My wife found an Emerald ring she really liked from more of a boutique style jewelry store owned by a young woman. It had the vibe of a brick-and-mortar Etsy store. We went to a few old school jewelers and hated the experience. It felt like we were being scammed by some slimy diamond dealer.

You’re being obtuse about the definition of “go to war”. If they invade your country and you fight back you’re still going to war.

This is slightly extreme. Go tell Europeans in the late 30s and early 40s that there’s no justification for going to war against Germany. There are always exceptions.

Sports subs are the #1 reason I still occasionally check in on Reddit. I’ve removed every non-sports sub. Sports subs can also be sorta “reddity”, but it’s still my favorite place for news and discussion.

It’s an ill wind that doesn’t blow somebody good.

I think happiness is a misunderstood concept. It’s something that many people take for granted when they’re young, but as they get older it seems to wane and comes with a lot more caveats. Your baseline used to be happy, but now your baseline is more neutral. You spend 80% of your time being neither happy nor sad. The idea of being happy all the time is sort of a farce, and I tend to assume people who claim to be are either lying or stupid.

Happiness is more about taking a step back from your life and viewing it all in one big picture. If you like what you see, then you can consider yourself happy, even if that doesn’t mean you’re smiling about it right this moment.

Stalker by Tarkovsky. The description made it sound like a really cool sci-fi/fantasy, bleak adventure movie. Instead it was just a bunch of melodramatic philosophy. Pretty much nothing even remotely sci-fi happens.