even got occasional compliments when waiting at stoplights. It’s disgusting that I would be a target for bullying without my pistol, but suddenly I was an okay guy with my penis extension where douchebag drivers could see it.

So yeah, I’m living proof that non-military open carry is only for scaredy cats.

“I got mine, fuck you.” With a little dash of “Nothing like the afternoon delight of some bootlicking.”

I know plenty of staunchly feminist women whose entire personae (or life goal) is the 50s US housewife fantasy. But, that’s still a matter of self-determination. Nothing about the GOP’s actions indicate self-determination is part of their platform, except for oligarchs. This is yet another play in their ongoing Big Lie Tactic: tell a big enough lie enough times, and people will start to believe it.

Copyright infringement, DRM circumvention, and “hacking.”

See: Aaron Swartz

On January 6, 2011, Swartz was arrested by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) police on state breaking-and-entering charges, after connecting a computer to the MIT network in an unmarked and unlocked closet and setting it to download academic journal articles systematically from JSTOR using a guest user account issued to him by MIT. Federal prosecutors, led by Carmen Ortiz, later charged him with two counts of wire fraud and eleven violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, carrying a cumulative maximum penalty of $1 million in fines, 35 years in prison, asset forfeiture, restitution, and supervised release.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz

Negative. I worked in pharmaceutical automation, management, and auditing software, specifically tracking and auditing (read: “near real-time chain-of-custody”) of delivery of Schedule II and cancer drugs from institutional (“enormous”) pharmacies. It was actually rather fascinating work, as are most compliance automation software suites.

It’s interesting how most invasive species seem to be not good eating for humans.

Fully agreed! However, invasive lionfish buck this trend in tasty, tasty fashion. I daresay it’s the best tasting fish, bar none. I liken it to albacore sashimi with Kerrygold butter put together, but even better.

Maybe they’re competing with Samsung for shittiest Android overlay? I used to be an Android developer for mission-critical software. We devs all had a large spread of devices for testing, and I would dread the Samsung and Huawei testing. One of them was always on my shit list, with the other keeping pace.

There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a yacht, as opposed to a boat, such a pleasure vessel is likely to be at least 33 feet (10 m) in length and may have been judged to have good aesthetic qualities.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yacht

That said, I’m all for training and arming the cetaceans.

When I think 'mech, the Timber Wolf is what leaps to mind. Well, that and the Marauder, despite all of its issues.

Is that a Mk6 GTI/R?