One of my favorite NCIS episodes has McGee getting to intimidate a kid who was bullying some nerd kids by apparently reminiscing about how bullies operate, then smiling and pointing out that he used to be one of the kids that was bullied but now he was a federal agent who could make the bully's life very difficult indeed. A nice bit of nerd revenge.

An interesting article:

How panhandlers use free credit cards

What would happen if, instead of spare change, you handed a person in need the means to shop for whatever they needed? What would they buy? Can you spare your credit card, sir?

...

Over the past two weeks, I wandered Toronto’s downtown core with five prepaid Visa and MasterCard gift cards, in $50 and $75 denominations, waiting for people to ask for money.

When they did, I asked them what they needed. A meal at a restaurant, groceries, a new pair of pants, they said. I handed out the cards and asked that they give them back when they’d finished shopping. I either waited at a coffee shop while they shopped or — in the case of those who could not buy what they needed nearby or were reticent about leaving their panhandling post — I said I’d return on another day to pick up the card. That’s when I would reveal that I was a journalist.

Some were unbelieving at first. All were grateful. Some declined the offer. Some who accepted didn’t come back, but those that did had stories to tell.

I wish I'd had an ita for my bodyguard in elementary school. Shoot, now I'm remembering all this stuff. There was the time a neighbor boy who hit me with a whip - yes, a goddam whip - in the back of the school bus until I cried, and nobody, not event the bus driver, who was my mother's cousin, said or did anything. Oh, wait, his sister patted me on the arm. She was the one always talking about the Bible. I wonder what her home life was like.

Man, I fucking hated school, and all the nasty fuckers who went there. And people wonder why I'm perfectly content to go days without seeing another human.

For the A-Cup Crowd, Minimal Assets Are a Plus. Seems like a hell of a generalisation. You can always find plenty of people who're unhappy with what they've got. But what really stood out for me was this paragraph:

Small-breasted women have also begun to express their anger on the Internet when they suspect one of their brethren has decided to artificially augment what nature has given her.

Seriously? I have to admit, I look askance at most elective cosmetic surgery, but I don't take it personally. Even when it's, say, a race thing. And I think a race thing is a much bigger deal than a breast size thing. So someone doesn't have boobs my size anymore. Oh, well.

I wish I'd had an ita for my bodyguard in elementary school.

Yeah. (Except high school for me.) Also, I totally loved the movie My Bodyguard as a kid.

And people wonder why I'm perfectly content to go days without seeing another human.

People suck. (I'm very tired and am in a rather cynical mood at the moment.)

There was the time a neighbor boy who hit me with a whip - yes, a goddam whip - in the back of the school bus until I cried, and nobody, not event the bus driver, who was my mother's cousin, said or did anything.

Okay, this person I would beat to a pulp. Non-consensual whipping is kind of a thing for me. Don't. You just...don't.

Portable hotspot is the best thing ever, especially when my flight has been delayed and I'm stuck at the airport waiting for my aircraft to arrive.

Small-breasted women have also begun to express their anger on the Internet when they suspect one of their brethren has decided to artificially augment what nature has given her.

Brethren? Do they even know what that word means?

Brethren? Do they even know what that word means?

In Jamaica we'd say sistren, but I don't know how mainstream that term has gotten.

These days, schools are better at combating bullying, right?

The physical stuff, I think so. But the psychological stuff (name-calling, taunting, etc.) is still hard to deal with - harder now that the internet allows all sorts of nasty shit to said about people anonymously. Even if the victim avoids it, everybody else can read and share things that have been said/written.