I was born March 27, 1953

Submitted by fire with fire on Thu, 03/27/2025 - 10:38am

This decade has seen me:

retire as of August 31, 2021 rather than get vaccinated;

have a stroke on July 26, 2022 which had me walking headlong into solid objects like a floor fan;

spend the month of August, 2022 in modern American health care facilities which had me "diagnosed" with Covid while never showing the slightest hint of any symptom;

having a ruptured retina in my left eyeball on December 31, 2023 which required surgery to drain blood from it;

having pre-existing cataracts in both eyes blossom into serious vision impairment which required another operation on both eyes at the end of September, 2024;

and, finally as of this year, I had the chore of assembling a survival kit in case the recent wildfires were to advance just another mile into the LA basin to burn me up.

What a great decade for me while the world has reached a global dysfunctionality unimaginable just a couple of decades ago. Great, because I survived it all.

Who knows what fresh hell awaits us all?

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end times
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Submitted by QMS on Thu, 03/27/2025 - 11:30am
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Seems life gets stranger as we age.
May turn 70 in a month, not sure that
is a milestone or a millstone?

Good luck and celebrate what you can.

282243-1706285216.jpg
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Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare

Submitted by janis b on Thu, 03/27/2025 - 10:49pm
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@QMS

Loved this ...

Good luck and celebrate what you can.
QMS

Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare

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Submitted by fire with fire on Thu, 03/27/2025 - 12:06pm

while I was sitting in the window seat waiting for my Burbank to Seattle flight to take off, a prosperous and mature looking lady stumbled her way to my row with a couple of bags for the overhead which she wrestled with as she stowed them away. As she finally flopped down on the aisle seat, she looked at me with my white hair and beard and declared:

"GETTING OLD IS NOT FOR WIMPS."

I concurred.

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

Submitted by Sima on Sat, 03/29/2025 - 1:13am
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@fire with fire
Happy birthday and keep on keeping on. It's all we can do.

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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Submitted by soryang on Thu, 03/27/2025 - 12:11pm
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생일 축하해요 I love the google translate confetti. I know it's silly. Sorry to hear of your health travails. Stay healthy! 건강하세요

PS So glad you avoided the fire disaster.

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語必忠信 行必正直

Submitted by usefewersyllables on Thu, 03/27/2025 - 12:54pm
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I've had very similar experiences with things medical over the last decade, and the other external forces have reared their heads as well.

March 22 was the 3-year anniversary of our house fire, and we're still recovering from that. I've been carved on by various surgeons far too many times over the past decade, to the point of it becoming mundane... I'll probably be doing the cataract thing later this year, since I've now well and truly met my out-of-pocket max for the year, so I should really load everything I can think of into this calendar year; especially given the likelihood of major social disorder/dislocation in the relatively near future. I'd like to be able to see who's shooting at me, just to keep score.

This "getting old" thing is indeed getting old. But on the whole, it beats the hell out of the alternative... (;-) I continue to be amazed by waking up every morning not dead. I hope that that will continue for a long time to come- and I hope the same for you, and indeed for all of us here.

Be well, and hang in there. And Happy Birthday!

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Submitted by janis b on Thu, 03/27/2025 - 10:54pm
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@usefewersyllables

I hope you stay ordered and connected, and well, your being here adds finesse to all that we are.

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Submitted by QMS on Thu, 03/27/2025 - 12:27pm
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.
.

Was an exciting adventure for the first 20 or 30 years.
The last 40, not so much. Feel like Don Quixote
waving a lance at windmills. Doing battle with monsters,
both real and imagined. Keep your spirits up!

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Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare

Submitted by fire with fire on Thu, 03/27/2025 - 12:30pm

From the first time I confronted the experience of mortality when my dog died when I was maybe 9 years old, I went into a crying jag that my parents did their best to comfort. As a young adult, I consciously used the fact of my youth to postpone worrying about it. I sort of crossed over into Old Fart Mode when I had colon cancer surgery in 2004. Since then, I have successfully internalized Fatalism. Oh, yeah, the ride will end someday ... maybe this evening. Once it happens my worries are over.

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

Submitted by janis b on Thu, 03/27/2025 - 11:02pm
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@fire with fire

I'm glad you have internalised successfully. It's a good strategy ; ).

Be well

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Submitted by earthling1 on Thu, 03/27/2025 - 1:40pm
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Yeah, getting old sucks.
I'll be turning 76 in a couple of weeks, but glad to still be here. A couple of new knees did wonders for my gait. Now my kidney function is down at 59% and don't know how to improve that. Dread the thought of doing the dialysis routine, have watched close family members go through that. Always seemed like a slow miserable death.
Will cross that creaky bridge when I get there.
Otherwise, I'll just keep truckin' along.
Peace!

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 03/27/2025 - 1:42pm

stil waiting on my group chat invite

Some apparent satisfaction was derived from the lapse among some in Europe, as underlined in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

"We can't have someone in the Oval Office who doesn't understand the meaning of the word classified," the newspaper quoted Trump as saying during the 2016 presidential election campaign. Then it showcased his opponent in that race, Hillary Clinton, responding to the Signal revelations on social media: "state scherzando," in Italian — "You have got to be kidding."

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Submitted by QMS on Thu, 03/27/2025 - 2:19pm
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@gjohnsit

who the hell was shillary anyway?
Why not quote Pryor or Carlin?
Oh, they are already dead.
EU is committing hari-kari.
You can blame US, but it is your choice.

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Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare

Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 03/27/2025 - 2:50pm

@QMS is how our allies will think about cooperating with our intelligence (or not).

these people are unserious

Private contact details of the most important security advisers to U.S. President Donald Trump can be found on the internet. DER SPIEGEL reporters were able to find mobile phone numbers, email addresses and even some passwords belonging to the top officials.

To do so, the reporters used commercial people search engines along with hacked customer data that has been published on the web. Those affected by the leaks include National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

Most of these numbers and email addresses are apparently still in use, with some of them linked to profiles on social media platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn. They were used to create Dropbox accounts and profiles in apps that track running data. There are also WhatsApp profiles for the respective phone numbers and even Signal accounts in some cases.

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Submitted by QMS on Thu, 03/27/2025 - 3:02pm
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@gjohnsit
.
is unserious another word for clowns?
perhaps showmanship is more
important than 'national security' at this
juncture. That used to be codified for sweeping
all the BS under the rug. Different approach now.

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Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare

Submitted by fire with fire on Thu, 03/27/2025 - 7:54pm

@gjohnsit no big problem -- we've all misplaced posts at one time or another.

As long as you're here, I want to repeat my last question to you from your own Free Speech thread:

You wrote: "So your point is that nothing is a fact?"

I replied: "no

Facts do exist -- but so do lies. Power determines the difference.

====================================

23 hours later

only eleven words but no response to them

Does this constitute a fact?"

I add this question: Are you saying that lies don't exist? We could go down that road, but it leads nowhere. It would also help me understand where you are coming from if you could relate how you go about determining what is a fact and what is a lie.

If you don't think that is a reasonable question, please say so and explain why.

If you do not care to respond, that is of course your right.

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

Submitted by janis b on Thu, 03/27/2025 - 11:09pm
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@fire with fire

to ignore and detach from, and what do we choose to support and find peace with? It's a constant question I ask myself.

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Submitted by fire with fire on Fri, 03/28/2025 - 10:09pm

@fire with fire and no answer.

Draw you own conclusion.

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

Submitted by on the cusp on Thu, 03/27/2025 - 5:42pm

My elderly clients tell me things like, they realized they didn't need both those feet, or one kidney is enough, or their organ transplant is really working great.
Keep on keepin' on!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by lotlizard on Thu, 03/27/2025 - 5:56pm
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Doc sez my latest blood test shows wonky kidney values. “Get thee to a specialist (nephrologist).”

(Why did he hafta use that word? Sounds too close to “necrology” / “necropolis” to me …)

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Submitted by janis b on Thu, 03/27/2025 - 11:12pm
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@lotlizard

All the best

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Submitted by lotlizard on Fri, 03/28/2025 - 4:01am
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@janis b  
Now, it seems, more essential to life than ever…

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Submitted by mimi on Fri, 03/28/2025 - 11:24am
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@lotlizard @lotlizard
77 is a Schnapszahl, so I intend to invite all those who are still willing and capapble to come
in person to my Schnapsparty. In my mind you are all good people and you are all invited.

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https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by Snode on Fri, 03/28/2025 - 4:50am

other than that, I got nothin'.

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