I was in my 50s before I started understanding this stuff. Before that, I was married to a very gregarious man who was my social buffer. I could hide behind his small talk. But then he passed away and I was left twisting in the wind until I started to learn how to make small talk. Often I just ask myself what my husband would have said.

So are you autistic? Because the literal-mindedness of your answers and the lack of awareness of how to engage in small talk is telling. I say this as one on the spectrum myself; it took me a long time to understand this is just an attempt to establish social connections by finding points of commonality. “Oh, you’re from Calgary? I used to live there, too! Did you know a store called Myth Games?” Neurotypical people are also waiting for you to ask the same things in return and often feel miffed if you don’t show any curiosity about them.

Bingo. Most of these tax schemes will hurt the renter, not the landlord.

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Serious answer? The serenity prayer. Recognize what is in your control and what’s not. Accept what you can’t change, change what you can.

For me it was getting sober and specifically the serenity prayer. I have a terrible temper. Like break things and punch people temper. It’s always embarrassing to lose control like that. Well, saying that prayer reminds me that there are things I can control and things I can’t. Serenity is understanding the difference and accepting your powerlessness over things like the past, other people’s thoughts and actions, and even your own flaws. I am so calm now, I just have a “not my circus, not my monkeys” attitude most of the time. Occasionally, something starts to push my buttons and I have to walk away if possible, but that’s rare.

Also, make sure you’re getting enough sleep and try cutting out caffeine. Anything that causes more cortisol production is going to stress you.

Did my childhood dog really go live on a farm in the country?

Turns out that some people have overlap in color perception that muddies things, and when you use these glasses to filter out the “in between” wavelengths, everything becomes easier to distinguish.

Rising early and going to bed early is more virtuous than rising late and going to bed late.

Office politics. I was a 4.0 student who was given an award by the faculty as best computer science student two years in a row. Despite being talented, extra hard working and driven, I had no idea how to play the game and my career stalled almost immediately. I watched others with weaker skills get promotions and raises because they knew the right people and served on the right committees. Being slightly autistic, I never realized the rules of the game. I quit after 8 years and started my own business, went back as a contractor getting 4x the pay, and it was awesome. There should be a class for people called “sucking up to management and gaming performance reviews.”

A political catch-all for non-conservatives

Being underemployed. As long as they meet their obligations, I applaud people who don’t live for work.

No. Absolutely not. I will not allow it. Damn.

If somebody re-released all the Infocom games like Zork, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and Nord & Bert Couldn’t Make Head Or Tail Of It, I would be all over that

I don’t ever go back and look at the votes.

I like to say that in Texas, you never actually own your home.

No, that’s county, city, and school district

This is Texas which has no income tax, so they have high property tax. It’s about 1% per annum based on the appraised value of the property. Plus if it’s a newer neighborhood, you pay an extra amount for the cost of infrastructure until it’s paid off, usually called a MUD (municipal utility district) tax. Mine is an extra 1.2% so I’m paying roughly $1200/month in property taxes for my residence.

Yes. It happened to my friends. They both lost their jobs and couldn’t pay the property tax on their fully paid-off house, so it was foreclosed and auctioned off.

Let’s get KOTOR2 with an actual ending as well