Can I brag about my fucking awesome (relatively) year? I'm a social recluse with 0 friends the past 3 years. This year, I put together a D&D group, and now I've 1) turned some acquaintances into friends, 2) met new people, and 3) said people want to hang out with me. I pretty much made a real life MMO guild, and I'm feeling quite happy about it.

You can! Congrats! :)

Based on my MMO guild experiences, the thought of a real life version of one is fucking terrifying.

I'm a nonsubscriber and semi-lurker, so feel free to ignore what I say. (Steele I'm a nomad and rarely have a steady income, but is there a way to do a one time donation to the site?)

I like idea #2 for personal mods, but once used in a post maybe make them usable by other subscribers only, keeping some semblance of incentive for paying users. Nonsubscribers still have a plethora of mods to choose from.

How are the random images not fully implemented yet? I must have missed that memo.

On the personal side, I had a rocky year. Was diagnosed with mild depression in February and major plans with a cohort to put on some summer performance art shows fell through at the last moment. I decided to go to Europe and do more street storytelling with the ultimate goal of hitchhiking (as much as possible) to Japan. I actually worked out a fairly decent route, but my heart wasn't in it. A series of shitty events killed my resolve and I abandoned the idea, staying in Rome being morose and passing the time getting drunk every night in the park I slept in. My dad contacted me needing help with his business so I came back to the states and have been helping out the parents this fall and winter. I have been a social recluse, working and reading and trying to figure out what the fuck I'm going to do in 2015. A long standing issue has been a strained relationship going on 3 years with a woman living in Hawaii. Not sure if we should try to just be friends or if there is the possibility of salvaging something more. I haven't been writing either, which fucking kills me. Every time I try to put down words I hate everything that ends up on the page. Here's hoping things turn around next year.

SE is my only home on the internet at the moment. I love this site. Sorry to unload, Facebook would have gotten this, but fuck that site. It started making me crazy.

#MorePornPostsIn2015

Facebook is for squares.

It's nice for staying in touch with family/friends while traveling outside the country, but the constant inundation of advertising (not just from advertisers but friends as well), the sharing of every fucking picture on the internet, and the lack of any real discussion outside of how good or bad the latest pop culture thingamajig is started getting to me. I lessened my activity on it this year and finally deactivated my account in September, haven't looked back. (Eh, I say that now but I'll probably go back eventually. I miss seeing my sister post pics of my neice and nephews.)

If I had a 'strained' relationship with a woman living in Hawaii I'm pretty sure the Hawaii part would outweigh all other 'strain' factors. Just sayin'.

She still lives with her mother and about a dozen various animals (dogs, cats, turtles, chickens...etc). I tried living with them for 10 months in 2013, found it crowded at the house and in general as well (not a lot of places you can go on a 40 mile wide island).

As for Honolulu, the public transit stinks, everything is expensive, the locals are nice if you have money but terrible to the homeless, Waikiki is a shithole, the military is everywhere and it leaves a weird vibe in the air, street storytelling to Asian tourists whom didn't speak English got old fast...etc. I could go on but I just wasn't a match for living there. To be fair I've been moving around a lot the last 5 years and don't know of anywhere I could live long term except maybe Portland.

donations eventually. also everybody gets a voice regardless of status. But I do what I want ;)

random images are implemented with the avatars but I haven't implemented the old stuff because of bitching about the nsfw images. Now that I've got the more important stuff out of the way I can play around with the fluff stuff like that.

Keep your head up. With writing I don't think it's important what you write so much as you just keep doing it. Everything is a draft until you can't rewrite it. so fuck getting it perfect. That being said, I am horrible about not taking that advice ;)

Writing is very much a use it or lose it thing.

Dear Steele,
I think option #2 would be cooler.
But only a little bit cooler.
In fact, a moderately reasoned argument might change my mind entirely.
In conclusion, whales are beautiful animals that deserve our respect and protection.
Love,
Robotroadkill.

I agree. #2 is better because if someone has a particularly fitting personal one, such as +1 donkey dick, and there is a post about a donkey penis fungus, you want..nay... need that post to be +10 donkey dick.

Welp, I know what MY personal mod's gonna be now.

You're welcome to it! I made sure not to use the one I want in my example. ;)

Looking forward to a new year of donkey dick!

Nah, gotta actually put some thought into it for my personal mod. Maybe something like "+1 SWEET MERCIFUL CRAP" or the more personal "+1 Assy Approves!"

Or, the one I've got in my head that I, too, will not tip my dick to at the moment.

+1 Just The Tip

Can't say I have a preference about the personal mods. Being able to use them is nice, but it being a premium feature is also nice.

I like the other ideas, too.

I do wonder if the timestamps on the Notifications page are ever going to change. Right now all of mine say "@ 7:00pm GMT on 31st Dec".

Personally, had probably one of the shittiest things that can happen do, but some other things on the plus side.

I do wonder if the timestamps on the Notifications page are ever going to change. Right now all of mine say "@ 7:00pm GMT on 31st Dec".

::Cough:: I don't know what you're talking about ;)

Thanks for bringing that to my attention, haven't mastered timezone bullshit yet.
Hope your bad stuff works out.

That timestamp thing might be unique to you.

I already fixed it. Apparently anyone that didn't have their time-zone set in their profile was getting it.

Oh. I thought Greenwich was a setting. :-)

You'd think so, right? Wrong! Not with this codebase :P

#2.

Equal avatars.

More porn posts.

Oh, now you WANT porn posts, huh? Trying to prove you don't have low T?

Personal mod option #2 is my favorite. I think that's definitely something that needs to happen.

Avatar equality is also something that should remain in play. One can only take so much of Mookie's avatar, y'know?

+1 #2!

Oh, CRAP!

Please don't make that my "personal" MOD!

...Shit.

Suscribers who buy artisanal soap have up to 35% less mookie avatars.

Things are going pretty well, thanks for asking. I've mostly got good health, a sweetie pie, a roof, and 3 squares.
On the personal mods, I vote option 2.
I would hope to see all avatars equally, and encourage lurkers to put up an avatar, even if they don't post. Otherwise I'll get sick of seeing the same half-dozen over and over.

/$.02

I, for one, am appreciative that some of us can be cheap bastards and still have reasonable access to this site.

Also, that even cheap bastards can have a lively political debate with the site administrator and (so far at least) not suffer any repercussions.

I haven't coded the permaban yet ;)

There is a user avatar thread?

it was the first post.

I'm in favour of avatars being equal, no matter how much someone contributes.

And in favour of option two for the personal mods. Some people are going to come up with awesome mods.

I'm going to have a shitty 2015, but I am also having a proper wedding in the middle of it, which should lift the mood a bit.

"I'm going to have a shitty 2015, but I am also having a proper wedding in the middle of it, which should lift the mood a bit."

I take it you haven't seen von Trier's Melancholia?

No, no I haven't.

By the time the wedding rolls around my brother's condition will be pretty hard to ignore. So it will be a layer of happiness on top of a much thicker layer of misery and grief. I'm not getting a band.

Yeah. I was just being glib, as the first half of the movie is about a woman with major depression trying to inject some positivity into her life by getting married before Earth is destroyed. Obviously, your situation is much different (and real). Wishing the best for you and yours and that exotic Kiwi lifestyle.

I'm a totally bummer to be around at the moment. But we're actually doing okay. And the wedding will be nice, both my parents are saxophone players so I probably will have to get a band or they'll have a few wines and take matters into their own hands.

Get a Smiths cover band.

That's not a bad idea. I mean, it's obviously a terrible idea, but some Smiths stuff is pretty good to sway unrythmically to.