Here’s an Ent that only appears for a total of 30 pages, let me write his entire family’s history for an additional 50

Edit: fucking love me some LOTR, though

Don’t say never - it can find you at the most unexpected time and place. It can be different for everyone, but generally you feel and know that this other person would do almost anything to help you. Regardless of what you go through, you know that everything will be fine since you have each other. Being loved means you have an advocate and someone who validates you, despite all your flaws and shortcomings. It means you can be brutally honest with them, and vice versa, because you want the best for them.

Being in love means you can fight and argue, but find some sort of common ground and go from there - because they’re interested in your perspective and you in theirs, even if you disagree with it. At the end of the day, they’re your rock and your fire.

Another person shouldn’t give you purpose or meaning - everyone has to make that for themselves, and it will likely change through time. But it does mean you have someone to stand alongside you in that journey, excited and eager to share and experience the journey.

Do you live to argue? Did you even read what I wrote, or do you only cherry pick? You’re resorting to whataboutism. And for the record no, because Russia is a full-blown oligarchy that holds farce “presidential” elections. The fact Trump, the leader at the time, lost shows we’re doing better than Russia is.

We both support progressive candidates and ideologies. I hate Biden, but I live in a state where I’ll have to vote for him. But since you don’t want to have an actual conversation, we’re done here. Talk like this is why Republicans are doing so well despite over half of the US hating their guts.

I agree, tbh, and my career is involved with economics lol. But, as with climate change, I do what I can with what’s available and try to improve what I can when possible.

Do I see it getting better? Not anytime soon. But I sure as hell don’t want to hasten the outcome.

Alright, you’re just arguing for the sake of it at this point and putting words in my mouth lol. While we’re technically in a capitalistic oligarchy, we do have some democratic processes at play. I don’t like it, and you don’t either. Which is weird because you’re seemingly arguing against the only candidate that is actively trying to maintain that semblance of democracy. Trump has actively tried to undermine this semblance of democracy in each of the recent elections, even in the election he won.

Let’s circle back for you. Biden is the lesser evil of the two. When these are your only realistic choices in our current system, there’s only one that’s obvious. Campaign for structural reform and for politicians that want to reform and improve the system we have.

You’re talking about primaries and I’m talking about presidential generals. I voted Bernie each time in the primaries because I think the DNC establishment is too far right. I personally think Bernie isn’t progressive enough, but this is the US.

We’re literally in agreement on this part, and I said Biden was morally dubious. Guy’s a terrible person and a horrible politician, don’t get me wrong. But I’ll take Biden over Trump any day, because at least Biden has never incited an insurrection

One evil respects democracy and at least wants to better the lives of most the people in the country. Morally dubious, but has helped more people than harmed.

The other respects only himself and wants to better the life of only himself while using anyone and anything he can to achieve that - remember the time he claimed the election was stolen before it was even concluded? The guy literally has a psychologist in his family who detailed how awful he really is, and was before he became president.

And then there’s RFK Jr. who had a worm starve to death inside his brain. He isn’t necessarily evil, just horribly stupid

Love seeing Blue’s progress! Happy to know they’re doing well and that they have such a good owner

NOW I’M OUTRAGED AGAIN

Good? If they can’t adapt to these externalities, which will only increase, then more efficient plants / companies should take their places

The Mississippi Delta is no better, and they vote similarly to Jackson. The state’s government thrives on depriving its people to bolster their own interests.

As a teenager I once slowed down and drove through a roadblock because I thought it was the scene of a wreck. All the cops yelled and I stopped, and the cop at my window immediately asked how much weed I had smoked.

Midnight trip to McDonald’s didn’t work out that night

I love how they mention it isn’t just a Jackson problem. I grew up in MS - several hours away from Jackson - and the water often wasn’t clean, either due to it literally being dirty or having some issue from the treatment facility. Boil water notices were common, and I was from a nicer area. I never realized that wasn’t the standard of living until I moved away.

In MS, especially in Jackson, there was a lot of blame being thrown around and broken promises made while the residents literally bathed in brown water. Combine this with the fact MS has critically underfunded many services in general, and seldom offers sustainable public options, it was a recipe for disaster. I’m hopeful change actually happens this time, because the people there desperately need it. The State has neglected them at every turn, but they’ve generally been conditioned to believe there are no viable alternatives to the current styles of leadership.

I distinctly remember the same sentiment in 2015 and 2016. Don’t listen to what anything or anyone says. Just vote, and get people you know to vote, because Trump’s supporters certainly will.

Either you weren’t contributing for decades, or you literally only contributed $10-$20/mo for ~30 years. If your job provides a 401k option, with tax write-offs and everything else you should have been contributing a lot more to maximize its future utility. This is assuming your employer wasn’t even matching.

Either you aren’t telling us the full details, or you haven’t fully been contributing for decades.

I had some friends in Munich who were brothers, just two or three years apart. They both grew up learning British English, but one eventually participated in an exchange program in Canada while the other participated in one in Australia. When they came back, their English accents were completely different from each other - no matter how hard they tried to sound similar to each other. In the end, everyone though it was unique and kind of fun since one brother would sometimes use slang the other didn’t understand.

Point being, OP, is to do what feels natural. Ultimately, it’s your voice, but you’ll pick up certain things here and there that naturally change your way of speaking over time.

This sounds like it could work well, just hope they aren’t given short or unrealistic deadlines by NetEase. The people he’s assembled thus far have released amazing material during their careers when they were given enough time.

I’ll bite. I had a brother with special needs pass away a year ago next week. He was born with cerebral palsy, was blind, nonverbal, totally dependent on caretakers (myself, my siblings and mother, his nurses) for literally everything since he didn’t have functionally-independent motor control. We were told he’d live to 10, and he lived to 29; he was a bundle of joy and loved going out when he could. People would stare and kids would ask questions, but we loved sharing his story and my brother liked when people were curious about it.

But, his health started declining in 2014. He had several close calls, and we told doctors each time to try their best with the circumstances they were given. On more than one occasion, his nurses or our mother would actually be with the doctors during hospital stays to assist with him since he was case they didn’t have much experience in and didn’t want to make his issues worse. That said, he had a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) since he had a trache, and was brittle enough to die from chest compressions.

I prepped for my brother’s death countless times over 8 years. We all did. When he passed, we were so obviously distraught. But we were also relieved, in a way, that he wasn’t in pain anymore in the end. We let out our emotions that had been stored for those years, and the grieving process is still continuing. We all put our lives on hold to help him, and he just became our lives; our goal simply was to make him comfortable and let him know he was loved, knowing we couldn’t realistically do more. We spent years watching him in pain, watching him gradually lose his fervor and personality.

If you read this far, thank you. Not really sure what else to say, I just want to share this since it’s occupied my mind a lot.

TLDR; Preparing for the worst outcomes, coupled with grief, over prolonged periods of time really disrupt your emotions and outlooks. Needless to say, my family became stronger proponents of state-assisted suicide after this experience. It couldn’t be granted to my brother, but maybe we can help people in the future that coupd really use it. People understand, but not nearly as many are truly empathetic because they can’t be - they’ve never been through a similar experience. I simply ask that people try to be sympathetic rather than to pass judgement on others.

I have bad knees, but if you say so