That sounds wonderful!! I tried to move to Europe after my first visit in my early twenties. Didn't work out, but I've been telling my husband that if his company ever has jobs over yonder, that he needs to consider it!

Sigh, yeah.....family members are difficult to eliminate from one's life entirely. Forced to cross paths now and then.

If nothing else, the very first alphabetically.

Monster Taco BM.

Thanks!! It's a real rush when other people notice and they too seem to get a kick out of a little unexpected creativity in the workplace. Makes for a good benign conversation starter as well.

Ahhh always a tricky concept, making a passion into a career! The things I love would pay even less. My passions aren't marketable (writing, translating, creative stuff.) But I have learned to incorporate some of these things into my daily routine to offset the grind. For example, designing a chart for the VP that's fun and colorful rather than the usual boring list- that got some praise! Mass emails with some graphics are also fun to do. Difficult conversations that other people don't want to get involved with, that takes finesse and some creativity. Stuff like that.

On the one hand, I find great personal fulfillment in pursuing the things I love.

On the other, I've gotten nowhere in my "career," and wish I'd stuffed some more useful information in my head.

Man, even in the early days of the internet, I remember a co-worker telling me how he wanted to make a website for this exact reason. He was talking about how he wanted to show the images that mainstream media never do, because people need to understand just how serious it is.

Gov't learned after Vietnam that showing the reality of war meant it would become unpopular and cause protests. That's why there's hardly any footage anymore, AND they've stopped reporting on the number of casualties.

Well this got me off Reddit for about an hour, nice!

Isn't it wacky?! I'm looking at a small pile of gifts from relatives in the corner, waiting for tomorrow. Sooo much STUFF in this house, I can't keep up- MIL is constantly offloading stuff she no longer wants on us, plus my mother's stuff after she went to a nursing home, cousins' stuff in the attic, it gets suffocating.

I go to thrift stores to drop stuff off at least every month, and we still have so much.

The narcissist I used to have in my life was an aggressive gift-giver. I can look around this room and see a bunch of things they bought, but it was obnoxious- essentially taking over all the decor after a while bit by bit.

But of course you can't complain about "generous" gift-givers.

Ohhhh so that's what people do with these! Do you have a digital frame brand to recommend?

I'm in a career rut, and have to fight the PTSD all the time. Always trying to remain neutral in a department fraught with drama and turnover. People get on my case about not taking sides sometimes, but I honestly don't know who to trust most of the time.

That'll do it. I thought it had to do with the war.

Not to mention how she was malnourished for a long time as a kid/teenager, I forget exactly why. Damn shame a woman has to be emaciated to be "beautiful."

Damn that's a cool photo.

Probably, but it is pretty insane just how bad most newspaper-sites are.

If they're talking about the websites of the newspapers, then it's true how loaded up with ads those are.

You forgot about "lede." Or maybe you just buried it.

US media outlets have been owned by the 1% for quite some time, although most of the propaganda was through "news" fed to stations by the gov't. Now it's Sinclair, Murdoch, Ailes, etc.

One of my relatives is an ivy-educated journalism teacher, and often asks his class to consider both sides of news stories, but he's still pro-Trump and buys into a lot of the related bullshit. I'm floored that he's apparently unaware of the history of Fox, and the control of people like Murdoch.

I don't go out of my way to listen to these two, but their voices are etched into my brain so clearly. I can easily "play back" these songs in my mind, despite not having listened to their songs for a LONG time! Damn shame.

That too.

This is nice for the diamonds, but I don't have thousands of years.

This is another version of "living well is the best revenge."

Nice!! It helps to know that the people from your past are mostly gone, buildings get renovated, stores change, etc.