JadedWolf

But think of the rich football history of Qatar, the enthusiasm of its fans, the suitcases filled with unmarked bills handed over in shady parking lots...

What it boils down to, is that there are more factors to "being succesful at life" than just working hard. There are many other factors at work such as social class, your basic health, the way you look and what kind of talents and personality traits you happen to have been born with. Now, no one is saying that you should feel ashamed for having been born upper class, having good looks, having certain talents or having perfect health. And no one is saying that if you have certain obstacles in your life that you can't still succeed at life, and that it is any excuse to sit on your bum and to do nothing but whinge about it. What the comic is saying, to me anyway, is that rather than looking at others and condemning them sometimes you should instead count your own blessings, and consider that other people who might not be doing so well as you are might actually still be trying very hard, but might not have had all the opportunities you had.

Its weird but there is something about your post I find inordinately depressing You're going to have to explain that. You find it depressing that I'm doing alright?

Right. Hum. To get back to the original topic of this thread: I'm doing alright, all things considering. Yeah, I am making peanuts, but at least I have a job and a roof over my head. The weather is nice outside, I got some extra money in the bank this month due to the yearly holiday pay out, and best of all my girlfriend will be visiting in about two weeks time. We're in what you'd call a long distance relationship, and I actually only get to see her about two times a year. So I'm pretty much looking forward to that, as you can imagine. A lot of people give me a funny look when I tell them that. But hey, she is definitely worth it, so them's the breaks.

Y'think? And what is needed to change one's situation from unsuccessful to successful? Have you met many people that freely, consciously made the choice to be poor, unhappy, unsuccessful or otherwise miserable? Is this a strength of character thing or it depends on acquired or innate insights? And are those inheritable or environmentally influenced traits? Actually yes. I knew a lady when I lived in South Florida. She worked two jobs making near minimum wage and was so deep in credit card debt she had almost no hope of getting out. But she smoked 2 cartons of cigarettes a week and blew $200 a week in the Seminole Indian Casino. I told her to stop smoking and stop gambling and her financial situation would improve immediately. She wouldn't do either. Sometimes she won a few hundred bucks but spent thousands to do it. If you ever find yourself in a hole the first thing you need to do is stop digging. When I lost my business and my home I was not buying booze or steak dinners or stuff like that. With limited resources I bought only what was needed to turn one day into the next. When I couldn't find work in Ft. Lauderdale I moved to West Palm Beach. When I couldn't afford a better place to live in town I moved out to the sticks. There are no end to the possibilities available to folks in the US today. If your education is what is holding you back there is low cost and even no cost alternatives. Community colleges, trade schools, adult education... free in many cases. All you have to do is show up. Don't buy unnecessary things if you can't afford them. If you need work and there is none to be had nearby, then go where the work is. Start your own business. Do work on the side for cash. It's everyone's first responsibility to take care of themselves and their families. To tell the truth I don't know who I resent more. The ones who get on public assistance and stay there forever because it is always easier to do nothing than do something or the folks who tell me it's people like me who are responsible they are in the predicament they are in and demand I pay their way from my hard work. Good post GD, you make some excellent points I live in a country where there is real sense of entitlement from some people who were previously disenfranchised under Apartheid and now expect the government to give them everything for free....housing ...electricity, you name it. Many of them don't work and this bill is expected to be carried by taxpayers like me, its a massive drain on our economy and very annoying. It basically boils down to people expecting things without having to work for them and I reject this idea vociferously I just have to say I find you saying these things so very, very ironic considering how you present yourself as constantly pointing out to others how privileged they are as white males... So very, very ironic.

Housing is going down, clothes are going down, vehicles are going down (weirdly the cost of maintenance is going up. You'd think as cars get more replaceable the cost of fixing them would go down, but nope. I don't have a car personally so that really surprised me.). The only thing people really need that is going up is food, but food in general is really cheap; a bit of an increase in the cost of food is pennies compared to the lowered costs of housing. And yet, if some people are to believed, we're all doomed unless we collectively switch from eating meat to munching on crickets and mealworms. As far as I'm concerned, they can have all the crickets and mealworms they want. I'll make do with chicken, thanks very much. I love me some chicken, but have you tried a fried cricket? It's delicious. Mealworms not so much, rather boring and tasteless, though I doubt I'd have a problem with it as a supplement to fill out pastas and the like. I want to try spider some day. I'm not really adventurous minded when it comes to these things, I guess. Eating things like crickets, or frog legs, or snails for that matter, just doesn't really appeal to me. And as long as I can easily opt for chicken instead, that's not going to change.

Housing is going down, clothes are going down, vehicles are going down (weirdly the cost of maintenance is going up. You'd think as cars get more replaceable the cost of fixing them would go down, but nope. I don't have a car personally so that really surprised me.). The only thing people really need that is going up is food, but food in general is really cheap; a bit of an increase in the cost of food is pennies compared to the lowered costs of housing. And yet, if some people are to believed, we're all doomed unless we collectively switch from eating meat to munching on crickets and mealworms. As far as I'm concerned, they can have all the crickets and mealworms they want. I'll make do with chicken, thanks very much.

To not derail the Everything's Great thread (which more or less turned into the Everything Sucks thread anyhow ), I bring you the Things That Make You Happy thread. Before the commercial break, we learned that TrueNeutral gets his happy vibes from Red Pandas. Now here is something that makes me happy, with the risk of people never looking at me the same way again: So, hum. After I've just destroyed any credibility I had left on this forum, what makes you happy?

What shellfish characteristics do they have? Pincers? Antennae? I just gonna have to take it on this one. You're welcome. Sorry, that one was just begging for it. On a more serious note, I really don't think we'll ever be able to tell beforehand who will grow up to have certain characteristics. While I won't deny that there are certain traits that run in families, geniuses have been born out of completely average parents, and psychopaths have been born in the most virtuous families. There is still a lot of randomness out there when it comes to what determines how someone will end up. And I for one am rather glad that that's the case.

What shellfish characteristics do they have? Pincers? Antennae?

I would just like to state how much I genuinely appreciate the ignore function of this board. Bravo! Very good feature.

Only if you assume it really is something that can be bred out. I honestly doubt it works that way. Even if it did work that way, there are people who are bi-sexual. Or do you think that somehow bisexuality is linked to a completely different set of genes than homosexuality?

Well! That's just bad form.

That's it, you're out! What you mean to say is: "That's it, will you please kindly leave, sir?"

Do you even magic bro? Sorry. I am not even bro.... We are all bro here. I'm not. I'm Spartacus.

London now has duck lanes. http://qz.com/408647/londons-canal-walkways-now-have-duck-lanes/

Just finished catching up on Supernatural. I've stuck with -even in the face of the just absolutely terrible (and not in a good way) leviathan-, and enjoyed watching, this series for a long while now even while knowing the best of the show was way in the past. But at this point the scriptwriters are really just phoning it in. Even the death of little miss perfect* didn't cause me much happiness considering how contrived it all was. For now I will keep watching, hoping that the show will redeem itself, but I am probably just fooling myself.

Also, my comment was a reference to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPGb4STRfKw

Actually, in British English Fanny refers to ladies' privates.

What's so funny about Fanny Schmeller? I have a very great friend in Berlin called Fanny Schmeller.

I am glad you are choosing to honour the Netherlands with your colour scheme. I salute your patriotism.

It's their money, if that is what makes them happy, fair play to them. If I had the money I would love a sweet setup like that. Probably not something as showy and I would keep it to a reasonable three monitors, but yeah. There's people who have garages filled with cars they never drive. I once met a guy who claimed his job was to take these cars for a spin because the wealthy owners didn't have the time for it, and the cars needed to be driven once in a while. That sort of thing makes my head spin.