Okay but what if I’m generally good at everything and this tactic keeps working for me and I just accumulate obscure skills

Now

My wife and I have four

You better start showing Plague Daddy, Prince of Decay, God of Chaos Nurgle some goddamn respect

We got a package, I saw the sticker, and understood the opportunity I had been given

Definitely not, she’s the least threatening cat on earth

I feel this to my core. I had a pretty successful career in army special operations, which ended after ten years with a few years of extremely heavy drinking, which ended with me getting out of the army and getting boatloads of mental health treatment, which is ongoing.

When I was at my peak, though, my most prize characteristic was my intellect. Now, though, my short term memory is measured in seconds, my working memory is like five digits at most, I forget words many times per day, and there’s many more examples.

It’s been absolutely crushing to remember such high performance, but be incapable of it now.

No one has got this with the copy pasta and subsequent refutation yet? I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before

Uuuuuggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I’m gonna have to ask you to lower your voice

I mean, I’m 30 and a non traditional college student. If the weather is agreeable, I have a few nice sweaters that I’ll wear with an undershirt, dark jeans, and I’ve got a pair of Loake boots that are very nice.

I feel GREAT when I dress like that, and get quite a few glances throughout the day. Also my wife eyeballs me as I leave the house.

I have a stark reminder of the worst period in my life where I did the same. The “account performance” chart in an investment of mine showed steady growth and monthly inputs, then there’s a cliff, and over a period of a few months, it’s completely emptied. Thousands, easily. And the vast majority was fast food and liquor

Okay but how do I make it

Chlorine trifluoride, go on

That AIN’T GOIN ANYWHERE

I’m very confused now

I thought the 70% was recommended because it helps maintain membrane fluidity or something like that

This story concerns war and death, if you want to avoid those kinds of things.

I was 18 years old. I was an Infantryman in the US Army and had been in Afghanistan for a few months, when my platoon responded to an IED strike on another platoon in my company, while they were doing a dismounted patrol.

A guy riding a donkey laden with explosives made his way to the center of their staggered column formation (effectively two spaced out lines on opposite sides of the street), before detonating the explosives. It was particularly effective, because walls on either side forced the column in tighter than normal.

This point begins my memories, which are mostly a disjointed collection of visual snapshots.

The first thing I remember is the smell, which I can’t accurately describe, but burned meat, chemicals, and some kind of feces is the closest I can get. It is easily the clearest part of the memory.

The next thing I remember is seeing the severed foot of the man responsible laying in the middle of the road and my immediate and overwhelming impulse was to kick it, since it was the only tangible evidence of a ‘responsible’ party. There were also two generally recognizable bodies in the ditch, as well as several casualties receiving medical care.

From this point it is a series of vignettes. One, I was setting down my radio pack and very clearly telling the lieutenant where it was, since the medics needed extra hands. Another is seeing one of the casualties smoking a cigarette. The last, and clearest visual memory was holding the hand of one of the casualties as we waited for the medevac bird, and trying to keep the mood light be telling him “hey, at least you don’t have to walk back to base”. I have no clue if he responded.

I have absolutely no memories following that day, for probably months, until another, somewhat less traumatic situation took place.

But yeah, that is the day that pretty much all of my emotions died. On my wedding day, I felt just a flicker of happiness. The only emotion I feel with any intensity whatsoever is occasionally anger.

That’s about all, I’m willing to answer questions of anyone is curious.

I’ve never seen those, but it sounds fun

Untreated 4x4, which I think cost like…$10-$15 maybe? Then carpet adhesive was like $20, some wood screws, and more staples. I’ve probably got $60-$90 in it, but it would be pricier if I didn’t have the brackets already.

It’s hard to say exactly, but I will say that if you bought everything you needed from, say, home depot, it would be very expensive, probably 2-3× a similarly sized store bought model. But the store bought ones are small for large cats, so your mileage may vary

We’ve got some of those on the opposite wall, actually. The cats like them, but shelf-type things are better because we’ve got some fat, declawed cats, so acrobatics aren’t their strong suit