Random Thoughts...or...What's on Your Mind?

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by Sibyl, Jun 16, 2017.

  1. Velocity

    Velocity Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 19, 2001
    Location:
    In the back of beyond
    I went to visit an old friend of mine today, to wish him a happy birthday. He has advanced dementia, but he recognized me and called me by name. It's so hard to see how he's deteriorating mentally. He told me some wild tales generated by his failing brain. He showed me a picture of his family and said that there was an alligator and a snake in the sky behind his family and the reptiles were messing about and he got tired of it and lobbed a grenade at them, solving the problem. I've known him and his late wife for over 20 years and it's sad to see him failing. He is 72 today.
     
    Worf factor9 and Commander Troi like this.
  2. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 10, 2005
    Location:
    Confederation of Earth
    Man, Rainbow Six is shaping up to be my favorite Clancy novel (possibly even my favorite novel of all time). I cannot fucking WAIT till the movie comes out.
     
  3. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2004
    Location:
    Arizona, USA
    A conversation in another thread reminded me of something that always crack me up, when adds make something incredibly simple look like the hardest thing in the world to do.
     
    Commander Troi likes this.
  4. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 10, 2005
    Location:
    Confederation of Earth
    I always laugh when I see car or truck commercials which feature the vehicle going through jungles, up cliffs, over a fucking desert, etc. As if any normal human being would ever use them in such environments.
     
    Worf factor9 and Commander Troi like this.
  5. Commander Troi

    Commander Troi Geek Grrl Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2021
    Location:
    Phoenix AZ
    *hugs*
     
    Velocity likes this.
  6. PlainSimpleJoel

    PlainSimpleJoel Fleet Admiral Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jan 18, 2002
    Location:
    Melbourne, Australia
    Air looks like an interesting movie. I'm thinking about seeing later in the week. Ben Affleck directed movies are pretty good.
     
  7. Worf factor9

    Worf factor9 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 22, 2019
    Location:
    0001 Cemetery Lane

    WARNING: Do Not try this at home. :eek: And here, hold my beer.

     
  8. Commander Troi

    Commander Troi Geek Grrl Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2021
    Location:
    Phoenix AZ
    I hate the last 2 weeks at a job waiting for the new one to start.
     
    Velocity likes this.
  9. Amaris

    Amaris Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2002
    Location:
    United States
    Loneliness. I just learned my neighbor died this past week. She lived all alone. I visited her every week, I'd bring her dinners when we would have family gatherings (we'd invite her but she wouldn't come over), I'd help her take out her garbage since she couldn't walk. We'd chat about everything, too, and she always seemed to be happier when I'd visit.

    Well, around Thanksgiving this past year, my dad and I got COVID, and then a few weeks later got the flu, so I didn't get to see her again until January, so we missed Thanksgiving and Christmas with family, and I couldn't see her or bring her something from our family gatherings.

    When I did get around to calling her, or going over to her house, I'd get no response. I left phone messages, but never got a call back. I wondered if maybe she was in the hospital, or had been evicted (her landlord was a scumbag), but if she'd been evicted I'd have seen moving vans or something.

    Well, just a little while ago her nurse stopped by and told me that she'd been in the hospital for a few months, and that she'd passed this past week. Now I just think about how lonely she had been, all of that time, sick in the hospital, and I know nurses and doctors do their best, but hospitals are very lonely places. She had no actual family to see her, and I wish I'd have known, I'd have visited her. No one should die alone.
     
    cosmic mouse and Kai "the spy" like this.
  10. Commander Troi

    Commander Troi Geek Grrl Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2021
    Location:
    Phoenix AZ
    *hugs*
     
    Amaris likes this.
  11. Velocity

    Velocity Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 19, 2001
    Location:
    In the back of beyond
    That's so sad, but at least you know you had a hand in enriching her life.
     
  12. Aragorn

    Aragorn Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 30, 2002
    Parking lot lane, every space but one is filled on one side. On the other side, there are two or three parked cars total. Guess where the incoming vehicle chose to park?
     
  13. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2004
    Location:
    Arizona, USA
    Wow, that's really sad. At least you were there for her for a while before she got sick.

    There's something that comes up a lot in conversations about veganism, and with vegans vs non-vegans debates, and I'm curious to see the people on here's thoughts. It was also something I struggled with for a while before I decided to become vegan. How do you justify or decide which animals you do or don't eat?
     
    Commander Troi and Amaris like this.
  14. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 20, 2012
    Location:
    JirinPanthosa
    My N.C.A.A. bracket finished in the 99th percentile when literally the only right choice I made was UConn winning.
     
    Amaris likes this.
  15. Amaris

    Amaris Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2002
    Location:
    United States
    Thank you all. I am glad I got to spend so much time with her, and I will miss her terribly. She was good people. It got me to thinking about life and death, and how we connect with each other in the world, which is something I often think about, but it's not going to be the same not having her next door. I hope whomever moves in to her apartment is as fun as she was.

    I chose UConn, too, because I liked the mascot.
     
  16. Gary Mitchell

    Gary Mitchell Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 16, 2001
    Location:
    ¯\_(°·O)_/¯ Florida
    I just go by how tasty they are and/or what's on sale.
     
  17. Cube1701

    Cube1701 Lieutenant Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Mar 14, 2023
    Location:
    North Wales
    Thinking about everything that has happened in the past year.

    A year ago was my partner's 20 week scan where we found out that something was wrong with our son's heart. It took a few more weeks to get the proper diagnosis and found out it was something called Transposition of the Greater Arteries (or TGA for short). Essentially, his heart was developing incorrectly, resulting in the blood between the lungs and heart being completely separate to the rest of the body (if you imagine the bloodflow of a normal body as a figure 8, his was two separate circles). Thankfully, the way the heart works while the foetus develops is different, there are open valves and blood mixes instead. This meant he was safe until it was born, where this valve would naturally close. If not treated, his cells would essentially suffocate - luckily, there are treatments and we had a plan in place with the Women's Hospital and the Children's Hospital.

    A c-section was planned, then he would start receiving a drug that keeps this valve open then get transported via ambulance to the children's hospital and stabilised (which then needed a balloon operation to make another hole, as the medicine wasn't enough). His mum had to stay at the women's hospital, so it was just me that was at the children's hospital for the first night (they ended up convincing me to go to the Ronald McDonald house so I could rest and be ready for tomorrow, I felt awful leaving him but the nurses pointed out that I'll be even less helpful if I don't rest). His mum was able to come over the next day and properly meet him.

    They kept him on his medication for two and a half weeks until he was ready for open heart surgery to re-wire his heart. The wait was agonising (8 hours) but he got through it and then amazed everyone by recovering extremely quickly and we were back home a week after that.

    He had a check up a week after and everything looked good, then six weeks after that, they spotted an irregularity. It turned out that one of his arteries had slipped and was causing issues with one of his valves. The problem requited another surgery, but they couldn't tell us what surgery they were planning as they didn't know what they would do until they actually saw his heart visually (they told us the three likely options). The team had only encountered this issue once before and they have no idea why he wasn't noticeably ill (he acted like there was nothing wrong), although the solutions are surgeries they'd all done. This surgery was closer to 10 hours and, while he spoiled us the first time, the second time he was on the ventilator for much longer, and failed coming off it and had to go back on, but managed to go down to the next level of breathing support. The doctors told us to prepare to be there for months.

    But out son had other plans. On the level of breathing support he was on, they have to remove it every now and then (as they take him off the fentanyl he was on at this stage, he could start feeling the discomfort, but also started smiling and recognising us again). He had a period of one hour when a doctor spotted its sats and told the nurses to see how long he could cope before they started dipping again. He never went back on the breathing support. He still has a leaky valve, so they weaned him off the IV medication and moved him onto an oral one, which meant going home, which happened just before Christmas.

    He's had a few check-ups since and is doing well. He's still on medicine for his valve, but they said that they've seen much worse cases fully heal over time. While his growth took an impact, his development seems to be doing extremely well. He's 8 months and is holding on to object to stand himself up already! It's been a tough journey, but without it all he wouldn't be the same person.
     
  18. Gary Mitchell

    Gary Mitchell Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 16, 2001
    Location:
    ¯\_(°·O)_/¯ Florida
    I'm so glad that he's doing better.
     
  19. Commander Troi

    Commander Troi Geek Grrl Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2021
    Location:
    Phoenix AZ
    I started with the simple idea that if I wouldn't eat a cat or dog, then I wouldn't eat any other kind of animal. And I've stuck to that for 20+ years now.
     
    JD and cosmic mouse like this.
  20. cosmic mouse

    cosmic mouse Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jul 11, 2017
    Location:
    Tube 32
    It was a slow evolution for me, as I was vegetarian (still ate dairy and, on occasion, fish) for about 15 years before going vegan. There wasn't a single moment or an event that caused me to go vegan... I just gradually phased out the fish and dairy over ~3 year span.
     
    Commander Troi likes this.