How to Address an Ongoing Argument

Of course, the problem with the stun setting is that whoever you stun falls down, and could easily break a bone, suffer serious neck or back injuries, receive a concussion, or “accidentally” die in any number of ways.

I figure the Starfleet equivalent of Internal Affairs would be bugging Kirk on a weekly basis.

Starfleet Inquisitor: I’m here to talk about that Klingon you killed.

Kirk: I stunned him.

Starfleet Inquisitor: In the back, and then he fell three hundred feet.

Kirk: It’s not my fault he was standing on the edge of a cliff.

Starfleet Inquisitor: We have reason to believe you stunned him, then dragged him to the cliff and rolled him off.

Kirk: (stuns the Starfleet Inquisitor.)

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How to Defend a Questionable Purchase

In the time since I wrote this comic, I have purchased another version of Blade Runner. It’s a new copy of an edit I already had, but in 4k, so I can see all of the smog and steam more clearly.

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How to Tackle a Project That Seems Impossible

I was the receptionist at an office where everyone had to fill out a specific form every day. Almost nobody did it. The person in charge made it my responsibility to make sure everyone filled out their form.

Of course, I was the lowest person on the totem pole in that office, so I couldn’t use fear of punishment to make them fill out the form. Instead, I had to rely on charm and their respect for me and my opinion of them.

I’d bet that you can predict how well that worked.

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How to Explain Yourself

A mutual friend once asked Ric how someone gets through my shell to know “the real Meyer.” Ric told them that there is no shell, and what they thought was a shell was “the real Meyer.” Ric told me that later, and I found it funny. He also told me that the person he was talking to looked horrified at that idea, which I found hilarious.

Which, now that I think about it, might be part of the problem.

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How to Be Yourself

There have been times when I’ve been afraid, and I have muttered the following to myself:

I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

Many of you probably recognize that’s a quote from Dune. Obviously, I wasn’t afraid of looking like a dork.

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How to Compare and Contrast

I worked at the juice bar at a health club. The sales staff used to come sit at the bar and talk about their work. I would listen to them. I have never even considered signing up for a membership at a health club since.

Also, the lifeguard used to come hang out at the juice bar. Note: I did not say that he did this when he was “off duty.” He would often be the only lifeguard on duty when he was at my bar instead of in his super-tall chair by the pool. I asked him how he could see people drowning in the pool in another room while watching the TV at the juice bar. His answer was, “Someone’ll come get me. There’s plenty of time. The human brain can last four minutes without oxygen.”

Like I said, I haven’t even considered joining a health club since I worked at that place.

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How to Plan a Group Vacation

In a group vacation, it doesn’t matter how many members of the party are planners, how much thought they’ve all put into the plan, or how enthusiastically everyone agrees to the plan. It only takes one member of the group to be a play-it-by-ear type to completely derail the plan and force everyone else to play it by ear with them.

Want to see this in action? Go to the Target store near the main entrance to Walt Disney World some morning at about the time the parks open. You will see multiple clusters of frustrated looking people with one member of their group saying that they’re “just popping in” for sunscreen, ponchos, and “while I’m here, I’ll take a quick look at the sweatshirts.”

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How to Accept a Difference of Opinion

When I was a kid, my mother thought video games were a complete waste of time and money. She maintained that opinion until my younger brother’s best friend brought over his Gameboy, and she got her first taste of Tetris. Within a month she bought herself a Gameboy and a Tetris cartridge. That cartridge never left the cartridge slot, and that Game Boy never left the vicinity of her easy chair for a good decade at least, until it stopped working. She played Tetris every chance she got.

Don’t worry, though. As far as she was concerned, every other video game was still a waste of time and money.

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How to Welcome a New Team Member

I like the idea of my superhero, Third Person, but I see now that she had the laziest hero costume I ever came up with. Also, the tiara made out of a three didn’t read as well as I’d hoped it would.

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How to React When Someone Surprises You by Being Right

I’m not all that proud of this comic now. At the time, I saw no harm in it, but now I don’t feel good about kink-shaming people. Enjoy what you’re into. As long as everybody is a consenting adult, it’s not my place to judge, nor any of my business to begin with.

The point remains that Fifty Shades of Gray works as a fantasy because the guy involved is wealthy, handsome, and willing to change for the woman he loves. My understanding is that it’s much harder to find those three attributes in one man that it is to find a guy who wants to tie you up and smack you with a ping-pong paddle.

Note from Missy: This gets into one of the main points of romance novels in general. A lot of people are snotty about romance (only the most popular genre fiction category in the world) because it’s often so “unbelievable” and “unrealistic. ”What are those “unrealistic” elements? Usually that someone would [a] treat a lead character like a thinking, feeling, intelligent human being; and [b] that the other person often realizes they’re being a jerk, apologizes and makes amends, and make a concerted, visible effort to change their behavior and/or opinions. It’s a sad commentary on our world that this is the kind of weird and improbable stuff we fantasize about.

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