...Holy shit, I desperately need to read this. Thanks.

I'm not offended at all; with my level of knowledge, nothing should be assumed. The recipes I attempt usually take at least an hour and never turn out quite right ... except for meatloaf, which I have mastered by repeatedly tweaking the recipe to taste. Sometimes I can make stir fry. I'll check out that site you linked.

And thank you for the tip about the margarine; I had always suspected as such, but far be it from me to complain about Mom's cooking.

As someone who regularly eats instant noodles and condensed soup on toast, I thank you for your kind response. I'll try the pasta, getting really sick of pasta with margarine (another dish from home).

Where do you find your recipes? Really, I want to know. How do you know how to make all these delicious 20-minute meals? The only thing my mama taught me was not to put eggs in the microwave. And for the record, we only ate out when we were on vacation. However, I definitely prefer eating at a restaurant to her cooking.

Thank you. Finally a commenter who isn't a fucking asshole.

Not everyone can be a master chef. Becoming good at cooking takes time, guidance, and *money*. If a recipe doesn't turn out right, that means I don't get to eat. I can't afford to buy a bunch of weird ingredients and equipment just because a recipe sounds cool. I also dislike cooking new things because I frequently find that instructions are ambiguous or incomplete. Great review, that cookbook sounds cool but I'd never buy it.

You're missing the point. It's easy to envision yourself in the role of Donkey Kong or Mario precisely because they don't have a lot of character depth; their only clear traits are 'powerful,' 'male,' and 'kinda goofy-lookin'.' The first two apply to most video game characters. A lot of them are stupid or annoying or overly buff, but they're still characters that most guys wouldn't mind using as an avatar in the context of the game.

Most female video game characters, what few of them there are, are not suitable avatars for the majority of female gamers. Quite frankly, I would rather pretend to be a man than play as Yuna or most of the other options available. By and large they aren't powerful warriors, they don't inspire fear in their enemies, and every time they open their mouths I want to punch them in the face. I kinda liked Lulu for the first ten minutes of FFX, but then she revealed that the most important thing to her was her crush on the stupidist character in the game and it kind of ruined her for me. Lara Croft I don't mind so much, but only because I'm a lesbian.

But what about quantum uncertainty?

Yeah, I know. And as much as I love free speech, I'm glad that you feel too embarrassed to spew outright hate speech in public. You have no idea how damaging it is for people, especially kids, to hear that kind of stuff when they've committed no crime save for an involuntary preference for their own gender. If you want to express your opinion go right ahead, I wouldn't dream of stopping you, but don't act like you're surprised when you get a negative response.

Orson Scott Card is a (usually) great writer and it's sad that he's being discriminated against for his beliefs. However, there is a huge difference between the right to say nasty things and the right to equality/basic human rights.

The best part is that applicants who went to college are likely to be in debt, which does wonders for one's work ethic. *thumbs up* But seriously, surely there must be a more efficient way to test intelligence/work ethic than forcing all file clerks to spend several years and a ton of money learning how to file?

This is almost enough to make me regret that I already stopped watching Glee a few weeks ago, near the end of season 1, when the girlfriend of the boy in a wheelchair told him that if he just believed in himself and didn't give up hope he might be able to walk again someday. The next day, he told her that she had been totally right, and in fact he had already been cured. He got out of his chair and performed a dance number with the help of various strangers.

Thanks for the tip! I will try this tomorrow.

Oh God, yes.

Can you clarify this? We're talking about situations where workers get paid more because they demand it, which is often the case in real life. In what way does a worker demanding more pay determine that worker's "actual" value to the company?

Yes, mandatory, scheduled raises are counter-productive too, but the choice doesn't have to be between assholes and slackers. A good manager who actually knows a thing or two about what the people under him are doing should be capable of judging for himself how valuable a worker is based on experience, referrals, quality of work, and a myriad of other things that have nothing to do with the prospective employee's overbloated ego.