| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
none of that was squicky though...HAAAAAAAAAAATEJust finished my 1.8-mile walk in full sun in 25 minutes. It's a blistering 66° F with 67% humidity here. I don't know how I made it.
+1 million
It's 83 and sunny here. I have plenty of hate to spare. >.>
** spoiler omitted **
My husband freaks out every time I talk about my amazing dislocating joints, so I figured it would be kinder to put that behind a spoiler for those who are easily grossed out. :)
Edit: But apparently nothing else was spoilered! :P
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
HAAAAAAAAAAATEJust finished my 1.8-mile walk in full sun in 25 minutes. It's a blistering 66° F with 67% humidity here. I don't know how I made it.
+1 million
It's 83 and sunny here. I have plenty of hate to spare. >.>
** spoiler omitted **
I learned today that hitting your hand with a two pound hammer hurts, a lot. At least until you hit a finger on the other hand with it, then that finger hurts, a lot. So to balance things out I gave myself another whack on the first hand, just to be safe, or whatever the opposite of safe is.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I learned today that hitting your hand with a two pound hammer hurts, a lot. At least until you hit a finger on the other hand with it, then that finger hurts, a lot. So to balance things out I gave myself another whack on the first hand, just to be safe, or whatever the opposite of safe is.HAAAAAAAAAAATEJust finished my 1.8-mile walk in full sun in 25 minutes. It's a blistering 66° F with 67% humidity here. I don't know how I made it.
+1 million
It's 83 and sunny here. I have plenty of hate to spare. >.>
** spoiler omitted **
Ooh, ouch! Hope the hands heal quickly! Use lots of ice....and Epsom salts....alternating, not at the same time. And remember, those aren't the kind of nails you're aiming for! ;P
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
** spoiler omitted **My first thought when I got that was "S+*~! Where are the kids? Where's the General? We have to get some place safe!! F@@~!! Where's Canada!!!
chummer.
You can WALK to Canada.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
none of that was squicky though...HAAAAAAAAAAATEJust finished my 1.8-mile walk in full sun in 25 minutes. It's a blistering 66° F with 67% humidity here. I don't know how I made it.
+1 million
It's 83 and sunny here. I have plenty of hate to spare. >.>
** spoiler omitted **
My husband freaks out every time I talk about my amazing dislocating joints, so I figured it would be kinder to put that behind a spoiler for those who are easily grossed out. :)
Edit: But apparently nothing else was spoilered! :P
your joints and nudity are appreciated here.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I learned today that hitting your hand with a two pound hammer hurts, a lot. At least until you hit a finger on the other hand with it, then that finger hurts, a lot. So to balance things out I gave myself another whack on the first hand, just to be safe, or whatever the opposite of safe is.HAAAAAAAAAAATEJust finished my 1.8-mile walk in full sun in 25 minutes. It's a blistering 66° F with 67% humidity here. I don't know how I made it.
+1 million
It's 83 and sunny here. I have plenty of hate to spare. >.>
** spoiler omitted **
how bad is it?
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Not bad, nothing that still hurts.
I'm pretty sure I have damage resistance 5 to bludgeoning damage by now. :-)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Not bad, nothing that still hurts.
I'm pretty sure I have damage resistance 5 to bludgeoning damage by now. :-)
I have cold resistance 3.
And for those wondering how my 2-mile walk became a 1.8-mile walk, blame politics:
The single block I walk down Solano typically has 1-3 people begging for change, at least one of whom will try to block your progress. I'm used to that.
As soon as September hit, they added 3-4 political activists, all of whom try to block your progress.I just don't feel like getting stopped 5 times on a single block is reasonable, so I cut my walk a bit short to avoid Solano until after the elections.
wwwhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
I'd be last anyway.I came in 3rd in a similar race.In 6th grade I got a medal for coming in something like 6th or 8th out of around 22 people in the 440 m.
I got home and threw it in the trash. Never regretted it.
I made a whole thing about that exact truth two or three pages back! NH skimmed something about how they'd kill us all and missed most of the argument (though, in fairness, it was a poorly written rambly mess from 3AM, my time).
;)
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
** spoiler omitted **My first thought when I got that was "S+*~! Where are the kids? Where's the General? We have to get some place safe!! F@@~!! Where's Canada!!!chummer.
You can WALK to Canada.
And walk through Minnesota or Michigan, no thank you, not until society falls and I have a lot more ammo and Twinkies.
how bad is it?I learned today that hitting your hand with a two pound hammer hurts, a lot. At least until you hit a finger on the other hand with it, then that finger hurts, a lot. So to balance things out I gave myself another whack on the first hand, just to be safe, or whatever the opposite of safe is.HAAAAAAAAAAATEJust finished my 1.8-mile walk in full sun in 25 minutes. It's a blistering 66° F with 67% humidity here. I don't know how I made it.
+1 million
It's 83 and sunny here. I have plenty of hate to spare. >.>
** spoiler omitted **
Not bad, nothing that still hurts.
I'm pretty sure I have damage resistance 5 to bludgeoning damage by now. :-)
I can't help but notice a real reference-portunity was passed up, here.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
HAAAAAAAAAAATEJust finished my 1.8-mile walk in full sun in 25 minutes. It's a blistering 66° F with 67% humidity here. I don't know how I made it.
+1 million
It's 83 and sunny here. I have plenty of hate to spare. >.>
** spoiler omitted **
That's OK. When it's February and CY is complaining about shoveling the snow, I'll complain that the 52° F and sunny weather isn't warm enough to open ALL the windows...
EDIT: And if you ever want to *really* mess with a Californian who's crowing about his/her weather, just say something along the lines of, "I can't believe they're raising our sales tax to 3%! That's criminal!"
The Californian will weep into his/her hippie-brewed, all-grass, flavorless, alcohol-free beer.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
HAAAAAAAAAAATEJust finished my 1.8-mile walk in full sun in 25 minutes. It's a blistering 66° F with 67% humidity here. I don't know how I made it.
+1 million
It's 83 and sunny here. I have plenty of hate to spare. >.>
** spoiler omitted **
That's OK. When it's February and CY is complaining about shoveling the snow, I'll complain that the 52° F and sunny weather isn't warm enough to open ALL the windows...
I wanna be angry with you, but I'm just glad that someone out there somewhere doesn't have to live with this heat.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I would never complain about shovelling snow.
I'm that guy that cheerfully walks around the neighborhood with his kids shoveling snow for elderly people for free.
I will complain about how there isn't any snow to shovel and it's f~!&ing cold outside.
I love snow, I hate the ungodly cold (anything below 0 for more than a week at a time) and lack of sunlight.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
** spoiler omitted **
This must be a state-specific thing because I haven't gotten any texts from POTUS.
What I want to know is why those alert-messages disappear from my phone as soon as I hit the button. I can't think while that godawful alarm sound is coming from my phone, so of course I hit the button to make it stop. Which means I have enough time to read "amber alert--" before the message disappears with the awful sound.
Watched this, now you get my ludicrous musings.
** spoiler omitted **...
I will provide a two-word rebuttal: Opposable thumbs.
The ability to imagine, craft, design, and implement tools to overcome any obstacle has been what has set humanity apart throughout their history. Give dragons every single advantage you list throughout your text, and I still bet on humans.
- Faster reproduction
- Fundamentally designed to hide well in spaces dragons cannot reach
- Opposable thumbsHide. Observe. Learn. Kill.
It's humanity's history.EDIT: Let's put it another way: I give one guy a full suit of plate mail, a flamethrower, and a sword. However, he may not craft any new items, ever. I put the other guy naked in the woods, but he's allowed to craft anything he can imagine.
I set them to kill each other.
I'm betting on naked guy every single time.
I don't think you thoroughly read everything I wrote, but that's fair - it's horribly organized and poorly written. :D
The thing is: the most likely scenario is that dragons are run into extinction. Only if they are too overwhelming does humanity break - and there is an incredibly fine line between them being "too overwhelming" and them being just being another extinct predator.
See, in order to guess what impact dragons have (the entire point of the other video), you have to figure about development timelines and look at how, when, where, and why humanity developed the way it did, and what impact dragons would have on that.
If they were super-predators with full scale hide, relatively fast reflexes, the ability to burn things, and so on, our ingenuity wouldn't matter, unless we entirely overwhelmed them to death (which was my earliest posit of what would actually happen). Elephants are horrifying and only okay because they aren't the baddest things around - they're actually rather mild in many instances (don't get me wrong - they can be suuuuuper aggressive, but they aren't predators, and their aggression is mostly handled seasonally). Tigers, on the other hand, have been jungle demons men have feared until relatively recently in world history. But tigers don't have invulnerable hide armor and don't live all that long, and also don't eat all that much. Dragons, on the other hand, do (or at least are purported to do so).
And that's the first problem. Dragons of any reasonable size and power are going to consume calories like nobody's business. That's right. I know your business. And it involves too many calories!
But the real point is that they'd basically leave vast swaths of devastation behind them. Why? Because as predators (instead of omnivores) they'd be so large that they'd have to devastate local ecologies in order to eat enough to keep going. There simply aren't that many calories, relatively speaking. Elephants can do what they do because they're basically impervious to most things. With dragons around, elephants would not be impervious, and would die out.
So, we either presume dragons are smaller than depicted in things like PF (they'd have to be for many various reasons, but I'm just going quick and dirty) or ecology doesn't work and everything dies out. Even going smaller, however, there's an upper limit to how big they can get - again, they'd just eat everything. If they are omnivores (or, rather, if they have a broad range of dietary options and requirements) this is mitigated somewhat, but really big creatures are pretty hard on local ecologies in order to sustain themselves. Obviously super-sized creatures used to exist, but we're learning they had to do really, really weird things to survive like having some hollow back bones (which would make them relatively fragile and easily injured).
To that end, we want a big, but sturdy creature, with enough consumption to be a threat, but not enough to devastate ecologies. Elephantine size is, honestly, pushing that to the limit, but it's close enough (and everything is hypothetical enough) that I allowed for it.
The bigger issue is that, once you have it, what traits does it have.
Fire weapons were invented in ancient Greece and WW1 - and both times they scarred humanity enough to change how they viewed the world. Dragons, however, if they breath fire, are a living continual fire weapon - humanity would learn to fear fire far more than it ever did when fire was an automatic, primal source with no obvious physical creature creating it. What's more, early humanity is likely to experiment with fire from dragons, as that's the obvious source. Humanity is clever, but much of our cleverness is hard-won by morons who did dumb things that killed people. And fire would kill people - being chemical as it would have to be means it would have no redeeming value. This would actively turn humanity away from fire. Humans could certainly overcome such innate aversion, but the problem is that it would likely take longer. Anything that pushes our development back - and this would do that - means that other things have more of a chance to harm us... or that we develop into something entirely different and unrecognizable. That means that we, as we exist, simply couldn't happen. It is possible, but the probability is so low that "human" would mean something else entirely.
Sentience is another sticky wicket. Humans haven't ever had to contend with other sentient (as we define it) species. Sure, there have been other kinds of human (I'm partially one of those "other kinds" - ancestors, yo!), but we've all been, essentially, just humans and other humans. When you have a species that's sentient in addition to us, that changes everything. If dragons aren't social creatures, then the impact of their sentience is questionable. But what isn't is the fact that they learn and adapt as we do - that they have tool use, and would have reason to do so. They crave things we have, and would freely take them, or use tools to get at things that are shiny for themselves. If we come up with traps, they can come up with ways around them. If we come up with killing solutions, unless they are extreme loners, they will study patterns and learn. And that's the thing - sure, humanity can make advances, but humanity can't win "big," unless dragons are so socially severed from each other that their sentience is hampered by their lack of society.
Your analogy of a naked man and armored man is flawed for two reasons. You're presuming they're both men*.
*
Instead of that, consider a man and a giant octopus. An octopus is an incredibly clever creature, easily capable of things that humans aren't, adaptable, able to use tools, create favorable situations, set ambushes, and manipulate other creatures into doing what they want. Now, place an octopus and a human into a place that half favors the human and half favors the octopus. You're going to end up with a dead octopus.
Now, of course, that's partially because an octopus is "not as smart" as the human (which, from best we can tell, is true), but also because the human has physical advantages and environmental adaptation that the octopus simply cannot match.
Another take on your proposed scenario, is to put a naked human and a hippopotamus. A human can certainly kill a hippo... but hippos can kill humans right back, and, note, this is in the modern era. These are absolute monsters.
But, of course, we haven't died off from hippos... because hippos don't hunt us, and aren't smart - they're just dangerous to be near.
... which brings me to my next point: if a place is too dangerous to live, people won't live there (because they'll be dead). Some certainly will try, but they will be killed, because hunting things hunt things, and alpha predators will kill any threats to it. And humans, ever-adaptable, will learn and adapt.
That creates the only two options for dragons: either they're all killed off, or we end up avoiding them and the places they live. The latter, I hope it's obvious, would end up with phenomenal changes to literally everything about our culture. Changing our cultural choices that much can and will impact the physical, mental, and technological progress of humanity.
I tend to agree that, in most scenarios with dragons as plausible creatures, humanity would win. But with fiery breath, impenetrable scales, deadly natural weapons, aggressive behavior, and overwhelming natural power, in addition to sentience, humanity simply can't compete. It's all of our advantages, plus more.
Now, even if you reduce the amount of tools they have, it can still easily be bad for humans - either because of environmental destruction, or simply because human adaptability is hampered by creatures adapted with us.
The viable scenario is that humans develop in Africa (as we do), but dragons develop elsewhere - that is, both races come into maturity (whatever that is) in separate parts of the globe. The mere presence of dragons, however, will automatically impact how humanity flourishes; consider: the broader and more dangerous and persistent the non-human predators we have, the harder it is to civilize a location. Australia is civilized, but it's also largely barren and clear evidence shows humanity destroying vast swaths of territory upon early arrival, absolutely devastating the local ecology. This is what allowed us to tame it. The dragon problem would, ultimately, be similar. Either we despoil huge swaths of territory to eradicate hyper-dangerous predators (which would greatly limit our own expansion into the now-destroyed territory), or the dragons win in some areas and humans in others. This is the ultimate issue with a super-predator. Currently we are the super-predator. We have many ways of being so. But if a creature exists that can foil most of those ways (as a dragon would), either we'd eradicate much of our own planet killing it early in our history, or we'd be extinct... or we'd settle for avoidance.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
** spoiler omitted **This must be a state-specific thing because I haven't gotten any texts from POTUS.
What I want to know is why those alert-messages disappear from my phone as soon as I hit the button. I can't think while that godawful alarm sound is coming from my phone, so of course I hit the button to make it stop. Which means I have enough time to read "amber alert--" before the message disappears with the awful sound.
So it hasn't come out yet -- they're just warning everybody that it's coming. I want to say September 26, but I could be wrong.
I had to disable Amber Alerts because they somehow couldn't manage to segregate California into counties -- after the third or fourth alert from Los Angeles or San Diego (over 600 km away from me for your furriners), I just turned them off.
This one is apparently non-blockable, will come out in the next couple of weeks, and so they just don't want everybody to panic, nor a bunch of offended people to whine about presidential overreach. It's JUST an alert system...
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
It's been moved to October 3rd.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
I would never complain about shovelling snow.
I'm that guy that cheerfully walks around the neighborhood with his kids shoveling snow for elderly people for free.
I will complain about how there isn't any snow to shovel and it's f$#%ing cold outside.
I love snow, I hate the ungodly cold (anything below 0 for more than a week at a time) and lack of sunlight.
I used to that. Now I need the money.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
** spoiler **
If they were super-predators with full scale hide, relatively fast reflexes, the ability to burn things, and so on, our ingenuity wouldn't matter, unless we entirely overwhelmed them to death (which was my earliest posit of what would actually happen). Elephants are horrifying and only okay because they aren't the baddest things around - they're actually rather mild in many instances (don't get me wrong - they can be suuuuuper aggressive, but they aren't predators, and their aggression is mostly handled seasonally). Tigers, on the other hand, have been jungle demons men have feared until relatively recently in world history. But tigers don't have invulnerable hide armor and don't live all that long, and also don't eat all that much. Dragons, on the other hand, do (or at least are purported to do so).
I disagree entirely. Mankind has faced apex predators in every environment in the world, no matter how hostile, and has won every battle: Tigers in the jungle, lions on the savannah, polar bears in the north, and even sperm whales, killer whales, and sharks in the water. Crocodiles in the swamps. Why are none of them threats?
Because apex predators hunt alone, and that is always their downfall.
Imagine a single dragon. As you noted, it would have to eat an immense amount just to stay alive. This means it would need a large territory, and it would need to protect that territory from other dragons to maintain its food supply. So suddenly you have perhaps 5-10 square miles of land on which dwells a single dragon. Do you know how many dozens of people could live undetected in that territory? People are amazing because of their social skills, ability to work as a group, ability to learn from each other, and ability to avoid unwinnable fights. Humanity would live under the dragon's nose, watching it, learning about it, working out ways to defeat it, until finally the humans from 4-5 territories might combine into a relatively well-armed, well-trained, powerful army to kill a single dragon. And once they'd learned to kill one (probably a juvenile), they'd start working on more.
Apex predators' downfall is their need to be alone on large territories to satisfy their nutritional need. Smaller, more social omnivores who can adapt to far more environments due to their lower nutritional needs and more diverse diets will always win that war.
And that's the first problem. Dragons of any reasonable size and power are going to consume calories like nobody's business. That's right. I know your business. And it involves too many calories!
But the real point is that they'd basically leave vast swaths of devastation behind them. Why? Because as predators (instead of omnivores) they'd be so large that they'd have to devastate local ecologies in order to eat enough to keep going.
Again, I disagree. If you look at the history of apex predators, from T-Rexes to kodiak bears to tigers to bobcats, they establish territories large enough to provide their nutritional needs and defend them fiercely from others of their kind. So the dragon population would be extremely sparse, would NOT devastate the local ecology, but would therefore be vulnerable.
Fire weapons were invented in ancient Greece and WW1 - and both times they scarred humanity enough to change how they viewed the world.
Not because it was fire. There are Australian birds that intentionally spread wildfires to catch prey. Fire used by humans is devastating again because of cooperation between a multitude of humans. A single dragon in its necessarily-huge territory might start an occasional brush fire, but would not have nearly the psychological impact on mankind you think it would. The first humans trying to kill a dragon would cover themselves with wet hides, and might or might not perish. Those observing would say, "This was/wasn't good enough" and the hugely-reproductive humans would keep throwing away lives until they found a fire-resistance tactic that worked. Our entire history is one of sacrificing the few so that the many might flourish.
This would actively turn humanity away from fire.
Everything that's ever killed humans en masse has been turned into a weapon by humans. So honestly, I don't buy the whole, "Humans would have developed differently" line.
Sentience is another sticky wicket. Humans haven't ever had to contend with other sentient (as we define it) species. Sure, there have been other kinds of human (I'm partially one of those "other kinds" - ancestors, yo!), but we've all been, essentially, just humans and other humans. When you have a species that's sentient in addition to us, that changes everything. If dragons aren't social creatures, then the impact of their sentience is questionable. But what isn't is the fact that they learn and adapt as we do - that they have tool use, and would have reason to do so. They crave things we have, and would freely take them, or use tools to get at things that are shiny for themselves. If we come up with traps, they can come up with ways around them. If we come up with killing solutions, unless they are extreme loners, they will study patterns and learn. And that's the thing - sure, humanity can make advances, but humanity can't win "big," unless dragons are so socially severed from each other that their sentience is hampered by their lack of society.
As mentioned, apex predators must be solitary due to resource restraints. Even in your original posts you point to the vast resources required by a dragon. Every description of dragons includes the words "solitary".
A social organization of dragons that realized that early humans were learning to hunt and kill them, and who then decided to actively commit genocide against humanity would have a good chance of at least holding humanity in check. Short of an organized effort by dragons to exterminate all of humankind, I don't think they stand a chance.
And even with an organized effort, I don't think they kill all of humanity. Have you SEEN the places humans can exist? We're an amazingly hardy species.
Honestly, I think kobolds would be a far greater threat to humanity than dragons, because they would have the socialness, tool use, and small size that made them capable of tracking down every last one of us.
...a lot of stuff on tool use and sociability...
So, if you now say, "Well, although dragons have clows, we are going to let them craft tools. And although they are apex predators, we are going to give them a social network."
I would argue that this is "changing the rules" on the classic dragon, as all the literature I've seen from pre-D&D days indicates a purely physical creature (no tools) who is very solitary.Rearranging the rules so that dragons gain every benefit of mankind certainly gives them a leg up.
But in my mind, the disadvantages of "classic" dragons are precisely their lack of tool use and their lack of social grouping. Grant them both of those, and as I said above, they could at least drive humanity into an obscure existence until humanity could possibly develop weapons capable of killing dragons at a distance. But then, if dragons are developing tools and technology, they can win if they're aggressive enough. (The whole population thing is another war in the humans' favor. We can reproduce faster, survive on a wider variety of foods, require fewer calories, don't need to hunt to survive, etc.)
... which brings me to my next point: if a place is too dangerous to live, people won't live there (because they'll be dead). Some certainly will try, but they will be killed, because hunting things hunt things, and alpha predators will kill any threats to it. And humans, ever-adaptable, will learn and adapt.
Er, have you studied human history and some of the stupid places we've lived? People will accept living in a place that kills quite a few of them a year if they rest can survive there. We're not very bright that way.
I tend to agree that, in most scenarios with dragons as plausible creatures, humanity would win. But with fiery breath, impenetrable scales, deadly natural weapons, aggressive behavior, and overwhelming natural power, in addition to sentience, humanity simply can't compete. It's all of our advantages, plus more.
And there we must disagree. Give them everything you just listed, but two simple disadvantages:
- They are solitary- They cannot craft
And they lose.
The viable scenario is that humans develop in Africa (as we do), but dragons develop elsewhere - that is, both races come into maturity (whatever that is) in separate parts of the globe. The mere presence of dragons, however, will automatically impact how humanity flourishes; consider: the broader and more dangerous and persistent the non-human predators we have, the harder it is to civilize a location. Australia is civilized, but it's also largely barren and clear evidence shows humanity destroying vast swaths of territory upon early arrival, absolutely devastating the local ecology. This is what allowed us to tame it. The dragon problem would, ultimately, be similar. Either we despoil huge swaths of territory to eradicate hyper-dangerous predators (which would greatly limit our own expansion into the now-destroyed territory), or the dragons win in some areas and humans in others. This is the ultimate issue with a super-predator. Currently we are the super-predator. We have many ways of being so. But if a creature exists that can foil most of those ways (as a dragon would), either we'd eradicate much of our own planet killing it early in our history, or we'd be extinct... or we'd settle for avoidance.
So again, I like to look at the existing apex predators humanity has exterminated and ask, "Why did humanity win?"
And it always starts off with, "The apex predator acted alone."Unless you change dragons so that they are social and live in groups, they cannot compete.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
It's been moved to October 3rd.
they should do it on the 31st so we all get a genuine scare.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
** spoiler **** spoiler omitted **...
the rogue dragons trilogy by the author so amazing he makes forgotten realms palatable touches on a lot of this. The only reason the PCs are successful against dragons is because they work together(and are high level), dragons that work with other dragons exist, but these are loose but strong alliances, not real partnerships.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
~YAWN~ Man, am I hungry! Does anyone have a dragon sized snack around?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
From Malcolm in the Middle
Francis: What the hell man, did you tell anyone about this place?
Francis' friend: Nope
Francis: Huh, must've been me then.
| 6 people marked this as a favorite. |
So I have a friend who had a heart attack, and has been in care for about a year now waiting for a transplant. And, since he's on Medicaid, the treatment he's getting is enough to make you want to do horrible things to anyone who has ever worked in the health insurance industry.
- They stopped paying for his physical therapist so he couldn't rebuild his strength (the hospital will not let him exercise on his own)
- Since he couldn't rebuild his strength, he wasn't eligible for the surgery
- A new doctor came along and suggested alternative surgery that would give him far greater mobility and might even let him avoid the transplant altogether
- With no other options to avoid paying for that surgery, the insurance company moved him to a new hospital, away from the doctor who dared to be helpful.
So one of Shiro's friends, fully insured with corporate insurance, had a heart attack and had a full heart and lung transplant within a month, and is out of the hospital and out and about maybe 18 months after surgery.
My friend, on public insurance, can't even get physical therapy. He's just left stuck in a hospital bed forever by a bureaucracy that doesn't want to pay for him, and doesn't care whether he ever gets better.
It's damned depressing.
He tried to lawyer up, but the lawyer didn't see enough profit in it to pursue the case. So now he's filing a formal complaint with the California Insurance Commissioner. I wish him all the luck in the world.
Good luck, Friend of NH.
And I will gladly join you in howling.
** spoiler omitted **
unfortunately, this is not my field...not much I can do here.
That is awful, NH, and makes my blood seethe.
Has your friend tried exercising on his own? The nurses will hem and haw, but I don't think there's anything they can do to actually stop him.
That is awful, NH, and makes my blood seethe.
Has your friend tried exercising on his own? The nurses will hem and haw, but I don't think there's anything they can do to actually stop him.
He's weak enough that he needs a walker or a cane, so once he tried without supervision they took those away.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
unfortunately, this is not my field...not much I can do here.** spoiler omitted **
I appreciate it. Yeah. Health care is its own universe, and if you're not in it, all you can do is helplessly watch.
As John said, all you can hope for is that the people who make these decisions end up in their own facilities as they age. That would be justice.
Says something right there when you'd rather kill yourself than submit to what is supposed to be "the best health care in the world".
And now I've gone too dark, so I'll toodle off for a bit to let FaWtL return to its delightfully whimsical self overnight.
Ah, FaWtL, how I love you for your clueless airheadedness!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
He's weak enough that he needs a walker or a cane, so once he tried without supervision they took those away.That is awful, NH, and makes my blood seethe.
Has your friend tried exercising on his own? The nurses will hem and haw, but I don't think there's anything they can do to actually stop him.
pilates time, then.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
pilates time, then.He's weak enough that he needs a walker or a cane, so once he tried without supervision they took those away.That is awful, NH, and makes my blood seethe.
Has your friend tried exercising on his own? The nurses will hem and haw, but I don't think there's anything they can do to actually stop him.
That is actually a frigging BRILLIANT idea.
I'm e-mailing it to him right now!
EDIT: Message sent! Sleep well tonight, Freedhold! I think you just did a sick man a major solid!
pilates time, then.He's weak enough that he needs a walker or a cane, so once he tried without supervision they took those away.That is awful, NH, and makes my blood seethe.
Has your friend tried exercising on his own? The nurses will hem and haw, but I don't think there's anything they can do to actually stop him.
That is actually a frigging BRILLIANT idea.
I'm e-mailing it to him right now!
also tai chi/shadow movements. I would work with him if I could.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
also tai chi/shadow movements. I would work with him if I could.pilates time, then.He's weak enough that he needs a walker or a cane, so once he tried without supervision they took those away.That is awful, NH, and makes my blood seethe.
Has your friend tried exercising on his own? The nurses will hem and haw, but I don't think there's anything they can do to actually stop him.
That is actually a frigging BRILLIANT idea.
I'm e-mailing it to him right now!
Yeah, he's in some nameless hospital in L.A. I don't even get to visit him more than once every few months. But he's got his e-mail, and his orneriness.
I'm glad you work in therapy. The whole idea of, "You don't need to get out of bed to strengthen your body and increase your endurance" is SO frigging obvious I'm embarrassed I hadn't even conceived of it before you mentioned it.
I think it could help him a LOT.
Any links I can send him on other bedridden activities? (Not THAT kind of link, Freehold! This is serious!)
He's got full network access, and even though his laziness is legendary (and is what got him into this mess in the first place), his desire to get out of there is even greater.
also tai chi/shadow movements. I would work with him if I could.pilates time, then.He's weak enough that he needs a walker or a cane, so once he tried without supervision they took those away.That is awful, NH, and makes my blood seethe.
Has your friend tried exercising on his own? The nurses will hem and haw, but I don't think there's anything they can do to actually stop him.
That is actually a frigging BRILLIANT idea.
I'm e-mailing it to him right now!
Yeah, he's in some nameless hospital in L.A. I don't even get to visit him more than once every few months. But he's got his e-mail, and his orneriness.
I'm glad you work in therapy. The whole idea of, "You don't need to get out of bed to strengthen your body and increase your endurance" is SO frigging obvious I'm embarrassed I hadn't even conceived of it before you mentioned it.
I think it could help him a LOT.
Any links I can send him on other bedridden activities? (Not THAT kind of link, Freehold! This is serious!)
He's got full network access, and even though his laziness is legendary (and is what got him into this mess in the first place), his desire to get out of there is even greater.
actually, whether or not a man is able to have sex is a great barometer for overall health, especially circulatory health. Remember, viagra was- and still is heart medication. A frank(hehe!) talk with his cardiologist might provide some insight. While I am not saying he should start downing viagra like candy, he may want to start eating collard greens and chewing on ginger root to strengthen his arteries and increase potassium levels. If he starts getting morning wood or random, noticable erections(not full, mind) that's a good sign.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Well I did not crush my hand with a 2 pound hammer today so I have that to be happy about at least.
If you can, bring him some strong pot liquor with a small amount of hot pepper in it. That'll get him going!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Alright that tears it tomorrow I start back with my exercise routine.
Yes, yes it is. You should have used "there".Is this one of those there their they're things cause i'm terrible with those."Their"? Whose?You just had to go their.I remember when you were a toddler. The things you put in your mouth...
*shudders uncontrollably*
Don't mess with me here you'll seriously confuse me.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Sigh.. Guests should appreciate me more. I put this group I suspected of being noisy above my head instead of above on of theirs and I feel like I put an elephant in the room above me...
Sigh.. Guests should appreciate me more. I put this group I suspected of being noisy above my head instead of above on of theirs and I feel like I put an elephant in the room above me...I've never understood how some people can make so much noise just by walking. I'm a big guy, but I walk fairly softly. Yet I've seen very petite women walk down the hall and it sounds like they are stomping as hard as they can (even though they aren't). Weird.
Like the rooms aren't that big I don't know how I can be hearing constant pacing.