Anon discovers the underlying foundation of Buddhism.

What colour would you like your dragon?

There's a Pratchett quote that goes something like,

"In a universe so full of wonders, it's a marvel that humans invented boredom."

Your post reminded me of that.

More varied formalwear than "suit with some superficial variations" (tux, 2- or 3-piece, colors, tie variety). Broader range of styles.

I think you win just for originality and not "witnessed very violent happening."

Not that violence isn't fucked up, too, but...Jesus.

I see what you're attempting but you saying they're pariahs doesn't make it so. Most don't even recognize these names - hell, I certainly didn't.

"Hi, I'm a guy in early thirties--"

Well there's your answer.

I mean, unless there is no major global war from now until the heat death of the universe or some other extinction level event, aren't we just perpetually going towards WW3?

For putting trash in.

We've hunted species to extinction for less. Why would this be any different?

I certainly do. Sometimes I have to get over the hump to actually GO to the gym on workout days but I've never once (well, okay, one workout I had one time after going regularly for years did leave me unsatisfied - I will admit that) finished up a workout and been like "what a goddamn waste of time and energy".

Well, let's not exaggerate here. Surely it's saved you no more than ten of them.

The third and last entry in Jamisin's Broken Earth trilogy, The Stone Sky. Good God it's great. Hard to break into the series and I always feel like I'm a step behind the plot, but not so much that I've lost the thread entirely and just want to give up. It's a delicate dance between author and reader that takes such a deft and skilled touch that I'm floored by not just the skill involved but the gall it takes to skate so close to totally alienating your audience. But damn does it pay off.

A quote from it I grabbed to share earlier:

When a [society] builds [a city] atop a fault line, do you blame its walls when they inevitably crush the people inside? No; you blame whoever was stupid enough to think they could defy the laws of nature forever. Well, some worlds are built on a fault line of pain, held up by nightmares. Don’t lament when those worlds fall. Rage that they were built doomed in the first place.

It's not strange at all when you consider your own phrasing: calls itself a democracy.

Plenty of places do that. Doesn't make it so.

Aldi generics overall tbh

I liked American Gods but also can't find it in myself to disagree with this take.

I don't dislike Dresden Files but I'm liking it less as it veers further & further from its initial premise. Book 1 and book...er, 16? the latest one...are so tonally different. Power creep, yeah, is part of it, but also it went from "fun noir throwback starring Detective Hard-Boiled" solving things cleverly (and without spellslinging ALL the time) to "what if a Jedi with the power of God and pop culture references on his side fought Irish folklore kaijus while Bigfoot was watching".

Like... I'm strapped in for the ride and enjoying it besides but the series seems to have gotten a lot less intellectually stimulating and than before and is now "big powers do a fighting".

Just me?

The words "wild strawberries" never fail to bring to mind this Shel Silverstein poem:

original MMO

[types out an emote describing how my MUD character is laughing]

To Catch A Predator and its spinoffs/follow-up acts, Takedown with Chris Hansen being the newest.