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My father's behavior and physical condition seem to be getting better. He has a problem with confusion on facts, including telling some fantastic stories. But to him the nursing home is boring, and if one is in a deathly-boring place one might do as he does. I want to get him out more often.
Well.  I think it was around the fall of 2010 when I quit these forums.  A lot has changed.  I see a couple familiar faces, and a lot of new people.  Certainly there will be much to talk about.  Possibly I can even make a productive contribution!  Only time will tell.
(06-30-2016, 02:26 PM)Skabungus Wrote: [ -> ]Well.  I think it was around the fall of 2010 when I quit these forums.  A lot has changed.  I see a couple familiar faces, and a lot of new people.  Certainly there will be much to talk about.  Possibly I can even make a productive contribution!  Only time will tell.

I think I have good memories of you.
(06-30-2016, 02:26 PM)Skabungus Wrote: [ -> ]Well.  I think it was around the fall of 2010 when I quit these forums.  A lot has changed.  I see a couple familiar faces, and a lot of new people.  Certainly there will be much to talk about.  Possibly I can even make a productive contribution!  Only time will tell.

Long time so see, Ska! Big Grin
(06-30-2016, 02:26 PM)Skabungus Wrote: [ -> ]Well.  I think it was around the fall of 2010 when I quit these forums.  A lot has changed.  I see a couple familiar faces, and a lot of new people.  Certainly there will be much to talk about.  Possibly I can even make a productive contribution!  Only time will tell.

I joined well after you left, I'm glad to have you here and also glad that you were able to find site; did you find it via google? if so I guess my amateur search engine optimization is working  Big Grin .
Welcome back Skabungus.  Hope things are going well.
(07-15-2016, 11:34 PM)taramarie Wrote: [ -> ]So...... interesting day at the rest home today. This millie was hit on by a GI who said he wanted us to have a baby together and our very first baby boomer has arrived as a resident. So it begins...... fml now i need to go lie down.


and if you are itching for what my response was to the eager GI who attempted to give me a hug after his proposal my eyed widened and i side stepped around him. Thank GOD he can't move fast!

That kind of inappropriate behavior is a common sign of early-stage dementia. Sad
I can tell lots of tales about dementia.

I have come to dread cancer far less.
I checked myself into the clinic for depression... I will get diagnosis most likely on the autism-Asperger syndrome.

I entered adulthood at the worst possible time for anyone with any weakness in America... about as the merciless 3T began. Nobody accommodated me and I had to pretend that I was normal enough in a brutal economic order.

I realize that I have some strong talents, but American society thoroughly wasted them. Oh, I was a shifty and dishonest person because I couldn't maintain good eye contact? Excellent verbal, mathematical, and spatial aptitude... and even good sensitivity toward color and light... wasted. I did get to do a decade and a half of substitute teaching, which is better than most opportunities around here (farm labor, retail, food service)... so I can't complain about it all.

One question I got was in essence "What the Hell are you doing in this community?"

...It's a good thing that I didn't get held over for the night. I doubt that with all my self-0righteousness about alcoholism and illegal drugs that I would have gotten along with boozers and druggies. Yes, one can get messed up without having a substance problem, gross dishonesty, or a proclivity toward sexual misconduct. I might have found my car vandalized if I didn't first get beaten up.
(07-16-2016, 05:45 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ]I checked myself into the clinic for depression... I will get diagnosis most likely on the autism-Asperger syndrome.

I entered adulthood at the worst possible time for anyone with any weakness in America... about as the merciless 3T began. Nobody accommodated me and I had to pretend that I was  normal enough in a brutal economic order.

I realize that I have some strong talents, but American society thoroughly wasted them. Oh, I was a shifty and dishonest person because I couldn't maintain good eye contact? Excellent verbal, mathematical, and spatial aptitude... and even good sensitivity toward color and light... wasted. I did get to do a decade and a half of substitute teaching, which is better than most opportunities around here (farm labor, retail, food service)... so I can't complain about it all.

One question I got was in essence "What the Hell are you doing in this community?"

...It's a good thing that I didn't get held over for the night. I doubt that with all my self-0righteousness about alcoholism and illegal drugs that I would have gotten along with boozers and druggies. Yes, one can get messed up without having a substance problem, gross dishonesty,  or a proclivity toward sexual misconduct. I might have found my car vandalized if I didn't first get beaten up.

Hope that you get the help and support you need to recover from  your depression. I have friends and family who  have suffered from depression and  know that this can be  a difficult  situation.
It goes both ways.

On the one hand, being 74 and semi-retired has some of the best features of my whole life.

OTOH, I see lots of older folks in my retirement gig who are in their 80's and 90's. I agree with you at that point. There is much that is NOT to admire in the lifestyles of the 80-90's.

One cannot do much about one's genetics. That's just a given. There is also a lot of variation among different folks when it comes to the interaction of environment with one's own genetics. For example, some folks just arent' sensitive to salt in their diet. Some really are. Some do well on complex carbs, some do better on high proteins. So, diet can be tricky and hard to design - doing good faith experimentation with oneself is probably the best plan, and it can't be too bad a plan to avoid prepared (boxed, canned) supermarket crap, and eat more freshly prepared fruits, veggies, meats, grains, etc.

Two things I've noticed: Stay the f**k away from cigarettes! After over 8 years on the ambulance I just ran into the first patient with an acute heart attack that DIDN'T smoke! He had bad genetics.

Exercise. Exercise appears to cure most anything, or at least make it somewhat better. Moderation of course is always a good idea.

Alcohol kicked my ass, but some folks can probably even benefit from moderate alcohol use. Many of us can't moderate very well, but that's not everyone.

Street drugs don't seem to do most folks much good. I don't have an opinion on the THC craze as yet.

And then ... Avoid the deliberate manufacture of misery! Choosing a slighly more positive outlook seems to add to my quality of life, on the whole.
(07-16-2016, 05:45 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ]I will get diagnosis most likely on the autism-Asperger syndrome.

Welcome to the club!
It is high-functioning autism. The therapist asked me what I want to do about it, and I replied, "I want to get away with it!"

At my age my core personality is unlikely to change. Maybe I can shed some personally-harmful behaviors. Those aren't the obvious ones that get one of the diagnoses of dangerous tendencies.

I will never become one of those servile types who does a hob that one loathes and smiles through it. That is as unlikely as getting me to love sheer noise. Yes, I love music -- but I could never enjoy a rock concert. It's just too loud!

So I can treat some of my oddities as quirks; nobody is perfect. Most creative and imaginative people are somewhat weird; they simply get away with it. And, yes, get away from a gloomy place that practically mandates an unhealthy way of life.
(08-11-2016, 10:47 AM)X_4AD_84 Wrote: [ -> ]
(08-11-2016, 02:33 AM)taramarie Wrote: [ -> ]
(08-11-2016, 01:33 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ]It is high-functioning autism. The therapist asked me what I want to do about it, and I replied, "I want to get away with it!"

At my age my core personality is unlikely to change. Maybe I can shed some personally-harmful behaviors. Those aren't the obvious ones that get one of the diagnoses of dangerous tendencies.

I will never become one of those servile types who does a hob that one loathes and smiles through it. That is as unlikely as getting me to love sheer noise. Yes, I love music -- but I could never enjoy a rock concert. It's just too loud!  

So I can treat some of my oddities as quirks; nobody is perfect. Most creative and imaginative people are somewhat weird; they simply get away with it. And, yes, get away from a gloomy place that practically mandates an unhealthy way of life.
Hahahahaha as a creative and imaginative person I won't say no to that I wear my weirdness with pride! Wink

Never heard of high functioning autism before. You learn something new every day. How does it affect you?

High Functioning Autism - A.K.A. Asperger's Syndrome. Here in the US the Mental Health community's manual no longer draws a distinction between the two. There are conspiracy theories that the reason was to deny treatment to the folks with Asperger's who are the highest functioning. By melding the two together the threshold for treatment being indicated was probably raised.

But we would reasonably treat high-functioning depressives, wouldn't we?

My 'high-functioning autism' comes with a spotty work record, which indicates a gross waste of talent. Having a long career in menial work would be almost as bad a waste. So I have some odd responses to stimuli, I don't like noise... I seem at times a liar because I am trying to be normal . Oh, well.
Now for something different. I am getting some secretive program flooding my computer audio with tales of "celebrities" that I have gotten sick of. The tone is of the style of Entertainment Tonight -- assertive but empty. Kardashian sisters... Lindsay Lohan... Caitlyn Jenner... but I can't find and disable the program delivering this mindless, irrelevant stuff. All that I can do is to turn off the audio, which means that I can't enjoy music on YouTube.

I understand of course that much content comes with advertising, as is the norm with television or radio. Having to see an ad for car insurance before seeing a news feed, a documentary, or an extended music video (for example a work of classical music on an extended scale) is acceptable if one does not want to go to pay-per-view, low-quality personal video, or outright propaganda. 

I try to imagine it on the other side. Getting an intrusion of Brahms' Sextet Op. 18 while hearing a tale of some starlet fornicating while breaking rules of rehab would be similarly obnoxious -- if one were as enthralled with celebrity 'news' as I am turned off.
(08-15-2016, 12:44 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote: [ -> ]I long for the day (if ever) when reasonable accommodations and treatment for ASD become the norm rather than the exception.

85% of people with Asperger's Syndrome are unemployed, and when I mentioned several years ago that I was receiving public assistance at the time one of the resident right-wing asshole posters on the old board (James Glick) constantly harassed me about it.
(08-15-2016, 03:42 PM)Odin Wrote: [ -> ]
(08-15-2016, 12:44 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote: [ -> ]I long for the day (if ever) when reasonable accommodations and treatment for ASD become the norm rather than the exception.

85% of people with Asperger's Syndrome are unemployed, and when I mentioned several years ago that I was receiving public assistance at the time one of the resident right-wing asshole posters on the old board (James Glick) constantly harassed me about it.


A true sign of bad character -- mocking people with non-self-inflicted disabilities or handicaps for the disabilities or handicaps. (Jokes about drunks and drug addicts will be around indefinitely. Maybe about people who eat themselves into grotesque obesity, too). I had a cousin who died of lupus, and I had nothing but respect for him for fighting it and living as normal a life as he could. His brother? Ate his way to about 500 pounds and a fatal heart attack at age 47, the sort of fellow who never cracked a book after he left high school and with whom I could never have a conversation about anything -- not even sporting events, shopping, road trips, or cars. He did not end up a crook, and he apparently stayed clear of drugs and alcohol... but that is damning by faint praise.

At the least we with Asperger's could get suitable aid so that we might take a chance to do something valuable. My painting is pretty good for someone's fifth painting... but at my age if I were a painter for an extended time I would likely have something more like 2000 paintings and they would be marketable. I'm more likely to make money off writing or photography than off painting. (The trick to photography is being able to explain why someone wants to see the photograph). If I can entertain myself and I have high standards maybe I can do something interesting. I am a tough critic.

Maybe we with Asperger's syndrome need some genetic counseling in the event that there is a genetic link. Maybe it is a good thing that I never got romantically involved. Probably because I am a good-enough actor I can create an illusion of empathy that must be a habit instead of innate nature and because I would treat child-raising with great seriousness I might have been a good parent -- of a step-child or adopted children.

I may be as artificial as anyone -- but I am trying to be normal on things that really count, like avoiding trouble.
Guys the poster in question has registered here although he hasn’t posted yet. The behavior in question happened before my time if the something you are alleging happens here I won’t tolerate it but I’m giving everyone a clean slate here and I ask that you refrain from personal attacks as well. I understanding that I am asking a lot.
I have an Italian tomato garden that is prospering due to Homo Global Warming. The neighbors brought me a sarong to wear in the coming climate from Sabah where they had gone on vacation. I've been reading on the Foundation of The Several States into what became the polity in which we live. The news is still ever so 3T.
(08-24-2016, 12:12 PM)bosboreas Wrote: [ -> ]I have an Italian tomato garden that is prospering due to Homo Global Warming. The neighbors brought me a sarong to wear in the coming climate from Sabah where they had gone on vacation. I've been reading on the Foundation of The Several States into what became the polity in which we live.  The news is still ever so 3T.

Good to see you, fellow Minnesotan! Big Grin
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