Basically, when they introduced flame-retardant chemicals into carpets and furniture, there was a spike in thyroid cancer in cats, and now we're all going to die.
On the internet some people know you're a cat.
Heh. I should really get an actual checkup one of these years. I pretty much go to a doctor if I'm acutely sick, but not otherwise, and in my late forties I have, e.g., no idea what my cholesterol levels are. At some point I should learn that kind of thing.
I'm pretty sure the hangover cure is just placebo. For all states of drunkenness except the very greatest, I've noticed a really poor correlation between how much I drank and how bad I feel the next morning. Sometimes five drinks is a hangover and sometimes eight drinks isn't.
2: My doctor spends a fair amount of time explaining to me why my cholesterol levels don't mean I should take medication to lower cholesterol even though many doctors think people with my cholesterol levels should take medication. It's part of the reason he's my doctor, because he's clearly reading the literature and not the headlines.
I think I was 43 when I started getting headaches while working. That was my "you need bifocals" awakening. They've been just great.
I don't know that knowledge is all it's cracked up to be. I only discovered last spring that I have a mild blood clotting disorder, completely untreatable but irritating in some contexts. And I think if I had learned this in my thirties I would have thought it was something really important. Perhaps it was. Perhaps is postponed my heart attack. But I feel there has to be a limit to the number of things you can't change about your health that are worth knowing,
I'm supposed to lose weight. I keep waiting for my doctor to do "Bro, do you even lift?"
Is the whole anti-cholesterol drugs things a giant scam? I got the impression that after extensive study they determined that these drugs are effective in reducing cholesterol, but not in prolonging life or reducing heart attacks etc. I suspect someone else here may possess actual knowledge.
Well, right. Part of my 'not going to the doctor unless I'm sick' approach, where it's not just laziness, is systematic suspicion that they know what they're talking about in terms of aggressive treatment approaches to chronic disease without acute symptoms.
That is, I'd rather not get diagnosed with something that requires lifelong treatment if I feel fine, and the necessity for the treatment is arguable.
8: They have been changing the guidelines. It's certainly not all a giant scam, especially if you've already has a heart attack or at very high risk for one.
Four out of five dentists recommend not having a heart attack for patients who chew gum.
I wondered if I'd have a low thyroid
All short people do.
8. I get the impression that statins do work, assuming you aren't one of the unlucky ones who gets muscle pain, etc.
Are there short people who aren't cats?
this article on thyroid cancer in cats scared the crap out of me. Basically, when they introduced flame-retardant chemicals into carpets and furniture, there was a spike in thyroid cancer in cats, and now we're all going to die.
Sounds like people who bite and gnaw on furniture would be at highest risk.
12: heebie definitely has a low thyroid when she's doing this. http://www.unfogged.com/archives/week_2016_06_19.html#015487
I think there is no hangover cure with any scientific validation, possibly not even water, definitely not anything you buy. But there's always placebo.
Aging has not been great for me lately (hence my comment in the other thread; sorry, Teo). There was the melanoma this summer, which thankfully hadn't spread; the RSI pain in my arm has gotten bad enough that I've stopped using my right hand entirely for typing, and the two doctors I've seen about it have been competely unhelpful (although if the insurance approves the extracorporeal shockwave therapy the latest just prescribed, maybe that will work miracles); my off-and-on knee pain is on again, in a major way; I'm about 15 lbs heavier than I'd like to be (10 less muscle than I'd like, 25 lbs more fat); my eyes feel tired after even a few hours of screen time; I haven't been able to work regular exercise into my new teaching + getting teaching degree schedule; and I now reliably feel awful the next day after only 3 drinks (while my attempts to socialize with native Kakanians via local party politics has me, due to language-skill anxiety, often quite desperate to drink at least that much).
Actually, when I write them out like that, they're all pretty minor problems in the whole scheme of things, and my life is otherwise pretty great. I guess I should stop complaining. *blessed*
Extracorporeal shockwave therapy sounds compatible with Halfordismo. "Here, stand next to this small therapeutic bomb."
My left ankle has been causing me trouble and it's slow to heal, I don't remember injuring it so all I can think of is advanced bone cancer of the ankle. I need to lose some weight, I used to be able to do it faster than before but I've been weighing myself and recording the result as I used to do daily when I lost a lot and I've actively started to cut down portions and avoided certain foods so I've started getting serious about it again. I just got a referral for the procedure where they put nasty stuff up where you don't want it because I'm old enough for it and my grandfather died of colon cancer.
and avoided certain foods
It turns out that it matters a great deal which foods you avoid, otherwise my Only Canned Frosting diet would have worked.
I should get new bifocals. I think my new podiatrist is doing well, except that when she talks a Dremel tool to my toes, it makes me feel like a horse.
Oh, and my cholesterol levels are excellent but my BP which has always been excellent seems to be steadily moving upwards but not yet anywhere near where it would be considered high.
Talks s/b takes, but I can't see well.
I have not yet given it to bifocals, I switch between computer-reading glasses and my regular glasses.
I have trifocals, actually. Reading/computer/not getting hit by a car.
I got them because, as a feminist, I liked that they were called "progressive lenses" and because they don't have a little line that lets everybody know you're old enough to need bifocals.
I want progressives, but my eyes aren't quite bad enough yet. I'm in that annoying spot where I need glasses for anything more than eighteen inches from my face, but at reading distance I can't read without taking them off.
My dad used to make the joke about getting bifocals because he couldn't make his arms longer and I never really got it until one day I realized that I was stretching my arms as far as I could to make some fine print legible.
assuming you aren't one of the unlucky ones who gets muscle pain, etc.
I thought they gave you quinine for that.
Important thing to remember: Lasix makes you pee, LASIK means they shoot lasers at your eye.
I only discovered last spring that I have a mild blood clotting disorder, completely untreatable but irritating in some contexts.
Me too! Except it was a decade ago, in my forties, when my son was diagnosed with a hereditary blood disorder that I am quite certain he got from me -- and that I feel quite certain I got from my mother. (I still haven't been officially diagnosed, and my mother never was.)
Pissing laser beams remains in the realm of science fiction.
34 was me.
Really disliked progressive lenses. Got separate screen-reading glasses instead, which I remove for close-reading. That's a quite satisfactory solution.
Yeah, progressive lenses seem weird to me, and I suspect they would be less than optimal when watching movies at the cinema.
A THOUSAND CURSES UPON THAT WIZARD. WHAT HAS SEEN CANNOT BE UNSEEN.
Optimal is being able to piss lasers. But I find it very easy to tilt my head to change the focus.
Speaking of blood disorders, I was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia a little over a year ago. In the last 20 years or so they've developed amazing drugs for treating this, and I'm apparently doing fine.
That's very good to hear about the last part. I'm not going to google the condition for fear of fear itself.
X Trapnel. If you send me an email, I may have a suggestion for you.
In other news it looks like things may be coming to a fairly amicable end with Chani. The blockade has been a real strain on our relationship. Arrakis is already incredibly isolating, this has not and is not going to be good for my mental health.
Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear that, Barry.
41: and yikes, glad you're doing well.
47: Yes, I'm doing so well, that I was told it was ok to have surgery for my inguinal hernia. So, I have that to look forward to.
Yikes peep, glad things are OK. Barry, there's no time like a breakup to drive through sand dunes in a high end 700 hp dune buggy.
That sounds like very good advice, assuming you can't steal an ekranoplan on short notice.
Sorry to hear that Barry, your occasional comments on the relationship have been very sweet. I'm sure that's going to be hard.
Barry, there's no time like a breakup to drive through sand dunes in a high end 700 hp dune buggy.
Either that or when beginning an affair with Steve McQueen.
27, 38. I got regular progressives* about two years ago and hated them. I felt like the area of full vision correction was really tiny. Drove me nuts. I got a new pair that were billed as "computer progressives," and they have better correction at computer-reading distances and a wider area of good acuity, so I'm pretty happy with them.**
* Because I hated switching glasses from reading to distance and back all the time, and also so I could see the stuff on my phone (Waze, mostly) while driving and still have good driving vision for, well, driving.
** I can also read my phone and drive with them.
Ageing can fuck off. I'm 46 next week, and getting old sucks.
I'm not actually in as much chronic pain as I was a couple of years ago when I was still regularly kickboxing, but, I still feel like crap more or less all the time. I do have a broken thyroid, but that's because I had a tumour (not malignant). I think that's a big part of being heavy/fat, because pre-tumour I ate a lot more rubbish than I do now, and was lighter by quite a bit. I'm something like 45lbs heavier than I would really like to be. I have a bet with my wife that if I can get down to my target weight, I can buy a new guitar.*
I also get horrific hangovers if I drink more than a couple of beers, which is ... suboptimal.
I do get a bi-yearly full health workup, though, and I'm basically healthy. Cholesterol is fine to good. BP is average-ish and healthy (although sometimes if I measure at home it's higher than I would like and I suspect it's creeping up).
And, the chronic ulnar nerve problem I have in my left hand (off and on for decades) is bad at the moment, which means I can't play certain things on the guitar. Or rather, I can play more or less anything I like, but certain things will lead my hand to get fatigued really quickly, so I need to ration what I play.
* and if I do, I fully intend to spend 'reasonable second hand car' kinds of money on it.
How's aging going for you?
I feel middle-aged. I feel heavier and slower and like I heal more slowly than I am used to. But, most importantly, for the last three or so years I feel like I've been in a situation in which the big-picture elements of my life are good (I am in generally good health; I find my job interesting and the business has been doing well) and day-to-day I just feel exhausted and that there are a lot of days that just feel like a slog*.
I just wish there was some way to do a partial re-boot and shed some of the weight of accumulated responsibilities -- while still keeping all of the things that I value in my life.
I don't feel any sense of mid-life crisis, but I can still see the outlines of how that might happen.
* I don't have kids; I can't imagine . . . .
On the other hand, work is both super interesting, and super stressful. So I'm learning a ton of new things, and feel mentally really sharp. But I'm anxious and uptight the whole time.
So I'm learning a ton of new things, and feel mentally really sharp.
Which, tbh, I really need to. Because, false modesty aside, when I worked for the university I was pretty confident that 99% of the time, I was always the smartest person in the room.
And now, in my current job, I am 100% certain that I am not.
Since surgery at the end of last year I'm slower and more easily tired, and I have a frozen shoulder, which sucks big time. Working at a desk for any length of time buggers it up to the point at which I can't sleep even with painkillers. So I have to work with the laptop on my lap, which annoys the cat intensely as he regards that as his personal domain. He'd learned to leave me alone while I worked at the desk and jump on me when I went and sat in an armchair, and that kept both of us happy. So he can't understand why he now gets swatted off when I sit in what he sees as the cat-stroking chair, and it makes him irritable and bitey.
TL/DR: getting older pisses off your pets as well as you.
I should probably find a new job so that I can learn new things and shed some of the weight of accumulated responsibilities. There's nobody left who has been involved in my kind of projects for as long as I have, so whole bunches of stuff have just defaulted into being my thing.
I have a frozen shoulder, which sucks big time
Sorry to hear that, but my first thought was "Just like Ged."
There's nobody left who has been involved in my kind of projects for as long as I have, so whole bunches of stuff have just defaulted into being my thing.
I know that feeling . . .
re: 59
It sucks. I have a frozen shoulder, too, although physio helped (and a steroid injection has made it worse again). It's no longer awake at night bad, though.
I found some of the exercises I was given genuinely helpful.
This reminds me, time to go stretch my Achilles tendon.
physio helped (and a steroid injection has made it worse again)
Commiserations. I had been wondering about the possibility of a steroid injection. It sounds like it hasn't been beneficial for you at all?
The physio has told me to go away for now and come back when the exercises start to work, which could be months. At the moment they just make the pain worse without helping mobility.
re: 65
Steroid injection definitely made it worse for me, but I think for some people it eases things enough to enable them to do the exercises.
Slowly and steadily doing the exercises, e.g. doing negatives with small weights in scaption, etc. over about 3 months made a really big improvement for me. But I needed to do the full range of things -- maybe about 6 or 7 exercises -- a couple of times a day for a couple of months to see improvement. But it really did help. My physio gave me a couple of variations of each of things, so there were pain-free versions I could, and then move onto harder ones once I built mobility and strength.
I did my first real medical check up a few years ago where they did the various blood tests and everything came back ok except the part about being in the border zone for diabetes. Since then, I've almost totally stopped drinking soda, mostly for other reasons but that factored in, but I haven't taken another set of tests.
I also lost some weight, probably as a soda stopping side effect, but also plantar fasciitis cleared up and I started hiking again, which may have helped my weight and certainly helped my conditioning. Last year I was pleasantly surprised I was able to climb South Sister in central Oregon without totally collapsing. It was pretty much my limit, though.
We don't have any mountains that high to hike up, so we have to go up and down and up and down and so on.
My spring hiking goal is like that, but it has to rain to make the waterfall worth the long trip.
Anyway, my goal is still the whole Allegheny Front Trail (42 miles). The first time, my cardiovascular system told me to fuck off, I think at least partially because of the heat. The second time, I got called back because of stupid responsibilities.
The last time I got my eyes checked I repeatedly got into an annoying back and forth with the various optopeople. Some of the bench work I do involves having to see small moving parts in low light (obligatory 'laydeez'), and being able to do so has definitely been left behind in my youth. So I got my regular prescription but also asked for some close-work lenses that I could switch to when needed, and they kept trying to sell me bifocals, which I didn't want because I can read just fine with my regular glasses and anyway I don't want to have to look down my nose to see this other shit but every time I'd get this patronising vibe from the person like it was all vanity. I *am* vain, but this was not that.
re 65, 66, my stupid leg thing got considerably worse following 2 round-trip transatlantic flights and probably nothing has ever made me feel older than taking 20 minutes to walk a block to the bus stop taking tiny, shuffling steps with a pained grimace on my face the whole time. Fortunately, work with a new (private) physio seems to be working a little and now I'm doubly motivated to improve, not only to relieve the pain but because those physio exercises are excruciatingly boring and make me feel like a baby, lying on the floor all the time.
The other thing that makes me feel old these days is how often I catch myself tuning out when a younger person is talking to me and I start to feel like I've heard it all before.
2: you're up to date on your paps, right? And you know you need a colonoscopy at 50 (by the US guidelines). You could decide that you prefer alternative screening following other countries' guidelines, but a doctor at a physical would tell you you needed one.
I'll be 63 tomorrow. I'm overweight, mostly because I take far too little regular exercise, partly because I eat too much absentmindedly. My blood pressure is high but not dangerously so. I worry a lot about money and clinging on to a job; I'm still pretty good at what I do but it's weird to realise the youngs see me as a dinosaur. I still find all kinds of interesting things to think and write about the world.
I worry almost all the time about my mother. I am going to have to put her into a home and I dread it. She does, too.
In other ways I feel just fine. I have the love of a genuinely good woman and a chaotic/neutral cat. Most of my brain still mostly works. My son is fine and I am as reconciled as I will ever be to the loss of my daughter. My not-exactly-step (disabled ramp?) teenage boys are quite fond of me though much less social than the cat.
I have far far fewer panic attacks than I did when I was married or just generally younger. This is good, because I can no longer drink or even smoke enough to bring them under control. I need two pairs of glasses, possibly three, but when I tried some varifocals a few years back they just made all the world go out of focus in different ways.
How much drinking is enough to control a panic attack? Asking for a friend.
44, things I guess just falling apart at the usual rate. My digestion is slightly better since giving up bread and stuff, which I did as a part of a kind of brutal diet. Which also includes not drinking so I can't try out the hangover cure. I've had one drink since January 1 and am not having another until a few weeks from now. Scheduled decadence is so extra decadent.
Honestly I wish I had one right now because I have a coworker whose voice is indescribably grating and she's on the phone and cubicle farms are reason enough to drink on their own.
76 1/3 of a fifth and a half. Or so a friend tells me.
"44" there was me stating my age; not me addressing an earlier comment.
76 1/3 of a fifth and a half.
Strangest record speed ever.
76: About half the recommended weekly intake, so far as I remember. And if that doesn't work, another glass the same size. But actually the uselessness of alcohol as an anxiolytic is one reason I am not an alcoholic. Drink just made me feel better about being anxious.
Sorry to hear that, Barry.
I've given up alcohol and caffeine since New Year's. For the most part I'm more productive and sleeping and eating better, even lost a bit of extra weight, but I miss beer and bars and mild inebriation so very much.
I completely forgot about how I tore my calf muscle running to cross the street and was on crutches and wearing a boot for a month, then wearing the boot only while I slept (to avoid kicking and reinjuring) for a few weeks. Getting that injured during a routine activity certainly made me feel old. But the immobility is possibly what cured the plantar fasciitis.
I've been smoking mj if I want some mild intoxication but it isn't the same and you can't put it in a glass with coconut milk and a small umbrella.
||
Dow has now lost 33% of gains from Election Day to peak last month. S&P 40%.
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[fingers in ears going la-la-la-la-la]
I'll be 60 in a bit more than half a year. Not that crazy about aging; losing 25 lbs would be good, but the process of doing so has little appeal. Sciatic nerve thing very annoying -- standing for a long period, walking for an hour, both quite painful. Zirbenschnaps (in combination with ibuprofen) helps for a while, but that's not really a long term solution. I get a lot of encouragement to see someone about it, but it seems likely to be bad news, and so what's the hurry.
I'm maybe a little more indifferent to the prospect of getting to 70/75 than I ought to be: the prospect of taking the granddaughter skiing in the Alps several years hence, though, may be appealing enough to tip the balance.
Finally giving up and buying reading glasses when I get home. Small print in bad light is the issue, but I'm finding myself too often in that circumstance.
84: Maybe there's a market you can fill? Drinkable edibles.
They sell 'tinctures' right? Those could go in a non-alcoholic beverage, probably.
But booze does taste good. I've been mixing myself more drinks lately, and am enjoying them a lot.
Putting a paper umbrella in the tincture is a million dollar idea.
I'm not so sure about the coconut milk.
sorry, Teo
Ha, no worries.
I'm still pretty young, obviously, and feeling pretty good about my health. Over the past couple of years I've addressed a lot of the low-level issues that had been worrying me for a while and they all seem to be easily treatable or at least manageable. I did get a tooth pulled a few weeks ago that opened up a hole in my sinus that is taking annoyingly long to heal up, but even that's not really a big deal.
47 now, and apart from being fatter than I'd like (without being in any way inclined to do anything about it!), I think I'm basically ok. I have what they call multifocal contact lenses (and normal short sighted glasses for when I haven't got my lenses in) which are mostly fine, but sometimes I have to read something really tiny and not easily legible, and it would definitely help to be able to peep over the top of my contacts.
Very pre/possibly peri-menopausal. Which is on my mind today as my period started, just 18 days after the last one. 18? Fuck off. Fortunately although they can be close together, they are short and light (atm), and haven't got torrential like some seem to.
Drinkable edibles.
They're called "potent potables".
you're up to date on your paps, right?
I don't even HAVE a cervix.
I'm doing well enough that I can't complain, but my wife is beginning her second frozen shoulder -- the first is mostly, but not completely through. So I'm very sympathetic, Ume and ttaM.
Strangely, a week ago today we were in the bay area and got her a CBD tincture, since Kaiser won't proscribe anything more than tylenol unless you have bone sticking out. For the first time in months, she's gotten more than 6 hours a night of sleep, which is it's own huge relief. And she hasn't had to contort on the couch to find a decent position for her shoulder. I'm very pleasantly surprised.
OT: I have several questions about this story but all of them reflect poorly on my character.
peep, you're right about the medications available but yikes that you have to take advantage of them! I hope all is well enough.
Me, I've complained about my health plenty. I'll be 38 this weekend and went through a second breast-lump thing in recent weeks, less shocking since I knew the drill but more emotionally unsettling somehow. It's another weird infection in a different lymph node from the one with the biopsy clip, so I didn't have to go through a second biopsy and just went right to an antibiotic that is making me miserable and exhausted and plagued by horrific dreams. But once that gets better it will be back to the end of PT and then maybe I'll be just a normal person with a regular body who needs to learn how to move and lose weight and so on.
I've been having stomach problems when I drink too much beer, so I switched to 12% ABV beer.
Possibly not the right tone- I had a surprising hospital visit earlier this year, potentially serious if I ignored it much longer (Like Serena Williams and numerous other WINNING ATHLETES I had a pulmonary embolism).
I am 51 and could lose some weight. I'm grateful for what's going well, no idea how to strike the right balance of confidence and humility, of striving and serenity. Trying to pay some attention. Nearly done raising my kid, also a little unsure there-- I see very much that's wonderful with him. The chance to love someone more than anything else is something to be grateful for.
I seriously hope to avoid obsolescence, I oscillate between feeling that some pieces of progress that I understnd and care about are amazing rays of understanding and feeling that there's too much coming too fast. I am generous with the typos and the sharing because I have had some wine-- other people my age seem to take things more seriously-- other people's opinions matter to them, more of a sense of urgency. Probably a failing that I don't look in the same direction.
100.3 is almost a spoken-word piece.
In my experience the body falls apart in a hundred ways, completely and irretrievably, on your 50th birthday. The upside is you realize your thirties and forties were actually pretty good. So, enjoy!
I've been taking synthyroid for 20 years: it must win the prize for treatment that is cheap, side-effect-free, and if it didn't exist (eg if you were born a hundred years ago) you'd be bed-ridden or dead. I worry about friends who might need it but don't get prescribed it, because what counts as 'normal' thyroid apparently covers a huge range and you can be dysfunctional without the doctors accepting that there's a problem. I would say 'borrow a friend's pills and see what happens', only excess thyroid levels are seriously bad too.
Speaking of eyesight not being 20/20. My nearsightedness has reached the point where my good insurance plan, which I feel very fortunate to have, is covering my contact lenses as "medically necessary". I'm now at the point where the strongest off-the-shelf soft lens prescription only gets me to about 20/30, which is ok for everything including driving, but a sign that things are going to get worse.
There may be a future where I need custom lenses in order to see well enough to get around without other assistance, but my eyes aren't good enough to see that far ahead.
Completely off topic, but I was reminded of this line by Halford (re retiring to the Scottish island of Canna) and I felt it needed resurrecting because that's pretty much my mood right now:
I could spend my time reading, walking the dog, getting into ongoing fights with the local tyrant, greeting guest house visitors as an eccentric character, eating sausage for breakfast, lifting stones and running to stay strong, and looking at puffins. And they even have wifi so I could still dick around on the internet if I wanted to. Is there a more perfect life?
and looking at puffins
Given that people seem to do most bird watching during the season when the birds are nesting and mating, it's safe to assume bird watching is just another perversion.
At 35 as far as I can tell I'm in my prime. Compared to 10 years ago I'm in better shape. I think that's mostly due to biking to work, but also I eat better these days, compared to being a single guy and getting takeout or eating Bachelor Chow most nights. My eyes have got a bit worse over the years, but I've had or should have had some kind of prescription since high school anyway. I've stopped beating myself up or stressing out about my laziness, procrastination, and antisocial habits; I now embrace them as long as I'm on top of the important stuff, which I am, at the moment.
My only concern is that after the bike accident last year, my left hand still isn't 100 percent. Functionally speaking I can do everything I should be able to - type, pick up the toddler, etc. - but I can't fully curl my little finger or put my ring on my ring finger on that hand. I wonder if this is a preview of arthritis. When I'm having really deep thoughts, I wonder about how aging in general is the accumulation of injuries that didn't fully heal.
106 last - a lot!
Barry, so sorry to hear your news, hope you have greater mobility and wider social landscape soon soon soon.
94: I'm assuming that LB does, though.
Let's all list our SAT scores and number of cervixes.
I don't know how to count your neck.
84: Here you can buy a half ounce or so for the equivalent of ~ 2 USD. I converted a large bag of same into a pound of luridly green butter that is further converted into attractive yet potent cupcakes every now and then. Tonight is a baking night, because i had my teeth fixed the other day and they're sore and I'd run out of cupcakes.
Let me be the first to recommend finding a cupcake recipe from Ina Garten.
Thanks everyone, here and in the other thread.
I am now a free man. Laydeez.
For two years there I really enjoyed the rhythm of my life with her, each of us having our own lives living in different countries as we do, the monthly or so weekend trips to Dubai, spontaneous excursions to the desert oasis town of Al Ain, the highest mountain in the Emirates Jabal Jais, etc, and all the art galleries, museums, biennales, the film festivals, and the trips abroad, Berlin, where we first met face-to-face, Singapore, Amsterdam, London, and all the ones we planned for the future. It was magical.
The breakup is amicable, and I believe we will continue to be friends and I will see her when I visit Dubai, though not in a romantic way. Although now the pull of Dubai is suddenly much weaker, OTOH anything beats the isolation of Arrakis. I also can't begin to imagine the hellscape that would be dating here. I've broken out the good bourbon for this one.
Oops, sorry that was just meant for the other thread.
OT plus spoiler alert?:
Is Vetch evil?
It's like you don't even want dramatic tension in your life.
There's only three people who we know how they know his name. And two of them aren't on the path the fleeing ghost-thingy took.
Where are you? At Vetch's place in the East Reach? Because that's like one chapter from the end.
Admit it, that dragon dogfight kicked the shit out of quidditch.
It made more sense than quidditch.
Also, that a wise mentor wizard giving actionable advice is far preferable to riddles and spy games.
I'm confused. Is Sparrowhawk going to find a horcrux?
I think they're going to meet Aslan.
113: so sorry Barry!
I'm feeling annoyed with being so mentally ill, but on the plus side I'm only aware of the contours of the problem because I'm getting good treatment for the first time ever. I haven't hurt myself in over a week which is great; I feel we may have this under control. I did burn myself though which was revolting. I'm pretty healthy otherwise. I don't have a job right now which makes it easy to exercise; I've had clean pap smears and colonoscopies; I have unnaturally high good cholesterol like some people do for no reason of virtue. I don't know that losing weight is per se good since I was at a healthy weight before, but losing 20 pounds since september has pleased me--overmuch? it is a form of self-harm to restrict your food intake purposively, and difficult for others to monitor. it's also hard to distinguish loss of appetite from sneaking threads of disordered eating, and anything I can cast as a challenge I will take as an opportunity to exercise supreme willpower. probably not good all around, except for my knees and ability to do wall squats. I have magnified close vision using mine eyes, nice computer glasses, and then contacts with different prescriptions (distance in one eye, close vision in other) which I recommend highly if you can get used to it. I guess if everything's going to go to shit at 50 I'll try to enjoy it.
Sail to the end of the world, meet Aslan, get a new tail.
That was a kind of disappointing ending.
I should have probably read that 35 years ago.
I have unnaturally high good cholesterol like some people do for no reason of virtue.
I have an uncle with unnaturally high bad cholesterol, no matter what he eats.
Because you're a feminist, you'll enjoy the second one more.
Two science fiction books in the same month?
I might go read the Michael Wolff/not really one or just watch Welsh people murder each other.
You aren't keen to signal your virtue?
Or maybe, inspired by all the sailing, I'll make a boat.
Which Welsh people have you moved onto now, Moby? I've been trying Girlfriend's Guide to Divorce, because wealthy Los Angeles is a lot more foreign, but I'm open to better suggestions. There must be many.
126.2 Glad to hear you're getting better alameida.
138: If I just wanted to signal virtue, I'd read the Wikipedia plot summary. But I really do want to read it at some point.
Barry, I'm sorry so many things are tough all at once. I hope the bourbon helps!
140: Same Welsh people. They hold-up for a second viewing. After Hinterland, I can barely stand to watch English people murder each other.
143 Thanks Thorn, maybe I'll actually get around to reading another 10 pages of CP too!
144: I'm boycotting until they show the Welsh-language version and then I'll watch again.
I feel like I should have a genetic propensity to speak Celtic languages, but it turns out that it doesn't work that way.
Anyway, it turns out the "Earthsea" got its name because it's all a bunch of islands.
I guess I'm watching figure skating instead of murdering in Wales. Apparently, people do this every four years.
Doesn't no pants and ice get cold?
141: thanks barry! I haven't even wanted to hurt myself for a few good days which is so awesome, because wanting to hurt yourself is creepy and disturbing. we've tinkered with my anti-depressant hey it's also an antipsychotic, which is the only anti-depressant ever to work properly for me. it makes you sleepy too, which is a beautiful thing for an insomniac. I'm taking a decent amount of extended release and then some instant release in the afternoon to stave off the bad time (I never hurt myself in the morning.) cross fingers it's working ok!
I'd suggest that Moby try the Belgians, but he never takes my advice.
Feeling the age a bit this morning, having seen the wrong side of 3 am at Fasnacht in my friend's Swiss village. Enthusiastic costumed crowd singing along with everything, buying drinks for the reputed American; good news is the friend, an MD, did a back adjustment at 3 or so, and the leg hurts less this morning than in quite a while. What're people suggesting for hangovers these days?
Glad to hear you're mending, Al, though it means we will miss the best and funniest madness diary there ever was.
For hangovers I fear the cure is age in homeopathic doses -- six hours, or so will usually do it. I drank a small glass of the most delicious honey and walnut vodka in a Polish restaurant last night. This is definitely a consolation of old age.
OT, but I cannot stop laughing at this video:
https://mobile.twitter.com/larrywebsite/status/961491036517359616
I've provably watched it 30 times and it somehow gets funnier every time.
The Tombs of Atuan appears to be about the abuses of unmonitored religious institutions raising children.
The Tombs of Atuan Harry Potter series appears to be about the abuses of unmonitored religious institutions raising children.
So, it turns out that serving nameless entities of darkness has a hidden downside.
Well, yes. Dark, no light, can't see.
Harry Potter is devoted to illustrating the obvious point that school is only educational if there's a non-trivial chance of dying.
I went out with friends on Saturday, nothing to do with my birthday the next day, just semi-regular boozing. One friend brought his daughter.* And then suffered with a killer hangover all the next day, even though I was deliberately choosing the lower alcohol 'session' style beers, and took a pass on the last round, in the vain hope I'd feel fine the next day.
* who is a teacher, not a kid, just to make us all feel old.
Well, I was out last night at a pub that specialises in single malts, drank nothing but, and this morning I feel fine, albeit poor. Conclusion: expensive drink is the way forward.
Since apparently no one is in the mood to laugh, which I assume based on the (lack of) reaction to 154, we could maybe all instead despair at this fascinating/horrifying article discussing the underappreciated threat new/existing AI technologies create for fake news/disinformation:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/the-terrifying-future-of-fake-news
Reading this makes me feel roughly akin to how I feel reading articles about climate change--the catastrophe is obvious and yet we're (collectively) so obviously not going to do anything even close to sufficient to address it. So instead we'll all watch it play out, in slow motion (but somehow simultaneously faster than anticipated).
154 just showed that Gary Johnson was a threat to our freedom.
I did appreciate how the one guy had the same haircut and facial expression as Keanu Reeves did in Parenthood when he remarked that you didn't need a license to become a parent even though you needed one to cut hair or fish.
Does one need an additional license to cut bait, or is it all included?
The best was the "HELL NO" guy.
God help me, I've found the one remedy for heartbreak that's better than booze: work.
As long as they're paying you.
If your job is building miniature ships, either one is covered by "finding solace in the bottle."
170: Be careful, Barry! I've heard it's addictive.
PEEEEE-EEEEEP! Are we reading the archives???