So now we find ourselves at a crossroads. A crossroads of hate and terror. How do we respond? How do you respond? Do we lash out with anger, hate and mistrust. Or do we, as Lincoln begged, appeal to the “better angels of our nature ( Read more... )

[A]s neuroscientist Head says: "Everything you do for a dog to help them age well, you should do with them ( Read more... )

Some people say that in stressful situations I can seem unflappable, and I think that's partly because I'm always kind of internally flapped. And so ... when there's actually something real to be concerned about, it's actually less anxiety-provoking than these irrational things. It's also fairly typical ... of certain kinds of anxiety disorder ( Read more... )

I went away in my head, into a book. That was where I went whenever real life was too hard or too inflexible. I pulled down a handful of my mother’s old books, from when she was a girl, and I read about schoolgirls having adventures in the 1930s and 1940s. Mostly they were up against smugglers or spies or fifth columnists, whatever they were, and ( Read more... )

"My wife is a musician named Kaki King. When we first met I told her she was cute and she said 'you ought to see me in a panda suit.'"

-Jessica Templin

I think that is going to be my go-to response to compliments from now on: "You oughta see me in a panda suit".

Cat Valente (talk of body image issues and weight loss, in case this is a topic you wish to avoid):

There was a lot of carob, is what I’m saying, and I will go to my grave insisting that carob tastes not of chocolate or treats but a fallen world and your parents’ lies.

Desiree at Pull Your Socks Up!:

If someone invited me to an event requiring a dress code, I'm not sure what I'd wear ( Read more... )

John Scalzi, on his experience at the RT Booklovers' Convention:
In the evenings, I would be hanging out at the bar with other writers and friends and I would look around and every other person around the table would be a woman. And I would go, huh, and then go back into the conversation ( Read more... )

(If you've wondered why I've been so quiet here for ages, and/or why I haven't been doing a lot socially, the first paragraph is at least a partial explanation.)

Allie at Hyperbole and a Half, Depression, Part Two:

At first, I'd try to explain that it's not really negativity or sadness anymore, it's more just this detached, meaningless fog where ( Read more... )

Good jeans require exhaustive evaluation, diagnosis, and a prescription. If you accept jeans dispensed by any random idiot off the street, you may experience muffintop, cameltoe, saddlebags, thass (a malignant condition caused by rear-pocket placement that makes one's ass appear to start at mid thigh), fugliness, public humiliation, and death. You ( Read more... )