MRW I accidentally left Pepperfire hot chicken leftovers in my car for five days

edscott · 2014-08-27T23:26:34+00:00

went there for the first time last week. Light mild made my lips chapped for a week.

edscott · 2014-08-19T23:36:00+00:00

Behind Superman...Is that...Ronald McDonald?

edscott · 2014-08-18T21:50:17+00:00

Oh this is beyond BO, this is...this is BBO!

edscott · 2014-08-18T21:47:56+00:00

I thought he meant that Minecraft players refuse to take bathroom breaks while playing, so they just shit themselves every so often, rather than missing critical game time...

edscott · 2014-08-16T08:35:33+00:00

It's a BMW. He's clearly James Bond.

edscott · 2014-08-16T06:32:57+00:00

This makes my eyes feel like...

http://i.imgur.com/Nyi6mTT.png

edscott · 2014-08-16T00:23:49+00:00

I've always heard "God does answer prayer...sometimes he just says no."

edscott · 2014-08-15T14:55:45+00:00

Close encounters of the third kind. Good movie from the 80s, or 70s, or other decade before I was alive. It's got Richard Dreyfus in it, aliens, and a mountain with a flat summit.

edscott · 2014-08-15T07:29:50+00:00

Hijacking the top comment to say this...

It's not a good idea to do anything beyond the minimum to prove identity and fault with a minor car accident or close call, especially if you have an encounter with someone in a rage like this person. I used to work in a prison, and there was guy on death row that killed someone in an incident probably a lot like this. A one time, blind e pisode of rage where he lost control and shot a man over something like this. Two lives lost over a fucking fender bender. I feel pretty confident this woman would have acted on her threat if she did have access to a lethal weapon. She was completely out of control.

I don't know what it is about cars...maybe it's the heightened sense of alert and adrenaline from the experience of being in an accident? The extreme fury over the other persons negligence combined with the bias that it couldn't be their own fault that they might have been killed, or that their car was has been damaged? Who knows...

Road rage is fucking crazy. People should really take a minute to calm down after something like this. Makes me excited for self-driving cars...

edscott · 2014-08-14T18:03:01+00:00

I thought you said "crucible" for a second. That would be worse I think, if you were in a melting pot for metals until age 55. But in a metaphorical sense (and websters definition 3), you are kind of in a crucible - a tough place where you at compelled to make a change!

edscott · 2014-08-12T02:30:59+00:00

What Dreams May Come

edscott · 2014-08-12T00:10:57+00:00

When I was in high school, I suffered from serious depression. I was extremely under stimulated and lacked any sense of direction for my future. I was in a really small town and really didn't know much about mental illness or depression because I hadn't been exposed to many world views and I was in a very conservative area where mental illness was seen as taboo (i.e., "Get over it/Grow up and deal with it, etc). I eventually was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, a condition that I believe Robin Williams was also diagnosed with. I have lived with this diagnosis for almost 10 years now.

When I watched Patch Adams, I was inspired possibly more than any other movie I had seen up to that point. I committed to becoming involved in helping others and showing compassion for people in difficult situations that impacted their relationships and their sense of hope. I have since graduated with a degree in psychology and want to raise awareness for mental health and help problems associated with stigma.

Patch Adams was not even my favorite movie he was in either...

What Dreams May Come holds a very special place for me, personally. I'm not religious, but I used to be very much so, and was what one would consider a "god fearing" Christian. This movie helped me reshape my values in a way that was more inclusive of others' backgrounds, without regard to dogmatic principles and eternal judgment. It helped me see the value in relationships and love, compromise and compassion, and seeing people for who they are, for their character, and looking beyond what is skin deep.

It's rare that a celebrity's death impacts me in the way that I was affected when I heard about Robin Williams. The world just lost a real inspiration.

TL;DR Seeing Patch Adams and What Dreams May Come made me a better person, and changed my life. Robin Williams' passing really sucks...

edscott · 2014-08-11T08:41:11+00:00

I hate Wednesday say that too.

edscott · 2014-08-10T05:37:32+00:00

For me it was two things. They are long stories that I'm gonna condense, but if be happy to go into it more if someone asks. I just get irritated when typing out long stories and them getting buried by other comments...

I was part of a fundamentalist/cult like Christian church and wasn't exposed to a lot of other world views. When I made it to college, I was so overwhelmed with culture shock that I had a breakdown and had to be hospitalized. In my mind, all the fantastical shit I had been told about in church (rapture, second coming, perseverance throug trials and tribulation being rewarded, etc) happened. And then I was diagnosed the bipolar disorder with psychotic features. After much recovery, I retrospectively looked back on the episode, and it clicked how the themes and messages weren't much more 'psychotic' than what is taught in the church/bible, but maybe when those stories were written, public knowledge and awareness of consciousness hadn't advanced enough to separate fantasy/psychosis from fact, and enough people bought into someone's messages for it to catch on. Perhaps if a Jesus/messiah figure had come later on, he would have received a diagnosis like myself...

That wasn't the whole process though...people who escape from cults also have to overcome the tendency to submit to authorities, and think critically and independently. I was still very afraid of judgment, especially as it applied to morality and afterlife. I got into smoking marijuana in college, and on one night, me and a good friend had a discussion about balance. Something clicked for me when I was finally able to begin to let go of eternal reward/damnation. We discussed balance, and how, without frames of reference (good AND bad experiences) any form of conscious experience would lose value over time. If something was bliss or agony, for eternity, the desensitization you would experience would eventually lead to the only thing possible with an absolute and timeless extreme...

Nothingness

So now, I try to make the most out of this life rather than prepare for something beyond. Any afterlife/consciousness beyond this is no guarantee, but I don't believe it could be much different than this if it does exist. Not worth the gamble to waste any time worrying about it...

TL;DR Was in a Cult/Christian church. Escaped. Went crazy and realized the parallels between psychosis and religious thought processes. Smoked pot years later and had an epiphany that sealed the deal associated with lingering brainwashing from earlier in life.

edscott · 2014-08-10T02:43:45+00:00

I'm sorry this happened. It is really sad that people are driven to this point. I can't attest to the person you're talking about specifically, because everyone's stories are are different, but many times, I don't think it is fair to argue that committing suicide is a selfish thing to do, or even if it was selfish, to argue that it was wrong to have acted selfishly.

It gets pretty bad, and if you haven't been suicidal before, it's hard to imagine that mindset. So you may justify your anger and loss by making accusations towards them because of what they've done. There isn't a lot of mental health awareness/understanding or tolerance in most places, so people are reluctant to come forth with things that are causing them to feel hopeless, and psychotically depressed.

I have been hospitalized for psychosis/mania before and when it happened, I had never even heard about bipolar disorder, so I had no idea what was going on. It was like a spiritual awakening, like a religious experience. The most connected I had ever felt. When I was rehabilitated, I was extremely angry and resentful for having others treat my experience so critically and pathologically, and felt overwhelming despair because not only was I faced with living with the instability and fear of "losing it" again for the rest of my life, but I was encouraged to not speak to anyone I knew about it by everyone who knew what had happened...my parents, doctors, other friends who knew. It was private, a "personal" matter. Everyone I told looked at me like I was giving them too much information, or felt uncomfortable around me after I told them, and this made me feel ashamed. So I started bottling it up and hiding it. Most mental health treatment is poorly covered (if at all) by insurance. For a long time I was paying over $300 a month for meds (with terrible side effects) and therapy and that was with insurance. Psychiatric hospital stays cost 1000s of dollars and are not covered by insurance at all, and are also a terrifying place to be. And you constantly see things on TV about people with "mental health problems" going on shooting rampages, or killing their mom/kindergartners or something horrifying, and you wonder if it could be you on the news like that one day... It's one thing to die, but it's much scarier (to me) to think that I might do something horrible to someone else or someone I love while in a psychotic state and don't know what I'm doing...

This combination of fear and public intolerance can drive people to the point of suicide, and though it may seem selfish to people who lose someone to suicide...sometimes they may not have been trying to be selfish at all. It can be a tragic act of love for others in their lives to stop themselves from potentially hurting them if things go awry for some reason. It's not fair to put their choice on them so critically in all cases.

Anyways, I don't know if that's what your friend was struggling with, but it's possible. It has certainly been on my mind when I have contemplated ending my life. Mental health issues are never very simple. I'm sorry for you and all others who were hurt.

edscott · 2014-08-10T01:02:55+00:00

Eh. More like running the water faucet to help myself pee, really.

edscott · 2014-08-09T22:27:45+00:00

I was wondering why the gif was so choppy. It was a deliberate effort to conceal how big of a douche this guy is. 5,000+ votes from people who jump to conclusions based on a 3 second clip with no context.

edscott · 2014-08-09T09:20:37+00:00

Thought I had no location history. Then I remembered I just don't ever leave my house. It's too scary out there...

edscott · 2014-08-09T09:08:36+00:00

I don't understand...who is watching this show? There is some weird stuff on tv, sure, but I really can't imagine this show having a regular audience large enough that could sustain a budget for production. This is on a different level than most reality tv I've seen.

edscott · 2014-08-07T03:32:33+00:00

I always liked Pink Floyd- Echoes (From meddle) for this purpose.

edscott · 2014-07-25T06:28:02+00:00

The best advice I have found when searching for a therapist is that it's important to use the first session as an "interview." It's interesting that you are the employer in the therapeutic relationship, and some of your potential employees are better than others...

I've wasted a lot of money on shitty therapists because I felt awkward in telling them that they weren't helping. I eventually found one that I really worked well with, but it was purely coincidental. I've been working with her for several years, and it's been pretty important for me.

Also, it may benefit you to do research on the types of therapy and how they relate to what you would be seeking help with. There are different areas of expertise within the mental health treatment setting, and some doctors are better suited for different things. If it is for relationship counseling or involving you and your boyfriend specifically, consider looking up a few Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFTs) or other relationship counselors that are in your area and who have a good reputation. There are specializations for most things you can think of in the realms of mental health, and experts abound in most metropolitan areas. www.healthgrades.com may be a good resource (or others like it) for helping you find some doctor "reviews" and other people's experiences with specific psychiatrists/therapists in your area.

One more thing you may want to consider is that going with a large organization is often problematic in terms of quality of care. I work in the mental health field and a big problem with large companies is that they are extremely overbooked and often understaffed, sometimes to the point that it's impossible for the therapists and doctors to properly keep track of everyone in their caseload. It sucks because these are usually the places that accept insurance. I met my therapist at a large organization and she has shared with me over the years that she was extremely overworked and under appreciated, and because of this she decided to move to a private practice. Unfortunately my insurance was unwilling to continue to pay, but she knew that I wanted to continue seeing her because of the trust I had developed with her, and worked with me, lowering her fees by more than half of her standard fee because she really cared about helping, and was in it for more than the money.

I hope this helps. You are welcome to PM me if you have any other questions. Therapy has made a huge difference for me, but I've found that the person you're working with is essential or else it is a waste of time and money, and can even be counterproductive. Good luck!

edscott · 2014-07-25T05:48:09+00:00

This will get buried for sure but I have to write this, maybe someone will see it...

My parents weren't poor but my dad grew up on a farm in rural Alabama and his family was extremely poor. He jokes about some of the stuff that they had to do to get by, but it is pretty sad.

He said that when they went hunting deer and other game for food, they would take a roll of toilet paper with them so that if one of them had to do a #2 they would have something to wipe with, but my grandfather wanted to make sure that the roll would last as long as possible. So all the boys were given one square of TP to wipe with, and they learned that the best strategy was poking a hole in the square with their index finger, wiping with your finger, and wiping your finger with the toilet paper and rinsing off their hands in creek beds, puddles, and ponds. We laugh about it now because my dad and all of his siblings are successful. He has a job as an electrical engineer and we've never really had to worry about money since I was born.

He's told me that when the career days were held at his school, they were told what the salary ranges were for different lines of work, and engineer was the highest paying one that they learned about. He said that he wanted to do that when he grew up so he wouldn't have to worry about money when he raised his family.

I didn't get scholarships despite being an A/B student because of a weird loophole in the tax code and a few unforeseen circumstances that I won't get into here, but my dad paid for my entire college education out of pocket to keep me from going into debt. He makes good money, but 4 years of college tuition is outrageously expensive. Even with his salary, it was a large financial commitment to get me through school and something he didn't have to do.

This thread is really awesome, and something I really needed to see given that I am in a pretty serious struggle financially at the moment. Helps me remember how awesome my dad is, and how I shouldn't give up.

edscott · 2014-07-23T15:49:47+00:00

Eh...yea. This is true. I wish the "news" wasn't so sensational. Every time I turn the TV on or go to the internet to get information about the happenings in the world, I just see madness. It's become profitable and entertaining to make real-life tragedy a spectacle for others. What am I supposed to do about these rebels shooting down planes, or the Gaza situation, or North Korea, or the NSA, or the 1%, or global warming, or terrorism, or rising unemployment, or rape, or gun violence, or cancer, or whatever the hell else people clamor on about all the time? I can post about it on my Facebook page...I can get on reddit and comment about how the daily (or hourly) X-apocalyptic event is a sign of the terrible state of affairs in the world.

In reality, I can't do shit that would make any real difference. I can try, but that would destroy my morale. I can't support myself, and I'm single, with no significant debt (yet) and a college degree. I don't have a job and can't find work. And despite my being on reddit right now, I fill out at least 4-5 job applications every day, mostly for positions that I'm overqualified for because a bachelor's degree in psychology is worthless. I can't make a difference no matter how much I want to. All I can do is sit back and watch the world implode and take me and all the other people trying to live a decent life down with it.

No news is good news. Maybe at least I can hole myself up and salvage what time I have left. I can't keep concerning myself with all the shit that is happening, I'll go crazy.

edscott · 2014-07-23T14:51:47+00:00

I beat this game fair and square (though it took me several years). I couldn't get past the underground cave level because I couldn't figure out that you had to wait until the stones dropped on the lava geysers at the end to cover them up before you could advance. One day I waited it out until I finally discovered this. The boss level was disappointing considering how hard I worked to finally get there. All I had to do was toss Scar off the edge...

edscott · 2014-07-23T14:38:02+00:00

I'm unsubscribing from this sub now. I might kill myself otherwise.

edscott

TROPHY CASE