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Author Topic: Things that made you sad today thread.  (Read 9779288 times)

ein

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Re: Things that made you sad today thread.
« Reply #15315 on: October 25, 2010, 11:49:40 pm »

I'm really not liking higher-level math.
But I need trig to take AP statistics. D:

Mindmaker

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Re: Things that made you sad today thread.
« Reply #15316 on: October 26, 2010, 12:19:36 am »

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Vector

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Re: Things that made you sad today thread.
« Reply #15317 on: October 26, 2010, 01:05:18 am »

Are you entirely against alcohol?  Social drinking and occasionally getting shitfaced at parties is fun.  It's not just for dumb people.  As long as you aren't often above the "moderate use" guideline (1-2 drinks per day), you won't have a significantly higher risk of brain/liver damage.

For me, and people like me who get addicted to things faster than you can say "higher mathematics:" yes.

For people like her, who have carefully destroyed their impulse control, have alcoholism in the family, succumb to peer pressure extremely easily, suffer crippling anxiety/stress (and drink to avoid that stress), believe in never planning ahead or making anything last, are underage, have addictive personalities, and theoretically have different brain chemistry due to autism:

I gotta say, man, it just seems stupid.


I guess I rambled a lot, so I'll try to clarify my thinking.  She's never had good impulse control even when she wasn't drunk.  It's hard for her not to overspend, overeat, and generally overindulge.  She's not just drinking for a little fun, either.  Multiple times, she's said things about how either a. getting drunk is great because it makes the social anxiety go away  b. that she drinks because she respects her peers who drink and  c. that she sometimes wishes she could get really, really fucking drunk to get rid of school stress.

The reason why she has this school stress is because she stays up late doing fun stuff/chatting with her dude and spends Thursday through Sunday 24/7 with her boyfriend, rather than studying.  She then bitches out anyone who suggests that maybe she should rethink her priorities so that studying isn't the last thing on the list.

Given this combination of factors and her steadily increasing alcohol consumption, I worry about her.

I worry more because of her lack of sexual experience and habit of rushing headlong into things in the best of circumstances.  I don't know what being drunk is like.  I haven't had any alcohol past a drop when I was nine or so.  But I don't want anything bad to happen to her, simply because she wants so badly to be grown up that she can't hear any warnings, and wants so badly to enjoy each moment that she never sets anything aside to ensure other good moments on rainy days.

I don't envy her anymore.  I'm scared for her.  I preferred the envy.
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"The question of the usefulness of poetry arises only in periods of its decline, while in periods of its flowering, no one doubts its total uselessness." - Boris Pasternak

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Solifuge

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Re: Things that made you sad today thread.
« Reply #15318 on: October 26, 2010, 02:40:43 am »

Minor sad: A power outlet in my room is a bit loose, and the power can be cut with slight jostling. The cat has discovered this, and unplugged my computer power strip (EDIT: twice), while I was in mid post. Firefox saved the text though, even though the computer crashed. A small victory! ...though I'll need to relocate my compy desk to a better outlet, which is a bit of an ordeal.

Are you entirely against alcohol?  Social drinking and occasionally getting shitfaced at parties is fun.  It's not just for dumb people.  As long as you aren't often above the "moderate use" guideline (1-2 drinks per day), you won't have a significantly higher risk of brain/liver damage.

For me, and people like me who get addicted to things faster than you can say "higher mathematics:" yes.

For people like her, who have carefully destroyed their impulse control, have alcoholism in the family, succumb to peer pressure extremely easily, suffer crippling anxiety/stress (and drink to avoid that stress), believe in never planning ahead or making anything last, are underage, have addictive personalities, and theoretically have different brain chemistry due to autism:

I gotta say, man, it just seems stupid.

Well, I've known people with similar impulse control... and sometimes it takes making mistakes to learn. If she's committed to not listening to the advice and concerns of others, and is equally committed that her decisions are right, then there's nothing you can do for it. She'll have to learn on her own, and I hope for her sake that the mistake that she learns from isn't a big one.

On the subject of alcohol, it's been with us as people for long enough that we can see the line between drinking for enjoyment, and a drinking dependency. I think inebriation is a good experience for anyone to have at least once, ideally around friends they trust... but as with all things, excess should be avoided.

For healthy, well-adjusted, and generally nice people, drinking seems to make them stupidly blunt, more apt to show kindness to others, and more straightforward about what's on their mind. It also tends to accentuate personality quirks (both good and bad), slows down mental clockspeed, and makes people more susceptible to their emotions... thus, there are times and places when it's not a good idea, such as when you're angry, depressed, alone, or in need of all your mental faculties.

I drink 1 to 2 nights a month at most, I do so with friends, and I don't drink until I'm falling over myself. Some of the worst things I've done after drinking were playing Sigurd Rascher's sax sonatas without piano unaccompanied at 2AM, overestimating my Chess and Jenga skills, and somersaulting over the back of my couch (instrument in hand) only to land back on my feet with nothing damaged. I also joined a chorus in singing "Piano Man" into the night sky as well... though that was the one occasion where I was actually drunk.
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Vector

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Re: Things that made you sad today thread.
« Reply #15319 on: October 26, 2010, 03:21:06 am »

Oh, I don't know.  It probably shouldn't bother me as much as it does.  My grandfather got drunk a lot and beat his children.  I know not everyone does that, obviously, but goodness, I just... I don't know.  Maybe it works for some people.  My cousins show up to family gatherings stoned or ragingly angry, one may be working as a prostitute, and some others seem to have a drinking problem.

I don't know.

People say "these things are easy and fun."  I'm sure they are.  I may just be a stick in the mud.  I don't know.  But I don't want to see the pattern repeating.  I don't want to be like them.  I have enough vices to overcome.

I'm saying stupid things because I'm tired.  I'm sorry.  A lot of strange things have been happening recently.  Some part of me feels that everything will be fixed when I go back to school.  Maybe so.  In any case, I hope not to annoy anyone here any longer.


There's a funny thing about self-expression.  You want to say things and you don't want to say things.  I am always caught between wanting to say and not wanting to say.  The counselor I saw always said "keep it superficial."  I don't know.  There are a lot of superficialities in the world.  There are a lot of beautiful, horrible things we could express and say and underline and give to people, so that our phrases mean something other than pure communication and our words are weighted.  But we don't say them.  We hide the beauty of our language in obscurity.  We forget its roots.

Or maybe I don't want to express "myself."  Maybe I want to express the world I see, and for some reason that is what I find important.  Maybe it is a point of view I want to spread.

Who am I to be so self-important?  My eyes are eyes, and so are everyone else's.  My communication is communication, and so is everyone else's.  Maybe this world is as empty as they say it is, and the only meaning is to wring as much momentary pleasure from it as one can.  Maybe the joke is on me, for pretending there is such a thing as beauty anymore, if it ever existed.

Sometimes, I wish I could pave the world with words.

If only we spoke more frequently from the heart.
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"The question of the usefulness of poetry arises only in periods of its decline, while in periods of its flowering, no one doubts its total uselessness." - Boris Pasternak

nonbinary/genderfluid/genderqueer renegade mathematician and mafia subforum limpet. please avoid quoting me.

pronouns: prefer neutral ones, others are fine. height: 5'3".

Solifuge

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Re: Things that made you sad today thread.
« Reply #15320 on: October 26, 2010, 03:58:00 am »

Oh, I don't know.  It probably shouldn't bother me as much as it does.  My grandfather got drunk a lot and beat his children.  I know not everyone does that, obviously, but goodness, I just... I don't know.  Maybe it works for some people.  My cousins show up to family gatherings stoned or ragingly angry, one may be working as a prostitute, and some others seem to have a drinking problem.

I don't know.

People say "these things are easy and fun."  I'm sure they are.  I may just be a stick in the mud.  I don't know.  But I don't want to see the pattern repeating.  I don't want to be like them.  I have enough vices to overcome.

In reference to drinking, it's far from a universally good thing, but I'd say that most of the bad that it's known for bringing out was already there to begin with... just kept under wraps by social niceties and such.

As for general short-term-happiness seeking, all things in moderation. Even things that bring temporary happiness, whatever that may be for you, can be important in keeping you healthy and working well... maybe that's a bit of dark chocolate, sunning on a beach, or some other method of de-stressing. To become too engrossed in seeking temporary pleasure, however, tends to cause you to stop moving forward, and tends to damage your long-term happiness.

As for the rest, you sound like you're getting worried and existential, which can be intellectually neat, but not immediately useful to you. Trust your own opinions; they may be equally useful, as another person's opinions, to some Cosmic Arbiter, but yours are the only ones that you know what assumptions and evidence are behind, which makes them more valuable to you; you know when you can trust them, and when you should to question them.

As for superficiality... something may be simple and shallow, but that doesn't mean it's unimportant. Hunger is in a lot of ways a "superficial" feeling, and when you smell something really tasty the resulting Hunger doesn't always mean you need to eat that bit of food, but at its root it symbolizes your body's innate need to eat in order to survive. Happiness is kinda similar, in that it symbolizes that something is good for you overall... that bad or unpleasant things are not happening to you. The body and mind can be fooled, though, since it makes assumptions about things; sugar is high energy and the body is wired to like it a lot.. that doesn't mean we can survive on it alone.

Ugh... a great many words there, but hopefully there's some help to be had in it.
« Last Edit: October 26, 2010, 04:01:31 am by Solifuge »
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Blargityblarg

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Re: Things that made you sad today thread.
« Reply #15321 on: October 26, 2010, 05:19:35 am »

I'm of roughly the same opinion, Vector. Alcohol just seems unnecessary- for all the claims that it's a social lubricant, society gets along pretty well without it. Of course, this just might be my fear of losing control and actually doing something with my life speaking >.>
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Jackrabbit

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Re: Things that made you sad today thread.
« Reply #15322 on: October 26, 2010, 05:24:45 am »

I enjoy a beer or two every weekend because I like the taste, but getting drunk? I don't see the appeal. Even if I'm feeling really, really down or something like that, I'm proud of myself in that I'm smart enough to see that it's not the answer and to knuckle down on bettering the situation. Which is, I guess, why I don't get spirits because I'm a man who loves hearty portions. If it's not in a pint glass, but it still gets me drunk real quick, then why, exactly do I want to drink it? Same with food. As much as I do like to try new things, and daintiness doesn't put me off or anything, I am not exactly a cultured man when it comes to food. Give me a steak, give me mashed potatos and give me gravy and you will not find a happier man on this earth.
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Blargityblarg

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Re: Things that made you sad today thread.
« Reply #15323 on: October 26, 2010, 05:30:36 am »

Wait, you like the taste? Yeesh. I suppose good beer isn't that bad (speaking from my thoroughly limited experience, of course), but yeeeeeeeeesh

Huge agree on this spirits, though. It's as though they were specifically designed for getting drunk quickly.

What i hate worst, though, is goon (cask white wine, in case it's an Australian-only term). I've had friends who've looked through a liquor store advertisement catalogue, doing the maths to work out highest alcohol/cost ratio, and found goon. That shit just ain't right.
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Jackrabbit

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Re: Things that made you sad today thread.
« Reply #15324 on: October 26, 2010, 05:40:20 am »

Yeah, well, I guess you'd know this, but Australia knows how to pull off beer and I have to say I've yet to find one I don't like. Same with English ale. It's all a matter of opinion, obviously, but I'm on the internet and indignant so my opinion is right, okay?
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Blargityblarg

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Re: Things that made you sad today thread.
« Reply #15325 on: October 26, 2010, 06:01:14 am »

Hrm. Out of the three beers I've had, the Australian was the worst, but I suppose VB is an exception

(For the curious, my favourite was a Thai one called, I think, Chang)
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RedKing

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Re: Things that made you sad today thread.
« Reply #15326 on: October 26, 2010, 06:13:03 am »

I am officially halfway to 70. Bleah.
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Leafsnail

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Re: Things that made you sad today thread.
« Reply #15327 on: October 26, 2010, 06:32:09 am »

Vodka kindof bothers me as a drink - it's generally used for young people to get themselves smashed/ in hospital as quickly as possible.  Cheap cider is kindof similar, only with maximum cheapness instead of speed (you can buy a 2 litre bottle for about £0.5).
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Cthulhu

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Re: Things that made you sad today thread.
« Reply #15328 on: October 26, 2010, 06:38:35 am »

Speaking of alcohol, a bunch of college Freshmen in California or so were hospitalized after drinking way too much of this alcoholic energy drink.  Apparently the caffeine staved off the effects of being drunk so they drank more than they could handle, one girl almost died.
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MaximumZero

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Re: Things that made you sad today thread.
« Reply #15329 on: October 26, 2010, 07:21:32 am »

I am officially halfway to 70. Bleah.


I'm not the oldest person on the forum!? Yay! (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

RE: Alcohol: A good drink now and again is a good way to relax, provided you're not driving, operating heavy machinery, or watching a child afterward. I don't drink beer, because I'm not a fan of the flavor of hops/barley. My drinks of choice are Rum and Brandy. Occasionally, I'll have a Gin and Tonic with my father in law.

They call alcohol a "social lubricant" because it helps your brain stop going "hey, don't talk to that person, you're nervous about them." Too much of it also helps you do wonderful things like profess your love for them, loudly, in a crowded room, to their boyfriend, and then promptly puke on boyfriend's shoes.  ::) If only that wasn't a real example.
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