Yup. That´s the first and last time I ever discussed writing with my brother! It was AWFUL. I´m not sure how to exchange info with you, but if you´d like to be Beta readers for each other, or at least commiseration with a fellow writer, I am here. :) My work is changing in the next year, so I´ll have more time. (I…

I am so sorry! God, how awful for you.

Oh. My. God. Shit, that sounds like an episode of Murder, She Wrote.

So envious. Nearly every time I sampled the goods despite the packaging, I got mediocre results at best. Never had anything reach these heights!

Sanctimommies. ::snort laugh:: Oh, yeah. I get that as well because I´m a teacher. And I have an insufferable all-natural, gluten- and dairy-free, cloth diapers, we-don´t-have-a-microwave family member. Sigh.

What you said! I got into it with a couple of ladies here on Jez when the most recent incident posted. They just had no empathy at all for the parent. They were kind enough not to be incredibly irrational in their response to me, and I was grateful for that. So it wasn´t anything like what the OP experienced.

I understand where you´re coming from, and as a few other people have said, it sounds as though your issues stem from other problems rather than the gifts themselves (or lack thereof).

You skewed our understanding of the issue when you led off with 'It sucks that I don´t get presents,' and then accused everyone else…

I feel you. As for Scribophile, you might want to consider Critters. http://www.critters.org/index.php ... it is the same sort of setup, wherein you get critiques for giving them, but without any passive-aggressive weirdness that I have experienced. They send e-mails to remind you to critique if you are falling behind…

YES! I so admire Australia for being able to come together as a community and as a people and just say, 'Hey, we don´t want any more of this. Let´s all work together and make it safer for everyone.' I think they are so inspiring, and I wish the US could unite under a similar goal - not losing rights or giving up…

Yes, that´s true. A terrible thing happened because of his actions, absolutely.

True. Very true.

It´s not about the opinion that you have. You are not wrong. It´s just that you seem to lack empathy for the person this happened to.

No, that´s not the issue. The issue is that, as a fellow parent, I thought you would have some empathy for an awful, fatal mistake. Have you never done something that could have gone horribly, horribly wrong?

This exact problem led to a rift between my brother and I that exists to this day. I haven´t spoken to him since December of 2012. My family has always owned guns responsibly, and used rifles for hunting, etc. Then Sandy Hook happened, and I was devastated as a fellow teacher, crying every day for a week when I…

I know this is odd and unreasonable, but I am actually a little afraid to return to the US because of things like this. I´m from Illinois, originally, but I met and married up a Viking in Iceland in 2011, and haven´t been back since (I´m not close to my family and have been busy building a career, both of my parents…

I totally get what you´re saying, even if the people below this post seem to have used your comment to grandstand with their thoughts on religion.

You´re a lovely person. Unfortunately, some people just don´t think like you do. Sigh.

Genuine LOL at pondering the plural of barfs. Thanks for that!

Yes! That is the perfect way to describe it. Thanks for that!

Yeah, I can see that - that she asks for power in a way to end her suffering. The episode was brutal, emotionally, even without the demon scene. I really felt Vanessa´s sadness at being left alone when Mina was moving forward with her life and getting married. And later, her terrible regret for what she had done and…