@Razh:

He must have some mad skills with guitar.

I'd buy his albums. He and brook should battle with riffs.

@Noqanky:

Frankly, and this is from experience, not everyone has that luxury of friends. At least not ones you can interact with in the physical realm.

That makes it really hard, because it's vital to enjoy your existence with other people. It took a while to find my friends. I have a tough time interacting with normal people. There's nothing I find interesting with them. And often times, people don't find me very interesting either (either that or they think I'm creepy). I think what eventually helped was my attempt to cheer myself up by cheering someone else up. Helping the elderly and the impoverished, despite not getting anything back, and not expecting anything back, gave some meaning to life. Hearing those "thank you" and "bless you" gave me some happiness and self worth.

–- Update From New Post Merge ---

@ShinigamiKing:

so my grandfather died the other day.

My grandparents are all dead.

What helps me go through grief is remembering and reliving all the memorable experiences with them, whether good, bad, awkward, or awesome. And remember, they still exist in our hearts.

I live in California so I got CAInsured (Obamacare's California branch), and that allows me to get insurance even without income, which in turn allows me to get medical and psychiatric help. However, I also do not take medication for depression, because meds only help to alleviate depression symptoms until "clinical depression" becomes "dysthymia" aka "pervasive depressive disorder". At that point, it's better to focus on cognitive therapy with a therapist.

It'll sound counter-intuitive, but try to see your friends in person as often as possible when you're depressed. It feels completely different to be around people than through text or even video-chat. Voice your feelings with close friends and join them in group activities. Let them drag you through their schemes. It's a lot better than holing yourself in place and experience a bombardment of anxiety and hopelessness. Don't worry if you upset them, it's a lot better to make your friends upset at you than to shut yourself up and neglect them.

Edit: I'm currently experimenting with white noise in treatment for distracting thoughts. So far, it doesn't work completely, but it doesn't cause me to waste as much time when doing work.

@Print:

Going to rant a bit about someone I live with - I don't like doing this but I wanna get it off my chest and telling her this in the past has only lead to big drama.

My flatmate C has all but given up on life. She doesn't really do anything except eat, sleep, and play EVE Online. She wakes up around 4-5pm and then plays through until really late at night…it's not at all uncommon to see her still playing when I leave the house at 7am. She used to play games and never go out before, but she at least balanced it with social media, and she doesn't do much of that anymore. And on Sunday she had a minor breakdown over getting food in, to the point where she eventually threw money at me (literally) and told me to get us pizzas delivered...which she then didn't eat when they arrived because she went for a smoke and fallen asleep. It especially gets to me because she's on voice chat most of the time, so she'll be there talking away and getting all stressed and barely paying attention to any of us in the flat. And because of my condition, I can't actually tune it out - same way that if there's a TV on around me, I literally cannot not watch it, and it scatters my thoughts.

I got back from work this evening feeling too tired and headachey to go out to a friends' event and figured I'd try relaxing a bit with one of my comfort food meals (pasta, peas, hot sauce, spices) but I'm just feeling irritated by the noise from the voice-chat and my flatmate getting more worked up about something in that game than she does over her actual breakup with her partner, who is still covering for her financially and otherwise. I don't want to snap at her because she'll snap and start calling me an abuser again like she did when I kept her off the PC for 5 minutes once when she wanted to play (because I was arranging my partner's funeral...).

I'm almost feeling like I'm more relaxed at my office desk than at home at times like this. Perhaps it's just as well that I'm going to have to move in half a year.

And thanks for letting me get that off my chest. I'd ask for advice about what to do, but so many of us have tried so much with her, and yet she seems fairly determined to drive herself into this precipice.

I feel like jumping on the bandwagon and offering my condolences, but then a thought occurred to me: She has depression. No one would shut themselves out of the world unless they have deluded themselves that there is no hope in the world and that the online "world" is a better place to "live" in. I've lived that life before. It's absolutely miserable, and makes everyone around you miserable too, so you'll feel that you need to avoid reality even more. I broke out of it once I stopped getting financial support, and realized I'm in real deep shit. I sought therapy and medical treatment, things got somewhat better, and I'm not sucking the life out of everyone as much anymore.

You are going to move out but in the mean time, you're SOL. I was thinking that having music playing in your room will help distract you from your impossible flatmate's gamer rage, but I'm not sure if that will help.

–-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway, I want to actually confess something I'm ashamed of: I'm boring. I like to think I'm insightful and relevant whenever I have something to say, but I know when I get ignored, and I know why. People don't feel that they can get anything from me, and would rather go to someone more charismatic for advice or answers, even though that person may not be very smart. And they just feel that person's ignorance to be adorable, innocent, and cute.

I also want to confess that I have no ability to modify images on my computer. I don't know how to use image editing software, and have no patience to learn it. Yet this bugs me and makes me envious somehow. Maybe it's because I'm blaming myself for all my faults all the time, but don't actually do anything about it. I'm impulsive, entitled, lazy, greedy, and callous. I'll admit that most people are, but that's what I don't like about most people.

Heh, it's funny I've come onto the internet to say this stuff and try to garner sympathy. I don't need it. What I need to do is focus, cut out all my childishness, and get work done. Even when I'm drained, and have no energy, I need to focus my mind and spirit. Yet, I'm not really sure if I'm doing things right. I need to see my friends more often. Well, that's some honest thinking but I'll go do stuff now.

I love TED. It's educational, inspirational, heartwarming, mind-blowing, etc. Except when speakers don't really understand their subject but think they do. Those suck.

Here's a fun one:

I know it's kind of late to be discussing this, but could Doflamingo's power actually save him?

There was a theory that Law saved him, or Doffy used Law to save himself, but I think there's a much simpler explanation: Doflamingo's power can do something like the Bara Bara fruit. He can simply reattach his head with his own string powers. He'll still be alive right after his head comes off (death by decapitation is not instant. You are just completely helpless when your head comes off), but DD isn't helpless because he can control strings with his mind. As BS as that sounds, and unfair as it implies, I don't think Oda cares about common sense or fairness when it comes to DF powers. What matters is that DD is beatable. And he can be defeated, just not with common reasoning.

However, I will admit my previous explanation is boring, unoriginal, unimaginative. I would like to think that the body we see is a perfect fake replica, and DD controls it perfectly, even putting Haki into it to seem even more real. I can totally imagine that Doflamingo is hiding somewhere, completely avoiding detection by clever use of his powers, but controlling the stage masterfully. The only way to detect him is by having great Observation Haki. I'll also admit that he won't use his fake body all the time, especially if there is no where to hide.

And while I like my second theory, he's being served food and watching the gladiators. He would need his actual body to eat, so having a double eating your food is dumb.

So that's my 2 theories, imperfect but fun to think about. Maybe Law does want DD alive for right now, but I wouldn't make a bet on it.

@TheCrystalShip:

Remember when Robin was badass.

She needs a good challenge to overcome. I have not seen her do anything difficult. Nami, as well, for that matter. And Chopper. And Franky. And Zoro. And Brook. (Hopefully, someone can prove me wrong. The Strawhats are still totally OP since they got back together.

–- Update From New Post Merge ---

@Asparia:

Mmm…. Nope. Wasn't any Kairoseki cuffs but just a wooden cuff.

I remembered that back in Alabasta, Kairouseki was characterized as being harder than diamond. I'm guessing it hardens after being molded while liquid.

@Shadowgreed:

Or he hasn't been transform because Doflamingo wants Dressrosa to remember what Riku did to them and at the same time make Riku feel angry about himself for his incompetence

I think Riku will retain his memories the same way Rebecca's father retained his. What he feels currently doesn't matter to Doflamingo, because the way I see it, Doflamingo is a sociopath, and people like him don't really give a damn what other people feel.

@LaFF:

Violet actually turned herself in and give her services to Doflamingo with the promise from Doflamingo so that Riku would not be killed. Doflamingo was about to kill Riku.

Yes, that's exactly right. My first sentence wasn't worded well, so I didn't state it clearly, but you did just that. Thanks.

@Juvar:

Nice theory, but I'm pretty sure there is no such thing as passing on power in this way in One Piece.. Luffy is always going to increase his strength by his own will and ambition, not by magical inheritance-power ups.

While it's completely Luffy's strength, agility, willpower, and luck that allows him to plow through his adventure, having that D in his name will inevitably make people superstitious. However, characters like Whitebeard and Roger had learned of its true significance, so that D isn't anything to scoff at. Nonetheless, the D doesn't give strength, it's just that people with a D in their name are incredibly strong.

Why the heck would Bon Clay transform into Sabo just to meet him and make him happy? He could sneak in under the disguise of a guard, ambush the actual guards, and meet Luffy face to face as himself.

I think I've figured out why Don Chin Jao and King Riku weren't turned into toys: Sugar loses control over her powers when she's scared, and Viola sacrificed her freedom to Doflamingo, so he let Riku live.

Turning into a doll doesn't kill the person apparently, yet Riku wasn't transmutated, so that means there's another explanation. I think the soundest and most logical reason is that Doflamingo understands that actually hurting Viola's father would make her even more rebellious. While Baby 5 was rebellious, she tried to take vengeance directly and stupidly on Doflamingo, and that was useless. However, Viola is cunning, resourceful, and charming, so she can disrupt the order of Doflamingo's forces subtly, and weaken his power over Dressrosa. I think that's the best possible reason, Riku hasn't been hurt or transformed.

As for Don Chin Jao, he has Conqueror's Haki. 'Nuff said.