Random Notes

Discussion in 'Free Thoughts' started by Tiassa, Aug 10, 2013.

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  1. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Doctors are understandably cautious about prescribing medications for purposes other than those listed in the PDR.

    If you're a one-percenter for whom scopolamine (correct spelling) mitigates the withdrawal symptoms of nicotine... well gee, in what other ways is it going to affect you that are also off-book? What are the odds that they will all be pleasant symptoms?

    This is, of course, a perfect example of the reason for the gigantic, well-funded black market in drugs.

    Considering how many people are killed or fucked up by properly prescribed and used drugs (hint: a great many more than are killed or fucked up by recreational drugs), are you willing to be an alpha test site for experimental usage?

    A friend of mine stopped taking her ADHD medication without discussing it with her doctor. Within two weeks she was going through hell. Only then did she discover that once you stop taking that particular substance (sorry I forget the name, seems like half the people I know have ADHD--or "Eighty HD" as some hear it), it has lost its effectiveness for you forever. It took her three years of literal torture before her doctor found something effective to replace it.

    So be careful, Dude!

    It stands to reason that if you should not begin a course of medication without a doctor's agreement, you should probably not discontinue it without his buy-in either!
     
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  3. Kittamaru Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Adieu, Sciforums. Valued Senior Member

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    My wife ran out of her depression medication (venlafaxine, generic Effexor) and it put her through a week of absolute hell, including a form of tinnitus that sounded like crackling electricity and severe flu-like symptoms... looking at the effects of effexor withdrawal are... scary...

    https://www.effexorxr.com/about-effexor-xr/discontinuation.aspx

     
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  5. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    Well, Sure, But ....

    To the one, I'm not exactly disturbed that he said no. It's more that he never heard of the effect before, and wouldn't gamble on it. I adore my doctor. By coincidence, the guy I picked once upon a time because he was on my provider list and within walking distance of my home turned out to be, quite literally, the best general practitioner in Seattle, and also, as it turns out, the last independent family practitioner in his section of town. At any rate, I trust him. But this is the guy who almost killed me once with Wellbutrin as an anti-smoking agent, and I'm not sure whether or not that indication has ever been formally accepted. It was my impression at the time that we were off label.

    To the other, they'll put people at sea on this stuff for weeks, so extended use isn't a specific concern. Meanwhile, the weak empirical fact remains: One of the side effects I encountered was partial and significant inhibition of nicotine addiction.

    Meanwhile, the difference between SSRI (sertraline) and no is simply that while I am no more or less irritated by the things I observe around me, neither am I as complacent or complaisant as before. Right now people are shocked, not by the severity of my temper, but, rather, that I dare call them out at all. In a way, it's almost funny, insofar as life is suddenly looking more like Sciforums. As it turns out, what my family wants is not my recovery but, rather, my obedience. I endured a fairly clear episode the other day in which I was asked a question three times, gave thematically consistent answers—

    • "No, thanks. I'm good."

    • "No, really, but thank you."

    • "No thank you, it's all good."​

    —and what the other person took from that was all of three words: It's all good. In other words, the answer is, always was, and only could be yes. And pointing this issue out to people? There is no method polite enough to actually call useful. That is to say, even mentioning the point to people sends them into a rage. It kind of reminds me of an odd situation I recently encountered in which people tried to argue to me that asking a pointed question with specific examples was too hard for a person to figure out; even with specific examples of the problem, it is apparently unfair for anyone to expect that people know what the hell you're talking about. Was a time when I would have suggested that was some sort of online phenomenon, but the truth is that it exists in daily life. And it's not so much that I haven't noticed. Rather, it's just that the difference 'twixt then and now is that once upon a time people treating me like that was acceptable. Now it's not, but only because I can't figure out how it would be if I treated people that way.

    I may not be any closer to an answer at the moment, but I have managed to ask myself a fundamental question: Why did I put up with this shit before?

    At the moment, while no specific hypothesis is available, leading indicators suggest a chemical effect of the SSRI preventing me from undertaking certain responsorial pathways. In other words, I've been empowering other people's bad behavior. And that is what it is, except it doesn't help me get sane anytime soon.
     
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  7. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    Spine of God

    You Wouldn't Believe ... You Wouldn't Believe

    Well, actually you would, but it makes a nice phrasing: You wouldn't believe the storm that's rolling in. Dry electricity, with the Snag firefight pulling out explosives. A hundred miles west, the current burst just rang for eight to ten seconds. True, it's not Iowa or Indiana quality, but I haven't seen one like this, outside cinema, since the earliest memories of electrical storms, Idaho '75 or so. Or, wait a minute ... maybe Sucia ... '82 or '83. That was pretty damn cool, hunkered down in Echo Bay with streaks all over and anchors dragging. Still, though ... pretty damn cool.

    [video=youtube;CpmTYVqe1Ig]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpmTYVqe1Ig[/video]​

    And holy shit, what a stage show. Phack, hadn't seen this one yet.
     
  8. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    How many times is Shet gonna clean Lorraine and Eddi?

    No True Random

    Every once in a while, we get a reminder that computers just can't do true random.

    So, anyway, I was toying around with an open-source poker game, considering whether or not I might want to play online, or perhaps host games for friends. No go. Whatever the thing is doing to shuffle and deal the cards ... well, it's insane.

    Consider:

    • Deal: 4/5 in pocket; suits don't matter on this occasion, since nobody pulled a flush.

    • Flop 7, 8, J.

    • Turn 6; fill statistically unusual inside straight.

    • River Q.

    • Somehow, the deal managed to hand out six straights to six players.​

    And it might seem that such an improbable—it flashed by so I didn't get the full read on the table—outcome might suggest real randomization, but I also remember learning about the problems of randomization when, having learned a handful of BASIC commands on an old Atari 800, I tried to rebuild a slot machine program in GWBasic. Even after rechecking the actual syntax for that line of the program (it's a little more complex than the A800 BASIC), certain that I had at least written it correctly, my lesson was that you needed something else to work with, since the slot machine produced identical random results.

    Nonetheless, I find it strange, to this day, that of all the results to spit out, every pull brought the result 1 8 7.

    It's not that it could only draw specific numbers, but why those numbers? Not that it's important. There are enough three-digit combinations familiar to me that there the odds are reasonable I would have some attachment to the outcome. If it was 4 2 0 or 6 6 6 I might have taken it as a sign.

    I've seen some ridiculous cards in my day, but nothing like this.

    I mean, sure, you fold a mismatched two and four, and it turns out that the deal gives you, independently, a straight and a flush ... yeah, should have stayed in. But that's the thing with the odds tables; they only work if you're playing with real cards, and against real people.

    And in this simulator, the relationships between play styles and outcomes is too fixed. At a ten-person table (I need to run it at eight), seats six and nine are prone to going all-in at first chance, in order to clear someone off the table, and whenever they do, seat three cleans them. It's consistent. Even though the game isn't built for actual money exchange, it just ... yeah. Of course, it's v.1.1.1, so we'll see what they come up with. Can't complain, 'cuz it's free, but still, it ain't somethin' I can call a game around. Unfortunate, that.
     
  9. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    Why I Hate the Modern World

    The coincidence between necessity and failure is enough to make me paranoid.

    The latest example: Sending an email.

    A problem I have never encountered before; my email client has completely frozen, for no apparent reason.

    The last thing I did? I tried to send an important email.

    And, see, that's the thing. It's been happening too much lately. I tried for weeks to get a photograph of a weird sign on a ferry I was riding to work; it contained a misspelling that should not be made at sea. That is to say, marine terminology is marine terminology, and the only person who would leave the "e" out of "galley" is a landlubber, so what the fuck is up with that?

    For over two weeks, every time I tried to photograph this sign, my iPhone decided that now would be a good time to cease functioning. Literally: Unlock the phone, activate the camera, cause system failure requiring cold boot. It is now the expectation: I need a picture of that! Wait, I have an iPhone. Never ... fucking ... mind.

    I did finally get a photograph, but by the time I did, after twenty failed attempts, the humor that moved me to want to take the picture in the first place lay dead in that void where my soul used to be.

    All it is today is this: A parent survey for one of my daughter's classes, requested by tomorrow. We received it yesterday. We're trying to fill it out and email our part back to the teacher, since my handwriting on such endeavors is properly illegible.

    I could have predicted that my email service would break.

    Indeed, all I'm trying to do is send a specific email address to another person, because it is important.

    And that has become enough of a predictor to know when something is going to go south: It's important.

    Thunderbird is broken; it can't even save a local copy.

    Gmail is unavailable to me; I can't even log in.

    That this should happen right now, as I've chosen to email contact information to another person?

    Exactly predictable, but only if you're fucking paranoid.

    But this is happening way too much these days. You know those lucky streaks? Poker? And the bad streaks that form the basis of every sob story? You know, "The odds suggest the cards ought to come my way at least once, right?"

    Uh huh.

    And when I was in high school, we did a probability coin toss. Something like 19-6, but what stands out in my memory, to this day, is the fact that we threw seventeen heads in a row, and that deviation washed out in the final result.

    So what I want to know is who, while I am suffering these insanely inconvenient statistical deviations, is enjoying the other side of that reality?

    I may be flipping seventeen heads right now, but who the hell is picking up the extra tail here and there?

    But here's the thing: Tomorrow, after the deadline passes, everything will work just fine.

    Predictable. Reliable. No valid methodology.

    This is the problem.
     
  10. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    Nosebleeds, and Other Notes

    Anime: Sekerei

    I should know better than to let ecchi past my guard. I'm quite certain there is a somewhat interesting story to pursue in this series, but in truth it's hard to get through the first episode. You know, it would be one thing to lace the scenes with sexual stimuli, but the prudish comedy counterpoint is so bad it's nearly like watching a glitzy porn flick. Minus the bouncy genital frames. Well, so far.

    And, you know, I get that there is an attraction to women's breasts and all, but really? I mean, it was funny enough in Mahoromatic when she clocked the teacher with an uppercut to the left-side mondo mammary, but at the very least I could get through the first couple episodes to find the rest of the story. And learn hydrangea jokes. Never mind.

    But it's just too hard to take seriously.

    And, you know, given the weird discussions we have in the U.S. about a left-handed pitcher's throwing motion, and whether a woman with larger breasts can physically match various athletic forms at the professional valence, I do pause to wonder what it is with shows like Bleach, or, in this case, Sekerei, wherein we expect some top-heavy babe of the week to be the greatest fighter in the freakin' Universe.

    Sigh.

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    Sekerei, ep. 1: Minato and Musubi meet (top). Thanks for the pajamas (middle). The requisite premature ejaculation joke (bottom).
     
  11. serenesam Registered Senior Member

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  12. serenesam Registered Senior Member

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    It’s interesting in that I read somewhere that business is booming for mail-ordered brides. I wonder about the severity of that truth and its future implications.
     
  13. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    Days of Swine and Loathing

    Yeah, one o'those.

     
  14. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    A Note on Sensationalism ....

    Every once in a while, you see something insanely stupid.

    I was going to bed; it was one of the last things I saw as I was closing down all my browser windows, a headline about some manner of immense stupidity that simply cannot be believed except, well, it really happened.

    So I took a few minutes and blogged it.

    And, well, you know. As many around here are aware, when I get vicious, I get vicious. So it was a brutal denunciation of stupidity, and unlike my seemingly ever-more frequent rants about bad journalism, there really was no question that this was one of the stupidest things ever.

    I was amused in the morning when I finally got around to checking in, finding that the post had taken off overnight, racking up over twenty views, which is impressive enough for an insignificant corner of a massive free blogging platform. After all, the blog's best viewing day ever was all of fifty-seven views, and I couldn't tell you what was going on then because it was over a year ago, I think. Just a random day when I landed in the right place in search engines, or something. Whatever.

    The numbers more than tripled.

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    So, yeah. Technically, those are still pathetic numbers compared to the internet itself, but that's beside the point.

    Rather, something about sensationalism goes here.

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    Still, though, it's probably the "naked children" post, itself a testament to stupidity, that I will remember. I mean, really, some county official saying something stupid and then ... well, yeah. That got people's attention. And calling this person and the actions stupid over and over again apparently is the way to get readers.

    But in the long run, the "naked children" bit is far more important.

    I'll do a version of it here, I suppose. It's just one of those things.

    No, really. Sometimes I think the reason we keep religion around is so people can say, "God help us!" and not feel like they're talking to nothing. Every once in a while, you just have the urge to appeal to existence itself: What? Really? Oh, come on!

    Sigh.
     
  15. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    Decade Update

    "These are the times we find out who we really are. This will be when a true friend stands at your side: One more like me who wants to believe in the truth of all we experienced, to live again to jump back into the fight. Someone like me, who wants you to live."

    Styx

    Just a bit over ten years ago, I wrote a post.

    Well, okay, obviously I've written many posts, but this was one of those rambling thought-in-motion streams that happens when someone is trying to write while dazed in order to communicate the feeling.


    I had cause to think of it this evening, though not entirely at random. A photograph arrived via the Facebook feedbag thingy:

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    "Just us... playing some of our tunes for, you, the best fans in the world."
    L-R, downstage: Tommy Shaw, Chuck Pannozzo, James Young
    (Photo: Jason Powell)

    We see these pictures from time to time. It is good to see them. One of my heroes lives with AIDS, and ten years after I learned the news—twenty-three years after he learned—Chuck Pannozzo still lives. And from time to time he shows up to play the role for which he was always so well suited as the bass player in Styx.

    And on those nights, Ricky Phillips steps aside; it's not so bad to have a night off on tour, especially if you get to kick back and watch Chuck Pannozzo play. Live fast? Sure. Die young? Not a fuckin' chance.
     
  16. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    One of my favorite bands! Favorite song: "This Corrosion."

    Saw them in L.A. 20-25 years ago. Great show!
     
  17. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    News You Need to Know ... I Don't Know Why You Need to Know It, But You Do

    Sigh ....

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    To the one ... er ... no, wait, this is Mika Brzezinski we're talking about.

    It's one of those things where I don't even want the story detail. To the one, I laugh at the thought; to the other, yeah, sounds about right.

    But, you know, since Facebook saw fit to inform me, and, damn it all, I managed to see the capsule, that means you do, too.
     
  18. StrangerInAStrangeLand SubQuantum Mechanic Valued Senior Member

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    Is she afraid of them?
     
  19. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    The Christmas Miracle, and Other Notes

    Sometimes we have difficult days, and I have never been a fan of the philosophy that all you have to do is be happy and count your blessings and then everything will be okay. I remember once looking a psychologist in the eye and saying, "Okay, here's one: I didn't miss the bus today."

    He got the point.

    So here's another one: The coffee pot made it through Christmas Day before breaking. I mean, come on, we get twenty years a go out of these things, so when one finally ceases working properly it's hardly a shock.

    And of course we grumble a bit as we make our first cup of coffee in the morning with kettle and flame, having been spoiled for decades by having hot coffee waiting when we get up. But, you know, even I am taking the death of this friend as well as I might.

    And, besides, it's kind of like pet fish for the kids. One of 'em dies, just go to the store and get another.

    Er ... ah ... fish, that is.

    Or coffee pots.

    I actually got a call from the store. They have Mr. Coffee, or they have Black & Decker. They both look pretty much the same. The B&D is cheaper by sale price but is the more expensive maker. Blah ... blah ... blah.

    On the other hand, it's just a coffee pot. Right? I mean it's not a Camaro that transforms into a warrior robot, but just a simple freakin' coffee pot. Right?

    And it is. Nothing fancy, nothing dangerous.

    Except it really would be nice if the new coffee maker actually worked.

    • • •​

    Well, you know, the in thing lately is to have anchors or sidekicks losing their shit on the air. And, you know, I've deliberately not gone back to watch the segment. I don't know if it's a specific actual fear of furries, or if she's simply like the most part of society who just don't understand the phenomenon, find the idea unbearably hilarious, and this was just her day to lose her shit on the air.

    It's just a very strange phenomenon in the view of many who aren't furries. I mean, that's the thing; in my circles people are very accepting, in principle, of the idea but I have no idea how they actually respond because if there is a furry among us we don't actually know.

    For most people, and I can see Ms. Brzezinski being part of this demographic, all that is known are the pornographic whispers about incurable perverts in animal suits. The functional problem of surviving on camera as a news anchor might only be complicated by the brickton recognition that furryatrics are, in fact, a full-blown lifeway. It makes no sense to people, and on occasions they find themselves obliged to picture it in their minds, well, yes, the occasional spontaneous decomposure is ... er ... I guess more than simply occasional.

    Then again I come from a sector in which one doesn't need to be a furry, per se, to wear a tail. I admit I won't wear a tail, but that's only because I just don't understand the psychopathology of it.

    No, really, actually I just don't want to explain why I'm custom-fitting trousers.

    ("Oh, how cute! But ... I mean, is it a belt? Adhesive?" ―Actually, no, it's internally mounted ....)

    In truth, I think the solution is a Furries United PSA campaign.
     
  20. Bells Staff Member

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    Need to spank? Cops will watch for free!

    A 12 year old girl had been fighting with her sister. Sick of it, her father decided that she needed to be paddled on her buttocks with a long wooden paddle. Unsure if he was breaking the law or not, he called the Sheriff's department for help. And help they did, by sending over a deputy to watch as the father paddled his 12 year old daughter on the backside.

    Apparently this is not unusual and they have witnessed spankings and children being paddled in the past and it is a service they offer... They even explain it in the video in the story. It's okay and legal so long as it is on the buttocks and they are happy to watch to make sure it stays legal.. You know, just to make sure..

    Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but it strikes me as weird that a grown man would want to stand there and watch a 12 year old girl being paddled on her backside. There is a whole porn industry connected to this. But no, apparently this is normal...

    Psychological scars of having a stranger enter your home, a police officer no less, to wait and watch you be spanked, aside, as Mark Shrayber notes, if you think what you are about to do to a child is illegal, perhaps you should not do it..

    Well, a man who was upset that his daughter got into an argument with her sister earlier this week couldn't find any other way to get the girl to learn what she'd done was wrong without raising a hand to her. But he also didn't want to go to jail, so he called up a deputy who came over, watched the whole thing, determined it was all good and peaced on out to do some more policing. My thought on this is that if you're even worried that something you might do to your child could warrant legal action against you, you probably shouldn't do it. You don't have to call a police officer to supervise a timeout or any other myriad of punishments you can dole out without getting physical, so maybe let the idea that it's cool to spank go. And just because it worked on a previous generation doesn't mean it's okay to do now. You know what else we thought was cool to give to kids in previous generations? Heroin. For teething.​

    Common sense and all that..
     
  21. The Marquis Only want the best for Nigel Valued Senior Member

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    You people are hilarious.

    You scream and stomp about, presenting philosophy and ultimately laws to ensure no one takes any action without first checking with the proper authorities to determine whether or not said action is appropriate.

    And then when something like this happens, you blame the person who questions every action he takes to make sure he doesn't get sued.
     
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  22. Bells Staff Member

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    It's okay The Marquis. I can understand and see that the finer points escaped you...

    Would you like me to point them out for you?

    1) The issue of spanking a child in the first place. It is proven to not work. Especially for older children, like a 12 year old girl.

    2) The psychological trauma of having a police officer arrive to watch a 12 year old girl be spanked. Surely you understand that that is just weird in any sense of the word, yes? I should not need to explain to you why a grown man (or woman for that matter) going to watch a 12 year old girl be paddled with a long piece of wood is just weird and inappropriate, should I?

    3) Is this what police officers are for? Is he checking to see how hard the child is being spanked on her backside? Is he checking to see if it leaves marks (refer to 2 as to the inappropriate nature of his being there and watching in the first place)? Should he be checking?

    4) What the hell is wrong with people that they want to harm their child and are so concerned that they call the police to see just how far they can legally go to harm their child?
     
  23. The Marquis Only want the best for Nigel Valued Senior Member

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    That would all be appropriate, Bells, were it not for the fact that he called the called the police first because he was well aware that you were watching.

    This is where Orwell's 1984 went wrong, although it did had the excuse of being written in ... when was it, the 1930's?
    I read another book, entitled "1985". My guess is, you haven't.
    Much more relevant to the modern day... and far more relevant with respect to you.

    You don't need cameras. You don't need the Thought Police. You don't need Big Brother... you are Big Brother.

    You only need ensure you have the weight of public opinion first, and to ensure that spurious lawsuits are given all due consideration. It's no accident that you might only act when first given the backing of assumed public opinion. Regardless of whether or not that public opinion is the result of fear.

    Fear. As if this reported incident was anything other than the act of a man afraid and confused.

    Don't talk about common sense. You have no idea what that is.
     
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