Fierce Critter

I have come to learn that self-preservation in the way of taking care of my own health and happiness sometimes means disregarding what I think the group needs and letting things just go. I'm going through some of the worst shit I have ever, EVER faced in my life right now. My future is not as assured as I might have once thought. I'm in a period of purging and re-organizing. I am looking very, very hard at what really needs to be there in my life, be it a message board, a person, a pursuit, etc. Troy, you've been in that place too, for a very long time. I'm surprised you've hung in there as long as you have. But then again, maybe I'm not. I have seen how important DGN is to you, and I have hoped it would continue to give you - if nobody else - the joy you want from it. DGN has been an incredible and often underrated phenomenon that has served a community well - a community that sometimes has not realized it's true impact, has not appreciated everything that has really come from it. <-- points to self and nods "Present company included." I came back here a few months ago after YEARS of absence. Why? Because once upon a time, when I was living out of Michigan and beyond miserable, DGN was an 8-hour a day escape for me into a world that didn't hurt, wasn't lonely, and where someone was always there to listen to, or to listen to me. Recent struggles have brought back some of those feelings. And I guess it was just natural to come back to a "safe place," if to a much lesser extent time-wise. But it hasn't felt the same way. Even though, seriously, it really hasn't changed very much. I think it's maybe not so obvious that with the change in the social aspect of the internet, with the exploding popularity of sites like Facebook, DGN and other message boards have become dinosaurs of a bygone era. Just as this year's computer becomes "old technology" when the new, improved models come out the following year, well, DGN is the message board equivalent of Windows 3.1. Troy, I have not wanted to suggest that maybe it's time to let the old girl go as I've seen you struggle over the years to keep it vital, to finance it, maybe to the detriment of your health and other needs. I'm not in your head, though I've feared for your happiness should DGN go toes-up. Maybe it's something you need to let go so the worry and the struggle will go away. Maybe then you'd be able to focus on other personal needs you might not even have known the extent of with DGN ever in the forefront of your life. I most definitely would feel a pang of nostalgic emptiness were I to type dgn.net into my browser and find only a future of "page not found" in response. Whatever you decide, I wish you luck. Sincerely. {{{Hugs}}}

LOVE livscience.com, TA. Perfect recommendation, and it's now one of my favorite sites. Thanks.

My dad is addicted to the ancient Pipe Dream game. The one that looks like this: But alas, his brand-spankin' new laptop has Windows 7, and Pipe Dream won't even work with Vista. I'm mostly finding Android games and the like when Google searching, or online flash games. Anyone know of any downloadable similar game that will work on newer OS's?

What's a good website for not-too-highbrow articles of interest? I'm not looking for in-depth political, social, etc. discussions. Not news. Just trivia, I guess. <--shrugs I'm getting real bored with the same crap I look at every day online and looking for something that'll feed my brain without feeling like I'm studying for college.

I'm almost to the point I don't want to be on the computer unless I'm making money from it.

Completely and utterly destroyed. Edited 2/29: Rebuilt better than ever. :D

The bottom of my world just completely fell out from under me. Edited 2/29: False alarm. :D

I love your points, LadyKay. And you hit the nail on the head as to what bothers me about atheists in general - that they seem so angry at people who believe. Sure, fundamentalists spew anger at non-believers sometimes, but more often they lean more toward self-righteous pity.

+1

It burns me up when idiots claim these sorts of things as defining what is and is not patriotic or "American." Some old fart on a message board I no longer participate in once made the absurd decree that anyone who votes democratic is an unpatriotic traitor. This infuriated me when I think about someone like my dad - a WWII veteran who has fought battles throughout his life from immense (WWII frogman and UDT) to minute (defying a change in Knights of Columbus wardrobe guidelines by refusing to stop wearing an American flag pin on his lapel) in defense of his country and flag - and who votes straight democratic ticket probably every time. When I brought my dad up as an example of how wrong that statement was, that fuckwad persisted in insisting that yes, even my dad is a traitor for having the gall to not vote republican. Fuck you, asshole.

Candyman: While I admit I had a little trouble wading through your response to understand exactly what I'm missing, I think I got the gist of it after a few re-reads. I do sincerely appreciate your educating me. If I understand you, what I'm missing is that civilian contractors are being given jobs that could (or should?) be done by military personnel. What I'm a bit confused about is it seems you're saying that the civilian contractors get paid a lot more than you would for doing the same job. If I understood that right, that seems absurd - why would the government want to spend MORE on contractors than they would giving already employed servicemen the work? I know I'm coming off as hopelessly naive with a question like that, and I do understand that the government is often classically guilty of poor management of personnel and money. But this seems like such a no-brainer that, again, I feel like I'm missing something.

I have to say, I agree with Chernobyl regarding the pomposity and smugness so often displayed by atheists. I am TOTALLY fine with atheists' beliefs (non-beliefs?), and them openly discussing them. But so often, their approach is with a smirk and arrogant self-importance rather than civil presentation. Actually, it's the same attitude I hate in fundamentalist Christians, or anyone majorly steeped in a "my way or the highway" mindset.

Maybe I'm naive or missing something... ...but say a professional baseball league goes through about 500 bats a month. Now say you have a company that makes baseball bats, and requires 50 employees to kick out 500 bats a month. Now suddenly, the league decides to halve itself and eliminate exactly half their teams. So the need for manufacturing 500 bats per month now drops to only needing 250 bats per month. You now have 25 employees working full-steam and 25 standing around twiddling their thumbs. Doesn't it make sense to let half your workforce go? Isn't that what's going on with the military? Or again, am I missing something?

When I was a young teen, I briefly joined a Girl Scout troop. Around that time, one of the girls - a daughter of a devout church-goer - quit because she got preggers. And a long-time friend was a scout in a troop led by her dad. There honestly wasn't anything wrong with the dad being a troop leader, but the friend was known to sleep around and even quit school for a while to shack up with a guy. The scouts are full of hypocritical bigots, and always have been. This sort of thing is not surprising. But I laud her effort in taking a stand.

LOVE this thread. Crowded House's "Into Temptation" Could bridge between alternative pop and something like dark ambient (I admit to being utterly and completely clueless when it comes to the gazillion sub-forms and spinoffs of goth/industrial, so dark ambient is a guess because I didn't want to say "goth.") Similarly, Nirvana's "Something in the Way" = Grunge to [insert goth sub-category here]:

Jon and I watch these ever so often for a really good laugh and "Oh my fucking God" reactions. BACON STRIPS!

Nursing a pinched nerve in my neck that is causing excruciating pain in my shoulder and neck. This is the 3rd week now and the pain has "shifted," and somewhat abated. But now I'm getting sharp, knifelike pains from movements as simple as shrugging my shoulders. I'm walking around the house saying "Fuckity ow" randomly. Back to bed and painkillers.

I have muscle pain in my front shoulder area that is quite possibly the worst pain of this sort I have ever experienced. I am icing it and to be able to sleep, I have some leftover codeine-based painkillers. Can't take them during the day because they make me very sleepy, so I'm depending on 400mg motrin. I don't know what I did to bring this on. But I sure hope it goes away very, very soon.

~ What piercings do you currently have? 3 in each earlobe. One a little higher in the cartilage of my right ear. ~ What piercings do you no longer have? Why? Nipples. Had them done around 2007-2008. A couple weeks into healing, I started noticing an ugly, dark green discharge from my right nipple. I consulted my piercer and she'd never seen anything like it. Fearing infection, I removed the piercing and then couldn't get it back in. So I removed both of them. I went through a battery of specialists and tests, and the most they can figure is I have something going on with my ducts. It's not an infection and it's not cancer, but the ductoscopy they recommend isn't going to happen while I don't have insurance. But the piercings won't happen again. ~ Are there any that you plan to get in the future? And why haven't you gone out to do that yet? Probably not. ~ Are there any piercings that intrigue you but feel you cannot have done (impossible, not if you want to keep your job, or just bloody unlikely)? I love the variety of ear piercings, and would love to have several in both ears. But at this point in my life, my style has changed and I'm not all that concerned with adding piercings. It's not out of the question, however. I like the look of eyebrow piercings. However I am loathe to do anything that would leave a permanent, visible scar should I decide to not wear the piercing in the future. I like septum piercings, but I've seen too many people end up with uneven, non-straight holes that make the jewelry hang crooked. ~ What are the inspirations behind the piercings we have, choose to get, or yearn for with all our soppy hearts? My first ear piercing was just mundane. My 2nd was because in high school, I had long hair and wore a lot of long earrings, so I got the 2nd holes to wear studs. The third ones were because I was bored. The upper one in my right ear was the most "punk" I could bring myself to get in the early 90's. The nipples were because I am turned on by pierced nipples, and planned to work on some leather tops that would allow me to wear shields & caps so my jewelry was outside the clothes but you wouldn't actually see any flesh. ~ Are there any epic stories of note involving the process or aftermath of a piercing that you would like to share with the other children? See above re: nipple piercings. ~ What fashion of jewelry do you commonly use in said holes? Are there any particular favourites? I keep sterling endless hoops in the top two holes in my lobes at all times, as well as in the upper piercing in my right ear. I change out the bottommost to whatever suits the occasion. I have an adorable Helix cuff I purchased off Ebay not realizing how tiny it would be, intending to wear it in my upper hole. It's too small to go around my ear. If I get any more piercings, I'll start with a helix in which I can wear that cuff.

I never have this problem with my cats.

I'll admit - even if I were still in the DM area and able to go to CC, one additional thing was keeping us from going there in the past couple years. We finally got a halfway decent vehicle. And also got pretty freaking poor. We were reluctant to show up and find the lot full, and have to either park on the street or not risk it and go right back home. Our truck was broken into once parked on Bagley on the other side of 1st. Side window smashed, and they knelt on Jon's glasses which were on the passenger seat, destroying them while they stole our radio. This was winter, and after a visit to the police station which was a huge waste of time (they wouldn't even cough up a plastic trash bag with which to seal up the window), we drove home on I-75 with me holding a floor mat up in the window in an attempt to block the freezing cold wind from coming in. This wasn't a decision based so much on fear so much as we just didn't want a good vehicle damaged nor possibly incur the cost of window/radio replacement.

A lad, insane. Hiyo.

Catz r gud. I bet I haz more than u. Welcome to DGN. :cat: :cat: :cat: :cat: :cat:

I know this sort of thing usually comes of little comfort, but perhaps disengaging with someone who satisfies only one aspect of your needs will give you a freedom to open your eyes and heart and availability to someone who can give you that - and more. [Edit: Didn't see your follow-up before I posted this.]