Sunset Rose

I have not.

I don't think you understood what I meant. Would you feel the same way if I said LGBT people have no right to comment on anything heterosexual? Everyone has the right to comment on anything, you choose to believe in the commentary that suits you. I will not have my opinions and comments disregarded the same way I would expect you to not have yours disregarded. If a person is gay but doesn't want their orientation to be a part of their outward social profile, would you say they're not part of LGBT? I may not be part of it, but often times this inclusive and ideological mindset is the reason why many people end up considering it a 'side' to be on instead of an aspect of a person's life. And that's why you may or may end up with people being much more standoffish, dismissive or outright hateful of you. That's what generates so much 'other' thought and all the nastiness that comes with it. What I was getting at is that it doesn't matter what you're 'a part of', having whatever labels others have made up doesn't change who you are. A person can be an ally and be part of a community, a person can be gay or bisexual and not be part of the community. It can't change their orientation, nothing can. Labels are superficial and ultimately irrelevant to your true self. A community and an orientation are mutually exclusive fundamentally.

For the most part, yes. But things are tense right now. I live in a country bordering Russia. And I feel like I don't really need to elaborate much past that.

I manage and maintain a number of systems for the European branch of an American publishing company. From cyber security to database management to general day to day sys admin stuff.

I work remotely, so work stuff. Ticket requests, emails, etc. For personal stuff, I like to browse through Reddit and Sofot for news, recipes and interesting stuff. I don't actually check my personal email very often at all. I mostly use it for sites that need it for spam or bills that I can't pay in person. Not terribly interesting I don't think.

Well, I'm in my 40s now, my hair seems set on going full gray so I'm colouring it every other week. My joints hurt nonstop and my patience for people is pretty non-existent. So I'd say probably even older.

My older tower is 8 years old, my newer tower is 3 years old, my personal laptop is 2 years old, my work laptop is 5 years old.

My first name is Jeļena.

Myself. I'm my own worst enemy.

Baltcom, 100 up and down. Tends to be pretty stable most of the time.

Remove all nuclear weapons from the planet and impose an edict that all potentially world-ending or otherwise catastrophically dangerous weapons and devices (outside of general nuclear power) will be immediately destroyed along with the methods used to make them. Remove the excess plastics and other trash from the oceans and waterways of the planet. Invent some limitless and clean energy the world can quickly adapt to and reproduce for themselves. Reverse the destruction of the Amazon and provide other ways for those workers to maintain a living. Fix Chernobyl... Find some elegant and/or at least agreeable way to reduce the planet's reliance on meat farms. Find a formula to combat deadly viruses and viruses in general. Basically reverse the damage we've done to the planet ourselves and resolve the issues that lead to that outcome in the first place. The grimly cynical side of me wants mankind to face the effects of it's own greedy, simple-minded choices but I don't think I could follow through with that. I'd have to help.

I think it was Pathfinder, but I don't really have any now.

Nitpicky person here, OCs are original characters. Pony characters are fan characters. So technically there are no OCs in the MLP fandom since they're based off the show. But! I have thought up a number of FCs and OCs, I don't really use them as an identity like I do this character on this forum though. Most of the time they're for short stories or imagination fuel or something. I've been losing touch with my characters the past few years, I think I'm finally growing out of them. Or my imagination is just drying up.

Being upset at myself for failing to reach my goals for the day.

Talking about the United States' popularity is incredibly complicated. Because whether you like or dislike certain aspects or the country as a whole will always differ person-to-person and country-to-country. Personally, having lived there for a good portion of my life, I can say that a lot of people like to hear one genuinely egregious thing about the United States and latch onto that one statement, adding whatever they want to the pile of accusations as 'reasons that country is bad' and it's incredibly dishonest. But I won't say the United States doesn't deserve a good amount of it. I don't think there's a single country I like 100% of the time, but since the United States is the benefactor and protector for a huge number of NATO nations, I'd say it's government has fallen woefully short of its obligations to setting an example for other countries for a very long time. Healthcare, government spending, promoting metaphorically killing yourself for your job, glorifying violence in media but condemning sexuality as a topic as a whole- there's a lot of annoyance and intolerance directed at the United States and it being a superpower just underlines every single mistake and problem with it with a bold, neon marker. So it's just easy to hate. I personally believe, fully admitting I don't know every little detail about American involvement in every little thing, the United States feels too powerful and a little out of control sometimes. I know we don't live in the perfect world we wish we did, but whenever something happens in the United States, I am really exhausted on feeling like I have to care about it. Or knowing that it will somehow affect me. That being said, with every country in the world I like to make a distinction between a country's government and its people. Most often it comes down to me liking a country's people most of the time, and disliking its government. Like Russia for example- lovely people (most of the time), horrifying government. The US is the only country where I have mixed feelings on both. A huge number of the most lovely people I've ever met have been American, and the vast majority of people I can not stand have been American as well, haha.

Football (soccer) games just aren't entertaining... I would know, I've had to watch people play it in my home every night for years.

Fighting games are definitely not something I'm into playing, but I like the characters in a lot of them and the story in some of the newer ones. I definitely don't think they're the worst genre of video game since they can be so entertaining. Personally I put MOBAs and gacha games at the bottom in terms of what I like the least.

Old enough. When I was born, Margaret Thatcher was PM of the UK. When I was born, my country was part of the Soviet Union. When I was born, the NES/Famicom hadn't been released yet.

I am not, but personally I don't like the idea of an element of who/what I am inculpating me into a group or association that I didn't choose to be part of. I think we should all reexamine how we approach this mentality 'cause it feels like inventing teams for a nonexistent sport. A person can be gay and they're just gay, they aren't part of anything. I think that's fair enough, right?

It's hard to say because I've always thought about alternate scenarios and different ways to portray characters. But I think it was actually FiM that finally got me to start enjoying fanfiction even though I had been exposed to it for like 15 years or more already. And the story to do it was most definitely Twilight Sky Over Canterlot. I think Friendship is Magic just appeared in a time it really needed to appear for a lot of people, and humans being humans we like to identify with things we like. Or insert elements of ourselves into settings and stories we like. I know that was definitely the case for me for a while there cause I found myself wishing I could just ditch my life to live as Twilight for a while, and the more human, day-to-day life that Twilight might live was more interesting to me than the things you would see in the cartoon since I can relate to it more. All the more since it was set before she became a princess, which is of course the point of no return when it comes to relatability. :p I love this story.

Sometimes I feel like the only reason someone feels the need to have a go at someone else is because they themselves feel vulnerable, jealous or offended about something someone either says or does. Or maybe they're completely unrelated and just look like an easy target. Much of the time destructive criticism can feel like it came completely out of nowhere from someone you've never met and if that's the case, I just ignore it entirely. The person making the comments got their angry little shot in, trying to talk it out with them won't do either of you any good because they're just looking for someone to feel superior to. Maybe not all of it is like that, but for those doing it to feel like they have some power, authority or whatever it may be over someone else. It's honestly quite sad. But whether it is or isn't, if you can just ignore it then you should. No good will ever come of engaging with them. They can have their hollow little victory for what good it'll do them. That being said, I do think there's a difference when it's someone you know or are close to and they've just unloaded everything on you they've let build up over a long time. They're still in the wrong, but that's not something you should ignore and is a good idea to know how to deescalate and compromise. Like for example, if a friend had been making me feel self-conscious and inadequate for a long time and never noticed but I also never said anything to her, there is about a 1,000,000% chance that's going to end in some kind of blow-up if I don't just walk away from that friend without saying anything. There's some responsibility on both ends to understand and communicate, but if the other person fails to understand or pay attention you can't just let it get to you, that's how those sorts of things happen in the first place. And it can hurt a lot more when it's coming from someone you saw as a friend. I suppose to answer your question in a more contracted way, it's most likely because someone is hurt or feels small or unheard or ignored and they feel the only way they can defend themselves from what they perceive to be a cruel world is to be cruel in turn. Or they're just outright evil and there is no purpose to it, but I don't think that's as common. People are too complicated for catch-all one-word labels like that.

<insert Anton Ego meme about how I don't like coffee, I love it./>

I was actually thinking about something relating to this topic not that long ago. This person and I were having a conversation in a thread on Reddit about something similar. They know me in real life and are under the (not entirely inaccurate) impression that I hate my job because I've been at it for a very long time and feel taken advantage of on a daily basis. But I've always stuck it out, and try not to complain because I feel like it would set a dangerous precedent for the company to have to deal with. It's employees demanding they compensate them more fairly is not something it can financially do. And they ask a lot of me at all hours of the day forgetting I'm on the other side of the world now. The problem comes when the employer knows that you know that, and that you're loyal anyway. Because I've been with the company for 15 years and I personally am really proud of how far the company has come from a tiny upstart to what it is now, with my help. They know they can do what they want with me and I'm not going to complain because I feel awful for complaining about anything. Like I'm 'the problem' if I do. But that in itself is the problem. The person I was talking to still lives in America where the company is based, and they have long moved on. But they keep making comments like companies should basically bow to their employees and overcompensate them for everything they do. That if you in any way don't like your job or the career you're in, you should immediately drop it. Not only does that feels very privileged and ignorant to me, it feels like an opinion gaining traction in the Western world. I don't have the financial or emotional capability to just quit like that, and I don't think many other people do either. Small companies are a plate spinning act, and any personnel shakeup above seasonal help feels like an earthquake. The notion that people should quit because it isn't the perfect wonderland for them is frankly ridiculous to me. I put up with a lot of stuff I don't like at my job- I mean a lot- but that's just part of being an adult. Most people in my life do things I don't like. Invariably all of them, in fact. I just love some more than others so they get a pass, haha. I know that's not necessarily on-topic for this, but I felt like it was relevant enough to vent somewhere other than Reddit or in person. In terms of the topic itself, I personally believe you should only consider moving on if the job is not capable of supporting you financially enough, in which case you find one that pays better. Or it's too physically or emotionally damaging to your personal health. With perspective, of course. Because many will say every job is too emotionally damaging with no frame of reference of what real emotional trauma is.

I don't think I've ever read Justin Bieber's name in an article or something and didn't shake my head for one reason or another.

Europe, but I've been to Africa and I lived in North America for a long while.