SARGE

I think most genuinely don't understand what it's like living in a country the size of a continent, with hundreds of millions of people scattered all over, with a heavily militarized police force that has been trained to see anyone but themselves as a threat, surrounded by a significant portion of the population that would love the opportunity to murder you without legal consequences and the tools to do so, with your healthcare, shelter, food, and basically everything tied to your employment that could end on a whim, in a system designed to keep you perpetually exhausted so you can't even begin to imagine a world where you are fairly treated, let alone have the energy to fight for it in any meaningful way.

I mean most Europeans live in countries the size of a single state, with relatively high population densities (comparatively speaking). "Americans think 100 years is a long time, Europeans think 100km is a long distance" and all that. I've traveled daily for work what some of my UK friends won't travel to see family on holidays. The US is insanelt large, and any sort of organization is already an uphill battle from that alone. Get into the fact that most people can't take a day off work without risking their livelihoods, and that opposition is armed and begging to be let loose, and protesting alone is hard to do.

Historically, any left-leaning organization that arms themselves gets heavily targeted by the Alphabet Squad (FBI, NSA, BATFE, etc) and individuals get harassed and tossed into prisons for the smallest infractions simply due to association with the leftist group.

Anyone who doesn't look at the history of government opposition in the US when they demand action, all while saying we aren't doing enough because protesting isn't enough, is (hopefully ignorantly) telling you to go kill yourself.

8, but I settle into a 9 when I'm in a good mood

"you're not resisting in one of my personally approved ways, therefore it's worthless"

Big yikes

That place looks like hell to me.

Little boxes on a hillside... and they all look just the same.

There was once an emergency medical flight coming into the hospital I live next to, but someone noticed that a person had parked dead center of the helipad.

The hospital was undergoing some construction, and the crew was on site at the time.

To my understanding, nobody saw what happened and no cameras caught it, but the car miraculously ended up about 40ft away from where it was parked, with orange-yellow paint scraped along one side and heavy equipment track imprints in the grass next to the pad.

The helicopter was able to land, and someone had to decide whether they wanted to admit to blocking the helipad and try to blame the construction company for damages, or let it go and drive around with a big dent in one side of the car.

I'm a big fan of "fuck quitting, make them fire you" and collecting a paycheck while doing basically nothing until they actually do it themselves. I'm not making their job easier when they deserve to get fucked over.

English IS my first language and it still tripped me up. It's an easy thing to swap, especially without much context.

Oh there was definitely "a little Gandalf" in at least one of the tooks.

I like to think gandalf was the Old Took's actual father. He lived the longest of anyone who didn't have magical intervention.

All the Tooks tend to live longer

They're more curious and outgoing than other hobbits

Hobbits in general are resistant to outside influence, but the Tooks seem better equipped to handle corruption. After all that time in close proximity to the ring, frodo only cracked after having it in his storage trunk for almost 20 years, and in direct contact with it for over a year. And he only broke inside fucking mount doom itself.

Even after all that the "fool of a took" does, Gandalf is still clearly quite protective and supportive of Pippin.

In the book, when Gandalf sees the uruk-hai half-breeds that saruman is making, sauruman tells him he should be able to "recognize it, halfling-friend" which to me says Sauruman knows Gandalf has made his own "half-breeds"

In the Hobbit, Tolkien says it was rumored among other families that a Took long ago took a faerie wife and that's why the Tooks are "like that"

100%, some hobbits got wizard fever and climbed Gandalf like a tree filled with second breakfast.

I read it as "to break off" not "to temporarily interrupt"

Having children.

That's a mistake I'm not going to repeat.

For interacting with kids, I always try to act like I'm interested in the things they're talking about. It doesn't matter if it's their tiny life goals, or that cool rock they saw yesterday that wasn't as cool as the rock they saw last month at the museum.

Nobody was ever interested in anything I have to say, and even after being with my wife for 6 years, she's still trying to get me to talk more. Even I want to share something, my brain still says "they're not interested, don't bother" and I just keep it to myself. That's probably why I like to comment on platforms like this so much, I can speak my piece and then move on and if anyone is interested in replying, I get a (usually) nice interaction with someone for a few minutes.

My wife's dead sister used to scream at her children when they spoke because she "doesn't want to hear [their] bullshit" and whenever her youngest would start giggling at something she was talking about she would scream at her to shut up because she's annoying. The oldest was old enough to remember all of this perfectly, the youngest just has night terrors she can never remember.

My wife's living sister just ignores her 8 children when they're talking. Almost never even looks away from her phone or laptop when they talk and goes "yeah, uh-huh, mhmm, yep" and so on to make it seem like she's listening. The oldest has caught on and has started saying off the wall stuff like "my head came off at school and the teacher kicked it into the trash" and things like that to see if her mother even notices. Usually she doesn't.

It's not enough to just be technically listening. You have to show interest. It's not always easy, and when you have a lot on your plate it's even harder, but you can sit and listen to babbling for a few minutes, it won't hurt you, and you might make that kid's day.

People who don't celebrate Christmas.

The death of fascists and their mouthpieces is always something to celebrate.