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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 4th, 2023

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  • I had a partner with genital HSV-1. YMMV, but in general:

    • No BFD; the stigma of HSV is the result of a marketing campaign in the 70s (not 100% on the date) by a company selling HSV treatments
    • Be honest and inform your prospective partners; yeah, some people who haven’t done the reading are going to react negatively
    • Antiviral treatments are available; the one my partner was a daily pill
    • In eight years of unprotected sex with her, she never had an outbreak and I test negative
    • You may never have another outbreak, you may have regular flare-ups, or something in between
    • Talk to your doctor and any take all of my previous comments like the Internet rumor it is

  • I love when someone writes a pleasant “this is my experience and what worked for me.” And then people downvote. ITT some real night owl/daywalker tension. :D

    Just to add some crunchy bits to the batter, your circadian rhythms will most likely shift as you age. For example, I used to be hardcore night owl, and couldn’t imagine my life ever going differently. Then I couldn’t do it anymore and managed to become a second-shifter. Now I’m all about getting in bed early and up early.


  • Your point is spot-on. Fully agreed: modern dishwashers are way more energy- and water-efficient than manually washing dishes. Like at least an order of magnitude.

    I personally struggle with this one for different reasons. Energy and water consumption are a very tight concern since I live on a sailboat. I can’t just crank the tap to get more water. Marine health is also a concern since, ya know, it’s all around me, and I eat some of these critters around my boat. Surfactants in detergent are deeply problematic in the environment and are not removed by most wastewater treatment. Moreover, surfactants impede wastewater treatment because of the emulsification interfere with aerobic treatment (Poland seems to be actively working on the problem). FWIW, manual dish detergent also has surfactants, especially SDS/SLS, so manual washing is not a panacea.

    I don’t think there is a “right” answer to be had. But it sticks in my craw both ways.



  • Thank you for this. My wife left about a week ago. It blindsided me, but I’m hindsight I could have seen it.

    1. Happy to help
    2. JFC, I’m sorry to hear what you’re going through, and I deeply empathize. I’m just some douchebag on the internet, but if you need a trained ear, please feel free to DM me.
    3. Sure, hindsight is 20/20, but a critical component is giving yourself grace and emotional space

    Now I realize that if I don’t work on myself, I will bring all of my problems to any future relationship. I’m only at the very start of the journey, and every day is still painful – our relationship lasted 15 years, and that can’t be unwound quickly.

    There is sense of closure and ability of growth in understanding the whys. Explicitly working to avoid carrying forward the injuries is a huge step. As you probably already read in Gottman: the best couple’s therapy is individual therapy. Empathy by way of anecdote: when I was reading Levine’s “Attached,” so many of the example conversations had me feeling like “Were y’all in the room when we were arguing?!”

    I’m serious about the being a sounding board/ear. I hope you find inner peace sooner rather than later.


  • Fully agreed. According to Gottman’s research, relationships can survive “infidelity” just fine. It’s the betrayal of trust that nukes relationships.

    I can take a lot of shit, but I just don’t want to be lied to. And that’s why I prefer ENM/poly. People are gonna do people things, but letting my partner have that outlet, not feeling trapped in any way, is (in my experience) critical to keeping the flame alive.


  • She didn’t change; she finally revealed herself. In short, her attachment type is anxious-avoidant. That shit burns down everything around it. She was jealous AND cheating, which was just rich given that we were ENM/poly. I was so busy with life, work, and my sailboat that I only had romantic bandwidth for her.

    I am forever changed. I went on an intensive therapeutic and introspective journey. Anxious-avoidant people can be immensely attractive anxious attachment types like me. I identified that in myself, addressed my own life traumas, and developed my personal boundaries. These days, I’m less poly, more monogamish. I approached dating with explicitly defined intentions and must-haves, rather than just random chance. I found the partner of my dreams, and we’re about to celebrate eight years together.

    Early on, there were mutual warning signs, but we both thought we had the tools to face any challenges. As I mentioned, I had poor boundaries, which now would put an immediate end to any such bullshit.

    What can I offer now?

    • Learn Attachment Theory and know yourself
    • Read John Gottman books before and all during your relationships
    • Get professional therapeutic help; CBT, DBT, EFT… you might already have all the tools, but a good therapist will teach how to use them in integration
    • Learn non-violent communication and/or take a workshop; this will provide massive return on investment in all aspects of your life
    • Practice meditation and mindfulness; also pays dividends everywhere



  • Regularly throughout my life. I’m also 5’7". It seems to be less of an issue now that I’m older. People are going to like what they like. But people who limit their choices to strict deterministic traits tend to completely skip right over awesome people, and then they wonder why they’re partners are so terrible.

    So yeah, this shit is going to happen. You’ll also get chosen for your height. Focus on improving those physical traits over which you have control.




  • Humorous on face value, but that’s not what utility companies do. In every utility district I ever lived (and it’s a lot), if the meter readers were “unable” to read your meter, the consumption was estimated.

    I had many conflicts about this because I traveled a lot for work and knew that there was no possible way I could have consumed as much electricity as they estimated. It turned it that meter readers could just claim the meter was inaccessible, and their job was considered completed.