One key to happiness for me is to start from the assumption that I’ve been unclear.

This feels like reading a language that you only kinda know.

Ok so in defense of dumbasses, we don’t always understand the question. Eg, whose left? In those cases we don’t want to make your clarify the question and drag things out, so we give you what we hope is an unequivocally clear response. It comes from a deep-seeded fear of miscommunication resulting in too many mailboxes with their flags on the wrong side or whatever. We apologize for the pedantry, though. I get that it’s annoying.

Lol. That one makes me strip a gear.

When the time comes to study further, Brené Brown’s Atlas of the Heart is an incredibly useful and approachable resource. It is basically a glossary of common emotions, but they’re grouped by similarities and described with her charm and wisdom.

I switched from from beer to flavored carbonated water. This was 18 years ago though and the options were pretty limited back then. Mostly it was just artificially sweetened garbage. I’d rather just have a club soda and add my own fruit or juice to taste. But these days it’s just easier to buy Polar or whatever.

I really dislike the cooking mechanics, so I try to avoid it as much as possible. It means I also avoid fights, though, or else try to get really good at dodging. But 20 temp hearts? That’s incredible. I didn’t even know such a big buff was possible.

Wait WHAT!? Cooking during the blood moon buffs the meal!? Where were we supposed to learn that?

In the latest Legend of Zelda games there’s a regular event that takes place every in-game month called the Blood Moon. When it happens all of the enemies that the player had previously defeated come back to life. The joke here is the the dirty dishes were cleaned, but the blood moon reincarnated them.

I know it’s for advertising but there’s a paranoid little corner of my mind that imagines insurance companies paying for some of these, uh, “user insights.”

I’ve only heard that second one in Swedish. I don’t know if it’s originates from Sweden, but it rhymes.

Thanks for the link. That was a really good read. Even better on Doctorow’s own site, I think, because of all the extra links he provides.