Thanks @FinneousPJ ! I'm sure I'll bring up the substance of my argument if the opioid crisis ever becomes a topic on the politcs thread!
@booinyoureyes I know I'd be interested. The attempt to deal with it by monitoring doctors in an attempt to prescribe less for pain has left ppl in the lurch for legitimate causes of needing pain relief. New ideas are sorely needed.
Thanks @FinneousPJ ! I'm sure I'll bring up the substance of my argument if the opioid crisis ever becomes a topic on the politcs thread!
@booinyoureyes I know I'd be interested. The attempt to deal with it by monitoring doctors in an attempt to prescribe less for pain has left ppl in the lurch for legitimate causes of needing pain relief. New ideas are sorely needed.
@Zaghoul my academic article discusses the illicit sale of opioids (fentanyl in particular), rather than the prescription markets. However, I do share your concern about under-prescription for those who are in need of pain relief!
@booinyoureyes There is definitely more than one aspect of the crisis that needs to be addressed, and the one your article tackles is most certainly one of them.
Had a doc appointment for my son yesterday. Turns out he will need another heart surgery sooner than we were initially told (in about 8-9 years, as oppoesed to about 15-20). Why is this in the happiness thread? Well, it turns out that just within the last two years, medical tech has advanced far enough that the operation he will need (replacing a weak heart valve) likely won't require open heart surgery anymore. They can use a catheter to thread the replacement valve through a small incision in the side, much less invasive, much safer. Its still in trial on adults, but we have 8 years for it to be safe for children. Oh, and we finally weaning him off of one of his long term medications.
@ThacoBell Well then I'm both sad and happy for you and your son. Medtech and procedural advancement is a changing. I hope the latest 8-9 yr prediction doesn't get moved forward again. Hey, the less meds needed the better, so that is good. How is his latest cold coming along? I'm guessing it didn't get any more serious?
@Zaghoul It was a toss up for me between this thread and the unhappiness one, I decided to look on the bright side. His cold was pretty bad and lasted for 3 days, but he got over. Then he has three says of diarhea. He's over all that now thankfully. And his physical therapist and occupational therapist are happy with his progress.
Today we had a party at my family's ranch, same as we do every year. This time, my dog Tucker didn't freak out about all the people around--he actually ran around outside and played with the other dogs. He had a good time and didn't seem nervous at all. I'm glad that he feels more comfortable around new people.
Everyone here has had lots of barbecue and chocolate and alcohol, and they're really enjoying the music. It's bitterly cold out, but we've still got a band, Brown Out, playing on the porch. They were cracking jokes about how cold it was, but they're still playing loud as ever and with great enthusiasm. They just got a cheer from the crowd as I finished that last sentence. Most of the crowd is 50 feet away, huddling around the bonfire for warmth, but they've got some people braving the cold wind right in front of the band to listen. One of the people in the audience was dancing while wrapped up in a blanket like a mummy. It was awesome.
My dad's friend Walt organizes most of the details, including hiring the bands. Walt loves the music and is usually the loudest member of the audience.
Also, I finished the 4th draft of my novel and sent it to my editor in spite of the loud house around me. Soon I will receive a bunch of incredibly useful notes telling how horrible the book is and all the stuff I need to do to make it less sucky. Until then, I can relax.
I finally finished all the drawings for the third children's book I've illustrated and sent them to the publishers. My computer and I had tons of fights over those illustrations and it nearly ended in a divorce. But we pulled through.
Jesus Christ. I just heard back from my editor and she says she's never seen an unpublished author do so well on revisions. She says the market doesn't have anything like it. I might even get a chance to work with her own agent, who is also a major player in the field--one of the heads of a prominent agency. It's an incredible opportunity. Yet another reason to be grateful I got to work with my editor, who is a brilliant and insightful reader to say the least.
This is spectacular news, but I can't get complacent. There's still a massive amount of work to do to improve the book, and the publishing process will be a very big and very new challenge for me.
After about a year at the place I work I discovered one of the other bartenders was a big dnd fan. Ran a campaign with 9 players. We talked alot about DnD and I eventually turned him onto Baldurs Gate. He was into it so I eventually showed him what mods are including my own. Now we talk BG most days. It always feels good to bring a new member into the community.
The big one: My son had his yearly kidney check up yesterday. He only has one, and on top of that, his heart conditions put him at a higher risk of kidney disease. Turns out that not only his kidney continuing to grow as it needs too (basically it needs to be larger than normal to cover the lack of a second one), but its functioning SO WELL that he only needs to see the kidney doctor once every 2 years now. This is major relief, as his medical burdens can be very daunting for us.
Smaller, but still very nice: Thanks to @Rik_Kirtaniya , I am finally getting to play D&D with a group. Its very rules light, with more focus on decisions than dice rolls, but works perfectly with my newbieness and schedule. Its been great fun to play with others on the forum, and I'm excited to see where our adventure goes.
@ThacoBell It must be a tough battle for your son, as well as for the family. I'm glad to hear that he's doing well. I wish him victory in life's broad field of battle.
Smaller, but still very nice: Thanks to @Rik_Kirtaniya , I am finally getting to play D&D with a group. Its very rules light, with more focus on decisions than dice rolls, but works perfectly with my newbieness and schedule. Its been great fun to play with others on the forum, and I'm excited to see where our adventure goes.
It's an honour that I could do something that could bring a smile to people's faces. Actually, it's you all who are participating in the adventure whom I must thank, for it's you all who made it successful.
Yesterday I built my own desktop, for the first time in my life, based around a Ryzen 5 2600 cpu. I'm happy and proud that I managed to do so (up till now I have let a webshop built my PC's).
Just got back from the doctor. We can finally start weaning my son off of quarantine. It will probably be about a month before he can play with other kids, but we can take him out to places outside of peak hours now.
I managed to lose 6 kilos of weight in about 6 weeks. I have done thins by learning new, healthy habbits, hiit training and intemediate fasting among them. What makes me even happier are the following: the fact that I have no problems with maintaining those habbits at all and the fact that I still lost weight, despite the fact my muscle mass increased.
Sure, there are things in my life that require improvement and there are things that can bring me down, but I am going to do my best.
I just got off a job interview on Skype. I don't think I did very well--I didn't stumble, but I don't think I came off as energetic, and I didn't say nearly as much as I wanted to say because I was afraid of filibustering with two interviewers at the same time--and I don't know what my odds are, but it's a great job that I would love. I've been rather anxious about it for the last couple of days because it's such a big opportunity (it's a content writing, copy writing, Wordpress-oriented website management position) and it's kind of a relief to have done the interview, even if it could have gone better.
It'd be unfortunate if I don't make it, but I'm glad that I have at least a chance of getting a job that I would enjoy.
I just got off a job interview on Skype. I don't think I did very well--I didn't stumble, but I don't think I came off as energetic, and I didn't say nearly as much as I wanted to say because I was afraid of filibustering with two interviewers at the same time--and I don't know what my odds are, but it's a great job that I would love. I've been rather anxious about it for the last couple of days because it's such a big opportunity (it's a content writing, copy writing, Wordpress-oriented website management position) and it's kind of a relief to have done the interview, even if it could have gone better.
It'd be unfortunate if I don't make it, but I'm glad that I have at least a chance of getting a job that I would enjoy.
Good luck @semiticgod! A job you enjoy makes a huge difference in your quality of life. I used to love my job but a couple of years ago I got a promotion and unfortunately it's now not nearly as enjoyable as it was. Now my boss wants to promote me again and I'm dreading it. I don't want to make waves at my age by telling her I don't want it and the money would be good. It has been affecting my state of mind though (I'm mentally fatigued a lot more than I used to be).
I've finally done something to try to counter all the hate against Beamdog on the GOG fora. I always get irritated when people call the Enhanced Editions a cheap money grab and saying everything it does can be done with mods, as there's so much the EE's do that could never be modded, as most of you now.
Yet I never found the courage to speak up, because of all the shitstorms the word "Beamdog" raises over there. Yet I finally found the courage and ease of mind to sum up all the things I like in version 2.3 and would miss if it wouldn't be there to play anymore.
Actually I'm NOT feeling happy, as I know there will be a whole truckload of hate triggered by this post of mine, I'm mostly afraid people won't see reason and don't listen to the arguments at all. My heart is full of anxiety now. I know what I'm like on fora when taking a stand for something that's controversial. I get upset, angry, fretting etcera. But I'm at the least proud for posting this:
Comments
nvm, I found it: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40479686. Not something to make on happy.
Oh, and we finally weaning him off of one of his long term medications.
How is his latest cold coming along? I'm guessing it didn't get any more serious?
Everyone here has had lots of barbecue and chocolate and alcohol, and they're really enjoying the music. It's bitterly cold out, but we've still got a band, Brown Out, playing on the porch. They were cracking jokes about how cold it was, but they're still playing loud as ever and with great enthusiasm. They just got a cheer from the crowd as I finished that last sentence. Most of the crowd is 50 feet away, huddling around the bonfire for warmth, but they've got some people braving the cold wind right in front of the band to listen. One of the people in the audience was dancing while wrapped up in a blanket like a mummy. It was awesome.
My dad's friend Walt organizes most of the details, including hiring the bands. Walt loves the music and is usually the loudest member of the audience.
This is spectacular news, but I can't get complacent. There's still a massive amount of work to do to improve the book, and the publishing process will be a very big and very new challenge for me.
The big one: My son had his yearly kidney check up yesterday. He only has one, and on top of that, his heart conditions put him at a higher risk of kidney disease. Turns out that not only his kidney continuing to grow as it needs too (basically it needs to be larger than normal to cover the lack of a second one), but its functioning SO WELL that he only needs to see the kidney doctor once every 2 years now. This is major relief, as his medical burdens can be very daunting for us.
Smaller, but still very nice: Thanks to @Rik_Kirtaniya , I am finally getting to play D&D with a group. Its very rules light, with more focus on decisions than dice rolls, but works perfectly with my newbieness and schedule. Its been great fun to play with others on the forum, and I'm excited to see where our adventure goes.
Sure, there are things in my life that require improvement and there are things that can bring me down, but I am going to do my best.
It'd be unfortunate if I don't make it, but I'm glad that I have at least a chance of getting a job that I would enjoy.
Yet I never found the courage to speak up, because of all the shitstorms the word "Beamdog" raises over there. Yet I finally found the courage and ease of mind to sum up all the things I like in version 2.3 and would miss if it wouldn't be there to play anymore.
Actually I'm NOT feeling happy, as I know there will be a whole truckload of hate triggered by this post of mine, I'm mostly afraid people won't see reason and don't listen to the arguments at all. My heart is full of anxiety now. I know what I'm like on fora when taking a stand for something that's controversial. I get upset, angry, fretting etcera. But I'm at the least proud for posting this:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/very_pleased_with_enhanced_editions_version_20_of_the_baldurs_gate_games