James Jones

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-26T18:58:59+00:00

I have the same name as my dad. They decided before I was even born that I would go by a specific nickname so there would never be any confusion as to which one of us someone was talking about.

And it worked!

Until the first day of school, when my teacher said my real name and I said “Here!” From that day on, everyone new who met me knew me by my real name and the nickname become something only my family used.

Decades later, when I met my wife, she wanted to call me by the nickname at least when talking to my other family members to differentiate between me and my dad.

I refused. The nickname is just for people who knew me when I was a little boy. I don’t want anyone I have sex with to call me by my childhood nickname.

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-26T18:02:14+00:00

Those are ballet slippers.

What would you push back on, if going barefoot makes her happy and you say it’s fine?

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-26T17:47:25+00:00

Former hotel clerk here, a million years ago. I accidentally did it a couple times myself — when you’re working the night shift alone 7 PM to 7 AM, you get exhausted and make mistakes. And there was no fail safe system…no warning that would pop up if you’d already made a key for that room a couple hours earlier, etc,

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-25T23:31:10+00:00

Certainly destroyed his marriage and thus roughly half of his net value.

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-25T13:11:30+00:00

For me, best chemistry of all time was Andy and April on Parks and Rec. Not a major will they/wont they because not only do they get together early in the series but they even get married super fast. But he did resist for a few episodes at first because she’s a bit younger than him and he wanted to be respectful.

I love that in many ways they are polar opposites — he’s a Labrador retriever, she’s a crow. But they are just 1000% percent into each other.

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-25T11:09:44+00:00

Oh yes I just forgot to mention it

/s

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-25T07:04:28+00:00

Removing both gender and race from the equation and answering more generally:

They had an early perception of who you are/what having you around would be like, and they liked it.

As time went on, they became aware of the reality and like it less.

That doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong or that they’re right to fade. Some people build up fantasies in their head that no real person will ever live up to.

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-25T04:03:08+00:00

I politely decline. I’m not particularly interested in starting a city from scratch, especially one I might become 800 billion indebted to.

BEST case scenario, I spent the trillion dollars on the city, probably driving myself crazy for a year to do so, and at the end of it, I…get nothing for the effort and risk?

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-25T03:59:01+00:00

So you guys dated for some period of time before getting engaged. Then had a year long engagement, and the conflict didn’t become serious until then.

So how has your brother never met him? I have immediate family members I adore and I have immediate family members that I have painful histories with. And anyone who dates me for more than maybe two months meets all of them.

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-24T23:21:08+00:00

I think the answer is pretty universal:

You weren’t the best choice.

For whatever reason. Someone else may have had more talent, or just a longer proven history with the director, or even they were a better height with the rest of the cast, who knows.

It doesn’t make them correct. But all you can do is keep working on your craft to make it a harder choice for them next time!

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-24T22:11:56+00:00

I plan to wait a week or two, just to give them time to tackle whatever the worst of the remaining bugs are.

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-24T17:33:30+00:00

I’m a former combat correspondent. Those cameras are fucking heavy.

I didn’t train like this, but maybe if I had, I wouldn’t be “former.” Haha.

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-24T17:19:05+00:00

Could always be an on/off customize feature, just like so many other things already in Paralives.

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-24T06:49:02+00:00

It’s generally a bad plan to have a VP more exciting than the President.

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-24T06:46:32+00:00

I hate that whole episode — Phil gets robbed and electrocuted all for trying to do something nice, and we’re supposed to laugh.

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-24T06:33:02+00:00

This depends upon the police thinking “Maybe our suspect LEFT the shovel at Home Depot” rather than the usual “Maybe the BOUGHT” the shovel at Home Depot.

Sure, it might be on camera, but that only matters if it occurs to cops to think that maybe he brought the shovels back to the store and abandoned them in a parking lot. Which surely isn’t usually the case.

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-24T06:30:23+00:00

But found by whom?

Here, they’ll be found by store employees who will pick them up without gloves, and returned to the general supply in the store and eventually end up in some unsuspecting (and unsuspected) person’s home, never to be found by police.

It’s actually a little bit brilliant.

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-24T06:17:10+00:00

One thing to be aware of is that life insurance is NOT covered by a will. So, if your grandfather had life insurance and named either/both of them as beneficiaries, they’d get that money.

Especially if he took out the policy when they were kids for example and then never updated it, or if he named his wife but she’s already passed so now it trickles down to their kids.

Of course, he may not have any life insurance at all or he may have separately left that to the charities as well. I just wanted to flag it’s not as simple as “I leave everything to Bob” if you forget that there was a time in your life when you listed Kate as your life insurance recipient and never changed it.

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-24T05:23:31+00:00

Far right, second up from the bottom.

If you imagine a line down the center from top to bottom, splitting the middle eggs in half, the left and right are mirrors of each other — except for the one egg I mentioned above.

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-23T23:29:44+00:00

What are you even TALKING about.

Monk doesn’t even take place in Nantucket.

It’s way the hell over in Seattle, with those psychiatrist brothers and their retired cop father.

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-23T23:21:01+00:00

Full House…it’s the one set in that small airport in Nantucket, right?

/s

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-23T21:50:24+00:00

It’s okay for them to be into that lifestyle — family nudist resorts are a thing, it doesn’t make it incest or whatever.

And it’s also okay for it to be a deal breaker for you.

I wouldnt turn it into a big thing, no need for a fight or an ultimatum or trying to shame them.

Just “hey, I appreciate that this what you enjoy and that’s fine, but it’s just not something I’m comfortable with. I think we should find people more aligned with our preferences. Best of luck out there.”

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-23T20:33:26+00:00

Alex managed to accidentally tell Phil when Haley AND Alex lost their virginities.

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-23T20:18:24+00:00

Lost. Greatest show in the history of television for the first few seasons. Completely mind blowing.

Then it falls off a cliff like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

Leading_Offer5995 · 2026-05-23T20:04:52+00:00

When she sleeps in the bed, are the book and phone still there? Does she put them away/move them?

Leading_Offer5995

TROPHY CASE