I bet none of you have heard the story about the unfortunate bloke whose partner left him while he was unwell, then within a few months, his hamster died also..

His two best male friends had "enough on their own plates" for the unfortunate bloke to bother them to keep him company, so due to the combined aforementioned twists of fate, he became slightly unhinged.

There was worse to come.

Somewhere in his house lay a piece of rotten food, through which, unfortunate bloke's house became riddled with a plague of house-flies- 13 to be exact. Unfortunate Bloke couldn't find the source of the flies eggs, so he had an uphill battle fighting those flies; killing them one by one, [which btw, was also bad for his karma], but either the flies had to go, or his sanity would be lost.

There was one other 'guest' in the house though; a harmless Daddy Long Legs [look up wiki, I cba explainin']. Unfortunate bloke saw the Daddy Long Legs as his one compadre among all the insects, but being a deep thinker, came to realise that even if he himself couldn't be free from the flies, at least the Daddy Long Legs deserved the freedom of the undulating plains, and heather covered mountains! Even if it meant U.B. was alone again with his 13 flies..
so U.B. resolved to set the Daddy Long Legs free.. all he had to do was capture the D.L.L. and set him free outside the front door.

6 times U.B. tried to catch D.L.L., 6 times he failed, so as a last resort he decided to gently swat the D.L.L. to stun it, then pick it up & gently place it outside.. but he swatted too hard and broke the Daddy Long Legs wing.

Regretably, U.B. had to euthenase D.L.L. to ensure he didn't suffer, but U.B. resolved to exterminate the flies- for the honour of Daddy Long Legs and his ultimate sacrifice for freedom! And exterminate them he did.

R.I.P. Daddy Long Legs.

True story that.

On one of your bad days, which coincided with one of my good days?

No way, you hairy love machine, you.

I can out-bulls**t most people on even an average day.

Consider the gauntlet thrown down, Sir.

Ellaboration on my post.

None of my own emotions go un-addressed ; I'm usually quite good at recognising most of them myself, acknowledging and endeavouring to deal with them suffices for me. Which I do. Eventually.

I've got quite a bit of practice in this area, and I'm new school, not old.

Other people's problems are more important than mine; the odds I'll manage to deal with mine positively are quite high, whereas other people might need some help to.

Don't mean to sound arrogant, just being honest.

Yep.. by sheer volume of numbers, other people's woes are more numerous and more important than mine. :)

Sometimes when we argue, we say things we don't mean that are.. well, mean.

But other times we say things we can't take back again. I think given the right [wrong] situation, everyone is capable of that.

I was with a girl a few years ago who wanted to get married to me; at the time she was a few years away from being ready for that, imo. To be frank, she'd had abusive relationships in the past, and had had to physically defend herself against much bigger males, and she tried to hit me quite a few times, even though I was no threat to her.. I have a good evasive defence.. anywho, there is no way I would settle down with someone who tried to hit me, so she needed to 'fix' that before we could talk about anything long term.

Never got a chance to explain that fully to her, she took what I said as "I never want to get married to you", which I never thought or said.

Some moments only come around once a lifetime, so great care needs to be taken during times of strife.

Most people don't have the patience to wait for as long as it might take.

Throw in a belief in rebirth, and that's potentially a helluva long wait we are in for.

That's cool though, I'm patient. :)

I'd have to discover someone really special, not because I'm special, just because I'm a fussy old bugger.

So, I don't expect to find anyone, but if I do, it'll be a lovely surprise.

The sad thing is, there's no profit to be made from curing cancer, only treating it.

I wish you the best, O.P.

I know, man, I was a moderator myself on a similar site for the best part of 3 years.

And I can tear a person a new 'one' with the best/worst of them, I just choose not to, but that doesn't mean I assume everyone else should have the same capabilities.

t'would be quite a boring world if we were all that similar.

Heya, Robin!

Ahh.. THOSE Dipping Dots.

Never heard of them.

You Americans and your crazy food! I should start a U.K. franchise?

What are Dipping Dots, Q? lol

I'm with the previous poster.. I'd be spending my £1000 at the only store that's guaranteed to survive the recession.

Poundland.

You know, I'm with the compassionate crew here, but really; how much do we expect people to listen, or take heed or even read what we say and take it on board? How much should we expect people to respond to what we say.

Truth is you can't make anyone do anything, even if being compassionate *should* be top of their agenda. These things have to come to people in their own time.

Peace, folks.

I work [WHEN I'm working] with the children of people who are either not willing, able, fit or capable of looking after their own kids. For all intents and purposes, it's like being a parent and more, rolled into one.

I used to want kids pretty badly a few years ago, but realize now that it isn't the be-all and end-all.

But if a woman came along who made me think,, "zomg!! I HAVE to mix my genes with hers...", then it might be a different story.

My personal motto is: "I'm not responsible for how someone else reacts to what I think and say"

.. though it's not as callous as it sounds and is intended to work in reverse.

If I'm gonna get upset about what someone else says or does; whose 'fault' is it I got upset; mine or their's?

Just one of my personal tenets, and I am not saying it should or will work for everyone.

If your son wants to go to the funeral, I'd do what I can to help him be able to do that.

I have experience of something similar as a kid, and some of the adults in my life made the wrong decisions- ie- they didn't respect MY decisions as a kid, but moreso it hurt that my decision as an individual wasn't given the same 'weight' an adult's decision would be given.

Troubling times for kids and adults, times of grief, I believe everyone should be allowed to do whatever they want to, within reason.

Happened to me before.. in the end, who cares?

Her loss. :)

Sometimes I think I have muggins stamped on my forehead, in selective invisible ink. [everyone apart from me can see it]. In real life, I mean.

Well, muggins has left the building.

O.P.,

I've heard one like that before but this one is better.