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[Tack]

Just because immortality is available doesn't mean it will happen.
Especially in Capitalism.

[Rose]

My wife is leaving for three weeks, I'm sick as a dog, and my boss is pissed off at me.

[Xantalos]

I disenjoy this body that tells me I should hate a person I know nothing of beyond their name because they're in a relationship with someone I am attracted to. Hating people is an unpleasant experience for everyone involved and I don't see why their relationship should compel me to be resentful, jealous, and vindictive. I'm actually somewhat insulted by the urge as it implies that the person I'm attracted to is something to be owned and possessed rather than admired and loved unconditionally. Yet repressing these urges causes me physical pain and makes me even more shy and reserved than I already am. I do wonder how others cope with them.

[Yoink]

My wife is leaving for three weeks, I'm sick as a dog, and my boss is pissed off at me.

I don't have a wife or a job, but I seem to be getting sick, too. Sympathies!

Re: Classic Literature: I'm gonna have to read Gatsby now to see what all this fuss is about.
Still a lot of classics I need to read, really- and I haven't even finished Don Quixote or The Brothers Karamazov lately.
I have not been reading nearly as much as I used to lately, and I hate myself for it.

[Vattic]

I think I'm becoming short sighted. Never had any eye problems before, but now things beyond a certain distance are fuzzy. Text and faces are the worst.

[Frumple]

Sounds about right, if it's not something more dangerous than just short-sightedness. Which can happen as you age, yes. S'just one of those things.

Welcome to the world of glasses! Or contacts, I guess. It'll take a while to get used to 'em, but it's not really all that bad. Except for the whole peripheral vision thing if you go the glasses route. If you do, I highly recommend titanium frames -- flexible metals in general, really. They're a bit more expensive, but exponentially harder to break.

[Vattic]

My main concern is that it's being caused by something I'm doing or not doing. Partly it's because I'm 24 and I don't know anyone who's suddenly needed glasses at this age, but also because I could be looking after myself better. I get plenty of exercise, but could improve my diet and do spend a lot of time reading and using the computer.

When it comes to glasses I worry they'll make it worse in the long run like they have with some friends.

Guess it's time to book an appointment with the doctor.

Edit: I was rude not to say: Thanks for the advice. I'll keep what you said about glasses in mind if the time comes.

[hops]

I literally cannot get into A Farewell to Arms for my IB English class. I have made myself read every single book in every English class up to this point, but I'm throwing in the towel here. Reading this book is like trying to eat paper. In the end, it'll probably be safer for my sanity if I just read the Spark Notes and skim sections. But it's a pretty big blow to my pride, considering that I've always tried to do everything "the right way" when it comes to assignments.

Also, last night is the first time in many weeks that I've gotten to bed at a decent hour. Guess what, I proceed to toss and turn and wake up sweating every few hours until I just give up.

Have you tried reading it again? Reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy hurts my bad a bit too but after a while I eased into it and was able to read it easily.

[scrdest]

Just because immortality is available doesn't mean it will happen.
Especially in Capitalism.

Quite to the contrary. If anyone is going to jump at the prospect of distributing immortality, it would be businessmen. It would be like getting a monopoly on food and water.

You were thinking of post-scarcity.

[Tack]

Immortality IS post-scarcity.

Any idea how much pharmaceutical companies make off the aging population?


Oh damn, consider how much harder getting a job in the workforce will be if the job advertisments start saying 'Must have 50-100 years of experience in a similar role'.

[Xantalos]

Depends on what type of immortality. If it's the 'I live forever without food and stuff unless killed' type then I wouldn't give a shit if I had a job or not. After all, I'm immortal.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I'm sick. And right before tournament too, of course. Hopefully I'll remain mostly asymptomatic during the day.

[Helgoland]

Immortality IS post-scarcity.

Any idea how much pharmaceutical companies make off the aging population?

Then it won't be the current pharmaceutical companies that will push immortality, but someone else! And immortality does not imply post-scarcity: Economically, there is hardly any difference between one guy working 100 years or three guys working ~30 years each.

[Tack]

Depends on how many kids they all have.

[Frumple]

My main concern is that it's being caused by something I'm doing or not doing. Partly it's because I'm 24 and I don't know anyone who's suddenly needed glasses at this age, but also because I could be looking after myself better. I get plenty of exercise, but could improve my diet and do spend a lot of time reading and using the computer.

When it comes to glasses I worry they'll make it worse in the long run like they have with some friends.

Guess it's time to book an appointment with the doctor.

*waves vaguely* Doctor yes.

From what I've picked up re: Making things worse and diet and whatnot, it's bloody close to impossible in modern times -- yes, even if your diet is basically horrible and you spend a lot of time on the computer*. If your eyes are getting worse, there's not actually much you could have done about it. You won the genetic lottery, and that's basically that (barring the occasional edge case, but edge case is edge.). Majority of stuff saying otherwise is modern snake oil, plain and simple.

Friends thinking glasses made things worse in the long run is frank bullshit. It would have got worse anyway, and glasses didn't have a thing to do with it. Would have happened if they wore contacts, would have happened if they wore glasses, and would have happened and been accompanied by a great deal of inconvenience and regular headaches if they had no vision correcting tools at all.

E: Hrm. Though sorry if some of that came off as somewhat aggressive. I don't exactly mean to demean your friends or anything. They're mostly just making a correlation/causation mistake. S'just misinformation is somewhat annoying, especially on a topic like this. I've gotten a fair amount of flak over the years due to strongly preferring lower-light conditions (i.e. "open the blinds and leave the lights off" kinda' stuff. Half the people in this state are apparently light blind or something.), so the subject's a little soapbox-y for me.

* Vision damage due to lighting conditions basically takes single-candle -- as in actual one-tiny-wick candle, not some odd measurement scale -- illumination for hours a day, for years, before anything meaningful happens. And trying to read stuff like 1800s and earlier writing. You're not going to see that these days. Even a computer screen alone gives better quality of light.