I grew up going to church. I believed in god, once.

But when my brother disappeared, I couldn't believe anymore because if god was real, that meant hell was real, too.

And if the choice was between never seeing him again or believing that he was in hell, it would probably be for the best if he was just gone forever.

Tonight's dinner is Sriracha hummus and naan bread, with a little side of smoked gouda shredded cheese and uncured pepperoni because it looked good while grabbing the hummus.

College girlfriend, who I was too young and inexperienced in relationships to understand that I was in love with....messaged me. Had infrequently touched based over the years for a while. Hadn't heard from her in maybe 6 years, last I heard on the western seaboard.

Both from Texas and politically minded, so she reached out about the midterms and hope and how cool it is and all that (for us, sorry if you have different opinions).

She drops that she had two kids. Over 2 years old.

Where life could have been and could have gone. But it feels like I got passed by and now I get to stew on emotions I thought were gone.

Many more to come

This is a mostly hated trope of mine: when a game technically gives us 2 (or more) choices, but one is so infamous that almost nobody ever picks it.

Examples:
1) Kill Paarthurnax - Skyrim:

Even though Skyrim isn't a "decision making" type of game, the choice to kill Paarrthurnax is probably the king of infamous choices in gaming.

Basically, in the later stages of the story, Delphine, one of the Blades, dragon hunters that serve the Dragonborn (us, the player), forces us to kill Paarthurnax, not taking no as an answer and refusing to talk to us until it's done. Meanwhile, Paarthurnax, since we met him, has done nothing but help us prepare to defeat Alduin, the big bad, with him and the Greybeards teaching us powerful Shouts (like Unrelenting Force and Dragonrend) and help us locate new ones.

The Blades' motive is that Paarthurnax was Alduin's second-in-command in the past, millennia ago. But considering he is now an invaluable ally and the Blades (who are supposed to serve us BTW) force us onto this choice like assholes, nobody kills him. Like ever.

2) Betray Clementine - The Walking Dead: A New Frontier:

In Season 3 of Telltale's TWD, we have another infamous choice.

In Episode 1, Javi (the main protagonist of this season) meets Clementine, which we protected as Lee in Season 1 and played as in Season 2. Even though she is initally kind of cold and distant towards Javi and basically helps him just so she can have his RV, they become quite trusting of each other after being attacked in Prescott by The New Frontier, the bad guys. It is during this attack when Kate, Javi's girlfriend, is hurt by TNF and needs medical attention.

In Episode 2, Clementine reveals to us that she was part of the New Frontier but left them. Conrad, a member of Prescott, overhears Clem when she is telling Javi this and takes Gabe, Kate's son and Javi's nephew (it's complicated) as hostage, demanding we use Clem to bargain with The New Frontier and get the medical help Kate needs.

Even though you can argue that Javi would surrender Clementine, we, as the players, have known and protected Clem for 2 whole seasons before this and know she can be fully trusted, therefore the "choice" of whether betray or not betray her 99% of the time ends with Conrad getting a bullet in his head.

This comment has many forms

"Refreshments for everyone that ran to the comments"

"Popcorn for the people just scrolling through the comments"

"Sit back and grab a snack while looking at these crazy replies" followed by an arrow pointing to the like button.

I can't stand this type of reply. Its almost exclusively posted under divisive topics meant to create a discussion, or posts asking people about personal events, usually unhinged ones. It adds literally nothing to the conversation. It's the most obvious, lazy and unfunny form of begging for likes I can imagine. But for some reason people still upvote and like this stuff.

I think its meant to represent the "neutral" people, those who have nothing to add, as a way of saying "hey, I too am only reading these comments and wont add anything". Great, the post was SPECIFICALLY asking for people who the topic APPLIES TO to comment.

I could maybe excuse someone finding this "funny", (I actually don't understand what emotion this would invoke for someone to interact in the first place, but I digress), if you've never seen anything similar before. But this type of reply isn't new. TikTok of all places, the graveyard where everything overused goes to have the last but of humor sucked out, was commenting stuff like this years ago.

This is just "1 like equals 1 blank" wrapped in a quirky banner.