Good guy Satan.

Sometimes I’ll be kinda zoned out and realize I just signaled because the road curved.

This reminds me of the time that I learned that the correct answer to “what’s up?” is “what’s up?” At least in the context of that one coworker who would say that to me as we were walking past each other.

I’ve since learned to recognize these things as a “bid for connection”. It generally has little to do with the content of the question or the answer and everything to do with relating.

So basically there is no wrong answer. And there are lots of good examples in this thread!

Personally I tend to answer “not much” as a knee-jerk reaction, but sometimes I’ll remember to say something else after that.

I’m good now, thanks 🙂

Hey bud it sounds like our experiences may have quite a bit of overlap. I think the #1 thing that helps here is learning to have and respect healthy boundaries. Internal and external boundaries allow you to have more fulfilling relationships and feel more fulfilled yourself. These are things that a lot of people kind of implicitly learn from their families, but we weren’t so lucky. If you have the option and can find a good therapist, they can help you with this. Otherwise, there are a lot of good books about boundaries that you can probably get from your local library or Amazon.

That’s what I did, still have some trouble with IRL relationships though.

Just a note on the “toxic” thing - when folks talk about “toxic masculinity” they’re generally not talking about men being toxic or claiming that masculinity is always toxic. Toxic masculinity refers to the perversions of masculinity; things like “I must commit violence to defend my honor” or “I must never express ‘soft’ emotions”. Men and masculinity are good things that can and should be celebrated as much as all other identities.

When I was a teenager, I was hanging out with my brother who is 8 years older while he was fucking around with his .45 (probably ostensibly cleaning it) and it was pointed towards me when for some reason the slide suddenly released and the live round that was inexplicably involved jammed in the mechanism.

So I mean, I guess I didn’t dodge a bullet, but I think I got pretty lucky.

In the last panel, the void is lying in order to avoid answering for its earlier lies. Pretending you don’t speak English is a fairly common tactic, though I suspect more so in jokes/as a joke than seriously.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

For me it was growing up with religious fanatic parents who taught us to interpret the “wrong” emotions as moral failings.

I don’t know where you’re at in your life. Maybe you do need to learn to control your emotions more. But also consider learning to accept your emotions, learn what they are telling you, and find a healthy way to process them.

And if you have people in your life who can’t deal with you having emotions, you may need to evaluate that as well.

I’ve long said that Arnold is my favorite Republican. It’s a low, low, bar, but still…

I write self documenting code, as long as you are a Python interpreter.

We talk to each other like Giwaffe & Cwow (https://youtu.be/8_Dm5xkHzio). Sometimes we’ll quote things from the skit, but a lot of times we’ll just say normal stuff in that voice to be cute.

I don’t remember the details but there was an Internet story about a dude who’d say “man up” and people explained why that was a problem and he updated to “fortify”. And I really like that, because it kinda suggests also getting help where you need it to build up your defenses in order to face the thing you need to face.

A few months ago I was doing dishes and for some reason thought about my age and I literally couldn’t remember if I’d hit 50 yet. Had to do the math to remember I’m 45 and that’s quite a ways off. That’s an outlier for sure, but yeah I forget.

It just doesn’t come up often. There are fewer ands fewer markers. Before your 20s you’ve got hitting double digits, becoming a teenager, sweet 16, becoming an “adult”, then not being a teenager any more. In your 20s you’ve got becoming an adult again (and maybe being able to drink if 21 is your drinking age), and then maybe saving money on insurance at 25 if that even matters to you. Then nothing. You might demarcate 30, but nothing really changes. In many senses now it’s “just a number” and the individual increments fail to matter. There’s no differential reinforcement to remembering where you are on the number line.

I also vote for this guy’s arm.

You got 'em there, Godric.

If you read this comment, you are legally bound to whatever requirements I imagine it carries with it.

Really? I wasn’t sure which one I “should” use so I looked at a cable that I had laying around (probably came with a cable modem or something?) and was able to see the wire colors through the connector and it was A. So that’s what I’ve been using when making patch cables or wiring my house.

I guess my question is what’s your experience with where B is used? Mostly I’m just curious, it probably doesn’t really matter for me since I only do networking work in my house.