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PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 9:22 pm 
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Part of the reason we go to Acen every year is because that way I can afford to visit my Grandmother.

This year, around her 83rd birthday, we all had a big scare because she was hospitalized. She has emphysema, and I'm watching her world get slowly smaller and smaller as she cuts out more and more of the activities she loves just to stay alive. It's hard to know there's nothing I can do, and to sit by half-hoping some random illness will carry her off before she loses too much of herself to pain, or has to face the end fighting for her every last breath.

I'm not ready to lose her, and she's still pretty razor-sharp with a very strong will, so she'll hang around for a while yet, and maybe even fool us all. Nontheless, each trip to Chicago is bittersweet for me, because every year could be the last time I see her. Chicago is my home city, even if I grew up in Cincinnati, because it's just filled with memories of my visits with her. She is one awesome lady.

- Hilary

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PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 9:26 pm 
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Forrest wrote:
Gambit3le wrote:
I'm currently watching my grandfather die of congestive heart failure and it's causing tons of turmoil and pain for everyone in the family, me included, but I can't help but think that he might be better off dead. Call me a religious nut, but I think he'd be much better off in heaven than slowly watching his body fall apart.

If I live to be Ninety I'll probably be just as ornery as he is and cause just as much turmoil for my family, but in the end is it all worth it. Its not like we can do anything about it, He's decided for himself that he won't go back to the hospital and he's adamant about it. I think he's making his stand and I think I can respect that. He wants to die in the house he built with his own hands... Could any of us ask for anything more?


Would you by any chance be me from about two years ago?


Well, you seem moderately sane so yeah, I hope so.

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PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 9:38 pm 
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Imp-Chan wrote:
Part of the reason we go to Acen every year is because that way I can afford to visit my Grandmother.

This year, around her 83rd birthday, we all had a big scare because she was hospitalized. She has emphysema, and I'm watching her world get slowly smaller and smaller as she cuts out more and more of the activities she loves just to stay alive. It's hard to know there's nothing I can do, and to sit by half-hoping some random illness will carry her off before she loses too much of herself to pain, or has to face the end fighting for her every last breath.

I'm not ready to lose her, and she's still pretty razor-sharp with a very strong will, so she'll hang around for a while yet, and maybe even fool us all. Nontheless, each trip to Chicago is bittersweet for me, because every year could be the last time I see her. Chicago is my home city, even if I grew up in Cincinnati, because it's just filled with memories of my visits with her. She is one awesome lady.

- Hilary


To put things in perspective, Last year at this time he was still driving himself everywhere he wanted to go, albeit somewhat slower than before. He wrecked his car last summer and almost killed both himself and my grandmother. Since then they have had to give up all of the things they did for themselves, but they are still at their own home. Now if he can walk from the bedroom to the kitchen its a good day. he's on oxygen all day and night and he can barely stand up without falling down. It might seem cruel to say, but In my mind he might have been better off dying in that wreck last year. At least that way he'd have gone out with a bang... I think that there is something to that. I'm currently out of work and I've been at their house nearly every day. I have had to watch as they lose more and more of their independence. I believe that that independent spirit is what was keeping them alive and that once they lose enough of it they are just going to die. I'm not all that worried about them dying, they are both strong in their faith, what I worry about is that they might have to leave their home and live in an assisted living home or a nursing home. I can say honestly that having to live in one of those places would kill them. I've been in nursing homes and there is absolutely no dignity in those places, even in the better ones.
If we're talking about "range of give a damn" I'd have to say that dead dolphins or tortured cats rate pretty low for me when compared with the state of "living" that goes on in nursing homes. I'm not saying that it's not important, because it is, but that in the larger realm of things the human lives being lost around the world are moreso.

Impy, I'll say a prayer for your grandma tonight, and for you and Poe as well.

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:13 am 
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This scene needs music from Utena.

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 10:26 am 
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My grandmother took years to die. She had a stroke, my grandfather died of a heart-attack (whilst ringing bells at a church), then she moved into our bungalow. Mother and father slept in the front-room, my grandmother in the big bedroom (where she would hold court and accuse my mother of killing her) and me and my brother in the small box-room. It was ... dickensian to put it mildly. My grandfather had it lucky; he died fast doing what he loved. My grandmother lingered for years, the stroke giving us only ever part of a person; towards the end, she didn't recognise anyone. I was bewildered for much of the time as anything else.

I'm still going for Jon as small-time hoodlum, whose association with torture - even as a mythical child-tale - is still part of his growing into an assassin, the stunting of empathy. Have there ever been nice assassins? They kill people - well, anything, I would have thought - for money. I hear the comments about PTSD, still, all that fighting must have some effect on how they relate; more than, say a farmer or a merchant.

I'd like to watch Utena, if only for the bit where she morphs into a car.

I'd also like to visit Heidelberg one of these days. I don't want the scar - but it has ... <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_fencing">mythic</a> <a href="http://www.jonathan-green.com/articles/report_a03/report_a03.htm">attractions</a> for me. "Hoche Bitte!"

Lastly, updates. Is there anything wrong? Have the Bailiffs come for the servers? :confused:

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 1:07 pm 
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In case anyone still cares, the reason no-one used double-bladed swords a la Sara here is that they are stunningly lousy as weapons--you'd probably be better off with two separate weapons, one in each hand.

You can use one of those things like a basic quarterstaff, with your hands in the middle and alternating strikes with either end, but in that case all you can really do with the staff is parry blows and either knock over or disarm your opponent. In order to do any serious damage, you need to change your grip (which, on this model, would involve grabbing the blade).

Rather, the effectiveness of a given weapon for swinging (as opposed to poking) comes down to three things: number of hands used (more is better), distance between fulcrum hand and business end (more is better), and distance between hands for two-handers (more is better). There are some limitations to these (structural integrity of materials, strength of wielder, etc), but basically, the reason pole arms became the dominant infantry weapons in Europe until the widespread adoption of the gun is that they were far better than swords and lances (according to Wikipedia they could even pierce plate armor, but that's about as reliable as anything on Wikipedia is).

The question of leverage is irrelevant when you're dealing with magically sharp blades, but it still seems to me that Sara's weapon a) would be hard to hit the enemies vital areas with, while avoiding cutting herself, and b) offers substantially fewer options than two separate swords would.

As for officers wielding sabres is battle, and I alluded to, the sword is a stunningly poor tactical weapon. The cavalry sabre found a use, in that it was impractical to use any kind of long-shafted polearm from horseback. It was then assigned, in a somewhat altered form, to infantry officers as symbols of their superior to regulars.

However, some damn fool thought that since infantry officers were superior to regulars, they ought to be equipped like cavalrymen: sabre and pistol, making them not only less effective shooters than riflemen but also less effective in hand-to-hand combat than if they had a bayonet.

That said, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you're defending the city and all you have is an officer's sabre or mameluke sword, your best bet is to hold it with both hand and swing as hard as you can. Your biggest problem with swords is not missing your enemy, but failing to inflict a sufficiently serious wound when you do hit.

That's about enough weapon talk from me, I think.


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 2:33 pm 
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ri[[3r wrote:
PTSD


It's called Shell-Shock goddamnit. Post-Blah-blahblah-blah is so bullshit it makes my brain hurt.

Though it's hard to tell from the text, this is mock anger. My fist shaking is disengenuine (not a real word! Yaaaaaaaaay), but still irritated.

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 2:41 pm 
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Logic wrote:
ri[[3r wrote:
PTSD


It's called Shell-Shock goddamnit. Post-Blah-blahblah-blah is so bullshit it makes my brain hurt.

Though it's hard to tell from the text, this is mock anger. My fist shaking is disengenuine (not a real word! Yaaaaaaaaay), but still irritated.


For my generation shell-shock == cowardice. And logically, shell-shock - doesn't even fit half the causes of "shell"-shock - aircraft exploding, rockets exploding, tanks going off, bombs, IEBs etc etc. Which of those are shells again? So, it's PTSD, damnit.

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:31 pm 
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Shell-shock was originally used in World War 2 to define the state of being/mind of a soldier who has seen "too much action."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_stress_reaction

PTSD is also too long, as the need for an acronym demonstrates!

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 5:15 pm 
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Logic wrote:
Shell-shock was originally used in World War 2 to define the state of being/mind of a soldier who has seen "too much action."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_stress_reaction

PTSD is also too long, as the need for an acronym demonstrates!

The term "shell shock" originated in World War I, where its primary cause was mass artillery barrages. I believe in World War II they added the more medical-sounding terms "battle fatigue" and "combat fatigue."

If it was called "shell shock" back in the generation of anyone on this forum, I feel a lot younger today than yesterday.

Addenda, from Roget's Online: combat fatigue (Part of Speech: noun, Definition: psychological disorder caused by stress from war) Synonyms: battle fatigue, combat disorder, combat neurosis, complete exhaustion, posttraumatic stress disorder, shell shock, war neurosis

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 5:29 pm 
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sumdumguy wrote:
In case anyone still cares, the reason no-one used double-bladed swords a la Sara here is that they are stunningly lousy as weapons--you'd probably be better off with two separate weapons, one in each hand.

You can use one of those things like a basic quarterstaff, with your hands in the middle and alternating strikes with either end, but in that case all you can really do with the staff is parry blows and either knock over or disarm your opponent. In order to do any serious damage, you need to change your grip (which, on this model, would involve grabbing the blade).

Rather, the effectiveness of a given weapon for swinging (as opposed to poking) comes down to three things: number of hands used (more is better), distance between fulcrum hand and business end (more is better), and distance between hands for two-handers (more is better). There are some limitations to these (structural integrity of materials, strength of wielder, etc), but basically, the reason pole arms became the dominant infantry weapons in Europe until the widespread adoption of the gun is that they were far better than swords and lances (according to Wikipedia they could even pierce plate armor, but that's about as reliable as anything on Wikipedia is).

The question of leverage is irrelevant when you're dealing with magically sharp blades, but it still seems to me that Sara's weapon a) would be hard to hit the enemies vital areas with, while avoiding cutting herself, and b) offers substantially fewer options than two separate swords would.

As for officers wielding sabres is battle, and I alluded to, the sword is a stunningly poor tactical weapon. The cavalry sabre found a use, in that it was impractical to use any kind of long-shafted polearm from horseback. It was then assigned, in a somewhat altered form, to infantry officers as symbols of their superior to regulars.

However, some damn fool thought that since infantry officers were superior to regulars, they ought to be equipped like cavalrymen: sabre and pistol, making them not only less effective shooters than riflemen but also less effective in hand-to-hand combat than if they had a bayonet.

That said, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you're defending the city and all you have is an officer's sabre or mameluke sword, your best bet is to hold it with both hand and swing as hard as you can. Your biggest problem with swords is not missing your enemy, but failing to inflict a sufficiently serious wound when you do hit.

That's about enough weapon talk from me, I think.


Yes, it is.

Officers weren't issued swords after post-medieval cavalry had them, they retained their swords as symbols of warrior pride and status from earlier eras as mass infantry moved to pikes and various stages of firearms -- keep in mind that many infantry officers were mounted in combat as late the second half of the 1800s.

As for the sword as a poor tactical weapon, I wonder what the Roman legions would have to say about that -- they only conquered a large chunk of the Old World with shield and sword in formation, after all.

Even a semi-successful slashing or stabing strike from a funtional weapon-grade sword on an unarmored human body is likely going to disable whatever part it hits. Swinging wildly is going to end up making you more vulnerable and less likely to hit at all.

The idea of the sword as a crude, marginally effective metal club is one of those ideas that was popular in historical circles for some time, but turns out to be so untrue it's laughable.

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 5:37 pm 
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I'd go with PTSD because it's the modern term, and because it covers the fact that the same problem can arrise from non-combat situations.

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 5:46 pm 
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Posting in the wrong tread is wonderful, don't you think?

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