Yes, but as previous commenters have established, in basically no cultures is it acceptable to kiss people on the mouth unless they are people you know very well.

Yeah, that’s a gorgeous building! I went on the Chicago Architecture Tour and really wanted to hate it, but couldn’t because it was too pretty.

It was a pageant from 1997; most of the women will be in their mid-late 30s now. I don’t see why you’d be skeptical about it. Some of them just might not remember it amidst what was probably a pretty whirlwind pageant experience. There were a bunch of teens who were busy getting ready and they possibly weren’t all in…

I always wonder this too! I don’t claim to have the best diet, but when you read advice by some nutritionists it doesn’t seem like the plans would have enough calories to sustain anyone. But the meal plans for athletes seem eminently sensible (even if they need to eat quite a bit more than me, obviously, due to extra…

Yes! This is so frustrating. I have fairly bad asthma and I’m sick of being told to eat avocados and quit dairy.

Yeah, we don’t have the same general education requirements at most universities in Australia. I was quite happy not having to take a maths or science subject. I’m pretty sure the University of Melbourne has just introduced a few general education requirements, but I think the type of subject you pick is quite…

Yeah, I can see a lot of sour grapes coming out in the comments. I feel mixed about school, but I think it would be great for a genius kid to get at least some kind of extension activities.

I think that it’s fine to let him go to university and it would also be fine to keep home schooling him, or keep him in middle school with appropriate extension activities. But I do think they should do something about that hair.

I doubt he’d end up working in a regular office. He’ll most likely end up doing a few PhDs and then working as an academic.

Yeah, I always try to minimise romantic things and it always ends up feeling a million times worse. And so often it is about those lost possibilities. But if you don’t risk and invest in those possibilities, it’s hard to eventually find someone to fall in love with, I guess.

I don’t agree. People who go on a few dates with you owe you a ‘hey, it was great to hang out, but I don’t see this going anywhere. You’re really [insert quality here] and I had a lot of fun, but there’s just not a real romantic connection happening for me/ I don’t see this working long term’. Yeah that’s painful, but…

Oh, other people do that too? I thought it was just me. My favourite reasons why I assume people ghost me are 1) my musical taste is just not cool enough and 2) also that my job isn’t fancy enough (I’m in an area that’s generally associated with prestige, but the part-time/casual version of the job that people just…

It’s about 10-40% which is lower than other crimes (http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/…) but that’s hardly incredibly low.

Not necessarily. A lot of people are competent or exceptional at their jobs, but many jobs are designed so employees are replaceable. I’m quite far above average at my job (I know this because they collect quantitative data) and yet I’m extremely replaceable because there are many other very highly qualified people…

As someone who has a foreign name, and has to explain origin all the time, I don’t think that’s enough to cause serious anxiety or fuck people up. It’s a minor annoyance and I wish they’d picked a spelling that was a lot more intuitive in English, but that’s really all the impact it has on my life.

I teach at university too, and I’ve found that my “uniquely named” students don’t tend to change, but a lot of students with non-Anglo names will go by something else. My university is in a low socioeconomic area and it’s really fun to see all the Taylahs topping the list of high distinctions. It makes me think of the…

I have Scandinavian heritage and a Norwegian first name, but because I’m only a bit Norwegian and want to pass on my Norwegian last name, I don’t think I could land whatever kid I’d have with a Norwegian first name too. :(

I can understand the confusion, but a lot of Norwegians don’t fit the stereotype too. My 100% Norwegian grandfather was really short and had olive skin. Half of my mum’s cousins who live there have dark hair. It is unusual not to have blue eyes, however.

I was hoping the -aydens would take off even more so then you’d start seeing permutations like Slayden and Mayden.

Aurora was in the top 100 names in Australia recently. It’s really quite ordinary. I have an Aurora in one of my classes, and I know someone I went to school with had an Aurora too.