i was just mentioning my phd because i teach literary techniques (not in english though). mentioning that i was a writer as well didn't seem to have much to say, since i could be a bad writer.

oh, you misunderstood me. i completely agree that this is bad writing, just saying that writing the end before the story isn't necessarily bad writing as you suggested. i hate himym even without the ending, i think it's bad writing through and through. i am also a writer myself, so i know about writing techniques. my…

no actually it is considered GOOD writing if you write the end first, so that your story has structure and knows where to go. but if you write the end first, then stray from the path and try to milk the whole storyline, going on and on and on, creating a completely new story - then of course you have to adjust the…

i recently read an article about how some women don't show during pregnancy and some don't even notice until they give birth. it's rare and doctors don't know what causes these pregnancies but they believe that it can be psychological. the mind is something amazing, maybe she wished so hard to hide it or hid it from…

wow, that's... do you know how this played out?

i gave birth on january 1st to my first child and from the man i love and married. and still birth was HELL, painful, long, awful, frightening - in the end beautiful (though it's definitely not true that you "forget" the pain once the baby is there). the pregnancy was hard and i sometimes felt really weird having a…

i actually really dislike watching people kiss... so i'm with you!

german humour is underrated, seriously! we are not very good on the comedy department - slapstick jokes are awful here - but everything political, or social satire can be great! usually you have to understand german very well though in order to get the jokes, and you have to understand various slangs and regional…

EDEKA is a slightly "better" supermarket - you pay a little more for the products, but service is excellent, it's always really really clean and you get a lot of different brands and products. And the seated cashier: we have that everywhere, but they are trying to change that in some stores, which makes me feel…

to be fair: this is not a male thing. unfortunately, many people don't believe you, or think you exaggerate until they have experienced it themselves. from very minor things like "it's really hard work to get good grades in highschool" to major issues "racism does exist/it's hard to get a well-paid job while being…

absolutely right. i wrote this here already and want to add this to your list: female characters are written as "strong" characters by making them fans of football, boxing or other "male" sports.

i hate how american women are portrayed as "strong". it's not only about kicking doors in, they are also mostly nagging ladies. no matter how legitimate their "nagging" is, it always annoys the hell out of people. you always realize: ah, this is supposed to be a STRONG female character. if you look at japanese movies…

i am from germany and i can tell you that especially with the older generations, showing feelings is considered "cheap" like it wouldn't be the real thing. the fact that she is so sober about shows "us" german-speaking folk how earnest she really is.

it's been a while since you posted this, but i still want to share: my mom was a heavy smoker in the 70s. She smoked five packages a day - not five cigarettes. she was a true chain-smoker. the moment she found out that she was pregnant, she quit completely. totally. never smoked one cigarette in her life again! now…

i think the "joke-part" of this joke is the offensive part. as in: "i am going to africa. hope i don't get aids. no of course i won't get aids, this is just a joke because you see: i am white. only black people get aids in africa. lolz" did i misread?

well, it's definitely good to let a kid make some choices and not overrule them, i'm all for that. in that particular situation however, where she was taking her kid home from daycare with public transportation, it was just not the time for that.

my thoughts exactly... but there is some form of "modern parenting" going on where you presumably traumatize your child by not letting it be the boss of everything!

i was thinking the same thing!!

i admire those women for even managing to LIVE ON and not kill themselves!!! how... what... how dare this person turn this into a catfight????

my friend is a very reasonable person, and when her toddler threw a tandrum because she didn't want to go to some place (this of course happened in public), my friend told her kid: "we are going there, and that's that!"