If only there was some kind of legislation that protected an open and fair internet...

Selfishness is coded into us by evolution. It's genetic. Lots of people will agree with me on this.

What I get a lot of pushback on, is that selflessness is the same. It has evolutionary benefits for a familial group, and so gets selected for.

I loved the "anyone can be special" message, even when rammed down our throat by having the slave stable boy force pull the broom to himself at the end of the movie.

I hated them undoing that and going "hahahaha, no, you're actually one of the two special families!!" in Rise of Skywalker.

I quite enjoy the Baroque Cycle. I am yet to read Snowcrash.

I was in a group that were all "officers of the watch". Some idea was proposed that my character would have no reason to go along with, but rather than stop the group engaging in something fun, I say so, and follow up with "my character probably has some paperwork they need to catch up on anyway."

Our chaotic player, who has the attention span of a slightly concussed goldfish goes "wait, we have to do paperwork?" and our GM, the goddamned sadist, gets that evil gleam in his eye.

Long story short, that session we role-played the sheer amount of paperwork our last session of kicking in the door and stopping a cultist ritual (by force in some cases) would have generated.

I admire that GM, but I was almost screaming in frustration by the end.

"Wait... All of these hobgoblins have javelins!? This is a market opportunity!"

My Sa'cea Tau were always supposed to be night fighters. Sa'cea is the closest thing to a "hive world" that the Tau Empire has, and in one paragraph in the third ed codex it mentioned that they were skilled night fighters. But the grey armour Sa'cea wear is very close to Tau flesh, and I wanted helmet less Tau to stand out, so I figured out what Tau, Kroot, and Vespid would look like with severe vitamin D deficiency (and this is back when Tau had cyan, cobalt-based blood) so my Fire Warriors are an unhealthy grey-green, the Kroot are a really dark green-brown, and my Vespid are a calcinated beige/white. It's explained that they spend too much time in the training grounds, and too little under mandated-use UV lamps. Also, bright orange and white markings aren't the best for night fighting, so the Cadre uses a deep red and grey instead. But the Ethereal attached didn't know this before deploying with them, so is covered in garish orange and has a healthy skin tone, which actually helps them blend visually with the army when it's on the board, but still stand out.

The sister makes some noises about her parents being guardsmen before she was orphaned. My money is on that being her mum. The infected guardsmen completely ignored her, so almost definitely a hallucination.

Had a close friend in school who was collecting Ultramarines. That was about the time 2nd Ed came out, and for Christmas my brother and I split the starter box. I was going through a bit of a crisis of faith, and the imagery and background of warrior monk Space Marines really grabbed me. Later I got hooked by the really old metal Imperial Guard (I have a soft spot for underdogs) and I was permanently hooked. I later lost that friend who got me into it in a car accident near the end of high school. Whenever I see ol' Marneus Calgar I think of him.

I once told a coworker when discussing a creative process, "that works for you, but I think in bullet points and black & white."

For Hobby History, I recommend Arbitor Ian. He's an old grognard like me who has been collecting for decades, and explains some of the interesting changes and old lore of the setting (stuff from as far back as when Space Marines all had "born to kill" type graffiti all over their armour). He also does a "Tale of four gamers" type thing with some other hobbyists, and it feels a bit like those old White Dwarf articles come to life. Lots of nostalgia, but also new lore too.

I was a terrible salesperson for this reason. "Here's a machine in your stated price range. It will die in 18 months. And it sucks."