You and me both. I think nostalgia is misplaced. People get stuck, and stay in the past. Like sure, old music is fantastic because only what is good gets remembered but there is so much good new music too.

I'd never want to go back.

I think I believe this too. I have birthed 4 kids. 2 tech wizards, one average, and one who the computer hates. They just don't work for her like they do for me & the average kid. I think the difference between average and the tech girls is interest and effort, but the difference between average and the one who has bad luck with them does not seem to be explainable in the same way. And it's not a creative/logical split either.

Mind and body are very tightly bound (that is how placebo works) I don't think you are wrong to be wary of speaking disease into existence. The only sinus infection I have ever had, came after reading a particularly vivid and detailed article about how they start. Like my body was following along.

I do give my work computer enrichment activities to keep it happy. Listen to music so that it can have music, browse occasionally so it doesn't have only work to work on. I get far fewer problems than my teammates do, so it seems to work even though it's superstitious nonsense.

Why would Arabic be more difficult to learn than Hebrew or Russian or Polish? They mean reading and writing it, not speaking? Even so it doesn't seem worse than Russian or Hebrew.

This happens sometimes. We have wildly successful parties sometimes, and other times it's just a couple of people and way too much food.

I don't complain because I also don't often attend other people's gatherings.

But yes we need to get back into the habit of visiting and entertaining, it's good for people. And it's good of you to offer hospitality even if nobody showed.

Yes. Cats here should be indoor cats. Even in the city there are raccoons, coyotes, alligators, dogs in people's yards, and CARS. I let them out briefly and supervised, sometimes, to catch a lizard if they are watching them out the window. Or as others say, occasionally on a harness to wander the garden, and eat a little grass.

Obviously that's not always possible, there are feral outdoor cats that sometimes show up, the city has a spay/neuter and release program for those.

Wow that looks both delicious and beautiful.

I mean, that is gardening though. I can't baby things (well, except the jaboticaba I'm trying to bonsai), I just plant things and figure out what works. Winners stay and eventually you get a garden.

Okra and watermelon love the heat here, and the trees do fine. Most food plants I grow in winter though. Well from October through April.

WHAT?

Just kidding.

There's a range of actual volume, my boss I cannot hear half the time because he is quiet but a couple of coworkers have voices that really carry, it's not exactly volume or not just volume, it's throw.

Talkative we are, overall. Not everyone of course, but there is a lot of talking.

And pushy and curious we are, overall, too. I think that can read as loud too.

I can't. One of my job requirements is that I need to work someplace I think is at least neutral, or is good. So far it's only been neutral and I am ok with that.

I do think some people can be a force for good in a bad place but I am not strong enough to do that.

Edit to add an example - I heard a story about a guy working in corrections - a prison warden - who was working to change the system from punitive to remedial, and had reduced recidivism by a huge amount, like it's 5%, compared to 50% in most of the nation. I think he is a good person in an evil industry (the American prison industry). Randy Liberty. Not kidding, that is his real name.

For me this has been a curve not a slope. Hard childhood, getting better in later middle age, expect a harder time later but so far things have been easier.

So I think "it gets better" is a reasonable thing to say to kids having a hard time. It can get better.

Old old? Yes I agree. Even healthy old people, your friends are dying around you, it hurts.

I cannot imagine anyone jumping to that conclusion, this has to be a joke. Like, when I first saw the house of my now husband, the front door opened to a big empty room and my first words were "oh, this is wonderful, it's so empty it looks like a ballroom, you could have a big party here!'. Like, sure, he cannot decorate and defers to me on home renovations now because he always likes what I design (I design, he has veto power) but how is that dysfunctional? He was just fine with the open space, it worked and a house is for the people who live there. And a big empty space is such a flex in a way, like look - I have more house than I need. Guys aren't waiting around hoping someone comes and fills that up, they are enjoying the space, right?

If someone compliments your home, I just can't see getting mad about it.