Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Mission Monitor Board The Moaning, Groaning, I just want to Vent thread

It's crap Sarky and it makes sense to feel like crap. Hope today brings better news.

Indeed.

So sorry to read about your mother's cancer, Sarky. Life ain't fair, for sure.

Try to be strong for her.

It's okay to take a break, even from hobbies. Sometimes you just need a change. Plus, I think it's best not to make important spending decisions when you're upset. Wishing you and your Mom better days. (My mom had breast cancer but she's been in remission now for about 12 years.)

It's fine. I have a monthly budget set up for commissions and it's only a couple hundred. Even then, I have no desire to spend thousands or anything. Commission shopping's one thing to help me take my mind off things because I can get engrossed in setting up details and hearing what the artist thinks.

Mom had her tests yesterday but the results aren't back yet. The stint was put into her and I spoke to her briefly today. She was tired and exhausted but more coherent. We still have no idea what this thing on her liver is, if it's malignant or removable or whatever it was spread.

This isn't something I was prepared for, mentally or emotionally. My mom's only 61 and the suddenness of her diagnosis came out of nowhere, really. If anything happens to her I'm screwed because I don't have access to where she pays bills and everything else. My responsibility was helping to keep the house going, giving money to pay for stuff when she needed it and keeping an eye on things she couldn't.

I'm angry because, for mom, she deserves better than this. She wasted so much time stuck with my dad, then when she finally got out her boyfriend died like five years later from cancer himself. Then five years after that she gets it.

For myself, I'm angry because... look people can tell me over and over she's an adult and can make her own choices, but what does that make me? I'm 30 and I make my own choices, and I chose to not bring her to the hospital sooner despite offering twice and seeing her put it off. You can tell a person not to blame themselves, but when that person's the only one in a position to do something and they don't then what is the answer?

I feel like with my family we just wait until things get more horrible than they needed to be before doing something. Part of me wanted to scream at her for acting like Grandpa did and putting off going to the hospital sooner despite knowing she wasn't feeling good, but what right do I have to do so when I didn't work harder at convincing her to go earlier.

Lots of things flit through my head to say but I'm not sure any of them are appropriate. Whether we say anything or not we are still here for you Sarky.

Over the last three days I've spoken to Mom at least once a day. She's exhausted, tired, but more coherent. The doctors said something like "you're not dying" but the results aren't back and whatever's on her liver is like 10 centimeters.

Today before I even finished brushing teeth I saw yet another goddamn squirrel got into the house. I called someone over to help me get it out and it turned into him putting a panel over an opening in the roof's crawl space, because that's the only place I can imagine they've been using to get into the house. Because that's just what I need, more squirrels invading while Mom's in the hospital.

Since last summer I still get anxious wondering if I'm going to come home and discover there's a new hole in my bedroom ceiling after the last two were repaired.

No wonder my mom got sick. That house is poison and it could've only made her worse.

THE SQUIRREL WAS IN HER ROOM THIS WHOLE TIME.

The squirrel we found in the trap was a completely different one. Thank God I kept her door closed before I left for work or that little bastard would've trashed the house.

God I can't do this anymore, I really can't.

At least you found the little beast, and maybe fixed how they were getting in. Hang in there, Sarky. I don't know if things will get worse or better but eventually they will change. Nothing lasts forever.

+1 for what stile said.

I would like to take a moment away from serious matters to carp loudly about the existence of Bloatware.

It was a much more computer-savvy pal who introduced me to the term.

Bloatware means: programs you don't understand or feel any need for, baubles you don't want and don't use (not once in my entire history using computers have I ever bothered to open a Chess program), and outdated crap (Quicktime? Who the blazes still used Quicktime after Bush II's first term?) which sucks up storage space and cannot be safely removed. (I can't do it myself, and pros will not: because it makes the computer more vulnerable to viruses and other damage: at least that's the official story.)

My primary reason for owning a computer is to have ample space for art and music. Now (after owning this particular used computer for about 1 1/2 years), I'm nearly out of usable storage space. I have to discard various things which I'd rather not. It's true they're backed up on thumb drives, but I still feel resentful because that's an extra expense and a nuisance. I hate it. Imagine buying a used car and then having to buy a trailer to attach to it, because the trunk was crammed full of useless trash but you were not allowed to get rid of it? That's what this is like, for anyone who lacks the savvy to build a computer, or the money to hire a competent builder.

tsk. So they have a need, but the need is so niche and poorly-explained that we can't understand it how annoying... I do remember my personal laptop of a few years ago, getting really really slow because oof all the bloatware. And age, but the bloatware played a part for sure

Yeah bloatware is kind of a crime, IMO.

I get why they do it, but its always seemed like a punishment, as there are/have been (not sure if they still exist) PCs that don't have the bloatware but you have to pay extra.

I'm assuming you're using some kind of cloud storage as well (i.e., OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive)? You'd have to spend time paying attention to what you keep synchronized on the PC, but it may help alleviate your storage woes. And when you get a new computer, you can still easily access your information.

Any updates on your mom Sarky? Let us know if you have the time.

Hi, I don't wanna take the discussion away from what cleome was talking about but honestly I'm not sure what's going on with my mom. She's being discharged tomorrow and we still haven't gotten the test results back.

Sunday was a nightmare because my brother chose the worst possible time to try and talk to her about the house and everything and she almost ended up in tears, and I stupidly went along with the discussion.

Today (Tuesday) was a big blur because I thought she was being discharged today and I had to spend a couple of hours before work trying to clean her bedroom before she got home.

At the very least she sounds like her usual self. They're supposed to be putting a metal stint in her for her liver, but I don't know when. Thank God for her friend Maria helping me and my brother through this.

Have they said when you're likely to receive the test results?

thank goodness for Maria indeed, for helping ease the stress on all of you.

Happy your mom seems to be in better spirits, too.

I admit that the thought of cloud storage pisses me off, though I get that it's not really expensive. I can never stop thinking about how the promise of a personal computer was once, "Hey let's get all your stuff nicely consolidated in one place." But now it's, "Hey let's charge you for this device and then price and locate a bunch of necessities separately so you have to think about that all the time, too." Leaving aside the overall creepiness of entities like Google. For now, I'll just stick with the thumb drives, which I've already paid for anyway.

Of course, when I'm working on a project and need to pull something from a thumb drive, I have to play musical ports because there are never enough for the drive, and the scanner, AND the drawing pad, and... feh. Technology as a whole was a huge mistake, frankly. Time to become a neo-primitive and go live in the woods with just a club and a chicken or two.

They apparently want to keep her another day because they might've done the tests wrong.

She just called and was crying because she wants to go outside.

I hope it gets resolved soon, Sarky.

I've been feeling this recently myself, with my phone. Every day I get a notification that it won't fully back up to iCloud, and would I like to pay for more storage... no thanks.... when I had to transfer to a new phone a couple of months ago, I was not able to load much of that data. But, there was an option to Bluetooth the old phone data to the new phone data. That's probably what I will do next time.

Technology: can be both a pain and a blessing.

I hope she only needs to stay another day. Can't she at least take a walk around outside? If they were going to release her from the hospital, then surely she can walk around on her own...?

I was just going to say this. My mom had a pancreatitis scare a few years ago, but I think they at least let her get up and sit in the sun when she was more ambulatory. So hoping for good news!

I like Douglas Adams' further contention that we never should have left the oceans.

Yeah, its funny that back in the seventies, most compuiting was done on the mainframe, which was a shared environment, then we went 30-35 years or so in the PC world, now we've split again so that we have all kinds of devices, but most everything is done on the cloud, i.e., the new mainframe.

I'm in the industry, so I basically depend on cloud storage due to the sheer number and variety of device types and platforms that I have to work on or with on any given day, but I will say its really convenient to be able to take notes on my phone, then sit down later at my desk to flesh out an idea, or vice versa. And have it backed up, etc etc.

To your point though, we are generating and using SO MUCH MORE data on a daily basis, that even the seemingly endless cloud storage capabilities are starting to shrink.



We had this issue with the household iPhones as well - I just paid for the storage for everyone so that I'm not hassled, but I'm not happy with Apple squeezing cash out of its customers like that. They can a) offer more storage out of the gate - it aint expensive, especially if they use that as your default phone backup option, or b)_be more selective about what gets backed up a little easier. I will admit that having a full iPhone backup in the cloud available for restore when you get a new device is pretty convenient.

Okay so...

I have no idea what the hell is going on with my mom and she doesn't know either. Is it cancer? Is it something else? This whole situation is messed up, and she's home now and there's another doctor's appointment and I just hate everything about this.

Thanks for the update Sarky. Hoping for better news soon.