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Post by bjd on Jan 21, 2020 7:18:11 GMT
Would you feel better if you had to pay £60 for someone else's fault?
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Post by whatagain on Jan 21, 2020 8:47:44 GMT
I paid 60 euros twice because I supposedly paid an invoice late. It was a mess honestly and I was late but got so many contradictory info and now it seems they had. Rested me under two client names so I had splitted invoices on both. I'll claim for at least one. I also paid 83 euros because I sped. My own full fault.
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Post by questa on Jan 21, 2020 11:38:18 GMT
My daughter is arriving in Frankfurt. She sleeps there then flies to LA. The house is quiet. This is beautiful, whata. It has the feeling and brevity of a haiku, just need to lop off some syllables to form the 5-7-5. But it is poetry as it is.The quiet house speaks volumes.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 23, 2020 5:04:48 GMT
Oh, most of them imply that very strongly. The problem with other forums (like this one) is that people tend to think that the same rules apply everywhere.
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Post by whatagain on Jan 23, 2020 7:26:10 GMT
I am ok. As long as my opinion prevails. 😇 I just posted on FB recently that I disagreed but would die for the right to express a different opinion. Something Voltaire would have said.
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Post by whatagain on Jan 26, 2020 11:30:28 GMT
Oldest Belgian (doyen as we call them) died at 108. Next in line is 107. So I could live as much as what I have already lived. Scary actually.
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Post by mossie on Jan 26, 2020 12:11:36 GMT
No way do I want to join that club
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Post by lugg on Jan 26, 2020 18:47:02 GMT
Me neither Mossie.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 26, 2020 20:36:58 GMT
Wasn't expecting the sudden death of Kobe Bryant -- we're all far older than he was (41).
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Post by whatagain on Jan 28, 2020 18:48:24 GMT
I wonder what those of you who followed think of Mila. She is a 16 years old lesbian who posted on some media and got attacked by some guys. Since some - many - were muslims she unleashed herself in a very insulting tirade against Islam. She then got a ton of threats inc a lot of death threats. I am mitigated. She was very insulting. She didn't deserve death threats. I am shocked at the explosion of hate and the fact it became viral overnight. I don't like the intervention of the imam in chief of France who said basically she looked for trouble and whilst saying it was exaggerate to threaten her didn't do much more. I wonder why it made so much the news.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 28, 2020 18:58:03 GMT
I wonder why it made so much the news. A slow news day otherwise? There is an awful lot of hate spewed on social media, often where you wouldn't expect it at all. It seems the news media more often fans the flames in the way they feature such an incident, rather than being a force for nudging people toward realizing that throwing hate back and forth rips the fabric of society.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 28, 2020 19:02:54 GMT
Obviously we saw this in France, but I continue to fail to understand the fascination with social media, particularly the idea that it is a good thing to broadcast every idea one has about the state of the world. I would probably get death threats, too, if I posted every idea that passes through my head.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 28, 2020 19:17:22 GMT
You know that thread you started about unacceptable thoughts we all have? (can't remember name right now)
Apparently, instead of acknowledging within themselves the meanness or unfairness or whatever of such thoughts, there are those who rush to post them online, where they find kindred souls who allow them to believe their shitty evil is okay.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 28, 2020 19:24:42 GMT
That other thread is called "your nasty inner voice." I'm not sure where it is located, maybe even on this branch.
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Post by htmb on Jan 28, 2020 19:42:58 GMT
The constant "sharing" of everything under the sun, from "inspirational" tales, to stories of poor, unfortunate dogs who were lost in some place two thousand miles from me sends me over the edge. I’ve been much happier since I quit following family members and friends whose sole purpose in life is to enlighten the rest of us as to what miracle cures might be had by chewing on papaya leaves, or the benefits of snorting dry, pulverized lion dung. I found all their posts were getting in the way and preventing me from seeing the things that actually interest me. It was like being inside their head all of the time. Scary, annoying places.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 28, 2020 20:03:23 GMT
Anyport is the closest I get to social media. It has nil attraction for me.
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Post by bjd on Jan 28, 2020 20:03:49 GMT
Not having any social media accounts and participating in only two forums, I am usually spared most of that stuff. But I do find it annoying when I look at newspaper headlines and find that some of this nonsense seems to be considered "news".
As for people spewing hatred and death threats, one wonders how much they would dare say face to face with a real human being, and how much they allow their nasty inner selves let go simply because of the anonymity of the internet/social media.
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Post by onlyMark on Jan 28, 2020 20:13:46 GMT
Real life conundrum - how do you convince someone who is mentally unstable that they are mentally unstable when they are too mentally unstable to understand they are mentally unstable?
And if anyone knows how to persuade someone they are suffering from Korsakoff Syndrome when they don't believe you?
How do you convince someone they have said something which shows their mind is affected when they deny ever saying it (other than recording conversations)? Such as asking where are my parents, when they died several years ago and not remembering something as important as that is a sure sign you do have metabolic encephalopathy? Or refusing to believe that beer is alcoholic, so if they drink a lot of it, they deny being an alcoholic? Even when you show them the ingredients on the bottle and they say it is false?
It seems I will have to go to Spain to see my brother.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 28, 2020 20:40:16 GMT
I had a meeting with one of my financial advisors today, a nice guy who has not steered me wrong so far. But at the end of the meeting, he told me that in a few days I would be receiving a message asking me to rate him. "Obviously, you don't have to reply," he said, but he also made it clear that part of his salary was dependent upon it (merit bonus). He explained that since Americans had devised the rating system, only 9 or 10 are considered good. "In France we already think that 7 or 8 are excellent scores, but not according to this system." I told him that I understand that since one of the principal things which must be explained to American expats working in France is that being told that something is "pas mal" ("not bad") actually means "very good" to the French while it sends Americans into the depths of depression with feelings of inadequacy. The poor guy also pleaded with me that if I rate him 9 or 10, it is also necessary to renounce my anonymity or it doesn't count.
So, okay, I will give him an excellent rating when the message arrives, but I really despise this new world of rating everybody and everything.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 28, 2020 20:44:12 GMT
As for people spewing hatred and death threats, one wonders how much they would dare say face to face with a real human being, and how much they allow their nasty inner selves let go simply because of the anonymity of the internet/social media. Unfortunately, we all know about mobs, and how people can and do let out their most vicious selves in a pack. Such as asking where are my parents, when they died several years ago and not remembering something as important as that is a sure sign you do have metabolic encephalopathy? That is scary, Mark. I knew an elderly woman whose daughter had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in her early twenties. She is now probably around 60. A few years ago, after her mother died, I met the daughter on the street and began to say how sorry I was. She interrupted me, saying, "They tell me my mother is gone, but I know it's not true because if it were, I would not be able to bear it." I hope there is some way you can get through to and help your brother.
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Post by htmb on Jan 28, 2020 21:04:20 GMT
Best of luck to you, Mark. There might not be much you can do to help your brother, but I’m guessing you need to give it a try to know for sure. When my mother was sick and dying from bone cancer her brain did some pretty loopy things. At one point I had to basically speak to her as if she were a child, while reassuring her that I she could trust me to make the right decisions. Fortunately, she listened to me and was cooperative, while at the same time she believed my poor father was her complete enemy. In really horrible situations, sometimes all you can do is wing it and hope for the best.
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Post by Kimby on Jan 28, 2020 21:57:17 GMT
Real life conundrum - how do you convince someone who is mentally unstable that they are mentally unstable when they are too mentally unstable to understand they are mentally unstable? America has this problem with Trump. And Trump supporters. Very stable geniuses all.
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Post by questa on Jan 28, 2020 23:55:31 GMT
"With our minds we create our world" (Buddha) Sometimes those minds are broken...diseased, drug and drink abused, damaged by birth or old age or unable to face some horror in their past. These minds can't function in a way that is acceptable to those around them and these days are seen as 'personality disorders' and medicated or confined...for whose benefit? The reality that is created by an injured mind is just as strong as the one we create for ourselves, so trying to make a person with a damaged set of beliefs change over to our better-functioning view of reality is nigh impossible.
"You say tomato and I say tomayto" Where the differences in peoples' individual realities are such that we can all get along together with a bit of give and take, but our society encourages us to concentrate on the beliefs or behaviours that 'stick out'. Just re-reading the last few posts above (5597/8/9), we can see that each mind is creating the beliefs and actions that is that person.
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Post by casimira on Jan 29, 2020 2:01:16 GMT
Anyport is the closest I get to social media. It has nil attraction for me. Ditto Mick
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Post by bjd on Jan 29, 2020 7:35:30 GMT
"With our minds we create our world" (Buddha) Sometimes those minds are broken...diseased, drug and drink abused, damaged by birth or old age or unable to face some horror in their past. These minds can't function in a way that is acceptable to those around them and these days are seen as 'personality disorders' and medicated or confined...for whose benefit? The reality that is created by an injured mind is just as strong as the one we create for ourselves, so trying to make a person with a damaged set of beliefs change over to our better-functioning view of reality is nigh impossible. "You say tomato and I say tomayto" Where the differences in peoples' individual realities are such that we can all get along together with a bit of give and take, but our society encourages us to concentrate on the beliefs or behaviours that 'stick out'. Just re-reading the last few posts above (5597/8/9), we can see that each mind is creating the beliefs and actions that is that person. That sounds extremely postmodern and relativistic, Questa. It is the idea that everything and everybody are of equal value, all is relative and that everybody's thoughts and actions are acceptable. Well, I don't believe it. When a person is damaging him/herself and those around them with drink or drugs, it's not enough to say, "well, his injured mind is dealing with his life". We have to try to help, especially when it is someone close to us. Over the centuries, various attempts have been made to change people's thinking either through harsh measures or, more recently, chemical ones. When these measures are taken because the person in question is in political opposition or of a different ethnic group, that is a whole other story. But telling obese people they are fine because they should be proud of their bodies when in fact it's extremely unhealthy, or making excuses for alcoholics or drug addicts instead of at least trying to help, then we are failing too.
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Post by onlyMark on Jan 29, 2020 9:01:33 GMT
When my father suffered from dementia I accepted what he was thinking - because it didn't harm anyone. With my brother his version of reality is harming himself and if left unchecked will lead to fatality, never mind affecting his children. What he is suffering from is reversible with the right diet, nutrients and vitamins. I have little patience for his self inflicted delusions of which for many, many years I have warned him of the consequences of alcohol abuse. He has already suffered from liver problems which I had hoped would act as a more physical warning but to no avail. He is an adult and able to make his own choices - whilst mentally stable. When not, as now, I will intervene as robustly as possible in order to force real reality upon him.
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Post by mossie on Jan 29, 2020 9:16:02 GMT
A very difficult situation Mark, and one where it is difficult to choose the right course. You must do what you think is right, and quickly and decisively.
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Post by onlyMark on Jan 29, 2020 12:19:37 GMT
I must try, at least.
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Post by Kimby on Jan 29, 2020 12:31:56 GMT
Some people cannot be saved from themselves, but if you try, you’ll have fewer regrets....
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Post by fumobici on Jan 29, 2020 15:55:44 GMT
Families are in 99 cases out of 100 absolutely unqualified to deal with mental health crises, and it's unfair to expect them to. Where's the public health resources here? We don't expect families to have to cure appendicitis or a broken leg.
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