Aside from the advice asked and answered in this thread, I’d encourage you to make phone calls when the information is time sensitive, such as being short on time and needing to communicate that overtime will happen and know if the assignment is still approved.

This way you’ll get a response immediately and wont have to sit around for confirmation or start tasks you wont have time to finish or wait for unreliable tech to work to get communication through.

I haven’t read the book, but I think there is a big difference between a flawed character and a flawed message.

Like: Is it just that the flawed character is saying that other girls are shallow and leeches onto popular boys without having anything to offer, or is the book/story/author agreeing and implying it with how the other female characters act when not observed through that character or by never having that flawed presumption challenged?

A character having internalised misogyny and mood swings can be them clearly being torn between their fear of abandonment and their love or attraction because they are a flawed character written very well, or it can be lazy writing with no clear character understanding or reason for their erratic changes, depending on how its done.

Some of my favourite pieces of media is with characters I would absolutely hate in real life, or who are deeply flawed but understandable and/or not rewarded for it.

Attraction is not love, not enough for a relationship.

She can tell that you don’t care about her enough, but since youre in a relationship you say that you do… so she must be really confused and suffering because she either denies the validity of your relationship or denies what she knows is true about your lack of care for her. Should she trust you or her own senses, you know…

Surely you can see how mean it is to put someone through that? To trap her in a relationship where you don’t want to be her actual partner and love all of her?

I would like to know how much time you actually spend with your girlfriend, because from what I see here… yeah. You’re not being a good partner.

She tells you she want to be more of a priority and get more time and attention from you, and your solution is to tell her she can get time with you when your actual priority (Max) is busy. That’s exactly the issue - you choose Max over her when there is a choice, and only choose her when there are no “better” opinions because Max is busy.

Not to mention choosing TV over your girlfriend.

Based on this, you need to think about whether you actually have time and space in your life for your girlfriend and if you are willing to prioritise being a good partner. Maybe you are happy with your life as it is and don’t actually want to change it to incorporate a romantic partner. That’s absolutely fine, but be honest about it and don’t try to have your cake and eat it too. Relationship takes time and work, no one can keep their life and routines as is and add a partner without making changes to incorporate the relationship. Do you like her enough to choose her and be her partner, not as a label but as a way of life?

Asking ones parter to be part of their life and be more of a priority is not “drama”, saying that sounds really dismissive and that is quite often used to keep women quiet and shamed, so be mindful of how you perceive your own girlfriend. No one is immune to internalising sexism regardless of gender.

Of course there is the possibility that you already call her an hour every day and she’s being unreasonable in you wanting ten min to talk to your friend (with the four hour chat being the only time you talked longer than that), if so disregard the above.

Learn an instrument, or join a choir, or learn some craft like knitting or crocheting (find a craft circle/club for the social aspect and to have someone to learn from).

Something practical and physical. You’ll still be learning and using your brain, but very different pathways from academia.

If it works in your fantasy then go for it, as long as you’re able to separate fantasy from reality.

Once you’re ready to experience sex with another person, be prepared for the taste, smell and sensation of living human skin to be very different from the taste and smell of dead and burnt/cooked/charred, or even raw, meat regardless of if the animal of origin.

So just dont train yourself too hard to be turned on by dead meat to the point that living people wwont do it for you, because its not going to be the same.

Ps. There are a lot of things you can do with another person that doesnt have to wait until marriage, where you can still experience the sensation of another, if you want to.

Protective gloves representing a lot of blue collars like industrial, mechanical, medical, and maintenance, cleaning.

Keyboard or headset (I considered outlook calendar or zoom symbols, but dont think a specific company should be immortalised here) for a lot of white collars.

It’s only as awkward as you and the other person makes it, and you sound like you made it pretty awkward for yourself before even giving the other person a chance to be non-awkward about it.

The way I see it: If it’s something the person can fix immediately, like a downed zipper or food in their teeth or visible booger, tell them (discreetly) immediately. If it’s not fixable at the time, don’t draw attention to it.

And I dont know how “oh, you seem to have a zipper malfunction” could ever be seen as trying to hit on someone, so you’d likely have been fine if you hadn’t blown it out of proportion.

Additionally: if you start waffling about and overexplaing, youll make it awkward for yhe other person, if you just mention it casually like you’d mention the weather they won’t feel like its a big deal for you to have seen it. I would appreciate it at least, rather than notice by myself and wonder how many people have seen my underwear or visible booger during the day.

I’ve always disliked smalltalk and never felt comfortable with it, but nowadays, and I don’t know if it’s age or isolation… nowadays I quite enjoy exchanging a few pleasantries with someone as we meet in a staircase or hallway. Just some words about the weather or encouragement for climbing the stairs or sympathy about heavy looking bags - mostly on the boring side but edging on quippy, followed by polite chuckles… it makes whatever made me go outside a little better.

It’s still slightly uncomfortable before deciding what to comment on today, and getting that neutral-positive response, but I like it nonetheless. Feels like a routine even though I do it with different people each time. Makes me feel more at home out there.

Fun question!

If poison (alcohol or other) counts, I’m dead.

If surgeries counts, I’m soon to be dead.

If electrocution counts, I’m likely dead (I guess it depends on how grounded I am at the time, because that’s a LOT of electricity to take at once).

Otherwise, with someone professional help nearby, I’ll live… but not if I’m alone. I would not have use of my hands to call for help and would bleed a lot, plus concussion. My blood type can recieve from several other blood groups, so as long I’m in hospital I’m okay. None of my broken bones have been near endangering organs so im not worried about them. Probably blood loss and chock is my biggest concern, and infection from a thousand cuts in the long run. I would hopefully and probably pass out to relieve myself of the pain.

A woman doesn’t have to be feminine, there are plenty of masc and butch women. Would you feel more comfortable with short hair? There are also other options. Would you feel more comfortable thinking of yourself as a man (men can also be feminine or masculine), or neither, or both?

I didn’t feel comfortable calling myself a woman, but not crossing any gender boundary, I just always preferred “girl”. I didn’t feel mature enough to be a woman until I kinda forced myself to claim that title. With enough use I now feel comfortable referring to myself as a woman.

Titles and gender can be hard. You are allowed to experiment until you find the expression and terminology that suits you. But also, its okay to feel ridiculous, you can grow into feeling comfortable with whichever terminology you want.

I’ve known plenty of people who are sociable but thoughtless.

I know I myself have been a nuisance without realising it, and I am grateful for each person who have told me when I’ve been rude or hurtful. It’s how I have learned to be more considerate in general, as well as cease the immediate behaviour to protect the relationship.

Not everyone will be accommodating, but you will never know unless you try.

Regsrdless of if the weights are falling or bouncing or being dropped: What about the actual suggestion of communicating with the neighbour? I notice you don’t reply to those in the comments.

I have had either of these two major symptoms most of my life.

1. Unhealthy amount: not being able to stop as long as there is alcohol left, staying out til closing, often getting blackout drunk, emptying the glass before going to bed instead of into the sink. This I’ve had most of my life.

2. Unhealthy frequency: drinking before or during social events, party every weekend, “unwinding” after work, drinking as a fix to something (like making boring tasks fun or improving my mood or to fall asleep or get energized), thinkig about it a lot, unable to resist whenever its available or offered. This slowly turned into a more and more frequent habit, until I was literally drinking at work.

I guess there is also the final sign:

3. Not being able to quit: this includes not even trying. I was never able to quit because I never really wanted to. Not wanting to quit is part of addiction, even when you need to. Once I tried to get in control of my drinking, I always found reason to drink pretty much as much as usual. This is when I finally realised that I was an addict. It’s easy to ignore if you never try to quit, but once you try and fail to quit (several times), it’s pretty obvious.

Rich, yes.

Not “eat the rich”-rich, but enough so that I would expect some charity work and personal responsibility to make the world slightly better, for example improving the workers conditions and benefits.

What kind of steroid do I feed my bike to make it beefy enough to work in snow?

Mine just slides around regardless of steering attempts.