U.S. Politics

It's funny, the the people talk to me thing - I THINK I look like an asshole (white Boston guy, shaved head, lots of visible tattoos, boxing scar tissue) and I was saying how weird it is and multiple women friends were like "no, you radiate kind vibes and people pick up on it, it's why little kids, cats, and dogs run up to you." I mean there's worse things to be but people will tell me their ENTIRE life stories. It's particularly bad when I have a booth for my books at a comic con or literary event because I'm prone to getting Booth Barnacles because folks just want to tell me EVERYTHING about their lives.
 
docsilence said:
I mean there's worse things to be but people will tell me their ENTIRE life stories. It's particularly bad when I have a booth for my books at a comic con or literary event because I'm prone to getting Booth Barnacles because folks just want to tell me EVERYTHING about their lives.
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Yyyyyup. Part of my job is sales/estimating, which means I talk to a lot of people. Sometimes in their homes or on their jobsites. Finding an appropriate way to extricate yourself when you are in a work situation but this person is info-dumping their life story on you is the kind of thing you cannot explain how to navigate to someone that's never done it. You just have to like.. feel out your exit.


altcunningham said:
I will vouch that Damien is a cool dude to talk with and hear his takes about things, so I can see why some might chase that high.
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Can confirm this is fake news. I am a generally disagreeable fellow with great hair. It's the hair that brings everyone in. They just stare at it and forget how unpleasant I am.
 
another quite clear racial profiling report from my hometown...
www.nbcchicago.com

U.S. citizens from Aurora arrested by federal agents recount the experience

Two U.S. citizens in Aurora say they were attacked by federal agents and detained outside of an elementary school this weekend.
www.nbcchicago.com www.nbcchicago.com

yeah Nazis aren't even hiding anymore...
www.nbcchicago.com

Man in Nazi uniform assaulted Georgia student after he was denied entry to bar, officials say

A man donned what appeared to be a full Nazi uniform and assaulted a female University of Georgia student outside an off-campus bar, the school said Sunday.
www.nbcchicago.com www.nbcchicago.com
 
Damien said:
Yyyyyup. Part of my job is sales/estimating, which means I talk to a lot of people. Sometimes in their homes or on their jobsites. Finding an appropriate way to extricate yourself when you are in a work situation but this person is info-dumping their life story on you is the kind of thing you cannot explain how to navigate to someone that's never done it. You just have to like.. feel out your exit.



Can confirm this is fake news. I am a generally disagreeable fellow with great hair. It's the hair that brings everyone in. They just stare at it and forget how unpleasant I am.
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To be fair, I'd commit a felony to have hair as good as yours.

(The booth barnacle thing kills me cos I'll be like 'love ya, but you're scaring off potential readers...'

Goldbug said:
yeah Nazis aren't even hiding anymore...
www.nbcchicago.com

Man in Nazi uniform assaulted Georgia student after he was denied entry to bar, officials say

A man donned what appeared to be a full Nazi uniform and assaulted a female University of Georgia student outside an off-campus bar, the school said Sunday.
www.nbcchicago.com www.nbcchicago.com
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How that guy still has all his teeth and both testicles is beyond me. If he went to a different kind of bar he wouldn't have walked away.
 
Same with me. Once a girlfriend told me she knew I was worth giving a shot because both of her cats couldn't stay away from me the first time I came over. She said they only ever did that for her and her dad.

Don't read into that.

All my pet cats also get distinct voices and we have convos about serious things.

And just the other night at McD, a kid was just wandering around my side of the restaurant, then sat down and started grilling me about K Pop Demon Hunters. Way more my speed than the brunch convo about mortgages.
 
altcunningham said:
All my pet cats also get distinct voices
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One of my kids' favorite bedtime stories was The Doorbell Rang, which is simply about a woman who makes cookies for her two kids then some cousins stop by, then friends, then so on, and it's a constant thing of math, figuring out how many cookies everyone gets with x amount of people, and now with x+3, and so on..
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But there is this cat sitting there with no dialogue, so I always gave him lines in a calm, Derry accent saying "I don't care how many ye get, I better have a cookie right quick or I'll slitcher face..." And so on.
 
There's a running joke with me and my partner that I stole the cat she raised from kitten-hood. Our friends had a flat out psychopath, the vet had to drug him to treat him level violent cat and he would lick me if I stood still in their house. I'll literally make friends with cats in other countries just walking around. It's very strange.

(The cat I stole, BTW, my absolute shadow her last three years of her life, never more than a few feet from me, died on my office chair because it was the place she felt safest. I have been ruined as a human being by two deaths in my life and they've both been cats and that was one of them. I still haven't fully recovered from her passing away two years ago. I called her my daemon like in His Dark Materials.)
 
altcunningham said:
I went through that in 18, 20, and 23. It's indescribable. I love the daemon reference.
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We lost three cats rapidly - one of my partner's two littermate cats, the one that I loved but we had a less "obsessed with you" relationship but who died in my arms of what think was a sudden stroke in the middle of the night (I will see that in my mind's eye til the day I fucking die); my first, who really was my soul-mate from a wasting illness that had me sleeping on the floor with her for the last month of her life to keep her warm and not alone; and then the other littermate, who lived two years longer and we gave subcutaneous fluids to every other day in what was supposed to be a 'keep her comfortable for a few weeks' but made her happy and healthy for TWO YEARS. It's a miracle Steph talked me into adopting two more cats since then cos man, my heart wasn't broken, it was grains of glass after 2020-2023.

(I know this board is full of truly decent human beings that the thread about the nightmare this country is going through has devolved temporarily into an oversharing about how much we love our cats. Thanks, guys, I appreciate this.)
 
Yeah I have had horrendous, gutting romantic heartbreaks that were more fun than any of the pet deaths Ive experienced. Fuck man.

Carlin said when you get a pet, you're really buying a small tragedy.
 
Ru1977 said:
Yeah I have had horrendous, gutting romantic heartbreaks that were more fun than any of the pet deaths Ive experienced. Fuck man.

Carlin said when you get a pet, you're really buying a small tragedy.
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I can't say I RECOMMEND it because I'm recommending a book that will rip your heart out, but the Dog Stars by Peter Heller is a melancholy wonder, and it contains a line about how we bred dogs to do every job their little bodies are capable of, so why the hell did we never breed them to live as long as a man? It's one of my favorite books but I lent it to Steph and she was reading it on the subway and texted me FURIOUS "how dare you not warn me, I'm crying on the SUBWAY"
 
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