Notices by Don Romano 🍹 (thj@mastodon.cloud), page 14

@philcolbourn Had the older son been more of a normal teenager, he would've been much less attached to his mother, and much more understanding of her need for the company of another adult.

She hadn't actually planned on having more children, but I think her partner basically wanted to tip the scale in his favour, reproductively speaking.

@philcolbourn My sister plus her son plus a stepfather was a very bad combination.

Sister: Very short-tempered.

Son: Very attached to his mother, but very immature for his age and short-tempered.

Stepfather: The only mild-mannered person among them, but quite immature. Not really capable of talking to the stepson in a sensitive manner. Mostly only acted affectionate toward his own children. (Then again, the son, with his issues, wasn't exactly easy to love.)

@philcolbourn To this, add various expert opinions from the child protection agency, and some statements from workers at the kindergarten the younger children went to.

The whole thing started because my sister found a new partner and had children, and her oldest son couldn't accept anyone getting between him and his mother.

Unable to resolve the conflict, my sister contacted the CPA to ask for assistance, and that was the trigger for everything that followed.

@philcolbourn No physical evidence. Just accounts from the alleged victims, who were:

1. Teenage son A from previous relationship, with ADHD, delayed mental development and a short temper, who hated his stepfather and was jealous of him.

2. Two kids B and C of preschool age, fathered by her new partner.

A's lawyers deleted his diagnoses and groomed him as a primary witness. B and C were asked leading questions for weeks by their foster parents before a professional could debrief them.

The kind of poverty you see in the United States where people live in trailer parks or very basic homes that are barely more than barracks or sheds, and entire settlements look that way? You don't really get that in Northern and Western Europe.

When you see that kind of thing on television, it makes America look like a poor country.

We give foreign aid to countries who could afford to help themselves, but are too corrupt to do it.

Perhaps we should give some foreign aid to America.

The Norwegian language has two verbs for "move".

If you're stepping aside, adjusting your position, moving your mouse cursor somewhere, or moving to a new town, that's "flytte".

If you're walking, waving your hand, shaking your mouse cursor, working out, dancing or having sex, that's "bevege".

The distinction is between single/targeted motion versus continuous/general motion, and both can be applied to any living or dead object, just like "move" itself.

My mother's health started to decline after she lost her grandchildren. The state took my sister's children and imprisoned her a few years ago.

My sister's innocent. They said there was long term abuse, but I rented a room in their house the entire time, and never saw or heard anything like that.

The state only destroyed her because she was naive enough to ask them for help with her oldest son, who had issues.

The state killed our mother. Fucking bastards. I hope karma gets them good.

I must stop listening to women who tell me to try online dating.

I always learn the same lesson, no matter what site I end up on: The women get a million likes, pick out the hottest guys to date, and the rest of us are left clicking.

If you're a vaguely normal looking woman, or a hot guy, using a dating site is probably a great idea. For the rest of us, it is, and always has been, a waste of time.

Having a Tinder Gold account is useful, but also rather demoralising. It shows you everyone who likes you, even if you didn't like them yet.

I think I've had maybe 2 or 3 people like me for what I think has been almost a week now, and they all seem a little fishy.

I'm not sure why I'm swiping, really, because I know for certain now that people aren't swiping right on me.

The guys I'm competing with on Tinder are in a different league than me. They're these square-jawed guys with abs and full manes who look like they shave three times a day.

@Osmosis Neither of them were meant for to be. I'm quite sure of that. Especially the first one.

I know there are poor girls from Russia or Asia who'd happily date any white man who will take them. I know where to get those.

I just want to date someone from my own country for once. Someone who belongs to my culture.

As a human you need to have people around you who care, right? People who check on you and ask you "How are you?" out of genuine concern, not politeness. People who love you, even if it's only your mom. People you love back.

Humans need that, right? Beyond water, food and shelter, isn't that basically the most important thing to have?

Me? I have no one. My life is utterly empty.

Yes, there is a cat and an another human in my flat, but neither are capable of empathy or mature conversation.

@philcolbourn It's mostly an analogy for the kind of thing I do as I code.

I left Tinder in bisexual mode overnight, because I was checking out the competition yesterday.

Gay men must have an extremely easy time getting laid, because I'm getting likes all over the place.

If I was a carpenter instead of a developer, and I was told to make a door, it would open both ways on all four sides.

@Fergant Enkelte av kvinnene jeg kommer over på Tinder kan ha slike underlige mannlige trekk. Det er distraherende, for det kan gi en mild følelse av å se noen i drag.

@Fergant Jeg kan huske å ha fått dette spørsmålet en gang før her inne. Jeg tror det var en transkvinne som spurte.

Det er vanskelig å svare på hvorvidt jeg har vært tiltrukket av en transkvinne, fordi noen av dem faktisk klarer å se ut som biologiske kvinner.

I den grad jeg har lagt merke til at noen er det, er det gjerne fordi en viss mandighet ofte henger igjen, selv etter kjønnskifte og behandling med hormoner. Det er det mannlige skjelettet som gjør det, tror jeg.

When I talk about my dating issues, I inevitably have a few people go all Darth Vader on me...

"Give yourself to the queer side, Luke. It's the only way you're getting Iaid."

I should mention at this point that I've had two girlfriends so far.

The problem was that they weren't great. I mostly went for them because they showed interest, which they did in the hopes of escaping their respective situations: One was from ghetto USA, the other was from the Philippines.

@Fergant Fortsett...?

My flatmate is the kind of person where, if you told him that he's disgusting, he'd just shrug it off, or maybe even chuckle a bit, before continuing to binge on anime.

He's not a bad person, but he's terribly immature, and the older I get, the more his habits irritate me.

So why share a flat?

1. Still paying down debts.

2. Non-awful landlords are rare.

3. I'd have absolutely no one to talk to about personal stuff.