This guy was a frickin psychic, I bet.
Also, I don't get the humour of calling someone "adopted". It just doesn't strike me as funny or even insulting. If anything, I think adopted children are lucky. At least they aren't growing up in orphanages.
So I received a coupon catalogue from the Giant supermarket chain in my mail.
Most of the coupons just say "Save $X from retail price".
WHAT IS THE POINT OF THAT???
How the heck am I supposed to know if it's actually cheaper to use that coupon than buy from those independent stores outside?
I know they don't state the retail price because it's basically a turnoff - the discount is not going to help much. It's probably like save $5 on a $50 product that I can get for $30 downstairs, or save $0.50 on a $2.50 product I can get for $1.95 here.
Moreover, there's the transport I have to take into account here. The nearest Giant is going to cost me about $10 or more in cab fare, and I can't take a bus with 2 hands full of groceries. To offset this, 10-20 cents cheaper isn't going to cut it.
This promotion is a big failure IMO.
More scrap paper. Yay.
Made avocado milkshake with the only ripe avocado among the three. Mmmm.....................
It wasn't fully ripened though. About a third was still hard and because I didn't have a use for it, I threw the hard part away.
Also threw some ice cubes into the blender to make it cool and refreshing.
Die2Nite is getting less fun. Too many bad players are joining the Mega-Meta Jump while good players got rusty during the long waits in-between.
Each consecutive MMJ town I've joined got steadily worse, although still better than any other towns I've joined so far.
I'm losing hope in this game. Or maybe, I'm missing the point in this game. Maybe, I'm really supposed to find it fun to die, because that's really all I do in the normal towns. Cooperation is almost non-existent in non-MMJ towns, and griefers are rampant.
What else can this game be about other than dying?
I'm going to quit the game if the town I've just landed in doesn't give me a glimpse of light.
The following is an analysis of a friend that I typed in a discussion in FB. The thread's original topic isn't important.
This is not offensive, but analyzing someone is a very personal thing, therefore he won't like it when many people who know him read this. Since only a few people involved in that discussion visit this blog, I feel it is safer to post it here instead, and with some changes in the names of course.
Initially this discussion was supposed to be me persuading everyone to help the two of you. Now I realize E also needs help.
I'm not saying anything hidden between the lines or something like I do in my blog. This is exactly what it appears to be.
My observations:
1) He hasn't confided in us for a very, very long time, if he had done so at all in the past. The only secrets he shares with us are the positive things, like his job change and pay raise. Nobody has a perfect life.
2) For years, he has openly stated he wanted a girlfriend but has never had a romantic relationship that could last for months.
3) Clearly from this discussion he does not feel in his heart that it is necessary to help friends whom he has known and gone through so much with for over a decade.
4) He treats us like his backup friends. He only goes out with us if no one else asks him out.
My conclusions, based only on what I've seen and my assumptions that he is not a closet homosexual and he doesn't actually hate any of us, are as follows:
Like some of us, he is unwilling to risk revealing weakness even to people he is familiar with. It's like he encased himself in a shell.
This may be because of his childhood as an only son and because of the inadequacies he perceives in himself.
To prevent others from seeing these inadequacies, he simply stopped telling others his private thoughts, something he would have been used to as the only son.
To compensate for these perceived weaknesses, he is ambitious. He believes career, money or whatever he is working for will make him appear a better man than the image he has of himself. It seems to work for many, so I hope it works for him.
But by shutting his soul off from the rest of the world, he is also unable to maintain a close relationship with others. This can be seen from the fact that he never had a stead. Anyone here with experience should know that a long term girlfriend requires a man to open up his soul and reveal his secrets. Doesn't have to be completely, but at least partially.
E simply cannot stand the thought of that. He wants people to see him as the perfect guy - large social circles, involved in multiple charitable projects, hip, successful, etc. That is the image he tries to portray to everyone, whether consciously or subconsciously I don't know.
Also because he cannot open up, he is less empathetic about others than we are. Without truly understanding others nor letting others really understand him, he is unable to properly bond with anyone.
We all have known him for years. Does anyone here thinks he has a very close friend? All of us here kind of do, or at least people to confide in. HX and V have us and their religion, ZY has V and HX and perhaps W, IV has XL and (currently to a much lesser extent) us, and I have my blog and everyone who actually reads my rants.
I don't actually fully understand W. W... is almost as close to us as we are to each other but not exactly there, perhaps because there is always that gap caused by the fact that he joined us several years late. The history can never be compensated and he knows it. He confides in us a little but the rest of it, I have no idea.
Therefore, combined with my third observation, I believe E does not really comprehend what true friendship is in his heart. He does not feel what we feel. I call lots of people "bro" but some of you actually know me better than my own biological brother does.
He has never had a bro, so it is possible he doesn't even understand what a bro means.
The crux of E's issue is that he doesn't open up.
Unlike ZY's case, I don't know what is underneath because I've never been like him. ZY's case is simple - someday something is going to happen that will either crack his shell of anger and hatred, or he's going to blow up and go insane. The former happened for me, so I'm inclined to think it will be the same for him.
E, I don't know. I can't put myself in his shoes because I don't really see the man under the mask. I have a feeling there is some self-loathing and fear, but that is all I can tell.
Religion can help with that.
This is why I don't dislike religion even though I am not a religious man. I see its benefits. Atheism doesn't help people with issues who are mentally incapable of resolving them by themselves, but the major religions do.
So I'd say one solution is for him to talk to a religious leader, same as what I'd recommend for ZY. This will help them face themselves, and maybe finally they will see themselves as they really are, and be at peace. HX is proof that it works.
It's either this or a shrink, but shrinks cost money. Counsellors are also a viable option but they aren't as good.
He could also talk to us, but I don't think he is going to be able to make himself open up to people he has hidden from for years.
Finally I want to end this by saying I'm just putting into words what I've felt for a very long time. I've never attempted to alienate him from the rest of us despite this. If he wasn't an old friend, I'd not have bothered to type this at all and just let him reap what he sows... or doesn't sow.
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