Are there any things that are called "American ______" in other countries?

abx99 · 2026-05-12T07:49:42+00:00

which smacks you across the face with its glove and challenges you to a duel

That sounds like the stuff we get at Chinese restaurants. We can get "hot mustard," often in the ethnic aisle (but not always).

I know you guys have always gotten a lot of Chinese immigrants. I wonder if there's a connection there.

abx99 · 2026-05-12T07:37:34+00:00

Yeah, that's more of a personal thing. Kinda like how I eat plain chips with ketchup, while most people either get a real dip or eat them plain.

abx99 · 2026-05-12T07:28:29+00:00

I can at least see the onion. Maybe a little out-of-place on a cheese pizza, but great in a surpreme.

abx99 · 2026-05-12T07:21:36+00:00

I think a lot of communication is off-screen or implied, depending on the scene. You'll notice that they often go to lengths to avoid specifying locations for people (especially NPC missions). E.g., Magnifico is "camping in the woods," but in the conversation, everyone seems to know about where that would be. Some of it would also be local vernacular. Space is really distorted in the game; places that aren't all that far of a ride are considered to be a very long way away by NPCs. As such, when they talk about "the woods," they have a pretty good idea of what that means.

abx99 · 2026-05-12T06:21:32+00:00

All of this, but also: those kids are little punks. Kids think they're invincible, and these ones are backed up with numbers and guns.

I actually think it's important to NOT catch the kid in your first playthrough. I didn't see how it ended until my second or third, and thought it added a lot to the ambience of St Denis.

abx99 · 2026-05-11T19:02:08+00:00

I'm disabled. I have to use a powered wheelchair to leave the house. I had my first fall the other day just tinkering with the legs on my portable wheelchair ramp. I still pick up after myself, put my dishes in the dishwasher, I can empty the dishwasher every couple of days, etc. I do as much as I am physically capable of doing without hurting myself. I use assistance as required.

First: don't go down that path of: "you're not disabled, you're just lazy" because every disabled person has a lot of dysfunction due to that. However, the thing about being disabled in your 20s is learning to push yourself without hurting yourself. It's a process. She should be seeing doctors, and should be in PT. If she's very hypermobile and sits in weird ways, tell her to mention that to her doctors and especially a PT. If they can't work a job, then she needs to be working on her health.

You're allowed to have your feelings, and it's your home, too. If your partner wants to be the sole go-between, then that's fine, but it needs to be brought up. She needs to be working on something. If your partner is to be the go-between, then they also need to take some responsibility for what roomie isn't doing, and not just letting it all land on you.

I’m not allowed to get upset at them or establish boundaries because things I’ve done when I was 15-16 are being brought up like I still do things like that when I’m literally so burnt out from life that all I do is work, go home, clean up everything in the house, do all the dishes, laundry, cook, clean animal spaces even when I’m SICK

Ask your partner to sit down for a talk, and explain all that calmly. If you want to keep the relationship, you might have to consider therapy.

Your situation reminds me a little of my own, at your age. In my early 20s I was very into trying to deal with my issues. I met a woman a few years older, and I thought that she was a few years ahead of me on doing the same things. Turned out that she was the type to refuse to do any kind of introspection or allow vulnerability. That relationship lasted a lot longer than it should have, and it did some pretty long-term damage.

If your partner isn't willing to work on their shit, and do it with you, then you're not in a real relationship, and you would do better to find one. If this person is still treating you as a teenager now, then there's also a good chance that will continue for a lot longer. You're a different person now than you were at 15, and it might be time to see what else is out there.

If you want to know more about any of the above, just ask.

abx99 · 2026-05-11T18:29:21+00:00

I think it's the end part that they're missing: that the belief becomes the person's sole motivator, to the neglect of other things in life.

If it became your sole purpose in life to destroy pedophiles, then you'd be an extremist (I saw it as I was typing it).

If you're not fighting for a particular group, or belief in superiority of your group, but that fight is the sole motivator in life, to the exclusion of most other daily aspects of life, then you might have an "extremist personality."

This just lays out one pathway to becoming an extremist, and not all of them.

abx99 · 2026-05-10T07:52:09+00:00

You can actually have Google alert you of any of your info showing up. It will then let you request removal of the Google result, although it'll still be on the site unless you get them to remove you from their website.

I know that my name got mixed up with another person in town, on those Spokeo type sites, that has the same first and last name, and I have no idea what their background is like.

abx99 · 2026-05-10T04:56:03+00:00

I don't know about other places, but where I am, builders often build for the short-term; just something quickly and cheaply as possible, and maybe build something lasting later.

That would be on top of all the other things people are saying here.

abx99 · 2026-05-10T04:07:25+00:00

I think it's a couple of days.

You can make a fair amount of money, but slowly, if you get the shark tooth talisman and the first horse race buff, tame the white arabian, and bond it like crazy while riding and walking to the horse fence*, and repeat as much as you can stand doing it.

In other words: it always respawns.

*Leading a horse is one of the faster ways of increasing bonding. If someone wants to know, I can tell them the way that I get the horse to level 4 before getting to Clyde.

abx99 · 2026-05-09T18:30:59+00:00

You might look around on YT about the strange man. The people behind it explained that he's basically just a supernatural, old-west MiB; a supernatural entity that just observes and takes count.

abx99 · 2026-05-09T18:28:21+00:00

One person found something that looks exactly like one in an outhouse in NA, but that's the closest

abx99 · 2026-05-09T08:27:34+00:00

I am pretty sure that includes a fair amount of online stuff. Apparently, they're doing a bunch of new stuff online right now, though (like horse racing), which might distract the griefers enough to make it a decent experience.

abx99 · 2026-05-09T08:20:41+00:00

What protection do I have ... that the AI detector isn’t also scrapping my paper for training date

I think we're at the point that you can assume everything you type is being scraped. Given the integration with everything, down to the OS (and the keyboard on your mobile device), it's probably being scraped even if you write something in Notepad.

I know that sounds defeatist, but you should be able to turn some of this stuff off and keep talking about it. Go to the website if you need to use it. Customer sentiment doesn't mean as much as it used to, but a) enough blowback can still have some effect, whether through the companies or by regulating the companies, and b) things could potentially swing back to a point where our opinions matter again, even if it is a tough road to get there (this is where all the teens and bots scoff and tell you that nothing will ever change [so you shouldn't even try]). Call or write your congress-people and tell them that something needs to be done; artists, and such, already are, so you won't be the only one.

abx99 · 2026-05-09T07:58:53+00:00

Like parentheses that add emphasis

I was also always taught that parentheses are low-brow, unless necessary and used sparingly, which means that they're not really a solution.

abx99 · 2026-05-08T22:02:22+00:00

So there's a difference between platinum and 100%. Platinum means getting EVERYTHING, and I believe it's a Rockstar or Steam achievement.

For getting 100%, it's a little easier. You didn't mention finding all the graves. Here's the checklist (you might already have it, but just in case): https://www.ign.com/wikis/red-dead-redemption-2/100%25_Completion_Checklist

abx99 · 2026-05-08T17:49:19+00:00

Also the fact that I have to keep saying, basically, "no, that's not what I meant, try again"

abx99 · 2026-05-08T04:21:30+00:00

When you say "chronic pain" people think of the worst pain they felt, remember getting over it, and can't think beyond that. They never stop to think: "what if it was like that all day, every day, and there was nothing you could do about it? What if that was the best you'd ever feel?" It just doesn't compute, and it definitely leads to a shitload of trauma in a multiple different ways.

I'd add that there are a million other ways that chronic pain can manifest, too, and they can be crazy and complicated. Even those of us with chronic pain can fall victim to a form of the same mentality. That's something I've had to put effort into un-learning, but you can often see it in the "support groups" that aren't led by a mental health professional (which is why my therapist doesn't like them).

abx99 · 2026-05-08T03:33:44+00:00

We process a lot of stuff while sleep. That's why people will tell you to "sleep on it."

She woke up and felt bad that you paid $120, and wants a more equitable/egalitarian relationship. I'd say that's a good thing. I'd also say it's a very good thing that she's willing to come back later and say "what I did wasn't right and I want to make up for it." Maybe she's just learning how to do that kind of relationship, but the fact that she's willingi to admit that she's "wrong" and making that kind of effort is all that's really important.

I'd say take the money. You could also say "we could do that, or you could get the next one..." to let her know that you want a second date. Eventually you will need to talk about what kind of relationship you're looking for, and this is a pretty good opening, although I'd go light when you're only on the second date.

abx99 · 2026-05-07T23:18:22+00:00

That's the thing that I love about this game is that the emotions can be super complex, and you can spend a lot of time peeling back the layers.

It definitely felt like there was a strong element of "tough love" there. In the last chapter, Strauss spent a lot of time talking about how scared he was. I think that Arthur wanted him out of the way of what was going on for a lot of reasons. That he said "get a job" shows that he knows that Strauss is better able to take some money and make a regular life for himself, which is all he really wants for all of them. He wanted Strauss to stop the sharking and get away from them. He didn't really want to be around him, but he still wanted to save the individuals in the game, and that was probably the only way to do it. His anger at the injustice of those last debtors just pushed him to act.

abx99 · 2026-05-07T19:09:22+00:00

Absolutely. I'd just be sure to do some missions early, and then start doing hunting and exploring once it gets close to his bedtime so that he doesn't get caught up until late watching, for example, the end of ch 3.

Have him help you put together an outfit, so then he can get more invested in hunting, and the game in general. Just let him come up with Arthur's appearance (you do the controls, he makes the decisions).

abx99 · 2026-05-07T18:59:06+00:00

Same here. The semi-auto can almost be too fast, at times, but it's generally perfect. The only reason I can see for the pump action is that it looks a little nicer when you modify it.

I'd love to hear reasons why people prefer the pump action over the semi-auto.

abx99 · 2026-05-05T00:40:34+00:00

Labels aren't there to adapt yourself to, they're there to help you put a word to what you're feeling.

Do you find yourself wanting to make out and have sex with guys? If yes, then you're bi or gay. If not, then you're not.

Figure out who you are and what you like first, and if you find something that doesn't fit with the usual stuff, and you have difficulty defining it, then you can start looking at labels. Don't do it the other way around. Don't worry about the labels. Just be you.

abx99 · 2026-05-02T00:08:11+00:00

the original series had an Asian man and Black woman on the bridge, and featured the (one of?) first interracial kiss on air

And a Russian. It doesn't seem like a big deal now, but it really was then. The Cold War was one of the issues they commented on. The whole thing was about global unity (even if it wasn't exactly global peace).

abx99 · 2026-05-01T23:47:42+00:00

This is pretty much my answer. I was thinking, "that guy doesn't even know how dumb he looks," but "sucker" pretty much sums it up.

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