Dear Olga,

I hate everyone, and sometimes I find myself thinking that there are only four or five people on the planet who deserve to live. How can I bring about the destruction of civilization?
    
Yours truly,

Disgusted Misanthrope

By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong.
- Charles Wadsworth

It took me about 23 years to figure out that "father knows best." And once I realized the sound advice my father had to offer, I never again put up a struggle.

When we’re children, eager to grow up, we tend to want to find things out on our own—the hard way. Later on, as mature, independent individuals, we never want or care to hear what the figures of authority have to say or are patient enough to stand still and let situations unfold. We want it right now, and we want it our own way.

Simply put, the internet is an amazing place. There are millions upon millions of websites out there just waiting to be discovered. The only hard part is navigating your way through them in hopes of finding something really interesting, maybe just what you were looking for or maybe just what you needed even if you didn’t know it. Sure, you could always use a search engine  to find it, but I’d like to make the task even easier for you. Check out the list I’ve compiled of fun, funny, useful, and definitely cool websites for you to explore at your leisure. And if that’s not easy enough for you, I’ve even sorted them into three categories: “I Have Time to Kill,” “I Want to Learn Something,” and “I Like to Share.”  

Readers cheered her stand against unruly, ill-mannered IMers, and now VM’s resident “Gum Goddess,” and the youngest of our bunch,is back with some helpful tips on how not to become that person on Facebook who has everyone on the verge of doing the Facebook slap-in-the-face—pushing the “unfriend” button.

Facebook.

What exactly is Facebook, you ask? For the few unitiated left, Facebook is an addicting, distracting, necessary evil thing of a social networking website. But like with many other online “things,” as bothersome as Facebook can be, it is also a useful, oftentimes wonderful, tool capable of bringing you endless hours of friend connections, enjoyment, and nonsensical, time-wasting fun.

Dear Olga,

I have a friend who oftentimes doesn’t respond to my emails, and when she does respond, it’s after a super long time and always with a one-sentence email, like: “Hey, been super busy, will respond later!” She rarely follows up with an actual response. I think this is rude. Am I wrong?

- Frustrated

The course of true love never did run smooth.
- William Shakespeare

And it never will...

There will be ups and downs, ins and outs, tug of wars, compromises, laughter, tears, heartache, and happiness in the light of love. 

No one said it would be easy, as much as we long for it to be. With all the fairytales and their fanfare storybook endings, it is hard to believe the end result is seldom ever the "...and they lived happily ever after." Of course, it could be in a perfect world. And why shouldn't it?

VM’s resident “Gum Goddess,” and the youngest in our illustrious circle of savvy writers, has some sage advice for IMers everywhere who suffer from annoying, lazy, inconsiderate, and illiterate habits when at their keyboards.

I hate speaking on the telephone. A girl my age should LOVE it, but no, I hate talking on the phone. Because of this, I resort to instant messaging (IMing). And seeing as how I use it so often, it should come as no surprise that I’ve become all too aware of everything that is wrong with AIM, in particular, and IMers, in general.

Let me start by saying that I do believe in the power of positive thinking. Of course I do. Meditation and prayer, no matter from what religion or philosophy, all essentially revolve around cultivating the power of positive intentions and sending them outward.

So you’re in a convenience store, eager to get out, and you jump on line while still trying to remember if you forgot to get what you went there to get in the first place. Cotton, cereal, magazines…Then, before you realize what’s happening, the teenaged, drone-faced cashier starts yelling at you that you’re next in line. The crotchety lady behind you joins in, poking you that you’re holding up the line. And then you start yelling at yourself that you desperately wish you weren’t on line! 

 “Keep writing. Keep doing it and doing it. Even in the moments when it’s so hurtful to think about writing.”
- Heather Armstrong