Open Thread to boycott the inauguration and talk about anything but Trump

It was damp, drizzly, and way too warm today. Again. It’s been like this for a month. Tomorrow, we’re to expect record highs and more drizzle. I can’t even remember the last time I saw the sun. I actually miss it, and I say this as someone who hisses and scuttles into the nearest shadow every time sunlight touches my skin.

I’ve spent much of today unpacking and listening to the likes of Subrosa and Windhand. It’s a doom metal kind of day.

I cannot find my honing steel, my oilstones, or my copper urn. I find them soothing, both their sounds and their uses (well, just the sound for the urn; it doesn’t really have a specific use), and I miss them. Moving sucks.

I also miss my kitty, who died last month, though I would not necessarily describe her as soothing. Especially her sounds. One of her favorite activities was to wait for me around some darkened corner, then scream real loud when I walked past. How a six pound cat could make a noise like that… she could put an air-raid siren to shame.

She knew exactly what she was doing, too. You could tell by the way she’d purr if you glared at her, and I’d swear you could see laughter in her eyes. Not cool, fuzzy-butt. If I had a heart attack, who’d open your food cans? Oh, who am I kidding; you’d just eat me.

Gods, I miss that furry little shit-disturber.

Well, I’d best get back to the crap mines in box canyon before I depress myself.

man that picture makes me want to read Junji Itou’s Gyo again.

Gashunk. It’s the sound of a shark kicking open a door.

Hey everyone! Just letting you all know I’m still alive–just got distracted.

@Vucodlak: My condolences…your cat sounded like quite a character!

@ (((VioletBeauregarde))): Crooked Nasty Social Justice Necromancer

Thanks! Libby was one of a kind. “Screams” was probably her second favorite game, after “Teeth in the Dark,” but before “Let’s pretend there’s a treasure buried under vucodlak, which I must dig out while he’s trying sleep.” Oh, and “Terrorize the dogs (who are between 12 and 22 times her size)” probably belongs in the top five, too.

No Man Rules Alone | January 21, 2017 at 1:07 am
So many players of modded minecraft here. When my CPU arrives and I can put my computer together, I might consider making a private, heavily-modded minecraft server together, would anyone here have any interest in this?

Heck yeah! We used to have a Mammoth server a while back, but it got shuttered for reasons. I think it was because the guy running the server was too busy with IRL stuff to keep up.

It was fun though. I did a lot of Thaumcraft and had built a bar that I lived on top of and served food out of to the other players.

@sunnysombrera:

I’d go for a home-made super-delicious cheese-loaded hamburger, possibly a double-patty one.

@sunnysombrera: cream of wheat is comforting, and very good.

IP: That’s truly sad. I hope you’re able to move on from it. Also, IP, if you happen to read this, you’re able to purchase nettles at a grocery store in Sweden? Wow…leeks are about as exotic as I can find in good ol’ south central Pennsylvania. I did notice fiddleheads growing next to my driveway last spring, though.

I haven’t been a regular commenter since last winter, when my stunning tomcat, Roscoe, was hit by a car, and killed. Maybe I’m pathetic, but this just broke my heart. So, now I’ve got my 17 year old cat Perry, and 6 month old Terri.

I’ve been having trouble concentrating at my job. I’m already on an SSRI for depression, at a low dose, and I don’t want to have the dose raised, due to side effects. I find moderate exercise is a mood-booster for me.

I’ve got a church-related dinner to attend tonight. Kind of awkward for me, as I’m not a regular churchgoer, though my spouse is.

@wwth – didn’t see all of your posts but I, too, have been sort of looking at WLS.

Here’s the thing though – I don’t WANT to have it if there is any way I can avoid it. Sure, there’s the side effects that are possible, although most people I know who’ve had it done have had pretty good results. But the plain fact is, you have to pretty much be living your post-surgery diet for a long time before they will even qualify you for the surgery.

You have to show that you can maintain that restricted diet long-term

This is also why I feel hopeful that I can avoid the surgery altogether. My goals are not to get down to a “socially acceptable” weight, but to increase my mobility. Obesity has drastically restricted the things I am able to do in life. For me, a desireable weight is going to be more like 250 lbs.

So I do use a food & exercise journaling program (myfitnesspal, it has simply worked very well for me) and meeting with a behavioral therapist to find ways to both define and change my relationship with food and overeating. It’s working out very well. Writing things down really showed me where some of my problem areas are. Portion control is a huge part of it, and something I really had to learn to do even at 52 years old, and so I bought cheap plastic containers in single- or two-serving sizes, as well as smaller ones for things like salad dressing, nuts, etc. I’ve had to learn to eat more slowly and not while being distracted by my phone or computer etc. I cook a lot more at home rather than grabbing take-out.

I don’t know if it will work in the long run, but I truly hope it does. All I want to do is ease the chronic pain in my knees and hips, I don’t even dare to hope for more at this stage. I’ve been working on this for about a month and I have steadily lost weight. Staying motivated can be hard for me but I am working closely with my doctor to keep that motivation up.

Anyway, don’t know if this helps, just saying there is a lot more that goes into the surgery and it definitely isn’t a magic bullet. Get your brother a second opinion. There are a lot of effective things to do before considering surgery.

@all soup lovers – my favorite has always been fakes, lentil soup.

I make a huge pot of it with some italian sausage (well drained) and freeze it in 12-ounce portions. It is so filling and satisfying, high in nutrition.

Hugs to all Mammotheers missing furry companions. It sucks so much, my heart goes out to you.

It might seem daft, but that thing that crops up in fiction like Dr Who or Highlander does resonate with me a bit. Knowing your friends only have a fraction of your lifespan. Still, they can cram a lot of love into that time and I’ve got enough happy memories from my time with my much missed doggy to last me many human lifetimes.

@dreemr, you’ve stuck with it a month and are losing weight steadily, that’s incredibly good. You’re doing so well. Take heart – you’re over the biggest hurdle, and that’s lasting two weeks. That’s long enough for habit forming patterns to start to settle in. Your next goal: three months. At that point the habits will have settled in . Keep it up, you can do it!

Some friends of mine started a diet a few years ago that I was very much surprised by. They had tried a couple of different things in the past but nothing stuck – until this one. It involved taking HGC drops, but to be honest that’s just the scam that earns the company money. The real results come from the diet, which is equal parts effective and horrifying.

(I am not endorsing this diet. It’s not healthy.)

There are four stages to the diet. the first is the “load” phase – it’s two days of binging on all sorts of greasy, awful, fatty, carb-laden, rich food. Enough to nauseate you. Second phase is the “starvation” phase, which is a couple of weeks of eating very, very small portions (while taking the magic drops of course). They literally tell you to not exercise or run, and they warn you that you may feel light headed at times because you’re not getting enough calories to survive. Third phase is the “restricted” phase, in which the types of foods you can eat increases and you get some more calories – still not enough to exercise, but enough that you could technically live off of it. Fourth phase is the “open” phase, in which you count calories but have more available to you, and more food choices. The whole thing goes for three months overall, with most of the time in the “restricted” phase.

It’s horrifying. They say that the HCG drops prevent your body from destroying muscle tissue during the “starvation” phase, but I don’t buy it. Mostly because HCG is broken down in the stomach ya ding dongs.

Can’t say it didn’t work though. They lost an incredible amount of weight, and after they went through the diet the first time their appetites had completely changed. Before, each of them could finish a pizza on their own. After? One slice was enough to fill them up. Carrots were too sweet. Apples were like candy. And they had lost something around 100 lbs. It was incredible. Their stomachs had shrunk and their tastebuds had readjusted. They had to buy new clothes because their old ones were just too baggy. They had to put new holes into their belts.

And it was great… for about six months. She managed to keep it off because she already had a habit of exercise and watching what she ate beforehand. He didn’t. He started eating more and richer meals again, and within half a year he decided “well, hey, let’s do the diet again.” She joined him.

It’s now a six-month body-destroying ritual for him. She only does the “restricted” and “open” parts, since they’re much more sensible. She’s kept the weight off for the most part, he bounces up and down according to where he is on “the diet”.

I hate it, guys. I want him to stop it, but – well, I’m far less convincing of things in real life than I am here. I have told him that the HGC drops literally can’t have an effect, and that the science behind them is bullshit, but he doesn’t believe me. Nevermind that I’m a scientician, he’s got man-logic skills. I’m clearly just deluded. (Deluded about Trump too, he thought. Thankfully he’s started to see differently in that regard).

At least she’s stopped, and avoided all the dieting while she was pregnant. Always was the sensible one. I worry about them :s

That’s my ramble! You’re doing so good, @dreemr. Just keep that up, you’ll lose the weight, get to where you want to be, and keep it off. You can do it!

When I play Minecraft I like to build stuff. The mining can be tedious and I don’t find the combat exciting. For example, I was doin’ Railcraft on my last server, because I wanted choo-choo trains chuffing around.

For this I built an entire stone and brick village to house the machines. The steel foundry used for making rail needed a large warehouse with the coke ovens and the like; trains were built in their own workshops. Tools were stored in Decocraft wall racks above work benches. I added a block of flats for workers, even though it was basically just me, and a canteen for food prep and storage. Food was grown on a farm and shipped by train to the mill for grinding and baking into bread before being shipped to the canteen, again by train.

Utterly silly and wasteful, but that’s pretty much Minecraft, after all. Lots of fun!