Personal chat thread

Anything that doesn't quite fit in elsewhere...
Dr. Casey
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Aug 10, 2021 1:27 am

Re: Personal chat thread

Post by Dr. Casey »

So if anyone remembers, my dad was diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis the June of last year and received open heart surgery that July to get the valve replaced. It was an incredibly severe case that had about a 50/50 chance of killing him by the end of 2020, and if he'd never received surgery to replace the valve it's almost a guarantee that he would be dead by this point.

Things have been going well since then. He began cardiac rehab the August of '20, resumed his work as a dairy farmer in October, and finished rehab in November. By the time January came around I had relaxed a lot about the whole thing - it was always in the periphery of my consciousness, but life had moved on and it wasn't something I thought about much or stressed over - and for the past several months I have genuinely almost completely forgotten that it ever happened.

I did have a flare-up of anxiety yesterday, though, because my dad went to the doctor for an echocardiogram (which he will receive annually from here on out). This was the first echo that he's received since his largely horrific June 2020 one, so the first real word on what kind of condition his heart is presently in, 15 months after the surgery.

My hopes were exceeded and then some. Not only did the doctor describe the echocardiogram results as "perfect," but the echo results were so good that he took my dad off heart medication altogether, saying that it's no longer needed. My dad will, hopefully, have no more heart problems for the rest of his life, and things will be uneventful besides eventually needing a second non-invasive procedure to replace the replacement aortic valve (93 percent of the time replacement valves are in good shape 10 years later, which declines to 80 percent by 15 years and 50 percent at 20 years - 20 years being 2040 in my dad's case).

Thanks to everyone who offered their support back then. Even though things have been better on our end for a long time, I'll never forget the three weeks between my father's aortic stenosis diagnosis on June 17th, and the surgery on July 7th. Those three weeks were by far the darkest and scariest of my entire life, completely in a league of their own and awful beyond words. The reassurances that things would be alright helped.
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Ozzie guy
Posts: 486
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 4:40 pm

Re: Personal chat thread

Post by Ozzie guy »

I am seeing hype rapidly brew over reddit regarding google pathways I knew all the details for months but couldn't share them due to a reddit ban (mind you maybe people wouldn't have believed me).

Example of a post

"Pathways - the first real stab at AGI

https://blog.google/technology/ai/intro ... hitecture/

I'm calling, the > 100 trillion parameters announcement will follow pretty soon ...

Of course, parameters aren't anything, but at the very least, this thing will validate/invalidate Karpathy's hypothesis that consciousness will arise from training a single neural net on a lot of hard, disjoint tasks."



Maybe as I hear more views from people I will realize life will be simpler than I thought and I can just sit back and enjoy myself letting the singularity soon happen. Without being a depressed tryhard trying to become motivated.
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erowind
Posts: 544
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 5:42 am

Re: Personal chat thread

Post by erowind »

So, what country's healthcare systems are not in an early stage of collapse at the moment? I just spent 7 hours waiting to see the doctor at the ER for an infection that wasn't covid. They've given me antibiotics don't worry. I drove to 3 different hospitals and none of them had beds in the ER and the wait at one of them was an even longer, 9 hours. And my city has more healthcare infrastructure than most American cities too.

The first hospital I tried also wasn't following protocol. They didn't have air scrubbers in the ER waiting room and the nurses weren't wearing their masks over their noses. Thankfully the hospital I settled for was doing both of those things but still.

If nothing else I had expected hospital staff to be taking the pandemic seriously.
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erowind
Posts: 544
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 5:42 am

Re: Personal chat thread

Post by erowind »

Dr. Casey wrote: Fri Oct 29, 2021 4:52 am My hopes were exceeded and then some. Not only did the doctor describe the echocardiogram results as "perfect," but the echo results were so good that he took my dad off heart medication altogether, saying that it's no longer needed.

Thanks to everyone who offered their support back then.
I'm so happy you're Dad's doing well. Glad to hear about him and you!
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wjfox
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Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
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Re: Personal chat thread

Post by wjfox »

Dr. Casey wrote: Fri Oct 29, 2021 4:52 am So if anyone remembers, my dad was diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis the June of last year and received open heart surgery that July to get the valve replaced. It was an incredibly severe case that had about a 50/50 chance of killing him by the end of 2020, and if he'd never received surgery to replace the valve it's almost a guarantee that he would be dead by this point.

Things have been going well since then. He began cardiac rehab the August of '20, resumed his work as a dairy farmer in October, and finished rehab in November. By the time January came around I had relaxed a lot about the whole thing - it was always in the periphery of my consciousness, but life had moved on and it wasn't something I thought about much or stressed over - and for the past several months I have genuinely almost completely forgotten that it ever happened.

I did have a flare-up of anxiety yesterday, though, because my dad went to the doctor for an echocardiogram (which he will receive annually from here on out). This was the first echo that he's received since his largely horrific June 2020 one, so the first real word on what kind of condition his heart is presently in, 15 months after the surgery.

My hopes were exceeded and then some. Not only did the doctor describe the echocardiogram results as "perfect," but the echo results were so good that he took my dad off heart medication altogether, saying that it's no longer needed. My dad will, hopefully, have no more heart problems for the rest of his life, and things will be uneventful besides eventually needing a second non-invasive procedure to replace the replacement aortic valve (93 percent of the time replacement valves are in good shape 10 years later, which declines to 80 percent by 15 years and 50 percent at 20 years - 20 years being 2040 in my dad's case).

Thanks to everyone who offered their support back then. Even though things have been better on our end for a long time, I'll never forget the three weeks between my father's aortic stenosis diagnosis on June 17th, and the surgery on July 7th. Those three weeks were by far the darkest and scariest of my entire life, completely in a league of their own and awful beyond words. The reassurances that things would be alright helped.
That's very good news. :)
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Ozzie guy
Posts: 486
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 4:40 pm

Re: Personal chat thread

Post by Ozzie guy »

I am going to be doing a kind of meditation mental health course which has two calls (I think group calls) with coaches a week for 2 months.

Whist I already see a Psychiatrists, Psychiatrist's more or less can not give advice as they are trained not to because if they give advice to a client and it doesn't work the client will trust them less.

The course I am doing is based on letting go of Truma so it does not subconsciously run you into the ground and levelling up your base line mental state.


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Ozzie guy
Posts: 486
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 4:40 pm

Re: Personal chat thread

Post by Ozzie guy »

Covid lockdowns basically ending where I live.

I have to live in the real world now, hopefully I find happiness and maybe even success.
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caltrek
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Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: Personal chat thread

Post by caltrek »

Well, the good news is that I just got invited on Facebook to join a group that seems to include a lot of Hollywood insiders. The bad news is that a celebrity that seems to be central to the group is one of my least favorite Hollywood actors. Oh well. If my application is accepted by the moderators, I will just have to struggle to stay on my best behavior.

You all can imagine how difficult that is going to be for me. :D

If I am not accepted...well...their loss not mine
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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caltrek
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Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: Personal chat thread

Post by caltrek »

^^^Just a little follow-up. I am not sure I have been accepted as a full fledged member, but the group is showing up in my feed. A major difference is in the videos posted. Not only are they of good quality, but we are told who actually produced the videos. Sometimes by members of the actual group.

It is like getting a You Tube video in the very first or second round of release before it has been shared by countless others. Right near the source. Of course, I am still struggling with the need to keep my big mouth shut and just enjoy...
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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Ken_J
Posts: 241
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 5:25 pm

Re: Personal chat thread

Post by Ken_J »

I think I'm going to start producing zines. I've known about them for years, yet never considered them as something I could or should do for so many of my projects. it's sort of a weird blind spot I've discovered in myself.
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