Please don't take this too seriously.

[Sava]

There are times when being a chick is easier. Women are more likely to be messaged than men on (most) dating sites. That's uncontroversial and the only point I was making.

You literally said women should be raped.

[Sava]

Yes, that is incontrovertibly true.

I always have these kinds of arguments with my female friends about this - one of them even calls it 'man shopping', just waiting for all the mail to come flooding in...

Though, I have to say that my first and only foray into online dating (Match last year) was pretty successful in that I only stopped lurking when I saw a perfect 'match' and in the process for hunting her down (success!) I got bombarded with about 10 emails from mostly very hot women - including at least a few who I knew I'd enjoy being eaten alive by...

Not sure whether I should have concentrated solely on my prey, as I did, or diversified a little at least to have a bit of fun...

I think I'm too nice for my own good sometimes...

Were you in another region?

I don't believe that there are ten "very hot women" in Wales.

Welsh-hot is probably like a 5 at most.

[rah]

Yes, overall, women have it worse. I'm not Kidicious, guys.

Just more proof that you're more normal than you give yourself credit for.

[Lorizael]

You guys remember the first Men in Black, with the Bug who wore an Edgar suit? And as the film progressed, it became harder and harder for the Bug to keep the Edgar suit together? He shambled around, and parts fell off, and people gave him weird looks. Well, that's me. There are times when I feel like I'm unraveling, like everything I put up to hide myself from the world is coming undone and soon the real me will be exposed. Except instead of the real me being a gigantic fearsome bug, it's a pathetic dysfunctional child. Back in 2008, when I was a tech writer for the FAA, this happened. I unraveled completely, and my boss called me in to ask what was wrong, and I explained that I was a seriously depressed, unmotivated failure who'd been lying about his work for months and that I needed serious help. Then I walked out and never came back, even though the contracting company I was with called me several times with offers to let me come back to work and get treatment. That was one of my dumber decisions. I was unemployed for several months and blew through all of my savings. I haven't yet recovered financially. (There have been other hits to my finances since, like the time I was fired and lived on unemployment for several months.) Paragraphs are for ****ers.

Seriously, guys. I'm Vincent ****ing D'onofrio over here.

[Sava]

i liked you in law and order

and platoon

[Lorizael]

I think you mean Full Metal Jacket.

[Elok]

There are times when I feel like I'm unraveling, like everything I put up to hide myself from the world is coming undone and soon the real me will be exposed. Except instead of the real me being a gigantic fearsome bug, it's a pathetic dysfunctional child.

It should be fairly obvious to you that you're being too hard on yourself, but since you didn't believe everyone else when they said it, I won't belabor the point. Suspect you're engaging in depressive beat-up-on-myself-for-morbid-pleasure bull**** again. Please knock it off, if so; it's self-indulgent and doesn't help.

Anyway, what you're describing is not as bad as you think. In fact, it can be quite wonderful, albeit terrifying. My wife actually knows me better than I know myself (the same can be said of my brother and his wife). It can be annoying and frightening, but because she somehow loves me in spite of my nonsense, it ends up being handy. Remember, the human psyche is nine-tenths carefully layered lies, and you can't catch them all yourself. Not that this helps you in your single state--but being vulnerable isn't as horrible as you'd imagine.

[Lorizael]

I was having a mini-freak out at work. Low mood recently, exacerbated by excessive rumination over past relationships, leads to low stress tolerance, leads to anxiety, leads to freak outs.

[MOBIUS]

Were you in another region?

I don't believe that there are ten "very hot women" in Wales.

Welsh-hot is probably like a 5 at most.

You have no idea.

Though I do have to admit a lot of them weren't Welsh...

[MOBIUS]

I was having a mini-freak out at work. Low mood recently, exacerbated by excessive rumination over past relationships, leads to low stress tolerance, leads to anxiety, leads to freak outs.

Dwelling in the past clearly isn't helping. Deleting anything and everything to do with Evil Best Friend might be a cathartic experience.

As everyone is saying, you're clearly being too hard on yourself - especially considering what you thought was your 'major revelation' turned out to be pretty meh in the general scheme of things...

[Traianvs]

I was having a mini-freak out at work. Low mood recently, exacerbated by excessive rumination over past relationships, leads to low stress tolerance, leads to anxiety, leads to freak outs.

At least you have a job. I'm one of those types that just hit thirty and still don't know what to do with their life. :/

[MOBIUS]

Doesn't get any better past 40 either...

[Lorizael]

At least you have a job. I'm one of those types that just hit thirty and still don't know what to do with their life. :/

I only have a job because the giant bureaucracy that is the federal government has yet to realize that my job is meaningless.

Happy Birthday, btw.

[N35t0r]

My job isn't done by computers because people still trust humans more than they do an automated script. Which is also why little effort is done to automate anything but the more easily automated tasks. And also because the company doesn't really know what they are really selling.

[N35t0r]

But hey, getting money off the oil companies is always a good thing