Nataly

Ahhhh... Where to even begin??? Statistically it seems very probable that there are *plenty* of very suitable mates for me out there. There. I thought I'd clear that out of the way in case anyone thought I was "worried" I would never find one again... Next, I don't believe that the only good thing is to look to the future... Good/bad things have happened in the past... The past affects the present/future, and to ignore that is to waste a lot of great opportunities to learn from your successes/failures. I could miss something right in front of me that is even better?? Seriously?? I don't think you get just one chance at anything in life. You are constantly making decisions and you constantly have opportunities and even though some go by, others are yet to come. Sometimes a missed opportunity leads to a different opportunity and sometimes you get the opportunity and realise it's *not* what you imagined... I agree that dwelling on the past is not healthy, but I don't believe that one missed opportunity today will lead to MISERY for THE REST OF MY LIFE... EVERY choice you make separates you from some potentially suitable partners - and also statistically brings you closer to OTHER potentially suitable partners... I'm not *worried* or even "looking" for someone "better". If it happens, great. If not, fine. I just happen to believe that it's statistically more probable that I won't feel that way again (if only because experience makes us feels emotions slightly less strongly with time). And that's neither a good or a bad thing - it just is. Christ, I think about how upsetting bullies used to be when I was a kid... If I got bullied now, it would simply not have the same DEVASTATING impact. And that's the way I feel about this... I don't think even if I found someone much better suited to me I would feel quite so deliriously in love as I did about a decade ago. Then again, maybe I would. Hard to say. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Do men not have ex's??! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Actually, that's not true in FL. Agents can either be a Transaction Broker or a Single Agent for either the Buyer or Seller. The relationship has to be disclosed and there's a form to sign stating you understand which type of relationship you're in. http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0400-0499/0475/Sections/0475.278.html I have to renew my RE license and take a test by September 1st, so I have to know all this shit. While this is true, several studies have shown that your agent will not fight as much for a low price as he/she would for herself. Trust them, but only so far... Quite right... I studied motivational theories as part of my accountancy training and I remember learning that commission-based employees (real-estate agents were specifically used as an example) are not getting a lot more/less per sale if the price end up being higher/lower than advertised... What they *do* care about is closing the deal... So even if they don't necessarily realise they are doing this, many agents will push in favour of whomever they think is more likely to budge between the seller and the buyer... In other words, if the price is higher/lower than advertised, they may only get say $50 more/less on their commission, which they don't really care about... HOWEVER, the difference between selling and not selling is say € 1,500 vs NOTHING, which they DO care about. In the end, they are better off doing whatever makes the sale more likely - it may or may not work in your favour. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I don't know about everyone else, but I have one ex that when we were together I thought "this is THE ONE"... It didn't work out, and it took a long time to get over the heartache... And I have to say, even though it was years ago, I'm not totally indifferent to the news that he recently got engaged... It's not exactly that I'm surprised or upset about it... More like I suspect I probably won't feel that way about anyone again, and that is kind of depressing... Meh... Perhaps the emotions were so strong because I was younger and you feel more passionate about a lot of things when you're younger. I suppose I should be grateful for having experienced that kind of passion at all - some people never do. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

One former boss once told me "buying a house is a scary thing... Especially when you think that you typically spend more time picking your fruit in the supermarket than visiting a potential new home!!!" He's right... Some estate agents will want to rush you through 10 viewings in one morning, and although this is an "efficient" way for them to show you what's available, it's not a very good way for YOU to really consider all your options. Sometimes you will absolutely LOVE a place for little ridiculous reasons but sit on it for a while and see if the space/location/features actually suit you or was it just the stageing that made it look pretty. Remember that no matter how much pressure an agent will put on you with "other offers coming in," et cetera, even if you miss out on a place there are plenty of houses out there. I once fell madly in love with a beautiful house and other people out-bid us and I was crying about it for weeks until I found another place on the same road that was way cheaper because it needed a lick of paint... I was over the moon because it had the same potential as the other one and was within our budget

WOW!!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Meh... A lot of people don't consider golf to be a "real" sport (and I know one or two golfers who get very uppity about this!!)... To be fair, very few people have been exposed to skydiving so it's not completely ridiculous for them to imagine that "all we do is fall from the sky until our parachute opens and then it places us gently on the ground." If this is the limit of their imagination - because they've never thought much about it - then it doesn't seem like enough "effort" to be considered a sport (see above re. golf!)... More importantly, why are you so "fed-up" with coming across this attitude? Why do you feel the need to constantly talk about it? Sure, you might be passionate about jumping, but put yourself in their shoes... You are imposing your passion on them - not the other way around... Believe me, people are not desperate to hear all about your hobbies - *you* are bringing it up... If in an effort to be polite and/or find out more about it they say some "stupid" things, be indulgent - chances are they are only asking/reacting out of politeness, not out of genuine interest... If they say "geeze it all sounds pretty crazy to me" they may just be signalling to you to move on to a different topic. When someone starts talking on subjects they are deeply passionate about, like Jazz, I freely admit that my default response is "it sounds like jumbled noise to me" and as ignorant as that comes across to a Jazz-lover, it's really just my way of signalling to the other that I am not interested in their blabber (ie: it's FASCINATING to them and BORING/INCOMPREHENSIBLE to me). "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Dunno... I think I'm a generally calm person, so people just don't think of me as "out there." Unfortunately - and I've said this before - I think the myth of the "insane adrenaline-junkie" is mostly perpetuated by people in the sport who want to look cool. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Congrats John!!! My dad recently retired... He was an absolute workaholic and we all thought he would die of boredom the moment he stopped going to work... Well, 1 year on he looks 10 years younger!!! He has picked up cycling and gone travelling and is spending a lot of time catching up on all the stuff he never had time for before... It's really great to see him so happy

I've made some big changes a couple of times... It never made "financial sense" at the time and required big sacrifices along the way but it has paid off in the end. People who care about you will naturally be concerned if you start heading toward uncertainty... They don't want you to do anything that might jeopardise your happiness/success... And sometimes pursuing your dreams is a risky business... But I really believe that being true to yourself (despite the risks) is more likely to bring you happiness (and success) than doing something that clearly just makes you miserable. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Yes, I'd walk. Manuals are for people who actually want to drive their car rather than simply be a passenger. I'm pretty sure we could have developed fully-automated (ie: driver-less) cars by now, but I think most people enjoy driving too much. One thing that *would* improve, though, is traffic... Get 10 cars driving at *exactly* 30 mph and there is no problem... Get 10 people driving at roughly 30 mph and suddenly people slow-down and accelerate, and in no time you have a traffic jam FOR NO REASON AT ALL. But it would be boring as hell, even if everyone could get to where they want to in time... And this is assuming it worked flawlessly... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Like when they are trying to steal a car??!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

My parents (in Canada, for those who don't know me) got discounts twice when buying stick-shift... Because the dealerships have a hard time selling them - NOT because they are "not as good" as automatics. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Again, not a big deal. I learned to drive in Canada, and sure, switching over to the "wrong side" of the road when I moved to the UK took a little getting used to... But after just a few minutes it was fine. Took roughly about a week to feel "natural" to drive that way. Some things become so totally automatic you think you won't be able to do anything different... Then you do it and realise your biggest obstacle was your fear of trying. Like when I learned to ride a motorcycle... It was a total disaster until I learned not to be so tense - then all my wobbling and uncoordedness magically disappeared. From my experience, just about anything that you teach your body is so much more achievable once your mind has decided to stop over-analysing everything. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I don't get why North Americans make such a big fuss about driving stick shift... It's just not a big deal - anyone can learn. Proof is that most people in Europe have never seen, let alone driven an automatic, and they all cope with it just fine. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

YOU consider it an acceptable risk of MY life? Well...fuck you very much I try to stay out of airplanes with people like that...no matter how good you are...you think you are good enough to bypass common sense. That's fun to watch but not to be a 'collateral damage' part of. EXACTLY. Driving is dangerous in and of itself... The human was not designed to move at speeds greater than something like 5-10 mph... Think about that... We are in vehicles that allow us to go 10 to 20 times faster than we are naturally "supposed" to move and our reaction time has NOT increased by that much to compensate. Even with your FULL attention on the road, it's so easy to take too long to react, or make a bad decision, or panic, or not even see an animal/person running out into the road... It's stupid to think that a "mild" slowness in reaction time is no big deal. It IS a big deal. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I've never smoked, and I'm very grateful for that - I'll never have to find out how hard it is to stop. Maybe that's the reason I find it pretty tiresome when friends repeatedly 'give up'. They make a big deal of it, you make the appropriate noises of support, and then before you know it they've fallen off the wagon and are puffing away again. For me, by the time we've been through a couple of cycles like that it's a case of 'Give up, or don't give up. If you're not going to commit, I don't want to hear about it!' I don't actually have a big downer on smoking as a personal choice (although I'm glad it's not allowed in enclosed public places any more). Few of us can say we never do things that are bad for us. ^^THIS^^ The thing is, much as I'm tired of hearing "I've quit smoking" or "I'm on a diet/exercise programme" or "I'm never dating another jerk/airhead again" from the same people again and again and again, I don't feel it's particularly helpful/supportive if I just roll my eyes and say "whatever"... Sometimes I get the impression that just talking about making an effort is all about getting validation/attention and these people have no real desire to take action at all... Again, pointing this out doesn't really achieve anything, and besides, we all have moment when we need to feel validated/encouraged... Still... Sometimes I would prefer them to just *do* something rather than *talk* about it all day long... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

On quieter roads, it's more obvious that yes, this was intended for THIS specific asshat. I worry about these people too... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I do this sometimes as well... When someone has cut me off on a roundabout (when I had the right of way) or has caused me to deviate or is just plainly being dangerous... Sometimes they get annoyed with ME for honking, when they damned near killed me... I worry sometimes about road-rage and whether this long, sustained honking is the most effective way to get across to these morons that they should pay attention, or whether they just continue to think the nuisance is merely the loud noise they are hearing... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

YES. Actually, whilst I was in high-school, my best friend's mom forbade her to give lifts to her friends after she had just gotten her licence... She thought it was a stupid rule, but I didn't think so. Even an in-car conversation is distracting, especially to a new driver. So whenever she offered to drive me anywhere, I said no thanks - I'll just walk. She did a couple of barrel-rolls a couple of weeks later... She had been drinking and she had other people in the car... *That* certainly woke her up... Luckily she spun out of control on black ice and the only thing that suffered any injuries was her car... She then followed her mother's rules TO THE LETTER, funnily enough... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Thank you for saying this. On the bike is the first time I became hyper-aware of other drivers... Part of it is that you have much better visibility; part of it is that you have to because you are so much more vulnerable... I had never previously noticed just how distracted other drivers are in relation to their surroundings... And the thing is, even at 30 MPH, it only takes a second to NOT notice something and drive right over/through/into it... Even if you *think* you can devote your attention to both texting *and* driving, numerous studies prove you can't focus properly on one thing whilst doing something else. Contrary to popular belief, people are NOT good at multi-tasking (yes, that goes for women too). "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I don't remember if I ate more or not. I had a pretty physical job at that time, so it didn't matter much if I did. I haven't had a problem with weight since I quit. She was making fun of the typo. Oh NOOOOO!!! I hadn't spotted that!!!! DAMN IT!!! Thanks for all the insights... It's good to hear different point of view - I have no personal frame of reference. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Someone I know has "quit smoking"... And believe me, it's not that I want to pooh-pooh their efforts, but since I have never smoked it seems strange to me that this person would claim "I am a non-smoker" on the first day of quitting... And then proceed to post on FB how easy it was to quit every day now for 15 days ("quitting day" was June 1st)... BTW, this is *not* the first time she has "quit"... I am totally supportive of her kicking this habit... Just curious to see how others viewed quitting from their own experience?? And what is the best way to encourage her to keep NOT smoking?? Thanks

What sort of incentives are you being offered for that? Just curious... Reduced calorie clam juice. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I just re-watched some of the final episodes of AITF and Archie Bunker's Place after he lost Edith... Cried like a baby... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss