My oldest, who definitely doesn't want to be a veterinarian because euthanizing fuzzerses, is currently nursing a suckling baby mouse she found in the basement back to, hopefully, health. She's adorable, petite, and a gawddamn sergeant major in high-school R.O.T.C. (military pre-cadets, in case the acronym doesn't convey meaning outside of the U.S.). Today is wear the uniform day, she had to leave the helpless gray fuzzy thing at home, but first she fed it by hand, wearing her blue-gray skirt and jacket. Somehow, in spite of all my own "hey Beethoven" moments, my own outcastery, my selfishness, this little miracle made herself into on of those non-fakers. Her circle of friends is an island of misfit toys; the bullied, the outcasts; like me, like us. She's their mother, protecting them, nourishing them.

The best thing I learned from my own, somewhat stunted, little father is to find some things worth persevering for, and then never let go of them. Before I was a twinkle in his eye, he'd shellacked a newspaper clipping onto a polished cross-section of tree branch, always to be prominently displayed in his den: “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” ― Calvin Coolidge

I just hope that tiny rodent is still sucking air when Meredyth gets home from school.

"Of course you're in love with her, she's an //actress.//"

That's the punchline of an anecdote told by one of my theater mentors. Cassie's tale dealt with a backstage crush that was predictably undone after the show's run. It's hard to pretend to be in love on stage because the off-stage emotions are a also performance to help not-degrade the on-stage performance. It's her job to appear desirable, she's good at it, so of course you fell in love with her. It's what she does: she is good at making people like her.
She has Charisma, in addition to whatever multitudinous other talents.
What she's not good at is actually loving others, or even herself, because it's always a performance, she doesn't know how to make it 'real.' As brother Maynard sings it: "Fuck these dysfunctional, insecure actresses."
Self-confidence and poise that motivates others to like or follow or respect you is psychically draining and often dishonest; masks that a talk-show shrink could expound upon.

Is that on-topic? IDK, but that's a somewhat polished thought that bubbled up while re-reading the posts in the thread thus far.

Dropping an * for future comment as I try to locate the viewing materials. Also to express thanks for sharing the "You are not a sociopath..." bit. Briefly, I know that I perform 'appropriate' emotions more than I actually express or experience my own real emotional reactions to, well, everything. That's about as articulate I can be just now. ;-)

<edit 1>
Netflix, duh, that was easy. I'm up to Episode 9.
If you're coming in cold with not a lot of time for a binge, you could start with ep 8-9 which is an extended flashback that gives you largest part of the backstory. The /Story/ is about who Violet has become since then, and the rest of the prior episodes are much more chick-flick.

<edit 2>
Chick-flick. I didn't mean that in a dismissive way. The many punch-holes in my man card have been discussed elsewhere, and this show wrings at least a tear during every episode. Just finished ep 10, and I was adding my signature, personal gauzy lens effect to the whole thing as little Anne couldn't quite grasp the importance of Violet's week-long job writing for Anne's mother.

As a ticket-holding queue-stander in the Ford F-150 Lightning line, I very much appreciate that vid Boter!

Last week, I had to share the bit where Zap talks about the melody of Norwegian speech (starts ~0:35:00).
Revisited the whole episode this week, because nostalgia.

AAAArgh! You hogs-of-the-road are all on the wrong side!

How do you mask an area to Alpha?
I was using selection tools to achieve this, (color select (pick the 142 color that indicates 0m, invert selection, now all the seafloor is selected, copy-paste) but an alpha blend sounds more flexible.

Pssshhh, a real droid's shell would be at least 75% duraplast, with alusteel reinforcements.

I've jumped off a lot of things, my high school jock identity was extremely tied to being a springboard diver on the school team. Did some indoor platform stuff up to about 5m, but that was the max the ceiling allowed. One summer,  1990-ish, my brother and I found a riverside cliff in Missouri by my grandparents house, climbed up it with a long surveyor's tape measure and kept jumping from greater and greater heights. We finished at 70 feet (20 meters, give or take). Scariest shit I've ever done. But that's the secret: you work up to it...and it's never not terrifying.