^It's good that you can at least block usernames, I would do that; You don't need that in your life!


Okay I need a little rant (sorry I know I do this a bit too often...)
But my Birthday is coming up; I hate my Birthday, and I don't even know why! Yes, a few of my former friends have not treated me nice on that day; but that was because I was already down about it... Birthdays are supposed to be days you look forward to and it's not like I'm hitting a big number or anything. 24 is a good age I think!

And this year my small family and my mother's friends even had time to come; even on the day! I should be thrilled! And I'll be getting money; I need money.

Why am I not happy? UGH!

There's this old woman; I'm sort of related to her but I can't remember how (my family is confusing sorry; can't even remember my grandparents names...). She has alzheimer and she is getting so much worse... 3 times chemo therapy has really sped this up I suppose. 

The poor woman is so confused; but her children don't seem to even notice it. She's forgetting words; she calls my mother crying because she can't remember things etc etc etc... She went to see her doctor less than a month ago to renew her drivers licsense and had to do a clock test which she failed. This should have told the doctor what was wrong with it but the doctor has given her 3 more chances to complete the test. She already failed the second one as well; and it's making her even more confused. 

What angers me most is that her children are so oblivious, she needs support but they pretend it's all fine. She apparently called them crying about that clock test and was told to 'practice harder'. 

I just hope the doctor finally realized what is happening.

The woman just called me (it's almost 10pm) to wish me a happy Birthday. I didn't get to pick up but she left me a strange message; starting out getting my age wrong (could be worse) but then she only made half sentences... used words that had nothing to do with anything. Poor woman! 

I wasn't expecting her to remember my birthday at all; I'm happy she did.

Last edited by This Is The Phantom Lady (February 23, 2014 8:58 pm)

She had breast cancer. And yes it is very worrying! At least she seems to be a little better at the start of the day.

The doctor already put her through those tests, but the doctor seems to not trust her own judgement.

She did the 'clock test' where she has to draw a clock and answer simple questions about the clock and time. There's another test where you are told to remember 2 words for a few minutes. She failed all of those tests. Yet the doctor keeps telling her to come back 'Till she gets them right'.

She isn't going to...

I know what you mean all too well. My grandmother had Alzheimer's that she eventually died of many years ago. That's how it started. She couldn't remember that she had already told you things. Sometimes she would call my parents eight to ten times a day, always telling them the same thing like it was the first time.

There's also certain behavioural patterns that she clung to, like going grocery shopping every single day. One time she had ten packets of butter in her fridge, some of them past the Before Date. She lived alone for as long as she didn't do anything harmful, but the turning point came when she had put a cloth in a pot to cook it in boiling water (God knows why) and forgot about it so that it caught fire and almost incinerated the kitchen.

It's a really sad and tragic thing to watch. Isn't there something like social services that you can involve?

I did something so unbelievably stupid. GRRR! Why did I do that?? 

Get well soon.

I have to get off my chest that the atmosphere in some parts of the forum gets to me. Since S3 aired the mood has changed in some way. Before that there was just more acceptance and no need to take sides. Now we have so many heated discussions that the tone is becoming rather aggressive in some threads, so that it makes you think "I wonder how many angry reactions I will get for this" when you post something. I'm very sensitive to things like that and it upsets me. On the other hand, I can be belligerent, and then I sometimes find myself being provocative on purpose to get a reaction out of people. The purpose of all this here is having fun, after all, but right now I'm often more or less annoyed or regret my own words. It would help if everybody (including myself of course) just calmed down a bit about a couple of things.

QuiteExtraordinary wrote:

I have to get off my chest that the atmosphere in some parts of the forum gets to me. Since S3 aired the mood has changed in some way. Before that there was just more acceptance and no need to take sides.

Yes, there's certainly a lot of that going around. The same things also tend to get repeated endlessly in different threads. I guess season 3 opened up a lot of controversial cans of worms, and it surely had quite a few rather ambiguous revelations. It's only natural that some of this happens when new characters are introduced that you get attached to, and then they have them do a 180°.

For my part, I only click my way into threads where I think joining or following the discussion will be worth my while. While I enjoy a bit of healthy controversial discussion every now and then, I must say that at some point I'd rather just stick to my own beliefs than having someone else's thrust in my face. Deep down, we all want to convince other people that our opinion is the "right" one -- which is an innate urge that most people have. Some more, some less, of course. But it can be grating if it gets repeated over and over and there's little understanding of the notion of agreeing o disagree.

All of this is a bit of a double-edged sword. It's a good thing when a TV show manages to make people passionate enough about it that they want to defend the characters' choices and analyze every detail, but, you know, when does much become too much?

Swanpride wrote:

The problem for me is that I can't even avoid all the negative feelings for Mary...I really tried. I thought sticking to the threads which don't explicitly are about her might help. But no. I go into a season four thread and there are posts fantasising about how Mary will die (not just that she will die, which is a speculation I share even though I hope differently, but stuff along the line "a plane should fall on her immediately). There is a thread about stories one want to see in series four but someone naturally feels compelled to mention that Mary shouldn't be there. No matter where you "go", there will be someone wishing Mary something bad or interpreting her actions in the worst way possible. It has gotten so bad that I am seriously thinking about sticking to my blog for a while and avoiding the forum altogether. Even the topic I opened explicitly for people who like Mary with the request to respect this was taken over in a short time. First it was just a "Well, this is not my theme" post (why bothering posting then?) and next I knew there was again the same discussion going on than in all the other threads, despite me asking twice to take that elsewhere.

It shouldn't get to me that much, but it does. Because yes, this place used to be fun, but now its all about "They ruiiiiiiiiined it for me!" If it's not Mary, than it is something else.

 Don′t be discouraged, please. I think people will get over it in time, it′s just now that they are so overly heat-headed about Mary – it′s still too soon after HLV premiere.
 
People love Sherlock just a bit too much, maybe, but it′s nothing new under the sun. When Arthur Conan Doyle wrote „The Final Problem“ 120 years ago, some enraged female fan started to beat him with her umbrella on the street. This forum is still less fanatical than that.

 

Swanpride wrote:

That's exactly what I said a month or so ago...but it is just getting worse and worse. It's like the characters are no longer allowed to make mistakes.

You shouldn't forget that the US airdates factor in as well. It's barely been three weeks since most of the US fans saw HLV. It's only natural that discussions are still being fuelled by people bringing in new (and old) ideas. Maybe give it another month before you give up? Just a suggestion, though.