His last post was like, less than a day ago. He probably just hasn't been on the computer since then. Hopefully he is okay, but I seriously doubt he's dead.

At 12/9/09 09:53 AM, Elfer wrote: Huh. See, I'd describe today as "pretty snowy," but according to the American weather news I'm caught right in the middle of a "treacherous blizzard."

Yeah, that's pretty much where I'm at. It's snowing here and there's like, 4 to 6 inches on the ground, and yet I'm supposed to getting whammed by a "treacherous mix."

At 12/8/09 07:40 PM, Porkchop wrote: Heh, it's barely sprinkling in Michigan, and we're south enough to barely avoid a half foot of snow. :D

It isn't doing anything outside right now, and I'm in western mass. Though, according to a map posted earlier in the thread the "treacherous icy mix" part of the storm isn't supposed to hit until the morning.

My weather channel desktop program says the storm will hit us around 4 and snow through the first part of the morning, then turn to sleet for the commute. It's says weather alert from 4am to 1pm. Hopefully that means no school for me.

Get ready for a long post.

At 12/8/09 06:29 PM, GoryBlizzard wrote: You mentioned experiencing anxiety regarding medical procedures. That's normal and definitely not symptomatic of anything wrong. When I was very young, I used to scream like a little bitch whenever I was told I had to go to the doctor, and also whenever I was administered any shots. When I turned 5, however, I became much more calm and compliant during my doctor's visits. However, I'll admit it can be difficult to handle myself whenever I have to visit an optometrist or ophthalmologist, because my eyes are super sensitive.

Yeah, I'm not too much worried about myself because what I have is fairly common and it's not really that debilitating. At least, not at this point. Like I said, anxiety runs in the family and I don't think I can safely say that I won't have more anxiety in the future. It's my mom and particularly my sister who I have the most worries about.

My mom's made it this far alright and I think that, aside from some personal demons, that she's not in too much trouble in life at this point. I mean, she's not happy with her job and she's worried about my sister, but we're financially sound and she's happily married. So, she's okay. But, I anticipate that me sister will have some pretty serious obstacles in her life to come that she'll have to overcome. She has poor vision (three or four time worse than mine, and mine's about 20-180) that isn't correctable with glasses (mine isn't either, but it's much less debilitating for me), so she's at a disadvantage from the get go. Then she has her ADD, which prevents her from being able to concentrate as well, impedes on her ability to stick to schedules, and makes it hard for her to complete work on time (anyone who says that ADD isn't a real condition just doesn't know anything. It's not even an opinion matter).

And then on top of all that she has her anxiety. It's stemmed from the consequences caused by her ADD, which puts her in a vicious circle. The more anxious she gets, the harder it is for her to complete work, and then she gets even more anxious about that, etc. And it's also stemmed from a fear of intimacy and social interaction. She hates being touched, which will probably prove to be an issue when it comes to her having relationships, but she also is afraid of intimate relationships and intimacy in general. Germaphobia is another fear and anxiety of hers. She has OCD, as if she didn't already have enough problems. To add on to the social interaction anxiety that I mentioned, last summer she had a job at a visitor's center in town and she was updating the email list of the center. Part of that required her to make phone calls to people who needed to have their information updated, and she started getting a good amount of anxiety from that. I anticipate that that kind of issue is going to be a problem for her when she gets into the professional world.

To top it all off, all of this is making her depressed. And, how could it not? Fortunately, she's seeing a therapist who will hopefully be able to help her with it through cognitive therapy. (She's already on anxiety meds)

At 12/8/09 06:31 PM, TailsPrower wrote: In my family, poor vision is a trait that's certainly had its way through the generations. My grandfather (father's side) had glasses, my dad has glasses, and I do too. It's kinda cool when I think about it, but I'm still left genetically unsatisfied.

Not so much anxiety though.

Both me and my sister have albinism, which is a genetic disorder where the body can't or is severely limited in its ability to produce pigments in the eyes, hair, and skin. Our eyes are very sensitive to light, because we don't have the same about of pigment in our irises as those without the disorder have. But, poor vision is a linked condition, for whatever reason. I don't believe that my poor vision has anything to do with pigments, it's just an effect that comes along for the ride in those with albinism.

Like I said, my vision is about 20-180 (or 20-200, I don't remember) which is considered legally blind, albeit it's right on the edge (those that are legally blind can't drive, which means when I'm older, I'll have to be moving to a place with a good public transit system). It's not correctable with any sort of glasses (astigmatism, I believe). Although, I do have myopia, which is and hopefully I will be getting glasses soon (the next opportunity for me to get an appointment with the low vision specialist without having to drive all the way to Boston - she works in Boston, but comes down near us a few times a month - is in March, unfortunately).

I also have no depth perception and have a nystagmus.

At 12/8/09 06:01 PM, neobyte1 wrote: Maybe its just like i have never dated and i think everything should go like in the movies you know.

Bingo. Love doesn't happen immediately. You start out liking someone, and then it progresses. And, dating almost never automatically changes your life, especially if it's your first girlfriend. Give it some time. If you like her a lot, then it'll probably go somewhere (unless a conflict arises that so enormous that it breaks up the relationship). Where, I don't know. But somewhere, at the very least.

At 12/8/09 06:08 PM, GOTHCLAWZ wrote: What do you mean? My country is very chilly with minimal amounts of snow.

It's a US/Canada storm.

Anyways, it looks like western mass is going to find itself in the middle of that "treacherous mix" zone sometime during the early morning. Here's hoping for a snow day, but not for a white out.

Yeah, it's supposed to hit my area tonight and tomorrow. Snow is expected for tonight and then it's supposed to sleet in the morning. Not a good mix. The commute's going to be horrible. I'm certain my school with at least have a delay.

I'm also certain that if there is school, a lot of people from my school will be out. I live in western mass, which is a very hilly area. I live in a valley so it's generally not a problem for me, but the hill towns always get hit hard. Last year there was a gigantic ice storm that moved through the area and some of my friends were out of power for over a week. Half the power lines up there were down (literally, lying on the ground encrusted with ice) and the trees were coated in inches of ice in some places.

Hopefully it won't be as bad this time around for them.

At 12/8/09 05:00 PM, djmrules wrote: It might have been that I was kinda the biggest procrastinator ever and it always screwed me over.
I'd spend more time worrying about things than I would getting them done.
When I had those problems it always took me forever to get to sleep and I tried to get out of going to school in every way possible.I also Avoided friends constantly.
I'm actually really glad I got over it.

My sister's problems are similar to this. She's a "chronic procrastinator," so to speak, which is something that is suspected to be a part of her ADD. And so, she gets really anxious over it because it leads her to not do well in school and in college.

She has sleep problems as well, which we think are in part due to her anxiety.

At 12/8/09 05:23 PM, Yhtomit wrote: Wait, those are caused by anxiety problems?

It's still considered anxiety, though, I believe.

As far as I know, I don't have any anxiety disorders, though, if that's what you mean. I just have anxiety about that.

Yet.

At 12/8/09 05:14 PM, InsertFunnyUserName wrote: I don't even think they're aloud* to do that.

Allowed*

Every gym/PE class I've ever taken just gives grades for participation and preparation (unless there's a health unit and in that case, there's grades for the work). None of the gym/PE classes around here that I know of grade for actual physical ability. I don't even think they're aloud to do that. As long as you try, you'll get a good grade.

At 12/8/09 04:56 PM, Twilight wrote: Anyway, the day after I asked her what she did to calm herself down and she said she was on medication. She told me clearing your mind also helps, trying not to think about it but my guess is it's pretty hard when you're all weird and dizzy like that. Doubt you can think straight.

My doctor says that counting back from 100 by 3's (or any number that counting back from 100 by doesn't come naturally to you) to keep your mind occupied. She also suggests quietly singing lyrics to yourself. Also, diaphragmatic breathing.

Note: this isn't a "halp me wth my angzieties" thread.
Anyways, on with the thread.

Anxiety runs in my family. Both my mother and my sister have terrible anxiety problems, and my both my sister and my father are on anxiety medication.

Today, I had an appointment scheduled with a low vision clinic in a town about 35 - 40 minutes away by highway (about an hour if you don't go up rout 91, which is a major highway that runs north/south from the Canadian boarder, all the way through western mass, and all the way down to New Haven, Connecticut). Now, my dad was originally going to drive me up, but he had a business conference in Boston scheduled and couldn't go. So, my mom was left to drive me. Now, the problem is that my mom has a tremendous amount of anxiety around driving on roads that she's never driven on before, and she'd never driven in the town the clinic was in. She started having a panic attack and long story short, we had to call the clinic to cancel the appointment and turn around.

I also have a mild thing around medical procedures. It doesn't bother me to see them, but having some of them done to me gives me a bit of anxiety. It's not a panic attack; it's more a lightheaded feeling, dizziness and a general unpleasantness. Having my blood pressure taken, routine physical stuff/checkups, EKG/EEG, echo cardiogram etc don't bother me, but things like shots, having my blood drawn, having my eyes dilated, etc do.

So, my question to you all is, do any of you have anxiety problems like these?
Does anyone in your family?
How do you deal with them? In other words, what do you do to calm yourself down?

I seriously doubt that that just ruined your social life. It's just an embarrassing moment. These things happen all the time, especially on sites as temperamental and shoddily run as facebook (it's good for connecting to people and all, but the actual quality of the efficiency with which the site runs leaves much left to be desired.)

Like EpicFail said, just explain to her that you meant to talk to someone else. You aren't going to become the laughing stock of the school because you accidentally flirted with the wrong girl.

At 12/8/09 01:29 PM, j4ke002 wrote: Maybe you are anorexic and are sick nocturnal emissions.

He is the opposite of anorexic.

At 12/8/09 01:32 PM, takumidesh wrote: It's because you digest food quickly. your wait will catch up with you. you might not gain weight in the future, but you will probably have heart problems and the like. once your metabolism slows it all comes back.

Exactly... I think.

The fact that you can eat a shitton of sweets without gaining weight doesn't mean that you should. If you're hungry, eat proteins and complex carbs. You can still eat sweets, but if you're eating excessive amounts of them every day, that's a health risk regardless of how much you weigh. (especially since you don't exorcise). Foods with a lot of saturated fats will give your cardiovascular system a run for its money, and not in a good way.

But, to answer your question, it's your metabolism, most likely.

At 12/8/09 03:04 PM, TacoFreak wrote: who the fuck counts how much calories they eat? And it's not like you can calculate the calories of everything you eat. I eat lunch at the school cafeteria and I have no idea how much calories and other shit is in it

People who are on diets, diabetics, and people with medical conditions have to count their calories. In this case, if he wants to find out if he has a medical condition that's impeding his ability to gain weight (which I think unlikely), then counting up how many calories he consumes a day and comparing them to a healthy calorie intake for someone his age will help him figure that out.

As far as school lunches go, the school lunch system is very regulated. Their calorie counts have to be within a certain range, so that means that they would have to know how many calories each lunch has. I'm sure if you looked into it, you could find out that information. Also, most cookbooks and online recipes nowadays have total calorie counts, as do most ingredient packages. Additionally, you can buy books that list the nutrition information for most of the restaurant and food chain stores.

Yeah, go for it.

At 12/6/09 07:02 PM, XxRobJohnsonxX wrote: If you are still young enough to play in the snow... you are not too old to wear snowpants.

Playing in the snow has an age limit?

At 12/6/09 07:15 PM, Leidolfr wrote: I dont wear them now because i dont need them, back when I snowboarded I always used them, and if you think they look uncool, they make thin ones that slide right over your jeans and just look like wind pants more or less, but....who the fuck cares how you look

That's what I have. They look just like black wind pants. They're not as warm as the giant puffy ones, but they keep the wind out and they're waterproof. That's all I need.

Using fuck (and other swears) in every or almost every sentence just makes you look extremely immature. Using it when it's needed is okay as long as it's in a suitable environment, but there's no reason why someone would need to put "fucking" before every verb and every other adjective. I hate it when I'm with a group of friends in public and one or a few of them are running off swears at obnoxiously loud decibels with no regard to anyone around them. They might as well just be shouting, "We're kids, please treat us like kids" at the top of their lungs instead.

What the hell? That's not animal cruelty, that's the food chain. Now, if they had burned it alive, that would have been excessive, but they cut off its head, something that slaughter houses across the globe do daily. I don't understand how anyone can actually believe that prosecuting celebrities for eating rats in the jungle will help solve animal cruelty.

At 12/6/09 01:19 PM, EpicFail wrote: I'm sure they could have easily survived without the rat, so I don't blame that they're getting charged. I wouldn't kill a rat to feed myself.

Billions of people around the world on a daily basis eat animals that they don't have to eat. Honestly, I don't see how this is any different.

My town is boring, small, poor, pasty white, and full of sex offenders.

My biggest problem with this town is that there's hardly anything to do if you're under 40. The downtown is essentially this: five bead stores, four nails salons, a small department store filled with ridiculously expensive old lady clothing, a few cafes and a bookstore and a (shitty and tiny) movie theater (the only pluses), three banks, a gaggle of lawyers' offices, and the DMV. This makes it particularly hard to meet new people, especially since I go to a very small school. It's also boring as fuck and impedes on my social life.

And, I don't want to go to a different school because currently I'm going to a charter school (a school on a charter that's funded by the state, instead of the town like normal public schools) and the town's school district is broke as hell all. They were in over a million dollars in debt last year (which is a lot for a small town). I want to stay a my school also because of the academic quality of it.

And, because it's a small town, the public transit system is virtually nonexistent. I can't drive, so I either have to take the bus or get a ride (most of my friends can't drive yet, so it's usually mooching off parents). I can walk to downtown from my house as it's only about a mile away, but as far going anywhere else, I'm boned. As for going to neighboring towns, the bus schedules are so inconvenient that it makes it quite a chore to set something up. To my knowledge, there are no buses out of the town passed 6pm (which means there are no buses back passed 7pm) and most of the worthwhile things to do in other towns (shows, etc) are 8pm and later. Of course, this will become much easier once my friends all start getting cars.

Long story short, I'll be moving to the city once I leave the house.

At 12/5/09 04:08 PM, TheSilverGuitar wrote: I see it as encouragement to be a better reviewer.

This.

Of course, I only have 99 flash reviews and 9 audio reviews (I have art reviews, but those aren't logged in the system yet), so if I even get sent a review deletion notification, it's almost always from two or three years ago (The reviews I post now are generally thorough and comply with the rules).

I see it the same way I do getting a post deleted for breaking a rule, really.

At 12/5/09 04:06 PM, Otto wrote:

At 12/5/09 04:05 PM, InsertFunnyUserName wrote: Better pic.

Mine has a radial gradient, though.

Yeah, yours it better. You posted like, 15 seconds before I did.

Better pic.

At 12/5/09 02:46 PM, Dromedary wrote: Also, as long as it's not stuck on lock, and turns on fine, it's nothing to worry about.

Well, without its top, it's really susceptible to damage, especially from water.

If it's the iPod of someone you know (ie. you didn't just find it on the ground outside somewhere), then check to see if it's still under warranty. If not, then well, duck tape it.

At 12/5/09 01:49 PM, DemonsRemorse wrote: Let's re-examine this.

It's a typo. It's not that big of a deal.

At 12/5/09 02:14 PM, The-word-destroyer wrote: Yeah. Well im 17 and she turn's 17 on the 16th :D

She's 11 days from being 17 and her parents are controlling her dating life? To be honest, that's kind of pathetic.

I've never actually sneaked out of the house. Most of the things going on around here end no later than midnight because there's nothing to do in my town except get high, and I don't do drugs. Either that or I tell my parents what's happening, leave at like, 6pm and stay over someone's house. But, I anticipate that if I were to sneak out, turning off my alarm would definitely be something I'd forget to do.

Time would stop, and there would be nothing.

Let's first accept space as meaning everything physical. All universes, all matter, all physical properties. Let's also define the absence space as being the absence everything physical. Additionally, let's accept "nothing" as meaning the absence of all things physical, all properties, all ideas, all thoughts, and all concepts (because all of these things are "somethings") Let's also accept that our idea of measurement is not a tangible property and therefore, is irrelevant.

Now, we have a hard time thinking about time in the grand scheme, because we can't imagine what it would be like for time to be nonexistent. We can't imagine the absence of time because we think that the moment after it ceases is a new time in and of itself, but that's not necessarily true. The way I see it, when it stops, there will be no period of no time. We don't have to imagine what a period such as that would be like because the very idea of it is contradictory. So, if any such plausible, non-contradictory, circumstance could exist where time has stopped, it would have to be the end of the very last period of time to ever exist.

Now, if we are going theorize about a period where time still exists, but nothing else does (because like I said, a period of no time isn't a period at all), we have to accept that there will be no matter, no movement, no physical laws, and no measurement of space or distance. This is another thing we have trouble getting our minds around: the absence of size or measurement. This area of nonexistence isn't an area. It isn't a plane, or a void, or a realm, or a universe. The only thing that it is and that it possibly can be is a period of time. So, there is no visual image that we can conjure up that could represent this situation, because the presence of an image would make such a situation contradictory. Therefore, the absence of everything and the absence of existence with the exception of time is time itself.

So, we've concluded that there can two different circumstances in this sense: a circumstance where time doesn't exists and a circumstance where space doesn't exist. Now, consider a third. I believe this is the circumstance that you're asking about.

Imagine the end of a universe, or rather, the end of every universe. This can be happening over a period of an hour or over a period of trillions of years; it doesn't make a difference. Nevertheless, everything is ending at one rate or another. Eventually, each individual universe will disappear, leaving nothing, omitting time. Now, "nothing", as I've defined it, is the absence of everything. It's not the opposite of "everything", but rather, a word used to define the state in which "everything" is nonexistent. All you have left at this point is time, ticking onwards. Now, imagine that time stops. A circumstance of no time, as I have described, is simply the end of all time. All you have left at this point is nothing.

But, there's a problem and that is, something still exists ("nothing"). If we define "nothing" as being the absence of all properties, then we have to take "nothing" into question on whether it, in and of itself, is a property. In the manner that I've defined it, it is. It is the state of the absence of everything. It is the property that dictates that nothing can exist within a situation of nothingness. (And properties can't exist in a circumstance of nonexistence because they are tangible and therefore, if properties exist, then your circumstance merely becomes a circumstance of no time and no matter. This is not nonexistence.)

Once time and space have stopped, there is no plausible way to remove "nothing." Ending time removes time and ending space removes the physical, but "nothing" is the un-removable property. This is because "nothing" does not just apply to the physical, but also, the theoretical. It relates to time, as well, and the absence time in necessary for the presence of nothing. "Nothing" has been preserved after the end of all space by the passing of time. Since time's destruction does not include the destruction of properties, it can not destroy "nothing".

Therefore, all existence cannot cease. By this logic, nonexistence is possible only if not only space, but time has never existed, but it impossible to reach after a period of existence.

At 12/2/09 06:43 PM, hhcash wrote: "I tried to kill myself 2x when i was a teen because my mom would not except me. We never spoke again after I came out. You seem like a a great mom - just be there for him. He is very strong for talking to you: LET THIS BE A GOOD THING IF HE IS GAY.

That's sweet :]

At 12/4/09 05:36 PM, hhcash wrote: I live really close to one of the biggest cities in the states, so I have to worry about isolation :)

I live in the one of the gayest states in the union, so when I get older hopefully I'll be able to find some good places to meet people. Right now I'm kind of restricted to school and friends of friends, but I'm planning to go college up by the Boston area. There's a lot of things going on there, and it's close to Ptown.

At 12/3/09 07:09 PM, Malachy wrote: I took my own screen shot :(

if you noticed, we tried to keep the thread only having spam reports in it so that Wade didn't have to wade (lol) through unrelated replies to get to those naughty spam bot accounts.

If there's one thing I've learned while observing all the drama and friction that arises from the temperamental mod/user relationship it's that user stories tend to always be exaggerated on one level or another. And, this happens in most subordinate/superior dynamics. The user doesn't understand or hasn't been informed on why an action has been taken by a mod, so they assume the worst. But I've noticed that a lot of times, it's just all due to a lack of communication.

The mistake by the user is the assumption that what seems wrong is wrong. In this case, a user's post was deleted and no explanation was given. The user didn't think that he had done something wrong or broken a rule - which he hadn't - so he figured that it was an abuse of power. And, from that perspective, it's understandable why he would think that way because it's not obvious. But as users, we need to think before we start pointing fingers. There very well may be a reason for an action and we just may not know what it is. I'm not saying that abuses don't occur, I'm just noting that so many times I've been angered by something I'd heard happen only to find out later that the mod or admin in question had an understandable reason.

And on the lines of this point, it's important not to "ride the ranting wave," so to speak, when you hear a user talking about something unpleasant that happened to them. Find out the facts before you hold grudges. If a mod hasn't done something abusive to you and the only evidence that you have to support a "power hunger nazu mod" argument is anecdotal, then don't just assume that that mod isn't fit for the job. Because, there may be (and almost always is) another side to the story.

On the flip side, though, and I've said this before, the best way for these situations to be avoided entirely is through communication. It's important that, if the reason for a post deletion, ban, thread deletion, etc isn't entirely clear (and this can be compared to how much forum experience the user in question seems to have), then I think it's best for the mod to either explain the lock/ban explicitly (to a reasonable extent. You don't have include half the forum's history) or send that user a PM (in the case of deletion).

To provide a positive example (as most of the examples I see used tend to be negative), I was involved in a discussion in the Open Discussion thread (on a topic not too different from this, actually Just to provide context, I believe it was gumOnShoe who had posted about calling out specific mods about specific instances and how he was going to start deleting/banning for it, as he didn't want the thread to turn into a "insult the mods relentlessly without getting banned" thread). A user wrote up this whole post calling out a mod (Poozy, I think), and I disagreed with what he said, so I replied to him (I didn't talk about poozy, I just replied to the underlying issues). I come back to the thread later to see if he replied and I find that both our posts had been deleted. I wasn't sure why when I first saw it (but I didn't really mind that much because I hadn't been banned). But, later I find that I've received a PM from Mal explaining the situation. He explained that I hadn't broken any rules and that it was just housekeeping (I figure because he didn't want users reading his deleted post through my quoted text).

This is what I mean by good communication. It's cleaning up an issue before it goes rotten (not saying that I would make it rotten as I'm pretty laid back when it comes to post deletion, but in terms of other users). I think that same communication should have happened in RobJohnson's case. It make complete sense to me (and hopefully others) that the mods and admins wouldn't want unnecessary discussion and derailing in that sort of thread and because of that, the question is better left answered by a mod. So, if a PM was sent out saying "Hey, you didn't break any rules. We just needed to delete your post for housekeeping," then this conflict would never have happened.

To wrap up, I don't know if we can really point our fingers towards individuals in this issue when you get down to what each of us has to do to dissolve the tension. We just need to take other perspectives into consideration.

It's as though I've won a competition against all the rest of my father's sperm, and now my life has meaning. But, in relativity, the best of one set may be the equivalent of the worst of another set.

At 12/3/09 05:17 PM, stick101 wrote: I guess Sex Sells.

Exactly.

The advertising industry has a long, long history of using sex appeal to sell products. You can call it either subliminal messaging or simply because sexy people attract the eye, but the sure thing is that this type of propaganda sure isn't around because it doesn't work. Now, it's not always effective and every single ad utilizing sex appeal isn't necessarily guarantied to be the most successful thing in the world, but as a trend, it's used because people fall for it.

At 12/3/09 02:52 PM, zalecot wrote: they don't have control over their own lives so they build up a complex that requires them to exert control over others lives.

I think this is a pretty good explanation. Either that or the person is too immature and/or socially inept to be able to have empathy. This can either be because they've never really emotionally connected to suffering before (either because they have inadequate or skewed social interaction or because they have a mental disability that interferes with the person's ability to pick up social cues) or their brain hasn't developed enough to allow them to have the full capacity for empathy (because of physical immaturity or again, an inadequate or skewed history social experiences or mental disorder). This is something I've noticed, anyways.

I try to empathize with assholes, but I'm not able to. That is, I try to get myself to figure out what their reasoning was for their actions (on a deeper level than "this benefits me"), but I've never been able to fully do it. I can comprehend the reasons that a person would be driven to that sort of personality where they seem to be indifferent to the consequences of their actions (ie. what I said about and the reason that zalecot mentioned), but I can't connect with it. I suppose this is a good thing.

At 12/2/09 10:02 PM, michelinman wrote: That's what cracks me up about all the people saying Mal is the worst mod. Just because he's around doing things and being active, so they recognize his name because odds are, he's the one that banned them! Haha. If they spent ten minutes in Wi/Ht? they'd see what an impact he makes on helping users and NG.

Yeah, Mal's definitely not who I'll be voting for come final round (if he gets through. I'm betting he will, based on the number of votes he's getting). I have an idea of who I'd like to vote for worst mod in the finals (if they even make it, that is), but I won't say now as I don't want to start an argument about it.