I think that most people, both men and women want to MARRY a nice person, but before they are ready to settle down, they want to DATE people who are exciting.

There is a perception that "bad" boys and girls are more exciting than nice ones. Guys yearn for the hot girl who puts out. Girls yearn for the guy with the twelve piercings and the motorcycle.

I think the trick is for the nice people to find ways to distinguish themselves as interesting and exciting people. I can't really offer too many suggestions but it seems like a good place to start.

Jeremy Clarkson for prime minister?

Some friends of mine watch it. It's not bad, but I probably wouldn't get into it if it were just me. You're right that it's a fun show, though, even if you're not a 'car person.'

Jules, it's just like anywhere. People fill out a questionnaire or click a Yes/No box and get "matched" with people. That's all they want though. Some are window shopping, some are validating their own worth by "collecting" matches. I know how discouraging it can be to email people and not get responses, but in my experience, that will happen more often than not.

This is the first time that I have heard of this matter, but I find it as upsetting as you do. The unfortunate truth, as you have suggested, is that ultimately, not enough people will care. It is too easy to take a "not as as bad as China" sort of view and overlook violations of our rights.

We are a complacent nation. We live comfortable lives. Talking about civil rights violations upsets the status quo. That makes people uncomfortable and we can't have that! Many people would rather pretend that we're overreacting or that it doesn't affect them so that they can go back to living in comfort. It is very much a "Fahrenheit 451" kind of society in which we live. As long as the TV's on and the streets are safe, why should we care about those weirdos and their Ron Paul Dollars?

I've actually found that good manners are pretty effective. "I know that you're judged by your manager by how many successful sales you make. The probability of you making a sale to me is very low. I'll let you get to your next call."

If it's one of those people who reads the sales pitch even when you try to speak, I just say, "It would be rude to hang up on you because I know that you're a person just trying to do a job. Consider this notice that I am about to hang up. Good bye."

I want to meet a girl to snog on New Year's Eve. I haven't had a proper kiss for more than a year.

Hey there, Emma. Don't let these blokes get you down. It's been ages since I saw Ah Megamisama! but I recall that it was very cute. I sympathize all about being bored and not sleepy. I was ill today, so I spent most of the day in bed.

People get upset at me when I buy lottery tickets. A lot of people scratch them off really fast. Some people even know where the "prize code" is on the ticket and they just scratch that part. I buy 'em very rarely, though, so I very carefully scratch off each individual square and comment on what numbers could come up to let me win.

I'm pretty thick skinned when it comes to stuff like that, JoshH. I used to eat a Subway and I continued to eat there even after I got food poisoning TWICE from their chicken. In fact, I even continued to eat the chicken. I just made sure that they microwaved it first.

I had a Wendy's hamburger about a month ago but it's been a long time since I last had McDonalds. The cafeteria at work serves up greasy burgers for lunch and I eat there altogether too often, so I doubt that Mickie-D's would taste all that good to me.

My sister actually knows somebody who does this. He is a neat freak and my sister was making dinner for a bunch of friends and he was following her around the kitchen, wiping off surfaces with Clorox wipes.

I don't get it. What is so important that Larry would have Henry ruin a perfectly good game of golf? Isn't that sacrelege or something?

I am sure that this is not what she was saying. I would imagine that she is confused about this whole situation. If she and he had problems in their sex life, it might at least serve as an explanation as to why he decided to cheat.

MoreThanJust_JaneDoe, I would agree with the general sentiment, though, that you are better off without this man. I share MBCasey's opinion that 18 is too young to be considering marriage. I did not know who I was when I was 18. Last year, my fiance broke up with me and she was 24. In retrospect, SHE didn't know who she was yet.

I understand some of the pain you must be in right now. I encourage your to stand firm in your convictions and I promise, the pain will recede. You'll have learned a difficult lesson the hard way, but next time, you'll know a little bit better about what kind of man you need.

Kinda funny, but it reminds me of something I read about in a relationship book once. One of the ways that they mentioned to help couples maintain a healthy sex life as to give one's partner the right of "first refusal."

That is to say you want to get off, you ALWAYS ask your partner first if they'd like to have sex. Only if they decline should you resort to masturbation. Apparently, a lot of couples get into the habit of pleasuring themselves just because it's more convenient.

I used to work as a cashier in a grocery store. It is a job for which I was somewhat overqualified. At the very least, I was far too enthusiastic. On more than one occasion, when I was the closing cashier, if an item failed to scan, I would lock the register, grab the item, and take off at a sprint to do my own price check.

John is absolutely right about this. My experience with internet dating has been feast or famine. I'll go for weeks or months and never get a response to an email and then I'll get three dates in two weeks. Then it's back to no responses.

It may be cynical of me, but it is my opinion that a lot of people at sites like this come here to AVOID communicating with others. They want to window shop, though, and chatting with their matches isn't a high priority. I know that I use the internet to avoid face-to-face, but I am a communicator by nature, so I don't fall into that trap.

Ooh! Ooh! Is ancient literature a hot topic? If I had an endless supply of money with which to have fun, I'd hire tens of thousands of Greek men to reenact the Iliad at the presumed site of the ruins of Troy, while I recited the book from the back of an enormous wooden horse.

You should give a second look to some classic games then. There are plenty that will work just fine on an older computer.
Descent (2 or 3 -- 1 hasn't aged all that gracefully.)
Diablo 2
StarCraft
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
American McGee's Alice
Clive Barker's Undying (I got this in a box set along with Alice and a few forgettable games. It's a really good "horror" title.)
System Shock (1 or 2)
Fallout 2
Maniac Mansion
Darklands (holy geez, if you can find Darklands, you're a lucky man.)

http://www.guildwarsonline.com/content/guildwars-requirements.php

Jtevans, there's a good link for you for all of the game's requirements.

I am a big fan of the ideas behind Guild Wars. Prior to the introduction of heroes and a decent system for ordering your henchmen around, trying to complete quests and missions with an NPC party was painfully difficult. It's easier now, but I still prefer to play with a good team.

For me, the real pleasure of the game is getting a good group together and completing goals in the REALLY difficult areas of the game. Unfortunately, as somebody mentioned earlier, for most people, it's easier to just use an NPC party.

You could go with guild mates, but even that has two problems. One, the game really is oriented around PVP. People who care enough to form a guild and stick with it are probably interested mostly in that. Two, there are four campaigns (the core game and three expansion campaigns.) The most faithful players own all of the campaigns and are probably playing in the most recent one. For a more casual player, like myself, who owns only the core game and the second campaign, that can make it tricky to find anybody willing to play where I am in the game.

That said, on the rare occasions when I get a group assembled to overcome a difficult area, I'm always pleased. One of the best experiences I've had with the game involved taking a coordinated team into the Underworld, which is a difficult area of the game that demands solid strategy.

No, you don't understand! Rectal thermometers are used for measuring INFANTS' temperature. The only way to confirm that the thermometer is accurate for its intended purpose is to use a REAL BABY for the testing.

So the real* question is, who WOULDN'T want to work in the rectal thermometer quality control department at Johnson and Johnson.













*not actually real.