I particularly dislike this idea that I ought to give up things that I enjoy, just because I enjoy them. I understand giving things up for religious or ceremonial purposes, or even to remind oneself that the pleasant things in life are not guaranteed. I can also understand it as an exercise in character building, in…

It looks like this QNAP NAS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc…

I agree with you that it will be very difficult to retire. Defined pension plans had definite advantages.

I put the maximum $17,500 into my Thrift Savings Plan (government equivalent of a 401(k)), and $5000 every year into a Roth IRA. I also get some matching from my employer.

I have heard doctors argue that brushing one's teeth in the shower is a bad idea; shower heads generally store lots of bacteria, and brushing your teeth using that water will introduce the bacteria to your gums.

Network extenders work the best. You plug them into your home network, and they basically provide 3G over the internet. I have perfect reception in my home after buying one (Verizon). There is no monthly fee.

I'm a guy, but I know what you mean. Wouldn't it be nice if there were a switch you could flip to make yearning go away? Let me know if you find it.

If I'm the OKCupid person you dismissed, I support your idea.

Every time I try this with celery, it rots after I put it in the soil.

It is a powerlifting thing. Some people say it's no good, others say it is fine. She just happens to be especially bendy, which really exaggerates the arch.

Thank you!

Her list is nowhere near as exacting as some of the (shorter) lists I've seen on craigslist, that, as you've pointed out, have very specific height/weight/ethnicity/interests requirements. I don't really fault her for this list, at all.

This is encouraging to me as a man.

I had all of these things at 24, and it really didn't make me any more marketable. My guess is that the set of guys who meet those criteria, at that age, does not intersect with the set of guys who are actually interesting and fun to be around. Or you live in a crappy area.

That's the difference between us - if a gorgeous woman felt bad for me and wanted to throw me one, I'd be down for it. I'd just try really hard to earn it. That's only cool for a one-time deal, however.

As a guy, what would be a boost to my confidence would be if I were able to legitimately *attract* a beautiful woman, and rock her world. Or, failing to legitimately attract her, I just rocked her world. Having sex with a ridiculously good looking person is, on the one hand, a fantasy. On the other it is wrapped up in…

Which is a perfectly fine thing to acknowledge and discuss in the abstract, but almost always cruel to point out in the particular. Even facts can be hurtful.

I'd like to join in on this, even though I'm male, and obviously not subjected to the same standards and societal pressures that women are. A female friend in college offered, unsolicited, that I was "about a 4." She followed up quickly with "but 4 is pretty good in my scale!" Now, I've never been brimming with self…

You may be right. I understand the appeal of relationships, in a general sense, and I appreciate why a man would want a relationship with a woman. I don't understand why most women would want a relationship with most men, for a variety of reasons.

Maybe... I think it is generally true that women desire sex less frequently and are more likely to be OK with going without. Of course there are women who desire sex more than most men do, and men who desire sex less than most women do. There's a huge cultural difference between the perception of sex as something a…