It's scary. And sad, because letting go of someone who knew you as a kid means letting go of all those shared memories. I hope she manages to see the light. Good luck!

Baby steps! First make it what you want it to be, then worry about readership. I'm excited that you're excited!

Ugh. Sometimes I can't believe people like that exist.

That's fucked up. I'm so sorry you have to deal with that. Thanks for taking the time to say something inspiring to the rest of us — as you said, it's easy to take the little things for granted.

I think NY will teach you how to be a better feminist. That's partly because you'll have to deal with catcalling and gross dudes whipping out their junk on the subway, but also partly because the city is full of diverse, educated, open-minded people who have a LOT to say and are not afraid to say it. There are also…

It sounds like you want to keep the friendship but have been avoiding the actual friend. That way lies disaster.

I think format depends on content; since content is more important, figure that out first. If you go the blog route, wordpress and blogspot are both good at helping you start out. They have a ton of templates for you to use and explain your options pretty clearly.

Classes are great because you see the same people on a regular schedule, the groups are often small enough that you have a chance to chat before/during/after, and the fact that you're choosing the same subject matter means you have an interest in common. Pick something you like — fitness course at the gym, cooking…

It sounds like you have two options. The first is to do what everyone is suggesting and refuse to talk about sex with her at all. The second (and the one I advocate) is to ask her why this matters so much to her. If she tries to turn it back on you, keep spinning it back around.

Do you have a blog? I know it doesn't sound terribly sexy, but there are a ton of incredibly useful skills to be gained from setting up an online presence for yourself — learning a bit of computer wizardry, figuring out how to protect your personal information, getting ad space, working with layout, and then requiring…

Go for it. Two of my friends reached a point in their twenties where they didn't want the inexperience looming over them anymore; they had a few drinks, picked someone at a party they found attractive, and got it out of the way. Neither of them regrets it in the least (though both admit that it was awkward and not…

Kill the hope. Take tomorrow to be home by yourself, play your saddest playlist, hug some stuffed animals, eat some chocolate, watch sad TV...just plunge into it. Do whatever it takes to convince yourself that the answer is a firm, unchangeable no.

There's definitely something in what you're saying, and I will add this: we have unrealistic ideals for the male body as well as the female body. I suspect some guys, if they don't have washboard abs or bulging biceps or they're balding or whatever, think that they don't have sex appeal anywhere except in their dicks.

We're the same, but we experience the world differently because of how we're perceived.

Yep. Amen. "Nice to waiters" is actually on my requirements list and I am super fucking attentive to it. I'm not going to spend the rest of my life teaching dude how to be compassionate to strangers. You bring that to the table with you. Also on the list? "Has friends of more than one color."

I learned the term reading Starling's "Schrodinger's Rapist" post and the 1000 comments beneath it two years ago...and I'm pretty sure comments on that article had been closed for at least a year before I ever heard of the article. Not sure why everyone's jumping down your throat for using a word that's been around…

Interesting. I've always extrapolated from the way I've seen little boys be so fascinated with their own junk (context: babysitting), and I guess I assumed that these dudes grew up to think that their junk is equally fascinating to others as it has always been to them. But given the ubiquity of…

Coming next week: An article revealing that the mouse actually HAD been shocked in the first environment before, and the scientists erased that memory, then introduced them to it for the "first" time, then faked THAT memory just to fuck with them.

If light stops, and I am still moving, then have I achieved faster-than-light-speed?

Wait, she's gushing on the TV series, not the books? That's so strange to me. I know the series has (incredibly talented) writers, but a show's success depends on a whole mess of factors; no matter how good Peter Dinklage is at bringing the character off the page, Martin made me like Tyrion with words alone. Am I the…