The ‘Pride Month’ Pendulum Is Swinging – I think more people are being honest that they don’t support it like they said they did. They cried wolf too many times and brought debauchery where they went.
There are times that I need to brake on some topics The chemo has me feeling almost sea sick. I still have some humor, life experience and every day stuff.
So unless I fall into the well of yo momma memes, this is the last post on this subject.. Steal them as I need to clear cloud storage space. They are high on my list to remove for the space in my cloud storage
I lose more readers on this category than any other I post about. Try to get that it’s a joke and doesn’t represent who I am, other than I thought some were perfect.
I spent most of my life prior to the Internet. I worked in the tech industry so I was able to get on it earlier than most, but that didn’t change my regular life.
I never had to worry about social media either. You could just not Answer the phone, or call someone back. When you broke up, it was over.
I could get to anywhere I wanted with a piece of paper with instructions on it, and a (dime)/quarter to call a home phone since we didn’t have cell phones. All my friends could get there too, and we all got there on time, and at the same time. 
That means I also write in cursive, and can drive stick. The first car I had was so old I had to learn how to double clutch to downshift.
We learned to read the weather by observing the wind, the sun, the title patterns, and observe nature.
I had to look up stuff in an encyclopedia, or find a book using the card catalogue system to write term papers.
So if they drop EMP, I’ll be just fine. As for Gen X, why, Z, millennials, and the rest of the people after boomers, they’re effed.
The post-conversation spiral happens when you leave a social interaction and can’t stop overthinking whether you totally screwed it up.
My brain was doing it again.
I’d had a lovely time getting to know a potential new friend. We had a lot in common. We were both single moms, both about the same age, and both working in mental health careers. She got my references. She seemed to understand my life. And the dinner meetup was, well, fun.
So why was my brain picking apart every little thing I had said and done?
You idiot. I can’t believe you said that.
Why did I share that story? Did I trauma dump?
She said she wanted to hang out again… but she was probably just being polite.
Even though I make my living writing about introversion, social anxiety, and socializing, I had fallen headlong into a common pitfall: the dreaded post-conversation spiral.
What Is the Post-Conversation Spiral?
You might think the social anxiety problem ends when the conversation ends. But for a lot of people, that’s when the second half begins: the mental replay, the shame, the “evidence gathering,” and the imagined judgment.
Psychologists call this post-event rumination or post-event processing. It’s when you replay a social situation in your mind, focusing on what you think you did wrong. Instead of remembering the interaction as a whole, your mind zooms in on a sentence you wish you had phrased differently, a pause that felt too long, or a facial expression you couldn’t quite interpret.
Research has found that the more socially anxious someone is, the more likely they are to ruminate after a social event. In other words, the post-conversation spiral is not just a bad habit or a personal weakness. It’s a real part of the social anxiety cycle.
And unfortunately, it makes anxiety worse.
Why Your Brain Does This
Social anxiety makes you focus on yourself. Instead of simply being present and enjoying another person’s company, part of your attention turns inward.
Then, when you replay the conversation through the lens of fear, you’re not reviewing it neutrally. You’re acting like a detective searching for clues that confirm your anxiety while overlooking the evidence that everything went fine. A small awkward moment starts to feel like proof that the whole interaction went terribly.
This is one reason the spiral feels so convincing. It seems like you’re gathering facts, but really, you’re gathering anxious interpretations.
And even if you would never be diagnosed with an official social anxiety disorder, you may still know the feeling of coming home from an otherwise pleasant interaction and suddenly wondering whether you totally screwed it all up.
Why ‘Just Stop Thinking About It’ Doesn’t Work
If you’ve ever tried to force yourself to stop replaying a conversation, you already know that doesn’t work. Sometimes the harder you try not to think about something, the louder it becomes. You tell yourself, “Stop thinking about that weird thing you said,” and now the weird thing you said is the only thing available for your brain to think about.
A better approach is not to fight the anxious thoughts, but to change how you respond to them.
The goal is not to convince yourself that every conversation went perfectly. That would be unrealistic, and your brain probably wouldn’t believe it anyway. The goal is to become a little more balanced and a little less self-punishing.
How to Stop the Post-Conversation Spiral
Here are six science-backed things that can help:
1. Name what’s happening.
The first step is to recognize the spiral for what it is. You might say to yourself, “This is post-event rumination,” or, “My brain is replaying the conversation because I feel socially anxious right now.”
That creates some distance. Instead of treating every thought as a proven fact, you take a step back and begin to see it as part of an anxiety pattern.
There’s a difference between “She thought I was weird” and “I’m having the thought that she thought I was weird.” The second version does not make the worry completely disappear, but it does give you more room to question it.
2. Pinpoint the specific moment you’re stuck on.
Ask yourself: What moment keeps coming back to me? Once you identify the specific worry, it becomes easier to examine.
“The whole night was terrible” is hard to work with. “I’m worried I talked too much about my divorce” is something you can actually think through.
3. Ask what evidence you actually have.
This is where cognitive restructuring can help. Cognitive restructuring is a technique often used in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that helps you examine whether your thoughts are accurate, exaggerated, or incomplete.
Ask yourself:
What evidence do I have that my worry is true?
What evidence do I have that it might not be true?
Is there another possible explanation?
What would I think if a friend told me they had done the same thing?
For example, maybe your new friend got quiet after you told a personal story about your divorce. Your anxious brain decides, “She was uncomfortable and now she regrets meeting me.”
But there are other possibilities. Maybe she was thinking about what you said. Maybe she related to it. Maybe she was tired. Maybe she didn’t know how to respond in the moment. Maybe the pause felt much longer to you than it did to her.
The point is not to force a positive interpretation. The point is to stop treating the most painful interpretation as the only one.
4. Check your expectations.
If you’re socially anxious, you probably hold yourself to a standard you would never apply to anyone else. You expect yourself to be warm, interesting, funny, appropriate, relaxed, responsive, emotionally available, and perfectly articulate all at once. No awkward pauses, no clumsy wording, and no signs of nervousness.
People say odd things. They interrupt without meaning to. They tell stories that don’t land exactly the way they hoped.
A more realistic standard might sound like:
Did I show up?
Was I kind?
Did I listen?
Did I make an effort to connect?
Did the other person seem comfortable overall?
If the answer is mostly yes, the conversation does not need to be put on trial.
5. Make a plan only if a plan is needed.
Sometimes rumination is trying to point you toward something useful. Maybe you want to send a simple text saying, “I had a nice time tonight.” Maybe you genuinely said something that came out wrong and you want to clarify it. In those cases, take one concrete action.
But notice the difference between action and rumination. Action sounds like, “I’ll text her and say I enjoyed dinner.” Rumination sounds like, “What if she thought I was desperate when I said we should hang out again, and maybe I should wait three days, but what if waiting three days seems cold, and what if she only said yes because she felt sorry for me?”
When there is something to do, do it. When there is nothing to do, the task is learning to sit with the uncertainty without feeding it.
6. Use mindfulness as a way to return to your life.
Mindfulness does not mean you have to become perfectly calm. It can be as simple as noticing the replay and gently returning to what is happening right now.
Imagine the rumination as background noise. It can be there without getting all of your attention. You can be washing dishes and notice, “There’s that thought again.” You can be reading in bed and notice, “My brain is replaying dinner again.”
Then bring your attention back to the dish, the book, the room you’re in, or the next small thing you need to do.
Let the Conversation Be Good Enough
I’m trying to remind myself that maybe I did say something imperfectly at dinner. Maybe there was a moment or two that felt awkward. Maybe I could have asked a better question or not overexplained so much.
But maybe that’s also just what happens when two humans are getting to know each other.
The post-conversation spiral wants us to believe we have to perform perfectly in order for someone to like us. We must never be awkward, never overshare, never be too quiet, and never say the wrong thing.
But real relationships don’t work that way. People usually don’t decide whether they like you based on one sentence or one clumsy moment.
So the next time your brain starts obsessively replaying a conversation, you don’t have to fight it. You also don’t have to believe everything it says. Pause and ask, “Am I reflecting, or am I ruminating?”
I’ll put a portion of the article right below this with a full link if you care to read.
Marvel was great because it was good guys beating the bad guys. It wasn’t a dissertation on how to be woke, queer, tranny or any other thing but a hero.
They got into a situation that seemed unwinnable and create a solution to overcome the evil of the world or universe and win.
It started out with defeating the Nazi’s. Who doesn’t like that story? The real heroes were men who overcame. That is what life is about, not seeing how woke you can be.
The audience were a bunch of geeky white guys in their parents basements believing they could be Ironman or Captain America, not BLM, flaming fags, and for sure they know there is no girl who is going to kick ass on a bad guy. It is fantasy where you imagine you are saving the world, not trying to make it gay. This is just a different them on the Bud Light story
Now, the story:
(ZeroHedge)—The saga of woke comics is the saga of woke America. Much like video games, comics and superhero movies were ignored by conservative movements as “meaningless kids stuff” until recently, which is part of the reason why those industries were so easily invaded by leftists and used to indoctrinate millions of children and teens a decade ago.
Culture is more important than politics. This is obvious. It’s a fact that leftists have understood for generations and one that conservatives have foolishly dismissed. Only in the past few years has there been a shift; at least, the progressive rampage through America’s various media institutions has been stalled and slightly reversed.
But, the most captured platforms are not going to change anytime soon, even in the face of financial decline and mass layoffs.
Disney and Marvel have recently announced a shake-up of the comics division, with over a thousand layoffs this year (after moderate layoffs over the past few years), and new executive leadership. Far-left DEI advocate Dan Buckley is on the way out. This change is being presented as a retirement, though some skeptics argue he is being forced out as part of the company’s restructuring.
Buckley replacement is not much better, however. TV Chief Brad Winderbaum is taking over as Marvel President and his track record on Marvel TV series includes some of the biggest woke failures in streaming history – Ms. Marvel (Muslim Pakistani representation), She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (feminist/meta take, which he defends as a strong performer despite critical failure), Ironheart (feminism and BLM propaganda), Echo, Agatha All Along, Wonder Man (prominent LGBT elements).
Marvel Comics, a subsidiary of Disney, has been at the forefront of far-left propaganda in content for many years, and their woke concepts are usually ported directly into Disney’s movies and streaming series. Everything from gay and trans X-Men to black Spider-Man, to female gender swaps of popular male characters have become the norm. And, books sales have flatlined in response.
Were I in college, it would be a couple of pairs of extra underwear, a few cases of beer and a few blunts.
Now that my life is half a century later, I’m willing to go to my mountain house. I have my stuff there, I know the place and I don’t have to fly or stay in a germ ridden hotel room that was barely cleaned. I’m getting sicker, so big travel plans are now not in my life
I stayed in an airbnb last year that was a dump. It was completely different from the pictures and description.
So for me, I go to one of my houses and that’s it.
Between 5 different doctors appointments, 2 procedures under anesthesia and so many blood draws that they used all my veins on both arms, I gathered these for those who care.
Profiles of Valor: Armed Forces Day – I always thank anyone in uniform or that has a hat from a previous war (especially Viet Nam) for their services. I include the Police, firemen, EMS, ICE, and anyone who thanklessly helps the public, especially liberals who hate them (and don’t know why, other than they were told to)
Honda reported its first annual loss since becoming a publicly listed company in 1957. The $2.7B drop comes months after the Japanese carmaker scaled back its electric vehicle plans in the US. (See the scrapped models.) – no free government handout, no one buys them. Gas price goes up, people buy Hemi’s
(Note: this is an update. Will B. Done pointed out that the links didn’t work, so I fixed them so you can click and enjoy)
I’ve written this blog since August of 2005. It was originally meant for my job in analyst relations, but took a turn when I retired in 2011. It’s morphed into any number of things from humor, sarcasm, anti-Covid Jab and my ramblings on life.
I start Chemotherapy next week, so it’s going to slow down considerably, although I’ll post from time to time. I’ve scheduled some posts so it will look like I’m continuing as I suffer through the poison they will be putting in me. You’ll read something every day this week, but I’m not collecting headlines. I hope to be back, I just know I won’t have any energy
I want to say that I’ve enjoyed the 10’s of thousands of comments, and different groups of readers.
I mostly wrote it as it is my favorite form of communication. If you read anything about me, you know I’m introverted so small talk isn’t my greatest strength.
I pulled the list of top posts. It’s funny to me that my most successful post is Euphemisms for Stupid, which was number one on Google for over 10 years in that category.
As I look at the list, I see various stages of my life and different careers. I see family, pets and co-workers. I’m especially proud of My Dad. It’s the post, On Behalf of the President of the United States.
I wish you all the best and a longer life than me.
It’s not over, but for sure will not be as consistent.
If anyone wants to guest post, send it to me simonize@protonmail.com and I’ll try to put it up and give you credit.
Look, I played Handel’s Messiah over 200 times. I know classical music, I’ve played everything from Rhapsody in Blue, Fugue in G minor, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and you name it. I’ve played them all
I also heard Charlie Daniels trying out The Devil Went Down To Georgia 6 months before He released it to see if the crowd would like it
Still, I enjoyed Robert Plant playing old Zeppelin tunes and Brad Paisley playing his greatest hits as much as anything. Rock N Roll, Trampled Under Foot, So Much Cooler Online, I’m Gonna Miss her were as much fun to listen to as anything.
Everyone likes their own style of music. I’m interested in what you guys like also.
I think emojis are childish and for girls. Just say what you have to say, and you don’t need to add pictures to it.
Call me a curmudgeon, but I feel like a child using them. I cringe when my male friends use them, mostly because they get it wrong or it’s a desperate try to look hip.
Despite my penchant for dick humor and even the turd emoji, I won’t use them either.
Across the world, scientists have identified over 1.5 million living animal species. One of the perks of being a field biologist to first document a species is they get to name it and that has led to some of the funniest animal names imaginable.
As I was engaged in a highly-competitive game of ‘Bird Bingo’ with my family the other day and appreciating how hilarious some bird names are the idea struck me to bring you all a collection of the funniest animal names on earth. Now here we are!
Ranking 25 Of The Funniest Animal Names In Existence
Many of these are birds but birds don’t have a complete monopoly on the funniest animal names. The list also includes frogs, turtles, sharks, and more. So let’s dive in!
1. American Woodcock
American woodcock bird
The American woodcock (Scolopax minor) doesn’t have just one hilarious name it also has a list of incredible nicknames that include the ‘timberdoodle,’ the ‘mudbat,’ the ‘bogsucker,’ and more. They also have an adorable dance where they rock back and forth.
This is the only species of woodcock native to North America and there is currently one in NYC that is the city’s latest bird celebrity. People are traveling from all over to see the NYC American Woodcock.
2. Blue-Footed Booby
blue footed booby bird
This fella right here needs no introduction, the feet speak for themselves. The Blue-Footed Booby is probably the most famous ‘funny animal name’ on earth for obvious reasons.
They are a marine bird native to the subtropical Eastern Pacific Ocean and have a wingspan up to 5ft but it is their bright blue feet that steal the show.
3. Andean Cock of the Rock
Andean Cock of the Rock bird
I love this bird. The Andean cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola peruvianus) is absolutely stunning. This is actually the bird that was the entire impetus for this list as I had the Andean cock-of-the-rock on my Bird BINGO board when I was playing the other night.
The Andean cock-of-the-rock is the national bird of Peru and found high up in the cloud forests of the Andean mountains in Peru. It would be HARD to miss with the striking colors. Perfect all around, 10 out of 10 looks and name.
4. Tasselled Wobbegong
wobbegong shark
The Tasselled Wobbegong is a carpet shark species native to Australia and New Guinea. They grow up to nearly 6ft in length.
Pronounced ‘wobby-gong’ the Tasselled Wobbegong sounds like a name that an American would come up with while trying to make a joke about Australian accents. The name doesn’t even sound real, but I assure you they are.
5. Pigbutt Worm
The Pigbutt Worm, Chaetopterus pugaporcinus, is also known as the ‘flying buttocks.’ That folks is what I like to call a two-fer because it has two spectacular names.
This deep sea marine worm was first documented by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) way back in 2007 and it is a tiny one, 10-20 millimeters in length.
6. Sarcastic Fringehead
Sarcastic fringehead
My favorite part about the name Sarcastic Fringehead (Neoclinus blanchardi) is that you can immediately look at this fish and think ‘yeah, that checks out.’ This fish definitely looks like a sarcastic fringehead.
7. Spiny Lumpsucker
Atlantic Spiny Lumpsucker
What did the Spiny Lumpsucker do to someone to earn this name? They’re adorable. Dare I say perfect.
They only grow up to a max of 5-7″ long and are horrible swimmers so they are commonly found attached to something, aka ‘lumpsucker.’ Instead of scales the fish is covered in cone-shaped plates. They also come in an array of colors.
8. Great Tit
three great tit birds flying together
The great tit (Parus major) is found throughout Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia. While the name ‘great’ might imply they’re large, as it typically would in nature, these are tiny birds.
They don’t migrate, instead great tits just stick it out wherever they’re born. Living the dream. Spreading laughs worldwide with their incredible name.
9. Dickcissel
dickcissel bird singing on a tree
Found throughout the Midwest states here in the good ol’ U.S. of A, the Dickcissel is a perfect name for this tiny fella. These birds are also found in Central America, northern Colombia, and northern Venezuela during the winters.
Just say that name. Let it roll off your tongue. It’s perfect.
10. Screaming Hairy Armadillo
screaming hairy armadillo on the ground
Someone looked at this thing, heard it make the iconic squealing sound it produces when it is threatened or handled, and nailed it with the name: Screaming Hairy Armadillo. Is it hairy? Sure is. Does it scream? You betcha.
They are found throughout the central/southern portions of South America and dine primarily on insects, invertebrates, and plants.
11. Tufted Titmouse
tufted titmouse birds
The thing about the Tufted Titmouse is if someone asked you what it was, and you were not already aware that it was a species of bird, there is no way you would guess that it was a bird. Everything about the name screams ‘mouse’ of some sort. Alas, it’s a bird.
They are stunners, to be sure. Members of the chickadee family, they’re tiny and beautiful. They can be found throughout the eastern portion of our country and can be spotted by the iconic black forehead.
12. Strange-tailed Tyrant
strange tailed tyrant bird
Someone saw the Alectrurus risora and did them dirty when they named it the strange-tailed tyrant. It was first documented by Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1824 so we at least know who to blame for this.
The strange-tailed tyrant shares a genus with the cock-tailed tyrant, because of course it does. And they are found throughout parts of Argentina and Paraguay where they are excellent fly catchers.
13. Satanic Leaf-Tailed Gecko
rare satanic leaf tailed gecko
George Albert Boulenger must have hated geckos. That is the only explanation for why he would name such a majestic creature ‘satanic’ when he became the first person to document it back in 1888.
The satanic leaf-tailed gecko is also known as the eyelash leaf-tailed gecko or the phantastic leaf-tailed gecko, and they have some of the best camouflage around. They are native to the tropical forests of Madagascar.
14. Boops boops
boops boops fish
I’ve seen this fish a thousand times over the year in the James Bond meme where the text goes something like ‘My name is Bond, James Bond. And you are?… Boops, Boops Boops.’ Or something like that.
The Boops boops is a subspecies of seabream found in the eastern Atlantic with characteristically large eyeballs. Found throughout European waters, they are often pan-fried, broiled, or baked but only when caught fresh because if they are caught and stored the taste turns foul quickly.
15. Dik-Dik
dik dik deer in the wild
What a name! The dik-dik is a small species of antelope found in southern Africa that is absolutely adorable.
They are famous for making a shrill whistling sound because of course they are. It is used to alert other dik-diks and animals when there are predators around.
16. Sparklemuffin
The Sparklemuffin (Maratus jactatus) feels like it got its name from a 1st grader. They are an Australian jumping spider with stunning coloration and the ability to jump more than 50x the length of their bodies.
They are tiny, only measuring around 4-6mm in length, but a leap of 50x that distance is still concerning. Of course they’re in Australia too where every animal is wild in its own way.
17. Chicken Turtle
eastern chicken turtle
Someone in the Southeastern United States got real lazy when they named the Chicken Turtle. They were probably eating chicken roasted over a spit and saw a turtle, pointed at it, and said ‘chicken turtle.’
In actuality, the chicken turtle was first named by two French zoologists back in 1801, Pierre André Latreille and François Marie Daudin, who each published their findings in separate journals after having first observed it near Charleston, South Carolina. If you’ve ever been to the Southeast then chances are you have seen one of these turtles.
18. Pleasing Fungus Beetle
pleasing fungus beetle
This is one of those ‘make your mind up’ names. The pleasing fungus beetle actually encompasses a whole family of beetles. I’m no entomologist but I fail to find anything pleasing about the fungus beetle.
19. Hummingbird Hawk-Moth
hummingbird hawk moth flying
My theory with the Hummingbird Hawk-Moth is three people spotted it at the same time. One swore they saw a hummingbird, another swore it was a mini hawk, and the third was confident it was a moth. When the Hummingbird Hawk-Moth turned out to be a moth that looked like all three they just squished the name together.
They are found from Portugal to Japan and were first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. As caterpillars, they are rather unremarkable but as fully grown Hummingbird Hawk-Moths they are stunning.
20. Ice Cream Cone Worm
Ice Cream Cone Worms or trumpet worms measure around 2″ long. Do they look like ice cream cones? In my opinion, absolutely not. But maybe ice cream cones looked like dirty scabs back in the day. They were first documented in the early 1800s so maybe they primarily went by ‘trumpet worms’ early on until ice cream cones hit the market in 1896.
21. Hellbender
eastern Hellbender in the water
The Eastern Hellbender is an iconic species of giant salamander. I have wanted to see one in the wild my whole life but have yet to spot one.
As for having one of the funniest names among animals, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources says “The name ‘hellbender’ probably comes from the animal’s odd look. One theory claims the hellbender was named by settlers who thought “it was a creature from hell where it’s bent on returning.” Another rendition says the undulating skin of a hellbender reminded observers of “horrible tortu”res of the infernal regions.” In reality, it’s a harmless aquatic salamander.”
22. Jackass Penguin
The African Penguin is also known as the ‘Jackass Penguin’ and are endemic to the Old World. Also known as the Cape penguin or the South African penguin, the Jackass Penguin was not, in fact, named for Johnny Knoxville.
23. Hotwheels sisyphus
This name feels like an elaborate prank. Hotwheels sisyphus is a species of Chinese ground spider and the genus is Hotwheels. They were first documented in 2024 which makes the ‘Hotwheels’ designation all the stranger. Didn’t those toys fall off decades ago?
24. E.T. sponge
It is wild how some creature that has existed for untold millennia gets spotted by humans one day and they are like ‘you kind of reminded me of an overrated 80s movie and I’m going to name you after that forever.’ That is basically how the E.T. Sponge, Advhena magnifica, got its name back in 2016 when it was first observed in the Mariana Trench at a depth of 2,028 meters.
25. Mountain Chicken Frog
The Mountain Chicken Frog, Leptodactylus fallax, is critically endangered and found throughout the Caribbean islands of Montserrat and Dominica. Population numbers plummeted by 80% between 1995 and 2004.
The name, Mountain Chicken, comes from the locals hunting them down as a delicacy and the chicken-like flavor.
If you’re introverted or neurodivergent, it means your brain is processing more during group conversations than other people realize.
I could feel myself disappearing into the background.
I was sitting at a table with six other adults in a noisy coffee shop. We were all strangers, meeting for a book club for the first time.
I had joined the group because I love reading, but also because I wanted to make a few new friends. As an introvert, I don’t always make friends easily, so I thought it would help to have a built-in topic to talk about — the book.
But suddenly, I was back in a familiar introvert struggle that had been with me my whole life: a group conversation.
The conversation moved fast, bouncing from person to person with no structure. Even when I had something meaningful to say, I couldn’t get my thoughts out quickly enough before someone else started talking. When I did speak, someone often interrupted me before I was finished, and I felt pressure to rush just to get my words out.
All around me, other people were talking and laughing. Coffee machines hissed. Orders were being called out. Sometimes I couldn’t hear well, but more than that, as a highly sensitive person, I could feel my mind getting overstimulated. I started mentally checking out.
If you’ve had a similar experience, you’re not alone. Group conversations aren’t always easy for introverts, highly sensitive people, or neurodivergent people. Since that book club, I’ve learned a few things about group conversations that make them a little easier. They might help you, too.
Why Group Conversations Are Draining
If group conversations feel harder than one-on-one conversations, you’re not imagining it. Group conversations are a different social task altogether. They aren’t just one-on-one conversations with more people added.
The more people in the conversation, the harder it becomes to follow what’s happening, know when to jump in, and get a fair share of speaking time. Research on conversation shows that human turn-taking is extremely fast. Usually, there are only a few hundred milliseconds between when one person stops talking and another person begins.
(Fun fact: In one study, Danish speakers had the longest average gap between turns, which I find interesting because Danish culture is supposedly very introvert-friendly.)
All of this adds to something called cognitive load. When you have to deal with multiple speakers at once, or keep switching your attention from one speaker to another, you listen more slowly and less accurately. That higher listening demand makes it even harder to know when to speak.
In other words, big groups place more demands on your attention, memory, and energy than one-on-one conversations do.
And it doesn’t help if you’re in a noisy public place, with other sounds and sights competing for your attention, like I was at that book club.
If you’re introverted, sensitive, or neurodivergent, it doesn’t mean you have nothing to say. It means your brain is taking in and processing more stimuli than other people often realize.
How to Make Group Conversations Easier
Whenever possible, I try to socialize one-on-one or in small groups. It lowers my cognitive load and helps me protect my energy as an introvert.
But sometimes that’s just not possible. You may also have to deal with group conversations at work, at networking events, or at family gatherings.
So here are a few ways to make them a little easier:
1. Jump in early.
Research shows that as groups get bigger, it gets harder for everyone to participate equally. Often, one or two people end up dominating the conversation. That was definitely true at my book club. One man seemed to think he was the main character.
Making a comment early helps in two ways. First, it removes the pressure of trying to find the perfect moment later. Second, it makes it easier for other people to bring you back into the conversation as things go on.
It can also reflect well on you. Speaking early can make you seem confident, even if you feel anything but confident inside.
And your comment doesn’t have to be brilliant. It can be tiny, like an interesting observation, a moment of agreement, or a clarifying question.
Another reason to speak early is your social battery. As the event goes on, you may lose steam, and group conversations can drain your energy even faster. Even if it goes against your quiet nature, talking early lets you contribute while your energy is still at its highest.
Once the introvert hangover starts to set in, it gets harder to think clearly, listen well, and put your thoughts into words.
2. Use follow-up questions as your entry point.
Not sure how to jump in? Ask a question right after someone finishes talking. Follow-up questions are easier than coming up with a completely new topic under pressure.
Good examples are:
“What happened next?”
“How did you feel about it?”
“Was that what you expected?”
“Would you do it again?”
“What did you learn?”
In a group, follow-up questions do double duty. They lower your cognitive load, and they make the speaker feel heard.
Research has also found that people like you more when you ask follow-up questions, because it shows that you’re interested in them. In one study, people who asked more follow-up questions during speed dating were more likely to get asked on second dates.
This approach also plays to a natural introvert strength. One of our conversational superpowers is helping a discussion go one layer deeper instead of jumping from topic to topic. Introverts are often the ones who move beyond small talk and into more interesting, meaningful territory. And the science supports that instinct: People often expect deeper conversations to feel awkward, but they actually leave people feeling more connected.
Just make sure to read the room. If the group is joking around or rushing with excited energy, a deep question can feel a little out of place. For example, a group that’s quickly swapping travel stories probably won’t want to pause for a deep question about how childhood shaped the way someone experiences adventure.
3. Switch to listening mode when your social battery runs low.
When that happens, it may be time to leave. But if you can’t get away just yet, switch into listening mode. This can help you conserve energy without fully checking out.
Even if it’s obvious you’ve gotten quieter, you don’t want to give the impression that you’re uninterested. Use visible listening cues. Look at the speaker. Nod. Briefly reflect back a phrase. Offer a short verbal cue like, “That makes sense.”
In groups, not everyone talks all the time. Being visibly attentive is still a way of participating.
And if someone points out that you’ve gotten quieter, remember that the strongest response is usually the least dramatic one. Be comfortable with who you are, acknowledge the comment, and then move on.
“To be honest, I’m more of an internal processor.”
“I’m just not a big chatter, but I’m enjoying listening.”
“I get that question a lot, but I’m actually very comfortable.”
“I’m honestly more interested in hearing from you.”
“I tend to speak up once I’ve fully formed my thoughts.”
When the social event is over, plan for some extra “me time.” Because of everything going on, group conversations can be overstimulating, even when you enjoy the people you’re with. There’s nothing wrong with needing a breather afterward, or going home and planning no other social activities for the rest of the day.
The next time an introvert in your life needs alone time, remember it’s not personal. They need solitude because that’s how they’re wired.
I love spending time alone. There’s nothing better than being at home in my comfy clothes, reading a good book, or watching a show while munching on snacks. This doesn’t mean I don’t crave time with “my people” — those I laugh with and share my day with. But when I don’t get enough alone time, I start to feel tired, cranky, and overstimulated, even if I’ve enjoyed being with the people I love.
Sometimes when I need alone time, the people in my life feel hurt. They feel rejected, but that’s not what it means. I need little periods of solitude to recharge my energy and feel like myself again.
Why do introverts need alone time? Why does socializing exhaust us, even when we’re having fun? Recent research offers some interesting insights. I delve deeper into these findings in my book, The Secret Lives of Introverts.
The Curious Connection Between Introverts and Rewards
When writing my book, I spoke with Colin DeYoung, a psychology professor at the University of Minnesota who had published a paper on introversion. He explained that one reason introverts need alone time is related to how we respond to rewards.
No, I’m not talking about the gold stars you might have earned in grade school (though it could be argued that stickers are indeed a reward for kids). For adults, rewards can be things like money, social status, social connections, food, and even sex. When you get promoted at work or convince an attractive stranger to give you their phone number, you’re receiving a reward. Hurray!
Of course, introverts also value things like money, relationships, and food. However, researchers believe that introverts are wired to respond differently to rewards than extroverts. Compared to our more outgoing counterparts, we “quiet ones” are simply less motivated and energized by these same rewards. It’s as if extroverts see big, juicy steaks everywhere, while introverts see overcooked hamburgers.
In fact, as any introvert can confirm, sometimes those “rewards” aren’t just less appealing — they can actually be tiring and annoying, like a big party. This brings me to another reason why introverts need alone time: We react differently to stimulation.
An Extrovert and an Introvert Go to a Party
Take, for example, two friends at a house party — one an extrovert, the other an introvert. They’re crammed into a crowded room where loud music blares from huge speakers. Everyone is practically shouting to be heard over the din. There are a dozen conversations happening simultaneously, with just as many things demanding their attention.
For the extrovert, this level of stimulation might feel just right. He sees potential rewards everywhere — an attractive stranger across the room, opportunities to deepen old relationships, and the chance to make new friends. Most importantly, tonight offers a chance to boost his social status within his friend group, especially if he plays his cards right.
So, the extrovert feels energized and excited to be at the party. In fact, he’s so motivated that he stays late into the night. He’s exhausted the next day and needs time to recover — after all, partying is hard work. But to him, the energy spent was well worth it.
Now, back to our introvert. See him over there, hunkered down in the corner? For him, the environment feels overwhelming. It’s too loud, there are too many things happening at once, and the crowd creates a dizzying buzz of activity. Sure, he wants to make friends, fit in, and be liked, but these rewards just aren’t as tantalizing to him. It feels like he would have to expend a lot of energy for something he’s only mildly interested in to begin with.
So, the introvert heads home early to watch a movie with his roommate. In his own apartment, with just one other person, the level of stimulation feels just right. He exchanges some texts with a woman he met a few weeks ago in one of his classes. Like the extrovert, he too wants friends and a romantic partner. However, he finds it too tiring to deal with the noise and socializing at a big party to make those connections.
The Dopamine Difference
Chemically, there’s a good reason the introvert in the above scenario feels overwhelmed, and it relates to a neurotransmitter called dopamine. This chemical, found in the brain, is often referred to as the “feel good” chemical because it regulates our pleasure and reward centers.
One of its roles is to make us notice potential rewards and motivate us to pursue them. For example, dopamine alerts the extrovert to the attractive stranger at the party and fuels his motivation to come up with a cheesy pick-up line.
Another important function of dopamine is reducing our cost of effort. Socializing requires energy because it involves paying attention, listening, thinking, speaking, and moderating our emotional reactions. Technically, socializing is tiring for everyone, including extroverts. However, dopamine helps make it less exhausting for them.
According to DeYoung, extroverts have a more active dopamine reward system. As a result, they can better tolerate — and often push through — the tiredness that inevitably comes with socializing. Much of the time, they don’t experience the same level of mental and physical fatigue that introverts do, thanks to dopamine.
It’s called the “introvert” hangover, not the “extrovert” hangover for a reason.
A New Theory of Introverts and Dopamine
In her 2002 book, The Introvert Advantage, Dr. Marti Olsen Laney speculated that introverts may be more sensitive to dopamine. In other words, we “quiet ones” might need less of it to feel good. Too much, she wrote, could leave us feeling overstimulated.
Science has come a long way since then. When I caught up with DeYoung again, he told me that theory had since been disproven. In fact, scientists now think it’s the opposite.
In fact, DeYoung told me, extroverts are the ones who are more sensitive to dopamine. For example, if introverts and extroverts are given the same drug that affects dopamine, extroverts tend to have a stronger response and become more motivated by similar stimuli later on.
It’s not that dopamine itself makes introverts feel overstimulated. Rather, when introverts do overstimulating things, like going to a party, they may not get as much dopamine release. Extroverts, on the other hand, may get a much bigger dopamine hit from those same activities.
“Without the sense of reward, the extra focus, and the sense of being ‘worth the effort’ that dopamine initiates,” DeYoung told me, “the introverts simply find the activities overwhelming and/or tiring instead.”
Extroverts Place More Significance on People
Finally, a study found that extroverts might simply find humans more interesting than introverts do. This finding aligns with the idea that introverts are less motivated to seek social rewards.
In this study, researchers observed a diverse group of individuals and recorded their brain’s electrical activity using an EEG. As participants were shown pictures of both objects and people, the researchers measured their brains’ P300 activity. This activity happens quickly in response to sudden changes around us and gets its name because it occurs within 300 milliseconds.
Interestingly, researchers found that extroverts showed the P300 response primarily when viewing images of faces, whereas introverts only exhibited this response after viewing objects. Essentially, extroverts’ brains became more active when looking at people.
This doesn’t mean that introverts hate people (though, admittedly, the human race can get on my nerves occasionally). Researchers still don’t fully understand introversion. However, these findings suggest that extroverts might simply place more importance on social interactions than introverts do.
So, the next time an introvert in your life needs alone time, remember that it’s not personal. Introverts need alone time because their brains are wired that way. It isn’t necessarily a reflection of how they feel about you or your relationship.
As for me, you can find me at home tonight. Preferably with the whole place to myself, that is.
That people were shallow. That people would peak at different times in their lives. For some, the peak was high school.
I learned that I had to try harder to be more successful than those I went to school with. To not stand still at that point in life, but to learn and grow and to unlock my fullest potential. I set my standards to be better than those I went to school with. That came to fruition.
Mostly, I learned to never look back. I closed that chapter in my life, and the best thing about it was leaving. I needed to move on in life and do more.
Let’s see, I’m not having any lions, badgers, monkeys, gorillas, any animals from the weasel family, skunks, pigs, chickens, and I could go on. I think you get the picture.
I’ve had cats and dogs, but I’m down to dogs now. It’s the typical Ford/Chevrolet debate over which is better. Since this is about me, the answer is dogs.
They love you, are more loyal, and learn to obey better. They get you out to walk so that you get exercise and are happy to see you, whether you’be been gone all day, or to get the mail.
Pick your own and don’t criticize mine. I like animals better than people, but that is the introvert in me. I love my dog, and still love the dogs that have been in my life.
The real answer is almost everything. From the minute you are born, you live a different life from everyone else.
So the real answer is life. It shapes everyone differently, from the experiences to how we handle them. Even Identical twins have separate lives.
Unless you could do everything at the same time with the same person and have the same response, you are different.
That is comforting to me, because I don’t want what anyone else has. My life is mine.
On a side note, have you ever looked at a group of people together? How is it that we have that many people and not a one of them is the same? Different eyes, nose, ears, chin, size, shape, coloring, and the list goes on.
I could bring God into this conversation, but I know a lot of you have different views, so I’ll just leave it at this. Go ahead and try to find 2 people who are the same, or even close.
Aside from the fact that there is a God, this is an easy one.
No one gives a shit about you, really. Not long after you die, people don’t even think of you, other than in a story. Two generations after you die, virtually no one remembers you or anything you did.
Think of all the people who have come and gone in your life. You don’t think about 90% of them. Who remembers every kid in elementary school? How about the kids on the street you grew up on. When did you speak with them last? Did they initiate the conversation?
Most people overestimate their importance, especially to others. Your spouse will likely even get remarried if you die.
This works for me on a lot of levels, though. I have eliminated a lot of people from my life who weren’t making it any better. That’s a thing that is best for introverts, though.
This fact has been my best friend in a lot of instances. I even got rid of Facebook because too many people wanted back in my life that I thought I’d gotten rid of.
It was hard to choose this week. John Thune wouldn’t let the Save act get a vote, despite most of the country on both sides wanting it. Honorable mention, but still an asshole.
Next, also on the Save Act is Chuck Schumer, Thune’s counterpart on the (seemingly) other side.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called the SAVE America Act “one of the most despicable pieces of legislation” he has seen ahead of the bill being brought to the floor for a vote this week.
Speaking to reporters on a Sunday phone call, Schumer claimed that President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans are attempting to “disenfranchise millions of Americans and undermine democracy by pushing this despicable SAVE Act,” also called the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Act.
He also called the election integrity bill “one of the most despicable pieces of legislation I’ve come across in the many years I’ve been a legislator.”
“Nothing is more important than defeating this dagger to the heart of our democracy,” the Democrat leader told reporters.
He’s an asshole because he knows that if they have voter ID, the Dem’s can’t cheat. On top of that, he said Trump wanted to use voter ID to cheat in the mid-terms. Imagine that, calling out your opponent for doing what you are doing, cheating.
BUT
While it happened during the Biden administration, there was this:
‘Living in sex-slavery’: Biden admin was ‘paying individuals who were knowingly trafficking’ kids
During the Joe Biden administration, the federal government actually was paying human traffickers to take unaccompanied migrant children.
“The one thing that has been challenging is that under the Biden administration, the government paid sponsors,” under HHS programs, which were tasked with relocating and taking care of unaccompanied children.
“Those sponsors, many times, we found instances where they trafficked these children themselves,” Noem told Congress.
“Under the Biden administration, she said, “we not only had children in this country that were part of a program, the government was paying individuals who were knowingly trafficking them and abusing them.”
A report from the Washington Stand noted the trafficking was in addition to the fact that the Biden administration also misplaced hundreds of thousands of children.
The real Star Wars movies, but only 4,5 and 6. The prequels and the sequels were horrible. I saw The Empire Strikes back 8 times in the theater at $2.00 a ticket.
All of the Captain America movies, especially The Winter Soldier. On your left.
The Final Countdown was my go-to movie when I called in sick to work, while in reality, I was taking a day off.
Star Trek, The Wrath of Khan, and all of Star Trek, The Original Series TV episodes. Heck, I saw them when they aired the first time in the 60’s.
I’ve seen all of the Looney Tunes and all of the Tex Avery Tom and Jerry cartoons.
I must have seen the Original Jonny Quest well more than 5 times, every episode. I used to get high as a kite in college and watch a bunch of stuff.
It seems that despite women preaching for decades that they don’t need a man and that they’re “above them,” now, when they look to find a partner, there’s not one to be found. Funny how that works, eh? There are tons of videos out on social media showing women and their current plight in “finding a man,” but one particular video seems to really capture the sheer breaking point a lot of ladies have reached. Let’s break it down.
In the clip, the woman is literally in tears, ranting from, of course, her vehicle, where she painfully describes feeling overwhelmed by the toll modern dating has taken on her. She claims that she cares more about the men she dates than they seem to care about her. She says she’s mad. No, not mad. FUMING. No, not fuming. On literal fire.
After screwing men over from the time they were boys in school, to putting them in the friendzone because they weren’t the ideal 666 man, now girls are paying the price. No one wants to put up with their shit and feelings of entitlement anymore.
Guys just want peace and a supportive partner. Girls want the next best thing that will make them look better or improve their status, either on social media or in life. Life has become a Facebook page, trying to get likes and adoration.
Imagine if guys were nice to you always, buying you drinks or complimenting you. After a while, you think you are special. Sure, they wanted some action, but at least they tried, and I promise there were some good guys you tossed away. You can only be shut down so many times before you give up and stop trying.
But regardless of the specifics, the fact is that the dominant message for eons now has been that women don’t need men. Their independence was paramount, traditional relationship structures were dismissed as outdated, and masculinity itself was frequently portrayed as something disposable or problematic.
Yet the desire for partnership, stability, and connection clearly didn’t completely disappear… and now, both men and women are left out in the cold.
NOW YOU KNOW
Push men out of the culture long enough, and eventually the real ones stop showing up. Here are the comments:
“Modern dating: where everyone wants love, but nobody wants the responsibility that comes with it.”
“It’s really hard out there. Feminism F’d everything up.”
“Seems like such a catch…”
“I guarantee she has like 30+ good men in the friend zone.”
“We’re watching a woman reach her breaking point in real-time, and the scariest part? Millions of people are looking in the mirror and seeing the same exhaustion.”
Relationships have been against men for years. They demeaned boys in school because they couldn’t sit still. The mean girls grouped together to diss any guy who wasn’t the star of the sports team. Guys have to put themselves out there and mostly get rejected. If you get married, Divorce courts take at least half of what you own, including the kids, who almost always go with the wife. Why would you want that deal?
Dating is a joke. The story that women can have it all is a lie that feminists have told girls. Fuck around until you are ready to settle down. Get a career and put family on hold. Live the party life, drink and date, keep upgrading boyfriends as you throw away great marriage men. It all changes when you wake up older one day, childless, and the men can now date younger girls who don’t have the attitude of this twunt.
Guys are tired of this shit from entitled females. The truth is that every girl has a vagina. They are everywhere, and not a one of them is the golden one. Girls are giving it away to everyone. No man wants a used bicycle, and the girls are letting all the best men take a ride. They think that just because they slept with a 9 or a 10, that this is their potential. They tossed out the 7’s or less, who were better men that would have taken care of them.
The reality is that they were never above a 6 without makeup, and it’s downhill for them after 30.
A lot of guys just said fuck it, and live their lives without the hassle.
Woke Media Struggles To Explain Why Gen Z Men Are Turning Against Feminism
The progressive left operates on the assumption that generational indoctrination is cumulative – That is to say, they think that through time and indoctrination, they will eventually lay claim to the minds of 100% of the population. Each new generation is supposed to be more “woke” than the last. However, this is not how society or individual psychology works.
Movements of “progress” crash in flames all the time, often because they turn out to be regressive rather than progressive. And once the smoke clears and the social experiment is dead, the public will usually go back to what worked best in the past.
Leftists thought they had the future in the bag with Gen Z. After all, this is the generation hit hardest with woke propaganda. No other generation has been so overwhelmed with LGBT brainwashing, anti-white racism and multiculturalism, socialist Utopian fantasy, moral relativism and anti-masculinity.
Young women have been convinced that abandoning femininity, rejecting their biological destiny and competing with men is “true freedom.” Third-wave feminism teaches women that their ultimate goal in life is to achieve power by any means necessary. It’s a dangerous delusion that relies on men to remain completely and utterly passive.
Gen Z men have been taught from an early age that they are inherently evil monsters that must be subdued and caged (figuratively or literally). They are warned that they will become “Incels”; dangerous landmines just waiting to explode unless they embrace feminism.
They are conditioned to see traditional manhood as a “social construct” that will ultimately end in a bullet riddled rain of toxic masculinity. They are told that the very root of their future happiness and sanity depends on leftist women accepting them as viable, docile and “safe”.
In other words, leftist women have positioned themselves as the arbiters of society by declaring they they will be the people who decide what manhood should be. It’s an interesting narrative. It is specifically designed to give progressives total power over the one thing that could destroy their socialist empire: Strong men who wake up one day and realize they are being treated unjustly and that the system does not work.
Ross Kemp made an entire docuseries on inceldom after watching Adolescence.
Female social circles tend to function on collectivist terms: The group determines membership through a series of struggle sessions and shame tests to ensure that new members submit to their control. Male groups determine membership by merit – Who is most useful, the hardest working, the most intelligent, the most able to move the group’s success forward.
Woke ideology is a vehicle for building a society using effeminate group structures. Most men are held back within such a system and left to rot, never fulfilling their roles because they are seen as threats to the power dynamics of the collective.
According to recent surveys, Gen Z is abandoning this feminist paradigm at record pace. In 2019 in the US, just one third of Americans surveyed agreed that traditional gender roles were becoming more popular. In 2026, that number rose to 40%; among Gen Z the number spikes to 61%.
The woke media is struggling to understand what is happening and trying to figure out how they can shame Zoomer men into coming back to the progressive fold. As Esquire Magazine asks:
“What the hell is going on with Gen Z?”
Both Esquire Magazine and The New York Times have recently lamented new data showing an unusual spike in support for traditional male/female roles in society among Gen Z males. Perhaps the most interesting data point comes from a recent survey out of King’s College London which polled a total of 23,000 adults across 29 countries worldwide. It indicates that 57% of Zoomer men agree that women’s rights have gone too far – to the point that men are being discriminated against.
The media, of course, acts as if this view is absurd even though it is entirely accurate. For the past decade in the US (until Donald Trump’s return to the White House) DEI initiatives in corporations, colleges and within many government institutions were deliberately designed to treat straight white men as second class citizens regardless of their qualifications.
They used to call it conspiracy theory, but numerous successful lawsuits have been filed against these institutions after years of rigging the system against men in favor of “equality of outcome” over equality of opportunity.
When it comes to relationships in the modern west, women have been given carte blanche through the “MeToo” Movement to act as destructive, promiscuous and unhinged as they please under the protection of the feminist zero accountability clause. If anything goes wrong they can simply blame men, and for a long time everyone was expected to automatically believe them.
Esquire engages in this same refusal to question women; blaming “podcasts” and the “male loneliness epidemic” for the rise in traditional views among Gen Z. They will not consider the possibility that this trend is caused by blowback from the trespasses of militant feminist ideology. Feminists can do no wrong. Esquire notes:
“The study doesn’t get into the why of respondents’ answers, but one guess is that this is the result of a generation raised on podcasts. Around every corner on the Internet, members of the so-called manosphere lurk, assuring young men that their failures and setbacks are not their fault. In fact, they are the persecuted ones; the world would be better off if women were subservient to guys. Progress, they seem to think, has gone too far…”
The “manosphere” did nothing more than point out the inconsistencies of the feminist movement and warn about the clear social decline that feminism has caused for men and women alike. Progress for the political left requires that men continue to sacrifice for the collective while never gaining any individual benefits in return.
The imbalance of society in scrambling to appease narcissistic women has radicalized an entire generation of men. Esquire notes:
“What’s most interesting is how divided Gen Z men and Gen Z women are on gender roles in relationships. Which makes a ton of sense, because if you haven’t heard, Gen Z women are facing a nightmare of a dating scene. In an opinion piece for The New York Times, Christine Emba claims that it’s not just app burnout or incels—at least, no more so than in my generation. Instead, there is a fundamental disconnect between what straight young men and women want from one another…”
Thirty-one percent of Gen Z men now agree that a wife should always obey her husband (compare this to 18% of Baby Boomers). 59% of Gen Z men say that men are expected to do too much to support equality. In every category, Gen Z greatly surpasses aging Baby Boomers on traditional values.
Big changes are coming in the form of a masculinity-driven cultural reckoning. Perhaps it’s because feminism flew too close the sun and got burned. They got a taste of power and went insane, once again confirming the theory that women should never be in charge. No matriarchy in history has produced anything of historical or technological significance. Biology and natural law recoils at the idea of a female-centric society.
Feminists try to use scare tactics, like the theory of the “male loneliness epidemic”, as a means to frighten men back into line. However, surveys also show that by 2030 nearly half of all women 25-44 are projected to become single and childless.
The truth is, feminists no longer hold the power of social rejection; it’s men who make that determination, and they are walking away from the woke system. What feminists should be more concerned about is the female loneliness epidemic that is looming for them in the near future.
My heart gets torn up when I read this. I hate when people are mean to dogs. They just want to love you and can’t understand why you don’t. Some people shouldn’t be allowed to own them.
1. My life is likely to last 10 to 15 years; any separation from you will be painful for me. Remember that before you adopt me.
2. Give me time to understand what you want from me; don’t be impatient, short-tempered, or irritable.
3. Place your trust in me, and I will always trust you back. Respect is earned, not given as an inalienable right.
4. Don’t be angry with me for long, and don’t lock me up as punishment; I am not capable of understanding why. I only know I have been rejected. You have your work, your entertainment, and your friends, but I have only you.
5. Talk to me. Even if I don’t understand your words, I do understand your voice and your tone. You only have to look at my tail.
6. Be aware that, however you treat me, I’ll never forget it, and if it’s cruel, it may affect me forever.
7. Please don’t hit me. I can’t hit back, but I can bite and scratch, and I really don’t ever want to do that
8. Before you scold me for being uncooperative, obstinate, or lazy, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I’m not getting the right foods, or I’ve been out in the sun too long, or my heart is getting old and weak. It may be I am just dog-tired.
9. Take care of me when I get old. You too, will grow old and may also need love, care, comfort, and attention.
10. On the difficult journey, on the ultimate difficult journey, go with me, please. Never say you can’t bear to watch. Don’t make me face this alone. Everything is easier for me if you are there. Because I love you so.
Iranian targets are being decimated by U.S. forces, paving the way for continued delivery of overwhelming American military firepower. pic.twitter.com/wQUER9cXWw
Tell me more about yourself, or show me what you learned recently (speak in a foreign language). It is especially painful in a social icebreaker. I know they don’t really care.
I feel like I’m a trained monkey on display when I get this question. Most people get nothing really. Tell me what you’ve been up to? Do a trick for me. Entertain me with what you can do. That’s when I change the subject
If I know the person, I might share something I’ve done, but without details. Most people bore you with details that aren’t significant to the story. Only my inner circle will get to know my feelings or what I really do.
I also tend to listen more to men. Females have a hard time telling a story without adding details that aren’t relevant and distract from the story. It’s why male comedians are funnier. Listen to Richard Pryor or Robin Williams. They are always funnier than, say Amy Schumer or any of her ilk.
Stand up for yourself and don’t try to make everybody happy, you can’t.
Not everyone is your friend, no matter what they say or do.
Don’t be afraid to hurt somebody else’s feelings if you have to sacrifice yourself.
Realize that you are introverted and that not doing a bunch of stupid stuff because the crowd wants to is not a good enough reason to do it.
Take your time and enjoy what you are doing. It will go by too quickly. You don’t have to do everything right away. Life will let you get the experience if you give it time.
I have a couple of readers (you know who you are) who give way better answers than I do because they’ve had different experiences than I have. I wonder what they will say?
What aspects of your cultural heritage are you most proud of or interested in?
Although my ancestors came to this country from multiple European countries, it was too long ago. I have no knowledge of anything beyond which country they came from.
My family fought on both sides of the Civil War. I don’t take sides; I learn from history.
There are some things I can’t change. I was born White and a man. I’m good with it and don’t want to be anything else.
I loved my parents and some of my family. I put up with the rest and avoid some with vigor.
I guess I don’t take it too seriously, as my heritage is a mish-mash of so many things, I could fit into most categories, except the obvious. I’m also too old now to change anything, so I am who I am. I’m interested in the timeline at this point, and who died early or late that is closely related to me. I’m headed to the finish line at some point in the future.
Climate Alarmists Are Often Wrong But Never in Doubt – At the end of the day, “these models can display a pessimistic worldview in which climate damages accelerate to catastrophic levels, or a more optimistic one in which human progress keeps damages relatively modest. They offer little help in determining which of these futures is coming.”
Now You Will Know – “The ICE derangement syndrome is off the charts because we are amidst a pandemic of progressive leftist mental illness, which is an extremely disproportionately female problem.” —JD Haltigan on “X”
Relationships
Why Men Are Choosing Singlehood… Becasuse females are ruining it for everyone. They think they are special and no one wants to put up with their shit anymore. It’s a combination of Social Media delusion and feminism. Can someone find a decent girl who doesn’t come with all the hassle?
Dream Greenland Deal – with all the bitching from a piss ant country that won’t protect their own land, the Danes caved to Trump like a sandcastle in a storm
Here are some of the posts that got a lot of clicks. Some are funny, all are true, and every introvert will look at it and say yep. I see myself in most of these
I have an introverted friend who is basically a walking encyclopedia of Celtic myth. For example, if you ask him about the hero Cú Chulainn, he can not only tell you how he died, but also what kind of chariot he drove around in. Listening to him talk, I’ve found myself thinking, “Wow, he really knows his stuff!”
That’s because many introverts love learning and adding to their vast stores of specialized knowledge. It’s no surprise they often become experts in their field.
2. Introverts are problem-solvers and idea generators.
Introverts tend to gravitate toward working alone. Rather than chatting in the break room, we’re often the ones sitting at our desks, quietly turning ideas over and over in our minds. And there’s a big benefit to this. When you’re with other people, your brain is forced to multitask. Even if you’re not talking with someone, part of your attention is occupied just by their mere presence, research suggests.
When you’re alone, you can clear your mind and focus your thoughts. All this deep, concentrated thinking can lead to novel solutions and brilliant ideas. Working alone can even lead to more ideas. “Decades of research have consistently shown that brainstorming groups think of far fewer ideas than the same number of people who work alone and later pool their ideas,” according to psychologist Keith Sawyer.
So forget the brainstorming group. Take a cue from introverts and spend some time in solitude.
3. Give up? Not yet.
Speaking of problem-solving, introverts tend to stick with problems longer — well past when everyone else has moved on to another topic or gone home for the day. Albert Einstein, the world-renowned physicist who developed the theory of relativity, was probably an introvert. He said, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
4. Introverts make better team players than extroverts over the long run.
Corinne Bendersky and her colleagues found that while extroverts make great first impressions, they may disappoint us over time when they’re part of a team. Their “value and reputation at work diminish over time,” explains Bendersky. “On a team, you’re expected to work hard and contribute a lot. But they’re often poor listeners, and they don’t collaborate.”
Ouch.
Introverts, on the other hand, may work harder on a team because they tend to be conscientious; they don’t want to be seen as not pulling their weight. So, while companies may initially be attracted to extroverts, bosses should remember that introverts pack a powerful (yet understated) punch.
5. Introverts are capable of incredible depth and intimacy in their relationships.
We “quiet ones” have a penchant for quality, one-on-one time and deep conversations. Instead of talking about the weather or what you did this weekend, we want to peek into your inner world. What have you learned lately? How are your ideas evolving? How are you really? When you have an introvert in your life, you may experience emotional intimacy like never before.
6. Introverts know the power of words.
As the nickname suggests, we “quiet ones” tend to listen more than we talk and think carefully before we speak. We try to choose our words thoughtfully because we understand that once said, words can’t be retracted or easily forgotten.
7. Introverts are low maintenance.
You can leave an introvert alone for hours (or even days!), and we’ll be content to do our own thing. No need to constantly text us, check in on us, or “babysit” us.
Why? Because introverts tend to be self-starters, and many of us are drawn to working quietly and steadily on our own. In fact, you’ll probably only hear from us if we have a problem we can’t fix (and believe me, we’ve tried solving it a dozen times before coming to you). Similarly, we don’t need constant praise, gold stars, and shoutouts in the company newsletter (although sure, those things are appreciated). If we’re working hard, we’re likely drawing motivation from within.
8. Introverts can be the calm in the center of the storm.
Reserved and often self-contained, introverts are known for exuding calm — even when there’s a storm raging inside us. We’re often the ones quietly creating an action plan while everyone else is stressing over the company’s latest policy change. And in this way, our methodical approach to chaos benefits everyone.
9. Introverts “get” you.
Although it may seem counterintuitive, solitude can actually help you connect better with others. Why? Because spending time alone — which introverts love — may enhance our empathy, especially for people outside our typical social group, according to research. Being alone often involves reflecting on our actions, beliefs, and experiences, which helps us develop a deeper understanding and stronger empathy for others.
10. Introverts look before they leap.
Compared to extroverts, introverts generally prefer a slower, more deliberate pace of life, and this difference stems from the way our brains are wired. Many of us hate rushing into things; whenever possible, we take time to consider all potential outcomes before making a decision. This applies to our careers, personal lives, and relationships.
For example, one study found that extroverts may jump into a new relationship more quickly than introverts. An Katrien Sodermans and her colleagues revealed that divorced extroverts were more likely than divorced introverts to remarry quickly. While this isn’t always the case, hastily made decisions — such as committing to a new relationship before fully healing from the last one — can sometimes lead to regret later on.
11. Introverts create worlds inside their heads — and help create the world we live in.
Introverts are artists, actors, musicians, entertainers, writers, and more. Famous creative introverts include Lady Gaga (she has said, “I generally really keep to myself and I am focused on my music.”), Bob Dylan, Meryl Streep, Lorde, Audrey Hepburn, and more. David Bowie is also thought to have been an introvert; experts believe he coped with his anxiety and introverted nature by developing various stage personas. Even the “King of Rock and Roll,” Elvis Presley, was described by his friends as a “loner” and “introverted.”
There are so many famous creative introverts that it’s impossible to name them all here! Just a few more examples include Steven Spielberg, Shonda Rhimes, David Letterman, Harrison Ford, Gwyneth Paltrow, Elton John, Emma Watson, and Tom Hanks… the list could go on.
12. Who runs the world? Introverts.
When we think of leadership, especially in the corporate world, words like “bold,” “overconfident,” and “selfish” may come to mind. But there’s a different kind of leader emerging: the quiet one. Today, about 40 percent of executives describe themselves as introverts, including Microsoft’s Bill Gates.
Gates believes that introverts can make great leaders because they know the value of being alone and focusing deeply. Speaking at an event in 2013, he said, “I think introverts can do quite well. If you’re clever you can learn to get the benefits of being an introvert, which might be, say, being willing to go off for a few days and think about a tough problem, read everything you can, push yourself very hard to think out on the edge of that area.”
Yes, introverts may be the quiet ones who eat lunch alone. They may also be the ones curled up at home with a good book, avoiding the party. But introverts are so much more than that. They are artists, visionaries, and leaders who bring quiet strength and understand the power of the inner journey.
Today — and every day — they deserve to be celebrated.
So everyone celebrate together, separately, and alone. I disagree that Jill Biden and Barack Obama were leaders. They were power hungry people who shouldn’t be celebrated.
Songs, without a doubt. I can hear a song and go back to the room I was in and the person I was with, not to mention how I felt.
Here’s an example or two.
I hear Come Monday by Jimmy Buffet, and it’s 3:00 in the afternoon. I’m at work at the Winter Park Towers, my first job. I was mopping the floor after lunch. I was 15 at the time, and I recall the 4-top by the window overlooking Lake Berry. My Uncle lived on that lake, and I could see his house
Here’s another. I was laying the wood to a girl named Leila in her bedroom in Coral Gables, Florida, at 24 years old. She was a cologne girl who sprayed you at the escalator in the Department Store where I worked. Apparently, she had already decided she was going to do me well before I knew it, and she did.
I was always able to control busting a nut and had been going at it with her clock radio playing music. Then Layla, by Eric Clapton came on. On the downstroke, she said it was her song because it was her name. I decided I would keep going until the end of the song just because it was long. We went at it like big dogs, which was unusual as she had a special talent with her mouth that was outstanding. It starts off with a hairband for a ponytail, if you need a reference. She even performed that on me in my office one afternoon. What a good sport.
If either of those songs comes on, I go right back to that time of life.
There are a million more, but I won’t bore you with the rest of my life. Plus, everyone has their own.
I’ve written about this before, but it’s worth the effort to repeat myself.
I hate emojis and refuse to use them. Not only is it a waste of time after you’ve already typed what you’re going to say, but they are just clutter. Oh, they think they are clever, but those of us with a mind think otherwise.
Most of all, I think they are childish or for girls. I lose respect for any guy who sends me one. I refuse to send them back. I don’t even know if anyone has noticed it from me, but then I don’t care. At least my son won’t use them either. I didn’t even have to say anything.
It’s like wearing makeup or girls playing with dolls. It covers up something or tries to make it look better, but not to me.
Worst of all is an emoji for an answer without any words. I roll my eyes.
I guess some people think it’s cute, or that I’m a grumpy old man, but I also don’t have a lot of time left, and I’m not going to waste it on something I just said in words.
Oh, and a repeat emoji is the worst. I got it the first time. It’s like typing in CAPS, IT IS ANNOYING.
Big events or parties can become overwhelming for us introverts, so look for little ways to maintain your energy.
I have no problem socializing with my family or close friends. I am comfortable doing so because I have known them for a long time, and I interact with them just a few at a time. There’s no having-to-get-to-know-you period.
But it’s an entirely different matter to attend big, crowded gatherings where almost everyone is a stranger (hello, holiday parties or awkward job-related networking events). Sure, for a short amount of time, I can make small talk. Of course, I need to recharge my energy afterward.
Yet, in everyday life, social interactions are required. The good news is there are plenty of things you can do to maintain your energy as an introvert when you have to attend a crowded event.
How Introverts Can Survive Crowded Events
1. Arrive early so you can pick the best spot.
One study found that about 20 percent of employees regularly arrive late to work. If you are an introvert, you can’t afford to be late for an event because people will notice your tardiness (hello, suddenly being the center of attention!). In addition, you may have to engage in unnecessary awkward interactions as you make your way to an available seat. Plus, you may have to explain your lateness later, which will further drain whatever energy you have left.
So arrive early and be prepared to stay for a while. When you arrive early, you can choose the best seat or standing spot for your needs. That way, you can still be alone among the crowd.
For example, find a seat or table on the fringes or near the back, which will enable you to move freely without having to ask people to move whenever you need to get out (i.e., escape to the bathroom). You could also choose a spot near the exit for the same purpose.
2. Go with a “human shield,” a.k.a. your favorite extrovert or outgoing introvert.
As an introvert, you may find it challenging to interact with many people at once. But some people you know may actually like doing so. Your family members, friends, or your significant other may be more outgoing — and they may thrive in crowded situations. See if they’re willing to go to the event with you. This will enable you to talk less, since they will happily do most of the talking for you.
Or, you can go to the event with a colleague who enjoys socializing. There’s no shame in using them as a “human shield” while representing your company or department. While they schmooze with everyone, you can thoughtfully listen and pick up points for discussion later on (i.e., at the next company meeting).
Plus, people feel understood and cared for when someone listens to them. So you may make a great first impression just by listening!
Once you’ve absorbed everything they’ve said, take the time to process it before adding your thoughts. That way, you’ll have something valuable to say based on all your gathered information.
Want to feel more at ease in social situations?
Discover the secrets to enjoying fun, meaningful conversations. Know exactly what to say — even if you’re introverted, shy, or socially anxious. Feel less drained and have more energy while socializing.
4. Look for small groups talking about topics you care about.
Even at the most crowded events, small groups tend to form because people with similar interests gravitate toward one another. That’s great news for introverts, as you’ll feel more at home if the topic is one you’re passionate about. Even if the group is talking about something similar to a topic you want to bring up, now’s your chance to change the subject to that one instead. And, when interacting in a small group, you won’t get socially burned out as quickly.
5. Block out the noise.
As an introvert, there may be times when you can’t take all the noise, small talk, or all the people anymore. But you also can’t leave the event… yet. In that case, you need a way to block out the noise.
You can do this in many ways: Listen to music or an audiobook (or just put on your earbuds to make it look like you’re listening to something or on a call; they’ll still help tune out some of the noise!); make an actual call; or excuse yourself to “step outside for a moment.” If you’re worried that these things will make you seem aloof or antisocial, remember that most people aren’t looking at you, anyway, and won’t even notice.
Yes, I know, having to attend crowded events and make small talk can be a nightmare for introverts. However, the more prepared you are, the more you’ll preserve your energy.
I don’t care what people say about me. I can be the nicest person on earth, or one of the biggest assholes. I treat people accordingly. It depends on you.
I’m always the same, so if I’m not nice to you, look in the mirror to understand why.
They say in 3 generations, no one remembers you anyway, so who cares what they say about me?
So in conclusion, it’s not important to me what people say about me. I gave up caring about that in high school.
Last night, the left lost their minds when Bijan Robinsin commented on his play as it related to a game we played as kids. He called it smear the queer, but we knew it as kill the man with the ball. He had to walk it back, but I know he didn’t mean it.
If you grew up before video games and actually played outside without a helmet, it was great fun. If you don’t know it, look it up. It will be a good education for you on why our generation tried harder at most things. The struggle was real, like real life, everyone against you.
Another good game was Red Rover. It’s where you line up kids in 2 groups, holding each other by the arms, and pick someone from the other side to run and try to break the hold. Red rover, red rover, send x (next victim) on over. In reality, it was a way to clothesline a kid from the other side, also great fun.
We also played war, kick the can, and baseball, where a parked car served as 3rd base. The game would stop for a while if a car came through, but there weren’t as many back then.
And then there is dodgeball. That’s where you’d hit the girls and the fat kids first. Nothing beats a good shot to the face though. That’s the real score
If you didn’t have a ball, there was kick the can.
Sometimes it was stickball. Kids from NY know that one well.
Life was easier back then, and we didn’t need a Switch or Xbox to play video games. Our moms kicked us out of the house, and we made stuff up.
If there were not enough other kids, you could climb a tree or throw something for the dog to chase. I grew up in an old tangerine farm so that is what we had, way before tennis balls were dog toys.
Without a doubt, Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry, and the old Jonny Quest.
Everything I know about opera on Jeopardy, I learned from Bugs. I like all of the Looney Tunes, especially when they break the new lines of political correctness. Road Runner/Coyote, Pepe’ Le Pew, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Foghorn Leghorn, all were better than anything on today. Who could forget Michigan J. Frog, a classic.
As for Tom and Jerry, the Tex Avery ones are clearly the best. Cat Fishin’, Touche’ Pussy Cat, Pecos Pest, and Spike and Tike are some of the better ones.
Only the original Jonny Quest shows were good. They were far ahead of their time and very creative. The Invisible Monster and the Robot Spy were two of my favorite episodes. After that, the series wasn’t very good. Later in life, I found them on Sunday morning. I’d do a wake and bake and enjoy my childhood all over.
A point of interest is that Tim Matheson is the original voice of Jonny. You may know him better as Otter in Animal House.
I even named one of my dogs Bandit after the cartoon. She was a boxer and is still in my blog, way back in the early years
“Waking up early or staying up late, when no one else is around. Peace. Silence. Bliss.”
Turkey. Pumpkin pie. Awkwardly chatting with Great Aunt Gladys. If you live in the U.S., you’re probably celebrating Thanksgiving. Inevitably, at some point, you’ll be asked to name something you’re thankful for. With that spirit in mind, here are 23 things introverts are generally thankful for — anytime of the year. What would you add to this list?
1. Coming home and finding the house unexpectedly empty. There’s nothing better than sneaking in a few hours (or even minutes) of unexpected solitude. Time to relax. Time to decompress. No obligatory, “How was your day?” Just space and freedom to be yourself. Ahhhh…
2. When your friend cancels on you at the last minute, and you kind of wanted to stay home anyway. This is just like #1: unexpected solitude.
3. Getting a Saturday afternoon to yourself. Perhaps even better than a few moments of unexpected solitude is knowing that you have hours and hours of alone time ahead of you.
4. Finding out that the party/event/meeting is ending earlier than you thought. Sure, introverts can socialize and even be leaders in the workplace. But for many of us, those things don’t come naturally. “Peopling” is a skill we’ve had to learn — kind of like learning a foreign language. And we all know how mentally exhausting it can be to speak a language you’re not entirely comfortable with. Any time spent away from the group (and in our natural inward “habitat”) is something we’re thankful for.
5. Discovering a good book that you can’t put down. Books (along with movies, music, and art) transport introverts to the place we love the most: the energizing world of ideas and imagination.
6. Having a meaningful conversation. How are you a different person today than you were five years ago? What’s on your mind lately? Do aliens exist? In our fast-paced society that values polite chitchat over substance, deep conversations don’t happen often. Yet it’s these meaningful interactions that nourish introverts and provide us with an antidote to social burnout. Something to be thankful for, indeed.
7. Meeting a fellow introvert who “gets” it. Or an extrovert who “gets” it by respecting your need for space and solitude. Feeling understood by another human being is about as magical as it gets.
8. When there’s a dog or cat at the party. Saved! (From small talk with humans, that is.)
9. Headphones. Pop on a pair when you’re in a public space — like a bus, airplane, coffee shop, or at your desk — and you signal to others that you’re not in the mood to chat. Hallelujah!
10. Arriving on your own to a party so you can leave whenever you want. For introverts, hell is being trapped somewhere surrounded by noise and people. Having an escape mechanism is key.
11. When someone says, “How are you?” and really means it. See #6.
12. When you don’t have to make awkward small talk. For some reason, people find silence awkward. So we strike up conversations about the weather with strangers in elevators. Or we erupt with a cheery, “How’s it going?” when we pass someone we barely know in the hallway at work. When introverts can get through the day with minimal chitchat, we’re thankful.
13. Waking up early or staying up late, when no one else is around. Peace. Silence. Bliss.
14. Downtime after a busy day. Socializing isn’t the only thing that drains introverts. Any kind of incoming stimulation, such as noise, time pressure, or activity, gets tiring. After a busy day, when we don’t have to do one more thing, we’re thankful.
15. A weekend with no social plans. But that doesn’t mean we won’t be doing anything. We’ll make our own plans. Introvert plans. Plans to read in bed. To binge watch our favorite show. To lounge around the house.
16. Self-checkout lanes, drive-throughs, food delivery, and online shopping. No, introverts don’t hate people. But we do try to minimize our “people” intake, because each interaction drains our limited social energy — especially the kind of surface-level interactions that usually take place in restaurants and stores.
17. Having to go to a store but unexpectedly finding it not busy. If you can’t do #16, this is the next best thing.
18. Time to think before responding. Many introverts struggle with word retrieval, because our brains may rely more on long-term memory than short-term memory (extroverts do the opposite). For this reason, we may have a hard time putting our thoughts into words, especially when we’re put on the spot in a meeting, on a first date, or when called on in class. We’re thankful for people who give us a few pressure-free moments to collect our thoughts before demanding an answer.
19. Texting. Similar to #18, introverts tend to feel more comfortable expressing themselves in writing than speaking. That’s because writing uses different pathways in the brain, which seem to flow more fluently for introverts. We’re thankful for every time we can send a text message instead of making a phone call.
20. Public spaces that are actually quiet. When parks, restaurants, coffee shops, bars, buses, and trains are chill, we’re thankful.
21. When you get to do your thing, uninterrupted. Alone time isn’t just about being alone. For many introverts, it’s a way to reconnect with our passions, hobbies, and artistic pursuits. It’s when we do deep, concentrated work. When our alone time is fragmented by other obligations (or interruptions from loved ones), introverts can get stressed. A long stretch of unbroken time to do our thing is something we’re immensely thankful for.
22. Your favorite beverage, a cozy blanket, and your favorite show. Alone.
23. “Me” time. Doing whatever relaxes you, energizes you, and brings you joy.
Why Florida Drivers Don’t Know They’re Breaking the Law – When I see a Florida tag, I stay away. I know they are a bad driver. I don’t know what it is about that state, the one I grew up in and learned drive in. It was way different, before Disney.
Introverts hate being put on the spot, icebreakers, and networking events. My Brother in law (who I nicknamed Flounder from Animal House) did this to me on one of the 2 worst Thanksgivings I’ve had. He was at the other one also. I mumbled some answer when I should have just passed and felt awkward the whole meal.
Delusions of Adequacy 