There was something about the infinite emptiness that struck an emotional chord with me. That’s gone now, for the better overall, but I’m glad I experienced it.

SA2 just wasn’t as satisfying for me. There was too much rail grinding, which isn’t much fun when overused, because you’re barely controlling anything.

I’m surprised they didn’t sneak in a swipe about open source being a socialist conspiracy to undermine American ingenuity.

There’s a messed up kind of logic to it.

Spending big on something nice is one level of status symbol.

Being able to waste money on something shite is on a whole other level.

I’ll still think you’re a dumbarse, though.

Thanks for confirming I’m not alone in this, and sorry you’ve experienced the same.

People tend to think marriage breakdowns happen for obvious reasons, like infidelity, laziness, just losing interest. It’s scary to think that you can tick all the right boxes but it can all fall apart anyway, because we as individuals can fall apart.

We need to do so much more for mental health support.

There were no obvious reasons. An accumulation of life factors, like deaths in the family and job insecurity, led us both into a detached survival state, and her survival instinct is to run. There wasn’t much warning, and it happened when I was away for a family event.

This hit me so hard that I bet everything on giving her space to see what she was missing and find the way back. That turned into years of no contact. When we did eventually get in touch again, it was clear that I made a mistake. Life had not been easy for her. We had both likely been going through some kind of breakdown, not knowing the other was experiencing the same.

We’re now very close again in a lot of ways. I think it’s fair to say we’re more honest and trusting with each other than anyone else. We’ve both grown and matured significantly.

Unfortunately, distance from her family, and I sense some guilt over the whole thing has made it hard to fully reconcile. Now we’re on opposite sides of the world. She’s still struggling but determined to tick off some big life goals. It’s no secret that I would go back to our old life together in a heartbeat, but having so much already weighing on her makes it difficult to even think about relationships.

I’m not sure what the lesson is there. I guess it’s about remembering to look out for our own mental wellbeing, because without it we can’t fully look out for those we care about.

I was a very well behaved kid, but somehow got punished multiple times for absolute bullshit reasons.

I think the most inexplicable was when I had changed schools. My old school was strict about sun safety. Hats were expected every time we were outside. The new school was the opposite, not allowing hats to be worn indoors at all, because they were only worn by rebellious kids or something.

I still wore one at lunch out of habit, and because I burn easily. One time I was going from one outdoor area to another, and had to pass through a covered walkway. It would have been 2 seconds under cover, but a teacher saw me. I got detention and my hat was confiscated.

Good thing you didn’t use British English, then.

I have some gear like that, but only because I bought it all cheaply when one of the manufacturers did a warehouse clearance.

Simon Peyton Jones is about as big an expert on programming languages as you can get, and he’s on the record as saying Excel is a functional programming language.

Should have been a sack of doorknobs.