NIVIDA

to the point of disregarding and even arguing with you when you say no

i have an aggressive dog and the number of people who insist "well, dogs love me" and reach out to touch him anyway is ridiculous

Right by there was my other dog, the friendliest girl I ever had, who would have loved a fuss, but the guy only wanted to touch the Forbidden Doggo apparently.

They pick a soaking wet teenaged girl ghost in their cab and take her home. They pull up to the house and ghost girl looks longingly out before resigning herself to be sent back to the roadside.

Protagonist is just like, “so that’s $14.50.”

The ghost is surprised, she’s still there. She fumbles for cash but she didn’t die with any.

Does she feel oddly warmer than normal?

The seat more solid against her skin?

The protagonist sighs, “of course.”

They couldn’t just leave a teenage girl out there on the side of the road in the middle of the night, something bad could have happened to her. But he still had bills to pay.

“Come on. This is your parent’s house right? I’ll walk you in.”

For the first time in twenty years the ghost opens the car door and steps out onto the sidewalk.

The protagonist knocks on the front door and her parents, use to the midnight visits, wearyily open the door.

She starts to cry and hugs her parents tight. Apologizing for sneaking out. Babbling about what happened to her. How her friends had egged her into going deeper into the woods. How they had gotten separated. She’d fallen into a river.

Her parents are crying too. She finally made it home. They finally had confirmation of what happened to her. No body had been found so they were never truly sure.

The protagonist awkwardly interrupts, “so there’s still the matter of her cab fair...”

They don’t want to be insensitive but they need to get going and bills don’t pay themselves.

Eagerly her father rummages around in the pockets of his coat hanging by the door and pushing a twenty dollar bill into the protagonist’s hand. He knows it’s more than enough.

They thank the protagonist for bring her home, “keep the change,” they tell him.

As the protagonist gets in their cab and drives away the ghost can feel herself slipping away from life once more. But not back to the river and woods, waiting endlessly for someone to pull over and offer her a ride.

Her unfinished business is complete.

She’s moving on.

To somewhere warm and bright, she can feel it.

Her parents press final kisses to her cheeks as she starts to go. Through tears they whisper, I love you’s.

Don’t act like you’re going to listen to her whale stories forever and then tell her to stop not even after a year. If you’re going to hurt her like that, you shouldn’t start anything at all. I’m telling you this now, if you think your feelings are temporary, don’t be nice to her. My feelings aren’t temporary!

My current roommate and I met on Tumblr. In the first three minutes I knew her I KNEW HER ADDRESS FROM HER ETSY. She only lived three miles down and one block over from me. Once we became friends, it took me literally fifteen minutes to drive to her house.

“Okay, but you guys are friends, roommates even, you love each other, what’s the problem?”

The problem is, this story doesn’t always have a happy ending.

The problem is, in another story I’m still 32, but she’s 15 instead of 43, and I’m an asshole.

The problem is, I am an adult. If a first meeting goes wrong, I have a car, a cell phone, and a tire iron in said car that I could defend myself with. What do you have?

The problem is, if you put identifying information out in the open, it could cross paths with someone who only lives 15 minutes away. And maybe they don’t care, and maybe they’re a chill person! That’s often the case.

But maybe they’re not.

“But I don’t put that kind of information—”

Listen. I’m gonna tell you I went to high school at General McLane and grew up by the cove. I’m going to mention that I HATED walking to my bus stop because it was out by the highway. At some point in our conversations, I mention that I’m walking down to the corner to get some ice cream.

Go onto Google and see how long it takes you to figure out, within a quarter-mile radius, where I grew up.

I can tell you how long it took me, using only the information I just provided you: two minutes. I looked up the school and got the address. That gave me the town name. I put that into Google Maps. I found Edinboro Lake and another body of water near it. Zoomed in on the streets near that second body of water, and boom. Cove Drive, right next to an ice cream shop, opening onto a highway.

You now have a radius of less than two blocks where I might have lived.

Do you feel a little less safe putting that information out there? You should. Because I didn’t use any special programs, any elite hacking knowledge. I used nothing but Google, the name of a high school, and two offhand conversational mentions, and in two minutes I’d narrowed it down to a single block. Go ahead—try it yourself.

And yes—I can do this for my roommate, too, even having never been to her hometown. All I need to know is the name of her town and a story about crossing the street and a neighbor’s yard to get to the Walmart.

Do not put this information out there, guys. 95% of people you will meet online are legit. Many are delightful.

Which is a bonus reminder: You never know what useful, even critical information someone already knows that could also help them find you.

KEEP PERSONAL INFORMATION PERSONAL.

But if I still lived in that house? I would have just handed them the metaphorical keys. (That’s why I picked a house I moved out of in 2004.) I assume they’re a cool person or they wouldn’t be screaming desperately with me about it. But what if they weren’t?

In Memory of Naya Rivera

since i have not seen anybody share information on this here, please pay attention to the philippines right now and provide any support you can. if this bill passes, people's basic rights to free speech will be taken from them.

my partner lives in the ph and she is scared and is being ignored right now by their followers despite how fatal this situation is.