Nefara

I agree with your feeling for the most part. White chocolate is not chocolate and does not belong in chocolate assortments or in the lofty company of actual chocolate. It's a byproduct of chocolate making more than a chocolate itself. That being said, candy and sweets that are made with cocoa butter can be nice. I'm just not going to eat it when I want chocolate.

Flip flops or beach shoes, some kind of shade, and a HAT!

We have a credit card that gives 6% cash back on groceries, 3% on gas and some discounts on streaming services. It blows my mind that every few months I can cash out a $200 or so credit towards my balance. I needed to buy those things anyway and have autopay set to the full balance each month so it really is free money. So if you can get one, absolutely a credit card that gives cash back. The one I mentioned is Amex Blue Cash Preferred but there other options out there that give other bonuses, like 2% back on everything or 6% back on something up to a certain cap.

More and more people are shaking off the old expectations of women's passivity and men's aggressiveness. There's still a ways to go but it's not as radically rare as it would have been 30-40 years ago. I was the one who proposed to my husband and took the active role in wooing him, and I've told that story quite a bit and only had positive reactions. Amongst our friends, I'm the only one I know who took the lead like that, but there are a lot of personalities that vary dramatically from the classic gender binary relationship. I would say my husband is the kinder and more gentle of the two of us, and he's a tender and loving parent. Our partnership has a lot of quirks and would probably only work for us, but what's important is that it does work.

I'm also going to say that it's good to have an idea of what you want in a relationship, but don't let a fantasy get in the way of reality. What you daydream about might be attainable, but more likely you will need to compromise on some things, and dating and having relationship experiences will be lessons in what those things can be.

Seconding 9 Parchments and the Trine series. They are both by the same studio and they are beautiful games, they make sure every new scene is a tableau worthy of a screenshot with hyper saturated fanciful environments. The gameplay is fun, polished and goes by fast, in a good way.

Thanks, I did feel guilty when my first cat passed, I was the most ignorant then and she had the worst diet and died the youngest. Since then I know I've done what I could with the money I could budget, and tried to educate myself so I could do better. Now I try to make up for it by spreading the word to other cat owners in my life and leading by example.

Yeah same, I like to get the paté cans because it's easy to add water to get him better hydrated.

This exactly, thank you. I've had multiple cats during my life make it to old age and each one had health issues from the food I was feeding them. Chronic dehydration leading to kidney issues, chronic high blood sugar from grains and vegetable fillers leading to pancreatitis and diabetes, etc etc. My old man is now on nothing but wet food and is pushing 18. He's got some issues since I fed him junk for the first half of his life but he's in decent shape for his age, and I bet if I hadn't changed his diet he'd already be gone.

Oh man, as a new-ish parent I'm starting to get those sudden out of the blue hugs and cuddles and they're amazing. I don't know why it didn't occur to me that my kid would love me but it's like an instant shot of dopamine every time.

I'm excited to see the progress of 3d printers becoming more user friendly, reliable and inexpensive. I've been keeping an eye on the development of consumer printing and there are so many types of materials to print with at higher and higher details with less troubleshooting needed. I'm thinking I'll finally jump in this year but I've had very little time for hobbies lately.

I can't remember which was first but it would have been Number Munchers on PC or Asteroids on the Vectrex, an obscure console from the 80s.

There are so many different types of intelligence, and so many different ways of judging them. Someone's intelligence can vary so much even on a day to day basis based on if they get enough sleep, their blood sugar, stress levels, hormones, health issues, distractions, etc etc. I used to put SO MUCH stock in intelligence but as I've gotten wiser I've realized it doesn't matter if they can solve math problems quickly or have a big vocabulary or specialized in a niche field of science or got an advanced degree etc etc. I learned that as long as a partner is good at problem solving and makes good decisions, none of the rest matters. Are the decisions they are making consistently making their and other's lives better? Are they able to tackle hurdles when they come between them and their goals? If the other pieces of compatibility are there then that's really all that's important.