My roommate and I play an online open-world survival game on Xbox. One player hosts a server and invites other players. The game has amazing building mechanics, so we spend a lot of our time constructing massive and ambitious forts, castles, cities, etc.

My roommate discovers that there is a way to use cheats to build without any resources. This cuts the building time to a tenth of what it would usually take. Unfortunately, only the host of the server can use the cheats, so I have to continue building the old fashion way: by running back and forth to grab materials.

One day, we are creating this massive castle. Two hours in, we update each other on our progress.

Roommate: “Yeah, and look here! I got the whole garden leading up to the fortified gate. That leads to the bridge that crosses the moat. And that leads to the large doors of the front of the castle! I even got a massive throne room with a giant feast table. I’m working on the towers now leading up to my lord’s chambers! What have you got?”

Me: “Oh, cool… I, uh… I built a door… That won’t close all the way…”

Roommate: *Awkward pause* “Great. That can be your entrance. Peasant!”

In early 1979, I was in the US Army stationed in Berlin, Germany. I had a room in the barracks that was designed for two people. I used the lockers to divide the room in half and set up the back half for my own comfort to live in. I bought a small refrigerator and would buy cans of Nehi Grape Soda by the case and stock my fridge.

Eventually, I ended up with a roommate. She seemed nice enough, and I didn’t see much of her. But I noticed she would occasionally help herself to one of my sodas.

One day, we were both in the room and I was drinking one of my Nehi Grape Sodas. Out of the blue, she had the audacity to ask me:

Roommate: “Would you buy another flavor? I’m tired of drinking grape.”

What the f***?

Me: “Those are my sodas. If you want something else, you can buy it, and I will let you use my fridge to keep them cold.”

Thankfully, she complained to the first sergeant that I was rude and insensitive and refused to get along with her. This confused the first sergeant since he had never had any problems with me. When I explained the fridge and sodas to him, they moved her to another room.

Back when I was in college, I didn’t have a car, so I mainly walked between our dorm and school or between the various shops. However, at one point, I needed stuff for a project that wasn’t to be found within walking distance, so I asked around to see if someone could give me a ride.

One of my roommates agreed to give me a ride over. The store I thought would have what I needed was around a fifteen-minute drive away, so we chatted along the way. Once we got there, he parked and I got out, but he made no indication that he was planning to get out. I figured he just was going to wait, and I told him it’d probably only be around ten minutes to grab what I needed. He grunted, and I finished getting out of the car.

When I was about halfway to the store, I hears revving behind me, turned to look, and saw his car peeling out of the parking lot. I was shocked and then a bit angry that he’d apparently chosen to “play a prank” and strand me here. I sent him a text — admittedly nasty — saying it wasn’t cool to leave me stranded. Then, I sent a few texts to some other friends and acquaintances who I knew had cars.

I had checked out and was standing outside by the time one of them got back to me and agreed to swing by and pick me up. Shortly after that, I finally got a response text from my roommate.

Roommate: “Why are you being such an a**hole? I gave you a ride like I said I would.”

Me: “If I needed help getting to the store, I obviously needed help getting back, too. Leaving me stranded is not cool.”

At that, he ended up calling me. I picked up, and he just launched into a screaming fit about how it wasn’t obvious that I’d need a ride back, I was ungrateful, it wasn’t obvious at all, just because someone sees things differently from you, it doesn’t mean they’re wrong, it wasn’t obvious, he had other things to do than wait for me, and did I mention he thought it wasn’t obvious? Because he repeated that phrase a lot during his screaming rant.

I eventually just hung up on him and declined when he tried to call back. He left two voice messages which basically just rehashed his rant. At that point, my other friend showed up, and we drove back.

Now, this might have been the end of it. I was willing to let things lie and just not ask him for a ride ever again, but apparently, my roommate wasn’t satisfied with that.

Nope, he felt the need to go to virtually every mutual acquaintance we had and tell this story, trying to get them to agree with him that it wasn’t obvious that I’d need a ride back.

No matter how he tried to phrase it, not a single person agreed with him — which absolutely made him lose his s***. He probably burned around three-quarters of his local friendships because of how abusively angry he got over people not agreeing with him that it wasn’t obvious someone would need a ride both ways from the store. He refused to speak with me for three months until he moved out, and he apparently broke contact with every mutual friend we had, as no one I spoke to heard from him after he moved out.

For all I know, he might have dropped out entirely, all over the fact that he couldn’t admit he was wrong about this one thing.

One day, I am abruptly awoken in the dead hours of the morning by a repetitive smashing sound. I grab the nearest object that my half-awake brain thinks could be used as a weapon and seek out the sound… in my housemate’s room. I find him taking a hammer to his computer monitor, with his phone sitting on a “call ended” screen distressingly close to the chaos.

Now, my housemate is not a tech-illiterate guy, but he is a bit of a ditz. And, let’s be honest — everyone’s IQ is a bit lower than usual early in the morning, especially if we’re woken up earlier than normal. Once [Housemate] has calmed down enough, he explains that he was woken up by a call that followed a pattern I recognize.

Scammer: “Hello, this is Microsoft Tech Support. You have a virus on your—”

Housemate: “Jesus f***, are you kidding me?! Hold on—”

He proceeded to stumble out of bed, unplug his PC from the wall, and then grab his hammer. His sleep-deprived brain somehow came to the conclusion that “virus” meant “someone able to watch you through your computer”. Fortunately, that same sleep-deprived brain also came to the conclusion that “computer” meant “monitor”, which meant that he was attacking the part that did NOT contain any of the data. Even more fortunately, I’d barged into his room brandishing my hand vacuum before his brain had recovered enough to realize the tower was the important part of the computer.

I don’t normally sympathize with scammers, but I DO feel kind of bad for the guy who had to explain to his boss that he’d hung up on someone because there was a maniac destroying things into the microphone.

I have moved into an apartment in a relatively upscale part of London, sharing with two other people. They are both Chinese students who seem to come from very wealthy families as they don’t work, are always out shopping for luxury branded items, and order from [Food Delivery Service] for every… single… meal.

I don’t begrudge them this in any way but as someone who, while not poor, is on a budget and is working to get through university, it’s an interesting observation.

For the last two weeks, my flatmates have been ordering from either the same Chinese or Korean fried chicken place for nearly every meal. After some noticeable digestion issues and weight gain, they decide to order from a salad place.

The [Service] delivery guy is handing my flatmate their packed salads.

Delivery Guy: “I’m so proud of you! This is the healthiest thing you’ve ordered in weeks!”

After the door closes, my flatmates are looking at each other.

Flatmate: “Maaaaaybe we should start cooking at home more.”