AFKBRBChocolate

You should reflect back on that "less prude than Americans" part of his statement. It's only "not really possible" because of widespread American taboos about nudity. If boobs were visible in everyday life - on TV shows and at a typical day to the beach - in a non-sexual way, your son wouldn't give a crap.

It's interesting that in many US cities, there's no law against women going topless, but if a woman does it, it's outrageous. Hell, some women get chastised for breastfeeding in public. We're a messed up society.

I'm starting to collect a few of those. I now have things in the evening on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. One of the strange things is that the hours and days pass by very slowly, though the weeks and months go pretty quickly. When I worked, I was really busy all the time (managed a software engineering organization), and there were many things that were regularly scheduled each day. I don't want to get back to anytime like that, but it also feels like an eternity between Monday and Wednesday.

I wish there was a good way to let publications know we feel that way. So they know is that we clicked.

I get where you're coming from - in years past that was often the same for me. It turns out that life can be really stressful, but still not have any marks for the passing of time. It just means that the stress doesn't come from things like work, school, or other deadlines.

I retired in January, and I live alone now. I have no cues about the days and the passage of time. I've found I have to put things on my calendar with reminders that I never had to before. Just mundane things like taking out the trash barrels. It seems really strange to me, but more than half the time, when I get the notification, I'm completely surprised. "Oh, huh, it's Thursday."

My wife and I are both computer geeks, and so our kids were exposed to computers and played computer games from a young age. One day I was playing with our daughter - playing with her dolls - and she said, "I'm going to exit this Barbie and select this one." Cracked me up because it made perfect sense, but it's not the way people talk about things IRL.

Those at the top of government aren’t following the rules anymore. Why should states still be bound to do so?

Republicans are ignoring the laws applied to themselves, but not the ones applied to other groups, and they're in control. They will for sure use the law against states that do this. That doesn't mean they shouldn't do it though.

I don't see how people physically eat cookies without a glass of milk.

I grew up with milk being the main dinnertime beverage, and I still drink it quite a bit. My step-son's gf clearly did not, and clearly thinks it's strange, but tries to be polite about it. She's asked me if milk is my favorite drink, if I feel like milk goes with most food, and a number of related questions. I think in her family, milk is something some people put in coffee.

I feel more like I've got the wire monkey mother from that same experiment.

I've come to really like Adrian Tchaikovsky - I haven't been disappointed by anything he's written. The trilogy that starts with Children of Time is especially good.

Lots of others great books out there. The Space Between Worlds, by Micaiah Johnson, was an interesting story read recently. Kiln People, by David Brin, was great.

I keep little spoiler-free notes on everything I read, so if there's a type of book you like, let me know and I'll scan my notes.

We had two dogs, a cat, and a bird, so the house was always full of animal silliness. My wife left me a couple months ago and took the dogs with her. I've become so thankful for the cat. She just wants to be where I am, constantly: on my lap if I'm sitting, or on my chest if I'm laying down. It's made a very hard time just a little less hard.