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[Helgoland]

So you've got references! Great! If you keep looking, a better job will come along sooner or later, especially now that you have the proper motivation.

[miauw62]

Join a club? Or *gasp* a fraternity??

The problem with that is that it involves people. And regular social gatherings of groups of people. Who I don't know. Yeah. I'm not good at people. Really not my thing.

I usually don't mind being by myself most of the time, except when I really think about it. I think too much. I'd imagine a fraternity would fix that by providing booze to drown my anxiety away, but then I'd have the new problem of being a depressed alcoholic. Because I'd probably develop alcoholism from trying to drown anxiety away. And again, fraternity sounds like there'd be people and groups. Not my thing.

I'm just having a lousy day of worrying about things too much.

Aren't there any clubs related to your interests? I don't really know what your interests are, but aren't there like D&D clubs or something? Or is there a hackerspace nearby or something?

[4maskwolf]

People aren't my thing either.  Which is why I'm in the library antisocially checking the forums during lunchtime instead of talking to people, even though someone tried to get me to join their lunchgroup.  So don't worry, Spehss_, you're not the only one.

[mastahcheese]

People aren't my thing either.  Which is why I'm in the library antisocially checking the forums during lunchtime instead of talking to people, even though someone tried to get me to join their lunchgroup.  So don't worry, Spehss_, you're not the only one.

I'm at the library being anti social right now!

*High-fives peoples on Interwebs*

[timferius]

I like to be social sometimes, but it takes a lot of energy. I've found a few people who don't drain me to be around, and they are my friends and my wife.

[Knit tie]

Hi everybody, how are you? Remember how I asked if there were any decent people in history? I now really wonder if there were any cultures, societies or even places before the late 19th century that actually disapproved of rape. I realise that's quite a touchy subject but I bore witness to a rather nasty internet discussion lately in which a bunch of rabid pseudo-liberals attacked some scottish guys who said that they were proud of being descended from vikings or something and flooded the page with evidence about how the entire history of mankind was permeated by rape and how every single soldier sexually assaulted women when there weren't any children around and how our past is basically FATAL. So I'd really like someone kind to disprove those claims so I can sleep again. Please.

[Arx]

Well, I may be inviting flak here, but the Hebrew laws do at least have some disapproval of rape in them.
Later Rome also seems to have been pretty disapproving of rape culturally, although it's a bit odd.

[Lord Shonus]

EVERY culture has looked down on rape, with a few caveats. Sexual slavery usually wasn't considered rape in most eras, and there's been more than a few cultures where rape was simply considered part of the plunder from raiding. Note that in both cases, this applied only to small "not-us" groups, and rape within a society was generally not only condemmed, but carried stiffer penalties than is now standard.

As for rapes in wartime, with the exception in modern time of the IJA's "comfort women", the similar crimes perpetuated by the SS and (to a lesser extent) the Wehrmact on the Eastern Front, and the Red Army's sanctioned rampage of revenge later in the war, it was generally considered something distasteful that happened, which was only prosecuted in the most disciplined of armies (this, for example, was part of the reason most armies in the 1700s didn't deliberately target officers, as they were afraid of what the largely conscript armies of the time would do without the iron hand of their commanders), but was rarely explicitly condoned.

In short, disapproval of rape was nigh-universal throughout history, but the definition of "rape" tended to be a lot fuzzier.

[Helgoland]

E: Something went wrong there. Still, it's good to see you, Knit!

[Worldmaster27]

So, one of my parents' friend's son was assaulted last night and was later pronounced legally dead.

However, he's still got a sliver of life in him and he's on life support. They're hoping for a miracle, but I don't know. 

My parents learned about this while I was at school, so that was fun coming home to...

[Knit tie]

I'll be back far more often once I get to my new university in Edinburgh. Right now I'm just a bit busy dealing with the emotional shock after reading the first book of G. R. R. Martin's magnum opus, hailed around here as being "wonderfully historically accurate".
Seriously, this thing is harder to read than Soviet WWII veterans' memoirs - at least there you have some people who weren't horrible rapists, robbers and marauders, and on both sides at that. Mr. Martin, in my opinion at least, just keeps piling atrocities on and on like they are scenery descriptions. Perhaps he experiences some form of catharsis from writing about situations that he has never personally experienced in his pampered and sheltered first world life? Or maybe that is his method of coping with depression, disillusionment and other negative feelings, as was almost customary for many authors in ages past? Or instead he may simply be a literary scoundrel such as the infamous Suvorov - Rezun, writhing things that are not commonly discussed nowadays and thus are likely to shock the reader, be they true or false, as a part of a ploy to secure fame and wealth to himself?
Regardless, his works reveal to me such an unfathomable abyss of horror and despair that I find myself anything but entertained and interested in his saga's continuation.
The aforementioned overzealous liberal rape sermon was just the last straw that broke the proverbial's camel back.

[TD1]

Of course, it is fantasy.

It's in its own world, one not our own.

[AlleeCat]

Panic attacks hit me hard all day yesterday and escalated to crippling fear for no reason around dinner. highlights include breaking down in tears and screaming for an ambulance, being completely fine in the ambulance, and then freaking the fuck out in the hospital and knocking over trays because I was hyperventilating so much I lost all feeling in my extremities and face. The only thing I could do to get anyone was scream because they never gave me a call button. They gave me a double dose of Ativan, which knocked me out for a couple hours, and discharged me immediately after I woke up because "we can't find anything wrong" even though the only diagnostic test they did was take my temperature.

[WillowLuman]

So, one of my parents' friend's son was assaulted last night and was later pronounced legally dead.

However, he's still got a sliver of life in him and he's on life support. They're hoping for a miracle, but I don't know. 

My parents learned about this while I was at school, so that was fun coming home to...

Here's hoping he pulls through. That's pretty scary stuff, especially not knowing until later.

Do they know the perpetrator?

[McDonald]

I feel lonely, but at the same time I don't want to talk to anybody. It makes me angry and even more lonely.
AlleeCat, that's really bad. Reading this thread made me want to cry.

* McDonald hugs everyone