It may well be that I have attention problems, brought about by the idea that I have not too little attention, but too much of it.

I am told that most people try to pay attention to only a few things at once. I attempt to pay attention to everything at once. When there is only a little of everything, I am just fine. When there is too much of everything, I have difficulty narrowing my focus to exclude the unimportant factors.

Rather, I have a difficulty deciding which the unimportant factors are, because it's so relatively rare that I have to narrow down.

On the other hand, when I tune my capacity to focus on one thing and one thing alone, I am like laser in the intensity.


Have long used the "I am like laser; do not date me alone" argument in favor of my polyamory. If I have multiple people to date, I am not half so dangerous when focused.


Is there a word, in any language, that means "that pain that comes as a result of someone mistaking you and your unrequited beloved for an actual couple, and/or treating you as such"? I hurt like that a lot around Shawn, back in the day. It was touchy to try and correct people who were mistaking us for like-really-Together when all I wanted was for us to actually be together. It still occasionally feels like an open wound when people assume that Darkside and I are Really Together.

Canon Fodder: character class. The rather-detailed characters who you are introduced to in a few paragraphs before they die, usually senselessly, randomly, messily and/or cruelly, often to establish some sense of connection to the individual casualties in a steadily-mounting body count. Often found in the horror genre. Canon fodder characters come in a few distinct types:

1. They Deserved It, Really -- Cosmic justice is visited upon these characters with a swift and often gory hand. They are the scum of the earth. They needed killin', and you might even be semi-glad they're dead, but the forces that got them will probably kill again, and this time it might be


2. Someone We Should Care About -- Often heroic, or too-good-to-be-true. Little girls, heroic emergency workers, good, decent people. They are often sacrificed so the readers will know that This Villain Is Hardcore Bad. (Cedric Diggory would be a prime example of this, but we're introduced to him well before he actually does die.)


3. Random Bystanders -- Wrong place, wrong time. Decent but flawed people die when hell-demons, crazed cults, Dark Lords, and other nasties decide to go on a killing spree.

"Not Exactly Turtles All the Way Down" -- cadhla, Red Dwarf/Discworld crossover, gen

Google Moon Be sure to zoom in for full detailed appreciation!


Schadenpersion: That feeling of joy you get from watching someone else start a happy, new, and utterly doomed relationship.

I need the drivers for Windows 2000 for this thing.

Beautiworthy -- Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so what is the beholdee?

Crudulous -- Willing to believe any spam or scam as long as it's presented urgently or appealingly (i.e., your random pyramid scheme, your random Bill Gates Wants You To Forward This bogus thing, and the like). Probably does not use Snopes.com.

Why in the Bastard's hell do people use the word "lifestyle" to mean "not straight"?

When I think "lifestyle", I think ... I'm not sure what I think. I think "Lifestyles of the rich and famous." I think of it as something that one can change at will, or something that can be changed with the help of a fashion consultant or with a change in income.

I don't think of it as a sexual preference. An expression of sexual preference, sure. I can be living a "lifestyle" where I'm getting it with somebody different every night, with bars usually involved. I can have a "lifestyle" like Hugh Hefner. But to say, "I don't approve of your lifestyle, but it's your choice," to one's single (and not getting any) gay college student son, and not feel that one's single (and not getting any) straight college student son has a "lifestyle" worth commenting on... that leaves me with the distinct feeling that the person using the word "lifestyle" is using it as a weasel word because they don't feel that "sexual preference" or "sexual orientation" is quite the thing.

I think that the reason that "lifestyle" used in place of "sexual preference" or "sexual orientation" is that "preference" and "orientation" both imply that it's something that is less likely to change, with the cause for the sexual orientation more because that's just the way it is (why do I prefer chocolate over coffee? Because.) rather than by a conscious choice of the person's.

I think that people have three or four settings on their sexual orientation. ( And I elaborate. )

Happy Birthday, rainstorm13!

You are an excellent friend, colleague, and source of information on the mindset of military brats!

Oh, yes, and thank you for helping me coin the word "angstwanking".