Every storm blows over; just like each person reads my story differently.

My intention was to acknowledge that things outside of our control can and do happen, and that they can wreck our lives in various ways. It was also meant to demonstrate that panic and thoughtless reaction are not the best courses of action. Through thoughtfulness, and community, any disaster can begin to heal. In no way should that diminish anybody’s struggle.

Is it a perfect good analogy? Not for everyone; maybe not even for anyone. But yes, the storm will subside eventually. The question is whether or not the damage done can be repaired.

Do with that what you will.

First of all, I’m not going to apologize for attempting to comfort anybody. There is no privilege in that.

Secondly, I get you’re mad and scared/worried (or whatever adjective you prefer for how you’re feeling right now), but let me assure you that I am not your enemy. Do not follow in your neighbor’s footsteps; focus your anger where it belongs: the establishment, and billionaires. They are the threat. Not you or me.

Between the sheets.

Back in 2015, about 5 mo the after my youngest was born, I had the (at the time) most horrific day I ever had in my life. Long story short, I got fired from my job (for mistakenly thinking HR was on my side), my oldest son had a note sent home about a live breakout at his daycare, and it rained so hard in n 30 minutes that my house flooded (the top of the mailbox was almost under water).

I got home and was upset because of being fired (I was already beyond burned out from the job to begin with), and I was trying to patiently sift through my son’s hair to check for lice. I was not a very patient person at that point, said fuck it, and grabbed my hair clippers to shave my son’s head bald. I’ve never shaved anyone else’s head, but my own, so I probably was a little too aggressive, and the unit got hot and burned my son.

My 5mo was crying, so I took him and was trying to calm him down. Around this point the storm of the century began. It was so bad that lightning hit really close to the house (three times). Each time it hit, the lights would go off and back on, and then thunder struck. It was very disturbing to say the least.

Then the water began to rise. And it kept rising. And it wouldn’t stop. No matter how much I panicked and begged for it to stop. I was personally in tears. Then I noticed my neighbor trying to drive through the flooded waters, and her car got swept away by the water. I saw the water reaching her side view mirrors, and I handed my wife the baby and was about to bolt out the door to try to do “something” (it was straight instinct).

In short order, the rain started stopping, and all the water started receding. My panic slowly faded as I realized we weren’t going to drown. In no time my neighbors (most who we hadn’t met yet) all descended on my house with mops, buckets, and fans to help start cleaning up the mess. The carpet and bottom 6” of drywall were ruined. I spent my unscheduled vacation pulling up the carpet, replacing the soaked drywall, and even painting the office (it got flooded too).

Our office and living room was crammed into our dining room/kitchen (thank goodness for open concepts). We eventually replaced the carpet and painted everything. I wet vacuumed my car and removed 16 gallons of water, took out the seats, and put fans on it for a week straight.

Those neighbors became our best friends. We all still stay in touch and have multiple get togethers each year. A lot has changed since that day, myself included. I consider it for the better.

All that to say: this too shall pass.

Is it me, or is Giuliani one of the only Trumpers getting his just desserts? That pillow guy being the other. It makes me wonder what they’ve done that we don’t know about that made them such a spectacle for the rest of them.

If it makes money, yes.

Personally I believe he is trolling us.

Searching my full name yields the results for some guy who is a PhD who is in a similar field of technology as me. I just looked and he has his own Wikipedia page now. Good for him.

I try not to ghost people. I don’t like being ghosted myself, so I want to avoid feeling like a hypocrite. But I typically get ghosted anyway. It’s frustrating, and depressing. If I’m giving off the wrong vibe, I’d like to know so I can correct it. But instead I’m left wondering what it could be and I have a bad habit of overthinking everything to begin with.

The last time I was ghosted was a couple weeks ago. I thought things were going well, but then she just stopped responding. I broke character and reached out one more time, but still got nothing. It sucks. Thought we had a connection.

🤷‍♂️ I miss the old days of dating.

There is no default:’friend’ on the backend. This is a template language that basically takes a first name, returns the first word, replaces any special characters with ASCII equivalent ones (e.g., ö => o), title cases it, and if it’s blank it will return ‘friend’ instead of an empty string.

I guess thy decided to change lanes.

🖕

This would make a great movie. Let’s get that really tall guy from Jack Reacher to be the lead.

I both laughed out loud, and more than once, at this comic. Thank you for that; I needed it!

Maybe he gave up on being a dragon, but got inspired by DuckTales instead.

Mine would run far away with her tail between her legs, but she’s still a good girl.

If this is true, then it’s not a setting that users can access. At least not that I can find.

Yup. Just another double standard, because lord forbid a guy have physical standards about a woman and be honest about them. 🙄