Hurlshort

Happy Holidays everyone! I'm pretty sure I'm more excited about Christmas than anyone I know. I've been waking up early every day and I have a lot of nervous energy. Even my kids are calmer than me.

I was also going to point to the Reagan era mental health care cuts as a possible catalyst for these types of problems. Although it is a tough balancing act, we obviously can't go back to the 50's where we just institutionalized everyone.

That's a good point, digital media really can make social problems seem all encompassing. It has been quite a challenge as a teacher to address digital citizenship along with all the other struggles of being a student.

Yeah, but schools as a target seems to be a fairly new phenomenon.

Dead Island, hands down. The constant fetch-quest to feed your kid anti-zombie meds, or whatever she needed, is annoying as hell and really detracts from the game. That kind of attitude won't help you on the adoption resume's Deadly Aren't they fairly different on a lot of levels? I only played the original Dead Rising, but it struck me more as a fun stunts with zombies game, while Dead Island I heard is more of a co-op action game with RPG elements and crafting.

Princess and the Frog actually has some awesome Disney songs, but that's no surprise since it is set in New Orleans.

I set up a scavenger hunt for my wife using QR codes, so Christmas morning should be entertaining. I used to be better at poetry and would do these things in verse, but age or the children has clearly addled my brain. I figure the fact that they have to be scanned made up for my lack of creativity in the riddle department.

Thanks for that. Now I just need to decide if I want it badly enough to register for another place to buy games.

I was hoping they would drop Sleeping Dogs to 50%, that's really the only one I'm interested in. I doubt you will see any games that were released in the Fall go for less than 50% though. Heck, I was surprised the Hitman game was half off, it's been out like 6 weeks.

I'd say that is $2,757 too much though.

I'm currently typing this from a higher plane of existence, so I'm sorry it didn't work out for you guys.

I love my Ikea stuff. It's not really long term type furniture, like I don't expect it to last through many moves, but it looks good, functions properly, and was cheap as heck.

Shoot, all I have are these VHS cassettes! Sorry about that.

I did change my mind on the presents after reading everyone's posts. You folks are right and it was good to get a perspective that wasn't as emotional as my own. My children are 2 and 5, so they aren't quite old enough to understand much of anything about the situation. They already didn't have much of a relationship with my parents, we only saw them a few times a year when things were good (well, when I was under the assumption that things were good.) I will take equal responsibility for that, although I have always felt my parents were less than interested in getting to know my children. They've never asked to have them over or anything like that. I always assumed it was because they have 7 other grandchildren, but after this stuff with my wife went down, I'm guessing there was more to it than that. Frankly my mom has always been cold with the women in my life. My first girlfriend, my wife, and now possibly my daughter. It's odd and I'm not sure how to explain it. This has strengthened my relationship with my wife, which I didn't even think was possible because we are pretty dang tight. But it has also made me appreciate her parents, who always accepted me unconditionally (despite my many personality quirks!) and all my other close friends. I've been letting them know that regularly at this point. Oh yeah, I appreciate all of you too. This is remarkably helpful and I know I keep saying it, but you guys are all awesome.

Just as a side note, I suggested family counseling or therapy, where we could sit down and discuss this stuff with a third party. My parents declined. My current plan is to just give it time, I'll take their calls if they want to talk, but I'm going to try and stop thinking about it so much. Thanks again for everyone's feedback, it really does help.

Wow, these are some great responses guys (and LC ). This community really just continues to amaze me. I appreciate all your insights and perspectives, and it really did make me feel better to read them this morning. You folks convinced me to switch gears on the presents issue. I think it is important to get to the point where I am accepting the situation and not having nightmares, and I believe you all have helped me toward that. If it comes down to choosing family or my wife, I barely even consider it a choice. I'll stick by my wife's side all the way. She does have her flaws, we all do, but she's also an amazing women, mother, wife, and teacher who gives herself fully to everything she does. Oh, and she was a showgirl Seriously, I didn't post this just to brag about that

Hi Guys, This is going to be a bit of an awkward topic, but I've been struggling with some family issues and I value many of your opinions highly. Plus it's loads cheaper than therapy. Over the summer I received a phone call from my sister. She was upset about something my wife had said to her. My immediate reaction was simply have my wife apologize for offending her, which was not intentional. But then my sister started telling me about how my parents and other sister all have problems with my wife. I called each one of them individually and got the low-down on 10 years of complaints. In hindsight I wish I hadn't done that, but it was probably simply delaying the inevitable if I had brushed it under the rug. So I composed a long email about understanding and unconditional love. I used some bible verses, since my family is into that stuff. Now my wife can come across as brash, that is something she is very aware of. She composed a letter as well. Our big concern was that no one in my family had ever taken the time in the last 10 years to sit down with my wife and let her know they were upset about her words. So instead of having one issue, we had a decade of toxicity being unveiled. It was distressing and overwhelming. Here is an email from my father, which I really need input on. I have shared most of the correspondence with my wife, but I was not comfortable letting her read this one: This angered me quite a bit, and I cut off contact for awhile. It seemed like he basically wants my wife to change her personality? I couldn't imagine ever wishing that, I'm absolutely crazy about my wife. Coming up on the holidays, I sent an email asking that we not exchange any presents, even for the children. My mom said she had already bought them, so I asked her to donate them to charity. Today they still arrived at the door, which I found rather infuriating. I haven't decided what to do with them, they are somewhat personalized for my kids. So yeah, this is some stuff I've been struggling with the last few months. Any input or advice is more than welcome.

Yeah, that was pretty clear from the get go, but sadly there are still people giving them money. A fool and his money, I suppose.

I might be a bit peeved if I bought Hitman Absolution and found out it was half off a month later! Sleeping Dogs might pique my interest at 25% off.

I wonder if you can get them to issue a refund if you have never played the game? I mean they can tell if you've used the key or not, I would imagine, so if you haven't, you might have a chance to get it refunded.

I received a full refund on a pre-purchase once for Steam. It was pretty easy.

I was more confused about the use of the music. I was trying to read the dialogue and getting blasted with stuff that didn't seem to fit the scene at all. Then you have all the sitcom references, which could be funny, but nothing really made me laugh in the trailer.

Very cool. Do you guys sell at renaissance faires or anything like that?

Good luck with the recovery Nep. Take it easy.

Huh...that kind of looked terrible.