Stargate, the series - keep Michael Shanks.

I’ve worked at a cleaning job where the smokers were allowed to go outside whenever. Some even went on a smoke break several times per hour. The nonsmokers like me on the other hand were reprimanded if we sat down and drank something outside of the scheduled break. I complained, but the boss was a smoker and just told me they need their smoke break but I don’t need coffee… One coworker whom I talked to about that even said they started smoking because of this and because the non-smokers were expected to work more and cover for the smokers on their cigarette breaks.

I’d argue that the drop in conference and other professional visitors could be even steeper. There are still enough people who’ll privately take the risk or aren’t informed or think “I’ll be Ok if I comply with the laws”. Companies or universities however have HR departments and people in charge of travelling and compliance. They would risk a lot more money and possibly secrets if the devices are searched and employees are detained. I think they’ll be even more careful and restrict trips to the US. I could imagine a lot of conferences offering online participation and many opting for that rather than risking it.

And if enough international speakers can’t get in even more conferences will opt for moving the entire conference to a different country.

What language(s) does she speak? If it’s English, he’ll just have to learn it anyway eventually so what better motivation than to date someone who only speaks English. International relationships where the partners have different motherlanguages and different degrees of fluency in a shared language are not uncommon.

I am just very confused where the two keep meeting with him being on call with the family all the time. Are you in Uni and he’s constantly on the phone during lectures or what?

That’s why I started writing a diary. On the same day I can still remember very well how things happened, but weeks or moth later I might not. So I write a diary every evening with everything that happened.

I’m German and I worked in an office with managers and engineers who had a background in construction or related jobs. There is a very strong attitude of “We didn’t need that bullshit back when I was an apprentice.” There is a lot of scoffing at people who wear saftey gear and follow the rules. Corners are being cut and safety rules ignored because “we didn’t need all that bullshit back then and losing a finger or two is just part of the job”.

Some German news articles mention that the company in charge of the project had a bad track record when it comes to following safety regulations and the very same construction site had to be stopped before due to broken bolts in the bridge.

When I had my first panic attack 13 years ago I honestly thought I was dying. Called an ambulance (luckily I live in a country where that cost nothing) and lay in the ER for an hour before being sent home. Even the second panic attack a couple of weeks later had me thinking that I was about to die, so I called the bulance again. Panic attacks suck and it takes much learning and therapy to understand how to handle them.

Adrian Paul in The Highlander TV Series.

The University where I studied switched from Linux to Windows because to many people complained that it was “too hard”. Even the computers in the library that were just for searching books aka 90% of the time just using the browser were switched from Linux to Windows because the students complained. I now work in a job where most of our customers are public institutions and you won’t even get our IT department to let go of decade old outdated software. Too many old people who will throw a hissy fit if anything suddenly looks different from what they’ve been used to for 30 years.

My contract also won’t be renewed. My bosses reason that he explicitly told me is: I don’t fit in because I ask too many questions like “Why don’t we use better alternatives for X software.” We do “project planning” with email-chains and Excel sheets. No, we can’t have any project planning tools, because this is what the 60-year old colleagues have been doing since their first day 43 years ago. If it was good enough for them back then it’s good enough for you now. That’s just how we do it here, since you can’t get used to it we’re letting you go. Etc pp, you get the idea. And the people in the IT department are the same! Never change a running system, it’s worked for 40 years now, no need to try something new.

There’s just no way you’ll get a public institution to switch to open source. Everybody over 50 will scream bloody murder about having to change how they work and it’ll be changed back in no time.

It doesn’t say that he’s anaphylactic though, just that he sought out medical treatment. I mean he could have been, but as far as I know anaphylaxis from onions is rather rare. Medical treatment could mean that he had diarrhea and got medication for that.

That being said, I wouldn’t step into a burger place with an onion allergy. Especially since the onion allergene can be airborne. I have a soy allergy and you won’t see me in an Asian restaurant.

Just keep telling her she’s awesome. Don’t focus on the legs, just tell her all the things you love about her. And if she directly asks you about them, don’t make it a big deal. Just say “I don’t care, you’re beautiful.” For me the best thing my husband did was to counter the constant onslaught of beauty standards over media by telling me every day what he loves about me and how cool he thinks I am.

Don’t worry, they’ll have forgotten all about it by Friday.

I’ve been abused (physically and mentally) by my parents and bullied at school. I can obviously only talk about myself, but maybe my experience helps you.

Understanding, that those people will never care or feel guilt, is hard. Especially when you were abused as a child and hoped for a happy end. Actively trying to get over it also didn’t work very well for me. For me the best thing to do was focus on other things: find friends, find hobbies, do whatever you always wanted to do (I started wearing clothes I was forbidden to wear and practicing hobbies that were ridiculed).

Just fill your life with things you like and the bullies and abusers will become smaller and smaller.

Therapy is a good start to help you with this and question yourself, who you are and who you want to be.

A pocket knife and a houseplant in a pot.

No, it didn’t cover anything, it was really just the lines for the character. I don’t think you could cover much under it other than a very tiny tattoo.

Maybe not quite as dumb as others here, but I once saw a woman in a sauna who had a GIANT 女 (woman) on her back. It went from the shoulders to the ass. I get finding Chinese characters cool and wanting them tattooed, but why on earth would you just tattoo “woman” instead of something meaningful and why so large it covers your entire back?

My entire life I’ve heard Americans lecture everyone how superior the US is because of all their rights, freedoms and “real democracy”. The freest country in the world! Look at the constitution and the bill of rights - the most democratic country EVER! Where are those Americans now?

Tom Cruise I just don’t like anything about him

Will Smith, because he’s annoyed me in every role after Prince of Bel Air

I’m forty, so a different generation than your parents, but I still grew up and had my first dating experiences before the internet. Online dating wasn’t really a thing here until I was in my early twenties.

At least where I grew up the guys who randomly approached girls to ask them out were seen as creepy even back in the 90s. I and everyone I knew met partners through activities like sports clubs, parties, bars etc. (I’m not from the US, so people from my school started going to bars pretty early). While there wasn’t a big discourse around men approaching women in public (or none that reached my little town), we did have some guys in town who’d just walk up to girls on the street and ask them out and the consensus was that they were weird and should be avoided.

I met all my partners so far through activities. My first boyfriend was a regular at the same student café and we ended up sitting next to each other during quiz night. I met guys I had dates with in uni - sitting next to each other during lectures and talking about the Prof, going to the same presentation or cooking night etc. None of them “approached me” in the sense of coming up to me and asking “can I have your number” with zero context. We chatted, had an interesting conversation. At the end we exchanged contact information to meet for a coffee, usually without any expectation of it being a date. When coffee went well, someone would ask the other out on a proper date. No approaching, no deciding within a few seconds wether you want to date someone. Just casually getting to know each other before asking for more.

I also met my husband that way. We went to the same event, talked, had a lot in common. We met the next day to continue a discussion about a certain topic we were both interested in. That’s when things started getting flirty and by the end we made plans to meet for a real date. I don’t even remember who asked whom, we were both heavily flirting with each by the time we talked about seeing each other again so it was very obvious the next meeting would be a date. He didn’t ask me out out of nowhere or hit on me, we were just getting to know new people and eventually we started flirted somewhere along the line.

It doesn’t have to be makeup, but caring for how you look can help you feel fly, too. A haircut that fits. Face treatments or creams with nice scents feel good. Finding the right products for you can make you feel good. I helped my husband find the right soap and shampoo for his skin and hair type, got him to use moisturizer and better shaving products. His acne that he had for years vanished completely, his skin is nice and smooth now and he feels so much better because all the dry skin was uncomfortable. He also goes to a barber shop now that massages his head and gives him a haircut and beard trimming and he loves having a little spa time.

It won’t magic magically cure your depression or reduce your weight, but it will help you feel better in your body.